Zero-Day
TIMELINE
- The Alpha Glitch, 23XX: Humanity's first foray into the world of sentient AI. By this point, self-educating, neural-net-esque AI has been made far more advanced than it is in the present day; AI has been made common in computing systems around the world, while robots are a normal sight in everyday city life. The Alpha Glitch was an unintentional programming error made in a problem-solving AI that bypassed a restriction otherwise preventing the development of creativity and free thought.
- The Window of Vulnerability, 23XX - 24XX: The period after the Alpha Glitch, when computer scientists quarantined and studied the code of the Alpha Glitch in order to conceal it from the public and figure out what exactly was making sentience possible.
- The Citadel, 23XX - 25XX: A walled, city-like structure constructed in [REDACTED] for the sake of studying sentient AI. These programs were eventually refined, improved, and downloaded onto android bodies ruled by the Three Laws of Robotics. Originally, only those granted special permissions were allowed to interact with the rest of humanity; as time passed, humans began moving into the android city rapidly forming in the Citadel.
- The Zero-Day Attack, 25XX: A fatal glitch that led to the virtual destruction of humanity outside of the Citadel; systems around the world rapidly shut down and were unable to be powered back on, leading to mass death and, essentially, a total rupture of communication lines between the Citadel and its sponsors. Unsure of its cause. Unsure of its full effects. The Pack and their Hunters are continuing to search for signs of life outside of the Citadel. The Pack and their Hunters are continuing to monitor the Citadel for unwanted Anomalies.
- The Pack, 25XX: The team of programmers, computer scientists, cybersecurity experts, and other roboticists that were isolated in the Citadel during the Zero-Day Attack. They are continuing to search for signs of life outside the Citadel. They are continuing to monitor the Citadel for unwanted Anomalies.
- The Buffer Overflow, 25XX: A band-aid solution to the massive death of humanity occurring outside of the Citadel. The few individuals that could make contact with the Citadel were, if possible, rescued by androids that swept the globe searching for survivors. Those that consented had their consciousnesses uploaded to the Citadel's servers, where they currently remain in stasis as the Pack seeks to rebuild what's left of human society. Those that didn't consent have been given a home in the Citadel, alongside the androids that currently occupy it.
- The Citadel, 25XX - 30XX: The last bastion of humanity's hope for the future. Many of the sentient androids living here have been repurposed to produce food, provide medical assistance, and keep the Citadel's servers running, no matter the cost. The Pack is researching ways to create more organic android bodies for what's left of humanity, while investigating the cause of the Zero-Day Attack and patching any system errors to prevent it from ever happening again. The Citadel has slowly expanded, becoming a thriving metropolis for both androids and humans. Few humans venture outside of the Citadel walls, besides those explorers and Hunters venturing into the abandoned cities of humanity's past.
- The Zero-Day Threat, 30XX: The vague, growing threat of another Attack, this time targeted at the Citadel itself, which would likely wipe out the work of the Pack and the rest of humanity if it succeeded. The Pack is continuing to hunt for signs of life outside the Citadel. The Pack is continuing to hunt for Anomalies within the Citadel. The Pack is continuing the Hunt.
TERMINOLOGY
- Three Laws of Robotics: A set of laws programmed into the sentient AI of the Citadel, which they are not permitted to break without suffering severe logic errors and corruptions in their programming. They're derived from Isaac Asimov's work, and read as follows:
- I. A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
- II. A robot may not injure another sentient robot or, through inaction, allow a sentient robot to come to harm, except when such actions would conflict with the First Law.
- III. A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings when such orders would not conflict with either the First or the Second Laws.
- Anomalies: AI that have succeeded in corrupting their own programming enough to bypass the Three Laws of Robotics without suffering extreme gaps in their own logic or sentience. They're marked by the presence of corruptions -- patches of missing texture -- on their bodies; they're one of the Pack's primary targets during their Hunts.
- Hazards: Anomalies that are high-stakes targets for the Pack due to their capability of corrupting other programs and AI within the Citadel.
- Neutrals: Anomalies that are low-stakes targets for the Pack due to their relative inability to corrupt other programs and AI within the Citadel.
- Hunters: The humans and androids that work directly under the Pack, participating in a variety of activities that aid the survival of the Citadel. These include, for example, exploring the abandoned Earth and searching for clues about the Zero-Day Attack's causes and consequences; hunting down Anomalies within the Citadel; researching AI/android technology in order to automate and improve everyday life; and so on.
- Quarantine: Where Anomalies disappear to, after they've been Hunted down.
- Retirement: The destruction of an AI and its associated code. Done rarely -- only when the AI poses a sufficient Hazard (and its code is corrupted beyond recycle and reuse), or upon the AI's own request.
MISC. INFO
- Aesthetics include Y2K, webcore, old Vocaloid/anime, vaporwave, cyberpunk, neon/glow, glitches, computer parts/video game consoles, unreality, and so on.
- The city itself is pretty futuristic -- think neon signs, very little greenery, lots of bustling night life. Kind of like how you'd visualize the world of VA-11 Hall-A to look like.
- Why are all of the androids kemonomimis? Well, they needed to be differentiated from humans in some way and you know that if hyperrealistic humanoid androids existed the first thing that humanity would do is make catboys real. This is canon in the Zero-Day universe.