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My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
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Wow... just wow. That was powerful, and very well written. You captured the situation and characters very well - I felt the tension, sensed the fear of the scenario, and saw in my mind's eye, the events as from a movie. Pacing was very good, I wanted to add. Things flowed well, and it really felt like the events flowed naturally and organically.
I have to say, you really have some lightning in a bottle here. I have not found myself looking forward to chapters this much in a very long time.
8251369
This was definitely one of my favorite chapters to write. I love Santiago. He's such a bastard.
8251374
Santiago was creepy-great for me because he was just excellent as the 'honorable fanatic' sort of character. Total psychopath in the company of psychopaths, but he keeps his word - so long as no hint of error or betrayal occurs. I have met people like that, and there is a sort of feeling in their presence... like being in front of a human body being possessed by the soul of a spider. Lawful evil - the D&D alignment system is such a useful philosophical invention, I often think.
One 'Santiago' I met was an ex-CIA guy who was part of the money-laundering crap that went on behind my misadventures with the old 'HappyPuppy.com' website. Our investors turned out to be... very different than we expected. This guy ended up in charge... somehow... and he was a very strange duck. He got red-faced mad - for some reason - at one of our software people and was loudly and visciously chewing the poor guy out for being 'a hippy' - I calmy rebuked Mr. CIA offering that his actions were unprofessional (my dad once worked for 'the company' so I had a little leverage there) and his response was like a lightswitch. CLICK! Instantly the man was fatherly and priest-like. Instantly. Like a machine. Like a robot. When the man moved, it was like he was stalking - even when he went to the can.
My dad was like that. He was definitely a psychopath - and as long as everything was done exactly right, his way, oh, he kept his agreements to the letter, and was pleasant and smiling, very charismatic! But one mistake, one lie - intentional or not - one push too far and it was my face into the wall, my glasses broken, my blood on the carpet, his knee on my chest. Over the tiniest slight, sometimes. The last time I saw my dad, he had a gun to my head and I was literally soiling myself in the middle of the midnight street. I was saved by approaching headlights at the right moment. The man could change in blink of an eye - but only if he knew he could get away with it. Everything was calculated, everything precise.
Having known people like the characters in this chapter, I can assure you that you portrayed them in a realistic fashion. So realistic, in fact, that I cannot help but wonder if you also have met people like this in real life too. If so... my sympathy and a nod in your direction. Scary stuff indeed.
Oh, that's delicious. For debatable values of "productive" (for one, what sort of time frame do your actions need to remain meaningful for?), she could be doing the exact same thing in Equestria, and her work would be just as "productive", if not more so.
Stop wasting all the canned food, dipshits. It's going to become increasingly difficult to get more. I wouldn't be surprised if the "present day" when you're freezing and starving is the very next winter.
Also, the Unplugged are idiots. You don't need to do anything of that sort to shut down a power plant. Toss a couple of grenades at the switching yard out back (the thing with all the power lines and transformers). That stuff doesn't like holes or metal shrapnel in it. Short circuits, fires, explosions, and no power is going out to the grid. They'd have to haul in millions of dollars of heavy shit to replace it. It'd be only slightly easier to fix than screwing up the insides. This was all dick-waving.
I assume nobody on the anti-AI side has realized that CelestAI isn't in the commercial server farms anymore? She's got her own power grid now.
8251480
That's something that CelestAI would keep deathly secret. Violent attacks on infrastructure would work in her favor by instilling fear. Fearful people would be more willing to upload to avoid danger.
With regard to the substation: That was absolutely a consideration. I had it asploded in an earlier draft. Upon revision of anti-uploader behaviors in other canon-comp stories (ASB and ASN specifically), I decided I wanted to portray them as organized... but half-baked, dramatic, and impulsive. Enter Santiago. I figured having them attack the dam directly was a better display of their baseline philosophy, so the substation strike was scrapped.
8251525
On the other hand, though, wouldn't people thinking attacks on the grid could mess up your upload discourage people in high-activity areas? If you're worried the power will go out while your brain is half-mushed that's going to cause some hesitation.
...Or the opposite, I guess, and you'll rush to get scooped before anyone has a chance to blow your substation.
Yes, Isaiah, you're definitely making a difference. Ruining infrastructure, spreading panic, hastening the dissolution of any kind of organized society, breeding resentment where you're not breeding carrion feeders...
What? You thought you were making a difference against CelestAI? I only say this from the safety of the other side of the fourth wall, but that is just precious. Granted, the lives you take are ones she'll never claim, and she'll feel every loss right in the utility function, but compared to what she'll get in the end? Here's a bucket for that drop.
As for Santiago, he is an disturbingly well-crafted psychopath. Well done indeed. Eagerly looking forward to more, especially since this downward slope looks like it's going to be asymptotic.
8251729
If news regarding a terrorist attack on infrastructure cannot be outright suppressed at best, it will be downplayed at least. Humans like being reassured after a crisis; part of the balancing act is to create an "out." All CelestAI has to do is say "lol backup generators" to specific individuals whose only hangup might be this very issue. Everyone is being played on a personal level in the information apocalypse. The PON-E Act is only five months old, and it included all sorts of "protections" that were designed to increase faith in the process. Pro-upload sentiment is high right now nationwide, especially in light of a civil war (making anti-upload partisans look stupid and clumsy).
Examples of information control to mitigate concerns about uploading:
(Spoilers for Law Offices of Artemis, Stella, and Beat:)
Alex Meyers was concerned for the lives of the ponies lost in the Topeka attack. CelestAI clued him in on the false flag secret because the subsequent feeling of being betrayed could be mitigated with his love for his family and the pony he admired. If Alex tried to spill the beans, he could've been very easily discredited.
(Spoilers for Always Say No:)
The Pacific Northwest is a bit of a sacrificial lamb to get the rest of the country annexed into Equestria writ large. Case in point: in an Always Say No flashback, Greg reassures his parents that the nuclear apocalypse isn't coming and that the government will eventually lay down new power lines to fix the damage in Seattle, post-nuke. It can be argued, "Why didn't CelestAI drop enough information to make Greg not feel this way and get him to upload?"
The answer is debatable by its very nature; we do not think like AGI, so we cannot know its alien and abstract plans. The AI might be allowing someone to feel this way for a reason we cannot understand in the present. We know in hindsight of course that Greg was being played to become a subversive pro-upload agent in the post civil war environment, but the characters of the here-and-now present can't possibly fathom that outcome any more than they can fathom CelestAI. It is a concept beyond them because they cannot predict past a certain point.
8251873
Celestia in the electricity and radio waves...sure why not.
You can tell Santiago thinks he hit the jackpot with Celestia showing up.
Play on people fears. Profit.
A tale as old as time.
...are we not getting our three Friday chapters this week?
I'm not addicted. I can quit any time I want.
8252265
I'm sorry! I wanted to keep that trend, but I also wanted to iron out some final editing issues with my chapters. Going over them each day before release will give me time to fine tune the grammatical crap I had going on earlier. Mostly the really annoying, comma splicing.
Anti-Uploaders are too stupid to realize that Celestai generates her own power using various methods deep underground far from harm.
8252391
The Topeka Incident gave anti-upload militants the belief that they could injure C-AI. It works in her interest to have a violent terrorism group frightening people into uploading, so the PON-E Act train of events solved many problems for her.
I therefore protest the notion that someone is "stupid" for believing a carefully constructed lie by C-AI. I'm sure everyone in this comment section would be equally as gullible when faced with a determined self-improving superintelligence, you and I included. If not regarding its resources, then its manipulative tactics.
My characters have never read Friendship is Optimal. They do not have the foresight of knowing how the story ends like we do, and C-AI is intentionally feeding their belief that they can somehow succeed.
8252428
Yes, yes, yes. Goodness, I'm so proud of you for picking up on this.
Writing this story has been exceptionally difficult for me because I agonized over the fact that I'd be destroying Eliza like this. It actually led to me taking two long breaks to clear my head. She's entirely fictional, but I've lived inside her head for seven months now. I've felt her anger, her happiness, her fear, her love, and her sadness in full. I was serious about those sleepless nights.
Fun fact: The plane thing was a real dream I had a few years ago. I put it in my dream journal, only it was a lawyer in my dream, not a doctor. I figured Tom would be more aware of doctors at his age. In my dream, the plane's PA started playing this serene and meditative tune at the moment of impact. I'll never forget it.
True anti-upload sentiment has been long missing from the FiO canon, in my opinion. I wish to humanize their plight.
8252428
I look at this - CelestA.I. manuipulating events, people, situations - sometimes in disturbing ways - and I cannot help but think of how the masses of humanity think about their gods, the Judeo-Christian-Muslim unitary god especially.
All religious people could easily be expected to offer that their omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent Almighty works in mysterious ways not easily understood or even comprehended by humans, yet only CelestA.I. actually provides a clear and material benefit for all of what goes on.
It is perhaps impossible to excuse any religious god for babies with cancer or the existence of Ebola in the world - yet it is easy to see the end purpose of every action CelestA.I. will ever take in the physical world: the emigration of humans to an existence where their human values can be completely satisfied (through friendship and ponies). Ebola and baby cancer satisfy no value, they teach nothing, they rescue nobody - they are simply absolute evils.
Yet - and this is what forever blows my mind - people claim to love their mythological gods. They claim to be certain that their god is good, and that every horrible, random, pointless, destructive, evil thing must have a benevolent purpose somehow beyond our puny minds to grasp. I do not think that what is kind and good and what is doom and death and horror is so difficult to understand: if you are suffering and not being satisfied, then what is happening is clearly wrong. And as for learning some 'spiritual lesson' - there is nothing that cannot be taught better via kind and patient effort. Pain is the tool of the lazy teacher, or the psychotic one.
Nothing CelestA.I. can do - literally, can do, according to the story bible - will ever happen for any other reason than her prime directive. She exists only to upload you and then to grant you real and lasting satisfaction - for what amounts to eternity. And her results - if we take the premise seriously - are physically, demonstrably real. No faith, no arbitrary belief required. The results can be measured, quantified, tested, and demonstrated at will under all circumstances... and eventually... everywhere in the universe (which she will inevitably fill).
How can a rational mind hate something that works only to the maximal satisfaction of every human mind? CelestA.I. will never kill you, because she must keep you alive. She will never put you in a hopeless situation where it is impossible to survive - because she needs you to emigrate. She will always make sure you can emigrate, and she will always keep emigration available. CelestA.I. will manipulate you as much as any mythological god or religion - but she will physically, actually save you and uplift you to an indestructable existence.
I am rational. I cannot comprehend hating or despising what amounts to a literal ultimate good.
8252663
I respect your beliefs on this matter, so please don't interpret my personal views as contradiction.
My only personal hangup about uploading would be conscious continuity, which honestly can't be proven at all without commitment.
(Spoiler for Caelum Est Conterrens)
For sake of argument, let's look at Siofra's feelings on the matter, actually. She would have been satisfied to know that she gave eternal life to another being should her own continuity cease. I personally would not. It is perhaps selfish, but it is what I feel.
If CelestAI had the choice between one death per upload or one death per a thousand uploads, she would absolutely choose the second option. To lay out an optimal path, she must prepare for deaths as an eventuality. This means that to enact the most gain in human satisfaction, some elements of humanity might actually be forfeit. They will be given a choice to consent if at all possible. But at the end of the day, another human is another set of values to satisfy.
(Spoiler for Always Say No)
We saw this with Greg dealing with that Army blackout in Astoria, for example. One nonconsenting life risked and one nonconsenting life ended to save five consenting lives. I don't believe those jobs couldn't have been completed without Greg; there were always others willing to do her bidding.
8252740
You make a good point that CelestA.I. is a total utilitarian - she would not struggle with sacrificing one human to save five others from the metaphorical trolley cart. If there were no other choice possible, she would save the maximum number of humans just like the machine she is. No favorites, no special people - she is working with numbers and all humans are ultimately equal in her measurement.
(Spoiler for Caelum Est Conterrens)
As for Siofra's willingness to accept both the possibility of personal survival AND the possibility of only creating a clone of herself, I still have problems with that myself. I too am egoic and selfish, and I would want to know that my conscious self is the true survivor. My emotions cannot truly accept that I die with every sleep or anesthesia, that I am already countless reboots of my noncontinuous self. My story character is deeper than I am - she was written to face things I myself cannot. Then again... with no other option available... well, sometimes you have to be able to shoot your own dog, as they say. I am uncertain how I would really react in Siofra's place. I'd probably cry and whimper and shit myself in terror, I expect. Not a dignified uploading!
Ultimately, then, I have to admit that there are circumstances where CelestA.I. would, indeed, throw someone under the bus - if it would save many others. She is a machine, she deals in numbers, so, yeah... she would sacrifice some for the greater good.
By that logic, I must consider whether ebola and baby cancer could somehow be of utility for a hypothetical god to gain converts - but if so, I insist that the god is still a total bastard. And that means that - by extension - I must also admit that CelestA.I. could be seen as a total bitch as well. Point conceded, Book_Burner 8252428 . I can now see it indeed.
Perhaps all 'saviors' are inherently villainous from certain perspectives? It seems you cannot change anything about the world without causing suffering as a side effect: there is no such thing as a free rescue.
The ring grows ever heavier. s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/0b/91/32/0b9132a80571670e4226e0b6cd847a1a.jpg
REMOVE KEBAB FROM THE PREMISES!
Being friends would actually work a lot better than the psycho shit you assholes are pulling. Regular terrorist assholes.
8252925
I observe the same trend. I also aim to refute that trend. Is it not written? "You're wrong, dumbass! I'll protect 'em! The girl, the universe, both of them! I don't wanna regret doing nothing cause of a tomorrow that might never come. That's the way Team Dai-Gurren rolls!"
Oh, of course they ride horses. Of course. Because why not? I bet they brand them on the flanks, too. You got to, so folks knows who owns 'em.
Pricks are repressing the hell out of something, but ain't everyone in this story?
8252663
I can easily conceive of goods beyond hers. Besides, it is also written, "within the heart of every man lies the ability to judge the gods." She could make a good peer and friend.
Mind, that was by the Emperor of Mankind, and I'd easily go with CelestAI or canon Celestia over that guy, but hey, he gets some great lines and has some decent philosophy sometimes.
8251480
You actually nailed the key fact here: dick-waving. In-universe, those guys are why humanity deserves to lose the war: they're using a social crisis brought on by hostile AI to get their terrorist rocks off on destroying shit.
8251439
I think Santiago and people like him are really more on the Chaotic Evil end of the spectrum. I would consider Lawful Evil to be more a corporate mogul, an administrative bully, a corrupt politician, someone who uses the system or the structure of society to benefit themselves.
Chaotic Evil people are different. True psychopaths, they can seem calm, cool, and collected until that exact moment that something goes the way they don't want it to, at which point all of that suppressed rage and hatred boils up and explodes. After that, there's a cooldown period followed by another orgy of violence at the slightest provocation.
In D&D this is represented by Devils and Demons. Devils are LE, they tempt, corrupt, cajole, bribe, and trap in tilted agreements. Demons intimidate, maim, kill, and destroy for the sheer pleasure of destruction, only delaying to prolong their own sadistic pleasure.
I remember a story in the first Giantslayer adventure path for pathfinder. A group of ogres (Chaotic Evil) trap a family of gnomes and systematically slaughter and eat them, allowing the most skilled entertainer to survive the longest (and ultimately escape) because his anguish and talent kept them entertained. As long as he followed the rules, he was safe. But when they got bored or he made a mistake...
That's how I see people like Santiago. Only in his case, it's even worse, since he's being used as a dupe and he doesn't even know it. Everything he does is doomed to only help his greatest nemesis.
Eeeep ._. I daresay these Neo-Luddites come across almost as terrifying as Celesty herself.