## [RT][WIP][HSF] Set In Stone: Follower Chapter 22 Rational Stonepunk

* Author: u/Farmerbob1  *Level 1 author**
* URL: https://setinstonestory.wordpress.com/2015/07/14/chapter-22/
* Score: 13

* Created: 2015-07-14T15:35:43

### Post:

[Link to content](https://setinstonestory.wordpress.com/2015/07/14/chapter-22/)

### Comments:

> **u/Empiricist_or_not** [+2]  *Aspiring polite Hegemonizing swarm* (8 hours later)
> 
> Shame that he lost the reeds on the boars. . .
> 
> Did we just see Albert use him as a sock-puppet?

>> **u/Farmerbob1** [+1]  *Level 1 author* (9 hours later)
>> 
>> I wouldn't go as far as saying Albert used him as a sock-puppet, but Albert definitely got what he wanted out of the conversation.

>>> **u/4t0m** [+2]  *Chaos Legion* (12 hours later)
>>> 
>>> I think they were referring to Allen's lost time.

>>>> **u/Farmerbob1** [+1]  *Level 1 author* (18 hours later)
>>>> 
>>>> Ah, I hadn't even considered that.  (Authorial tunnel vision!)
>>>> 
>>>> No, no sock puppet.  Allen just went into something like a fugue state when running.  Exertion, dehydration, blood loss, low blood sugar.  He was exhausted and pretty much only focused on the dual goals of getting back to camp to warn the officers, and preserving his livelihood.

>>>>> **u/Empiricist_or_not** [+2]  *Aspiring polite Hegemonizing swarm* (a day later)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Ah, well some of us have heard if neural laces, and realize they could be used as a control system. It's a common strategy to conceal your abilities after all; if Albert admits to nanites administered while someone is asleep, then what can he do that he doesn't advertise?

>>>>>> **u/Farmerbob1** [+1]  *Level 1 author* (a day later)
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Albert could do a great deal, and does do a great deal by human standards, but he typically takes the path where least resistance meets easiest to compute with high degrees of certainty.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> There are more optimal paths, but they are more computationally complex, which means he would be risking insanity sooner, or have to take the risk of duplicating himself and sharing resources or conflicting with the alternate self.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I've been a little surprised that nobody has been calling me out on the whole 'Lazy AI' thing.

>>>>>>> **u/Empiricist_or_not** [+2]  *Aspiring polite Hegemonizing swarm* (2 days later)
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> I figured it's either, authorial Fiat on how AI works to make it conceivable-ish to write convincingly, or disinformation from Albert, so I'm usually just looking for evidence one way or the other, which are both Good enough for me.  Since the last two chapters I've been well on the latter side though, because . . . well: 
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> 1. Albert apparently engineered an improvement to insects and unless I missed that they were deliberately left out of the biosphere *they out-bred their un-modified variants, so that they are now a persistent metal consuming swarm *
>>>>>>> 2. Nano-tech has practical implications, even if you are limiting your computational substrate to a single moon.

>>>>>>>> **u/Farmerbob1** [+1]  *Level 1 author* (2 days later)
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> Authorial fiat.  I might have to touch things up if it seems like Albert is lying (about the fact he's a Lazy AI).  He does avoid using a significant part of his capacity.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> For the insects and other microfauna that consume free metals, a lot of that work was already done by humans, as part of the locust research.  Still, he did put a lot of effort into it, because it was needed for his plans.
>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>> This doesn't appear in the story, but running a nanite healing process would certainly require a good bit of computational capacity.  I figure that Albert would deliver a little iron to the body with the nanites and form a tiny whip antennae on one of the long bones to allow easy communication to anyone being monitored.  After that's done, directing and receiving data from nanites would not be that much more computationally expensive than talking to a human.  Power could be provided over the long term by induction around nerve bundles and/or ear-canal piezoelectric generators, and over the short term in an emergency by a few tiny high capacity batteries injected into the body.  Does this make sense, or were you referring to something else.

>>>>>>>>> **u/Empiricist_or_not** [+3]  *Aspiring polite Hegemonizing swarm* (2 days later)
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Um. . .   I want to say authorial fiat is okay and go with that, that's what I should do as a good reader, and in that vein I'm trying to think of things like Albert disregarding all inconveniences below a certain level making him very patient. 
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> That said my futurist geek is kicking and screaming like HJPEV watching McGonagall change into/from a cat and travel back in time while slamming a handful of uranium into a handful of anti-uranium, because medical nanites and several hundred years implies to me that an arbitrary percentage of the moon Albert ~~lives on~~ exists as,  is made of thinking matter, and he has had lots of time to go **FOOM**  
>>>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>>>> Despite these tacky little assumptions of mine, the type of thing that almost made me walk out of devergent when they had direct neural interfaces powersupplys dense enough for ubiquitious hand held gauss guns, and were stuck in a city instead if colonizing Jupiter's moons, please keep writing.  You have a believable characterization for a Singleton, good characters who are sympathetic and yet alien enough to make us question, and I greatly enjoy your story.

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