#it's a fucking human computer

[scarcelyodd]

"On the ground below, colors in the phalanx began to shift and move. Complicated and detailed circuit patterns appeared and gradually filled the entire formation. Ten minutes later the army had made a thirty-six kilometer square computer motherboard.

Von Neumann pointed to the gigantic human circuit below the pyramid and began to explain, 'Your Imperial Majesty, we have named this computer Qin I. Look, there in the center is the CPU, the core computing component, formed from your five best divisions. By referencing this diagram, you can locate the adders, registers, and stack memory. The part around it that looks highly regular is the memory. When we built that part, we found that we didn't have enough soldiers. But luckily, the work done by the elements in this component is the simplest, so we trained each soldier to hold more colored flags. Each man can now complete the work that initially required twenty men. This allowed us to increase the memory capacity to meet the minimum requirements for running the Qin 1.0 operating system. Observe also the open passage that runs through the entire formation, and the light cavalry waiting for orders in that passage. That's the system bus, responsible for transmitting information between the components of the whole system.

'The bus architecture is a great invention. New plug-in components, which can be made from up to ten divisions, can quickly be added to the main operation bus. This allows Qin I's hardware to be easily expanded and upgraded. Look further still - you might have to use the telescope for this - and there's the external storage, which we call the 'hard drive' at Copernicus's suggestion. It's formed by three million soldiers with more education than most. When you buried all those scholars alive after you unified China, it's a good thing you saved these ones! Each of them holds a pen and a notepad, and they're responsible for recording the results of the calculations. Of course, the bulk of their work is to act as virtual memory and store intermediate calculation results. They're the bottleneck for the speed of computation. And, finally, the part that's closest to us is the display. It's capable of showing us in real time the most important parameters of the computation.'"

- from Cixin Liu's The Three-Body Problem, translated by Ken Liu

[spirk-trek]

"I do not understand the question."

[cosmicmolotov]

I finally did it ~ AM and Ted reverse au

I’m so proud of AM’s suit

I just love this shot like wtf I drew a slightly angled pov???

Bonus sketches

[kiaxet]

Sooooo y’all see the latest @somerandomdudelmao comic update? Because once again it is living in my head, which means once again my brain has generated fic. This one’s ~1200 words and slightly less tragic, depending on whether or not you take dramatic irony into account.

~~~~~~~

It starts fairly innocuously.

One of the surviving technicians monitors a computer as it finally, finally boots up successfully, whooping when the Genius Tech loading screen pops up. He grins and pats the power cable. "Thanks, Raph!"

It catches on.

A water purifier, disconnected to save a struggling power supply, gets plugged back in. It chugs back to life, and the kids responsible for its upkeep cheer and high five. One of them waves at the ceiling, where a power conduit runs overhead. "Thanks, Mister Raph!"

And it spreads like wildfire.

Every time something works the way it's supposed to - every time a much-needed device pops back to life, or the emergency doors close correctly, or a dying lightbulb flickers on one more time - they thank Raph. In gleeful shouts and careful whispers, they show gratitude for the person who gave up his life - and his second chance at life, at that - to keep them safe. It makes the emergency base, ramshackle and barely held together as it is, feel a little more like a home. A little more alive.

It doesn't take long for a few unspoken rules to develop.

They never say it in front of the metal shell. It's one thing to say it to the walls, the cables, the electricity; it's something else to say it to a figure with a face, seated against the wall like a sentinel that will awaken and protect them when danger arises.

(Nevermind that they've been in danger, constant and unending, for decades, and that this sentinel is already protecting them in smaller, everyday ways.)

They learn very quickly never to say it in front of Raph's surviving family, either. Master Leonardo gets angry when he hears it. It's an anger born of grief and loss, painful but not dangerous to allies, but given how terrifying Master Leonardo can be on the battlefield or a bad day, nobody really wants that anger directed at them. Master Michaelangelo just stops when he hears it, lips curling up in an expression too devoid of life to truly be called a smile. It's almost worse to witness than Master Leonardo's anger. No, they learn to watch themselves in front of the family, carefully taking their gratitude towards a dead man elsewhere.

Until the day someone forgets and says it in front of Casey Junior.

The kid looks up at Roger with wide, almost hopeful eyes. "Why did you- is he here? Can you feel him?"

Roger stares back at him with equally wide eyes. He'd just been grateful the computer had booted correctly for his monitor shift, and he hadn't been looking, and now he has to try to explain this to a kid who's never known a life outside the apocalypse. Oh boy. "No, uh- I mean- I don't have magic like your dads do, Casey, I couldn't-" He sighs. "It's just...a thing people do, when things work. Before the Krang, we had all sorts of machines that made life easier, and...we'd talk to 'em. Thank 'em when they worked, yell or beg when they didn't...I remember threatening a fax machine once, not that that made any difference. I think that just...kinda carried over here." Wait. "Not that your uncle was a machine or anything-"

"His body was a machine," Casey says simply, with a pragmatism that Roger hadn't been expecting. Apocalypse-raised kid. Right. "That wasn't what made him Uncle Raph. He was- it's-" Casey falters, expression starting to crumble. Pragmatism be damned, the kid is still grieving-

Rem, just coming off her shift, steps in smoothly. It's not the first time she's saved Roger's ass, both on and off the battlefield, and it won't be the last. "We know," she says gently, putting an arm around Casey's shoulders. "What Roger means is that we're grateful he's keeping us going, and that people like to bond with machines even when they're too simple to bond back. We all used to name our cars - can you believe it?"

"I named mine Red Rider," Roger says wistfully. He still misses that car.

"And I used to sneak out of the Hidden City with my cloaking brooch and go joyriding outside of human cities," Rem says, a grin splitting her feline muzzle. "I named every car I stole Phantom, like I thought I was cool."

Casey smiles - small and watery, but there nonetheless - and Roger breathes a sigh of relief. "What else did you name?"

"I mean, it was mostly cars, but some people named their computers."

"I had a friend who named her phone and just kept adding numbers when she had to replace it. It was Duchess O'Brien the eighth last I'd heard."

"I know some Yokai named their weapons, but I never really kept track of those. It was more of a Battle Nexus fandom thing."

Another Yokai leans in - a four eyed lizard whose name Roger could never remember no matter how hard he tried - and Roger shuts up. She's in charge of security now, and honestly she intimidates him. She looks around - at him, at Rem, at Casey - and then intones seriously, "I once named a kitchen appliance Toasty McToastFace."

There's a beat of silence. Casey has a lopsided grin growing on his face, like he doesn't get the joke but he knows it is one, and that's enough to lift his mood.

And then Rem doubles over, cracking up, and Bob smiles carefully. "Really loved that toaster, huh?"

"It was my closest friend," the lizard Yokai replies, deadpan as hell, before leaving the conversation.

Casey turns that confused grin on Roger. "Was she serious?"

"Kid, I have no idea. Some people are just really into this kinda thing."

Rem finally straightens up, wiping a tear from her eye with a paw. "Ohhhh boy. Oh, I needed that." She turns her smile back on Casey. "Point being, naming something makes it a little more real, and makes you a little more likely to take care of it. The system here...already has a name. We're just saying thank you, you know?"

The grin on Casey's face settles down into consideration. "Yeah, I think I do. I- Thanks. I'm gonna-" He waves at the door to finish his sentence.

"Go for it, kid." Roger waves him off as he departs, then sighs once he's gone. "God, that kid is just hemmhorraging family, isn't he."

"We all are, Roger, it's the fucking apocalypse." Rem flicks an ear.

"Yeah, but still. It's rough." There's a second or two of silence. "Also, if he says it in front of Master Leonardo, I'm denying all knowledge of this conversation."

"Spirits, same."

Roger learns a few days later - from Rem, of course - that Casey has named his chainsaw hockey stick Killer, because it's what his mom used to call him. Well damn, if kids like him are gonna be the future, then maybe they have some hope after all. He raps on a wall lightly, just below where the power conduit is mounted. "I know you didn't have a lot of time with the kid, but you did a good job." He can't help but smile. "Thanks, Raph."

[thirium-drinker]

The quick time events in dbh are so funny to me bc here you have this super advanced robot that can calculate your exact moves and dodge bullets but he fucked up and fell off a building bc you pressed the wrong button

[mushtoons]

Hatsune Miku does not engage with the whole Middle Eastern conflict you’re forcing people to take a side on. She’s just a virtual idol that just likes to sing songs people have made for her. The East’s true-to-form, non-political traditions are much more convenient than your Western wokeness; sit down and watch a Ghibli film or a Vocaloid video and ignore that silly Arab agenda.

shut the fuck up with ur bullshit and eat shit byeeeee 💕✨💕

miku says fuck u she hates u in particular and go support people in gaza 🤗 💕✨

here are some links to posts where you can donate to those in need!!

[i3utterflyeffect]

cursor selkie sc (due to some unlikely plot contrivance) in god with a bag of groceries au would be so funny...bystanders watching god pass by with a bag of groceries, followed by tiny god with a packet of cookies. adorable.

ANON... YOUR MIND..........

[aeroblossom]

so i'm just supposed to be normal about the fact that out of all the dolls, midori is the only one who doesn't dress up as anything? a trait shared only by meister? like it just doesn't mean anything that he won't follow what is supposedly a dress code for a floormaster? unless he isn't actually one? he just did that for fun and his actual job is something else entirely? reflected in him being dressed similar to meister? that out of all the dolls, he's the one most enthusiastic about having us all find out the truth?

[front-facing-pokemon]

[gay4h0pepunk]

there’s probably posts on here and twitter that can describe this better but corporations doing shit like this because they rather not give better pay, and terms and conditions to their artists, animators, writers, and crew overall is frankly embarrassing and disgusting

[irradiatedsnakes]

i miss ai image generators that suck. i want old artbreeder back so i can make flesh computers again. i want to tell the computer to make something that is 50% website and 50% swimming cap to get the Meat World back

[nopenototdaysatan]

Some days you just gotta draw grumpy bunny(/blupee) cuddles as stress relief.

[flannelepicurean]

EXCUSE ME.

WHAT

THE EVER-LOVING

COCK-FUCKING

TIT-SHITTING

FUCK-SHIT

is WAL-BOG, U.S.A doing putting out

THIS FUCKING SHIT RIGHT HERE

when I have

NO GODDAMN MONEY?!?!?!

Seriously, what the fuuuuuckkk?!?!?!

Vegeta front and center??? SAIYAN SQUAD ON THE GODDAMN CENTER STAGE???

They put Raditz on the front of a fuckin haaaaattt, babes!!! ✨💖 😭😭😭💖✨

And...and Nappa...Uncle Nappa's bald-ass head got second-tier top billing before SON GOKU! Wha...???

Piccolo on the side there doin the lord's work with my boi Gohan, and YES, our actual lord & savior Goku is there too, but MY GOOD AND LOVELY LIFE FORMS AND INDESCRIBABLE DENIZENS OF THE VOID, I CANNOT...CANNOT EXPLAIN TO YOU THE SHEER LEVELS OF EMOTION I'M FEELING RIGHT NOW.

[quasi-normalcy]

I know that people are able to care about multiple things at once, yadda yadda, but I just suddenly found myself struck by the absolute cosmic idiocy of debating the morality of fiction while the only real world is drowning in evil.

[abisalli]

The problem with A.I. art isn’t that it’s “not art” it’s that it’s art theft

If those A.I. art programs were using royalty free/ public domain images or even creative commons or stock photos , then this wouldn’t even be a discussion.

[sminny-wew]

I've always been Team NetIris but ever since my friends made me aware of Saito x Meiru it feels like my third eye's been opened (feat. @dunedragon's Saito design)

Also golly gee I wonder why the text is those colors.....Hmmmm 💚🤍🩶🖤

🔫 GO LISTEN TO THE HIT SONG "A HUMAN'S TOUCH" BY TWRP AND MCKENNA RAE ON YOUTUBE OR SPOTIFY I DON'T CARE JUST DO IT 🔫