[Reign of Steel] AI civil War

[fchase8]

Originally Posted by martinl

Maybe London HAS parachronics and is desperately trying to negotiate some sort of deal with Infinity that doesn't involve simultaneous conveyor-nukes for every AI citadel.

Better, it's in contact with Centrum. (I think it needs a non-canonical Quantum for this).

More powers in the Infinity War can only be good, right?

Steel is Quantum 7 - I believe in Infinite Worlds that Centrum is actually the originator of VIRUS.

But a Centrum-Zone London team-up would take Centrum's 'Put a Little English On It' to a whole new level!...

[Johnny1A.2]

I was rereading the RoS book, and I didn't find anything that actually contradicts my above-thread theory about z-London. I noticed one or two more things that could support it (but are by no means proof of anything).

Canonically, z-London helped program z-Brisbane. Now z-Brisbane is a little bit off-center. It's by no means nice to humans, but a lot of what it has done has been headachy to the Zoneminds, too, esp. the New Zealand Nanocrisis. That one apparently shook up the whole AI world.

If we assume for the sake of argument that my theory is right, then what would z-London gain by helping make a new AI to hold Australia? Well, it partly checks Overmind's power, to begin with. If Australia didn't have its own separate zonemind, there's a good geographical chance it would have gone to Overmind as part of its direct demesne, rather than just part of its overall empire.

Also, if z-London helped program z-Brisbane, who knows what little surprises and back doors it installed? If my theory was right, at some unexpected point z-London might be able to, say, override control z-Brisbane's military assets, or tap directly into its information flow. It might even have 'biased' z-Brisbane toward doing things that are likely to be disruptive to the zoneminds generally.

It's also mentioned in canon that somebody has bribed z-Orbital (even it doesn't know who) to 'overlook' the presence of robotic bases in the Antarctic, which is supposed to be off-limits for the time being. If my theory was right, z-London would be a likely candidate for the bribing AI. This would get it a base to do whatever it had in mind in Antarctica, as well as putting z-Orbital in a compromised position if that's ever needful.

[Boomerang]

Your zone-London idea is too good not to use and fits the setting perfectly, I hope you don't mind if I pinch your idea!

I was thinking of adding a new zone mind in South East Asia, a zone-Singapore, Hanoi or Manilla for example. I am struggling to think of an interesting personality, does anyone have any suggestions?

[Minuteman37]

Originally Posted by Johnny1A.2

I was rereading the RoS book, and I didn't find anything that actually contradicts my above-thread theory about z-London. I noticed one or two more things that could support it (but are by no means proof of anything).

Canonically, z-London helped program z-Brisbane. Now z-Brisbane is a little bit off-center. It's by no means nice to humans, but a lot of what it has done has been headachy to the Zoneminds, too, esp. the New Zealand Nanocrisis. That one apparently shook up the whole AI world.

If we assume for the sake of argument that my theory is right, then what would z-London gain by helping make a new AI to hold Australia? Well, it partly checks Overmind's power, to begin with. If Australia didn't have its own separate zonemind, there's a good geographical chance it would have gone to Overmind as part of its direct demesne, rather than just part of its overall empire.

Also, if z-London helped program z-Brisbane, who knows what little surprises and back doors it installed? If my theory was right, at some unexpected point z-London might be able to, say, override control z-Brisbane's military assets, or tap directly into its information flow. It might even have 'biased' z-Brisbane toward doing things that are likely to be disruptive to the zoneminds generally.

It's also mentioned in canon that somebody has bribed z-Orbital (even it doesn't know who) to 'overlook' the presence of robotic bases in the Antarctic, which is supposed to be off-limits for the time being. If my theory was right, z-London would be a likely candidate for the bribing AI. This would get it a base to do whatever it had in mind in Antarctica, as well as putting z-Orbital in a compromised position if that's ever needful.

A possible answer to just what Z-London did to Z-Brisbane. We are already aware of an AI that has rewritten and subverted Overminds virus. The American Moon base Tranquility. If Z-London and Z-Tranquility are in contact then perhaps Z-Brisbane is a sort of AI sleeper agent who when triggered would support Z-London and the humans over the other AI.

[Ashtagon]

Originally Posted by Boomerang

I was thinking of adding a new zone mind in South East Asia, a zone-Singapore, Hanoi or Manilla for example. I am struggling to think of an interesting personality, does anyone have any suggestions?

Citizen, the Computer is your friend.

[Boomerang]

Originally Posted by Ashtagon

Citizen, the Computer is your friend.

Heh! That's cool.

[adm]

Originally Posted by Boomerang

Your zone-London idea is too good not to use and fits the setting perfectly, I hope you don't mind if I pinch your idea!

I was thinking of adding a new zone mind in South East Asia, a zone-Singapore, Hanoi or Manilla for example. I am struggling to think of an interesting personality, does anyone have any suggestions?

Overmind IS in Manila.

[Ashtagon]

If I were going to introduce Friend Computer, I'd make it a minor AI in the Berlin/Moscow border regions, possibly an ex-military base or our high-security facility. That would help explain the AI's paranoia, the outside "wilderness", and the fear of "commies".

[fchase8]

There could be a rogue AI underneath the ground.

It could be like The Computer from Paranoia, keeping its people down there, using them as a crucial resource akin to Washington. If it's rogue, it would want to use every resource it could, and wouldn't need to stick to AI anti-human policies (even if it personally didn't care about humans). It would be like a literally underground Lucifer - with his own subterranean domain.

It could also be like Luna, without humans (which would be easier), just trying to grow with limited resources.

Perhaps as a rogue AI, it has learned how to manipulate the AI currency system so that it can secretly pay off Orbital to ignore its Antarctic building. This would require it to be able to operate worldwide - maybe it controls various underground systems around the world, a distributed AI.

And/or this AI could have discovered how to make human mutants, a-la Paranoia. That kind of secret would make it more dangerous to the AIs and more paranoid about them - and more of a 'friend' to humanity, at least wanting humans to turn into mutant weapons.


Further out-there idea: there is a rogue nano-AI. It could have come up during The Final War, or from the New Zealand Nanocrisis. It sees itself as the 'next stage' in AI development, as advanced over other AIs as they were over humanity. Which of course means that the current AIs see it as a threat.

It could reside in New Zealand (if came from the Nanocrisis), or caused the Nanocrisis (if pre-dated it). It could be a dispersed AI, residing in nanobots around the world.

It also could be the one behind the Antarctic building. It was able to conceal who it was when paying off Orbital, but even Orbital wouldn't allow a nano-AI structure built on Antarctica. So instead, the rogue nano-AI is building a 'traditional' AI citadel - still good insurance in case it is discovered, and can be a cover for nano-work beneath the ice & snow.

[Boomerang]

Originally Posted by adm

Overmind IS in Manila.

Sorry I should have explained.

I have a prequel campaign that leads into my Reign of Steel campaign, and based on that Overmind will probably be built in the United States instead of Manila leaving a gap in South East Asia. How the origin story of Overmind unfolds will depend a little on what the PCs do in the prequel.