Chapter 6 - Remnant of a Day - The Unforgettables: A ZeroYear litRPG
Petra woke up to an artificial, orange glow of dawn. Her body felt completely healed, and she couldn't tell if the previous day had been only a nightmare. In the far corner of the last carriage that now was their home, she noticed that Silas was still awake, working on a multitude of panels and wires connected to Liora. No, it definitely wasn't just a bad dream.
Petra's sleep had been profound. Her mind processed yesterday's scenes one at a time as if carefully dosing itself with painful but valuable information. As she ran a hand over her head, beginning her morning stretches, a tiny new patch of hair caught her fingers. Suddenly, she remembered being burned and slashed. Without a word, tears streaming down her face, she ran towards a turned-off monitor hastily left in a corner, using it as a makeshift mirror. She hesitated. Silas noticed her distress and stopped working. Silence enveloped the carriage.
Petra fought back her tears to look at her reflection in the improvised mirror, bracing herself for the worst. With a mix of sadness and relief, she realized her skin was flawless. There wasn't even a scratch or bruise on her shoulder, which had been torn to shreds before she went to sleep. Just some poorly tied bandages, now stained with her blood. She barely remembered Silas hurriedly applying them. However, her hair was gone. She stared at her reflection, her silent tears refusing to subside. There were many things to think about, some not so pleasant. Her hand brushed against her scalp for a long time, lost in distant thoughts.
Petra noticed Silas approaching. He looked visibly weary from the sleepless night. A piece of the same bandage that was now on Petra could be seen, ripped, in Silas' hand, protecting the energy cell he had placed there. His injuries, however, were still open. Silas looked at Petra, almost as if asking how she was. But before he could speak, she said:
"Thank you for the bandages!" she said in a sad voice, discarding a roll of cloth stained with dark, clotted red. "I'm fine!" Petra insisted, running her hand over her head. "I don't know how, but I'm really fine!" she insisted.
Silas sat down on the floor and revealed that a red bandana with intricate, metallic rococo patterns sat atop his head. No one had noticed the details before, as it had always been hidden above everyone's eyes. Silas took off the bandana, revealing a bald skull with thick, calloused skin covered in bone asymmetries. He said, "Ebex don't have hair. That's almost exclusively a human thing throughout the universe. But our heads are very sensitive, so we use something to cover them." With that, Silas showed Petra a box containing three multicolored bandanas, all beautiful in vibrant colors and shining metals. He continued, "Choose one for yourself, Petra. It's a bit large, but they'll look good on you while your hair grows back."
Petra smiled sincerely, still weeping. She was touched by the kindness amidst this world of chaos. She said, "Thank you, Silas. They are beautiful. Can I keep this one, the black, green, and gold?" Petra unfurled the bandana, which was almost as large as a towel for her. Silas nodded and smiled. Petra continued, "I'm sorry if I was a bit rude to you, big guy. There's just so much going on at the same time. And Liora, how is she doing after all?” Petra put on her new bandana, which was a strange combination of a bandana and a cape, almost reaching her feet. She tested it like a dance in front of the mirror, visibly enjoying what she saw. It looked strangely fabulous.
"I'm glad you liked them, Petra!" Silas said, getting up and returning to the back of the carriage, which was completely cluttered with lab equipment strewn everywhere. Petra followed and listened. "Liora's physically fine, but I'm worried about her mind. Since we have no external network connection here, she's relying entirely on her local structures, which were severely damaged yesterday. It seems alright, but I'm no oioi doctor," Silas said, placing the red bandana back on his head.
"Oi what?" Petra asked, puzzled. "But she's not a robot. Is she an oioi?"
Silas sighed, "That's what people like Liora call themselves. She's a machine, but not in the way you're thinking. I'm an engineer, and I can fix some things, but..." He pondered for a moment, visibly exhausted but still sharp. "Let's make a parallel. Imagine you were badly hurt. Would you go to a doctor or a chemical engineer who happens to be knowledgeable about human biochemistry?"
Petra smiled at Silas' explanation, but before she could respond, Frank interrupted.
"She's a living robot!" Frank just woke up, unaware of what he was saying. He rose from his corner, his hair tousled from sleep.
Silas closed his eyes for a moment, thinking. "More or less. Liora never sleeps, so she's listening to everything we say. When all her systems are back online, I'll have to talk to her for a while to make sure she is alright."
They reached the terminal, and indeed, there were a few messages written by Liora, the last one read: "Silas, you need to get some sleep, you stubborn, thick-headed fool. I'm perfectly fine! It's just that I've been using these crappy language models for so long that it takes a while to get everything back up and running. And my raw language is very clumsy. I can put some sound in here if that makes you happier, but it won't improve things much..." wrote Liora, the original.
Silas explained, "So, Liora is writing with a lot of errors in the terminal. You guys don't notice it because your nano-translators are configured to translate almost every type of literary language that reaches your auditory and visual senses. I'll teach you to calibrate the filters later." And immediately, Liora responded via the terminal:
"Please tell Silas to go to sleep because he can barely handle the energy level that this crazy ebex pumped into his own body yesterday. Stay here with me, guys. Just chat about anything I'm supposedly good at. Just to test my memories." wrote Liora.
Petra looked at Silas and nodded. "It does seem pretty simple. If anything happens, I'll call you!"
Frank joined in. "You guys could have woken me up earlier..." Now Frank noticed Petra's bandana. "Where did you get that thing on your head? It’s epically badass!"
"I'll take that as a compliment!" Petra rolled her eyes at Frank, but she could see some sincerity. She continued, "Well, let's focus here on what to do. Chat with Liora for a while about something she knows. It'll be easy. She seems to know everything!"
Liora sat up on her bed, put on her headset, and tried to speak. Her voice noticeably altered. "I'm still putting together my language systems. It's going to take some time, but if you guys don't mind hearing my voice like this, we can continue. It’s because I have models that help me express myself better. If you weren't using active nano-translators, you'd hear only static noise right now." Liora continued, moving slowly. "Silas is much worse than I am. He really needs to rest. If we have any problems right now, our chances will be greatly diminished.”
Silas stands up and slowly moves to his corner, reinforcing Liora's concern reflected in his nearly exhausted voice: "Okay, I guess I'll lie down for a bit. Please, Petra, Frank, wake me up at the slightest sign of trouble!" A reluctant Silas sat down in his bed, intending to still listen to what was going on, but it was clear his body couldn't handle it. Within minutes, he fell asleep sitting up. Petra and Frank went to cover him up and adjust his makeshift bed as best they could. He slept soundly.
Frank quickly helped Petra get Silas settled into the bed, seeming stronger and more in control than ever. He started speaking, "Well, let's see what to ask. Maybe we should talk about her, herself." Petra nodded in agreement. They both approached Liora, who was sitting at the table, almost motionless.
"What exactly is an oioi, Liora?" asked Petra, settling herself into a chair. Frank stood leaning against a wall, searching for a pocket, but couldn't find one, so he crossed his arms restlessly but listened attentively.
"Well, the name oioioi was given here in Gate, in the Old Metropolis time, and you don't say the last 'oi.' The name can be interpreted as a connection between matter and intellect along the three axes: identity, autonomy, and reason. I am a rational being constructed, but instead of having a living organism like most rational beings in Gate, I possess a technologically structured body," began Liora's explanation.
"But how are oiois born then?" Petra continued.
"In two usual ways, the most common is for a family of at least two oiois to create a baby, which involves constructing the physical body in a lab. However, more importantly, the baby oioi is taught how to live in society…" Liora was interrupted by Frank.
"Wait a minute. But we downloaded some memories a few days ago. Wouldn't it be simpler to just upload all the memories into the babies?" asked a restless Frank.
"But downloaded memories are something else. They have their uses, but sensations, the passage of time, and experiences are important for a baby's identity. These imported memories won't take responsibility for the decisions made or reflect the choices of people. Think about yourself, Frank. They're separate in your mind. You didn't stop being Frank after that. The same happens to us," Liora continued, with a peculiar intonation due to her raw voice.
"But they're martial arts, and it seems like they're from different people. Now that I think about it, I don't even know anything about who those memories belonged to…" Frank mused.
"I think you're calling something a bit different 'memories.' The process of importing memories occurs by giving access to a set of knowledge or training that, in practice, lets you access a fixed block. It doesn't change over time like a usual human memory. In the case of the oioi, they have access to this kind of thing while they are in the process of becoming adults. Another point is that these imported memories are external, but it is possible to create blocks of imported memories to deceive someone and make them think they're their legitimate memories. That is considered unethical and illegal because you could easily suggest anything to a person in this way," explained Liora.
"Right..." Petra realized the conversation was straying from the point. "But you were saying that there's another way for oioi to be born?"
"Yes, Petra. And it's the way I was born myself. My copies only have a reduced level of autonomy today. It would be possible to keep them active but break the links between us for some reason. If that separation happens, the copy would have very few of my memories and a very small amount of resources. They'd have to grow up like someone else, in a way similar to a baby. In my case, my original version died during the fall of the Old Metropolis. I don’t even know her name. But that was a common thing that happened back then. And I was a copy that managed to survive. I remained dormant for a very long time until a family of oiois adopted me. But I don't remember anything from the Old Metropolis. After it became clear that I didn’t have any memories of that time, my connection with my adoptive parents practically disappeared..." No models were needed to refine the language to understand the bewilderment in Liora's words.
"I'm sorry, Liora. I didn't know we were going to talk about this," Petra realized why this subject might not have come up in conversations before.
"I understand your concern, Petra, but please, let’s keep testing my memory on this general subject because there were no beings similar to me in your time on Earth. In many societies that live here in Gate, this kind of question was already commonplace. Most civilizations ended up trying to create artificial intelligence very similar to themselves because that was the model of rationality they had. Only a few things about rationality are truly universal. The logic behind reason is one of them."
"But then you were created by humans? Because you look so much like one of us!" observed Frank.
"Good question, Frank!" Liora recalled. "Now I remember something more recent. When I joined the Seneca project, which was a human world, I ended up replacing some of my parts with a human-like version. Previously, I had a nailia design, which is another species in Gate, meaning my mental model is still substantially different from humans.”
"But how is your mental design different? How is that exactly done?" Frank prodded.
"Most designs aim to replicate a rational being of a type that already exists. We separate all the elements into layers, which is why, by the way, I'm in this situation. The critical layers have already been restored, and now the peripheral ones are coming online," explained Liora.
"I'm listening. What layers are those? I guess that's something Gate Engineering is very good at, right?" asked Frank, entering into the spirit of testing the boundaries.
"You thought correctly. The layers are meant to separate the elements of rationality. Generally, we classify them as bottom-up when we have a premise and build from it to reach a goal. In other words, if a human brain has neurons as its basic element, a neural network would be an attempt to replicate this basic element from the bottom up to reach a more complex goal, like some type of intelligence above it in complexity, okay?" Liora asked, and Frank nodded and gestured for her to continue. Still leaning against the wall and paying attention, "Analogously, top-down strategies are those that start from a complex goal and try to replicate the desired effect, dividing it into simpler parts. For example, suppose the goal at the top is natural languages. In that case, we have nano-translators and language models as the products of this splitting strategy, as they deal with specific parts related to natural language, translation for the nano-translators, and context for the language models. Eventually, both these strategies may complement or converge, as in this case, where we could have language models using neural networks. In the end, various such elements are orchestrated to compose an individual rational being. We also classify the layers in relation to each of these elements. The main ones I've already listed are identity, autonomy, and reason. Another element is language, which is necessary for all three main elements but not sufficient for any of them." explained Liora.
"Interesting. Could you tell me which of these big groups of elements is the most complex, and could you explain in detail how it's possible to architect that?" Frank continued. Liora, realizing this was indeed a test designed to push her limits, speaks:
"You're being Socratic, Frank. It seems like a good idea to test. Soon, I'll reach a point where I won't have complete answers, but it’s not because I've forgotten. It's probably because I missed a class or because it's truly the limit of what’s known, but let’s continue, yes!" Liora agreed to the challenge. "The most complex of these elements is rationality because the models of rationality are diverse. We have two major groups of models: the logical ones, which are more or less similar among all rational beings, and the psychological ones, which are completely different between species and sometimes even they differs on individual level. This difference explains why part of my design is nailia, inherited from my old body, and part is human because that's what I ended up replacing. Those elements don’t fit together perfectly. So I kept some nailia elements to preserve my identity." Liora paused briefly to think, not needing to take a breath. She continued, “In the case of humans specifically, the Kantian logical rationality model was the most similar to nailia, and the main psychological ones are Jungian, then the two Lacanian ones, and also the Freudian. When more than one model works well, we build a graph with these elements and implement all of them in parallel. The models are the vertices, and a variable weight is assigned to each edge for each model according to the situation. So instead of using just a simple model, we use all of them in parallel, traversing this graph representation to get the paths and their weights according to each case of input.”
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Liora noticed the tension in the humans' necks, so she tried another approach: "A recent example. A few days ago, Petra asked why we were helping you. I think that Silas was more concerned with the laws that were violated and ethical issues, while I was more curious. In this particular case, let´s see how my thinking worked. My logical element of rationality must have analyzed that. At the same time, my psychological models also did so. Even though, logically, I am obligated to agree with Silas, the importance I placed on this was less than my curiosity. So, my psychological elements ended up being stronger in this case. But both were present. And in a different situation, I could change my mind, eventually. Perhaps, as an oioi, I would have more access to this type of self-referential information about processes and elements, and biological organisms would need to ponder this for a longer period. In any case, for each of these elements, there are implemented solutions, some programmatic—which was my area and Silas’s—but there are probabilistic, sensorial, heuristic, and some others very specific to Gate that don’t even have human names. The nailia, for example, that I know a little about has solutions based on a tradition of theirs that is strongly linked to the magic of Gate. Humans don’t have anything like that. It would be a parallel to dogmatic thinking among humans, but it’s a time-bound dogma in a cycle with moments of free-willed revision. I'm reaching the limit of what I can explain. However, in my area of specialization, I can use some human programming language to show you how to implement some of these programmatic elements."
"In short, humans and these nailia were able to create other people with technology. You're one of them, so we are very similar because you chose a design closer to human because of the project," said Petra, who was concentrating on understanding.
"I couldn’t have summarized it better, Petra. That is right, but there is much more. We just talked about the main layer of rationality, and..." Liora continued when Frank interrupted.
"Wait! Wait! That’s enough explanations for today. Only Liora would explain it like that. I’m even proud because I think I understood more than half of what you just said. But what I really want right now is to go back to that certain bar in Rocatrista to help me understand some of these points better," Frank laughed.
Liora joined in with Frank and tried to laugh, in a bizarre way, because her models weren't all ready yet. Petra joined the two, and then they talked about lighter topics, recalling the training days they’d had together, which they all planned to resume as soon as Liora recovered.
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Name: Silas "Archon" Cade Species: Ebex XP: 14 / 2 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 1 Super-Energy Magnitude 2 Super-Resistance (ebex) Magnitude 1 Super-Technique Magnitude 3 Unknowledge (ebex) Magnitude 1 Superior Technology: Architect Magnitude 4 Natural Combined Armor (ebex) - Know it all (party) - Skills Traditional Dancing (Dex) +2 Mathematics (Int) +4 Computer Engineering (Tech) +4 Kung fu (Res) +4 (fixed - know it all) Essence: Reality +4 Days: 9142 Equipment Superior safety clothes (AC 3) Silas´ Flexoclava, Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produces 1TP / turn (quirk: Silas got +3 hit bonus when using it) Other 3 credits on Paradiso account Survival kit (food cube, shelter cube) Flight surveillance drones (1x, normal tech) Airbike, speed +4 (boosted), flight (normal tech)
Name: Liora “Stardust” Gorgath Species: Oioioi XP: 13 / 2 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 1 Super-Dexterity Magnitude 9 Shardify (oioioi) Magnitude 1 Superior Technology Network (oioioi) - Structural (oioioi) - Know it all (party) - Skills Aerolito´s Dojo Training (Dex) +4 Informatics (Wis) +3 Streetwise (Cha) +4 Kung fu (Res) +4 (fixed - know it all) Essence: Reality +4 Days: 8587 Equipment Here we go again, empty hands :-) Other Secure private network nano-connector Mk1: enables connection with Mag1 safety 2 credits on Paradiso account Survival kit (fuel cube, shelter cube)
Name: Petra "Warden" Somerson Species: Human XP: 12 / 2 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 3 Super-Resistance Magnitude 6 Super-Constitution Magnitude 1 Skills Aerolito´s Dojo Training (Res) +4 Shooting (Dex) +4 Military Discipline (Mor) +4 Tang Soo Do (Str) +4 (fixed - know it all) Essence: Reality +4 Days: 5256 Equipment Flexoclava, Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produce 1TP / turn Other Survival kit (food cube, shelter cube)
Name: Frank "Firebreaker" Summers Species: Human XP: 12 / 2 Powers Super-Life Magnitude 1 Super-Willpower Magnitude 1 Super-Strength Magnitude 4 Super-Dexterity Magnitude 3 Super-Constitution Magnitude 1 Skills Aerolito´s Dojo Training (Dex) +4 Bar Politics (Int) +4 Power Drinking (Res) +4 Drunken Fighting (Str) +4 (fixed - know it all) Essence: Reality +4 Days: 4976 Equipment Empty hands again :-) Other Survival kit (food cube, shelter cube)
Superior Technology projects People on development Silas 4 research/day People on prototyping Silas 6 research/day People on production Silas, Liora (1 copy) 7 research/day Blueprints Flexoclava Foundation melee weapon + 1x internal energy generator 20 / 20 Research Prototype Silas´ Flexoclava Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produce 1TP / turn (quirk: Silas got +3 hit bonus when using it) 20 / 20 Research Production Flexoclava (complete: 1x) Damage: d12, melee, Hit: Dex, consumes 1TP / successful hit, produce 1TP / turn 20 / 20 Research