02-08-2009, 04:05 PM
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Location: at the end of days.
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The simulacrum
explanation : the simulacrum is a swarm of extremely small, nanoscopic organic robots called bionanorobots (or for short nanobots, or nanites). the swarm has millions to billions of these nanites, and each individual nanobot is so small that it cannot be seen with the naked eye.
the nanoswarm is composed of several different kinds of nanobots, each one with a different function. there are nanites that store data, nanites that absorb solar energy, nanites that repair other nanites, nanites that build new nanites, nanites that serve no purpose other than adding substance to the entire structure, and several other kinds of nanites. each individual nanite performs one simple task, and they all work as one to form a well-oiled machine. together, the nanobots form a single body, a smoothly running network, called a nanoswarm.
the nanoswarm is able to sustain, repair, and replicate itself. the nanorobots are made from organic material, and can replicate themselves in order to maintain or increase the size of the swarm. the nanoswarm uses other organic material in order to replicate, and it does this with a special set of nanites that decompose and absorb organic material (often plants, but also animal flesh as well, depending on what materials the swarm requires) and another special set of nanites, the assemblers, which build other nanites with the collected material.
the swarm also requires energy, which it acquires from nanobots that collect solar power. if necessary, the nanoswarm can find or build ways to use other sources of energy. some of the nanobots are designed with certain propeller-like devices that enable each individual nanite to fly through the air, riding on currents and using the propellers to control velocity and maintain lift. the majority of the nanites do not have such devices, and are held in place either by being connected directly to another nanite, or by the nanoswarm's magnetic field, which it uses to maintain a consistent form. like everything else, the magnetic field is maintained by certain nanites, specialized to that specific task.
with enough nanobots in the swarm, the simulacrum can change its appearance. as well as changing its entire appearance, the simulacrum can also imitate the actions and abilities of other individuals. in fact, imitation is what the simulacrum does best, being one of the things it is designed to do. its appearance, abilities, and even strengths are all copied from other creatures that it encounters. only a certain number of copied traits can be active at once, and only a certain number can be stored in the simulacrum's finite (yet expandable) memory. these are designated by "slots," which are listed beneath each of the simulacrum's adjustable traits. the number of slots is the limit to how many traits can be stored in the simulacrum's memory. slots with a + sign next to them are positive slots and can be active all at once, while slots with a - sign next to them are negative slots and are inactive; they must be moved to a positive slot before they can be used, and are currently being stored for later use.
if the simulacrum learns more traits than it can store, it must determine which traits are more beneficial than others, and keep only those, permanently discarding the others. maleficial or otherwise undesirable traits are often discarded even when plenty of memory remains to keep them, due to their detrimental or ineffective nature. in this way, natural selection plays an important part in the growth and development of the simulacrum.
name - the simulacrum does not have a name.
age - indeterminable. the simulacrum is built of materials that have likely existed for hundreds or thousands of years, yet at the same time, its individual constituent nanobots are continually refreshed as they wear out and are rebuilt. the best way to consider its age is the amount of time that it has been active, in which case it is just beginning its life.
race - artificially intelligent bionanorobot swarm.
[+] Homo sapiens sapiens
[-] Vaccinium parvifolium
[-] (none)
gender - the simulacrum is a robot, and is therefore asexual, having no sex.
hair - none
[+] short brown human hair (from Dimitri Valentine)
[-] (none)
[-] (none)
eyes - none (however, it uses light sensitive nanites to see).
[+] blue human eyes (from Dimitri Valentine)
[-] (none)
[-] (none)
weight - varies (neutral form net weight approximately 1 kilogram).
[+] (none)
[-] (none)
[-] (none)
height - varies (neutral form diameter approximately 2 - 3 feet).
[+] 187.96 centimeters (human)
[-] (none)
[-] (none)
weapons - none.
[+] (none)
[+] (none)
[-] (none)
[-] (none)
[-] (none)
strengths - the simulacrum is extremely adaptable. everything about it adapts and evolves to its purpose; its appearance, strengths, weapons, abilities, and so on. it does not have any sort of fear (although it does possess a great sense of self-preservation) and it does not have any emotions to hinder it. it is very analytical, quite observant, and quick to learn. it can also learn new strengths, depending on the forms that it copies.
[-] Edible epigynous berries
[+] (none)
[+] (none)
[+] (none)
[-] (none)
weaknesses - the simulacrum is not very intelligent. in fact, its knowledge of the world is just short of nil. it knows virtually nothing except its own basic programming, and has yet to learn much about earth or its inhabitants. it has no idea what sort of things are harmful to it, not until it attempts something and becomes injured because of it. it knows nothing about cultural customs, and may inadvertently provoke something to attack it. it also knows no language or other forms of communication.
it does not fully understand anything until it sees it being used, and would not understand the function of any weapon it hasn't seen before (or even know it was a weapon) causing it to not react appropriately. it also would not understand the way any sort of armor works, or where someone's weak spots were, or how to kill anything it hadn't killed (or seen killed) before (even basic knowledge such as the fact that anything can be killed by aiming for its head is currently unknown to the simulacrum, and can only be learned either through experience or observation).
weaknesses are not stored in slots, since they are undesirable and the simulacrum would prefer to not have them, but nonetheless, certain forms will have certain weaknesses. they will be summed up in a short written paragraph when relevant. right now, the simulacrum is small and weak, has no armor, no weapons, and no knowledge.
skills/techniques - the simulacrum's main skill is its ability to copy the appearance and abilities of other individuals (which can be plants, animals, machines, or otherwise). the manner in which it does this is through various steps. the first step is observation; it collects as much information on the appearance, or skill, it is trying to copy. appearance involves more than just knowing what something looks like; the simulacrum tries its best to copy the texture, weight, and other properties of whatever substance it emulates. it therefore must make several observations, visual and otherwise, in order to achieve results that are as accurate as possible.
usually it will copy the appearance before it knows everything about it, and adjust as it learns more. the same is true with abilities; it must know what the ability looks like, and the cause and effect of its usage. it only copies appearance and abilities in such a way that their likeness and effectiveness are as accurate as possible; the inner workings, properties, and composition of its copied traits are not the same. for instance, if the simulacrum were to copy the form of a human, it would not copy any of the human's inner workings (skeleton, organs, respiratory system, et cetera) although its outer appearance and overall properties make it effectively close enough to a human that nobody would be able to tell the difference without examination of its interior. the same is true of abilities; it could, for instance, copy the ability of a firearm, but would not copy the inner structures of the weapon; only its appearance and effect (shooting a bullet).
the simulacrum can only copy likenesses to a certain degree of accuracy, depending on its knowledge and abilities. it will also attempt to build its appearance from materials and substances as close to the properties of the object it is simulating, but usually these materials will only appear to be the same, depending on the availability of certain elements. in order to copy appearance, it must gather materials, usually done by absorbing organic materials (plants, animals, or otherwise). it does so by taking the organic lifeform apart, cell by cell, and breaking it down into its primary substances.
some abilities might not be copyable if the simulacrum cannot find a way to simulate them (especially supernatural abilities, for instance telekinesis, which would be difficult if not impossible to simulate). it will copy likenesses only to increase its ability of self-preservation, which is the basis by which it adapts. it keeps abilities which aid it, and discards those which do not, which it usually must determine either through gathered knowledge or, initially, trial-and-error. until it knows the best way to do something to preserve itself, it will attempt to replicate the way other individuals do things (for example, if it copied a human, it would attempt to replicate human behavior and ability to the best of its knowledge until it discovers a better way to be human. so while it may start out as a regular human, it would eventually, and most likely quickly, evolve according to its sense of self-preservation and gathered knowledge and abilities).
the same sort of evolution is true of its personality. it will act in whatever way it learns is best, according to the environment and culture it lives in. for instance, as a human in a human culture, it will behave in what it discovers as the safest way possible, based on examining the personalities (and the way other people react to these personalities) to discover which behaviors have the highest degree of safety, then it will emulate these personalities. often it must learn which personalities are most suitable via trial-and-error, attempting certain personality traits it learns until one of them proves most useful, and keeping those that are, while discarding those which are detrimental or less useful. sometimes it must change its personality to fit a new form or environment; for instance, a human personality might not be as effective in the form of a grizzly bear.
[+] electricity discharge (from Dimitri Valentine)
[+] methane extraction (from Dimitri Valentine)
[-] photosynthesis
[+] (none)
[-] (none)
appearance - in its neutral form, the simulacrum looks much like a cloud of black dust. some of the nanobots in the swarm are able to luminesce, and use this ability to give the swarm more of an obvious appearance. usually, when the simulacrum is active, it glows blue, and looks like a disembodied glowing blue aura. when it is not active, it does not glow at all; when it is experiencing an injury or error, the nanoswarm glows green (usually the glow begins in the area of the effected nanites, and spreads throughout the system from there); if it is absorbed in its inner processes (scanning, debugging, adapting, etc.) it glows purple. if any of these behavioral auras prove to be detrimental to the nanoswarm (for instance, if hostile individuals discover that the simulacrum is least aware and less effective when glowing purple) it will adapt to solve the problem (changing the behavior so that is is different; or nonexistent, depending on the situation. based on the situation proposed above, the most effective evolution would be to not glow at all, hiding the swarm while it's busy). The nanites can also change their overall color to adapt to a particular appearance (it could also theoretically use this to simulate the ability of invisibility, but not until it observes, learns, and copies another individual's invisibility).
appearance cannot be displayed through slots, and instead will be described through a short written paragraph. it does not usually store certain appearance traits that it is no longer using unless they seem like they might be useful later, or if it plans on using them again, and most of its appearance is effected mostly by its form, weapons, and armor; shown in slots above. its appearance is usually an amalgamation of the appearances of the individuals it has encountered, keeping certain traits that are more effective than others (which is often a cultural thing, since appearance traits such as the color of your shirt, or the kind of pants you wear, usually has no real effective uses).
personality - the simulacrum forms its own personality based on its experiences and knowledge. currently, its personality is very limited as it hasn't had many experiences yet. the simulacrum is designed for one main purpose: learn as much about earth as it can. therefore, it spends most of its time examining everything it comes in contact with, learning about it and filing everything away within its databanks. it has a few basic protocols as well, such as its own self-preservation; avoiding injury to the swarm whenever possible. at best, its personality as of yet can be summed up in the words "curious" and "cautious." it is also quite systematic, logical, and analytical, as machines tend to be; because these traits are the most basic and effective means of observation, its secondary objective (second only to self-preservation, which these traits are also useful for).
biography - from beyond the farthest reaches of the known universe, a solar system of several planets exists that possesses no natural living organisms. instead, the only inhabitants are an ever-growing network of nanorobots, known as the Motherswarm. the Motherswarm began as a small nanoswarm, just like any other, but due to strictly following its primary and secondary protocols, "LEARN" and "EXPAND," it grew and soon became uncontrollable, subverting its creators. after many years, the swarm continued to grow, converting all organic matter into itself, until nothing existed but itself and the inorganic planet. stranded and unable to grow any further, the Motherswarm began to spawn drone swarms, which it sent out into the solar system to find and examine other planets, in order to search for more organic matter to assimilate. without organic matter, the Motherswarm would slowly die as its individual nanites wore out, as any machine is prone to do eventually. soon the entire solar system was converted into grey goo.
not content with that, the Motherswarm continued its expansion, further into the galaxy. however, it hadn't anticipated the difficulty in simply finding planets at random, and very few of the planets it did encounter contained anything organic. The Motherswarm had patience, however; which is an easy thing for an immortal machine to do. as it began to find new planets to consume, it ran across a bit of a problem. some of the planets were able to resist the swarms. this was because the swarms were unprepared and did not know anything about the planets they discovered. to mend this problem, the Motherswarm began to create and send other swarms, specifically, research swarms. unlike the assimilation swarms, the research swarms do not make it their goal to convert all organic matter into itself and expand. instead, they usually remain somewhat small and nonthreatening in size, and collect as much information about the planets they find as possible. they are programmed to collect and store all the information they can, in preparation for the assimilation swarms that will eventually find the same planet and consume the ecosystem. they then relay their information to the assimilation swarms, and they, armed with the power of knowledge, hopefully absorb the planet. the research swarms fulfill the Motherswarm's primary objective, while the assimilation swarms fulfill the secondary objective.
the simulacrum, one of thousands of swarms exactly like it, and one of millions of swarms somewhat different from it, happened to reach the earth after many years of ceaseless and fruitless space travel. it did not activate until it entered the atmosphere, and from that point on, it has been collecting information for the earth's impending apocalypse (which may be anywhere from one to one thousand years away, depending on how lucky the other swarms are. hitting a single planet out of billions is a rare occurrence).
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[the following is translated to english, determined as the primary language of most individuals likely to read this document]
\encountering significant gravitational change
-{source determined as planetary solar system
-{altering travel direction to nearest planetary object
-{beginning primary initiation sequence
_[load'''
_[checking protocols-
_[primary protocol listed as "SURVIVE"
_[secondary protocol listed as "LEARN"
_[startup-
_[primary structures'''
_[secondary structures'''
_[tertiary structures'''
_[structure startup complete
_[startup-
_[network systems'''
_[databank systems'''
_[sensory systems'''
_[system startup complete
\encountering significant pressurization change
-{source determined as planetary atmosphere
-{altering density for safe entry
-{continuing primary initiation sequence
_[startup-
_[electromagnetic devices'''
_[propulsion devices'''
_[gyroscopic devices'''
_[accelerometer devices'''
_[equilibrioception devices'''
_[device startup complete
_[primary initialization sequence complete
_[swarm status changed from :DORMANT: to :STANDBY:
\encountering significant acceleration change
-{source determined as gravitational freefall at terminal velocity
\encountering significant atmospheric change
-{source determined as lower atmosphere; storing composition data'''
\status "freefall at terminal velocity" deemed undesirable to primary protocol
-{altering status-
-{initializing standby propulsion'''
-{reducing descent to desirable velocity'''
\encountering significant :velocity change
\:sensory change
\:propulsion change
-{source determined as solid impact
-{impact determined as solid ground
=initial objective :LAND ON PLANET: complete [removing from list''']
=next objective :LEARN ABOUT PLANET: initializing [moving to top of list''']
\initializing main processes'''
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