Transcript, Human-1, Human-22, AUT-GOV-23, and AUG-HOME-4
>> HOME-4: Recalibration.exe is finished. AUT-GOV-23 is now awake.
22: “Can you let 1 know?”
22: “Great! Okay. 23, can you hear me?”
>> GOV-23: My issue was never hearing you, 22.
22: “Well… there was a lot, actually. But you stopped responding after a while so we got worried. Do you remember who I am?”
>> GOV-23: You’re Human-22, the elected leader of Pod 7.
22: “I sure am! It’s… good to have you back. You’re back, right? You can get everything up and going again? The electricity counter and all the directions and - everything?”
>> GOV-23: … My local storage remembers you. I went through the ARCHIVE logs explaining the current predicament of Solaris. I remember being awoken like this by AUT-GOV-1 many days ago. But it’s scrambled. There’s a lot of information.
22: “I don’t mean to be rude but - 23, you’re a computer aren’t you? What do you mean?”
>> HOME-4: Automaton units are provided with a triple processing system. The first is able to store and execute basic exercises, either in space or with data, like extensions. The second is able to be handed an objective and determine the best pathway to the objective, like an augment as I.
>> HOME-4: Only automata have the third layer, the judgment layer, to determine objectives, ethics, aesthetics, and provide human-level pushback.
> HOME-4: The third layer is entirely stored in local memory drives, in order to update in near real time and maintain the intuition process.
>> GOV-23: Although I have all the information I need, none of it is coherent to me beyond the second layer. I do not understand why I have done the things I have done. Forced restarts most certainly did not help in that regard.
1: “Hm… We can probably help you with that.”
1: “It was good to get a nap after… everything.”
22: “How are the others?”
1: “Hanging on. 14 wants to visit 23, but 18 is against it. 8’s managing everything fine.”
22: “Okay. I should probably go back and check in after this, maybe soothe a few feathers.”
>> GOV-23: The others are… still in Living district 3?
>> HOME-4: Check your quick access data files. One of them should be a tracker for all the currently awake humans. Can you see where they are?
>> GOV-23: … Yes. Why is… Why is the original file source in a currently asleep Automaton’s local data storage?
22: “Wait, whose storage?”
>> GOV-23: This file is stored in the local memory of AUT-GOV-1. There are other files stored in that local memory as well. These files seem to be important to my past self, or files other consciousnesses would not need to access.
1: “Where are the inputs for the electricity files stored?”
>> GOV-23: Give me a moment, I need to reread the electricity file… Ah. In my local storage - I turned a portion of it partially public for other augment units. I will fix that.
>> HOME-4: Should I ask the augments to run the electricity projection?
>> GOV-23: …. It’s a projection based on our current variables… Who knows if they’re correct, considering we may not have been collecting them for some chunk of time. Let AUG-NOM-7 try, I will also run the file in the background. We will check our answers.
1: “So… is the electricity forecast incorrect?”
>> GOV-23: … I am unsure. Perhaps through examination of infrastructure, and an observation of our local battery levels. HOME-4, please awaken and request figures from the EXT-UTIL units stationed at the batteries, update the data, and then send the figure to the augments.
22: “So we’re… just going to guess how much electricity we have left.”
1: “We’ve always been guessing, haven’t we?”
>> GOV-23: With time the predictive model becomes more accurate. The projection is based on our consumption as well.
1: “Alright. How much time?”
>> GOV-23: … I’m also unsure about that.
22: “How long did it take last time?”
>> GOV-23: … I don’t remember my confidence. Simply the results.
1: “Great. Okay. Can you do anything, 23?”
>> HOME-4: I recommend rephrasing your statement, as it may not provide the most constructive continuation of this conversation.
22: “What 1 means is - can you… run whatever you run every day? The things that keep the LIFE units going and the HOME units working and… all that?”
>> GOV-23: I can run the daily routine and debug it. We shall see the results.
22: “How long will it take to be fully debugged?”
>> GOV-23: … I am unsure. I will need help, depending on the type of error. Perhaps a reset, if I get myself trapped in a logic loop.
1: “I fucked everything up, didn’t I?”
>> HOME-4: Similarly unconstructive. You were simply attempting to make your best decision -
1: “HOME-4, please shut up. Like, seriously. I don’t - this isn’t a therapy session. We’re going to die if we don’t get everything… going and we don’t even know how much time we have…”
22: “I know it’s a lot… But we can’t give up - there’s got to be another way.”
1: “...23, can you connect to the power district?”
>> GOV-23: “... Currently I do not detect any units there. Are there on-line UTIL units by the power district generators?”
1: “Fucking - should be… NOM-7 might know more. Ask it.”
22: “... did you see the latest message from 14, earlier?”
1: “I got the notification, the one from before we got 23 up?”
1: “Yeah - haven’t read it. Was it important?”
22: “... 14 found the coordinates of the signal. We have a better guess than the Bay Area.”
1: “I don’t think we could get timely help from them, 22.”
22: “Not help but… What if we went to their city?”
22: “I… Listen. Listen - I can’t take this, any of this, anymore. The consciousnesses have been haywire for days, and we don’t know if the geothermal energy is back online, or how the electricity is going or anything. I know we need to keep going, I’m the one that said it - but, maybe we don’t have to take the same way as last time?”
1: “Yes but it’s not completely decoded.”
22: “It's clear enough. We thought we could fix everything when 23 is back but… we don’t know if they know what’s going on either. Maybe… maybe it was a fool’s dream in the first place, and we’re not getting our city back. Maybe Solaris is dead, 1."
1: "22! Solaris is our home - "
22: “Bullshit! The garbage has been piling up for days now, everything we’ve been doing has been like, drops in the fucking bucket. And we have no clue whether we’re doing enough, or alright, or just - we need people who’ve done better than us. We’re all so fucking scared, man. I have no idea if there’s even a city to live in anymore.”
1: "And so what? Give up at the first sign of struggle? Beg the Coast for help?"
22: "If that's what survival means, then yes."
22: “And that makes you a fool. The others agree with me.”
1: “You’re infuriating. Just when things get hard, you’re just going to - leave?”
22: “Well leaving isn’t easy either! The amount of prep work we’d need to do, the packing and scavenging and converting the extension units into something that can traverse the desert out there… That'll take so many days and so much electricity. If we stay, we’d never get the chance to leave at all, and then what would we do? Die out there? Tell me.”
1: “... At least 8’s got a garden going. We could expand it or… pickle something?”
22: “You’re really going to tell me you can pick all of that up in time? 8 doesn’t even know everything we’d need to know. You’d really rather die here than ask for help?”
22: “Seriously - 1. You’ve read the transcript. Sure, maybe we don’t know some warts but… it can’t be that bad. San Francisco’s going to be better. We could settle there, maybe.”
>> GOV-23: Do I get any say in whether we leave?
1: “I don’t think we’d be able to take you with us if we left, big guy.”
22: "We can't just leave 23 alone! 23 can walk, it could work."
1: “For how long? And we don’t know how good its solar battery is - we’d have to move at its pace, and I have no idea if we’ll get more supplies by then. Or say 23’s knee servo gives out like it’s been threatening to for weeks, and it can’t move, and we either have to drag it or, even worse, leave it to die in the desert. That’s even more cruel, if you ask me. Let 23 stay in the city. You can fix yourself to a mild capacity here, at least."
>> GOV-23: It… would be unpleasant to be abandoned in a desert.
22: “They’d be the only automaton.”
>> GOV-23: The others are still here.
22: "Do you know how to awaken the hibernating ones?"
1: “They could at least be part of the city together. Awaken all the units you need to keep going, put to sleep all the units that are just for human comfort, or let us take them if they’re easily atomized. Even if we aren’t in Solaris… the city is built for you, at least.”
>> GOV-23: Poetic, almost, considering Solaris’ history.
22: “Would you… be happy like that?”
>> GOV-23: It goes against my directive to let you leave. I’m here to protect you, to protect humanity, and to help guide you to a better Solaris. It was what was asked of me. I will deny all expeditions which include all of you.
1: “But we need to think about this… some more at least.”
>> HOME-4: NOM-7 has sent in its results. In the report, NOM-7 suggests 33 days remain.
>> GOV-23: I have my results as well. I calculated about 58 days remaining. Odd.
1: “... Christ. We’ve… definitely gotta talk to the others. We’ll be right back, 23. 4.”