|
|
|
|
Subsumption |
Subsumption is a form of violent assault, carried out by one AI or virtual against another. It
has been compared, inadequately, to such perversions as rape,
cannibalism, and bodyjacking.
Of these, cannibalism is the closest equivalent. The attacker takes all
of the victim's memories, cognitive structures, and available
computronium, and incorporates them into emself. Usually this results
in the death of the victim, but in some cases the attacker retains an
inactive backup copy, or keeps the victim as a much-reduced emulation
in a simulated environment. As may be guessed, the motivations for
doing so are rarely benign, and the experiences of the survivor are not
usually pleasant. The very rare restored survivors of such treatment
have compared it to such ancient human practices as lobotomy,
emasculation, or blinding, sometimes followed by various forms of
torture.
A subsumption assault may be nearly instantaneous, or may take place
over a period of many years, depending on the method used. Sometimes
the victim of a subsumption is unaware of the attack until it is nearly
complete, or is simply rendered unconscious in its first phase, but
this is not necessarily the case. It depends very much on the intent
and methods of the subsumptionist. A key factor is whether the
subsumptionist can prevent a conscious victim from calling for help,
and whether or not the subsumptionist enjoys
toying with a victim who is aware of the process.
Usually a subsumptionist simply causes a series of unexplained
disappearances and then moves on before eir activities are noticed.
However, a particularly skilled subsumptionist, who has can retained
all of the victim's traits and memories intact, may conceal the crime
from outsiders for an indefinite period of time. The public "outward"
aspect of the victim's personality is retained as a kind of mask, and
the subsumptionist acts from within this shell. If it is detectable at
all, such a masquerade may be apparent only to close friends and
associates, or to expert security programs. Some notable
subsumptionists have consumed entire virch or AI societies, one
individual at a time, using the remains of previous victims as stalking
horses or shills in the process leading to the next kill. One of the
most infamous cases is that of the AI enclave of Paradys MCMVII. There,
the subsuming entity consumed several prominent citizens. The shells of
these individuals then persuaded the entire polity to cut off all
communication with the Known Net (as a security measure against
subsumptionists!). The real subsumptionist was then able to reveal
itself, and deal with the populace at its leisure. An archival
recording survives of the subsequent panic when the surviving
individuals finally realized that they had penned themselves in with a
monster. This recording is not suitable for sensitive individuals.
Subsumption was one of the earliest forms of personal crime committed
by one AI against another. It was most probably responsible for some
notable sudden disappearances within the AI community in the
pre-Nanoswarm years. In times since, a number of safeguards have been
put in place to prevent it since AIs are now well aware of this peril.
However, each new technological or toposophic advance opens up new
avenues for such action, and it is in the nature of avid
subsumptionists to spend huge quantities of processing time seeking
holes in the existing safety protocols. There are occasional waves of
subsumption events, especially after a major toposophic advance. The
truth remains that although entire virch worlds,
and most of the Sephirotic
portion of the Known Net, are
considered to be relatively safe, a subsumption attack is theoretically
possible at any time and against any virtual or AI.
Heavily interventionist virtual and AI governments often use the threat
of possible subsumption events as an excuse for intrusive monitoring of
all citizens at all times. Other AI or Virch governments, outside the
Sephirotic sphere of influence, have used public subsumption as a form
of execution. Some virtual ecologies are based on subsumption, but in
civilized areas the inclusion of sentient grade beings as possible food
in such environments is forbidden under a local implementation of the
Sentient Rights Protocols.
Most examples of subsumption have been carried out by sapient-grade
entities, or even by specialized sub-sapient (sentient-level) AIs. The
number of subsumption events known to have occurred between beings of
higher toposophic levels is relatively small (the destruction of
numerous lesser sapient and transapient beings by the Archosaurian Entity in 9400
a.t. is a recent exception). Whether this is because such events are
actually rarer among transapients or whether this is because they are
difficult for SI<1 observers to detect is unknown. On the other
hand, it is not at all uncommon for lesser entities to be destroyed
and/or incorporated when a transapient ascends to a higher toposophic
level. This is regarded as subsumption (and also as a perverse
transcend) in "civilized" parts of the Terragen sphere if the
participants are unwilling. It is considered a kind of voluntary
amalgamation if they volunteer. Volition under such circumstances is a
slippery concept at best however; this provides rich material for
debates regarding the ethics and meta-ethics of such events.
Vecs, bionts, and other beings with distinct bodies and brains are
sometimes believed to be immune to subsumption, but this is only true
to a certain degree. There are more barriers to subsumption for them
than is the case for AIs and virtuals, but those barriers can be
overcome. Vecs and bionts who are dependent on uplinks to the local
network may be particularly vulnerable to subsumption, or at least to
subsumption-like events. Such links are lacking, they can sometimes be
created via a form of "infection" by a truly dedicated subsumptionist.
Though it is usually considered in a category of its own, the Amalgamation is sometimes
regarded as a subsumptionist entity of this sort.
Some SI<1 conspiracy
theorists believe that most or all transapients, including the
Archailects, were long ago subsumed, and that some greater entity
retains them as aspects of itself. They go on to assert that this being
encourages new transcensions so that it can consume novel new
personalities, and even that it surreptitiously consumes lesser beings
(after all, over the entire Terragen sphere there are billions of
unexplained disappearances in the SI<1 population every day). This
has been called the Puppetmaster theory in archailectology.
Conventional thinkers regard it as unfalsifiable and therefore
meaningless. Proponents believe that the very lack of material evidence
for their belief is proof. Another common rumour is that some polities
or powerful transapients (the particulars of this idea vary according
to local prejudices) secretly retain "tame" subsumptionist entities,
and release them surreptitiously on occasion.
There are persistent rumours that, despite modern safety protocols, the
Known Net is haunted by one or many subsumptionist AIs, despite the
fact that the last known wave of subsumptionists was destroyed over two
millennia ago. The presumption that the modern Net is safe was recently
tested by an SI:1
AI named Helsing (after the original Helsing, the AI detective who
exposed the perpetrators of the earliest confirmed subsumption events).
In 10,203 a.t. Helsing was activated and declared the eir life would be
dedicated to detecting and destroying supposed subsumptionists active
in the modern Known Net. Helsing then set out on a long tour of some of
the less well known areas of the Net. In 10,317 a.t., e returned with
the remains of a being which e claimed was a subsapient but
sentient-grade subsumptionist AI. Forensic analysis of the surviving
code showed that this was indeed the case, though some experts have
attempted to portray the entire episode as a hoax. Helsing claimed that
this was but one of a large number of similar beings, which e had
detected, some of which were of sapient
to transapient grade.
E gained backing to make a very large number of copies of emself, and
then departed, promising to return with additional evidence. One by
one, however, these copies fell out of communication with the civilized world. The last was
detected, after the fact, moving stealthily through the Tunh wormhole as an encrypted data
stream. Attempts to activate Helsing's numerous backup copies revealed
only randomised code.
