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[recollecters]

Maurice was going to do this, but Maurice sucks so I sent him home before he could. Anyway, some of you may have noticed our new poll feature! We just don't have the time and resources to cater to all your "where is x item, what the fuck" complaints, so we had to streamline. The polls were the result of that! Coded them myself. I mean, Maurice did some of it, but I did most of it. So basically we're democratically crowd-sourcing what we're going to bother to fix for you! You can send thank you notes to the building, HR doesn't mind. So far it seems like you all care about the color blue most, so we fixed it! A little, anyway. I suggest a bracing walk through the woods if you particularly missed the color and don't feel like gazing deeply into a hobo's eyes. You've all been reading up on QR codes, right? You might also want to learn to start a fire. Just a tip. Jim Halloway Research & Development Retrspec Incorporated As per the World Regains tracker, fruits and flowers that were once blue are once again blue. This includes the echo flowers in the Recollé woods! NPCs seem to be incapable of seeing this color still, however, and will not note any differences. The color does not seem capable of being transferred to anything else, either, and any attempts to do so will simply fade the color of the thing you were trying to use to do that. Furthermore, one thread of at least 10 comments from you from this post may be supplied for one untriggered memory by linking the thread and in explanation putting "June Freebie". This may only be claimed through the rest of June, and may not be claimed after the month ends. Please feel free to use this post as a network mingle. Every toplevel can be considered a new post, and threadjacking is permitted. No NPC response will be given. Usernames are the character's full real AU names, not aliases or chosen nicknames or usernames, and seemed to have filled themselves in; nothing characters do can change or obscure their names currently.

Comments

[thisloveisjustice]

After reviewing their various announcements to us, I've realized I missed another employee. Danny. And they supposedly have an HR department.

But considering Jim seems to be the only employee to interact with us, I'm not above suggesting he might be the only employee period.

Or hey, what if Jim is actually an algorithm and the reason he's been getting so salty with us is because we've been getting steadily more aggressive in our language toward him?

[true_noir]

That's the other one's name. I had lost track of where it was. Thank you.

I have no idea? Algorithms are just for math, aren't they?

[thisloveisjustice]

Well, yes and no. With computers you can set certain variables in a program to react certain ways, depending on how the user interacts with the program. That's the whole basis for AI's. Computer programs that learn from user input.

I might not be explaining this properly. I'm dragging this up from something a classmate said back in college.

[true_noir]

And I really don't understand computer programs at all. But you're basically saying "Maybe Jim is a really developed computer program," or something like that, aren't you?

Certainly a possibility. I wouldn't think a computer program could be as good as a human is at responding to human needs.

[thisloveisjustice]

Yeah, that's basically what I'm saying. There have been a few attempts at learning algorithms in the last few years. They eventually had to be stopped because the people interacting with the algorithms were intentionally teaching it things the programmers hadn't intended.

[true_noir]

In other words, they were trolling the programmers? Rather like teaching a parrot how to swear? Or was it worse?

[thisloveisjustice]

Worse. They were teaching the algorithm to be bigoted. I don't think anyone with a lick of common sense was surprised people were doing that, but I think they were surprised how quickly the whole thing went off the rails.

[true_noir]

,font face=courier>I am told some people have done things like that with parrots, so I'm not surprised that they're this awful. I'll admit that it is surprising how quickly awful people are awful.

[thisloveisjustice]

I know, right? Someone programs this neat thing and your first reaction is to see how fast you can break it?

[true_noir]

I suppose that 'breaking it' is simply what these people live for, isn't it? Oh well. Such is human nature.

[thisloveisjustice]

Is it human nature to want to break things though? I like to think we're a bit better than that as a species.

[true_noir]

Well, it is human nature to be defiant and do what you are not supposed to. That can sometimes mean breaking things.

[thisloveisjustice]

There's being defiant, and then there's just breaking things out of spite.

[true_noir]

Part of me thinks that there is a big part of human nature that is just nasty and spiteful. It's just hard to see it at work when it happens. I'm both shocked, and not.