[ Wash is objectively the worst to talk about this with, his personal bias probably coloring how he explains, but he'll try to be just factual. ]
Hosting an AI means you share your mind with it. You feel what they feel, you know what the other thinks. The Project I was part of tried to match soldiers to AIs based on personality, so they'd work best together. But things didn't always go well, especially since the AIs we were given were just fragments, not a complete person.
No, I mean fragments, like a split personality where each embodies different traits. You might have to understand what an AI really is, in my world. They're not programmed, they're digitized versions of an existing human consciousness. The Project was granted the use of one, but the Director wanted more so he broke it apart.
[ He's not telling her how, not with Epsilon around. It's too personal for the both of them, even this might be a little too much detail but he likes Aloy and she isn't digging. ]
The reason they wanted us to take AI and why they wanted several is the same -- they were testing advanced equipment that the human mind couldn't really run. Armor enhancements like speed boosts and shields.
Yes. But from what I've dug up, they stabilized them with the help of a Huragok... they're like sentient biological computers? Peaceful aliens, we call them Engineers.
Still, it wasn't always perfect. Just because the code is stable doesn't mean the personality is.
[It's hard for her to fully understand it—she was furious enough when Sylens hacked into her Focus, and that was nothing like sharing her consciousness with someone else. She tries to picture something like that with Gaia, or Cyan, or the nightmare that would be finding herself stuck with Hades or Hephaestus. How fair was the partnership? It sounds so unsettling.
[ Wash is so glad she's not pushing, because any further explanation would have brought up either the Meta or Epsilon, and he just can't go there right now. Maybe not ever again, after knowing how it biased Kyna against Epsilon and then he showed up. Awkward.
He gives a little nod, grateful. ]
I won't take an AI ever again. But what the Null can do is different anyway, it was more like being used as a puppet. A weapon. We need to figure out a way to stop it from happening again.
I'll do the best I can. Those robots I told you about—the Chariot line—they ended my version of Earth. The only reason I'm here is because a group of scientists created a sort of seed before they were killed. A terraforming system. I don't want to see anything that terrible happen again.
[Aloy makes a face. She wasn't expecting anyone to notice that.]
No, no colonies. The only colony ship that was finished exploded during launch. The terraforming system was run by an AI and her subroutines. And yes, I am a clone.
So what did you do? Terraform the destroyed planet? That sounds... rough.
[ He notices the face she pulled the second he said clone, and hesitates on pushing. But he's super curious. ]
Cloning is highly restricted in our world. It's mostly used for organs, anything else is... really questionable. I've never actually met a clone before. And flash clones never survive long beyond their target age. Your world must've gotten it right, though, you seem healthy.
...I didn't mean it that way. I'm just curious why they'd do it. You made it sound like your world doesn't accept you because of that, so it can't be common?
They didn't do anything. The Faro plague wiped the planet of all life within a year. Once the terraforming system got going, it started recreating species... Artificially. Once there were enough people, the cradles were shut down. I was created late. I was a contingency plan for the AI in charge of the system. She cloned me from the woman who created her.
My people don't know what clones are. It's been centuries since the first humans were let out of the cradles. When I showed up without a mother to claim me, they said I was unnatural. A curse.
My people consider the mountain--the cradle--a mother goddess. There was a knowledge database, but it was destroyed. Most people don't even know about the terraforming system or what an AI is.
[ A. Mother goddess. Nevermind, that's not even medieval that's. Ancient. He supposes he can see how it happened, but. Ugh. He looks pretty uncomfortable with the concept. ]
So they had to start civilization all over again, and haven't gotten past religion as an explanation for everything. Great. How'd you find out about all this, then?
It's a long story. The AI in charge of the terraforming system received a signal that made her subroutines self-aware, and they rebelled. One of them confused me for Elisabet Sobeck--the woman I was cloned from--through one of these.
[ So the AI itself wasn't destroyed with the database. Wash listens, glancing to the device over Aloy's ear when she taps it, then frowns at the outcome. ]
It wasn't sentient to start with? And why did it want to kill you?
It wasn't. At least, not the way most AI are, I don't think. Gaia tried to destroy herself and the facility she was housed in to destroy her subordinate functions, and I was a... failsafe. She cloned me because I would be the only one with the genetic code that would allow me into the Zero Dawn facilities. She wanted me to rebuild her. I was the only one who could figure out a way to stop Hades, so it tried to kill me.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
no subject
Hosting an AI means you share your mind with it. You feel what they feel, you know what the other thinks. The Project I was part of tried to match soldiers to AIs based on personality, so they'd work best together. But things didn't always go well, especially since the AIs we were given were just fragments, not a complete person.
no subject
[For Aloy, it seems like a violation on both ends.]
no subject
[ He's not telling her how, not with Epsilon around. It's too personal for the both of them, even this might be a little too much detail but he likes Aloy and she isn't digging. ]
The reason they wanted us to take AI and why they wanted several is the same -- they were testing advanced equipment that the human mind couldn't really run. Armor enhancements like speed boosts and shields.
no subject
[So she's trying to wrap her head around it.]
Wouldn't breaking one apart like that make it unstable?
[Even Gaia's subroutines were unstable without Gaia to manage them, and they were created, not shattered parts of a whole.]
no subject
Still, it wasn't always perfect. Just because the code is stable doesn't mean the personality is.
no subject
It sounds like asking for disaster to me.
[Most people would add a quick "no offense" there, but hey, what's tact?]
no subject
no subject
Finally, Aloy just nods, voice gentling.]
I'm sorry. That must have been awful.
no subject
He gives a little nod, grateful. ]
I won't take an AI ever again. But what the Null can do is different anyway, it was more like being used as a puppet. A weapon. We need to figure out a way to stop it from happening again.
no subject
no subject
So your world has colonies, too? And... you told Name you were a clone. Is that true?
no subject
No, no colonies. The only colony ship that was finished exploded during launch. The terraforming system was run by an AI and her subroutines. And yes, I am a clone.
no subject
[ He notices the face she pulled the second he said clone, and hesitates on pushing. But he's super curious. ]
Cloning is highly restricted in our world. It's mostly used for organs, anything else is... really questionable. I've never actually met a clone before. And flash clones never survive long beyond their target age. Your world must've gotten it right, though, you seem healthy.
no subject
I'm glad I live up to your standards.
no subject
no subject
They didn't do anything. The Faro plague wiped the planet of all life within a year. Once the terraforming system got going, it started recreating species... Artificially. Once there were enough people, the cradles were shut down. I was created late. I was a contingency plan for the AI in charge of the system. She cloned me from the woman who created her.
no subject
no subject
no subject
There's no historical accounts of where they came from? Centuries isn't actually very long.
...a curse..? That's. Really old sounding. How is it possible that people that were cloned by an AI act like they're in the middle ages?
no subject
no subject
So they had to start civilization all over again, and haven't gotten past religion as an explanation for everything. Great. How'd you find out about all this, then?
no subject
[She taps her focus.]
It decided it wanted me dead.
no subject
It wasn't sentient to start with? And why did it want to kill you?
no subject
It wasn't. At least, not the way most AI are, I don't think. Gaia tried to destroy herself and the facility she was housed in to destroy her subordinate functions, and I was a... failsafe. She cloned me because I would be the only one with the genetic code that would allow me into the Zero Dawn facilities. She wanted me to rebuild her. I was the only one who could figure out a way to stop Hades, so it tried to kill me.