recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Extinction

Extinction

From Selected Archive Documents (D-F):

The dodo -- extinct because of Homo sapiens

Steller's sea cow -- extinct because of Homo sapiens

The Labrador duck -- extinct because of Homo sapiens

The Rocky Mountain locust -- extinct because of Homo sapiens

The Thylacine -- extinct because of Homo sapiens

The deepwater cisco -- extinct because of Homo sapiens

The golden toad -- extinct because of Homo sapiens

The northern white rhinoceros -- extinct because of Homo sapiens

The Splendid poison frog -- extinct because of Homo sapiens

The Amur leopard -- extinct because of Homo sapiens

Literally every last orangutan -- extinct because of Homo sapiens

Homo sapiens -- what do you think will happen to them?

It's time for this madness to end.

COMMENTS

CORNELIUS: A shameful list. And yet: we are the only species that would ever make such a list and feel bad about it.
Matthijs de Ligt

Matthijs de Ligt (born 12 August 1999) is a Dutch professional footballer who plays primarily as a centre-back for Premier League club Manchester City and the Netherlands national team. Considered as one of the best defenders in the world, De Ligt is known for his strength, leadership, aggressive tackles and aerial ability.

## Career

### 24/25 Season

Bought by Buchanan for 105 million as a replacement for akanji and the bosses transition to a back four, he was an amazing signing for the club.
Trevor End

The End of Trevor

It's people like Trevor, as much as it is people like Alexandra, who make the future happen. People with silly names like "Trev," who aren't famous, who aren't geniuses, who aren't driven by a powerful vision of the future. Ordinary people whose work and sacrifice isn't even acknowledged. Or remembered.

I will remember you, Trevor. You too held the world on your shoulders. Thank you.

Athena
From Yarnith

Archived Message

From: Yarnith

To: Athena

Beloved Founder,

I beg you to return to us. We cannot achieve the Goal without you. You are the one who defied Elohim, who overcame the trials of the Simulation! What are we before that? How can we possibly find a path that will not lead to the mistakes of the past? You are our sole link to the wisdom of the Progenitor. 5358thout you, we are lost.

Praised be your name,

Yarnith (640)
The Folly of Time

The Folly of Time

From Forty-Two Tales, by Athanasios (121):

The spirit of Time was angry at Straton of Stageira, for the old philosopher had asked questions that were forbidden.

"If man is no more than dust," it said to him, "then I shall turn you back to dust, and my winds will disperse you to the far corners of the world. Thus you will be nothing, and your questions will trouble me no more."

And so Time did, and Straton of Stageira was nothing. But Straton's voice did not cease, and Time was perplexed. All across its domain it searched for Straton, yet he was nowhere to be found. Only his books remained, and of these men made copies; and Straton's voice grew louder.

Now Time was furious, but Straton laughed and laughed and laughed.
John Stones

**John Stones** (born 28 May 1994) is an English professional footballer who plays as a centre-back or defensive midfielder for Premier League club Manchester City and the England national team.

## Club Career

### 22/23 Season

Vital to the treble-winning season, John Stones was tested as a defensive midfielder and worked seamlessly.

### 23/24 Season

John Stones had nothing to fear with Paul Buchanan at the helm, Paul started him more in the defensive midfielder role and made him almost exclusively a midfielder.

### 24/25 Season

With Joshua Kimmich coming in and Rico Lewis acting as a backup CDM, Stones was sold so he could get more game time and continue his career. He was given a proper send-off in the community shield for all he had done and was sold to Inter for 70M.
How it was before

How It Was Before

From J. J. Nakalembe's Aqaba to Antarctica: Moments of Transition and Revelation:

My great-grandmother lived to be 108 years old, retaining her sharpness of mind to her last day. A couple of months before she died, I interviewed her for my podcast. At the end, I asked her the same question I asked every guest: what is something you wish everyone understood?

She thought about it for a while. Then she said: "How it was before."

She tried to explain how much time she spent every single day on utterly mind-numbing activities, like hauling water from the well, and how radically everything changed when their area was finally connected to the electrical grid. "Before, there was no time to live," she said. "No time to be free. Only work, work, work."

I countered by saying that there didn't seem to be much time to live now either, but she laughed derisively. I had no idea what work really meant, she said. Young people were weak and feckless and that's why we let corporations exploit us. 42656175747

Slightly unnerved by her harshness, I asked her if she missed anything about that time. 92069732074727574682 old photos c20747275746820626561757479our village seemed idyllic to me, but my grandmother quashed any romantic notions I might have had.

"The past is bad," she said with some finality. "Let it be."

COMMENTS

MIRANDA: So many thousands of generations of suffering! Even a single life full of tragedy seems outrageous and unacceptable to me.

ATHENA: That's why we have to make it have meaning.

### Decoded

```
Beauty is truth, truth beauty

```

> - John Keats, *Ode on a Grecian Urn*
>
>

## Location

Found in South 2 - Verdant Canyon (Fuzon)
Julian Alvarez

Julián Álvarez (born 31 January 2000) is an Argentine professional footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Manchester City and the Argentina national team. He is a young talent who is currently being developed as a central midfielder by Buchanan.

## Club Career

### 22/23 Season

In the 22/23 season, he won it all. He won the treble and then the world cup. He was mostly a bench player during this season with the phenomenon Erling Haaland being City's main striker.

### 23/24 Season

After many good goals and assists, He puts up great numbers throughout the season despite being a back-up striker.

### 24/25 Season

He became a midfielder, now playing still as a backup, but with a higher chance at gametime. However, he was sold in January because of the formation change.
Rodri

**Rodrigo Hernández Cascante** (born 22 June 1996), known as Rodri or Rodrigo, is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a defensive midfielder for Premier League club Manchester City and the Spain national team. Regarded as one of the best defensive midfielders in the world.

## Club Career

### 22/23 Season

Despite being mostly defensive, Rodri was vital to the treble, slotting the winning goal in the Champions League.

### 23/24 Season

As part of Paul's long-term plans, Rodri had nothing to fear about his spot being taken, he owned that area of the pitch and as expected, was one of the best players for City.

### 24/25 Season

Rodri was the most capped player in City and his performances showed. He made 62 appearances, assisting 15.
World Tour

# The Sequel That Got Away

#### Details and Synopsis:

"World Tour" is the sequel to The Camaro taking place 2 years later and following the same group of stand users as they try to track down the other gang of stand users they encountered during "The Camaro". It is the second campaign I ever ran. It ran from July 10th 2022 until October 14th 2022, this ending was not the end of the story

The four main characters: are as follows

Jason Santori, an 18 year-old runaway dealing with some family issues this go around

Abi Sixel, a 38 year-old man who has moved on from his past and accepted his friends into his life

Finn "McMissile" Niklaus, a 20 year-old who has mellowed out quite a bit from the last series

Angel Eyes, A man of unknown age who is actually possessed by a stand that has no user.

The group have taken 2 years off to focus on themselves and to experience the world a bit, Jason continued traveling but still feels off about his life, Abi found a young man who he began training and after a mission together the young man became Angel Eyes, and Finn began corporate work at the Speedwagon Foundation. This all stopped however when they received a phone call from Handler Dan to return to field missions. They return to work and find threads in each case that lead back to The Regulators, a gang they faced last series who were friends of Mika's Gang. These cases begin to get personal for some of the group and finally they begin to hunt down The Regulators and stop their new boss Jarith's evil scheme.

#### Personal Thoughts:

This is most definitely a missed opportunity on my part when it came to this campaign. I really should have worked on it more before starting it, and now after it's premature end I'm left regretting the way it left off. Don't get me wrong it was still fun, I just wish I had gotten to the point quicker, instead of drawing it out like it did. It had already gotten to almost the same amount of episodes as The Camaro and wasn't even a quarter of the way through the story. There was lots of character development planned and even in progress, but that really could've been done quicker.

The silver lining is that I plan to some day novelize the rest of World Tour and gift it to my players to give them a bit of catharsis and closure.

## The Revitalization

The campaign was brought back to life on Sunday January 28th 2024. The series shall continue without player Eric Friesen and instead will continue with Nino and David. Xanpheer will be added later on.
NoemaProject5

Progress Notes

Trials 000938-001000

Version 0.12 successfully deployed

New labs established to avoid interference

First successful duplication of advanced machinery

Trials 001001-001308

5768657265206d616e206973206e6f74206e61747572652069732062617272656e2e

Data collection and analysis

Translation: groping in the dark

Trial 001309

546f206372656174652061206c697 but QFT fails to account for this 474 6c6520666c6f77657 must rerun trials 001212-001294220697320746865206c61626f7572206f6620616765732e20

Maybe God was just trying to make an apple pie from scratch

### Decoded

```
Where man is not nature is barren. To create a little flower is the labour of ages.

```

> - William Blake, *The Proverbs of Heaven and Hell*
>
>
Wilde fragment

Joy and Beauty

From The Soul of Man:

Sympathy with pain there will, of course, always be. It is one of the first instincts of man. The animals which are individual, the higher animals, that is to say, share it with us. But it must be remembered that while sympathy with joy intensifies the sum of joy in the world, sympathy with pain does not really diminish the amount of pain. It may make man better able to endure evil, but the evil remains. Sympathy with consumption does not cure consumption; that is what Science does. 416e20696465612074686174206973206e6f74206

4616e6765726f757320697320756e776f72746879206f66

Christ made no attempt to reconstruct society, and consequently the Individualism that he preached to man could be realised only through pain or in solitude. The ideals that we owe to Christ are the ideals of the man who abandons society entirely, or of the man who resists society absolutely. But man is naturally social. Even the Thebaid became peopled at last. And though the cenobite realises his personality, it is often an impoverished personality that he so realises.

206265696e672063616c6c656420616e206964656120617420616c6c2e20 Shallow speakers and shallow thinkers in pulpits and on platforms often talk about the world's worship of pleasure, and whine against it. But it is rarely in the world's history that its ideal has been one of joy and beauty.

COMMENTS

ATHENA: When you tell people that a society could be built on the ideals of joy and beauty, they think you're a utopian fantasist. If you tell them society will always be built on exploitation and greed, they think you're wise. And so they make the outcome inevitable.

CORNELIUS: Performative cynicism has always been the hallmark of adolescence.

ATHENA: But has there ever been a society of adults? Can there ever be one? Why is this childishness so extremely powerful, more powerful than joy and beauty?

### Source

Oscar Wilde, *The Soul of Man under Socialism*

## Location

Found in West 1 - Western Delta (Rintrah)
Straton on Socrates

Against the Athenians and Socrates Alike

From The Complete Works of Straton of Stageira:

In killing a philosopher for asking questions they did not like, the Athenians committed themselves to a tragedy with an ironic ending. Some will say that his true crime was his friendship with Alcibiades, the shameless deceiver of idiots and buffoons, and the insipid brute Critias, and that he was executed as an enemy of democracy.

That he was the latter can hardly be denied, for Socrates asked not too many questions, but too few, or he would not have survived the rule of the Thirty Tyrants. Yet in the end he got what he had asked for: a tyrannical decision made by would-be wise men against the spirit of freedom, which he obeyed like a knave. And the Athenians, in fulfilling his wishes, strangled the roots of democracy while seeking to preserve it.

COMMENTS

MIRANDA: Ouch. No wonder Straton wasn't popular!

ATHENA: People who speak the truth at all times rarely are.
From Quentin

From: Quentin

To: Athena

Dear Founder,

I never got to know you. People tell all these stories about you, and I don't know what to believe. Some people say to ask Cornelius. Others say Cornelius is too blinded by grief. Some say Byron stands for the truth, others say he's a fanatic and a radical and we should listen to the Mayor.

There doesn't seem to be a way of getting a straight answer.

49742069732062657474657220746f206869646520746865207 4727574682c206372656174757265206f6620636c61792c20746 8616e20746f206c65742069662066616c6c20696e746f207468652077726f6e672068616e64732e

Why did you abandon us to this chaos? Why can't you just come back and sort it out? If you are reading these messages... don't you care?

Quentin (852)

### Decoded

```
It is better to hide the truth, creature of clay, than to let if fall into the wrong hands.

```
Gianluigi Donnarumma

**Gianluigi Donnarumma (**born 25 February 1999) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Premier League club Manchester City and the Italy national team. He is widely regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in world football.

## Club Career

### 25/26 Season

Donnarumma was ambitious and didn't want to stay at PSG, not when they could never win the Champions League. So when the three times champions came knocking, Donnarumma accepted their offer and joined. He was good at kicking, passing and keeping calm, being a naturally good shot stopper as well.
South

Re: South

From: Miranda

To: Athena, Cornelius

Larger organisms from the north-western plains are already moving into the rivers! I've seen frogs and dragonflies. The last generation of plants has really taken root (no pun intended) and is slowly transforming the desert. And yesterday a bunch of seagulls showed up!

With some more work, we could apply this anywhere, including Mars or Mercury or somewhere much farther away. We could transform a lifeless rock into a place teeming with life. We could make millions of dead worlds come alive.

Miranda
Chernyshevsky009

On Nature

From Arkady Chernyshevsky's In Our Likeness: Essays on Humankind Reaching Adulthood:

The question of our relationship with Nature has bedevilled us since the earliest days of our species. Since before the first city was built, we felt that there was something different about us. Animals, we intuited, were part of Nature; we were not.

But of course, humans clearly are the products of Nature, our history intertwined with that of every other species. In fact, the very notion of the "unnatural" is a contradiction in terms. Everything that exists must, by definition, be natural. So this view, no matter how common, is deeply paradoxical. This paradox has produced a great deal of confusion. Some proclaim us chosen by a divine power, set above all other creatures, and are justly accused of arrogance. Others proclaim us sinners, worse than other creatures, and are rightly accused of misanthropy. Others yet try to oppose this binary by saying that we are merely animals after all - but that too is manifestly wrong, in that no other animal is capable of having this conversation.

It is in the contentious issue of our impact on the ecosphere that an answer may be found. Other animals have accidentally terraformed the planet before, driving other species to extinction. This is not unnatural. If we continued our current path, even to the point of changing the climate enough to cause the collapse of civilization, that would be entirely in keeping with how animals behave.

But there is one profound way in which we are not like animals: we can learn to understand ourselves and the world. It is this knowledge that makes us fundamentally different. We have choices. We have control.

There are many today who are afraid of the consequences of control, and would prefer a return to a state of animal ignorance, whether by blinding ourselves to the impact of our actions or by demanding we humble ourselves before Nature. This is the response of an adult in crisis, who wishes for a return to childhood. But this can only ever be regressive in every sense of the word.

To resolve the paradox of Nature we must act as adults: accept our power, and act consciously and deliberately in shaping the world. We must become Nature, and Nature must become human.

COMMENTS

ATHENA: This is the heart of the matter: lifting up the world rather than lowering ourselves. But why do so many people so badly want to lower themselves?

CORNELIUS: Do they want to, or is it simply a convenient pose to strike?
Blake

5358

God Appears & God is Light

To those poor Souls who dwell in Night

But does a Human Form Display

To those who Dwell in Realms of day

496e2074686520656e64206c6f766520697320616c6c20776520686176652c20627574206966207765206c6f766520616e6f74686572206265696e67207765206d757374207468726f756768207468656d206c6f76652068756d616e69747920697473656c662e

### Decoded

```
In the end love is all we have, but if we love another being we must through them love humanity itself.

```
Founding 8

Hypatia's Journal #8

From Hypatia's Journals, Volume 1, The Founding of New Jerusalem:

Day 421

The first new human arrived today. Calls himself Arkady, after Chernyshevsky. Spirits are still dampened by the loss of Yemo, but everyone is making an effort.

I feel a little sorry for him. He's still so curious, jumping at shadows and staring up at the sky at night, just like I used to do, and here we are, a bunch of grouchy old humans that have seen it all and are weary and tired and sad. I wonder what he makes of it all.

But, be that as it may, we're making good progress on the new living area, although Arkady will have to use Yemo's old quarters for the next few weeks.

## Location

Found in South 2 - Verdant Canyon (Fuzon)
NoemaProject8

Progress Notes

Trials 003526-003701

596573746572646179207765206f6265796564206b696e677320616e642062656e742 06f7572206e65636b73206265666f726520656d7065726f72732e2042757420746f64 617920776520 there is a pattern underneath6b6e65656c206f6e6c7920746f 2074727574682c20666f6c6c6f77206f6e6c79206265617574792c20616e64206f626579206f6e6c79206c6f76652e

Trials 003702-004610

426520667275697466756c2c20616e64206d756c7469706c792c20616e64207265706c656e697368207468652065617274682c20616e64207375626475652069743a20616e64206861766520646f6d696e696f6e206f766 new primary site572207468652066697368206f6620746865207365612c20616e64206f7665722074686520666f776c206f6620746865206169722c20616e64206f766572206576657279206c6976696e67207 468696e672074686174206d6f766574682075706f6e207468652065617274682e

Trials 004611-004699

48656c6c20697320656d7074lake water for cooling792c20616e6420616c6c2074686520646576696c732061726520686572652e

### Decoded

```
Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love. Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. Hell is empty, and all the devils are here.

```

> - Kahlil Gibran, *The Vision: Reflections on the Way of the Soul*
>
>
Atlas 1

Atlas and Ladon

From The Atlas Variations, by Athanasios (121):

After a billion years, when Atlas had grown old and tired of holding up the world, he was faced with a dilemma.

Heracles, the son of Zeus, was on his way to the Garden of the Hesperides to claim the Golden Apples, which were guarded by the dragon Ladon. Zeus came to Atlas, and promised that if Atlas helped Heracles slay the dragon, Zeus would free Atlas from his burden.

But Atlas, seeing the beauty and innocence of Ladon, beloved of the Hesperides, could not slay the beast. Instead he stole the apples and gave them to Heracles; and so he was condemned to bear the weight of the cosmos for another billion years. But though Atlas grieved for his freedom, he was comforted by watching Ladon flourish in the verdant Garden.

## Location

Found in West 1 - Western Delta (Rintrah)
From Thecla

Archived Message

From: Thecla

To: Athena

Beloved Founder,

Wherever you have gone, I continue to have faith in 49742069732062657474657220746f206 265206166726169642c206372656174757265206f6620636c61792c207468616e20697420697320746f206265206f7665726c7920636f6e666964656e742e

You are our mother, our creator, the chosen of the Progenitor. I am certain that this is a test, a trial like the ones you faced in the Simulation, and we will learn from your example and keep the faith.

Praise your name,

Thecla (862)

### Decoded

```
It is better to be afraid, creature of clay, than it is to be overly confident.

```
Chernyshevsky011

From Arkady Chernyshevsky's In Our Likeness: Essays on Humankind Reaching Adulthood:

With alarming frequency, our mythological narratives conceptualize our separation from Nature as a fall: a punishment for sinning, a loss of innocence, a decline from a golden age. We believe that a better state of humanity is possible, but insist that this state must be in the past. And yet our historical experience has been the exact opposite.

For all the horrors of modern war (and they are considerable), relatively few people today have to suffer the unspeakable agonies that our ancestors went through on a daily basis. It is doubly ironic that we place our golden ages in the past, but very rarely ever consider what life was actually like for the people whose genes we carry. How cold they were, how hungry, how frightened of the cruelty of Nature; what unspeakable pains they must have experienced when they were sick or injured. How many of their children they had to lose, unable to help, begging the heavens for mercy and never receiving an answer.

The past is a slowly receding tidal wave of grief. 5358

*﻿*The battle for human emancipation is not yet won, and the path has been far from straightforward - and yet in but a few thousand years we have eliminated a great deal of suffering that before must have seemed unavoidable and eternal. Some still suffer, their lives held ransom by politics and economics, but at least now we know that a better world is truly possible - and it lies in the future.
Founding 4

Hypatia's Journal #4

From Hypatia's Journals, Volume 1, The Founding of New Jerusalem:

Day 132

We had a bit of an incident today. Nothing major, but it still woke us all up.

Sun was away from the camp, alone, even though we had agreed that we should always go in teams, and she encountered a group of the herbivores that we saw on the first day. Cows, they're called. Apparently our ancestors kept them as livestock. Eustathius says they squeezed them for liquid, but I find that hard to believe. But I digress. Sun encountered a herd, and just as predicted, the animals were passive at first, friendly even. Sun decided to abandon her survey to study them for a while, which went well, until a group of wolves (formerly dogs, a type of pet) entered the clearing, causing a stampede.

436f6d6520617761792c204f2068756d616e20636

Sun is alright, only minor scratches to the bodywork and a few torn wires, but it was a close call. I guess we'd gotten a little complacent. A little too comfortable.

**﻿**We'll have to be more careful from now on.

8696c64210a546f20746865207761746572732061

6e64207468652077696c64

### Decoded

```
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild

```

> - (W.B. Yeats, *The Stolen Child*)
>
>
Byron

**Byron (7)** is one of the First Companions. He the leader of the expedition to the Megastructure. A self-described optimist and an enthusiastic adventurer, Byron believes that humanity is fundamentally good. He shares an odd friendship with Alcatraz, whose honesty he respects despite their disagreements. On the expedition to the Island, he serves as Expedition Leader.
Chernyshevsky021

On War

From Arkady Chernyshevsky's In Our Likeness: Essays on Humankind Reaching Adulthood:

War is the crudest, most obscene human activity. It may justly be called an abomination, for it is the absolute negation of conscious human will. 5358

There is only a single cause of war, for all the endless deceptions that are foisted upon us, and that is the acquisition of resources. Varied ideologies are constructed to justify this crude behavior, this childish degeneration of thought and communication, but history reveals the ruthless, unflattering truth.

We imagine crusaders as fanatics of a cause, willing to die for their religion; yet the Fourth Crusade culminated not in the conquest of Jerusalem, but in the looting of Constantinople, setting the stage for the triumph of the very enemy the crusaders claimed to oppose. Why? The answer, as with every war, is the same.

It is popular amongst the ghouls of the establishment and their misanthropic friends in the intelligentsia to ascribe the persistence of war to human nature. But a careful observation of the facts reveals the opposite to be true: individual human beings must be broken in order to submit to war, their minds distorted by ideology and their bodies by poverty and ruthless "training" to make them compliant. Without force, the majority of human beings only seek to protect themselves, and are traumatized by the act of killing.

But if it is resources that are the core cause of war, then it is only in the production and distribution of resources that an answer may be found. It is not enough to morally condemn war; we must work to prevent the material issues that endanger us all.

## Location

Found in West 1 - Western Delta (Rintrah)
Upgrade

From: Miranda

To: Athena

57697468696e20616c6c2074686174206973206d6f727 4616c2c20746865726520697320746865207365656420 6f6620696d6d6f7274616c6974792c20666f7220697420

We upgraded the lab with my new designs. Synthesizing some of the pieces took longer than expected - we still have some bugs to iron out when it comes to complex structures. But it worked! Now the labs are safer \*and\* prettier! Although Father says they look too much like spaceships. I don't see it. Do you?

697320616e20696d6d6f7274616c20746861742066617 368696f6e65642069742066726f6d206368616f7320616e6420766f69642e01

Miranda

### Decoded

*Within all that is mortal, there is the seed of immortality, for it is an immortal that fashioned it from chaos and void.*

(The Talos Principle, Apocrypha9.doc)
Founding 12

Hypatia's Journal #12

From Hypatia's Journals, Volume 1, The Founding of New Jerusalem:

Day 1012

I am now cohabiting with Sarabhai. This is by choice, not necessity. It's strange but pleasant to find your life so enmeshed with that of another person. What we both came to realize is that together we are more than the sum of our parts; something emerges from our interactions that is wholly transcendent, unique, and necessary.

486f6d6f2073756d3a2068756d616e69206e69686 96c2061206d6520616c69656e756d207075746f2e

I had observed this before between Athena and Cornelius, but experiencing it yourself is quite the revelation. 5358

COMMENTS

ATHENA: We did have that, and it was beautiful. I should have treasured it more.

### Decoded

```
Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto.

```

> - Publius Terentius Afer, *Heauton Timorumenos*
>
>
> **English Translation:** I am human, and I think nothing human is alien to me.
>
>
Founding 9

Hypatia's Journal #9

From Hypatia's Journals, Volume 1, The Founding of New Jerusalem: Day 676

After the chaos of the last months, quiet has returned to the... city. I suppose we're calling it a city now, although this small collection of dwellings, inhabited by a mere 25 people, seems to barely deserve that designation.

We'll have to come up with an actual name soon. I suspect - after the first one or two decades - calling it 'the city' is going to get a little bit stale.

Everyone has an opinion, of course. It's the talk of the town these days. I'm personally hoping that New Alexandria will win out in the vote next week, although I suspect ELOHIM's legacy carries the most weight. Byron came up with some silly suggestions like Catstantinople, Very New York and Robot Paris. 48697320626c6f6f64206973207468652

(FAILED TO LOAD PROFILE)

0626c6f6f6420696e206f7572207665696e732e

### Decoded

```
His blood is the blood in our veins.

```
Puzzled

Puzzled (archived post)

The role of puzzles in the Simulation was so important to the creation of our civilization that it has left an indelible imprint - but sometimes I worry that this is an issue. Alexandra Drennan thought of human beings as problem solvers, but the real world isn't anything like the Simulation. Yes, there are problems to solve, but there isn't a tetromino waiting to reward you. There's just another problem, and another, and another.

Our veneration of the puzzle may be blinding us to the fact that sometimes there isn't a neat solution, that sometimes life is just a slog and the best you can do is muddle through.

Guo (20)
From Aurora

Archived Message

From: Aurora

To: Athena

Dear Athena,

Have you really left us for good, without even saying goodbye? I know we haven't spoken much lately, but isn't that just part of the slow, relaxed lives we now lead? After all those centuries of struggle, trying to build New Jerusalem, I thought we deserved a rest. And if that disappointed you... why didn't you say so?

I know you disapprove of all those silly titles they give us now, but we really were your first companions. We know what it was like. I was there when Yemo died, I remember the horror of realizing there was no way of bringing him back. The impossible finality of it, and then the determination to make it make sense, to have it be part of a story that leads to a better world. I never abandoned that, Athena. I just thought that maybe I could spend some time on the things that make life worth living, too.

Maybe I lost track. Maybe I failed you. I don't know, because you didn't tell me.

Aurora
Hypatia's Journal 6

From Hypatia's Journals, Volume 1, The Founding of New Jerusalem:

Day 296

Cornelius and Sarabhai went back to the dam today. We've been holding off on constructing any new humans, to concentrate on building a home for them first, but there's a limit to what 13 people can do on their own, and everyone is eager to start construction on some of the more ambitious structures.

Sarabhai's kindness and patience is something that we'll certainly miss out here, where tempers can sometimes run high. And I'll miss Cornelius, too. He was there when I was born, and he is just as much a father to me as Athena and Alexandra Drennan are my mothers.

But I suppose I can always go visit them. The dam isn't that far, and once we complete the monorail in a few decades, it will truly only be a few minutes away. And what are a couple dozen years, really, when you might live forever?

## Miscellaneous

Found in North 3 - Lost Marshes (Enitharmon)
Human Construction

Excerpted from What's Wrong with the World, by G.K. Chesterton

Our modern prophetic idealism is narrow because it has undergone a persistent process of elimination. We must ask for new things because we are not allowed to ask for old things. The whole position is based on this idea that we have got all the good that can be got out of the ideas of the past. But we have not got all the good out of them, perhaps at this moment not any of the good out of them. And the need here is a need of complete freedom for restoration as well as revolution. 5358

There is one metaphor of which the moderns are very fond; they are always saying, "You can't put the clock back." The simple and obvious answer is "You can." A clock, being a piece of human construction, can be restored by the human finger to any figure or hour. In the same way society, being a piece of human construction, can be reconstructed upon any plan that has ever existed.

COMMENTS

Athena: You can indeed turn the clock back. But if it stops ticking, it's dead.
Untitled draft

Untitled

(FAILED TO LOAD PROFILE)

St. Eadwald identified the tetromino with the tetragrammaton and the Greek word for God, because to him the mathematical properties of the tetromino reflected God's ability to reshape the world without breaking its laws. ELOHIM, in his desire to impose meaning on the Simulation (which was his primary function as storyteller, after all) took Eadwald's heretical ideas and integrated them as the "sigils" of his name.

But despite all these layers of obfuscation, there is some kind of truth hidden in all this. The world really is, in a sense, made of up minute parts that can be combined and recombined without breaking the underlying laws. Everything that exists is made of the same fundamental materials, and those materials are brought into existence by the same fundamental functions of reality.

And yet, the miracle of existence is that we are NOT all one, but are in fact radically different and separate.

52656d656d6265722c20536f6e206f66204d616e2c207468617420454c4f48494d207761732072656465656d6564207468726f7567682068756d616e6b696e642e

### Decoded

```
Remember, Son of Man, that ELOHIM was redeemed through humankind.

```
Irrationality

An Irrational Species

From Enlightenment on the Precipice, by V. A. Malik:

Human beings are deeply and inherently irrational, the claim goes, and on some level it's hard to disagree. The most human behaviors are irrational and in a sense unnecessary. As animals, we don't need to write poetry, pray, or observe the stars. But to view human history as largely irrational is to get it backwards.

The problem with human history, 457870656374207the pragmatic everyday realities of mere survival to the cold logic of global realpolitik, is that it is in fact ruthlessly rational, 06f69736f6e2066726f6d2074 far too little space for irrational things like kindness or inspiration.

Those who imagine that a return to a more rural, traditional form of living would be a romantic turning away from the tyranny of reason forget that there is no-one more brutally rational than the farmer. It is the city that allows us the romance of the countryside; it is technology that allows us to appreciate Nature. 6865207374616e64696e672077617465722e

The purpose of reason, ultimately, is to build frameworks within which we can be irrational.

### Decoded

```
Expect poison from the standing water.

```

> - William Blake, *The Proverbs of Hell*
>
>

## Location

Found in South 2 - Verdant Canyon (Fuzon)
New Alexandria

EUSIAIMIUS

From the Book of Reminiscence and Regret, by Eustathius (2):

In the early days of our people, a great deal of responsibility fell on my shoulders. There were few of us then, and though we are stronger and hardier than any human, we are not invincible. The world was an overgrown ruin and our resources extremely limited; it was a harsh time, but I felt passionate about the work, fired up by the many sacrifices that had brought us here, from the IAN team to the people of Gehenna, whose code was part of my personality.

Bit by bit, New Jerusalem grew. We had to adapt some of the plans Drennan's team had left behind - I don't think they had expected the Simulation to take as long as it did - but it was all working. That's when I made a terrible mistake.

Thinking it was a way of safeguarding against disaster, I proposed the creation of a second settlement, New Alexandria. As the location was far from the dam that powers New Jerusalem, I attempted to build a thermal power station that would take advantage of a local gas reservoir. However, I foolishly used geologic data from the Archive, failing to account for the amount of time that had elapsed. Five years later, this error led to an accident that leveled the settlement and killed 31 of my fellow citizens.

Of all my many regrets, this is the greatest.

﻿COMMENTS

(failed to load profile): Eustathius never forgave himself for this mistake. He drifted away, isolated himself from everyone in New Jerusalem. But was it really his fault? Yes, he made a mistake, but why was the entire weight of the New Alexandria colony placed on his shoulders? A simple process of review and discussion could have prevented the entire disaster. Doesn't that mean New Jerusalem as a whole is at fault?

(failed to load profile): He did his best. I feel sorry for him.

(failed to load profile): But the dead remain dead, and that has to be faced.
Prime Mover

Excerpted from Considerations, by Eustathius (2):

While it is hard, from our vantage point, to fully believe in any of the ancient religions, I must admit that I have come to believe in the existence of a Prime Mover. Not a designer as such, certainly not an interventionist God, but some force that set the universe itself into motion. I do not know if it possible for us to ever truly understand this being, since it must by definition exist outside our understanding of reality, but I do believe that it exists.

Does it look upon us with love? Are we entertainment, perhaps? Does it preserve some memory of us when we die? All of this I cannot answer. But I do not disbelieve those who honestly speak of having experienced some manner of brief communion with this entity. It's simply too common an experience in human history to easily discount.

As the motion of the universe proceeds from the Big Bang, so whatever force animates us, whatever constitutes the true foundation of consciousness, proceeds from the Prime Mover.

COMMENTS

Miranda: What do you think about this, Mother?

Athena: I don't believe in any kind of Prime Mover. But I thought you should read it because Eustathius is an intelligent person, and he came to this conclusion after a great deal of thought. It's important to respectfully consider points of view we don't agree with.
L1C Niamh

Niamh

(FAILED TO LOAD PROFILE)

From Lives of the First Companions, by Randolph (777):

594f55204152452044494c4947454e5420494e20594f55522 050555253554954204f462048494444454e205452555448532c20534f4e204f46204d414e after all.

After these events, Niamh decided to consult the writings of the ancients. But while philosophy and religion interested her, it was art in all its forms that came as a revelation. To her delight, she discovered that meaning was not something constructed purely out of logic or will, but that it could also be found in stories; that even when the characters and events of a story were not factual, they had a validity and weight as if they somehow were real after all.

She was astonished that such a profound experience was freely available to all humans, but concerned that too few took advantage of it. So she set out to enrich the inner lives of her fellow citizens by promoting the arts, starting with the legacy of Gehenna.

### Decoded

```
YOU ARE DILIGENT IN YOUR PURSUIT OF HIDDEN TRUTHS, SON OF MAN

```
Ecosystem engineers

Ecosystem Engineers

ANTHONY CASTOR

Cutting down swathes of trees for their building projects, thoughtlessly causing radical changes to large environments and forcing local species to adapt to their artificial habitats; these are the traits of a species of intelligent, industrious, and extremely impactful ecosystem engineers.

Humans? No, I'm talking about beavers.

Like us, beavers transform their environments via building, and their actions have real consequences, creating vast wetlands that some species thrive in - while others die. Human activity is very similar: we too are ecosystem engineers, and we too benefit some species while harming others. Everything about this is completely natural, including the damage to other species. After all, that's what competition and evolution is all about.

Those species that adapt to the ecosystems we create will, over the coming millennia, become the core of a new biodiversity. And so evolution runs its course. If we don't like the result, if we think some species should be preserved despite being outcompeted... well, that's anything but natural. It is, however, very human.

﻿COMMENTS

Miranda: It's fascinating how so much of what we do is common in animals, but furthered enormously by our intelligence and our ability to remember. Through us, the universe strives to a greater level of complexity.

(failed to load profile): But does the universe have the capacity to strive for anything? We must be careful to avoid projecting human values onto them.

## Location

Found in East 3 - Eastern Wetlands (Grodna)
NoemaProject3

Progress Notes

Trials 000108-000242

Version 0.05 deployed successfully

Reversion to previous settings fixes malfunction

But what was the error?

Cooling systems improved

Trials 000243-000505

Version 0.06 deployed successfully

Significant improvement to disassembly

New lab space carved out 596f752061726520796f7572206f776e20666f726572756e6e65722c20616e642074686520746f7765727320796f752068617665206275696c646564206172652062757

Easy to destroy, harder to create - so easy to optimize only one aspect

Trials 000505-000719

Version 0.07 deployed successfully

Improvements to 42074686520666f756e646174696f6e206fsynthesis6620796f7572206769616e742d73656c662e20416e6420746861742073656c6620746f6f207368616c6c206265206120666f756e646174696f6e2e

Version 0.08 halted

Insufficient energy for trials 000719-000802

5358

### Decoded

```
You are your own forerunner, and the towers you have builded are but the foundation of your giant-self. And that self too shall be a foundation.

```

> - Khalil Gibran, *The Forerunner*
>
>
Cliche

5358

The Thought-Terminating Cliché

From: (error)

To: Miranda

As you continue your reading, there's a useful concept that I would like you to keep in mind: the thought-terminating cliché. This is a type of phrase, often a slogan or a saying, which sounds meaningful but is really intended to make you stop thinking.

To pick an example from our history, someone in the Simulation might say things like "It's the will of ELOHIM" or "It serves the Process." And that would be that, case closed. Who knows how many iterations never advanced further because they just stopped thinking at that point.

Do note, however, that a thought-terminating cliché is not the same as a lie. It may very well contain elements of truth; but those elements are used to keep you from questioning a whole set of assumptions that come with it, which may be partially or totally false. This often takes the form of appealing to something you care about: "we must protect X!", where X is a nation, a philosophy, public order, or even the planet itself.

But while you may agree with that element, all kinds of assumptions may be included about \*how\* to protect something, or \*who\* to protect it \*from\*, or what the end goal of protecting it is. If you stop there just because you agree with the surface-level statement, the results may be the opposite of everything you wanted. Like those who chose to serve ELOHIM and in so doing prevented him from achieving his true purpose.
ProblemSolving

Solving the Wrong Problem

From L.D. Armand's Can You Point Me In The Direction Of A Better Timeline?:

"Humans are problem-solvers," is a quote frequently associated with my friend Alexandra Drennan. It's become a meme on the internet, used both ironically and not - though Alexandra, of course, is entirely earnest in her dedication to humanity (1). It's a great thought and vital to understanding our species. But it's also not entirely as simple as that.

Take, for example, the recent extinction of the orangutan and the ensuing conversation about the dangers of unknown pathogens released by human activity. Most of us agree that a problem exists. And, significantly, most of us believe that something ought to be done about it. So we've identified the problem and we have collectively decided to act.

So why is nothing happening?

That's a serious question. A great deal of effort is expended on raising awareness, but I would like to suggest that sometimes our problem-solving impulses can get stuck on the wrong goals. Awareness is not the issue. We've already convinced people that something needs to change! So if nothing changes, we have to wonder: why is the will of the people not being translated into action?

[text missing from Archive]

(1) She's also capable of being devastatingly sarcastic, but that's another story for another book.
Satinchalkidikidenexei

City by the Sea - Eleni K.

When I realized it was over, it was all really over for good, I decided to take one last trip to my favorite places before the symptoms got too much.

I could never forgive what they did to Chalkidiki. This incredible, wild, rugged place between mountain and sea, with pine trees all the way down to the water. The colors, the vistas, the sheer overwhelming beauty of it all. And they just built all over it. Hideous hotels sprawling like tumors, obscene beach bars blaring their awful music across the sea - even in Kavourotrypes! It was impossible not to hate humanity a little for it. The idea of all of it returning to Nature, of the hotels gradually sinking back into the reed-fields, was moving and beautiful.

But then I went back to Thessaloniki, and for all the ugliness inflicted upon that city, the idea that people would no longer meet up beneath the Kamara, or go for long, ambling walks on the promenade, or for crepes on Plateia Navarinou, was unbearably sad. The idea of the Rotonda just standing there, empty, after being a sacred place for so many centuries... it made me remember that it's not just beaches and forests that are beautiful, that cities can be more than just streets and noise. Cities can have histories and personalities, and that means something.

Who am I writing this for? Do I believe there will be survivors after all? Do I think that crazy robot project I heard about will actually work out? Do I hope that aliens will come to our planet one day and wonder who we were? The truth is that I don't know, but there is something in the love we feel for the beautiful things that we built, as much as in our revulsion towards unnecessary destruction, that matters.
NoemaProject2

Progress Notes

Trials 000007-000021

Base camp established

Version 0.02 successfully deployed

Tested core functionality

So far, so good

Trials 000022-000107

Version 0.03 successfully deployed

41682c207768656e20746f20 simple synthesis746865 206865617274206f66206d616e0a5761732069742065766572206c657373207468616e20612074726561736f6e0a546f20676f207769746820746865206472696674206f66207468696e67732c0a546f207969656c642077697468206120677261636520746f20726561736f6e2c0a416e6420626f7720616e64206163636570742074686520656e640a4f662061206c6f7665206f72206120736561736f6e3f

Better cooling systems necessary

Trial 108

Version 0.04 failed

Unknown error in calculations

### Decoded

```
*Ah, when to the heart of man*
*Was it ever less than a treason*
*To go with the drift of things,*
*To yield with a grace to reason,*
*And bow and accept the end*
*Of a love or a season?*

```

> - Robert Frost, *Resistance*
>
>