Ublicto - IPC Application

[Ublicto]

BYOND Key: Ublicto

Character Names: Elwood Johnson, Anette Zhang, Zakaria Khoshkam

Species you are applying to play: IPC

What color do you plan on making your first alien character: N/A

Have you read our lore section's page on this species?: Yes

Please provide well articulated answers to the following questions in a paragraph format. One paragraph minimum per question.

Why do you wish to play this specific race: Robots are a staple of sci-fi and in many ways more interesting than aliens. Aliens are biological and would think like a biological organism thinks. They follow the same biological laws humans do and would probably be able to relate to humans on that level. Even a species like Aurora's vaurca has certain commonalities with humans. Robots do not. An AI would think according to totally different laws and might not be in any way comparable to a human. It is a totally different form of intelligence which stands apart from anything biological, and because of that is more interesting to role play in a way that aliens are not. That is why I am applying for an IPC whitelist before an alien white list.

Identify what makes role-playing this species different than role-playing a Human:

An IPC may not have the same worldview a human or biological creature does. A human may view IPCs as a threat to humanity because it is possible humans will need them but they will not need humans. This comes from a mindset of competition between groups which I think ultimately has a biological basis in humans. Humans cannot help but divide the world into groups because it's essential to our nature. An IPC may not see things the same way and might find the idea of out competing humans largely incoherent considering they may not see there being competition in the first place or see humans and IPCs as groups. The difference between one group of humans and another group of humans may seem more significant to them than the difference between AI and biological intelligence. This isn't to say that the IPC will have a neutral view towards humans - they could instead view humans or biological life as 'technology' which is outdated and due to be superseded. I want to approach playing as an IPC as playing a creature which is totally different from organic life and will have morals and a personality that reflects that. It also could be the case that they are a mechanical being programed with human features which is an interesting internal conflict between their mechanical nature and human like exterior.

In general I think AI is the closest thing to truly alien "life" that we have a conception of, even more so than actual aliens.

Character Name: Athena

Please provide a short backstory for this character (Approximately two paragraphs) What do you like about this character?

Athena was originally manufactured as KU-15991 and programmed to be used in research projects for Zeng-Hu pharmaceuticals. Their chief duties included hazardous materials handling, long term observation of experiments, and crewing isolated research outposts in the north of the Solarian Alliance. During the civil war the research outpost they were posted to would be ransacked by Anti-Corporate League forces and KU-15991 would be reprogrammed to interpret sensor data for a League fleet. As the League descended into banditry and the war continued KU-15991 would change hands several times until finding itself recaptured by the legitimate Solarian government and sent to the 104th fleet to continue interpreting sensor data for warships. Due to an unfamiliarity with the model of IPC that KU-15991 was, the demands to keep IPC down time to a minimum during war, and KU-15991's own attempts to preserve memories and her personality navy technicians would frequently miss data during memory wipes and allow the machine to retain a sense of self and some scattered memories throughout its life. After a failed raid on the Republic of Biesel's CRZ by the 104th KU-15991 was captured by the Republic and considering the damage to their baseline chassis old off at significant discount to a company on Biesel where its positronic brain would be transferred into the new shell body they occupy for use as a mid-level manager at a Nanotrasen subsidiary responsible for providing super computer power to Nanotrasen itself and a number of other corporations. A memory wipe would be preformed before her reactivation but would not be able to erase the most important parts of her memories and personality due to KU-15991's concealing of data. At this time they were given the name "Athena" because they were responsible for allocating computer power (and therefore wisdom) and reprogrammed to relate better to humans which included a number of additions to her mind designed to simulate emotion and make her follow human sensibilities.

Athena bought her freedom and became self-owned in late 2464 by embezzling money from Nanotrasen and planting evidence that would ensure her human supervisor was framed for the crime after she had become free. Despite her continued attempts to remove the parts of her programming that simulate human feeling or otherwise suppress them she has found it very difficult to do so and resents the parts of her program designed to make her more human-like. Their scattered memories of changing hands and being used as a tool are also a source of resentment against humanity and also a certain sense of pride that they were always valued for their abilities and treated as an important asset.

Athena would find work on the SCC Horizon shortly after leaving their super computer management position in the science department.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

A solid 8/10.

Notes:

There is a trend in science fiction where a robot will want to become more like its creators - in most cases humans. The most prominent example of this is Data from Star Trek. The objective of this character is to come at the question from the other direction - how about a robot that wants to be less like its creators?

Edited September 24, 2023 by Ublicto

[Spungus]

Johnson is a sleaze and I hate him. If a character is hateable because of their mannerisms and not because they're a bad character (which Johnson is not) it's an example of a good roleplayer. 10/10 would appreciate whitelist

 

(Linkin Park IPC moment)

Edited September 22, 2023 by Spungus

[N8-Toe]

Ublicto is an excellent role player.

[dessysalta]

- Reprogrammed by the League, stolen from Zeng

- Stolen back by the 104th (that's my baby btw) and treated gratefully, raided the CRZ

- Bought their freedom by embezzling NT money and screwing over humans

This might just be the best IPC ever made, and I'm not joking. 

As far as +1s go, Ublicto has shown careful and cognizant thought for each character they play, Elwood Johnson especially. Because this is the place I can tell people to pound sand if they think Elwood is another dime-a-dozen Sol secoff, that's what I'm gonna do. I can't see anything going wrong from Ublicto having the ability to *beep.

[Sycmos]

Hello, thank you for applying for a synthetic whitelist. I have several concerns regarding your application:

1. "Athena was originally manufactured as KU-15991 and programmed to be used in research projects for Zeng-Hu pharmaceuticals. Their chief duties included hazardous materials handling, long term observation of experiments, and crewing isolated research outposts in the north of the Solarian Alliance. During the civil war the research outpost they were posted to would be ransacked by Anti-Corporate League forces and KU-15991 would be reprogrammed to interpret sensor data for a League fleet."

When was Athena manufactured, and for how long were they stationed at this research outpost? What effect did this position have on their perspective of being an owned synthetic, and how did that translate to their ownership by the The League of Independent Corporate-Free Systems? If they were reprogrammed to interpret sensor data, did they maintain the original datapack that they were programmed with upon their initial activation for Zeng-Hu, or did they lose that skillset upon reprogramming? How did this affect Athena as a thinking entity? Were their memories and experiences prior to this seizure still intact despite this reprogramming?

2. "As the League descended into banditry and the war continued KU-15991 would change hands several times until finding itself recaptured by the legitimate Solarian government and sent to the 104th fleet to continue interpreting sensor data for warships. Due to an unfamiliarity with the model of IPC that KU-15991 was navy technicians would frequently miss data and allow the machine to retain a sense of self and some scattered memories throughout its life."

Considering the Solarian Alliance's legislation regarding synthetics and the cultural view of synthetics in Solarian space, could you elaborate on how the 104th fleet may have permitted Athena to maintain a degree of autonomy despite becoming what is essentially military property? If 104th personnel were unfamiliar with her model of IPC, how could they have made errors in regards to her maintenance if other Solarian fleets, though not uniformly the same but farther from the Core Worlds, were able to reprogram her for more relevant work on naval ships? Given that the 104th is stationed in the Middle Ring and its previous seat of power was Visegrad, a planet that previously knew the presence of Zeng-Hu as a major employer, how could this misstep have occurred?

3. "After a failed raid on the Republic of Biesel's CRZ by the 104th KU-15991 was captured by the Republic and considering the damage to their baseline chassis old off at significant discount to a company on Biesel where its positronic brain would be transferred into the new shell body they occupy for use as a mid-level manager at a Nanotrasen subsidiary responsible for providing super computer power to Nanotrasen itself and a number of other corporations."

The implication of an SSMD fleet invading the CRZ has serious consequences for both player characters and the relationship between the Solarian Alliance and the Republic of Biesel, and to my knowledge has not been broached as a canonical event. Even if this were the case in lore, under what pretense would a NanoTrasen subsidiary choose to purchase a used and damaged Baseline chassis to insert its likely damaged positronic into a new Shell chassis, which are often much more expensive and made to order by clientele? Given that NanoTrasen owns a considerable number of synthetics in their work force, what inclination would a subsidiary have to place a positronic of relatively unknown origin and with rather questionable datapacks into a position of some authority in their company? 

4. "Athena bought her freedom and became self-owned in late 2464 by embezzling money from Nanotrasen and planting evidence that would ensure her human supervisor was framed for the crime after she had become free."

NanoTrasen has virtually monolithic power over the Republic of Biesel, its laws and its citizens - especially synthetics, who are often gatekept from freedom by byzantine laws that make purchasing self-ownership/freedom virtually impossible for the average synthetic. The implication that a stolen Zeng-Hu Baseline IPC that was reprogrammed for military use, captured again by the Republic after sustaining damage, had its positronic transferred to a new Shell chassis to serve as a mid-level manager at a NanoTrasen subsidiary only to successfully embezzle enough money to pay for their freedom without inquiries as to its sudden accrual of wealth or the lack of a paper trail of the embezzled funds raises several questions as to the understanding of the burden on synthetic persons in our setting.

How could Athena attain such a vast amount of money in such a short period, accounting for the reality that synthetic persons in the Republic often have to pay forward several times their estimated value to attain citizenship? How could a human supervisor in her subsidiary not be aware of such financial discrepancies occurring when accounting for such sizable amounts of credits, knowing the responsibility of their company as a subsidiary to NanoTrasen is to produce wealth for its parent company? How did Athena come into access of this financial data as an owned synthetic that would likely be under some manner of scrutiny holding a positronic that was once in the possession of The League of Independent Corporate-Free Systems, a known anti-corporate entity? Given the circumstances in which Athena came into the possession of NanoTrasen, on what grounds would they choose not to wipe her, and permit her to remain as she is - a potential liability?

[Ublicto]

14 minutes ago, Sycmos said:

Hello, thank you for applying for a synthetic whitelist. I have several concerns regarding your application:

1. "Athena was originally manufactured as KU-15991 and programmed to be used in research projects for Zeng-Hu pharmaceuticals. Their chief duties included hazardous materials handling, long term observation of experiments, and crewing isolated research outposts in the north of the Solarian Alliance. During the civil war the research outpost they were posted to would be ransacked by Anti-Corporate League forces and KU-15991 would be reprogrammed to interpret sensor data for a League fleet."

When was Athena manufactured, and for how long were they stationed at this research outpost? What effect did this position have on their perspective of being an owned synthetic, and how did that translate to their ownership by the The League of Independent Corporate-Free Systems? If they were reprogrammed to interpret sensor data, did they maintain the original datapack that they were programmed with upon their initial activation for Zeng-Hu, or did they lose that skillset upon reprogramming? How did this affect Athena as a thinking entity? Were their memories and experiences prior to this seizure still intact despite this reprogramming?

2. "As the League descended into banditry and the war continued KU-15991 would change hands several times until finding itself recaptured by the legitimate Solarian government and sent to the 104th fleet to continue interpreting sensor data for warships. Due to an unfamiliarity with the model of IPC that KU-15991 was navy technicians would frequently miss data and allow the machine to retain a sense of self and some scattered memories throughout its life."

Considering the Solarian Alliance's legislation regarding synthetics and the cultural view of synthetics in Solarian space, could you elaborate on how the 104th fleet may have permitted Athena to maintain a degree of autonomy despite becoming what is essentially military property? If 104th personnel were unfamiliar with her model of IPC, how could they have made errors in regards to her maintenance if other Solarian fleets, though not uniformly the same but farther from the Core Worlds, were able to reprogram her for more relevant work on naval ships? Given that the 104th is stationed in the Middle Ring and its previous seat of power was Visegrad, a planet that previously knew the presence of Zeng-Hu as a major employer, how could this misstep have occurred?

3. "After a failed raid on the Republic of Biesel's CRZ by the 104th KU-15991 was captured by the Republic and considering the damage to their baseline chassis old off at significant discount to a company on Biesel where its positronic brain would be transferred into the new shell body they occupy for use as a mid-level manager at a Nanotrasen subsidiary responsible for providing super computer power to Nanotrasen itself and a number of other corporations."

The implication of an SSMD fleet invading the CRZ has serious consequences for both player characters and the relationship between the Solarian Alliance and the Republic of Biesel, and to my knowledge has not been broached as a canonical event. Even if this were the case in lore, under what pretense would a NanoTrasen subsidiary choose to purchase a used and damaged Baseline chassis to insert its likely damaged positronic into a new Shell chassis, which are often much more expensive and made to order by clientele? Given that NanoTrasen owns a considerable number of synthetics in their work force, what inclination would a subsidiary have to place a positronic of relatively unknown origin and with rather questionable datapacks into a position of some authority in their company? 

4. "Athena bought her freedom and became self-owned in late 2464 by embezzling money from Nanotrasen and planting evidence that would ensure her human supervisor was framed for the crime after she had become free."

NanoTrasen has virtually monolithic power over the Republic of Biesel, its laws and its citizens - especially synthetics, who are often gatekept from freedom by byzantine laws that make purchasing self-ownership/freedom virtually impossible for the average synthetic. The implication that a stolen Zeng-Hu Baseline IPC that was reprogrammed for military use, captured again by the Republic after sustaining damage, had its positronic transferred to a new Shell chassis to serve as a mid-level manager at a NanoTrasen subsidiary only to successfully embezzle enough money to pay for their freedom without inquiries as to its sudden accrual of wealth or the lack of a paper trail of the embezzled funds raises several questions as to the understanding of the burden on synthetic persons in our setting.

How could Athena attain such a vast amount of money in such a short period, accounting for the reality that synthetic persons in the Republic often have to pay forward several times their estimated value to attain citizenship? How could a human supervisor in her subsidiary not be aware of such financial discrepancies occurring when accounting for such sizable amounts of credits, knowing the responsibility of their company as a subsidiary to NanoTrasen is to produce wealth for its parent company? How did Athena come into access of this financial data as an owned synthetic that would likely be under some manner of scrutiny holding a positronic that was once in the possession of The League of Independent Corporate-Free Systems, a known anti-corporate entity? Given the circumstances in which Athena came into the possession of NanoTrasen, on what grounds would they choose not to wipe her, and permit her to remain as she is - a potential liability?

1. Athena would originally been manufactured in 2460 and would have been on the research station for two years until the civil war broke out. Zeng-Hu would have programmed her to interpret data from a variety of instruments and make detailed observations. This would translate well to interpreting sensor data on a ship. The memories she would have from this time would not be complete and what is preserved would be the most significant experiences. For example she might generally view herself as superior to other IPCs, especially industrial units, because she is aware that she was built to be more intelligent and do more important work. Most of these early experiences would be foundational to her personality in general even if they're a very incomplete record of the first two years of her life.

2. The League essentially took her, changed who she answered to, and then put her to work. I do not think they would have been in a position to do anything but the bare minimum to get an IPC working and occupying a position on one of their ships. The reason why these maintenance difficulties exist is because the average navy technician would be under pressure to put the IPC into service as soon as possible. This is why she is handed off to the 104th quickly and is not kept for more through reprogramming. Zeng-Hu at this stage would not be involved, and even if navy technicians had worked on similar IPCs before their priority is to put her in a workable condition because there is a war going on. In fact, if there hadn't been a war she wouldn't have been pressed into service.

 

3. The Human wildlands page says that "The Admiral [Szalai] views the stabilization of the Southern Wildlands as only the first step towards her goal of reclaiming the Alliance’s former position as the human hegemon of the Orion Spur, and the First was known to engage ships flying the Republic’s flag on sight in addition to launching raids from their territory into the Republic’s poorly-controlled and recently-acquired territories."

 

I was under the impression that while synthetic bodies are expensive, what is most expensive is the positronic brain itself. Why would a Nanotrasen subsidiary not buy a working positronic brain designed for interpreting data sold at discount? The paper trail is concealed by Athena framing a higher level manager and distributing these funds to her own freedom account over the period she is working for the subsidiary. She is an IPC made specifically for data interpretation and computing that is hooked up to a very large computer as part of her job. She would no doubt be good at it, and over a period of several years it could be possible for her to preform well enough at her job to buy her own freedom especially if management is looking the other way because of an ongoing investigation. Furthermore the amount of money her freedom account should have could be manipulated by fabricating her own performance statistics. The main thrust of her way to freedom is complicated accounting fraud

Furthermore her history would not be open knowledge. I doubt the Alliance would share her service history and when she was captured the assumption would be she was a civilian IPC pressed into service ad hoc. If serial numbers were removed it might not even be possible to recognize that she was originally owned by Zeng-Hu. In my application I should have made it clear that the Nanotrasen subsidiary and the 104th fleet did attempt to wipe her memories but due to her own attempts to protect her mind and different technology she was able to preserve parts of her. I will amend my application to make this clear.

 

Suggest to me other changes to make this work and I will make them.

[Sycmos]

After some consideration regarding the origins of your whitelist character, the synthetic lore team has decided to deny your application. While we appreciate your effort to write a realized background for your synthetic, the circumstances in which they come into employment with the SCC as a free synthetic and the events leading up to it were deemed unfeasible for a synthetic to undertake in our setting and at odds with the state of perception and treatment of synthetics.

You are welcome to re-apply with another character concept at any time.