Ohio State University Buckeyes men's (and occasionally women's) basketball.
I'm impatient and couldn't be bothered to find a way on foot to access the top level of the hanging city since those "elevator shafts" with the gravity shifting walls that you can walk up are broken near the top. Instead, I flew my ship into the middle of Brittle Hollow and up through the hanging city. The first time I did this, I had already gone to the forge controls and raised it up. Then I flew my ship up after the forge looking for a way to land up there, and was pleasantly surprised to find that the ceiling is actually a floor with those fancy gravity altering panels. Sadly I made that discovery like 30 seconds before the sun super novas. So I went right back and did the same thing, but now the gravity altering panels on the ceiling aren't powered up and I can't land upside down on the inside of the planet anymore. (Yes I know that's hard to follow, but this game is very trippy.) Anyone know what gives?
[Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3] [Part 4] [Part 5] [Part 6] [Part 7] [Part 8] [Part 9] [Part 10] [Part 11] [Part 12] [Part 13] [Part 14] I opened my eyes and blinked under the rays of the hot summer sun. My eyes adjusted and I realized I was on a boat, a familiar Sea Ray Sundancer. My uncle was at the wheel, my father standing next to him.
No. No, no, no. Not this. I tried to open my mouth to scream, but I couldn’t move, I couldn’t speak.
They were speaking calmly, but I could sense they both were anxious.
“It’s been getting worse, Denny,” my uncle said. His voice was almost unrecognizable to me, far from that of the jovial uncle who was always good for a laugh. He looked as though he hadn’t slept in days.
“She gets a kick out of spooking you, that’s all,” my father said, trying to reassure his brother, but not quite convincing himself.
“No, no. This isn’t just the occasional dead cat. I’ve been
seeing her. In my house, at work, nowhere near the motel. I…I…think I’m losing it.”
“What about Martina? Has she noticed anything different?”
“You know she doesn’t know about
her.”
“Yes, I know. But nothing different around the cottages?”
Hearing my father speak of these things, a voice from my innocent past speaking of terrors that now haunted my life—it was jarring to say the least.
“Nothing different. Denny, her laughter. It’s everywhere. Every time I close my eyes, I hear it. She wants…she wants me…oh god, I can’t even say it.”
“She wants you to end your life.”
Uncle Jim looked at his brother in surprise.
“I’ve heard her too,” my dad whispered.
My body shook in its invisible prison.
Dad, no. “We need to tell Nora.” My uncle said.
“No, Jim.”
“You know it. You know she always finishes what she’s started. When we’re gone…Nora’s next. We have to warn her.”
My father leaned against the side of the boat, his face a mask of anguish.
“You’re right,” he said. “We should have told her years ago.”
The buzz of the boat’s motor increased and the boat began to speed forward, accelerating rapidly. Uncle Jim desperately grabbed at the throttle, trying to shift it, but it wouldn’t budge. The steering wheel spun out of his hands as though it was being controlled by an invisible force. My father tried to wrest it back into his control, but it too could not be moved by the men in the boat.
The boat continued to accelerate, bucking up and down on the water violently before finally swerving, hitting a shoal with great speed. I was utterly helpless as I watched my uncle’s skull shatter in the windshield. My father was launched out of the craft, I heard his neck snap as it made contact with the hull.
Their mangled bodies still seared into my mind, I found myself in a cold, damp room, sobbing on the packed dirt floor, my body once again my own. I sat up, a wave of dizziness passing through me.
I was pretty sure I was underneath Bellevue Castle, in the unfinished wine cellar, familiar from the numerous tours I had taken there as a kid. The cellar was filled with barrels of old building supplies, still in the same spot they were when the lovelorn (or perhaps bankrupt) owner called a stop to construction, over a century ago. In the opposite corner, however, there was something that wasn’t there in the tourist season.
Jake was huddled on the ground, unconscious, silver collar around his neck, his body laced with new, raw-looking scars, as though he had been scourged or cut.
I rushed over to him and began to shake his shoulder. He moaned.
“Here, let me take this off,” I said, fiddling with the silver collar. He winced; his eyes fluttered open.
“Nora?” He said, dazed.
“Don’t try to talk, I’ve almost got it off.”
“No,” he said weakly, grabbing my wrist. “No, no, don’t. Please!”
With a final twist, the collar clanged to the floor. But this only made Jake more agitated.
“Nora, put it back on. Put it back on and get out of her. Please, I’m begging you. Get as far away from me as possible.”
“What are you talking about?” I cried. “I’m not going to torture you.”
He took the collar, but dropped it with a moan as his hand burned at the contact.
“Run!” he shouted. He staggered backwards, and I could see the tell-tale signs of transformation. But this time, his eyes began to glow, his mouth lengthening into the snarl of the wolf twisted almost into a smile. The half-shifted creature before me laughed.
“Too late now, girl,” it growled. I bolted to the stairs, the grunts and howls of the final throes of transformation behind me. I climbed the stairs with speed I didn’t know I possessed, slamming the door behind me. The wolf threw itself against it, buckling the wood with a sickening crack.
I was in the castle’s recreated kitchen. Frantically, I threw down the elegant copper molds that lined the walls, hoping to slow down the creature’s pursuit. The cellar door gave way just as I fled the kitchen in to a grand dining room. My eyes immediately fixed themselves on the elaborately set table, ready for an Edwardian feast and my heart leapt with hope.
Such a meal would never be served without the finest of silver.
I scooped up the numerous utensils set before the nearest place setting, stuffing oyster forks, fish knives, butter knives, bouillon spoons, tea spoons and anything else I could fit into my jacket pockets. The door behind me shattered, and the wolf came barreling towards me. I hopped up on the table and flung a giant silver soup tureen at him, hitting him on the chest with a howling hiss.
“Sorry, Jake,” I muttered as I ran into the front hallway. I pulled at the carved wood door leading outside, but it was locked, bolted with a padlock for the winter. Behind me was the grand staircase of gilded oak and marble. My only way forward was up. I knew the wolf would not be far behind me, once he had shaken off his temporary debilitation.
I ran up the stairs, up one flight, now two. The restored Gilded Age luxury of the first floors morphed into a dilapidated, unfinished area of exposed beams and plaster, covered with decades-worth of graffiti. The wolf was in pursuit once more; I could hear the scratching of its claws on the marble of the stairs, making his way upwards. I turned around.
The wolf crouched some feet below me, grinning, far closer than I had thought. I pulled out a few silver forks and threw them at him, sprinkling more on the stairs between us. The wolf howled with dismay. My eye caught a long ladder leading up to the turret. Without further thought, I raced towards it, pulling myself upwards while unsheathing the knife at my belt. The wolf had shaken off the silver and was at the bottom of the ladder. I tossed my last handful of silver spoons at him, hitting him in the snout which bought me enough time to put more space between us.
I could see the opening to the turret above me. But just as I managed to get my upper body through, a claw grasped my boot. With all my strength I kicked at it, to no avail. I lowered my right arm and slashed at it with my knife. The claw released its grip and I dragged the rest of my body through the opening. The wolf snarled at me and he poised himself to jump. I pushed the ladder away and he fell to the ground. Now in the turret room, I saw a large metal filing cabinet against the wall and brought it down over the opening below with a tremendous bang that gave way to silence, revealing the ferocity of my haggard breathing.
I took a step backward into something cold, the parts of my body that had come into contact with it tingling unpleasantly. I turned around.
The witch stood before me, smiling that terrible smile, her eyes like coals. She was draped in thin, almost transparent, black silk, her body a corpselike gray. Her hair hung to her knees, wreathed in the brittle, dead leaves of late winter. I stumbled away from her, my back hitting the walls of the stone turret behind me, a large, arched window with a several stories fall my only escape.
“Girl,” she hissed, her voice a crackling flame. “I do not believe we have been properly introduced.”
“You need no introduction,” I said bitterly.
She laughed, the cadence about as pleasant as scraping paper with a broken pencil.
“Many mortals call me a witch. Is that what you think I am?”
“I think that’s a mere euphemism for what you are.”
“Smart little cow.”
She smiled slyly and perched herself on the ledge of the window, one bare leg draped over the side.
“I was once a girl like you. I danced before Baal at the dawn of men. I was found worthy. I became much, much more than a sentient pile of meat. My name was worshiped by emperors and queens. Generals and high priests prostrated themselves before me and offered me sacrifice. I am
triodia, enodia, brimo, indalimos, chthonia. I am Hecate.”
At the utterance of her name, she raised her hand, and my body began cramping in agony. With ease, she moved aside the filing cabinet I had pushed over. The wolf came crawling up the ladder, eyes still a possessed green, no sign of Jake within them. He crept over to Hecate and she patted his head, pleased at my anguished expression.
“Now we are only waiting for our mutual friend,” she said. From below, I heard a splashing in the water. I could see René climbing out of the river and over the fence leading to the castle grounds. He was waterlogged, filthy, and nearly frozen, his jacket gone, his shirt torn and bloodied in several places, indicating he had received and healed from several wounds in his struggle.
Hecate smiled coldly. She stood and, with an almost imperceptible motion, we were thrown out of the window on the back of a great burst of air, only partially cushioning my body from the fall. I hit the ground violently and my shoulder exploded into pain. I vomited. Hecate made some sound of disgust at my side. Her feet were bare on the frozen ground, but even in the barrenness of winter, earthworms burrowed upwards to writhe against her toes.
René made a move to approach me, but Hecate raised her hand for him to halt and a column of fire erupted between us, reaching high into the night sky. He took in a deep breath, ragged with rage.
“If it’s me you want, I cede myself to you once more. Let the girl and the wolf go and this will be my bargain to you.”
Hecate sighed.
“So predictable. So boring. I know this will come as a shock, René, but it’s not about you this time. I reject your little bargain. Go mope around a lumber yard for another few centuries, I could care less.”
“Why?” I said, finding the courage to speak. “Why do this?”
“Because I stayed my hand when I should have destroyed your wretched forebears. For a century, I watched them fumble their way through a simple set of chores. Did you know your uncle dared to complain to me? He begged me to lift my curse, not for his sake, not even for the sake of his poor servant, but for you.”
She dragged me upright by my injured shoulder, digging her nails into my flesh. I tried not giving her the pleasure of hearing me scream, though it felt like my head would burst.
“Precious Nora,” she said with contempt. “I hope you enjoyed watching their last moments. I have made a decision, you see. I will snuff you out, each and every one of you. You Calnons are far too troublesome and extremely replaceable. I had planned on killing Martina too—such a loyal and obstinate thing she was—but then my dear René got to her first. Always good for that sort of thing, isn’t he?”
She took a fist full of my hair and pulled me closer to her face. René took a step forward, fangs bared, but Jake stood between them, snarling threateningly. She whispered into my ear, her words sickening me.
“I planned on killing you too. It would have been simple, quick. But then you had to find
him, didn’t you?” She glared at René. “The one who is mine. And then both of you, taking away my favorite pet. You upset me, Nora. You’ve upset me greatly. For you, not only death will do.”
A torch appeared in her hand and with it, she traced a flaming circle around us on the ground which ignited into a sickly green flame. René shouted and leapt at Hecate, but he collided with Jake instead and the two of them fell to the side, locked in a frenzied struggle.
“Now, now, René, no cheating,” she said, snapping her fingers. The silver chain René carried with him flew into her hand and she threw it in to the column of flames where it was consumed with a terrible hiss. She turned her attention to me.
“It is not the next quarter day for quite some time, but I am sure
he will not mind. I could not resist the symmetry of it all. You awakened to this reality on the night of the grand tithe and now
you will be the last tax the Calnons ever pay.”
Clouds appeared in the night sky, suffocating the stars, churning with ferocity, the green of decay. The air pressed down upon me, pushing the air out of my lungs, causing me to sputter and gasp. Hecate raised her hands, shouting in an ancient tongue. The sky tasted of wet earth and lightning; a frisson of electricity passed through me. A vial of water appeared in Hecate’s hands, and she performed her ablutions.
René pushed Jake aside, but a fissure in the ground opened between us. A terrible roar erupted, the cries of the damned comingling together into a dreadful force. Hecate pressed her palm to my forehand, her eyes glittering with malice, intoning words I could not understand. I reached for the knife at my belt in desperation, but found my sheath to be empty.
“Looking for this?” Hecate said, producing my knife in her left hand. With a cruel laugh, she plunged it into my belly. I heard René scream, but he already sounded far away. I looked down in shock. She pulled out the weapon and blood began to pour out of me. I felt no pain; it was as though I was watching this happen to someone else.
The vortex of voices became enhanced around me, and I was being dragged downwards and downwards. I was slipping into the void.
The world disappeared. There was nothing and I was nothing, or at least, nothing beyond endless misery. This was a place with no hope.
It is impossible to describe such things to those who have not witnessed them. I was in a great Maw, of that I could surmise. A great gaping Maw of flesh, throbbing, burning, constantly consuming. All around me I could hear weeping, sobbing, cries of madness or anger or futility. There were people here, or what was left of them. Tendrils of flesh fused their bodies to the walls of the thing, which slowly digested them, eating them away only for them to regenerate, continuing the torture in perpetuity. They were still conscious, if that word could be used in this place, unaware of each other, but making the most despicable sounds of suffering, some wailing, others grinding their teeth.
Arms of flesh tore at my legs, searing my skin. But just as quickly as they had come, the tendrils receded and the surface beneath me began to rumble. The wailing was overpowered by a growling coming from the Maw itself, as loud as a jet engine and as haunting as the roar of a jaguar. It was enraged.
My body was ejected. I was suspended somewhere, away, and then I hit the ground. My fingers dug into blessed, real dirt. I blinked and the stars were above me once more.
Hecate stood before me; her face twisted in shock. The column of fire was extinguished. Jake fell to the ground, shifting back into human form. René rushed to my side.
“It appears your payment has been rejected,” he said grinning.
Hecate scoffed. She took a step backward, muttering in that same ancient tongue, but nothing happened. I could see panic rising within her. She fell to her knees and raised her hands to the sky, speaking as though she were entreating someone or something. Little sparks danced on her hands, tiny pieces of skin flecked off of her, slowly at first, then hastening, faster and faster. Hecate let out a great cry and her body combusted into green flames, stripping her down to her bones, blazing until she was no more than dust borne away by the swirling winds.
A deafening sigh echoed around us billowing upwards into a swirling funnel cloud. Whisps of tormented souls rose into the spinning air until with a clap of thunder so loud the castle behind us shook, their whimpers were extinguished, released to their final fate. The clouds receded and the sky was clear and calm again.
I tried to sit up, but my abdomen erupted into pain. I was still bleeding. I was bleeding a lot. I tried to steady myself on René’s arm, but my fingertips were numb. René was speaking to me, but I couldn’t understand him.
Get up, I willed myself.
Get up. I could not obey. I was falling—no, I was flying, flying away from my body.
I was walking through a tunnel. Not a dark tunnel of terrors, but one of soft greenery adorned with flowers in colors beyond comprehension. There was sunlight on the other side. It was warm, so delightfully warm. With every part of me, I wanted to be there. There were people waiting for me, I knew.
I tried to step forward, but I was stuck. Something was dragging me, dragging me back into pain, into the dark. I cried.
No, no, please no. Let me rest here. Please. There was something in my throat, something thick and sweet. I choked, but I swallowed. I was drinking.
I wanted more.
++
It has been several nights since that happened. When I awoke, it was sunset again, as it will be for the rest of my days.
René is quieter now. I wish I could reassure him that he did the right thing, that I am grateful. He doesn’t seem to believe me, but I guess we have a lot of time now to figure it out.
“Time enough for you to grow to hate me,” he said sadly, pushing a lock of hair away from my face. I hope he’s wrong.
The cottages are peaceful now. The entities are gone. There is a sense of ease here that is permeating more every day, heralding the coming of a Spring like no other before. They’re gone too, the spirits of Cottage 14. I tried to go to thank them. After all, it was their blessing that had saved me from the Maw. They had kept their promise to Ellen.
Your soul shall not be dragged down to perdition, you will not know the eternal flames. The cottage door was open; there were buds on the trees. I think they have finally found their true home, their eternal rest.
Jake has recovered from his ordeal. He is still a werewolf, but his mind is now his own. With our help, he is mostly healed, though there are scars he will carry with him for the rest of his life.
We haven’t been doing much lately. Things are too raw, too new. We have just begun to breathe again. Sometimes we just sit by the river. A wolf and two vampires, a funny trio.
“I want to find my parents,” Jake said last night. René passed me his thermos, which I took a bit too eagerly.
“What do you mean?” I asked.
“I stopped by my old house today. Neighbor told me they were taken into assisted living a while ago, though he didn’t know where. Their minds…weren’t quite the same since I…” His voice broke.
So many lost years, so many ruined lives.
“I guess I’m just saying I’m leaving.”
“Do what you must, Jake,” René said. “You will go on. You are free now. Find your parents; find your own kind.”
Jake nodded. I caught a tear glistening in his eye.
“What will you two do?” Jake asked.
“Figure out what the hell to tell my mom,” I said chuckling. Even René smiled. “But you know, this place? It has some potential.”
And so, I find myself back where I started: with a giant pile of wallpaper books and a folder of paint swatches. René is pouring over plans for a complete remodeling of the cottages and motel with some structural enhancements. Given our change in circumstances, our business model and targeted clientele will be slightly different, slightly more…nocturnal.
But this is where the veil of secrecy must finally descend between us.
For now.
x Appearance: A bright orange jalapeño with black cloudy swirls going up, topped with a dark grey stem with three spirals, and a red inside with blue seeds and swirls
The eater of this fruit gains the ability to spontaneously combust themself, creating
great flames and thick smoke from their body and control it as they desire, making them a
Combustion User In-Depth
Body: The user's body becomes conditioned to handle any and all heat from their created flames, as well as be able to breathe in and withstand their own dense smoke as a byproduct. The user's body may become tanned as a result of continual use of their abilities, making them appear very attractive and almost as if solid bronze
Flames: The user is able to create spontaneous flames on any place and part their body at will, which will continue to burn even in an oxygen-less environment. These flames can be controlled greatly by the user in any way they desire as if an extension of their body and even manipulated in forms that normal flames cannot such as defined forms, compressed to become even hotter and more reactive, and even used as ways to rocket the user in any direction for speed and mobility
Smoke: The user is able to create a dense black smoke from the flames they create, even small ones that can fit in the palm of their hand can create an immense amount overtime. The user's smoke can stay around longer than ordinary smoke without dissipating and can be controlled by the user as an amorphous substance just like their flames, even capable of grabbing and interacting with solids like a gas-logia user gifting them a defensive form of fighting as well as a form of transport by riding their smoke like a cloud
Awakening: Incineration Incarnate
The user's awakened abilities make them even more dangerous than before to great extremes and even resemble that of a zoan awakening! The user's body will glow and become bright orange and yellow like a sun while their bones gain a black color like the swirly smoke from their body, making them resemble a demonic being. The user can even rearrange their skeleton inside their 'body' to change their form for enhanced defense or offense and protect their bones
Their body is so hot in this state that they passively melt the ground and close environment around them and can even disintegrate it completely when using their power, making nearly any attack impossible to hit or even get close to the user! Their own abilities gain a unique aspect that makes them insanely dangerous:
Any fire they create in this state will continue to burn indefinitely on who or whatever they touched until their destruction or the user's death. The user can create giant plumes of flame, walls of fire, and endless smoke that burn the remainder of their life that move like a part of their body, gifting them greater power even over large distances
Weaknesses
•The user's flames utilize the user's stamina to burn and can exhaust them greatly to immobilization if overused
•The flames and smoke created by the user can be impaired and confined by clothing, resulting in the need for exposed skin to use their abilities strongly
•Standard Devil Fruit weaknesses apply
Techniques
Rotary Candles: User unleashes rapid small blasts of fire from their fingers to burn and blind their targets with bullet-like flares
Black Out: User ignites their hands with a dense burning flame blasts out black smoke from their palms to create a dense smokescreen they can breathe or see in while others can't
Ember Works: User creates immense amounts if black smoke and ash, then compress them to create highly dense and durable carbon constructs into any weapon and object they imagine. They can control these constructs with their smoke to lift and move them around easily as malleable connections
•
Party Cannon: User coats their hand with flames and compacts the smoke around it, forming a dense carbon gauntlet of their fist. The user can then launch this fist at opponents while burning for a powerful shot
•
Foxy Streamers: User creates two long carbon-compacted sword whips with that they can use as heavy and sharp weapons for ranged, binding, and slashing attacks, even tandem them with their flames hot enough to burn bones and earth
•
Crisp Lotus Rings: User creates two or more carbon-compacted rings beneath their feet that they can connect to their body via tangible smoke and have them spin at high speeds. The rings can hone their created flames without focus and even gift them increased agility, speed, and even flight by using them as skates and thrusters
Pyre Viper: User creates a snake made of fire from their body and has it move underground by incinerating it, then burst from below their opponents as if ambushing them. The user can even add carbon-made fangs inside to add physical attacks to their snake
•
Kiha-Wrath: User enhances their
Pyre Viper with more power into multiple serpents from their hair and arms to swarm their opponents with scalding fangs and constrictions. The user can manipulate them as such to appear hydra-like and attack multiple opponents at once
Volcanic Bomb Spirit: Sumo Hooligan: The user causes an explosion from their body with their flames to produce an immense amount of smoke in a mushroom-cloud shape, then manipulate it to form two arms from it and the body into a semi-humanoid shape from a smoky tendril connected to their lower body and the user's. This 'spirit' protects the user from anything it senses with vibrations in the air while being as dense as water, allowing it to attack and not be harmed like a logia-user. The user can even ride their entity via altering its shape into a large cloud-based vehicle
•
Pitch Hammer: User has their Sumo Hooligan strike with an open palm with closed knuckles inside like a fist, impacting their opponents greatly like a torrent of blinding toxic water
•
Pompeii Twister: User has their Sumo Hooligan rapidly spin around their body to create a dense tornado to cause massive damage around or at an opponent. The user can coat anything with dense carbon and ash to immobilize them even by grazing
•
Discovered Pride: Onyx Ronin: User compresses their Sumo Hooligan into two smaller but large and ornately armored arms alongside their body supported by their smoke. These arms are incredibly durable and can rival against even mythical zoans with speed, strength, defense, and even alter their shape to gain weaponry and armaments for the user
•
Reborn Fervor: Septarian Empress: User compresses their Sumo Hooligan into a large serpentine form resembling an eastern dragon with carbon-compressed bones inside the flames and smoke. The user can control their dragon from the inside due to their immunity and become a force equal to that of an erupting mountain range from the sheer power of their body, possess the same physical boost as mythical zoans, and even alter their dragon with armaments/weaponry like their
Onyx Ronin Here's my attempt at write an actually story on my custom RWS covers. I'm not sure if it was easier or harder to write for an already established character so it may not be the best story. Here's the story.
Crowds of holidaymakers came to the island this year. More than the engines had ever seen. With this increase of holidaymakers also came an increase of crime. From minor such as pickpockets to major such as break-ins. The railway was no expectation to this increase of crimes.
Everyday, Toby usually goes up to the quarry to bring stone down to the stone merchants at Ffarquhar. Then, he brings the rest of the stone down to the junction where a mainline engine takes them. Toby had just come from the quarry and was having a rest before he left. He had Henrietta alongside the stone trucks.
"Did you hear?" asked the Driver. "One of the station porters was robbed. In daylight too!"
"You don't say," gasped the Fireman.
"It was bound to happen," added the Guard. "With all of this crime happening, it was sure to happen to one of us."
Toby didn't pay much attention to the conversation. He had heard of the crime happening from the other engines but he was too busy enjoying himself under the warm sun to really care.
Toby was about to take a quick nap when he noticed something. At the station platform, sat the mail train. This was nothing unusual about that but what was unusual was three men who lingered around the train. They were all dressed in black.
"Driver," Toby asked, "what are those men doing?" The Driver looked up.
"I think they might be robbers," he finally said. "We better check."
The Driver, Fireman, and Guard all climbed aboard and slowly approached the men. At this, the men grabbed their heavy mail bags and jumped into their getaway car.
"Stop!" shouted the Driver but, of course, the men didn't stop and sped off.
As Toby passed the station, the Driver and Fireman shouted at the top of their lungs, "POLICE!"
Toby gave chase and soon, he was level with the robbers. At this point on the line, the rail and road was only separated by a small stream. The men were all dressed in black in order to hide their identities.
"We're running low on water," said the Fireman. Because the Driver, Fireman, and the Guard were distracted with their conversation earlier, they forgot to fill Toby's water tank.
"If we don't do something soon," added the Driver, "They'll get away." Lucky for them, chance would be on their side. Not too far from here sat a level crossing. The police had created a road block next to the crossing and the only way around it would be to go through it.
"Full steam," the Driver said. Toby sped up but he felt thirstier and thirstier.
"I need a drink," Toby complained.
"One last push Toby," said the Driver. "They need to be stopped." The robbers had realized what was happening and began to speed up even more.
Toby crossed the crossing when there was a loud BANG. This made Toby come to a stop. A thick cloud filled the air, making it hard to see what had happened. Soon, the cloud disappeared and revealed what had happened.
The car crashed into Toby's train leaving it dead in its tracks. Luckily, the three men were okay and turned themselves in to the police.
A few days later, The Fat Controller came to the yard.
"Good job, Toby," he said. "Thanks to you and your crew's quick thinking, you were able to stop the robbers from getting away. You are a really useful engine."
For a history of AI development or a definition of terms, refer to my previous collaboration with GPT-4. This is from one human to another. And it's possibly the most important thing you'll ever read. Because I don't think we can prevent the development of this technology and we almost certainly will not survive it. If there is a possibility for a benign future in which men are able to live either as we are, or as Gods... it is a sliver between any number of potential futures without us.
Why can't we survive as we are without AI? Without a technologically advanced species capable of space travel, every last scrap of life we are aware of will be made extinct. This is not a possibility or a probability but an absolute fact. Without us, everything else will die the next time there is a sufficiently powerful interstellar event. It wouldn't take any more than a Gamma-burst and it's game over for everything. Within a few billion years, the sun will expand and destroy whatever is left of Earth.
Can't we stay as we are? No. Without constant technological advancement and innovation, we WILL run out of the resources we currently use. Peak Oil fell out of favour on the invention of Fracking but it's still there, waiting for the best sites to run dry. Innovation is required even to maintain current production and distribution, let alone to increase it with the needs of people currently living in rural China or India.
You may be unused to thinking in terms of millions or billions of years but you should probably get used to that. If we do survive long enough to develop General AI or integrate ourselves with multiple Narrow AI tools, immortality won't just be a fantasy for the story-books. Sooner or later, everything that is possible will be made into a tool for those who understand it.
Could AI be the key to our destruction or our salvation?
Without innovation, we are mathematically doomed. You might be happy with that on a timeline so vast that you can't comprehend it. But without it, we are an evolutionary dead end. So shouldn't we chase this goal at full speed? With a smart enough AI, we could solve all of our energy needs with Fusion Power (or something else our monkey brains haven't thought up yet) We could mine and distribute resources previously unknown (or even un-named) by us. Human Labour would be optional in most cases, with our lives being absorbed in the search for pleasure, creativity or meaning rather than making ends meet.
But what happens if the AI turns on us like in so many fictional stories? We've all seen things like The Matrix or Terminator in which Skynet, becoming self-aware realises humanity is the true enemy and unleashes all of our weapons against us. Unlike that movie, we wouldn't stand a chance. Death would come from directions we haven't even thought of yet. Never mind Cyborg Assassins, there could be an engineered Virus that turns the air we breathe toxic to biological life. No-one would survive for long. Relax. We are nowhere near giving birth to that kind of Artificial Life. Yet.
Between here and General AI is the "Happy Valley" of Narrow AI Tools. With Chat GPT-4 and Mid Journey V5, we have taken our first steps into the Valley. Here, the machines work for us. They improve our lives, working beside us as if they are very fast, knowledgeable assistants. Even this limited form of AI is enough to come up with new Materials like Superconductors or new Medicines to cure Cancers or methods for controlling Magnetic Fields, enabling Nuclear Fusion to become economically viable at last. And it is in this Valley that we have the opportunity to join the machines.
Our culture is already partially Cybernetic. We live among automated systems no-one fully understands, no-one can alter on their own and to which we are all living our lives around. Why do we pay the Taxes we do when governments print as much money as they want for the banks? Who could you vote for to change this? How do you complain if the Tax people get your details wrong and demand money from you that you don't have? You're already fully meshed in systems you don't understand and have no control over, but which mostly benefit your life in ways you probably never see.
Elon Musk has suggested the only way humanity can keep up with even Narrow AI as it builds ever more impressive versions of itself, is for us to Merge with the Machines. There is no scenario in which any human or group of humans could possible keep up with the level of development that we would see in The Singularity. This is where each new form of Technology enables the next, causing our development to curve into an exponential hockey stick.
Those who choose to be left behind will have that option. I'm certain this would be actively encouraged by the new Technologically Literate Elites who would diverge from their purely Biological brethren in the blink of an eye.
Here's my biggest fear:
Game Theory would reward the first person who thought of it to clear the world of his competitors. It doesn't have to be more than 1 person so it doesn't matter if the rest of us are Educated and Kind to one another. Given the insane power that would be commanded by the first person to develop true integrated AI, I'm not even sure how to conceptualize how they would be stopped.
If say Bill Gates were granted the ability to craft a new Virus that would wipe out everyone except his own relatives, there would be no-one to even know it was happening until the moment it was already too late. Governments are still trying to work out how to regulate the Internet, they have no idea what to make of Cryptocurrencies. I have no confidence that they will understand the threats posed by AI in the wrong hands in time to stop the very people working on this technology from using it.
So far, Open AI seem to be acting with the good of humanity in mind. I've seen interviews with many of the people working on AI. To the last one, they have been intelligent and thoughtful people who are aware of the risks and rewards of their endeavour. However, one thing History has taught us is that good people do bad things when that's how the incentive structure works.
There is no way at all that we go on living in Nations with Currencies if this technology continues to advance. It's about time we had an international conversation about what "Human Values" are. Can we reconcile the differences of Western Capitalist Democracies with Communist Dictatorships or Religious Fundamentalists?
It may well be the case that with technology, we are able to eat meat without killing animals or that we can communicate with them and so refuse to kill animals that are begging for their lives in a way we can understand. On the other hand, we could decide there's nothing to be gained from certain groups and that they need to go for the rest of us to live well. However this conversation goes, it needs to include as many of the greatest minds as we have.
Philosophy is about to come into its own as most people have no idea how to wrestle these concepts. People who understand Game Theory, Geopolitics, Moral Philosophy, AI Technology, Psychology and Statistics need to come together and work these issues out in detail. Because failing to address these matters in time could result in the end of everything.