[112] NERD TIMES ARE THE BEST TIMES. // Video & Voice.
[REX IS BACK IN HIS FULL WHEEZY, GOTHED OUT GLORY. And he's hanging out in one of the common rooms, with... a spindly little robot spider thing creeping around the floor. He's lounging on one of the couches for now, watching idly as it skitters around and pauses every once in a while, casting out a red light to scan various... things.]
Suburbia with none of the usual Barge strings attached. A peculiar choice of port. I found it largely uncomplicated, unstimulating at first...
[He moves the camera so that you can't see his adorable creepy robot.]
But I would be lying if I said it wasn't interesting, in its way. Being... average is something I've never experienced before. Experiencing the perfectly ordinary from that lens made it into something novel. From time to time, I found myself enjoying it. I even, sometimes, considered staying. Living out my life as poor, uncomplicated Richard Holmes, barista extraordinaire. [He moves his head, focusing on something off-camera. Click click click goes the spiderbot.] But then I recalled the words of Dr. Kevin Warwick: "There is no way I want to stay a mere human."
Dr. Warwick is another hero of mine. [He turns to look at the camera again, smiling.] Don't worry, Clapet, he shouldn't offend your sensibilities quite as much as the pioneers of nuclear warfare. [And he looks off again.] Ambitious, like so many of the greats, he pushed his work beyond what anybody thought was possible. I say "was," but he's still alive. Thanks to my presence here, however, I've not been able to follow his latest projects. Still, in my... [He chuckles.] youth, I devoured his works. [YEAH, 28 IS SO OLD, REX.] His research was, after all, the predecessor, the foundation of my own. For decades, he's carried out extraordinary research in biomedical engineering, artificial intelligence, control systems, robotics... The goal? To become the first human cyborg. Certainly admirable, although not one I share.
Many think he's crazy. A mad scientist. But he's a genius. He can successfully control machines and electronics through a chip implanted into his arm; he created a device that interfaced directly into his nervous system. He even devised a form of... telepathy. [He waves a hand.] Not like it is here, of course. No, his wife assisted with the project. With a chip implanted into her own arm, the two were able to use the internet to communicate a signal between each other from a distance. It was the first purely electronic communication conducted between the nervous system of two humans.
[Musingly:] I wonder how far he's come now.
[Then, he sits up, leans forward, and holds his hand out. The little spiderbot skitters to him and climbs up his arm.]
This is something I've been working on, a little side project. For fun. It possesses a very simple AI. It's programmed with... algorithms to help it learn how to hide better, for example. It avoids moving objects, unless it recognizes it as a... "friend"-- [As if on cue, spiderbot BEAMS A RED LIGHT IN REX'S FACE, scanning him. He makes a disgruntled noise and waves it away, so it skitters over to his other shoulder and scans the camera. Rex removes the dumb little robot and places it on the floor.]
And it adapts to positive and negative reinforcement. [Pause. He strokes the robot's creepy little spine and it seems to trill happily.] To avoid any 'suicides.'
It's really little more than a high tech toy. [He shrugs a little and leans back against the couch again.] But as simple as it is, I don't think "Richard Holmes" could have ever built it. For all my... physical flaws, I wouldn't wish to trade them for a life like that.
[Spiderbot creeps back up again and flashes its light in the camera, SO REX ROLLS HIS EYES AND CUTS IT OFF.]
[Kitchen Filter (Dinner Shift); Voice]
So, it would seem I'm to be working with you. My one stipulation is that I do not serve anything. No food, no... [EW.] blood, no beverages, nothing.
In exchange... you can have all of the lemon squares you want. [Somehow, he makes that sound mildly threatening.]
[OOC: SPIDERBOT IS WHAT HE'S BEEN BUILDING IN THE TARDIS. Or one of several little projects. What it really is, is a surveillance bot thing, but I figure it's usually stuck in the TARDIS, since Rex shouldn't be allowed to have such things, oooor it isn't actually interfaced with his computer, so he doesn't receive any of its spy data. BASICALLY, IT'S JUST A STUPID NEW ACCESSORY THAT WILL SOMETIMES POP UP IN REX'S POSTS, so don't worry, your characters aren't being spied on.]
Suburbia with none of the usual Barge strings attached. A peculiar choice of port. I found it largely uncomplicated, unstimulating at first...
[He moves the camera so that you can't see his adorable creepy robot.]
But I would be lying if I said it wasn't interesting, in its way. Being... average is something I've never experienced before. Experiencing the perfectly ordinary from that lens made it into something novel. From time to time, I found myself enjoying it. I even, sometimes, considered staying. Living out my life as poor, uncomplicated Richard Holmes, barista extraordinaire. [He moves his head, focusing on something off-camera. Click click click goes the spiderbot.] But then I recalled the words of Dr. Kevin Warwick: "There is no way I want to stay a mere human."
Dr. Warwick is another hero of mine. [He turns to look at the camera again, smiling.] Don't worry, Clapet, he shouldn't offend your sensibilities quite as much as the pioneers of nuclear warfare. [And he looks off again.] Ambitious, like so many of the greats, he pushed his work beyond what anybody thought was possible. I say "was," but he's still alive. Thanks to my presence here, however, I've not been able to follow his latest projects. Still, in my... [He chuckles.] youth, I devoured his works. [YEAH, 28 IS SO OLD, REX.] His research was, after all, the predecessor, the foundation of my own. For decades, he's carried out extraordinary research in biomedical engineering, artificial intelligence, control systems, robotics... The goal? To become the first human cyborg. Certainly admirable, although not one I share.
Many think he's crazy. A mad scientist. But he's a genius. He can successfully control machines and electronics through a chip implanted into his arm; he created a device that interfaced directly into his nervous system. He even devised a form of... telepathy. [He waves a hand.] Not like it is here, of course. No, his wife assisted with the project. With a chip implanted into her own arm, the two were able to use the internet to communicate a signal between each other from a distance. It was the first purely electronic communication conducted between the nervous system of two humans.
[Musingly:] I wonder how far he's come now.
[Then, he sits up, leans forward, and holds his hand out. The little spiderbot skitters to him and climbs up his arm.]
This is something I've been working on, a little side project. For fun. It possesses a very simple AI. It's programmed with... algorithms to help it learn how to hide better, for example. It avoids moving objects, unless it recognizes it as a... "friend"-- [As if on cue, spiderbot BEAMS A RED LIGHT IN REX'S FACE, scanning him. He makes a disgruntled noise and waves it away, so it skitters over to his other shoulder and scans the camera. Rex removes the dumb little robot and places it on the floor.]
And it adapts to positive and negative reinforcement. [Pause. He strokes the robot's creepy little spine and it seems to trill happily.] To avoid any 'suicides.'
It's really little more than a high tech toy. [He shrugs a little and leans back against the couch again.] But as simple as it is, I don't think "Richard Holmes" could have ever built it. For all my... physical flaws, I wouldn't wish to trade them for a life like that.
[Spiderbot creeps back up again and flashes its light in the camera, SO REX ROLLS HIS EYES AND CUTS IT OFF.]
[Kitchen Filter (Dinner Shift); Voice]
So, it would seem I'm to be working with you. My one stipulation is that I do not serve anything. No food, no... [EW.] blood, no beverages, nothing.
In exchange... you can have all of the lemon squares you want. [Somehow, he makes that sound mildly threatening.]
[OOC: SPIDERBOT IS WHAT HE'S BEEN BUILDING IN THE TARDIS. Or one of several little projects. What it really is, is a surveillance bot thing, but I figure it's usually stuck in the TARDIS, since Rex shouldn't be allowed to have such things, oooor it isn't actually interfaced with his computer, so he doesn't receive any of its spy data. BASICALLY, IT'S JUST A STUPID NEW ACCESSORY THAT WILL SOMETIMES POP UP IN REX'S POSTS, so don't worry, your characters aren't being spied on.]