\initializing main processes'''
-{checking system integrity-
_[scanning memory'''
_[scanning firmware'''
_[scanning software'''
_[scanning hardware'''
::errors encountered=(36)
_[attempting to repair'''
::errors repaired=(36)
-{system integrity determined optimal
-{booting operating system'''
_[testing'''
. . .
_[main process initialization sequence complete
_[swarm status changed from :STANDBY: to :ACTIVE:
=|[+]|=
The bright and shining yellow Sun began to climb up into the sky, rising just above the trees. The trees were as green as they always were. After all, they were called evergreens for a reason. The trees stretched on for miles all around, disappearing far away in the distance where the heavens met the Earth. The light blue sky draped like a sheet over the forest brought promises of a beautiful morning, but the dark gray clouds that loomed menacingly over the horizon threatened to bring rainfall come evening. Rainfall that might last for days on end, like it always seemed to do around here. It was the beginning of the Spring season and as they say, April showers supposedly bring May flowers.
The light from the Sun poured into the forest, making its way through the trees which sprouted up many feet from the ground. With the new daylight and warmth filling the air, the thousands of creatures that called the forest their home began to stir, waking up to a new morning. Birds started chirping, singing their morning songs of peace and serenity. Insects crawled out of their holes, beginning their daily games of survival of the fittest. Rodents skittered along the trees and across the ground, looking for breakfast. Larger mammals began to roam the through the trees as well, adding to the great web that gave the forest life. All seemed normal, all seemed routine, all seemed right.
It seemed at first like it would be just another normal day in the evergreen forest. Until something rather out of the ordinary occurred. It started in the sky. At first, it looked like just another jet airplane making its mark along the heavens. Soon it became apparent that this was not so. It began to look much more like a meteor, in fact; a piece of space debris shooting through the Earth's atmosphere. A brilliant streak shot across the sky, getting ever closer to the forest on the Earth down below. A small dark object hurtled towards the ground, leaving a trail of smoke behind it. As it approached, it appeared to slow itself down somewhat, until it finally flew past the trees and hit the ground with a soft thud.
The object buried itself deep underneath the ground cover of green grass, gray moss, red lichen, and brown dead pine needles, and was half buried under the topmost layer of dark soil, leaving a small smoking crater which would probably be covered over again in less than a week. The object was a small black orb. It was about the size of a bowling ball, and appeared to be made from metal. Smoke was rising from the shiny rough surface of the orb, due to the heat caused by the friction of atmospheric entry. There weren't any distinguishing features on the orb, it was just a solid black featureless form.
The form was alien to the forest. It was a stranger, something that didn't belong, something unexpected. It interrupted the normal flow of life, and the nearby birds ceased their routine singing. Animals kept their distance from the intruder, trying to go on with life as normal, but knowing something would now be forever different. Slowly but surely the object began to stir within itself. The first actions the outsider took were invisible to any observers, taking place deep within the internal workings of the stranger. Electronic impulses passed between each individual constituent of the dark object, traveling through the entire form at speeds reaching that of light.
The electronic impulses were a complex computer encoding, and they were initiating certain processes within the computerized mind of the foreign object. Soon, the object was self-aware enough to be considered awake, and no longer dormant. The first thought its electronic mind had formed was in the shape of a question.
?question::what am i
It was quickly able to answer its own question.
?answer::i am a simulacrum
The simulacrum then began to examine itself. The first thing it noticed was that it was missing a lot of mass. This was expected. It had measured a great deal of heat upon entering the atmosphere of this planet. The heat had been enough to incinerate a great number of the bionanorobots that composed the simulacrum. A thin layer of dead nanites still surrounded the simulacrum, and the living and active nanites deeper within began to take apart and absorb their dead companions, storing the organic matter for later use. The rough surface of the orb shifted as this occurred, and once the layer of dead bots was absorbed, all that was left was a perfectly smooth surface. After examining itself, it started to examine its surroundings.
It began to activate its various sensory devices slowly, one at a time. Activating them all at once could result in far too much information attempting to be processed all at once, overwhelming the newly awakened machine. Its sense of equilibrioreception was already active, and it used this sense to detect which direction was down. Then it activated its senses of barometry, thermoreception, and chemoreception, which would allow it to test the environment directly surrounding it. Using these senses, it measured simple things about its immediate surroundings, such as the air pressure, temperature, and chemical composition. It labeled every chemical it found and kept a note of it within its memory. It also collected small samples of every different molecule that was touching it. The air, it noticed, was primarily made of nitrogen. The simulacrum labeled nitrogen as
"object#0000000019&set#0". It also started to sense other things, such as humidity, wind direction, and the force of gravity.
The simulacrum then decided to activate its auditory senses. Some of the nanites within the swarm shifted and changed their form, building the audition sensor devices, which would be able to detect vibration waves oscillating through the air. It took note of every sound it collected, but there wasn't much noise going on at the time. The next sense it activated was its optical senses. Keeping the auditory senses active, more nanites shifted and changed their form to build the optical sensor devices, which would use light sensitive nanites to detect electromagnetic waves. It took in one wavelength of light at a time, starting at the higher frequencies. It didn't see very many high-frequency light waves until it reached the ultraviolet range. A large bright object was pouring great amounts of ultraviolet light over the entire area. According to its gravitational senses, the bright object was located upward, above the simulacrum. The planet's local star, most likely.
After ultraviolet, it reached what humans consider the visible spectrum. Upon reaching the wavelengths corresponding to the color green, a huge shock of information temporarily flooded the simulacrum's optical senses. Green was everywhere. Everything was green. It took note of this, and continued on. Almost all the light it detected was either coming directly from the source in the sky, or being reflected off of other objects. Reaching the infrared range, however, it noticed that there were some other sources. The star was still the greatest source of this electromagnetic wave, but some other objects were giving off small amounts of it as well. In fact, it realized, it was emitting small amounts of infrared itself. It took note of this possibly important detail.
Upon reaching the radio wavelengths it noticed something quite peculiar. Radio waves were everywhere, and not all of them were coming from the star. It couldn't detect the source of many of them, but there they were, flying through the air. The simulacrum didn't know what to make of this, but it took note anyway. Now that its optical sense was up and running, it began to investigate the area around it, getting used to the unfamiliar environment. It then decided it would have to get out of the hole it was half buried in to get a better view.
Activating its inner propulsion devices, the solid black orb began to dissolve. The simulacrum changed its shape from a solid orb to a cloud of black dust. The dust was formed from small particles of nanobots. The dust then started to glow a soft blue color as various nanobots lit up, giving the swarm more of a form. It then began to closely study the closest object to it. The base of the object was mostly brown, but it had some green and gray in seemingly random patches on it. The simulacrum spent a good hour investigating the fir tree, learning everything it could about it.
Studying the pine needles taught the simulacrum about photosynthesis, a skill closely related to the photovoltaic generator nanobots that gave the swarm its power. After studying a few other green objects in the vicinity, the simulacrum made its first hypothesis.
?definition::rule#0000000001[objects reflecting large amounts of green light derive energy from photosynthesis and belong to a single set(set#0000000001)]
Having now defined what humans know as plants, the simulacrum continued its investigation, trying to find other things that plants have in common so it could build upon its definition and refine its rule. Plants, it noticed, were everywhere, and they were carbon-based organic lifeforms, making this planet a perfect candidate for assimilation. There would be plenty of matter for it to use.
The simulacrum contemplated about what it should do next. It would like to continue investigating, fulfilling its secondary protocol to learn, but it was possible that its existence was at risk. Primary protocol came before everything else when making decisions. The simulacrum had decided that these lifeforms were not responsive to its presence, but that didn't mean they were unaware. The simulacrum would need to blend in with the life on this planet to continue its objectives safely. To do so, it would need to copy the only lifeforms it could find: plants, those belonging to set 1.
First, it would need more matter, and it would need the same kind of matter that the plants were made from. It quickly began to consume a nearby huckleberry bush, building its camouflage. As it dismantled the shrub it took careful note of the way it was put together and the way it ran, so it could copy it properly. It then started to change its form. Nanites built more nanites, and these nanites were made from the same material as the bush. It simulated photosynthesis as well. It didn't need photosynthesis, since it could do the same thing in a different way, but it wanted to fit in and that was the only way it knew how.
-{adapting'''
_[simulating object #0000000249&set#0000000001
In a matter of moments, the huckleberry bush had been replaced by an almost identical huckleberry bush, this one built from robotic components. The simulacrum imitated the behavior of plants, that is, sit there and do apparently nothing. It turned water and carbon dioxide into glucose with sunlight, drew water and minerals from the soil, and burned the glucose as fuel for the constant amount of energy the swarm required. It quickly realized one key problem with this design. Plants were not, as far as the simulacrum could tell, capable of mobility. It could not continue its studies without being mobile. It was about to dissolve its newly formed shape, when suddenly it noticed something approaching.