Goonhub
12-18-2021, 12:54 PM
That is an incredibly detailed and helpful response holy fuck. As a quick aside, I had little to no intentions to make terminals (in the context of this system) a method of viewing what tapes are installed in a tape drive, and what AI it's currently servicing (by net ID, of course)
I've been considering ways to alleviate the issue of how helpless an AI might be if someone were to remove their tapes, and one solution is as follows:
Allow the AI to make copies of some tapes, with a limited capacity for this. Some would naturally be blacklisted, of course, and when I say 'copy', I more so mean rendering the original tape inert and converting some rare blank tapes to contain the upgrades from the original tape. This could be a noisy and/or flashy procedure which takes some time and can be interrupted, with the column loudly whirring and winding and rewinding the tape, before ejecting the ruined tape.
Another solution, or in addition to the above, would be to allow SOME degree of silicons installing upgrades, but again, this should be similarly limited. The idea of a rogue AI acquiring a new ability is a fun idea, provided methods to acquire more potent/dangerous tapes are harder for a silicon to accomplish and may provide a random tape (e.g QM merchants or science loot crates). I'd personally LOVE for a rogue AI to quietly acquire and install a lipreading or even voice synthesizing upgrade tape to use as a secret weapon, or possibly that self-destruct tape as a contingency plan to deter would-be assassins (and remember, you wouldn't be able to use a tape if you've ripped up your core, unless you've set it back down over a data terminal).
One thing I have yet to figure out, however, is where these should actually go. It needs to be a balance of being secure, being in a sensible place, and not being so close to the AI/Upload that you might as well just murder/relaw it. Of course, the AI Core would absolutely have some tapes, but at least to me these ones should have plenty of free space to really install upgrades. The computer core and Armory could be good weak spots, as could the bridge and the RD's office, and MAYBE tech storage. The less secure, the less important the upgrades should be.
In regards to the base functionality comment... yeah that's something I hadn't considered. Perhaps then some upgrades should instead be stored in the Computer Core, and someone has to install em for the AI? I do REALLY dislike the idea of people just bullying the AI by ripping out tapes, or a craptain going and unloading all the tapes because they disliked the AI's behavior, so, to tie back into my earlier ideas, perhaps the AI could choose to store some upgrades on an internal disk drive or something? Additionally, the tapes responsible for functions that aren't mostly used by rogue AIs could also be stored in hardened drive columns that really are not intended to be opened. These would be in the AI core itself, and would ALWAYS alert a connected AI when they're being tampered with.
In fact (yes I know this entire reply is my train of thoughts and isn't cohesive), that might actually be a fun idea. The drive columns in the AI Core would actually be silicon-compatible, except they start closed and can't actually be opened without hands, an ID, and a lot of brute force, except for maybe one column with room for maybe about 2 tapes. Again, I like the idea of the AI being able to install some upgrades into itself, but it'd have to choose wisely, since it probably shouldn't be able to *eject* tapes on its own.
I've been considering ways to alleviate the issue of how helpless an AI might be if someone were to remove their tapes, and one solution is as follows:
Allow the AI to make copies of some tapes, with a limited capacity for this. Some would naturally be blacklisted, of course, and when I say 'copy', I more so mean rendering the original tape inert and converting some rare blank tapes to contain the upgrades from the original tape. This could be a noisy and/or flashy procedure which takes some time and can be interrupted, with the column loudly whirring and winding and rewinding the tape, before ejecting the ruined tape.
Another solution, or in addition to the above, would be to allow SOME degree of silicons installing upgrades, but again, this should be similarly limited. The idea of a rogue AI acquiring a new ability is a fun idea, provided methods to acquire more potent/dangerous tapes are harder for a silicon to accomplish and may provide a random tape (e.g QM merchants or science loot crates). I'd personally LOVE for a rogue AI to quietly acquire and install a lipreading or even voice synthesizing upgrade tape to use as a secret weapon, or possibly that self-destruct tape as a contingency plan to deter would-be assassins (and remember, you wouldn't be able to use a tape if you've ripped up your core, unless you've set it back down over a data terminal).
One thing I have yet to figure out, however, is where these should actually go. It needs to be a balance of being secure, being in a sensible place, and not being so close to the AI/Upload that you might as well just murder/relaw it. Of course, the AI Core would absolutely have some tapes, but at least to me these ones should have plenty of free space to really install upgrades. The computer core and Armory could be good weak spots, as could the bridge and the RD's office, and MAYBE tech storage. The less secure, the less important the upgrades should be.
In regards to the base functionality comment... yeah that's something I hadn't considered. Perhaps then some upgrades should instead be stored in the Computer Core, and someone has to install em for the AI? I do REALLY dislike the idea of people just bullying the AI by ripping out tapes, or a craptain going and unloading all the tapes because they disliked the AI's behavior, so, to tie back into my earlier ideas, perhaps the AI could choose to store some upgrades on an internal disk drive or something? Additionally, the tapes responsible for functions that aren't mostly used by rogue AIs could also be stored in hardened drive columns that really are not intended to be opened. These would be in the AI core itself, and would ALWAYS alert a connected AI when they're being tampered with.
In fact (yes I know this entire reply is my train of thoughts and isn't cohesive), that might actually be a fun idea. The drive columns in the AI Core would actually be silicon-compatible, except they start closed and can't actually be opened without hands, an ID, and a lot of brute force, except for maybe one column with room for maybe about 2 tapes. Again, I like the idea of the AI being able to install some upgrades into itself, but it'd have to choose wisely, since it probably shouldn't be able to *eject* tapes on its own.