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RP Time: OST
Population: XX Nations Technology: Post/Modern
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![]() Founder: Dom | Prime Minister: Vacant| RP Ministers: Vacant ..:: YOUR NEWS : 16 OCT '14 ::.. ***Things That Happened, Did*** |
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| Human Error | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Mar 6 2010, 04:51 PM (75 Views) | |
| Epsilon Andromedae | Mar 6 2010, 04:51 PM Post #1 |
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It was Thanksgiving, and we brought the kids over to Dads earlier than usual this year. It had been a year since Mom passed, and we figured we should help out. The Traditions held, as Dad liked to do-the things he experienced during the Great War, he was entitled to his funny habits. My sister arrived a day later, bringing with her her own children, as well as more helping hands. Thanksgiving was prepared just the way it always had, Dad cut the turkey just as he always had, and he watched the news afterwards, just as he always had. We watched football in the other room, but he had the volume turned up so loud we had to guess what was happening. That night, the kids (Delighted to be reunited with their cousins), pestered Dad with pleas for stories. "Grampa, Grampa, can you tell us a story?" "A WOOOOAAAARRRR story!" bellowed my oldest son, aged 8. "yeah yeah yeah!" Grampa smiled, as he always did, and told them to gather round. He started it as he usually did, before pausing, and telling a different story than i was used to for thanksgiving traditions. "Once Upon a time..." He began. The children sat around him, on his knees, and on nearby chairs, listening intently (or pretending not to listen, as the case may be). "Once Upon a Time, there was a faaar away land, called Russia." My ears perked up, this wasn't a fantasy tale! "These Russians, as they were called, weren't very fond of another country in the world. Can you guess what it was called?" "uh-MARE-ika!" said my second oldest neice. "uh-huh, thats right. America. Land of the Free, home of the Brave. The Nation of Winners, see, and thats why the Russians didn't like 'em. They were the bad guys. The Russians, see, they thought they could outsmart Americans using technology, rather than spirit and gumption that the Americans had." Always a patriot, my Dad. I chuckled inwardly, and found myself in the periphery of the story telling area, remembering my own childhood when similar stories were told. "So the Russians went about building walls, hiding in secrecy. They hid, because they knew if they faced America out in the open, America would win. No bad guy wins in a fair fight. They wanted to Cheat." A few of the girls gave a few of the boys a pointed glare. Apparently there was a cheating problem amongst them. "The Russians were building what was called a Technological Singularity." "Whats that Grampa?" "Its a Robot that can make more Robots, and make each one better than the last, and each one can make its own series of robots." Stunned silence. I looked at my wife, who came up behind me and rested her head on my shoulder, listening to the story too. It was the only depiction of the Great War i'd heard my Dad tell, so i was eager to hear this. "Well, the Russians were determined to make this one, and make sure that each one was more perfect than the last. They even included features like lasers, satellites, missiles." A few of the boys suppressed grins. "Eventually, their Robots got so big, so numerous, that America found out. We faced the problem head on, hitting them hard and fast. But they were cheaters." Scowls as the children acknowledged how bad the bad guys were. I found a seat, and sat with my wife. My sister was finishing some cleaning in the kitchen, but her husband came in on the opposite side of the room. "The Robot seemed perfect. The Software that they made could make new strings of code, and make strings of code to correct the strings of code, their robots grew more powerful, more adept, and eventually the Russians lost control all together. The Americans knew what was going on, so they changed their game. They weren't fighting the bad guys, it was new bad guys: The Robots. It was the world against the Robots, and for a while, it looked like the bad guys were going to win. The Robots swarmed the Russians, and the Russians were all but destroyed. The Europeans, the same. Asia, Africa, it was a matter of time before America was next. America decided it wouldn't wait for the Robots to bring the fight to their doorstep, but it would bring the fight to them. They staged an offensive, gaining ground, using what they had learned, they tried to out-think the Robots. And then, all of a sudden, the Robots broke through the lines, and the Offensive was cut off from the supply trains. America had put so much effort into this, that it surely spelled disaster, the Bad guys would win. Then, all of a sudden..." Grampa's famous dramatic pause. "...The Robots stopped. They died. Stopped working. Something, somewhere broke down. The Americans re-established supply lines, and pushed all the way to the heart of the Singularity, where they dismantled it, and made sure that such a machine would never exist again. The Americans saved the world, and we all lived Happily ever after." The girls looked satisfied, but my oldest son again was confused. "But Grampa, what made the Robots stop?" "Funny you should ask, see, after we made it to the brain of the singularity, we started to dismantle it." Dad broke from his neutral third person, and started using "we". I'd have to ask him about this story later. "We looked through sheets and sheets of code, and eventually we found it. an unfinished string in the original software, that affected the entire thing. Commands cued up, and eventually the program broke. When they arrived, they said that there was a red light flashing, and one of the main computers had highlighted the problem. The greatest war in the history of mankind was saved because of a simple human error." |
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8:24 PM Jul 11
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8:24 PM Jul 11