Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

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Pastimes : Discuss Go2Net's acquisition of our beloved SI -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Graystone who wrote (140)	4/25/1998 3:22:00 AM
From: 246810	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 446

Greystone, you're the greatest. I am happy to see Jill continuing to play an important role at SI. I have been concerned these last 24 that she might be a wise and loyal servant rather than a partner. I hope she is treated as the latter for although perhaps not making a monetary investment to these undertakings, has contributed so much in creativity and endeavor. We all anxiously await episode four. 246810

To: Graystone who wrote (140)	4/26/1998 1:50:00 AM
From: Graystone	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 446

A History of Power : SI ....cont'd.... Earthside, Beijing, Biosoft Labs, 2031 The biosoft was being prepared by force growing living tissue onto a superfine mesh of monofilament platinum strands. When finished this biosoft would resemble an old time ghetto blaster. The only control on it that would be familiar would be volume control, most biosofts could speak, beyond that, no two were the same. Depending upon application and intention a biosoft could be as small as a thimble or as large as a refrigerator, with the tendency towards the smaller. This particular biosoft was being prepared for a class KW military installation and would come with all the usual warware and ice, in addition several layers of Turing depth were being added. This was not an unusual request, remote installations often needed the entertainment value that real person added. It was technically Theodore L. Pullet's fault, not that it would matter, or be discovered, for several years. He had been on monitoring a the time of the addition of Turing depth to the biosoft. He had leaned back and prepared for his shift in his usual manner, fifteen different displays, carrying fifteen different virtual visions, like most users, he was an SI member. He had relatives living who were still Charter Members and felt some vague sort of loyalty towards the community because of that, not that he really cared. He didn't like Vgear, feedback problems never had been completely overcome and it was useful for some types of work, but not for fun. Biosoft training is not something humans ever have a big part in, beyond the supervisory and confirmatory parts. The later stages require direct trained intervention but at this basic level most of the work is done by other biosofts with the help of AI's. On a rare occasion that an actual live human is used to impress a young biosoft, it is for a specific purpose and usually creates a usable, but otherwise, useless, biosoft, an idiot savant, if you will. The biosoft only had access to T.L. Pullet's datafeeds for about 15 minutes, which was far too much. When Pullet noticed it was already far too late. It wasn't a complete disaster yet, the Asoft he had purchased in the black market still functioned effectively on all the monitoring systems that were installed in his work area, it would cost him his job if he was caught with illegal Anti Software but so would an incident like this. The biosoft was already 6 months old and he had effectively ruined it. A lot of money would be wasted if it had to be started again. The delivery date would be extended and that would cause problems, biosofts were usually ordered three years in advance. They took about 2 years to prepare. He decided to ignore the whole thing, instant decision made, T.L Pullet closed the data links he had inadvertently left open and forgot about the incident. He didn't need work, he liked the prestige that came with it, when he left work later that day he took his illegal Asoft with him and never considered what he had done, he had exposed an immature biosoft directly to the SI databases and users for an extended period of time. ....to be cont'd....