WWYCD: "He'll be back."

[nexus]

A robot from the future tries to kill the girl who will one day grow up into the leader of the resistance against the Machine Empire that is bent on exterminating human life on Earth. Being superheroes the PCs intervene and managed to drive off the hyper advanced robot and save the girl, destroying some of its drone units in the process.

 

The wrinkle comes when the PCs learn either through the team Cyberpath or gadgeteer learns drone and its master’s origin its memory core.

 

The future from it comes from is a Transhumanist society where the vast majority of humans have willingly undergone unloading into machine bodies or a vast virtual network effectively converting themselves to machines. The resistance are the few remaining humans that see the transformation of mankind as an abomination as the digital and "brain a jar" humans lack much of the empathy and emotion that many consider essential to humanity as well due to religious and spiritual grounds while the other side values the intellectual freedom, freedom from want or pain and virtual immortality humanity has gained from transformation.

 

The two ideologies have come to a final clash and the remaining humans are losing. Logic dictates that such mentally unstable beings cannot be allowed to exist, the human see transformation as nightmarish and those that chose it as no longer truly human. The girl will grow up to develop a viral weapon that will destroy the network of the Machine intelligences, effectively killing billions of digital humans but off setting a future some might find horrific.

 

The robot hunter is still out there, might possibly be sapient (even an "uploaded" human) and still intent on its mission.

 

What does your character do?

 

Edit: To clarify, at least according to the data in the drone, the human side is being just as aggressive and sort of "started it" (in the sense of some terrorist activities though they weren't universally advocated) as they don't believe the Tranhumanist society should exist either. The conclusion to exterminate them wasn't the first one the machines made but reached after attempted negotiations broke down and, to be fair, an attempted forced assimilation and it was reached quickly and callously (a symptom of the "loss of humanity" that appalls the human side). It's two seemingly irreconcilable ideologies butting heads. `

[phoenix240]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Myriad would probably try to find a way to get some sort of peace between them, to make for a better future. With her experiences dealing with aliens, magic being, living machines, etc, she knows it can work.

[DataPacRat]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Mike the Demoness: "I doubt I'd be able to join the uploaded crowd, since I'm not exactly human - but if that's what a bunch of people want to do with themselves, I'm not going to tell them they shouldn't. Okay, little girl, from now on, I'm going to be your, er, bat-winged fairy god-parent, and for the next few years, teach you that it's not nice to kill sapient beings, whether their bodies happen to be human, demon, robot, virtual, slime, or anything else."

 

Rubber Mousie: "Time travel always seems to give me a headache. Can't you all just get along? Robot-guy, don't you have a plan for some other way to alter the future that doesn't involve killing anyone? I mean, you're already willing to risk rewriting the entire timeline and erasing all those billions of people who don't exist yet, so what's the harm in, say, helping your side out by releasing some of your software a few decades early for the open source crowd to improve even better by the time your time actually rolls around?"

[Comic]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Dr. O: "The mere act of uploading is either destructive or nondestructive, so either the original human dies or they continue in both the virtual and flesh version until organic death of the latter. In any case, they're dead, and they can't vote, now, can they? There is no reason a virtuality ought to need to reside within a biosphere, taking up valuable limited space without cause. Ergo, the actions of the virtual humans are on their face irrational aggression. They're a video game. Pull the plug."

[nexus]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Myriad would probably try to find a way to get some sort of peace between them' date=' to make for a better future. With her experiences dealing with aliens, magic being, living machines, etc, she knows it can work.[/quote']

 

Heck, Myriad fits into two of those categories and is married to the third.

[Guest Major Tom]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Heck' date=' Myriad fits into two of those categories and is married to the third. [/quote']

 

 

I'd be willing to bet that Myriad's late-night sessions with her SO are a real

buzz...

 

 

Major Tom

[Hypnotoad, the]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Scarecrow: Hoo boy...why am I being put in the middle of this? I'm supposed to be a teenager. That being said...dude...your virtual society sounds good and everything, but I have to go with what I understand best, and that's being human, and take my chances that we can make the future into something worthwhile *crosses fingers*.

 

Red Rob: INNA IT OBVIOUS! I'M A HUMAN BEING, THA'S A MACHINE! N' IF THA' MACHINE THINKS IT'S BETTER N' ME, IT'S TIME TA MAKE ITS WARRANTY EXPIRE!

 

Darkling (retired force of space/time): *sighs* Ephemerals...you are all so stupid. The simple fact we have here is that a new species butting up against the old parent species. There are two options: The first one is being played out right now--that of one trying to destroy the other in order to survive. The other is that one species must expand beyond the normal confines in order to survive. In other words, the Transhumans should leave Earth, since--unlike the humans--the transhumans don't have the same limitations and requirements for survival. With their independence and long lifespans, they can achieve the long-held dream of every sci-fi nerd--freedom of the stars.

[Lord Mhoram]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Black Cat would join the girl in the future to help train her people Her philosophy is to achieve the absolute best you can, mind body and spirit - she would likely consider the transhumanists to be no longer human, and just machine herself; but if they are on a course of destroying normal humans, she'd treat them just like any other race or collection of beings bent on destroying the human race.

[Victim]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Shooting Star: "Look, any arbitrary set of background data could be loaded into these drones, there's no reason to assume that we're being provided with accurate information. It's not like advanced robots can only come from the future. A combat drone doesn't need all these records to do its job, so it seems likely that it was intended that we'd salvage this data. It's not reliable at all."

 

"And I'm not going to let someone get executed for something that they haven't attempted or even thought about doing yet. We should focus on figuring out the comm system and protocols so Optic will be able to access the main robot."

 

Ironic, because Shooting Star wouldn't mind even a destructive upload as long as the technical specs were convincing and there was no evidence of super villain involvement.

 

Temper: Begins a more in depth study of computing. No need to have all the eggs in one basket. Much of her general preparations should also be applicable in a revolution against machines.

[nexus]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Shooting Star: "Look, any arbitrary set of background data could be loaded into these drones, there's no reason to assume that we're being provided with accurate information. It's not like advanced robots can only come from the future. A combat drone doesn't need all these records to do its job, so it seems likely that it was intended that we'd salvage this data. It's not reliable at all."

 

"And I'm not going to let someone get executed for something that they haven't attempted or even thought about doing yet. We should focus on figuring out the comm system and protocols so Optic will be able to access the main robot."

 

Ironic, because Shooting Star wouldn't mind even a destructive upload as long as the technical specs were convincing and there was no evidence of super villain involvement.

 

That's a clever angle.

 

To clarify, at least according to the data in the drone, the human side is being just as aggressive and sort of "started it" (in the sense of some terrorist activities though they weren't universally advocated) as they don't believe the Tranhumanist society should exist either. The conclusion to exterminate them wasn't the first one the machines made but reached after attempted negotiations broke down and attempted forced assimilation It's two seemingly irreconcilable ideologies butting heads.

[Alverant]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Of all my characters Metromancer is the most qualified to handle the situation because he's a technomage - a scientist and a sorcerer. First he'd want to know more about the Transhumanist society, primarily whether or not they they still have empathy and emotion or if the charges that they don't is just anti-machine propaganda. He feels that without emotion, a culture cannot grow and develop. Instead it will become static and uncaring with a disregard for any form of life even their own.

 

If the Transhumanists do have feelings and souls like ordinary people (Metromancer defines humanity by sentience and not biology) he'd try to negotiate a peace between the two groups. First to stop forcing people to join it. It's OK to offer but never coerce. Then ask why the Transhumanists want to stay on Earth. As machines and digital personalities they may be happier off world in a place inhospitable to organic life. Mechaforming Venus would be a prime candidate. Since they are so different it would be best to separate them and let each one develop on their own.

 

On the other hand, if they do lack emotions and souls, Metromancer would be more than happy to help the little girl by building some technomagical devices to use against the machines.

[nexus]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Scarecrow: Hoo boy...why am I being put in the middle of this? I'm supposed to be a teenager. That being said...dude...your virtual society sounds good and everything, but I have to go with what I understand best, and that's being human, and take my chances that we can make the future into something worthwhile *crosses fingers*.

 

Red Rob: INNA IT OBVIOUS! I'M A HUMAN BEING, THA'S A MACHINE! N' IF THA' MACHINE THINKS IT'S BETTER N' ME, IT'S TIME TA MAKE ITS WARRANTY EXPIRE!

 

Darkling (retired force of space/time): *sighs* Ephemerals...you are all so stupid. The simple fact we have here is that a new species butting up against the old parent species. There are two options: The first one is being played out right now--that of one trying to destroy the other in order to survive. The other is that one species must expand beyond the normal confines in order to survive. In other words, the Transhumans should leave Earth, since--unlike the humans--the transhumans don't have the same limitations and requirements for survival. With their independence and long lifespans, they can achieve the long-held dream of every sci-fi nerd--freedom of the stars.

 

All Glory to the Hypnotoad!

 

Had to be said.

 

with that out of the way

 

Tao: While in theory, she agrees with Machines: Humans are irrational, disorganized and overly emotional beings her orders are clear. She is to preserve them. Whatever may occur in the future is not her concern.

 

Ivy: Would be appalled at the idea of people trading in their humanity for a sterile existence. While the fact that majority of humans choose it (if a billion people make a foolish choise, it’s still a foolish choise), She wouldn’t be behind their extermination (they are sapient lifeforms) but such a “society” would deeply disturb her and she’d do her best to protect the girl while trying to help her develop an outlook where some sort of peace could be established.

 

Velocity: The idea of being uploaded into a computer is kind of cool but still… This is a human life and she’s not going to stand by and let her be killed. Besides isn’t all this stuff only a possible future or something any way?

 

Shidoku: “For ****’s sake, you guys ever think that MAYBE the fact you sent somebody back to kill her might be the reason she’s got such a ****in’ mad on in the future?! Artificial intelligence, my ***! Watch some Twilight Zone, Arnie wanna bes…” She’s far to much of a hedonist and sensualist to give her up her body and the whole idea of being “saved to disk” is just creepy so she’d be down with trashing the freaky things.

 

Valkyrie: Would resolutely protect the girl. From her perspective she has done nothing wrong, the future is a possibility. It’s entirely possible that these events are shaping the future or that killing the girl will just have intentional repercussion. For example if these story were to be released along with a description of the future the whole idea uploading and sentient machines might become much less popular…

[assault]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Captain Wonder/Wonder Boy: this "future" doesn't sound like the future he is familiar with and has travelled to. He might have to travel to the future to consult with the Super Hero Club about what to do.

 

Than again, it might actually be "his" future, if he succeeded in making peace between the two side. After all, "his" future features humans, robots, and those seven big computers that seem to run everything... There might have even been Robot Wars in the past... The trouble is that it's just so hard to remember the future...

[Drhoz]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Vitus couldn't care less. Meat humans, metal humans, makes no difference to him. Altho the screwing around with time is annoyingly dangerous. Also, since he gathers the transformation to machine intelligence is destructive of the original, he's disinclined to experiment with, say, a giant scorpionoid body holding a copy of Vitus's mind.

 

His only suggestion to the mecha is that that move off planet. Leave the meat humans to their grubby little hole. Altho the mecha are in for a horrible surprise the first time they run into Clockwork Horrors ( out-of-control von Nuemann machines that convert metal into more clockwork horrors ).

 

Vitus WILL try to get a copy of that virus tho, in the event the Mecha ever discover and invade his home universe, assuming he manages to ever recreate it.

[psychonaut_raz]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Icestar would empathise with the machine guys, but also find the idea of anyone voluntarily becoming one of them super creepy. She would have to side with the human girl and would focus on the short-term goal of protecting her here and now rather than break her head thinking about possible future consequences which haven't happened yet....but have....oy....

[McCoy]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Iron Will: Will see that the two societies cannot co-exist, and that it will be far, far easier to get the posthuman population off the planet than the human one. Will start designing "O'Neil Colonies" for the posthumans, upload out of his defective wetware as soon as the process is reliable, and then convince his fellow posthumans to get off planet (or at least get backup copies off planet) ASAP.

 

In the meantime, will spend as much time with the girl as possible, seeing if he can keep firewall technology ahead of her hacking and viruses.

[Zeropoint]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Special Agent Trent: "Potential futures be damned. I'm not letting anyone get murdered on my watch."

[sinanju]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Hell's Angel and Iron Maiden will both defend "Sarah Connor" to the bitter end. If the transhumanists are on the up and up, that's still no excuse to kill her. If they're not, then she's right. And in any case, like Shidoku upthread, Hell's Angel and Iron Maiden are way too fond of the pleasures of the flesh to ever give up their bodies. If other people want to, that's their business, but...only if it's voluntary.

 

Black Mask: "The whole world is a vast communal dream already. The question of remaining flesh or becoming silicon is moot."

[My Liege]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

For "The Last Bastion of Virtue", more commonly referred to as "Bastion" there is but one answer, to preserve the life of the innocent one. Later, when the innocent is safe can one begin to lend their thoughts over to morality.

 

In truth however, knowledge of the alternate future would hit him hard. To him it would be a proclamation of his failure for he is the Last Bastion, the exemplar of virtue whose example serves to uplift humanity. It is our frailty, our pettiness, and our ability to overcome our faults that make us glorious.

 

The abandoning of human shells for the machine to him is like giving up on that quest.

 

Knowing this he would be highly interested in capturing this killing machine, allowing the technical specialist in his team to garner whatever information he can so that such a horrible future could be avoided entirely.

 

For is that not the essence of a hero, to stare at a seemingly inevitable future, proclaim it will not be so and then somehow deny it in favour of his own better future?

[gregghelmberger]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Sandboy: Dude, um...can you go over that again? The part about the machines? (When that was done) Whoa! That's like messed up! We can't let those machine dudes kill all the humans for no reason! (After it was explained again) Um...I...I guess I'll do what you guys decide. Anybody got any Oreos?

[David Blue]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Remote would take the view that a fight for species survival over-rides all other considerations. He'd fight to the death for future humanity and for the extermination of the machines, using all his technological prowess.

 

To that end, while remaining organic, he would become harder than any machine: more implacable, more logical, more ruthless and more strategically directed.

 

He wouldn't care at all who started it, or whether humans became machines voluntarily. He'd be a Protector (from Larry Niven's fiction) in every way that mattered.

[hfergus]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Volt would try to help the woman while trying to broker peace. He would not lik the transformation, but if trully voluntary (the cultural "push" should be minimal, or it is abusive.) he would not appose it. Suggesting moving on to another planet would be an option. Failing that, the machines would be fought, and with him being electro magnetic and most robots/etc having problems with that, he'd be quite effective.

 

Olorin would act pretty much like Volt, as to helping and brokering peace, but he'd have an ace up his sleve. He could transform the transformed humans back into real humans; and he'd prove it! (Then he would transform the now human back as a gesture of good will - man, all this transforming is getting confusing.) This would probably scare the transformed humans badly.

 

Black Tiger is a simple soul. "They're machines! Smash 'em! Turn 'em to rubble!"

 

Futurian "Why do you think I, and almost everyone where I come from, has such control over machines? (mind control, body drain, speed drain, etc vs machines only) We fought this war and came to an understanding. They left the earth, and we pretty much let each other be." Unusally, he would be serious and not be snarky or a snot or obtuse. He would not be pegged down as to when this happened though. He really could mess with these guys. If teamed up with a geneticist, every human (or at least a lot) could be changed to have his powers; war over!

[Wanderer]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Nova would first and foremost be concerned with the fate of metahumans in this future, since his own kind are the ones he is sworn to protect, before everything else, and would choose to fight for the future that best ensures their interests. Provided metahumans are not affected by the conflict (maybe they have left for the stars), his instinctive sympathies would go to the transformed humans, since his Magneto-like mindset can totally empathize with the plight of an evolved offshoot of mankind being persecuted by jealous and fearful humans (even if uploading into a machine feels quite pathetic in comparison to his psionic mastery of matter and energy; but even pitiful monkeys that lack the potential for superhumanity deserve a way for transcendence, if they strive for it).

 

Killing an innocent in order to protect the future is not something that he's going to sanction, unless it is proven to be absolutely necessary (plus, this "Sarah Connor" setup looks suspiciously like a self-fulfilling prophecy paradox). He would rather offer to travel to the future, and try to broker a deal. If that fails, he would ask the transformed humans to give up unvoluntary uploading. if they agree, he's going to beat up the humans (and kill the fanatical anti-cyborg terrorists), until they can be strong-armed into accepting peace and relocating into different areas of the planet, or different planets. If the transformed humans refuse, he is simply going to beat up both factions, until they agree to a compromise involving peaceful coexistence and relocating to different areas of the planet, or different planets. Since Nova is a cosmic-level powerhouse, he should be able to tip the balance of the conflict and force a compromise of his choosing. All the way, he would be wondering where is his future self, and why he isn't already addressing this mess, since he's immortal.

[nexus]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Myriad would probably try to find a way to get some sort of peace between them' date=' to make for a better future. With her experiences dealing with aliens, magic being, living machines, etc, she knows it can work.[/quote']

 

Eve: As an intelligent machine deliberately designed and “raised” to emulate human emotion, Eve would be a in pretty unique position to help broker a peace between the two factions if she and her father could get their time travel technology to function. So she’d be a big help to Ms. Samira AKA: Myriad. If the transformed humans have lost that aspect of human nature, she might be able to restore it or show the "resistance" that tranformed humans aren't inhuman, merely different. In any event, she’d definitely protect the other little girl as best she could. It’s the right thing to do and, as she’d point out if given the chance, the fact that someone was sent back to change the future, means the future is variable so punishing someone for stuff they haven’t done yet isn’t fair.

[OddHat]

Re: WWYCD: "He'll be back."

 

Style - "Great, another alternate nightmare future. At least Earth doesn't get taken over by Edomites in this one."

 

[To the girl] - "Don't be silly, of course I'll protect you. These machines are trying to kill you now for murders you may possibly commit in the future. Still, you might consider not actually leading attacks against people who've chosen to go the cyborg route when you get older. Look at all the trouble it causes."

 

The transhumanist future never manages to take place in Style's timeline, due to the Earth being destroyed by demons long before it becomes an option.