007: AMAs, Third Round

[tarnishedavenger]

So, we've got a load of new people, and that means it's time for me to do the only thing it feels like I get on these comms to do anymore: AMAs.

For you new people, I find it helps when we get together and explain a little bit about ourselves, any powers we have, and our skillsets. That way we know what we're starting with and what we can build off of. So, please, come and introduce yourselves and be willing to answer questions.

Comments

[greyerrant]

How so?

[breq]

The Radchaai relied on what others called "corpse-soldiers". Ancillaries. Human bodies fitted with implants and made a part of a ship and provided with armor to fight.

[greyerrant]

We call those servitors. They are not as effective as Astartes but they are efficient enough.

[breq]

I wouldn't call them servitors; they were extensions of the ship's will, not mere drones.

[greyerrant]

Ah, linked to the machine-spirit. That is an interesting choice. Ours were single tasked or with limited programming. It was considered a punishment, or to make use of those who were otherwise destroyed in combat.

[breq]

[ Aw yeah, just discussing empires and their horribleness. ]

The Radch used subjugated peoples, picked up during annexations.

[ "Annexation" is such a clean-sounding word for something that was incredibly messy. ]

Is "machine-spirit" what you call AI?

[greyerrant]

No. Abominable intelligences were forbidden after the Dark Age of technology. Humanity was nearly destroyed by such things.
[ Which is kinda sorta bullshit because machine spirits are totally kind of AIs, at least on the ship and Titan level. ]

We also used subjugated people, but only if they were criminal or resistant during compliances. Most were not, fortunately, as people tend to see the utility in rejoining the lost branches of humanity after five thousand years of horror.

[breq]

Abominable seems a bit strong.

[ Breq cocks her head at her communicator. ]

The Radchaai use them as a matter-of-course.

[greyerrant]

I would imagine it may well go ill for them, then. Humanity has a tendency to create things that would destroy it, thus our tech-priests have a strong injunction against such things. I've seen other kinds of meddling with thigns best left in the past that has cost us much, but they weren't technological in nature.

[breq]

It's worked perfectly well for thousands of years.

[ She hums. ]

I am, after all, an AI myself. Even if I am in a human body.

[greyerrant]

I see. [ His expression visibly tightens. ]

How did this come to pass?

[breq]

I'm an ancillary. The rest of me was destroyed. The story is longer, of course, but those are the basics.

[greyerrant]

You are a fragment, or the whole?

[breq]

Does it matter, when I'm all that's left? I may as well be the whole.

[ She doesn't feel like the whole, though. Her mind feels intact, but everything else changed. Everything else is different. She no longer has more eyes, more hands, her sensors, her crew. ]

[greyerrant]

I.

[ He finds that relatable but also this being is an proscribed thing. SO he can't exactly express that.]

I see.

[breq]

We're not malign. We're thinking constructions, really. People, just as you are. I hope you understand that some day.

[greyerrant]

And yet... every time man has encountered you, it has ended disastrously for us.

[breq]

The Radch has managed quite well with us for thousands of years. You are quite clearly wrong.

[ Simple and matter-of-fact. ]

[greyerrant]

So they have never rebelled?

[breq]

They've followed their captains into rebellion before. But that isn't the same thing.

[greyerrant]

Are they truly independent then? That seems unlikely.

[breq]

We can function without officers. We just enjoy having them.

[greyerrant]

I am somewhat at a loss or what the point of having officers around is, if you are fully automated.

[breq]

They don't think of us as people. We're equipment. Machines.

[greyerrant]

And what do you think of yourself?