The Streets of Corgol
Computers are the backbone of galactic civilization. It has been speculated that this dependence will one day result in a revolution, a conquest of machine over living beings. This has even occurred in some systems, worlds where machine intelligence has determined that it’s living creators/ controllers would benefit from machine dominance. Sometimes those machines have not had their masters’ best interests in ‘mind’ when seizing power. These revolutions have sometimes been bloody and horrible, but sometimes these conquests have been instigated by beings for their species own good; these strange creatures having decided to give up the physical world for the electronic world within a machine-mind. Thus they are protected by their creations and able to virtually live out their lives in total safety.
Computers operate in almost every facet of galactic society. They cook food, remove waste, synthesize medicine and perform surgery. They are the keepers of records and the receptacles of histories. They tend offspring and teach them the skills necessary to become functional members of galactic society. They are built with specific purposes in mind, constructed to fulfill a very limited set of needs. Some machines are so job-specific that they are of no use outside of a massive robotic factory or the bottom of some oceanic planet or the surface of a star. Each and every machine is built with a precise function, a reason for its design, with its form following that function. Massive deconstruction ‘bots could crush whole city blocks but would be completely ineffective in cleaning the debris of that destruction, much less rebuilding the city it has leveled. In this way each machine has been created to satisfy a very detailed set of needs, this specialization is key to a machine’s usefulness but it can also be the cause of that same machine’s obsolescence.
Computers are also able to partition their ‘brains’ into a number of sub-systems to perform many smaller tasks, which do not require their full computational power. This is done in much the same way that a human being’s heart keeps beating even though there is no conscious control of the action of moving blood through the body. The difference between a machine doing this and a human doing it is that a human can’t monitor that flow, it’s temperature, consistency and increase or decrease it as necessary. This ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously allows machines to be much more useful than other single-consciousness beings. This also increases their ability to get into trouble exponentially…
Steve was moored in spaceport dock 4-322 awaiting the return of his best friend and partner, Eva. Unusually Eva was determined to head out into the port without the companionship of one of Steve’s smaller and more mobile “mini-selves”. Steve preferred to go with Eva during all planet falls as it allowed him to spend more time with his friend and it also allowed him to protect her from her notorious “lapses in judgment”. Not that he was ever able to stop her just that it shortened his response time.
For some reason she took off from the ‘port without any back up and this really bothered Steve. There had to be something which she was keeping from Steve, or possibly Steve was being kept from someone. Either way Steve knew that his friend needed him, whether she would admit it or not. Steve had many different forms that he could deploy when in dock, differing in size, shape and function. He chose a smaller scout-self for its maneuverability and diminutive proportions. It was a sphere about a foot in diameter that had four spider-like legs for locomotion. It had two blue eyes set above it’s mid-line but they were not sensory devices, the “eyes” had been painted on by Eva because she liked the idea of looking her friend in the “face” when speaking to him. This anthropomorphizing of a mini-self did not bother Steve, to the contrary he enjoyed this vanity and the decoration it bestowed on his ‘selves. He found this behavior endearing and had also noticed that it put humanoid species more at ease when speaking to these ‘selves. Something about two large blue eyes looking up seemed to lessen the shock of speaking to a three-foot tall metal spider.
Steve scanned to local news ‘nets for any of Eva’s usual tell tales; fires, high-speed chases or brutal barroom brawls. Nothing reported so far but that was no guarantee that she was safe, just not news worthy yet. The Mini-Steve detached itself from the ship and began walking towards the ‘bot-shaft of his dock. When Mini-Steve reached the shaft he was code scanned and permitted access to the Hospitality Zone’s ‘BotWay. The BotWay is a service corridor of sorts which provides robots and lower level machines with a much more efficient means of moving around an urban center. While organics preferred to wander the streets and skyways of a city, ‘bots (and their owners’) were better served with a lower and much less scenic route thru the city. The ‘BotWay allowed a machine to travel thru the city much faster than traditional locomotion and it also allowed them to scan a shop’s entire inventory without entering the physical store. This was intended to speed the process of running an owner’s errands but also served to keep wandering machines from entering a store and then systematically moving aisle by aisle looking for a particular item. While this doesn’t sound disruptive it can be quite disconcerting being confronted by a one ton Redihome Personal Housemate® chugging up a crowded aisle in a hurry, its many arms flailing around checking every box on the shelves looking for cake mix.
Mini-Steve wasn’t quite sure where to start looking for Eva but was convinced that something would present itself. Normally he would start at the nearest bar/ casino, but on a planet covered entirely with them he was at a loss. The ‘BotWay was no more busy than any other he had seen, meaning that it was teeming with ‘Bots of all shapes and functions scurrying, rolling, floating and clicking towards their destinations with precision and determination. Mini-Steve however was still waiting for the “big brain” on the ship to tell him where to go. While waiting he began to scan the 100 closest shops for possible gifts for his best friend. It wasn’t often that he was able to surprise Eva, and he relished the chance to get her something that she hadn’t seen before. This proved relatively easy since there were nearly 10 million inhabited planets and counting and no matter how much she raced around the galaxy Eva couldn’t see them all. Ever. Mini-Steve found a set of small ornate objects, which resembled combs, but were actually used to attach small insect-like creatures to the thick hides of Rodgos at Rodgosian social functions. The Rodgos would use the “combs” to pin various creatures from their home world to their skin, these creatures would release a smell or produce a light or just make a buzzing noise depending on their function. While Rodgos are by most standards hideous they are made even more so by the addition of slowly dying insects pinned to their skin. However, the combs (or pinions) were very nice to look at and Mini-Steve was positive that Eva would be able to use them to pin her hair into even more elaborate shapes than she currently favored. He placed them into one of his storage compartments and began scanning emergency ‘nets for any riots, building fires or run-away cargo trains, all calling cards of Eva. Still nothing stood out and he was forced to give up the speed and convenience of the ‘BotWay and move topside to the street level. This was not as fast but moving slowly in the wrong direction was better than moving quickly with no direction.
When Mini-Steve was deposited onto the street level he was surrounded by the usual bustle of tourists and thieves that filled every pleasure dome and enjoyo-sphere in the universe. Pocket’s being picked, vacationers getting pickled on every corner and bark-o-boxes extolling the amazing wonders to behold within every shop, bar, or casino. Mini-Steve crouched in between some waste recyclers and waited for instructions from the “big brain” on the ship. He had no idea where to look for Eva now, still nothing on the ‘nets and he was beginning to worry more about her. She was acting strangely on this planet, as though she was keeping something from him. This was no way for the best friends in the universe to behave and it was really starting to bother Steve. Hours passed as Mini-Steve crouched in the shadows awaiting some sort of information from the big brain in the ship to tell him where to go. With Eva somewhere in the city it made looking for her easier than if he had an entire planet to search, but not much easier. Wandering the streets would only expose him the threat of damage that he could not afford to fix or worse theft. The streets of a casino planet were not safe for any thing that you could pawn for more gambling money, even a three foot spider with cute blue “eyes”.
Mini-Steve decided to hail a Cybercab, figuring that the added elevation might help him spot whatever disaster Eva was participating in right now. Normally robots didn’t take cabs since the ‘Botway was much faster and more efficient, as a result of this cabs don’t look for robots and they don’t stop for them. Steve had solved this problem ten systems ago by tapping into the Cybercab’s emergency system and hitting it with a distress signal. This signal would land whichever cab Steve needed right next to him, once landed all he had to do was board the cab and start paying the fare. Cabs didn’t care who or what was in them so long as the fare was getting paid. The one constant of the universe is cash, and if you have it, then you can get whatever you want. Mini-Steve spotted an approaching cab and sent the signal and abruptly the vehicle became a riot of light and honking horns as it started a nosedive towards Mini-Steve. If you had never hailed a cab this way it could be rather distressing, watching a cab falling from the sky right on top of you, but since this was the only way that Steve knew it didn’t really shake him. The Cybercab landed with a thump next to Mini-Steve and he skittered into the passenger compartment. Once inside he deactivated the distress call and jacked into the cab’s control brain. Mini-Steve instructed the cab to dust off and start circling the area in ever-higher circles so that he could get a better look. Because of the simple programming of a cybercab it didn’t think to question why a robot would want to go sight seeing or where the sender of the distress code had gone to, only that it had been instructed to land immediately and that now it needed to take off and start flying in circles. Mini-Steve turned on his longest range sensors and began beaming information back to the big brain on the ship, a scout model was not able to process that much information within it’s core and needed the massively more powerful “brain” of the ship to sort the information out.
The Cybercab was starting its second circle of the lower pleas-o-district when suddenly it was awash in noise and flashing light. Mini-Steve thought that they were being queried by local authorities, possibly the cab’s company had gotten the distress report and passed it onto the cops. But then he realized that the noise was coming from the cab itself, jacking in he discovered that the cab was getting another distress code! It was now barreling towards the roof of a fortress-like structure, which his map told him was a casino vault. Either some cop was in deep trouble somewhere he should never be or someone knew the same trick that Steve did…
Computers operate in almost every facet of galactic society. They cook food, remove waste, synthesize medicine and perform surgery. They are the keepers of records and the receptacles of histories. They tend offspring and teach them the skills necessary to become functional members of galactic society. They are built with specific purposes in mind, constructed to fulfill a very limited set of needs. Some machines are so job-specific that they are of no use outside of a massive robotic factory or the bottom of some oceanic planet or the surface of a star. Each and every machine is built with a precise function, a reason for its design, with its form following that function. Massive deconstruction ‘bots could crush whole city blocks but would be completely ineffective in cleaning the debris of that destruction, much less rebuilding the city it has leveled. In this way each machine has been created to satisfy a very detailed set of needs, this specialization is key to a machine’s usefulness but it can also be the cause of that same machine’s obsolescence.
Computers are also able to partition their ‘brains’ into a number of sub-systems to perform many smaller tasks, which do not require their full computational power. This is done in much the same way that a human being’s heart keeps beating even though there is no conscious control of the action of moving blood through the body. The difference between a machine doing this and a human doing it is that a human can’t monitor that flow, it’s temperature, consistency and increase or decrease it as necessary. This ability to perform multiple tasks simultaneously allows machines to be much more useful than other single-consciousness beings. This also increases their ability to get into trouble exponentially…
Steve was moored in spaceport dock 4-322 awaiting the return of his best friend and partner, Eva. Unusually Eva was determined to head out into the port without the companionship of one of Steve’s smaller and more mobile “mini-selves”. Steve preferred to go with Eva during all planet falls as it allowed him to spend more time with his friend and it also allowed him to protect her from her notorious “lapses in judgment”. Not that he was ever able to stop her just that it shortened his response time.
For some reason she took off from the ‘port without any back up and this really bothered Steve. There had to be something which she was keeping from Steve, or possibly Steve was being kept from someone. Either way Steve knew that his friend needed him, whether she would admit it or not. Steve had many different forms that he could deploy when in dock, differing in size, shape and function. He chose a smaller scout-self for its maneuverability and diminutive proportions. It was a sphere about a foot in diameter that had four spider-like legs for locomotion. It had two blue eyes set above it’s mid-line but they were not sensory devices, the “eyes” had been painted on by Eva because she liked the idea of looking her friend in the “face” when speaking to him. This anthropomorphizing of a mini-self did not bother Steve, to the contrary he enjoyed this vanity and the decoration it bestowed on his ‘selves. He found this behavior endearing and had also noticed that it put humanoid species more at ease when speaking to these ‘selves. Something about two large blue eyes looking up seemed to lessen the shock of speaking to a three-foot tall metal spider.
Steve scanned to local news ‘nets for any of Eva’s usual tell tales; fires, high-speed chases or brutal barroom brawls. Nothing reported so far but that was no guarantee that she was safe, just not news worthy yet. The Mini-Steve detached itself from the ship and began walking towards the ‘bot-shaft of his dock. When Mini-Steve reached the shaft he was code scanned and permitted access to the Hospitality Zone’s ‘BotWay. The BotWay is a service corridor of sorts which provides robots and lower level machines with a much more efficient means of moving around an urban center. While organics preferred to wander the streets and skyways of a city, ‘bots (and their owners’) were better served with a lower and much less scenic route thru the city. The ‘BotWay allowed a machine to travel thru the city much faster than traditional locomotion and it also allowed them to scan a shop’s entire inventory without entering the physical store. This was intended to speed the process of running an owner’s errands but also served to keep wandering machines from entering a store and then systematically moving aisle by aisle looking for a particular item. While this doesn’t sound disruptive it can be quite disconcerting being confronted by a one ton Redihome Personal Housemate® chugging up a crowded aisle in a hurry, its many arms flailing around checking every box on the shelves looking for cake mix.
Mini-Steve wasn’t quite sure where to start looking for Eva but was convinced that something would present itself. Normally he would start at the nearest bar/ casino, but on a planet covered entirely with them he was at a loss. The ‘BotWay was no more busy than any other he had seen, meaning that it was teeming with ‘Bots of all shapes and functions scurrying, rolling, floating and clicking towards their destinations with precision and determination. Mini-Steve however was still waiting for the “big brain” on the ship to tell him where to go. While waiting he began to scan the 100 closest shops for possible gifts for his best friend. It wasn’t often that he was able to surprise Eva, and he relished the chance to get her something that she hadn’t seen before. This proved relatively easy since there were nearly 10 million inhabited planets and counting and no matter how much she raced around the galaxy Eva couldn’t see them all. Ever. Mini-Steve found a set of small ornate objects, which resembled combs, but were actually used to attach small insect-like creatures to the thick hides of Rodgos at Rodgosian social functions. The Rodgos would use the “combs” to pin various creatures from their home world to their skin, these creatures would release a smell or produce a light or just make a buzzing noise depending on their function. While Rodgos are by most standards hideous they are made even more so by the addition of slowly dying insects pinned to their skin. However, the combs (or pinions) were very nice to look at and Mini-Steve was positive that Eva would be able to use them to pin her hair into even more elaborate shapes than she currently favored. He placed them into one of his storage compartments and began scanning emergency ‘nets for any riots, building fires or run-away cargo trains, all calling cards of Eva. Still nothing stood out and he was forced to give up the speed and convenience of the ‘BotWay and move topside to the street level. This was not as fast but moving slowly in the wrong direction was better than moving quickly with no direction.
When Mini-Steve was deposited onto the street level he was surrounded by the usual bustle of tourists and thieves that filled every pleasure dome and enjoyo-sphere in the universe. Pocket’s being picked, vacationers getting pickled on every corner and bark-o-boxes extolling the amazing wonders to behold within every shop, bar, or casino. Mini-Steve crouched in between some waste recyclers and waited for instructions from the “big brain” on the ship. He had no idea where to look for Eva now, still nothing on the ‘nets and he was beginning to worry more about her. She was acting strangely on this planet, as though she was keeping something from him. This was no way for the best friends in the universe to behave and it was really starting to bother Steve. Hours passed as Mini-Steve crouched in the shadows awaiting some sort of information from the big brain in the ship to tell him where to go. With Eva somewhere in the city it made looking for her easier than if he had an entire planet to search, but not much easier. Wandering the streets would only expose him the threat of damage that he could not afford to fix or worse theft. The streets of a casino planet were not safe for any thing that you could pawn for more gambling money, even a three foot spider with cute blue “eyes”.
Mini-Steve decided to hail a Cybercab, figuring that the added elevation might help him spot whatever disaster Eva was participating in right now. Normally robots didn’t take cabs since the ‘Botway was much faster and more efficient, as a result of this cabs don’t look for robots and they don’t stop for them. Steve had solved this problem ten systems ago by tapping into the Cybercab’s emergency system and hitting it with a distress signal. This signal would land whichever cab Steve needed right next to him, once landed all he had to do was board the cab and start paying the fare. Cabs didn’t care who or what was in them so long as the fare was getting paid. The one constant of the universe is cash, and if you have it, then you can get whatever you want. Mini-Steve spotted an approaching cab and sent the signal and abruptly the vehicle became a riot of light and honking horns as it started a nosedive towards Mini-Steve. If you had never hailed a cab this way it could be rather distressing, watching a cab falling from the sky right on top of you, but since this was the only way that Steve knew it didn’t really shake him. The Cybercab landed with a thump next to Mini-Steve and he skittered into the passenger compartment. Once inside he deactivated the distress call and jacked into the cab’s control brain. Mini-Steve instructed the cab to dust off and start circling the area in ever-higher circles so that he could get a better look. Because of the simple programming of a cybercab it didn’t think to question why a robot would want to go sight seeing or where the sender of the distress code had gone to, only that it had been instructed to land immediately and that now it needed to take off and start flying in circles. Mini-Steve turned on his longest range sensors and began beaming information back to the big brain on the ship, a scout model was not able to process that much information within it’s core and needed the massively more powerful “brain” of the ship to sort the information out.
The Cybercab was starting its second circle of the lower pleas-o-district when suddenly it was awash in noise and flashing light. Mini-Steve thought that they were being queried by local authorities, possibly the cab’s company had gotten the distress report and passed it onto the cops. But then he realized that the noise was coming from the cab itself, jacking in he discovered that the cab was getting another distress code! It was now barreling towards the roof of a fortress-like structure, which his map told him was a casino vault. Either some cop was in deep trouble somewhere he should never be or someone knew the same trick that Steve did…
posted by futron3049 at 4:16 PM
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