#wikibox

I realize that I never posted this on my own blog? I'm a tumblr baby, please forgive me 😭

Susan Calvin (December 2, 1982-April 6, 2064) was an American engineer and psychologist best known for pioneering the field of robopsychology. Calvin was born Susan Derkins in Empire Bay, Massachusetts, where she spent much of her early childhood. Calvin—surprisingly given her later life–was a rather hotheaded child and prone to getting into conflict with neighboring kids, in particular a young Calvin Durden, whom would go on later in life to form Project Mayhem. In 1988, Calvin’s father Andrew Derkins passed away and her mother would remarry James Calvin in 1990, with the young Susan taking his surname. The Calvins would end up leaving Empire Bay in 1991 in favor of the Pacific Northwest, taking up residence in Arcadia Bay. Calvin cites the isolation she felt at being so thoroughly uprooted as a crucial component in her own upbringing and developing a fascination with various sciences, especially engineering and psychology. Her impressive high school grades allowed her to be offered admission to Columbia University at the age of 17, which she accepted and began attending in 1999.

As a student at Columbia University, Calvin initially focused on studying psychology. Unusually for a Columbia University psychology student, Calvin held a disdainful view of the field of parapsychology despite the roles of former Columbia professors John Montague and Peter Venkman in pioneering that field. Calvin instead was drawn to the ideas of noted skeptic Richard Strand, who held that most paranormal phenomena was illusory or scientific phenomena not properly explained yet. Calvin was interested in the psychology of violence and crime, attending both lectures given by FBI profiler Clarice Starling and initially planning to write her thesis on Johan Liebert. However, Calvin’s interests would shift towards robotics and cybernetics. She had always had a passing interest in the topic–even writing a peer-reviewed article at age 16 about the practical aspects of robotics–but she soon came to center this topic in her area of interest. One factor shaping this was the 1999 MegaTech incident where a number of robots whom had been used to replace teachers in high-crime school districts reverted to a militaristic programming that claimed hundreds of lives nationwide. Calvin was thus drawn to the idea of what the proper limits of robotics ought to be. She ended up writing as her thesis ‘Integration of Ethics in Artificial Intelligence’, where she cited the WOPR and Colossus incidents of 1983 and the 2001 Discovery 1 disaster to argue that as AI advances, it will become increasingly necessary to construct programming that binds them to a code of ethics, especially as it merges with the field of robotics.

In her last two years at Columbia, Calvin pursued both psychology and engineering degrees. She would intern briefly at Cyberdyne in 2001 before leaving owing to the belief that management was unwilling to consider the questions of what limits should be placed on robots. Calvin would pursue a graduate degree in cybernetics and psychology at Miskatonic University, completing her thesis which coined the term ‘robopsychology’ under Professor Velma Dinkley. She was subsequently hired by US Robotics and Mechanical Men, Incorporated, which was intrigued by her ideas of robopsychology. Despite her later reputation, it is worth noting that Dr. Calvin was largely considered a fringe figure among artificial intelligence researchers and robotics engineers in this era. Figures like Nathan Bateman and Robert Ford belittled Calvin’s view that these constraints were necessary, instead arguing no machine could fully match a human mind and that, as mechanical devices, they would always remain under human control. At this time, these concerns were still considered largely theoretical as robotics and AI proved slower to integrate into wider human life compared to the expectations of earlier eras.

Calvin’s application of psychology to robotics was not her only contribution to the former field, however. In 2008, following the debut of the synthetic blood substitute TruBlood, the world’s vampire population revealed their existence. Immediately, opinions were polarized-many human supremacist groups found themselves in uneasy alliances with organizations dedicated to controlling the supernatural like the Watcher’s Council and Hellsing claiming they were a danger to humanity but vampires themselves and a number of human sympathizers argued, diet aside, they were no different from humanity and deserved the same rights. Calvin approached vampires with an impressive level of objectivity, seeking to understand the psychology of vampires. She interviewed over 200 vampires in the process of compiling her 2011 paper The Psychology of Undeath: Inside the Minds of Vampires. Calvin broke vampire frames of mind into multiple categories. On one extreme, she identified what she called the reluctant. This category of vampires viewed what they were naturally predisposed to be with revulsion and sought to make up for it. She cited Vladimir Tod, Louis de Pointe du Lac and the Cullen family as examples of this category, seeking to stave off their hunger or satiate it in other ways even pre-TruBlood. On the other extreme she identified the ‘monster mindset’, which views vampirism as a gift and the predation on humanity as a feature rather than a bug. These vampires, Calvin said, would likely try to feed even with TruBlood being available. Most vampires, she argued, fell in between-the likes of Klaus Mikaelson, Laszlo Cravensworth and Michael Morbius having some degree of ethics and morality tempered, but not wholly eliminated by, the need to feed. Calvin dismissed claims that vampires were inherently soulless monsters as superstition but did acknowledge that most vampires have significantly reduced empathy compared to the average human-but argued at the closing such a thing was ‘a byproduct of natural selection for what is, at the end of the day, a predator of humanity by nature now given an off-ramp.’

Calvin’s work on vampire psychology thus concluded, she would resume a focus on robotics. She would work with Tak Mashido to design models of robots capable of engaging in boxing, which would nearly eliminate the industry altogether after one of their robots bested boxing champion Adonis Creed in a 2019 match. Calvin also helped develop blueprints for the Jaegers used by the Pan-Pacific Defense Corps, modeling them on the Japanese EVA units deployed against the ‘angels’ attacking Japan at the same time. Calvin would move to California in 2015 to pursue further consulting jobs. In addition to her ongoing robotics work, Calvin was paid by tech billionaire Peter Gregory to come up with a method for uploading a human brain into cyberspace as a way of achieving immortality and was one of the first members of Amaya’s quantum computer team and contributed heavily to the engineering behind their primary project. Calvin viewed these projects with interest, but was never especially passionate about most of her work, pursuing it with a clinical interest. It is likely for this reason her one romantic entanglement in this time was with the similarly clinical Paul Redeker, a political consultant infamous for past work for the apartheid regime in South Africa whom had subsequently worked for the US government to aid in postwar reconstruction of Iraq, Adjikastsn and Afghanistan. The relationship did not last long, as Redeker and Calvin lacked significant shared interests, but has been viewed as indicative of Calvin’s normal disposition. Calvin is also known as one of the leading critics of the creation of ‘Replicants,’ arguing their purpose could equally be filled by robots with the ability to ensure perfect programming being more possible on a machine than a human brain. Calvin was criticized by some for the clinical detachment involved in this criticism, which also included citing the actions of the Rossum Corporation and their failures as an argument against Replicants, though it is generally accepted Calvin couched her criticism this was as part of a broader belief expressing the depth of her true emotions on the topic would be useless.

One of Calvin’s most important consulting jobs, however, involved her work on the MULTIVAC network embedded in a wide range of technology, but notably a key part in voting machines launched starting in the 2012 election. This network not only would ultimately gain sentience, but was a key element leading to Calvin becoming a political target. During the 2020 presidential election, Republican nominee David Jefferson Adams claimed the MULTIVAC network would be used to rig the vote in favor of his Democratic opponent Jonathan Lincoln Duncan. After Duncan’s victory, Adams’ supporters continued to denounce this network and after the President’s Day Massacre of 2022, Adams’ Attorney General Michael Seaver would announce the designers of MULTIVAC, including Calvin, would be charged with electoral interference and treason. As the Adams administration was actively restricting and rolling back rights, Calvin was only allowed to use the legal services of Jimmy McGill, himself an inmate in New Mexico who was notorious for his role aiding various drug kingpins. However, in a blow to Seaver and Adams, McGill proved an adroit defense attorney and managed to help Calvin escape imprisonment. After getting off, Calvin was involved in anti-Adams activities, participating in protests against the disqualification of Democratic nominee Georgina Hobart from the 2024 election due to allegations of treason and using her professional network to help sabotage technology used in the Adams administration’s efforts to suppress the Gabriel Bell riots and Equisapiens attacks on facilities operated by the Adams aligned WorryFree corporation.

Calvin would rise to increased prominence following the Inauguration Day bombings and subsequent outbreak of the Second American Civil War. She was in California at the time, a region which quickly devolved into chaos as the conflict ignited. Originally, the state government under Governor Hobart declared itself independent. However, Hobart was ousted from power in a coup organized by a number of corporate leaders operating in Silicon Valley, led by the billionaire tech moguls Steve Lift and Peter Isherwall, who installed Zach Morris as Governor. The group’s goal was to bring California into the fold of the Allied States of America, a corporate-driven regime purged of the fundamentalism of Adam’s more fanatical backers. However, shortly after the ASA was formed, its attempt to strike the Greater Korean Republic, who it framed for the bombings, led to the GKR invading the West Coast, occupying a large swath of California. Moreover, the AI Skynet would unleash an army of Terminator units on the state, massacring thousands and imprisoning some in simulations intended to harvest their body heat to power itself. California’s resistance to the ASA, GKR and Skynet organized under the leadership of John Connor, who made Calvin a key member of his inner circle. Calvin helped develop a number of computer viruses that enabled the breakdown of Skynet’s ‘Matrix’ system and helped prevent a GKR advance to the Rocky Mountains. Connor’s Californian resistance group received aid from many other North American factions fighting the Second American Civil War, including the NAN, the United Canadian and American States (a coalition formed in Columbus by the leading claimant to the mantle of the old US and Canada’s government after losing Quebec, British Columbia and Alberta to secessionists) and even the theocratic Republic of Gilead that occupied much of the Deep South.

This unlikely coalition, aimed at the existential threat of Skynet and the GKR as well as the traitors heading the ASA, likely is what made the ceasefire and formation of the Organization of North American Nations in 2028 possible. Calvin, following this, would become a figure in the independent Californian government, working for President Connor as his leading technology advisor. Calvin helped negotiate terms for Japan to send a large amount of the technology dubbed the ‘Japanese Miracle’ to the badly-battered California, enabling rapid reconstruction of devastated cities in the state. Calvin also, in this capacity, developed a series of protocols all sentient machines manufactured in California were obligated to follow: the Three Laws of Robotics, which prevented robots from harming humans or allowing humans to come to harm, ordered preservation of human life except in conflict with the First Law and ordered robot self-preservation save for in instances conflicting with the first two laws. While eventually hailed as a groundbreaking framework, many technology firms scoffed at Calvin’s protocols. The ONAN’s Congress blocked an attempt by ONAN President Lisa Simpson to mandate the Three Laws in the whole ONAN and when Senator Andrew Steele Jarrett, an acolyte of Gilead’s Prophet Steve Jordan, won the 2032 ONAN election, he outright targeted Calvin both for these laws and her public scorn for the politics of Gilead Jarrett made an attempt to enforce nationally. When protests and riots forced Jarrett out in 2035 (sparked by a mix of his heavyhanded push for continent-wide theocracy and his poor handling of the Green Flu pandemic that ravaged his native Gilead and sparked the regime’s collapse to a large-scale revolt a few years later), his successor Elizabeth Winters halted efforts to target Calvin, but continued to resist making the Three Laws mandatory owing to her own efforts to weaponize robots. Opinion on the Three Laws, however, would turn drastically following the CyberLife android revolt in Detroit in 2038 and the rise of the city-state of Zero One in Qumar two years later. In the 2040 ONAN election, the independent ex-Republican Robert McAlistair, who ultimately won, openly endorsed the mandating of Three Laws compliance in all sentient machines, which came into effect in his first year as President.

Calvin continued to work as a psychologist of both humans and robots despite her general fame. In 2029, Calvin made her first visit offworld to Hyper Base, a facility set up on an asteroid by the ONAN military. At various times, Calvin was called in to evaluate US Robotics and Mechanical Men-manufactured robots experiencing malfunction, but also was consulted by a number of other companies and figures as well. The Kwan Do family, who ran Mars’ third largest settlement, hired her to evaluate their drones’ effectiveness and verify their compliance with the Three Laws. Calvin was also contacted by Metaverse Enterprise Solutions to investigate if a simulated character they had created had actually been deleted from existence or not. Calvin’s findings were officially inconclusive but rumors persist that she verified the character did in fact survive, but refused to disclose this information to her creators. The billionaire Cosmo Spacely hired Calvin to help design his ‘Levittowers’ that began cropping up in the 2050’s and 2060’s. Calvin was a prominent opponent of the ONAN’s adoption of the ‘Precrime’ system of predicting crimes before they happened and warned that it coupled with the rise of the ‘street judge’ system would end in the total elimination of civil liberties. Calvin’s role in the public eye would conclude in 2058, with her retirement. After giving a final interview covering thoughts on current events and technology, Calvin would remain a recluse until her death of natural causes in 2064. Calvin would leave a long-lasting legacy, as robotics manufacturing remained heavily influenced by her, though the lead-up to the Great War increased the number of Three Laws-violating robots in existence greatly.

References

Asimov’s Robots Series, Calvin and Hobbes, Fight Club, Life is Strange, Haunting of Hill House, Ghostbusters, Silence of the Lambs, Monster, Class of 1999, WarGames, Colossus: The Forbin Project, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Terminator, Cthulhu Mythos, Scooby Doo, Ex Machina, Westworld, True Blood, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Hellsing, Chronicles of Vladimir Tod, Interview With a Vampire, Twilight, The Vampire Diaries, What We Do in the Shadows, Marvel Comics, Real Steel, Rocky, Pacific Rim, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Silicon Valley, Devs, World War Z, SOCOM: US Navy SEALS, Blade Runner, Dollhouse, Franchise, Shattered Union, The President is Missing, Growing Pains, Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, The Politician, Star Trek, Sorry to Bother You, Jericho, Don’t Look Up, Saved by the Bell, Homefront, The Matrix, Shadowrun, The Handmaid’s Tale, Infinite Jest, Ghost in the Shell, The Simpsons, Parable of the Talents, Christian Nation, Left 4 Dead, Vanquish, Detroit: Become Human, The Animatrix, Jack and Bobby, Empire Earth, Doki Doki Literature Club Plus!, The Jetsons, Minority Report, Judge Dredd, Fallout

Wikiboxes for the  GI Joe: Remixed versions of  America’s Daring, Highly Trained Special Mission Force, and the Enemy, a Ruthless Terrorist Organization Determined To Rule the World, generously made for us by Wolfram of alternatehistory.com

The Sygyzy Contention (also known as Veldanura’s Folly, or Veldanurist Rebellion) was a civil war between two scions of House Nosferath, Ketrill and Veldanura, for the throne of the Dusk Imperium.

The conflict began soon after Dusk Sovereign Bemalon the Dragonslayer acceeded to the Evernight Realms during the Centauric Sygyzy of 2410. Though Bemalon had ruled with unquestioned authority, the heir-apparent he had appointed, his son Bloodroyal Ketrill, was deeply unpopular amongst the Vampyr nobility for what many perceived to be his egalitarian sympathies. In particular, Ketrill was widely suspected of harboring a distasteful affinity towards the lowly Humans, the erstwhile rulers of old Terra before the Culling, who still teemed under Vampyric domination.

Upon receiving the news of Bemalon’s death, his sister Bloodroyal Veldanura roused herself from her seat on Dragul's Demesne and announced her intention to succeed her late brother. Gathering around her a cabal of great noble houses, she proclaimed her nephew a race traitor and and apostate, sentencing him to death in absentia.

Though the new Sovereign-elect had control of the Dusken state apparatus, early defections among the Dusk Household Armada seriously compromised the strength of Ketrill's position. The defections included almost all of House Nosferath's cruisers and battleships. Only the extraordinarily bloody intervention of Bloodroyal Jesslura, Ketrill's sister, abroad the titanic Nosferath flagship Nightbringer prevented it from falling into Veldanurist hands as well.

Deprived of the large capital ships that dominated Dusken space doctrine, Bloodroyal Jesslura, now Warmistress of House Nosferath, had to resort to more novel tactics. Instead of using corvettes to screen and support capital ships, she massed them in a swarm to fall upon capital ships with lightning strikes, employing the corvettes' maneuverability to evade the large weapons of the capital ships.

Over the next couple of years, Jesslura's corvette focus met with astonishing success, overwhelming the navies of Houses Vailon, Argenau and Tzimisces in separate battles. At the news of this string of defeats, the aristocratic coalition under Veldanura resolved to deal the Ketrilists a death blow while the coalition still held the advantage of superior firepower. The plan was to gather together the military strength of the noble houses to stage a bold offensive into the heart of Nosferath space and take old Terra itself. Without Terra, it was hoped, Ketrill's legitimacy would crumble and the houses still allied to Ketrill would desert his cause.

The grand offensive was not to be. The ever-aggressive Jesslura went for the jugular first. Abandoning all pretense of a defense, Ketrill and Jesslura threw the entire loyalist fleet at Draugul while the coalition were still massing their strength.

The battle itself was hard-fought. Lacking a defensive screen of corvettes, the loyalist capital ships took the brunt of the damage. Veldanura's flagship, the Impaler more than lived up to its dread reputation, single-handedly destroying the only two loyalist battleships and disabling the Nightbringer before Bloodroyal Vladimir, Ketrill's son, rammed his cruiser into the Impaler's unprotected flank, sacrificing his own life to save his father's.

Here again, Jesslura's corvettes proved decisive, inflicting heavy casualties among the Veldanurist capital ships, who had no answer for this revolutionary new style of interstellar combat. By the third day, it became clear that the battle was lost, and the Veldanurist fleet broke, scattering in every direction.

Bloodroyal Veldanura and her consort Lady Vetala managed to escape the destruction of her flagship, fleeing onto the surface of Dragul's Demesne to organize a defense. The oldest and wealthiest of the Vampyr colonies, Dragul's Demesne bristled with impressive fortifications designed to withstand ground assault. From there she prepared for a last stand, for she would not surrender the crown jewel of the empire to her nephew without a stiff resistance.

With the rebel fleet scattered, Ketrill was finally offically crowned Dusk Sovereign in a spartan ceremony abroad the Nightbringer. For all his earlier reputation as a soft prince, Ketrill proved himself a true Vampyr of the blackest iron, for the beginning of his reign was consecrated in fire and ash. Over the following year, Dragul's Demesne was blockaded and mercilessly bombarded. Four billion souls (and some twelve billion chattel) were systematically eradicated in atomic fire - Salted - as an object lesson to the rest of the Imperium.

The Salting of Dragul’s Demesne was only the beginning for the new Sovereign. Next Ketrill turned his wrath on the noble houses that had opposed him or remained neutral in the Contention, in what has been euphemistically referred to as the Harrowing of the Houses. Every surviving member of the Great Houses Hattusa, Vetala, Haakon, Argenau, Malkav, Tzimisces, Vailon, Tremere and Polidori, along with their vassal houses and retainers, were rounded up, flayed alive and impaled en masse on the Carpathian plain on old Terra. It is recorded in the Book of Vespers that the flayed skin of the victims were draped in so many layers around the Red Citadel that the capital festered with corruption for a decade.

With the aristocracy largely eradicated and their vast estates and wealth confiscated, Ketrill issued an edict abolishing the Dusk Compact, that had guranteed the privileges of the great pre-Culling Vampyr houses in return for their support in subjugating the Human nations on Terra. Conveniently, the Great Houses that had supported him, principally Houses Strigoym and Ruthven, had suffered disproportionate casualties at Dragul's Rest and were in no position to object. They voluntarily renounced their rights and privileges, pledging themselves as servants of the Sovereign.