SOOOOO I was not expecting to end up having a Tron-sona but here we are
I have chosen my program name:
Aster.
It came to me in the same… overcomplex, interconnected sort of way that ideas usually come to me.
(buckle up for a wild ride into how my brain works!)
There are many different aspects to why it fits. Here are some, in no particular order:
Means “star.” Of course I’ve always felt a connection to stars and outer space. My first love was Star Trek and it’s still right up there.
Aster is also where the word “asterisk” comes from. An asterisk is a cool design that would be easy for me to work into circuit-patterns on a suit— I’m already designing it in my head!
The appearance of an asterisk is also meaningful for me, because it looks like several lines connecting at one point… and you KNOW how my brain loves to connect things (case in point, this whole post)
An asterisk is used in writing to indicate a footnote– again, just like my brain going off on a tangent!
What the asterisk means in programming (wildcard, stand-in for “anything”) is one of the few programming things I have actual experience with beyond HTML, because it’s used in GREP commands, which I use for mass-editing a whole lot of HTML pages at once.
In ASCII, the asterisk is represented by 42, which is my age at this pivotal moment in my life.
There was a whole fan theory that this was Douglas Adams’ reasoning behind 42 being the meaning of life… if the answer to the Great Question is an asterisk, then that means “whatever you want it to be.” (Douglas Adams denied this, and insisted that the number was chosen at random. Which means that connection happened just BY COINCIDENCE, which I like even better!)
And that meaning fits me too, because I AM a wildcard who can do a WHOLE lot of different things.
(One of which is sewing… the pun “Poly-Aster” is relevant to my fabric crafts, and to the fact that I can ALSO do a whole lot of different partners, lol)
Aster rhymes with Castor who may be my favorite character in Legacy.
Also starts with the sound of “ass” and y'know how I love sexy butts.
(an asterisk also kinda looks like a butthole, though that’s really not so relevant to my appreciation of Tron-style program butts)
…Of course, there are programmers all over the real world, and they’ve got more projects going than there are words in any language…
…so GOOD LUCK finding a name that isn’t already taken by some boring RL program…
BUT, the RL program called ASTER is also pleasingly relevant.
It is something called “multiseat software,” which isn’t anywhere near my own meager programming experience… HOWEVER:
- “multiseat” sounds like it could mean “lots of butts” and that’s very cool with me
- what it actually does is allow multiple people to connect to one computer at once… which SORTA resonates with what this identity of mine is for… (interfacing with my peeps online)
Still need to figure out just what sorta job my program-self would have in the Encom system. But needless to say it would be something very versatile, involving connections.
For now this is how I’ve edited my Discord avatar to reflect that I’m going by Aster in the TRON fandom (though I’m still known as Tiliquain or Tili some places and I’ll definitely answer to that)
the little dragon face in the middle of the asterisk is my character Tiliquain from furry fandom. The “bold” tags are a nod to the initials of this Tumblr account (which I didn’t realize spelled “BOLD” when I chose it but I guess it’s quite fitting.)
Okay…
I now have some …
Further notes involving my character
(getting to the point of drawing on my old furry-fandom experience to make an actual ref sheet, but for now…)
Aster
Pattern recognition software, written for a marketing company in 1985. Unusually advanced for the 80s and originally intended for a project far ahead of its time.
Ported into the Encom system in 1987, five years after the overthrow of the MCP.
At this point the MCP had been replaced by a different set of algorithms who take a gentler and more democratic approach to decision-making. However, this new management still has a semi-secret rebellious streak, and still occasionally steals programs from other corporations, for reasons of its own.
Reason given for stealing Aster was: “That marketing corp is evil as fck and it was gonna use her in data harvesting for targeted advertising on search engines.”
Aster agrees, and is perfectly happy to be at Encom instead.
The Encom system is one of the few places under the influence of what Walter Gibbs called “the spirits of the programmers” –a mysterious phenomenon in which programs that should not be complex enough to develop true intelligence will nevertheless spontaneously become sentient and conscious when uploaded into that system.
Aster remembers events from before– data she trained on; projects she was used in– but can’t remember a mental or emotional response to any of it, since she had no mind or emotions at the time.
Currently she describes herself as a “wildcard,” “Renaissance program,” “jack of all tasks,” and “obsessive weirdo with a wall covered in newspaper clippings connected with thumbtacks and string, except not trying to prove anything really, just making connections ‘cause I LIKE to.”
She’s a gig worker with strong pattern-finding skills and many different areas of knowledge from both User and Program worlds– which she applies to whatever job strikes her fancy. She does investigative journalism, scientific research, engineering innovation, arcade-game aerobics coaching, and several recreational creative projects.
Says she was written by a user named “ERSchmitz42” but this was back at the marketing company, and she knows very little about this user. Her loyalty now is to any and all programs and users who need her help here at Encom.
(My updated avatar, for now:
ALT
a few more details:
Aster is also a flower. A daisy. (excuse me while I sing in a very creepy computer voice for a while!)
as I said in another post, “big-overload-little-derez” is just a “Tronslated” play on two User-language terms for orgasm (big O, little death) to indicate the usually-erotic nature of this blog…
And in either language, the initials spell “bold,” which I didn’t plan, but still really like.
In my attempt to make html tags for “bold” that would be readable on an avatar-sized image file, I tried several fonts before finding one that, serendipitously, happened to work just right
