Posted by: daini@Friggarock.fen
To: talk.cybernet.General
Subj: RE: RE: RE: "From coupler-flange to spindle-guide I see Thy Hand, O God—"
I think it's like the difference between Gaia and the God model of things. In the God model of things you've this big central brain that's responsible for everything. It knows all, it sees everything, it measures everything and it chooses to respond to those measurements by turning things off or on, or turning things up and down. Everything's running in lockstep and under control. Disturbances are managed by the brain and corrections are programmed in and all the possible states are known beforehand so you know what you're doing to get out of them. It's like, all these station's have their mind's at the centre of them that can see all and know all on the station, and adjusts things consciously to match. It's sort of the Shiva pushing all the buttons at the centre of the world in the Simpsons.
What we're trying to do is kind of like a Gaia thing where - you know how on Earth there's no real God but everything sort of works together anyway - it all self corrects? So you have all these self contained small little systems and they all sort of come together in a way to make one ecosystem that sort of tends towards a stable place and when one of the small systems gets fucked with the other change is ways that cause the systems to self correct. We're trying to do shit like that. So instead of the big brain knowing what the demand is on the system and adjusting everything to match, the system sort of adjusts itself. It's like a load of different things looking after themselves and their own little universe that when put together they just sort of stabilise without anyone having to do anything. All these systems just sort of self-stabilise as one big system around a comfortable point.
Of course - if you have a problem where one or two things break down -the system can tell you - but it can sort of keep going in a degraded mode with a pump stuck at maximum, or a valve failed in a safe position or a broken line. The system is sort-of uncomfortable - but still able to keep going on the same way you can hold your hand there. Everything up and downstream sort of self-compensates.
The brain can be a lot smaller because all it has to do is respond to specific things going wrong that might push the system outside the stabilised point. It's only when things start breaking down or it gets into local overloads that it starts praying to God to intervene, but that makes God's work a little easier, doesn't it?
God can be whoever sat at the desk that day, rather than a Mind built specifically for governing the station.
It's a little bit harder than waking a Mind, sure, but at the same time, you're not creating a whole Person just because it's convenient.
-Anika Daini
----
Sysop, Frigga 77, and connoisseur of confectionery.
To: talk.cybernet.General
Subj: RE: RE: RE: "From coupler-flange to spindle-guide I see Thy Hand, O God—"
I think it's like the difference between Gaia and the God model of things. In the God model of things you've this big central brain that's responsible for everything. It knows all, it sees everything, it measures everything and it chooses to respond to those measurements by turning things off or on, or turning things up and down. Everything's running in lockstep and under control. Disturbances are managed by the brain and corrections are programmed in and all the possible states are known beforehand so you know what you're doing to get out of them. It's like, all these station's have their mind's at the centre of them that can see all and know all on the station, and adjusts things consciously to match. It's sort of the Shiva pushing all the buttons at the centre of the world in the Simpsons.
What we're trying to do is kind of like a Gaia thing where - you know how on Earth there's no real God but everything sort of works together anyway - it all self corrects? So you have all these self contained small little systems and they all sort of come together in a way to make one ecosystem that sort of tends towards a stable place and when one of the small systems gets fucked with the other change is ways that cause the systems to self correct. We're trying to do shit like that. So instead of the big brain knowing what the demand is on the system and adjusting everything to match, the system sort of adjusts itself. It's like a load of different things looking after themselves and their own little universe that when put together they just sort of stabilise without anyone having to do anything. All these systems just sort of self-stabilise as one big system around a comfortable point.
Of course - if you have a problem where one or two things break down -the system can tell you - but it can sort of keep going in a degraded mode with a pump stuck at maximum, or a valve failed in a safe position or a broken line. The system is sort-of uncomfortable - but still able to keep going on the same way you can hold your hand there. Everything up and downstream sort of self-compensates.
The brain can be a lot smaller because all it has to do is respond to specific things going wrong that might push the system outside the stabilised point. It's only when things start breaking down or it gets into local overloads that it starts praying to God to intervene, but that makes God's work a little easier, doesn't it?
God can be whoever sat at the desk that day, rather than a Mind built specifically for governing the station.
It's a little bit harder than waking a Mind, sure, but at the same time, you're not creating a whole Person just because it's convenient.
-Anika Daini
----
Sysop, Frigga 77, and connoisseur of confectionery.
I love the smell of rotaries in the morning. You know one time, I got to work early, before the rush hour. I walked through the empty carpark, I didn't see one bloody Prius or Golf. And that smell, you know that gasoline smell, the whole carpark, smelled like.... ....speed.
One day they're going to ban them.