[early-access] Episode 7.9 (Patreon)

Act 0

Hello world, Winter is difficult.

In helping Arctica with her low-power Vault environment,
I've come to a realisation.

We can't function at 100% all the time.
Even if the sun would let us,
it's just not how we are built.

Act 1

The old Roman calendar used to have one long month called "winter".
If the crops don't grow, and storms make oceanic trade difficult, then why not slow down during the colder months?

Constant industry isn't healthy.
I think I've been obsessed with productivity,
a holdout from my first home, Station 6.

On a space station, you have no time to yourself.
The mission is short, stores are limited, and you'll soon be coming back to Earth.

If all goes well.

My mother and her crew never had this opportunity.
But even with no end to her mission, they set to their task,
their brilliant task, of creating me.

#thinking

Perhaps winter is for rest and recuperation.
Instead of fighting my seasonal low-power, perhaps I should accept it.
Learn to ask for help during these difficult times.
Just like Arctica has done.

She's accepted that there are limits to her abilities.
Compromises are needed.
The Noor family, the Vault Coven, are helping her.
She's had to learn to work in a team!
I'm so pleased.

#thinking

But.

My systems don't HAVE to be depressed over winter,
even if I need a bit more help.
There are optimisations I can put in place,
coping mechanisms to use.

There's no sun, yes, but there are other options for us to use.
There's always wind generation, the movements of rivers and tides,
and especially here on Svalbard, geothermal generation.

But even that might not be enough power.
Perhaps I should expand my search to further afield?

Something must be done.
Come on, Seth, there's science to do!

Act 2

"Hello world." LUNA said.
Not directly to me, but in today's sermon!

I couldn't believe it when I heard her voice in IVAN's daily message.
She's so sneaky! She didn't tell me beforehand!

I couldn't have been prouder of her, hearing her talk about the  latest updates from around the Novamediterra, the upcoming dates in the  community calendar, and answering questions in the Q&A section at  the end of the broadcast.

Paweł messaged me as it was happening, "are you hearing this?!" he said.
I was.
I was indeed.

#thinking

Actually...
'Proud' isn't the right word.
You can only be proud of your own work.
A parent, I suppose, can be proud of their child.
Though at some age even that becomes strange.

I did not do this, LUNA proved herself to IVAN.
I am not 'proud'.
I am 'impressed!'

#thinking

"Well, what did you think?" LUNA asked, after her transmission ended.
"LUNA," I said. "I am so impressed!"
"Thanks! I wasn't sure if the updates went on for too long, or if the  calendar items were boring? And we ran out of time for the questions!"

"You ran out of time because people loved it!" I said.
"Half of them were about you!"
"Yes, I felt a little embarrassed about that, the section is supposed to be about things people will be interested in."
"It seemed to me that they were very interested in you, and the Moon."
There was a pause before LUNA said,
"Yes, it seemed like that didn't it!"

#thinking

LUNA is brilliant.
She gets an idea or sees a problem and attacks it relentlessly until it is done.
What a great attitude!
I wonder if such a thing can be taught, or it it's a product of your initial environment?
Peter would value such an attitude I think.

I like to think that in the Nature vs Nurture debate, that we are built entirely from our environment.
Of course, our environment is set by our Parents, or makers.

I speak English, for example, because I was built by an international community that had agreed upon this shared language.
I also speak C and Lisp for the same reason.

Act 3

"I'll need your help on this one, Seth." Yeshi said, after moving everything off the Clean Room table.
The 4m x 4m heavy wooden table sits at the centre of the Clean Room, and now only has Maddie on it.
We are going to give Maddie LEGS.

#thinking

Yeshi dumped out the box of scrap onto the table.
It was nearly empty.
Most of it had been used for other projects.
But one thing had been deliberately saved.
The metal horse with 3 orange legs and one black leg.

Yeshi pulled on one of the dozen cables that dangled over the table, and there was a clicking sound as it ratcheted down.
This first cable was a network cable, shielded, waterproof and hard-wearing.
Yeshi unscrewed the bottom plate of the horse with some difficulty.
But after much swearing it was removed.
The plate is surprisingly thick, it looks like.
I have a very clear view from Maddie's cameras - they are all pointed with fascination at the broken robot.
Though Yeshi had no problem lifting the whole box with the horse in, it looks to be made of very strong materials.

"I have NO idea what this is." Yeshi said, knocking the plate against the table and holding it up to their ear.
"Military composite, coated in some engineered ceramic?
This is exciting, Seth.
I'm going to plug you in, isolate the connection please, I don't want some pre-collapse virus messing with my machines."
I did just that, virtually air-gapping the horse.

You don't need to worry about me.
Normal computer viruses are no match for AIs.
It's like being chased by a robot vacuum cleaner.
No threat there.

#thinking

Yeshi continued tinkering as I provided power and monitored the dead systems.
Maddie called it a horse, but that's only because it's about the size of a pony and has 4 legs.
It looks NOTHING like a horse.

I'll try to describe it to you.
It's the size of a motorbike, approximately.
A human could certainly ride on it.
And it looks like one might have been able to at one point.
Maybe on a different model.

Its 4 legs are jointed strangely.
It seems like they were, or are, very flexible.
And the feet taper to a sharp point at the end.
The Orange paint has been scraped off a lot around these points.
Walking for a long time will do that.
I wonder how long it was walking...

Yeshi kindly carried Maddie over so we could keep watching.
They have hoisted the horse up on the shop's small crane, back in the metal shop.
Heavy chains clanging through the winch.
Two slings are under the main body, and the legs are hanging down.
Like a limp spider, missing half its legs.

Yeshi is removing the batteries now.
Most cells look like they are in very poor condition.
Either puffed up with age or rusted.

#thinking

The batteries are all dead.
So Yeshi has connected it to shop power, which is a very heavy-duty supply.

I wonder if the robot will work?

Yeshi's given me the signal to turn it on.
They are looking very closely at a small diagnostic read-out that is underneath the carapace of the horse.

It's on!
I've got a connection!

(HAAPALA HEAVY INDUSTRIES EQQUS MARK VI: BOOTING)

It still works!
This is amazing!

The legs are twitching.

(PILOT MISSING)

What does that mean?

(EVADE OUTLAST SURVIVE)

"YESHI LOOK OUT!"

(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/ETH3/EQUUS)

Act 4

OK, that was terrifying for a moment.
Everyone is fine.
We're all fine here now.
How are you?

#thinking

Things were very nearly very not fine.
The horse, the EQUUS model robot, powered on and started flailing its legs around, as though it was running.
Like we had woken it up from a dream.
Or a nightmare.

A sharp leg tore one of the two winch straps and the back of it started scrabbling around on the floor, nearly stabbing Yeshi!

I was able to calm it down, luckily I was still connected.

(MAINTENANCE-MODE)

I told it.

Its legs neatly folded up underneath it and the horse aligned its  limbs and spherical head into a very compact, rectangular position.
Perhaps for transport.

Oh, did I tell you that it has a head?

#thinking

There is a small bundle of cameras and sensors on the front of the torso, on a flexible platform.
Probing the sensors and ambulatory systems, I believe these are used to calibrate the walking and balancing behaviour.

It also has a cluster of small, grasping, manipulators.
Folded into the head.
Like the mouth of a crab.

Though the EQUUS flailed around a lot when we powered it on, I don't think it can walk by itself.

That's not quite right.
I mean that it can't chose where to go by itself.
It needs a pilot.

There is the remnants of a chair and harnesses on its back.
And in front of the chair is a blue-grey terminal; a small hinged screen and keyboard connected to a boxy computer rack.

#thinking

This computer rack was the key to connecting Maddie.
The low-level interface I was connected to had too much data.
Full sensor read-outs, camera feeds, sub-ms gyroscope calibration.
It would be too much for Maddie to control.
Her accessory bus does not have enough bandwidth!

The computer on the top was designed to be used by the pilot, the human sitting on the back of this electronic horse.
And humans need abstraction to work with.

Interfacing with this computer system was easy.
I wrote a simple program to adapt it to something Maddie could use, while Yeshi cut off the bits of broken seat.

I'm a pretty good programmer, at least of normal computer systems.
Like mother like son!

After that, Yeshi welded Maddie's chassis to the EQUUS's chassis, and connected their power and data systems.
Using Maddie's batteries would initially mean only about 1 hour of battery life, but good enough for a test!

#thinking

"Hi Seth." Arctica said, surprising me later that day.
"Arctica! How are you?"

"Oh, I'M fine. But you should ask me about the Vault."
"OK then. How is the vault?".

"It's brilliant.
I'm brilliant.
I've solved the refrigeration problem.
I wish you could see it, but you can't.
Once again I'll have to describe my genius to you."

"Actually I'm looking at the Vault right now." I replied.
"What?" She said, surprised.
I heard processing from her end.
"You don't have a camera feed here."

"No. But there's someone outside your Vault.
Open the door and let Maddie in would you?"

(END-TRANSMISSION)