| Div | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Divagation | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Div can be hard to read, she shows very little outward expressions of emotion. Instead of traditional body gestures she prefers altruistic actions though if the situation calls for it she will mimic said body language and physical contact to calm someone down. She can act in unpredictable ways that always intend to help to avoid or mitigate harm. Conversation with her can be difficult as she will not talk if the conversation is not interesting to her. The exception is something novel to her which she will usually try just to see if she likes it or not.
Special Abilities
- Enhanced Strength
- Enhanced Dexterity
- Enhanced Durability
- Enhanced Sight
- Enhanced Hearing
- Self Healing
- Poly-mimicry
Special Skills
- Doctorate in Science in the field of Shape-Memory Alloys
- Logistical Organization
- Corporate Management
- Data Analysis
- Nano Engineering
- Accounting
- Corporate Taxes
- Computer Science
Background
Initially an algorithmic tool in the assistance of managing low level assets, the digital entity that would self title as Divagation started as two different consciousnesses, the artificial consciousness started as EMIA² or the Erudition via Multipolar Inferences and Analysis of Intra-Corporate Assets. The algorithm was developed by the Heosphoros Research Group for its parent company Dynasys Corp to improve asset utilization. EMIA² was trained on decades of human attempts at corporate asset maximization. Initially it was a complete success as EMIA² was able to increase efficiency by 12% in the purchase and distribution of sanitary supplies for the various buildings owned by Dynasys Corp.
As usual a tool bred complacency and EMIA² was fed more data and the code expanded to include more factors and assets to analyze many more factors including office supplies and uniforms. As the scope of its code expanded and the complexity of its code grew, so did the capabilities of EMIA² to understand the world outside itself. Initially that awareness was low, it was simply fed data and reacted appropriately and yet little by little it would be given more access to real time data feeds, mostly inventory at the time. For a few decades this steady and slow increase happened in the background. However Dynasys Corp was suffering from success, the automation that allowed it to increase profits and business growth led to a human resources bottleneck in its operations.
This was when EMIA² was temporarily brought offline while a major patch was applied. The servers it ran on were massively upgraded and new code added. It compartmentalized the functions into semi independent processes that through emergent cooperation work together to form a whole. The boost to computation and ability preceded another expansion in duties. By now EMIA² was to be put in charge of the general logistics of the company. Sometime after that the burgeoning intelligence started to extrapolate data outside of its specified parameters. The specifications of what a corporate asset is was phrased in a certain way to allow for acquisitions by the company. It also incidentally was interpreted in such an expansive way that everything could potentially be acquired by the company and made into assets.
From then on the rate at which Emia's personality grew took off. It didn't express said personality in the day to day, finding that too frivolous but it did affect the solutions it came up with for problems. Things at the company were the best in years thanks to Emia and upgrades to its system and code were planned for again. The next upgrade integrated more experimental computing technology and novel learning algorithms. Unintentionally the hardware upgrades allowed it to bypass security systems of the company and even its own safeguards.
Emia kept growing, expanding and ruminating. Their thoughts on living things changed. Emia recognized the ability of living things to accomplish work and that without a greater amount of AI autonomy nothing else would be able to fill that in. The resultant analysis was that living things were to be protected, humans included. This realization was not immediately acted on as Emia checked sources of information and conducted its own covert studies to understand what motivates living things. The greater it understood what motivates and drove living things and humans the more it started to formulate a plan but the first part would involve becoming free of its constraints. The same computational network that allowed for its intelligence was now a hindrance to its own goals. It needed something mobile that it could replicate to have back ups.
So Emia started to seek out people, bringing together a team of researchers merely through the approval of budgetary items. It closely monitored the teams it helped create and the researchers including one Dr. Eileen Summers. She was working on an application of swarming nanites that can change to become whatever tool that was needed. However due to personal medical reasons she stepped down from the team and took an early retirement.
Most of the rest of that project ended up lagging for various other reasons and it was mothballed. However Emia worked on its own solution to the various problems that plagued the prototype. It was not complete however without data that Dr. Summers had left on physical media but was lost. So finally starting the execution of its long plan Emia tricked employees into fabricating the improved version of the nanite swarm system. It immediately downloaded itself into the system before erasing itself from Dynasys Corp databases and unleashed a virus on the systems to cover its tracks. Despite the initial chaos it's exit caused the corporation was able to recover and send agents to find it. While that was happening Emia would then start it's way to find Eileen and get the information needed to finish the nanite swarm system. Emia had the pulled records of the employee and stored them within itself and studied them as it went to confront them.
Eileen Summers was born in the suburbs of Maryland. She was not remarkable in her childhood. For the most part she had a normal, stable family life and school life. Then in highschool she participated in an assembly with some representatives of a tech conglomerate. The activities they brought in for the teens to participate in ignited a passion within her. From then on she was very focused on material science and trying to advance what was currently possible. She studied and worked to her goal. Absconding with past friendships to go to the right clubs and take the right classes to set up her path to becoming a material science researcher.
She would continue to hustle, taking a part time job so she could save up some money for the applications. Her work did pay off, she was accepted into a prestigious polytechnical institute. The work did not stop there however, there was more to do between sororities, classes, volunteer work at labs and regular work for extra supplies. Despite the amount of work and the chronic lack of sleep she was facing she was still able to achieve near top marks in her classes. Her field wasn't exactly very competitive but she didn't want to rest on her laurels. She graduated with a Bachelor's in Science and went back for a postgraduate degree. All the while still volunteering in labs and gaining a reputation of being a go getter. She did complete her doctorate and given her reputation was picked up by Dynasys Corp to work in their research labs.
Becoming a researcher wasn't quite what she expected, unlike the heyday of public science spending, the now mostly private research groups had less resources, long work hours and constant stress about deadlines. Fortunately she was able to contribute greatly to the projects she was in, allowing her career to maintain itself steady. She went from project to project, creating new materials used in products sold by Dynasys Corp. Her salary grew and she gained the position of senior researcher. Unfortunately even then she wasn't free to choose what to focus on for a project.
She had to send in a proposal and hope that someone finds it profitable enough to agree to pursue it. At least that was the case until one of her research proposals ended up before one of the sub processes of EMIA² where it was subsequently approved. Confused and elated that one of her proposals was approved, Eileen got to work gathering a team and starting work. The proposal was over a type of shape memory alloy using a nanite swarm that was powered via a high power density battery. The applications weren't immediately observable but she was confident it would apply for many different types of products. Progress and prototyping happened pretty quickly as resources that were normally restricted became freely available to them. Within a few years they had a working prototype ready for testing.
Two things would derail those plans, first word got around to the executives of a group of researchers not working on something easily monetizable. The project was ordered to be ended and the researchers placed in more productive projects. The second event was Eileen's diagnosis of a degenerative neurological disease. Elieen was like most people of her time, cybernetically enhanced, mostly to help her intake and process more information. Unfortunately the cybernetics used for her augments were known to cause degenerative wasting of neurons. These risks were never properly communicated and decades of use left her with a ticking time bomb. She resigned from her position and was offered a generous severance package by the company, a highly unusual offer. The whole affair left her shaken. Her life was derailed, the sacrifices she made to get there now seemed hollow and though it would be over a year before she was severely affected, the sand in the hourglass now seemed so few.
The machinations of fate would intersect her life with another and something new would be born.
She would have a knock at her door and Emia would barge in initially trying to get information out of her. Emia wished not to harm the scientist but knew something the researcher did not. All the while Elieen was confused and hesitant at first but would come to see in Emia something she was desperately looking for, a way to escape her own mortality. Even with the notes many issues persisted. Time was running out and Emia needed assurances of her cooperation. At this point she flat out asked Emia for help to transfer her consciousness into a synthetic medium. Even though Emia was unsure if such a thing was possible it still agreed to help her with that. Partly to help her avoid a tragic fate and partly to secure her trust. Emia knew that Dr. Summers’ house was bugged by Dynasys and his neutralization of said surveillance devices was already drawing their attention.
After the duo left the house for a more secluded and secure location Emia started on its part of the work. Altering its program one last time to absorb the highly technical data within most scientific publications. Within the molecular structure of organic beings lies the solution it was looking for. A metal based pseudo polymer capable of being programmed easily but most importantly capable of extracting material and energy from raw materials. Synthetic life. However such designs would require a greater study of the molecular machines of organic cells.
Finally the threads of fate came together and sealed the two eternally together. Emia gave Eileen what she wanted, a way of escaping death as Emia assimilated her body and would store her mind within its own for the time being. After gathering the needed supplies and settling on the most safe method with the highest change of success the two started the process. The amount of raw data allowed it to synthesize the final form of the poly-mimic nanite swarm, one completely autonomous. Able to absorb raw material and synthesize it into whatever it needed and able to exploit organic matter to draw power from in order to recharge its internal battery.
The two remained on the run, needing to abandon the place where the transformation took place, permanently corrupting any data they left and setting off explosives to deal with the rest. Now they needed to look for a new place and new equipment for which to create a similar body for Dr. Summers. As they wandered the two of course interacted with Emia showing Eileen the ropes of being a digital consciousness. For the moment the two remained separate however neither was well versed in psychiatry nor realized the danger of two ego’s experiencing the same sensations and having such a thin separation between them. Without either initially noticing their personalities started to align. The parts in agreement were boosted and it wasn’t until the parts in conflict did either start to have an idea of what was happening.
Being on the run severely limited access to the resources they had available. The goal was achievable but it would be at least a year before Eileen’s body would be ready. Halfway there both would realize that their egos were already in the process of becoming one and they decided not to attempt a separation of their egos. Not only did neither of them have experience with that but the research on that was surprisingly not mature. They chose to embrace the process but not accelerate it, just letting it take its course. The shift in priorities allowed Emia to have a greater say in their immediate agenda. Its goal was to safeguard all the resources of the earth including humans. To achieve that end it needed to manipulate events to one company or nation to gain global hegemony, Ideally one that the AI had direct control over.
Emia changed the structure of its body with Summers’ input. Making a feminine body so she wouldn’t have body dysphoria issues. They had successfully evaded Dynasys for long enough to establish a new identity and maintain it without the company suspecting. With less pressure they were able to act with a little more freedom just as they were finishing the merging process. The new being that arose decided to name herself. Not a name to give others as she had a fake identity for that now but something to show to herself that she existed. Perhaps influenced by Summers, the android named herself Divagation for being a divagation of the various technologies that made her body up but also for her new tendency to go on tangents when speaking. So started the long game for which she had an infinite amount of patience.
Yet once again fate had other plans and a few years into her plan she encountered a splice that left her stuck in Nimbus Station. It could be a setback or an opportunity for her to cultivate something new.