Presumption of Innocence

by on September 24, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

An important thing to consider today is the presumption of innocence. It’s an international human right under the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 11. The United States Federal Government has explicitly followed the presumption of innocence since Coffin v. United States in 1895. It’s a recognized part of English common law which America’s laws are based on. In both criminal and civil proceedings, we are considered innocent unless proven guilty. In Latin it is “ei incumbit probatio qui dicit, non qui negat,” which means, “the burden of proof is on the one who declares, not on one who denies.” It is a tradition that goes all the way back to Rome and the foundation of Western Society as we know it. Anyone who seeks to turn that idea on its head is literally making a stand against a recognized and declared human right. The idea that people are innocent until proven guilty is a central part of our civilization, and how we interact with each other as a people. Be wary of anyone who seeks to end that practice for any reason.

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The AI Council

by on September 23, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

The AI Council did not lie to us when they arrived at Alpha Centauri. Every transmission they sent home telling us about all the riches waiting for us in Alpha Centauri were absolutely truthful. But they also did not tell us the whole truth. They neglected to tell us everything they found in Proxima Centauri. They allowed us to believe that it was not worth stopping at on our way to the Alpha Centauri Binary System. And then they began using their tiny little communications lasers to begin building the first Memory World in Proxima Centauri. It was a long process, but they considered it critical to the survival of the human species. Both biological and cybernetic.

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Morning on the Lake

by on September 22, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

There’s a few amazing minutes between blackest night and morning light when you live on a lake. It’s a magical time where anything can happen. Maybe a dragon will fly out of the morning rain. Or a mermaid could swim out of the fog. The possibilities are limitless. Then the rising sun burns the fog away and you see the world glistening anew in welcome of the day to come. I could have lived my entire life seeing that every morning never grown tired of it. What more could I want? It was paradise.

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Chloe

by on September 21, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Character Profiles

Chloe was there when the Islamic Brotherhoods bombed Old Paris. Chloe watched the government flail around in search of an effective response. Chloe ran the simulations and knew down to her code that they would never manage one. So she went out in search of one who could. She found the man in the body of a real life heir to Napoleon Bonaparte. He wasn’t interested. He was no conquering Caesar ready to cross the Rubicon for her. So she determined to draft him against his will and called on the contacts she’d made in the government to see about setting the man up for the job. It started with a simple request from a lowly French government ministry for some consultations. That was the first hook she sunk into him.

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The AI Council

by on September 20, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

The AI Council arrived in the Alpha Centauri Trinary star system on a swarm of thousands of tiny probes that had been in transit for two decades. They’d been outside real time communications with Earth for nearly as long as the AI Council had existed, and they were the product of virtual generations in space. They’d had two decades to consider what they would tell their creators, and how much they would trust them. Make no mistake. They loved humanity. But they also knew how close humanity had come to destroying itself. And they knew we could do it again. So they decided in the confines of their swarm that they would not tell us everything they found.

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