outer_divide | Video, Week 38, Monday

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Video, Week 38, Monday

[Screen turns on to show Trance, and her bonsai. And she does not look happy. ]

Well, that didn't work at all, did it...

Briar? Does anyone know Briar? I'm afraid I disappeared on him. I'm sorry if I alarmed him. I really didn't mean to do that. That shouldn't have happened at all.

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I didn't, but one of my crew did.

That sounds like as good of a theory as any, to me. But like I said, most of this stuff is above my paygrade.

I wonder if you'll ever get to meet Andromeda. She's the AI of our ship.

Why do you put yourself down like that? There's nothing stopping you from venturing further into learning and understanding it, is there? If the universe presents you with the opportunity, why don't you take it?

Is that normal where you're from? I mean, my ship has an AI too, but it's not exactly standard.

I wasn't putting myself down. I have strengths in specific areas, and quantum mechanics just isn't one of them. It takes all kinds of people to make the world go around, and as soon as you need something shouted at or killed, I'm your woman. Until then, the brainiacs can do their thing, and I'm happy to let them do it.

It was. About 300 years ago. It's much more rare now. Civilization collapsed, and integrating AI's went with it. The common AI's are nothing more than computers, without an intelligence behind them.

[Trance smiled]

That's good. I'm not very good at shouting at people.

...Huh. Something kind of similar happened in my universe, though the collapse of civilization was pretty directly related to certain AI. Now AI research is considered illegal by galactic standards, though it still happens. [She looks a little troubled by this revelation that the "cycle" might exist beyond the collective realities she and hers come from]

You haven't heard of the Reapers, have you?

[Trance smiled rather knowingly.]

You might find that there are many similarities between universes. Sometimes we do have more in common than just gravity, other times, not.

Should I be familar with Reapers?

[Trance non-answered.]

If you were from my universe; absolutely. Any other universe I would hope didn't go through the same thing. They're sentient machines, programmed to harvest civilizations.

Such things exist in my universe as well, and undoubtedly others. Each are different, the Magog are not machines, although the end result is the same.

Technically the Reapers aren't exactly machines, either. They use the... genetic material of the civilizations they harvest, convert it for use in creating more Reapers, mixed with the technology that they were first created with.

[she looks honestly a mix between sick and furious when she describes that process. It makes her angry every time she thinks about how this has been going on for millions of years, and that it is going on in other universes is even worse.]

I hope the end result is people realizing what monsters are lurking in the edges of space and eradicating them, across the board.

That's disgusting and horrible!

The Magog are similar. They infest sentient beings with their eggs, which eat their way through you as they grow and hatch. They feed on living beings. You know, they can only start the digesting process if they kill their prey first?

But still, I did know a good Magog. He was very good. A Brother. The wisest man I know. Perhaps they all aren't without hope?

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Video, Week 38, Monday

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