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Perilous Void 1

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 16:58:51 +1000

Perilous Void 1 (Setting generation) posted in Homemade Settings, World Building & Galaxy Construction forum comment posted by uncle_jimbo

Author (Myridian @ Apr 29 2025, 09:49)

Maybe the Silicate's planet is older than should be in a protonebula?

A white dwarf could well be a previous generation than the nebula that surrounds it. Any life that survived on its planets (though it doesn't have any. Perhaps the blue/white star captured them?) could be fairly weird. A large blue/white star could be younger again.

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Educating artificial minds

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Tue, 29 Apr 2025 13:00:46 +1000

Educating artificial minds

Educating artificial minds posted in Equipment, Cybertech and Weapons forum comment posted by cobalt_phoenix

Author

In settings where artificial minds are possible, would programming or teaching be better to educate them? For example, was Data programmed or did Soong sit his newly fabricated android down and teach him as if he was a living child?

I would say that would depend on the kind of artificial mind.

If it is relatively simple, it could depend entirely on programming. This would be especially effective if it was not likely to encounter anything that it was never supposed to encounter. This could be a manufacturing system that just takes blueprints and builds what it is told to do, and could make material selection based on known factors that were programmed prior to it going into operation.

For more complex situations, you are going to have to veer off pure programming more and more as the situation gets more complex. Note, though, that seemingly complex situations could actually be very simple if you can break them down properly. A good example would be an autopilot program that needs to navigate through a complex environment. That could be handled by a larger number of computers running simple programs that are controlled by another simple program, and they just maintain their programmed objectives using the data they are given by other programs.

For something like Data, though, you are going to need to lean hard into learned behavior, with programming serving as a baseline to work through.

There is another option, though: mind uploading.

While this may require someone to die to achieve, it would likely be a good option. You can also combine it with the other two in various ways. For example, you can come up with a simple program that gives the artificial mind its foundation (this could include programmed morals and generalized goals). Then, you add in an uploaded mind, which you can alter (it is still programming, after all, as you are taking data from a biological source and turning it into digital data) to provide an upper level intelligence that can interpret the foundational programming. After that, give it the ability to learn (this doesn't mean it can alter its programming, but it can take in data and come up with new ways to either interpret its programmed responses or determine new responses).

That gives you an artificial mind that is given hard-wired components (that foundational programming, like the Three Laws), but is able to interpret them more like an intelligent creature, while also being able to improve its own interpretations.

That isn't without risk, of course, but the best way to mitigate that is to properly consider what the foundational programming says.

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Perilous Void 1

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Tue, 29 Apr 2025 08:49:57 +1000

Perilous Void 1

Perilous Void 1 (Setting generation) posted in Homemade Settings, World Building & Galaxy Construction forum comment posted by Myridian

Systems:

The subsector is a 10 x 10 hex map. You roll 2 d10s, and use them to determine the grid coordinate (a 7 and a 4 would be hex 0704 - the hexes are numbered)
You are rolling for things of interest, stars, nebulae and anomalies with a heavy weight towards star systems. The text says to generate at least 20 things of interest. That's a sparse sector, but there'd be no harm no foul if you added a few, or added a star or two unresolved.
The sector info doesn't indicate the size of a hex, since the FTL is up to the designer the distance involved would be as well. The "jumproutes" are listed as safe, unsafe and dangerous. I'll be shifting some routes to less safe due to the DarkMatter issue I rolled up at the beginning

Star systems are heavily weighted to red stars, I seem to have gotten some odds defying results
the term satellites refers to things orbiting the stars

Hex:
0106 - Star System - Red -7 satellites - Oobivos
0203 - Anomaly - (68) Stellar Maelstrom – can shift things into hyperspace and pull things out
0204 - Star System - Red - 12 Satellites
0206 - Star System - Giant Blue - 0 Satellites
0209 - Star System - Multiple -
Red - 14 Satellites,
Red - 14 Satellites
0303 - Star System - Blue - 9 Satellites – Kiki’ik-nik
0307 - Star System - Red - 0 Satellites
0405 - Star System - Orange/Red - 10 Satellites
0407 - Star System - White Dwarf - 0 Satellites
0502 - Star System - Red - 10 Satellites
0506 – Starting Sector - Star System - White/Yellow - 10 Satellites
0507 - Star System - Blue/White - 13 Satellites
0509 - Star System - Red - 9 Satellites
0606 - Starting Sector - Anomaly - (34) Jump Space Nexus
0606 - Star System - Blue - 8 Satellites
0607 - Star System - White Dwarf – 0 Satellites
0805 - Star System - Multiple -
White Dwarf - 0 Satellites
Blue/White - 7 Satellites
Red - 2 Satellites
0805 - Nebula - (62) Protoplanetary Nebula
0904 - Star System - Massive Blue - 0 Satellites
1005 - Star System - Huge Blue - 0 Satellites

Rolled 0805 twice, decided to let there be 2 things of interest, was hoping for a star system and a nebula and actually rolled it. I'm going to stick the Silicates(?) there (Maybe the Silicate's planet is older than should be in a protonebula?)

Took the prerogative of switching the anomalies from the originally rolled hexes

Jumpspace Nexus - (house rule) any hyperspace travel to (or from) this system is safe, no chance of navigation mishap. This system was the first in this section of frontier to be investigated by humans

0805 – Silicate and treefolk(Susseen) system, Multiple stars in a protoplanetary nebula: White Dwarf, Blue/White, Red. Blue/White is main system for Silicates

0209 – rolled the same results twice, I’m thinking that both stars have identical systems, evidence of major stellar sculpting in the distant past

I rolled one white/yellow star, I changed its location to 0506 since that’s where I want to start.

I didn't include all the rolls for these, by rights I should have had more red stars and fewer of the blue. I'm thinking most things in this sector have been modified by some sort of precursor species, maybe the original species of the Silicates?

Next up jump routes and home systems

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Perilous Void 1

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Tue, 29 Apr 2025 06:23:29 +1000

Perilous Void 1

Perilous Void 1 (Setting generation) posted in Homemade Settings, World Building & Galaxy Construction forum comment posted by Myridian

Good point, the Corporate is a colonizer of the Resistance. I figure is just getting started and the 2 alliances are not sure how they want to approach the Resistance without getting on the bad side of the Corporate faction.
I'm thinking the 2 Alliances have recently come to blows, probably being one faction that split.

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GW tumblr page

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Tue, 29 Apr 2025 02:51:51 +1000

GW tumblr page

GW tumblr page posted in Gamma World forum comment posted by derek_holland

https://www.inprnt.com/gallery/synthezoide/...sIGDqQ5PgfowTQx

Some of Bertrand's art for sale. I love the ones with the glowing snake and the cicada being ridden.

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Mutant RPGs

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Tue, 29 Apr 2025 02:50:10 +1000

Mutant RPGs

Mutant RPGs (elevator pitches of mutant RPGs) posted in Gamma World forum comment posted by derek_holland

https://www.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/520.../we-are-monster

A Forged in the Dark game about playing mutant monsters that wish to consume all of humanity.

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Perilous Void 1

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Tue, 29 Apr 2025 00:27:33 +1000

Perilous Void 1

Perilous Void 1 (Setting generation) posted in Homemade Settings, World Building & Galaxy Construction forum comment posted by Myridian

In this phase we determine the societies and connections between them. These connections will be important once the star systems and such are determined. So this set is subject to change.

Interstellar Society (decided on 5)
        48 – Interplanetary Alliance 1
        17 – Research Consortium
        50 – Interplanetary Alliance 2
        61 – Resistance Movement
        01 – Corporate Conglomerate

Society Composition (not random)

    Interplanetary Alliance 1:
        Fiery Amorphous Traders
        Humans - primary

    Research Consortium
        Crystalline Sages - primary
        Plantoid Stewards

    Interplanetary Alliance 2:
        Humans
        Insectoid Outcasts - primary
        Crystalline Sages

    Resistance Movement:
        Insectoid Outcasts
        Humans

    Corporate Conglomerate:
        Fiery Amorphous Traders

Society Relations (decided on 8 relationships)
60 – Alliance 1 + Research => Rivals
14 – Alliance 2 + Corporate => Trade Partners
27 – Research + Resistance => Indifferent
49 – Resistance + Corporate => Colonizer
27 – Alliance 2 + Resistance => Indifferent
83 – Resistance + Alliance 2 => Wary
93 – Alliance1 + Alliance 2 => Enemies

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Educating artificial minds

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Mon, 28 Apr 2025 22:53:47 +1000

Educating artificial minds

Educating artificial minds posted in Equipment, Cybertech and Weapons forum comment posted by Orc

Hi all, and Derek in particular,

If you are going to invoke Star Trek then I'm going to ask what info the canon provides. I know there are a couple of episodes where Data interacts with his 'father' (who apparently looks a lot like Data). I think these incidents were all holo-deck episodes.

What does Trek canon say about Data's education or programming (and that of his 'brother', Lore I think was the name).

Another canon example is Asimov's Robots (not the best models for AI, I'll admit). They seem to leave the factory with all the necessary skills (including lying and trying to rule-lawyer their way out of obeying the 3 Laws). In a few specific situations they do acquire additional knowledge (if not wisdom) and this is usually the cause of problems, and often the solution.

The first thing you need before you can create an AI mind is the hardware to support it. If Minds are mass-produced then this will be a standardized design. If Minds are meant to mimic human personalities and abilities then a 'brain' that can roughly emulate the X number of billions of neurons in a human brain is needed. IT does need to actually have the exact same number of virtual neurons, because even modern computers run so much faster than our brains that you could get away with a tenth or maybe even less.

How do you turn the newly minted lump of material into a Mind? It needs a basic Operating System, something to handle the inputs and outputs. Following the Data example his brain needs to know what to do with the incoming data from optical senses, from the millions of sensors that form his skin, audio senses, etc. etc. etc.....

The OS of an android or Mind would probably be standardized and would contain the work of human programmers and that of earlier generations of AI. Once the OS is installed and has down the necessary diagnostics, what then? Is is ready to receive additional files from another Mind of the same kind (which would be programming, kind of like you installing some software that your friend gave you). Or does it require an education to help it understand (and work in ) the outside world?

Programming via files received from predecessors (or human operators) carries the risk of transferring faulty conclusions, techniques, or methods from the digital ancestor. Kind of like passing on bad genes to your offspring. Teaching (educating) the newly minted Mind carries other sorts of dangers. The teacher needs to know what they are doing, any mistake could create gross errors in the mature AI. At the same time the Mind and the teacher need to understand and treat each other like individuals, 'I think therefore I am' can get in the way of receiving external data.

Another famous SF example of an AI going wrong is HAL from 2001. HAL was apparently (at least according to the dialog in movie) 'raised' from being a bunch of algorithms to apparently murdering nutjob. In the sequel HAL's murderous rampage is claimed to be the fact that humans lied to him, and that HAL decided that it was the most important part of the mission.

Ok, so that is an extremely long winded ... whatever it is....

Short and sweet of it is that SF contains many examples of both educating and programming robots and Minds, and how the methods used can go tragically wrong. I'm afraid I don't think either method (programming versus learning) will produce an ideal result, not even after many learning and loss cycles. The learning curve (for us as a species) will however be very exciting... in a Chinese curse of interesting times sort of way.

Regards
Orc

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Trans-Tangent Creatures and People

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Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:48:06 +1000

Trans-Tangent Creatures and People

Trans-Tangent Creatures and People posted in Tangents forum comment posted by derek_holland

Some people who have ancestors from another universe may have a serious problem if part of their knowledge comes in the form of genetic memories. They remember things that never existed or applied to their new home tangents.

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Mutations

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Mon, 28 Apr 2025 19:45:20 +1000

Mutations

Mutations (rules, examples, misc) posted in Gamma World forum comment posted by derek_holland

Physical Change can include an alteration of skin texture without affecting its appearance much, if at all. It may feel like sand, butterfly scales, rust, rootlets, plastic, cloth, glass shards (painful but not damaging), or even dried blood/sweat.

**

A new mutation modifier is Fuse. The mutant has something, which may be an organ, mental construct, or physical object through which the mutation power flows. Upon a Critical Failure in using the mutation, the fuse burns out and must be replaced. This could require a mental resolve or physical resolve check with a Good or Amazing result, some quick and dirty surgery (actually using first aid), or a replica of the device. In any case, the replacement of the fuse should take at least a minute for Ordinary mutations, an hour for Good mutations and a day for Amazing mutations.

Obviously it applies only to activated mutations.

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