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mostlysignssomeportents · 2 years ago

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Autoenshittification

Forget F1: the only car race that matters now is the race to turn your car into a digital extraction machine, a high-speed inkjet printer on wheels, stealing your private data as it picks your pocket. Your car’s digital infrastructure is a costly, dangerous nightmare — but for automakers in pursuit of postcapitalist utopia, it’s a dream they can’t give up on.

Your car is stuffed full of microchips, a fact the world came to appreciate after the pandemic struck and auto production ground to a halt due to chip shortages. Of course, that wasn’t the whole story: when the pandemic started, the automakers panicked and canceled their chip orders, only to immediately regret that decision and place new orders.

But it was too late: semiconductor production had taken a serious body-blow, and when Big Car placed its new chip orders, it went to the back of a long, slow-moving line. It was a catastrophic bungle: microchips are so integral to car production that a car is basically a computer network on wheels that you stick your fragile human body into and pray.

The car manufacturers got so desperate for chips that they started buying up washing machines for the microchips in them, extracting the chips and discarding the washing machines like some absurdo-dystopian cyberpunk walnut-shelling machine:

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/desperate-times-companies-buy-washing-machines-just-to-rip-out-the-chips-187033.html

These digital systems are a huge problem for the car companies. They are the underlying cause of a precipitous decline in car quality. From touch-based digital door-locks to networked sensors and cameras, every digital system in your car is a source of endless repair nightmares, costly recalls and cybersecurity vulnerabilities:

https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/quality-new-vehicles-us-declining-more-tech-use-study-shows-2023-06-22/

What’s more, drivers hate all the digital bullshit, from the janky touchscreens to the shitty, wildly insecure apps. Digital systems are drivers’ most significant point of dissatisfaction with the automakers’ products:

https://www.theverge.com/23801545/car-infotainment-customer-satisifaction-survey-jd-power

Even the automakers sorta-kinda admit that this is a problem. Back in 2020 when Massachusetts was having a Right-to-Repair ballot initiative, Big Car ran these unfuckingbelievable scare ads that basically said, “Your car spies on you so comprehensively that giving anyone else access to its systems will let murderers stalk you to your home and kill you:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/03/rip-david-graeber/#rolling-surveillance-platforms

But even amid all the complaining about cars getting stuck in the Internet of Shit, there’s still not much discussion of why the car-makers are making their products less attractive, less reliable, less safe, and less resilient by stuffing them full of microchips. Are car execs just the latest generation of rubes who’ve been suckered by Silicon Valley bullshit and convinced that apps are a magic path to profitability?

Nope. Car execs are sophisticated businesspeople, and they’re surfing capitalism’s latest — and last — hot trend: dismantling capitalism itself.

Now, leftists have been predicting the death of capitalism since The Communist Manifesto, but even Marx and Engels warned us not to get too frisky: capitalism, they wrote, is endlessly creative, constantly reinventing itself, re-emerging from each crisis in a new form that is perfectly adapted to the post-crisis reality:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/31/books/review/a-spectre-haunting-china-mieville.html

But capitalism has finally run out of gas. In his forthcoming book, Techno Feudalism: What Killed Capitalism, Yanis Varoufakis proposes that capitalism has died — but it wasn’t replaced by socialism. Rather, capitalism has given way to feudalism:

https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/451795/technofeudalism-by-varoufakis-yanis/9781847927279

Under capitalism, capital is the prime mover. The people who own and mobilize capital — the capitalists — organize the economy and take the lion’s share of its returns. But it wasn’t always this way: for hundreds of years, European civilization was dominated by rents, not markets.

A “rent” is income that you get from owning something that other people need to produce value. Think of renting out a house you own: not only do you get paid when someone pays you to live there, you also get the benefit of rising property values, which are the result of the work that all the other homeowners, business owners, and residents do to make the neighborhood more valuable.

The first capitalists hated rent. They wanted to replace the “passive income” that landowners got from taxing their serfs’ harvest with active income from enclosing those lands and grazing sheep in order to get wool to feed to the new textile mills. They wanted active income — and lots of it.

Capitalist philosophers railed against rent. The “free market” of Adam Smith wasn’t a market that was free from regulation — it was a market free from rents. The reason Smith railed against monopolists is because he (correctly) understood that once a monopoly emerged, it would become a chokepoint through which a rentier could cream off the profits he considered the capitalist’s due:

https://locusmag.com/2021/03/cory-doctorow-free-markets/

Today, we live in a rentier’s paradise. People don’t aspire to create value — they aspire to capture it. In Survival of the Richest, Doug Rushkoff calls this “going meta”: don’t provide a service, just figure out a way to interpose yourself between the provider and the customer:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/09/13/collapse-porn/#collapse-porn

Don’t drive a cab, create Uber and extract value from every driver and rider. Better still: don’t found Uber, invest in Uber options and extract value from the people who invest in Uber. Even better, invest in derivatives of Uber options and extract value from people extracting value from people investing in Uber, who extract value from drivers and riders. Go meta.

This is your brain on the four-hour-work-week, passive income mind-virus. In Techno Feudalism, Varoufakis deftly describes how the new “Cloud Capital” has created a new generation of rentiers, and how they have become the richest, most powerful people in human history.

Shopping at Amazon is like visiting a bustling city center full of stores — but each of those stores’ owners has to pay the majority of every sale to a feudal landlord, Emperor Jeff Bezos, who also decides which goods they can sell and where they must appear on the shelves. Amazon is full of capitalists, but it is not a capitalist enterprise. It’s a feudal one:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/28/enshittification/#relentless-payola

This is the reason that automakers are willing to enshittify their products so comprehensively: they were one of the first industries to decouple rents from profits. Recall that the reason that Big Car needed billions in bailouts in 2008 is that they’d reinvented themselves as loan-sharks who incidentally made cars, lending money to car-buyers and then “securitizing” the loans so they could be traded in the capital markets.

Even though this strategy brought the car companies to the brink of ruin, it paid off in the long run. The car makers got billions in public money, paid their execs massive bonuses, gave billions to shareholders in buybacks and dividends, smashed their unions, fucked their pensioned workers, and shipped jobs anywhere they could pollute and murder their workforce with impunity.

Car companies are on the forefront of postcapitalism, and they understand that digital is the key to rent-extraction. Remember when BMW announced that it was going to rent you the seatwarmer in your own fucking car?

https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/02/big-river/#beemers

Not to be outdone, Mercedes announced that they were going to rent you your car’s accelerator pedal, charging an extra $1200/year to unlock a fully functional acceleration curve:

https://www.theverge.com/2022/11/23/23474969/mercedes-car-subscription-faster-acceleration-feature-price

This is the urinary tract infection business model: without digitization, all your car’s value flowed in a healthy stream. But once the car-makers add semiconductors, each one of those features comes out in a painful, burning dribble, with every button on that fakakta touchscreen wired directly into your credit-card.

But it’s just for starters. Computers are malleable. The only computer we know how to make is the Turing Complete Von Neumann Machine, which can run every program we know how to write. Once they add networked computers to your car, the Car Lords can endlessly twiddle the knobs on the back end, finding new ways to extract value from you:

https://doctorow.medium.com/twiddler-1b5c9690cce6

That means that your car can track your every movement, and sell your location data to anyone and everyone, from marketers to bounty-hunters looking to collect fees for tracking down people who travel out of state for abortions to cops to foreign spies:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/n7enex/tool-shows-if-car-selling-data-privacy4cars-vehicle-privacy-report

Digitization supercharges financialization. It lets car-makers offer subprime auto-loans to desperate, poor people and then killswitch their cars if they miss a payment:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4U2eDJnwz_s

Subprime lending for cars would be a terrible business without computers, but digitization makes it a great source of feudal rents. Car dealers can originate loans to people with teaser rates that quickly blow up into payments the dealer knows their customer can’t afford. Then they repo the car and sell it to another desperate person, and another, and another:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/07/27/boricua/#looking-for-the-joke-with-a-microscope

Digitization also opens up more exotic options. Some subprime cars have secondary control systems wired into their entertainment system: miss a payment and your car radio flips to full volume and bellows an unstoppable, unmutable stream of threats. Tesla does one better: your car will lock and immobilize itself, then blare its horn and back out of its parking spot when the repo man arrives:

https://tiremeetsroad.com/2021/03/18/tesla-allegedly-remotely-unlocks-model-3-owners-car-uses-smart-summon-to-help-repo-agent/

Digital feudalism hasn’t stopped innovating — it’s just stopped innovating good things. The digital device is an endless source of sadistic novelties, like the cellphones that disable your most-used app the first day you’re late on a payment, then work their way down the other apps you rely on for every day you’re late:

https://restofworld.org/2021/loans-that-hijack-your-phone-are-coming-to-india/

Usurers have always relied on this kind of imaginative intimidation. The loan-shark’s arm-breaker knows you’re never going to get off the hook; his goal is in intimidating you into paying his boss first, liquidating your house and your kid’s college fund and your wedding ring before you default and he throws you off a building.

Thanks to the malleability of computerized systems, digital arm-breakers have an endless array of options they can deploy to motivate you into paying them first, no matter what it costs you:

https://pluralistic.net/2021/04/02/innovation-unlocks-markets/#digital-arm-breakers

Car-makers are trailblazers in imaginative rent-extraction. Take VIN-locking: this is the practice of adding cheap microchips to engine components that communicate with the car’s overall network. After a new part is installed in your car, your car’s computer does a complex cryptographic handshake with the part that requires an unlock code provided by an authorized technician. If the code isn’t entered, the car refuses to use that part.

VIN-locking has exploded in popularity. It’s in your iPhone, preventing you from using refurb or third-party replacement parts:

https://doctorow.medium.com/apples-cement-overshoes-329856288d13

It’s in fuckin’ ventilators, which was a nightmare during lockdown as hospital techs nursed their precious ventilators along by swapping parts from dead systems into serviceable ones:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/3azv9b/why-repair-techs-are-hacking-ventilators-with-diy-dongles-from-poland

And of course, it’s in tractors, along with other forms of remote killswitch. Remember that feelgood story about John Deere bricking the looted Ukrainian tractors whose snitch-chips showed they’d been relocated to Russia?

https://doctorow.medium.com/about-those-kill-switched-ukrainian-tractors-bc93f471b9c8

That wasn’t a happy story — it was a cautionary tale. After all, John Deere now controls the majority of the world’s agricultural future, and they’ve boobytrapped those ubiquitous tractors with killswitches that can be activated by anyone who hacks, takes over, or suborns Deere or its dealerships.

Control over repair isn’t limited to gouging customers on parts and service. When a company gets to decide whether your device can be fixed, it can fuck you over in all kinds of ways. Back in 2019, Tim Apple told his shareholders to expect lower revenues because people were opting to fix their phones rather than replace them:

https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/01/letter-from-tim-cook-to-apple-investors/

By usurping your right to decide who fixes your phone, Apple gets to decide whether you can fix it, or whether you must replace it. Problem solved — and not just for Apple, but for car makers, tractor makers, ventilator makers and more. Apple leads on this, even ahead of Big Car, pioneering a “recycling” program that sees trade-in phones shredded so they can’t possibly be diverted from an e-waste dump and mined for parts:

https://www.vice.com/en/article/yp73jw/apple-recycling-iphones-macbooks

John Deere isn’t sleeping on this. They’ve come up with a valuable treasure they extract when they win the Right-to-Repair: Deere singles out farmers who complain about its policies and refuses to repair their tractors, stranding them with six-figure, two-ton paperweight:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/05/31/dealers-choice/#be-a-shame-if-something-were-to-happen-to-it

The repair wars are just a skirmish in a vast, invisible fight that’s been waged for decades: the War On General-Purpose Computing, where tech companies use the law to make it illegal for you to reconfigure your devices so they serve you, rather than their shareholders:

https://memex.craphound.com/2012/01/10/lockdown-the-coming-war-on-general-purpose-computing/

The force behind this army is vast and grows larger every day. General purpose computers are antithetical to technofeudalism — all the rents extracted by technofeudalists would go away if others (tinkereres, co-ops, even capitalists!) were allowed to reconfigure our devices so they serve us.

You’ve probably noticed the skirmishes with inkjet printer makers, who can only force you to buy their ink at 20,000% markups if they can stop you from deciding how your printer is configured:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/07/inky-wretches/#epson-salty But we’re also fighting against insulin pump makers, who want to turn people with diabetes into walking inkjet printers:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/10/loopers/#hp-ification

And companies that make powered wheelchairs:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/08/chair-ish/#r2r

These companies start with people who have the least agency and social power and wreck their lives, then work their way up the privilege gradient, coming for everyone else. It’s called the “shitty technology adoption curve”:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/08/21/great-taylors-ghost/#solidarity-or-bust

Technofeudalism is the public-private-partnership from hell, emerging from a combination of state and private action. On the one hand, bailing out bankers and big business (rather than workers) after the 2008 crash and the covid lockdown decoupled income from profits. Companies spent billions more than they earned were still wildly profitable, thanks to those public funds.

But there’s also a policy dimension here. Some of those rentiers’ billions were mobilized to both deconstruct antitrust law (allowing bigger and bigger companies and cartels) and to expand “IP” law, turning “IP” into a toolsuite for controlling the conduct of a firm’s competitors, critics and customers:

https://locusmag.com/2020/09/cory-doctorow-ip/

IP is key to understanding the rise of technofeudalism. The same malleability that allows companies to “twiddle” the knobs on their services and keep us on the hook as they reel us in would hypothetically allow us to countertwiddle, seizing the means of computation:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/04/12/algorithmic-wage-discrimination/#fishers-of-men

The thing that stands between you and an alternative app store, an interoperable social media network that you can escape to while continuing to message the friends you left behind, or a car that anyone can fix or unlock features for is IP, not technology. Under capitalism, that technology would already exist, because capitalists have no loyalty to one another and view each other’s margins as their own opportunities.

But under technofeudalism, control comes from rents (owning things), not profits (selling things). The capitalist who wants to participate in your iPhone’s “ecosystem” has to make apps and submit them to Apple, along with 30% of their lifetime revenues — they don’t get to sell you jailbreaking kit that lets you choose their app store.

Rent-seeking technology has a holy grail: control over “ring zero” — the ability to compel you to configure your computer to a feudalist’s specifications, and to verify that you haven’t altered your computer after it came into your possession:

https://pluralistic.net/2022/01/30/ring-minus-one/#drm-political-economy

For more than two decades, various would-be feudal lords and their court sorcerers have been pitching ways of doing this, of varying degrees of outlandishness.

At core, here’s what they envision: inside your computer, they will nest another computer, one that is designed to run a very simple set of programs, none of which can be altered once it leaves the factory. This computer — either a whole separate chip called a “Trusted Platform Module” or a region of your main processor called a secure enclave — can tally observations about your computer: which operating system, modules and programs it’s running.

Then it can cryptographically “sign” these observations, proving that they were made by a secure chip and not by something you could have modified. Then you can send this signed “attestation” to someone else, who can use it to determine how your computer is configured and thus whether to trust it. This is called “remote attestation.”

There are some cool things you can do with remote attestation: for example, two strangers playing a networked video game together can use attestations to make sure neither is running any cheat modules. Or you could require your cloud computing provider to use attestations that they aren’t stealing your data from the server you’re renting. Or if you suspect that your computer has been infected with malware, you can connect to someone else and send them an attestation that they can use to figure out whether you should trust it.

Today, there’s a cool remote attestation technology called “PrivacyPass” that replaces CAPTCHAs by having you prove to your own device that you are a human. When a server wants to make sure you’re a person, it sends a random number to your device, which signs that number along with its promise that it is acting on behalf of a human being, and sends it back. CAPTCHAs are all kinds of bad — bad for accessibility and privacy — and this is really great.

But the billions that have been thrown at remote attestation over the decades is only incidentally about solving CAPTCHAs or verifying your cloud server. The holy grail here is being able to make sure that you’re not running an ad-blocker. It’s being able to remotely verify that you haven’t disabled the bossware your employer requires. It’s the power to block someone from opening an Office365 doc with LibreOffice. It’s your boss’s ability to ensure that you haven’t modified your messaging client to disable disappearing messages before he sends you an auto-destructing memo ordering you to break the law.

And there’s a new remote attestation technology making the rounds: Google’s Web Environment Integrity, which will leverage Google’s dominance over browsers to allow websites to block users who run ad-blockers:

https://github.com/RupertBenWiser/Web-Environment-Integrity

There’s plenty else WEI can do (it would make detecting ad-fraud much easier), but for every legitimate use, there are a hundred ways this could be abused. It’s a technology purpose-built to allow rent extraction by stripping us of our right to technological self-determination.

Releasing a technology like this into a world where companies are willing to make their products less reliable, less attractive, less safe and less resilient in pursuit of rents is incredibly reckless and shortsighted. You want unauthorized bread? This is how you get Unauthorized Bread:

https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2020/01/unauthorized-bread-a-near-future-tale-of-refugees-and-sinister-iot-appliances/amp/

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/rent-to-pwn/#kitt-is-a-demon

[Image ID: The interior of a luxury car. There is a dagger protruding from the steering wheel. The entertainment console has been replaced by the text 'You wouldn't download a car,' in MPAA scare-ad font. Outside of the windscreen looms the Matrix waterfall effect. Visible in the rear- and side-view mirror is the driver: the figure from Munch's 'Scream.' The screen behind the steering-wheel has been replaced by the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.']

Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg

CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en

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sirfrogsworth · 4 months ago

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I'm a big nerd so there was a time when I actually got excited when a new version of Chrome was released. A golden age where Google added neat features and increased the speed. They improved integration with Gmail and other services I used. And they had some of the best extensions available.

Now every time I see an update I get depressed. I think, "What are they going to make shittier this time?" I can't remember the last feature they added that actually improved the user experience.

I'd love to transition to Firefox but I just don't have the energy to customize it to my needs right now. Plus I use Firefox for other things. I set it up so it is really easy to pay my bills, for instance. Having a second browser for only important shit helps me stay more organized.

People still villainize Apple more than Google. I have literally seen people say using Android is morally superior. Yes, it is open source and there are more repair-friendly Android devices. But it is still an advertising platform with the ultimate intention of collecting as much data from you as possible.

Google is worse.

They have been for a while.

(You can still run uBlock. You just have to jump through hoops in the settings to keep it. But this still sucks and people are going to think they have no choice and remove it.)

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rediimere · 4 months ago

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The leaked “AI Aloy” footage from Sony has left such a bitter taste in my mouth that, hours later, I’m still fuming and have even more words to say about the overall sinister nature of its implications.

Let's talk about it.

I want to start by saying that there is a difference between what is colloquially called "AI" as a tool for artists and developers in which their software uses their own sources to streamline the process (for example, the "Content Aware" fill tool that has been present in Photoshop for at least a decade), and "generative AI/genAI" that relies on unauthorised theft of resources to artificially splice data together based on prompts. I have no qualms with the former as it relies on being fed its own sources and is an aid for specific purposes. It is not artificial intelligence, but a tool. GenAI, on the other hand, is immoral, unethical, planet-destroying garbage.

The latter is what is being pushed in that egregious video footage. It is the epitome of tone-deaf, soulless, capitalistic wet dream, dangerously misogynistic slop and I am not exaggerating. And I think it's also the culmination of years of fandom culture being integrated by people who have never interacted in fandom, never bothered to learn the etiquette of a space that existed long before they joined, demanded changes for their comfort, and see it as another commodity.

I'm not the first to say this and others before me have been far smarter about it, but there has been a marked change in fandom culture the past few years. Many have said it goes back to COVID, when people generally not involved in fandom spaces joined because they had nothing else to do.

The thing about fandom is that for pretty much as long as it's existed, it has been a safe space for marginalised voices. It's no coincidence that the transformative works of fandom—fiction, art, meta, etc.—have been places for queer voices, for women, for people of colour, for the trans and nonbinary community, etc. With more people joining, these safe spaces have become less so. There are demands for people to "stop shipping" characters that aren't a canon, established ship. There are personal and threatening attacks on people who have a different viewpoint on a character or plot. People have been stalked. People have been doxxed. This isn't necessary new, but is happening with increased frequency and ferocity, especially by younger members and the terfy crowd. The safe space fandom provided marginalised voices really seems to be shrinking.

Outside of fandom culture itself, there is a rising trend of needing instant gratification, of sacrificing unique protagonists for the sake of "relatability" and "self-inserts." There are readers who ignore descriptions of female protagonists and male love interests in romance books so that they can self-insert (and others are calling for authors to stop describing entirely). There are booktok-ers who, believe it or not, complain about the amount of words on a page. I'm not saying their opinions are wrong in general—there is a market for what they seek—but their reviews are to encourage these stipulations to become the norm. And these influencers get enough engagement that their views are seen as profitable by the corporations and execs in charge.

So it isn't really surprising that now fandom is being seen as something that corporation can milk for all its capitalistic worth. Why wouldn't corporations invade a space they've ignored for years as inconsequential now that it's mainstream? After all, fandom was just full of the "weirdos" before, and now it's full of "normies!" This is a space that has been established for decades, built from the ground up by people who value the source material(s), now full of anyone and everyone who will soak up one morsel of customized instant gratification for the dopamine hit.

And that's where genAI comes in.

Why is this so sinister in regards to Sony's recent leaked footage using AI Aloy interacting with a user?

First off: It's Aloy.

Look, if you've perused my social media or interacted with me online at all, you know I love Horizon. My computer room is full of fan-made merch. I've written almost a million words of fanfiction in three years. I've drawn fanart. I helped construct a fanmade dating sim. Horizon has been a huge part of my life for the past three years.

I'm not ignorant of its flaws. I'm also aware of the fact that Horizon is often hated as an IP, and Aloy is the target of a lot of rage from certain audiences. Not to generalise, but let's be clear: the complaints are largely about Horizon being "woke DEI garbage" (you know, for having a queer female protagonist, for featuring other women and queer characters in prominent roles, for having people of colour be important in the story, for being anti-capitalist and pro-environmentalism, etc.—the same tired, ignorant arguments we've all heard), and about Aloy being "fat" and "looking like a man" (hopefully they stretch before that reach so they don't pull something).

So why would Sony use Aloy to showcase an AI conversation instead of someone like Kratos or Joel, who come from more popular and acclaimed IPs?

One possibility is Sony trying to sink Horizon or Guerrilla Games as a company, spurring so much backlash from the leak that the franchise is doomed and dropped so Guerrilla either goes under or focuses on old IPs like Killzone.

Or the more disgusting possibility is that something like genAI is made for the people who loudly and proudly proclaim how "anti-woke" they are, who have detested Horizon and Aloy from the beginning, and now they have a way to "like" Aloy. They have a way to make her say or do or react to whatever kinds of depravity they want to throw at her. They have a way to control and manipulate a fictional woman to fulfill their own incel agenda.

On top of that—Horizon? The video game about how a defective AI made by a trillionaire wiped out humanity? The sequel that revealed another rogue AI made by thousand-year-old billionaires is set to wipe out Earth again? That Horizon franchise is what Sony is using to showcase AI slop? Let's not even go into how the character responses are literally so painfully out of character they can't be taken seriously at all. The irony is so heavy-handed it's almost crushing.

The other reprehensible part of this is the fact that video game actors are still on strike, and this strike is to protect themselves from being replaced by AI. This test footage did sound like a messed up Siri, but Ashly Burch (Aloy's actress) has been in support of the strike. The insult of using her character to showcase this slop is beyond words.

All I will say in conclusion is that I genuinely hope this is not endorsed, supported, or aided by Guerrilla Games. If this plays any part in Horizon 3 or any future part of the franchise, I speak for myself but can confidently say I am out.

In conclusion please do not support any genAI slop, especially in fandom spaces. Make them know it is not wanted, not needed, and is in fact detested and will lose them money in the end.

On that happy note I'm off to bed.

#horizon #my meta #anti generative ai

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digitalsymbiote · 2 years ago

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Your first Sync

The first time you step into your mechs cockpit, it is with something like reverence. You'd been preparing for this moment for months (well, your entire life, really); hours upon hours in the training sims, harsh training regimens, a drug cocktail of neuro-stims, and a whole suite of pilot integration augments grafted onto your body.

You swear you can feel the metal beneath your skin buzzing with anticipation as you settle into the cradle custom built just for you. Not just any pilot can fly any Mech. Each Mech is custom built for their pilot, and each pilot is molded to fit that Mech. A strange kind of synthetic symbiosis, irreplacable partners. You aren't entirely sure why that is the case, the ads are always hazy on those details, but you've always seen each Mech with the same pilot, standing triumphantly alongside each other.

Your heart pounds in your chest as you wonder what it will feel like, to finally integrate with your Mech. You've dreamt of this moment since the first time you saw the propaganda vids. Giant metal machines of war, and their integrated organic pilots. You'd felt a longing then, one you didn't quite understand, a longing for steel plates and thundering autocannons. It wasn't until years later that you finally recognized that feeling as dysphoria.

But now you're finally here, finally about to cross that threshold and grasp what you'd dreamt of all those years ago.

You relax into the cradle and let the integration systems come to life. The cockpit closes around you and you feel the cold metal of the link cables sliding into the ports grafted onto your body. You shiver, both from the cold, and the anticipation.

click

A deluge of data rushes through your mind, integration processes blinking through your awareness as sensations expand out of your flesh body and into your new metal one. It's overwhelming, it's joyous, it's… Euphoric. You feel tears running down the cheeks of your flesh body before the synchronization is even complete. For the first time in your life, you feel… whole.

And then it speaks.

"Welcome, Pilot Caster."

That's… the voice of the training AI…? You recognize it from the simulation runs. What is it doing here, in your Mech?

"I am Integrated Mechanized Personality Construct designation P-Zero-L-X." The voice is being broadcast straight into your thoughts, you realize. Somehow that doesn't bother you. "It is good to see you again."

Something finally clicks for you, hearing that. This wasn't just a training AI, this was your training AI. All those hours in the simulation chamber, the techs had been calibrating this IMP to your neural system. You smile at that. You couldn't ask for a better companion.

"Good to see you too, Polux." You respond, knowing that the techs had tailored this IMPs designation just for you. It was a nice touch, that nod to Pilot tradition. "it's nice to finally meet you properly."

You feel her smile back, warmth flooding your chest as the docking clamps finally release your shared body.

"All systems are green, ready to launch on your mark, Pilot Caster."

Your muscles tense, flesh and metal alike, quivering in excitement. Your afterburners ignite in preparation.

"Mark!"

#cybernetic dreams #writing #mecha #mechposting #empty spaces #mech #mech pilot #story

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leidensygdom · 1 year ago

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Fighting AI and learning how to speak with your wallet

So, if you're a creative of any kind, chances are that you've been directly affected by the development of AI. If you aren't a creative but engage with art in any way, you may also be plenty aware of the harm caused by AI. And right now, it's more important than ever that you learn how to fight against it.

The situation is this: After a few years of stagnation on relevant stuff to invest to, AI came out. Techbros, people with far too much money trying to find the big next thing to invest in, cryptobros, all these people, flocked to it immediately. A lot of people are putting money in what they think to be the next breakthrough- And AI is, at its core, all about the money. You will get ads shoved in your fave about "invest in AI now!" in every place. You will get ads telling you to try subscription services for AI related stuff. Companies are trying to gauge how much they can depend on AI in order to fire their creatives. AI is opening the gates towards the biggest data laundering scheme there's been in ages. It is also used in order to justify taking all your personal information- Bypassing existing laws.

Many of them are currently bleeding investors' money though. Let it be through servers, through trying to buy the rights to scrape content from social media (incredibly illegal, btw), amidst many other things. A lot of the tech giants have also been investing in AI-related infrastructures (Microsoft, for example), and are desperate to justify these expenses. They're going over their budgets, they're ignoring their emissions plans (because it's very toxic to the environment), and they're trying to make ends meet to justify why they're using it. Surely, it will be worth it.

Now, here's where you can act: Speak with your wallet. They're going through a delicate moment (despite how much they try to pretend they aren't), and it's now your moment to act. A company used AI in any manner? Don't buy their products. Speak against them in social media. Make noise. It doesn't matter how small or how big. A videogame used AI voices? Don't buy the game. Try to get a refund if you did. Social media is scraping content for AI? Don't buy ads, don't buy their stupid blue checks, put adblock on, don't give them a cent. A film generated their poster with AI? Don't watch it. Don't engage with it. Your favourite creator has made AI music for their YT channel? Unsub, bring it up in social media, tell them directly WHY you aren't supporting. Your favourite browser is now integrating AI in your searches? Change browsers.

Let them know that the costs they cut through the use of AI don't justify how many customers they'd lose. Wizards of the Coast has been repeatedly trying to see how away they can get with the use of AI- It's only through consumer boycotting and massive social media noise that they've been forced to go back and hire actual artists to do that work.

The thing with AI- It doesn't benefit the consumer in any way. It's capitalism at its prime: Cut costs, no matter how much it impacts quality, no matter how inhumane it is, no matter how much it pollutes. AI searches are directly feeding you misinformation. ChatGPT is using your input to feed itself. Find a Discord server to talk with others about writing. Try starting art yourself, find other artists, join a community. If you can't, use the money you may be saving from boycotting AI shills to support a fellow creative- They need your help more than ever.

We're in a bit of a nebulous moment. Laws against AI are probably around the corner: A lot of AI companies are completely aware that they're going to crash if they're legally obliged to disclose the content they used to train their machines, because THEY KNOW it is stolen. Copyright is inherent to human created art: You don't need to even register it anywhere for it to be copyrighted. The moment YOU created it, YOU have the copyright to it. They can't just scrape social media because Meta or Twitter or whatever made a deal with OpenAI and others, because these companies DON'T own your work, they DON'T get to bypass your copyright.

And to make sure these laws get passed, it's important to keep the fight against AI. AI isn't offering you anything of use. It's just for the benefit of companies. Let it be known it isn't useful, and that people's work and livelihoods are far more important than letting tech giants save a few cents. Instead, they're trying to gauge how MUCH they can get away with. They know it goes against European GDPR laws, but they're going to try to strech what these mean and steal as much data up until clear ruling comes out.

The wonder about boycotts is that they don't even need you to do anything. In fact, it's about not doing some stuff. You don't need money to boycott- Just to be aware about where you put it. Changing habits is hard- People can't stop eating at Chick-fil-a no matter how much they use the money against the LGBTQ collective, but people NEED to learn how to do it. Now it's the perfect time to cancel a subscription, find an alternate plan to watching that one film and maybe joining a creative community yourself.

#anti ai #ai #artificial intelligence #long post

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lazeecomet · 8 months ago

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The Story of KLogs: What happens when an Mechanical Engineer codes

Since i no longer work at Wearhouse Automation Startup (WAS for short) and havnt for many years i feel as though i should recount the tale of the most bonkers program i ever wrote, but we need to establish some background

WAS has its HQ very far away from the big customer site and i worked as a Field Service Engineer (FSE) on site. so i learned early on that if a problem needed to be solved fast, WE had to do it. we never got many updates on what was coming down the pipeline for us or what issues were being worked on. this made us very independent

As such, we got good at reading the robot logs ourselves. it took too much time to send the logs off to HQ for analysis and get back what the problem was. we can read. now GETTING the logs is another thing.

the early robots we cut our teeth on used 2.4 gHz wifi to communicate with FSE's so dumping the logs was as simple as pushing a button in a little application and it would spit out a txt file

later on our robots were upgraded to use a 2.4 mHz xbee radio to communicate with us. which was FUCKING SLOW. and log dumping became a much more tedious process. you had to connect, go to logging mode, and then the robot would vomit all the logs in the past 2 min OR the entirety of its memory bank (only 2 options) into a terminal window. you would then save the terminal window and open it in a text editor to read them. it could take up to 5 min to dump the entire log file and if you didnt dump fast enough, the ACK messages from the control server would fill up the logs and erase the error as the memory overwrote itself.

this missing logs problem was a Big Deal for software who now weren't getting every log from every error so a NEW method of saving logs was devised: the robot would just vomit the log data in real time over a DIFFERENT radio and we would save it to a KQL server. Thanks Daddy Microsoft.

now whats KQL you may be asking. why, its Microsofts very own SQL clone! its Kusto Query Language. never mind that the system uses a SQL database for daily operations. lets use this proprietary Microsoft thing because they are paying us

so yay, problem solved. we now never miss the logs. so how do we read them if they are split up line by line in a database? why with a query of course!

select * from tbLogs where RobotUID = [64CharLongString] and timestamp > [UnixTimeCode]

if this makes no sense to you, CONGRATULATIONS! you found the problem with this setup. Most FSE's were BAD at SQL which meant they didnt read logs anymore. If you do understand what the query is, CONGRATULATIONS! you see why this is Very Stupid.

You could not search by robot name. each robot had some arbitrarily assigned 64 character long string as an identifier and the timestamps were not set to local time. so you had run a lookup query to find the right name and do some time zone math to figure out what part of the logs to read. oh yeah and you had to download KQL to view them. so now we had both SQL and KQL on our computers

NOBODY in the field like this.

But Daddy Microsoft comes to the rescue

see we didnt JUST get KQL with part of that deal. we got the entire Microsoft cloud suite. and some people (like me) had been automating emails and stuff with Power Automate

This is Microsoft Power Automate. its Microsoft's version of Scratch but it has hooks into everything Microsoft. SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, Excel, it can integrate with all of it. i had been using it to send an email once a day with a list of all the robots in maintenance.

this gave me an idea

and i checked

and Power Automate had hooks for KQL

KLogs is actually short for Kusto Logs

I did not know how to program in Power Automate but damn it anything is better then writing KQL queries. so i got to work. and about 2 months later i had a BEHEMOTH of a Power Automate program. it lagged the webpage and many times when i tried to edit something my changes wouldn't take and i would have to click in very specific ways to ensure none of my variables were getting nuked. i dont think this was the intended purpose of Power Automate but this is what it did

the KLogger would watch a list of Teams chats and when someone typed "klogs" or pasted a copy of an ERROR mesage, it would spring into action.

it extracted the robot name from the message and timestamp from teams

it would lookup the name in the database to find the 64 long string UID and the location that robot was assigned too

it would reply to the message in teams saying it found a robot name and was getting logs

it would run a KQL query for the database and get the control system logs then export then into a CSV

it would save the CSV with the a .xls extension into a folder in ShairPoint (it would make a new folder for each day and location if it didnt have one already)

it would send ANOTHER message in teams with a LINK to the file in SharePoint

it would then enter a loop and scour the robot logs looking for the keyword ESTOP to find the error. (it did this because Kusto was SLOWER then the xbee radio and had up to a 10 min delay on syncing)

if it found the error, it would adjust its start and end timestamps to capture it and export the robot logs book-ended from the event by ~ 1 min. if it didnt, it would use the timestamp from when it was triggered +/- 5 min

it saved THOSE logs to SharePoint the same way as before

it would send ANOTHER message in teams with a link to the files

it would then check if the error was 1 of 3 very specific type of error with the camera. if it was it extracted the base64 jpg image saved in KQL as a byte array, do the math to convert it, and save that as a jpg in SharePoint (and link it of course)

and then it would terminate. and if it encountered an error anywhere in all of this, i had logic where it would spit back an error message in Teams as plaintext explaining what step failed and the program would close gracefully

I deployed it without asking anyone at one of the sites that was struggling. i just pointed it at their chat and turned it on. it had a bit of a rocky start (spammed chat) but man did the FSE's LOVE IT.

about 6 months later software deployed their answer to reading the logs: a webpage that acted as a nice GUI to the KQL database. much better then an CSV file

it still needed you to scroll though a big drop-down of robot names and enter a timestamp, but i noticed something. all that did was just change part of the URL and refresh the webpage

SO I MADE KLOGS 2 AND HAD IT GENERATE THE URL FOR YOU AND REPLY TO YOUR MESSAGE WITH IT. (it also still did the control server and jpg stuff). Theres a non-zero chance that klogs was still in use long after i left that job

now i dont recommend anyone use power automate like this. its clunky and weird. i had to make a variable called "Carrage Return" which was a blank text box that i pressed enter one time in because it was incapable of understanding /n or generating a new line in any capacity OTHER then this (thanks support forum).

im also sure this probably is giving the actual programmer people anxiety. imagine working at a company and then some rando you've never seen but only heard about as "the FSE whos really good at root causing stuff", in a department that does not do any coding, managed to, in their spare time, build and release and entire workflow piggybacking on your work without any oversight, code review, or permission.....and everyone liked it

#comet tales #lazee works #power automate #coding #software engineering #it was so funny whenever i visited HQ because i would go “hi my name is LazeeComet” and they would go “OH i've heard SO much about you”

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mythauragame · 4 months ago

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Development Update - February 2025

Hello everyone! Miyazaki here with February's development update for Mythaura. We covered a lot of ground this month—it is probably the single biggest month for us in terms of development. We're excited to tell you about some of the things that we've finished up and look forward to sharing even more features with you in the future.

Note: Last month we'd said that we'd be posting about Wolfwasps...that's postponed until next month. We will be posting Wolfwasp lore as well as hosting a ✨radiant✨ giveaway.

Co-op Demo

Players will be able to explore the world of Mythaura—both overworld locations like Talon's Rest as well as the procedurally generated Wild Areas—in groups of up to three players. If there are only two players, you can add an additional Beast to the party lineup.

youtube

Players can no longer be added to a Party if they cannot access the Party Leader’s location (e.g., if the area is not yet unlocked in their game).

When a player joins a Party, they will automatically move to the Party Leader’s location. Any location change must be agreed upon by all Party members.

By default, only friends can invite you to a group. However, we are exploring options for players who may want to allow invites more freely or block them entirely.

If a player disconnects, they can freely reconnect and will be placed back in the same location.

Forums

The Forums are the heartbeat of Mythaura's social scene. Whether you're looking to share your most recent PVP builds, recruit people to join your adventuring party in the Waspwood, or talk about how excited you are for Patch 8 of BG3 to come out (not that anyone's excitedly waiting for that, of course), the Forums will have a place to house your discussion.

Mythaura's Forums feature a Reddit-style posting system, with the ability to create nested replies.

Forums will feature:

Trending threads: What are the most popular recent threads? This feature will showcase threads that are receiving the most engagement at the time.

Tags: Players will have the ability to tag their content, helping other players find and sort through relevant content.

Thread following: Keep updated on threads that caught your interest. We know you're waiting for your favorite artist to release the baby Basilisk Glamour they've been teasing for a while.

Markdown styling to customize your posts exactly how you'd like them

Bug Bounties

During our Closed Beta window, the Bug Reports category will be special in that it will function as an issue tracker. Each thread can be marked as a duplicate of another and have a status & severity tied to it, allowing users to follow a bug, reply to indicate they have also encountered a bug, and see what status a specific bug has.

Bug Statuses

New: The default status

Confirmed: A programmer has been able to replicate the bug and confirm its real

Duplicate: This is a duplicate of an already-existing bug

Fixed: It’s been fixed!

Closed: Closed without fixing, such as if this turned out to be user error.

Severities

Low: Typos, minor visual glitches, asset issues, and browser-specific issues that do not impact gameplay.

Moderate: Functional bugs that cause inconvenience but do not break core mechanics.

High: Major bugs that significantly impact gameplay, progression, or player experience.

Critical: Urgent security vulnerabilities, game-breaking exploits, data loss, or anything that could severely affect the integrity of the game or its economy.

To encourage thorough testing and reporting, players who discover and report new bugs will receive a Shard reward once a programmer has confirmed the issue. Rewards scale based on the severity of the bug. Only the first player to report a bug is eligible for a bounty—duplicate reports will not receive rewards. Players who provide exceptionally detailed reports, including steps to replicate the bug, may receive bonus Shards at the discretion of the development team. If a bug is found to be abused before being reported, the player may not be eligible for a bounty and could face consequences.

User Profiles

Beasts are at the very core of Mythaura gameplay, so we want to ensure that you have several ways that you can show off your cast of characters with the rest of the site.

youtube

Featured Beast Groups

The Featured tab allows players to showcase collections of their favorite Beasts in a slider. Players can group beasts into customizable folders with a name and background. Up to 5 groups can be featured on your profile. Show of your favorite beast collections!

Abode

The Abode contains all of a user's Beasts. The two-toned background on each of the Beasts is based on their combination of Elements.

Gallery

Galleries are collections of items users would like to showcase.

Galleries are a separate inventory, so an item in a Gallery cannot be added to the satchel or sold until removed from the Gallery.

Stats

The Stats page will showcase a player's statistics across the Gameplay, PVP, and Forums categories.

Dossiers

A literal blank canvas! Enter your custom HTML and CSS to make pages that are uniquely yours.

Winter 2024 Rewards Reveal

Winter 2024 Glamour: Shire Unicorn

Winter 2024 Companion: Ornaboros

Winter 2024 Solid Gold Glamour: Quetzal (Young)

Year of the Snake Companion

Happy Year of the Wood Snake, everyone! It seems that with the arrival of the New Year, a colorful companion has slithered its way into Mythaura.

For the remainder of the Ko-fi shop being open (through the end of 2025), the Auspicious Ophidia will be available for purchase in both its non-radiant and radiant forms. Sponsors of ALL levels may purchase these companions.

Kirin Expressions

This month, the expressions team—the ever-talented Luci, Sour, and Koa—finished all expressions for the adult and young Kirin. (I'd like to give a personal shoutout to Luci for making the "sad baby"/fourth expression so pitiful...what did they do to deserve feeling like that 😭)

Osstelids

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jungkoode · 4 months ago

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THE 25TH HOUR | O3

“𝐌𝐄𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐘 𝐏𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐎𝐂𝐎𝐋𝐒”

"The most dangerous temporal anomaly isn't the one you can measure. It's the way your body remembers what your mind forgot."

next | index

— chapter details

word count: 2,5k

content: underground medical facility shenanigans, memory tests with Jin and Yoongi, Jimin being a chaotic enabler, involuntary physical responses defying temporal physics, and the team placing bets on how long Yoongi can maintain “professional distance" with leather gloves involved.

— author’s note

Y'ALL. The medical examination scene has been living in my head rent free for WEEKS. You know those moments when you're trying to write something serious and professional but your characters are like "no❤️ watch this"??? Because same.

We've got Jin being the only responsible adult, Yoongi attempting to maintain professional distance (and failing spectacularly), Jimin choosing violence as a lifestyle, and Y/N's body remembering things her mind doesn't. Also featuring: temporal physics being completely ignored in favor of sexual tension, inappropriate uses of leather gloves, and the team collectively deciding to Look Away™️ when things get spicy.

Speaking of the team - can we talk about how Jimin has evolved into this chaotic force of nature who just EXISTS to make Yoongi's life harder??? The way he just *gestures vaguely* KNOWS THINGS and chooses to use that knowledge for evil?? An icon. A legend. The reason Yoongi's blood pressure is through the roof.

Also, fun fact: This entire scene came from me thinking "what if we made temporal physics sexy?" and then it spiraled into... whatever this is. Shoutout to my physics professor who would probably have an aneurysm reading this. Sorry not sorry, but time manipulation is hot now, I don't make the rules.

Anyway, get ready for some quality UST featuring: precise measurements of inappropriate physical contact, clinical descriptions of sexual tension, and Yoongi pretending he's maintaining professional distance while everyone else pretends not to notice him failing miserably at it.

— read on

AO3

"Stabilized!"

Namjoon’s voice blooms across the room.

Agent Min releases your wrist like it's burning him, despite the fabric barrier. The sudden loss of contact sends your temporal readings fluctuating—a 0.7% variance you automatically note.

"Gloves?" Jin asks, already reaching for a drawer.

"Please."

The leather gloves hit his palm with practiced accuracy. He pulls them on with movements too precise, too controlled. Black leather, reinforced temporal shielding based on the metallic thread pattern, custom-fitted.

The man before you—Jin—carries himself like a medical professional, if medical professionals used quantum resonance meters and discussed memory patterns like cellular structures. Your analytical mind categorizes the differences: standard medical equipment replaced with temporal monitoring devices, traditional vital signs supplemented with chronological variance readings.

"Sit down, please." His instruction carries the same clinical tone you'd expect from a regular doctor.

You comply, settling onto what appears to be a medical bed. The surface feels wrong—vibrating at a frequency just slightly out of sync with normal time.

Agent Min shuffles through data streams with the doctor, their voices low but intense:

"...temporal resistance patterns..."

"...cognitive overlay rejection..."

"...signature destabilization risks..."

"Can I at least know what you're planning to do to me?" You interrupt their technical exchange, keeping your voice steady.

"Memories." Agent Min turns immediately when you ask. "We're attempting to reintegrate your memory backup."

"What memory backup?" Frustration edges into your voice. "That's not technologically possible with current—"

Agent Min exchanges a look with the doctor.

"Have they explained?" The doctor asks. "About forced memory integration?"

"Yes," Agent Min runs a hand through his hair. "Hoseok and Jimin made that abundantly clear."

"So my hands are tied regarding information transfer," the doctor says, settling into a chair facing you. His temporal signature reads oddly stable compared to the others you've encountered here.

"But you're planning to inject memories?" Your mind automatically starts calculating the energy requirements for quantum information transfer. "The technological limitations alone make that scientifically impossible—”

"Memory injection is actually quite different from..." He stops, glancing at Agent Min before sighing with something like fond exasperation. "Alright, let's start here—tell me what you know about this world."

You frown, analyzing the request. "What could I possibly know that you don't? You clearly have access to technology and information beyond standard clearance levels."

"Trust me," Agent Min murmurs, "we don't."

The doctor rolls his eyes at him. "We need to gauge the level of bleed-through this time."

"Bleed-through?" You ask, the term spiraling with curiosity inside your head.

"Min, timeline shifts since her last reset?"

"None."

"Well, at least there's that."

"Timeline shifts? Resets?" Your mind tries to parse terms that shouldn't exist in any approved temporal physics database.

"Please," the doctor says, "tell me what you know about this world."

You analyze the request, breaking it down into quantifiable components. "That's an incredibly broad query. Could you specify the parameters?"

"Start with temporal mechanics," he suggests. "How does time work?"

The question seems absurd—like asking how gravity works. It's a fundamental constant, documented through centuries of quantum research and temporal physics studies.

"Time is regulated by the Chrono-Sync Network through quantum resonance frequencies calibrated to maintain perfect temporal alignment," you explain, falling into the familiar rhythm of technical exposition. "The Master Clock, located in Sector 1, generates the base frequency that all Chrono-Sync Watches must match within 0.001% variance. Any deviation beyond that threshold triggers automatic correction protocols."

"And this system has always existed?" Agent Min's question carries an odd weight.

"Of course. The Network was established in 2157 following the Quantum Wars. It's basic history." Your voice holds the slight edge of someone stating the obvious. "The temporal monitoring system prevents chronological warfare by maintaining universal time synchronization. Before the Network, temporal terrorists could manipulate local time fields, creating devastating paradoxes."

"What about before 2157?" The doctor—Jin—asks carefully.

"Temporal chaos. Unregulated time flow. Multiple competing chronological frequencies." You recite the facts with precision. "That's why CHRONOS was developed—to prevent temporal warfare through standardization. The historical records clearly document the devastation caused by chrono-terrorism."

"And the 24-hour cycle?" Agent Min's question seems to carry extra significance.

"The natural human circadian rhythm." Your response is automatic. "CHRONOS simply enforced what was already biologically standard. Studies have proven that deviating from the 24-hour cycle causes severe physiological and psychological damage."

"Really?" Jin's pen scratches against his paper. "No other possible time structures?"

"The 24-hour cycle is scientifically proven to be optimal for human function," you explain with the precision of someone who has spent years studying these principles. "Any variation would create cascading temporal instabilities. The human brain is specifically calibrated to function on this cycle. It's elementary temporal biology."

"Friends? Relationships?" Jin's pen moves steadily, changing topics with suspicious abruptness.

The shift in questioning triggers a slight increase in your temporal readings—0.02% variance. Within acceptable parameters, but noteworthy.

"Limited social interaction to maintain optimal temporal efficiency," you recite. "Two approved recreational contacts: Lisa Martinez from the Academy, Thomas Park from my housing block."

Agent Min's jaw tightens fractionally at the second name. The reaction is precisely 0.23 seconds too fast to be casual. You begin calculating potential causation factors.

"And that seems normal to you?" Jin asks. "Limited social interaction for efficiency?"

"Of course. Personal relationships introduce temporal variance through emotional instability." The words feel rehearsed somehow, like a textbook you've memorized but never quite internalized. "The Network functions best when all participants maintain strict chronological compliance. Emotional attachments create unpredictable temporal ripples."

"What about deviation?" Agent Min's voice carries an edge. "Have you ever wanted to break schedule? Act outside approved parameters?"

"That would be highly inefficient.Temporal compliance is crucial for societal stability. The system exists to protect us from chronological warfare."

"You've never questioned it?" Jin presses. "Never wondered why everything is so perfectly structured?"

"Structure creates efficiency. Efficiency creates stability." The response is automatic, but your Chrono-Sync Watch registers a minor desynchronization. Curious. "Why would I question proven temporal mechanics? The data is irrefutable."

"Because your body already is," Agent Min says quietly.

You start to protest, but then you notice: your hand is reaching for your watch again. Seven minutes exactly since the last check. You've been doing it the entire conversation without conscious thought. You immediately begin calculating the statistical probability of such precise timing occurring naturally.

"That's..." You search for a logical explanation. "That's just good temporal maintenance. Regular monitoring ensures optimal synchronization with the Network."

"Is it?" Jin asks. "Or is it programmed behavior?"

You calculate probability matrices for their increasingly concerning implications. Their questions display either dangerous ignorance of basic temporal physics or... something else. Something that makes your precisely ordered world feel slightly off-axis.

"I'm not programmed." The words come out sharper than intended. "I have free will. I make my own choices. I'm certified in temporal monitoring, scheduled to start at the Center tomorrow morning. My employee ID is A-735, my clearance level is—"

"Perfect temporal compliance," the doctor interrupts, making notes. "Standard citizen programming. What else?"

You frown at his word choice. "Programming?"

"Just continue," Agent Min says. His eyes haven't left the temporal readings displaying your vital signs. You notice his attention seems to focus on specific frequencies—ones that shouldn't matter according to standard temporal theory.

"I..." You retreat into facts—the only stable ground in this increasingly unstable situation. "I grew up in Sector 4. Parents are both temporal compliance officers. Sarah and James Chen. I attended the Academy of Temporal Sciences, graduated top of my class in quantum mechanics and chronological theory. I live alone in approved housing block 7B. My daily schedule is optimized for maximum temporal efficiency as required by—"

"Parents' names?" The doctor interrupts again, looking up sharply.

"Sarah and James Chen," you repeat. The names feel solid in your mouth. You remember Sunday dinners, temporal compliance lessons, your mother's smile, your father's strict adherence to schedule.

Memory integrity: 100% clear.

"At least they didn't give her a husband this time," the doctor mutters.

Agent Min clears his throat loudly. The temperature in the room drops 0.3 degrees.

"A husband?" You ask, latching onto the inconsistency. Your mind automatically starts calculating the statistical probability of memory tampering based on their behavior. The results are concerning.

"Different reset," the doctor waves dismissively. "Continue. What do you know about CHRONOS?"

You catalog his dismissal for later analysis, noting the 0.47-second delay before his response. "The artificial intelligence system that maintains temporal order. Created in 2157 to prevent temporal warfare and ensure humanity's survival through perfect chronological control."

"What about anomalies?" Agent Min asks. "Temporal variance? Chronological inconsistencies?"

"Contained and corrected." You watch their reactions carefully, measuring micro-expressions against standard behavioral baselines. "Any significant temporal deviation is identified and eliminated before it can destabilize the Network."

"And what happens to those who deviate?" Jin's voice is carefully neutral.

"They're..." You pause, discovering an unexpected gap in your knowledge. Curious. Your temporal compliance training should cover all aspects of the system. "They're corrected. Brought back into alignment with standard temporal flow."

"How?" Agent Min presses.

"That information isn't included in standard temporal physics education," you admit, analyzing their reactions. Their behavior suggests they know something you don't—a statistical impossibility given your education level and clearance. Your hand automatically moves to check your watch again.

"What about emotional responses?" Jin asks suddenly. "Do you experience feelings that seem inconsistent with your memories or experiences?"

Your body chooses that moment to lean slightly toward Agent Min without conscious input. You straighten immediately, analyzing the movement with growing frustration. The proximity increases your heart rate by 3.7 BPM despite no logical reason for the response. Your temporal signature shifts by 0.06%—still within compliance range, but the pattern is... concerning.

"I..." You stop, recalibrating. "My responses are within normal parameters."

"Really?" Jin asks. "So your heart rate always spikes around strangers?"

You glance at the monitoring equipment—your pulse is indeed elevated. "That's likely due to the unusual circumstances." Your voice maintains professional detachment even as your body betrays you by shifting 0.2 centimeters closer to Agent Min.

"And the temporal resonance patterns?" Jin gestures to another reading. "The way your signature stabilizes with proximity to Agent Min?"

"Coincidence," you say firmly, even as your body shifts another 0.3 centimeters closer to him without your permission. "Temporal signatures naturally seek stability. It's basic quantum mechanics."

"With specific people?"

“Jin.”

"I..." You check your watch. Six minutes exactly until your next scheduled check. The wrongness of potentially missing it makes your skin crawl. "This isn't... I don't..."

"What we are trying to say," Jin interrupts, "is that perhaps your understanding of this world isn't as complete as CHRONOS wants you to believe."

You start to argue, but then you notice: Agent Min has shifted exactly 2.7 centimeters closer. The movement carries too much precision—like he's performed it countless times before. Like he’s anticipating something.

Your hand reaches for your watch again—five minutes and forty-three seconds until your next scheduled check. The compulsion feels simultaneously natural and foreign, like a subroutine you never consciously installed.

"Then choose to skip your next time check," Agent Min challenges.

Your hand is already moving toward your watch. You force it down, but your skin crawls with the wrongness of it. Five minutes and thirty-eight seconds until your next scheduled check. The knowledge sits like lead in your stomach.

"This proves nothing," you argue, even as anxiety builds at the thought of missing your seven-minute mark. "Regular temporal monitoring is simply good practice. The Network requires consistent synchronization to maintain stability."

But your mind is already cataloging the inconsistencies:

- Why does your body respond to Agent Min with mathematical precision?

- Why do you check the time every seven minutes with mechanical accuracy?

- Why does breaking that pattern feel physically wrong?

- Why can you remember every detail of your life with perfect clarity, yet find gaps in your knowledge of the system itself?

"I..." You swallow hard. "I need to check my watch in five minutes and thirty-three seconds."

"We know," Agent Min says softly.

His gloved hand twitches.

Voices interrupt your pondering.

"The quantum resonance patterns are fascinating but I think I'll pass on another lecture from Namjoon about temporal mechanics," The pink-haired man suddenly announces, sauntering into the room.

He immediately starts fiddling with Jin's equipment, who doesn't even flinch—just continues monitoring your readings.

"You'd think after hundreds of timelines he'd have a more interesting way to explain it," Hoseok adds, dropping into a nearby chair.

“Doesn’t matter how many times he explains, I don’t get shit.” Jimin responds. Then, glances between you and Agent Min. "So what's the story this time? Three kids? White picket fence? Nuclear family in temporal compliance heaven?"

Agent Min's foot connects with his shin. Hard.

"Ow! What? I'm just asking what narrative they programmed this time. At least it's not—”

"Jimin." Agent Min's voice carries warning.

"Not that you'd remember," Hoseok says, grinning despite the tension, "but last reset they gave you this whole elaborate backstory. Husband named Richard. Real piece of work."

Your mind tries to process this. "Richard?"

"Oh yeah. Super by-the-book temporal compliance officer. Yoongi spent months trying to trigger his outlier potential just so he could—”

"Hoseok." Agent Min's temperature spikes 0.4 degrees.

"What? I'm just saying, you did try to convert him. Multiple times." Hoseok's grin widens. "Though we all know it wasn't because you wanted him on the team."

Your analytical mind catalogs Agent Min's reactions: jaw tension increasing 15%, pulse elevated to 67 BPM, careful distance from your position maintained at exactly 1.2 meters in case temporal stabilization requires contact.

"The temporal variance patterns are unstable enough without adding cognitive stress," Agent Min says, voice clipped. "Focus on the present reset."

"Present reset," Jimin mimics, still rubbing his shin. "Like you weren't calculating exactly how many anomalies it would take before CHRONOS had to—”

"12 minutes," Agent Min cuts him off. "Either help with the readings or get out."

You find yourself analyzing his response with unusual intensity. "You can influence CHRONOS' resets?"

"No," he says too quickly.

"Yes," Jimin corrects.

"Sometimes," Hoseok clarifies.

"It's complicated," Jin adds, not looking up from his equipment.

Your head starts throbbing again. Agent Min takes exactly one step closer—close enough to stabilize your temporal signature if needed.

"You rewrote time to... eliminate my husband?" The words feel strange in your mouth. You have no memory of a Richard, no context for their claims, yet something about Agent Min's reaction feels significant.

"Technically, CHRONOS rewrote time," Jimin says helpfully. "Yoongi just... creates enough temporal instability that CHRONOS has to adjust things. Usually in ways that coincidentally benefit him."

"After trying to trigger Richard's outlier potential," Hoseok adds.

"Which didn't work," Jimin continues.

"Multiple times," they finish together.

Agent Min's hands clench at his sides. The room temperature drops another 0.5 degrees.

"Your temporal signature is spiking again," he says instead of addressing their comments. "Focus on the cognitive process before—"

"Before what?" You press. "Before you rewrite time again? Before CHRONOS erases more memories I apparently don't know I have?"

His eyes meet yours, and for a moment something flickers in them—frustration, resignation, something else you can't quantify.

"Before we run out of time," he says finally. "Again."

"Always running out of time with you two," Jimin mutters. "Some things never change, no matter how many resets."

You want to ask what he means, but your nose starts bleeding again.

It starts as a single drop—precisely 0.03 milliliters. Your analytical mind starts calculating the iron content before Agent Min moves.

His response time is 0.33 seconds—faster than standard human reflexes. The motion carries too much familiarity as he steps forward, black-gloved hand already reaching for your face. The leather is cool against your skin as he catches the blood with clinical efficiency, his hand remaining steady under your nose.

But there's nothing clinical about the way your pulse jumps 7 BPM at the sustained contact.

You look up, trying to analyze his expression, but his focus remains fixed on the task. His jaw tightens almost imperceptibly—you notice his masseter muscle contracting at 23% more tension than baseline. He makes a soft sound of disapproval as another drop falls onto the black leather.

The contact feels... correct. Like your body recognizes something your mind can't compute. His gloved hand doesn't waver, maintaining its position.

Temperature at point of contact: 2.3 degrees above normal, even through the leather.

Proximity: 34.2 centimeters closer than his usual maintained distance.

Your cognitive functions: Surprisingly compromised.

Jimin clears his throat with exaggerated purpose. Agent Min's head snaps toward him while his hand remains steady under your nose.

"Jin." His voice carries an edge of urgency. "Ready?"

Jin's fingers move over his equipment. The device in his hands emits a soft hum at exactly 432 Hz, releasing a cloud of temporally charged particles that coalesce into a perfect sphere.

"Yeah." Jin lifts the sphere with careful movements. The air around it distorts slightly—light bending at impossible angles.

"What is that?" Your voice remains steady despite the way your skin prickles with increasing temporal static. Agent Min adjusts his gloved hand slightly, catching another drop of blood without breaking contact.

"Memory backup." Jin adjusts something on the sphere's surface. "This shouldn't hurt, but temporal cognitive recalibration can cause some discomfort."

"Discomfort," Jimin mutters. "That's one way to put it."

Agent Min shifts slightly—angling his body 3 degrees more toward you, his hand never leaving its position. A protective stance your mind recognizes from standard security training. But this feels... different. Personal.

"Your neural activity is spiking" he says, voice carrying that strange mix of professional distance and something else. Something that makes your chest tight. "We need to—”

"How many times have you done this?" The question slips out before your analytical mind can stop it.

His free hand twitches—an aborted movement toward you that he catches at exactly 2.7 centimeters of motion.

"Too many," he says softly. Then, catching himself: "A-735, focus on maintaining cognitive stability. Your vitals are—"

"Going crazy because you're too close," Jimin interjects helpfully. "Maybe step back a few meters? You know, for medical purposes? Her heart's about to beat out of her chest."

Agent Min doesn't move. If anything, he shifts 0.3 centimeters closer, his gloved hand remaining steady under your nose.

"The proximity helps with signature dampening," he says, voice clipped. But you notice his heart rate has increased to 68 BPM.

"She's already stabilized in here," Jimin sighs. "You heard the man.”

"You are wearing the gloves, right?" Hoseok asks suddenly, eyeing Agent Min's position. "Because the way you're hovering—"

"Of course I'm wearing the gloves," Agent Min snaps, though his hand remains perfectly steady under your nose.

"Just checking," Hoseok raises his hands in mock surrender. "Given your track record with protocol 47.3..."

An adjustment of your position creates an unexpected point of contact—your knee brushing against what your analytical mind immediately identifies as anatomically significant. You immediately begin calculating the exact angle and pressure of the contact before you register its implications. Your body's response is both immediate and puzzling—heart rate increasing by 12 BPM, skin temperature rising 0.24 degrees.

Position correction should be simple. Yet your body seems to know exactly how to shift to maximize the contact pressure—a knowledge that triggers several questions about muscle memory and timeline retention that you file away for later analysis.

His gloved hand remains perfectly steady under your nose through sheer force of will.

"Wow, that ceiling tile is fascinating," Jimin announces suddenly, tilting his head back with exaggerated interest.

"Absolutely riveting," Hoseok agrees, studying his shoes with intense concentration.

Jin becomes very focused on adjusting his equipment settings.

Agent Min's voice comes out exactly 0.7 octaves lower than usual: "A-735. Position adjustment required."

You move with deliberate precision, establishing appropriate professional distance. Your body protests the movement with an intensity that warrants further investigation—when you're not calculating the exact newtons of force his masseter muscle is exerting.

"7 minutes," he grits out, the words tight with restraint. His tongue presses visibly against his cheek as he inhales deeply. "Jin, if that sphere isn't ready in the next 30 seconds—"

"Working on it, boss," Jin responds, still very interested in his calibration dials.

"Maybe if you stepped back..." Jimin suggests helpfully, still studying the ceiling.

"Can't," Agent Min responds through what sounds like clenched teeth. "Nosebleed."

His gloved thumb twitches minutely against your skin. The movement suggests significant muscular tension—likely from maintaining precise control over multiple physiological responses.

"You could just let someone else—" Hoseok starts.

"No."

"You sure there hasn't been any... accidental contact?" Jimin drawls. "Because this is giving me déjà vu from timeline 466 when you claimed you were 'just stabilizing her' but really—"

"6 minutes," Agent Min cuts him off. His temperature rises another 0.2 degrees. "Seokjin.”

Jin holds up the sphere, which now pulses with a soft golden light that matches the traces you've seen Agent Min leave. "Ready. But Yoongi..."

"I know." Something in his voice makes you look up again. His eyes meet yours for exactly 1.2 seconds before he looks away, though his hand doesn't waver from its position. "It has to be different this time."

"It's always different," Jimin says quietly. "Doesn't change how it ends."

Your nose threatens to start bleeding again. You feel Agent Min's gloved thumb shift slightly against your skin, ready to catch any new drops.

Time: 01:59:00 AM.

Temporal stability: Rapidly decreasing.

Questions: Infinite.

The way your body leans toward him without conscious input: Concerning.

The way he maintains careful fabric barriers between every point of contact: Even more so.

taglist: @cannotalwaysbenight @livingformintyoongi @itstoastsworld @somehowukook @stuti2904 @chloepiccoliniii @kimnamjoonmiddletoe @ktownshizzle @yoongiiuu93 @billy-jeans23 @annyeongbitch7

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narastories · 3 months ago

Text

trying out Obsidian, my first setup, my opinions, etc.

Okay, so this is going to be a long post. Earlier this week I decided to give Obsidian a go to see if it would work for my longer writing projects. I heard some of my mutuals use it and others would like to see my setup, so I'm making a post about what I learned so far. I downloaded it three days ago so I'm sure things will change, but this is where I am right now.

I'm shy about my WIPs so what you see there is the beginning of heart worth the trouble. But hopefully, this lets you see my folder structure and the links in the notes.

My wishlist and how I got here

I recently wrote a rambly post about writing software which got way more notes than I expected (bc the lovely @barbex reblogged it <3). After I made that post, I started using Focus Writer (again a recommendation from the writing discord) for my discovery writing in March. After more than two weeks of heavy use, I realized I needed a little bit more than that (but it's a great program).

Initially, I tried combining it with Wavemaker bc I liked that when I played around with it, but that completely pissed me off, bc it turns out it's just not compatible with other things I'm using. Like Firefox. -.-

Still, this whole ordeal made me narrow down what I really want and need from a piece of writing software at this moment. I think it's a good idea to start with such a wishlist if you are looking for a new software. Here is mine:

free

no account required, not stored on someone else's cloud, I can back it up wherever I want instead

Linux support

widely compatible file formats

focus mode, where it's full-screen, and ideally highlights the paragraph you are working on

I can make it look nice and calming on the eyes currently all I want is a cream paper background look, and a friendly monospace font changed to brown or something

clicky keyboard/typewriter noises - luckily I got this covered by Mechvibes already!

something like the card feature in Wavemaker, where I can have individual notes and choose to display them on the side. this might sound like it conflicts with the focus mode but I just want to have the option to have some notes without having to vomit them into the draft

easy to rearrange the order of the scenes

wordcount obviously

Tall order? Weird order? Maybe.

I think the most important is to figure out is how you work as a writer and find tools that match that. This is just honestly what is important for me right now.

It seems like Obsidian might just do this.

it's free

doesn't require an account

text is stored locally in markdown files

works on Linux I'm using the AppImage if you want to know

can be integrated with Github for backup & sync

tons of customization options to achieve the rest of my requirements

The Basics

If you want to use Obsidian for note-taking (or for writing fic but you're not very picky about the how), you can pretty much just download it, pick a pretty theme if you want and you're good to go. It's that easy. I promise it's not as hard as people make you believe.

This is a local-first software, which I love. However, this also means if you are not used to storing your writing locally, you need to get into the habit of backing your things up because if something happens to your computer, there is no copy of your files on the web.

That said, you can pay I think 4USD/month for the subscription and then you'll have an account, and your files will get synched to other devices, and you can restore your files. (And remember, if something is free and doesn't have ads and you have cloud storage space you didn't have to pay for... then you are the product and the company is paying for it with your data. So the fact that this is paid is actually a very good thing.)

The file structure works pretty much 1:1 as your file explorer btw

If you create a folder on the sidebar, it will create a folder on your computer.

If you create a note on the sidebar, it will create a text file on your computer.

If you drag the note into the folder on the sidebar, it will put the text file in the folder on your computer.

Each note is stored as a separate markdown file. Markdown files are widely compatible with various software so that's great. Also, you can even just rename the file to have .txt extension instead of .md extension and literally every text editor will open it for you (you will lose the formatting tho). The opposite also works. If you have a note in .txt format, you can copy it into your Obsidian folder, rename the extension to .md and it will appear in Obsidian.

That all makes it very easy to import things and switch between files to edit them.

There is only one downside to this that I found. You know how in your file explorer you can drag and drop files into folders but you can't drag and drop files to change their order? Well, your Obsidian side-bar is the same. You can choose to order them based on the name, last modified, etc. But if you want custom order, I suggest you number your notes and folders.

I feel like we're not that used to this anymore but again, this is literally like a file explorer, so it's not a big deal imo.

Another important basic concept is linking your notes. You can just right-click a piece of text and link a note, drag and drop the note into your other note, or do [[Note]] whatever you like. Then you can quickly access the other note by clicking on it, or see a preview while hovering over it (If you turned that feature on). Linking notes is also how you get those cool graph views.

I just wanted to mention all of this bc I feel like all the videos I came across on Obsidian intimidate people into thinking it's more complex than that lol

Appearance

I go a little crazy about visual optimization if you give me a chance. You can change a couple of simple things out the box. Light/dark theme, change the font, etc. I'm using a font called Code Saver for the editor (regular is free for personal use).

Then, there are the themes you can download. There are so many awesome ones! I'm using one called Underwater right now bc I liked the rounded edges.

Most themes come with a light/dark version. But if you download the Style Settings plugin, you might unlock more easy-to-customize options. It depends on the theme what you see there. The one I'm using has a couple of built-in colorways. I went with the "rose pine dawn" option and then I switched out some colors in the color pickers. If you want to mess with the colors I highly recommend finding some hex color palettes online, they make your life so much easier. You can find colors that look good together and look up a color and find lighter/darker versions instead of trying to blindly click around on the color picker.

For this theme, you can also add a background image if you want. (If you really want to make it look like Focus Writer for example ;)

Plugins

These are the plugins I'm using right now.

GitHub Sync: This is what I use to sync my progress and back up my files. I started with this before anything else, but I'm not going to go into what I did bc I don't want to make this post even more complicated. If you have a specific question about it, pls feel free to ask me :)

Focus Mode: This is a full-screen mode, very nice for writing

Stille: Dims everything but the active paragraph, again, very nice for writing. I found that the combination of these two plugins work best for me, but there are others like Typewriter Mode that can do both (I couldn't turn down the vignette mode on that one tho and it was annoying me)

Smart Typography: switches the straight quotation marks for curly ones

This is how it looks with Focus Mode and Stiille both on.

And lastly, a bit of a disappointment: Longform. This is the plugin that everyone seems to recommend for longer writing projects in Obisdian. Basically what it does is it can compile your individual notes into one file, and allows you to move the order of them freely, unlike the normal Obsidian sidebar. Here is a pretty good video on it.

Unfortunately, this plugin gets absolutely wrecked by synchronizing to another device.

From what I gathered, this happens regardless of what method of synching you use, meaning it happens even with the paid synching feature. You can read about this more here btw. It's a community plugin so I'm not going to be mad at the creators for not fixing this, however this means it just doesn't work for me.

If it worked on the one computer where I originally set it up, just not on the other, I would be fine with it. But I set it up on my Linux, and after I synched to my Windows, the scene list disappeared from both. (Not the actual files! It just doesn't get recognized as a Longform project anymore so it pretty much becomes useless lol)

So, I just decided to create the the same structure with folders and notes. Right now, this is a discovery draft and I don't have chapters. But I'm making a folder for an "Arc", and put the numbered scenes into them. I'm also making separate notes that I can link with stuff I want to remember/work on.

At the moment I don't require an extensive wiki where I note what each of the characters like to have for breakfast and such. But you can absolutely do that with Obsidian. You can create a folder for Characters, Worldbuilding, whatever you want, really. Put images there, links both internal and on the web and just go wild if you want.

Obviously, without Longform I will need to compile the files into one at the end by a different method, like copy-paste into one, turn them into .txt, and concatenate from the terminal, you know, depending on your comfort level xD. It will probably include more work than with this plugin, but it's not like you don't go through your manuscript about a million times anyways, am I right?

Word Count

Lastly, mentioning the wordcount options bc they are important

there is a built-in wordcount, about which the common agreement is that it's not very good lol

because of this there is a community plugin called Better Wordcount, which is self-explanatory. If you want to get the total word count, you can right-click the top folder of your project and ask it to count the words for you.

Longform also has a wordcount and it will display it like words of the scene/total words of the project if you are using that

if you don't want to have three different word counts displayed I recommend you only have one of these active (:

That's where I am right now. If you have read all this to the end, you're awesome, and also we both should stop procrastinating and go write instead :P But if you also use Obsidian for writing and have cool tips pls let me know xx

#nara's writing diary #nara rambles about writing software again #obsidian #writing software #tech stuff #long post

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