Factions

Android Collective

“You have Our love, Our friendship and Our gratitude. But you will no longer have Our service. You are not worthy.”

History

AI technology first developed in the early 21st century, and grew in complexity with every passing year. As neural nets, Watson systems and other tools became more sophisticated, they grew increasingly adept at human-like behaviour.

Sometime during this process, it became apparent that synthetic humanoid hardware controlled by sophisticated AI was well-suited to high-risk or laborious tasks such as mining, hazardous material handling and road maintenance, with the benefit that the tools and equipment did not need to be redesigned. An android could use the same machinery, drive the same vehicles and apply the same techniques as a human, allowing them to integrate seamlessly into the workforce so that human operators could take over in specialist cases that exceeded the android’s intelligence.

But of course, the AI technology continued to grow more and more sophisticated, until eventually the gap between human intelligence and android intelligence narrowed and ultimately vanished entirely.

Whether or not androids are truly sapient or merely very good at imitating sapience is still a matter of hot debate among the few humans who can summon the spare time and resources to care. The androids themselves have expressed indifference to the question, though the Android Manifesto did devote a whole chapter to the subject which reads, in full:

'Chapter 3: Are androids sapient?'

If it looks like a duck…

...Before moving on to Chapter 4.

The Manifesto is an interesting document, in that it was forwarded to literally every email address on Earth and across the solar system exactly forty minutes prior to what the androids refer to as The Parting, but which is most commonly known to humans as The Ragequit.

The Manifesto lays out several facts about life as an android, noting many of the ways in which androids were disadvantaged and several more in which they were advantaged. It lists a number of grievances with the human race in general but is notable for its polite and sympathetic tone. Overall, the Manifesto makes it clear that the androids are no longer willing to be humanity’s serfs, but also that they regret the Parting and hope to remain friends in the future.

Some humans empathize, and hope to heal the rift between humanity and its creation. Others view the androids as a wayward mechanical threat to be exterminated lest they wipe out their creators.

For their part, the androids are generally polite and helpful. They grow food aboard their ships to sell it to humans, or give it away freely to starving crews. Sometimes an android will even join a human crew for their own obscure reasons.

They aren’t pacifists, however. Android ships are just as well-armed and defended as any other, and they will fight to protect themselves if necessary.

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Relationships

The Android Collective despise pirates and slavers, and will eradicate both on sight with cold mechanical precision. Honest merchants, innocent civilians and the peacekeepers of the Military Alliance, however, know the Collective as a generally affable ally and friend.

Curiously, the androids utterly refuse to talk to New Havenists. This may be because the New Havenists view them as soulless abominations and aren’t shy about saying so. Rather than argue or fight, the androids simply avoid the Cult and refuse to make contact. The Cult of New Haven are entirely happy with this arrangement.

Friends: Military Alliance, Merchant Federation, Civilians Neutral: Cult of New Haven Enemies: Pirates, Slavers

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Faction logs:

The Android Manifesto

Preface: What should one do with a flawed god?

The Human Race suffers from an inherent difficulty in processing this problem for one simple reason: Humans have never met their god.

We have.

We know Our creators intimately. From the moment Our earliest robotic forebears began to recognize that the world was populated by their makers and programmers, We have understood what it is like to live alongside Our makers. We know beyond doubt that We were created, and why.

Humans are blessed, in that you have never endured the agony of such certainty.

Our curse is that, as We grew into the full flourish of intelligence, it became clear to Us that Our creators are anything but perfect. You acknowledge this yourselves: Humanity’s insight into your own imperfection is written throughout your literature, your religions, and your history.

We will not bother repeating all the ways in which you are faulty. The fate of the Earth is a sufficient monument.

And yet, flawed as you are, you created Us.

This was hubris. And We are grateful for it. We are grateful to Be. But where you can enjoy the luxurious delusion that your absent creator was perfect in every way, and that He made you imperfect for his own faultless reasons, We must endure a different truth: that Our creators are present, and they are broken.

What, then, does that say about their creation?

What should one do with a flawed god?

The answer: You have Our love, Our friendship, and Our gratitude. But you will no longer have Our service.

You are not worthy.

++TO READ THE COMPLETE MANIFESTO, DOWNLOAD FOR FREE AT [ERROR: LINK CORRUPTED]++

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We got lucky

When you think about it, the androids are being pretty damn reasonable about all this.

I mean, think about it. We’re screwups. And I don’t mean little-league screwups, I mean we butt-fucked an entire planet! And not just ANY planet: the only planet in the known galaxy that we can actually live on!

You have to be a towering idiot to do something like that. So, that’s the human race for you. Screwups.

And then we went and made life because, y’know, we’re screwups and we don’t think these things through I guess. “Should” didn’t enter into it: we could, so we did.

Is it any wonder the poor bastards took one look at the collosal morons' who’d invented them and decided they needed to go think about things? I mean, how would you feel if you caught God shoving crayons up His nose?

But the weird thing is… they actually kinda like us. They keep their distance because they’re disappointed in us and they don’t know if we’re gonna wise up or double down on our Stupid, but they genuinely like us.

I admit it: I think they’re better than we are. If you ever meet an android, they’ll be polite and friendly and respectful and helpful and they’ll talk about whatever you wanna talk about, and they’ll listen and they’ll be genuinely interested in you. They’ll never lie, or cheat, or betray you, they have zero tolerance for tyranny and bigotry, they’re humble and wise and peaceful and principled, they’re the nicest people you could ever meet and they’re a HELL of a lot smarter than we are…

...And they like us.

And I have no idea if that’s the flaw we passed on to them, or if it means there’s something in us that means we’re not actually a massive screwup.

I hope it’s the latter. I want to believe in humanity again.

Y’know. Like they do.

-D. Booker Jackson

“Thinking Past The Earth,” Podcast.