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ahollowmanWhat we've been doing for one-fortieth of a second can't continue indefinitely.
If you compare the six days in the Book of Genesis with the four billion years of geologic time, on that scale, one day is equal to about six hundred and seventy million years. At three minutes to midnight on the sixth day, mankind appeared. At one fortieth of a second before midnight, the industrial revolution began.
And it's unsustainable.
There were a couple things I learned eight years ago in a cave with Ho Yinsin. One of them? Was that it's all unsustainable. And it needs to change.
Ultron wasn't wrong. He wasn't right, either. But he wasn't wrong, even if the execution was, even if he lacked empathy. Even if he had no appreciation for the sanctity of life. Something's got to change. We've got to evolve. There's more out there, we've seen it, I've seen it, aliens, the Asgardians, dark energy. Cosmic Cubes. If we keep doing what we're doing, there is no future.
There's just one-fortieth of a second.
Darrow still used fossil fuels. It was weird, and Tony didn't like it. Why did it work that way? What made it that way? Who the hell could say, because Tony had yet to see even a single convincing piece of evidence that Darrow wasn't just some elaborate simulation, that it wasn't thoughts thinking thoughts of their own, ten million billion calculations every second on an alien computer.
So why did his motorcycle still run on gasoline?
There was a way to fix that.
It started with Henry Cheng, a boy whose first language was thought, a boy who needed his RoboBee. It became Panoptes Solutions. Soon it would be too big for the two of them, especially because there were things they couldn't, wouldn't, or shouldn't be in charge of. A think tank of two guys was a pretty shit tank. Phil had asked Tony how he'd sift for employees, and Tony had known the answer. He'd set up shop -- he had literally set up shop, they had computers and a band saw and a screenprinter -- and began to make logic puzzles.
Little metal boxes, opened very specific, convoluted ways. Not all the same, but different, with different kinds of puzzles. Meant to target different kinds of minds. Mechanical intelligence, social intelligence, knowledge of chemistry or advanced maths. Things for tactile learners, some puzzles better suited to observers or the more auditory type.
In the end, they all contained a business card with a web address on it.
The web address took them to a website that prompted them to submit a resume.
And if Tony liked the resume, the submitter was given the address of the shop that would one day be Panoptes Solutions and an invitation for an interview.
[ any characters who might be interested in joining the think tank are free to respond here under the assumption they solved one or more puzzles they found around darrow. it's up to you how difficult it was for your character. they can meet him at his shop, which looks like a half-furnished cement-floored shop with some equipment, a refrigerator, a blaring ghetto blaster, and truck delivery bay doors in the far end of it.or chase him down somewhere else. ]
If you compare the six days in the Book of Genesis with the four billion years of geologic time, on that scale, one day is equal to about six hundred and seventy million years. At three minutes to midnight on the sixth day, mankind appeared. At one fortieth of a second before midnight, the industrial revolution began.
And it's unsustainable.
There were a couple things I learned eight years ago in a cave with Ho Yinsin. One of them? Was that it's all unsustainable. And it needs to change.
Ultron wasn't wrong. He wasn't right, either. But he wasn't wrong, even if the execution was, even if he lacked empathy. Even if he had no appreciation for the sanctity of life. Something's got to change. We've got to evolve. There's more out there, we've seen it, I've seen it, aliens, the Asgardians, dark energy. Cosmic Cubes. If we keep doing what we're doing, there is no future.
There's just one-fortieth of a second.
Darrow still used fossil fuels. It was weird, and Tony didn't like it. Why did it work that way? What made it that way? Who the hell could say, because Tony had yet to see even a single convincing piece of evidence that Darrow wasn't just some elaborate simulation, that it wasn't thoughts thinking thoughts of their own, ten million billion calculations every second on an alien computer.
So why did his motorcycle still run on gasoline?
There was a way to fix that.
It started with Henry Cheng, a boy whose first language was thought, a boy who needed his RoboBee. It became Panoptes Solutions. Soon it would be too big for the two of them, especially because there were things they couldn't, wouldn't, or shouldn't be in charge of. A think tank of two guys was a pretty shit tank. Phil had asked Tony how he'd sift for employees, and Tony had known the answer. He'd set up shop -- he had literally set up shop, they had computers and a band saw and a screenprinter -- and began to make logic puzzles.
Little metal boxes, opened very specific, convoluted ways. Not all the same, but different, with different kinds of puzzles. Meant to target different kinds of minds. Mechanical intelligence, social intelligence, knowledge of chemistry or advanced maths. Things for tactile learners, some puzzles better suited to observers or the more auditory type.
In the end, they all contained a business card with a web address on it.
The web address took them to a website that prompted them to submit a resume.
And if Tony liked the resume, the submitter was given the address of the shop that would one day be Panoptes Solutions and an invitation for an interview.
[ any characters who might be interested in joining the think tank are free to respond here under the assumption they solved one or more puzzles they found around darrow. it's up to you how difficult it was for your character. they can meet him at his shop, which looks like a half-furnished cement-floored shop with some equipment, a refrigerator, a blaring ghetto blaster, and truck delivery bay doors in the far end of it.or chase him down somewhere else. ]
no subject
Date: 2016-07-04 05:51 pm (UTC)"I wouldn't know, I'm not into either," I say, but I'm distracted once more by how familiar he is. Other people have pinged me, but he's really tugging at my brain as someone I should know somehow. Maybe a name will help. "I'm Baz, it's good to meet you. I solved three of the boxes and I was going to fill out the resume, but I was brought here at the start of me senior year of high school so I don't exactly have credentials for much."
no subject
Date: 2016-07-14 05:02 pm (UTC)"Nobody here has credentials. Nobody I'm interested in, anyway. I'm not from Darrow, and I'm not necessarily looking for anyone that is, so I'm not looking at credentials. They don't mean anything. I'm looking for ability, energy and eagerness. If you've got those, the puzzles were already your foot in the door. If you;re not interested, tell me now. I hate wasting my time when I could be doing literally anything else with it."
no subject
Date: 2016-07-15 02:30 pm (UTC)I can't help glancing around to make sure Derek isn't in the immediate vicinity. He was generous enough to hire me, however mediocre the position, and I do genuinely like him which I can't say for most people, but I'm far more interested in something along the lines of what the suited man is offering.
no subject
Date: 2016-07-29 08:12 pm (UTC)Tony raised a black brow, before offering the man a seat with him at the table.
"I don't need to know how interested you are just yet. You wanna talk about this? I've obviously got your curiosity. How do you feel about public works projects? Science in the public interest?"
no subject
Date: 2016-07-30 01:28 am (UTC)I take the seat and nod. "I'm interested. I was considering economics when I graduated, but I also enjoy science. Are you talking, what, like clean energy?"
"I'm Tyrannus Basilton Grimm-Pitch, by the way," I add, realizing we haven't made proper introductions. I give him my full name since there's a chance he might become my boss. "Baz for short."