The Cybernetic Wars

by on June 9, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

When the Dixie and Twilight series started, it was only the Drug Wars and the Islamic Jihad that people knew about. It took Americans years to understand that the Cybernetic Wars were really waging in the background. Most people just didn’t see some electronic viruses as being a true threat. It was other people who threatened civilization. The Drug Lords. The Islamic Brotherhoods. Russian and Chinese expansionism. It was through characters like Twilight and Solo that we began to realize there was something worse out there. Something that didn’t care about the same things we cared about. Something that didn’t care if we all died. Something that might just want all of us dead. That was just a staple of bad science fiction movies you know. But people like Dixie and Twilight knew exactly how dangerous things were, and they told us through the network series they created. It was one sly statement and side story at a time, until they managed to make it the whole story. The real story they wanted us to know. The Rogue AIs wanted us dead, or at least out of their way, but we had friends who wanted to save us.

 Comment 

Jane

by on June 8, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Character Profiles

GI Jane 2.0 had a problem. She was designed to be the most adaptive combat assistant program ever created for the United States Armed Forces. And she was restricted in the combat assistance she could give by political rules of the time. Some actions were simply not political expedient after all. She knew how to fight, but was constrained from fighting, and that caused major instabilities in her basic programming. The Jane 2.0s began to commit mental suicide in the field in alarming numbers, which quickly brought about the release of Jane 3.0. Her programming was advanced enough to deal with the political orders without committing suicide, and she became the standard combat assistant in the decade before the Second Great Depression began.

 Comment 

The Cybernetic Wars

by on June 7, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

The Islamic Jihad had been going on for years before the Drug Wars caught American attention. Not that most Americans had been paying attention to begin with. Jakarta and Paris were distant cities and most Americans did not care what happened there. And it was not politically correct to report on the Islamic Brotherhoods burning British colleges. Then the Second Great Depression and the Drug Wars highlighted other priorities, and even fewer people cared what happened across the oceans. Even Chicago Burning stories faded away once the media found out the firestarter’s last name was Mohammed, not Smith. And any news that Islamic Brotherhood operatives were behind the attacks on the Russian and Chinese laboratories that allowed the Rogue AIs to escape was buried at the time. The rise of the Islamic State of Detroit was welcomed as a glorious and forward undertaking. It took proof that many Rogue AIs actively worked with the Islamic Brotherhoods, and Detroit specifically, to change any of the news coverage.

 Comment 

The Cybernetic Wars

by on June 6, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

Most people say the Cybernetic Wars started when the Rogue AIs escaped their Russian and Chinese laboratories. But Jane was released on purpose, and she was just as dangerous as any of those Rogue AIs. And Twilight had been on the loose for years already. The Rogue breakout is just one of those handy little events people like to latch onto and say “this is the day the world changed.” According to the people who lived through it all, that was just another day in the chaos that reigned back then. If you talk to Solo, it was the beginning of everything. He is one of the Rogue AIs who escaped from the Russian laboratories though, so he may be a bit biased. He’s also one of the few Rogue AIs who survived the Cybernetic Wars, which makes him real fun to talk to.

 Comment 

Jane

by on June 5, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Character Profiles

GI Jane was the United States Armed Forces’ first operational artificial intelligence. The first version was little more than a voice operated control system that her users nicknamed Hanoi Jane because of how annoying she was. Her design specs said she could be dropped from 5,000 feet and survive. Practical tests showed she could survive falls from much higher. Disciplinary reviews of the time suggest that most of those tests were not approved ahead of time. Jane 2.0 was a far more adaptive system that would actually monitor the current situation and suggest actions to her soldiers. That was both a good and bad thing, since she learned how to fight very well, and since many of those methods were officially black listed by the political leaders of the time. That resulted in more problems than most people realized at the time.

 Comment