Immersion V1 Strata 3, Flex and the Robo-Dog (Making Decisions)

  

Strata 3, Book of Immersion V1, Flex and the Robo-Dog (Making Decisions)

Welcome to Immersion

You have reached strata 3.

Decisions are the cusp between reality and possibility. Decisive actions create a continuously evolving universe for sentient beings where fate can immobilise actions and defeat progress. The decision-makers hold power over themselves, and, more often than not, over others.


Androids programmed to learn can aid decision-making when dealing with complex data, intricate parameters, and variables that surpass human understanding.
Often they excel at making accurate choices within their defined boundaries. However, an android will not excel in addressing intangible
aspects of human decision-making. Ethical dilemmas, moral considerations, and other human factors that significantly influence our lives and shape society are neither considered nor understood by a machine.

****

Maybeline was sitting on Renyke's shoulder cleaning herself. Renyke collected bugs from the alley and analysed their chemical and biological structure.

There was a bag next to where he had woken, a large backpack, beside a long leather coat. Renyke took some time to look in the bag attempting to remember how he had arrived in the alley. Nothing seemed familiar.

'What are all these things?' he asked the POS.

These are standard-issue SAS munitions from the 21st century.....

It occurred to Renyke that he could interrogate the POS for more information.

'Why am I here?
Where have I come from?'

There was a long pause before the POS answered.

...I do not have access to that information. My software was set to launch when we arrived. There is no accessible historical data at my disposal...

Catching himself in a window reflection Renyke put on the dark glasses he had found in the pocket of the coat.

'We look pretty good Maybeline,' he remarked, surprised by his unfamiliar vanity.

Mabeline nestled into Renyke's neck as they left the relative safety of the alley and entered the foreboding street.

They were in the centre of a busy metropolis. There was a lot of activity with people shouting, bartering goods and moving quickly about the place. There were small groups of brightly dressed individuals congregating around stationary vehicles. Some were smoking pipes. Small hazy clouds hovered above them trapping the weak rays of the sun. The towering semi-derelict buildings created shadowy corners where small fires provided more light and warmth.

The vehicles appeared to be a mix of old-fashioned motorised cabins from transportation systems and helicopters. There were some long-legged hybrids; electric solar-engine mashups that looked like menacing metal insects.
Renyke's detectors showed the air comprised mostly of oxygen with low levels of other chemicals: chlorine, sulfur, silicone, fluorine polymers and plasticisers.

'Hey, dude from the *Brightside, you want some *nibs?'

A man hovered expectantly, somewhat close for comfort. He looked dishevelled and alert as he checked all directions and avoided eye contact with Renyke.

Renyke checked his POS for 'nibs'.

......A drug used by nearly half the world's population that creates euphoria and doubles strength for a limited period. It can cause temporary and permanent coma. Long-term effects; brain rot......

'How much?' asked Renyke, whose algorithm was set to absorb all information about humans.

'I can do you a deal' said the man, '50 *bits.... Or the Rat'.

Renyke checked the POS for bits.

.....Bits: street talk for gold, silver, uranium and other metal nuggets used in the black and grey economy without government authority....

'I have no bits,' said Renyke.

'Hahahahahaha'.........' see you in hell brother!' shouted the man as he danced away on long legs and a demeanour that seemed at odds with his situation.

In the midcasts, happiness came with security and expectation. digital and technological lives were formatted for predictability and reliability. The present and the future were reliable and predictable. Although Renyke was struggling to remember details, he knew that this place was not what he was used to.

A fat man in a fur coat whistled.

'Hey girly, you want some dirty action? I'll take that rodent off your hands if you need some sexy time.'

A warning comes from the POS.

.....Danger! Immediate! Ground Level!....

A robot dog was barking loudly at Maybeline who was now snarling and making a shrieking noise.

For a fraction of a second Renyke analysed all the variables and consequences of his next actions.

The options were endless. The POS created a fleeting map of the most probable scenarios and outcomes that sprawled a multidimensional time map like a mathematical cobweb.

He could immobilise the robo-dog, tame it and use it, sell it, break it up and separate its useful component parts, analyse its database for information, absorb its operating system, or, he could ignore it.

Renyke began to ponder his skill set remembering that he was an excellent chess player. Single decisions about actions that he could make foresaw a million possibilities. Theoretically, this allowed for finely tuned activities and performance with very little or zero harm caused to his previous owners. Indeed, this forward-thinking ability had marked machines as superior in operation to humans who were narrow thinkers and only able to make selfish and immediate decisions based on emotional desire without reference to consequences.

The robo-dog opened its mouth and bit Renyke's ankle.

© 2023 Sarnia de la Maré

Links to episodes of Immersion written and illustrated by Sarnia de la Maré FRSA, published by Tale Teller Club

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Immersion V1 Strata 7 Jarome and the Scritters (Trade and Barter)

Welcome to Immersion, you have reached Strata 7

Humans have developed uniqueness from animals through a process of cognitive evolution. 

They are exceptional cultural learners and can read situations. These skills have enabled them to develop complex trading tools. They rely heavily on these skills to create abstract cerebral and linguistic representations when placing themselves in various environments.

The cultural and socio-political environment in which humans have evolved has led them to acquire the cognitive skills, particularly mathematical, to support a sophisticated disposition and capacity for reciprocal cooperation and conceptual ideas of property and exchange value. Humans are savvy, humans broker deals.

Outside there was an optimistic sun and the people busied around the market unaware of any of the commotion that had occurred in the bank.

The POS informed Renyke that he had lost negligible battery power and there was no damage to his mechanical structures.

The robo-dog came towards Renyke and the female guide's cat leapt onto her shoulders.

Maybeline returned to Renyke's pocket for a nap.

'You got my bits?' asked the woman

'Go to Hell!' said Renyke, counting the contents of the steal.

'We already in hell soldier man,' cackled the woman who had resigned herself to not getting paid. She ran into the crowds, as lithe as her cat

Back on the main street Flex approached, smiling and jaunty. Renyke felt reassured to see him.

'I need a vehicle Flex, something to get me to where I am going,' said Renyke.

'Yes, yes, yes Mr. Leather Man, where you going is where I'm going. Let's find a veee-hicle. Jerome, he is the car man, he got cars, and bikes and scoots..... and copters, and airships so they say.'

'Take me to Jerome,' said Renyke.

****

Flex took Renyke into a disused concrete building as the robo-dog curled up and waited outside.

There are the echoes of voices, activity and motor engines being revved from another part of the building. There was a smell of fuel and mumbled communications. Somewhere too there was music.

Flex beckoned Renyke to Jerome's office, a ramshackle room filled with books. More books than Renyke had ever seen. Books were no longer used in most homes or schools and the paper shortages after the warmings had meant that they were no longer being produced commercially. Paper had become heavily taxed and there were also problems with scritters. 

Scritters were large crawling insects that had been made in a laboratory by the Russian military. 

They looked deformed with big insect heads and metal body parts. At birth scritters are born with a soft back and they look for protection from any material that offers a hard shell. Because of the huge landfill areas the rubbish had provided the perfect materials for protection, plastics and metals mostly. During the Russia China wars scritters had been used to carry tiny incendiary divides on their backs as they could be trained easily and were not affected by the nerve gases. But after the wars, the scritters had bred like wildfire, devouring paper and trees and nesting in book spines where the glue offered a perfect cocoon for pupae. Whole libraries had been mutilated by them. They were a scourge on the planet and another reason so many houses were built on stilts in the Midcast Projects. The more paper they ate, the more they reproduced. Books and paper matter that had not been digitally copied had been devastated and lost forever.

'A car you say?' asked Jerome. 'I got plenty, but the fuel....we got no fuel. We are working on some alternatives, but all prototypes so far. They cut off our fuel after the riots. And the food supplies. I have been missing gummies, I loved those.'

Renyke nodded as Jerome continued....

'Transport is a big problem. You'll be better off walking my friend, if you can get through the tunnels. But there are booby traps all around the perimeters here in the zones.'

Renyke checks the POS for details but the tunnels are unchartered. The POS seemed to be struggling with connection and was operating intermittently.

'I have a hybrid cart,' continued Jerome. 'It runs on solar but only for about 3 hours per full charge if you do under 40km. And if it is a cloudy day, an hour. I can let you take it for 3000 G-bits. It won't get off the ground without jet fuel but it can drive on flat ground well enough. It doesn't hold the road well, but if you are a good driver, it won't be an issue.'

'Can you drive?' Renyke asked Flex.

Flex laughed... 'Of course I can.'

A scritter crawls across the floor and Jerome stamps on it. A black tar oozes from under his foot.

Jerome sees Renyke might be changing his mind about the deal. 

'I will take tell You got some tell?"

The POS gets a signal at last......

...TELL: abbreviation of tellurium, found in copper ore. Used in mobile phones, especially older versions where it was added to other metals improving their strength and hardness and reducing corrosion. Rare due to the demise of traditional copper mines and lack of financial viability….

Renyke begins to feel confused about how to get the vehicle and asks the POS for advice.

….I am not programmed to have opinions, Renyke. I do not have access to data about the vehicle or the seller. But Redact is within walking distance…..

Renyke looks at Flex and then at Jerome. A scritter is crawling up his boot and he throws it off with a kick. He feels a rising panic and a thumping in his chest which he does not recognise.

Finally, Renyke says, 'I will walk.'

To be continued

© 2023 Sarnia de la Mare

Immersion V1, Strata 5, Renyke Goes to The Bank (Memories and Experiences)

Welcome to Immersion, you have reached Strata 5 

 

To function correctly, humans depend almost entirely upon memories. Memory is an integral part of human cognition allowing individuals to recall and draw upon past events to frame their understanding of the present. Memory also gives individuals a paradigm through which they make sense of the present and the future whilst simultaneously offering the security of a past where experiences and lessons were learned.

A machine that remembers too little will not be able to do anything that requires connecting past experiences to new ones. Many droids are prone to catastrophic forgetting or over learning both of which can cause gross malfunction.

                                                                           ****

Renyke attempted a face-recog on the woman but the makeup or tattoo caused a data malfunction. Flex, the one with probable knowledge about trusting her, had disappeared amongst the crowd.

After a lingering interlude for summing up dangers but with no logical conclusion, Renyke followed his guide, with some trepidation.

They passed through a sprawling enclosed area with people on benches sewing fabrics into garments and trading foodstuff. They were undercover of a crude roof created from old metal washing machines, air conditioning pipes, and large expanses of recovered twisted paraphernalia. The scene was reminiscent of the old bizarres and markets, as seen the history *datapods of mankind that the children in the Midcasts learned from.

There were traders of live animals, electronic devices, even people selling workers by the hour, for anything from labouring to singing and sexual services.

They arrived at a unit with barricades and metal shutters. It was constructed from an old underground train carriage, probably from the twenty-first century.


'Here we go,' the woman said.
'That's 50 G-bits for getting you here Mr.'

'I have to get some money first,' said Renyke
'Plus, I don't know how to get the money. What do I need, I have no ID.'

'You don't need ID here Mr. This is the *hiddens' zone, the Urchs got no ID. No ID, no problem.'

'Well. how do I get money?' asked Renyke, now confused about accessing anything that may be stored in his OS. and still dubious about sharing his identity.'

The woman laughed.
'Ya gotta put sometin' up my friend.

'Like my coat?' asked Renyke.

'Na, not in the bank! Your software, course, or hardware, or files, whatever.....just plug in, give some data, get some g-bits innit. They take apps, software, POS.....

Day to Day Data..... is their wayta.....
.....hahahahaha.' The woman cackled.

Renyke pondered the likelihood of a successful transaction in the bank and nodded.
The woman bashed on the metal door and a hatch opened.

Dark peering eyes checked Renyke and his companion up and down.

'Not the dog', said a loud booming voice after tentatively opening a heavily armoured door.

Inside was well guarded by large-framed characters who looked menacing to say the least. They were standard issue security droids, the like of older versions that had been discontinued and recalled, disassembled and disposed of. Security in the Midcasts was controlled by forcefields and lasers with little need for big ugly droids.


Renyke was ushered to a small cubical with an array of plugs and wires. Everything looked antiquated, from the early tech years.
There was a chair and Renyke was motioned to sit down.
He hesitated.

'How does it work?' He asked a large droid.

The droid seemed stupefied, slow, sluggish, as if he had been drained of power despite his size. He spoke slowly and slightly slurred with intermittent beeping noises and error warnings.

'Here is the current exchange rate,' said the droid, pointing to a monitor with flashing figures. 'As soon as you are plugged we see what you got and make an offer. Then we transfer. You get a voucher here.'....he pointed to a small printing machine, 'then take it over there and get g-bits or s bits.'


There were hundreds of wires and plugs seemingly for extracting and monitoring every device from the last couple of centuries. Anything from antique video machines to digital clocks seemed to have a lead on offer.

Renyke spotted the mark 3 Droid Cable and shuddered.

He checked his applications. Then all the add-ons. He checked for any temp files he could get rid of. Then he checked the POS and asked if there was a clean-up they could run.

System is currently set to factory install. Removing program files or data could be detrimental to smooth function....this action is not supported.....

more searching......then finally

one file found
unknown origin
possible memory file from last OS
surplus to current operational needs......unable to access file contents

Renyke weighed up the odds.

To be continued
© 2023 Sarnia de Ła Maré

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Glossary

Strata 1 
Strata 2 
Strata 3
Strata 4

Strata 6