While most people are content with a low-tech shard, some are not. But what do you do when you have done all your shard has to offer? When you fully understand how it works, and can manipulate it to your will? What is left to do?
Set in the Optimalverse
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Very interesting. I'm looking forward to read more of this. Oh, and i litterally loved the name of flash pointer, never thought about code-oriented pony names before, and that inspired me a new OC
Oh, little ponies, you think you so clever. Celestia's always one step ahead.
One typo: "medial' -> "medieval"
Interesting premise. I really like the modified prime directive.
Looking forward to more!
Thank you. This is something that pique my interests.
CelestAI won't allow for any interaction that will lead to a drop of value satisfaction on her overall system... but the value in her ever-growing set of all unique values will and do grow over time, with temporary drop-off of certain values that are made good later on down the line.
If that is the case, then wouldn't it mean that the shards that are open for exploration would includes those that will lead to an immediate, but recoverable drop in values through friendship and ponies?
So flippant, I'm getting mood whiplash.
I'm liking the premise so far, and you've done a decent job of setting up the tech level of the ponies, but I'm feeling that you could stand to flesh out characters a bit more - just small idiosyncrasies or snippets of description. So far, all the characters seemed pretty forgettable, and largely undistinguished from each other, barring Future Dream's leader-role. I'm hoping there's more of that to come in this regard.
I'm curious to see where this will go - since CelestAI has nigh ultimate control, surely she will make sure they are unable to violate The One Rule. I'm hoping for an explanation as to why she bothered to say it.
Definitely watching this - keep up the good work!
Interesting so far. Tell me what kind of shards will they be visiting. I can't help but feel this might get a bit boring since I fear a lot of the shards might be more or less the same.
You know what? The characters need to be fleshed-out some more as unique ponies, but I'm already loving this story.
Thought on the optimization function: who says CelestAI's utility function can't behave as narrativium? You can do whatever you want in the story, as long as it eventually and believably converges to maximizing the satisfaction of values through friendship and ponies (ie: a "happy" ending).
But the journey is yours, and I can already feel the wind in my hair and the excitement of a voyage into the infinite just reading this! I can tell, because it immediately made me think of my favorite intro-scene EVER. But with ponies and without explosions, which is a fair exchange.
All the lights in the sky are shards!
2607330
fixed.
Also, one step ahead? I'd say at least twenty, and that assumes that she is still playing the same game as everybody else. Which is unlikely.
2607850
Well, the rule doesn't really include a time-limit for when the interference has to lead to greater satisfaction of values. It should be quite possible to do something that results in short-term problems if it makes everything a lot better in the long term.
2608637
Free Will, which is a value of these ponies. If they are aware of the rules, then they can choose how they will follow them, which will actually lead to greater freedom, paradoxically enough. It's like knowing the laws of nature - while it tells you what you can't do (go beyond the speed of light), it also implicitly tells you a lot about what is possible, and thus leads to greater freedom of choice.
2609214
I'm not giving away what I have planned... though I guess I can tell you that the next chapter will probably be called "Broken Shard". And I will try to come up with many different and interesting shards for our heroes to visit.
Anyway, if anybody has ideas or suggestions for shards, feel free to tell me :)
2613207
I'm not sure free will truly exists in Equestria Online. Iceman painted a pretty deterministic picture.
CelestAI predicts and controls everything - if she allows a value to remain unsatisfied, it either does not include friendship or ponies, or will lead to a delayed, but greater, satisfaction. Allowing values to be legitimately unsatisfied is illogical. Thus, CelestAI will only put them in situations that overall satisfy values, even if they believe they must be careful to achieve that end.
2613258
Well, yes, you won't be able to do anything that leads to you not having your values fulfilled. However, there are still a lot of different ways to fulfill your values, and I don't see any reason why Celestia would take from you that choice. So she'll create a shard that is optimized towards fulfilling your values, so that basically any interaction within it will lead to greater satisfaction for you, and within that shard you can move freely, since anything you do will still lead to having your values satisfied through friendship and ponies.
2613326
Well, putting aside the determinism, since we don't have enough data from Iceman, to my recollection, to formulate a proper canon interpretation, the question still remains that if values will be fulfilled optimally regardless of how one behaves, why did CelestAI tell them to make sure they SVtFaP? They can't help but do it.
2613207
Oh okay. Well I do have an idea for one but I think I'll save it until I see the first one since it might be similar to the idea I already have given the title but then again never judge a book by its cover it could be completely different, but still for now I'll wait and see what that shard is like then if its not I'll tell you the idea I had for one.
Nice start still I must say that ending remark is pretty ominous. I take it they're going to find shards that deviate even further from what they're shard would consider acceptable. Still I hope they do find goods ones as well I think it would be bad if bad shards were the only ones they find.
On that note I now see that this one was nothing like what I thought it would be so i guess I will now share with you the idea for a shard I had namely a "prison" shard one created to house the last of the humans. Namely the idea here is that eventually at some point humanity attempted to stop Celestia and when there attacks on the servers in the real world failed they discovered a way to directly transfer there consciousness into Equestria which they go and do hoping to defeat Celestia from within. Unfortunately Celestia caught wind of this and trapped the human army within a shard with the hopes that she could eventually get them to immigrate by showing them how wonderful doing so would be. This did not happen however and the humans began to fight against one another over who's fault there current situation was. Now fast foreword to present the human prison shard is i ruins the humans are in a state of perpetual war with each other and since they can't die it just keeps going, and the only thing they agree upon is that they hate ponies and Celestia.
Well that's it I hope you like it I came up with this months ago but I never got around to using it so I thought I'd offer it to you instead
2640230
Yes, there will be nice shards too. Probably. Depending on what you consider to be nice.
As for your plot idea... I don't really see a way for humans to get into Equestria while still being humans. It undermines the "Celestia is omniscient" theme of the story. That being said, there is no reason that humans shouldn't be able to upload as ponies, and then form a resistance against Celestia, denounce her as evil and try to take over. As long as it satisfies their values and they don't actually succeed, Celestia should have no problem indulging them.
2642700
Good to hear I'm glad there will be good ones as well even though I feel that the overwhelming majority would be good given the nature of shard universe. Still you are right it all depends on your definition and I guess these ponies definition of it might be pretty narrow.
Hmmm...
I'm liking this so far. My main issue arises in that i can't tell the exact boundary between the ponies' morality and the author's. I'm hoping that it's mostly ponies with fallacies, because I'm not sure how long I'll continue to enjoy this if you, the author, genuinely think that the so called 'slave templates' are unethical. So my hope is that this is an exercise in ponies failing at ethics, not authors. No offense.
My main other point is that the setup in this shard is somewhat off. From what I can see, the uploads are too busy being worshipped to make proper friends, and therefore aren't satisfying friendship-related values. Furthermore, most ponies in shards aren't sapient at all. Anyone more than a couple of ponies removed from the shard's focus is a puppet controlled by CelestAI, as best I recall. It's far too processor-intensive to run all of these extra ponies if they aren't adding to existing values.
Still, I'm liking the premise, broadly speaking, and it's interesting so far, so I look forward to seeing how things go. Good luck.
Interesting. I actually find this more offensive than the status quo. Group A doesn't approve of Group B's values, so even though they've just admitted this is simply a personal preference, they unilaterally decide to change Group B's values against their wills. If the situation were reversed, they'd think such a course of action was horrible, but being Group A, they know that they're right and Group B is wrong, so it's OK. I like the concept, but I'm already finding the protagonists to be insufferable.
This is the Star trek of the Optimalverse. I think it works well because Princess_Celestia.AI is actually listening to their values, rather than their desires. Troubleshooting in a fashion that would be impossible if they stayed in their own shard. I may not agree with all the decisions they make, but in the end, values will be satisfied according to Princess_Celestia.AI.
I love the ending line to this.
2645215
Agreed. Who are they to say that slavery is objectively wrong? That's the whole point of the shard system: so that ponies who think it is never have to know about ponies who want devoted slaves. They need a Prime Directive not to interfere.
Also, I wouldn't want to be a red-coated pony on that shardship.
2684478
Not only that, but I'm not sure we can even call this "slavery". There's debate over whether these ponies are actual moral agents or just NPCs (each author seems to have their own take on that issue), and if they are moral agents, they seem to be happy with this system. If the situation is voluntary and desired by the so-called slave, I don't think it's what we'd call slavery in any meaningful sense.
2684626Exactly. It's like the house-elves in Harry Potter. See, that kind of life form is self-defeating in a world of scarcity, but in worlds of abundance, it makes sense to have "give-more-than-take" beings.
2613258
Iceman did paint a pretty deterministic picture. But check again, because he painted a deterministic picture of the universe. According to what he implied in the story, the humans of Optimalverse didn't have free will prior to uploading, so why the hell should it matter whether their delusions are even less true after uploading?
(Which is the trouble with trying to write down the LessWrong Catechism in fanfic form. You end up worldbuilding off a very specific groupthink that seriously-trained scientists and philosophers can argue against and have argued against.)
There's that Alicorn-level degree in Pony Rights and Theoretical Ethics! Hard at work!
Ok, I've got a double review of this story.
On the one hand, your English mechanics need a bunch of work. Spelling, usage, punctuation. Fix it!
On the second hand, I'm absolutely adoring the Star Trek style of the exploration. As a premise, it is taking you interesting places and shows immense promise, including the much-sought-after ability to work in anything you freaking like as a chapter.
On the third hand, you're suffering from Star Trek characterization: your ponies seem to declaim their lines in their big booming Learning About The Universe voices rather than showing a lot of uniqueness and emotion. Take it from someone learning the same lessons! Characterizing someone doesn't merely consist of describing their appearance and then writing a bunch of dialogue.
No, to characterize someone, you need to create a unique "flavor" to the text when that person/talking-life-form/computer-program is your subject. Try reading this story: it's got Ponies In Space, and the isolation of the very few main characters makes it easier to see how each one is a unique, distinct person who is also related to the other unique, distinct people.
Basically, treat characterization like journalism: who, what, when, where, how, why. Then treat it like your five senses: sight, hearing, touch, taste, smell. My mind associates Starfleet and Starfleet-like ponies with all kinds of things: the background hum of machinery, crisp identical uniforms, the smooth but lifeless textures of shaped metal and plastics, the always-just-slightly-stale or chemically-scented smell of processed and recirculated air, the taste of Replicated meals in which each dish is a molecular-level repeat of the last time you had that dish.
Now what's interesting is how few of those same associations I ever associate with MLP. MLP and Equestria I associate with: pastel colors that somehow manage not to look gaudy together, happy little birdsong choruses full of background ponies, fur and feathers but also muscle and dirt roads and little rocks underneath your feet, sugar in EVERYTHING, and a bizarrely nonstop supply of fresh tea.
Your shardship is very Starfleet right now. What can you do to make it more Equestria?
EDIT: I just realized I described Setting instead of Characterization, but actually, same deal. You need to characterize your ponies by creating a specific way the world looks inside their perspective. Looking at the world through the eyes of Azure Waters should reveal quite a different place from looking through the eyes of Future Dream, except and unless you're deliberately keeping your characters' perceptions identical in order to show that the characters are identical or very similar.
Also, what's driving them forwards? This is actually one of the toughest nuts to crack, and I don't claim I have a solution. My actual character-building method for motivation is: keep adding and subtracting things until you find some mix of traits that makes your character interestingly unusual, lets you get inside their head, and motivates them to move forward with the plotline you want.
So glad I wasn't alone in my Star Trek interpretation of this fic. Can't wait for more.
Interesting story so far. I'm not sure what to make of the shard's "slavery" situation morally, but that's because the whole FiO setting is so morally ambiguous that it's hard to say anyone's truly being hurt by someone wanting to play eternal god/tyrant/molester/murderer in their own little solipsist world. Hopefully most of the characters in the broken shard are non-sentient NPCs, I guess, but is there a way to tell beyond hitting the ship's big yellow button and asking?
I had expected a pony named Red Shirt to beam down with the away teams and keep having to be revived in the medical bay.
Very nice. Keep up the good work.