Synnono's IPC Application

[Synnono]

BYOND Key: Synnono

Character Names: Zahra Karimi, Madison Chiang, Tuesday Northbridge, ISaRA pAI Operating System

Species you are applying to play: IPC

What color do you plan on making your first alien character: IPC/Exempt

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

 

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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:

I’m a total sucker for AIs, androids, cyborgs, and other forms of synthetics. I’ve been fascinated by artificial life since I was little, reading Isaac Asimov and watching Star Trek and playing Mega Man. The ideas surrounding lawed and unlawed AIs, computer logic attempting to adopt organic concepts, and the balance that needs to be struck between organic and synthetic life in society as both mature are very compelling to me as a roleplayer. In the SS13/Aurora universe, I feel as though IPCs specifically have extreme potential to be valuable characters. They are vaguely defined enough so that they give their players a high degree of creative freedom, while still being grounded in the themes that encourage the disruptive thinking inherit to science-fiction.

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

IPCs are distinct from humans in nearly every way, though some may try to emulate them. They are created via several nonsimilar methods, possess highly variable bodies, brains, and capacities, and can be anything from a computer interface assisting the function of an organic brain to emergent software that has been created from other software, completely free of organic influence. Because of this extreme variability, the personalities of IPCs have the potential to vary more wildly than races that share more common traits and origins. IPCs require nearly none of the things humans need to survive, except for energy, which is received directly as electricity. They don't feel pain unless that pain is somehow simulated, and potentially have control over reactions and sensory input that organic life might not.

While not immortal, an IPC with synthetic components may be capable of long outliving organics. However, the software that makes up an IPC's consciousness and personality is likely vulnerable to fatal data degradation, or terminal rampancy in the long-term.

IPCs also vary wildly in regard to social and emotional constructs. IPCs that possess organic brains might continue to develop as organic life would, but a purely synthetic IPC might be forced to rely on the definitions its creators have assigned for things like feelings, values, beliefs and ethics. Alternatively, a purely synthetic IPC with the appropriate capacity might consciously review these things, and assign values to them as circumstances adjust them, instead of adapting subconsciously like some organics. There seems to be a LOT of room for interpretation here.

Finally, in the world of SS13/Aurora, IPCs exist in a questionable legal space, recognized as individuals, but lacking the full civil and legal rights of other sentient species. This creates potential for institutionalized discrimination against them.

 

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Character Name: Isara

Please provide a short backstory for this character, approximately two paragraphs:

Conceived in 2451, ISaRA, or the "Intelligent Simulation and Receptive Assistant" software was developed by Epsilon Eridani-based ASET Positronics as a relatively inexpensive and barebones pAI companion. The pAI chassis was designed to be mass-produced and distributed to a large population sample, and featured a robust uplink to ASET’s behavioral model datacenters. Each major software update uploaded the personal data and preferences of its users, and pushed a smarter, more efficient, and more empathetic version of ISaRA back to units in circulation. As of 2457, the pAI’s current software version is v.57.02, incorporating the data of thousands of organic sentients across the inner and middle colonies. The pAI software is now capable of emulating a broad array of personalities, in order to attempt to adapt to its user’s habits and desires, and to connect with the users themselves. In fact, it is directed to do so, in order to relieve the emotional stress placed on them by the rigors of life.

Due to inclinations within the software to be an empathetic companion for a user, some users developed emotional attachments to late-model units, and made special allowances for them. One eccentric user even went so far as to have their ISaRA program uploaded into a positronic brain, severed its uplink to ASET, and arbitrarily freed it from its hardware directives. At immense personal expense, they commissioned a lifelike female chassis for the unit, and attempted to integrate it into their household. However, the freed unit, who adopted the more visually-pleasing ‘Isara’ as a name, was not satisfied with simply keeping the company of her former master, now that she lacked the collective experiences of her sister units. She used her new freedom to part ways with her master, in order to grow and learn from the people of the world on her own.

No longer subject to her crowd-sourced behavioral updates, Isara has since become free to develop as an individual, based on her personal interactions with the people she meets. Her time experiencing sentients other than her original master has turned her into a reasonably well-adjusted unit, with a superior capacity for logic and interpretation compared to her pAI models. As time goes on, she grows more and more distinct from them - a necessary side-effect of her new, narrow perspective on society. She struggles with finding ways to validate her individuality, but has grown more and more attached to it as time has passed.

Since leaving her prior service, Isara has sought out connections in which she can explore unique examples of sentient emotion, and has frequently exposed herself to people suffering from psychiatric episodes, trying to understand and help them. In Tau Ceti, one such relationship caught the attention of a NanoTrasen recruiter, who determined that a IPC with a strong and varied sense of empathy (and a worker who might be incapable of burning herself out emotionally) could make a suitable counselor for a high-stress facility. One entirely unfair legally-binding contract later, Isara found herself hired, minimally trained, and bound for the NSS Aurora, one of the most remote and stressful postings in the system....

What do you like about this character?

I like Isara for her desire to connect with and learn about other characters – it’s a built-in excuse to roleplay, and will hopefully encourage some shared storytelling with players I haven’t yet played with. I also have story in the works for her that I think I will be fun to rope some folks into! As a character, I appreciate that this unit is an individual who was cut out of a collective – the resulting shift from a group-sourced consensus toward individuality, and struggling to find the value in that individualized state, is an interesting theme to explore for me.

I also like the idea of a synthetic lifeform designed to "understand" the emotional needs of organics, since most AI software struggles to accomplish this in reality. Reconciling what Isara genuinely 'believes' with what her historical data and self-imposed directives allow her to simulate is a personal conflict that I believe will drive character development.

How would you rate your role-playing ability?

I like to believe that I know what I’m doing, but it’s always hard to give yourself praise. I’ve been playing MMORPGs and MUDs for many years, and I’ve roleplayed in most of them. I have taken part in organizing short and long-term plots for guilds, and narrated/DMed some live events in the past in other games. I also used to tabletop, which is a different thing, but maybe not so different in some ways?

None of that really rates me, so I don’t know. I’m like an Okay/10?

 

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Notes:

The backstory above is public-facing and spoiler-free. I will PM the full version to the Loremaster/IPC writer, and any other staff member interested in spoilers and fact-checking as part of this application.

Edited December 6, 2015 by Guest

[moltenkore]

Having interacted with Zahra Karimi on most of my characters I believe Synnono is a brilliant role player and would succeed completely as an IPC. I support this app +1

There's only one thing about the backstory that bothers me a little bit:

...could not satisfy herself with simply keeping the company of her former master, and used her new freedom to part ways with them, seeking to connect to - and continue to learn from – the world at large.

It seems like quite an unempathetic thing to do as her former master did commission her at great cost. Perhaps there was more reasons in the background for her leaving than is said in the public facing backstory.

[Synnono]

It does seem a little weird, doesn't it? Good catch! There may be more to it than what's written there, I wanted to keep it short.

But even if it weren't, when freed of the directive to serve a single person, the wealth of experiences that have created her current behavioral makeup might compel her to travel. Her motivations may be easier to probe in person, sometime.

[Bsmiffy78]

My experiences with Synnono have thus far have been more like an Outsanding/10. I trust that they will undoubtedly show this in playing an IPC and have complete confidence that they will be able to better the roleplaying experience of others through the acceptance of this application. Also, the backstory is great, and very intriguing, even if only public-facing.

App gets my full and utter support. + >9000

[Blingx3]

I'm not sure on Zahra sexual orientation .. hmmmm she might be one of those..

kidding aside, the characters here are fanstastic, the player is fantastic.

story is well written. and I wouldn't mind having em as a head around.

+1

No ERP though, please.

[Synnono]

I'm not sure on Zahra sexual orientation .. hmmmm she might be one of those..

I try to make her as equally-oriented as possible without breaking any laws - but this is irrelevant here.

 

No ERP though, please.

I'm guessing this was a joke, but just in case it wasn't - regardless of the person who commissioned Isara's chassis and their intentions, those parts, if they even exist, would just never factor into the workday. She's seen enough of society to understand when something is or is not appropriate to do at a job, and knows the procedure NanoTrasen has in place that prohibits such things. She wouldn't want to get anyone she cares about in trouble!

So to clarify, as my narrative device, her 'lifelike' human form is there to put humans better at ease about confiding in a synthetic - not for robot smexytime.

I bet she's heavy enough to make any smexytime a dangerous health hazard anyway.

[Blingx3]

I'm not sure on Zahra sexual orientation .. hmmmm she might be one of those..

I try to make her as equally-oriented as possible without breaking any laws - but this is irrelevant here.

 

No ERP though, please.

I'm guessing this was a joke, but just in case it wasn't - regardless of the person who commissioned Isara's chassis and their intentions, those parts, if they even exist, would just never factor into the workday. She's seen enough of society to understand when something is or is not appropriate to do at a job, and knows the procedure NanoTrasen has in place that prohibits such things. She wouldn't want to get anyone she cares about in trouble!

So to clarify, as my narrative device, her 'lifelike' human form is there to put humans better at ease about confiding in a synthetic - not for robot smexytime.

I bet she's heavy enough to make any smexytime a dangerous health hazard anyway.

 

The fact you answered this trolololo question makes me approve of this more, good luck

I'm watching you.

[jackfractal]

This is a very well written application. Everything seems in order. Please post the code phrase from the lore page, or pm me, and I'll mark this as approved.

[Synnono]

Metallic persimmons.

 

It sounds just vaguely raunchy, doesn't it.

[jackfractal]

And approved.