Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Last Words From Jordan[/big]

Fragment content

Automated ’link recording

Jordan, Dug-Out Cluster, L1020

((audio recording:)) Don’t know ... Maybe something blew up down in the lab. I’ll go have a look. You just stay here Yuhima, and take care of those crates [...] A leakage? Here? But we ain’t even close to the hull ... [... sound of metal plate friction ... people yelling ...] What the ...! [... deafening roar ...] Hold on to the railing! Just hold on to the railing! [...] Gotta seal those doors! Now! [... ] Yuhima, get away from the lift! Yuhima! [transmission cut short]

Notes

Recorded at the onset of the flash flood that caused the power spike a few months prior to game launch at L1020/05/01

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Last Words From Lobe[/big]

Fragment content

Automated ’link recording

Lobe, Dug-Out Cluster, L1020

((audio recording:)) The Habitat crowd? Never! What would they care? No, they’re quite happy that they’re up there and we’re down here. But you know what they say about colossuses with feet of clay. If that membrane breaks, damnit, they’ll be just as sorry as we are. Know what, I think someone ... [... deep roar slowly rising ...] Typical! There go the lights again. Well, I’ll better go check on my bit.

Notes

Recorded at the onset of the flash flood that caused the power spike a few months prior to game launch at L1020/05/01

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Leenas Notes Day 46[/big]

Fragment content

((Personal notespace for Leena, labeled "day 46"))

17:23:15: The fine dust is driving me crazy. The tundra storms seem to deposit it and then it creeps in through the hull plates. It's everywhere. Gets inside electronics and electrical equipment and causes breakdowns. I get it between my teeth and it's so bad - I hate the way it feels. I don't want to bite down because my teeth will grind against the damn silt. I know it's silly.

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Leenas Notes Day 89[/big]

Fragment content

((Personal notespace for Leena, labeled "day 89"))

10:34:12: It seems we've got a metal-loving bacteria. A native organism that has proved hard to wipe out. It lives off all sorts of metals, slowly turning it brittle and full of microscopic fault lines due to metal being eaten away. We need a killer for this one, definitely.

16:23:01: There's a body dump ceremony for Makken. Not sure I want to come. It's so, I don't know, wrong. To throw him down there. I don't want to watch it.

Notes

Information available to colonists on request

See Fictive Fragment Sources page for more info on fragment origins.

See Body Dumps (burials) for more information.

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Body dumps (burials)[/big]

The only burial rite in use so far has been to gather for a brief ceremony before sending the body into the core, where it will end up in the decomposition tanks far below. Ceremonies often feature speeches, memorials and songs by friends, and are not considered religious events.

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Mainstay[/big]

Fragment content

Colonist’s Phrase Files (CPF)

Entry: Mainstay

The name dates all the way back from L900 when humans were first released into the tower. Then, all they had to move around in was Ringlab Alpha and some recreational areas in what is now the floatbed chambers in The Hatchery (see entry). Today ’Mainstay’ is used as a generic term for the two Ringlabs and Weller’s Shaft. However, with the expansion of the Habitat cluster the term has become not only a misnomer, but an unnecessary display of arrogance towards third gen Da Vincians. --- entry by Mirina & Ngala, L1016

Notes

For more info on the Mainstay see Mainstay (LabSpace).

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Mainstay (LabSpace)[/big]

This is where it all began 120 years ago when TAU released the first hundred colonists to assist in the terraforming process. Back then Ringlab Alpha was their sole workstation, and the only human space in the tower except for the Loading Bay above it, and the recreational areas in what has now become Floatbed Chambers. Actually, the Loading Bay used to contain the floatbeds, which were not only shared and stationary but also different from the life tanks where the first Da Vincians were grown.

The Mainstay, and with it the entire Habitat cluster, slowly expanded as it became clear that more space was needed, and that the tower situation might be less temporary than expected. However, it was not until the D-Block Incident some twenty years ago that things really started picking up, and construction projects exploded the place into what it is today.

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Maintenance Hatches (QTG)
[/big]
Fragment content

QuickTip Guide entry #11: Maintenance Hatches

Maintenance hatches serve as entry points to the massive machinery contained in the walls. Damages to hatch contents mainly derive from exposure to microbes, dust and other environmental pollution, but may also be related to aging or jury-rigged machinery.

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Microfactories (QTG)[/big]

Fragment content

QuickTip Guide entry #11: Microfactories

A microfactory is a highly configurable and very powerful machine. They are situated on hardpoints and controlled by administrators. Some require intense shielding or containment measure due to dangerous waste products or leaks.

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Mossbacks[/big]

Fragment content

Colonist’s Phrase Files (CPF)

Entry: Mossbacks

A common denominator for Dug-Out pioneers who began building the new cluster around L1010. The Terran definition of the term hints at both conservatism and people living in backwards rural areas. Though some might see the last part as holding true, the term was coined as an actual description of Da Vincians working in the humid air close to the bottom of the tower. In fact, many had their suits covered in moss and lichen when they returned from their shifts. --- entry by Ngala, L1015

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Necklink (QTG)
[/big]
Fragment content

QuickTip Guide entry #25: Necklink

Necklink: ('link). Neurally controlled interface to TAU. Partly embedded in the central nervous system. Inserted during speed growth. Enables people to interact with surroundings such as opening doors, using machines, accessing floatbeds and connecting to the tower web. The ‘link can also yield basic information about current physical state, and also doubles as emergency beacon and generic person finder.

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]On Accessing TAU[/big]

Fragment content

Early Day Recollection Series (EDRS)

Interview with Shikaya, first TAU programmer, hatched L900

((audio recording:)) I don’t wanna get into that. That’s an old argument about who did what first. And does it matter? No. [... shuffles ..] It was a natural thing for me to do. I had been interested in swarm AI systems long before I was hatched. And it didn’t have anything to do with hacking TAU. I enabled data processing from a much wider field than was immediately accessible. That’s all. Without that data we couldn’t have gone anywhere. Anybody will tell you so.

Notes

See Mainstay (LabSpace) and affiliated entries for more info on the first humans in the tower

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]On Being Hatched No. 4[/big]

Fragment content

Early Day Recollection Series (EDRS)

Interview with Margyan, hatched L900

((audio recording:)) One word ...? [... hums ...] Disappointment, I’d have to say. Imagine ... the imagery of bio-domes and lush fields and clear skies. It was all we knew, it was all we expected. Imagine the disappointment. Suddenly we were there, all alone inside this huge machine that nobody knew how to operate. [...] Yes, I know TAU is still running some old speed-growth programmes. But back then there weren’t anybody to receive us. Back then we were alone.

Notes

See Mainstay (LabSpace) and affiliated entries for more info on the first humans in the tower

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]
On Being Hatched No. 9
[/big]

Fragment content

Early Day Recollection Series (EDRS)

Interview with Margyan, hatched L900

((audio recording:)) No, no, it was nothing like that. We were simply ... *informed*. I remember walking sideways down the spiral stairs, knees wobbling, hands touching the wall. I hadn’t even got the proper balance when TAU’s message just popped up out of nowhere. Or so it seemed. It was right there, right before my eyes. It said something like ’Original mission plans aborted’. Very formal anyway. And I couldn’t even walk. [... laughs hard ...] Good old TAU.

Notes

See Mainstay (LabSpace) and affiliated entries for more info on the first humans in the tower

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]
On Laslov And Sites[/big]

Fragment content

Early Day Recollection Series (EDRS)

Interview with Fielding, first head of lab, hatched L900

((audio recording:)) Laslov and Sites? Yeah, sure I remember. Great couple of guys. Had loads of fun together. [... swallows ...] When they took that first trip outside we thought they were all crazy-like. I mean, this was before tube transport. How would you feel about grabbing a chimbot by the tail, and follow it down to tower bottom? [... laughs ...] I remember having a big celebration when they returned with that little soil sample. Now they’re both gone, of course.

Notes

See Mainstay (LabSpace) and affiliated entries for more info on the first humans in the tower

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]On Original Floatbeds[/big]

Fragment content

Early Day Recollection Series (EDRS)

Interview with Margyan, hatched L900

((audio recording:)) Back then all we had to go from was Ringlab Alpha and the ancillary Loading Bay. Which wasn’t quite a loading bay yet. The lift hadn’t been put in place, and we used the old stationary floatbed system up there. You can still see some of the floatbed recesses in the floor. Now, of course, they use them for handling crates and stuff. The piping where the floatbed liquid used to flow, they’ve turned that into oversized cable-throughs. Funny, ain’t it?

Notes

See Mainstay (LabSpace) and affiliated entries for more info on the first humans in the tower

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]On Running The Lab[/big]

Fragment content

Early Day Recollection Series (EDRS)

Interview with Fielding, first head of lab, hatched L900

((audio recording:)) You have to remember this was way before administration systems and access points and all those things. To us, it was just two rows of basic hardpoints with some simple machine modules on them. The idea of *not* using them for some common purpose would never have occurred to us. I just happened to take charge. But it could have been anybody. Back then we were happy as long as somebody just did something. [...laughs...]

Notes

See Mainstay (LabSpace) and affiliated entries for more info on the first humans in the tower

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Prometheus Gang[/big]

Fragment content

Colonist’s Phrase Files (CPF)

Entry: Prometheus Gang (in progress)

Radical ring, Dug-Out as research facility for studying alien lifeforms, more humans means greater expendability, connections to established rings? --- Mirina, L1018

(*) Mir, this is pure speculation. I know you know. Be reasonable. --- Ngala

(**) I’m perfectly reasonable. It’s you who won’t face up to reality. --- Mirina (***)

We gotta talk this over. --- Ngala (****)

I’d love to. Just to prove you wrong. If only you’d come see me. It’s been more than a month now. ---Mirina

Notes

The Prometheus Ring did actually propose turning the Dug-Out into a large-scale microbiological research facility. This, however, was in the earliest days of the cluster before any people were living down there.

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Quantum Computers[/big]

Fragment content

TAU Project Archives, L944

Documenting the Kapstan-Oliver-Grofman project, Scene 29, Take 4

[Camera zooms in on face. Man, delicate features, skin pulled tight, grey hair swept back. Caption reads ’Grofman’.] Camera’s rolling. [Grofman’s face lights up.] These are my little darlings. [Camera follows outstretched hand to unshielded machinery on hardpoint.] My dear quantum computers who are gonna break the weather code for us, and get terraforming back on track. It’s as simple as that.

Notes

For more info on the Kapstan-Oliver-Grofman project read the entry on Mainstay: Ringlab Beta

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Mainstay: Ringlab Beta[/big]

The construction of Ringlab Beta was the first serious full-scale attempt by colonists at understanding the ways of the alien planet, and assimilating their terraforming efforts to them. It was the vision of an idealistic few who believed that the enigma of weather systems and their seemingly unpredictable behavior could be solved once and for all.

The Kapstan-Oliver-Grofman collective presented an impressive piece of research concluding that instructed data selection, a surprisingly simple set of mathematics, and a lab full of modified quantum computers would do the trick. If you count long enough you will eventually have counted the universe. And if you only have to count a single planet, you don’t have to count nearly as long.

Soon almost everybody shared in the vision of the three weathermen, and for a while a sort of collective euphoria gripped the colonists. Today the project would probably have been written off as plain madness, but back then people still believed that the genius of simplicity could save the day. Or, at least, that was what they wanted to believe.

Construction began around L940, and lasted almost five years. The first attempt was a rushed performance suspended high above the Canyon floor, and accessible from the interim gangway connecting the radlocks to LabSpace and the later Hatchery. However, it had to be abandoned when it was discovered that frequent earth tremors and sudden changes in temperature had a negative influence on hardware performance.

Efforts were then moved back to LabSpace where it was decided to model the weather station on the existing Ringlab Alpha. Then followed the big argument about the Loading Bay lift (see The Shaft), and when finally it was settled, it turned out that existing quantum computers could not be linked in the way proposed by the Kapstan-Oliver-Grofman thesis. New research had to be made, and new blueprints had to be thought out.

The only reasonable explanation that the project was not given up midway is that too many resources and too much faith had already gone into it. Defeat was no longer an option, and even though the original roadmap had long since been scrapped work continued unabated. The vision would carry them through.
Ringlab Beta was the single most resource expensive and time-consuming construction project ever undertaken at the time. And in the end, it turned out to be nothing but a somewhat inferior copy of Ringlab Alpha. Hardpoint performance has never reached the level of its predecessor, and the place is still subject to frequent and unexplainable flaws.

The quantum computational dream was never properly realized. The calculation network could only be extended over a small corner of the lab, and soon other pieces of hardware started moving in.

Still, it was a triumphant moment when project lead Grofman flipped the switch, and set the new Ringlab a-humming and a-buzzing. In the first couple of months everybody faithfully waited for the scientific revelation to come. And when the first successful weather simulations were produced people spoke of a breakthrough even though the simulations could easily have been done with existing equipment from five years before.

In time it became clear that nothing worthwhile would come of the Kapstan-Oliver-Grofman setup. However, a few enthusiasts kept the dream alive, even after the originators had abandoned it. Today they stand accused of having contributed to the worsening of the overall climate on Da Vinci.
Faulty decisions based on faulty computations led to questionable terraforming efforts the full effect of which the colony may not have experienced yet. Some even link the project to the allegedly intentional introduction of black algae which resulted in the Dambuster Event in L960, and the seasonal flash floods continuing to this day.

In a sense, the laborious and costly construction of Ringlab Beta was the first major let-down after the first hundred were released into the tower. The idealism and self-confidence of the colonists were shaken, and it became obvious that neither man nor machine were free of fault. Never again would the visions of a few lead so many so blindly.

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Ringlab beta sub entry[/big]

Fragment content

Collaborative Encyclopedia Project (CEP)

Entry: Kapstan-Oliver-Grofman and ringlab beta

Kapstan-Oliver-Grofman, the: Main forces behind the construction of ringlab beta. The aim was to create a space for a computational network of hitherto unforeseen strength. Running weather simulations on it would enable us to crack the mystery of what had happened outside. Though the setup had some issues, it was considered a success by its creators -- Maya, Kapstan Collectiv.

-- And you don't think this is a bit too much positive spin? --- Quachi

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Sava's Spring[/big]

Fragment content

Da Vinci Memorial Banks (DVMB)

Ex-Greenspacer Ghalian speaks at inauguration of the garden spring

((audio recording:)) [...] to signify the continous flow of life which always was her main priority. She probably would have scolded us for wasting valuable research space [...] the end of Sava’s Garden as we knew it. Let this be a lasting monument to her memory, and to The Greenspace Ring [...] As of today this ring is disbanded. Together with all of its practices. I hereby [...]

Notes

See Greenspacer data fragment for more info on The Greenspace Ring

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Security In Canyon[/big]

Fragment content

TAU Message Board Bulletin

Header: Security In Canyon

Last week yet another colonist lost his life in the increasingly hazardous Canyon area. Hernian was walking peacefully past the piston transformers when a high voltage current shot out at him. It was apparently attracted by some metal clamps he was carrying in his right hand. We’ll never know. But what we do know is that too many collateral deaths have occured in the last few months. This will have to change. --- Emelyn, Safety First Initiative, L1019

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Speech By Fischer in L910[/big]

Fragment content

((partial audio fragment))

[...]" a list of people I would like to thank. Randal, for your dedication. Manfried, for your excellent timing. Mariken, Leona, Nuo [laughs] ... for when you keep arguing with me [several people laughing in the background]. Sonnie and Peers for your ability to find the right spot. Kevork - for your ambition. Because ambition is what make Greenhouse Five. It makes us - me - proud [shuffling noises] to be a part of all this. So without further ado I want to [...]" -- L910 ring meeting speech by Fischer, data collector unknown.

Notes

Information available to colonists on request:

The people mentioned in the fragment are members of Fischer's ring Greenhouse Five

Fischer was the first human to set foot on Da Vinci in L900

See Fictive Fragment Sources page for more info on fragment origins

It's undecided what the speech is leading up to. Presumably something the ring wants to celebrate.

Re: Seed Data Mining texts

[big]Greenhouse Five [/big]

Ring founded around L902 by Fischer, first human to be released by TAU. All members were among the first hundred. The ring dissolved at an unknown point, but still exists as a very informal network of 'old-timers'.

Fischer (deceased)
Randal
Manfried
Mariken
Leona
Nuo
Sonnie
Peers
Kevork