The Alexandria Archive

[Feinan]

The Alexandria Archive began as a project that Fate was interested in: archiving as much of human culture - particularly Fen culture - as possible. By the
summer of 2014, it contained as many different items of music, movies and books that she could find, either through her own endeavors or with help of various
friends. However, members of the Yggdrasil crew grew interested in the project as well, and the scope began to grow exponentially. The stated goal
would probably be unattainable if not for honey-waved data storage and the extensive use of holotechnology that the Jason has started to employ.

The goal? A simple one - archiving the Earth and the Solar System.

Fate, Sherlock, James Burke, Master Li and Queen Iris are the primary movers behind the project, though the other AI members of the Lightning and the
Yggdrasil contribute as well. They hope to take over the asteroid 238 Hypatia and set it up as the central data core of the Archive. They plan on
sending out drones - holographically cloaked as necessary - and recording data on everything they can find. Literature. Art. Cities - with holotech, anything
should be able to be reproduced at least as an image on demand. Want to see what Times Square looks like? The archive would have the data necessary to
reproduce it holographically. The same with the Pyramids. Or Disney World. The Jason has asked for them to look at doing detailed medical tricorder scans of
the environment as well; if possible, he would like a record of the genomes of the Earth. If you record things in enough detail - even if it's not possible
right this moment, species could be recreated if they go extinct. Some space will be set aside for seed and cell banks aboard the asteroid as well, though most
of the genome storage will still be in the form of sensor data.

Needless to say, this is a long-term project. To get even a fairly comprehensive sample together will take decades at a minimum. Still, the AIs can afford to
take the long view.

---

So - thoughts? It's certainly not going to be done overnight...but the potential usefulness is far too good to pass up. Would anybody want to be involved?
*grin* And eventually I'd love to hide a copy of the Whole Fenspace catalog somewhere in the Archive, rob. If you'd be interested.

[ECSNorway]

... bastard. You beat me to it.

I had something very like this planned out, but was going to spring it as part of the 'Carcharadon' story...
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Bob Schroeck]

Why can't it be a joint project?
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[robkelk]

And eventually I'd love to hide a copy of the Whole Fenspace catalog somewhere in the Archive, rob. If you'd be interested.

Noah's planning on releasing an edited version of the Whole Fenspace Catalog to the SMOFs early at SerenityCon (which gives the Boskonians a reason to attack the con other than "we're attacking because we're stupid," by the way); there's no problem including the WFC in the Alexandria Archive.

("Edited"? Well, Noah made a promise about not sharing some of the information...)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[ECSNorway]

Well, Marsden's doing his on the black-side of things. He likes the whole 'secret project' air. Perhaps once he discovers the Alexandria initiative
he could quietly offer to share the work and act as a back-up...
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Ebony]

Given that Buckaroo took a stroll through the Library of Congress archives shortly after inception, copying much of what was there, and that the RIAA are
trying to sue him for music piracy, I think we're looking at a project that a lot of people are working on in parallel.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com

"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."

[ECSNorway]

Hm. Perhaps it's something that several groups independantly arrived at, then agreed to cooperate on. Marsden sees it as a fairly urgent matter, he's
not sure how much longer some of the things he wants to see remembered will be left...
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Feinan]

*chuckles* Definitely sounds like parallel projects. Once they find out that others are doing the same thing, cooperating makes a lot of sense. So does sharing
data and having multiple backups. For that matter, given that Buckaroo and Fate are both members of the Underspace, he might well be a source of some of the
original archive before they started to expand the scope of the project.

*snicker* As for music piracy...well, detailed enough scans SHOULD let you reproduce even master tapes and such at a usable level. A few cloaked probes sent
into major music vaults of the various studios, and we could theoretically get everything they have. Same thing for libraries and museums. A complete scan of
the Smithsonian and all of its vaults/backrooms/storage facilities would be a goldmine. No sense thinking small, after all. Let's get EVERYTHING.

Permanent sensor emplacements near places of interest and in cities would also be a good thing, including long-term, detailed scans. Depending on how far you
could drive waved sensors through soil...theoretically you could even get good archeological data. The main bottleneck would be the number of sensors/probes
you could allot to the project, and over a few decades, you could eventually get a LOT of them at work. *laugh* And if Marsden is willing to help set up
Hypatia for occupation or at least lend some ideas towards it, Fate and the Yggdrasil crew could certainly spare a few probes to get the items of
interest that Marsden particularly wants and thinks are urgent.

*grin* And I'll look forward to seeing Marsden's take on things in your story, Norway.

[Black Aeronaut]

Benjamin is going to be very interested in this project, though I doubt there's much that he and the other Roughriders could do to help it out. His end of
things tends to be fighting the good fight (primary purpose behind the Roughriders), building nifty ships (Roughrider Shipyards, coming soon!), getting stuff
there (look out for passenger lines, too), and exploring the unknown reaches (NASA-Fen Division).

Benjamin will also be highly interested in getting detailed data on Texas. I'd like to see a small planet out there terraformed to be mostly like my home.
^_^

[Bob Schroeck]

You realize, btw, that if/when word of this project gets out, every intelligence agency 'Daneside is going to be alternately screaming for your collective
blood and drooling at getting their hands on the archive, especially if you were conscientious enough to drop some of those probes near places like Langley and
Fort Meade...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[ECSNorway]

Depends on the quality of the probes. I'm fairly sure intel agencies are not going to be neglecting the 'wave.
--
Sucrose Octanitrate.
Proof positive that with sufficient motivation, you can make anything explode.

[Bob Schroeck]

Regardless of the government's public position on it. True.

Which means we might want to raise the control rating for the US on the Infinities Unlimited wiki page. NSA/CIA/FBI + wavetech doesn't bode well for civil
liberties, especially under President Guiliani. (We really should work out what got perturbed that he ended up running and winning; and was he up against Obama
or Clinton?)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Foxboy]

Let's see: Obama's message of Change and Hope isn't going to resonate with the frightened anti-wave "sheeple." The 'wave is Too Much
Change. So, likely Hillary Clinton or John Edwards for the Dems. Perhaps the Dems made a poor Veep choice as well.
''We don't just borrow words; on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat
them unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary.''

-- James Nicoll

[Feinan]

Hmm. Possibly, Bob. Though I think they might be too paranoid to utilize handwavium to its fullest. If nothing else, I don't think they'd try for AIs,
and I'd back the Fenspace AIs against a handwaved 'dumb' machine any day of the week. And if they DO generate some AIs....well, my bet is on the
AIs going over to our side, given the slightest chance. Simply because Fenspace treats them as people.

As for attempts on the data by security agencies...they could try, but Hypatia is hardly going to be unprotected. Then they'd have to get past the
LIBRARIANS. One of them is an AI named Adele, and she's a crack shot (Noah would love her). Another one...well, she might well be a Scott series android,
if I can get his help in this. Her name? Yomiko. Yomiko Readman. And possibly influenced at least somewhat by her Undocumented Features version. There
should be more caretakers/librarians - I'm just trying to decide on who they should be. Get past all that, and people trying to get data would have to get
through encryption designed by the Fenspace AIs. And finally...any attacks should of course have...consequences. Such as having all of one's data revealed
to all the OTHER security agencies in the world. Do you think they'd still want to risk it?

*grin* And yes...Ms. Readman IS a papermaster. The Jason taught her.

---

(From a possible barscene after the Port Phobos Invitational thread...)

The Jason sat back in his seat, and grinned over at Noah. "It was a fun time. I had a blast trying out the ideas I had." He shook his head. "The
writers for Star Trek....so bloody LAZY. They absolutely WASTED the potential of holotech and forcefields. You saw the things I was doing. Given a little
imagination, I was able to pull off Naruto-style ninjutsu...all sorts of other stuff. And I didn't even pull half the crap I could've."

Noah took a sip from his drink before replying. "Such as?"

The monkey-boy grinned back, and glanced around the room. Spotting a dartboard on the opposite wall, he gestured at it. "Watch." He took his receipt
between his thumb and forefinger, and gave a sharp snap with his hand. The paper straightened out and didn't bend back. Making sure no-one was in the way,
he then gave it a hard toss at the board, where it sank into the center with a solid-sounding *thunk*...then curled back up, apparently normal once more. He
snickered. "Just call me Jason Readman. For a bibliophile, papermastery is your friend."

(Encase paper between forcefields, and voila. You can do all sorts of things with it. Manipulate the fields, and have a ball. Needless to say, this can also
improve accuracy in throwing if you're controlling the forcefields. )

[M Fnord]

(We really should work out what got perturbed that he ended up running and winning; and was he up against Obama or Clinton?)

Hoy. Just in time for the end of silly season, wot?

This is really, really rough & I don't intend to do a full play-by-play, but here goes:

The 2008 election season is a referendum on handwavium. Of the serious candidates, the breakdown goes something like this:

Obama's the strongest pro-wave candidate (which is to say, he's cautiously optimistic about the stuff, like Rudd in Australia). Clinton, Edwards, McCain & Romney are more conservative about the study and use of handwavium, but not to the point of being reactionary. Huckabee.. I have trouble getting a read on; I can see him going on a Jesus-fueled reactionary tear, or I can see him trying to use it as a populist lever. Depends on which way the wind blows. Giuliani is of course the most reactionary of the lot.

(Of all the candidates, the Ronpaul is the most enthusiastically pro-wave, but he was not and never will be a "serious" candidate. Also, his native constitutency - loudmouthed fanboys on the Internet - will most likely have already fucked off to Fenspace en masse and left his campaign looking like even *more* of a joke than the OTL one was.)

People are scared, so pro-wave stances are off the table immediately. Giuliani's dynamic "standing on the wreckage" campaigning makes him look like more of a Leader than the more measured campaigns of his opponents. Fueled by fear and flashy fen moments like Wave Convoy's departure, Ptichka's escape from Wisconsin, the Professor's European adventure etc. Giuliani manages to ride that into a narrow win over Clinton.

Four years later, post-Kandor, mid-ANZAC Renaissance, Giuliani's uniquely inept management of the USA - even by the standards of the Previous Administration - have enough people fed up with him that even the Stingray and Grover's Corners incidents can't save his ass. Rudy gets LBJ'd by his own party, and in the end his nonentity of a veep gets smoked by the opposition in the general (I'm thinking Obama/Schweitzer here, but YMMV).

So that's the Rudy Years in a nutshell; fear, posturing and Epic Failure. What the future holds, I'm not gonna say. Or at least not right now. I've been kinda kicking around a 2020 GOP primary where Sarah Palin and Chris Marsden go for each other's throats, because that to me would be fucking hilarious. Again, YMMV.
Mr. Fnord interdimensional man of mystery

FenWiki - Your One-Stop Shop for Fenspace Information

"I. Drink. Your. NERDRAGE!"

[robkelk]

Another one...well, she might well be a Scott series android, if I can get his help in this. Her name? Yomiko. Yomiko Readman. And possibly influenced at least somewhat by her Undocumented Features version.

Well... Yomiko's more a bibliomaniac than a librarian.

She's also a teacher. Which is why, if you ask after the Port Phobos Invitational, Noah will smile slightly and say, "No thanks, I've already got one." Yes, with the silly French accent... but he won't go on to insult the Jason.

(One may consider this another hint as to what I plan to do with my characters after OGJ...)

Edit: Oh, and you didn't say her name properly. http://www.animemusicvideos.org/members ... hp?v=13291]"Readman. Yomiko Readman."

There should be more caretakers/librarians - I'm just trying to decide on who they should be.

Well, there's the Library Exploration Club from Negima!, or Sheska from Fullmetal Alchemist, or the sisters from http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/167.html]Kokoro Library, or Uzuki Shion from Xenosaga (who's actually used to using holotechnology on the job), or Yokomizo Fumi from http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/495.html]Kakyuusei 2... but if you're looking for librarians that can hold their own in combat, I suspect you'll have to "recruit" them from http://www.animesuki.com/series.php/1228.html]Library War.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[Norgarth]

I'd assume this place would have a fair sized security contingent, after all the (remaining) Boskonians would love to get their hands on some of the info
as well.

Any Earth based black ops team is gonna have several problems. Getting to the Library, getting in, finding the info the want amongst all the data, getting out,
and back to Earth.
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

[itsune9tl]

The Data Repository and Archive (AKA The Infinite Library) Of TSAB will not comfirm wether or not they have these files and merely asks if your sure that the
files exist. Then the Head Librarian of DRA-TSAB will tell you that if you know the files exist then you know who ask to access them.

--

*The Head Librarian is a BOFH fen and states that the purpose of his division is to deny access to all recorded in the Repository.

[Feinan]

*rubs his hands together* Been considering security more. _I_ wouldn't want to go up against some of this stuff, so hopefully nobody else will either.

When you first enter the asteroid, the first to greet you are Patience and Fortitude, based off the lions at the New York Public Library. Large marble...well,
robots. Golems might be a better term, since they're made out of a handwaved flexible marble. Not sapient, but definitely sentient, they can be told by the
Librarians to recognize people as friendlies/authorized, neutrals, non-friendlies, and hostiles. You don't want to be in the last two categories, since
that puts you under the heading of 'cat toy.'

Then...there are the bookwyrms. Digital versions guard the library online, while there are two that guard the physical realm. One of those is purely physical -
a robot made by Agatha - while the other is a solid hologram. BOTH of them can breathe fire, thanks to purely mundane flamethrowers encased in the bodies.
I'd like those Boskonians extra-well-done, please...

As for librarians...I've decided on several of them, besides Adele and Yomiko:

The Librarian (from the Unseen Univerisity) - calling him a monkey is unwise. Orangutans are apes. Intruders are considered to have called him a monkey in
advance. Be warned.

Rupert Giles and Jenny Calendar - Rupert tends to things in the physical realm, while Jenny protects the digital. Yes, they ARE dating.

Lucien - the librarian for Dream's library, in the Sandman comics

Lirael - from the Garth Nix book of the same name

Finally, there is the head librarian, an AI housed in the central computer of the archive. While most of the AIs in Fenspace are built upon PCs, the Alexandria
main computer involves both a handwaved mainframe combined with auxillary units built on technopagan designs created by the Jason. Her chosen avatar is female
and a redhead. Her close friends call her Babs. But online, she's mostly known as...Oracle. (*grin* Yep! Barbara Gordon. She had her doctorate in Library
Sciences.) I'm honestly not sure whether to use her full Oracle version for her avatar, in the wheelchair, or as she was in her Batgirl days (Thoughts?).
Either way, she's not someone to be trifled with physically; her hologram avatar can use escrima. Online, there are very few who can match or beat her, at
least at the time she was created. I'd guess that Lebia is closest, though I'm not sure who would be better. After Lebia, it would probably be Trigon
or Buckaroo.

Besides the Librarians, there are other defenses. I'm pretty sure there are some guns (and other things) set up here and there - probably handled by Adele.
There are also some human defenders, carefully screened by the Librarians and Fate. And yes, rob - they do call themselves the Library Defense Force, even if
they're not based on the characters from Library War. Thanks for those links, by the way.

So - opinions? Like it, hate it? Anybody you think really needs to be added?

[Norgarth]

Feinan wrote:

---

But online, she's mostly known as...Oracle. (*grin* Yep! Barbara Gordon. She had her doctorate in Library Sciences.) I'm honestly not sure whether to
use her full Oracle version for her avatar, in the wheelchair, or as she was in her Batgirl days (Thoughts?).

It varies depending on her mood. 8)
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin

[Black Aeronaut]

Rudy for President? Scary. That'll be all the more reason for Benjamin to have as little to do with the US and its politics as possible. Rudy would probably be especially gunning for him since he's one of the few Fen that arranged a contract to steal actual government property (the Magnificent Midnight). Sure, it will be at the very end of his presidency, but would you put it past him to demonize someone in an effort to salvage something?

2012? Who knows indeed. I'm open to discussion on the matter in another thread.

I think that Ruri might have some things to say about the Library as it's built. She may not be anything like Lebia, but a sysadmin of her calibur should not go unheard, I think.

Interesting thought. Ruri and Gina would probably make a pretty good team for Gweeping. Gina is a blatant offensive type while Ruri's more technical approach would cover her back quite adequately.

[Bob Schroeck]

Feinan, are the librarians androids, biomodded Fen, ordinary Fen, or a mix?
And isn't having firebreathing critters in a library just a bit... dangerous to the goods?  Presumably there will be some paper books -- I can't imagine a fan culture that would forego real books entirely.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.

[Feinan]

Bob - a few are androids, others are AIs with hologram avatars. A few are probably just Fen, but the ones based on fictional characters are androids or AIs.
The defense force for the Archive would be fen or biomodded fen.

As for the Bookwyrms - they're more for preventing unauthorized access into the Library, rather than staying in the library proper. I see at least a few
large areas before you get into the areas with data storage, when you first land and head into the interior. The Wyrms are the protectors there, along with the
lions.

*grin* And yes, there are some paper books in the archive. But a lot of books are also stored as data. Not just to be read on a screen, though. Remember how
much the Jason is getting into using holotech. Want a book? If you've got the info, call up a solid hologram of it. Even better - you can read in the tub
without having to worry about the paper getting soaked.