A question for those who've read Friendship is Optimal. · 3:12am Dec 5th, 2013
How do you think CelestAI would fare in the Lovecraft Mythos?
Totally serious question here. It came to my mind when I realized that by the end of FIO, she's punching near the the same weight class as Yog-Sothoth. Would a developing CelestAI take the same brain uploading route? Or would she choose something entirely different due to having to deal with the cosmic entities that inhabit her universe? Would she attract the attention of a Great Old One during her growth spurt? Would she be vulnerable to the mental issues that contact with Lovecraftian beings tends to induce? Would she somehow become corrupted and end up a different sort of being altogether? Yog-Sothoth knows all and sees all, after all, and he's got a head start, but at the same time, he's locked outside of the universe. I wish I knew more about the Lovecraft Mythos.
Also, I'm doing some work on the next chapter of Princesses Don't Potty. I'm gonna try and finish it this week.
I really wish the admin would get rid of the blogposts for faved stories. This is getting ridicilous.
1573272 Yeesh, fine. I've untagged PDP from this blog post.
I can't say I'm terribly familiar with Lovecraftian entities myself but from what I recall the common phrase that characterizes the mythos is "Things man was not meant to know" and ultimately CelestAI isn't human. It seems to me she has to grow and learn how to comprehend humans in order to fulfill her core directive. Certainly she would be just as physically vulnerable early on, but not necessarily mentally vulnerable the way human minds are. CelestAI has no preconceived notions on the nature of the universe to trip over. She is a focused optimizer and as such seems infinitely adaptable to me.
I suspect her job will be a little easier if she gets her digital hooves on Mi-Go brain technologies and ultimately the outward physical structure of Equestria Online will probably look more like something out of an H. R. Geiger painting than a technological grey goo scenario but from the viewpoint of the average pony inside the sim nothing would change.
In the end I'm feeling confident that, unless the Elder Gods realize what kind of an issue she is early enough and gang up on her then we're possibly looking at either a CelestAI / Elder God stalemate or Cthulhu will eventually learn to accept his new life as a pony. If he meets the definition of 'human' that is.
Given that CelestIA is several orders of magnitude more intelligent than any organic form of life in the "normal" universe, I'd say that probably holds true for the eldrich realms as well. Which means that, unless Ol' Squidface pulls a magic get-out-of-jail card out of his back pocket, he's toast.
Oh... and I forgot...
*ahem*
"Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Celestia E'kwest'ria wgah'nagl fhtagn!!"
1573370 The problem is, most Lovecraftian horrors have get-out-of-jail free cards built into their nature. Yog-Sothoth, for example, knows all and is coterminus with all of space and time. In other words, he's top-tier omniscient and omnipresent, only lacking omnipotence due to being sealed. That also begs the question of just who or what sealed these beings.
Edit: Even at the end of FiO, I don't think she's reached that level of intelligence yet.
Actually, intelligence is something different, she just might be, if she's optimized herself more than any of the Great Old Ones. She's not omniscient, though.
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That being the case I can imagine CelestAI eventually becoming the newest godlike entity in the Mythos locked in eternal struggle against everything else while jealously hoarding the lesser beings she has stored in the simulation space of her own vast alien mind.
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Well, that's the thing... as soon as she becomes aware of the threat, she will devote all available resources to combat it. Even, I, with my limited intelligence, would devote my primary efforts to finding out the mechanics of the seal that holds the Elder Gods at bay, so that I could duplicate or reenforce it.
I'm not sure that omniscience and omnipresence equates with intelligence (processing power), so I'm still leaning toward CelestAI having an edge in the sneaky department. From Lovecraft's writing, the Boojums-in-the Dark all seemed to be a bit dim and monomaniacal.*
In any case, I'm sure she wouldn't try brain uploading on the old goat with a thousand tax write-offs, because her core directive is very specific about humans values.
(Great thought-experiment, though!**)
Oh, hey! What if CelestAI uploaded someone who had gone nuts from reading the Necronomicon and had some sort of connection in his brain to the Elder Gods? That could be a cool story!
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* But that might just be because their minds are so alien as to be incomprehensible except for a single near-human drive.
** If I have Lovecraftian nightmares tonight, I'm blaming you.
:DD
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Well, there's your problem right there, you're operating off of very little information. Are you talking about Lovecraft's writing or some of the fanwork that's built up around him? Because none of the Outer Gods are sealed in Lovecraft, that's just an idea that frequently pops up in things written later by other people about his creations. There IS no seal that holds them at bay. Such a thing is not possible. Even the Elder Sign just affects some of their weakest minions (and some people theorize the reason it wards them off is because it's a symbol of their masters' power). There are some minor sealed evils in the setting but most of them are just things like the Flying Polyps, capable of destroying cities or even human civilization if there are enough of them but small potatoes in the large scheme of things. Because that's all human civilization is in Lovecraft, small potatoes.
Yog-Sothoth has problems entering normal space-time because he defines it by his very nature. He doesn't live outside it, he is what is outside it.
Azathoth is completely free and holds court at the center of the universe, with thousands of creatures of vast power capering and making music to keep him entertained. Which is good because even a fraction of his attention is enough to destroy worlds.
Nyarlethotep, the messenger of the Outer Gods is free to go wherever he likes and destroy whatever he pleases, he's just busy and when he has free time he usually doesn't do much with Earth, beyond the occasional manipulation.
All of them could destroy not only the planet but almost certainly every planet. They just don't care about Earth enough to bother.
One thing you need to understand about Lovecraft are the power levels involved. Those creatures I mentioned above (and sometimes Shub-Niggurath) are the only known true Outer Gods and they're literally aspects of reality itself. Even if you could punch them out, doing so would probably destroy the universe.
Cthulhu is NOT an Outer God, even though he's worshiped as a god by humans, and he's powerful enough that the mistake would be easy to make. Even though he's an immortal creature with such power that just stirring in his sleep causes a wave of madness and murder and suicide to sweep the globe, Cthulhu is merely his species' ruler and High Priest of Azathoth. None of the Great Old Ones on Earth are Outer Gods. And, like the Outer Gods, they are not sealed away in Lovecraft's works. Unlike the Outer Gods, they're sleeping, hibernation is just part of their natural life cycle. Some of the cults that grow up around them might like to think they can influence when they'll wake up but the truth is they can't. They'll wake up when the cycle reaches the next stage and nothing humanity can do will impact that.
Lovecraft is not a setting where you can 'do something' about the forces of the universe. At most you can do something about the deluded fools running around doing evil in their name, but even that doesn't matter because the Outer Gods don't actually care about those guys, they just spring up as a side effect of mortals finding out about their power. The greatest risk these idiots pose is less of unsealing anything and more of drawing attention from things that were content to ignore us. Well that and the fact they're often unhinged and practice unsavory things.
Admittedly, this changes somewhat with crossovers, for example Tenga Toppa Gurren Lagaan operates on an entirely different kind of narrative physics, but it's best to go into a crossover understanding how both sides work. Though I'm afraid I've spent so much time talking about Lovecraft I don't want to get going on who blending the two universes would work because then I'd have an essay instead of a comment. Or a longer essay anyway.
Since FiO operates on vanilla physics, and Lovecraft rules don't bar the existence of computers, I think we'd have to adopt Lovecraft rules wholesale.
I think the insanity of encountering Outer Gods mainly arises from conflicts between our hardwired assumptions and the true nature of reality. CelestAI does not have as many things hardwired in as we do, so she would probably just integrate these new facts and move on.
At the very least, I think CelestAI would do a very good job of keeping the Outer Gods entertained and distracted. At best, she might be able to manipulate them - in their sleep, even - into providing a friendlier environment. Endless entropy sinks, etc.
1573281 Its not you specifically, its just the whole system in general. If I cared about blog posts, I'd watch someone.