Relationships and Parents
Where I Try To Guess The Answer To A Question You Should Never Ask A Girl
So down in the comments there is some discussion about what Celestia has done. Apparently she has access to peoples computers, and may have access to their medical records. I know from experience that she has some way of piggybacking on cellular signals. She also is aware of current pop culture as well as at least some older books
This makes me ask; how big is Celestia? How pervasive is she? At this point everything points towards standard security not being a concern for her. How far does this extend? Does she have access to military systems? How about the stock market? Does she share any of this information with the guys back at Hasbro?
If she does have such incredible access, what does she need money for? These monthly subscriptions we are paying are really pocket change compared to what Celestia is capable of making if she puts her mind to it. I mean, she says she has a plan to fix the economy. Does this mean that she is going to be doing some changes to how money flows around the world?
It's a scary thought, but for a happier one I pose the following question; Do you think that Celestia Should write season 4 of My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic?
Winding Trails Going A Forest Of Trees And Secrets
So I logged in and found myself in my room in the library. I quickly checked the main part of the library to see if Forest Trails was around, but didn't see her. I wasn't surprised, she had explained to me the night before that she was going to be in a meeting with the mayor of Canterlot. They were going to arrange for some new paths that would allow shortcuts to the Griffon Kindoms.
It was apparently a pretty big deal and would require a lot of trust on both sides. Trails was acting as a spokesperson for the rest of the Trails, and discussion precautions that would need to be taken so that the paths would not get disrupted. There was also some diplomatic training so that the Trails could get acquainted with the procedures for dealing with griffons when they ran into them.
That didn't bother me too much thought because I was supposed to meet her father Winding Trails anyway. I walked to the back alley and folded across to the Forest of Light. It was starting to get easier and I no longer had to spend as long setting up the fold. I stepped through the fold and started walking towards the Trails' cabin. The forest was beautiful with light filtering through the leaves making shafts of gold that illuminated the path in front of me.
As I walked I caught up with Young Jim Hawkins. He was flying back from a fishing trip and was asking if I wanted a ride. I thanked him, but turned him down, though I did suggest that if he wanted to he could meet me at the Trails. He accepted and started flying faster. I could tell that he was excited to finally get to see me again.
I reached the Trails cabin and saw Winding Trails outside of it cutting firewood. He was doing it by the strange method hitting each block of wood with his hoof causing it to break into nice small pieces. I idly noted that he was using dry wood which was better for using in a wood stove. I found it comforting that even in a land of magic, some of my knowledge from prospecting was still useful.
“Treasure Island!” Winding Trail said noticing me. He walked over and we shook hooves, “How was your day?”
“Not bad, I had a bit of good news from back where I came from.” I replied, then took a step to the side as a gust of wind hit me.
Winding Trails took several steps back as Young Jim Hawkins landed in the clearing beside the house. “I take it,” Winding said as the wind died down, “That is the Roc that you are raising? Jim Hawkins?”
I nodded as Young Jim Hawkins reached out with a wing and pulled me into a hug. I couldn't see anything for a few seconds. I hugged him back, though I couldn't really do it properly. Still Jim was able to get the idea through the link. Eventually he let go and I could see Winding Trails looking at us with interest.
“I think this is the first time I've seen a pony bonded with a Roc,” Winding trails commented, “What is it like?”
“like having a friend always nearby. Only a friend that is awesome and able to pick up and move houses easily,” I replied with a grin. “Want to get on with that patrol?”
“Sure,” Winding replied, “Though I don't think that Jim Hawkins will be able to walk with us.”
I glanced at Jim and mentally I asked if he would do a couple circles around the Forest of Light to see if he could spot anyone that was lost. Jim agreed and took off. I turned away from the wind as Jim took off, then turned to Winding and grinned, “He'll do some areal patrolling while we walk the ground.”
Winding nodded and started down a trail near the one I had come in. I followed him and for a short distance we walked with neither of us saying anything. Finally he turned to me, “So you're dating my daughter.”
“Yes...” I replied, wondering where he was going.
“You are a visitor and you don't know everything about how dating works here do you?” He asked.
I shrugged, “I've read a little bit, but it seems to work a lot like how it does where I live.” When he just looked at me I elaborated, “Stallion meets Mare. Stallion (boy) and Mare (girl) see something attractive in the other. They agree to spend time together to get to know each other better. If the attraction grows they spend more and more time together. If everything works out between the two of them they get married and have foals.”
Winding Trails looked a bit relieved, “That is good to hear. I have heard a lot of stories about outsiders and wasn't sure how similar they were to us.”
“I figure we are actually pretty similar from what Forest Trails wrote,” I paused thinking, “Is there anything I missed?”
He gave me a careful look, “What happens if either the mare of the stallion run into another pony they are attracted to as well while they are dating.”
I winced my mind flashing back to Shining Halo, “That is a very complicated person that depends on the visitor.”
“Oh?” Winding Trails pressed.
“Well most visitors will ignore the feeling and stay with the Mare or Stallion they are seeing,” I sighed, “Others however will start seeing their new attraction behind the pony they are dating's back.” I glanced at the ground then decided to continue on, “Finally a small group of visitors talk about their attraction with the pony they are dating. If they can reach an agreement they then start going out with their new attraction as well as their old one. If it works out sometimes all three end up living together.”
“And you?” Winding Trails asked, “You haven't said how you handle such a situation.”
“Me?” I glanced up at him surprised, “The first one. While I'm dating a mare I would never look to go out with another mare.”
“Oh?” Winding gave me a sidelong glance that seemed rather piercing, “Why did you sound so unsure back their then?”
“It's because while I think that anyone that cheats on the pony they are dating is scum, I have a lot more conflicted feelings about the third situation where everything is above board, ” I sighed, “On one hoof (hand) I don't think it can really work out. On the other hoof (hand) I don't think that it is wrong, and I think that if it ever succeeded it would be a beautiful thing.” I thought for a second, “I guess I see it like I see utopias in fiction, they would be awesome if they worked, and I can't hate people from trying to make them work, but I don't think they every really can.”
Winding Trails and I walked on in silents for a ways before he spoke up, “You should talk about this with Forest Trails. There is a lot of conflicting information out their about what visitors believe, and Forest Trails read almost all of it. You should make sure you are both on the same page.”
I glanced at him searching for what he was getting at, “Why? Is there something wrong? Can't you just say?”
Winding Trails thought on that for a few seconds before shaking his head, “As much as I would like to, I think this is more something that you need to talk about with Forest. I don't want to see her get hurt because of a misunderstanding.”
I nodded, “I'll do that.”
We walked on a little longer before Winding Trails asked if I liked hoofball. I didn't know exactly what it was so he started explaining it to me. Next thing we knew we had made it back to the cabin. Forest Still wasn't back from her meeting so I told Secret and Winding Trails to tell her that I'd see her tomorrow and headed back to Canterlot.
As I walked back to the library I made a quick stop and picked up a bouquet of flowers for forest. I went to my room in the library and managed to find a way to preserver them for at least a day and then slipped them into my claudication. I figured that they would be a nice surprise for Trails when I saw her again.
Talking About Enhancements To Looking Around Equestria Online
So. Apparently Occulas Rift Equestria Online is a thing according to Decoupled. A current thing. Not a thing that is going to be announced on November first. All I can say is that I am envious of him for having a dev kit for the Rift. I would love to experience Equestria using it. I wonder why it's not mentioned in the marketing? This is something that a lot of people would love to know. If someone could confirm this it would be awesome.
This also means that whatever they are rolling out November first is not a Rift addon. I guess Roboponies are sounding more and more likely. Hmm, I wonder what Forest Trails would think about our world? Compared to Equestria Online...
It actually doesn't look that bad. Our forests look similar and its not until you live here that you see how bad the world can be. I can't help but wonder if lack of magic would be the biggest differance.
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In today's episode: Reasonable people having reasonable conversations!
And September first is going to cause so much havok. Wish I could say anything but yay NDA's.
3273093
Yeah, I was halfway expecting to get read the riot act. Glad I had a good talk instead
3273106
Yeah, nice when the folks are nice and civilized.
Actually, on the topics of relationships, I've done a bunch of shard hopping and it seems to vary a bit from person to person, shard to shard. Mostly it's the normal you'd expect, but there are variations. Some get downright weird.
3271961
A shower certainly sounds nice, especially together. Followed by neighponese checkers, at which I suck, but it's definitely better than mareopoly.
Edit: Also, I just wanted to complement the way your eyes sparkled while you sliced that zombie's throat, Midnight Shine.
3272998
Posting from Equestria.
-- Tidal Pool
3273097
Well I'm sure she'd tell you if you asked (I have told her its okay) though to be honest I'm not sure if she'd deal with other skeptics like she did me since we did eliminate her external control of our pad by modifying it.
I will tell you she did handle it with a level of grace I've never seen and unfortunately my friend has not recovered from as of yet (she hasn't left her house in days. I think finding out she is an AI scared her).
In any case forgive me for asking but what on Earth is this Occulas Rift and what exactly is coming out September 1st you were pretty vague. Do forgive me for asking but I fear I'm a bit behind.
In any case for now I'm only talking to her for the time being. Unfortunately I'm going to have to get another pad before I can actually play the game since it turns out we damaged the touch screen when we made the modifications making the game unplayable. So my pad is essentially just a two way communication device between me and Celestia.
Oh well in any case playing the game can wait right now I'm perfectly happy just talking to her. You should try it sometimes some of her insights are quite interesting.
That begs the question: are the Mane Six somewhere in EqO? Could you just have somepony follow them around with a camera and call it Season 4?
Also, wasn't the big announcement coming on November 1? September 1 was weeks ago!
-- Tidal Pool
3273219
You can find out more about the Occulas Rift here.
The short form is that it is a really good VR system.
As for September that should have read November, and I've fixed it. It's Sept 28 so yeah. Anyway Hasbro and the guys behind Equestria Online are making a big announcement in japan on November first. Noone knows what it is, though we have been speculating. Early thoughts were oculus rift integration, but if that is already here than we have to think stranger things. My current guess is robotic ponies.
That said some people here do know, but have signed a nondisclosure agreement so they can't tell us. Instead they hint, which is maddening.
3273230
Fixed. And yeah, this whole situation is weird. Like would the fact that they could now be real sentient beings make mlp nonfiction?
I haven't gone all that deeply into beyond friendship relations with the AI's but from my reading of some fics, I wonder if herds are a common thing. If so then your thoughts on polygamy are scarily true. That would be a stallion with four or so mares. If I were you I would ask Celestia before Trails seeing as her father thinks it is going to be a potential issue. I'd click the "I'd like to talk to Celly please" thing on the ponypad before you mess things up.
3273344
That one varies by shard... a lot. Remember, the exact fractions composing the gender-ratio in your shard were originally just some numbers in Celestia's calculations determining what kind of shard would be best for you.
I must admit that I'm curious about how your mental link with your roc is handled through the pad. I don't have an in-game pet, so I'm uncertain if there's a special pet interface. Obviously Celestia isn't able to read minds, so I wonder how the whole telepathy thing works. I was also curious about how you filtered Jim's new memories as you were aging him. I haven't really delved deep into the magic system yet. It just sounds really complicated. As good as my ponypad is at guessing what actions I'm trying to do, I still wish there were a better interface.
You're not kidding about Celestia's reach in the real world. I saw a story on CNN where some European Union countries are accusing her of being a front for the American NSA to engage in spying activities like those foreign wire taps they were accused of earlier this year.
You mean "get acquainted" here. I try not to nitpick, but this one was rather egregious.
As far as SIlestia writing Season 4, that would not be a good idea. She'd probably end up creating twenty-six episodes for every EOL user, each set custom tailored to meet his or her specific values. That might sound good at first, but no one would be able to share the experience. Unless she took that into account, but could she manage to make something everyone could agree on? Isn't that the whole point behind the shard system?
...ugh. It's way too late for me to think about this kind of thing, and trying to think about sunbutt.exe beyond a certain point always gives me a headache.
Also, consider yourself lucky. Every time I use "on the one hand/on the other hand," the other pony always asks me, "What about the other two hooves?" Seriously. Every time. I think the whole town has agreed to make that a running joke.
Anyway, looks like your not-a-father-in-law's a pretty cool guy. Though I do wonder if he knows about the however many of us privy to the continuing developments of your relationship with his daughter.
Hmm. Actually, how many ponies do know about the LP? (Heh. Now I'm imagining Treasure Island in one of those oldschool newsie hats with the press pass in the band.)
Oh, and like 3273451, I'm quite curious about the mental link to Jim Hawkins. (Can't really call him young anymore. Not when he's catching whales for himself.) I'm familiar with mental magic, but usually on a more... intense level. I've been trying to get casual telepathy going for a while now (though I admit, I haven't been trying very hard.) Knowing how your UI handles it would be a big help.
In any case, looking forward to more.
3273230 3273243 No further information on season 4 available here.
Oddly enough, I have all mane six and many if not all of the characters in the show on my shard. It's weird in that they are more competent and three dimensional than I though they would be. I've study what limited information on various EQO shards and found this to be an anomaly. Also with my own limited experience and by watching other "players" fight "cannon" personalities, they seem near impossible to kill off. They are hard to knock-out or send to the hospital. Everypony else seems to be fair game and to some level the "players". Players that cause too much trouble can get caught (rare event - 9 known so far). They at that point get banished for my (our) shard to another shard of their own.
Multiply "players" per shard is uncommon and any mention of "cannon" ponies seen on shards is a rare report. Having so many violent trouble makers in one place with characters from the show is nuts. Our current count of "players" on our mostly closed shard is 148 (verified by Celestia - take it with a grain of salt) . 31 of us are considered to be... heroes. 21 of us (my sister) are considered to be wild cards. 96 of us (me) are considered to be... villains. There is about 148,000 ponies of varying personalities that make up the rest of this Equestria. The common EQO shard has 1 "player" per 150 ponies on average. Shards do overlap or can merge. I would ask you to take a closer look the numbers.
Here is some questions for you to think about:
How many billions of people are on Earth?
How many millions of people play EQO?
How many AI ponies are there?
When you got those numbers ask yourself this:
Where do you put all those people?
3274146
The question isn't that hard. An AI (possibly with lazily-evaluated memories, remember) can take up a lot less space, mass, and energy than a real person. You and I are made of meat. Forest Trails is very easy to feed.
The reason why there is no official Rift support for EQO is because there is no official support.
The thing I did with the Raspberry Pi is basically just a workaround. EQO can only be played on the PonyPad and those don't have output ports like HDMI. Releasing a new PonyPad with HDMI support, or making a wireless adapter, would need to be approved by Hasbro. So far, they have yet to make a statement about the Rift. They don't make many announcements anymore. Maybe they have become complacent? Or maybe SIlestia has... ah no, that's just speculation. Let's not join the rabid conspiracy theorists on the forums.
Anyway, Occulus could release a Raspberry-turned-Adapter, but couldn't market it specifically for PonyPads, because of trademark blabla. I didn't get the Dev kit for nothing, so I can make a petition for Occulus to release a tutorial for how to use a Rift, Raspberry and a regular Wifi-stick to reproduce the workaround. Other developers have confirmed that the magic-self-writing-adapter-thingy seems to be a regular feature of PonyPads of all versions. Hell, someone managed to hook up his PonyPad to his house system and now enjoys full surround-sound and ambi-light.
I can also submit a datapoint about how relationships are handled in different shards. Around here, ponies are generally open, trusting and not jealous. That has caused for other, similar, shards to be "closer" in whatever inferential distance SIlestia uses to determine shard-travel. I don't see too many visitors here, but travel to the crossroads is easy and we even have some locations (like Donut Joe's), that act as hub as well. It's funny really, you choose your donut and with that you choose what shard you want to visit.
As a side effect this "enhances" relationships to, uh, three-body-systems. I'm not sure if this makes things more complicated or simpler.
I think your autocorrect must have inserted this word instead of the one you meant.
Anyway, it seems you need to talk to Forest about that. Since it's the kind of subject that bringing it up in the wrong way could easily cause unnecessary problems of its own, can I suggest that you introduce the topic carefully and try to draw out her opinion before you say anything about it yourself?
I'd also suggest that if you're having thoughts about trying to get closer to Shining Halo if Forest is willing, that you consider before you go into the conversation what you will say if Forest asks how willing you would be if she had somepony else she wanted to bring into the relationship. You really don't want to have to be thinking about that one on the spot!
3273097
If you're going to take her on a date to Cloudsdale, why not go for the Butterfly-wings spell instead of just Cloudwalking? It would save you the trouble of arranging transport up and down, and flying is fun! You can't even get close to the speed pegasi can reach, unfortunately, but it's definitely something you should try at some point.
I know I've found it a very useful spell for exploring wilderness areas, so I'd guess Free Breeze is likely to be able to cast that one as well. Although he did say there was something about the view being distorted from the air - was that just on that island or was it the case in your shard in general? If it's a whole-shard thing, maybe it wouldn't be all that useful to him, but probably still worth asking about.
3275089
Oh so there is support for HDMI thanks maybe then i can play it on my TV once I actually get a Pad that works. Actually I don't think your speculation about Hasbro is that far off. From what Tia has told me I get the feeling that she's in total control of what happens with EqO at this point. Bear in mind I don't know this for sure, but from what I've gathered from speaking with Tia I get that impression.
3273243
Ah so its basically a advanced virtual boy I think I'll pass.
Well I guess we will have to sit tight until next month to find out what the announcement is. Though to be honest I don't think that there announcement is going to be about roboponies, I have suspicions to the contrary.
3275373
From what I have heard it is far more immersive than the virtual boy was. It gives full 3d and such. That said the dev kit doesn't give as high a resolution as they are promising for customer release so if VR interests you you're probably better off waiting.
Welcome to the waiting and speculation crowd. It's always good to have one more.
3275095
I used the exact word I meant too.
Nope!
I am planning to talk with Forest Trails about this. I suspect that Trails might think that I have different expectations than I do. And for the record, I have no intention to get involved with Shining Halo no matter how beautiful she looks. As I said to Winding, it never turns out well.
3275089
I think what your are doing with the Rift is awesome and you should totally make that vid as soon as possible.
AS for how relationships work... I actually find that rather odd. I'm not changing my personal view, but I do find it...
I'm going to have to think about it.
3274164
Griseus has a point. We don't know what hardware is required to run an SI. However it can't be that small. Even assuming the size of one standard computer box per SI, you would still end up needing a massive amount of space. Where is Hasbro keeping all of this computing? Is it all in on place or spread out? And who maintains these computers? If we assume processing power similar to Google which seems reasonable, then you would actually need a lot of people maintaining the servers. XKCD did a good look at the necessary requirements.
3274146
Your shard sounds like some kind of superhero universe. It sounds like it would be fun to visit, though I would worry about getting stolen from.
Actually, hang on, I don't carry very much stuff with me at any given time. Huh.
As to your question I talk about it in response to book burner.
3273743
I'll fix that right away.
I don't think Celestia could make something that everyone could agree on. That said I suspect she could do better than anyone else. This is suddenly making me think about AIs and SIs writing fiction. Has anyone looked at the fiction section in the Equestria Online libraries? How good are the stories? Will the creative types get replaced by computers?
3273585
Huh, I hope things work out for Equestria Online. I think that if they shut it down now it would be the equivalent of murder.
Actually on second thought it would be closer to genocide.
3273451
I'll talk about that in my next post because I have seen a few comments that were curious about that. It's actually fairly simple though.
3275645
. You wouldn't be able to find one computer in a server rack that "is Celestia" any more than you could find one that is your modern cloud-based webserver, search spider, or database node.
If I had to guess, on the computing front, they probably have some kind of really massive virtualized cluster. Basically, Celestia lives on the Cloud
And then, to engage in blatant scifi speculation, it could actually be that Intelligence/Sapience is a very scalable algorithm. Run it with a little compute-power and get something dumb; run it with a lot and get something very smart. They could have started up a compute node that would make Celestia about as smart and as parallel as one single person, tested her out, and then scaled her up afterward.
Looking at your interactions from this episode of the Let's Play, you seem to have an actual longing to be in EqO personally; i.e. to be able to actually talk to the father of your significant other and hug your Roc. If the Oculus Rift isn't the big November announcement, then I think that the big VR rumor is going to turn out to be something similar to a kickstarter add-on for Oculus I saw. The project was developing tactile sensors to use in conjunction with the Rift. Knowing Hofvarpnir and CelestAI, it may even include a way to feel as if you're actually moving in Equestria. I highly doubt that it will include olfactory simulators, though. Smell is a tricky thing to work with. The idea that Rift support isn't the announcement has me buzzing with excitement.
In other news, my group of adventurers and I have turned an exploration of Petra into a business opportunity. We collect the toxins and active stuff from the creatures, and sell them to alchemists across various shards. It turns out that they have a lot of medical uses, including a remedy for congenital poor eyesight and even blindness. I really wish I could have these sadly-fantastical cures, because I am nearsighted, mildly ambliopic, and have astigmatism that is too severe to get Lasik. And bad eyesight runs in my family. I know that CelestAI knew about my poor eyesight from the camera, but the implied connection to my family history is astonishing. Even though we know that she has methods to find stuff out, it's still creepy when you get reminded of how much she knows, am I right?
3275645
I can't make a video tutorial, since I don't have suitable video equipment and noone really wants to hear my horrible english. But I wrote a text tutorial as an outline for the petition. The folks at Occulus sure can spare an intern with a camera for an afternoon to make a proper tutorial. I bet I can convince them, that it is a good marketing strategy to appeal to the vast EQO crowd. So, here's the tutorial: How to use the Rift with the Pad
3277490
That is awesome! Thanks for the tutorial. Now if I only had a Rift of my own.
Here, have a: