#i worry eventually the ai will generate decent looking hands.

[detectivenyx]

one thing that will be helpful in distinguishing ai art from real art: currently, ai art is racist and fatphobic

[banshee-v44]

The Banshee, The Faker, The Exomind Maker

/*******************CBoC 44 pseudocode for Status Register write***************/ void BNRAM_EXO_1_Status_Reg_Write ( uint44 data_byte ) { BNRAM_EXO_1_CC_Reg_Write(0); // Enable the EXO slave by toggling clarity control LOW BNRAM_EXO_1_CBIM_ClearTxBuffer(); //Clear EXO transmit buffer before sending command BNRAM_SPI_1_CBIM_WriteTxData(BNRAM_CR8T); // Set the write enable (CB0) bit //prior to write//Wait until EXO_DONE flag is cleared while((BNRAM_EXO_1_CBIM_ReadTxStatus() & BNRAM_EXO_1_CBIM_STS_EXO_DONE) != BNRAM_EXO_1_CBIM_STS_EXO_DONE); BNRAM_EXO_1_CB_Reg_Write(1); //CB0 is set high when CC is switched high BNRAM_EXO_1_CC_Reg_Write(0); //Re-enable the EXO slave BNRAM_EXO_1_CBIM_ClearTxBuffer(); BNRAM_EXO_1_CBIM_WriteTxData(BNRAM_WRSR_CMD); //Send Write Status Register instruction BNRAM_EXO_1_CBIM_WriteTxData(data_byte); //Send data //Wait until EXO_DONE flag is cleared while((BNRAM_EXO_1_CBIM_ReadTxStatus() & BNRAM_EXO_1_CBIM_STS_EXO_DONE) != BNRAM_EXO_1_CBIM_STS_EXO_DONE); BNRAM_EXO_1_CC_Reg_Write(1); //Terminate the write operation by toggling //clarity control HIGH }

________________________________________

Okay. That was annoying.

Banshee-44 didn't know who in the hell Clovis Bray thought he was, but he would be damned if the asshole executed a recall order on him.

The Vanguard Gunsmith paused a moment, literally, and set the auto-rifle he'd been at work on down on the counter before him. He cupped his metal alloy chin in a brilliantly designed and articulated hand and thought.

Well. He supposed that Clovis Bray thought he was...Clovis Bray. By all accounts he did what he wanted, when he wanted to. So that pretty much summed it up.

Banshee made a noise that sounded like a snort and focused his attention on the small gaggle of Guardians before him.

Would a group of Guardians be called a gaggle? Never thought of it before. Never? Maybe. He couldn't remember.

"Yeah, here ya go," the Exo mumbled, as he twisted to reach one of the Guardians' orders.

It took roughly thirty minutes for Banshee to make his way through the line of Guardians that had stacked up in front of his station. Where in the hell did they all come from? That was the problem in having his workstation right off the primary landing pad. He looked forward to the return to the old Tower.

The white and blue optics stared out across the Courtyard and upwards, to where the glow of acetylene torches and the sparks of welders lit up the early evening.

Holy hell, was it evening already?

Wait. Or was it early morning.

Banshee-44 consulted a datapad to check the time. It was indeed 1843 hours. He sighed, a mechanical sound. It wasn't that he didn't trust his chronometer's programming enough to rely on it for the time; it was that he didn't trust his fried RAM enough to remember the damn time.

A chime, something like a chime, definitely musical, but a kind of pretty sort of noise tickled his audio receptors. It was vaguely familiar somehow.

Oh. The recall order. That.

"Ain't like I wasn't gonna see you eventually anyways," the Gunsmith muttered.

He closed up his workstation and made his way through the maintenance walkways to the Hangar. Banshee took the back ways whenever he could. Being out among people...it was easier for him to forget where he was going. And why.

He was okay with being alone anyways.

He thought he was okay with it, at least.

The Gunsmith popped out into the Daito room. It was thankfully empty. Weird that they had a branded lounge in the space.

He ducked down into the airway and cast a glance at the journal lying on some nearby shelving. Oh. That. He wondered where he'd left it. He'd have to grab it on his way back through. If he remembered.

A few steps more and he was in the pit of the Hangar. He strode over to the Vanguard's Lead Shipwright, Amanda Holliday, and simply stood before her. He saw that she was elbow deep into a Sparrow, so he said nothing. Only stood with his arms folded.

It took Holliday several minutes before she realized that the Exo who stood before her was Banshee-44 and not some Titan. She'd spoken to him as if he were a Guardian, as she had assumed that's who it was. Being all still and stoic and non-responsive.

"Hey there, Ban," she called out as she straightened her back. Holliday worked her shoulders up and down, stiff from the repairs. "Need somethin'?"

It was unusual to see the Gunsmith in her domain, though not out of the ordinary.

If he had the plating to do so, Banshee would have blinked at her. "Oh. Yeah. Sorry. Wasn't urgent. Just wanted to ask a favor."

Holliday's eyes widened in curiosity and one eyebrow arched at the words. Him asking a favor was not typical. Whatever it was, it was going to be a good one. "Uh, sure, Ban. Whatcha need?"

The Exo nodded toward the rear of the hangar bay. "A ride."

"A what?" At that, Holliday stood up, and somehow avoided the boom that held up the Sparrow. "You need a ride?" She sounded incredulous.

"Hmm-mmm," he grunted.

An awkward pause followed.

"I can fly myself," he added, his arms held open in something between a shrug and a friendly surrender. "You don't have to worry about ferrying me around."

Holliday's mouth worked open and closed a few times before she managed speech. "No...I mean...it's okay, I don't mind...it's been a while is all." It had been, what, months? since Banshee had borrowed a ship. He hadn't needed to borrow one back at the old Tower since he had a transport vessel. It was destroyed in the Red War, unfortunately. Holliday thought it was a shame. He kept it in decent nick seeing as how he generally forgot he had it. "You going international or domestic?" she joked. Her initial surprise had faded to nothing.

"International," he responded. It was a long running joke that indicated he needed to a ship capable of leaving the atmosphere. "Gotta errand that requires it."

Banshee thought it best he leave the details to himself. Commander Zavala wouldn't take kindly to his excursion and neither would Holliday, come to think of it.

"That's been a while. Not since before the war," the Shipwright commented. She stretched both arms over her head and stepped out from her workshop. Banshee followed her around to the other side, where she stood with hands on hips. "Got a Hawk you can borrow. She's over yonder." Holliday motioned across the deck to a Hawk bearing Vanguard colors. It was without offensive armament, however.

"Sold." Banshee tilted his head at Holliday and nodded. "Thanks."

"Sure." She turned to go back to her project, hand in the air as way of goodbye. "Don't forget to top off the tank when you bring her back."

Banshee made a short, sharp noise that was a laugh and made his way to the ship.

________________________________________

He'd taken liberties with his flight plan, as his destination was strictly forbidden under current Vanguard policy. Banshee doubted that any claim of not his having forgotten Commander Zavala's explicit order would be believed. A little of what they once called jiggery-pokery was necessary.

Banshee had told the Vanguard's favorite Guardian that he would visit the Clovis Bray AI at some point. Said Guardian had helped to rebuild what had turned out to be his own weapon. It was one hell of a sword. Huge. Stupidly overpowered.

Felt comfortable in his hands. Good, even. Like it belonged.

Still, the Guardian had been the one to piece it together. It was theirs by rights.

He knew from the scouting reports that the giant Exo head that housed the AI was deep in the ruins of Bray Exoscience. The only safe LZ was at a communications array in Charon's Crossing. He'd have to be inconspicuous.

There was some EVA gear in the Hawk. And a tarp that he could use as a makeshift cloak. He'd seen how some of the Guardians dressed, even the ones that weren't New Light. It could get pretty rough by his eye, but he wasn’t big on fashion as a rule.

Banshee pulled a RJSV-99-40 Sparrow out of the Hawk's vehicle stores and mounted up. The ride from Charon's Crossing to Cadmus Ridge was brief, but the journey through Cadmus Ridge into Bray Exoscience was choppy due to the Fallen.

He ignored the arc bolts that chained past his helmet and kept the throttle floored. He deftly maneuvered past Dregs and Vandals, bumped a very angry Captain out of the way, and sped into the jagged entrance to Bray Exoscience.

One magazine and a few dead Fallen later, Banshee had a spacious office and lab area to himself.

On the main desk he spied a figure that looked a little too much like himself and scattered papers. The topmost paper was a drawing, like an artist's render...

He found himself with one hand on the desk, head bowed, the other hand on the back of the chair, his A/R still clutched between fingers which trembled.

"The hell is that," Banshee hissed to the empty room. He turned his head away from the dark, shrouded figure sketched onto the yellowed paper.

He stepped into the private lab and took note of the open hatch to his right. It seemed like he should go that route, so he did.

The inert, deactivated Exominds slumped across equipment, crumpled onto the floor, and in pieces scattered throughout marked the journey. Banshee moved slowly, wide, bright eyes taking in everything and nothing. It was surreal. It was goddamn surreal. But it was his past. Or so he was led to understand.

He stepped into an antechamber of sorts. Sealed hatch to his right and ahead. Couldn't go through those. He glanced to his left.

And nearly jumped.

"I'll be damned," he breathed. It was an enormous head, an Exo's head, unlit eyes dispassionate and lifeless. So it was true. The AI really was inside of a giant Exo. The head of one, at least.

A squad of BrayTech security frames kept watch, some armed with RPGs, some with A/Rs. Standard BrayTech fare. They appeared oblivious to his approach.

Banshee-44 took a few cautious steps closer to the construct and stopped at the threshold. He pulled off his helmet and stared at it. If he'd been built to have pseudo-eyelids, he would have blinked long and hard at the head. As he didn't, his optics merely glowed. It made his gaze seem hard and intense.

After a moment, he stuck his free hand in the air in a half-hearted wave at the giant Exo. "Uh." He cocked his head to one side. "Yo."

[icelated]

Should We Care Which Side of History We're On?

BBC’s Carnage is narrated from the year 2067, when all of Britain is vegan and glancing backward with shock, confusion and shame at the UK’s animal-eating history. Released in 2017, the film dramatized a common trope in ethical debates over meat eating. Those sympathetic to the abolition of animal farming often predict that future generations will be far more enlightened than we are, and will look back in horror at how we treated animals. Consider how we think about chattel slavery in America, and those who were complicit in it. It’s certainly plausible that future generations will be appalled at some of the things we did as well. Breeding sentient creatures into existence, breaking up their families, taking their milk, killing them, devouring their bodies and using their skins as luxury covers seems like a decent candidate for future dismay.

This threat of future people being alarmed at our behavior is sometimes just a rhetorical tactic. The basic idea here is to win debates by imagining support from our much wiser and kinder descendants. How could they be wrong? There may also be some wishful thinking involved. When you believe brilliant future people will agree with you and be appalled by your opponents, this can work as a mildly satisfying secular alternative to imagining one’s enemies in hell. People who do things that are socially acceptable in the present but which are nevertheless wrong may not suffer any consequences for it in this life, but the harsh gaze of future enlightenment will beat down on their memories. Justice will be done.

These morally loaded predictions about what future people will believe tend to be projections of the prognosticator’s own views. People who contemplate what enlightened future generations will lament about us often identify with these imagined judges, or at the very least, they typically admire the values they expect to be embraced by the future, even if they don’t live up to these values themselves. But speculating about future values is not always about converting others to your cause. There may be a legitimate concern about how later generations will see us. Should we be worried?

The most obvious reason to say no is that future thoughts of judgment can't get at us. Future ire at the past is harmlessly aimed at dead images, words in history books and faded memories. Even judgey thoughts from the present are arguably nothing to mind when they don't affect our lives in some way. To the extent that future thoughts impact us at all, it’s because we somehow manage to accurately simulate the thoughts in our own minds. Future people judging us is, if anything, us judging ourselves and others around us.

However, even if future hate can’t hurt us, it can affect how much influence we have after we die, assuming we expect to have any noticeable influence at all. The founding fathers presumably felt meaning by pursuing their various projects, like creating a new government in the colonized Americas, and would have wanted that government to last for as long as it stayed true to their ideals. Our judgment of the founding fathers would have mattered to them because their legacies are in our hands. If the United States eventually crumbles and its history of slavery and racism is an important factor in that, the founders' failure to oppose slavery in any substantial way will have ultimately undermined much of what they set out to accomplish. Even if they'd thought slavery were completely benign, the total undermining of their legacies might have given them pause if they could have predicted future Americans wouldn’t agree.

Artists, philosophers, politicians, theorists and anyone who creates something potentially lasting that can somehow be linked to them often have an interest in future people not despising them for their views or actions. Just as many of us avoid the art of people who have recently been accused of sexual harassment or worse, future enlightened people might shun works that were created by meat eaters. And you don’t even need to be a prominent figure to worry about this. Those who have children and expect to be known to their descendants in the far future would probably rather be an inspiration to their great-great-great grandchildren than an unfortunate blotch in their family history.

However, if you don’t care about doing anything that can be identified with you later—if you expect to be just one more blurred out face in an anonymous mass of past immoral people—you may not need to worry about future judgment. You can't seriously fret about your statue being ripped down by idealistic future teens if you never expect to be enshrined in the first place.

Then again, this is assuming that past and future generations will only be colliding in each other’s imaginations. The possibility of leaping the border between past and future raises ominous possibilities. We should not want to be on the wrong side of history if we actually find ourselves in the hands of our future judges. That could happen if cryogenics becomes more popular, we all sign up to have our bodies frozen, and future people develop the skills and motivation to revive us. (This is assuming humans develop the technology to do this before artificial general intelligence is developed, which the people I’ve talked to lately think is extremely unlikely!) 

Depending on how strongly future enlightened people feel about our misdeeds, one of their motives might be to make us suffer for the things we did that future people think are wrong, but which seemed fine or at least excusable to many of us here. If we assume cryonics without AGI is possible, and that future people could have a retributionist streak, then waking up in the distant future could leave us subject to more than disparaging thoughts. Pretend Benjamin Franklin had invented cryogenic preservation around 1781 or so, and imagine the almost absurd naiveté of a brutal slave owner climbing into one of these rudimentary cryogenic tanks around 1861, eager to be revived and welcomed by the future Confederate States of America. We could similarly imagine a Nazi official freezing himself at the peak of Nazi Germany’s power. What would become of such people if the technology existed to revive them now? Would either of them be excused for being products of their time who were not morally responsible for their actions, and if so, should we expect future people to have the same accepting attitude toward us? 

A counterargument to this worry is that we can safely assume future people who could revive cryogenically frozen people will be enlightened enough to not believe in free will, or to at least not believe in retributive justice, and this would see no point in punishing us—and would certainly see no point in thawing people from the unethical past in order to punish them. However, if we expect future people to hold such beliefs, then we should also not expect them to judge us at all. If we think future people will judge us, we can’t really assume future enlightenment takes the form of friendly understanding and education. Perhaps those who get frozen should not be too surprised to wake up in a tiny cage resembling the miserable conditions of the animals they ate, or even in a simulation in which they are a factory farmed animal and are tortured and slaughtered again and again until they’ve suffered as much as every single animal they ever ate.

But this is just a concern for those who intend to freeze their bodies at death, and even then, only if there’s any reason to believe cryonics works and that we might expect humans rather than benevolent AI to revive the unethical frozen. There are far more people who don’t want to wake up in the future, and simply hope their reputations transcend their deaths. How much should they care about future thought pieces on their moral fortitude? 

The answer, I think, partially depends on the amount of overlap we expect between future values and our own.

The dominant narrative about enlightened future people implies they are much more altruistic, cooperative and empathetic than we are, they are pretty much unified in their progressive views, and these views are static across all future generations after a certain point. I've never heard anyone say, "Future generations will look back with horror at those of us who were against mass incarceration," or "Some people in the future will think we were awful for eating meat, some of them will not care either way, and others will like that we ate meat—and the percentages of people with these contrasting opinions will vary between the generations." It’s also usually implied that future people will share our basic values. We don't fall short by having the wrong values, but by not being consistent and principled about our values. What distinguishes future enlightened people is that they are more principled and consistent about certain already-existing values than we are. 

If we accept all this, we should generally look backward with smug self-satisfaction and disgust before looking toward the future with embarrassment and self-reproach—and anyone determined to avoid future scorn should amp up the selflessness.

Yet aligning our actions with a hyper-progressive future may be trickier than it sounds. Those who warn about a widespread misalignment between present and future ethics generally have specific policy suggestions in mind, like going vegan. But again, these generally reflect the views of the people making these prescriptions, and don't necessarily rely on good evidence about what future people will do. Future people might think we should have been more altruistic, but what sort of altruists will they prefer? Utilitarian-style altruists who mathematically increase the good in the world while trying to ignore nudges from empathic emotions, or more passion-driven altruists who care for those around them? (”The first one!” Maybe!)

We should also consider that future values might not be unified, or might look wildly different from our own. After all, Confederate leaders and soldiers should be a definitive case of wrong-side-of-history infamy, yet many people today fight to keep their statues up, even in the wake of white nationalist violence. Plenty of current people do not think less of the founding fathers for owning slaves, and some people respect the confederate soldiers because they rebelled against the anti-slavery union. Whether we turn out to be on the wrong side of history could depend on which future people you ask.

Those who try to anticipate the values of the future don't give later generations much credit for originality, saddling the hypothetical future sages with ethical views already floating around today. But it's possible that future values will be totally at odds with our own. Perhaps future people will be upset for fairly obvious reasons, like that we sent way too much carbon and methane into the atmosphere. But maybe they'll be more upset that we binge-watched TV and threw parties and took some vacations instead of devoting our every waking hour to work. They might be outraged that parents generally took care of their own children instead of raising them in communities where biological parentage was irrelevant. They might think we were disgusting for having sex, or infantile for having an incest taboo, or misguided for thinking that life in prison is more humane than the death penalty.

The arc of the moral universe is long, and that may be all we can say about it. Concerns about enlightened future people assume later generations will look back on us with horror while we in contrast imagine our descendants with admiration or guilt. But if our values end up being drastically different from those of distant generations, shouldn't the cross-generational shuddering be mutual? Being on the right side of history just means fitting in with the majority of future people, morally, and we might want nothing to do with those creeps.

There could nevertheless be reasons to believe that some version of the hyper-progressive future is most likely. If so, this supports the normal discourse around future judgment in one sense and undermines it in another. What gets undermined if we can point to trends that make us confident in the near-inevitability of a vegan future, for instance, is a straightforward justification for future people to shake their heads in disappointment at those of us who eat meat now. If we can reliably predict that people in the future will be more ethical, we presumably expect it to be easier to be ethical—or more difficult to be unethical—down the road. If our descendants are more ethical because some combination of greater access to information, improvements in technology, genetic engineering, neurological interventions and cultural shifts help make their particular degree of selflessness possible, how much moral superiority credit should they really get?

In Carnage, technology plays a major role in creating an ethical divide between the enlightened vegan future and barbaric meat eating past. Activism, a vegan celebrity chef and ecological disasters convince a lot of British people to give up meat in the BBC’s speculative history, but it’s only when a scientist invents a device that translates animal thoughts into English—and animals use it to complain about being exploited—that farming animal is outlawed.

Humans may never invent a contraption that translates the neural flitterings of farm animals into English sentences like, “I’m not a cheese factory. I am a goat.” (The BBC imagined that given the chance to talk to us, animals would speak vegan meme-ese.) But there is one technology on the horizon that could make a significant dent in animal farming, and might even destroy it completely. This is the replicating of non-sentient animal cells into edible flesh, which makes it possible to create meat without creating nervous systems that will suffer and be destroyed. If producing meat this way eventually becomes sophisticated enough to parallel the tastes of the meats we’re used to, at around the same price or cheaper, it isn't absurd to imagine that pain-free meat could one day fully replace the meat we get from sentient animals, spelling the end for factory farming. This could end up being an anti-climactic, uninspiring end to factory farming that makes the future's claim to advanced rectitude more questionable, as philosopher Ben Bramble has worried. If later generations transition to near-universal veganism thanks to the help of a technological fix rather than through widespread sacrifice and a struggle for virtue, they could enjoy all the culinary pleasure we do without being complicit in animal suffering and death. But they would look ridiculous ranting about how despicable we were for killing animals for food as they chomped down on replicated animal flesh that is molecularly identical to the meat we can only get from animals because we exist in a less technologically adept time. They might believe they would never have eaten meat from tortured animals even if they had lived in earlier, less morally upright ages. But assuming they’ll have been raised in a culture with no tolerance for eating animals, and which had sacrifice-free alternatives, it's hard to see a solid basis for believing this. Future people can look back and see who amongst us fails their standards, but they can't know who amongst them would have met these standards if they had existed in another time. They might have done the same in our place, just as we might have done the same in theirs. As far as anyone knows, they’re better than us purely from luck of birth.

So... should we care which side of history we’re on? 

At this point, I’ll put my cards on the table and admit that I don’t believe in posthumous harm. As long as your life and projects feel meaningful now, and you enjoy incorrectly imagining that you’ll be celebrated in the future, it doesn’t matter what people later think of you. Future people could hate the trappings of the someone you once were, ignoring the accomplishments of that former person for political or moral reasons, but once you die, what they are shunning is not you. It’s no one. At death, we each become yet another has-been—one of the trillions of non-existents who once had a short flash of consciousness and some degree of causal effect on others before being reduced to a story for the new crop of existents to use or discard however they like.

But even if this is right, cross-generational moral criticism may nevertheless be worthwhile. We don't change the past by condemning it, but judging ancestors can be a way of affirming our values that break with the past, re-asserting our commitment to new ideals and helping push those commitments into the future. And while we can't really know what people in the future will think about us, anticipating later views could inspire us to realize values we already aspire to. As we develop ourselves to get closer to future ideals, we potentially change what those future ideals become. If we’re determined to predict the future, we should predict the future we hope to see.

[jchallwritesthings]

The Tale of Kai, Pt. 10

(10 parts, holy fuck)

The two Ryzers mounted their bikes and revved a bit before giving Kai a thumbs-up. Kai pulled out into the open desert. After about 15 minutes, a few blips appeared on the radar ahead of them. Kai looked forward and saw the cloud of dust ahead of them.

“That’s a pack alright. Decent size, too. Not too big, though. Shouldn’t be too hard. I’d say we got another two minutes before we hit ‘em.” Z signaled to the bikers and they pulled ahead. “Slow up a bit, let the bikes do the work.” Kai slowed a bit as she watched the bikers pull up in front of the pack. She couldn’t see any individual beasts from the herd, but she could tell that they were pretty big. She started eyeing the back of the herd to try to see if any of them were lagging behind.

“There’s one,” Z said. “Looks like it’s got a bit of a limp. Can’t quite run as fast.”

“I see it. When do we go for it?”

“Wait…” Kai kept her speed, turning a bit to line up with their target. “Go.”

Kai gunned it, keeping expert control of the vehicle even at the high speed. Z leveled the spear and aimed for the target, keeping extremely steady. As they got closer, the beast caught on to them and turned, running away from the rest of the pack.

“Perfect! We got the asshole now.” Z aimed down a little bit and shot the beast in the leg, causing it to tumble to the ground. Kai expertly swerved out of the way and skidded around to face it once more. It was still on the ground, but was thrashing about. Z lept off of the car and sprinted towards the beast, spear in hand. Kai cautiously followed in the Leopard, prepared to jump out if things got ugly.

It didn’t get that far. Z sprinted up to the beast and shot it a few more times, to seemingly no effect. It eventually got up and turned for her, getting ready to charge. Z skillfully switched the spear to one-handed and hurled it at the beast, hitting it directly in the eye. The beast fell limply to the ground, spear still in its eye.

“We’re out, bitches. Have fun with the pack!” Kai heard through the radio. She turned and saw the bikes veer off as the pack continued sprinting right for them.

“Z, we got trouble. We gotta go.”

“We need this. Come help me get it in the car, we can dress it later.” Kai pulled up to the corpse and jumped out. Even with Kai’s exosuit, the two of them could barely lift the beast up and into the back of the car. They jumped back into their seats and Kai pulled off.

“Jess, can you get them off of us?”

“I can try. Gimme a sec.” The cannon above them buzzed to life and started warming up. After a second, it fired several bright green shots of energy into a nearby dune. The beasts followed the energy blasts and were surprised when the dune exploded and showered them all in shards of hot glass, scattering and rolling in the sand to get the molten silicon off of them.

“That was fuckin’ brilliant, Jess,” Z said.

“Thanks. When you’re a bored AI with a few years between missions, you try out some simulations and learn a few things.”

“Alright, alright, enough with the praises. We still gotta get back and see if… What did you call him? Major General Asspain? See if he’s still where we left him.”

The drive back was as uneventful as it was short. They pulled back up to where they camped for the night to find the box open and Ram rustling through the car for his gear.

“Shit. OK, we can take him,” Z said.

“No, not you. You still need to heal. I’m not too happy about you running after that beast, by the way. But we’ll have to talk about that later.” Ram looked up, attracted by the noise of the incoming vehicle. “Shit.” He pulled out a sword and climbed on top of the box. Jess started the cannon up and aimed it at him. Kai pulled up and stopped next to the car.

“Well well, look who got out? Be a doll and put the sword down before I blast you into oblivion.”

“Fuck you, you’re bluffing.” Jess fired a warning shot just next to him. He jumped.

“Right. Bluffing. So, you gonna put it down or get turned into a steaming pile of slag?” He dropped the sword and climbed down. Kai jumped out of the car and tackled him, immediately putting restraints on him. “Pull a stunt like that again and I’ll make sure you won’t be able to carry a sword ever again. Do we understand each other?”

“Bitch.” Kai dug her knee into his back.

“What was that?”

“Yes ma’am.”

“Good.” She got up and pulled him up with her. “Now, seeing as that box isn’t enough to hold you, it looks like you’re gonna need to ride up front with us!”

“Oh, how fun!” Z chimed in. Ram spit. “Hey boss, we might need to get a muzzle on this one.”

“Oh, don’t worry, I have just the thing.” Kai reached into the Ryzer car and pulled out a ball gag. “Found this on good ol’ Ram here. Looks like he’s into the kinky shit. Whaddaya say, Ram, wanna see how it feels?” She grabbed the top of his head with one hand and put the ball in his mouth with the other. Once she strapped it, she pushed him to the ground, his arms still bound. “Get up. We need to move.”

“Goddamn it, I think I’m in love with you,” Z said. Kai smiled and blushed before regaining her composure.

“We gotta start heading back to the City, or at least away from here. We don’t want our buddies bringing a whole pack right to us, do we?” She grabbed Ram by the shirt and hauled him into the Leopard. “Can you hook up the other car? You saw how I did it earlier, right?”

“No prob.” Z hopped out and walked over to the other car, trying to hide her limp. Within a minute, the two cars were hooked up and everything was gathered together. They set off towards the City as the sun rose to its peak.

“So tell me, what exactly do we need to do with that giant fuckin’ lizard in my trunk?”

“First thing is we skin it and let the skin dry in the sun. Then we take all the meat and cook it up, with lotsa salt if we can. All the tendons get made into string. Thankfully, most’ve the blood’s probably still there, so we can collect that to use for dye. The bones all get worked into different shapes, most’ve which are pretty close to the originals already. Finally, the whole suit gets sewn together on the dried skin, with the helmet being made from the skull. Then we celebrate with a feast of the meats.”

“Sounds like a full day’s work, even with two of us. We’ll be able to do it all tomorrow, you think?”

“Definitely, as long as you got the right tools. And it looked like you do.”

“Good. For today, then, we travel. We’re about 5 days out from the City, and if we’re not moving at all tomorrow, any progress we can make is less time we’re out in this goddamn wasteland.”

“Sounds good to me. Mind if I kick back and nap?”

“Go for it. I got Ram for company. Ain’t that right, Ram?” She looked back at the prisoner. He was staring at her with the most intense fury Kai had ever seen. “Eh, he might not be too good company.” She turned back to the front. “In any case, go ahead and rest. It’ll be good for that leg.” Z was already lounging back, eyes closed.

Kai kept driving throughout most of the day, chatting with Jess about Z.

[infotainmentplus-blog]

If Apple can’t succeed in China, it shouldn’t bank on being relevant next decade Apple is struggling to move smartphones in China, according to the latest data. The company’s sales figures are down substantially compared with previous years. It may have lost up to a third of its market share in the country. Competitors like Huawei, Oppo, and Xiaomi are consolidating their positions as the market leaders in the country. Despite Apple’s secure position in Western markets, it would be a mistake to discount trouble in China as a blip or an optional venture it can afford to miss. Failure to secure a meaningful market share in China could diminish the company’s importance in the decade to come. China is now the world’s largest smartphone market. Between it and second place India, the next billion mobile customers, as Google regularly puts it, are already coming online and moving up to higher tier products. While brands like Apple and Samsung lead the industry today, those with a global presence will lead in the decade to come. Apple won’t be able to wield the influence it currently enjoys if it’s just a minor player in the global marketplace. Numbers don’t lie According to UBS/Gartner estimates for 2018, Apple is expected to ship approximately 47 million iPhones in China. This would be approximately steady from 2017’s 49 million figure, but a notable 34 percent decline from 2015’s 71 million high. The company accounted for an estimated 40-50 percent share of affluent Tier 1 and 2 consumers back in 2015. Now it’s estimated to have fallen to just a 20-30 percent share today. Failure to appeal to its only audience is a worrying sign. Market share data from UBS/Gartner and Morgan Stanley fleshes out this picture further. While Apple’s sales and market share have fallen lately, local rivals have increased their shares substantially. Local manufacturers accounted for just 11 percent of China’s mobile market back in 2013, but reached new heights of 56 percent by the end of 2017. Back in February 2018, Apple’s market share slipped behind Huawei, which currently leads China’s marketplace on 20.8 percent. In March Apple was overtaken by Oppo too, with their shares sitting at 18.0 and 18.3 percent respectively. The situation looks even bleaker for Samsung, which has seen its notable share of the Chinese smartphone market diminish to almost nothing since 2013. Samsung at least continues to foster a healthier global presence — particularly in India, the world’s second-largest market. It isn’t all terrible news for Apple. The company’s recent earnings report demonstrated a 21 percent growth in revenue relative to a year earlier, reaching $13 billion in China. App Store income is expected to have been a major factor here. Despite the positive financial spin, there’s no getting away from the fact that handset shipments are still trending down in the fastest growing markets. In the long run Apple needs devices in consumer’s hands if it wants to keep profiting from its expanded ecosystem. The rise of China’s local talent Speculators are suggesting the iPhone X’s $1,000-plus price is the source for Apple’s woes in markets where disposable income is still catching up with the company’s traditional markets. The data suggests there’s more to this hypothesis to explain Apple’s predicament than just that, though. There are 1.3 billion people in China, but only about 200 million to 300 million of them live in the so-called Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities with sufficient income to afford Apple’s products. Outside of these cities, Apple doesn’t have the retail or promotional presence of its local rivals. Even so, China’s middle class continues to grow and disposable income is on the rise, so at the very least we should expect Apple’s shipments to be holding steady or increasing, even if it’s share of the pie might take a hit. But this isn’t what has happened, sales volume has been falling for the past four years. Furthermore, the high priced iPhone X would only be a barrier for this generation (2017-2018) — the downward trend started well before then. China's smartphone market may have slowed, but Apple has suffered while local rivals prosper. Editor's Pick Chinese smartphone shipments have plunged, but Xiaomi is surging The Chinese smartphone market saw its first ever annual decline in 2017, as shipments dropped four percent, according to research firm Canalys. It looks like the trend is going to continue in 2018, as shipments sunk … China’s smartphone market is also quickly reaching a saturation point. Smartphone sales fell from 467.3 million in 2016 to 444.3 million in 2017, according to Statista. The firm argues customers are beginning to hold onto their smartphones for longer due to the smaller improvements being offered with each generation, much like in the West. There’s little evidence this extended cycle is manifesting with consumers refreshing their iPhones. Instead, sales appear to be going to its competitors. All of that is surely having an impact, but I think there’s another problem, too. Part of Apple’s problem is it isn’t designing products specifically for these markets like its local competitors. Building products for new markets The iPhone X is a Western flagship, focusing on Western tastes, which favor cutting edge processors, fancy features like wireless audio, and Apple’s growing media and app ecosystem. These aren’t the flavors spurring demand for smartphones and other electronics everywhere around the globe. Apple needs a different approach for many of the biggest growth markets. Apple has run into criticism for not innovating on its iPhone design, and the revamped iPhone X hasn’t exactly wowed consumers or the industry. Smaller brands have been innovating the hardest and coming up with new ideas consumers actually want. The focus on front-facing cameras and beautification software continues to be a popular theme in China — just look at the new Vivo V9. There’s also a growing interest in AI, something Apple has worked on but doesn’t market as fiercely as its competitors. Oppo markets to aspirational high-end consumers. Vivo courts younger, trendier types. Apple’s target market, those with plenty of disposable income, is a smaller segment in these regions. Price is an equally important factor. The most successful growing brands in both China focusing on bang for buck, rather than outright premium pricing. Consumers increasingly feel certain technologies are already “good enough.” They aren’t sold on faster processors and modems when a decent camera makes a bigger difference to their day-to-day experience. It’s a similar situation in India. The battle for prices has created a boom in e-commerce trading, while Apple traditionally relies on its premium in-store sales experience. Google has cottoned to this important difference, targeting its Android One and Android Go initiatives to meet regional demands and creating a growing portfolio of specially curated apps for the Indian market. Google has the Pixel for the U.S. but other initiatives for growing economies. Apple could use a similar tailored approach. If Apple wants to succeed in these markets, it needs to be more proactive. These countries won’t eventually just “mature” to match its expectations. Products tweaked and tailored directly for local requirements are far more effective and Apple should consider reassessing its portfolio. This isn’t to say that Apple should copy minimal margin models from the likes of Xiaomi. Its business model is clearly profitable, but Apple needs to find a way to make its handsets more appealing in these countries to secure future unit sales. So who is winning the race? This isn’t a doom and gloom forecast for Apple, more of a wake-up call. The brand continues to be a major selling force in Western smartphone markets and its latest earnings and global market share don’t suggest that the company is going anywhere fast. However, the balance of power in the mobile industry is shifting from established markets to growing ones in India, China, and much of the wider world. These newer markets are playing an increasingly important part in shaping technological developments. Brands that can garner mass global appeal will end up on top in the coming years. Editor's Pick How the US’ attempt to keep Chinese tech down could backfire This year, the long-running skepticism of Chinese technology companies in the United States has boiled over into what many are already calling a trade war for the world's semiconductor industry. As punishments and tariffs escalate, China … As a total share of the global smartphone market, Apple plateaued right when hundreds of millions of new consumers came into the market. Chinese brands capitalized instead. In fact, many U.S. technology companies now have to contend with new Chinese rivals. Samsung has seen an even worse dip globally. Huawei, Xiaomi, and BBK brands Oppo and Vivo have all quickly grown to catch up and are poised to keep growing in these new markets. Samsung and Apple are on top at the moment, but the trends are against them. Apple may lead the industry today, but brands with a truly global presence will lead in the decade to come. China's growing influence makes it impossible to ignore. Up next The biggest companies in China’s Silicon Valley In the world of smartphones, we're becoming more and more used to Chinese technology companies competing with popular global brands, but we also know that the pendulum doesn't necessarily swing both ways. The Chinese government's "Great … This isn’t just a contest for iOS versus Android anymore. Google is surely also eyeing the growing influence of companies less reliant on its apps, services, and even its OS. Xiaomi isn’t afraid to fork Android for its own uses. Many manufacturers are already running their own app stores in China where Google doesn’t operate. Huawei even apparently has its own secret mobile OS in development. In the longer term, this is a race for future ecosystems like smart homes and other connected products, virtual assistants, wireless audio, and the various standards and software ecosystems that will support next-generation products. China’s influence is growing across swathes of the technology industry, from service giants like Baidu to infrastructure providers like ZTE and Huawei. Its high flying companies are closing in on the consumer electronics markets traditionally dominated by U.S., Japanese, and South Korean companies. If Apple can’t improve its presence outside of major Western markets, it could soon find itself fighting for the scraps like many of the other legacy smartphone brands. , via Android Authority http://bit.ly/2rt9DuZ