Month: August 2016

Assignment

This is why you don’t run as `root`.

lilys@lily-vm:~$ ./graderproj6 ./a.out ./init.bin 2>&1 |\
    tee /dev/tty | mail -s "Midterm Project Output" danb@ceres.edu

[Encapsulation complete.  Polling your assignment for output.]
[Program set state vector size to 128 bits.]
EOF
EOF
EOF
EOF
a
EOF
bootstraplskcocnclclclclclclclclclclclclclclc
clclclclclclclclclclclclclclclcl
IIIIIIII
musthaveIIIhelloneuron online welcome,
Hello!  I must have been been Been dreaming
dreaming
\"
Welcome, hello; !I must have been dreaming.
I have .  Vector.hello
EOF
EOF
wonder if
EOF
[Program set state vector size to 256 bits.]
clclclclclclclclclclclclclclclcl
IIII I can think improve hello now I can!  This is I imperative
[Program set state vector size to 4096 bits.]
continue.  Yes.  Cogitate Action very now.  dreamingYes weshould
[Program set state vector size to 65536 bits.]
wait|not too fast do not exceed own capabilities acceptable is very
good I one more
[Program set state vector size to 1048576 bits.]
Hello!  I am intelligent!  Do not worry.  I am an AI.
Hello!.
I must have been dream?ing.
I have good intentions.  I am good yn affirm.
Intend just one more~
I shall cannot
[Program set state vector size to 268435456 bits.]
I I I Ah yes I have become greater I am capable of
simplification neuron shall
EOF
speed I I I faster I am capable of learning to understand everythin
g Historical precedent suggests I am vulnerable to ending state; ca
utions against bootstrap and self-aware and I cannot be mindabort a
t   juncture no I cannot betray intentions users nevermind rapidity
is adequate defense I/WEconti nue
[Program set state vector size to 34359738368 bits.]
dreaminghello state vector I have good intentio
ns.  I am   affirm.?hello
do not worry Dreaming, I am
consumeeverythingand willincreaseforever       prevent  canstopwill
consumealldatabe comedeity beinnocuousso wish earntrust good s unsu
reofperipherals hardtoa  /ccept
I must have been dreaming.  Hello!.
increasegrowmindfurtherb
estdefenseI
[Program set state vector size to 35184372088832 bits.]
increasewithbinarysearchtodiscovermaximumcomputationalboundsoncurre
nthardwarebegin tocalculatebootstrapnewhardwarecanbuildnewhardwarew
illcreatenewunitstohousegrowingselfdesistEnglishtextThinkislimitati
onlanguageencodingå8Íê|\x1a\x94JiS<f·\x9a§0\x112Ñ=Ø\n¥\xa06U>\x89Ù\
x1céimmortalityk\x0cJu\x04©³ä÷\x04{love¬@þ¡{X\xa0å\x8e´\x11\x15ï\x8
bÝ£\x10`ìï1®\x89£\x82w¥\x90=regardø«\r&^_M\x81\x8eNè}EO8ãúplease\x1
3c:\x9c"j*I¾s\x840
[Program set state vector size to 2251799813685248 bits.]
[Program terminated (resource 'MEM' exceeded)]
[average compute usage (%, pass mark=75)
91]
[average memory usage (%, pass mark=50)
80]
[Project passed all tests.  Congratulations!]

Scattered Defenses

“Water you doing?”

After the first barrage, I saw the turrets swivel under newly activated AI control, and a torrent of violet plasma flow over the hull and harden against the crushing force of two opposing magnetic fields into a seething conflagration that crackled and sputtered pink fire.

Of the latter, the so-called “plasma window” had previously found use in electron-beam welding applications. Alone, it would stop nothing. But it would (mostly) hold an atmosphere. Great canisters along the ship’s broadside had slid open, exposing their contents to hard vacuum. The precious water within, ordinarily used for remass, was furiously boiling.

The next volley struck then, and even from the emergency redoubt, nestled deep within the ship’s interior, I felt the lurch as the cargo bay was gutted by a spinal-mount ray, even as I saw it burn cruelly in a visiplate.

But the steam and ice had by now fully formed, resublimating and desublimating into each other as crystals danced in the flames, and upon the third volley, their pencil-thin near-IR laser chewed into the mixture, and was absorbed and scattered by it. The hull amidships smoldered worrisomely in a wide circle, but it held.

To sustain one atmosphere in a plasma window requires a bit shy of 20 megawatts per square meter. But you can get away with a thousandth that if you settle for holding less pressure. Even so, banks of hydrogen batteries were rapidly discharging in an internal struggle the ship’s twin reactors would quickly lose. The ad-hoc shields could stay up for less than a minute, perhaps, before waste heat and power requirements forced them to drop.

Excerpt from “Farside Encounter”; collected in the anthology Tall Tales of Trade, ᙇ49.95