[Open Broadcast]

[protect_and_serve]

Who: Everyone on the telepathic network (which is everyone)
When: Just after the new arrivals show up.
What: Joscelin attempting to get things organized.

[There’s a lot of chatter going on, literally making it hard to hear yourself think, between veterans gossipping and speculating what the new wave of Travelers means, and accidental broadcasts by panicked new arrivals, until one hard-edged thought cuts through it all.]

Enough.

You all need to stop this before we drive ourselves insane.

Anyone with experience on the Network, I want a few organized broadcasts offering help and information to newcomers. We don’t call them Fools.

If you’re new, stay calm. No-one can overhear you unless you’re projecting. Try to divide yourselves as evenly as you can between the people giving you answers. That much is instinctive, you won’t have trouble as long as you can imagine it.

Anyone who’s been here longer and wants to speculate? Don’t do it publicly. Find your own little corners, or keep it off the network.

New telepaths. You’ll need to find someone more experienced more than anyone else does.

And everyone be ready for a new Jaunt.

Comments

[superieure]

All the telepaths I've met are capable of conversing with a non-telepath, and for the reverse to occur they need only think loudly in my general direction. Why is it you couldn't?

[thezerothlaw]

Perhaps the best way to describe it is to say that it was a skill of listening. Though it was possible for friend Giskard to influence others with his abilities, it was a matter of adjusting when they felt rather than sending a thought to them. Perhaps, had we time to experiment, we may have learned how to communicate in this way, but he only passed the programming matrix to me when he was commencing the cascading positronic failure that led to his permanent deactivation. There was no time.

[superieure]

[Listening, like Jono, except he hadn't been able to do more than initiate psychic contact to speak. The current network felt like talking to him, but without his low, dulcet voice.]

Akin to turning knobs on a radio, looking for the right station?

[thezerothlaw]

[He takes a moment to consider this. He's not the best with analogies.]

If a metaphor is necessary, then perhaps it is better to describe what friend Giskard and I were capable of perceiving as woven cloth. Individual threads might be adjusted to alter the overall image, but careless tampering might very well cause the entire fabric to come apart.

[superieure]

[It's exactly what Emma taught her about subtle adjustments. Knowing the target and what they were likely to do made it simpler to push them, then outright giving a powerful telepathic command. She had the target's inner will to consider, and that was never predictable.]

You're able to pass on this ability?

[thezerothlaw]

To another robot, yes. It would merely be a matter of sharing the algorithm, though I would want to be certain the robot in question would be able to handle the new programming before I did so. The programming matrix would mean little to a human, however.

[He considers the problem a moment, thoughtful.]

Perhaps I might be able to encourage the ability in a human who already displayed some aptitude for the talent, but I have never tried, and this is merely theory.

[superieure]

[Monet makes a note to check if this technology is available at home, because it's seriously fascinating for her. Ric's the one better with computers and algorithms, and even he never mentioned anything like this. She's utterly delighted at the possibility of this new discovery.]

I know of two other telepaths here [Former telepaths. She's not going to think about that.], perhaps you'd be inclined to test that theory.

[thezerothlaw]

I would be willing. It is unfortunate, however, that my abilities are hampered here. Though I still remember the algorithm, I am somehow unable to access the abilities it grants me. I'm not sure how helpful I would be.

[superieure]

My other gifts have not been suppressed.

[She considers this.]

Perhaps only psionic abilities are dampened.

[thezerothlaw]

I have not had opportunity to test it, but presumably my strength and reflexes, which are greater than that of a human, are still intact. I certainly am not aware of any fault in my physical mechanisms that would suggest that.

[superieure]

You are more than welcome to test yourself against me.

[A smirk plays about her lips; she always loves a new challenge.]

[thezerothlaw]

I would not want to inadvertently harm you, madam.

[Perish the thought. He knows his strength to the slightest degree -- he has to -- but the idea of accidentally harming a human, without even some sort of higher reason, is nothing short of horrifying.]

[superieure]

[That mental image is so ridiculous Monet actually laughs: both at the idea of someone being able to hurt her at all, and the fact that she's seeing what appears to be chivalry in action.]

Monsieur, you would be lucky to land a hit. [It's nearly a boast; but the fact of the matter is other than She-Hulk or Shatterstar, Monet hasn't met anyone who could go toe to toe with her fairly.] No doubt we will find some way if you are uncomfortable hitting a woman.

[thezerothlaw]

It has nothing to do with your physical sex, but I do not wish to strike you. The First Law of Robotics states that a robot must not harm a human, nor through inaction, allow a human to come to harm.

[It's not that straightforward. It never is. He's harmed humans to protect greater harm to other humans; it's all a system of weight and comparison, the path of least possible harm. And even if he's gone so far as to formulate one more Law that goes before the First, it still holds, regardless of whether or not he could actually land a hit.]

Merely determining my own strength, which I know, is an insufficient reason to take that risk.

[superieure]

[He can't - doesn't - know that human is a loaded weapon, and her instinct is to snap back so what about a mutant. She is extremely glad there are no mental impressions to follow with the words, and that her stunned silence could merely come off as pensive. She is also glad he's a relative stranger.]

What would be, then? [A half-second later, quickly:] Hypothetical. I'm curious.

[thezerothlaw]

[His answer comes slowly; these are uncomfortable hypotheticals, ones that twist up the positronic circuits of his brain and slow them down, something akin to pain, or as near as he knows it.]

If it were necessary to protect the life of an innocent, or several innocents, or an individual I was given particular instruction to keep safe, then some harm might be an acceptable trade. Ideally, I would not wish to harm anyone. I regret that in the past it has been necessary at all.

[superieure]

[By her standards it is idealistic, and unachievable. His carefulness in answering - more so than he's been doing so - is proof this was a tough question, but Monet rarely pulls her punches.]

You would not harm another even in your own defence?

[There's a touch of wonder in her mental tone.]

[thezerothlaw]

I admit I was given a stronger Third Law than most robots. I would and have resisted my own deactivation because I felt the reasons given were insufficient, and because I felt then that the lives of many depended upon my continuing what I and Friend Giskard had begun.

[That's a huge confession; he believes he was right, but it might not seem to be so from an outside perspective.]

I would prefer not to harm anyone for my own protection. Perhaps there are circumstances where I might feel it would be justified, but I... I do not like to think of it.