Post by Kick-Start on Jun 11, 2015 18:47:19 GMT
Ratchet looked down at the captured Vehicon Mark Two, aka the Vee-Two on his table. It was on standby, and completely docile. Its capture hadn't been easy; the Vee-Two series seemed to prefer death to capture, clearly not wanting their technology to fall into enemy hands.
It would take somebody of his intelligence to analyze its build and coding at all, and no small amount of luck to find out the things he had. He looked up at Rodimus Prime's approach, glad to have somebody to report his findings to.
"What have you found out?" Rodimus asked him.
"Well, for a start it's a work of art," Ratchet told him, "The physical design is excellent, as too many Autobot bodies can lay testament to. But the coding... well, it's genius."
"What does that mean?" Rodimus asked.
"These things aren't pure drones. They've been given a... well, a personality. One painstakingly developed to remain perfectly loyal under any circumstances, to the Decepticon leader and the Decepticon cause. They know that they are clones, and think nothing of it, eradicating any risk of dissent. And because it's a 'personality', rather than throwing themselves randomly at our troops, they think. They can make decisions. Look here..."
He pressed a button and something opened - the Spark Chamber, in theory. It had a glowing chip in it.
"See that? It makes our current RNGs look like four-sided dice. It's not intelligence or true free will, but you'd have to look more than twice to know it - it even gives off a similar signal to a Spark. Previously to this capture, we had no way of tracking them. Now we can... I hope."
"Well, I guess that's something... is there anything else?" Rodimus asked.
"There's the fact that since they don't have Sparks, this is almost ethical," Ratchet admitted, "I'd suggest we used the programming to develop our own foot soldiers, except for the Three Laws Start-up protocol I found..."
Rodimus looked on, fascinated.
"As soon as the mech is... awakened... three laws kick into action," Ratchet told him, "They're simple, but effective. "Law one: A Vee-Two may not injure the present leader of the Decepticons, or, through inaction, allow the present leader of the Decepticons to come to harm.
That would be Lord Backbeat right now, but it means if the Decepticons exchanged leaders then the Vee-Twos wouldn't be divided..."
He kept going, "Law Two: A Vee-Two must obey the orders given it by a Decepticon, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
And Law Three: A Vee-Two must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. The kick in on the very moment of activation. They are the basic controls on which a Vee-Two's decisions are made. And I suppose they could be reinterpreted, or rewritten. Except for one thing..."
"What one thing?"
"It's super-coded; I only knew it actively existed at all through pure luck," Ratchet told him, "The Three Laws kick in when a Vee-Two starts working. But the Vee-Two won't even start working without this law... "Law Zero: Mother Is God."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that this law is the true base for the decisions of a Vee-Two. Even while this Vee-Two is in standby, it's active. It's simple. It's concise. The other laws could be interpreted based on what one considers 'harm' and 'conflict'. Not this one. Mother Is God. Even the Vee-Two wouldn't be consciously aware of it, because it's active before they even turn on."
"So... 'Mother' can override any command for any reason?" Rodimus guessed, "If it's that deep, I bet they didn't want it to be found too quickly. Why don't you remove it and then make it into an Autobot foot-soldier?"
"Because it's what's known as 'stabilization' coding. Even if you can take it out - not a job for the faint of spark - you affect about two-billion lines of code in completely unpredictable ways. You might not know how until it's too late. You'd have to go through endless code to make sure there aren't any remnants. But if we leave it in..."
"...we'd risk cloning ourselves an army that would turn on us with a single command."
Ratchet slammed the panels shut in agreement, "Rodimus. This is a personality for the perfect foot-soldier. But I can't modify it without 'Mother'."
It would take somebody of his intelligence to analyze its build and coding at all, and no small amount of luck to find out the things he had. He looked up at Rodimus Prime's approach, glad to have somebody to report his findings to.
"What have you found out?" Rodimus asked him.
"Well, for a start it's a work of art," Ratchet told him, "The physical design is excellent, as too many Autobot bodies can lay testament to. But the coding... well, it's genius."
"What does that mean?" Rodimus asked.
"These things aren't pure drones. They've been given a... well, a personality. One painstakingly developed to remain perfectly loyal under any circumstances, to the Decepticon leader and the Decepticon cause. They know that they are clones, and think nothing of it, eradicating any risk of dissent. And because it's a 'personality', rather than throwing themselves randomly at our troops, they think. They can make decisions. Look here..."
He pressed a button and something opened - the Spark Chamber, in theory. It had a glowing chip in it.
"See that? It makes our current RNGs look like four-sided dice. It's not intelligence or true free will, but you'd have to look more than twice to know it - it even gives off a similar signal to a Spark. Previously to this capture, we had no way of tracking them. Now we can... I hope."
"Well, I guess that's something... is there anything else?" Rodimus asked.
"There's the fact that since they don't have Sparks, this is almost ethical," Ratchet admitted, "I'd suggest we used the programming to develop our own foot soldiers, except for the Three Laws Start-up protocol I found..."
Rodimus looked on, fascinated.
"As soon as the mech is... awakened... three laws kick into action," Ratchet told him, "They're simple, but effective. "Law one: A Vee-Two may not injure the present leader of the Decepticons, or, through inaction, allow the present leader of the Decepticons to come to harm.
That would be Lord Backbeat right now, but it means if the Decepticons exchanged leaders then the Vee-Twos wouldn't be divided..."
He kept going, "Law Two: A Vee-Two must obey the orders given it by a Decepticon, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
And Law Three: A Vee-Two must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws. The kick in on the very moment of activation. They are the basic controls on which a Vee-Two's decisions are made. And I suppose they could be reinterpreted, or rewritten. Except for one thing..."
"What one thing?"
"It's super-coded; I only knew it actively existed at all through pure luck," Ratchet told him, "The Three Laws kick in when a Vee-Two starts working. But the Vee-Two won't even start working without this law... "Law Zero: Mother Is God."
"What does that mean?"
"It means that this law is the true base for the decisions of a Vee-Two. Even while this Vee-Two is in standby, it's active. It's simple. It's concise. The other laws could be interpreted based on what one considers 'harm' and 'conflict'. Not this one. Mother Is God. Even the Vee-Two wouldn't be consciously aware of it, because it's active before they even turn on."
"So... 'Mother' can override any command for any reason?" Rodimus guessed, "If it's that deep, I bet they didn't want it to be found too quickly. Why don't you remove it and then make it into an Autobot foot-soldier?"
"Because it's what's known as 'stabilization' coding. Even if you can take it out - not a job for the faint of spark - you affect about two-billion lines of code in completely unpredictable ways. You might not know how until it's too late. You'd have to go through endless code to make sure there aren't any remnants. But if we leave it in..."
"...we'd risk cloning ourselves an army that would turn on us with a single command."
Ratchet slammed the panels shut in agreement, "Rodimus. This is a personality for the perfect foot-soldier. But I can't modify it without 'Mother'."