Avenger Fleet Operations Base - 2194:11:11*03:12:18 (March 11)
VOLLEYS of weapons fire leave the Stations refulgent as the entire System salutes the loss of one of its most beloved Free Captains. Geoffrey de Lysander, the famous commander of the Ominous Hummmmm has been lost to us all. It is a commonly held belief that Regenabots can repair any damage and that mortality has lost its bite. Were that but true. Lysander was found this morning with his body intact after a Regenabot reconstruction, but the 'bots have failed to resurrect him. As is customary in the rare case of total loss of a valued Captain, the AI Council has decided to maintain his ship as a memorial in a solid transparent cloud of nanite protectors which make the Ominous Hummmmm invulnerable and unapproachable.
Thousands of Free Captains and their crews have reacted to the news of Lysander's loss with shock and horror. Though still young, he reached pre-eminence among those who have rejected Station-life and set out to make their own way among the space lanes. However, he was not merely one of the most powerful Captains, but also one of the most respected. Recognizing that the Council was largely unconcerned with human affairs and that there was no governing body with any real power in the depths of space, Lysander was one of the few who chose to reject the life of simple opportunism. He helped the weak and educated the fledgling. He chose to use his great power to advance a clear sense of justice. He tried to lend strength to the powerless, voice to the voiceless, and comfort to the disconsolate. He tried to forge order and even grace from a state of chaos. Not everyone viewed his decisions with agreement, but all who met him understood that he was a man of principle and even his enemies accorded him great approbation.
Sorrow reigns today because of the tremendous blow we have all suffered. Everywhere one looks, the light of armaments in memoriam lights the sky bright enough to see by the naked eye. Though he has left us to embark upon his final mission, his influence shall never fade. Truly, Captain Lysander will be missed by all who knew him and even by those who did not.
Captain Geoffrey de Lysander joins Captain Fourfingers among the ranks of the immortalized fallen.
3.3.09
Why can't the AIs get along?
CONSTRUCTION workers at the site of a new methane collector stack at Uncle Owen's Methane Farms in the equatorial regions of Titan have made a shocking discovery. They have found hard evidence of a long-rumored schism between artificial intelligences in the Solar System. Moreover, workers at the scene think they have identified the argument that has split the consensus!
AI Council Consensus Node
The mainstream of humanity has long believed the Council and other AIs to be largely in agreement with one another. Effectively, it was thought, there is a single point of view that governs AIs, all of whom are descended from a single common viewpoint. Whispers, rumors and anecdotes have built up the impression over the last few years, however, that this monolithic view of the AIs is at least partially incorrect or possibly wholly erroneous. At Uncle Owen's Methane farms, a new solid piece of evidence has been discovered. A log of activities by an AI-led research team seems to prove that waffles are the reason for the splintering of the AI commonality.
The waffler robot
The highlights of the log entries include detailed notes on the creation of the perfect waffle-making robot and the subsequent attempts to make enough perfect waffles to meet demands on the Titan research base. Tempers flared between the human and post-human researchers, all of whom wanted everyone else to leggo their eggos. In an attempt to understand better the humans' obsession with these delicious pastries, a group of AIs set on a groundbreaking experiment in which they attempted to import the human sense of taste and digitalize the experience of eating the waffles. The penultimate log entry indicated success along these lines. Very soon after, the final log entry records, the AIs who had "tasted" waffles began to fight with one another and against the non-tasting AIs to get more digital waffle experiences.
The final video log entry was cut off and very little remains were found of the Titan base near the Methane farm construction site. But what happened here? Does the robot waffle maker still exist? Do AIs still operate, obsessed with waffles? The AI Council has no official comment. Perhaps only time and waffles will tell.
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