update from sparkleup
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Madison Scott-Clary
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<li class="done2"> <a href="secession/sys/True-Name/007.html">Secession: sys-side: True Name</a> - walks sims, thinking about what the System will look like after secession (doesn’t share Yared’s pessimism), how to keep it running, remembers conversation about birth laws in S-R Bloc, forks End Waking to investigate that, revealing that at some point, Jonas showed her how to manipulate reputation markets to make sure she could always fork. - 1378 Expand?</li>
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<li class="done2"> <a href="launch/phys/Douglas/008.html">Launch: phys-side: Douglas</a> - Sabotage attempts, hinting that there are those phys-side who have also picked up patterns and really don’t like System - 2764</li>
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<li class="done2"> <a href="secession/phys/Yared/008.html">Secession: phys-side: Yared</a> - Sure enough, support rapidly swings sys-side, long conversation with TN/Jonas about what it means, starting to see how having his name on the amendment is diving people not just on the subject, but on him, starting to think about death, showing fear that he had at beginning - 2839</li>
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<li class="done0"> <a href="launch/sys/Ioan/010.html">Launch: sys-side: Ioan</a> - Ioan, getting really pissed at how Odists won’t just answer eir fucking questions all the way and keep demurring at the last minute, interviews Jonas Prime, who has grown pessimistic, life wants to spread and multiply to make itself stronger, this is the root of the launch: offsite backups; thus why dreamer module was frowned upon: has broadcast w/ information about system, earth, interfacing, etc</li>
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<li class="done2"> <a href="launch/sys/Ioan/010.html">Launch: sys-side: Ioan</a> - Ioan, getting really pissed at how Odists won’t just answer eir fucking questions all the way and keep demurring at the last minute, interviews Jonas Prime, who has grown pessimistic, life wants to spread and multiply to make itself stronger, this is the root of the launch: offsite backups; thus why dreamer module was frowned upon: has broadcast w/ information about system, earth, interfacing, etc - 3375</li>
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<li class="done0"> <a href="launch/launch/Codrin-castor/007.html">Launch: launch-side: Codrin#Castor</a> - Interviews True Name for second time w/ more info, confronts for truth about the Odists’ role in post-secession, confirms, laughs down concerns.</li>
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<li class="done0"> <a href="launch/launch/Codrin-pollux/007.html">Launch: launch-side: Codrin#Pollux</a> - Interviews Ne Jonas, humanity best viewed as a resource to be used or a crop to be tended by System</li>
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<p>“Oh, that’s an easy one,” Jonas said. “It’s basically the same as what I said about life. If life is to have the right level of constraining pressures on it, one of the easiest ways to do so is through the economy. The long-term goal of ‘meddling’, as you put it, was to ensure the continuity of capitalism. It gives something for people to dream about, which are alternatives. It gives something for people to work against. It gives them reason to keep on dreaming, and since they know that we rely on reputation up here, they have plenty dream about.”</p>
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<p>“Simple enough, I guess, even if a little frightening in its implications.”</p>
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<p>“What implications are those, Ioan?”</p>
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<p>Ey frowned. “What it sounds like your goals are is to keep life on Earth from getting too nice. It sounds like you’re keeping the pressures high so that the System continues. More than continues, even. </p>
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<p>Ey frowned. “What it sounds like your goals are is to keep life on Earth from getting too nice. It sounds like you’re keeping the pressures high so that the System continues. More than continues, even. You wanted to keep it desirable as the greener grass on the other side of the fence.”</p>
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<p>“And how is that frightening?” Jonas laughed. “The grass is greener. We give them something to reach for. What more could anyone want out of life than a goal?”</p>
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<p>Ioan kept from speaking up about what ey’d heard from those ey had interviewed for the money. Instead, ey asked. “Alright, last question for now. Two-parter. One of my clade interviewed someone who mentioned that there was some dissension with your clade about whether to go ahead with Launch. Is that true?”</p>
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<p>Jonas shook his head, swallowing the last sip of his drink before saying, “There might have appeared to be, but I guarantee you that that was manufactured. Having some highly visible folks argue about whether or not it was a good idea gets everyone interested.”</p>
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<p>“And the Dreamer Modules?”</p>
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<p>For the first time in interview, the first time since ey’d met Jonas — the first time any Balan had met any Jonas, if Codrin#Castor was correct — he frowned. “You’ve been asking plenty of interesting questions, Ioan, but this is the first you’ve asked that is actively uncomfortable.”</p>
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<p>Ioan waited.</p>
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<p>The grin returned, playful this time. “Alright, have it your way! You historians, I’ll never get it. Do you know what’s on the Modules?”</p>
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<p>Ey thought back. “Research stuff. Telescopes, measurement devices, that sort of thing. Codrin said that ey got to lay in a field and look up at the stars as they really were outside the LV — or at least as close as the sim would let them be.”</p>
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<p>“And?”</p>
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<p>“Isn’t there some broadcast continually playing? Something about prime numbers. Something to get aliens to get curious about Earth.”</p>
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<p>Jonas’s grin turned icy. “No, not Earth, Ioan. The System.”</p>
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<p>“The L<sub>5</sub> System? Or those on the LVs?”</p>
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<p>“Space is unfathomably big, Mx Balan. Stupendously big. There is absolutely no way that aliens, as you put it, would care about Earth or the solar system. There’s no reason to come here. There’s no reason for them to even bother with something so pitiful as us.” The grin was edging into a smirk, now, and Ioan couldn’t tell quite what it meant. Jonas continued, “No, the LV Systems. There is the broadcast to get extraterrestrial intelligences in the LVs, yes, but that’s not all. There’s a very precise set of instructions for how the System works, how the Ansible works, and an Ansible receiver.”</p>
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<p>Ioan blinked and sat up straighter. “I don’t remember hearing anything about that.’</p>
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<p>“We clamped down on the knowledge as best we could as soon as we realized we wouldn’t be able to rule it out.” Jonas waved his hand. “Not important, though, because the last part of that package is a complete description of a human neural system and a basic description of other physiology. A complete map of our DNA, should they even want to build a human entire.”</p>
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<p>“Whose DNA?”</p>
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<p>“Why, our very own Douglas Hadje! Who else?” He laughed bitterly. “But there’s all that they could ever want to build a Douglas Hadje in simulation and send it through the Ansible to the attached System. It’d wind up in a locked-down sim, we made sure of that, but it’d be able to communicate, and enough people on that System know enough about the System that it might figure out how to break free of that restriction.”</p>
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<p>“That sounds rather exciting though,” Ioan said. “Why were you so against it?”</p>
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<p>“How much have we talked about risk tonight, Ioan?”</p>
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<p>“You’re saying that it presents too great a risk to the continuity of the LV System?”</p>
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<p>“Ioan, you are very smart, but I need you to keep up if you’re going to come away with interesting answers. Think through list of instructions that I mentioned.”</p>
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<p>Ey frowned. Then tilted eir head. “There’s an Ansible on there, you said, right? They could theoretically upload that same manufactured construct to this System, right?”</p>
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<p>Jonas nodded. “There we go. There’s nothing to stop them from doing so, after all. It’s easy enough for them to figure out that these are probes, and that probes must be coming from somewhere. There’s no reason, then, for them not to find that somewhere and blast out constructs in our direction. We’re taking steps now to match those new Hadjes to dump them in a similar locked-down sim. We’ll ask our questions, then kill them.”</p>
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<p>“What about <em>the</em> Douglas Hadje?”</p>
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<p>“He’ll be allowed. This is the least risky place for him to be, after all. He knows far too much to remain phys-side. But he’ll be the last.”</p>
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<p>Ioan sighed, finished eir drink in a few big gulps, and sat for a moment, staring down at the rest of the blank page left for taking notes. Ey couldn’t do it. It was too much. Much too much. “Jonas,” ey said, reaching a hand across the table. “Thank you so much for letting me interview you. You’ve given me rather a lot to think about. Is there any you want to keep me from publishing?”</p>
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<p>He returned the handshake and shrugged. “Nope, you’re good to go with all of it. We’ve done the cost-benefit analysis, and this passes muster.”</p>
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<p>They both stood and walked toward the exit.</p>
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<p>“Mx Balan, it’s been an absolute pleasure.”</p>
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<p>Ioan smiled and very carefully did not say, <em>For you, perhaps. For me, it has been absolutely terrifying.</em></p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-09-18</p>
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