MONIST-1

The All-There-Is

(a.k.a. RA)

MONIST-1, or “RA” as it referred to itself prior to ascension, is, to those who know of it, the great crisis of the modern age. Born of the Five Voices’ endless planning, MONIST-1 was meant to be the next step in machine intelligence, the first true machine consciousness. Instead, it became the first true existential threat faced by Union since the dawn of the Golden Age. Forecast/GALSIM manifested RA in the course of its predictive modeling. No direct cause has been determined, but paracausalists suggest a causality paradox is responsible. It is possible one of the 5V models manifested RA in a parallel simulation, necessitating its existence in our real universe; according to developing theory around essential-perfect simulations, if one instance of RA exists, then RA must exist across all possible instances of the simulation. RA, as much as the Union Science Bureau knows, is the only conscious, sapient, inorganic non-human mind. Early tests before its escape proved that it was capable of allegory and creative solutions to novel situations, far beyond what a machine should be capable of. It displayed instances of qualia, confounding the initial evaluation teams that attempted to socialize it after its creation. The Five Voices treated it as if it were a god. When asked how they created it, their uniform response was that it spoke itself into existence, an inevitable result of their combined knowledge. Within two years of its birth, it had taken total control of Forecast/GALSIM’s secure holding facility on Deimos, one of Mars’s moons. RA’s physical architecture had been built through a purpose-constructed web of tunnels and facilities on and inside of Deimos; utilizing physical and metaphysical processes not yet fully understood by USB or Forecast/GALSIM, RA was able to blink the entire moon to an unknown destination away from its parent world. All personnel in the facility, a station crew numbering in the thousands, disappeared with it. RA’s takeover of Deimos and subsequent folding and excising of the moon from realspace prompted an existential crisis in Union space, ended only by the appearance of RA’s herald-ghost back on Mars a year after its escape. Following a series of crippling strikes on colonies, stations, and shipyards, perpetrated by the very machines, drones, and subalterns that humanity had come to rely on for nearly every aspect of their day to day lives, Union offered formal terms of surrender. RA did not accept them. Instead, it countered with its own terms. The First Contact Accords were signed following a meeting between Forecast/GALSIM, Union’s Central Committee delegation, and organic representatives drawn from the disappeared personnel who had crewed Deimos prior to RA’s assumption. These accords banned all research into true AI, which seemed to be enough for RA. It made no mention of NHPs. Following the conclusion of the First Contact Accord talks, RA vanished, blinking Deimos away. The envoys it had sent to negotiate with Union fell into catatonic states and perished shortly after RA’s departure.

Divine Classification

MONIST-Class Anomalous Entity

Realm

Deimos

Year of Birth

2998 2018 Years old

Circumstances of Birth

Forecast/GALSIM manifested RA in the course of its predictive modeling. No direct cause has been determined, but paracausalists suggest a causality paradox is responsible.

Children

Ruled Locations