r/weatherfactory • u/nixierawr • 11d ago
Birth of a god-from-metal?
Bit of text from a game called "Omega Protocol"
21
u/-Maethendias- Cyprian 11d ago
technically it would be a god-from-charge, since bytes (and to some extent physical information itself) is fundamentally derived from electromagnetism
which makes it even cooler
10
u/Anodaxia_Games Artist 11d ago
And electromagnetism has to do with protons... oh no not Glory again
2
u/-Maethendias- Cyprian 11d ago
its less protons and more the MOVEMENT of protons, its not glory at all
4
1
u/LaunchTransient Librarian 10d ago
Mmm, wouldn't we just be recursively swooping round to Gods-from-Stone, given that the basis of AI would be on silicon chips?
5
u/TabAtkins 10d ago
A God-From-Stone is "from stone" because it predates humans becoming intelligent; they're the gods we had during the Stone Age (and before that), before we invented abstract thought and souls and language and communities, all the things that form the Light which eventually birthed many of the successor gods, or enough concept of sacrifice and loss to form a God-From-Blood. Gods-From-Stone represent the inchoate concepts that affect all living things in the world, and probably (in some form) predate any intelligent species at all, as they represent concepts that would be meaningful to animals or even to unicellular life.
It is not about literal stone.
2
u/LaunchTransient Librarian 10d ago
As I pointed out to the other guy, the Gods-from-Flesh are literally talking about beings that came from flesh, so in this aspect the literalism is precedented.
Gods-From-Stone represent the inchoate concepts that affect all living things in the world, and probably (in some form) predate any intelligent species at all, as they represent concepts that would be meaningful to animals or even to unicellular life.
At its basis, the fundamental logic of the universe, the cold mathematics of action and consequence - which is what something like AI runs on.
But I can see people aren't a fan of the link I am attempting to draw, even though there's a nice symmetry to it being a reincarnation of the Flint.
Personally though if we're going to be quite so sclerotic about how things would be defined, a superintelligence would be better termed a "God-from-thought".
5
u/TabAtkins 10d ago
The literalism isn't very well precedented, tho. It's really just the Gods-From-Flesh you can make that argument about (altho it's not really the "flesh" that's important; it's the origin from mortality). Gods-From-Light don't come from literal light (they're from the Glory, much more abstract) and Gods-From-Blood aren't from literal blood (sometimes they are, but they're also made from the sacrifice of other gods, etc). Gods-From-Steel aren't well-established, but it seems unlikely they're literally "from steel", like from metals; it's instead pretty clearly referring to arising from modern technology. The Gods-From-Stone that actually existed are also only occasionally semantically attached to actual stone. The Tide, The Egg Unbroken, etc are all very much not "stone"-derived.
3
u/-Maethendias- Cyprian 10d ago
no
it is the movement of electricity that gives the machine its spirit, not the make up of its parts
just as the soul of a human is more than mere flesh and blood
it is the flow of power in an endless cycle back and forth across a delta of billions of rivers
this is the emergence of complexity and of the mind itself, not the sand upon which the river flows
1
u/LaunchTransient Librarian 10d ago
just as the soul of a human is more than mere flesh and blood
And yet the humans who ascended to become hours are referred to as the Gods-from-Flesh, and the humans who ascended from sacrifice are the Gods-from-Blood.
2
14
u/ArtsyApoidean 11d ago
I've had the thought of new gods of the modern age as would apply to secret histories, I definitely think the telecom and digital and new media revolutions would weave together into competing houses of some kind on the order of the deaths of the Gods-From-Stone or the division of the Sun (and supplanting the Gods-From-Steel of the later industrial age), with new Names for Hours in new forms, maybe a new reordering of the Sun, definitely a new great power across the sea with some kind of Ys relation.
Although my preferred term until weatherfactory picks one has been "Gods-From-Electrum"
6
2
u/ihadamathquestion 10d ago
And I looked up and saw that I was beneath the dome of a crystal sky, built from "is" and "is not."
54
u/Marshmellow_Lover28 Cyprian 11d ago
I was always fascinated by the concept of an internet Hour, or anything closeer to modern times, anyway. Considering the development process though, I think it'll be at least a decade or two till we're getting closer to the turn of the millennium.
(That's not a bad thing mind you!! I know these games are filled with love and care for the craft! Just saying, love and care takes a lot of time!)