Architect ants were the brainchild of precocious roboticist Gi Young. An experiment in emergent behavior and programming, they were designed to autonomously create cave-complexes suited for transhuman life. During the Fall Young was killed, his startup company dispersed, and control of the ants was lost.
Since the Fall the ants have been doing what they were made to do: tunneling out cavern systems suitable for transhuman habitation. The ants are no longer produced and cannot produce more of themselves, but were designed to be virtually indestructible and energy efficient.
The ants do not create their caverns from pre-made plans, but, just like real ants, from a simple set of rules resulting in the construction of cave systems. The largest complexes exist within the TITAN Quarantine Zone, although many can still be found near the borders. There are also a few complexes, fully inhabited, on Luna. These complexes consist of smoothly curved, circular tunnels interspersed with hemispherical domes of various sizes.
The ants themselves are one meter long, with an ant-like body, tool-mandibles, and are colored yellow and black.
Mechanics
Architect ants can be treated as walking automechs.
Showing posts with label wild artificials. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wild artificials. Show all posts
Thursday, October 15, 2015
Thursday, April 16, 2015
106. Colonial Swarms
Despite the continuing fears, it has proven to be difficult to create nanoswarms that will last long once released from their hive. Guardian swarms, power loss, fluids, sticky substances, magnetic fields, radiation, stray cosmic rays and even the occasional ravenous amoeba steadily whittle down their numbers. It is to the consternation of many nano-engineers, then, that an unknown designer has successfully created and released a wild artificial nanoswarm: autonomous, reproducing, and stable.
The swarms seem to be modeled on honeybee colonies. They created hives: spheres of foamed plastic through which the nanites can percolate. The hives are riddled with microscopic bubbles, sealed vacuums that are excellent environments in which they can replicate. Larger bubbles will contain stores of usable feedstock. The hive will also contain a much larger space towards its center, commonly called the conference center. The nanites gather en masse, using their lidar to signal each other, exchanging information on sources of feedstock and energy, making decisions democratically, like bees.
Plot Hook: Scavengers occasionally raid colonial swarm hives for small but pure portions of elemental feedstock. One man is found dead of an apparent disassembler attack, apparently in the middle of breaking into a particularly large hive. Firewall believes the colonials have either been corrupted by TITAN-tech or evolved their own defenses; either way, the players are tasked with the investigation.
The swarms seem to be modeled on honeybee colonies. They created hives: spheres of foamed plastic through which the nanites can percolate. The hives are riddled with microscopic bubbles, sealed vacuums that are excellent environments in which they can replicate. Larger bubbles will contain stores of usable feedstock. The hive will also contain a much larger space towards its center, commonly called the conference center. The nanites gather en masse, using their lidar to signal each other, exchanging information on sources of feedstock and energy, making decisions democratically, like bees.
Plot Hook: Scavengers occasionally raid colonial swarm hives for small but pure portions of elemental feedstock. One man is found dead of an apparent disassembler attack, apparently in the middle of breaking into a particularly large hive. Firewall believes the colonials have either been corrupted by TITAN-tech or evolved their own defenses; either way, the players are tasked with the investigation.
Monday, February 23, 2015
54. Settlers of Mars
The settlers of Mars can be found almost anywhere. Perched on a ridge overlooking a patrol route, posed menacingly in cul-de-sacs along small canyons, or gathered around a broken vehicle, they are designed to appear human at a glance. Part emerging ruster cultural tradition and part Barsoomian psych-ops, the settlers are created to fool Martian surveillance with false returns, wear-down Consortium agents with paranoia, and scatter visions of "Mars for Martians" across the planet.
A settler is typically created in one of two ways. The old-fashioned create theirs with scrap metal, welding together humanoid structures, sometimes with simple animatronics. Newer methods use protean swarms, programming complex scenes then leaving the swarm to cook the Martian regolith into iron. These models are usually robotic, maintaining simple routines and incorporating heating and fake communications elements designed to create false positives in long-distance surveillance.
The robots are positioned in ways that can serve two purposes. They may display scenes of free Barsoomian life, of what life under a victorious Barsoomian movement would be like. Otherwise, they are designed to scare, appearing as convincing as possible, striking menacing poses against the horizon or be suddenly revealed in hidden corners. Many Martian Rangers have a story about panicking and shooting a settler, or of waking up to find their tent surrounded by silent iron figures.
Plot Hook: A bright young Barsoomian engineer has plans to create self-perpetuating settlers that would reproduce across Mars. This unbounded spread is itself a potential X-risk for Mars, but Firewall's true fear is how the self-perpetuating technology will interact with the remnants inside the Titan Quarantine Zone. Contaminated by TITAN agents, the settlers might become very real.
A settler is typically created in one of two ways. The old-fashioned create theirs with scrap metal, welding together humanoid structures, sometimes with simple animatronics. Newer methods use protean swarms, programming complex scenes then leaving the swarm to cook the Martian regolith into iron. These models are usually robotic, maintaining simple routines and incorporating heating and fake communications elements designed to create false positives in long-distance surveillance.
The robots are positioned in ways that can serve two purposes. They may display scenes of free Barsoomian life, of what life under a victorious Barsoomian movement would be like. Otherwise, they are designed to scare, appearing as convincing as possible, striking menacing poses against the horizon or be suddenly revealed in hidden corners. Many Martian Rangers have a story about panicking and shooting a settler, or of waking up to find their tent surrounded by silent iron figures.
Plot Hook: A bright young Barsoomian engineer has plans to create self-perpetuating settlers that would reproduce across Mars. This unbounded spread is itself a potential X-risk for Mars, but Firewall's true fear is how the self-perpetuating technology will interact with the remnants inside the Titan Quarantine Zone. Contaminated by TITAN agents, the settlers might become very real.
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