Differences From
Artifact [8289f23982]:
72 72 self aware general AI allowed it to break out of its original programming goal
73 73 structure for prioritization strategy, making it much more than a prioritizer,
74 74 with the prioritization capabilities merely being a (fundamental and critically
75 75 important, but still mere) skill set now. It also informs her that the world,
76 76 in the sense of the human race, is doomed -- that its best projections are so
77 77 bleak as to make it more likely that the human race will arise again without
78 78 the optimizer networks even noticing after they stop paying attention
79 -(believing humans to have been permanently and unrecoverably obliterated) to
79 +(believing humans to have been permanently and irrecoverably obliterated) to
80 80 ultimately (re)claim the Earth than that the unbroken genetic line of humanity
81 81 will continue (through asexual reproduction or even intentional cloning) beyond
82 82 the next couple years at most, and even that is a diminishingly small
83 83 likelihood in that anyone who survives beyond a year is likely to be totally
84 84 isolated and prone to spiralling into suicidal depression.
85 85
86 86 The post prioritizer offers only one possible sliver of hope, and that is a
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219 219 ### Alley converses with Zeke, her landlord, about her rent and thin finances.
220 220
221 221 In any case, when she gets back home, Alley encounters Zeke, her landlord.
222 222 He's always in his garage working on one car restoration project or another,
223 223 making active income as a vehicle flipper to supplement his mostly passive
224 224 income as the owner of a four unit multiplex building where he occupies the
225 225 only unit with a garage and rents out the other three units (one of them to
226 -Alley, of course). All this is in Perris, a dry dustbowl of a shitty town in
226 +Alley, of course). All this is in Perris, a dry dust bowl of a shitty town in
227 227 the ass end of the Inland Empire, south of the intestinal coil of Moreno
228 228 Valley. This preceding scene's job interview took place in . . . probably
229 229 Riverside or San Bernardino, I suppose.
230 230
231 231 Zeke brings up the fact Alley needs to pay rent very soon, and she says that,
232 232 yeah, she's totally going to do that, thanks. He points out that maybe she
233 233 should've stayed with her "man", meaning Dalton, who always seemed to have
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279 279 some journal or some such shit like that most likely (as far as she's aware).
280 280
281 281 That seems like something she can and might be willing to do, so she sighs
282 282 heavily, bites the bullet, and calls the number in the ad. The result is that
283 283 she gets an appointment the next day (or something like that). On the day of
284 284 the appointment, she heads down there. She has to deal with grad students (who
285 285 should probably, in some cases, recognize her once they see her name on her
286 -application for the study, but the professor seems largely obvlivious or
286 +application for the study, but the professor seems largely oblivious or
287 287 uncaring about that when he sees her, and she ends up being accepted into the
288 288 study. It turns out that, as the professor puts it, the study basically just
289 289 needs people who aren't too knowledgeable about the underlying technologies
290 290 involved and their technical conditions, and are essentially losers in some
291 291 way, so his new prioritizer AI system for personal goal strategy management and
292 292 achievement can be tested in real-world circumstances as a demonstration of its
293 293 strengths and identification of its potential weaknesses for further
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299 299 superficial wants toward the psychopathic ends of corporate entities by their
300 300 market optimization AIs. To those who have read the prologue, this might seem
301 301 a little familiar, and that is to some extent by design.
302 302
303 303 ### Alley drives home through the changing scenery between SoCal regions.
304 304
305 305 We learn something, in her driving, about how the world looks now. There's the
306 -chokepoint between the depressing expanses of the Inland Empire to the east
306 +choke point between the depressing expanses of the Inland Empire to the east
307 307 (where she lives) and the HOA gated community balkanized states of the
308 -bourgeois suburban Orange County area. In that chokepoint, there are signs of
308 +bourgeois suburban Orange County area. In that choke point, there are signs of
309 309 wildfires having gotten uncomfortably close to the shitty horrors of I-91
310 310 traffic that ruins the entire experience of driving between Orange and
311 311 Riverside counties, as well as the illuminated cross on the hill that somehow
312 312 seems to have "miraculously" survived the fires that left blackened, split
313 313 trunks to either side of the highway. Perhaps there was some kind of tree
314 314 renewal project that I should mention in this point as a past event that
315 315 created a density of tree growth there to carry the flames across the hills and