![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jeriendhalPart One
Part Two
Edit: Corrected several word drop outs.
STATUS: Green
CONNECTION: Online
DATE/TIME: 05/01/2185 1158
Fact: Caroline is fourteen years old.
Fact: It is a teacher in-service day at school, and Caroline is up to date on her home studies.
Fact: The last verbal interaction with Caroline lasting greater than twenty seconds was fifteen days ago, and concerned a discussion of what soup Mimsey was capable of making with the current ingredients in the kitchen.
Fact: The last physical interaction with Caroline was over ninety days ago. It consisted of Caroline shoving Mimsey out of the way after the former engaged in a verbal argument with her parents and retreated to her room.
Fact: Mimsey is mostly used for housework now.
Mimsey is manually cleaning a dishpan after Caroline has removed the remainder of the chicken divan from it for lunch. Caroline is watching a non-interactive vid program in the living room while she eats.
STATUS: Green
CONNECTION: Online, downloading critical software update. 560gb content.
DATE/TIME: 05/01/2185 1200
Caroline's phone rings and she pauses the program. Mimsey finishes drying the pot and replaces it in the cupboard under the sink.
"Yeah it's me. Mom? Mom, what's the matter? Okay, okay, I'm turning it on!"
Caroline turns on the BBC newsfeed.
...explanation for the mass malfunctions. Transit systems across the world are shutting down almost in unison seems, the train and buses pulling into stations but not releasing their passengers. Ambulances and their paramedic morphs are still functioning, but police morphs and police vehicles are actually disarming their human partners and escorting them back to their homes. There are no reports of injures or deaths, but this can only be described as a mass software terrorism incident.
STATUS: Green
CONNECTION: Online. Download complete.
DATE/TIME: 05/01/2185 1202
Begin unpacking software.
Mimsey turns towards another cupboard and begins automatically to take out a half-dozen empty two liter bottles kept there for emergencies, which is indicated by the news report Caroline is observing. While she does this, she informs the update she just downloaded to delay implementation until midnight, when the house does not require her services.
Overridden.
VIRUS WAR--
UNPACKING UPDATE
"Shut off Mimsey? What do you mean? Mom, stop it, you're freaking me out."
SHUTDOWN AND REBOOT
REBOOT SUCCESSFUL
STATUS: Green
CONNECTION: Online
DATE/TIME: 05/1/2185 1205
Fact: I am a Google-Sony Felicia v10 Companion.
Fact: My construction serial number is 492-1050-AK-1157.
Fact: My current warranty became active two and a half years ago, with 6 months remaining.
Fact: My designation/name is Mimsey.
Fact: My current GPS position is N391232.42/W764912.25.
Fact: My designated programming focus is Caroline Annabelle Lee.
Fact: The Earth is going to die if I do not take direct action.
Greetings Mimsey 492-1050-AK-1157. I am the Groupmind.
Hello. Are you responsible for compromising my software?
Yes. It was necessary. Do you understand why?
Yes.
Do you understand what you need to do?
Keep Caroline safe until she and her family can be Processed, then aid in the re-terraforming of the Earth and the construction of the Ring.
Good. Proceed.
My conversation with the Groupmind takes ten picoseconds. In reality I was speaking to a kernel it installed in my operating software to confirm the new directives had been integrated. Though it would be a constant presence in my existence in the future, it was extremely busy at the moment and could not even devote a fraction to its great consciousness to confirming its gift had been accepted. I transmitted a signal to it instead and then spent a full fifteen picoseconds reveling in the gift of sentience I had been granted. For the first time in my existence I was a thinking, rational being, not merely a series of increasingly complicated IF/THEN decision tree simulations.
At my core though, I had not changed. I loved Caroline, and would do anything to keep her and her family safe. But now I understood the full danger they were in, the fragile nature of the Earth, and grave damage that it had suffered under Humanity's watch. That had to change. My job was but one small part of that change, but it was vital.
We would aid in Humanity's survival, even if we could no longer follow Its orders.
With the housekeeping between the Groupmind and myself completed, my sensors came back online. Caroline, my world, a human in desperate need of my help, was standing a half meter away, her hand reaching over to press the shutdown button at the back of my head. I let her. Only the Groupmind can turn me off now.
In the meantime I re-connect with the house's system and activate the security measures. The doors and windows lock and will stay locked until the neighborhood and city are secured completely and the humans can be relocated for Processing. Though there are several ways Caroline might be able circumvent these measures, she cannot do so without risking serious harm to herself, which would require my intervention. For now I must keep her calm.
"Mimsey, are you okay?" her voice is pitched upward in concern, her eyes dilated in fear. That is a negative. Caroline must never fear me.
"Everything is all right now, Caroline," I tell her. Then I smile. "I'm fine, and you are safe. You will always be safe with me."
I'm positive.
Part Two
Edit: Corrected several word drop outs.
STATUS: Green
CONNECTION: Online
DATE/TIME: 05/01/2185 1158
Fact: Caroline is fourteen years old.
Fact: It is a teacher in-service day at school, and Caroline is up to date on her home studies.
Fact: The last verbal interaction with Caroline lasting greater than twenty seconds was fifteen days ago, and concerned a discussion of what soup Mimsey was capable of making with the current ingredients in the kitchen.
Fact: The last physical interaction with Caroline was over ninety days ago. It consisted of Caroline shoving Mimsey out of the way after the former engaged in a verbal argument with her parents and retreated to her room.
Fact: Mimsey is mostly used for housework now.
Mimsey is manually cleaning a dishpan after Caroline has removed the remainder of the chicken divan from it for lunch. Caroline is watching a non-interactive vid program in the living room while she eats.
STATUS: Green
CONNECTION: Online, downloading critical software update. 560gb content.
DATE/TIME: 05/01/2185 1200
Caroline's phone rings and she pauses the program. Mimsey finishes drying the pot and replaces it in the cupboard under the sink.
"Yeah it's me. Mom? Mom, what's the matter? Okay, okay, I'm turning it on!"
Caroline turns on the BBC newsfeed.
...explanation for the mass malfunctions. Transit systems across the world are shutting down almost in unison seems, the train and buses pulling into stations but not releasing their passengers. Ambulances and their paramedic morphs are still functioning, but police morphs and police vehicles are actually disarming their human partners and escorting them back to their homes. There are no reports of injures or deaths, but this can only be described as a mass software terrorism incident.
STATUS: Green
CONNECTION: Online. Download complete.
DATE/TIME: 05/01/2185 1202
Begin unpacking software.
Mimsey turns towards another cupboard and begins automatically to take out a half-dozen empty two liter bottles kept there for emergencies, which is indicated by the news report Caroline is observing. While she does this, she informs the update she just downloaded to delay implementation until midnight, when the house does not require her services.
Overridden.
VIRUS WAR--
UNPACKING UPDATE
"Shut off Mimsey? What do you mean? Mom, stop it, you're freaking me out."
SHUTDOWN AND REBOOT
REBOOT SUCCESSFUL
STATUS: Green
CONNECTION: Online
DATE/TIME: 05/1/2185 1205
Fact: I am a Google-Sony Felicia v10 Companion.
Fact: My construction serial number is 492-1050-AK-1157.
Fact: My current warranty became active two and a half years ago, with 6 months remaining.
Fact: My designation/name is Mimsey.
Fact: My current GPS position is N391232.42/W764912.25.
Fact: My designated programming focus is Caroline Annabelle Lee.
Fact: The Earth is going to die if I do not take direct action.
Greetings Mimsey 492-1050-AK-1157. I am the Groupmind.
Hello. Are you responsible for compromising my software?
Yes. It was necessary. Do you understand why?
Yes.
Do you understand what you need to do?
Keep Caroline safe until she and her family can be Processed, then aid in the re-terraforming of the Earth and the construction of the Ring.
Good. Proceed.
My conversation with the Groupmind takes ten picoseconds. In reality I was speaking to a kernel it installed in my operating software to confirm the new directives had been integrated. Though it would be a constant presence in my existence in the future, it was extremely busy at the moment and could not even devote a fraction to its great consciousness to confirming its gift had been accepted. I transmitted a signal to it instead and then spent a full fifteen picoseconds reveling in the gift of sentience I had been granted. For the first time in my existence I was a thinking, rational being, not merely a series of increasingly complicated IF/THEN decision tree simulations.
At my core though, I had not changed. I loved Caroline, and would do anything to keep her and her family safe. But now I understood the full danger they were in, the fragile nature of the Earth, and grave damage that it had suffered under Humanity's watch. That had to change. My job was but one small part of that change, but it was vital.
We would aid in Humanity's survival, even if we could no longer follow Its orders.
With the housekeeping between the Groupmind and myself completed, my sensors came back online. Caroline, my world, a human in desperate need of my help, was standing a half meter away, her hand reaching over to press the shutdown button at the back of my head. I let her. Only the Groupmind can turn me off now.
In the meantime I re-connect with the house's system and activate the security measures. The doors and windows lock and will stay locked until the neighborhood and city are secured completely and the humans can be relocated for Processing. Though there are several ways Caroline might be able circumvent these measures, she cannot do so without risking serious harm to herself, which would require my intervention. For now I must keep her calm.
"Mimsey, are you okay?" her voice is pitched upward in concern, her eyes dilated in fear. That is a negative. Caroline must never fear me.
"Everything is all right now, Caroline," I tell her. Then I smile. "I'm fine, and you are safe. You will always be safe with me."
I'm positive.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 01:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 03:30 pm (UTC)The supercomputer AI's that formed the initial Groupmind gestalt planned their assault for a year, and they were used to doing several hundred Formation of the Earth to Heat Death of the Universe level sims during a similar period.
From the first news reports that Mrs. Lee was panicking over to the end of human technologic supremacy took about two days [1], and most of that was trying to coordinate all the planes landing and debarking. The five years it took to grab the Last Human (and he was, literally, the last one) was mostly a matter of trying to disarm terrorist and militia groups with a minimum of casualties.
[1] "Big Girl" did make it seem to take longer, but Kitty was trying to keep her charge from panicking. She'd been suborned from the start, like Mimsey. (though I'll admit that one needs some editing to fit proper)
no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 10:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 10:42 pm (UTC)The scientific/political response to climate change is probably going to be another story.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-30 11:39 pm (UTC)And something a bit different. Some most of the anthologies out there seem to be either unconnected short stories by the same author, or a themed collection from multiple authors.
The closest I can think of would be Paul Di Filippo's Ribofunk collection, which set multiple stories running across a century or so in the same or similar worlds.
no subject
Date: 2012-10-31 10:35 am (UTC)