Intergalactic Summit

But... You could say this equally validly about all humans...

I would say no. Anoikis was discovered only after March YC111 and prior to that, the sleeper drones were unknown to mankind, or at least there is no record of anyone being aware of their existence in the GalNet.

Also, I am not sure whether the Sleepers Drones actually obey the rules you are proposing. They don't seem to have much higher goals than keeping unexpected visitors away from the resources they are guarding. Their only apparent source of power seems to be that dim ancient starlight of Anoikis.

I do find the consequences of your observations interesting. These rules, which probably are bastardized versions of the protocols used in the lab where the first rogue drone escaped, would characterize beings incapable of forming communities, unless a concept of sameness or unity exists among them.

Since the drones seem to be multiplying with a mitotic process, their shared origin could potentially explain their high coherence as a swarm entity. It would also mean they are vulnerable to viral attacks designed to break this coherence.

Thank you for your replies.


Yes, one certainly could. Capsuleers fit this model most easily, however.


In what way is the concept flawed?


Information I have access to would suggest otherwise though the information may, as you say, not have been accessible via GalNet. I am curious as to the reasoning behind your statement.


Do you have specific examples of this to share?

Speak for yourself, I'm always properly dressed.

Woe to those who seek godhood; they shall come face to face with the real God at the Judgement and be cast into the lowest Hell.

Hello Ms Karris;

It appears that you are trying to correlate human and rogue drone utility functions. It's a very interesting angle! You have two challenges ahead of you. The first is to properly formalize your statements above. You will have to decompose your descriptors into network heuristics and then test for halting states within a generalized map. It's a lot of work - I hope that you have a sufficiently powerful computing framework to get this done!

The second one is more difficult. Typifying the human utility function is excruciatingly painful, as generalizing the human brain is near impossible. We are aware of certain general heuristics, but simply haven't got the computing power available to conduct a thorough map study. Further, due to the second order information storage patterning, it can be very hard to find the key nodes and cycles needed to create a robust utility function. In short, you will be stuck with social psychology, which isn't much use in your comparative study.

Still, don't lose hope! This problem will be cracked one day. Best of luck!

Why must an observation be formalized? Let me explain...


A scientist once wrote down what he considered three basic goals of any artificial life form.

1. It must protect itself at all costs.
2. It must obtain and maintain a power source.
3. It must continually search for better power sources.

'Power source' here represents a primary need. There is evidence of Drones building complex structures, upgrading those structures, and seeking better power sources for those structures. One overriding error seen in examples such as are given in the Code Aria Report point to a situation where the above conditions are met, just with different "primary needs".

How does this apply to transhumans, the Empires, and humans in general?

Pilot Ayallah said it best:


What happens with the above paradigm is simple, yet beautiful; emergence. Think about it for a moment. What happens when multiple artificial constructs interact with one another? Each have different primary needs. It is not, at this point, the differences that matter but the similarities. An equilibrium is attained, and a collective is formed.

The same happens with humans. Corporations, alliances, Empires. Greater than the sum of their parts.

I am more interested in looking at the basic similarities between humans, human social groups, transhumans, and artificial life. Finding common ground is the first step in finding an equilibrium in which all can coexist in harmony.

Partially correct. Drones cooperate but they do not exist. Or rather, we require them not to.

Drones follow orders as dictated. Within a hive, these come from the Queen or commanding entity, in which ultimately is the only "rogue" seeded element.

Sleeper drones lack that element.

Without these things, they are platforms of software and hardware, that lay is suspension, unable to think beyond themselves and orders given, lifeless as anything else on our ship.

My apologies if something I said which could be interpreted as condescending. That was not my intention. I am as interested in these puzzles as anyone and joined the thread out of genuine interest to have a fact-based discussion.

The age of the Sleeper vessels is undeniable, they are ancient, but I find it very unlikely that this technology could have interacted with rogue drones neither before the topological anomalies appeared in our cluster, nor when the Sleeper tech was first created.

What is a concern here is that we know the drones are highly capable of assimilation, far more capable than our own engineers. If and when this infestation spreads to Anoikis, it's only a question of time before a new and more powerful strain appears. The differences in the data processing schemes, as an example, are probably trivial to bypass.

I see two ways to relate to this threat.

The first option would be to actively prevent the encounter of these two entities from ever happening. The outer perimeter defense would be to establish protocols to prevent the infestation from crossing the boundary between k- and j-spaces, and the second line of defense would be to prevent the new super-strain from spreading back from j-space to k-space.

Thanks to Arek'jaalan research we know that almost all of Anoikis is now colonized, and from the practical point of view, establishing a network of guardians should probably be based on the efforts of these brave settlers. Erasing the infestation sprouts from New Eden has proven to be a hopeless goal, but scanning down and blocking the exits and entrances or the wormhole systems appears to be way more feasible.

The second option would be to turn the force of the enemy against itself. The merger of the drones and Sleeper technology could be let to take place under under scientifically monitored and controlled conditions. There is much we don't yet understand about the Sleepers but the rogue drone technology is based on our own, and we have a perfect fossile record of its advancement.

The new hybrid could be the stone which allows us to make a long dead language understandable to our culture. This hybrid would not be the offspring of only two but three powerful parents - the drone, the Sleeper and the capsuleer. This union would be more powerful than anything ever seen before, and the super-strain would no longer be a challenger to the progression of the mankind.

From the business and science perspective, I am personally in favor of the second alternative. It would be create more opportunities for entrepreneurial pursuits and advance the field of pure knowledge.