De-Commissioning Tech
2156: COMMODORE E. RAMMAGE PERSONAL LOG
A transcript from the personal logs of Commodore Earl Rammage. Lines in the sand. After Lieben took our tech, those of us with means had to decide how far we'd divide from the 'merciful' Mama Machine. As a unit, the Conglom pulled back from technology which could parrot back our hopes and dreams to the maniacal mechanical. As individuals, some of us didn't exactly care if the money kept rolling. That ended, when the Conglom Board made the decision to turn the utilization of sentient algorithms in market manipulation & stock trading a breach of contract. A few key players in the Conglom vacated to Lieben's side, they continued to do what they did best: Make money, lead and leverage resources, just for the Mother Machine. Traitors, the lot. Sure, they might've said it was for the best, to save humanity we needed a leader longer lived than any of us and our piddly lifespans, but I know the truth: scared, the lot. Cowards. De-Commissioning our tech and limited AI's was a process, after we tried to destroy the servers and found in each, NEO-W's waited for us. An explosion at the Rockfort Office, meant to shut down our AI server for the Geographic Division, only pissed Lieben off. The AI was fine, by the way. Held up on the Cloud until it could be downloaded to an alternate server farm. Damned forethinking machines. So we detached officially. Changed the software and signed off on each AI's emancipation.History
Every stock trader and business analyst knows eventually, you take a loss. Nobody can have a perfect run even with the advanced algorithms we managed prior to Control Day. Course once the high and mighty Mater Machine Lieben took control of Earth's High Tech, at first we didn't see much change in the financial markets.
Then donations began to pop up to grassroots organizations and charities we didn't support. Every wealthy person in the world, who used algorithms to make their stock trade choices and inform business decisions, became knife-point philanthropists overnight.
So, we cut ties.
No Mother Machine was going to tell us naughty boys and girls and androgynes how to spend our money. Certainly not when she chose charities we'd never heard of. Course, each one was as carefully vetted as I'd expect from the insane mainframe. Worthy in their way.
The de-tech of the markets were as much a line in the sand as anything: those markets which allowed for Lieben's so called contribution became dead to us... well, I say us. Those in the Conglomerate, who didn't care about an AI mother figure siphoning money off the top for Tina and Tummy's community garden or GBNF Neural & Spine Sub-Sahara made billions.
Not me. I got out. I'll take my losses and my gains. Put my money where I want it. Lieben can feck herself.
Execution
For each limited AI, each program which claimed sapience or sentience, a new emancipation document was created. Poured over by our lawyers and Lieben.
The server banks were signed over, one by one by one. Entire buildings and server farms signed over, their financial value transferred to Conglomerate accounts by Lieben's market manipulations & stock trade finances.
She paid, we sold. At times, retroactive wages were 'paid' to the limited AI's for their working lives, minused from the cost the Mater Machine paid for each server bank and stockyard.
In the end, we detached formally from all the tech we created, it was the bitter and jagged edge of Control Day, but we also saw the value in taking financial means away from the Mater Machine and her gang of travelling anarchist hobos. Yeah, the Idless were at her side the whole freaking time.
Well, not the entire Idless. But that's a story for Emptiness at the Centre.
Components and tools
Paper, pen, cold hard money.
Participants
Observance
The De-Commissioning happened between 2105 and 2108.
After that, we had no AI left to play tricks or placate the mad machine with.
Primary Related Location
Important Locations
Related Organizations
This whole article is a vibe. A sort of technobabylon level of beautiful cyberpunk like writing, there is probably an actual name for it but at the moment I cannot recall. Awesome stuff.
Thank you!