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Cam is out flying. There's a decent cloud of atmosphere around the gold plane, now, millenia of demons making air around themselves for comfort and not sealing it up because why would you bother. There's a small forest, here - the effect is kind of ruined by the lamps it has to grow under, but it's still pretty.
He feels an open summons and lets it grab him -
Cam on Barrayar
from_scratch
from_scratch
"What's really interesting is whether it counts as a mind, because demons are terrible at minds. What conversion do you want me to try? I have no idea what format first-person memories are suitably rendered in; if I guess it'll just be like trying to produce Starry Night on ticker tape as ASCII characters or something."
thisvorlunatic
"The storage format is completely idiosycnratic to the chip. If that makes it hard for you to steal his memories, well, give it your best shot - he suggested you aim for the memory of meeting you - and forgive us for celebrating if you fail. As for display format, uh, beats me. The auditory shouldn't be too bad, sound is sound, but visual memories aren't going to look like a standard holo..."
from_scratch
"Yeah... I think I'll try VR. You want to wear the helmet or should I? It's useful for a disappointing run of video games besides this application."
thisvorlunatic
Miles snickers. "I'm the one who has to write a report about this; I'll wear the helmet."
from_scratch
"Okay, then I can't do it in any obvious, sane way, although it might matter if that's because it's encrypted or because it counts as a mind - if it's encrypted, but I can make one with perfect fidelity, then somebody could still read it if they actually put it in their head and inter-brain compatibility was high enough."
thisvorlunatic
Miles extricates himself from the helmet.
"I doubt inter-brain compatibility is high enough. The reason Illyan's the only surviving user is because the rest of them succumbed to a slew of truly alarming side effects within the first decade or so after the initial run, and the whole project was scrapped. I can only imagine how much worse it would get if you tried to stuff a chip full of somebody else's memories into your head. Well, this has been a very heartening start. On to the long and boring list."
"I doubt inter-brain compatibility is high enough. The reason Illyan's the only surviving user is because the rest of them succumbed to a slew of truly alarming side effects within the first decade or so after the initial run, and the whole project was scrapped. I can only imagine how much worse it would get if you tried to stuff a chip full of somebody else's memories into your head. Well, this has been a very heartening start. On to the long and boring list."
from_scratch
"If somebody was very interested in getting his memories and had a lot of sacrificial lambs, it still might matter. But if you are satisfied do let's have the list."
thisvorlunatic
Miles produces the list.
The results are mostly very heartening indeed. A file does not count as having been set to unencrypted material record unless it is actually saved that way at some point; composing and viewing documents on a properly secured comconsole poses no risk. If ImpSec eliminates the habit of ever writing anything to hard copy, they'll be just about fine, and tightening up existing procedures will carry them the rest of the way.
He is very cheerful by the time he trots off to deliver his (appropriately secured) report to Illyan.
The results are mostly very heartening indeed. A file does not count as having been set to unencrypted material record unless it is actually saved that way at some point; composing and viewing documents on a properly secured comconsole poses no risk. If ImpSec eliminates the habit of ever writing anything to hard copy, they'll be just about fine, and tightening up existing procedures will carry them the rest of the way.
He is very cheerful by the time he trots off to deliver his (appropriately secured) report to Illyan.
from_scratch
And Cam loiters in the sitting room, reading. The inhabitants of the house have been briefed on the wings; he lets them sprawl.
thisvorlunatic
Miles pokes his head in after an hour or two.
"Gregor's coming for dinner tonight," he says. "He wants to hear all about Komarr and talk to you about what you want to do next. I brought up the jump pilot thing and he says he'll have somebody look into it."
"Gregor's coming for dinner tonight," he says. "He wants to hear all about Komarr and talk to you about what you want to do next. I brought up the jump pilot thing and he says he'll have somebody look into it."
thisvorlunatic
"And his security will have been briefed about your extra limbs, so no one will become startled and try to shoot you. I mean, they probably wouldn't try to shoot you even if they were totally unprepared, but no sense taking chances."
thisvorlunatic
They're very fetching.
Miles does not say this.
He smiles acknowledgment, waves, and goes off to play with Legos.
Miles does not say this.
He smiles acknowledgment, waves, and goes off to play with Legos.
seewhathappens
Gregor arrives for dinner.
As promised, no one tries to shoot Cam. Although the security team does make some disturbed faces the first time they spot him. Still, they escort Gregor to the dinner table and leave him there without fuss.
As promised, no one tries to shoot Cam. Although the security team does make some disturbed faces the first time they spot him. Still, they escort Gregor to the dinner table and leave him there without fuss.
from_scratch
And Cam also sits at the dinner table. "Hullo! Thanks for letting me terraform your planet. It was fun." Wag wag.
from_scratch
"It was a nice announcement. Didn't contain hardly any 'we have unleashed a demon on your hapless planet', very nicely done."
seewhathappens
"I understand Miles chose to be maximally mysterious about the exact source of the free terraforming, yes. That suits me fine. I have all the reports on projected economic impact and so on; I'm interested in hearing what people seemed to think of it. Any terraformers upset at being abruptly put out of a job?"