#ma3a

How do you pronounce 'ma3a'?

In my head it's 'ma-three-a' but out loud it's 'ma-thra'.

Good question, and I think it could go many different ways. I think it would depend a lot on which programs were in charge of the digitizing... and how much they knew about humans... and how much control they wanted to allow the human's preferences to have over the whole process.

In 1982, the only User we see getting digitized is Flynn. As far as we can see, he had just his body and his clothes-- no other obvious accessories.

And he appeared inside the computer with his body looking pretty much the same (the parts of it we can see, anyway)-- and his clothes entirely different. Maybe (as I've speculated before) the "clothes" he ended up with weren't even clothes, but were like a Program's outer shell, just part of the body.

In his case, the MCP controlled that process, and its goal was to make him fight on the Game Grid as a form of torture that would eventually end in death.

So the main concern would have been outfitting him for the Games, making him function as much like a Gaming program as possible. Flynn's own desires would be very far down the list.

In Tron 2.0, however (I know it's not "canon," at least not in the same timeline as Legacy, but it's all we have for the post-1982 Encom system)... we have Ma3a digitizing Jet.

Ma3a needed Jet for a particular purpose, and her primary concern would have been to make him function for that purpose. But she also cared about his well-being. So I imagine her decisions were somewhat kinder. But still, not necessarily the choices a human would have made.

Jet did have eyeglasses, as well as human clothing. And he rezzed in with a whole different Program outfit, and no glasses. But apparently perfectly good vision.

Now, I am not sure just how much Ma3a understood about humans. IIRC she didn't even understand what being Alan's "son" meant. So I'm not gonna assume she knew a lot about what the various human accessories mean.

I'd imagine that programs wouldn't automatically distinguish between Clothing and Accessories. From an outsider viewpoint, it's all just foreign objects that humans put onto their bodies to augment themselves in various ways. Ways that range from "protect us from the cold" to "improve vision" to "look prettier"... and I think the computer would categorize them all the same.

I'm not sure the computer system would even make a distinction between disability aids and other items. To a program, humans are clearly all very different. Definitely more diverse than different copies of the same program. Though probably not as diverse as different types of programs (at least in terms of functions and abilities).

So I really don't think a program would automatically know to distinguish between "disabilities," and other types of human variation... and limitations that all or most humans have.

For example. Suppose you go in with clothes, high-prescription eyeglasses, a wristwatch, braces on your teeth, a ring on your finger, and a prosthetic leg.

The program digitizing you can probably tell what is and isn't part of your organic body. But beyond that, it can only figure out the function of each "add-on" based on what it knows.

It can tell that your body lacks a part that the prosthetic leg provides. It can probably figure out, from the other side of your body, what purpose the prosthetic is supposed to serve. If it's digitized other Users before, it may even know that not all Users have this same type of asymmetry.

But it doesn't know why. It doesn't automatically know that some humans have fewer limbs, from birth or from injury, and replace those limbs with prosthetics in order to fit into a world that's made for humans with four limbs.

For all it knows, maybe those differences are all personal choice. Or maybe some humans are just born (or created, or compiled-- it may not even know how that works!) with one leg of flesh and another of metal and plastic, and the reason is as mysterious as any other mystery about Users.

And the same goes for all the other add-ons. Does the User have clothes because they're needed for protection from something in the User world? Do all Users have them? Does this one wear clothes because some other Users have fur and this one wanted prosthetic fur? Who's to say?

Does the User wear a ring because it replaces some bony hand-protuberance that this human lost? Or does the presence of the ring communicate something to others, or enhance the User's visual appearance? And exactly how important would any of those functions be, to a User in the User world? The program has no idea.

Does the human have braces as a built-in feature, or as a chosen augmentation to the teeth? Or as part of a slow-working attempt to change the teeth? I am very much not sure a program would consider that last possibility.

Does the human wear a watch because he's missing some built-in function that serves the watch's purpose? Or because all or most humans are missing such a function-- and the watch provides it for those who want it?

(And the exact same questions about the glasses! Because the program doesn't know!)

I suppose, if a program like Ma3a is digitizing someone in there-- with the goal of making them functional in the program world, but very limited knowledge about the User world -- she'd do what she could.

Disregarding any concerns about whether there was a User-world reason for Jet's clothes and glasses to be the way they were-- she just did her best and rendered his digital form in a way that had the abilities needed for survival inside the digital world.

He no longer had glasses visible on his face, but his vision worked at the same level his glasses had provided. He no longer had the clothes he was wearing outside, but his digital shell covered and protected him just as well, or better.

A digitizing program that was updated to understand more about how Users work, and what Users need and want, would likely make different decisions.

Now, maybe it isn't fully a decision made by a program. Maybe it's also influenced by something like the "mirroring" effect that makes programs resemble their Users.

I've seen fan theories that maybe a program can end up looking like the User's ideal self-image. And perhaps that could also happen for a User's own rezzed-in form.

Just found out Cindy Morgan has passed away. What an awful way to start the new year, as a TRON fan.

Rest in peace Cindy, you will be greatly missed. 😥

Credit to TK421IsNotAtHisPost on Reddit for being first to share the news.

my second piece for the @cindymorganzine

I personally don't like this one as much. I think the beginning of art block has started to hit me in the face when I did this. I do like the colors though. Download here for feels.

I wanted to briefly ramble about the zine below so there's that :')