future is now

[idolpro]

[ You stand in the middle of a mad scientist's laboratory. ]

Comments

Re: DISCUSSION

[trainphreaking]

Well, suit yourself. It's not like you can screw it up.

Re: DISCUSSION

[numberedays]

No?

Re: DISCUSSION

[trainphreaking]

...is this a self-esteem thing.

I'm not qualified to deal with self-esteem things.

Re: DISCUSSION

[numberedays]

I'm more accustomed to working with machinery and programming, so the idea of making the robot into a human instead is a little...

[But also yes it's a self-esteem thing.]

Re: DISCUSSION

[trainphreaking]

I spent decades trying to make one human and mostly got very large turtles. Something something it's the journey something learn about yourself.

Re: DISCUSSION

[weenwoon]

[hold the fuck up]

Turtles? That's... an interesting result.

Re: DISCUSSION

[trainphreaking]

Turtles! Always turtles! I haven't the foggiest why.

Re: DISCUSSION

[weenwoon]

Can I ask you to describe your work process? There has to be some kind of explanation somewhere.

Re: DISCUSSION

[trainphreaking]

I used parameters modeled from comprehensive existence and memory data supplied by human passengers, fed to an output system used to generate structural support personnel for the train system—

...it could be a hardware limitation, but you'd think the material shape would be the easier one to replicate.

Re: DISCUSSION

[weenwoon]

Hmm, certainly. My people used to make human-shaped familiars sometimes, and it certainly is easy enough to give it the right shape... For anyone other than me, anyway.

But you mentioned "structural support personnel". Could that be why it defaulted to turtles? Turtles are quite sturdy.

Re: DISCUSSION

[trainphreaking]

In some cases, emotional slash metaphysical support, so it's not necessarily a matter of form-based sturdiness.

Re: DISCUSSION

[weenwoon]

I confess, I've never heard of turtles being particularly great at emotional comfort. Though I suppose that's not an aspect many have considered before... I am certain I'd be far more likely to encounter an emotional support shark in my work.

Re: DISCUSSION

[trainphreaking]

I think the principle is a bit like—well, in programming, if you're stuck on something, it helps to try to explain it to someone. But if one hasn't got anyone around, people personify things to explain their problems to. Like a rubber duck.

Re: DISCUSSION

[weenwoon]

Are you speaking from experience?

Re: DISCUSSION

[trainphreaking]

The rubber duck is—oh, what do the kids call that kind of thing these days. A "meme"?

Re: DISCUSSION

[weenwoon]

A "meme"?

Re: DISCUSSION

[trainphreaking]

Haven't the faintest why it's called that. The sort of term you use for a joke that catches on, though.

Re: DISCUSSION

[numberedays]

...How did you get turtles?

Re: DISCUSSION

[trainphreaking]

This is a good question which haunts me every day.

Re: DISCUSSION

[numberedays]

...You didn't learn anything good from it, then?

Re: DISCUSSION

[trainphreaking]

Theoretically a lesson was learned but not really the one I wanted to learn.

Re: DISCUSSION

[numberedays]

Oh?

Re: DISCUSSION

[trainphreaking]

I'd rather not talk about it.

Re: DISCUSSION

[numberedays]

Then I'll stop asking.

Re: DISCUSSION

[trainphreaking]

Making an excellent bid for being my favorite, thank you.