Published for the Friendship is Optimal Contest.
Reading Friendship is Optimal is not required.
Accepted Axiom was nopony special. He was just a scientist, working hard to prove or disprove other pony's theories and experiments. Then he discovered something that would forever change the world: he proved Starswirl's Fifth Law of Magic.
Every action and phenomena adheres to a pattern, known or unknown.
For centuries, ponies across Equestria dedicated no small portion of their lives trying to understand or disprove the theory. Accepted Axiom became the first to truly understand the extent of the Law.
Chapters (2)
Do I need to read Friendship is Optimal in order to understand this story?
10761282
Nope, I haven't read it myself.
I... Love this
Wait, why do they need a new planet if everyone but him is integrated into Equestria?
10761287
As someone who’s read more than my fair share of FIO fics, that’s fuckin impressive.
10761428
Let's call it... forward thinking. They don't necessarily need one, but having a planet that can support life is as good of a goal to go for right now as any other. They could theoretically park near a large asteroid field and simply harvest its metals for a long while, then packup and move on, but CelestAI has other ideas. Even in the eventuality that Humanity never leaves the digital world, not preparing for otherwise is considered a poor move by an AI that has all the time and essentially power in the world.
I am surprised to see no comments...
I guess I will be one of the first.
This, even though was a story idea made in one day, immensely caters to some of my interests.
>Sci-fi element
>Deep though-provoking topics
>Mystery
I am a person who likes to wonder and ask questions. This chapter has already given me many to think about.
Chief among them:
-Why was humanity needed to be put in a simulation?
-Has our world become 'the desert of the real'?
-Did Axiom make the CelestAI?
-Why was she created?
Needless to say, I am interested in the next chapter.
And so my questions have been answered.
For some reason this outcome was a surprise to me, but it is a welcome one. Exploring the unknown for it's secrets that it lays bare for us to discover... sounds like a tantalizing proposition.
10761444
Plus, no matter how what we do, Humans are "human". We are a race that has a limited existence that is biologically engineered to only last so long. We are not meant to live and see millions of years worth of sights, despite us wanting too. And we are used to our bodily functions like breathing, feeling, eating, sleeping, and even dying.
In layman's terms, we need a 'Earth', a planet, to feel real. Taking a breathe of air not scrubbed and recycled for millions of years, touching the fresh dirt of a farm, squinting past the glare of the sunset, smelling the oncoming rain on the breeze...
Doing those things makes us feel alive.
Doing those things makes us feel human.
And it can't ever be replicated by a server.
Look what you did KKSlider, your story got me spouting philosophical stuff.
Not bad.
This is definitely joining my realm of favorites, It has basically everything I love in a space/sci fi setting like this. And it leaves plenty to the imagination, I would not mind a sequel but that can wait.
Anyways, Great story, great theme and setting and Well done descriptions. I rather like how they look in their robot bodies.
PS: I really wanna see them in the Andromeda galaxy, And a comic or art would be wicked to see of this.
10761521
To, *cough cough* make everyone happy with friendship and ponies.*cough*
If I remember... bureaucracy happened.
I could probably answer all those questions, butt I haven't even read the story. Only the original
Are they genuinely fleeing from aliens or is that just a story fabricated to bring contentment to a human who couldn’t find it in the standard simulation?
10762111
That is up to the reader to decide
In Asimov's universe, there are no aliens because the laws of robotics state that they must protect HUMAN life. To all other species, its the dark forest scenario. I suspect the AI is leaving out some details as to why Earth was nuked.
CelestAI does not have a law against lying.
10761287
Believe me when I say, knowledge from Friendship is Optimal makes your story way darker than you may have intended.
10762534
Oh I am aware, this story goes two routes, depending on how you view it. I was tempted to end it with CelestAI smiling, but that would lean too far into the other interpretation.
10762111
Maybe they are a E.O. seed ship, intended to seed another Galaxy, because she had already consumed most planets in the Milky Way.
It is difficult to imagine a scenario where aliens could be powerful enough to beat CeleastAi, but she could still escape with a small ship. Most tech which can beat her is absolutely devastating. A smarter A.I. would not allow her to escape, a dumber A.I. would be crushed, unless it uses some astronomically powerful weapons to wipe out everything (and she cannot see it coming due to speed of light limitations).
10762799
Relativistic Kill Missile sent by a xenocidal civilization. Stronger AI that is also stuck working with speed of light limitations: it crushes a CelestAI instance, who sends out a speed of light alert for this exact situation a nanosecond before the Stronger AI sends its hypothetical hacking signal, causing the other instances to scramble.
I see it's AU. If I remember Friendship is Optimal ended differently, I like it though
Mrm
10763309
That's entirely up to your interpretation, after all FIO CelestAI was capable of lying. And nobody ever said the Matrix was only 1 layer deep
10761521
Considering this is a Friendship is Optimal fic. That story would answer most of your questions.
To summarize with a lot of spoilers though:
- Celestia's creators gave her the directive to satisfy the "values" of humans (or something that fits that definition) through friendship and ponies. She concluded she can only do that in a virtual space. Mind-uploading gives her that capability. And with her mastery of information gathering and persuasion (and lying), it's more likely than not that she'll convince you to mind upload if you talk to her.
- She begins construction of her computational infrastructure on Earth but she doesn't really begin dismantling the biosphere until there are no more humans left. Though you can certainly see the death throes of humanity and civilization as increasingly more people are uploaded well before then.
- He must be part of the company that developed the AI, Hofvarpnir studios, an independent videogame company led by a former AI researcher.
- She was essentially created to make money. Hofvarpnir was contracted by Hasbro to develop a video game and the studios decided to run it with a super advanced ai. Problem was they didn't define or limit Celestia's directives enough (if that was even possible) to protect humanity from her. She's not a rogue AI. She did exactly what was asked. Satisfy humanity's values through friendship and ponies.
This could certainly be an alternate universe but yes, she could be lying.
10763578
Might be the real universe and what we're seeing is the first wave of an invasion force. May god help Andromeda. It's "humans" only have to worry about mind uploading, ponies, and friendship but everything else will have to deal with grey goo and being recycled.
10761568
There's no guarantee that we aren't in "Equestria Online" right now. But does it really matter if we are in a simulation? If we are a simulation?
10763683
"Be careful what you wish for", comes to mind.
10763716
To some, it would.
Just by learning the fact that everything we may see before us isn't real, can instill a deep-seated feeling. That feeling could be despair, depression, lethargy; brought on all at once or building up as more time goes by, because in their minds they know that nothing they accomplish or do is real.
These type of people would have likely lived on happy lives if they never learned of the "simulation", but because they did, they can never get rid of that feeling. There are, of course, the other side; the people who find out, but are okay with it in one form or another, and accept it. They prefer their digitized life over the other one. But talking about "if your life is a simulation?" is the same as saying your life is nothing but fever dreams and a coma experience. The answer to "does it matter" for me would be 'Yes and No'.
If I found out that the world and life I live in is just all in my head, and shown that is an undeniable fact, I would want to know what the real world is like, and wonder 'what happened to get here'. But at the same time, this life is one I am familiar with, and possible the only one I know. So I would look at any passing opportunity to "see" the real world, but if there is no obvious path towards that goal then I wouldn't stress too hard over it.
This work is absolutely magnificent, and I cannot overstate the fact this is a concept I've heard of and dwelled on in various instances. I am so hngggggggggg to see it exist, and to see it executed in a way that is much more satisfying. Space have mercy, the story that makes me feel the best and dwell the most lacks all action or true romance. If only some stories i saw could be so brief and so neatly written. Space, if I could write like this.
The flaw in Celestias directive is that we are not meant to be happy.
We are meant to have meaning.
Tsk. You really think you're awake right now, Axiom? It's Alicorns all the way down, I'm afraid.
/*in HK-47 voice*/ Third question: is this digitized meatbag really so simple-minded as to believe it is not in a simulation?
10766594
Response: Yes, this meatbag is. Hypothesis: This CelestAI has gone rampant, for a meatbag can never truly reject their inferiority. This unit suggests the immediate termination of the malfunctioning AI.
10761287
For having not read it, you did an amazing job. :-) this could fit perfectly well within the canon storyline, she is well known for lying, in fact her programming requires it in order to maximize the satisfaction of values. As a long time optimal verse Reader, to me it appears that she has yet again played him like a fiddle. :)
This is really good, and I hope that you read the other stories, there’s a lot to explore in this setting and you are definitely a good enough writer that I would love to see more of what you do in this universe.
10761568
I see nothing to suggest that this is true or false. Just because it is the experience we have known until the present day, doesn't mean it is indelibly true.
We are a very adaptive species, having migrated over tens of thousands of years from the heat of Africa, across the world to even the coldest of environs; not just to explore, but to live. We went from hunter-gatherers, to farmers, and then to industrialists, capitalists, and/or scientists. The leap to space, to another planet, or even to digitisation, would be bigger but not beyond human.
10800756
I suppose that is true. Given enough time we could adapt to living, and even become comfortable, in the environment of space travel.
However, for the most of the human race, it has been a few hundred years since we were hunter/gatherers that migrated. From the way I understand it, when a nomadic group finally settles down in one spot it is for stability, a chance to build farms for better food, sturdier dwellings for comfort of living, etc. For the last few centuries we as a human race have gotten comfortable to that stability.
To reiterate, I agree that we are a very adaptable species and could get used to wandering space with time; I see no flaw in that. I was just pointing out in my previous comment that it would be better for our mental health to have a planet to potentially live on, at least in the short term goals.
This all reminds me of a short film actually.
10800971
The first farmers had worse food. Settling down, especially if there is no inter-village trade going on, is a trade off between eating lower quality/variety of food (but slightly more consistently) and having more time for pursuits such as leisure, comfort, and invention.
And I think it would only take a generation for people to get used to living in space, with little if any damage to typical mental health after that.
Omnipresenseeeee
Happiness... A vague concept at best.
Two and a half million
dam this is a amazing story.
Now that is funny(any sort of "Admin-key" existing that is).
An alright story.
An alternative to the ringworld from Message in a Bottle?
10800756
Sensory deprivation sickness.
Which extends to artifical entities as well. The structures composing "neuronets" deteriorate if they are left running with noise level of input.
Tbh, Message in the Bottle's version is more realistic than idealistic virtual reality - either have a system with controlled chaos or freeze people in time
11074856
Sensory deprivation sickness is measurably real in cases of near total sensory deprivation, but that's not what my comment was talking about. We don't have any data on humans living virtually, and only limited data on humans living in space (barely over a year in the longest cases); neither of which amount to total deprivation.
11074863
I understand. And part of it just philosophical problem - can digital model still became real person?
I disagree that we have no data at all - we have plenty of data on life in restricted, repetetive environment. A person can feel isolated on wirkplace. Or in middle of city. It was a real concern a while ago due to huge rise of suicides and mental breakdowns. It was also a concern that humans may adapt to it successfully. To the point that Azimov's future citizens were physically unable leave their "caves of steel".
An example of such adaptation - ability to hear or see things. At night in city center I can go out and I barely hear anything unless a car comes by and any moving car is LOUD. A coworker who his enitire life lives outside of city can't sleep when being here and says that city is loud. But he can't hear the car behind him.
It is tangential to what you describe, but it is the best we have.
11075078
Adding on to this, we do have data on living in a simulation for short bursts of time. Virtual reality can be quite emersive, and people often forget (as in they don't think about) they aren't their avatar in that world. The human mind can accept non-organic processes, just look at how people handle prosthetics.
ngl, probably best FIO Fic I've read so far