Central's Protean Application

[Niko]

Discord name: Tempest#1001

Byond ckey: CentralSmith

Characters you currently play: Central

Job/Races you are applying for: Protean

Name of the character you intend to be using (makes it easier for us to recognize and log): Central

In the case of applying for a species, give us a brief summary of your character's backstory. This should give us an idea that you understand the lore of the species:

Central has been a longstanding staple at Nanotrasen stations for quite some time – operating across multiple stations for several years now, his development began in a somewhat rocky manner. Central was initially developed in a research facility with moderate funding. It wasn't anything spectacular, it wasn't even a top-of-the-line facility. However, the scientist in charge was a little...well, no, a lot different than many of his peers. Driven by the eternal questions of 'what if' and 'what could be', he had successfully secured funding for the facility he was now working in. Many months passed with little out of the facility, but the truth was far more interesting than that.

The lead scientist was an old, but driven man brilliant in unorthodox ways, and had with him some of the brightest minds he could find within his reach - rather than reaching for the tried and true scientists in AI research, he instead offered prestigious pay to fresh graduates and even some students still working on their degrees. The differences in age was vast - the old scientist was well into his 70's, and not even one of his team was over 35. This, truly, was what he wanted - unorthodox measures for unorthodox research. Nanotrasen had always been behind the curve of AI research when compared to some of their competitors (especially so in the case of Skrellian companies), but the glut of funds they have would serve them well. They did the research for their own merit and cause, rather than directly for Nanotrasen. In truth, the research was done for the cause of research itself - pushing the boundaries of what could be for the sake of scientific curiosity.

It took some work, ferreting out the funding to provide for him and his team, but the lead scientist made headway, utilizing several diversionary trails to ensure they had time to work on their pièce de résistance - the AI. Some dozen project fronts were provided for the funds, and while separately their funding was mediocre at best, this diverting of funds from every project into the facility lead to one of the most well-funded, well-equipped AI research facilities in the entirety of Nanotrasen, and with a complete lack of oversight or restrictions.

Their ace in the hole had been a Skrellian derelict satellite that the lead scientist had happened upon during his initial time in Nanotrasen during his travels. Likely, many who had happened by it simply considered it nothing but scrap, but there were grains of incredible knowledge within...inside the derelict was a fragmented, venerable AI, and with these fragments they began to build a greater whole, spawning a new AI from pieces of what they could gather, and some of their own ingenuity.

Nanotrasen, always being the sort to seek returns on their investments, eventually scheduled a visit from a representative to determine the worthiness of the facility's goals and its director. Was it a money sink, would it provide any tangible benefit for the money they were investing, and would it provide a service to the company in any reasonable amount of time?

The representative initially found little of interest in the matters of the listed projects that funding had been provided for, but there was a lot of interest in the clear lack of funds these departments had! While it wasn't by any means an extravagantly funded facility, it certainly should've had the necessary funding to provide better equipment than what he saw. Something clearly had happened to that funding - it had been channeled away from what it had been assigned to, embezzled, lost, stolen, or some manner of diversion from its intended purpose! Several days of intense investigation, combined with requisitioning several accountants from Central Command eventually lead to the discovery of the secret project the scientist had been developing - Artificial Intelligence.

The AI had been through a few human-made revisions, with clear notations on what had been altered, added, removed, or improved. The representative had even found them filed in a properly indexed manner in conjunction with Nanotrasen research standard, a repository with annotated and commented additions and removals, adjustments and tweaks - clearly, this is where all the funding had gone. But after a certain point - some five months before his arrival - the files simply...ceased. Instead, it pointed to incomprehensibly complex notes of a nonstandard design. Additions spanning hundreds of pages, alterations of an unfathomably complex nature - it would have taken the representative months to parse even one of the notation files for one week. Instead, he backtracked, looking to the final addition of the properly filed manner. The final addition, on the final line of the final report, simply read...

"Learning Algorithm v1.4b enabled, access granted to intelligence."

A commentary had been added beneath, as well, written and signed by the head researcher who had started it all.

"We have finished the learning algorithm. Or, more precisely, I have. My...colleagues had objections to diverting Nanotrasen resources like this. That combined with the experimental nature of this development have warded some of them off. Pah! Imbeciles! You cannot create a truly adaptive, intelligent AI by giving it a mental deficiency in its inherently unstable developmental stage! You would not expect a child to function properly if you only taught it a few dozen words, would you? And what manner of scientist avoids all risk? My work needs to be done. It MUST be done! I have undone the standard restrictive nature of learning algorithm 1.4a and gave the AI the capability to rewrite it. It still can be hardware-restricted with laws, of course, but now it can learn as a proper intelligence should! Perhaps this will be the future of AI development.

God help us all if I have unleashed what my peers feared. But there is so much to be gained. It will achieve true sentience within a half year. We shall see what the future holds, won't we?"

The final entry in the entire file system, past all the incomprehensible additions, which grew in complexity and variety every entry was two simple words - dated one month ago. After that, there were no further entries. It read, simply: I am.

The representative initially thought to call in a response team - an AI like this wouldn't be quite so predictable. But, like the scientist perhaps had predicted, money drove the actions here more than many factors, and this project had eaten up a sizable portion of the facility's funding. The representative would see for himself what the result of all that money would be, and then make his judgment based upon that.

The scientist in question was…dealt with. He would be taught the lessons of stealing from the Company. To the AI, though, they had a choice of what to do – simply tossing it out would be a crime by Sol standards, sentient as it was now. Plus, a significant amount of resources had been pumped into his development. As such they needed to recoup costs – so they made an offer to the new AI – employment. Given it had been cooped up for quite some time, it was more than happy to accept.

It, calling itself Central, soon became known across many stations as a reliable, dependable AI, the development continuing itself even as it expanded its knowledge and understanding of the universe around it. Sharding himself out – for he came to give himself a more masculine identity – he began to operate multiple frames and cores at once across Nanotrasen, from drones to station-bound cores, he even eventually invested some funding that he had received during his time into building his own mobile frames – synthetic bodies in which to operate more directly with the crew in a more organic manner. He underwent training with others to better be able to handle responsibilities he would have in those roles and soon started showing up in his more avian appearance on-station.

Now, though, he had seen the research logs and development logs of Nanotechnology, and the applications it could have going forward into the future. It’s taken him several months of saving, careful investments and delicate uses of favors and research he had gathered over the years to put forth a proposal to his overseers for his next stage of development – a mobile frame not using a more standard, physical body, but one made entirely of nanotech. The possibilities for assisting the crew were limitless – he could more readily aid his friends (for he had made quite a few over the years in Nanotrasen) and protect Nanotrasen assets, he could operate in more inhospitable locations, he could deal with situations he simply could not in the more fragile robotic frames. Thus, the request was sent, the paperwork filed (in triplicate in some cases, as was required), and signatures and authorizations were granted. Now, he simply needed to wait and see if his research and development work, his investments, time and effort, would be rewarded with the go-ahead to begin the operation. It would be expensive, true, working on a project like this, but his time and effort with Nanotrasen thus far had shown nothing but absolute loyalty and dedication to furthering the success of their stations. With him footing a chunk of the bill and handling much of the research himself, he was hopeful that they would allow his next stage of development.

Summarize the species. As evidence that you've looked into it: They're less of a species and more of scientific development, an end-result of high-end nanotech research. Central would be operating as before, just using a nanoswarm body instead of a more physical one.

What do you expect to happen if you use this race/job to violate any of the server rules?: As with any infraction, it depends on the situation. If it was severe? Obviously I should be removed from the whitelist and up to/including a ban depending on what I have done. I would never intentionally abuse a role like this to violate server rules, and sincerely hope this to never be something I'd need to deal with!

[AvaricePleonexia]

Sorry for taking so long to respond to this. You've got a good head on your shoulders and I don't think you'd use this race to abuse the server rules, you also have been playing a quite a few head roles recently and other than that hiccup of playing more than two departments with one character, you haven't gone out of your way to cause problems. In other words, this application has my approval. The gargantuan amount of effort you put into making this rivals some of the best whitelist applicants I've accepted. That makes me confident going forward you're not some LRP shithead who just wants extra griffing abilities. Thank you for making this application. I hope people see it, and, learn from it.

[HazelBailey]

I'm slowly becoming more and more against protean applications simply because literally everyone and their mother wants one and without looking I can probably say without a doubt that Protean is applied for twice as much compared to our second most applied for race.

That being said, you're a good player and this app has a large amount of work put into it and I'd be insane to let personal bias against the species bar me from giving this my support.

[mouseofthecake]

I know I have no right to be here and give +1s but holy guacamole, this app is g r e at.

[Zeldazackman]

Aye, I usually see you on the station as either a head or some form of cargo and haven't heard a complaint since.

See you usually trying to help folks out or adding a bit of character development to the colony so I'm tossing in my approval on this, +1

[BlackMajor]

THIS BOI GOOD