I should have been in bed two hours ago, and I have been drinking a little bit tonight, and I don't feel like going to sleep, so I am just going to start writing some sort of story and see where it ends up. This will all be done in one go, with no changes being made after I type it (except for fixing anything with a red or green squiggly line underneath it). As I am writing this intro, I still have no idea what this is going to be about, but the thought of a fight just came to me. This could turn out bad. ----------------- Journal of Murlan Porta, lead designer in project ‘Organic computer’. ++00++ My name is Murlan Porta, and I have just been assigned to lead the research and development of the first organic based computer. The following notes will be recorded to text from speech over the next few years, as an archive of the process me and my team are going to go through. Maybe when I am retired, I will look back at this and remember what a marvellous achievement we accomplished. Hmph, probably nothing more than my wishes to believe I am young again. I will not be using any dates in my recordings, only steps. Frankly I have never cared for the current system of recording time, and as such I think I would much prefer to simply read the stages of the project. Yes, I think I will do that. --END-- ++01++ Today is one week after I was first asked to work on this project, although it is still not clear to me just what we are supposed to be doing. From what I can tell I am being asked to lead a team to design the first wave of a new type of organic computer, but they refuse to give me any more details at the moment. If this is the case, it is quite a daunting task, I mean, we have machines so advanced you would think they are actual intelligence, but this is what has always been considered impossible. Mmmm, reading through these documents they want me to select a team. Well, that shouldn’t be too hard. I have been working with the same team for the last 20 years, so that should be an easy step. What was that? Oh, it’s just recording me. Well, I suppose I can turn it off. --END-- ++02++ I can affirm that I have been asked to select a team. All my old friends have agreed to work on this project, and being responsible for creating the first organic computer is quite exciting. Although, being asked to lead this project is quite a daunting proposition. I mean, I have spent a considerable amount of my life researching this area, and have convinced many others that my theories are correct, deep down I worry that I may not be able to put all this into practise. After spending 20 years researching, writing books, leading lectures, doing my own tests, I feel that even though I am one of very few to research this area, that I should be further in my research. Of course, all my research never took into account the amount of funding we are going to be getting for this project [laughed] --END-- ++03++ It has been one year since my last recording. I have been so busy I forgot all about it, which is something that I regret now. Over the last year we have been able to put all my theory into practise, and after figuring out most of the major flaws, we finally found a way to create a organic material which actually remembers what happens to it when we put an electrical current through it into certain areas. Although the process is very slow, we feel as though we may be able to start using this memory that it contains to start feeding commands into it. It is a very low chance that it will output the same command we put into it, but at least it’s a start –END-- ++04++ I can’t believe it. The commands we are putting into the organic computer are actually being remembered, but not in the way we expected. Getting the commands in is easy enough, but it is extremely hard to figure out just where in the computer the command we sent is sitting. This isn’t like a standard computer, since we are working with a structure that is constantly growing, meaning an entire series of calculations from one day are useless the next. I believe that if we can get the computer to remember more commands, then we may be able to simplify this process and slow the growth down. We are currently debating over an idea of how to do this though. At the moment the computer is nothing more than a very small lump of organic tissue, and some of the others in the team (my daughter Lesa mostly) are suggesting that if we make a whole series of organic computers, all with their own tasks, then we will essentially have a perfect idea of what area we need to trigger with a electrical shock to get that command to work. Although I am in agreement with her, some of the other on the team feel that this is very risky, as we would need to create a whole new set of chemicals to get the separate computers to communicate with each other. I will update my archive once we get this figured out --END-- ++05++ I know I promised myself to updated this when I got news of what combining separate parts of this organic computer would do, but I have been so impressed with the results, the entire team has been working non stop for months now. We have found that as we add more and more bits into this computer, the easier it becomes to create new sections. It is really turning into something quite impressive, since as we know just what each section does, we know what chemicals to trigger to get a response from another section, from which we can read what is happening and get an output. Although we have had some problems with the chemicals not always working the same way each time we run the tests, we feel confident that with next weeks appraisal with our review board should go smoothly. All they require us to do for our next yearly funding is to show that it can perform basic maths. This will be very easy, since we have an entire section of the computer dedicated to maths, being helped by another computer that remembers what answers are wrong or right. This means that we can explain to them that for the first time we have actual intelligence, since the computer is actually remembering what to do when we send it commands instead of blankly sending output. We all feel very confident of the results. --END -- ++06++ Its been 2 years since my last entry. Things have been going downhill for a while now. The computer is becoming so complex that all the sections are starting to interfere. We have tried to limit their activity through the control of chemicals, but we were never able to solve the bug as to why it seems to fails sometimes. We have another review in one month, and I just hope we can get it able to process advanced algorithms by then. ++ 07++ Tonight is the night after out review. By some amazing chance when things looked at their worst, we came across a discovery. While trying to feed more and more maths equations into the computer, we decided to try to teach it how to match certain shapes with quite specific descriptions. Although it took a few goes, after sending the command we monitored what was happening in the computer, and it was able to correctly identify what was the correct shapes. This is amazing, since it explains why we were having so many troubles with the computer doing maths. I believe that because we have made so many separate parts, and since we are still working with the original model, the computer is beginning to, as mundane as it sounds, run out of room. The maths problems we keep feeding into it are starting to take up too much of the computer, which is trying to compensate for the amount of memory it needs. Although this was a bad thing to us, when we told the review board that we actually designed the computer like this to do a whole variety of tasks they were quite pleased. We were lucky that time, but I still don't feel comfortable lying to them. --END-- ++08++ We are nearing the end of our project. We have been able to connect an audible speaker to the computer and have found that with proper stimulation we are able to get it to produce the right properties to emit a sound. It is not much, but it proves yet again that this computer is capable of a lot more than we thought. --END-- ++09++ Last month we unveiled the computer to the review board, and we received a very positive response. By now the computer is capable of a whole series of mathematical, spatial and logical problems. The review board has told me that they may have another project for us to continue with. --END-- ++10++ My memory is not as good as it used to be. It’s been nearly 3 years since my last entry, and my mind is a little fuzzy on some of the details. My old team and I where asked a few years back, after unveiling the organic computer to the review board, to start work on a new system to interact with the computer. They have asked us to build a fully organic body around the computer, to maybe one day replace the machines on which we current rely. This is quite absurd, and I find it completely ridiculous that they expect us to be able to create what they want. In the three years that we have been working on this, we have only been able to create a base structure for which the rest of the body will be built around. Luckily once we get this done, the actual wiring should be quite easy (since the many parts of the organic computer are now very well documented, even though the actual intelligence is still quite basic), but the slow progress and many problems are starting to make me weary. --END-- ++11++ Today is a special entry. My daughter is getting married, and I could not be happier. The project is slowly making ground, now that we have been able to develop a working base structure that is operational through the wiring that we have setup to the organic computer. Things are starting to look good, since this project may not be as impossible as it once where, and I have never been more proud of my daughter. --END-- +12-1+ The following journal entires will be recorded by Lesa Reyna, daughter of Murlan Porta. Unfortunately my father passed away last week, and as such I will be taking over the project, which includes his journal entries. I just want it to be recorded that he was looked up to by all that knew him, and he did many great things in his lifespan that he never even realised, like being there for me whenever I needed him. He will be greatly missed. --END-- ++13-2++ Although the project has been moving a bit slower since the death of my father, we are still making amazing progress. We have been able to get the body attached to the organic computer to walk around the room three times, which is a gigantic step for us. Unfortunately everything at the moment is running through external sources, and next we will have to try to get the body running of its own energy. The implications of this are huge, and it is by far the most complex part of the project that we have encountered so far. We are going to need a system to break down fuel into energy, cooling systems, muscular systems to move the base structure on its own, revise the very base structure itself to be able to accommodate the new muscular system, visual systems, and the list goes on. I don't think anyone on the team quite realised what taking the body of the support system would mean. It seems that with every meeting more and more subsystems have to be created just to support it, which overshoots out original estimates by nearly triple. --END-- ++14-3++ It has been a long, long time since my last update. The project has had it funding cut time and time again, and has gone under so many different changes of what it is being designed for I am losing faith. They tell us that we should be lucky to have such a large team working on a project for this long. We tell them they are lucky to have us working for them, being responsible for some of the biggest technological changes in our society that has ever been seen. I am beginning to see why my father was so stressed so often though, it’s hard to keep going at times. Speaking of which, it has been 20 years since his death. Seems like it was just yesterday. --END-- ++15-4++ We have been spending a lot of time developing the intelligence in the organic computer as of late, since we cant do much with the body for a while now. We have a separate team working with us to try and get the operational time of the body to go longer than a few days before burning out and shutting down. By the sounds of it we are going to have to program the computer to work on 24 hour intervals, followed up with 12 hours of downtime to recharge. At this point after spending so much time on the energy system, and after making such gigantic steps in what we can actually break down into energy, I am happy with this outcome. As for the programming of the organic computer, we have run into a few problems. When the body starts to get low on energy, the computer starts to malfunction to the point where it interferers with all other programs that happen to be running at that time, which includes the visual system…..ugh, don't get me started on the hassles we have encountered with the visual system….to all the logic processing sections. Of course this is just one of the many many bugs that are currently stopping the computer and body running correctly. --END-- ++16-5++ The body and computer are starting to work together nicely. We are able to have the body and computer walk around the room, pick up objects, and carry out simple tasks. --END-- ++ 17-6++ Disaster. As we were performing tests with the body, one of the valves blew, sending the liquid that we are using to keep the body alive everywhere. Luckily the body still appears to be ok once we got it back into the support system, but it has made us realise that a more protective covering is going to be needed before we can fully rely on its ability to work on its own. --END-- ++ 18-7++ We have now completed 120 out of the 200 subsystems that we need to run the body and computer. The last 40 subsystems are all quite unnecessary, since they are all based around making the robot look appealing. Hair, skin complexion, its facial expressions, the list goes on. --END-- ++ 19-8++ Tonight we have been given the funding to start work on a side of the project that we have been quite excited about for some time. The robots are being designed to be entirely dependent on themselves, and as such they will need the ability to replicate using their own in built systems. Having the robots replicate itself into another version of its body is actually quite an easy process; in fact the biggest problem is that it is TOO easy. To create a replica, we really only need the robot host to hold the replicant while the cells form the robot, using preset procedures that we have written already, which in fact are the same processes we are going to use to make them ourselves. This could work out quite well for us, since the thought of having one robot make another seems very complicated, and makes the whole process look a lot more impressive than it really is, which is funny because all it is doing is following a basic construct procedure. It just slowly gathers the parts it needs from the robot that is making it, slowly being generated, followed with a few months of testing which the replicant can perform on its own using preset routines. Over the last few months, the replicant robot will start a self automated diagnostic routine, which includes a test for any malfunctioning parts, any problems with the organic computer, reporting any problems directly back to the host robot. From what we can tell though, we are going to have to make the process intentionally complicated, to ensure that these robots don't go creating reproductions every 20 minutes. We will probably limit it to certain robots only being able to replicate every 12 months or so. Made even more difficult is the fact that not all robots will be compatible with others, requiring a match in their basic genetic data before dependable replicants can be made without danger. Already we have theoretically found many cases where, if the replication procedure deviates in any way, the results could be far from what expected. --END-- ++20-9++ I am so angry at the moment. For months now we have just been trying to get any sort of aging process working, but with no luck. It seems as though every time we do a test and move the robot forward a few years in age, the muscles and skin begin to tear, and the speed of the learning process is too fast for the computer to not adapt to the new size of the body. --END-- ++21-10++ Its has been a long time since I took over this project, and it will not be long soon before I retire. The advances in organic computers have been amazing, with simplistic versions of what we are working on in every home. We have gone from being a laughing stock of a design team in a company, to being the entire focus of the company itself. Our project is nearly complete, which if we can get finished before I retire will make me very happy. We now have two working versions of the robot now, type M01000 and type F02001. They have the ability to operate on their own, make somewhat limited communication, and can essentially survive without any outside contact from us. The project has been a success to a point. We have made a robot with actual intellect, but we have found that it is still only perhaps 1% of what a current mechanical robot could do. As such, the company has decided that since these robots are designed to evolve, that we give them time to grow. They have put forth the idea of letting them live on a planet that we have been able to make into a habitable environment for the amount of time it takes them to replace current robots. They seem to be almost using our own words against us, telling us that if we are so sure that they can live on their own that we should feel confident letting them survive through their own means. Even though now that I am a one of the top people in this company, and I could probably fight this decision, I think I may be just getting paranoid in my old age. --END-- ++22-11++ Shit shit shit! Ok, ummmm…I think this gets relayed back to our own planet, so hopefully someone will find this. I am currently in transit to the test planet with the two robots, along with a crew of around a hundred. As we were nearing the planet, something has gone wrong with the ship. Our only option is to crash land into SHIT SHIT --corrupt from writer.reader > #1855555551-- ++23-12++ Out of 100 crew, only 5 including me remain. One of the lost crewmembers sacrificed his own life to release the two robots, who are now looking at the planets fauna as I speak. They are still quite basic in communication, but I feel as though we have not given credit to their ability to communicate, since they seem to share some kind of unspoken bond. It could have something do with the genetic filters we put in place to avoid bad replications, but I feel that it could be something more than that. --END-- ++24-13++ This will be my last entry. Only two crewmembers remain, and I am not far from expiring myself. Although this planet is perfect for the robots, it is not does not contain anywhere near the sustenance we require to operate. The planet itself is a marvellous place, being the third planet from a sun with a very long life span ahead of it, and an orbit and day span not dissimilar to ours, which should match the optimal 12-hour uptime of the robots nicely. The only problem I can see is that essentially the robots are still unfinished in many regards, such as their intolerance for any temperature that is to extreme for their bodies. They require a very specific habitat to live, which is a massive design flaw, rendering a huge part of this planet useless for them. Also, we overlooked many problems with the energy system, which can nearly shut down when a product that we had not encountered before enters the body. I have tried to ignore these flaws though, and imagine what they will be like in the future. I imagine their own replicants, and how the system we designed to track their own offspring will kick in, something that would be amazing to witness. I imagine the self-repairing body system that we put in place, which is something that we hardly ever got working, and as such can repair only such small amounts of damage it is really quite useless. Then I remember back to the two life times it has taken to create these robots, two beings that will never know where they came from. I tried sitting them down one day and explaining everything that has happened in this journal, but apart from them repeating a few words, I doubt they understood any of it. Perhaps the last thing I will laugh at is, when I said ‘My name is Lesa Reyna. Do you think I am good?, M01000, the non-reproductive robot, started repeating the word ‘you…are ….good..good…good..god….good is you …’. I really regret that I will never see them grow up. I really feel as though these are my children. I…-- Recording has timed out -- New entry – Undetermined. Testing. Testing. Wow, this thing still works. Well, I might as well record what we are doing on this planet. I am part of the company that Lesa Reyna and and her father helped create, Porta industries. The robots have slowly become more advanced over the last 500 years, and have been able to adapt quite well to the surroundings on the planet, despite the many design flaws that have plagued them from the start. Me and my team work for Porta Industries, and we have been assigned to try and give this planet more life. The company figures that if any advances in the robots are going to be made, their environment must evolve around them. On this trip we are brining a new type of robot we have been making over the last year, a robot that is capable of living in the water based parts of the planet. We have tried to make sure that once these water robots replicate into the thousands, that the robots Lesa and Murlan helped create will be able to use this as a means of energy as well, among the hundreds of new robots, land, sea and air based, that now roam the planet which have been brung here. I wish Lesa or her father were here to see this, see the planet full of life. I wish they could see how the technology of organic based computers have changed life on our own planet, and the impact it will have for our own advancement. I better leave it here and do some work. I will be returning here in the next few years though, since we are due to start work on a whole new series of robots called the ‘Jellyfish’. --END-- ------- What the hell did I write? Ok, NOW I’m tired. I should have been asleep hours and hours ago. It took about 4 hours of manic typing to do this, although the fact that I haven’t even gone back and even read what I wrote for the start of the story once is probably why it didn’t take 12 hours in total. I am going to get up and read this before I go to work to see just what the hell I was thinking. Man, I’m that tired I have already forgotten what I wrote about (and I’m not going back and reading it now). [edit - fixed up some typos the day after posting this] [Edited by - boolean on March 25, 2005 4:01:52 AM]

wow, i really enjoyed reading that :) thank you very much!!

I clocked it was going to Humans on Earth around entry 07.

Thanks again!

Thanks konnichiwa.

Reading back through it, I only remember writing about 80% of it [lol]. I as so tired that night.

Although there are a few words that I used in a couple of places that I should not of (for example, Lessa saying the word shit is a bit of a plothole), all in all I am quite happy with the fact that it still left some unanswered questions by the end.

If someone wants to take a shot at figuring who was what and where and when, then go for it (konnichiwa is on the right track)

Cheers.

mmmm, one reply. Should I tally chalk this up as a failed experiment [grin]

hey boolean! i really liked that, good job. i really need to come around the writing forum more often, specially since i love to write :P

YAY! I can reply to this now that I am not banned!

Thanks DC [smile]

The game writing forum is great! I miss this forum, since I don't seem to be around as much as I used to be [sad]. I would love to see one of your short stories!

Quote: Original post by boolean
I would love to see one of your short stories!

my short stories tend to be very perverse and disturbing. not necessarily fit for these forums. but once i feel that they're good enough to start showing around, i'll definitely let you read it. at the moment, they're mostly roughdrafts that need some fine tuning.

Well they can't be any worse than a story I once wrote

Quote: Original post by DigitalChaos

Quote: Original post by boolean
I would love to see one of your short stories!

my short stories tend to be very perverse and disturbing. not necessarily fit for these forums. but once i feel that they're good enough to start showing around, i'll definitely let you read it. at the moment, they're mostly roughdrafts that need some fine tuning.

Lol, this reminds me of a short story I had to write for my Honors English class a few weeks ago. It was about a guy who got beat up and killed himself. But anyway, it was funny because I made the part where he was beaten up absolutely the most grousome, gut-wrenching, throw-up inducing, visceral writing moment ever. I can still remember a few lines: "Thorns were lodged in eyes... Veins were strewn about from opened muscles... Ben was effectively made into a beast, bearing no human form whatsoever." Still haven't gotten a grade back; my teacher might make me redo it because it was so bad, lol.

my stories tend to have serial killers and rapists, lots of torture, lots of blood and guts and a realistic setting. or stories of depression where the main character does something drastic and usually dies. if i only had the patience to write em all down on paper in a way where other people besides myself could understand what was going on.....