EDNC The Slums - Discussion Thread

This topic is meant for all out of character interaction and for discussing the story in general.

Any and all chatter is welcome, from the little things to discussing items of greater story importance.

Chat on!

So here is my reasoning:

First off I have to state once more as I have several times in the past that SCI-FI genre adventures are among the most difficult to pull off because one would have to literally write a manual to encapsulate the technological setting. All of us will naturally envision robotic mechanisms in our own way until the entire workings are completely defined. As we all know the human body is incredibly difficult to replicate, and the existence of a humanoid robot that surpasses us would have to borrow a lot of our own physiology.

Deactivated Strength Enhancements - This would have been a very complicated and 'expensive' procedure thus its removal would be illogical in the case that their reactivation may be required. I envision the enhanced strength utilizing a series of synthetic muscle fibers that work in conjunction with his regular ones. They require an extra power cell to work, and to engage that power cell requires a code. This is a fail safe. Should corruption befall a military model, they can be contained more effectively by deactivating their enhanced strength. Could this be hacked? Probably, but accomplishing this would be an adventure in itself, one that I forsee far in the future depending on how the story line goes.

Camouflage: Chameleon like colour change, allowing him to mimic patterns and colours around him. I do not believe this is a strain at all on his power cells, it is a modification to his outer shell, allowing the molecules of the metal to manipulate their colour in accordance to electrical signals. Were someone staring right at him, he would still be as obvious as a coal pile in the middle of the living room, but in the right conditions it can assist him in just about any environment to conceal himself. Naturally he has the training to benefit from this enhancement.

Why mention things he no longer has? Because traces of the attachments would still exist and be detectable by scanning devices. Cygnus, is glad to be part of the collective and performing mundane tasks (or so he believes), but his past will always be detectable.

As I stated the Micro-laser is a 'utility'.

His past:

I will have to re-write his time line as I did not believe that we were 85 years into the domination of the machines. I will have to correct his time line to fit properly. I really do not like having the option of extensive past taken away, but I'll work with it.

Why is he more Human? The story of his past is yet to be elaborated on but this is the idea behind it - During the skirmish, Cygnus and the last surviving human were trapped below ground in a bunker. The doctor repaired Cygnus because he required his assistance to survive. He, being a robotic engineer, modified Cygnus so that his power cell would only hold a charge for a short time, and to recharge it required the doctor to remain alive. Thus they had a symbiotic relationship.

Bannerman over the years modified Cygnus, made him more human, because that's what a human would do. Many of Cygnus' modifications are now a part of his system and so his system behaves a little differently. Metaphorically, he is kind of like a Mac in a PC world, compatible but different.

He is able to use his mouth to 'ingest'. Simplistically put, he has tube that runs into one of his 'pumps' or whatever the robots have, because Bannerman believed from his human perspective that it was more efficient.

Why does Cygnus use his mouth? He himself cannot explain it, nor is he fully aware when he does. Is he corrupt? Maybe?

The liquid he consumed was type of cleanser. An alcohol based fluid that flows down the 'throat' that Bannerman created for quick access. (Naturally this opening has many safeties just like in a human, Bannerman was brilliant... but of course, he wasn't a machine.) I imagine that robots would have various forms of lubricants, cleaners, de-buggers, etc.

The nano-mercury-capsule would not be a common remedy, but an experimental one as Cygnus' condition is somewhat baffling since is PP is behaving optimally. The malfunction may be in his memory hub and thus disposable nanites with a short life span are being administered to correct his 'Accessible Memory' problem.

I do envision the androids having forms of liquid within their bodies, I also see slight changes in the way robots work with every model that is manufactured as they try and perfect themselves. Very minor changes, like brighter signal lights on later model cars. Changes that make differences in very specific situations but as a whole, go unnoticed.

I like the idea of robots, bleeding since it does make them a little more vulnerable, of course making them bleed is difficult since they are very tough. At least this way though, the robots are not so invulnerable, similar to the artificial life forms used in the Alien movies, without the synthetic flesh and human like appearances though.

Alright, good.

First of all, I think I had a reasonable idea of what you were going for with your mods and all. I didn't mean to sound obnoxious or anything, but I figured, it doesn't matter if I know what you mean, I want it to be clear for everyone. So I asked for some clarification or tried giving it myself.

I guess your explanation of how the camouflage works is just as valid. It all depends on how you explain it.

Changing your timeline won't be a big problem, right? I figured it best to leave that part of the story out of it at the start of it all. It'll be work enough to flesh out the city and the present without worrying about the 'Overhaul' right from the get go.

Working on a more detailed workup of the city/intro to the main story.

Oh, no, resetting the time line of Cygnus is not a problem at all. And, I just wanted to make sure I was specific. Since this is all new territory, best to lay down as much ground work as possible, I figure. The trick, as I am sure you are aware is to make sure we're all on the same page and do that we need some well laid out pages.

I am thinking then, that for Cygnus, his mission would have been close to the beginning of the Over Haul. This last bastion, I referred to, would be the last significant rebel band that still had potential to be a thorn in the side of the machines. Its not at all a force strong enough to oppose them, but its destruction was a powerful psychological defeat for the humans. The one that took away the last bit of hope for their freedom. Sort of like killing off Robin Hood. Bannerman, was their lead scientist, and I thought how interesting for a robot to spend time with this man, develop a relationship then return to his own world.

I figure that the robots would obviously accept, Cygnus, because like the Borg in Star Trek they would believe in their system, and trust that any uncorrupted or repairable robot could be re-assimilated. Seemed like it would make for an interesting story where Cygnus was concerned... the 'Human within the Machine'.

Would it be beyond the scope of rationalization to say the humans had procured weapons, e.g. guns, in their struggle to thwart the machines?

A future in which humans have no weapons? That hardly seems possible!

Part of the more in depth answer depends on which humans we are talking about. Given how we're not currently in the business of making a story that takes place outside of North America City, I suppose we're talking about the humans in the slums.

Yes, they probably have weapons. Probably not an awful lot and probably not as powerful as some of the things the machines can throw against them if they were to use them, but they do have weapons. But just as weapons on machines are outlawed, so are weapons for humans. The authorities may leave the slums well enough alone, but they are likely to act if they found out there were weapon stockpiles in the hands of humans. So they'll be somewhat rare and only in the hands of the brave.
Or the stupid.

Well done, Socks. Everything has been encapsulated very nicely. After reading your descriptions I have very good vision of the world, but naturally (as you have previously stated) questions will arise as this story and world evolve.

I have not come across anything that does not compute (hehe) and I fully agree with the discussion prior to posting if one feels that their modification to the setting might contradict your vision. A simple 'yes' or 'no' prevents damming up the flow.

And one more thing, *Holds up the Administrator Badge* (I hate doing that). Kutsu or Socks has assumed full responsibility over this story. He's not a god here, but it is his personal preference to oversee the story and regulate it so one could classify this story as Semi-Controlled — A Free Form adventure that has to coordinate with the vision of its creator. If any wonder why Socks has such control over his story, there is really nothing to wonder about. It is allowed here... one can even create a fully controlled adventure where they can in fact be not unlike a deity. The catch is that more you control you have, the more responsibility you have to take in guiding the story, and Socks is quite passionate about the story staying true to the initial concept he has provided.

Socks has submitted a considerable amount of information that defines this world. Please read it all (maybe twice, depending on your retention) should you wish to submit a character. Sure none of us are infallible, but its disheartening when discrepancies occur from a participant not reading the rules.

OK. I'm talking about a small group of rebellious humans who use the slums to hide in and conduct their dirty work in trying to regain the upper hand of what's left of human society.

Nothing more than your standard hand guns (.9MM type) and the occassional semi to fully automatic rifles.

I've got a concept working in my mind that would be much like the humans were in the Terminator series. While the machines in this story haven't deemed it neccesary to kill ALL humans, when you oppress humans they will find a way to rebel and fight against their oppressors.

Freedom Fighters.

Would that be acceptable?

Ooooh, it all sound so official Tiph!

I'll try to not be too much of a dick. But is it not as they say, 'you are as what you have in your pants'?
Well, no one actually said that, but whatever.


Back to business!

I see no problems with the concept you have in mind, RPM. I had yet to put a lot of thought into some things, like the weapons.
Tiph said something about weapons on his character sheet, which doesn't sound too crazy.
Plasma weapons seem like something that could be around. I suppose a Plasma Rifle would fire plasma instead of bullets? I must say I'm not exactly sure how a Plasma Blade would work.
If we're into plasma, I suppose weaponized lasers are also around.
And then there's the more old fashioned stuff. Guns working by modern time principles might be a bit outdated, even for humans. Yet they might very well still be around.
A more futuristic twist given to the normal bullet shooting guns of today would be weapons that fire metal slugs with the use of very powerful magnets. Like railguns. It'd make firearms a lot easier. It'd only need power and slugs. So I could see these things being the main weapons of the humans at this point in time. Not too advanced or powerful, but good enough to put a hole into a machine's skull.

Ah. I see what yer saying about the weapons. Is there a web site I might be able to gather some info about these sort of weapons so I can know what I'm writing about? I hate to mention anything I'm not famiklliar with and end up either referring to it incorrectly or using it in the wrong capacity.

I've got a character in mind but I want to get some more info on things befgore I put her bio up.

Thanks.

Found one! I'll get to work on creating a character and what not for consideration tomorrow.

Great!

Mind sharing that information around?

Oh I just did a search in Google for "Railguns" and found several sites with some good info.

Oh, yeah... rail guns fire a projectile utilizing magnetic force. I remember first hearing about them when I was kid. Technically they are supposed to exist but you hear very little about them. The velocity they generate is incredible, giving them amazing range.

*Twirls some more bubble rap around Socks*

There! That ought a work for now and once that abrasive personality wears through the bubble rap, we'll move on something with some more padding. Maybe we'll install some airbags.

Plasma Blade... Just an electrified sword... it sounded cool.

The idea of rebels is intriguing... that will definitely be something to develop though. My interpretation of Humans was that they were regarded sort of like rats by the machines. I'm a wrong? The slums are kind of considered to be their territory, and as you stated somewhere they kept around because once in a while the machines still find use for the Humans, thus they are tolerated. Naturally the 'rats' could be violent when in their own 'den' and so should a machine succumb to these 'violent rats' perhaps the machines would consider the loss to be a logical one. Basically, the machines are warned not to go there, and should they, and suffer the consequences its there problem... they just get a big, 'I told you so'.

But... rebels striking out into the Lower City... that would attract attention would it not? Perhaps we should define the boundaries and determine the extent of the 'problems in paradise'. In other words we have to establish if a band of Human rebels could exist as terrorists, plaguing the robot world with carefully placed bombs and such, being a thorn in their side.

Yes, exactly.

These rebels are probably incredible idealists. Their fight against the machines is near pointless and their fellow humans won't even be very happy with them because they will only draw attention to the slums and to the 'peace loving' humans. The ones that don't want to get killed, that is.

This group would probably have to be small because of these problems. And instead of trying to bomb a train or something, they might consider that too risky and know it attracts unwanted attention to them. They might want to be more practically oriented then going like 'we blow up stuff because we're angry at the machines'. They are better off being sneaky. Steal valuable resources from the machines which the humans can put to use, or technology. Assasinate some relatively high profile machine who is lobbying for building a new factory and wants to have a slum cleared for it. Of course, making it look like an accident. That sort of stuff seems logical. Anything more violent is basically just going to end badly for the humans. People have tried that before, but had 80 years to learn it wasn't the way to go. So maybe the rebels aren't exactly changing the fate of the world, but they're helping nonetheless.

That way the humans will actually be grateful. They'd be a bit like Robin Hood, though they probably can't take too much credit for it or the machines will be very interested to see them 'dissapear'. That makes more sense in the context, I believe. They'd still want to have weapons in case things go bad, of course.

Railguns like the ones that are around/being developed right now are really big. Put in a handgun I don't see it generating the kind of speeds a big one would. It'd just be a better version of the kind of handguns we have now. I think the longer/bigger the barrel of the gun, the more powerful the railgun will be.

Ah, yes! That makes perfect sense. Humans would have learned to be surreptitious... very much like rats (by the way, they secretly control the world you know). I like that idea, very much, Socks. Sneaky rebels that have over time developed a network, almost like organized crime, that has seeped into the lower city and maybe even beyond...

That's got me thinking. If some robots, are 'addicted' to the 'corruption' and seek say, nanite drugs (yes they could be deadly but so can heroine, eh?) that help achieve that tantalizing 'freedom', could Human's perhaps be their pushers?

I could see the humans be good dealers and the slums to be a good place for dealing in such dangerous and illegal things.

Such nanites would not be considered Experience Programs, by the way. Experience programs are legal for one, and are more like a small USB-stick a machine can stick in his head to upload the program.

Nanites would be illegal, last longer, because there's no firewall/algorithm to stop them effectively, and they'd spread through the cooling liquid instead of being uploaded to a machine's memory. I'm sure the humans and shady machines living in the slums wouldn't mind pushing machines these nanites, but producing these things might be the biggest problem. They'd need some very specific tools which won't be easy to get. Like setting up a drug lab, to stick to the metaphor. So these labs won't be everywhere and the nanites they produce will probably have a considerable risk for a machine's health, but I can certainly see them hiding inside the slums.

SWEET! The slums are getting interesting and I really like the culture that is evolving.

You guys hit the nail onthe head for me.

In my mind, the Freedom Fighters weren't actively engaging the machines in hostile battles but formed as a way to try and deter the machines from uprooting the lives the humans have developed in the slums. They use espionage tactics and work in secret, underground communities.

They aren't vast in numbers. Just enough of them to share intelligence and technology with. The communicate in a form of graffiti that is around the slums. Only those withiin the organization know what the message really says. Everyone else, including the machines think it's nothing but a way for the humans to show off their "creativity".

The weapons they have developed and procured aren't so much for attacking the machines as they are for personal protection against the humans who don't like the Freedom Fighters. They have a couple of larger railguns in case the machines do something illogical.

All they want is to be able to live int he slums without the fear of the machines coming along and deciding they need the area the humans are living to expand the machines city.

Does that make sense or have I goone completely off the radar?

That sounds good to me... see what, Socks has to say.

It makes sense that the Humans would secretly try and 'hold as many cards' as they possibly can, 'It's in our nature, eh?'

The true answer lies in all reasons for the Machines not entirely killing off the humans. Why keep rats around anyway? Sure, once in a while a machine may require a human, but the ones that would be useful to them would most like be the cream of the crop. The others are just waste. So, there is some underlying reason why the robots keep the Humans around, I reason I feel will be revealed as we go along. So, maybe the machines are in fact more aware of the Human activity than is suspected.

Just stirring the pot...

We appear to be in agreement when it comes to the freedom fighters.

Seems a bit of an odd name though; 'freedom fighters'. Sure, they work in order to improve or maintain the human position in the city, but when you say FREEDOM, I say stuff like the right of free speech and stuff like that. These guys are just trying to improve the tiny bit of freedom humans have to a tiny bit more. Not like I care what they're called. You people know I just like the sound of my own typing.

So far I have actively tried to not think too much about what might happen to the story in the future, but talking about reasons for the humans to be around... Well I think I could think of half a dozen if you give me a few minutes. But I won't, and you wouldn't want me to ruin the surprise for when the time comes.

They way I see it, the eventual reason will have to do a lot more with the inner workings of the collective and/or what is going on outside of the city. Scheming before those things have gotten some time to develop is kind of pointless, unless you love torturing your brain.

It is kind of fun, I have to admit. But, you know, you might go insane. Or in some cases, insaner.

Activity Expectancy = Approx. 70 years

What is this based on? Wear and tear on the system? Or, is more ingrained in complex system of the robot based on their processors or memory hub breaking down? Or is there an internal timer like humans have in their DNA?

Just curious, its kind of an important to know this as my character is quite old. It seems to me that a machine could go on and on with frequent maintenance, so there must be something more to this life expectancy. It matters not to me whether or not my character is on his last legs, he's in top form due to maintenance and his stasis, but if other factors are about to make him keel over I'll write him accordingly. In fact that would be more interesting.

It is based on the processors and memory breaking down, since they don't replace them from time to time, and there's really no way to 'maintain' them.

I've read some article about how processors get worn out. This never happens in our world because before these things get a chance to die a natural death they're already on a scrap heap, but the tiniest bits and pieces that do all the working do wear out. I don't remember what the article said about how long a processor could work perfectly, I think a decade or two (not that it really matters to us). Of course, if the processor doesn't do anything, there's no wear, so technically a machine could become a lot older, but they'll be around for approximately 70 years of truly active duty. Cygnus' long stasis is going to give him a lot more years then his production date would indicate. The memory and processors in the head are more or less off during stasis, and the PP doesn't need to do all that much, so he may have worn them but a fraction during his stasis.

So, keeling over? nah, he should be alright. If you want interesting, he might be a bit slower due to being an older and outdated model. Well, actually that's not really interesting. Perhaps his processors and memory work in a slightly different way so he might find the newer models odd, and he might act odd according to them. Of course, since he's been messed up by this human he probably acts differently as it is. I don't know, use his age, or don't. I certainly won't force it on you.

So, RPM, I don't want to nag, but how's that character coming, huh? Those buttholes on your end of the computer screen putting too much work on your desk, I take it? We'll live if that's the case, but you've got me wondering, is all. This silence is making me paranoid!

What was that?
Did you hear that?
Who's there!?

Right now, I'm going to have to respectfully refrain from entering this thread.

I can't get my head wrapped around some things and until I can grasp the concept, I wouldn't feel right about entering into something I'm not comfortable with.

Alright, that's too bad.

But at least I know what is up now.

If at some point in the future I can help you wrap your head around it you can always ask.