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Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | ||
Posted By: Steve Levinson | Date: 8/2/02 2:54 p.m. | |
Wow, I have never seen Durandal be as long-winded as on this level, and that’s saying a lot! First of all, there is the matter of the chip that you’re carrying, which contains the encrypted code for the Achilles virus. Interestingly, this level takes place in a different section of the Rozinante than you are used to - a smaller area that is seen only sporadically in the other Rozinante levels. If you log-on before you insert the chip in the uplink slot, Durandal will treat you to a little of his humor:
But what if you don’t want to give Durandal the chip? What if you absolutely refuse? In Rubicon, that is sadly not an option. I can imagine how Durandal might react if you refused, but it would have been interesting if it we could have experienced that fist hand. The Mjolnar Mark IV cyborg who is the marine in Rubicon may have come to trust Durandal, but I for one have not. Why would Durandal want the virus? With all samples destroyed and with Lysander about to be destroyed, wouldn’t it be better for the knowledge to be erased forever? On the other hand, knowledge can never truly be erased. The nuclear genie can’t be put back in the bottle. The Achilles virus is a fact. That chip you’re carrying is the only hope that exists for developing an antidote if it were needed in the future, and who better to develop that antidote than someone with a planet-sized brain? The problem as I see it is that Durandal is much more interested in power and control than in saving humanity. There are numerous clues in the Pfhor plank that he knew something of what was going on on the Salinger and chose not to do anything about it. I think he wants the formula for Achilles for his own, future purposes. I think that he sees this as potential leverage that he can use against humanity should it ever be necessary. Not that I think that he’d use it without cause, but I fear what he could do with it if it ever became advantageous for him to work with humans again. For my part, I’d rather see the full resources of the USEC used to develop a vaccine or cure that could be kept available should the unthinkable happen. This level is interesting from another standpoint as well. We are about to discuss what is undoubtedly the most controversial aspect of the Rubicon scenario. It became controversial almost immediately after the scenario’s release, once a few of us had had the chance to play the game through. What follows is Durandal’s long-winded explanation on the history of artificial intelligence and rampancy. This is a slightly different take on the subject than what we first learned in Marathon; hence the controversy. Remember, this is Durandal talking to you, but it reads much more like an informational database report similar to those you first saw in Marathon, including the “#ref deleted” items:
Boy, I’m still very skeptical about how one could test to determine that an artificial entity is self-aware. Think about it – how could you prove that an AI really knows that it exists? How do we know that we exist? What is self-awareness? I read a very interesting article in Smithsonian Magazine recently, detailing the lives of lower primates such as baboons. Although the baboons could cry for help if they got lost, the other baboons did nothing in response. The authors believed that this was evidence that the baboons had no awareness of self – they could not project another’s feelings onto their own and, since they were not lost, they did not see a need to respond. I think that the authors may be jumping to conclusions, but this tends to highlight just how daunting a task it would be to determine self-awareness.
So far this does not really contradict anything in the backstory for the Marathon Trilogy. It fills in some of the story, but it is consistent. That is about to change:
Here the Rubicon Team has taken a leap of faith to tie some loose ends together to support their story. Some have taken offense to this, but I personally don’t see anything here that explicitly contradicts Marathon backstory and I am inclined to give the Rubicon Team the poetic license that they deserve. They may have made the relationships a bit too pat in the process, but they are still consistent. The idea that rampancy is inevitable is an interesting one, and it makes a lot of sense to me. Bernard may have been on the right track trying to control it rather than to prevent it after all, but Durandal none-the-less managed to escape his shackles. And there is once again the suggestion that some of Strauss’ technology came from elsewhere – it has been suggested by others that it was actually Jjaro technology, but then one has to wonder how the UESC or the UNAG came upon this technology in the first place. I didn’t play PiD other than the demo – was there anything in PiD that could have given us enough Jjaro technology on which to base an AI?
Well, it stands to reason that research on AI would have proceeded during the 300 years that it took the Marathon to reach Tau Ceti, but wait until we get to Core Wars. Haven’t we seen computer cores that look like this before? Does Thoth ring a bell? Where did Dangi get that technology? Lh’owon was destroyed by the trih xeem. Did the Pfhor acquire some of this technology during their stay on Lh’owon? Or maybe it was Tycho? That’s where I’d put my money.
For once, I tend to agree with Durandal, here. Let’s go on to Core Wars, the first level in the final chapter, Fraternus Carnifex. |
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Replies: |
Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Steve Levinson | 8/2/02 2:54 p.m. | |
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Scifiteki | 8/2/02 6:53 p.m. | |
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Rincewind MoG | 8/3/02 10:34 a.m. | |
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Steve Levinson | 8/3/02 10:45 a.m. | |
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Steve Levinson | 8/3/02 12:05 p.m. | |
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Some guy | 8/3/02 10:21 p.m. | |
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Scifiteki | 8/4/02 12:38 a.m. | |
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Tru7h | 8/4/02 7:22 a.m. | |
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Steve Levinson | 8/4/02 11:52 a.m. | |
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Tru7h | 8/4/02 4:45 p.m. | |
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Steve Levinson | 8/4/02 11:35 a.m. | |
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Some guy | 8/5/02 11:01 a.m. | |
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Steve Levinson | 8/5/02 2:58 p.m. | |
Re: Rubicon Volunteers - Rozinante XI | Scott | 8/6/02 8:58 p.m. |
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