#Lore24 – Entry #361 – Sci-Fi Month IV #26 – What Lies Hidden in Crystalline Dreams
Transcribed From the Personal Recording Implant of Andra Ganim, Chronicler of the Codex Infinitum
AG: “This device, UCSD-0001, sounds absolutely remarkable. You’re convinced that it is of draconic origin, from somewhere beyond the Demon Barrier…has there been any information that you’ve managed to glean from it that you can share with me?”
RV: “Some, as it relates to our conversation topics. In many ways, the object is like the most densely packed onion, you could say, each layer we decode revealing something new. Much of it seems to be standard knowledge, revealing technology not unlike our own, astrogation data, records of worlds we have only begun to identify beyond the Barrier, civilizations that may well no longer exist, arcane spells that are familiar yet distinctly different in their implementations, similar to how they used to be before the Great Cataclysm of Andyllion.
Other data we’ve pulled from the matrix, though, is much more interesting, revealing things we had only begun to explore, or that is completely unknown to us. Tell me, what do you know of modern robotics and artificial intelligence?”
AG: “Well, certainly neither one are areas I have studied, so I would say my knowledge is surface-level at best. Current robots are generally designed to augment ourselves, through cybernetic replacements or powered armors and exo-frames generally used for construction, loading, and other such industrial purposes, or semi-autonomous drones. Artificial intelligence has been a much more questionable area of study. We have basic AI all over the galaxy, for handling simple tasks, parsing and summarizing data, and controlling some functions of the aforementioned drones and armors/frames. I believe there are efforts to create more advanced versions underway, but thus far, as far as I’m aware, anyway, we’ve never created a successful fully aware artificially intelligent consciousness, due to some breakdown of the various systems that leads to corruption and self-destruction or required termination due to a rampant state where it tries to destroy everything around it.”
RV: “For someone who hasn’t studied the topic, you’re more knowledgeable than I would have suspected. Just how deep does your well of knowledge truly go, I wonder? Anyway, one of the most remarkable discoveries we’ve made within the relic is that of a stable digital intelligence.”
AG: “…You didn’t call it an artificial intelligence, I see.”
RV: “Indeed, I did not. Initially, we thought that is what we had found, but upon further study, and upon its awakening, we learned that it was quite sentient, and far more advanced than any AI we have as of yet managed to create. When queried, it was very forthcoming about itself and was quite curious where it had been taken. Apparently, this type of storage matrix was designed not only to record data, but fully digitized personalities as well, creating what it described as a dream-like state in which its consciousness could survive for as long as the matrix itself would remain intact, a crystalline dreamworld you could say. It became rather distraught when we revealed where it had been found, worried over its fellow beings, in fact, and the state of its home world. Based upon the data it provided, its home world is unquestionably deep within the Demon Sector, though currently far beyond our reach. Additionally, based upon our extrapolations, we’re estimating its age at approximately ten- to fifteen-thousand years old.”
AG: “Remarkable!”
RV: “Quite so. The method is not entirely unlike soul transference or trapping that is possible through the arcane arts that I’m familiar with, in fact, simply a different implementation of the procedure. I believe we may have already encountered others of its kind, too, though I don’t believe the one who stumbled upon them knows the significance of what she has discovered. Yet another vexation provided to me by the current incarnation of Lila Darius.”
AG: “I was aware that she was exploring the Demon Sector, but her movements have been very hard to track, and what information is revealed has been filtered through Veylani Transport’s various spokespersons, full disclosure promised at a later date for the sake of the archives, of course. Whenever that may come.”
RV: “Indeed. I have made several attempts to locate her in recent years, yet she remains solidly beyond my grasp, though she is leaving a trail now, one that I’ve already been following with great interest since I’ve managed reliable sources from within the various UEF fleets that have been dispatched into the depths of the Demon Sector. As much as it pains me to do so, I must give credit to Darius for finally cracking the mystery of how to cross the Barrier, though I have my doubts that this incarnation even realizes just how she came to do such a thing.”