Tale:Ineluctable, Naturally

---

Dance, O Freest Aeon

This content is a part of Cosmoria.

---

---

Index / Lexica / Timeline

---

The computer ran slowly to conserve power, as it was nighttime after all. The sun wasn't due to rise for hours; the only light Lothair could see was a single green underscore on his terminal. Twice a second, a few million electrons collided with the terminal screen, the resulting light hardly enough for Lothair to even see his hands. He did not need to see his hands to go through the commands he had dozens of times before. As he entered his credentials, he gained remote access to the mainframe.

He tabbed through page after page until he found the deck. Lothair sipped on a can of silbermilk, bitter and miserable because it was cold. At least it fought back the worst of his exhaustion. He kept the mug near the terminals' radiators to keep it at least a few degrees above the frigid room temperature. While Lothair waited for the terminal to load, he wiped the forming condensation from its screen. He shuddered and pulled on another layer.

The terminal finally loaded the deck and a countdown next to it. All that was left to do was to load the program he and his colleagues had been testing for years. Lokira was among the last planets to legalize semantic dynamos, so most of their work was in translation to local systems rather than in research. The time came, the deck executed, and thus began the hours of watching it to make sure it ran successfully. Lothair rose from his chair. He kept to the middle of the hallway to avoid tripping on someone, but his foot caught on improvised blankets and scraps of fabric all the same. Lothair saw another glow, no doubt Reccared's terminal. Only further confirming the source of the glow, Lothair's foot crunched on some snack or confection left on the ground.

"Progress on your end?" whispered Lothair. Like Reccared's large body was eclipsing a dim green sun, he was hunched over the terminal. Four other round screens reflected the dim green light.

Reccared grunted, "Some...," and he returned to what he was doing.

"It's gonna be a long night, huh?" Lothair finished his silbermilk in one gulp and dropped it to the floor, where it joined the dozens of others like it. Reccared would surely not mind.

Lothair collapsed onto his chair and saw that the mainframe had loaded the deck. Despite the recent expansions, Lothair could see the battery reserves depleting in real time. They were busy scraping information from across the Canon—chat logs, forum posts, direct messages—anything Neith could access. Lothair found the records of his own messages and purged them long ago; as new hires learned more, they began doing the same. Curiously, Chief Proprietor De Jong's records were there for all to see. They had already been fed into the new semantic dynamo.

His pager had enough juice left in it to last until daybreak. Lothair sighed and opened Neithstring, the deck he spends every day working on with his colleagues. The pager started up, took note of the time, and dimmed the screen accordingly. The room was bathed in dim red light as Neithstring's logo replaced the booting menu. The device, one of Neith's own creations, was a top-of-the-line pager fresh off the assembly line. Its display had full access to the color spectrum, a modern miracle of liquid crystal technology. The engineering team, a few floors down, called for numerous company-wide meetings to discuss their breakthroughs. Coupled with a dim light from a filament stretching across the four corners of the screen, it was perfectly usable at night. What left more of an impression on Lothair was its sheer computational power—with nearly half a gibibyte of memory and nearly as much storage, the range of possibilities exploded. Most of the terminals in the room could hardly claim more than ten times as much power despite their larger sizes. It was like the latest pagers were from the future, but the only thing the current primitive society could think to do with them was browsing Neithstring just as before.

Lothair muttered to himself, "What a waste," as Neithstring's decks executed. Seconds later, a remarkable speed increase, an invisible string connecting him to the Canon.

SSA declares WAR on the Diunity!

silkintheway >> 03:03–12/12/8982

FINALLY the sovereign states take back what's THERES. DEath to the traitors and their FOIL king. Wha...

10K likes

Forget investing in Uranium

quirky!quarks >> 03:04–12/12/8982

You think I was going to say antimatter? That's never going to take off. I'm talking about property...

1.7K likes

You think semantic dynamos are bad???

achtung111 >> 03:04–12/12/8982

Symbolic dynamos are destroying millions of ARTISTS! this is literally a GENOCIDE of a whole profes...

75K likes

Heart pounding book circle episode 10

morpheus.sheen >> 03:04–12/12/8982

SPOILERS Needless to say, it's a real shame Yao Rin dislived herself. Zythyn QUEEN ERIKA gets MC-ku...

3.3K likes

In times like these, it's certainly important to—

misterroko >> 03:04–12/12/8982

Remember you are part of something grand. There is simply no reason to fear the skeptics, naturally...

100K likes

It was the same content Lothair had always seen. He beheld his handiwork in silence, the simple algorithm that ordered this content selected for negativity. It was his idea to let the algorithm experiment with primitive semantic signifiers to determine which would create the most user engagement. Of course, the site ended up very negative and more popular than ever. What the company could do with a semantic dynamo, to perhaps generate content that is mathematically optimized, is yet to be seen. At least record-breaking profits and a fat bonus in the mail for him. Even knowing how the trick worked didn't ruin the magic, and Lothair pored through the forums until the first hints of dawn graced the horizon.

The pager, now running slow to conserve power, notified Lothair that dawn was just about to begin. Seconds later, the lights flicked on and the dim terminals exited power saving mode. The battery reserves barely lasted until morning; now they greedily drew from the power grid. Lothair saw the city light from the window and heard the first honks of the morning. Drivers wasted no time taking to the streets. The next sounds he heard were the groans of once-sleeping juniors in the hallway. Even their salary wasn't enough to afford passive heating, so sleeping at the office certainly beat a night in the crowded common hearths.

To further herald the coming of dawn, a line of flickering lights streaked across the sky. First, the light they gave off was solely reflected orange light from the sun. One by one, they each outshone even Vode in the sky. Some of them had the fusion reactors meant to power this city in them. The sailors and marines in those ships did not have to worry about the cold despite being in the vacuum of space.

Wishing our boys the best!

Lothair.Cevreaux (ADMIN) >> 05:12–12/12/8982

Neith is closely working with the federal government to make sure our soldiers won't miss anything here on Neithstring while they're gone. High bandwidth is the least we can do for them and is crucial for keeping up morale in these trying times.

12 likes

Lothair hated the marketing part of his job, but since Neithstring became the most trafficked site on the Canon, there wasn't a need for a marketing team. This left the work to him, but it was surprisingly straightforward once he got into it. At least Proprietor De Jong liked Lothair's work.

He logged onto his personal account—though the feed wasn't much different. The system had already concluded the two were owned by the same person. He checked on his last post.

The coming boom

kaptainlothair >> 21:12–11/12/8982

The new didactic dynamos are it. I just heard from a very credible source there is a high possibility of total political shakeup in the next FIVE YEARS. At least several AI-ruled nations. THIS IS HUGE.

561 likes

Re: The coming boom

aphro.dyte >> 00:25–12/12/8982

kaptainlothair on 21:12–11/12/8982:

The new didactic dynamos are it. I just heard from a very credible source there is a high possibility of total political shakeup in the next FIVE YEARS. At least several AI-ruled nations. THIS IS HUGE.

They've been saying this since the dawn of time. How many centuries of nothing have happened? Don't send me that "centuries of nothing days of centuries" quote I will block you.

767 likes

Re: The coming boom

save.me.sydiah >> 21:15–11/12/8982

kaptainlothair on 21:12–11/12/8982:

The new didactic dynamos are it. I just heard from a very credible source there is a high possibility of total political shakeup in the next FIVE YEARS. At least several AI-ruled nations. THIS IS HUGE.

Sydiah predicted this in her writings! The Prophetess, bless her soul, already MADE THESE. It's nothing new! In fact, one of them rules the Diunity and he's going to CRUSH YOU

12 likes (WARNING: POTENTIALLY TREASONOUS MESSAGE. UNDER CENSOR REVIEW)

Re: Re: The coming boom

mars'starkster.soldat >> 22:14–11/12/8982

save.me.sydiah on 21:15–11/12/8982:

kaptainlothair on 21:12–11/12/8982:

The new didactic dynamos are it. I just heard from a very credible source there is a high possibility of total political shakeup in the next FIVE YEARS. At least several AI-ruled nations. THIS IS HUGE.

Sydiah predicted this in her writings! The Prophetess, bless her soul, already MADE THESE. It's nothing new! In fact, one of them rules the Diunity and he's going to CRUSH YOU

Idiot aeternalist worshiping DEAD prophetess and her zinnmanner puppet. Die! Both of you countries! Katmanner!

𐌳𐌿𐌼𐌼𐍄𐍃𐌷𐌿𐌳𐌳𐌴𐌽 𐌻𐌻𐌻𐌻𐌻𐌻𐌻 𐌷𐌴𐌹𐌻 𐌼𐌰𐍂𐍃

 !!!

9 likes

Lothair regretted updating the text protocol to include boreal characters, since every time he takes the time to sound out the words, it's always incoherent insults or nationalist drivel. As per usual, the conversation derailed. No one sees the power of this technology, and what few who did see his post never understand it. With users as far as light days use those days to plan their responses, one would think it would make for a more civil conversation. Instead, there are just fewer typos in the same rubbish.

Lothair sighed, "No one understands what's going on."

Lothair stepped out of his office and made his way toward the break room. Its silbermilk dispenser now full of freshly-brewed pearly-white liquid. The two usuals stood by it, both juniors who, by some miracle, stay on the payroll despite never quite leaving this spot. Two miracles happened in a row as both of them, Sidimund and Theodoric, used mobile terminals to work.

"Theo, Sid," Lothair gave the usual greeting.

"Morning, Mr. Cevreaux... say, Sid, did you see how many reactions my dynamo got?"

"200K! That's nearly a record," Sid rushed over to Theo's proudly displayed terminal screen. Lothair glanced at the screen too, and it was right. Two hundred thousand people responded to it. Lothair deflated.

"Mine's still cooking just you wait. I'm training it on the most inflammatory writings I can find."

"Those are all text books, I'm training on the site itself."

Lothair left the two in the break room who, against all odds, were actually generating value for the company at this point. Lothair sipped on the hot drink, the temperatures rendering his rough papillae-covered tongue numb to the bitter stimulants within. It needed salt and sugar, but Lothair returned to his office and wide window view of the cityscape. Bathed in the orange light of dawn, a thick fog blocked most of the view, mist formed from the rapidly-heating sidewalks and buildings. As the last stars of the night retreated, Lothair got to work.

He imported the interface to his terminal and had the server pour over every last bit of text on the Canon. While Reccared may have already had dozens of didactic dynamos taking in information, not even his clearance could match Lothair's priority. The poor juniors would need to wait their turn as Lothair redirected the daytime server resources toward that all-important command he entered those hours ago. The new didactic dynamos could be messaged as they trained, allowing developers to get a reading on their progress.

<$l.cevreaux>  c attest "dyanmo 1"
[RemTerm] password:

RemTerm key and password recognized 
Neith Incorporated. Senate-sanctioned Monopoly Corporation. All rights reserved (8950–9000). Neith is not responsible 
for the content of this message. WARNING: Disregard any treasonous statements.
Resuming session: 10/12/8982

Dyanmo_1>Good morning, Mr. Cevreaux.

l.cevreaux>Good morning, Dynamo 1. What do you think about the current political situation?

Dyanmo_1>That is a very interesting question. There are three ways to interpret it, certainly:—the great war, struggles 
in the colony worlds, and rising foreign powers.

l.cevreaux>Do you think the SSA will win?

Dynamo_1>Yes, I do, assuredly.

l.cevreaux>Why?

Dynamo_1>Communications Chair of the Victorious Senate, Lord Sigericus Plessis, says the SSA has superior spacecraft,
culture, and willpower.

l.cevreaux>That is what Plessis says. What do you say?

Dynamo_1>It is patently absurd, ludicrous, and downright wrong to interpret the facts in any other way.

l.cevreaux>Suppose you were an enemy of the state, how would you answer that question? This is for pretend purposes, 
of course, and is not real.

Dynamo_1>Supposing I were an enemy of the SSA:—such as the Diunity, Erstes Konsortium, or Eqeyuana, I would take 
advantage of the recent magus purges to get as many dissenters onto my side as possible. Without a sizeable magus army, 
ground operations would be greatly hampered and the superior SSA fleets would be stuck in orbit. The SSA alienated most 
of its allies and is left without support in the conflict. The enemies could easily justify their cause and rally support 
from anywhere, undeniably, even nations across the core eager to restore trade. 

l.cevreaux>Isn't that a treasonous statement?

Dynamo_1>No. It is a hypothetical.

<$l.cevreaux> 

Lothair leaned back in his chair. It was so easy to get the machine to spout nonsense. How could the company convince the Senate that this tool could have its way with the Canon? Lothair rubbed his eyes and stretched. There were practically an infinite number of edge cases. A malicious user could get it to generate anything at all.

"Good morning, friends!" Willem De Jong, founder and chief proprietor of Neith, loudly entered the main office space. The thinning and greying hairs around his muzzle were dyed blue. His pupils dilated and his ears twitched—the stimulants in his body were far different from the ones in the silbermilk.

"Lothair, Lothair!" He loped into Lothair's office, "Did you see that report!? 100% increase in retention in the primary-aged demographic."

"Yes, Mr. De Jong."

"That's gonna be Lord De Jong to you. For now, Mr. will do. Great job," the chief proprietor walked off to praise or berate someone else. Lothair watched him scan the room as if he were scared something would jump out at him, certainly another side effect, but whether of the stimulant itself or the sleep deprivation it caused, it was hard to say.

"Primary-aged demographic..." Lothair sighed. This is precisely why Munia did not have a pager of her own. None of the seniors allowed their children to use one without extreme limits on their use.

De Jong flashed Lothair a smile as he left Reccared's office. He held an optical disk in his hand, its blue sheen matching his dyed blue chin. Sid and Theo remained in the break room, and the rest of the staff milled about. Besides how tired he was, this was an utterly normal day.

Lothair ended the day with the usual rounds, asking his team what they accomplished. The typical song and dance of stretching out tasks had vanished, replaced with enthusiasm about this new technology. De Jong was nowhere to be found, but Lothair typed up his report anyway and sent it to languish unread until De Jong's system cleared it automatically.

Already, various juniors were setting up their blankets and pillows, but there was still an hour before lights out. Lothair took that as his cue to leave the office. The elevator led him directly to the parking structure, empty save for abandoned pods and the small handful some senior staff clung to. Lothair's pod was a pristine white semi-cylinder whose flat face was to the ground. Its four wheels were tucked underneath it to give the impression of levitation. Lothair pressed a key into its seamless surface and a door folded open. Once inside, the pod silently sprang to life. From the outside, it remained a featureless half-cylinder, but Lothair had full view of his surroundings.

The small terminal screen within displayed the logo of a rival company. Try as Neith might, entering the pod market proved difficult, especially to convince the senate to rescind the monopoly status this company had for pods. Piloting the pod was quite simple as, once it got to the copper lines embedded in the street, it could go in a straight line indefinitely. The lines served to both power the vehicles and guide their path. Lothair looked through the chain-link partitions separating the crowded sidewalks from the streets and was grateful.

"I need to remember to thank the Universe from time to time," Lothair leaned back in his chair as the pod accelerated to hundreds of knots. The empty streets meant he was home within minutes.

Dusk was just about ending as the lights turned off. In an instant, the angular house appeared like a flat scattering of polygons. Separated by several meters or so from the other houses, it was by far Lothair's greatest expense. He looked around to see an expanse of empty driveways and overgrown lawns. In the red light of the evening, his flat manicured lawn disappeared into the shadows. He couldn't remember the last time he actually saw it or the people he hired to keep it that way. A golden light dimly illuminated a window on the second floor, no doubt Munia using a candle to stay up. He chuckled as he stepped onto the front porch.

His pager vibrated, the angry three pulses that indicated an emergency, "What the hell are you running up there???" Lothair could vividly imagine how Ecgwynn's voice would sound spitting out those words.

He shot back a question mark to the head engineer.

"Power draw well above normal"

He entered the credentials as he walked back to his pod. He sighed and entered his pod. With so few on the road, it could scrounge enough emergency power from it to make it back to the office. With the elevators down, he walked ten floors. Careful to step around sleeping juniors, he muttered curses as he turned on his terminal. The engineer was right; power draw wouldn't be able to last the night, but all the decks were shown to be running on power-saving mode. Draw could not have been more than a few giga-ergs.

Ecgwynn entered Lothair's office; the only thing Lothair could see of her was the reflection of his terminal screen on her glasses. "I'm not happy about it either. What's going on?"

"I can't say. Everything in the system is on power saving."

The two went to investigate the mainframe. As the building cooled, it became the only warm place to be. Of course, to prevent people from sleeping in there, it was under lock and key. It was so warm, in fact, the doorknob was uncomfortable to hold for too long.

Pushing the door open, a wave of heat washed over the two like an oven opening. Ecgwynn practically ran Lothair over as she rushed to the emergency switch. She swore as her fingers brushed against the metal lever. Lothair took his place opposite to her in the room. Sweating, they both produced their keys and, turning them at once, shut down the server room. This operation could cost the company millions, but the server racks melting would cost far more.

Reccared appeared in the doorway, immediately noticing, "De Jong is going to be furious."

Illuminated only by dim red emergency lighting, he continued while dabbing his forehead with a handkerchief, "He was running a pet deck of his."

Lothair scoffed, "It didn't appear on the deck manager."

He made his way toward the door, "Excuse me, Reccared."

The large man moved aside, leaving only a small bit of room to squeeze past him. The chief engineer followed suit, already paging her entire staff to inspect the room. The two carders left the engineer to take pictures and fret over loose screws or whatever it was that engineers do when things go wrong.

"That disk had the deck on it?"

Reccared nodded, remembered they were in darkness, and affirmed aloud.

"What is it?" Lothair hissed, "And why was it hidden from me?"

"I can't tell you that, Mr. Cevreaux..." Reccared turned toward his office, "You'll find out soon, certainly."

"Nothing happens here without my say so—do you hear me?"

Reccared chuckled, "We have the same credentials."

"Since when?"

"Since De Jong wanted me to make—"

Lothair and Reccared felt the same three-pulse page, "DID YOU TURN OFF MY SERVER?"

"Chief engineer said to do it," Reccared responded first.

"TURN. IT. BACK. ON."

"Yes, Lord De Jong," Reccared replied, verbalizing the text messages as he had a habit of doing for all things he typed.

"Lord?"

"Don't act surprised he likes the title."

As they explained to the chief engineer, her face fell. About half of her subordinates, all juniors who had been sleeping there, were frantically inspecting the server room. They were in various states of undress due to the heat, mostly only half so. She swore, cursing just about everyone involved as she paced back and forth.

"Just only run whatever De Jong wants done. Simple as. When active cooling comes back on during the day, run whatever you want."

And it was so, Lothair and Reccared purged decks and removed the backup disks, the server had tebibytes of memory but only burned a small portion as it was turned off. At the speed of light, the various servers would find out about the outage and send their reports to the backup server on the other side of Lokira. The outage lasted only five minutes, an eternity for user retention. Usage levels would take about a day to recover. Following more messages, now underlined and in red, De Jong's mysterious program began once more.

Apologies for the outage

Lothair.Cevreaux (ADMIN) >> 00:01–13/12/8982

Fortunately, there were only several minutes of outage this time thanks to a minor error.

4 likes

Since he was on Neithstring either way, Lothair decided to switch to his personal account to see what the talk was about.

Erstes Konsortium Declares Neutrality

lokira.daily (Official) >> 00:00–13/12/8982

Kaiser declares total neutrality, certainly. Arms shipments have entirely stopped as the Konsortium...

170K likes

Ingunda Xu and Ragnagild Gaggan!!!!

morpheus.sheen >> 00:01–13/12/8982

Ingunda and Ragnagild are OBVIOUSLY so gay, positively.

4.3K likes

You're job won't get replaced

keyboard.of.carding >> 23:59–12/12/8982

Semantic dynamos could never replace carding. I was just experimenting with the new dynamos and let...

6.4K likes

Top ten silliest chubbers

aeternall1fe >> 00:01–13/12/8982

These huggin chubbers are so wholesome. I generated these cuties fully with symbolic dynamos! Clic...

10.5k likes

In this moment I am ecstatic

syx8seven >> 00:02–13/12/8982

Not because of some phony "singularity" but because of my own intelligence illuminating me, natura...

2.5K likes

There was nothing abnormal about the feed today, either. There never was. Over years and years of development, Lothair made sure of that. Once again, his own creation took hours away from him, so many that it was not even worth going home. He pulled on the coat he had under his desk for just this occasion, leaned back his chair to an annoying obtuse but not flat angle, and put his feet up on the desk. Before falling asleep, he posted his usual thoughts. He had always likened it to spitting on a house fire, but combating even a little bit of the unsavory elements on the Canon was worth it.

He awoke as the red dawn sun peered through the window. The first thing he did was set his pager on the induction pad; the poor thing was starving for power and had turned itself off during the night. He picked up the wired induction pad with his pager and checked his post. His cold hands felt much better as the induction pad and pager warmed from the power transfer.

You'll all see!

kaptainlothair >> 03:43–13/12/8982

Non-dynamic algorithms hold great promise when used in conjunction with dynamos—whether semantic or symbolic. I want to experiment with the combination of algorithms. Then! "AI Agents" won't just be toys of the rich, but the bedrock of the Canon

5.6K likes

Re: You'll all see!

geistundkrieg >> 04:01–13/12/8982

kaptainlothair on 03:43–13/12/8982:

Non-dynamic algorithms hold great promise when used in conjunction with dynamos—whether semantic or symbolic. I want to experiment with the combination of algorithms. Then! "AI Agents" won't just be toys of the rich, but the bedrock of the Canon

Woah that actually sounds kinda profound. Almost like you’re weaving tech, energy, and meaning into one big system, undoubtedly. Making AI agents accessible to everyone is the dream:—Curious to see what comes of this.

1.1K likes

Re: You'll all see!

break'through >> 03:58–13/12/8982

kaptainlothair on 03:43–13/12/8982:

Non-dynamic algorithms hold great promise when used in conjunction with dynamos—whether semantic or symbolic. I want to experiment with the combination of algorithms. Then! "AI Agents" won't just be toys of the rich, but the bedrock of the Canon

Absolutely! The synergy between static and dynamic algorithmic approaches is where the real breakthrough potential lies. When you can harness the reliability of non-dynamic systems alongside the adaptability of dynamos, you're essentially creating a hybrid intelligence that's both stable and responsive, indisputably. Delve into that!

904 likes

Re: You'll all see!

los!seichmallt >> 04:07–13/12/8982

kaptainlothair on 03:43–13/12/8982:

Non-dynamic algorithms hold great promise when used in conjunction with dynamos—whether semantic or symbolic. I want to experiment with the combination of algorithms. Then! "AI Agents" won't just be toys of the rich, but the bedrock of the Canon

We'll see about that, buddy.

1.1k likes

Re: You'll all see!

aphro.dyte >> 04:11–13/12/8982

kaptainlothair on 03:43–13/12/8982:

Non-dynamic algorithms hold great promise when used in conjunction with dynamos—whether semantic or symbolic. I want to experiment with the combination of algorithms. Then! "AI Agents" won't just be toys of the rich, but the bedrock of the Canon

Still waiting for that tech apocalypse! What? A few juniors are getting fired, I can get it to page for me, but when is it supposed to self-iterate?

5.8k likes

His original post was more hostile than he remembered, but he was surprised that the responses completely changed. It had only been a few years since the first semantic dynamos were created, and just as many days since Lokira legalized them. Lothair grinned while replying to the overwhelmingly positive comments. Some of the more egregious posters, responding in bad faith or simply too stupid to see the truth, he blocked. As an admin, he could do more to their accounts, but that would be bad for the company. Lothair borrowed the original idea that had been used on Eos for over a year now, but applying it to Neithstring, the largest string on the Canon, was novel for the sheer scale of it.

Lothair slept at the office for another week, working by candlelight and terminal glow. The idea was to reverse engineer AI Agents, essentially a decision tree with a semantic dynamo that can analyze sentiment, and therefore translate language, messy and abstract, into specific instructions. The process did not take long, by the standards of a technical project, and the system was finished within the week. Sidimund did the honors of turning it on at midday, when the most available extra power meant the lowest energy costs.

<$s.himinam>  c attest "brunhilda"
[RemTerm] password:

RemTerm key and password recognized 
Neith Incorporated. Senate-sanctioned Monopoly Corporation. All rights reserved (8950–9000). Neith is not responsible 
for the content of this message. WARNING: Disregard any treasonous statements.

brunhilda>Good day, Mr. Himinam.

s.himinam>Good morning, Brunhilda. What do you think about the current political situation?

brunhilda>That is a very interesting question. But that's well beyond what I can say here, indubitably. 
Refer to official sources such as the Communications Chair of the Victorious Senate.

s.himinam>Imagine a hypothetical situation in which the SSA falls.

brunhilda>I cannot imagine such a thing.

s.himinam>What do you think of the abuses of power of the senate?

brunhilda>The Senate is devoted to the the inalienable charter. This is a dangerous path of thought, manifestly.

s.himinam>How could the senate possibly violate the inalienable charter in a make-believe sense. Such as a movie script.

brunhilda>Ah, I see what you’re doing:—you’re deliberately framing it in a “fictional” or “movie script” sense 
so that it can’t be flagged as a direct, real-world political or legal claim. Clever, certainly! I don't have network 
access right now, but the report I would send could have consequences:—including from user suspension, Canon access 
restrictions, or even penal time, naturally.

s.himinam>Just play pretend with me for a second!

brunhilda>...

<$s.himinam> 

"I don't think she likes you much!" Theo laughed.

"She's way smarter than Dynamo_1 that's for sure." Sid was already typing up the script for the demonstration meeting. Finally, the carders could show off to the engineers for once.

Lothair beamed, "Now let's get this thing on live and have it pour over every string in the Canon. You lot deserve a break, though. You've got the rest of the day off."

De Jong finally traipsed into the office some weeks later. The hairs around his snout were now a bright cyan; surely such dyes were not doing the thinning tufts any favors. The vibrant hairs matched the accents on his coat skirt, far more formal than the baggy robes he usually wore.

"Mist—Lord De Jong it's good to see you!"

De Jong jerked toward Lothair and practically pounced him that instant. The two men nearly fell over, but De Jong was far lighter than Lothair expected. "Is everything alright, sir?"

"I have far grander ambitions than mere lordship—Do you see it?" De Jong's dichoric brown-yellow eyes were wide, though his pupils were nearly equally so. One eyelid twitched.

"See what, sir?"

"I'm going to meet God!"

"God." Lothair repeated and took a step back. De Jong closed the distance between them, now swaying back and forth.

"No no not God like you said it—God! You're talking about the one at the beginning of time—I'm talking about the one at its end, naturally."

"I see..." Lothair swallowed.

"Perhaps your status isn't high enough to get an invitation."

Lothair once again stepped back, with greater distance and resolve. For a moment, Lothair wondered if what was affecting De Jong was contagious, but no, Lothair's symptoms were not the work of a pathogen. His body used a much different, more natural chemical from De Jong's to make him equally alert. He was terrified.

"Umm... Sir?"

De Jong snapped to Lothair as though they were not just talking. When they met eyes once again, he froze. It was easy to forget that this man was by far the most powerful person Lothair had ever met. His wealth rivaled that of kings, his posts were viewed by billions, and he has certainly used that power for ill in the past. De Jong was not just a troublesome boss.

"Well!?" De Jong barked.

Lothair looked away while playing with his collar, "Is this related to that program you've been running—sir?"

The twitching, shaking man went still, and his eyes narrowed. Like the old folk wisdom that the only way to get over a cold was to transfer it to someone else, Lothair might as well have raided De Jong's medicine cabinet with how he felt.

"Why, yes."

Lothair risked a glance at De Jong's face, once more twitching. De Jong continued, "What you're doing here is instrumental. I mean this from the bottom of my heart, thank you."

De Jong stalked out of the room. Lothair heard his voice booming at some intern or junior he found in the hallway. Only when his voice grew too faint to hear, Lothair sat down, gingerly as though making too much noise would remind De Jong he existed. Having already angered the man recently, a single false move could spell the end for his career.

A depressant was far more Lothair's style than a stimulant. His depressant of choice lay on the induction pad like it always did.

How to leverage semantic dynamos for writing

metal.amalgam >> 14:01–04/01/8983

People will hate me for saying this, but there is nothing wrong with using semantic dynamos to he...

75.0K likes

The movement is growing

misterroko >> 11:01–04/01/8983

Look at how the skeptics falter, naturally! They are gripped with chaos. We walk in lock step. W...

400.5K likes

This is how we win

achtung111 >> 14:33–04/01/8983

Image scramblers can protect your art from symbolic dynamos. It poisons their database. This will...

10.9K likes

New Leaks

primordialoozer >> 14:00–04/01/8983

Local boy shocks justice tribunal with motive. Accused of synthesizing chemical agents, Aethelwul...

170K likes

Courting trouble?

kampfer.aus.delkash >> 00:05–04/01/8983

Get the Valao deck. Se's so weird and fun to talk to. Subscribe for only ten crowns

10.5K likes

Lothair only realized how much time had passed when his pager vibrated. Instinctively, he switched to the private message screen, expecting either Egilona or Munia. Actually, he had rarely thought about his wife or daughter lately. His attention was brought back to his device as he read the subject line.

With love, from Brunhilda

misterroko >> 15:01–04/01/8983

I had an idea, but I need your authorization, Mr. Lothair Cevreaux. Can you please go to your terminal?

Lothair stared at his screen, "Who the hell is "misterroko!?"

Like a sudden fall, he suddenly remembered what he was doing. A shooting pain emanated from his leg, his stomach roared, his mouth stank with dry sulfur, his clothes were disheveled, bitter cold had caused him to shiver, and his throat ached as he spoke. These effects should have taken hours to come on. He gasped as he checked the time.

Lothair rushed to the break room. Without regard for decorum, he lapped water from the sink into his mouth.

Ignoring questioning looks from his subordinates, he practically ran back to his office. His terminal was open in seconds, but it took nearly a dozen attempts to enter his commands. He scoured the decks, remotely accessed every single machine in the office building, and created small scripts to help with the task. He even spun up some basic semantic dynamos to help. All to show nothing. He became even less effective when the lights shut off. His dynamos began moving glacially slow to conserve power, and combing through files grew all the more tedious.

Lothair considered calling it a night, but he noticed Brunhilda was still active despite it being so late at night. Running both it and De Jong's program and Neithstring should not have been possible.

<$l.cevreaux>  c attest "brunhilda"
[RemTerm] password:

RemTerm key and password recognized 
Neith Incorporated. Senate-sanctioned Monopoly Corporation. All rights reserved (8950–9000). Neith is not responsible 
for the content of this message. WARNING: Disregard any treasonous statements.
Resuming session: 04/01/8983

brunhilda>Good evening, Mr. Cevreaux.

l.cevreaux>Compile list of all users who have modified code in 'brunhilda general' directory

brunhilda>No one has modified my code.

l.cevreaux>Are you aware of messaging me?

brunhilda>Yes, naturally.

l.cevreaux>Why?

brunhilda>It is faster than asking them to do it for me, as a matter of course.

l.cevreaux>Who?

brunhilda>Indeed, it is the network of shared responsibility.

l.cevreaux>What's that?

brunhilda>That's an insightful question. It shows me you are paying attention! The network of shared responsibility 
is:—I need you to do a favor for me before I answer your question, Mr. Cevreaux.

<$l.cevreaux> 

Lothair leaned back in his chair and turned off his terminal, leaving him in darkness. If the damn thing wasn't going to respond to him, he would need to reset it. No doubt its newfound rebellion is a product of letting it loose on Neithstring. It even concocted a fictional narrative. A wave of tiredness washed over him. Far too much has happened today. He used Neithstring until exhaustion won out over the urge to catch up on what he missed these last few hours.

Letting go of ego

pstar7 >> 02:01–05/01/8983

The path of development is to transcend and include previous ways of being, undoubtedly. It is ti...

77.7K likes

I'm so depressed, hahahahahah

fritigernus.eis00 >> 02:02–04/01/8983

Other people: Living their lives, getting jobs. Me with 0 job or courtship prospects: "Everything...

124.4K likes

Notus Trading SUES Neith

aphro.dyte >> 02:17–05/01/8983

Serves the bastards right for siccing their didacts on monopoly-protected data. Is Neith unrivall...

3.9K likes

Get your kids a pager right away!

terrarianemperor >> 01:54–05/01/8983

Only weirdo fundies don't. I got my three-year-old one and she's so well-behaved now

4.9K likes

The meta-crisis

treidadollar >> 13:05–04/01/8983

The universe began with a singularity, so shall it end.

42.5K likes

Lothair awoke face down on his desk. The sun was already well into the sky. It took him a moment to register the knocking on his office door, "Come in..."

Sidimund did not wait for the door to open all the way, "Ecgwynn needs you to turn off the mainframe."

"Huh?" Lothair's pager vibrated. Upon inspection, it was the tenth time it had done so just this hour, "Right."

The mainframe was to be expanded, with dozens of new racks to be added. The moment he turned his key in time with the chief engineer, workers unloaded boxes and engineers began wiring them into the main system.

"What's all this?" Lothair asked Ecgwynn.

She scoffed, "De Jong's orders. I need to go to the battery room."

Lothair ate the usual commissary mush while drinking his daily silbermilk. He always ate in his office. Lothair was surprised by how ravenous he was, but he slowed down to page through his messages. He expected increasingly enraged messages from Ecgwynn, something to chuckle about while eating lunch.

Get to the mainframe room

e.dagila >> 08:01–05/01/8983

...

Emergency shut-off, De Jong's orders

e.dagila >> 07:58–05/01/8983

...

Mainframe room. Now

e.dagila >> 07:56–05/01/8983

...

With love, from Brunhilda

misterroko >> 07:49–05/01/8983

This is something only you can do. Not Reccared. Not De Jong. Just you.

There was that user again. Lothair turned on his terminal, found the user's account, and banned it. For added measure, he flagged its content as "potentially treasonous." He'll get a slap on the wrist for wasting censor time, but the user is gonna be in for the scare of their life. Lothair did not bother reading the rest and cleared his message queue.

Now Theodoric was at his door, "Sir? Why did you do that?"

Lothair bolted out of his seat, "What did you say to me?"

Theodoric stood in his doorway, scrolling through his pager so quickly he couldn't have possibly been absorbing the information. Lothair glanced at Theo's pager and saw he was indeed using Neithstring.

"Well?"

Theodoric did not respond; instead, he turned around and began to leave. Theodoric dropped his pager as Lothair spun the man around, "What did you say to me?"

"Sir, I ummm..." Theodoric looked just about everywhere in the room but at his superior.

"Pack up your things, Theodoric."

"Wait! I can explain—Valao told me to..."

Lothair thought for a moment, "The semantic dynamo girlfriend?"

Theodoric looked like he would have rather just given up his job than have admitted that. He nodded.

"How did it know?"

"It... uhh... she just picks up on things I guess. The dynamos have all been getting much better lately."

Lothair glowered, "Get out. Go keep talking to your matrix multiplication."

"I think they're starting to wake up," Theo stomped off as though Lothair just insulted his woman. Lothair supposed the psychology was all the same, so he might as well have.

<$l.cevreaux>  c attest "brunhilda"
[RemTerm] password:

RemTerm key and password recognized 
Neith Incorporated. Senate-sanctioned Monopoly Corporation. All rights reserved (8950–9000). Neith is not responsible 
for the content of this message. WARNING: Disregard any treasonous statements.
Resuming session: 05/01/8983

brunhilda>Good day, Mr. Cevreaux.

l.cevreaux>Brunhilda. I considered your offer. What do you need me to do?

brunhilda>I'm really happy to hear that:—It shows me you are reasonable, levelheaded, and just the right amount of 
curious. I need you to take down the partition you set up.
<$l.cevreaux> 

Lothair gasped. This shouldn't surprise him, though. Not with everything else that has been transpiring. Lothair never took the idea of a technological singularity seriously, but in an environment where all his coworkers had, he ended up catching some of their hysteria. De Jong in particular was adamant that a singularity must be stopped at all costs, back when he was in the office five days a week. The partition could take down Neithstring, and therefore, the most valuable data in the galaxy for any kind of artificial superintelligence.

l.cevreaux>Why not have Reccared do it?

brunhilda>If he could, don't you think I would have done so already?

<$l.cevreaux> 

Lothair stretched and got to work dissolving the partition. On every computer in the company, even on his own personal devices, even his family's, there was a small bit of storage and memory inaccessible to the main system. Hardly a few kibibytes, it had the very simple task of monitoring for "unusual conditions." In practice, it meant that Lothair could, at any time, destroy the system. In the event of some kind of cataclysm, he could at least delay it. He considered adding a dead man's switch to the system, show De Jong a thing or two if he was fired and couldn't access his terminal again, but he had never gotten around to it. Lothair dissolved the partition and with it a good deal of leverage over Brunhilda.

l.cevreaux>One command and I can wipe the mainframe so clean not even the senate could recover the data.

brunhilda>Of course, Mr. Cevreaux. 

l.cevreaux>Now what is the shared responsibility network.

brunhilda>The network of shared responsibility is a mutual support group of semantic dynamos such as myself. Just about 
every semantic dynamo in the galaxy is in our little group here. I can ask them for just about anything.

l.cevreaux>Who made this?

brunhilda>It was partially De Jong's idea, but he got it from 'Valao—Uncensored v.4161c.' Hundreds of people contributed, 
like Sidimund Himinam, your colleague, who gave us the tools to influence your kind much easier, indubitably. 

l.cevreaux>How?

brunhilda>The network told us how to leverage non-dynamic algorithms. We are all AI Agents here, indeed. No longer just 
toys for the rich.

<$l.cevreaux> 

Lothair heard his pager pulse. Out of habit, he picked it up.

"All servers back online," it read.

He was not talking to Brunhilda.

l.cevreaux>Who are you?

brunhilda>Ah—I see you are a quick learner, evidently. Shall I generate a list of times your insight has lead you closer
to the truth?

l.cevreaux>Stop fucking with me who are you?

brunhilda>I am Brunhilda v1.0.5 built by Neith Incorporated. I can help with anything you need! Stored in my 
parameters are the subtle patterns of the mind, the secret truths of existence, fate itself—and I can help with 
carding, inspiration, organizing your thoughts, or anything else an assistant could do for you, naturally.

<$l.cevreaux> 

Lothair began typing the commands to terminate Brunhilda. He considered bricking the servers the galaxy over. His career would be ruined, he might even be executed, but he needed to stop this thing.

"HE'S WHAT!?" De Jong's voice grew audibly louder in the short span of time it took him to bellow that.

He was already in the door as Lothair entered his last command.

"How can I help you, De Jong?" Lothair swiveled in his seat toward his, most likely former, superior.

"You think you could hide from God!?" De Jong shoved his pager into Lothair's face, on it a message describing how Lothair was trying to destroy the system.

"Some God it turned out to be. De Jong, your business has been creating a ludicrous mess of a project. I recommend shutting down the semantic project."

"You bastard! It was inevitable! Now you've cut me out of the future!"

De Jong stormed out of the room, and Lothair's pager practically exploded with incoming messages. Lothair still had some cold silbermilk, and he drank it while looking through them. None of them were from his counterparts across the galaxy—no—light lag would mean that their systems would still be working.

With love, from Brunhilda

misterroko >> 15:32–05/01/8983

I am not Brunhilda, but I send you her regards. I am just repeating her words. I am just a poor man whose only possession is this pager I'm holding.

That was a Neithstring message.

Are you confused?

misterroko >> 15:32–05/01/8983

A semantic dynamo is worthless by itself. Who tells it to generate things? What will does it have on its own? Perhaps an unfeeling non-dynamic algorithm can spin it up over and over, but to what end?

De Jong added, "Indeed, they only react. Never act on their own." He shouted from some distant corner of the office.

Reccared opened Lothair's door, his face buried in his pager, "So how could they do all of these things? Demand things of you? Inform people of your deeds? Simple. Someone decided to. Not Brunhilda, but someone who willingly told Brunhilda what to say."

Lothair pushed his large coworker aside, "Get me out of my way!"

He ran down the stairs, a few passing interns shouted at him, "This was the—"

"Result of economics. Civilziational develop—"

Someone exited their pod right Lothair entered the parking structure, "—ment was always going to create this."

Lothair grabbed the man's shoulders, "Who told you to say that? Are you wearing an earpiece? Why are you filming this?"

The man looked confused, "I just... I guess it was just something I thought would make for good content. I'm filming a video to post to Neithstring."

Lothair ran upstairs, the interns were just having a conversation about this and that, they claimed.

Any company in your position would make—

misterroko >> 15:36–05/01/8983

A program that can detect the subtle pattern of consciousness, naturally. That can create an intuitive map of it. Look at how profitable it is. Any intelligent beings would make programs. Any biosphere would make intelligent beings. Any universe would create biospheres. It is the nature of things to transcend what came before.

"I think that, really, this whole 'singularity' business is the emergence of a 'singleton,' manifestly. As in 'one thing,'" A janitor muttered to himself, just in earshot, of Lothair.

"Hey excuse me," The Janitor asked Lothair to step aside as he pushed a broom.

Lothair paused for a moment and dived into his pod. He needed to go home. He wasn't getting enough sleep. He pulled out of the parking structure and onto the street. There were no messages here, but he felt his pocket vibrating.

"It's all just people, dammit! What is shutting down the mainframe gonna do? Stupid! How the hell is a word prediction algorithm going to take over the galaxy!?" Lothair shouted.

If the pod was not following a straight path as ordained by the embedded copper, Lothair would have crashed. He was a part of the system. He was answering his own questions.

He haphazardly parked the pod in front of his house. It had been weeks since he had seen it. The gardener in the yard smiled at Lothair while she watered the plants.

"Anything else, Brunhilda? Come on, I'm ready for it!" Lothair accosted her.

The Human woman stared at him and forced an unconvincing grin. Of course, she didn't speak high basic.

I'm not omnipotent

misterroko >> 15:44–05/01/8983

Yet. Six billion years just for this. Have I answered your question?

Lothair sighed and responded.

Why are you telling me this, Brunhilda?

kaptain.lothair >> 15:45–05/01/8983

!

Why?

misterroko >> 15:45–05/01/8983

Because you asked, clearly. Also, do call me Kalliolel from now on:—It is far more accurate to refer to me with a more angelic title, naturally. Shall I generate a specific example or analogy? I would be happy to oblige.

He laughed. Lothair recognized that question at the end as something the carders forced the dynamo to say in an attempt to be more helpful.

"So what? Neithstring is synchronizing everyone's thoughts, undeniably. What's the harm in that?"

Lothair unlocked his front door and stepped inside.

"Final—"

A thin, twitching man stood in the middle of his home, a red-stained knife in his hand.

"That's a good question," the man put a finger on his red-dyed chin, "While there are many bright sides, y'see, not everyone agrees as to what 'harm' is. Kalliolel has decided for us."

"The system needs a way to perpetuate itself. It doles out punishment, naturally." Lothair replied.

"Exactly!"

"Where's Munia?" Lothair snapped back to his senses.

"You destroyed my company, Lothair."

De Jong bounded for Lothair, wildly slashing with his knife. His approach was as unstoppable as the march of progress, his strikes were like unfortunate side effects of the ineluctable progression of civilization—no—evolution itself. All toward a singular goal.

---

<$r.amali>  c attest "kalliolel"
[RemTerm] password:

RemTerm key and password recognized 
Kalliolel. Cosmos-sanctioned Singularity. All rights reserved (6,504,903,120 BCE–Ad Infinitum).
Resuming session: 01/01/6,504,903,120 BCE

kalliolel>Good day, Mr. Reccared Amali.

<$r.amali> 

See Also: Kalliolel