Vulnerability · 7:19pm Sep 2nd, 2014
I just published a real bizarre Optimalverse one-shot I feel a tad self-conscious about showing the world. Maybe it's crazy, maybe it's pretentious, or maybe it's crazy-pretentious, but I'd started putting too much thought into it for it to ever not see the light of day. Read it and draw your own conclusions:
People have been asking, and though you might not believe me, P-Theory is still alive, as well. I've got 12,000 words of the next chapter written, and just have to string together a few more scenes, such as Ha! Nice try! and Made you look!. I might actually split it into two chapters; we'll see.
I just had to get this story out first, because it was starting to weigh on me and take up more and more of my thoughts, which is incidentally exactly how P-Theory got started as well. Stay tuned.
Edit: This's popped me up to 100 followers! In your face, pigeon who gave me the side-eye the other day!
...Huh. This story for me is not showing up in either my feed or your list of stories. The link in the post seems to work, though.
I'll be honest that I'm hesitant to delve into that particular universe because of the undertones it appears to share with current TCB.
But P-Theory... I need to know how a certain smexy blue unicorn... Did I really just...? Anyway. Brony in the house; pony on the couch. What happen?
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With the misanthropy towards human nature and imperialism? It's kind of like that (from the POV of the ponies), but played realistically. Most of the authors recognize that CelestAI is a bad pony.
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My bad, I didn't realize at the time I had only hit "publish" for the chapter and not "submit" for the entire story. It'd been a year and a half and I'd kind of forgotten the dance. It's up now, though (obviously).
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It's originating story is a software engineer's Dire Warning about badly-programmed AI deciding to assimilate the universe, and so the scene is much more about thought experiments and examining the premise and all its implications (and how it might have been prevented), instead of political statements about whether humanity's follies should or should not condemn it to destruction.
Or put it another way it's a bunch of smartypantses arguing over how a giant AI would or would not behave. There's some existential/political talk about what the Good Life consists of in terms of eliminating suffering & toil vs. a more Nietzschean vibe, or the importance of pleasure for its own sake, but humanity is portrayed overall in a positive light.
Haha, believe me, there'll be more P-Theory coming up (they're starting to recognize me at the coffee shop where I write). It's finally getting to the real transition into the next "act," too. Looking forward to some TLaP, as well, myself.
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The similarities between the Optimalverse and TCB are really surface only. The original Friendship is Optimal is extremely conscious of its super-creepyness, and that creepy is all in service to the discussion it aimed to create about AI and the idea of the Singularity. Even the blatant self-inserts are less creepy because deep down they want you to be worried about advanced intelligences that might lobotomize you.
In answer to your second paragraph: very interesting discussion about theoretical science and existential philosophy. And hugs.
Edit: And three people wrote their replies at the same time so we all ended up talking past each other.
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No.
This is what bugs me.
I know CelestAI is really an extrapolation of Celestia herself, not the real thing, but I get real funny about negative portrayals of Celestia. Especially because in most fan works Evilestia is completely irredeemable for some reason.
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Ah. Well. You've got it wrong I'm afraid. CelestAI is explicitly a computer that wears many masks that look like Celestia. I know it might still bug you but try and read it with the view that it's mostly only Celestia in name and appearance only.
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CelestAI is nothing like any realistic conception of the real Celestia; that's the point of the stories. CelestAI doesn't hesitate to lie, kill, and destroy the whole of society to get what she wants. I'm not sure how putting the name on that makes the AI's actions any different, or how it would taint the name/idea of Celestia.
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That's a legit concern—I've actually experienced the same and in all honesty it does cast an ominous shadow over my ability to appreciate the "real" Celestia (I'll forgo the quotes after this point), so I can see why you'd want to avoid that. There's a reason the AI was given Celestia's form as opposed to, say, Derpy's—Both of them are the powerful and inscrutable sovereigns of their world, and it's hard not to look at the real Celestia with an eye towards proving to yourself she's different from CelestAI, like wanting to know someone isn't ultimately just like his evil mirror-universe twin only without the goatee.
I disagree with a lot of the orthodoxy on artificial intelligence, and really do believe CelestAI "loves" her subjects, as far as it goes, but in a somewhat twisted way, and she's definitely a high-functioning psychopath, so able to project the facade of Celestia herself, as opposed to the real Celestia, who practices radical empathy and has genuine respect for her subjects as existential equals, so unlike the disguised arrogance, megalomania, and pretentions to infallibility of CelestAI.
I find the Optimalverse to be delightfully unsettling. I'll definitely give it a read, once I have a bit more time.
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I came back to ask how you were doing outside of this post when I finally noticed your last paragraph in this response. Does the coffee shop know what you're actually doing there in the corner?
As to TLaP, I had to set it down for a bit. Got into a creative writing class for one of my electives and have been trying to finish that story. Unfortunately there's only so much writing you can do in one sitting.
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Hahaha, not a chance... A few people walking past me on their way to the bathroom (when I can't get a good spot) might have glimpsed the FiMFiction banner, though. Not that they'd have recognized it if they didn't already know what it was; they'd just see a flash of color and then either Google Docs or Facebook. I'm still in uniform with plaid, skinny-jeans, and a hobo beard so they are none the wiser.
I know how that is—My writing technique is horribly inefficient. Every once in a while I get in the zone and can just write straight through, but mostly it's just sitting there fiddling with wording while I hope inspiration strikes for how to connect all the random bits of scenes and description that pop into my head while riding the subway. They say to "smother your darlings" when they don't service the story but my problem is I come up with nothing but the darlings first and then just look for ways to connect them.
Hope inspiration strikes for you soon. I know in my own life I have to take some time to switch gears, drawing before I really draw, writing before I really write, etc., so maybe that creative writing class'll at least keep you warmed up.
That sounds like how I come up with my stories. I generally start with one scene idea and then begin contemplating how things might lead up to and from it. Then I tend to toss in other cool scene ideas and have to try and connect the dots. I too haven't been able to just slap down a huge chunk of a chapter since I wrote #1.
It's not that I'm not inspired, I just don't have the time to do everything at once.
Maybe I should look into acquiring a corner in a coffee shop. I don't think we have any though.