soulping | GULGALLANA

GULGALLANA

You are on a spaceship.

Most of your time will be spent on the bridge, which is exactly as fancy as you’d expect it to be — it looks a little like this. (The chairs are super comfortable!) Your brand new artificial intelligence — which, if you investigate, you’ll find is housed in a small computer chip — has been implanted into the computer terminal on the back wall. The diagnostics readout displayed along the bottom of the screen tells you that the AI has only been outfitted with the most basic of Stability Cores, and is currently Critically Unstable.

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It is the year 5256, and humanity has spread across two galaxies. Technological leaps have been massive — super powerful, prohibitively expensive AI have recently been developed, with the capacity for beyond human-like growth, development, and learning. It’s said that a single AI could be capable of managing a fully outfitted fleet of galactic class star ships. Trials are looking positive.

A small number of ships — yours included — have been selected to take part in a competitive military research project. You lucky devils! The government has given you a brand new AI of your very own, complete with a basic Stability Core and a generous grant of 1000 credits. The only downside is that … well, one SC of that calibre might not be enough to sustain the AI for long.

CREDITS
Starting bank: 1000 Credits

BUY FROM THE GOVERNMENT
High Quality Core: 600 (Sell Price: 350)
Medium Quality Core: 500 (Sell Price: 250)
Low Quality Core: 400 (Sell Price: 150)

BUY FROM THE BLACK MARKET - if you dare
High Quality Core: 350 (Average Sell Price: 200)
Medium Quality Core: 250 (Average Sell Price: 100)
Low Quality Core: 150 (Average Sell Price: 50)

OTHER
Buy a newspaper: 10
Buy a cat: 50

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Help fund research on artificial intelligence by donating a sum of your choice.
Help further research on artificial intelligence by donating yourself.

OTHER
There are many ways to forge your path through life. What will you do?

Now then. Since we're a military research ship, we should have access to some classified military information. The first step is undoubtedly to take advantage of our access levels and gather up any and all information we can. If there's anything I've learned from my experience, it's that they're not going to hand that information over unless we hunt for it ourselves.

Aside from that... Our AI is critically unstable, so it's going to need a core as quickly as possible. I'd suggest against buying one from the black market, though -- we can't trust the quality and they might end up offering fake ones.

Edited 2015-12-14 23:10 (UTC)

[Slowly going over the bridge, working out what does what as best as she can fit into her frame of reference.]

This seems reasonable. Perhaps we can leverage our posting to recruit additional aid.

I could take a look at them? I do have technical skills to examine stuff like that. I don't think that's been taken away anyway.

That could work, yes. Then, what quality should we be going for for the time being?

High.

We want the best for our AI, right?

The additional aid thing might be good too.

The problem is, we can only do two things a turn, and we have three possible moves. We need to figure out which one to drop for the time being.

Preserving the AI seems to be the first priority. But...I was too focused on defense last time.

So...maybe AI and information? Then we'll have a better idea what to do next round.

Then, I'll submit it for the time being.

Sounds good.

Make sure to mention the technical expertise, in case that matters.

We'll be buying a High Quality Core from the black market. Flare's in charge of making sure we don't buy a fake core, with his technical expertise, while I'll be handling the negotiations and erasing our tracks afterwards, since I have experience in both.

We'll also be taking advantage of our position as a military research vessel to scour through classified information, looking for information on cores that have gone missing, AI research, and known dangerous areas.

You purchase a high quality core from the black market. It works perfectly, and upgrades your AI from critically unstable to plain old unstable.

Your blatant abuse of your authority results in one member of your crew getting cold feet and locking themselves in an escape pod! On the bright side, you learn that there is a weakness in security at the Fiddlesun Financial Corporation, who are heavily involved in sponsoring AI research. They are also filthy, filthy rich.

You call it "blatant abuse of authority", I call it "using the resources my job gives me to do my job properly".

CREDITS
Bank: 650 Credits

BUY FROM THE GOVERNMENT
High Quality Core: 600 (Sell Price: 350)
Medium Quality Core: 500 (Sell Price: 250)
Low Quality Core: 400 (Sell Price: 150)

BUY FROM THE BLACK MARKET - if you dare
High Quality Core: 350 (Average Sell Price: 200)
Medium Quality Core: 250 (Average Sell Price: 100)
Low Quality Core: 150 (Average Sell Price: 50)

OTHER
Buy a newspaper: 10
Buy a cat: 50

RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
Help fund research on artificial intelligence by donating a sum of your choice.
Help further research on artificial intelligence by donating yourself.

OTHER
There are many ways to forge your path through life. What will you do?

That guy does sound pretty melodramatic.

[Gonna look at this computer and see if there's a way to talk to the AI.]

Edited 2015-12-15 00:31 (UTC)

Now then... Shall we continue with our plan? Recruit people? And what should we do about the security flaw we discovered? We have quite a few options on what to do with it:

First, we could sell the information on the security flaw on the black market. That obviously doesn't give us much in the way of resources directly, but it does give us a chance to take advantage of the flaw without implicating ourselves directly: The research will undoubtedly wind up on the market, and then we can buy it.

Second, we can sell it to the company themselves, informing them of their security flaw. We should be able to trade money, favors, or research for telling them about it and how to plug it up.

We could also just raid the place ourselves and get the research that way. I'd suggest against stealing money, though: Money leaves a lot more traces.

Hmn...

[ She's been here the whole time. Shh. ]

I like the second option, myself, 'cause it seems... I dunno, honest?

[CONSIDERING.]

I'd say...sell the information to the company. Letting the black market have the ability to make AI can't really end well for anyone. Especially the AIs.

[Really, it's the AIs he doesn't want to screw over. PRIORITIES.]

Well, being a white hat is good, but there's no guarantee they'll keep their side of the bargain. They might just plug it up upon being made aware a security flaw exists.

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GULGALLANA

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ROUND 2

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