internet, meet [insert title of glam's webseries]

[mxglam]

To Glam's continued delight, more kissing sessions happen on the following days (when they're feeling like a boy). They haven't met her parents as her official boyfriend or girlfriend or whatever yet, and don't mind it too much.

News about Purity's escape surprises exactly no one, but the Protectorate's reputation suffers a blow because of the attack; after all, the heroes were beaten on their home turf. The PHO forums are abuzz, though rumors of Glam's death at the hands of Hookwolf (probably started by same) prove largely unfounded.

And Glam really should get to their webisodes and start building a steadier rep. And that's (one of the reasons) why they're in Lorica's workshop a few days later.

"So what should I do? I haven't posted anything since Purity, should probably make this more of a habit."

Comments

[thinkering]

"And then a real one can say what 'they' are doing and they do a thing. It's a little more controllable than people's expectations of remote control cars."

[mxglam]

"How would that measure another person's belief in it?"

[thinkering]

"Have it and the real bot try to pick up a thing that they couldn't lift if the fake one was the chassis it looks like?"

[mxglam]

"Ooh, okay, yeah, that sounds good. But it should be something I can't believe it into lifting on my own."

[thinkering]

"Do you have to know how heavy it is? If it's a box filled with parts or something and I know how heavy it is but you don't, does that mean you can't get your bot to lift it, or do we need to do something more complicated?"

[mxglam]

"Well, like you said earlier, it's subverbal. I'm pretty sure if I don't actually know how heavy it is, how heavy I expect it to be will have a role to play there. Not a simple role, though, because I will also be taking that fact into consideration, there'll be a short feedback loop."

[thinkering]

"Well, we make sure you can't get it to lift the same box when nobody else is watching, then have someone else watch? And compare between whether you think they're watching or not etcetera."

[mxglam]

"Yep. And then if all goes right, the Endbringers will be getting Siberian-hugs!"

[thinkering]

"Mm-hm. It's probably too early for me to augment the bot to do video filtration so you don't get contaminated by the Simurgh through the feed, isn't it..."

[mxglam]

"Um, I dunno, I'm outsourcing all my Simurgh-related reasoning to you. Also can you even do that, how does it work, what's it do?"

[thinkering]

"Uh, I was imagining the robot would show you your own copies but edit out the Simurgh and her activities except insofar as you needed them to aim. In real time."

[mxglam]

"Mightn't she take that into account, though?"

[thinkering]

"Yeah, but, like, you know the fact that she exists, etcetera, we don't have a complete information vacuum. Narrowing it down to really low bandwidth is the compromise position that lets us get anywhere."

[mxglam]

"True. Well, you could work on it, if you like, but I think we should still probably stick to the no-engaging-the-Simurgh-until-her-older-brothers-are-dead rule, maybe."

[thinkering]

"Yeah. And it won't take me that long to write, pure software's firmly my comfort zone and pure software that tells my software how to decide to do things is even more so."

[mxglam]

"Mmhm."

[thinkering]

"It's more likely to be her next. But maybe it'll be Leviathan again and you can get your stripey copy's rep established."

[mxglam]

"Yeah. I just wish we knew more about her."

[thinkering]

"What do you mean?"

[mxglam]

"Well, a lot of the stuff we talk about is just assumptions, really. Like, we don't know if she can read minds or not, we don't know how far into the future she can plan stuff, we don't know the extent to which her scream can affect anything, whether she even needs it. Leviathan's been around for eight years, Behemoth almost twelve, even if we don't know exactly why they're holding back, whether it's some inherent limitation or what, we still know a lot more about them."

[thinkering]

"Well, and they're less complicated. They might be holding back but they're probably holding back on the same theme; the Simurgh's theme is farther-reaching."

[mxglam]

"Exactly! And it's frustrating to try to plan around that."

[thinkering]

"Very."

[mxglam]

Sigh.

"Anyway, what should we do first, shoot a webisode or try to test the whether-belief-has-to-go-through-me thing?"

[thinkering]

"I feel like there must be a better way to design the latter experiment and we have time until the next Endbringer. Webisode first. What do you need me for, though?"