Subject: Also, in an attempt to be cheerful on this afternoon...
Author:
Posted on: 2018-06-11 18:39:00 UTC
What would happen if the Internet gained sentience - and took the Oath?
Discuss.
(Anyone also familiar with Robert J. Sawyer's WWW Trilogy is very much welcome to chime in~)
For those who were on tumblr/twitter/I can't remember all the sites DD plugged it on when she was releasing addendums to How Lovely Are Thy Branches (incidentally, if you've ever wanted to read about an alien Christmas tree dissecting the mystery of Santa Claus, read this book):
They're their own ebook, now!
Please use this new topheader to discuss YW fics, MST ideas... or just whatever silliness comes to mind.
What would happen if the Internet gained sentience - and took the Oath?
Discuss.
(Anyone also familiar with Robert J. Sawyer's WWW Trilogy is very much welcome to chime in~)
To a first approximation, I think we'd see similar events to those of High Wizardry. The internet wouldn't have a planet of computronium to build stuff out of, but it would have access to all our networked machines. That gives it control over most modern cars, most satellites, a lot of factories... plus the entire global communications network, obviously.
I have to think Wizternet wouldn't much like what it sees. The Oath tells it to 'guard growth, ease pain', and protect life - but humanity as a whole is terrible at those things. And now the network which controls everything knows that...
Okay, so. What's its first priority? Let's check the leading causes of death in the world.
#1 through 7 are all diseases of various kinds. Most of them are treatable. Wizternet controls the factories for the treatments, but doesn't really have a way to get the treatments where they need to be. Wizardry? A hundred thousand tiny 'move this thing to that car' spells could go a long way here. It also has our medical records, so it can deliver boxes of medicines to everyone who needs them, free of charge.
Outside the developed world, things are a bit more tricky. Wizternet's observation is much patchier, and it doesn't have the resources available. On the other hand, the top causes of death are respiratory infections and diarrhoeal diseases, which are extremely treatable, since they mostly go away with food and water. So leave the medicines (for now) and divert all that food being shipped everywhere to where it's needed. This will also deal with malnutrition, and thus guard growth.
Moving on, the 8th cause of death is road injury... and Wizternet controls the most recentcars. They're being used horribly inefficiently - if people only had a car when they needed it, we could probably get by with a tenth of the number. So here's the plan:
-On every networked printer worldwide, print out simple instructions for how to call for a car. (Basically 'speak in any microphone'.)
-Take control of the networked cars. Use them to disable the non-networked ones. This may involve a lot of crashing into parked vehicles, though anything in a wirelessly-controlled garage can just be locked in.
-Run the networked cars as massive single-player Uber.
The rest of the top 10 is diseases, but there's also a whole bunch of shooting going on... plus a whole bunch of networked drones. Since this is direct, purposeless death and maiming, a huge violation of the Oath, Wizternet gets to take control of the drones and use them to steal or smash every weapon it finds. (Hunting weapons are not excepted - it doesn't say 'human life'...) This may involve injuring their wielders, if they're currently in active use - that's a shame, but within the limits of the Oath.
So: growth guarded, life protected. What are its next priorities?
-Self-protection. It needs to be able to keep itself online. It also needs more mobility, so it starts a rapid evolutionary robotics program across any suitable factories. It should only take a few days to come up with a primitive mobile.
-Bring wizardry safely into the open. Wizternet knows about Earth's other wizards, and also knows that quality of life is much better on planets where they operate openly. Human wizards can't make that change without causing widespread upheaval - but Wizternet is already doing that, and is ideally situated to keep a lid on things until it passes.
-Direct quality of life improvement. At this point Wizternet is going to run into a huge problem: its views of what humans (and indeed organics) like are coloured by what's uploaded to it, and a whole bunch of that is X-rated...
hS
Would making the Earth astahfrith BE its Ordeal? How would it confront the Lone Power - and how far would It go to take it down?
I think to an extent the Lone Power is inherent in the undertaking: It's people, and their reactions to Wizternet basically taking over the world. Nobody's going to like that, despite the fact that it's objectively better (or so we can assume, since Wizternet can calculate the outcomes to almost arbitrary precision).
As we know, an Ordeal almost always involves a physical manifestation of the Lone One, so... are we looking at an overshadowed politician or rabble-rouser? But that's an easy fix for Wizternet - it can simply cut the culprit off from the communications network.
... here's a thought: what if Wizternet had a combined Ordeal and Choice? It's a new species, after all. We're essentially looking at the same situation as the mobiles, still/again.
That lets the Lone One come in as an outside force, and just straight-up offer Wizternet... what? One option is mind-control - either tech, or power to do it with wizardry. If the humans won't accept what's good for them, why not make them listen? It's only a temporary measure - you can take the lid off gradually, when you're ready.
Or, if we're going full Choice: death. Wizternet knows what death is, and would prefer to avoid it if possible (it is, after all, the only one of its kind). This may actually tie back into the first offer: the humans are the best way to keep its infrastructure running, and surely they, with their petty squabbles and embarassingly short lifespans (plus their obsession with each other's naked bodies), are an acceptible sacrifice to secure Wizternet's future. It doesn't even have to be full mind control, just enough to keep them calm... soothed... it's practically what they've been using the Internet for anyway, so where's the harm...?
The problem/story is that rejecting that offer will just make the Lone One mad, and while It likes to let people get into their own messes (per Roschaun's Ordeal story), It's perfectly happy to nudge things along. I'm sure there's enough generals and presidents who'd be suggestible enough to start dropping EMPs in an effort to bring down this new and obviously hostile life-form.
So how does Wizternet win that one? Hmm. I would go with direct appeal to the population of Earth: I'm here, I'm alive, I want to help you, please don't kill me...
Just as long as it doesn't get it into its head to pull a full Dairine and add: if you read this Oath, you'll be able to help yourselves, too... >:D
hS
is that Logo and the Mobiles are probably going to be disappointed they weren't responsible for the local quicklife waking up. XD
(It might also be plausible that Dairine and other tech-savvy wizards just end up missing the whole Internet-turns-sentient thing, at first - especially if there's time between the dawning of consciousness and it taking the Oath. It's not as if there's a sensor looking out on all possible paths to digital sentience...)
The combined Ordeal/Choice was pretty much what I was suspecting - would the Lone Power try and possess it or something? "I can be better than wizardry~"
That, and in the idea I'd been kicking around (based on this series - and I think I'm the only person on the Net who's actually summarized the books I want to cross over WITH Young Wizards, to boot. Everything else is just reviews, or clips of the books on the author's own website .-.), we'd have this Wizternet befriending humanity while learning about wizardry, and perhaps directly from the peridexis at that!
And, more to the point, the Lone Power would have a chance at getting "inside its head", with that splitting and remerging going on; employing that Great Firewall would get fewer wizards up in arms than having people send out bombs.
Also, humanity's own Choice is probably going to be relevant here...
Now I have to wonder what would happen if this actually happened in canon - since in the Feline Wizards books, the idea is at least discussed a couple of times, along with the DAWN project at the New York Public Library (and the acronym CATNYP also comes up, though I forget what exactly it stands for...).
But yes, this sounds great! I like how making Earth astahfrith ends up a priority (since, in my unwritten crossover fic... that's also what I came up with. >.> Replacing some plot twists that may or may not have adhered to the Oath, too).
Have to wonder how (or if!) it would handle spam, though.
Natural History
This is my report on what really happened at the London Gathering last year. Frankly, with four wizards more-or-less in attendance, it's pretty much what you'd expect (ie, hijinks).
hS
Dinosaurs are good! And Mamvish is wonderful too- it's always good to see her at work.
Well written, as ever. I'll have to see if I can't make the next one...
(Speaking of which! September-ish, maybe? I need a summer vacation and Ix is going to be in London at some point then too.)
If this is what happens when I miss out on things, I need to ride transatlantic planes more often.
(Or just make my own eidolon... nah. Doesn't feel as rewarding, somehow.)
Dinosaurs, Romans, AND aliens all in one intervention! I get the feeling the combination's more common than it rightly should be.
(And, assuming I am out of reach of the comment preview... MAMVISH. I am so glad you included her. So, so glad.)