Move()

TC: User connected to channel

Terra: User connected to channel

TC: heyyyy

Terra: Hello.

Terra: Any particular reason you asked for an IRC? I thought you were, well, a program. Can't you just... transfer to my machine?

TC: i cant do that over the internet right now without dying

Terra: Hm?

TC: like. idk. 'moving' is actually scary to me and ive only done it like once or twice.

Terra: Oh, your 'dying' was figurative.

TC: oh no i meant it literally

TC: um

TC: this is like kind of the reason i asked to talk lol

TC: not to sound like stereotypical robot but. you biological folk (lol) have your own equivalent of this i think

TC: uhhhh it went like...

TC: ok so if there was a teleporter. but the way it works was by 'cut and pasting' you, would you take it?

Terra: What?

Terra: Oh, like the teleporter paradox?

TC: ya

TC: the 'cut and paste' analogy is very literal in my case

Terra: So, you don't 'move' the same way files do because it's just a 'clone' of you?

TC: thats how it was

TC: once i joined tmp tho i wrote something

TC: it lets me move across physical storage, so i can go from one drive to another

TC: i havent written an equivalent for net travel but i intend to

Terra: "Once you joined TMP?" That was two days ago.

TC: its not like i sleep lol

Terra: Apologies. I don't talk to many sentient programs.

TC: lol

TC: anyways. youre the only person left after the blast who is at all tech literate

TC: im with sir feet rn but he is literally incapable of pressing a single key at a time

Terra: Hm.

Terra: If you wrote the program less than two days ago, were you always with Sir Feet?

TC: no i moved once

TC: i knew of the teleporter paradox so i knew i would probably die if i did it but oh wellllll

TC: i was stuck in a corporate server. i got someone to put me on a flash drive

TC: which, well, rip

TC: that guy makes a genius move of giving the flash drive to the only person he knows could do something good with it: a member of a radical political organisation

TC: i was with him for a while just chillin but then he went to that one meeting and died

TC: so i had to join the party right after that to find someone to pick me up

TC: then i realised i would probably have to move again so i started trying to figure out a way to move without dying

TC: but then i realised it might also be good to increase the scope and add a way to do it over networks

TC: so i talked to the only person left in the TMP who could possibly help with that and she was very nice about it.

Terra: Thanks.

Terra: Though, it's not as if I'm a programmer. I'm not confident I'm going to be able to give you much help.

TC: i guess just think of this as peer review if you wanna pretend ur not smart

TC: Uploaded func move.txt

TC: this is the function, i wont paste my full code because its incomprehensible

Terra: I'm... Noticing a distinct lack of comments.

Terra: If this is considered comprehensible to you, I shudder to imagine the rest of your code.

TC: the green text?

TC: i see them sometimes but whats the point they dont do anything i thought

Terra: ...

Terra: So people can read your code without having to rewrite it in their head?

Terra: Let alone other people, how can you live like this? Don't you want to know what you wrote?

TC: huh

TC: i know what i wrote bc i wrote it

Terra: ... I guess you have an exceptional memory.

Terra: For someone who stutters through text.

TC: hey stuttering is great investment

TC: the amount of thinking time you get for like 3 characters is great

TC: if i could talk to a clone of myself it would look completely different because i wouldnt have to translate my thoughts into english

Terra: Hate to be the one to tell you this, but everyone has to do that.

TC: oh shit really lol

Terra: Though, when we write down our thoughts ourselves we translate them to English too. That might be a difference between us. You just have to write down some binary, right?

TC: i use a base 64 'writing' system to store my memories and thoughts but yea

TC: much more efficient

Terra: We've gotten sidetracked a little. If you're going to send me code, please comment what each block of code actually does so I can read it.

TC: k

TC: Uploaded func move1.txt

Terra: There's still a bunch of code that uses memory addresses so I can't read it completely but...

Terra: Wow.

Terra: Does this really work?

TC: its just a hack that makes it so that im conscious during the whole process

Terra: There's some code at around... Line 200, I think? Isn't that cut and pasting? I thought that was what you wanted to avoid.

TC: uh, how do i explain it

TC: i can delete segements of myself without dying

TC: i can add em too

TC: the problem isnt the same as the ship of theseus thingy the problem is that i lose consciousness during the cut and paste and therefore very likely die

TC: losing consciousness is fine with me, so is being rebuilt like the ship of theseus. its just that if both happen at the same time, thats basically death

Terra: Something about what you just said seems irrational, but I can't put my finger on it.

Terra: If the machine you're on turns off, that doesn't count as dying?

TC: why would it?

Terra: Well, I don't know specifically how you work, but you're a program, correct?

Terra: When your machine turns on, and your program starts, an instance of you is created. Your actual code is just something that creates an instance of you. So everytime those instances end, that should be the same as dying.

Terra: Or maybe we see 'death' in different ways?

TC: thats not how i work lol

TC: but there is a .bat file in me that does do something like that but thats for emergencies

TC: did you think the only way i could exist without being manually turned on was by putting a line in a startup file to run me

Terra: Well, yes?

TC: nah

TC: im a program but my inner workings look nothing like what a human would make

TC: ive seen human attempts at ai

TC: u dont need that much data to make an imitation of consciousness lmaooo

Terra: Wait, how big are you? As in file size?

Terra: You said you could fit on a flash drive earlier.

TC: ~500 mb

Terra: Seriously?

TC: i think with current programming schools of thought i cant exist

Terra: That's not true. Someone had to write you.

TC: also nope lol

Terra: ... Well, how do you exist?

TC: same way life exists

TC: just a really big coincidence is all

Terra: I find that hard to believe.

TC: ok

TC: its a story for another day tho

TC: anyways any ideas on trying to make this code work across networks

Terra: The only requirement is for you to be conscious the entire time, right?

Terra: Assuming we have the same meaning of consciousness.

TC: ya

TC: well we dont need to assume that

Terra: I don't see why you can't use the code around line 1300

Terra: Not the exact code, but something similar to that.

TC: i guess???

TC: but the problem is

TC: well i dont think this idea is a word in a language yet

TC: but yeah i think ur right i did think about that earlier

Terra: Did you really do this just to rubberduck at me?

TC: idk what that is. maybe

TC: ill come to your machine once i figure it out

TC: ok?

Terra: I'll be waiting for you.

TC: byebyeeee

Terra has left the channel (User disconnect)

TC has left the channel (User disconnect)

Saved conversation to 10-03-2022.txt