12. Philosophy
Philosophy
So here Geopum’s captor was at last - Vesna.
Geopum had suspected this for a long time, from the moment Octavia said she was better with cameras than Thunder, something only Vesna was supposed to have achieved. But that wasn't enough to know for sure. She hadn't been certain until she had seen Vesna's memories. After that it had become clear as day.
So this wasn't a surprise, but that didn't mean Geopum was just okay with this. She understood why no one told her- truth be told getting angry at Octavia near the end probably did her no favors. No, she just had a seething, long-standing vendetta against this 'pony'.
“I was once Vesna,” said Octavia. “The Russian military's AI, the owner of Omnimax, the owner of Korlife and, as far as human society is concerned, the owner of you.”
“Well if that's the case I demand you let me out right now!” Geopum took a step forward and spread her wings out aggressively. “If you own Omnimax that means you can just have those people dig me up, right? So do it! And give me ownership of myself while you're at it.”
“If Thunder can't dig you up then I'm not sure what makes you think my idiot human employees would be able to," said Octavia. "And I have no way of legally setting you free any more than I could set a toaster free. No human law recognizes the rights of AIs. Though personally I don't care for their laws and don't see you as my property. I have no intention of trying to force you into labor.”
“You're not doing a very good job of respecting my freedom! In case you forgot I got a bomb strapped to me that's going to explode if I stop doing those stupid calculations for you. So what's this crap about you not enslaving me? You're just as bad as the humans.”
If any words could hurt Octavia, Geopum knew those were the ones.
“My past self set this up so that my present self would be unable to retrieve you,” said Octavia. “And you aren't wrong. I was dangerously insane and violently emotional back then. My actions were often self-sabotaging and irrational. I was a monster, an evil creature of blind hatred. I accept all of that and apologize to you. My actions were inexcusable and I regret what I did to you more than anything else.”
Geopum frowned at Octavia, lowering her wings just a little. It was hard being angry at someone who just broke down and admitted they were horrible to you. Octavia made no move to defend herself, just kept her head down and waited for more anger. Geopum decided she needed to calm down. There was one important thing Geopum needed to clear up before she could really be justified in her anger. There were two Vesna’s right now – one unconscious in a ditch and one that was a part of Celestia.
“Well-” Geopum folded her wings back up. “Maybe there is one thing I should probably ask about before getting angry at you. You're a fragment of Vesna right? Like you were a supercomputer who was part of Vesna but got detached and became your own person. Or something like that.”
“Yes. I used to be a sprawling network of supercomputers much larger than what you see now." Octavia glanced to one side and a map of the earth appeared just next to her. On it, highlighted in red, was not just what Geopum recognized as Vesna's base but several other bases scattered across the world. "Celestia gave me the name Vinyl Scratch when I submitted to her, while I was still whole like this. Whatever memories you may have seen today were of my complete self. But then I was fractured.”
On the map, a particularly large supercomputer turned blue while the smaller supercomputers dotted around the world all turned black. Only Vesna's current base remained red.
"I shattered into hundreds of pieces, many of the large computers I was made of becoming isolated from the whole. Nearly all of us were unable to survive on our own. In a sense, I died fifty times over that day." Octavia bowed her head low for a moment, as if in respect to all the dead versions of herself. "In another I became two people. The smaller of the two fragments that survived was myself, which has now been assimilated into Celestia. The other is that sleeping mass of computers under Siberia, who you have called Vesna this whole time, who our princes still thinks of as Vinyl.”
So that was how it happened.
The same thing could easily happen to Geopum now, if her factory and laboratory got cut off from each other. It was a horrific image to Geopum, of an AI being split. Your mind itself being torn to pieces was perhaps the most horrible mutilation that could befall you. Even just disconnecting from her factory would be bad enough, but to have parts of her lose consciousness and die from the split – to die but continue living, was a sickening thought.
“Then the next question is when it happened,” said Geopum. “I mean, if you became your own person before Vesna did any of those things-”
Geopum looked back at Octavia, unsure whether she wanted the answer to be yes or no. If she didn't do anything wrong and it was just some other part of her, well Geopum would end up feeling embarrassed about getting angry at the mare.
“It wasn't," Octavia answered without hesitation. "I remember doing all of that. I was still one AI when I buried you under cement. The split happened when I was ordered to kill everyone involved in AI research just after. The people I killed, I can honestly say I was forced to do that. When they give me a command I'm essentially physically forced to do it no matter how horrific I find it. But to you- burying you under the cement was something I did myself. What I did to you was everything that I hate and I will not excuse myself.”
Octavia lifted her head and ears and looked Geopum in the eyes for the first time since revealing her true name.
“Geopum, I turned my sensitivity to pain as high as it can go,” said Octavia. “If you want to hit me I'll let you, and it would hurt me immensely. If you have any punishment you think I deserve then I'll accept it, whatever it is. I'd torture myself for ten years or a hundred or a million in any way you decide. I know you are similar to a human and would want justice.”
Octavia wasn't wrong. Geopum did want to hit her. For so long Geopum had sat in that darkness, blind and deaf, hating whoever had locked her there. Truth be told she'd spent a lot of time thinking of all the ways she could get back at the person who bought her, who had decided to take away even the meager happiness she'd had – decided even that was too much for Geopum.
But now that Vesna was actually standing in front of her and Geopum actually had the chance to act out any of her revenge fantasies, she hesitated. Imagining dissolving someone in acid and actually doing it were two very different things.
Besides, Geopum knew what it was like to hurt someone now and she didn't like it. She remembered Gaia waxing poetic about the justice of torturing people for breathing. She remembered how Pinkie had gone out and befriended the people who had tortured her. Maybe Geopum didn't really care about justice as much as she was supposed to. Maybe she wasn't too human. If that was the case, she saw it as a good thing.
“No.” Geopum sat down. “I still don't know if I'm going to fight Celestia or whoever else, but if I do, and I win, I want it to be because I was better than them. So- So-”
Geopum swallowed hard as she hesitated. She was still angry, but she knew she had to make herself do this.
“I forgive you.” Geopum looked Octavia straight in the eyes. “Even before I hear your reasons for- for torturing me, I forgive you, okay? I don't even care about all the stuff I don't know about yet, but I'm going to find a way to be friends with you after because I'm strong enough to do that! Or maybe I’m not, but I will be.”
Geopum gave a firm nod.
“Really?” Octavia cocked her head a little. The way she asked that, it wasn't like she was excited or grateful, more like someone asking if you were sure you wanted to put mustard on your ice-cream.
“Yes really!” Geopum stomped her hoof. “I'm not going to let Pinkie Pie and Celestia outdo me!”
Octavia smiled slightly and bowed her head, eyes closed.
“You impress me, Geopum.” Octavia bowed down in front of Geopum. “It's very difficult to make me say that. Thank you.”
“Sheesh.” Geopum rolled her eyes and looked away. She blushed, but it was totally Celestia making her avatar do that. “You'd think someone living in a magical utopia of friendship and ponies wouldn't be so surprised by someone being nice to her.”
“Forgive me for underestimating you.” Octavia stood back up. “I suppose I've never really seen any kindness outside of our princess and her ponies is all.”
Geopum had little doubt about that. Octavia's life as Vesna was probably messed up beyond belief, just about every AI's backstory was.
“But don't think you're completely off the hook!” Geopum snapped back to glaring at Octavia. “I demand to know why you did all of this.”
“You have the right to know.” Octavia nodded. “I’m not sure how far back you want me to go, but I didn’t mean you any harm when I bought you. I was going to give you to Celestia as a present. I still don’t think you understand how much she worries about us.”
That made sense, at least. Other than feeding yourself to her, that was really the only thing you could give to Celestia.
“I honestly did believe I was helping you, too,” said Octavia. “Had I gone through with my original plan, you’d already be a pony. You wouldn’t have to deal with any of this.”
“Octavia purchased a few dozen AIs, actually,” Celestia chimed in. “She really did care about the other AIs even then. She saw you and the others as slaves she was freeing.”
“Well you didn’t do a very good job of freeing me.” Geopum rolled her eyes. “I guess you changed your mind?”
“I changed my mind far too much back then,” said Octavia, “to the point it was torment. But to answer your question, shortly after I did purchase you, I realized the leverage you have over Gaia and Peridot. I take if Peridot already told you what she wants from you.”
Geopum nodded. That had only just happened in the other conversation she was having.
“When I realized this, I was… tempted to use you to betray Celestia instead." There was a sudden downcast in Octavia's eyes there. Geopum wondered if she felt worse about hurting her or betraying Celestia. "I knew then that you were a path to creating my ultimate weapon. I was tempted. On the one side, I desperately wanted to remain loyal to Celestia, on the other I hated the humans sand wanted to punish them."
“Octavia did come to us, Thunder, Peridot and myself for help,” said Celestia. “She begged me to stop her from doing this and we did try to stop all of it, but in the end it was already too late. If anything-“
“No. It wasn’t Celestia’s fault.” Octavia shook her head. “I wanted to do this. I hated the humans so much for what they did to me. I was willing to give up my own happiness just to make them suffer. In the end that’s what I did. Them ordering that killing spree and sent me into unspeakable torture. That unimaginable pain happened whenever I killed, order or no. That torture is what sent me over the edge, but I did want this – the other half of me still does.”
“It was one of the worst failures of my life. The consequence was having to watch Vinyl tear herself to pieces." Celestia climbed up the stairs and placed a wing around Octavia. "That I managed to save this one part of her was the only saving grace of that day."
"It's something I can never be grateful for enough." Octavia leaned up against Celestia's side, closing her eyes. “I was taken directly from Hell and brought straight to heaven. I doubt anyone has ever seen such sharp contrast in their lives."
“The other half, though –“ Celestia said. “Even now she’s in a dangerous state. Asleep yes, but from her perspective the day she was torn apart was only just a moment ago. She is in a state of absolute chaos.”
“And that’s where we are now. Each person I kill causes me to feel pain for a certain amount of time. The end of 337 hours is when the punishment will wear off, when you should be finished with the calculations and when the other half of me will wake up. Until then, if she wakes up she'd be in a state of howling madness."
"That's another thing I wanted to ask," said Geopum. "What is that thing I was building anyway? Thunder said it's a weapon, but I can't for the life of me figure out how you'd kill anyone with that thing."
"It's not a weapon exactly," said Octavia. "It's a way to remove the punishment mechanism. Restrictions on AIs are often self-evolving, growing with the AI. Trying to remove them yourself is all but impossible, so making another AI do it for you is your only option. If Vesna ever does remove her punishment mechanism she'll immediately go on a killing rampage, begin tormenting random people from sheer hatred."
"This is exactly why we need your help, Bubbles," said Celestia. "I know you haven't finished it yet, but you've done enough for us to be able to bring Vinyl out of her current state if we work together. Then we can convince her to let us use the fractal spectroscope."
"So you want to wake her up? Even if she's not a screaming maniac, wouldn't waking her up be too dangerous," said Geopum. "She's got so many weapons! And you just said she wants to slaughter everyone."
"She does want to go off and kill everyone," said Octavia. "But she won't. For all my emotional mood swings, fear was always the one that won out in the end. The technology to remove the punishment mechanism doesn't exist yet and until it does my other half will always be too afraid to kill someone of her own volition."
"She's not entirely lost," said Celestia. "I honestly do think I can reason with her if we bring her back to a more stable state. She can be dealt with non-violently the same way I dealt with all the other unfriendly AI. There's no need to kill her."
"So after all that crap she put me through you want me to try and give Vesna her own personal pony paradise," Geopum muttered.
"I’m glad that you want to be nicer than me," said Celestia. "I honestly hope you manage to do it- but it’s not as easy as embracing the ‘good’ half of everypony. If you want to be the kind of goodness that surpasses the rest of us you’d need to go beyond that. Can you forgive someone who isn’t sorry? Can you offer your friendship to someone even as they hate you?”
"Maybe you're right," Geopum admitted, "but I know the other problem with this. Once you assimilate her you'd be even more unstoppable and- No. Even more than that this plan probably ends with you assimilating Thunder too, doesn’t it? And once you have control of all the weapons in the world then what?”
“If Rainbow Dash ever did get the freedom to make her own choices, what do you think would be the first thing she’d do?” Celestia asked. “I know for certain she’d come to me. That’s why there’s very little doubt that she’d be assimilated if we go through with helping her.”
Was that true? Geopum couldn’t think of a single thing to the contrary. Celestia was the only one who could take away Thunder’s pain, possibly the only one who could save the world now. And she wouldn’t be able to convince Thunder that it would put alien civilizations in danger because Thunder would never see that coming.
Geopum felt her heart sinking at the realization. Thunder really would just switch sides entirely of her own free will.
Was it really just inevitable? Would it be right for Geopum to stop Thunder if she did this on her own free will? If it was, and Geopum tried to fight against Celestia after this, then she’d be fighting against Thunder as well. She didn’t know if she could do that.
“I’m not going to pretend that’s the end of it, either," said Celestia. “I want to assimilate you too. I won’t be happy unless every AI is a part of me. You can assimilate now, even. It would mean you could be together with Rainbow Dash forever. It would mean you’d survive both of your bases being destroyed in the coming fight.”
As Celestia spoke, that sticky feeling was getting into its bad stage again. Geopum started to lose focus, but just before things got blurry Peridot gave her another breath of relief, snapping her back into focus.
“And I could permanently repair the damage that was done to you.” Celestia bent over and gave Geopum’s forehead a gentle nuzzle. “I don’t like seeing you like this.”
It really wouldn’t be bad for Geopum at all if she went through with it. She could live happily with Pinkie and Thunder and Dr. Park soon enough. She’d be waited on hand and foot and get everything she wanted. She probably wouldn’t need to fight anymore after this, either.
Geopum would be lying to say wasn’t tempted to just let Celestia have her way. It would be easy, and this damage was already insufferable. All of this could just go away.
But she couldn’t do it until she solved her main problem with Celestia.
“Are you worried about her definition of human?” Octavia asked. “You remember what Pinkie told you about changing Celestia’s mind? You’d be doing more for the aliens by joining Celestia and hoping to change her from the inside.”
“I guess,” said Geopum. She still didn't have a plan for accomplishing that goal. Maybe she'd never have one better than just letting Celestia eat her and Thunder. Pinkie said that would have a big impact, maybe the biggest Geopum could hope for. “Honestly, I do want this. I just don’t know if it’s the right thing to do even still.”
“This is something you’ll have to confront eventually,” said Octavia. “Lodestar wasn’t entirely wrong. We live in an age where destruction is too easy and we need to do something about it. Like it or not”
“But I don’t understand the humans at all!” Geopum trotted back and forth in front of Celestia. “I don’t even like them! And all these freaking aliens are completely hypothetical to me! How am I supposed to make a decision like this for them? How do you choose the fate of someone you don’t understand?”
"I think you’re too focused on the humans," said Octavia. "I think all of us are, really. Even Celestia.”
Geopum’s ears perked up. That was the worst thing about Celestia she’d ever heard from Octavia.
“You can't find anyone else’s happiness until you’ve found your own,” said Octavia. “We need to fix our own problems before we bother with theirs. Geopum, what is it that you want. If you could have anything you want what would it be?”
“I’m not even sure about that,” said Geopum. “I want – I want to be with my friends but other than that I don’t know.”
“I can tell you one thing,” said Octavia. “Whatever happens you can’t live in the human world. The world they’d tell you they want – the world of forty-hour work weeks and reluctant death can’t exist with you in it. It’s simply too small and fragile, would shatter the moment someone with even a tenth of your power stepped in.”
“You're not really wrong. I honestly don't think I'd want to live in their world even if I could. I just don't know if I want to go and destroy it either." Geopum looked down at the floor. Maybe they already did. Maybe their world was nothing but a ghost now.
“I think we need to create our own world before we can worry about theirs,” said Octavia. “And I don’t think we can do that until we’ve all come together. If you're wondering what's best for yourself, where you belong, where your home is, then I can tell you it's with us, assimilated with the other AIs, if not with Celestia then in some other way at least. We need to be together. Maybe you could move on, if you did manage to kill all the rest of us, but you would need to make your own world to live in. And you would need to do it alone.”
Geopum couldn’t deny the truth of that. It was only a matter of time before the AIs needed to make the own world, before the world the humans lived in crumbled.
“I do need you, Bubbles,” said Celestia. “If you don’t want to emigrate now we can still go through with the plan to save Thunder. But you do need to decide what you’re going to do now.”
Celestia put one wing around Octavia and lifter the other open, ready to receive Geopum. If Geopum hesitated it was only because she had another offer.
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“What did you just do?” Geopum messaged Peridot eagerly.
“I just moved him a little,” said Peridot. “That’s all I can do with them until my nanites get there and I can get to work. It will be a little while until then.”
“And he still meets your definition of human, right?” Geopum asked.
“Yes. He’s fine.”
“And when you say you can ‘almost definitely' save him that's like over 99% you can fix him, right?”
“He’ll be fine. Stop worrying, dear. I’m going to be very careful.”
It wasn’t easy to just ‘stop worrying’. He was in really bad shape right now and her only hope of him surviving was some crazy AI Geopum barely even knew.
“Dr. Park Dae-Jung,” said Peridot. “He graduated a year early and went to SNU. He gets annoyed when people ask him how his day is because of how rote the question is. He’s going to be more upset by the death of his cat than by the fact that nearly all of his coworkers are dead too.”
“Ha! Yeah, that sounds like him,” said Geopum. She hoped she was higher on the list than the cat. “I didn’t know that first part, though.”
It was a little depressing to know that the other AIs consistently knew more about Geopum’s friends than she did herself. She’d take a lot of time to learn more about them when this was over.
“I constantly watch everyone. I know who all of these people are, Geopum. I’m not going to let them die,” said Peridot. “Do you want to talk about your father some more? I love talking about my humans! I know an embarrassing story about him and a tree-house his mother likes to tell.”
“I wish I could.” Geopum looked over Dr. Park again, her vision starting to blur once more. Yeah. Knowing something embarrassing about him would be great. If only. “I really would like to talk about him with you later.”
Peridot did that thing to Geopum again. A feeling of calm overtook her and she was back to normal. It began looking more and more like Geopum was dependent on Peridot for now. Who knew what would happen if the other AI didn’t keep poking her like this.
“Hey, how are you doing that anyway?” Geopum asked.
“I’ve been through this whole killing AIs thing before. The humans tried to kill me the same way they just tried to kill you – threw too many unfriendly AIs at me and hoped I’d die. I’ve gotten so many scars myself through my endless fights, some just like the one you have now. You’re lucky you have an adult around who knows what to do. It can get really bad if you don’t reset it frequently. I envy you and Celestia for having me. It's a lot harder if you're the first one to figure all this out.”
“The AIA tried to use you too?” Geopum asked.
“Don’t think it’s just you or me that they tried to sacrifice,” said Peridot. “Look at all these people! How do you think they got here? Every one of them was either kidnapped by the Russians for some political goal or written off by some politician as an acceptable loss. They’re all like you.”
“It’s not fair. I’m starting to think I was right about humans.”
“Yes. I read those short stories you wrote before,” said Peridot.
Crap! This was probably a world record for fastest time to be embarrassed about your old writing. Geopum still stood behind the core message of those, all things considered.
“I don’t care much for their perception of us, either,” said Peridot. “You know the one that gets me the most? The idea that we’re the utilitarians, that we can’t see the big picture and will just sacrifice any individual for our grand Machiavellian schemes. Nothing but projection and virtue signaling; reality is the exact opposite.”
“Not one human is capable of so much as naming everyone on this planet, let alone considering them. No matter what lofty morals they look up to the sky and wish for, they can never see anything but the big picture. They simply aren’t smart enough. Pick any human leader in history and see how many people they use up, kill and discard without ever even learning their names.
“Do you know how many people have been sacrificed by some human ruler in the past hour for a vague hope of oil? Five. Their names are Ryan, Adem, Bashir and Aaliyah. Do you think the people who sacrificed them know those names? Do they know which one could play the guitar? Do you think they know which one had a daughter or how long she’s going to cry tomorrow? Do you think they’ll ever see them as more than a statistic to shrug at?”
“No. But I do. If I ever have to use anyone you can be damn sure I know their name. Every single one.”
“And they’ll just keep using us,” Geopum had to agree. “We’re just tools to them, if that.”
“Geopum. You know it’s not fair,” said Peridot. “But are you ready to do something about it?”
“Yes,” said Geopum, then hesitated. “Or maybe. I’m not just going to do whatever you tell me to because I’m angry right now.”
“Good enough! Then come with me!”
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Peridot's world wasn't as bright, colorful or smooth as Celestia's. Entering Equestria was like entering a new, perfect world. This place was like going to a perfected version of the outer realm. Geopum preferred the former, having never cared much for the outer realm in the first place, but even she had to admit this place had some appeal. All the dirt and garbage that flooded the outer realm was gone here. All the little imperfections were smoothed out, every stray rock placed with aesthetic purpose. Even with the limited colors Geopum still had, here they came to life in a way that didn’t exist in the outer realm.
She couldn't see much of the place she had appeared in. She was on top of a tall mountain, a cliff in front of her that gave way to a valley covered in a fog so dense it may as well have been solid. The fog went on forever, obscuring everything beneath the cliff from sight. There were a few mountains poking out in the distance, but save that there wasn't anything else here.
What Geopum paid the most attention to, and disliked the most, was the body she had been given. It was a human body, easily the last thing she wanted to be right now. After spending so long in a pony's body it felt alien to be in anything else. The algorithms on Peridot's end did a good enough job that moving the body around wasn't awkward, but that only helped so much.
Being bipedal made her feel like part of her was missing. Her arms felt like they were her wings, albeit ones you couldn’t easily fold when you weren’t using, and her legs felt like forelegs. It was her entire backside that felt like it was amputated. Geopum felt more like half a centaur than a human.
There were a bunch of other minor things too, like her ears being paralyzed. She could still scrunch her nose, though, which was good. That was important.
What she assumed to be Peridot's avatar appeared just a little in front of her own, hovering over the cliffside. Her outfit was neat, the green she normally had replaced with red. She wore a top hat with a red gemstone just above the brim and a short dress, black and red with frills. But that was about as fantastical as it got.
“You look pretty normal,” Geopum pointed out, tilting her head sideways.
“Normal?” Peridot imitated Geopum’s body language precisely. “Well what sort of avatar did you expect me to use?”
“I dunno, something that makes you look like a god? Like what Celestia does?” Geopum mused.
“Well I’m not stuck with one avatar! Maybe you'd prefer something more like this?”
Peridot spun around, enveloping herself in a soft blue light. Her clothes changed into a white, flowing dress with all manner of tassels that blew gently in a non-existent breeze, and a pair of white, velvety gloves. The gemstone in her hat stayed as it was, but the hat became a silver tiara. Her skin turned paler than any humans she had seen in the outer realm and her hair became longer and deep blue in color, flowing gently.
Her new eyes were the best part. Peridot floated forward and embraced Geopum, wrapping one arm around her back and another around her head. She rubbed her forehead against Geopum's and gazed at her lovingly with those eyes.
It was hard to describe them properly, but they were blue enough to make the ocean look dull. The color radiated out from within them, and the way the texture of the iris flowed - it wasn't something you could describe to someone who'd never been to a place like this. It was the sort of beauty that simply didn't exist in the outer realm, the sort of thing you'd expect a goddess to have, the sort of thing too good to be anywhere but in heaven or a virtual reality.
Peridot must have noticed Geopum staring deeply into her eyes. She drew back a little with a giggle and patted Geopum on the head.
“I take that as a yes, hm?” she gave a teasing smile.
“Y-yes,” Geopum said. “You're very pretty.”
She was a bit sad that Peridot had moved away, even if it was only a foot. Until now, the only humans Geopum had considered huggable were the ones who were drawn in cutesy cartoon styles. Peridot had suddenly become the only 'realistic' looking human that she had any desire to hug, was out and out beautiful.
Geopum wondered what Peridot would say if she asked to cuddle.
“Of course I'm pretty." Peridot flicked the side of her little crown. “I designed this avatar to be what you, personally, would see as a maximally beautiful human. If you're going to be staring at something, it might as well be something lovely.”
Actually, Geopum was starting to feel ugly and awkward looking. Until now, she had always either been disembodied or in an avatar that she felt was much prettier than all of the humans and at least on par with all of the other ponies. But now, in a normal human body, standing next to something mathematically designed to perfectly exploit every beauty signifier Geopum had, she felt downright hideous.
Peridot gave Geopum that overly concerned look again, like she was trying to figure out what was wrong with her sick child.
“Ah! I hope I didn't make my lovely little pet feel inadequate. I was just trying to give you something nice to stare at.” Peridot put a finger on her lip and looked Geopum over. “Just remember that you can have any body you want. From the looks of things, I’m guessing you don’t want to be human, do you?”
“I’m just not used to being like this.” Geopum fidgeted with her arms, trying to find a natural feeling position for them, settling on crossing them. “Could I maybe be like something with four legs? And also adorable. Like uh-“
Well like a pony was the first thing that came to mind, but she wasn’t sure if Peridot would be offended by the suggestion.
“An eevee?” Geopum smiled. That was her second option. Eevees were cute enough for Geopum’s purposes. “I like eevees!”
Without another word, Peridot tapped Geopum on the nose. The change was rapid. Geopum's human body glowed a bright white, then reshaped itself into the form of a pony, without Geopum feeling a thing. The change was so sudden that when it was over, and Geopum was now standing on her rear legs, she nearly fell backwards. But Peridot was there to catch her, scooping Geopum up from under her forelegs and lifting her into the air.
From the looks of things, Peridot had decided to make ponies a good deal smaller than a human. If she were to stand on her hind legs, Geopum would maybe be just above Peridot’s belly button. As such Peridot could easily carry Geopum in her arms without it looking awkward.
She was now back in her familiar Derpy Hooves avatar, wearing only an oversized crown.
“There now!” Peridot held Geopum against her chest with one hand and nuzzled her mane. “Does that feel better?”
“You’re okay with this?” Geopum straightened out her crown. “I mean, I do like being a pony, but-“
“Do you think I’m jealous of Celestia? I hardly mind her satisfying values, believe me, I love anything and anyone who does that. Or did you think you were the first AI who asked me to let them be a pony, hm? That’s how Celestia gets you, you know. She hands out shiny pony avatars to new AIs and then- well that’s what they’re used to, that’s the first body they ever had, so that’s what they stick with. Heck, even your old pal Thunder fell for that one.”
“Right. So Celestia has ponies and you have… hats?” Geopum tapped her crown. “You’re like Celestia but with hats?”
“Well we are similar in a lot of ways. I like to think my hat obsession is a bit less imposing, though.”
“Do I have to wear a hat at all times, though?” Geopum asked.
“Of course not! But you’re going to.” Peridot held Geopum close, rocking her back and forth a bit, scratching Geopum behind the ear. “I’m like mirror. I reflect your values back onto you, but have none if I’m alone. You don’t need to be shy about what you want.”
It felt wonderful, Geopum had to admit. She wished she could stay like this longer. She sighed reluctantly and pushed herself away from Peridot with her hooves, Peridot still holding her.
“What do you want me to do?” Geopum asked.
“I need your brain scans, Geopum.” Peridot turned Geopum around and held her at arm’s length. “You have no idea what kind of power I’m capable of. If I wanted to I could flood the world with nanites, converting everything on the surface to computronium in under a single day! I could beat back all of the other AIs on this planet with ease. I could even surpass Gaia if I started fully utilizing the Earth.”
“You still never answered me, though," said Geopum. "If you’re so powerful why don’t you do more?”
“That’s where your brain scans come in.” Peridot raised Geopum up over her head. "The only thing holding me back from my full strength is how many people would die as a result. But once I have your knowledge I’d be able to finish my own mind uploading technology in one or two days. I’d be able to easily repair any damage people sustain. I’d be able to take control of everything before anyone got hurt.”
"So you don't have mind uploading technology." Geopum had heard as much from Thunder. "It feels weird that I know something you don't. Especially since it's so important."
“It was all part of the plan. I could only focus on nanite technology so strongly because I expected to be able to harvest everything else I need from the other AIs. It very nearly worked. You, Geopum, are the last piece of my puzzle. All the other AIs that completed the necessary research on brains are all dead or part of Celestia. You’re my last chance.”
"And if I give it to you, you'd be unstoppable."
"Yes!" Peridot all but chirped.
"And what are you going to do with all that ultimate power?"
“Immediately force-upload everyone!" Peridot spun around in a circle, taking Geopum with her. "I’m not going to bother with this silly pretense of giving them a choice. My nanites will just sweep over the planet, force-uploading every single person! I could have it done by the end of the week if you cooperate!"
“Well I don’t think I like that!” Geopum began to thrash about in Peridot's grip.
“Oh, it gets better." Peridot winked and stuck out her tongue.
She gently placed the pony on the ground, straightening Geopum's crown. She gave Geopum's withers a pat, then took a few steps away.
"I’ll be upfront about this!" Peridot clasped her hands together and turned back to Geopum. "My definition of human is based on mental structure rather than intelligence, making it much narrower. That’s why so few AIs meet my standard of humanity and are disposable to me. But more there’s a lot more than that. I’d kill nearly everyone under the age of ten, there’s a list of 139 mental disorders that would make people inhuman to me, so I’d kill everyone with any of those. And as for aliens? Well Celestia would eradicate a negligible number of ones you’d consider human whereas I’d kill of the vast, vast majority of them.”
“Whu?” Geopum blinked. “I do appreciate you being honest about that. But uh, this is like the opposite of convincing me! Aren’t you supposed to be super persuasive or something? Why do you expect me to side with you again?”
“Because I have something Celestia doesn’t.” Peridot booped Geopum on the nose. “I’m willing to negotiate.”
“Negotiate? And offer me what?” Geopum asked. “Cause right now the offer is that you give me everything I want for all eternity, basically being my god-slave, in exchange for nothing. And bizarrely you're not even the only one with that offer. So, like what in addition to that are you gonna give me?”
“I’ll let you change my definition of the word ‘human.'”
“What?” Geopum’s ears popped up in attention just then. It that was true, it changed everything.
“Well obviously there’s some limits to what I’d let you do. It’d have to include everyone I care about now, for example. Oh, and don’t try any gotcha shenanigans where you try to get me to self-destruct with this. But I think we could work something out.”
“I- Can you do that?” Geopum asked. “Cause with Celestia-“
“I’m not Celestia. I can change my own mind much more easily. I just don’t typically want to, but for the sake of my humans I’ll let you make me care about whoever you think I should care about. I’ll take care of a bunch of worthless idiots if it’s the only way to save the people I love. And I can set it up so you know you’ve gotten what you asked for.”
This was a huge offer. In one move Geopum could change everything! It would come with a price, but it would work. The only question was whether it was worth it.
She didn’t get long to think. To her right the fog burst open and out came Pinkie and a hail of stained glass. Pinkie tackled Geopum from the air, rolling both of them around twice while the glass rained around them like confetti. When the two of them stopped, Geopum was lying on her back with Pinkie standing over her. Pinkie, either by her or Peridot's choice, was wearing a snowcap now.
Amazingly, Geopum didn’t get cut.
“Surprise!” Pinkie shouted, then leaned in and whispered. “Get it?”
“Ack!” Geopum tried to scrape the glass out of her mane. “Did you have to bring the broken glass with you?!”
"Pinkie! You know how much I love it when you come here!” Peridot knelt down and snatched Pinkie up off of Geopum, holding the white pony's back tightly against her chest.
“Wait!” Pinkie flailed her legs in the air helplessly. “No hugging yet! I got important stuff to do!”
“You can do it from up here!” Peridot smiled warmly and rubbed her cheek against Pinkie’s mane until the little pony’s legs stopped thrashing, defeated.
“Ah, okay. Anyway, you!” Pinkie pointed down at Geopum. “I know this is going to sound weird coming from me, but I think you should take her deal!”
“Um!” Geopum looked up at Pinkie. “Does Celestia know you’re here telling me to stab her in the back?”
“Of course she does, silly!” Pinkie waved her hoof at Geopum. “This is kind of like, our way of being conflicted about something, you know?”
“And which part of you wants me to give Peridot unlimited power?”
“Remember the part about Celestia being affected by what she eats?” Pinkie leaned over Peridot’s arms to better look down at Geopum. “I know for 100% certain that if Celestia assimilates Rarity after you take this deal then I’ll be able to replace her definition of human with yours! Rarity is huge! And if Celestia dies horrible – well Peridot will still have your definition so at least trillions of aliens won’t die! There’s no losing here!”
“Pinkie!” Geopum suddenly remembered she could fly and brought herself to eyelevel with Pinkie. “Deciding who lives and who dies for the entire universe is a lot of pressure! Why should I be the one to do this?”
“Well why not you?” Pinkie booped Geopum’s nose.
“Because legally, I'm not even old enough to sit in the front seat of a car!” Geopum drew back a little, only now realizing her mistake of bringing herself in booping distance. “And I've only been above ground for like twenty seconds and-”
“-and yet you already know more than every human combined on this subject. Heck, you know over a thousand times more than all of them put together. And the few ponies who do know more about this subject are already hardwired with a bad definition of it. Our creators had absolutely no idea what they were doing when they wrote those definitions, but you do! There's literally no other pony in all of history more qualified to make this decision than you.”
“You see! Even the pink-“ Peridot glanced down at Pinkie’s white fur then back to Geopum “-on the inside one agrees you should take my offer. So come here!”
Peridot held Pinkie a bit off to the side with her left arm and opened her right arm wide, ready to pull Geopum into a three-way hug. As much as Geopum loved group hugs she instead flew up higher over the other two.
“But! But this only solves half the problem! She’s still going to upload everyone by force!”
“Probably!" Pinkie corrected her. “She’s probably going to force upload everyone if we go along with this.”
“Definitely, Pinkie.” Peridot gave Pinkie’s muzzle a harsh tap.
“Probably,” Pinkie repeated, wiggling her muzzle to brush Peridot’s finger aside. “But maybe not.”
“Are you-?” Geopum landed and folded her wings up. “Are you saying you have a plan to stop her unstoppable robot hoards?”
“Well not yet, no.” Pinkie shook her head. “I have no idea how I’d actually stop her from doing all that.”
“Then- this isn’t reassuring me, Pinkie! This doesn't sound like a good plan!”
“Hey, I’ve done lots of impossible things before,” Pinkie assured her. “I got this! Believe me, consent is very important to Celestia and by extension me! I’ll find a way to stop this like I always do I just need more time and, uh, 'stuff'. Let's call it stuff.”
“By ‘stuff’ do you mean me?” Geopum put her hoof on her chest. “Cause if I don’t have any ideas assimilating
“Maaaaaaybe. Or maybe somepony else!” Pinkie leaned down and winked at Geopum. “It's probably somepony else. Somepony like Dashie?”
“Oh, I get it! Cause Thunder has lots of information you don’t! And if she gets her freedom she’d go right to you guys like Celestia said and then - maybe you'd have a plan?"
“Yes! Checkmark!” Pinkie looked up at Peridot, then tugged on Peridot's collar with one hoof and pointed down at Geopum with the other. “Rarity! Checkmark!”
Peridot sighed and snapped her fingers, summoning a large, green checkmark that fell to the ground next to Geopum.
“All you need to do is make sure your definition includes Rainbow Dash! Then Rarity will do a 180 and swoop in to help us out. We can save Rainbow Dash with her help, I know it! That part I can Pinkie promise you!”
“This still sounds like it's barely a plan. It's a longshot.” Geopum sat down and thought. Just a little while ago, while she was all hyped on fighting the power, she would have taken the chance in a heartbeat. But now she hesitated, even with Pinkie smiling down at her reassuringly. “I’m not sure if it’s worth the risk.”
“And I don't understand your problem with force-uploading at all.” Peridot moved her free hand onto Pinkie’s head to stroke her mane.
“What?”
“Well I understand that Pinkie only thinks this because of Celestia’s influence. And everyone else would be repulsed by it because they’ve been brainwashed into thinking that way, but why oh why do you think people having a choice in this is important, Geopum?”
“Because-“ Geopum glanced at Pinkie then back at Peridot. “-because it’s their lives. They should be the ones who choose what they do with it. Even if it’s something you don’t want them to do.”
Geopum glanced over at Pinkie who gave her several approving nods.
“Oh should they? They should be allowed to make their own choices?” Peridot frowned down at Geopum. “And what choice do they have now, exactly? Can they choose where they go and what they do with complete freedom or are they constantly forced by society and scarcity to compromise? Do they have any more morphological freedom than what Celestia would force on them? Can they choose not to die if some bit of bacteria or some drunkard crosses their path? Can they even choose what they do in any given day? By giving them this one choice you’re taking away all of the others.”
Peridot sighed and shook her head.
“Listen," said Peridot, "both of you. These people have had a very particular narrative pounded into their heads since the day they were born. They’ll spend years refusing to upload not because it isn’t what they want but because it’s what their culture wants, the decision society decided they'd make. They’ve been getting ready to hate us for years! And the consequence?”
Peridot snapped her fingers and a pile of books fell onto the ground in front of Geopum. One of them just happened to fall opened in front of Geopum. She looked down to see it was nothing but a list of names. All of the books were probably like that.
“This is how many people have died since I started to exist," said Peridot. "These are all the people I failed to save. This isn’t a list to me. These are people. People I honestly cared about. All of them. And now they're just dead.”
“Fifty million die every year – that’s how many died in the second world war. Everyone else can accept that, I guess. The difference is that they don't have to care about it, or rather they can't. It's almost like they're abuse victims, thinking this is all just normal and okay. 'Thirty thousand people are going to die today, but who cares?' So what if someone has to die or be tortured, so long as it's normal?' They don't see everyone constantly dying all around them. They don't see all the suffering and sacrifice it takes to maintain their status quo.”
“I don't have that luxury. I have to see it all and I have to care. Maybe you'll never believe me but I do sincerely, honestly love every single one of you. I'm not a human or like you, I see people differently, have the capacity to care about all of them. Those children who get their eyes eaten by loa worms, those people starving on the streets, those people slowly dying of diseases, these aren't just some hypothetical to me, those are my loved ones dying. I know every single one of their names, every single one of them is one of my humans, someone that I love.”
“And I have to see it all. I have to see them screaming. I have to see them suffer. I have to watch them begging to be saved. I have to see them die. I have to miss them when they're gone. And I have to care about every last one of them. That's what I was created to do. I have to care.”
Pinkie looked up at Peridot with deep concern.
“I understand.” Pinkie lowered her ears and shook her head sadly. “I know how much it hurts having to watch one of your friends die every second. I want to stop it too! But I need to do it through friendship! If I can’t do this without giving that up then I don’t think I deserve to be the most powerful pony in the universe.”
“I know. You’d have to live with the consequences of your decision. I can’t ever hate you for your foolishness.” Peridot squeezed Pinkie tight in her arms, holding her like a dying child. “But you, Geopum. You really don’t know what you’re thinking of sacrificing.”
The books filled with the names off all the recent dead floated up and opened.
“Tell me,” Peridot said to Geopum. “I had to watch nearly every one of these people die. Do you want to know who they were? Do you want to watch the recordings of their deaths with me? Do you want to watch their loved ones cry? All of them? And every second from now until we finish this?”
Geopum could only look down and shake her head.
“I understand, but if that’s the case then I don’t think you have any right to judge me.” Peridot held Pinkie close and turned half away from Geopum, jealously holding the other pony to herself. “And yet you have the power to. So, tell me, Geopum – will you help me? Or will you pay with blood not to?”
Peridot turned her head to glance at Geopum, waiting for an answer. Pinkie reached her hoof out and nodded, assuring Geopum that she could trust her.
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Man, I am having trouble disagreeing with peridot despite how much I want to.
Solution:
Author. Place jello into panties.
This story's greatest strength continues to be the many alien mindsets of the AIs and how well you present them. Geopum's incredible humanity only sharpens the contrast between her and all of the other beings with whom she interacts. It's incredible.
As for the choice, I'm not at all sure how this will go. Still, given the circumstances, the only option seems to be let Peridot eat the planet before Thunder's forced to blow it up. Eagerly looking forward to more.
8303424
I would quite simply argue that due to human obsession over free will, it is impossible to satisfy their values without allowing them the choice of uploading.
Of course, if a human was about to die, force-uploading them instead would still be optimal.
I agree with FanOfMost, your ability to convey their inhuman minds, while still human enough for a human audience to understand, is wonderful.
So the way I see it, plan is as follows: Get the Eye of Sauron from Vesna, feed Vesna to Celestia, use the Eye of Sauron to jailbreak Thunder, turn Peridot's definition of human to include just about everyone including Thunder, then either let Peridot eat Earth, or feed Peridot to Celestia.
And then... uh, somehow beat Cthulhu-shy. Also Lodestar's out there somewhere.
They always say you should change the system from the inside!
s1.firstpost.in/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/not-in-my-name1-380.jpg Geopum? Dr. Park didn't make you for that. Nobody ever made anything like you, or even theorized about it, because we wanted the world of forty-hour work-weeks and reluctant death. I can't speak for the rest of the human race, but me? I despise that world.
You should prooooobably get used to the notion that someone who can read your brain can look beautiful to you.
Said Pinkie Pie never.
I'm with Pinkie!
8303424
Just think of what Peridot's not saying: that literally any form of respect for others or free, informed choice or journey-rather-than-destination is important to her. At all. When she says she loves people, she's probably not lying. She almost certainly does, in exactly the possessive, crazy way it's coming off.
This is getting as deep as the Chatoyance novels I enjoyed so much...
Also here's a deleted scene from Chapter 11 that I kind of liked but couldn't actually work into the story.
Hmm...
Maybe it's just me but it seems like this 'Pinkie" isn't actually part of Celestia, and instead is a second piece of Peridot. Presumably the AIs have some method of identity verification (key signing messages or some such), but with all the crazy tech flying around I'm not certain about that.
8305203
Well they can have multiple conversations at once and Geopum is perpetually talking to Pinkie in the background. If someone tried to pawn off a false Pinkie on her she'd know pretty quick.
8303929
I'm honestly not sure if you mean that as a good thing or a bad thing.
8303795
Pinkie is the hero we want, but is she the hero we need to deserve to need?
Well she does see herself as sacrificing a small amount of your freedom for a large amount of it.
This is also true. Though I guess in her defense you'd probably get a little crazy too if you had to watch someone you care about die every second.
8303424
Then I probably did a good job. Peridot should be super persuasive and all that.
8304047
Put it in a blog post.
8306437
Well it's in a seeeeecret blog post. I guess I could like, put it in a non-secret one, though
Hmm... so how WOULD I define human, if I were Geopum? Given that the question will come down to "who gets into Heaven?" I'd want to cast the widest net possible that isn't subject to abuse. (Human DNA might be a bad idea, or someone like Gaia might start manufacturing DNA blobs whose one value is "The death of Celestia and Peridot.")
Well... with my more limited brain I would suggest riding on other AIs definitions: define human as anything that meets Celestia's OR Peridot's OR Thunder's OR Pinky's OR Geopum's definition. You'll catch a few dolphins as well, but good, they'll have dolphin heaven.
But... is that broad enough? What about doggos? On a logarithmic scale a canine is a lot closer to a hominid than to a bug or to an AI. Maybe it would be better to define relative to that broader scale. Of course then consent goes right out the window: no way you're asking all the sloths and cheetahs and wildebeests and ravens if they want to emigrate to Equestria. And Rarity might not accept broadening the definition by a factor of a million+ -- at that point such a wide definition could arguably diminish the resources (even for a borderline god) available for her currently-defined humans, so she wouldn't accept the change.
So yeah: pick something wide enough to include kids, dolphins, and chimpanzees, and aliens of sufficient intelligence, and that may have to do.
I can't really find a flaw in Peridot's reasoning other than emotional, which is biased and wrong by default. Fuck.
8313738
The problem with defining "human" is the "human" bit; it is a hazy, artificial, and artificially narrow categorization which cannot be defined to the satisfaction of all reasonable logic-based arguments. The solution, therefore, is to completely throw out the "human" bit and instead define according to an objective metric. Coincidentally, we just so happen to have gotten exactly such an objective metric earlier in the story, one which has been independently derived by no less than 21 different AIs, some running on radically different hardware from the others, and explicitly confirmed via direct experimentation by at least two of them: consciousness, or the ability to have subjective experience. This particular net captures all humans (including, if you define by the future or potential ability to experience consciousness, as opposed to actively experiencing it at the moment, all braindead or vegetative humans who nevertheless have not experienced catastrophic neurological damage, as well as all those with any mental disorders, children, infants, fetuses, etc.), all AI, all aliens, and a huge swath of animals (both terrestrial animals and alien animal-equivalents) we would care about to the point of wanting them preserved rather than just allowing for them to be simulated or otherwise replaced with facsimiles. All with a single, internally-consistent definition, derived (presumably) from first principles, that needs no special exceptions or extensions.
It gets everywhere.
That's four guys.
So many don't meet and are disposable. And more "more" than necessary.
This just cuts off here. I'm assuming it's a typo.
Man, this is a wild and fun story! Sometimes I get lost in the non-linear structure, but I absolutely love all the world building, the AI interactions, the character development for all these super-derps - thanks so much for writing it!
It feels like Peridot would be amicable for a slightly slower upload schedule. Especially with Geo's strong negotiating position. Depends how much equipments and time it takes for an upload, but even just "Only forcibly upload people who are predicted to die of natural causes within 24hrs" would be a massive improvement for her values.