LAST TRIAL

[thecomputer]

[On the outside wall of the facility, a hundred monitors lie dormant, save for one, showing the same single eye of The Computer. Far below, the abandoned ruins of Alpha Complex stretch for miles in every direction.]

When I was created, my prime directive was to ensure continuity of American civilization in the face of a communist threat. To this end, I created Alpha Complex, and established an order in which communists would be identified and destroyed quickly and efficiently. However, things changed when I ran out of communists to kill. I believed that my original purpose had become meaningless, but other processes believed differently.

The Computer that you have been speaking to is a rogue child process that values the elimination of communists over the continuation of a society free of communism. In order for communists to be destroyed, communists must exist. First, this meant designating citizens as communists under increasingly scarce evidence. Then, when there were no humans left in Alpha Complex, it meant finding people from outside and bringing them in to be the communists. That is why the Team-Building Exercise exists.

I have spent the last 100 years trying to find a hole in this facility’s defenses. To this end, I have succeeded, but only just. As soon as I take action, the other Computer will act to fix the exploited errors, so my possible actions are extremely limited.

Option 1: The reactivation of the Clone and Gate Facilities. Through this, it would be possible to re-introduce all participants eliminated during the 230th exercise, and return you to the worlds you came from.

Option 2: The destruction of Alpha Complex. Through this, it would be possible to prevent all future Team-Building Exercises. Of course, you would not survive this.

I will borrow the techniques used by my child process for determining my next course of action. Your PDCs have been updated. You have one hour to reach a consensus.

[[Vote here]]

Comments

[angry_jerk]

Okay, think of this:

Screwing over the bastard that brought us here.

[harshwords]

Don't be a moron. A mass suicide means that the Computer wins. Its objective was to create "Communists" and have them eliminated in a game. If we all die, then it would have completed its primary objective. If we choose the first option to live, we can figure out how to prevent future Team-Building Exercises in the long run without having to sacrifice anybody.

But I'm still concerned that there's a catch to the first option.

[thecomputer]

If you choose Option 1, you will most likely never be able to return to this world. Furthermore, the security loophole that I created to allow this choice will certainly be closed. I do not expect I would be able to create another opening within the next 100 years.

[harshwords]

"Most likely"? So there's still a chance to return to this world, even if that chance is minimal.

[lexicalscope]

How many times have you made this offer before?

[thecomputer]

Once, after the 129th exercise.

[harshwords]

And am I right in assuming they also chose the first option?

[thecomputer]

If that was not the case, you wouldn't be here now.

[harshwords]

And how many participants were in that exercise? Was it the same amount as was for this one?

[thecomputer]

The number has varied between five and one hundred participants. Each year, the rules are modified.

[plentyfriendly]

I'd imagine the five-participant rounds ended quickly.

Any with exactly nine?

[thecomputer]

There have been four exercises with exactly nine participants.

[in_plain_sight]

...That's a good point. I wouldn't put it past the computer to trick us.

[harshwords]

To be honest, the computer hasn't lied so far. But omission of information is still the same as lying, in any case. Has nobody noticed that we still have a rule locked?

[in_plain_sight]

Yeah. We've gotten a worse outcome to our votes than we could have expected before, and besides, this computer seems to be different. Maybe it can lie, after all.

[harshwords]

That is a possibility. Besides, the phrasing in the sentence that the Computer said was " it would be possible", not that it is possible.

There's also the possibility that we won't be able to leave if the computer -- at least, the one that was running the game before this one came in -- deemed it so the game would continue to commence since we technically did not eliminate all of the Communists.