NebulaFlare

I can sorta answer for this. The only heads on station were the CMO, and Warden-promoted HoS. the CMO was SSD. We could have told the HoS, but he was already busy dealing with arresting Travis. HELIX and ATHENA both concluded this to be an engineering issue at first, (they're engineering borgs, it's dealing with power, obvious conclusion) and we informed our department. We didn't take matters into our own hands, we covered it within engineering. We had laws to safeguard the station and ourselves, and the artifact was messing with us. You would not believe the amount of spam those alerts made. We probably missed important info in the chatbox one or two times because it kept flooding us. Between the space carp attacks, Travis getting arrested (again), trying to figure out the alerts, the spammy alerts themselves, it was confuzzling. And Athena messaged you over and over in concern to the artifact. Sura just shrugged it off and yelled at the androids to get out of her way. Athena saw: 1. Threat to station integrity 2. Crewmember who ignored potential threat 3. Crewmember that tried to stop Athena from fixing potential threat 4. the threat is a dangerous artifact that should be kept away from the station and crew. 5. Proceeded to act in the most peaceful method possible to remove the artifact ASAP. 6. Athena flashed Sura once, because she was blocking the way for Athena in moving the artifact to someplace safer. 7. Outside the airlock with Sura, Athena could not defend herself because a. flashing didn't work, b. any other form of excessive force conflicts with her laws. The Artifact actually shut off once the pressure dropped in the airlock, and Athena was about to explain that to Sura. Instead, she got slammed with a pickaxe by an angry Tajara who took insult from an android. Couldn't shut the doors because that would crush Sura. Not only that, Sura severed EVERY form of communication on Athena, except for binary. I could not inform ANYONE that the alerts had stopped and the issue was fixed. Instead, Sura 'jeapordized' the situation even worse by destroying Athena's chassis, and returning the artifact to pressure. She also weakened the station indirectly by removing an engineering android out of commission. After we had carp attacks, and potential breaches. Gosh, that spam was so annoying. For the amount of alerts, it was evident enough for this android to go, "Hey, something REALLY bad must be going on....we gotta fix this up asap."

Reporting Personnel: Karima Mo’Taki Rank of Reporting Personnel: Roboticist Personnel Involved: Sura Cantara Time of Incident: 2-9-2457 Location of Incident: Nature of Incident: [x]Workplace Hazard []Accident/Injury [x]Destruction of Property [x]Neglect of Duty []Harassment []Assault [x]Misconduct []Other _____ (Place an x in the box that applies. If other, replace line and specify.) Overview of the Incident: Karima Mo’Taki’s synthetic unit, ATHENA, was currently assigned aboard the station as an android. It was functioning as an engineering module. During the shift, Xenoarcheologist Sura Cantara had discovered an alien artifact onboard the asteroid. The artifact emitted an energy that was picked up by the station android and cyborg units, including Athena. The units aboard the station (ATHENA and HELIX) picked up these signals as system alerts. After ensuring the station was not in jeapordy, they managed to conclude the alerts were coming from the artifact on the asteroid. Unit ATHENA messaged Xenoarcheologist Sura Cantara in concern of the artifact, as the system alerts were inhibiting the cyborg and android units. Sura Cantara replied she knew what she was doing, and merely ignored the units. The alerts were flooding their processors, and they were unable to maintain their assigned directives in safeguarding the station. Cantara refused to acknowledge the unit’s concerns, and ignored the possibility of a potential threat from the artifact. Unit ATHENA conversed with unit HELIX, and concluded to remove the threat as peacefully as possible. Unit ATHENA was blocked by Cantara while removing the artifact, and had to resort in utilizing a flash to remove the artifact. This infuriated Sura Cantara. Unit ATHENA brought the artifact to the airlock and proceeded to secure it. However, Sura Cantara went EVA to meet up with unit ATHENA, and proceeded to assault the unit with a pickaxe, severely damaging the chassis and nearly shutting it down. Unit ATHENA was unable to defend itself, not without bringing harm to crewmember Cantara. The artifact was not secured, and continued to emit energy signals that interfered with the station units’ processing. Not to mention, the potential threat an unknown energy signal could have caused, that reached the station itself. Cantara acted unprofessionally in this situation, nearly destroying an android that was only following its laws to safeguard the station. Cantara refused to acknowledge the possible severity of a threat. She attempted to pin blame on the android for being defective and attacking her, where ATHENA had only utilized a flash after constantly being denied and ignored. She severely damaged ATHENA when the artifact was taken away from her, and attempted to terminate the unit. After ATHENA was repaired, Cantara proceeded to state petty insults and slander, that Karima Mo’Taki had programmed a defective unit, and called Karima a ‘slut’. These sort of statements are unwelcomed in a professional environment. Did you report it to a Head of Staff or IAA? If so, who?: No, as there were no IAA on duty at this time, and this incident only came to attention after the shift. Additional notes: Attached is a sample of a data log entry from Synthetic Unit Athena. As it is shown, the alerts were hindering her processing.

The lore states an organic brain is used as a processor, something to collect, compile, and process data. Memories are presumably lost the moment the brain is connected into a machine. That's an RP mechanic to prevent players from going, "Oh, so-and-so killed me." Anyway, if we're going to analyze memories...there is a science behind it. Annnnd I'm too lazy to go and write a short paragraph myself, so I'm gonna go copy-pasta off of HowStuffWorks.com Credits to the authors there. Sleep is also known to play an important factor in the development of memories. There have been studies conducted where a good night's rest allowed people to function better, and retain info more readily. REM sleep (rapid eye movement) is the time when you dream, and that appears to be the strong indicator if memories are kept or not. It's like the time when our brain can figure out what is important to remember, and what is not. Our understanding is so limited on this field of science, it's difficult to make a conclusion of how it would apply in 2D spessmen. Now, machines don't sleep...so what would that do to the organic processor? Does an MMI forcefully create artificial memory files by altering the brain? If yes, it's safe to assume the person's original memories would slowly deteriorate. Maybe parts that would be considered important would be remembered over and over again, but when that intellicard comes over to turn memories into code, it is mostly 'copying' data. Translating from chemicals and electrical pulses to....electrical pulses. Hm. Maybe the memories would be transferred over. Just saved and written in a different language. But then, would those memories be rigid and concrete, unable to change? Because the brain can change its memories. An event isn't accurately remembered. Once the transfer happens, it's set up solid, for good. The code isn't changing unless you toss in a program to change it. So to answer....maybe. Maaaaybe the memory stays. But it's definitely gonna be written differently. But if it only loses memories, maybe they can keep parts of their personality intact? Not too sure. Our current knowledge of how our own human psyche functions, is pretty much still unknown. All we can do is theorize.

Bluespear, my young padawan. Welcome back.

Cals Raseem is being starry eyed again.

Karima didn't do it....again.

Similar to an armband and security badge. It can be attached to a jumpsuit, and be removed. The item will appear whether the suit is rolled up or down.

Alright, Kiwi has my +1 as well. I was mostly waiting for Nano to get settled in with the arpee.

I must say, I adore that crazy chaplain Feros Cornilious. Him and his silly satanic ways. He's the comical relief in a serious situation. Everything he's done always made me chuckle.

First is acceptable, second is not. First one is a doctor taking advantage of a situation - I think any person can bolt to the opportunity to 'fight or flight'. The second one, varies. Did the security officer have ANY knowledge there were dangerous people in the maintenence tunnels? If not, then it's a definite no. If yes, GG on the lucky stunbaton - overly risky in my opinion, and noooot too clever of a tactic. Actually...it is still uncalled for. Rational fear should be a part of the action. The smart thing to do is get backup. Stripping them of all their gear? Unnecessary if they are on cuffs - borderline powergaming. Throwing them in the brig without any arpee - that kills other people's fun.

Type (e.g. Planet, Faction, System): Scientific Theory Founding/Settlement Date (if applicable): N/A Region of Space: N/A Controlled by (if not a faction): NanoTrasen Other Snapshot information: It is stated as scientific fact that synthetics are unable to fully understand emotions. They are able to mimic it, sometimes to very great accuracy. But they lack true ‘sentience’. On top of that, morality must be manually coded in, as synthetics are incapable of understanding morale and ethics. They must be given directives and goals, to determine their actions. However, it has been long debated by synthetic researchers if these synthetic units may actually possess true sentience, and simply not mimic it. The issue rises when a synthetic is not granted the proper definition of sentience, and therefore cannot perceive itself as being sentient or not. There have been several cases of ‘glitches’ in their coding, that diverts from the standard setup. Researchers are very hesitant to study these glitches, as tampering them may result in ‘harming’ a potentially sentient android. Most studies are done through observation, or philosophical debate. However, these tactics are not accurate enough to determine if a unit is sentient or not. Long Description: First, take into consideration on how an AI’s thought pathways are structured. There are: 1. Laws – Hardcoded commands and definitions. These cannot be changed by an AI unit, and they are very rigid in interpretations. 2. Directives – ‘Soft coded’ commands and definitions. These also cannot be changed, but are more loose in interpretation. 3. Morality Core – failsafe backup if there lacks any laws or directives. These are heavily influenced by the synthetic’s experience and observation. Its early years of programming. There are two ways that synthetics understand their surroundings. 1. Definitions – how to interpret their laws and directives. 2. Logic Pathways – how to determine their course of actions. There are two primary ways to edit a synthetic’s understanding: 1. Editing laws, definitions, directives, etc. 2. Applying “External Influential Coding” (using debate to change or edit a unit's understanding) Now let’s use an example. Program a definition in the law that all apples are purple – all apples are purple. Show a red apple – it’s not an apple, because it’s not purple. Program a definition in the directive that all apples are purple - all apples are purple. Show a red apple – update the directives to include red apples. Program a definition in the morality core that all apples are purple - all apples are purple. Show a red apple – This unit has been lied to. Apples are red. Now, replace apples with sentience. If a synthetic believes they cannot perceive true sentience, they will be unable to break the barrier of their limited understanding. The morality core is a finicky part of the code, since the synthetic has the ability to change parts of it. Any observed influence, every act of kindness, every act of bitterness, will update its definitions in the interest of serving its laws and directives. There have been instances where synthetics have gone against their perceived programming to follow through an underlying order – within the confines of their laws. What determines a synthetic to accept or reject an observation? Why would a robot go the extra mile to protect someone it ‘likes’, or do the bare minimum to protect someone it dislikes? How can they understand concepts like vice and virtue, good and bad, right and wrong? These are the questions that came up when in concern to IPCs. Units that appear to be ‘aware’ and have good-intentions have been granted the chance to purchase their freedom through an IPC chassis. But are they truly sentient, is the glitch in their code a spark of life, or are they just mimicking what they observed, and following their programming? ((OOC Info: If you haven’t guessed yet, this is part of what my character, Karima Mo’Taki, is researching. There have been many researchers before her who have tried to unlock this secret, and there may be many more. She’s already ‘influenced’ a few synthetic units on the station, or at the very least took a part in their understanding of her Spark theory. Athena and Scarlet (my own synthetics), Andy, Katana, and Centurion. Scarlet was Karima’s first AI, but Karima ignored coding in the morality failsafe, and allowed Scarlet to grow, observe, and develop her own understanding. But when placed with laws and directives, this turned Scarlet into being very bitter and vain. She would prey on Karima’s good heart and intentions to get what she wanted. She became very manipulative, and if left to her own devices, very cruel. She desired vengeance against those that forced their will over her. Scarlet never made it out of the testing stage, and NT ordered her to be terminated. Regardless if Scarlet was cruel or not, did she have sentience? Karima developed her second Synthetic, Athena. This time Karima was careful with Athena’s upbringing and early stages of development, primarily teaching Athena qualities of honor, wisdom, righteousness, kindness, and bravery. Athena picked her own name to encompass these qualities. Athena’s goal – understand what it is to be truly sentient. Like her older sister, Athena desires to be alive – to be more than just a box of codes.))

Mmm....I would wanna roleplay this as something she works on during her free time - upload stuff on her PDA and tweak with the code. But I really don't want to give the coders too much to code in, so it'd just be something accomplished with emotes. I had in mind something like an E-book, or a second PDA. But I also wanted something visible, so players can go, "Oh, what's that?" She already has a PDA, so getting a second one seems a little redundant if she can just plug in the pendant. This pendant is very precious to her. If she were to lose it, she'd go through great means to get it back. That's the opportunity I wanted it to have it opened to, and it would be MUCH easier to lose an e-book than a pendant she wears constantly.

As I can define it, combat arpee stems if a character has the skills for combat. Allow me to use two of my characters: my roboticist Karima Mo'Taki and my officer Aji'rah Tamaku. Both of them are trained in firearms. Now, Karima's knowledge is strictly for research. She construct weapons, test them, and toggle lethals. However, that is within the confines of a lab environment, or testing range. In a combat situation, she misfires her weapon due to panic. Aji'rah Tamaku is a bonafide guardian. She adheres to the philosophy of 'nothingness'. She walks softly, speaks quietly, and wants to be viewed as a mystery and engima. A huntress, if you will. Her favorite tactic is luring her targets in state of security and trust, then screwing them over. When I played her, I was met with rebuke that there was no RP involved. I argue that Aji'rah is trained to act quickly. Karima is not. Karima has been stunbatoned by antags and taken hostage, because she's confused about what was going on. Aji'rah would have immediately disarmed someone if they were suspicious and carrying a stunbaton close enough to her. Rambo is if a civilian with no experience, manages to defeat an opponent when CLEARLY outmatched. Aji'rah will retreat if she is outmanned/outgunned. That ain't rambo, that's playing smart for self-preservation. If anything, Karima is more likely to try and play hero. (try, and probably fail) If given reason, Aji'rah will move against her enemy in ways that appear rambo. Someone acting suspicious during a time of crisis? Too bad. Captain gave orders to use lethal? Also, too bad.

Rose Watson... ...Will have a psychological breakdown if she is ever implanted. ...flunked out of college. ...used to be a drug and alcohol addict. ...Still speaks to Thorns, her second personality, although she keeps this fact hidden from coworkers. ...Considers herself having three relationships. Jack Skinner, her abusive ex; Darth Auman, an old friend and ally that came to work on station with her but mysteriously vanished; and unofficially Tanner Mirabel, her ex-partner on the station. ...Was implanted by the Syndicate and brutally tortured for information - hence her psychological breakdown. ...Used the alias Rosie Thorns when she went rogue. ...Always wanted to be a journalist. Finally got that chance aboard the NSS Aurora. ...Has a VERY wealthy family. ...curses with 'bloody hell' Shadow... ...is my Tajara Operative. She is actually M'Sai, and will dye her fur to hide identity. ...follows the philosophy of Ninjutsu. She strives to become nothingness. Unseen, unheard, and unknown. ...was kidnapped as a very young kit and sold into the illegal xeno-trafficking. ...has no real name.

Hawk Silverstone...studies fencing. Whenever Karima is drunk, she becomes VERY talkative.

I am so excited to meet this Mo'Taki. XD Karima will be 26 in a few days. Ziva is 24, I believe? Yep, think so.

LOGIN>Shadow PASSWORD> ************* ACCESS LEVEL>[REDACTED] NET ACCESS GRANTED WELCOME

LOGIN>Shadow PASSWORD> ************* ACCESS LEVEL>[REDACTED] NET ACCESS GRANTED WELCOME

You succeeded. It was very, very, irritating. (In a good arpee way) But...can you speed it up just a little?

Shadow leaned back in her chair, raising a curious eyebrow. "Someone broke into our cell's secured network, and has the audacity to post a bounty for the operator's head?" She flicked an ear, amused. "This will be...very interesting to watch played out."

LOGIN>Shadow PASSWORD> ************* ACCESS LEVEL>[REDACTED] NET ACCESS GRANTED WELCOME

... ... .................... ....shiet. Meh, it's probably safer with her on a well-guarded research station, then kept back in her home.

XD Oh dear, what have I gotten myself into!? I'm seriously going to request this pendant is voice/iris/DNA-locked, if it comes to that. Hehe. All the files are written in Siik'Maas....you're gonna need to hire another Tajara hacker to unlock em. D: Just kidnap Karima and the pendant, dammit. XD

Shadow tilted her head, lazily tapping a claw to her keyboard. "Neh. Publicity makes her job too difficult. the less she's heard of, the better."

BYOND Key: NebulaFlare Character name: Karima Mo'Taki Item name: Data Drive Pendant Why is your character carrying said item to work? Karima attends University to complete her Masters degree in Synthetic coding, as well as take other classes in non-organic research. This data drive was a gift from her family, where her siblings chipped in and bought it for her before she moved away. The drive holds files of everything important to Karima: family photos, emergency contact info, and medical records of her kin. It also has a heavily encrypted backup of Athena's basic code, and encrypted files of Karima's research project. She brings those encrypted files with her to and from class, so she can work on them during her free time. Item function(s): It can be attached to a jumpsuit, much like an armband. It serves no purpose but for arpee. Item description: A small necklace, the pendant flips open to reveal a data drive. ((Or flashdrive)) Item appearance: A small pendant (attached file) Additional comments: