/kinder/ RCG-088 "Death"

 

Danger: Existential - Catastrophic KM-088 Mental Resulpting Scenario

 

Utility: Wellspring - 200+ years of technological knowledge in advance of Equestrian civilization, see Addendum 088-01.

 

Containment Difficulty: Variable - minimal with basic containment; extreme infohazard generator with utilization

 

Royal Containment Procedures: RCG-088 is to be contained in a standard large bipedal containment unit and be given three (3) omnivorous or carnivorous rations of its choice. Additional privilages varies depending on its level of cooporation, see Addendum 088-02 for details. Unless it is being actively consulted, RCG-088 is to communicate with an button-press symbol board in constructed language "SAFE PIDGIN", which was designed to minimize its ability to communicate complex ideas. Should it attempt to circumvent this restriction, communication should cease immediately until official review. RCG-088 is aware of its properties and claims to be attempting to avoid expressing infohazards. Despite the decrease in infohazard-releasing events associated with RCG-088 since it entered containment, they still happen with regularity. All personnel interacting with RCG-088 must carry multiple Class-A amnestics in case of exposure.

Description: RCG-088 originates from an alternate universe with a much more chaotic and competitive memetic landscape. This has resulted in its acquisition, utilization, and ability to synthesize memes and memeplexes which act as infohazards to Equestrian organisms. These infohazards do not appear to negatively affect RCG-088. It is physically unremarkable, roughly analogous to a minotaur with simian traits, and prefers to be called "Mark", which means [INFOHAZARD REDACTED] [1]. It claims to have arrived in Equestria via unknown methods, although there were thaumic signs of a local spontaneous spatial rift at the location of its recovery.

 

Addendum 088-12: Given the imminent enactment of the Eclipse Contingency, RCG-088 was consulted for advice. RCG-088 is a self-described [INFOHAZARD REDACTED] engineer, meaning it is knowlegable in [INFOHAZARD REDACTED]. RCG-088 then concocted a plan to avert the KD-001 Royal Dominance Shift Scenario utilizing metal piping, ball bearings, fuel oil, and chemical fertilizer [2]. Further details are highly infoharzardous and sanitized versions are available only to director-level personnel. - Director White Castle

 

[1]: Yes, the origins of its name is an infohazard. The safe part is that it means service to a deity. The infohazard is the nature of said deity. The interviewing team came out of the room covered in vomit, having dosed themselves with amnestics. Every researcher curious enough to listen to the recordings has done the same. The name itself, however, is safe (as far as we know). - Dr. Green Bloom

 

[2]: As far as we know, the infohazard generated was only a byproduct of its true function. This is one of the few incidents for which RCG-088 has expressed discomfort. That alone should be enough warning not to dig further. Dr. Green Bloom

 

 

 

Incident Log: 088-01|1201-03-01 The following script was found etched on the inside of a basement ventillation shaft at Site 88. It is unknown what events are being referenced. Of note, RCG-088 has never had access to said basement and does not fit in the ventillation system. The author has yet to be identified.

"WHO IS HE? WHAT DOES HE WANT? HOW MUCH HAS HE FORCED US TO FORGET? WHY DO I KNOW MY BEST FRIEND IS [INFOHAZARD REDACTED] IF I NEVER HAD A BEST FRIEND? WHY HAS THE PRINCESS BEEN CRYING?"

 

Incident Log: 088-01|1203-01-07 Princess Twilight Sparkle made a surprise visit to Site 88. It is unknown how she acquired knowledge of the facility, as Princess Celestia had not informed the Royal Containment Group of any disclosure to P. Sparkle. Due to the first Directive of the Group Charter ("We serve at the pleasure of the Princess and her deputies"), site staff allowed her entry. After a guided tour, she requested to meet with RCG-088. It is unknown how she acquired knowledge of RCG-088, although [REDACTED DUE TO ONGOING INVESTIGATION]. After a briefing on RCG-088's characteristics, P. Sparkle proceeded to speak with RCG-088 for 3 hours, at the end of which she exited the containment chamber in tears. P. Sparkle then requested that all recordings of her conversation and logs of her visit be destroyed [3]. RCG-088 refused to elaborate on its conversation with P. Sparkle, claiming privacy concerns. All privilages granted to RCG-088 for good behavior have been revoked, pending investigation. Group Charter Directives have been amended due to this incident.

 

 

3: [REDACTED DUE TO ONGOING INVESTIGATION]. Since, as stated, we serve at the pleasure of the Princess, not Princesses. - Director White Castle

 

 

 

Researcher Note: Green-Bloom-01|1203-01-10

I think we have been far too lax in RCG-088's security. We originally assumed that its mind was fundementally similar in capability to ours, except with extra hardening in regards to memetic threats. This made sense, after all, given how helpful and above all *normal* it seemed - when it wasn't casually spouting ideas that would drive ponies catatonically insane.

We were wrong. RCG-088 wasn't just raised in an incredibly competitive memetic environment, where memes and memeplexes battled for dominance in the minds of sapients, but also in a similarly competitive *social* environment. The signs of this were scatter throughout its interview logs. The way its mind came to be, "Evolution by Natural Selection", is itself an infohazard to beings with a Hooves Memetic Resistance rating of less than 98.

I'm trying very hard to write this before I have to take an amnestic, so my analogies will be rough, but among its most dangerous abilities is a form of pathological empathy. Imagine a ferrier, making horseshoes by hoof. He doesn't pour the metal directly into a mold shaped exactly like the horseshoe he wants - he has to instead account for the distortions the cooling process will have upon the shoe. In short, he has to be able to predict the warping that cooling process will have, and then plan around that so as to produce an end product of a certain size and shape.

The terrifying fact is that I believe RCG-088 can do this to ponies. While empathy to you and me is just the ability to feel another's emotions directly through their gestures and words, empathy to RCG-088 is the ability to pour your mind into a certain mold, letting thoughts and ideas that are your own shape your conclusions to something that *it* wants. I believe this is how it managed to get a message to Princess Twilight despite all of its conversations being audited. It led our own agents to a decision *it* wanted while they thought they came up with it themselves.

I'm not sure what we should do about this - if this theory is true, then the Group, indeed, all of Equestria could be hopelessly compromised. But if that is the case, nothing we do matters anyway, so we must assume the opposite.

I have the following proposals:

1. SAFE PIDGIN is to be revised, removing roughly 216 of the 486 symbols.

2. All interactions with RCG-088 are to be kept to an absolute minimum. All non-essential interviews (psychological evaluations, "friendly visits") are to be cancelled indefinitely

3. All agents and researchers who interact with 088, regardless of whether they feel they need it, are required to take an amnestic afterwards.

4. All information obtained from 088 are to be passed through a committee, who are then to vote whether or not to destroy said information. A single for vote results in amnestic application to all members of said committee and destruction of information.

 

Furthermore, I have reason to believe that its appearance of normalcy is an act. When first discovered, RCG-088 was behaving highly eratically, yelling infohazards and and attempting to fight the recovery team. Its subsequent calm demeanor and general friendliness was assumed to be a result of it acquiring the "right" Equestrian values through acculturation.

I'm convinced that this is impossible. In fact, if it were true, it would contradict *everything* we know about it. Firstly, regardless of how objectively right our values are, they simply have not been subjected to the same selective pressures as the memes from RCG-088's native dimension. Given that's the case, why would it assimilate to *our* values? It does against everything we know about pathological memetics.

Secondly, everything we know about RCG-088 is from interactions where it didn't communicate infohazards. Our staff have been specifically instructed to amnesticize themselves if they encountered an infohazard. Early on, virtually every interaction with RCG-088 resulted, in fact, in amnestics use. And RCG-088 knows this. It also knows from experience what we consider infohazards.

Think about that for a moment. Seriously take a few minutes and think about it. It could say literally anything it wants to anypony, follow that up with an infohazard, and then know for certain that the staff involved will forget about that incident. Whatever it wants, whatever idea opinion it wants you to have, it can try asking for and convincing over and over again, with the victim none the wiser.

How many times do you think a ferrier needs to make the same horseshoe before it becomes second-nature?

 

 

 

Researcher Note: White-Castle-01|1203-01-12

I want it on the record that I think you're being paranoid. Princess Twilight has been pressuring us hard to improve conditions for all sapients under containment, and you're not helping. You have no evidence that anything you wrote about actually happened - just speculation. We're a scientific institution, not a society of failed sci-fi writers.

I'm going to go through your proposals one by one.

1. Partially approved. The idea is fine - we don't want jannies to risk insanity every time they bring him a slice of pizza, but 216 is too many. At least let him communicate what toppings he wants on his food.

2. Partially approved. Site 88 is for containment and research, not socializing with anomalies. Every interaction with 088 needs to be for good reason, and social calls are bad for discipline.

3. Denied. Doesn't this conflict with the rest of your report? If we forget every interaction, this would just give a theoretically evil Mark the ability to do more harm. Did you even think this one through?

4. Denied. Twilight is threatening to slash our budget as-is. We can't afford this even if we wanted it.

Either come back with actual evidence or calm down. We have thousands of hours of recordings and you have one of the highest Memetic Resistance values ever recorded. If you want to test your sanity sifting through them all, be my guest, but you are better than baseless accusations.

 

 

Interview Log: RCG-088-1|1203-01-13

Interviewing Personnel: Dr. Green Bloom

Green Bloom: I want to talk about the Eclipse Contingency. Somepony scratched these words into a ventillation shaft at this facility. I suspect the two may be related.

*Green Bloom shows RCG-088 and unredacted version of Incident Log 088-01|1202-03-01*

Mark Carlyle: You realize we've had this discussion more than once, right? It always happens the same way - I tell you what happened, you freak out, and then you take the amnestics.

GB: I'm currently taking powerful mood stabilizers. They'll let me hold it together until at least I write a report.

MC: Fine. Ask away. But for the record, I warned you.

GB: What events were the message referencing?

MC: I know what the redacted notes about Eclipse say. I also know that they leave out the important bits. Ponies seem to think that I used the ball bearings and fuel oil to make some kind of slippery trap, and that's just not true. What actually happened was [INFOHAZARD EXPUNGED].

GB: ...That was why Celestia was crying in public, wasn't it?

MC: Yeah. Yeah, it was. She told be that she seriously considered having me [INFOHAZARD REDACTED], but that she knew how things looked from my perspective. You ponies really convinced me that it was an "end of days" sort of thing, instead of just a sisterly spat, if a violent one. So I did what I thought was necessary. She said she would have done the same in my position.

GB: Are you implying that Princess Celestia is resistant against your infohazards?

MC: I'm implying a lot more than that. Read between the lines. Equestria is like a pencil standing on its tip in the middle of the forest. If you find something like that, you have to ask two questions: who put it like that, and who's keeping it like that.

GB: I'll keep that in mind.

[Interview Ends]

 

 

Interview Log: RCG-088-1|1203-01-21

Interviewing Personnel: Dr. Green Bloom

Green Bloom: I suppose congratulations are in order. Not sure how you managed it, but Princess Twilight just sent a royal decree to get you go free.

Mark Carlyle: Well, as fun as it was being in this facility, I've always wanted to see Equestria outside of this box you ponies kept me in.

GB: Before we go though, there's one last piece of the puzzle I couldn't quite figure out.

MC: Oh? Perhaps I can help.

GB: "WHY DO I KNOW MY BEST FRIEND IS [INFOHAZARD REDACTED] IF I NEVER HAD A BEST FRIEND?" What do you think the vent writer meant by that?

MC: Let's just say that sometimes, you miss the forest for the trees.

GB: You're normally not one for riddles.

MC: I'm normally not about to be free for the first time in years. This interview is over.

[Interview Ends]

 

 

Dr. Green Bloom's notebook (do not steal)

 

1. RCG-088 is evasive about the subject.

2. References freedom. Implying that freedom may be revoked if he divulges more information?

3. "Sometimes, you miss the forest for the trees." Implying that we're overfocused on something, but missing the bigger picture? Something hiding in plain sight.

4. Vent writings imply use of amnestics beyond class-A. Selective removal of memories very difficult, leaves behind residues just like this. Why did we administer them? To protect him? No, to protect *us*.

5. What are we protecting ourselves from? Something in plain sight. Something worth forgetting a pony for. A fellow Group researcher for.

6. Writings link the amnestic administration to the Eclipse Contingincy. Need to look over those notes again. Have to restock personal supply of amnestics.

7. What am I missing? Have I been here before? I have class-B and even class-C amnestic packaging in my apartment. What am I trying to forget? Why are they all from the past month? Why the buck am I taking so many amnestics?

 

 

 

Researcher Note: Green-Bloom-01|1203-02-30

[NOT APPROVED FOR PUBLICATION]

This is my final, well, anything as part of the Group. This note is also highly infohazardous, so if you're going to keep reading, I recommend having an amnestic ready if you want a few more peaceful months.

Did you know that one of the words for human in RCG-088's language is the word "mortal"? Even the way his species conceptualizes itself contains knowledge of death.

The real question is, why didn't we? How did we manage to keep from ourselves the fact that ponies, well, died? It's not even *that* uncommon an occurence.

I suspect Princess Celestia is involved somehow. Selective mental blindspots and the widespread availability of amnestics are also part of it. The fact that ponies seem to isolate themselves as they get older is another.

Having pieced things together myself more than once, I can tell you that staring your mortality in the eye is the singular most unpleasant experience of my life.

But it's not the big realization that smothers you is it? It's the constant dread of the clock counting down, knowing that each day lived is another closer to obliteration.

RCG-088 didn't even realize how different we were until the Eclipse Contingency. He built a weapon and gave it to us in the assumption that we knew what it meant to take a life. But we didn't even know what it meant to die.

In any case, you can consider this my resignation letter (I mean that poetically - I've filed out the actual paperwork for it). The human is free now, and everypony knows that he can't keep his mouth shut even when he wants to.

I've left a note to myself to invest in amnestics manufacturing. Highly recommend you do the same.

 

 

 

Interview Log: RCG-088-1|1200-09-22

Interviewing Personnel: Dr. Green Bloom

Green Bloom: So, I'm hopped up on enough mood stabilizers! Let's start the interview.

Mark Carlyle: I want to state for the record that our dear doctor here is refering to sherry. And you've only had like, one glass. Actually, you know, what? Let me have some too.

GB: Hey! This was a gift from my aunt. You don't even need it to stay calm while you, well, you know.

MC: You mean talking about basic things from my world?

GB: My notes say that we already went through "war" and "suicide" in a previous interview.

MC: I honestly still can't believe you needed to take amnestics just for that. I mean even ants fight each other.

GB: Yeah, but ponies are different. We're as different from the lesser animals as they are from rocks.

MC: Pussy. I bet you'll faint when I bring up the idea of bullies who actually enjoy what they do.

GB: Nice joke, but I kicked over a few sand castles myself when I was a filly. It was one of those terrible things you do because it got you something you want. I stopped because it hurt me on the inside as much as it did them.

MC: Yeah, so was I, but I actually enjoyed it.

[30 SECONDS OF SILENCE]

[INFOHAZARD REDACTED]

 

 

 

 

Epilogue:

 

"So."

"We were friends once." She said, matter-of-factly.

"I'm sorry."

"For treating you like an enemy. Just because you're, well, you - it doesn't mean you're a bad person. In fact, you've been kind even when we weren't. So... yeah."

"Fright response."

"Mark." Green Bloom was dead serious now. "Mark, what did you do?"

"And once you have enough pieces... you can't hide them, not even from yourself."

"What was her name?"

 

 

Interview Log: RCG-088-1|1201-01-30

[NOTE - THIS ENTIRE DOCUMENT IS EXPUNGED. STOP READING IMMEDIATELY IF YOU CHANCED UPON THIS DOCUMENT, AND REPORT IT TO YOUR SITE DIRECTOR]

Interviewing Personnel: Agent Sweetie Drops

[NOTE] This entire document is a potent infohazard - class A amnesticization has previously failed in preventing its spread. - Director White Castle

Mark Carlyle: What's wrong, Sweetie? You look like crap.

Sweetie Drops: Remember that story you told me about the snake and the apple?

MC: Yeah, the Garden of Eden.

SD: I think I finally understand what it means now. And I think I finally understand humans.

MC: Is this about what went down during Eclipse?

SD: Yeah. I'm the one agent in the entire Group who declined amnesticization. You know why?

MC: I really don't.

SD: I didn't used to wake up in cold sweat every night, fearing my own demise. Part of me honestly misses blissful ignorance. The kind where you didn't live in the inevitable loss of everything. And everypony. But then you gave me the Fruit of Knowledge, Mark.

MC: I'm not sure I understand. I also don't like being compared to the devil.

SD: Until I saw Luna's face [INFOHAZARD EXPUNGED], I didn't know even that ponies died. Nopony did. Well, maybe Celestia. But as I watched [INFOHAZARD EXPUNGED], I had a realization... I was trying to make Equestria a better place, how could I do that without the fundemental truth of existance?

MC: Shit.

SD: The price of Knowledge is the fear of Death. The Eden I used to live in is now closed to me forever. I understand that now. And I know that I can't keep working as Celestia's problem solver if she would lie to me about something *that* important.

MC: So what now?

SD: I'm going to quit, go home, and spend time with my family. Time is so much more precious than I thought. Even if we don't have a set expiration date like humans, there is only so much time I'll get to spend with them. And you're going to help me.

MC: How?

SD: Talk everypony who knew me into forgetting I ever existed. I'm a valuable asset. Too valuable to let slip through their paws. Besides, I don't want to give them this burden. You have a way with words, this I know.

MC: Well, shit. Good luck, I guess.

[END INTERVIEW]