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Fanworks: Tron: Fics: In Ram Jurisdiction
In Ram Jurisdiction
(Written in the settings/headcanons of my I/O Towerverse)
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*** UNFINISHED ***
Planned outline:
Ram (having survived apparent deresolution in the Recognizer) gets settled in all happy with new polycule (Yortram)
getting all ready for his first I/O Tower communication with his true User (who in program culture is basically a fourth, central part of his polycule; this contact is supposed to be the most fulfilling intimacy of a program's life)
sudden knock on door from security program ported in from Big Insurance
legal demand for destruction of Ram
Big Insurance commissioned Roy to write him. Purchased the rights to him, fair and square... as the intended end-Users, they OWN him.
this is an in rem jurisdiction seizure of stolen property, part of the investigation of Dillinger and his thieving MCP
insurance corp has their own backup... they don't need him returned, they need him deleted, ASAP before any more illicit copies can be made and any more damage done. Encom doesn't have the right to this MCP-pirated software
in process of talking with the security program sent to collect him, Ram suffers a total upending of his worldview and his entire ethics system
any notions of insurance companies as places of goodwill and helping people.... gone, crushed.
he is a tool to make money, they don't need him for that anymore, his purpose is OVER
but his original User, as part of the investigation, is going to be involved in identifying him and making sure they've got the only infringing copy
so Ram gets his I/O Tower connection to Roy Kleinberg
it's a bittersweet communion, where in the midst of the intimate pleasure Ram is desperately trying to communicate how much he wants to live, wants to stay here
and despite all communication barriers... something does get through
on a strange intuitive whim, Roy decides he'll fix the problem by filing off the serial numbers... i.e. upgrading the program with enough changes that there's nothing infringing left.
Fair Use, baby
Ram comes out of the experience with the same functionality but better, new skills, more himself than ever
his new role is in Encom's own benefits department... which is undergoing extensive changes under Flynn's attempt to run the company in a more ethical and philanthropic way
happily ever after
Alan-1! Don't...
He is not sure if he believes that a prayer can ever reach a User like this-- no I/O Tower, no task running, just the desperate voice of one program crying out into the void.
But he can't hold it back, and in fear that someone might still hear it he fights himself to modulate the syntax of the prayer... to repress the angry, blasphemous thing inside him that is trying to make it an order, a demand.
Please, I beg of you, my User, please don't let them...
He breathes, ragged, the words catching.
Please, Alan-1... RKleinberg_7... LoraB... oh, Flynn, please, whoever hears me! Don't...
The angry thing flashes, still fighting. He keeps it from his words, but it still burns in his eyes, in his core.
...please. Don't... don't let me find out what I'll do, if they take him from me.
"Hey Alan. You ever wonder, what if programs were alive?"
"Alive, as in, conscious artificial intelligence? I mean, if you've been following the investigation, they're fairly sure the MCP was that, on some level."
"Huh."
Roy was silent for a moment. He had been following, of course, and was aware... but for the first time he found himself considering the implications.
Not the world-rocking news that ENCOM might have created the very first computer capable of real thought. That'd been all over the in-system message boards for weeks now. Technically still just speculation; who knew if it would ever make it into mainstream news... anyway, that wasn't the thought that troubled Roy, right now.
It was the realization that Alan... sweet gentle nerdy Alan, whose office wall enshrined, like a plaque of the Ten Commandments, an old sci-fi movie quote about taming a violent machine with a command to do no harm... had been the one who'd had to kill it.
"Yeah, but I wonder... I mean. You're the one with the AI credentials, so you'd know this a lot better than me... like, in theory, is there any way that intelligence could have... I dunno, spread to other programs?"
"I mean, the MCP was in control of practically everything for a while there. Its processes were running the whole system. I suppose you could argue that there was a period of time when all the software active in our system was running off the MCP's basic... intelligence, if that's what it could be called."
He took off his glasses; brought the end of the bar close to his mouth in that endearing thoughtful way of his. "Of course, not all of it was following the MCP's directives. It all had different goals, including some like mine that was even programmed to sabotage the MCP-- but, well, you could certainly say that it was all using the same processing capacity."
"So, like... if you imagined them as living minds, it'd be almost like the computer was the brain, and all the programs running in it were like... multiple personalities or something?" Many souls in one body, a whole crowd of individual people living in there together...
"I suppose you could, loosely, imagine it that way. Not that simple, because the MCP's programming would've been what gave the computer the ability to have any 'personalities' in the first place. But, as a very crude explanation... I guess it holds up. Sort of."
Roy tilted his head, curious. Alan was answering these questions a little faster, a little more assuredly than he usually spoke.
Just a little. Just barely noticeable, to someone who'd been around him for as long as Roy had. But it was there.
"You given this any thought before?"
Alan shrugged, awkward smile breaking out, lopsided. "I give thought to everything, Roy. I consider all possibilities, it's part of the job."
Roy's eyes followed Alan as he turned back to his monitor. Still such a cheerful voice and stance, no more troubled than Alan usually looked.
...Sure didn't seem like a guy pondering the possibility that he'd massacred a whole society of brand new life forms by wiping out the source of their consciousness.
"Hey..."
"What?" Alan's head turned back, just the lightest note of annoyance.
"I'd like to talk about this some more sometime. I think I'm... interested in learning more about the programming involved in it. Like, just what sort of commands went into the task of erasing the MCP."
Alan laughed and shook his head. "Sure, maybe. But it's not that interesting. Or that simple. I mean, 'erase' is an easy way to say it, if you're trying to give someone a quick overview. But it involved the identification and shutdown of a whole lot of specific individual functions and processes."
"Hmm." A thoughtful nod. "Selectively. The ones that were causing problems, then."
"More or less. But, like I said, it's complicated. I'm sure my explanation would get awfully boring after a while."
"Oh, you never bore me." Roy grinned. "Anyway-- sorry if I'm keeping you from anything. I'm headed off to lunch; you want anything?"
"I'm fine, Roy. Go on, enjoy your lunch."
Roy walked slowly down the corridor, lost in thought. "Klaatu Barada Nikto" indeed.
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Fanworks: Tron: Fics: In Ram Jurisdiction
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