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[syvarris]

Spoiler: Possible modifications to our security strategy, for superior safety (click to show/hide)

((Note that I'm not necessarily recommending this.  It's just the safest method I can imagine currently.  It should be able to prevent a repeat of any of our previous disasters.))

Firstly, we keep the same system we've been using, with the primary and secondary probe which only interact with each other in an intermediate universe.

The first change is that the secondary probe, when brought back, is only kept in our universe for one second before being shunted back into the intermediate 'verse.  In addition to our normal sensors, we do a three dimensional scan using echolocation.  NO HUMAN observes any of the feeds; A computer analyzes the 3d map of the probe and checks if it has been significantly modified or damaged.  If no anomaly is detected, a sod (in a containment room) is shown the video from when the probe was in our universe.

IF both the computer and sod report that things are fine, the secondary probe is brought back.  A captive human is shown the live video, and if they remain undamaged, we can bring the primary probe back.  We repeat the process on this probe, or if it has been degraded, on a new probe from the same universe.

If the probe taken directly from the universe also does not have form damage reported by the computer, and does not not kill or mindfuck either the observing sod or human, only then can human researchers look at it.  By default, Player Characters will not look at any sensor feeds, just letting the NPC crew describe it to them.  People can do otherwise if they want, though.

During this entire process, the echolocation sensors (and standard sensors) remain active, and are continually analyzed by a computer.  If the computer sees/hears/feels the probe in the room when it should have left, it automatically blows up the room.


Potential problems:
Lots of transfers.  If we're damaging the fabric of the universe or attracting extrauniveral monsters by transferring too often, this plan is bad.

Probes degrade, and the computer analysis step might take long enough for it to be unrecoverable.  If the probes do degrade, then we'll be taking less analyzed probes home, which could result in apocalypse, if it rode on the second probe, but not the first.
--We could get around this by using a non-null universe as our intermediate, but that risks polluting an otherwise okay universe.

If Kedly is right, and PW is just rolling a d6 to decide how bad a universe infects us, the stronger our safety precautions the worse things will be.

This automatically locks out any universes which significantly modify the probe, to prevent Lurker 3: the Death of Me.  Such universes very well might be safe, though I feel like they're more likely than average to be dangerous.

[Ozarck]

I think you are right that this is overdoing it on the safety front. But only just. Ugh. it feels so wasteful. Plus, I bet there are things that are affected by the nullverses that we lose going through them. they are not simple Voids after all, but very hot places, so thermophages wold get a mouthful, whereas regular temperature life would get boiled. Plus, while I fully endorse my previous idea of computer scans to check for black rods before sowing any footage to humans, I feel that some universe will hijack our computers also, and infect whatever electronic systems connect to them. it is impossible, in short, to avoid all risk. It's worthwhile to take reasonable precautions against typical threats and certain unreasonable precautions against unreasonable threats, but unreasonable precautions against all threats are excessive.

So, what threats should we guard against? Well, what threats have we encountered?
The Altered
The Lurker (black rods, human conduits. easily enough countered)
Corrosive verse (present precautions worked
MindFuck (Video feeds with delay and unconsciousness seem to be the way to go)
Spider HMRC (I bet they are their own worst enemy, but if not, well there are many options)
Ghostverse (well, itdidn't seem actively to interfere with us so, no worries?)
thermophages (how about NOT sending them into boiling hot protouniverses during our initial encounters?)
freezing (standard Mk 1 is sufficient for this and for lava)
whatever sliced that one probe in half
Whatever made our robots and sods grind against a wall looking for home
nuclear decay from the universe where elements seem to dissolve into lesser elements.

uh .. I bet I am missing some already encountered threats, and I am definitely missing some very possible threats, like aliens (noncosmic entity type) or humans.

[Gentlefish]

You definitely forgot about the earworm. But I don't think we'll have to worry much about that one seeing as the probes aren't recording sound (are they?).

I feel like various sensors in the transport room to detect immediate anomalies (May or may not include a 3-d topography scan of the room), followed by a sound feed, followed by a video feed would be best.

We'd have observers observing the audio room and others listening to the visual room for signs of distress/death and neutralize the rooms in case of issues. We'd use sods, of course.

[syvarris]

((Our probes are covered with lots and lots of sensors, so they should have audio too.

You know what a simple safety test would be?  Stick a sod in every probe.  Have a computer check if it's alive when it comes back; if it's dead, send the probe back because we won't be able to colonize the universe anyway, snd if it's alive, it's probably not infected with something that will kill us all.

Also, we're already using the null-verse intermediary tactic.  I'm not terribly afraid of bringing a thermophage into a null 'verse, because that just means we'll have one more blacklisted place.))

Action:

1.Incinerate everything in the test chamber that contained the sods infected by the perception virus.

2.Set up a similar experiment, except with five robosods, numbered A through E.  A will be shown the infections video, B will be able to see A, C will be able to see B but not A, D can see C but not A or B, etc.  Record the order that they die in, and the delay between their deaths.  Then incinerate everything.

3.Stick a printer in a containment room with a flesh sod, and remove all other electronics.  Have the printer print a single still image of the perception virus, and tell the sod to look at the image.  Does the sod die?  Incinerate everything, regardless.

4.Single suited flesh sod in a containment room.  Play only the audio from the virus.  Dead sod?  Incineration again.

Personal:

5.The program that I want to use to re-obtain use of my arms uses movement commands recorded from sod braincases over my century-long stay on Heph.  It's identical to having a sod possess me, except that the commands are coming from a database rather than a live robosod.  Try using this program to move my arms--does it work?

6.As to the actual stats of how this works... Previously, I had tried to use this program to allow myself to roll AUX instead of dex/str.  You said you were okay with it, but the council vetoed that use, because Saint has +4 aux and it would be completely OP.  Would you be okay if, mechanically, Saint continued to use his actual dex and str scores, but lore-wise we say he's actually using this program at all times?  Essentially, no mechanical difference exists, but it's how I've imagined Saint for a long time.

7.In the "poke" thread, you said that Saint had spent a hundred years on Heph.  This would make him 127 years old at the moment, assuming he's spent no time in stasis.  What is the maximum age of a braincased human with his level of access to advanced medical technology?

8.Slightly random, but on the wiki we have a list of programs written by players.  This section specifically includes programs written by players which are not publicly available.  Saint should have IC knowledge of these programs, because they have been used on missions.  I would like to replicate all of them from the ground up, using my +4 AUX, and then make the replicas publically available.  And make the ones designed for use with MK.IIIs work with all of our other flying wearables.  Is this okay?

[Egan_BW]

((Also, we're already using the null-verse intermediary tactic.  I'm not terribly afraid of bringing a thermophage into a null 'verse, because that just means we'll have one more blacklisted place.))

((Unless it decides to hitch a ride on the observation probe. You know, a similar tactic to one we already know a thermophage used.))

[syvarris]

((So what?  As shown by Anton's TP, it won't maintain a connection to the area it came from, so it's no worse having the thermophage pass through a null 'verse before coming to our verse.))

[Egan_BW]

((Just reminding you that you could die at any moment. ))

[Empiricist]

What if we were to get a large group of human brains and pump them full with the active ingredients of bluesmokes and intuition stims? Use them as a means to help get a rough danger rating of each set of coordinates?

EDIT: Oh, Fate as well. Kudos to Paris for the suggestion.

[Ozarck]

((Also, we're already using the null-verse intermediary tactic.  I'm not terribly afraid of bringing a thermophage into a null 'verse, because that just means we'll have one more blacklisted place.))

((Unless it decides to hitch a ride on the observation probe. You know, a similar tactic to one we already know a thermophage used.))

this is the point I was making. I know we are using the intermediary, which is why I mentioned it.

[piecewise]

Basically replace my fingertips with sturdy biometallic scalpels for fun and profit.

ALSO, if we have rooms set up, I'd like to try: 2,4,6 and 4,6,8

alright.

Remember this the next time you go to scratch your nose.

Let's put all the first contact rooms in space, with all the explosive precautions syv suggested, and the others on planet, beefed up.

The explorers of Cavernverse will report in the same way I and Gus did: we will send a probe through at regular intervals to collect their transmissions.
They are to note interesting features of the Caverns, like the gem deposits Gus and I found, or places where gravity spikes in ways unusual for what we've seen so far, or if they find a way outside of the Gravity Fields (like if the caverns were a gravity Geode or something), or signs of artificial construction, or life.

so first contact rooms in space, everything else beefed up. We can do that.

As per the exporation team stuff we can do that too, so we'll give you a report with each new turn and hopefully it won't just suddenly cut off like it seems always do.

((Our probes are covered with lots and lots of sensors, so they should have audio too.

You know what a simple safety test would be?  Stick a sod in every probe.  Have a computer check if it's alive when it comes back; if it's dead, send the probe back because we won't be able to colonize the universe anyway, snd if it's alive, it's probably not infected with something that will kill us all.

Also, we're already using the null-verse intermediary tactic.  I'm not terribly afraid of bringing a thermophage into a null 'verse, because that just means we'll have one more blacklisted place.))

Action:

1.Incinerate everything in the test chamber that contained the sods infected by the perception virus.

2.Set up a similar experiment, except with five robosods, numbered A through E.  A will be shown the infections video, B will be able to see A, C will be able to see B but not A, D can see C but not A or B, etc.  Record the order that they die in, and the delay between their deaths.  Then incinerate everything.

3.Stick a printer in a containment room with a flesh sod, and remove all other electronics.  Have the printer print a single still image of the perception virus, and tell the sod to look at the image.  Does the sod die?  Incinerate everything, regardless.

4.Single suited flesh sod in a containment room.  Play only the audio from the virus.  Dead sod?  Incineration again.

Personal:

5.The program that I want to use to re-obtain use of my arms uses movement commands recorded from sod braincases over my century-long stay on Heph.  It's identical to having a sod possess me, except that the commands are coming from a database rather than a live robosod.  Try using this program to move my arms--does it work?

6.As to the actual stats of how this works... Previously, I had tried to use this program to allow myself to roll AUX instead of dex/str.  You said you were okay with it, but the council vetoed that use, because Saint has +4 aux and it would be completely OP.  Would you be okay if, mechanically, Saint continued to use his actual dex and str scores, but lore-wise we say he's actually using this program at all times?  Essentially, no mechanical difference exists, but it's how I've imagined Saint for a long time.

7.In the "poke" thread, you said that Saint had spent a hundred years on Heph.  This would make him 127 years old at the moment, assuming he's spent no time in stasis.  What is the maximum age of a braincased human with his level of access to advanced medical technology?

8.Slightly random, but on the wiki we have a list of programs written by players.  This section specifically includes programs written by players which are not publicly available.  Saint should have IC knowledge of these programs, because they have been used on missions.  I would like to replicate all of them from the ground up, using my +4 AUX, and then make the replicas publically available.  And make the ones designed for use with MK.IIIs work with all of our other flying wearables.  Is this okay?

They die in alphabetical order, with about 30 seconds to a minute between them. 

The single still image does not seem to spread the virus.

Nope.

5,6, Yes it works, and yes thats fine.

Theoretically infinite but you'd need procedures to regenerate neural tissue because it does atrophy over time.

Ehhhh ask the council. They get to be the mean parent.



We can assume that the rooms are back up and running.

[Ozarck]

alright. Let's send a phase one to New universe 3, 1, 4.  let's send a phase one to previously explored 2, 0, 0, which is the one that the probe ported into at an odd angle and saw a wall, thenpicked up a rusty hitchhiker. This time port it in 500 yards back from where it was last time. make sure this probe has cameras aiming all directions.

[DoctorMcTaalik]

Phase 1 probes to 4,4,4 and 5,7,3.


EDIT: Both are new.

[Gentlefish]

(NEW) Probes to:

70,58,85

52,67,81

95,52,73

[Ozarck]

((don't forget to mark whether you are sending probes to new universes or already explored ones))

[Kedly]

Phase 1:
259,224,589
63,88,36
333,333,333