Nightly Build, 31. October, 34 BS, Version 0.3
Act 1 Concentrated Firepower
Actors on Stage:
Badger - Reincarnation from Dickens 1, hangs out by the edge of the mangroves, fishing.
Davette - Mirror Seal, Badgers best friend.
Myma - Myma had to flee a genocide for the second time in her life. She is on a float, carrying enough basic ocean survival gear to keep her going for a long time.
PoV Davette: Swimming towards a large piece of strangely shaped driftwood. Curious. Hesitates if she should go get badger or jump out of the water to take a closer look. Can’t quite decide, keeps swimming back and forth.
PoV Myma: Has been on the ocean for weeks. She has all she needs in terms of water and food, but one thing is missing: a lighter for her pipe. Hasn’t seen land in ages when she spots some glittering critter underneath the waves. Observing it for a while, it seems to show her a direction. It was still wagely in the direction of Witness, just a little further east than her current direction. She adjusts the position of her sail slightly and indeed, the glittering critter is now moving steadily ahead of her.
PoV Badger: He sees a very decent sized life sailer arriving from afar. Those usually carry some high quality gear, last time he was on one, he extracted a 64 TB thumbdrive from it. As it comes closer, he spots a single old and wrinkly lady with grey hair on it. She steers the boat right next to his face and says to him: “Hey boy, you don’t happen to have a lighter, do you?”.
PoV Myma: Giggles to herself at that face. That young boy with his tophat is thinking with his face now, trying to figure out what to do. He might even have a lighter, apparently he has no clue what she wanted to say. So she pulls out her pipe and gestures to mimic a lighter. Now he gets it, finger pointing up in the air and a huge smile on his face. He jumps aboard her life sailer, run right past her and jumps into the waves.
PoV Badger: Holding on tight to what he believes to be a three kWh handheld battery… And calls for Davette, smiling as the battery disappears in the pocket at the back lining of his hat.
PoV Davette: Time to do some tricks for the visitor! As always when strangers appear, Davette and Badger enter their performance mode the moment they jump out of the waves together. First a flip, then a jump on the back fin and three steps hand in hand walking.
PoV Badger takes a bow and reaches for the pipe. The lady hands it over and begins to clap. He pulls it to his lips and turns it towards Davette as he whispers the codeword “Infinite Energy” to her.
PoV Davette knows the drill - she rolls up her tail in just the right shape so that the light focuses on the herbs… And puff, smoke appears as soon as they catch on fire.
PoV Myma takes the burning pipe from Badger and takes a deep inhale. She hadn’t smoked once since she left. Still shivering when her thoughts drift to that night. She knew it was coming since the day the bureaucrats did the census. She was prepared to leave. Nobody believed her. Everybody is dead now. Again. But here she is, alive, meeting a boy, ready to enter a new village, a new family. She musters the boy and his mirror seal, and nodding approvingly asks: “So, you live here, by the mangroves?”
PoV Badger looks at his catch - well, this is far better than a bunch of fish! They were very short of hands in the kitchen. “Come, I’ll show you my place. We can have dinner.”
Act 2: Kitchen Games
Actors on the scene:
Myma
Badger
Steamgunner
Cybernetichef
Funghenious
Prof. of Herbalistics
Stage Instruction:
The kitchen operates as a fully functional chemistry lab, with all heat and cold applications directly powered by concentrated solar. Pipes with hot oils at 300 °C and Steam at 125°C. Oil in fixed locations, Steam on a pipe that has a valve at the end and connects to various guns - mostly direct use for veggies, but can also connect to fractional distillery to extract aromas from the sage harvest for the desert.
Almost no electricity applied, only for home-made hardware. Cybernetichef is controlling the calibration of the valves of the distillery one last time and gives a go to Steamgunner, the distillery kicks into action.
Badger calls her straight past the two of them to the storage rooms.
Storage Room:
Prof. of Herbalistics and Fungenious are discussing the optimal baking time for the Oyster-Growing-on-a-Pumpkin, which will be the crowning decoration on the opening evening of the negotiations.
PoV Badger: Takes a bow, introducing Myma to the adults with the words: “I caught this mermaid by the outermost reach of the eastern protective forest today. Hope she can help in the kitchen or something, she was nice.” Then takes another bow to Myma and adds: “See you around”.
Badger off.
Act 3: Bodily Identity
Stage: Negotiation Room
Characters on Stage:
Myma (representing herself)
Prof. Herbalistics (representing the university of Byzantium, where she teaches)
UU (representing the Byzantine association of electronic engineers)
XX (representing the CERN)
YY (representing the Library of St. Benedict)
ZZ (Ásgeirsson-Institut)
Meeting on the most neutral ground they could find, namely Prof. Herbalistics’ home island, it being located in Witness geographically and at the same time being a home to a high ranking Byzantine official.
Byzantium has challenged the distribution of fempto condensers. Incredibly valuable for chip design, they can only be made with a particle accelerator. CERN’s governing council has sent a cyborg to enact a judge, as they live stream the council and follow their instructions. CERN is the only place in the world that can create them and currently gives them out to regional state machines based on an even per capita basis.
Negotiations back and forth, blocked,
Myma throws in “how do you know how many people live where?”
Nobody knows that she lives in Witness. Yet here she is.
Problem with the UN-Identity - Still relies on counting heads and distributes evenly to heads vs. Myma’s unidentity approach with infinite nyms and personalities per head.
Reply YY: Leaving proof of human mental effort as only and best metric to a fair fempto condensers distribution.
Agreement at the end: Keep 90% of the existing quota as baseline, but use a pseudonymous e-sports tournaments to distribute the rest, prices are in allowances to define the shipping destination of 10% of the total production. Finals are to be held in person at LAN events to verify the humanity of competitors.
All off.
Unidentify Yourselves, Please
A Witness Short Story by Prof. Karl-Heinz Häsliprinz
Nightly Build, 4th November, 34 BS, Version 0.48
Act 1 - Concentrated Firepower
Davette is swimming towards a large piece of strangely shaped driftwood. Curious. She hesitates, wondering if she should go get Badger or investigate the strange object all by herself. Not quite able quite decide, she keeps swimming back and forth.
Myma has been navigating the ocean for weeks. She got all she needs in terms of water and food, but one thing is missing: A lighter for her pipe. It’s always in the morning when she misses her smoke the most: She just woke up, drinking a cup of hot water, scanning the horizon for any signs of land. According to her GPS, she should be getting very close to Witness territories. That’s when she spots the reflection just underneath the waves. Not quite able to make out the shape, she observes the glittering sensation for a while - it keeps moving towards her and then about 45° off her current course to the right. She had sworn off all gods after what had happened – but this is a sign from mother nature herself. So she might as well follow - adjusting the position of her sail slightly and indeed, the glittering critter is now moving steadily ahead of her. Whatever it is, it is bringing her somewhere.
Badger has been on the beach extra today, but only caught a single crap so far. Davette is playing somewhere out in the ocean out of sight, and he is getting bored, starting to pick his nose. As his gaze wanders across the waves aimlessly, he spots a ship at the horizon. Squinting his eyes, he identifies it as a BlueberrySail Version 4 well before it reaches the shore. Smiling to himself as he realizes it is his lucky day, he stretches and checks his gear –usually boats of that category carry some serious high-quality gear. As it comes closer, he spots a single old and wrinkly lady with grey hair on it. Even better, this will be easy. She steers the boat towards his little spots on the beach and lands right in front of him. Now only half a meter infront of him, she says: “Hey there little boy, you don’t happen to have a lighter, do you?”
Myma can barely hold herself from giggling out loud at that face. That young boy with his top hat has his thoughts written in his face now, trying to figure out what to do. He might even have a lighter. To reinforce her question, she gets out her pipe and gestures a lighter. Ah, now he gets it, finger pointing up in the air and a huge smile on his face. He jumps aboard her life sailer, run right past her, and jumps into the waves.
Holding on tight to what Badger believes to be a three kWh handheld battery he rolls in the waves and calls out for Davette with his underwater whistle. He slides the battery into the secret pocket at the backlining of his hat with a well-trained swoosh and heads back to the beach.
Davette is excited like a puppy. She did good! And there is another human! This is sooo exciting, time to do some tricks! Badger is already doing his sideway crap walk on the beach, as he always does when they enter performance mode. She accelerates sideways first, than turns sharply right, just on top of a wave. Catching the surfs, she lets herself get carried all the way onto the beach. After a clownesque second of looking left and right, she makes eye contact with their visitor and jumps towards Badger. First a flip, then a jump on the back fin – and he catches her left fin with his hand, going right into their Silly Walk interpretation.
Badger is so proud of Davette – She is just the best seal he could ever imagine as his friend. After five steps of Silly Walk they take their bow to the lady, who gives them a big round of applause. Then she hold the pipe up to him, with a question mark on her lips.
The morning sun has broken the clouds, and as Badger whispers the codeword “Infinite Energy” to Davette, she immediately knows what to do. Rolling up her tail and stretching the spine, she forms a near perfect parabolic curve with her body, concentrating a good square meter of reflections in a single point, just in front of her friend.
Badger holds the pipe into the focal point, the herbs turned towards Davette. A few seconds later, the first bit of smoke appears. He carefully draws some air, and as the herbs light up hand it to the strange lady.
What a relieve. Myma hadn’t had a smoke ever since. Her skin is still crawling every time her thoughts drift to that night. She knew it was coming since the day the bureaucrats did the census. First they count the heads, then they cut them. So she was prepared to leave. Nobody believed her, and nobody was ready to run. They are all dead now, or enslaved. Everyone who lived around her, everyone she consider her family, all gone. Again. But here she is, still alive, after witnessing the second genocide in her life. Meeting a strange boy on a beach. She got to get ready to enter a new village, a new family. She takes another deep inhale, musters the boy and his mirror seal, and as she blows off the smoke nods with her friendliest of smiles at him asks: “So, you live here, by the mangroves?”
Badger looks at his catch - well, this is far better than a bunch of fish! They were very short of hands at the kitchen, and he even scored a massive battery – That could power a full node of Fagin’s DIY state machine! He reaches out, helps the old lady of her vessel and takes her hand: “Come, I’ll show you my place. We can have dinner. This way.”
Act 2 - Kitchen Games
Stage Instruction:
The kitchen operates as a fully functional chemistry lab, with all heat and cold applications directly powered by concentrated solar. Pipes with hot oils at 300 °C and Steam at 125°C. Oil in fixed locations, Steam on a pipe that has a valve at the end and connects to various guns - mostly direct use for veggies, but can also connect to fractional distillery to extract aromas from the sage harvest for the desert.
Almost no electricity applied, only for a single raspi that runs the state machine and a few motor-controlled valves. Cybernetichef is controlling the calibration of the distillery one last time and gives the Steamgunner a thumps up, the distillery kicks into action.
Cybernetichef: “Hey, would you mind signing up with the state machine? Makes it easier to plan the cooking…” They click on “create new account”, gets up and directs the lady to take their chair at the controls.
Myma sits down, going through the account creation routine. At the “connect existing accounts” option, she hesitates for a moment, pondering whether to connect any of her old ID’s to the kitchen state machine at all. Not that they need to know, but… She scrolls through her diary for a moment, amused by the memories of her life in logins. Definitely NOT that old Onlyfans account… She picks her Student ID from when she spent a few years at the Institute for Playful Methods in her mid-forties – that one comes with a lot of social connections and little other info. And indeed, as she connects that self of hers the state machine identifies a match with the Steamgunners social network! “Hey you know Flora? Haven’t seen her in ages!” Myma hesitates a second, thinking of a security question on their shared contact “Is she still doing her pattern art?”
The Steamgunner recalls: “We did a show together last Fall - The Superconducters life at Assembly Central Station - what a show that was! Flora really brought her platonic fractals to the next level with that new laser setup of hers.” He had operated the nasal steamgun in a five meter toad installation, while Flora controlled the laser animation projected from the toads eyes.
And with that, they both slap a vote of confidence on their shared connection.
“Hey, Myma, come, the Professor wants to see you!” Badger shouts up from the lower floor.
Storage Room:
The Prof. of Herballistics and Fungenious are discussion the optimal baking time for the Oyster-Growing-on-a-Pumpkin, which will be the crowning decoration on the opening evening of arbitration negotiations tomorrow.
PoV Badger: Takes a bow, introducing Myma to the adults with the words: “I caught this mermaid by the outer most reach of the eastern protective forest today. Hope she can help in the kitchen or something, she was nice.” Then takes another bow to Myma and adds: “See you around”.
“Would you mind lending our kitchen machine a hand?”
“Sure.” After a quick glance at the state machines suggestion, asking her to clean the frying pans, she connects the IDs from the three different restaurants that she used to work for in her life. A quick reboot later, the state machine changes its mind based on those new inputs and re-assigns her to sweet potato harvest instead of dishes.
Act 3 - Disembodied Identity
Myma PoV – she is serving dinner.
PoV Judge makes a summary: Byzantium has challenged the distribution of fempto condensors. Incredibly valuable for chip design, they can only be made with a particle accelerator. Negotiations back and forth, blocked. Default option is to give each city N/World Population of the total production, with N being the number of people living there. Currently, they are both getting more than that due to a lot of people outside the two cities supporting their institutions and benefiting from them. Especially the universities.
Opening Speech by Judge. “I hereby open the court of arbitration in the matter of fempto condenser distribution dispute number 347 between the City of Witness, dully represented by YY, director of the Library of St. Benedict and ZZ, Lead Ambassador of the Ásgeirsson-Institut and the City of Byzantium, dully represented by Prof. Herballistics, lead negotiator for the University of Byzantium and UU, Ambassadress of the Byzanteene State Machine.
Recalling the Objective of the Decree of Afrin, issued by the Peoples Cyber Assembly in the year xxx;
Recalling the global goal of a fair and equitable distribution of rare computational capacities;
Noting that CERN has the right to arbitrarily decide on the shipping directions of any fempto condensors produced;
I will now hear your arguments.”
Prof of Herballistics had suggested to meet here - the most neutral ground they could think of, her home. Being located in Witness geographically, but home to a high ranking Byzanteene official, they should find agreement here. But still, UU is going through all the motions, repeating everything that has been said a million times. Blablabla… the current distribution is outdated… blablabla Priorities have shifted blablabla… Byzantium’s telescope is for all mankind blablabla… Witness is just navel gazing and optimizing their own state machine for themselves… blablabla more resources to Byzantium.
Only to be responded to by the exact same reply they had heard a hundred times. Blablabla an even per capita token allocation blablabla fairest allocation algorithm, blablabla.
She is so bored and interrupts: “You know what? We are stuck. Badly. I call a joker card.”
The judge nods approvingly. Nothing beyond the case docs mentioned so far. “Call granted. Who is the joker?”
She nods at Myma.
Myna puts down the traywith swwet potato mango pudding she was carrying and thinks for a second. “How do you know how many people live in the two cities?”
“We use the headcount of official UN-identities registered by the state machine.”
Myma: “Nobody knows that I live in Witness. Yet here I am. A NaN in your database, an unidentified body filled with manifolded identities. And I will never let any of you count my head for your shenanigans.”
Reply YY: Leaving proof of human mental effort as only and best metric to a fair fempto condensors distribution. How do we proof human mental effort?
Judge to agree.
Agreement: Keep 50% of the existing quota as baseline, but use a pseudonymous e-sports tournaments to distribute the rest, prices are in allowances to define the shipping destination of 50% of the total.
Toast by Myma.
All off.