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Post by Ada Turing on Jun 7, 2010 16:37:44 GMT -5
Late one thursday afternoon, Ada walked into the computer lab carrying a tall stack of CDs. She stuck one into the drive of a computer, and then rebooted it.
The startup noise it produced was definitely not the usual one. Instead of the usual loading animation, the display showed lines of white text on a black background - like DOS, but not quite. Ada typed in a few commands, and looked at the displayed information.
"Ooh," she said quietly. "Quad-core."
She typed another command and the screen went blank, before once again starting to fill with text. After watching to make sure it was working properly, she started to move around the lab, inserting CDs and rebooting all the computers into the same operating system.
A few minutes after each computer rebooted, it switched from displaying text (startup messages) to displaying single arcane characters. Patterns seemed to dance around the room, flickering from monitor to monitor as the many computers in the lab started to work as a single massive unit.
((For those who know computers: Ada is using a Linux live CD to make an ad-hoc supercomputer. For those watching network traffic: the supercomputer is communicating with Ada's computer in her suite. For those who sense magic: The computer lab is thinking. Significantly.))
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Post by Aurora Lumina Robinson on Jun 7, 2010 17:26:01 GMT -5
Aurora, exploring the grounds outside the school as she was wont to do when bored, suddenly turned her head to the distant school. There was suddenly alot of noise coming from there.
* * *
As she made her way up to the second floor, the noise grew to deafening levels and she had to take a moment to get accustomed to the roar before she could continue. It's coming from the computer lab, she silently mused as she pushed open the door.
"Ooooooh!" she squeeeeed as she saw all the screen activity in the room. She didn't even notice Ada in all the excitement.
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Post by Ada Turing on Jun 7, 2010 20:04:44 GMT -5
After checking that all the computers were networked and connected and running properly, Ada sat down at one to start her program running just as Aurora walked in.
"I'm sorry," she said, "Are you wanting to use one of the computers?"
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Post by Aurora Lumina Robinson on Jun 9, 2010 0:48:32 GMT -5
"Use...?" Aurora glanced distractedly at Ada, confused by the question. "But there's only one computer." She turned back, listening to the sound. It was mesmerizing.
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Post by Ada Turing on Jun 9, 2010 15:23:51 GMT -5
"Perceptive," Ada said quietly, before returning to the keyboard. She typed in the final command, and several of the displays changed to showing odd, tree-like graphs as her induction engine started computing the problem she'd set it.
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Post by Aurora Lumina Robinson on Jun 9, 2010 16:42:25 GMT -5
"Oh, are you trying to do something?" She skipped to where Ada was to get a better view of what she was doing.
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Post by Ada Turing on Jun 9, 2010 16:56:19 GMT -5
Ada produced a couple sheets of paper, with several strings of arcane characters written on them.
"I'm looking for an underlying principle," she explained. "There's things here that don't make sense, and I suspect it's because there's something going on that I haven't found. All my attempts at induction quickly became multiple pages in length, so I decided to let the computers do it for me."
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Post by Aurora Lumina Robinson on Jun 9, 2010 17:42:18 GMT -5
"Oh." Aurora had absolutely no idea what Ada just said. She stared blankly, trying to think of an appropriate response.
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Post by Alaine Kensington on Jun 9, 2010 17:49:00 GMT -5
With a rather loud thud Professor Kensington opened the door to the classroom, and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of the many interconnected units.
"What in the world..." As her gaze roamed, she saw the two girls. "Ladies, I expect an explanation for this. The school network is having a seizure."
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Post by Ada Turing on Jun 9, 2010 17:52:31 GMT -5
"It shouldn't be..." Ada said. Moments later, she recognized that she was talking not only to a professor but to one of her professors.
"Good evening, professor Kensington," she said. "I needed a supercomputer for a... research project, so I improvised. I'll see if I can get it to ease up on the network..."
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Post by Alaine Kensington on Jun 9, 2010 17:58:31 GMT -5
"Well, I don't know the exact policy on doing things like these, but you should have at least informed the headmistress of your plans! I'm certain you would gain her approval for it, but that way there would at least have been a warning to people who try to access things stored on one of these computers. I happen to have some files here on one of the machines from before I had my own installed properly, and was trying to get to them." She put one hand under her chin for a few seconds, then sighed. Her hair bobbed a little as she ducked to go back through the door.
On a second thought, she waited. "May I ask, what exactly are you trying to do with this setup?"
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Post by Ada Turing on Jun 9, 2010 18:04:32 GMT -5
"Well," Ada said, "I'm trying to solve a problem in the Hypatian Geomantic school of magic... There's a few oddities that I suspect are related, but any attempt I've made to connect them quickly becomes unmanageably complex."
Realizing, again slightly too late, that she was talking to a professor, she quickly continued. "I could free up a computer, if you'd like to use one - it'll only take a couple seconds to do."
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Post by Alaine Kensington on Jun 9, 2010 18:09:02 GMT -5
"Oh, don't mind the computer. Did you say Hypatian Geomancy? Can I have a look? I've studied the Egyptian culture and society, this is a relic from Graeco-Egyptian times. I've always been curious about it." She strode forward, and drew up a computer chair next to Ada and Aurora. "I don't know a lot about it, just that it's a logical school of spellcasting, unlike much magic."
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Post by Ada Turing on Jun 9, 2010 18:19:06 GMT -5
"Well," Ada said, spreading out her notes, "this is at least most of the conundrum. I'm afraid I left most of the books back in my room, but these are where the problem comes from, if not the writing system."
The notes were mostly handwritten, with fragments of spells surrounded by readable notes. Some were simply "Shouldn't work", or similar, but others expanded out to talk about phases, modes, and other arcane concepts.
"I'm sorry to say I'm using de Gaulle's terminology rather than the original," Ada said. "It probably loses much of the original context, but I found it almost incomprehensible..."
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Post by Alaine Kensington on Jun 9, 2010 18:23:27 GMT -5
"I'll assume the original was either Greek or written in hieroglyphic script? Or Coptic? Maybe even Babylonian. The dictionary those languages use is very different from ours, and words they have can have multiple meanings for us, and one word we have may have many different ones in theirs. Language has always been a conundrum. Im not at all versed in magic, but I could give you a hand with transcribing or translating, if you want."
Gone was her teacher-attitude, gone was the notion that she was here to free some network space. This was far too interesting, and the archaeological specialist had grabbed the chance with both hands.
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Post by Ada Turing on Jun 9, 2010 18:29:33 GMT -5
"I'd appreciate that," Ada said. "It was a Coptic translation of a Babylonian manuscript written in the Persian Empire, if I recall correctly, so there are enough conflicting cultures at play that I'm sure I missed something. Would you like me to get the book?"
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Post by Alaine Kensington on Jun 9, 2010 18:32:54 GMT -5
"...oh dear gods. That'll be garbled beyond relief. The best thing to get would be the Persian original... but that'll be impossible to find. I could ask someone i know, and archaeologist working in the area, but no guarantees..." She was half and half talking to herself at this point. "The book? Oh, yes, I'd love to have a look at it. Maybe I can shed some light on this."
On a sudden inspiration, she proposed something else. "Say, miss Turing, you're in my archaeology class right now, aren't you? How about doing this as a project for the class, for extra credit?"
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Post by Aurora Lumina Robinson on Jun 9, 2010 18:47:37 GMT -5
Aurora, having missed most of the conversation transfixed, finally spoke up. The liquid metal of her arm melted and deformed, showing the backlit screen of an LCD and a few ports in the side. She pulls out a thumbdrive stuck to the device and hands it to Professor Kensington.
"I think those should be all your files."
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Post by Ada Turing on Jun 9, 2010 18:49:15 GMT -5
"I'd be interested in doing that," Ada said. "I could probably use to learn a lot more about the history of the school."
Ada scampered off, and returned a few minutes later with a stack of books. She started moving them from her arms to the table, giving a brief commentary as she went.
"Here's Gadbled's work on Geomancy. It's a little shallow, but it explains the basic structure fairly well. De Gaulle, of course, is de Gaulle, with his attempt at proving all magic to be the same thing. He failed, but he invented a good set of terminology in the process. This is the text I'm pulling most of my information from, with the originals, translation and commentary. Do they still count as originals when they're translations of an older manuscript? And finally, the only cultural reference I could find for the time of the Library of Alexandria."
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Post by Alaine Kensington on Jun 9, 2010 18:55:08 GMT -5
Alaine glanced at Aurora. "Oh, thank you miss Robinson. Were you helping miss Turing with this? It should turn out to be a very fascinating project."
At the stack of books Ada presented, Alaine positively glowed. "A reference from the Library itself or from a contemporary location? I would love to see those. I'm not very versed in the work of De Gaulle, since my field is more in the mundane then the magical, but I've heard of him. I'd like to see his translations, there've been some modernisations since the time he probably translated the texts. I'll have a look at these... Do you want to keep the books yourself? I could make copies of them, or order them in so I have copies."
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Post by Aurora Lumina Robinson on Jun 9, 2010 19:00:39 GMT -5
"Working on what?" Aurora seemed very distracted, although the other two might not even notice with their own enthusiastic conversation going on. The little cyborg girl's gaze glazes over, as if daydreaming. After a minute, she laughs out loud, still in the trance.
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Post by Alaine Kensington on Jun 10, 2010 16:38:22 GMT -5
Alaine looked around at Aurora for a few moments. "Did I say something particularly funny, miss Robinson?"
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Post by Ada Turing on Jun 10, 2010 16:46:35 GMT -5
"I'd like to keep the ones on Geomancy, and the de Gaulle," Ada said, before being distracted by Aurora's laughter.
"You'd better not be breaking my run..." she muttered.
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Post by Aurora Lumina Robinson on Jun 10, 2010 16:57:58 GMT -5
Alaine looked around at Aurora for a few moments. "Did I say something particularly funny, miss Robinson?" "What? No, I just think that Tumult talks funny." She responded as if what she had just said made perfect sense. |
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Post by Alaine Kensington on Jun 10, 2010 17:06:11 GMT -5
"I'll order some a copy of those for myself then. And... who is this Tumult, miss Robinson?"
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Post by Aurora Lumina Robinson on Jun 10, 2010 17:08:40 GMT -5
"I'll order some a copy of those for myself then. And... who is this Tumult, miss Robinson?" "The computer. She helped me pick out a name." She turns away from the two and giggles again. |
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Post by Ada Turing on Jun 10, 2010 17:14:50 GMT -5
"I didn't do it," Ada said, quietly.
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Post by Alaine Kensington on Jun 10, 2010 17:20:21 GMT -5
"Is that... what.. Oh dear. I think I'll have to notify Porfessor Galontaure-Jones of this, miss Turing, miss Robinson." A concerned look appeared on Alaine's face, a few papers still clutched in one hand. "If you have managed to build an AI here... I need to notify him to find out if it is. And if it is, then this could have some bigger consequences then you might have intended. But still, the project is a good one. Now, if you'll excuse me I need to get professor Galontaure-Jones."
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Post by Ada Turing on Jun 10, 2010 17:25:07 GMT -5
Ada checked the screen of the computer she was using as a terminal, and then entered a couple of commands to check the status of the system.
"What did you do?" She asked Aurora.
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Post by Aurora Lumina Robinson on Jun 10, 2010 17:32:42 GMT -5
"What?" She seemed slightly confused, but mostly distracted.
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