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Artificial Selection
Topic Started: Jun 12 2009, 10:28 PM (359 Views)
+Linden
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awesomesauce
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Brief run down: I've had this idea for about five years. Unfortunately it was put on the very, very back burner so I haven't thought much of it since then and I desperately need to redesign characters and the plot. But basically, it's about evolution and if natural selection was a faster, more precise process utilized by robots.

This is more of a prologue than the actual story. I think I'll write the story in a different tense. Until then, I think I'll just write whatever part comes to mind.

The white sterile tile rumbles underneath their feet as they hover over the hospital bed. Their hushed whispers dissolve in the sound of vials shaking within their metal cabinets and monitoring machinery rattling against the white walls. The man in the bed is unresponsive to the violent quake disturbing his hospital room - his eyes are closed with a machine assisting his lungs.

One man moves to the doorway, viewing the corridor. No sign of danger but the rumbling says that will soon change. “Would you hurry up with the probe?” The man, although battle-worn and fierce, makes it clear he won’t stick around for the worst.

A woman, still hovering over the bed, carefully assembles the pieces to an old battery-operated screwdriver. “It will happen when it happens,” she says and her voice barely breaks over the noise. Setting down the screwdriver, she prudently inserts a square disk securely into the base of a small, metal rod and places wires from an adjacent machine carefully on the man’s temples. The woman wants to double-check her work but a hand from a second man stops her and says they haven’t the time. “Fine,” she huffs before picking up the screwdriver. She glares at the second man before she lowers her eyes and the power tool to the unconscious man’s skull.

The screwdriver overcomes the racket made by the objects in the room even as it grinds against bone. Finally the woman is at the surface of the delicate organ and pulls the power tool back – their purpose isn’t to destroy the brain. The entrance into the brain is clean; the only blood comes from the broken skin. An expression of grimace crosses her face as the second man hands her the metal rod with a sad but encouraging smile. The woman takes it in both hands and shoves the slanted edge into the hole until the square disk is flush with the skull. The woman whispers an apology from under her breath and places her hand on the man’s forehead. Her fingers run through his white hair as reflexes take control over his body, arching his back and sending his eyeballs into a mad frenzy under their lids. Although the process is clean, memory extraction is a crude procedure.

The three watch the small lights flash nervously until it finds the subject the rod has been crudely programmed for. The woman said it could take time for the rod to locate the proper enzyme to unlock the man’s memory faculties. The hospital room has stopped shaking and suddenly the extraction process can’t finish soon enough. The man at the door glances at the rod. He can see the rod’s constant blink.

Metallic clinks against the tile from down the hall catch his attention. His eyes flash up to the woman and then to the other man in dread. It’s time to leave. He glances down the hall as they turn the corner. Without a moment’s hesitation, he runs deeper into the hospital room and crashes through the window behind the bed, taking the rod with him…

to be continued.
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Celestial-Fox
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WEEEEEEST. . .
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Aw, dangit, I wanted to read more. >:
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Anomy
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Linds... didn't you know.... I DESPISE 'to be continued's. I can't wait for the rest of it. ^_^
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Celestial-Fox
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Will the work as a whole be written in the present tense?
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** Death's servant
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Reflection
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You should write more. I like it.
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+Linden
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awesomesauce
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I'm not sure. I think it'll be past tense because that's what I'm used to writing in. This prologue-thing was a little difficult because I'd switch tenses halfway through a sentence repeatedly.

I was reading up on androids today. Now this is the first time I've ever questioned the Wikipedia for accuracy but supposedly by 2020 South Korea plans on putting an android in every household. I mean, it just seems too... far-fetched. 500 billion won has been invested in this process, 50 billion of it was invested by the Korean government. It went on to say they would program rules into the androids about human abuse against robots and vice versa. But it struck me as odd that it specifically said "human abuse against robots". It was a real omfg moment. Now we won't be able to destroy them when we reap the sorrow that is AI. :dead:

That and I should be able to toss my computer down the stairwell any time I damn well please. <_<

Anyway, it helps me set how technologically advance my story is.
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** Death's servant
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Reflection
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dude...I used wiki once for a report and got totally f*cked 'cause I got bad information. I've never trusted it since. Use reliable sources. Wiki is lame.
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+Linden
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awesomesauce
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For the most part, the wiki is alright. Like the hardcore science articles - not everybody can edit it. And also, the wiki can lead you to reliable sources. I went back to the android article and clicked on the citation number for the programed rules. It linked me to a National Geographic article that said exactly that. Granted everybody can edit this particular article but the fact it lead to an actual magazine source proves my point. Although teachers don't let you cite the wiki, you can still use it as a tool to find decent sources. (I always do that at home though. Even if you explain what you're doing the librarianMedia Specialist will look down from her bespectacled, hatchet nose and reprimand you. <_< )

Anyway, I didn't mean to preach or rant, for that matter; But I do trust the wiki - despite what teachers say. It's just a matter of taking things with a grain of salt and doing some casual cross-referencing. Yep.

XD
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