branding lady, meet meek little lamb

[mxglam]

Glam isn't allowed to actually patrol the following day (it's a Sunday), so they mostly browse the 'net and read books. Echo's busy with her family (and she is allowed to go out patrolling), and Lorica's... doing something.

They're slightly worried about the fact that Yates hasn't replied to their email, but it's the weekend, so maybe that's why.

Has she replied to the email by Monday?

Comments

[thinkering]

"Well, if you use more directions than I have robots it will be harder to keep track of them, but sure."

[mxglam]

"I meant not necessarily counting them like that, but maybe more spread out, without an obvious pattern. My hypothesis is that there's something related to attention here, too."

[thinkering]

"All right, buoys everywhere, go for it." A robot spirals high to get a birds-eye view.

[mxglam]

Buoys everywhere!

At first, as the circle of buoys expands in all directions, they all stay.

(Actually not all, some of the buoys of the line suddenly had never been there.)

(It's kinda hard to keep track of the buoys when the disappearing effect makes you question whether you were really seeing that in the first place.)

But eventually, once the sea has moved them enough that some buoys could get away with disappearing without the casual human eye noticing, they do.

[thinkering]

The robots do not have the deficits of human memory. They notice.

"You've got disappearing buoys. Behind the waves, behind other buoys."

[mxglam]

"Hrm. I wonder if I can counteract this by glaring at the buoys."

[thinkering]

"Try it."

[mxglam]

They do!

...it's worse. While they're glaring at a subsection of the buoys, more buoys from areas they're not glaring at go away.

[thinkering]

"Nope, they're just vanishing behind your back."

[mxglam]

Sigh. "Of course they are. What I'm curious about is why the buoys vanish but not the duck."

[thinkering]

"I haven't told you the duck's status," Lorica points out.

[mxglam]

"True. Has the duck vanished?"

It has! It has vanished. At some point while they were glaring.

[thinkering]

"Ninety seconds ago."

[mxglam]

"Oh. Hm. That's. Suggestive."

[thinkering]

"Oh?"

[mxglam]

"I mean, I'm not sure what it's suggestive of but it's... generally suggestive?" Shrug. "I'm starting to think that my power responds to the accuracy of my expectations?"

[thinkering]

"...What do you mean?"

[mxglam]

"Lemme think of a way to verbalize this."

Think think.

"Okay, so, I'm thinking along the lines of my brain's... resolution, so to speak? Like I said, I can't really keep track of literally all buoys, and as long as what it looks like to me is the same then my power keeps stuff within that limit? And you didn't tell me immediately about the duck vanishing, so I couldn't... accurately expect to be informed of its disappearance. Or maybe it's because you're invisible to my power or something. I'm getting a Schrödinger's cat vibe, here."

[thinkering]

"But if I'm invisible, the fact that I wouldn't tell you about the duck should have likewise been invisible..."

[mxglam]

"Maybe? But if my power looks at ways I could come about the information that my duck disappeared, goes through the bot, and then hits a spot it can't see, it might've just thought no decision would be made, or that the information wouldn't go past that node. We could test the same thing, except this time you resolve in advance to tell me immediately when the duck disappears, and then test it again but make it so some automatic alarm not involving you will go off when the duck disappears."

[thinkering]

"Okay. Can you give the faraway bot a new duck from here?"

[mxglam]

"Is it holding a duck now?"

It is not.

[thinkering]

"No."

[mxglam]

"Hm." Close eyes, focus. "How about now?"

Still no.

[thinkering]

"No."