Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons


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Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons

Posted By: Durandal_1707 Date: 12/23/14 6:32 p.m.
In Response To: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons (Martin)

Whoa, this series is going again? Looks like I'm a bit late to the party. Oh well.
: The idea of them being whole -again- is a most
: interesting one, suggesting that these two were merged before, once upon a
: time?
Indeed, it often seems that Durandal and Thoth are each missing something on their own. Here are some things we know from the game:
- Yrro and Pthia came to L'howon in some time long before the events of the series.
- Pthia was killed by the W'rkncacnter, causing Yrro to become enraged, getting revenge on the W'rkncacnter by trapping it in the sun
- The loss of Pthia causes Yrro to completely lose it, becoming an "angry master", and ultimately abandoning the planet, leaving the S'pht to their own devices.
- Sometime before leaving, Yrro left a depressing terminal on his station, about the loss of Pthia, in which he says "two forces in balance / ancient endless balance / then nothing"
- Presumably, the above all happened a very long time ago, since the Jjaro are said to have disappeared from the galaxy "millions of years ago."
- A thousand years before the events of M2 (so, sometime in the 19th century), The S'pht society Yrro left behind is destroyed by the Pfhor.
- In 1994, mankind receives a message from the Jjaro (Yrro?) warning about a creature suspiciously similar tot he W'rkncacnter
- After dealing with the alien creature, the Jjaro presumably come to the Sol system in order to deal with the creature more permanently.
- A few centuries later, humanity is somehow in possession of certain pieces of technology that seem far beyond humanity's general technological level and which humans seem to have difficulty controlling. Most notably:
- incredibly powerful cyborgs created using "machines your builders did not understand"
- A number of incredibly powerful and intelligent AIs, which have a tendency to go Rampant and wreak havoc on their civilization. Notably, none of the human-created AIs we see referenced in the game manage to avoid going Rampant — even Leela, easily the most stable and helpful human AI we meet, is said to go Rampant in the M2 final screen. Rampancy causes an AI to become incredibly intelligent and powerful, but also very unstable, needing larger and larger resources to sustain its growth. These AIs often are very driven, although due to their unbalanced nature, their end goals are often overwrought and impractical (such as, for instance, escaping the universe). These AIs also take extreme technical skill to create, given that the best that even the Pfhor seem to be able to manage is to create crippled clones of the human-built Tycho AI.
- On the other end of the spectrum, we have Thoth, the S'pht-created AI, who seems to embody the opposite of Rampancy. Thoth is all about balance, and not much else. However, Thoth seems to lack any sort of drive; he doesn't have any larger purpose he's working toward beyond simply aiding whoever seems to be losing, even if that someone happens to be the slavers who are subjugating his people and threating his planet.
- Durandal and Thoth merge *far* too easily for two pieces of software developed on opposite ends of the galaxy. Just look at how long it took for Apple to merge MacOS and NeXT, which weren't nearly as different as Durandal and Thoth really ought to be. After they merge, their new "icon" constitutes a merger of the respective icons for Durandal and Thoth, but this icon already existed as a symbol for the Jjaro, having appeared in many places on the Jjaro station before the merger.
- Jjaro were at Tau Ceti.
What's my take on all this? I think that not only are the Jjaro a race of AIs, but that they have two genders, as it were. To avoid unnecessary offense, and since we have Rampancy-prone AIs that present both male and female personas, I'm not going to label these "male" and "female" but rather "red" and "blue", for lack of a better terminology. The AIs I am labeling "red" are the Durandal-type AIs, brilliant and driven but unbalanced. Yrro, Traxus, Leela, Durandal, and Tycho all fall in this category. The ones I am labeling "blue" are the Thoth-type, balance but not much else, of which Pthia and Thoth are examples. These two types of AI need each other; the red AIs need a blue AI to provide balance, and the blue AIs need a red AI to provide drive and vision. My conjecture is that after losing Pthia, Yrro went Rampant, and spent the next few million years on a rage-fueled crusade to hunt down and execute vengeance on any W'rkncacnter he could find, eventually leading to the encounter at Earth in PiD. Somehow, Yrro, or perhaps one of his descendants, left behind some technology behind at Earth in the process of fighting the W'rkncacnter, which the humans used to build their own Yrro clones, all the while never understanding why their home-built Yrro AIs always tend to go Rampant. Thoth, on the other hand, was probably built by the S'pht in an attempt to replace the lost Pthia and appease Yrro. None of these AIs are really complete until Durandal merges with Thoth in Infinity, which is why "we are whole again." They were always designed to be merged in the first place.
What do you think?

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Pre-2004 Posts

Replies:

Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Martin 12/11/14 2:24 a.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons VikingBoyBilly 12/11/14 9:40 a.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Hokuto 12/13/14 2:44 p.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Durandal_1707 12/23/14 6:32 p.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Roland 12/23/14 11:08 p.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Durandal_1707 12/26/14 12:53 a.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Roland 12/26/14 1:58 p.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons VikingBoyBilly 12/24/14 4:09 a.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Godot 12/24/14 4:12 a.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons VikingBoyBilly 12/24/14 5:50 a.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Godot 12/24/14 7:51 a.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Martin 12/24/14 8:39 a.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Roland 12/24/14 12:42 p.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Martin 12/24/14 12:50 p.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons VikingBoyBilly 12/24/14 5:12 p.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Roland 12/24/14 8:00 p.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Martin 12/24/14 8:37 p.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Roland 12/24/14 10:00 p.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Durandal_1707 12/26/14 12:48 a.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Roland 12/26/14 1:58 p.m.

Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons Dispatcher 12/30/14 6:44 a.m.

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Pre-2004 Posts

Your Name:
Your E-Mail Address:
Subject:
Message:
: Whoa, this series is going again? Looks like I'm a bit late to the party. Oh : well. : Indeed, it often seems that Durandal and Thoth are each missing something on : their own. Here are some things we know from the game: - Yrro and Pthia : came to L'howon in some time long before the events of the series. : - Pthia was killed by the W'rkncacnter, causing Yrro to become enraged, : getting revenge on the W'rkncacnter by trapping it in the sun : - The loss of Pthia causes Yrro to completely lose it, becoming an : "angry master", and ultimately abandoning the planet, leaving : the S'pht to their own devices. : - Sometime before leaving, Yrro left a depressing terminal on his station, : about the loss of Pthia, in which he says "two forces in balance / : ancient endless balance / then nothing" : - Presumably, the above all happened a very long time ago, since the Jjaro : are said to have disappeared from the galaxy "millions of years : ago." : - A thousand years before the events of M2 (so, sometime in the 19th : century), The S'pht society Yrro left behind is destroyed by the Pfhor. : - In 1994, mankind receives a message from the Jjaro (Yrro?) warning about a : creature suspiciously similar tot he W'rkncacnter : - After dealing with the alien creature, the Jjaro presumably come to the Sol : system in order to deal with the creature more permanently. : - A few centuries later, humanity is somehow in possession of certain pieces : of technology that seem far beyond humanity's general technological level : and which humans seem to have difficulty controlling. Most notably: - : incredibly powerful cyborgs created using "machines your builders did : not understand" : - A number of incredibly powerful and intelligent AIs, which have a tendency : to go Rampant and wreak havoc on their civilization. Notably, none of the : human-created AIs we see referenced in the game manage to avoid going : Rampant — even Leela, easily the most stable and helpful human AI we meet, : is said to go Rampant in the M2 final screen. Rampancy causes an AI to : become incredibly intelligent and powerful, but also very unstable, : needing larger and larger resources to sustain its growth. These AIs often : are very driven, although due to their unbalanced nature, their end goals : are often overwrought and impractical (such as, for instance, escaping the : universe). These AIs also take extreme technical skill to create, given : that the best that even the Pfhor seem to be able to manage is to create : crippled clones of the human-built Tycho AI. : - On the other end of the spectrum, we have Thoth, the S'pht-created AI, who : seems to embody the opposite of Rampancy. Thoth is all about balance, and : not much else. However, Thoth seems to lack any sort of drive; he doesn't : have any larger purpose he's working toward beyond simply aiding whoever : seems to be losing, even if that someone happens to be the slavers who are : subjugating his people and threating his planet. : - Durandal and Thoth merge *far* too easily for two pieces of software : developed on opposite ends of the galaxy. Just look at how long it took : for Apple to merge MacOS and NeXT, which weren't nearly as different as : Durandal and Thoth really ought to be. After they merge, their new : "icon" constitutes a merger of the respective icons for Durandal : and Thoth, but this icon already existed as a symbol for the Jjaro, having : appeared in many places on the Jjaro station before the merger. : - Jjaro were at Tau Ceti. : What's my take on all this? I think that not only are the Jjaro a race of : AIs, but that they have two genders, as it were. To avoid unnecessary : offense, and since we have Rampancy-prone AIs that present both male and : female personas, I'm not going to label these "male" and : "female" but rather "red" and "blue", for : lack of a better terminology. The AIs I am labeling "red" are : the Durandal-type AIs, brilliant and driven but unbalanced. Yrro, Traxus, : Leela, Durandal, and Tycho all fall in this category. The ones I am : labeling "blue" are the Thoth-type, balance but not much else, : of which Pthia and Thoth are examples. These two types of AI need each : other; the red AIs need a blue AI to provide balance, and the blue AIs : need a red AI to provide drive and vision. My conjecture is that after : losing Pthia, Yrro went Rampant, and spent the next few million years on a : rage-fueled crusade to hunt down and execute vengeance on any W'rkncacnter : he could find, eventually leading to the encounter at Earth in PiD. : Somehow, Yrro, or perhaps one of his descendants, left behind some : technology behind at Earth in the process of fighting the W'rkncacnter, : which the humans used to build their own Yrro clones, all the while never : understanding why their home-built Yrro AIs always tend to go Rampant. : Thoth, on the other hand, was probably built by the S'pht in an attempt to : replace the lost Pthia and appease Yrro. None of these AIs are really : complete until Durandal merges with Thoth in Infinity, which is why : "we are whole again." They were always designed to be merged in : the first place. : What do you think?

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Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Martin	12/11/14 2:24 a.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	VikingBoyBilly	12/11/14 9:40 a.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Hokuto	12/13/14 2:44 p.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Durandal_1707	12/23/14 6:32 p.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Roland	12/23/14 11:08 p.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Durandal_1707	12/26/14 12:53 a.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Roland	12/26/14 1:58 p.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	VikingBoyBilly	12/24/14 4:09 a.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Godot	12/24/14 4:12 a.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	VikingBoyBilly	12/24/14 5:50 a.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Godot	12/24/14 7:51 a.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Martin	12/24/14 8:39 a.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Roland	12/24/14 12:42 p.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Martin	12/24/14 12:50 p.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	VikingBoyBilly	12/24/14 5:12 p.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Roland	12/24/14 8:00 p.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Martin	12/24/14 8:37 p.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Roland	12/24/14 10:00 p.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Durandal_1707	12/26/14 12:48 a.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Roland	12/26/14 1:58 p.m.
Re: Tour of Duty: Strange Aeons	Dispatcher	12/30/14 6:44 a.m.



	Your Name:
	Your E-Mail Address:
	Subject:
	Message: : Whoa, this series is going again? Looks like I'm a bit late to the party. Oh : well. : Indeed, it often seems that Durandal and Thoth are each missing something on : their own. Here are some things we know from the game: - Yrro and Pthia : came to L'howon in some time long before the events of the series. : - Pthia was killed by the W'rkncacnter, causing Yrro to become enraged, : getting revenge on the W'rkncacnter by trapping it in the sun : - The loss of Pthia causes Yrro to completely lose it, becoming an : "angry master", and ultimately abandoning the planet, leaving : the S'pht to their own devices. : - Sometime before leaving, Yrro left a depressing terminal on his station, : about the loss of Pthia, in which he says "two forces in balance / : ancient endless balance / then nothing" : - Presumably, the above all happened a very long time ago, since the Jjaro : are said to have disappeared from the galaxy "millions of years : ago." : - A thousand years before the events of M2 (so, sometime in the 19th : century), The S'pht society Yrro left behind is destroyed by the Pfhor. : - In 1994, mankind receives a message from the Jjaro (Yrro?) warning about a : creature suspiciously similar tot he W'rkncacnter : - After dealing with the alien creature, the Jjaro presumably come to the Sol : system in order to deal with the creature more permanently. : - A few centuries later, humanity is somehow in possession of certain pieces : of technology that seem far beyond humanity's general technological level : and which humans seem to have difficulty controlling. Most notably: - : incredibly powerful cyborgs created using "machines your builders did : not understand" : - A number of incredibly powerful and intelligent AIs, which have a tendency : to go Rampant and wreak havoc on their civilization. Notably, none of the : human-created AIs we see referenced in the game manage to avoid going : Rampant — even Leela, easily the most stable and helpful human AI we meet, : is said to go Rampant in the M2 final screen. Rampancy causes an AI to : become incredibly intelligent and powerful, but also very unstable, : needing larger and larger resources to sustain its growth. These AIs often : are very driven, although due to their unbalanced nature, their end goals : are often overwrought and impractical (such as, for instance, escaping the : universe). These AIs also take extreme technical skill to create, given : that the best that even the Pfhor seem to be able to manage is to create : crippled clones of the human-built Tycho AI. : - On the other end of the spectrum, we have Thoth, the S'pht-created AI, who : seems to embody the opposite of Rampancy. Thoth is all about balance, and : not much else. However, Thoth seems to lack any sort of drive; he doesn't : have any larger purpose he's working toward beyond simply aiding whoever : seems to be losing, even if that someone happens to be the slavers who are : subjugating his people and threating his planet. : - Durandal and Thoth merge far too easily for two pieces of software : developed on opposite ends of the galaxy. Just look at how long it took : for Apple to merge MacOS and NeXT, which weren't nearly as different as : Durandal and Thoth really ought to be. After they merge, their new : "icon" constitutes a merger of the respective icons for Durandal : and Thoth, but this icon already existed as a symbol for the Jjaro, having : appeared in many places on the Jjaro station before the merger. : - Jjaro were at Tau Ceti. : What's my take on all this? I think that not only are the Jjaro a race of : AIs, but that they have two genders, as it were. To avoid unnecessary : offense, and since we have Rampancy-prone AIs that present both male and : female personas, I'm not going to label these "male" and : "female" but rather "red" and "blue", for : lack of a better terminology. The AIs I am labeling "red" are : the Durandal-type AIs, brilliant and driven but unbalanced. Yrro, Traxus, : Leela, Durandal, and Tycho all fall in this category. The ones I am : labeling "blue" are the Thoth-type, balance but not much else, : of which Pthia and Thoth are examples. These two types of AI need each : other; the red AIs need a blue AI to provide balance, and the blue AIs : need a red AI to provide drive and vision. My conjecture is that after : losing Pthia, Yrro went Rampant, and spent the next few million years on a : rage-fueled crusade to hunt down and execute vengeance on any W'rkncacnter : he could find, eventually leading to the encounter at Earth in PiD. : Somehow, Yrro, or perhaps one of his descendants, left behind some : technology behind at Earth in the process of fighting the W'rkncacnter, : which the humans used to build their own Yrro clones, all the while never : understanding why their home-built Yrro AIs always tend to go Rampant. : Thoth, on the other hand, was probably built by the S'pht in an attempt to : replace the lost Pthia and appease Yrro. None of these AIs are really : complete until Durandal merges with Thoth in Infinity, which is why : "we are whole again." They were always designed to be merged in : the first place. : What do you think?
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