citylogs | [OPEN MINGLE]

WHO: Everyone! It's a mingle!
WHAT: Discussing recent reveals about the simulation
WHERE: Pairidaeza Architectural Studio
WHEN: Feb 3rd morning to evening
WARNINGS: Potential existential crises, discussions of death, memory manipulation, basically everything to do with their actual situation in a simulated environment.

[The actual setup within the garage-turned-studio is away from all the actual workbenches.

On one folding table are copies of multiple documents available around the X: The main document is a summary of a resident from a prior iteration that's clearly been redacted via scanning copies with stuff blocked out. Additionally are copies of the most recent newsletter with the memo on the back and photos of the hotel journal printed in black and white.

Lined up on another folding table away from the one with the documents is an array of finger foods: hummus, chutneys, and yoghurt dips with a variety of sliced vegetables, cheeses, cold cuts, and fresh pita bread. cardamom cookies, panipuri, and both vegetable and chicken samosas take up the other side. Mint water and fresh juice are in pitchers to the center. It's actually a little crowded.

Chairs are set up in small grounds and around the document table. And finally, a whiteboard has been rolled in for people to make use of in group discussions.]

((This is a mingle, so everyone is encouraged to threadjack, make toplevels, etc prior plot mingles have been done. Alhaitham and Kaveh will be around and participating but not taking the lead beyond making sure people stay orderly in the studio and have enough papers.

If you character has discussed the simulation with either Kaveh or Alhaitham, you can also handwave they texted them directly about it.))

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Alhaitham tilts his head just slightly towards Kaveh, but doesn't remove his gaze from the whiteboard.]

That depends how deep their neuron wipe goes. Would they really want us to remember every iteration of we were removed from the simulation?

It's a limit to technology more than it is a limit to their ethics, isn't it? We already know that the technology isn't perfect. It's possible to recall. What burden would that be on the mind, and in what shape will our bodies be in if we were to disconnect from this simulation? Or would returning to our bodies be akin to cramming twenty knowledge capsules into the mind in one go?

I can think of non-ethical reasons someone wouldn't want us to be able to remember everything they've put us through. [Or go temporarily mad from the overwhelm. The Akasha system is disabled, but that didn't mean some students over its lifetime didn't try to misuse it for as rapid an acquirement of knowledge as possible.]

But we don't know how many iterations they use us individually. Some of these names definitely haven't been around for this one, and the reference indicates that between CE-34 and CE-41 this specific resident wasn't included. There's a difference between an extra year or two's worth of memories and fourty year's worth.

[ that's the issue, kaveh thinks, of tools that are beyond the scope of what humanity is capable of comprehending. the use-cases for them never fall within imagined limits. sumeru has a list of taboos. there has always been a reason for lines to be drawn in the sand. ]

That doesn't discount the possibility of information overload. If we truly are planning on finding and returning to our real bodies, the safest way is to figure out what might be the ramifications of the largest possible sum of memories being returned. [ a beat. ] There is also the possibility that the oldest residents, the ones who have been used for the most number of iterations, have bodies that are no longer in usable condition, or those with too many memories should not return to their bodies because of overload. We have to be careful. That's all I'm saying.

There's no safe way to figure out the ramifications unless that's among the data that these researchers have recorded and we can get access to it. The rate we're finding details is too slow to move forward without making some assumptions. If we really want to know more, then we need a way to break into at least the rest of the information on the server this simulation is on. And we need to keep them from ending this iteration.

[Which are all true limitations of their ability to be cautious.] I'd much prefer to have a full picture of what we're getting into, but realistically someone is going to have to take a larger risk.

I know, I know. [ kaveh says, because all architects are gamblers of the most egregious degree, the sort that calculate the odds to the thinnest possible margin, and then willingly choose to take that leap of faith. kaveh is used to leaping. he is used to leaping alone.

he looks at alhaitham. ] Will you take on that risk?

Aren't you? [Because Kaveh wouldn't let anyone else carry a burden that he himself will. And Alhaitham will do the risk assessment and decide the potential gain is greater than the potential loss.]

Someone needs to be on the other side of this. Are we not more than capable?

Of course I will. Of course we are. [ kaveh says, as soft as dust: because kaveh had decided long ago that he would take the leap.

alhaitham is ever with him. this is, he realises, the first time he's known it so. ]

I'd rather it be me. I'd rather it be us.

Then let's do it together. [Alhaitham's fingers reach. They brush against Kaveh's before taking hold of his hands.

Together, and not apart. Not two separate paths that might happen to go the same way, but two that are walked parallel on purpose.]

[ there had been a single, striken line from kaveh's well-worn sketchbook. kaveh still remembers it, the looping handwriting steeped in so much optimism and hope. 'our views are aligned, and they are complete'.

it seems inconceivable that kaveh has made it to now, the time of existence wherein that line has become a shared path which two men may walk to the very bitter end. kaveh's fingers twine with alhaitham's. he holds him there; he holds himself there. kaveh laughs. ]

Together. One, benighted end, but also the brightest way forward. I have far more faith in our ability to make them regret putting forth such an inane puzzle before us than their ability to stop us. [ kaveh's fingers squeeze. ] Alhaitham, I am furious.

Aren't you always, about one thing or another? [Alhaitham's hands squeeze once.] Then let's start with the data that's leaking. Since I was right that these files were a result of incompetence, what are you thoughts about turning that to our advantage?

[ kaveh makes a face. ]

I'm thinking it's about time we try to communicate with these fools.

Something more bold than hiding notes where they'd left them?

Far bolder. I was thinking of a broadcast. Sound - given how heavily we are monitored, impossible to misinterpret. We have the sound equipment from the gala, and there are other sets available throughout the city that we can link together to have simultaneous broadcasts.

[OPEN MINGLE]

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