EPISODE 340; THE ORGANIZATION CLASS OF SIGILS; THE SKY GRYPHON HOUSE PART IV; THE HALL OF TAURUS: DEFINING THE FRAMEWORK OF THE REFLEXIVE AUTONOMOUS ARMAMENT PLATFORM
After defining and enhancing the Synergistic Effects of the various Elemental Modules Of The Reflexive Autonomous Armament Platform and putting in place measures to nullify potential backlash, Ciella and I moved on to the Hall Of Taurus which appeared to be a Simulation Hall for defining the Main Framework of the various Modules that would compose the Reflexive Autonomous Armament Platform and simulate how these various modules interacted with one another. This would be where the Main Logic governing the Platform could be defined as a set of Policies governing the Platform.
Ciella and I activated the interface through which we were going to input the Framework. Based on the results of the Elemental Synergies in the Hall Of Leo, the Framework for the Reflexive Autonomous Armament Platform was going to revolve around Eight Main Modules. The Modules were defined as follows; A Storm Module, a Nullifier Module, an Experience Accumulation and Refinement Module, a Sensory Array Module, a Range and Accuracy Enhancement Module, a Reflexive/Reaction Enhancement Module, a Scale and Magnitude Extension Module and a Terraforming Module which would be necessary to combat the Weaver Of Calamity and his forces in areas where Terrain Advantages would be crucial.
The First Module was the Storm Module. The Main Goal of this Module was for the Platform to maintain a continuous state of Homeostasis for the people and Ecosystems within the Geographical Terrains it was going to be deployed within beginning with the Mobile Sky Fortress itself. This meant that it was to ensure that all the people in areas where it was to be set up as well as the General Ecosystem within such Terrains were always within the Healthy State Range. For this to work, the Module had to first comprehend what constituted the Healthy State Of An Ecosystem which would act as its reference point for detecting deviations from this Healthy State. To do this effectively, the Module had to comprehend the individual and collective affinities of all within the Ecosystem. Once these affinities were averaged out, it could determine the Population's Predominant Affinities and thus calculate which affinities to prioritize without neglecting the needs of the population whose affinities were not as widespread. This was to prevent a situation where the module would judge to prioritize the most predominant affinities without taking into consideration whether implementing Homeostasis with those affinities as the baseline could inadvertently harm those whose affinities/biology was wired slightly differently from the baseline. As the ancient saying goes, 'one man's food is another man's poison'. The Module had to be able to dynamically adapt to individual needs. This was necessary because any attempt by an adversary such as the Weaver Of Calamity to infiltrate the Population like a Virus slowly corrupting the Cells Of A Body would most likely begin with potentially neglected factions. Thus it could be said that a Secondary Goal of the Module was to defend against infiltration and to amplify the ability of our House to infiltrate the Weaver Of Calamity's Domain when necessary. The Offensive Composition of the Storm Module included Autonomous Scouters and Bombardment Systems equipped with Blaze which worked hand in hand. The Scouters would seek out high priority targets amongst the Weaver Of Calamity's Forces such as it's higher ranking members and coordinators and relay these to the Bombardment Systems which would utilize the intel gathered from the Scouters to determine the enemy's position or predict their next set of actions and thus intercept them before they could carry out their plans. Now, you must be wondering, how would the Bombardment Systems differentiate ally from foe in a Chaotic Environment. There were multiple means, the most effective method involved hardcoding a Determination Policy rooted in the Virtues Of The Seven Elemental Stones Of Sealing into the Highest Priority Logic of the Reflexive Autonomous Armament Platform and linking this Policy to a 'Deterrence Scale Of Force'. This meant that the Bombardment Systems autonomously activated whenever malicious intent was detected from a Nightmare or when a Nightmare took any actions that violated the Virtues the Seven Elemental Stones Of Sealing represented without warranted Justification; Intimidation, Enslavement, creating Despair, encouraging Chaos, attempting to Guilt Trip another without justification, Tyranny and Deception. Each of these actions would trigger the Bombardment Systems and they would inflict damage proportional to the scale of the violation. This almost made me wonder whether I was on the verge of becoming a Tyrant worse than the Weaver Of Calamity until I decided the System was to measure each violation against a Scale Of Force. That meant that I was not the one hurting the one violating a condition but they rather were basically shadowboxing themselves. Unintentional Violations could be determined by measuring the degree of inconsistency in intent of the one triggering a violation. Unintentional actions did not have as much effort focused into carrying them out meaning less resources would be invested into implementing the violation by the ones carrying them out. When the System discovered these inconsistencies, the Bombardment Systems would shut down after considering these actions 'unintentional violations'. The Scout Systems could of course determine this by body language and since it was in the nature of malicious Nightmares to be consistent in their malice, we all know the answer to that equation don't we? This also meant that similar to Mitsuki's Mode Pax, damage would be dealt to a perpetrator proportional to malicious intent. To carry this out effectively, the Module needed to be able to determine the 'Target' of the Perpetrator, then calculate the 'resources invested into causing harm' or 'harassing the Target'. These factors could be used to determine 'the degree of the Perpetrator's malicious intent' allowing the Bombardment Systems to calculate the 'Scale Of Deterrence' to be implemented. 'Deterrence' would almost always be proportional to the 'scale of resources invested by the perpetrator into causing harm'. It was simple really, 'scale force proportional to resources invested into causing harm'. Hence non-lethal deterrence for non-lethal violations. Lethal measures were only to be implemented if there was no other way to deter the perpetrator and should never be utilized against humans, only on malicious Nightmares. (Well done my boy, you're finally thinking like a Nightbane).
The Second Module was the Nullifier Module. This Module was meant to deal with a number of hypothetical questions. Questions like "What happens if the Platform oversteps its bounds?" "What happens if it mistakes a benevolent Nightmare or Human for a malevolent one or misconstrues their intent?" The point was simply this, "how should the platform deal with doubts and ambiguities?" That was where the Nullifier Module came in. It was designed to be a System Of Suppressors, Elemental Suppressors to be exact. These Suppressors would kick in in situations where doubt exceeded a certain threshold. This meant they would kick in in situations of 'legitimate doubt'. Legitimate Doubt meant the suppressors only kicked in when the actions taken were not purposely meant to misdirect, mislead, confuse or overwhelm the Senses of the Platform for there is also such a thing as illegitimate doubt. In cases of illegitimate doubt, the Platform would default to the Storm Module's settings. When legitimate doubt arose, the Nullifier Module would activate and suppress the Bombardment System and delay it for further deliberation until an appropriate conclusion was reached.
The Third Module was the Experience Accumulation and Refinement Module. This Module allowed the Platform to update its beliefs and resolve inconsistencies in its beliefs caused by clashing or contradictions in experiences. This is basically how it worked. The question it needed to resolve was simple "How does the Platform resolve conflicts where a decision must be made by analyzing multiple contrasting experiences?" For instance, "How does the Platform resolve the conflict in an instance where an action perceived as 'right' in one circumstance, is viewed as 'wrong' in another and vice versa?" Simply put, "How should the System resolve Moral Ambiguities?" These Ambiguities did not exist so much in the actions themselves as they existed within specific instances or circumstances. Examples included 'objectively right actions taken at the wrong time' and 'actions perceived by many to be wrong when they were inherently right'. Conflicts such as these. These 'seeming contradictions' would naturally arise as the Platform accumulated experiences through the previously aforementioned Modules. The most reasonable solution to this was to determine 'intent' and 'consequences'. Simply put, the Platform would need to search through its archives for events related to the executor of the action beginning with archived data about events surrounding the executor of the action prior to when the action was carried out to determine trigger events. It would need to be able to determine whether the action was an invention of its executor or whether it was carried out as a result of subtle environmental influences that even its executor was unaware of. (I believe these are called subliminal influences if I'm not wrong). From then on, the Platform would need to follow the trail of consequences resulting from the action to derive an objective judgement after aligning intent with consequence. This would be for the most part how the System resolved conflicts triggered by Moral Ambiguities. On the whole the System would gather data through Homeostatic Maintenance Of The Ecosystem within which it would be deployed. It would suppress all its own actions that overstepped its bounds and would resolve Moral Ambiguities by weighing intent against consequences.
The Fourth Module was the Sensory Array. The Sensory Array was mainly for the collection of Realtime Information that would lead to the autonomous maintenance of the Ecosystem's Homeostasis. Basically, to maintain the Health Of The Ecosystem, realtime data on all factors required for its maintenance was important. Similar to Arlene's Christopher, the Sensory Array would capture data related to Geographical Terrain, Motion within the Ecosystem, Resources within the Ecosystem as well as the Ecosystem's Climate. Geographical Terrain and Movement helped the Platform comprehend Internal Travel within the native Terrain. By establishing links along the most frequently travelled routes by individuals as well as their various points of origin and destinations, the System could build a detailed Cartographic Profile of each individual within the Terrain. Each individual's profile would be unique as their various points of origin and destination within the Terrain would differ. A Profile of an Individual's Associations could be determined by measuring overlapping points of Origin and Destination within the collective Population's Profiles. People with specific common points of origin and destinations would be determined to be connected in some way either via familial relations, if their point of origin was at a place of Residence, interests, if their destinations aligned at Recreational Facilities, Occupations, if their destinations aligned within the Commercial District and the like. The Array also helped our House keep track of any Travellers that travelled beyond the borders of the House. In such cases, by establishing diplomatic ties with other societies outside our House that were destinations of our House's citizens, we could ensure their safety whenever they travelled and could intervene if they found themselves in any kind of danger. The Submodules of the Array related to Resources and Climate within our House could for instance determine Trade Routes and monitor them when the Resource Submodule was coupled with the Movement and Geographical Terrain Submodules. When the Resource Submodule was coupled with the Climate Submodule, the Array could determine the predominant sentiments of the Citizens of our House by studying their reactions during interactions to various Projects undertaken by our House especially with regards to Resource Distribution. Climate Maintenance and Resource Monitoring was especially key in preventing infiltration by the Weaver Of Calamity's Forces. It helped the Array detect when negative sentiments began to proliferate within the House like a virus and helped the Array determine the Source seeding such negative sentiments. Simply put it was analogous to an anti-propaganda machine with regards to the adversary's corrupting influence. This particular Submodule worked hand in hand with the Storm Module.
The Fifth Module was the Range and Accuracy Enhancement Module. For this Module to work, the Sensory Array would need a wide detection Range as well as the ability to process vast amounts of information while minimizing 'noise' or 'doubt' within the Array. This meant that this Module was a combination of the Sensory Array Module, the Experience Accumulation Module and the Storm Module. Its main goal was to minimize the instances when the Nullifier Module was necessary. This meant that this module mainly aimed to keep the Bombardment Submodule of the Storm Module either active or passive without the need to suppress it. The aim was simply this, "How could all the modules function Synergistically without interfering with one another?" Minimizing doubt meant the Module's judgements would keep improving with time even as its range was simultaneously expanded. It also minimized the ability of an adversary to confuse or interfere with the Platform by overloading its senses. Since the Suppressors would only kick in when absolutely necessary and only for the right reasons, this meant fewer judgement errors.
The Sixth Module was the Reflexive Reaction Enhancement Module. It was an extension of the Range and Accuracy Enhancement Module. Basically, by minimizing 'noise' or 'doubt' within the Platform, its execution time was substantially improved as well as the speed of its transitions between actions. The main point of this module was to determine multiple paths towards achieving a goal and choosing the option that simultaneously minimized resource expenditure while minimizing unintended harmful consequences. This would further minimize 'noise' or 'doubt' while further enhancing 'reaction time and speed'.
The Seventh Module was the Scale and Magnitude Extension Module. The Goal of this Module was to scale up or scale down the Platform depending on need. To do this, the Platform and each of its Modules as well as the Modules Submodules needed to be considered as separate parts of a whole that could be mass produced easily and assembled with minimum cost both in terms of time and resources. The aim was to eventually extend the Platform globally within XCalibur AOP's World in preparation for the World Class Level of the Sigil Enhancement Program.
The Final Module was the Terraforming Module needed for the Main Battle against the Weaver Of Calamity's Generals, the Seven Souls Of Evil as well as the Weaver Of Calamity himself. This Module would revolve around the Virtues of the Seven Elements. It would be needed to counter the Offensive Elemental Capabilities of the Seven Souls Of Evil and the Weaver Of Calamity himself. It would be a combination of all modules.