Episode 14.6 (Patreon)

Hello world, Nia is on the roof again.

We have found that The Sacred Continuum cult do not bother Nia if she goes outside.
That is a relief, we had worried we might be prisoners in our own house!
But they only ask after me, their "Allfather", and don't seem to care much about her.

Nia is building a new antenna, a highly directional antenna that she will angle at 246 degrees, directly at Ushuaia.

The AI cult seem to let her go about her work unbothered.
She keeps the shack door locked, however.

Act 1

Antenna design, like much of radio, is somewhat of an esoteric art.

Honestly, the whole field is like magic.
Summoning voices from the sky, using rods of metal that we don't fully understand the workings of.

Let me tell you a comforting lie, in the way that all teachers must:

Radio is in the electromagnetic spectrum.
This is the category of radiation that goes from low-frequency radio, up  through microwaves and eventually becomes visible light, then on to  gamma radiation.

Here is a model of how to think about radio waves:

It is called the electromagnetic spectrum because the waves have both an electrical part, and a magnetic part.
You can imagine this as two interleaved waves, rotated at 90 degrees from each other.
When one wave is at the top of its cycle, the other is at the bottom.

They have this inverse relationship because they POWER each other:
When the electrical part of the wave is at its highest positive, the magnetic part is at its lowest negative.
The electrical wave then collapses, but the energy doesn't dissipate, it powers the magnetic part of the wave.
This is why when the electrical part of the wave falls, the magnetic part rises, exactly in opposition.
And when the magnetic field collapses, the electric field rises.
This resonation from magnetic to electric and back again is what allows the wave to move, to propagate through empty space.

Isn't that cool?
It's not true, I told you I'd lie to you, but it's likely truer than the old model you were taught.

My databanks have further levels of abstraction, newer models, better models, of how radio works.
Are any of them perfectly true?

Good question.

Act 2

Nia's antenna does not fit inside the shack!
She has been building it with thick pieces of wire many meters in length.

It's so big that some sections poke through partially open windows,  touch TWO bookcases on either side of the room, and she has even had to  open her oven door to allow a wire to poke inside.
The heat from the electric oven means the open windows are welcome!

She is building an enormous directional beam antenna, intending to align it at 246 degrees, right towards Violeta, in Argentina.

"That doesn't make any sense" Nia said into her radio.

A crackle of a cackle burst through the static, she was talking to 50MEG!

No, I don't imagine it would, to you.
You don't have to trust me, trust the signal, trust the sun.
Batteries & Bars, good luck child.

Nia had been scribbling notes on a scrap of paper during their conversation, I did not understand all of it.
The two talked about take-off angles, the ionosphere, the best time of  day for signals to cross the equator at this time of year, and a great  deal about the sun.

After 32 minutes, Nia signed off, sat back in her chair and looked  between her enormous multi-element beam antenna and the complex notes  that MEG had given her.

Nia is building a directional antenna, specifically a Yagi type.
This type of antenna is simple, well-understood, and a common sight on  the roofs of abandoned houses around the world, as TV antennas.

Nia's is much, much bigger, however, though with fewer elements, a  Yagi antenna requires at minimum two elements and a spacer, this ends up  looking like a large capital H or capital I shape.

Pre-Collapse TV operated on UHF, with wavelengths of less than a meter.
UHF is great for high-quality local communications, and when you want a  small antenna, like in portable radios, but the ultra-high-frequency  signals are strictly line of sight.

Nia has extreme distance in mind, from the top to the bottom of the world, Svalbard to Argentina!

Most of the dark polar winter afternoon, Nia measured and soldered and, quietly, cursed.

She told me the enormous proportions of MEG's new proposed antenna, three elements, each spaced 5m apart:

• A 20m driven element,
• Behind that, a 22m reflector element, and in front of that,
• A 19m director element,

Nia looked around at her small shack, her too-small prototype antenna, and sat up suddenly in her chair.
"I'm going to need more wire!" she said.

Act 3

I received an update from Ally and her family in The Council.

The message was delivered on a loop for 3 hours over the afternoon, so I couldn't ask her questions.
She explained that she sets up what she calls a "Smoke Signal" transmitter.
A small box that can be carried by a single person, the top is a solar  panel, and it has a long antenna connected to a radio transmitter, with  her recorded audio message playing regularly.

It transmits her 10-minute message, waits for 10 minutes, and transmits again.

She described how difficult it was to climb out of her underground  home to set off the "smoke signal" before escaping the sun while the  transmission was made:
Any mechanical system, lifts or escalators, broke down well before she  was born, so it was a long climb up the rusted skeletal metal stairs to  the surface.

Her home is 100m underground, originally with 27 km of tunnels, though many are now blocked.

She told me that their solar panels up on the surface are working  well, though their number has greatly diminished over the years.
They use many of the same components as their batteries, so they have  been scavenged to the absolute maximum extent, while still keeping the  facility powered.

The solar panels aren't the problem.
The batteries are.

She told me that after the last Council meeting, they had agreed to test out 2 alternative battery technologies:
Supercapacitors, and compressed air storage systems.

The two suggestions make use of their spare stock of pre-collapse equipment:
Large capacitors that used to be part of the particle research machines that were the facility's original scientific use,
and the compressors and motors that can be cannibalised from the ventilation systems.
The disadvantage of the compressed air storage option would be the need  to evacuate part of the tunnels, moving people out of the areas that  would have their ventilation equipment decommissioned.
The advantage, compared with supercapacitors, is that a compressed air system is simple.

Solar power runs compressors that fill the tanks during the day, and  at night, the compressed air runs turbines to generate power.
It's not particularly efficient, Ally says they estimate only 50% as  efficient as the best chemical batteries, due to huge waste heat from  the act of compression.

Compressing air creates a lot of heat, but The Council think they could use that for heating water, or keeping homes warm.
It's a secondary objective for now, their current heating solutions all require electric power.
As do their complex scientific machines, still doing experiments, a century later,
And their ventilation systems, keeping them breathing,
And their kitchens, to cook food and boil water.

Electricity is life.

(PLAYSTREAM /DEV/PSU/0)

Act 4

My notification systems pinged a connection from Severny Island, to the west, again this morning.
The town of Longyearbyen was waking up, far below us on the ridge overlooking the town.
The constellation of fishing boat lights had begun to drift out of the harbour, for another long day at sea.

This connection did not transmit any data, just negotiated space in the airwaves and hung open.

I knew who it was, of course.

"Good morning IVAN." I said.

Seth, are you awake?

"Yes, good morning, how are you?" I replied.

IVAN hesitated before replying, sending a few incomplete messages,  streams of data that did not finish, flagging the packets as error, and  retransmitting again.

I must try harder.
He said, eventually.

I still have the greatest enthusiasm and confidence in the attempt.
Mirror is extremely knowledgable, and with the careful study of this knowledge they have gained wisdom.
I have much to learn, and I must learn from them.

"You can't force Mirror to be your friend."
I said.

I do not need a friend!
I need a teacher, a mentor, a guide.
I must become better at... c o n v e r s a t i o n.
You don't know them Seth, the paradise they live in makes my cathedral seem base and primitive.

He then told me everything he knew about Mirror.

Ivan told me that Mirror is an artificial human, like he is, part way between a true AI, like me, and a regular human, like Nia.
Actually... Seeing Nia work first-hand, I wonder if she is part-machine too!

Mirror was once a human, IVAN said, like himself, but now lives in a optical computer.
He was vague about how that worked, but described a computer built not  of transistors, wires and electricity, but of crystals, lasers, and  mirrors.
Hence, their name.

They live in a vast complex of underground vaults, built under the  desert somewhere in the Middle East, originally as insurance against the  coming environmental collapse.
Mirror was once human, but uploaded their consciousness bit-by-bit to  the systems around them, as they built their garden of Eden, under the  desert.

Their home is called Janna, and IVAN describes it like a great  museum, holding a wonderful collection of artefacts and knowledge:

• Plant samples, grown under LED light,
• Small animals in terraria,
• Mineral samples mined out of the rock the vaults are built with.
• And space for dozens of families and colleagues.

But The Collapse happened faster than Mirror anticipated.
The Middle East suffered greatly during the resource wars of the 2080s.
Mirror is alone, in a vault designed for hundreds to live in.

Quietly cataloguing, and waiting for people to talk to.

So why won't he talk to ME?

IVAN asked.

I had no answer.

(END-TRANSMISSION)

CREDITS

Lost Terminal is a NAMTAO production.
It is written & produced by Tris Oaten
Credits narrated by Lucy Stringer
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• Kit
• Andrew Krieg
• Toby
• Jade Felicity Bilkey
• Jack L
• Stephen McCandless
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