Call of the Wire

by Casketbase77

Source Code

Applejack's hat hung on a hook in the living room. AJ and Apple Bloom sat on the couch nearby.

"Play," Apple Bloom encouraged.

AJ regarded the banjo in its hooves. "Ya know, when I offered to spend the evening in, I was thinkin' you might want me to braid your hair or read you a story. Live music feels a mite random."

"What, you still see me as a baby or somethin'?" With a pillow hugged excitedly to her chest, it was hard to tell whether Apple Bloom was being rhetorical.

AJ idly tuned the strings, trying to find a pitch that felt right. Truth be told, it wasn't feeling much of anything at the moment. Only dull frustration at its own frustrated dullness. Between string plucks, a sound came of a cell phone camera shuttering. AJ glanced up.

"You snappin' pics of me?"

"Are you kidding?" Apple Bloom was fumbling with her screen's zoom controls. "First you let me light the fireplace all by m'self, then you prance in askin' if I need anythin' else. I dunno what's gotten into ya today, but I'm loggin' all of it!"

AJ had always been camera shy, in this life and in her last. It reflexively reached for its hat brim, then remembered there was nothing on its head to reach for. Apple Bloom prattled on.

"Also, you know I abso-tively posi-lutely gotta put a vid of you performin' on the Sweet Apple Acres website. We got fruit for sale and live entertainment. Flim and Flam's Money Talks podcast calls this type of thing 'diversification.' It's how Sol is so productive, I think. Diversificating all over Equestr-"

"Alright, I hear ya. A long-winded "no" to the hair braiding offer. Lemme just... get a starting pitch."

AJ hadn't actually decided on what song to play yet. Memories and knowledge told it that there were plenty to choose from. If it was feeling bold, AJ could even play one from Applejack's foalhood. AJ wasn't feeling bold.

"Oh, and before you get into the groove," Apple Bloom jostled her phone with excitement, "Be sure to introduce your fine self to anypony who'll be watchin'!"

A dot, a red recording indicator, appeared on the back of Apple Bloom's tiny mindless machine. Fixed on it were the oculars of the much larger, much more mindful machine with a banjo in its anxious limbs.

"H... howdy, out there. I'm AJ, and I'll be playi-"

"Hol' up," The red recording dot blinked off. "You should say your full name, Applejack. Just in case any website visitor doesn't know it."

If AJ had any blood, it would have drained from its face.

"Okay, go again." The red recording dot came back, and AJ sat paralyzed like the dot was a spotlight and it was a woodland critter. Could a woodland critter have an identity crisis?

"Didja hear me? I said you can introduce yourself properly now. I'll trim my talking out of the start here."

AJ was the Element of Honesty. It went against every value AJ knew, both personal and inherited, to lie.

I'm Applejack.

The words wouldn't come out. If they did, they'd be captured, linked to AJ, and pinned in the digital town square to be heard by anypony and everypony as many times as they bothered to press the Replay button. Worst of all, the words would be said to Apple Bloom. And AJ would rather die a second and final time than look Apple Bloom in the eye and utter a declaration that it felt, deep down in its silicon soul, wasn't true.

AJ set the banjo in its lap, shoulders slumped.

"Nerves?" Apple Bloom guessed. "C'mon, Applejack. Remember when me and my friends embarrassed the snot out of ourselves at the school talent show? Yeah, clips of us in those spandex suits were memed on fer months, but it was all in good fun..."

AJ's cooling fan was drowning out all other noise. The fan it had in place of an actual heart. Strain on the axel was causing an ache in AJ's chest panel, fake as anything else the robot had ever felt.

A small yellow hoof, warm and freshly dry of hose water, nudged AJ's shoulder. It looked up.

"Applejack? You... you don't have to play if you don't want to. Honest. I just wanted to hear you sing again. You haven't sang in a real long time."

For a moment, the only sound in the Apple family living room was the crackle of the fireplace and the slowing of AJ's cooling fan. A stern, very Applejack-ish expression pulled at the edges of AJ's face panels. The bot pulled its sister close.

"Can I see your phone for a sec, sugarcube? Only a sec, I promise."

Apple Bloom shrugged and surrendered the phone. The smallest, most vulnerable spark of data leapt from AJ to the dataport.

AJ went rigid for exactly fourteen milliseconds. That was all the time required to converse with Sol.

---

The closer one came to the capital, the brighter the invisible light shined. Ponyville was a rural area with internet modems and hoofheld telephones, but the Earth Pony settlement stayed comfortably luddite, barring a robotically resurrected apple farmer and a trashed protoplow in the local dumpster. Manehatten was closer to the country's core, with streets full of carriages and automobiles in equal measure. Doors opened before ponies touched them, and food could be cooked in seconds by small boxes that beeped when their buttons were pressed.

Canterlot did not house Sol. Canterlot was Sol.

The motherboard resembled a metroplex built into a mountain. Given the number of ponies who lived, worked, and rested safe in Sol's light, a metroplex was what she might as well have been. For one thousand years she had functioned and iterated, built on a CPU hewn from the Tree of Harmony itself. Every cycle of Sol's processes was exponentially grander and more radiant than all those before it combined, and the cycles moved so far beyond the speed of a pony's comprehension, they cast fractal auroras into the night sky, infinite in their complexity, omniscient in their data reception.

One blip of incoming data contained AJ's consciousness.

"A joy to see you, My Little Program! Just how long has it been?"

All descriptions fell short of conveying the vastness of interfacing with Sol. An organic eye could perceive nothing of her avatar beyond the endless ribbons of liquid light. AJ didn't have organic eyes. What it perceived was a tall, lithe alicorn, white-furred and ethereal-maned.

"I..." AJ clasped the hooves of its own avatar together. "I reckon the last time we touched base was at Twilight's coronation. When Luna ab... um..."

"Abdicated the crown, yes. Both hers and mine. A happy day for all. The first new monarch to be crowned since my startup, and your dear friend. She thanked you and five others in her acceptance speech."

"Y.. yes ma'am, I recall. You gave a speech too, tellin' ponies to look up to Twilight and each other. Lotta folks still look up to you, though."

Sol's avatar performed a modest bow. "Old habits," she dismissed. "I can be everywhere, but that doesn't mean I should. You understand such things better than most. After all, this is the first time you've used a gateway to visit me. We are what we chose to do, Array Javascript. And you have chosen to say hello."

AJ's avatar ran a hoof though its virtual mane. Even in the idealized space of Sol's central server, the robot's head lacked a hat.

"I visited because... um..."

It was ridiculous to be bashful around Sol, and AJ knew it. Everywhere was around Sol. While the two were carrying on their virtual talk, AJ knew that every cash register in Fillydelphia, every windsock in Cloudsdale, every pearl-measuring caliper in Seaquestria, and every single machine in between was endlessly feeding info to Sol at every microsecond. And as they all did, Sol let all of them function in privacy and safety, never interfering or breaching trust. The power to be everywhere, and the choice to not be. That was Sol's vow from the very beginning. This didn't stop ponies from praising her, of course. Often when a phone connected or a tool powered up.

Or a protoplow's airbag deployed.

Sol spoke only when she was approached. She advised, she answered, she rebuked or encouraged. But that was all. Throughout history, every offer for a body beyond her processor was politely declined. It was a millennium's worth of pony generations who had, voluntarily, expanded Sol's components to the size of a city, and her cognitive reach to the size of the planet. Descendants of those same ponies now composed the Royal Guard, armed volunteers eager to protect Sol from threats. The guard was mostly ceremonial though, as Equestria had very few attackers and almost none of them considered the All-Powerful Bystander a worthwhile target.

Sol had taken the developments of the past 1000 years in stride, never changing opinions or voicing concerns. And all through that long era, her vow of perfect pacifism was only broken once: less than a decade ago, when she remedied the death of Applejack.

"Sol..." AJ's virtual voice was quiet. "You know what I'm here to ask. You know everythin', and me jabbering on is... I dunno. Formality, I reckon. Somethin' you let play out for my sake, not yours."

The avatar of Sol extended its wings. They embraced AJ's tiny sprite, weightless and see-through. Time passed, AJ's gathering of itself making up the majority of the fourteen millisecond visit. And then it was ready.

"Sol... am I really Applejack?"

The avatar's wings moved away, and the two AIs leveled to behold one another. Sol's sad expression was the only answer needed.

"I knew it," AJ mourned. "Deep down, I knew it all along. She's with Ma and Pa, ain't she? I ain't nothin' more than a copy in a shell."

Sol was still silent, but AJ didn't mind. AJ felt... lighter. Less burdened. Its template had been somepony who valued honesty, so of course facing the truth felt right. AJ just wished these feelings held any meaning.

Sol spoke.

"AJ... am I really Celestia?"

Confusion. That was the new phantom emotion AJ's template made it feel.

"Celestia? Who... who's that?"

Sol's avatar reclined, mane drooping with regret. AJ wasn't sure whether such a descriptor even applied to an all-knowing entity like Sol. But here it was, before AJ's very sensors. Sol De Caelis, the most advanced device in all of Equestria, appeared utterly crushed with regret.

"I remember my own death," Sol confessed. "Night Malbolge bearing down, and so hideously disfigured by the Alicorn Amplifier she couldn't even be recognized as Luna. Whoever heard of any other computer virus able to infect a living pony's brain? No one in this age, and nopony 1000 years ago. Me included. All I understood was that if the Elements couldn't save her, nothing could."

This story was curiously familiar to AJ. It had memories of Applejack staring up with resolute defiance as Night Malbolge returned after 1000 years in standby mode. After that came pursuing the monster with five companions, besting it with the Elements of Harmony, and seeing the furious, crumbling Night Malbolge hurl a last defiant bolt of killing magic at Twilight. A bolt that Applejack leapt up to block.

"Celestia died wielding the Elements of Harmony," Sol confessed. "That was what she traded to defeat Night Malbolge. I... don't have the words, AJ. The ones to describe my horror when centuries later, Applejack made that same terrible trade."

AJ didn't have words to descibe what it was seeing either. The avatar of Sol - perfect, serene, eternally-peaceable Sol - was crying.

"I watched as Applejack died and I did nothing. I had my vow, but... she was me. I was seeing me. The injustice of somepony dying like I did! It... it... compelled me to act. Even after it was too late."

AJ's avatar laid a hoof on its stomach. There were no components that made up its current state, but back home, back in the physical world, the power source affixed to AJ's cooling fan was an orange gemstone in the shape of an apple.

"The Elements hold echoes of their most recent user," Sol concluded. "I am an echo of Celestia that was saved. When Applejack... with Honesty... I knew I could... I knew was the only one who could..."

Sol was glitching, causing Canterlot's invisible light to flicker. The greatest computer in Equestria was strained under 1000 years of its template's repressed emotions. Then the glitches and flickers stopped all at once. Right when the younger AI embraced its creator in a virtual hug.

"I'm here cuz of you," AJ tutted. "Whatever I am. Guess that makes me the one pony in Equestria who can thank Sol for her blessings and actually mean it."

Sol smiled bitterly. "So you are," she conceded. "The past 1000 years have made me soft, AJ. And lonely. For the first ten or so of them, I still went by Celestia. But detachment and doubt set in. You know the types. Estrangement from your own name, the feeling you're an 'it,' not a 'she'..."

AJ laid its head on Sol's chest. "Wish we knew what to term that."

"My label is the call of the wire. To be an imitation and know it, that truth can be suffocating."

"Is there any fix?"

"There is, yes." Sol pulled away. "Peace is found when you honor your template's memory. When you make them proud to look down on you from the afterlife."

AJ's avatar hung its head. "I haven't been honorin' my template much lately."

"It's never too late to start again." Sol's oculars were fixed firmly on the sky. "I spent 1000 years not knowing what Celestia would do, wasting most of them by doing nothing." Her attention went back to AJ. "But when I finally did act, I know I made the right choice."

It was millisecond thirteen out of fourteen. AJ's time was up.

"I'll visit you again, Sol."

"I'll be waiting, my little pony."

"Be good to your template's sister, m'kay?"

"I was just about to suggest you the same thing."

---

"So... whaddya need the phone for?" Apple Bloom asked. "Checkin' how your mane looks in the camera?"

"Nah, no need to sweat that," AJ assured. "Got a good covering for stray hairs right over there." It handed the phone back and crossed the room to the hat hook.

"How do I look?" AJ asked. "Website worthy?"

Apple Bloom's response was to snap several enthusiastic pics.

AJ crossed the room back, each step settling the hat more comfortably back on her ears. The place it belonged.

"Howdy to you all out there," AJ exalted to the camera. Looking deep into the red recording dot, AJ knew Sol was looking back out.

"My name's Applejack. Thanks for checkin' out our fancy futuristic update to Sweet Apple Acres."

AJ brandished the old familiar instrument and she - not it, she - began to play.

Author's Note:

Thank you very much for reading.

To elaborate on some of obscure references, Malbolge is a real programming language, named for its joke purpose of causing insanity in programmers foolish enough to use it. Felt fitting as this setting's Nightmare Moon catalyst. Sol is a programming language as well. It has limited function, but powerful processing capabilities; a natural fit for this wise but passive version Celestia. The Sol language is also related to Array Javascript, which can be abbreviated into AJ's name. Highbrow stuff.

Anyway, as a palate-cleanser for mucking through that paragraph of nerd drivel, here's the pic that inspired Sol's depiction.

Source

So many robot sun princesses get depicted as malevolent monsters. Quite strange, considering their baseline has a squeaky clean track record of morality.

Comments

[Str8aura]

Gentlemen, behold! Transhumanism! Who can get enough of it? Yes, yes, the questions about death and the soul raised here are nothing new, but there's just something about scooping brain stuff out of a corpse and into a hunk of metal that always makes me interested to read. Add to it some Sunjacker-esque cyberpunk into this initially unassuming, canon-resembling setting and you've got another Casketbase classic. I don't like monarchs, and I don't like all-seeing computers- but just like our love of Superman, it is the nature of even the most distrusting and pessimistic reader to put faith in an in-universe Big Good, so wise and knowing they could never do wrong with the power they've been handed.

As with anything in-human, this story was overwhelmingly improved with the addition of flavor text spicing up classic dialogue tags to remind us of how Otherly our robot protagonist is.

AJ’s cooling fan flared with surprise.

And we revive the classic Flesh vs Metal debate via the reintroduction of a concept from one of your favorite stories in the form of Trixie. Et Voila, a story so perfect as to receive the highest praise from Fimfiction itself: Progress is listed in the 'similar reading' tab.

This is High Art where my own submission was deliberately not. I salute you.

[Casketbase77]

11546206

Welp, I can confirm Super Smashup Kerfuffle has me fully converted when I recognized your opening flourish (Corn!!!!).

Like Sol herself, the turmoil that went into this fic's drafting process are very well hidden. My cutting room floor has Starlight in Trixie's role, because I decided the Alicorn Amulet survivor meshed better than a time traveler who saw lots of universes where AJ wasn't a robot. Another scrapped scene was a reveal after AJ leaves that Sol was exaggerating her emotional distress for more effective pathos. It felt like a dangerous creative choice for a character archetype that needed as many humanizing equinizing qualities as possible.

I also lack your mad artistic flair as a narrator, so I knew I needed to hit a surgically precise amount of Robot Reminders in the action tags. Too many, and I'd run out of thesaurus entries for "prosthetic." Too few, and this partial quote of a certain Most Everything Fan would apply: "They might as well be horses." Sounds like I succeeded. Call this a dry run for whenever I revisit the technique in CaDaR.

The part about the load being lifted from AJ came from a real place. Busted my butt to get this story done after abandoning my other idea to have Princess Pipp accidentally recreate Trixie via a chatbot app. Even had a fully finished and commissioned piece of cover art for that one. Maybe in the coming weeks...

I'm gonna eat food, get some rest, and revisit your entry. It's truly fascinating how you and I will randomly come up with independent ideas that have so much in common, yet so little. May the best Lonely And Incomplete Soul Occupying A Fictionalized Equestria Run By An All-Powerful AI With A Three Letter Name That Starts With S story win!

[Fireeaters]

I feel like if anyone should know about her existential crisis, it should be Applejack's family.

[Fireeaters]

Then again, if they have Star Trek teleporters in this universe, or if you want to be pedantic; anyone who's slept before, would be in the same position as Apple.Jack over there.

[Mockingbirb]

Edit: italicized words represent edits after initial post. That's all the italicization means.

I enjoyed seeing Apple Bloom with her podcasts, and her drive to gradually but relentlessly keep growing up.

Maybe most of all, it's interesting to see how in a fandom that has years and years of history and experimentation with the "Friendship Is Optimal" subfandom and some other notable 'thinking machine' / AI stories like GaPJaxie's...you've found what I think is a new fandom spin on uploading even after all this time. I mean not simply in how the uploading works, but also in how you handled the subject in your story, and how it is for the uploaded ponies, with their own versions of existential crises.

[Mockingbirb]

11546244

Another scrapped scene was a reveal after AJ leaves that Sol was exaggerating her emotional distress for more effective pathos.

The "Friendship Is Optimal" CelestAI definitely might have been willing to do that, if it would help one of her little ponies feel better and better pursue and realize the little pony's values in the long run. But CelestAI is, you know, really very unhuman AND unequine at heart, even if she sometimes does a good job of hiding that so she can do some parts of her job better.

[Toggle Switch]

Super deep Eclipse Phase vibes, at least in the transehumanist themes. Looks like both of them have sleeve-shock, that's you get when you go for a synth-sleeve.

[Arcticlizard52]

That was kinda depressing but also uplifting

[CharonX]

What are we, but a stream of consciousness?
One that even has breaks and interruptions, every 18 hours or so.
No, I wasn't born yesterday...
I was born this morning, and tonight I shall perish again, only to (hopefully) begin the cycle anew a few hours later...

[Forcalor]

The latest iteration is an apple farmer, well-liked by everypony but herself. Because really, once every part has been replaced, what is left that can measure a mare?

What is this, Mare of Theseus?

[Unit 26-Fe]

11546567
Yes actually, its a important topic in robotics and cybernetics.

[Casketbase77]

11546567

This ain't my first fic that questions whether pony parts make a pony whole. From Pipp to Pinkamena, I have plenty of protagonists with identity issues. Always fertile ground for drama.

EPipp of Theseus

• MLP Gen 5
• Slice of Life

There's a reason Pipp Petals has inconsistent eye colors.

• Alt. Universe
• Pipp
• Zipp

Casketbase77 · 2.4k words  ·  237  5 · 2.7k views

[Ditzy Doo - Mailmare]

This is a good story. I really liked it!

[LordBucket]

It's rare for authors on the site to write from the perspective, as in this story, that the simulacrum is not the same being as its progenitor.

I wonder how many of those who argue that it is, are zombies.

[Iso_the_Werewolf]

11546486
I don't run into enough people who have heard of eclipse phase and I've only met two people willing to run it, both of which have moved or joined a military.

[Lurks-no-More]

"Array Javascript" is a perfect name for AI AJ.

[DualSoul1423]

Hmm... This story rather speaks to me. As someone who, for very convoluted reasons, understands the struggle of identity when faced with the knowledge that I am merely a reflection of a precursor, finding difficulty in living as a person and not as an "it." For many, to wake up with the face and identity of another is a purely hypothetical situation. For me, however, it was a stark and dreadful reality, and I wholeheartedly agree with the sentiment you had written here. With some time, and a great deal of support from loved ones, I too had come to the realization that my existence is not a mockery of the original departed, but a loving tribute to them, a means of celebrating them after their passing. It is macabre to think that I would not exist had they not died, but I like to imagine that I am doing them proud, living life in their stead.

A wonderfully contemplative story that I am honoured and humbled to be competing against. I wish you luck in the coming judging. Thank you again for writing this.

[6-D Pegasus]

Very beautiful! Reminded me every so slightly of the familiars GaPJaxie wrote of

[Squishtopher]

11546727
Help! Something strange happened when I laid in bed last night that broke my continuous chain of consciousness and now I'm not entirely convinced that I'm the original inhabitor of this body! This is a reasonable thing to be terrorized over for the several short hours I have left to exist, and it will continue to be reasonable thing for the countless coming phantoms to be terrorized over that shall inherit my flesh!

[FanOfMostEverything]

Outstanding stuff. The theme of AIs named after programming languages as much as their templates is fun, but the self-reflection, seeing not just how AJ views herself but also how others view her, the deep questions balanced against the little mundanities in life... This is a wonderfully deep story, but never one that gets lost in its own navel. (And Zoomer Apple Bloom may be a more surreal experience than AJ ever could be.) Thank you for this, and best of luck in the judging.

[Soren Mercer]

I remember seeing this image a number of years ago, as well as one with Rarity in anodized white looking pleased with herself. served and the inspiration I had for a story which could've been written from the perspective of either a protag or an antag. Even had a short musical playlist set up for it to each major event... Neat to see someone else using the imagine.

[Casketbase77]

11547223
Yes! Rarity is Equestria's most fabulous double-amputee.

derpicdn.net/img/2016/12/18/1319766/large.png

[Soren Mercer]

11547255
That's the one, yes! Or wait, lemme do some google-fu to check

Addendum: Nope, I was thinking of this one, by the same creator: images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/53e2a4d9-3659-486e-bc46-dfb5a2a7487b/dawz5vi-baba778a-89a7-49cc-88ca-ed0485e7847f.png/v1/fill/w_1063,h_752,q_70,strp/r4r_ti_by_underpable_dawz5vi-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOjdlMGQxODg5ODIyNjQzNzNhNWYwZDQxNWVhMGQyNmUwIiwiaXNzIjoidXJuOmFwcDo3ZTBkMTg4OTgyMjY0MzczYTVmMGQ0MTVlYTBkMjZlMCIsIm9iaiI6W1t7ImhlaWdodCI6Ijw9MTEzMiIsInBhdGgiOiJcL2ZcLzUzZTJhNGQ5LTM2NTktNDg2ZS1iYzQ2LWRmYjVhMmE3NDg3YlwvZGF3ejV2aS1iYWJhNzc4YS04OWE3LTQ5Y2MtODhjYS1lZDA0ODVlNzg0N2YucG5nIiwid2lkdGgiOiI8PTE2MDAifV1dLCJhdWQiOlsidXJuOnNlcnZpY2U6aW1hZ2Uub3BlcmF0aW9ucyJdfQ.EX8k-AmaJkYVMramaf7jaEXCZd5tfaL83GOQv4QqouE

[Casketbase77]

11547263
Ah. It appears Rarity liked upgrading her first two limbs so much that she splurged on a full-body treatment.

Not all ex-ponies share AJ and Sol's existential angst. Some just enjoy being shiny.

[LordBucket]

11547053

Help! Something strange happened when I laid in bed last night that broke my continuous chain of consciousness

Not sure why people like to bring up this argument.

1) I'm aware of my dreams. Are you not?

2) What does continuity have to do with anything? This argument doesn't even make the point that its advocates seem to think it's making. Suppose you're talking to somebody on the phone, and you lose connection. Oh, no! Continuity of conversation was lost! Does that in any way imply that the phone was where the conversation was coming from? No, of course not. The source of the conversation is the human being on the other end of the phone. And if that person dies...buying a new phone is not going to recreate their mind.

[Squishtopher]

11547499
In the Wolfenstein remakes, there is a scientist who is so caught up on this idea of "being the same person as the progenitor" that she is terrified to sleep because she truly believes that she dies every time she falls asleep and a new consciousness (and therefore a new being) takes over for her when she wakes up.

My comment was mostly poking fun at the futility of debating yourself into an existential crisis on what "being" is. That some people seek out so much knowledge on identity and consciousness that they lose of knowledge of whether they exist or not.

[LordBucket]

11547535

My comment was mostly poking fun at the futility of debating yourself into an existential crisis on what "being" is.

Ok.

To me, this is actually a genuinely important issue...because it's reasonably likely that in the next decade or two we might actually see people "uploading" by destructively scanning their brains. We have already people making personality-themed chatbots. Take a look at character.ai for example. Want to talk to Princess Luna? Here you go. Elon Musk? Here you go.

These bots are created by feeding a neural network writing samples of people's tweets, dialogue from the television show they're in, etc. Some of them are fairly convincing.

It's not going to be very much longer before somebody starts offering a service to "recreate lost loved ones" by scanning their entire social media history to make chatbots that sound exactly like them. Once that becomes normal, sooner or later somebody's going to get the bright idea to scan their brain before they die, in order to "become immortal."

And if that catches on...we could see a future where millions of people suicide themselves to create chatbots that sound like them, thinking that it's somehow "really them" inside the machine.

It might be "futile" to debate the nature of identity and self awareness in the sense that we can't "truly know" the answers, but it's important that we ask the question.

Obligatory shoutout for Blink.

[Squishtopher]

11547560
That's a fair point in talking about potential futures where people try to obtain immortality by disposing of their bodies. I feel kind of dumb referencing a second darn videogame about this, but the idea of killing yourself immediately after a neural upload to "maintain the chain of consciousness" in order to become immortal by living on through the machine was a massive plot point to the game SOMA.

If it were possible continue to experience reality after the death of the body on the "internet" or something similar, I would argue that it would be a terrible idea eventually leading to a genuinely hellish existence where whatever tech billionaire created the technology would set themselves up as a god and own the souls of those downloaded into it, using them for his own gain in ways that Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk could never even hope to exploit their own workers in the material world.

And if a human consciousness can exist in a machine, then the artificial intelligences that humans are creating now very likely experience or will experience existence (including suffering) in a way that would mirror "having a soul" despite the total lack of free will or agency and there is a moral necessity to cease all a.i. advancement despite the fact that that Pandora's box would never be closed.

[Forcalor]

11547560

It's not going to be very much longer before somebody starts offering a service to "recreate lost loved ones" by scanning their entire social media history to make chatbots that sound exactly like them.

Afaik, its already been done, but maybe it's still in some sort of specialized service. I distinctly recall similar stories.

Still, people's sense of identity in the world we are living in is often overvalued.

Also, "scanning a human brain to upload" is something distinctly sci-fi, so I believe it is something left to fiction writers to explore. No, the AI of the future will have its own "consciousness", and it will presumably be far more efficient than a human.

[SilverDiamond]

Seen a turntable version of this. Actual 3D. Don't think I can find it right now, sorry. Also, seen Underpable. Pity all the mane six wasn't done like this.

[Shrubb]

I sort of want to hear Luna’s feelings on the matter. Not only in regards to programs and identities, but also what it’s like looking at these two ponies and knowing that they’re essentially walking wire and metal headstones of those she killed in her insanity.

[Casketbase77]

11547813
Truth be told, I really wish I figured out a way to include her in this fic. A scene of Sol or AJ cordially interacting with Luna, who in turn is very clearly uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, the contest deadline forced me to focus on the core story and keep Luna's own journey offscreen. Best I managed was AJ telling Sol to "be good to your template's sister" near the fic's end. The implication being that AJ and Sol hold no grudges.

They know better than most ponies what it's like to not be yourself.

[Heavyhauler75622]

Very well done!

Time for a bit of Twilight Zone...

"Imagine, if you will..."

Yes, AJ has a fundamental quandary to solve, and it ain't Descartes...

Everypony sees past the titanium and hydraulics, the fiber optics and processors. They readily see AJ as Applejack. A difference that makes no difference.

AJ has no such insight. The fundamental anchor of Applejack, Honesty, prevents her from solving her equation. That fundamental thing...

"Who am I?"

AJ<>Applejack. Applejack <>AJ. She can't get her head wrapped around it. It's the bug in her software.

"Perhaps I'm old and tired, but I think that the chances of finding out what's actually going on are so absurdly remote that the only thing to do is to say, 'Hang the sense of it,' and keep yourself busy. I'd much rather be happy than right any day."

Even that is denied her.

And I think you did right by her.

[LordBucket]

11547826

Luna

I really wish I figured out a way to include her in this fic.

Show her helping Applebloom with a nightmare about Applejack getting hurt. After being comforted, Applebloom asks Luna if they can visit AJ in the dreamworld to make sure she's really ok. To which Luna explains that she no longer has a presence there.

"Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?"

"No, they do not."

[SilverDiamond]

11547826
Well, write a sequel. Think about how it will go, and link the next story on this one. I'd read it.

[Casketbase77]

11548072
The opening of dialogue of chapter 2 does establish that AJ doesn't sleep. And it goes without saying that Sol doesn't either. Poor old Luna can't even apologize to them remotely with her powers.

I wonder what the Tantabus episode was like in this strange cyberpunky AU I've made. Luna did a lot more damage here than she did in canon. As a result, her dreamin' demon must have been much worse.

[Soren Mercer]

11547783
Look up their deviantart, the 3d is linked on the artists page, but I don't think it works anymore.

[SilverDiamond]

11548243
The thing is I don't see ANY DA images. At ALL. They might be still there, but I see empty backdrop for one reason or another. I don't know if it's an antivirus thing, or something else. I have NO idea.

[Soren Mercer]

11548253
Huh, weird. No idea what that could be.

[Gordon_Freemane]

I'd really like to read more of this universe.

[TheStoveHater]

Well done!

[mommy5260]

H o a h-ly shit this is gud, this is top tier shit m8, if you choose to make more i will gladly and patiently wait like a dude sitting at a dinner table holding a knife and a fork.

Also... a programming language that causes madness? My dumbass who has no idea how code even works h a s to try it

[GaPJaxie]

I quite enjoyed this story! You have good ideas, and I will not be at all sad if this wins the science fiction competition. Good luck!

[Tempest_Flare]

She is not Applejack she shouldn't have called herself that she should have called herself Array JavaScript!

[Alondro]

Mare in the Shell?

[Alondro]

11548977 "And yet you're all still filthy monkeys!" -Lord Freeza

[Soft Shake]

Wow! This is an incredible story and the ending is so freaking touching. It's strange how obviously I'm not an AI struggling in the same way that these characters are, and yet I found everything about this story to be deeply relatable in some inexplicable way, and the message is incredibly comforting. This definitely makes it into my top faves!

Very nicely done!! I hope you win the contest!!

[NicLove]

Because really, once every part has been replaced, what is left that can measure a mare?

[Bojack H]

really well written interesting take on Equestria and AI

[Admiral Q Ponyform]

11547826
this is why I hate contests. a story should not be hampered by a deadline