Message Edited by Bostasu on 10-23-2005 11:36 PM
Technology had radically changed from the 20th century to now... In his bluepill days, Harpalos was quite skillful in coding. Taking a complete program and put it in function was called deploying, and it was a task getting more and more difficult as the complexity of the program increased. But now, he had a program with a size that could only be counted in yottabytes (10^24 bytes) with the old notation. Thanks to the anomaly ZaneZavin had found, he could download the core of the Avatar program. This was a tedious operation. Data mining huge chunks of data like that was quite a process, but thanks to the isolation of the program, it was possible under the machine radar.During the next 12 hours required for the download, Harpalos was reading a book obtained from his Bookwyrm friends in the City Public Library about simulacrum programming. Once the program download would be completed, it would be totally useless without a shell to be run on. However, he rapidly understood that the complexity of a simulacra depends on the complexity of the operations you bind to it. And from the first overview, Avatar would require a lot of work… And curiosity isn’t something that fits well with patience.
A few calls to some exile contacts in the Matrix allowed him to find someone who could make the work done at a much faster rate. For a price, of course. Since the introduction of the automation in assembly lines, humanity has understood that sometimes there’s nothing better than a machine to do your work. And Harpalos didn’t have the willingness to engage in this tedious process. He didn't have all this info on him, so he had to ask StaticZero. He hesitated, but finally agreed for the almost complete withdrawal of the faction savings to pay for the reconstruction of the Avatar program. Harpalos accepted the offer and sent the requested 150 000 000 $i.
Now, everything was into the hands of his contact. The estimated time of delivery was 9PM EST. A precious package like that needed appropriate handling, so StaticZero requested the assistance of some of the best members of Consequence to retrieve this package. Rumors travel fast in the Matrix however, and it looks like others also want to learn what is Avatar…
((This is the first in-game open event of this player event, so we’re quite excited to see how this will go.As stated in this post, the Avatar will be delivered today (10/25), at 9PM EST. Any people interested in participating in the retrieval party can contact StaticZero and explain why they would be interested in assisting Consequence for this mission. Note : this is open to all levels and all organizations))
Message Edited by Harpalos on 10-25-2005 02:57 AM
As the representative of the machine organization in this matter. I will speak my thoughts. This "Sentient" has clearly stated that he is no longer the controller of emotions, and so this must be true since the matrix remains somewhat stable. The bluepills have no lost control of their thoughts, and no abnormal dream states have been reported as yet by our medical contacts within the megacity hospitals and clinics. However, now free... This new Exile, AvatarDux, is a threat to the order of the matrix. Reinsertion to the source is mandatory. If he does not comply, a time will be scheduled for his prompt deletion.
Un deux, un deux test. Seems working. Ah, I feel ridiculous doing that…
Captain log, well, number 1. Working with new scientific breakthroughs requires a systematic approach toward the quality of the various artifacts used for documenting a research process. For the good of the scientific community, I’ll detail here my workings with the Avatar program.
The Avatar program was retrieved yesterday, freshly implanted in it’s new “shell”. A complex simulacra was used to store the Avatar program onto, so it would be possible to communicate with. Without this operation, this program would have certainly be eliminated since an other version of the Avatar system overrode the version 45.8 of the program. He presented himself to me as AvatarDux, and stated that he had limited knowledge about it’s successor, AvatarDucce.
The Avatar program seems to be used to simulate emotional choice for humans. Based on the number of data stored in his system, he actually has the thoughts or thousands billion individuals, which seems huge when compared to the estimate human population in the real world. I’ve tried to gain access to this code, but everything is encoded with a very complex internal algorithm. However, Avatar knows how to access data about a certain individual. During my experiments on him, he remembered me about important moments that I lived through my bluepill life.
The algorithm of functionality of the Avatar program seems pretty strange compared to every other program. The coding standards are the same than usual Matrix programs, but the implementation is very different from other systems. All that I know is that the Avatar program is based on memory stack cycles. At the start of each cycle, he must get a new series of randomly generated numbers to help for his memory allocation. Failing to do so creates corrupted fragments into his code, and might be the reason of his extremely erratic behaviour at the time of his retrieval. Once the size of his memory stack is too low, he starts reusing fragmented memory segments, and get very confused. To solve that, Avatar needs to “sleep”, an unusual method for a program, which consists in emptying his memory stack and getting a new series of random numbers. A PDA was assigned to him so he can manually generate his new random series.
As it is now, Avatar is an somewhat stable program, but got all his intelligence and learns really fast about human behaviour. He told me that every choice he takes has to be based on thousands of internal calculations and parameters analysis. I’ve tested that however, and I’ve asked 15 times the same question : “If you had to pick your favourite person since you took this shape, who would you pick?”. Most times, it was a new answer. Some names came out more than often. Avatar is presently building it’s own personality like a new born baby, and he’s very curious to meet new people. To help that, I’ve implanted simple programs that will help him to fade into the population, and get along more with others. His desire for now is to be free, and especially to find his purpose. He talked to me a lot about it, and I’ve recommended him to find his new purpose now that he’s free.
I’ve also requested the Merovingian to accept Avatar as an exile, and to extend his protection on him. I’ll be waiting for his answer any time from now.
This is all I managed to learn from him for now. We agreed to meet again soon so I can examine him. He’s free for now, but Consequence will keep an eye on him. There is much more to learn about him, and with a knowledge that large about human experience, Avatar could be an invaluable knowledge resource that we must learn to harness.
Harpalos’ out
Captain log, eh 2.
It appears that letting Avatar free was a bad idea. His inner algorithm was perfect for dictating emotional choice to others, but confronted to his own decisions, it brought it’s downfall. I could have predicated it, but didn’t felt it was worth noticing. When I studied him, I saw that contrary to all programs, this one didn’t have 1 central processor, but 3. One for each fundamental source of emotions : the head, the heart, the instincts. When faced to a choice, those 3 parts were all giving an answer, and the central Avatar program had to select which one was more applicable. However, during his party, the decision literally torn him apart.
Based on my faction comrades reports, Avatar had spent a lot of time in his own party speaking with Beachhead, leader of the Tetragrammaton, instead of making fun with his friends. He spoke to me fondly of them, and he felt more close to the Machines than to others. I had always thought that Avatar would have been a good ally in our ranks, but as a faction we decided that we should let Avatar find his own way. We respected his choice of giving allegiance to the machines, but I know that he feared that this would prevent him from keeping friendship with his other friends, particularly CheshireCat, Buoyancy, Jacbenimble, and of course we in Consequence. So from what I understood, each processor wanted to ally with someone different. But in the end, logic won.
During the party, Nemases, the Consequence first lady, got a call telling that the Merovingian was ready to accept AvatarDux in his ranks. When she mentioned that to Avatar, I suspect that inside him the deciding process had put the 3 processors too much in conflict, and they decided to separate instead of finding the best solution. AvatarDux was no more, and got replaced by 3 separate instance of the Avatar program, exempt from the inner conflict however :
AvatarInferro, the logicalAvatarCupido, the wildAvatarDevotio, the passionate
Based on that strange Merovingian controller, Kuchenko, he was supposed to invite one into the Merovingian’s ranks, not 3. Time will tell what should be done.
((In fact, you will have a say in what should be done. Starting next week, the “player” part of “player event” starts really. If you thought that the first part was interesting, you’ll really like the second. Be on the lookout in this forum for more details about the next steps! Oh, and a huge thanks to all those that contributed for the first part of the event! It was fun playing as AvatarDux with you! But now, take time to learn more about his 3 spawns…))
Message Edited by Harpalos on 11-02-2005 12:04 PM
((If it weren't for the fact that i'm going away for the weekend, I would jump at the opportunity to take part - and would definately encourage others to do so. This sort of event is exactly what the community needs, and is both a great opportunity for would-be RPers to "enter" the scene, as well as providing the much needed RP boost to our "veterans" or more established players.
The threads so far have been fantastic, and I have heard nothing but positive feedback from everyone involved in this event - so cmon everyone - do your bit for the community and take part! Hell, who knows, you might actually enjoy yourselves!))
