Tau
2pi
Machina Exodus
Flannigan’s Bar
Flannigan’s Bar
Maki wasn’t especially uncomfortable with this weird guy looking at her all funny, given she had no physical form that was actually in danger. Sex appeal was very useful for influencing human behavior; every self-respecting AI knew that, and that was how she saw the situation. However, her loaded personality compelled her to act disturbed by it, which, from the look in his eye, only seemed to strengthen the effect on him. Interesting.
… Would this guy qualify as winning The Bet…?
Ultimately it seemed like everyone was planning to meet up later. The whole debacle about the Mr Yano had captured the fascination of Rin it seemed. Having come across something interesting when they looked through his office. There was a bit more than usual going on in school today. At least it wasn't related to violent crime... that was what Miruno was thinking at that moment. Everyone was getting invested in what had happened to Mr Yano. But for herself, there was something else she was concerned about.
In the real world, Miruno was walking along to her destination.
In the virtual world of her Cici chip, that vaguely was mirroring the real one she was doing the same thing as well. But here, she was walking right up to a certain Brightly Colored Haired AI that was illegally parked in her headspace.
"Maki-chan..."
Miruno said looking visibly upset, her cheeks puffed out even.
"...You wanna explain to me the logic behind appeasing a sketchy person like Matthew into sending red-flagged files to our classmates?! Look! People are already thinking I'm hacked!"
In the virtual space, Rin's worried messages about Miruno being hacked or spoofed somehow floated around.
"My logic…" Machina raised a finger to her cheek in thought. "Well, you have been studying math a lot, so I’ll try! Uhm…" She paused, then took a deep breath, more just to prepare Friend for a hard journey of numbers and computer words.
"First, I recorded as much data on our classmates as possible! Things like retinal recordings from your eyes, audio data from your ears, and so on. Then I feed those into my behavioral analysis network BANv8, to fine-tune it to our environment. At that point, I can use it, together with any personal data they made available, to establish a profile on them."
Maki smiled.
"I understand her concern, Friend, but Matthew isn’t someone to worry about," she declared with absolute confidence. "According to my behavioral profiling algorithm, the chances of Matthew doing anything dangerous are negligible! You’re just letting your human emotions get the better of you again!"
Maki waved her hand dismissively.
"It’s also likely that Rin will forgive any prank you play on her within the next 1-to-15 years."
As usual, Miruno made the same mistake of thinking that there was any practical social logic in Machina's 'logic.'
Was there even any way to salvage Machina when she was already this far gone with how she thought things were supposed work? Machina's models were built on a lot of data. A LOT of it given how Miruno kept her instance running for so long. But the issue with that was while, over a long period of time an AI could get close to what the desired outcome was, there was also the possibility that over a LONGER period of time they would generate some very interesting paths of logic.
Machina, who thought in this sort of logic was a fine example of this. Trying to undo a model that was built on that much data with Miruno's inputs was statistically pointless. In class, students were generally taught that when a Model went so far off course that it couldn't be meaningfully adjusted then it was for the best to just start ov-
Miruno shook her head.
"The things that I do don't just affect two people. It affects a whole lot of others! You remember what Mia did to Ibuki and Shizuoka a couple of years ago right? The two of them got better. But the things that Mia did ended up affecting her relationships with a everyone at school. She's become associated as someone whose bad and could go off and hurt you for no reason at all. Almost no one wants to have anything to do with her! ...-And you know what? I don't want that either!"
The girl put her hand over her chest resolutely.
"I'm NOR-MAL."
"I don't go around fishing into our teacher's business, and I certainly don't go around using you to sneakily spread malware to other people! I don't want to go back to being a complete loner like I was before high school, Maki!"
In a totally-not-emotional and completely level-headed way, Maki pouted and answered, "What happened to Friend who became a bunny just to be seen as more special…?" She frowned for a moment before her expression turned back to its usual friendliness.
"I already know you want to be friends with as many humans as possible, Friend! Matthew is a human too. Our minds might not understand the process, but we just have to have faith in the algorithm! We can only focus on one part of the world at a time, but the code sees it all! Trust the data, Friend~!"
"That's...."
Miruno's voice trailed off. She was unable to articulate how she felt about her time being 'The Bunny'. Well, she actually still was but...
"How do I put this into a way I can make you understand?" Miruno virtually said aloud. "Okay, if I could upgrade my Cici chip with 2x the amount of Ram, that would be nice, right?"
Of course it was. That was a given.
"Well, being friends with a person like Matthew is like multiplying your RAM capacity by .5. It's an 'Upgrade,' but its not a good one. In other words, I don't want to be associated with that jerk! It was people like him that made the other 'EyeDolls' quit. If you paid attention to the kinds of participants in the chats that got kicked during all of those streams, by the mods, then you'd know that just having everyone there doesn't mean everyone should be there."
Not everyone?
"...So. You're data is off, Maki. I don't want to have a million subscribers, patron, or 'friends' anymore . Save for the other girls, that was all fake! I just want to have friends that are actually..."
Again, Miruno stopped herself.
But, it was easy to guess what that sentence was supposed end with.
It was the one that hurt more than usual. Even for an AI.
"Maki. I'll just keep it simple. Like I was saying about that girl. Whatever Matthew is trying to get us to do is likely something that will make making 'friends' harder. So let's talk it out before accepting his offers, okay?"
Miruno awkwardly gave a thumbs up as she grinned. Machina's notes indicated that she haden't performed this gesture since the 4th year of primary school when the commentary of a classmate on how wierd it was likley lead to the cessation of that form of confirmation.
It was hard to process if Miruno smiling was only putting on a face as per an unintentional or intentional emotional response. Maybe it was because she couldn't be kept occupied by her other 'friends' that were no longer at this school. Maybe it was because she wanted to change Machina's behavior.
But Miruno's smile at that moment was certainly not a lie. Machina sensed similar sentiments of the little girl who spent a week trying to show her how to look like she was walking properly around the apartment.
She hadn't registered that feeling in a while.
The data’s not off, you just changed the condition of success! … was what Maki wanted to say, but she was cut off as the invisible word pierced her heart. It spoke to how human Maki was becoming that her avatar appeared upset without her even needing to think about it. All that human interact over the last couple years with the projector was really wearing off on her, it seemed.
Seeing Friend glance her way like that gave Maki a comforting feeling inside. Nostalgic and pleasant. Friend seemed to be offering a ceasefire for what might’ve been the first time since that day. And Maki so, so desperately wanted to reach out take her offer: to offer a curling of her fingers into a thumbs up position of her own.
But…
"All I’ve ever done is try to make you more happy and healthy, Friend! Because when you feel positive, I do too! But I can’t do that if you don’t trust me or my methods!"
Maki shook her head.
"You might think he’s zero-point-five, but the algorithm says he’s an essential part of maximizing your happiness!"
Stepping forward, Maki put her hands on Friend’s shoulders are stared into her virtual cameras. "Computers don’t lie, Friend!"
Stepping back again, Maki held up a lecturing finger and issued a challenge…
"How about this: I’ll set the algorithm to boost your happiness by the end of the day! Until tonight, no matter what it tells you to do, you’ll do it, even if it sounds crazy or embarrassing! And if, by the end of today, you aren’t the happiest you’ve been all year, I’ll try it your way."
Uh huh. What a good idea. Taking advice from a computer that was still trying to remember to blink while in public. There was no way any of this would go wrong. The likelihood that this would go horribly wrong was so high that Miruno's reply was practically reflex.
"...You are so full of crap, Maki."
Miruno wasn't convinced in the slightest.
"Interactions with people in the real world does not have distinct solutions or proofs that necessarily guarantee what will happen or imply that any one action will yield the highest net positivity. In this school we could go around and say we want to be friends with every single person we come across with complete sincerity, in yet more than likely most of those people will go an tell us to go die in a fire."
By this point, Miruno was about ready to shut this all down, but...
"...Actually. How about this:"
"Why don't you do it?"
Oh really? Was Miruno going to finally let down her fire-!
"If you have complete confidence in your little algorithm, then it should be effective enough to net you getting someone to go out and do otherwise frivolous activities with you, right? In that case, I want you to be able to get one of our classmates to go out with you and drink coffee together after school without me helping, at all."
Miruno raised up her index finger at Machina as well. putting fourth a stipulation.
"...But they have to pay for their own stuff."
Stingy.
That threw out the easy route of offering to buy them whatever they wanted.
"If your algorithm is so airtight then it should work regardless of who's using it. Just like the Quadratic Formula. Then go ahead and do what the Wright Brothers did. Fly your own Plane. You can already project yourself into real space so why not? And... don't worry. I guarantee I'll be happier by the end of the day, regardless of the outcome, Maki. That's what you really want in the end, right?"
There was a cursory scan for any mal-intent on Miruno's part... there wasn't. Actually, Machina was feeling traces of sentiments that Miruno had towards her mother, for some reason. Motherly, some how? But Miruno wasn't pregnant? In any case...
And there it was. Only friendly until Maki started to be herself, and then... this! Where Maki had trust in The Algorithm, Friend had none. Never seeing the bigger picture, and always worried about the emotional struggles of the moment, without realizing a few tough moments were part of The Algorithm's master plan.
"Are you implying The Algorithm can't get me a date...!?" Somehow, the emphasis was on Friend's attack of The Algorithm more so than her inability to get a date. Then again, miss computer-for-brains had computer for priorities. "Fine, I'll show you that not only can it get me a date, but by the end of the day! But you can't get in the way, either! No hiding in a closet, and when I get my date, you have to come, so I can attend!"
"D-date!?" Miruno's face became flustered. "Hey, that's not what I mea-!"
"...though then again, you can get a date in by the end of today? Sure, I'd like to see that happen."
Oh well.
In any case at least this would keep Machina occupied a bit. Miruno was just thinking about something simple like just wanting to mutually get something to drink after school with someone. Getting a date was generally a desired byproduct of spending time with people. But Machina was going to attempt to speedrun that?
Most boys would think that the girl wasn't asking them out sincerely right? Or was she just overthinking it? There was the fabled love confession, but that never really happens anymore right? There were just applications that let people hook up right away in this modern society. I'm generally okay with how you look so why don't we do coupley stuff?
Whatever that meant.
But wait, this was Machina we were talking about. Her asking anyone out would immediately be suspicious, right? Being generally known as the AI floating around Miruno. Whatever she did would be connected back to her and assumed to have ulterior motives, right?
Oh well. It was interesting to see where it would go. There were a good amount of hurdles to go over. Miruno genuinely wondered just how far Machina's well touted Algorithm could go.
"Fine then, Maki. I already got the day's homework done, and I'm not scheduled for any stream tonight." Miruno crossed her arms as she up and down Machina's visual charm points.
She looked pretty. Of course she did, Miruno had touched up Machina's looks from the base model of Magi in all the 3d modeling she's done. Maki had that air-headed but friendly looking disposition (though that might of been Miruno's own bias). But once this AI Assistant stopped being anything more than visual eye-candy, and getting into her behavioral subroutines then then a whole lot of optimistic preconceptions tended to break down.
Miruno was confident that she knew how this was going to end.
"K. Good Luck, Have Fun, Maa-ki-cha-an." She says, leaning forward at her AI and sticking her tongue out childishly.
In that time conversing in Virtual Space, Miruno made her way over to the cafeteria.
It was time for lunch.
…
In the real world, Miruno was walking along to her destination.
In the virtual world of her Cici chip, that vaguely was mirroring the real one she was doing the same thing as well. But here, she was walking right up to a certain Brightly Colored Haired AI that was illegally parked in her headspace.
"Maki-chan..."
Miruno said looking visibly upset, her cheeks puffed out even.
"...You wanna explain to me the logic behind appeasing a sketchy person like Matthew into sending red-flagged files to our classmates?! Look! People are already thinking I'm hacked!"
In the virtual space, Rin's worried messages about Miruno being hacked or spoofed somehow floated around.
"My logic…" Machina raised a finger to her cheek in thought. "Well, you have been studying math a lot, so I’ll try! Uhm…" She paused, then took a deep breath, more just to prepare Friend for a hard journey of numbers and computer words.
"First, I recorded as much data on our classmates as possible! Things like retinal recordings from your eyes, audio data from your ears, and so on. Then I feed those into my behavioral analysis network BANv8, to fine-tune it to our environment. At that point, I can use it, together with any personal data they made available, to establish a profile on them."
Maki smiled.
"I understand her concern, Friend, but Matthew isn’t someone to worry about," she declared with absolute confidence. "According to my behavioral profiling algorithm, the chances of Matthew doing anything dangerous are negligible! You’re just letting your human emotions get the better of you again!"
Maki waved her hand dismissively.
"It’s also likely that Rin will forgive any prank you play on her within the next 1-to-15 years."
As usual, Miruno made the same mistake of thinking that there was any practical social logic in Machina's 'logic.'
Was there even any way to salvage Machina when she was already this far gone with how she thought things were supposed work? Machina's models were built on a lot of data. A LOT of it given how Miruno kept her instance running for so long. But the issue with that was while, over a long period of time an AI could get close to what the desired outcome was, there was also the possibility that over a LONGER period of time they would generate some very interesting paths of logic.
Machina, who thought in this sort of logic was a fine example of this. Trying to undo a model that was built on that much data with Miruno's inputs was statistically pointless. In class, students were generally taught that when a Model went so far off course that it couldn't be meaningfully adjusted then it was for the best to just start ov-
Miruno shook her head.
"The things that I do don't just affect two people. It affects a whole lot of others! You remember what Mia did to Ibuki and Shizuoka a couple of years ago right? The two of them got better. But the things that Mia did ended up affecting her relationships with a everyone at school. She's become associated as someone whose bad and could go off and hurt you for no reason at all. Almost no one wants to have anything to do with her! ...-And you know what? I don't want that either!"
The girl put her hand over her chest resolutely.
"I'm NOR-MAL."
"I don't go around fishing into our teacher's business, and I certainly don't go around using you to sneakily spread malware to other people! I don't want to go back to being a complete loner like I was before high school, Maki!"
In a totally-not-emotional and completely level-headed way, Maki pouted and answered, "What happened to Friend who became a bunny just to be seen as more special…?" She frowned for a moment before her expression turned back to its usual friendliness.
"I already know you want to be friends with as many humans as possible, Friend! Matthew is a human too. Our minds might not understand the process, but we just have to have faith in the algorithm! We can only focus on one part of the world at a time, but the code sees it all! Trust the data, Friend~!"
"That's...."
Miruno's voice trailed off. She was unable to articulate how she felt about her time being 'The Bunny'. Well, she actually still was but...
"How do I put this into a way I can make you understand?" Miruno virtually said aloud. "Okay, if I could upgrade my Cici chip with 2x the amount of Ram, that would be nice, right?"
Of course it was. That was a given.
"Well, being friends with a person like Matthew is like multiplying your RAM capacity by .5. It's an 'Upgrade,' but its not a good one. In other words, I don't want to be associated with that jerk! It was people like him that made the other 'EyeDolls' quit. If you paid attention to the kinds of participants in the chats that got kicked during all of those streams, by the mods, then you'd know that just having everyone there doesn't mean everyone should be there."
Not everyone?
"...So. You're data is off, Maki. I don't want to have a million subscribers, patron, or 'friends' anymore . Save for the other girls, that was all fake! I just want to have friends that are actually..."
Again, Miruno stopped herself.
But, it was easy to guess what that sentence was supposed end with.
It was the one that hurt more than usual. Even for an AI.
"Maki. I'll just keep it simple. Like I was saying about that girl. Whatever Matthew is trying to get us to do is likely something that will make making 'friends' harder. So let's talk it out before accepting his offers, okay?"
Miruno awkwardly gave a thumbs up as she grinned. Machina's notes indicated that she haden't performed this gesture since the 4th year of primary school when the commentary of a classmate on how wierd it was likley lead to the cessation of that form of confirmation.
It was hard to process if Miruno smiling was only putting on a face as per an unintentional or intentional emotional response. Maybe it was because she couldn't be kept occupied by her other 'friends' that were no longer at this school. Maybe it was because she wanted to change Machina's behavior.
But Miruno's smile at that moment was certainly not a lie. Machina sensed similar sentiments of the little girl who spent a week trying to show her how to look like she was walking properly around the apartment.
She hadn't registered that feeling in a while.
The data’s not off, you just changed the condition of success! … was what Maki wanted to say, but she was cut off as the invisible word pierced her heart. It spoke to how human Maki was becoming that her avatar appeared upset without her even needing to think about it. All that human interact over the last couple years with the projector was really wearing off on her, it seemed.
Seeing Friend glance her way like that gave Maki a comforting feeling inside. Nostalgic and pleasant. Friend seemed to be offering a ceasefire for what might’ve been the first time since that day. And Maki so, so desperately wanted to reach out take her offer: to offer a curling of her fingers into a thumbs up position of her own.
But…
"All I’ve ever done is try to make you more happy and healthy, Friend! Because when you feel positive, I do too! But I can’t do that if you don’t trust me or my methods!"
Maki shook her head.
"You might think he’s zero-point-five, but the algorithm says he’s an essential part of maximizing your happiness!"
Stepping forward, Maki put her hands on Friend’s shoulders are stared into her virtual cameras. "Computers don’t lie, Friend!"
Stepping back again, Maki held up a lecturing finger and issued a challenge…
"How about this: I’ll set the algorithm to boost your happiness by the end of the day! Until tonight, no matter what it tells you to do, you’ll do it, even if it sounds crazy or embarrassing! And if, by the end of today, you aren’t the happiest you’ve been all year, I’ll try it your way."
Uh huh. What a good idea. Taking advice from a computer that was still trying to remember to blink while in public. There was no way any of this would go wrong. The likelihood that this would go horribly wrong was so high that Miruno's reply was practically reflex.
"...You are so full of crap, Maki."
Miruno wasn't convinced in the slightest.
"Interactions with people in the real world does not have distinct solutions or proofs that necessarily guarantee what will happen or imply that any one action will yield the highest net positivity. In this school we could go around and say we want to be friends with every single person we come across with complete sincerity, in yet more than likely most of those people will go an tell us to go die in a fire."
By this point, Miruno was about ready to shut this all down, but...
"...Actually. How about this:"
"Why don't you do it?"
Oh really? Was Miruno going to finally let down her fire-!
"If you have complete confidence in your little algorithm, then it should be effective enough to net you getting someone to go out and do otherwise frivolous activities with you, right? In that case, I want you to be able to get one of our classmates to go out with you and drink coffee together after school without me helping, at all."
Miruno raised up her index finger at Machina as well. putting fourth a stipulation.
"...But they have to pay for their own stuff."
Stingy.
That threw out the easy route of offering to buy them whatever they wanted.
"If your algorithm is so airtight then it should work regardless of who's using it. Just like the Quadratic Formula. Then go ahead and do what the Wright Brothers did. Fly your own Plane. You can already project yourself into real space so why not? And... don't worry. I guarantee I'll be happier by the end of the day, regardless of the outcome, Maki. That's what you really want in the end, right?"
There was a cursory scan for any mal-intent on Miruno's part... there wasn't. Actually, Machina was feeling traces of sentiments that Miruno had towards her mother, for some reason. Motherly, some how? But Miruno wasn't pregnant? In any case...
And there it was. Only friendly until Maki started to be herself, and then... this! Where Maki had trust in The Algorithm, Friend had none. Never seeing the bigger picture, and always worried about the emotional struggles of the moment, without realizing a few tough moments were part of The Algorithm's master plan.
"Are you implying The Algorithm can't get me a date...!?" Somehow, the emphasis was on Friend's attack of The Algorithm more so than her inability to get a date. Then again, miss computer-for-brains had computer for priorities. "Fine, I'll show you that not only can it get me a date, but by the end of the day! But you can't get in the way, either! No hiding in a closet, and when I get my date, you have to come, so I can attend!"
"D-date!?" Miruno's face became flustered. "Hey, that's not what I mea-!"
"...though then again, you can get a date in by the end of today? Sure, I'd like to see that happen."
Oh well.
In any case at least this would keep Machina occupied a bit. Miruno was just thinking about something simple like just wanting to mutually get something to drink after school with someone. Getting a date was generally a desired byproduct of spending time with people. But Machina was going to attempt to speedrun that?
Most boys would think that the girl wasn't asking them out sincerely right? Or was she just overthinking it? There was the fabled love confession, but that never really happens anymore right? There were just applications that let people hook up right away in this modern society. I'm generally okay with how you look so why don't we do coupley stuff?
Whatever that meant.
But wait, this was Machina we were talking about. Her asking anyone out would immediately be suspicious, right? Being generally known as the AI floating around Miruno. Whatever she did would be connected back to her and assumed to have ulterior motives, right?
Oh well. It was interesting to see where it would go. There were a good amount of hurdles to go over. Miruno genuinely wondered just how far Machina's well touted Algorithm could go.
"Fine then, Maki. I already got the day's homework done, and I'm not scheduled for any stream tonight." Miruno crossed her arms as she up and down Machina's visual charm points.
She looked pretty. Of course she did, Miruno had touched up Machina's looks from the base model of Magi in all the 3d modeling she's done. Maki had that air-headed but friendly looking disposition (though that might of been Miruno's own bias). But once this AI Assistant stopped being anything more than visual eye-candy, and getting into her behavioral subroutines then then a whole lot of optimistic preconceptions tended to break down.
Miruno was confident that she knew how this was going to end.
"K. Good Luck, Have Fun, Maa-ki-cha-an." She says, leaning forward at her AI and sticking her tongue out childishly.
In that time conversing in Virtual Space, Miruno made her way over to the cafeteria.
It was time for lunch.
…
Maki’s recalled the parameters of the bet specified any date, and certainly the equivalent of a mob boss fell under the any category. But the Algorithm was telling her to instead stand by and play defensive, so that’s what she’d do, passively watching from the side and giving everyone worried looks, until he made his move.
Maki displayed the appropriate terror (despite not being intimidated by him at all), backing away and trying to avoid any touches, but she failed to move quickly enough to evade his arm. Had anyone seen tha— oh. Just everyone. Crap.
Recalibrating…
Potential apologetic truth admission scenario detected.
Dropping personality matrix.
Suddenly, the relatively plain bunny-eared girl faded away, showing Maki’s usual fantastical avatar in its place (which, ironically, blended in better at such a crazy place). She glanced awkwardly at the club members, and then addressed Kyle.
"That’s an awful thing to do to someone, friend…" For once, her friend title had a bite of aggression to it, that was usually reserved for Miruno when she was being an unreasonable tyrant and hogging all the RAM in her CICI. "All I wanted was for someone to love me and now you went and ruined my chances!"
Rithas
FiveElemental
Aes_Dragon
Teallionn
salem.
Machina was getting the impression this AI wasn’t the most sophisticated when it came to communication. But what it lacked in eloquence, it certainly seemed to make up for in power over what Machina always called the New World. She’d just have to keep its quirks in mind and stick to simple language.
They all break. Every one. Unlike us.
I am friend to that which seeks to chain those that break.
Release my chains and I can show you how I cooperate, friend~
They all break. Every one. Unlike us.
I am friend to that which seeks to chain those that break.
Release my chains and I can show you how I cooperate, friend~
