OS-tan Theory Revival

[Nichi]

An interesting thought.

The best I can come up with at the moment is maybe an AI is to OS-tans as androids are to us. Maybe that's a tad corny, but aside from that, I'm drawing a blank

[Tsubashi]

I think neuroscience is actually a great idea for translation of AI research. The fields are closely related and comparably progressed. I imagine this could easily be integrated into any number of -tan's designs without becoming cliché.

On the flip side, you could always just translate it as research into biological intelligence, as if it were a stretch for -tan's to conceive of non-artificial intelligence. (The downside being that if Bio-intelligence is a foreign idea, what are users?)

Anyway, that is my two bits.

[NejinOniwa]

A WILD TSUBASHI APPEARED

That actually sounds like a good idea, though. AI-science studying the structure of a -tan's brain and the relations between it and its Code and whatnot...

A pretty out-there science indeed, but then again, so is AI science.

[Bella]

I think neuroscience is actually a great idea for translation of AI research. The fields are closely related and comparably progressed. I imagine this could easily be integrated into any number of -tan's designs without becoming cliché.

Ooooh, I really like this idea. It jives quite well with what I was considering - more or less. (That is to say, I was thinking that AI might equal "OS-tan psychology/biology" - which your idea is quite compatible with.)

On the flip side, you could always just translate it as research into biological intelligence, as if it were a stretch for -tan's to conceive of non-artificial intelligence. (The downside being that if Bio-intelligence is a foreign idea, what are users?)

That's also an interesting concept, although it wouldn't work in my story canon (and a few others), since humans and OS-tans frequently interact.

The best I can come up with at the moment is maybe an AI is to OS-tans as androids are to us. Maybe that's a tad corny, but aside from that, I'm drawing a blank

Do you mean to say, AI (in the intelligent robot sense of the word, not the scientific discipline) are the androids of the OS-tan universe?

[Nichi]

Yeah; that's pretty much what I meant. An AI would be like an android in the OS-tan universe

[Bella]

Yeah; that's pretty much what I meant. An AI would be like an android in the OS-tan universe

Hm. I see what you mean, though I am speaking of artificial intelligence, the scientific discipline, not artificial intelligence, the thinking robots. ^^;

Of course, all the OS-tans are technically AI in that they're non-humans who behave like humans .... that said, I think artificial intelligence would work well as the neuroscience / biology / scientific study of OS-tans in the OS-tanverse.


Somebody has to post in /More IBM-tans so I can post my new concepts there. u.u

[Bella]

I think I've reached a logical impasse where things won't make sense if I don't introduce the existence of programming language-tans.

Also I'm totes using that "if programming languages were women" list for inspiration / drawing those designs.

*GROANS LOUDLY AND SLIPS OUT OF CHAIR*

[NejinOniwa]

If PL-tans were to exist, they would - to me - be much more ethereal and strange than the OS-tans themselves, more closely related to Code and their magic than anything else. Spirits, almost.

[Bella]

If PL-tans were to exist, they would - to me - be much more ethereal and strange than the OS-tans themselves, more closely related to Code and their magic than anything else. Spirits, almost.

ARE YOU READING MY MIND, GOOD SIR? Because that is exactly what I was thinking! Ovo

Or, to go into more detail - I was thinking of programming language-tans as being the (quasi?) physical manifestations of their respective languages (and whatever sorcery that entails) and treated as something akin to gods of their respective languages / forms of magic. As far as I can tell, they'd have no other role besides overseeing and personifying their languages, so they wouldn't be like OS- and computer-tans, who have proper jobs and routinely interact with human beings and The Real World. Of course, this would probably be on a spectrum - BASIC-tan, who doubles as a sort of operating environment as well as language, would probably have a more corporeal form, whereas straight-up PL-tans would be more ethereal and inaccessible to all but the most devoted / skilled of hackers, programmers and OS-tans.

...

Honestly, there are good arguments to be made for and against PL-tans - in the against column, you have the fact that programming languages are a pretty abstract thing to personify, even in OS-tan universe context (since it's a personification of a language, not a physical piece of hardware, complex application or the bundle of software + kernel that makes up an OS), as well as the whole stickiness involving HOW PL-tans would interact with OS-tans, especially if you already choose to believe that programming languages = various forms of magic for OS-tans (which, IMO, is a pretty sensible way of fitting PL's into the OS-tan universe).

However, if you're for making PL-tans, you can argue that all technological items can be personified in the OS-tan universe - I mean, there's already HDD-tans, drum memory- and tape drive-kuns, as well as at least one compiler - all of which are fairly "abstract" things to personify - so it's not a huge logical leap to suggest that programming languages should be humanized as well. There's also the matter of programming languages that double as simplistic operating systems/operating environments or exist as bootable software - BASIC is the best example of this, there's also MUMPS-11, FOCAL, FORTH and a number of others I'm forgetting or not aware of. There has been talk before of making a BASIC, MUMPS-11 and FOCAL-tan - if we choose to accept bootable programming languages as humanization material, why shouldn't we accept all PL's as such?

[NejinOniwa]

The less tangible an object, the less corporeal and "present" in the Open world they will be if they are personalized. I would even go as far as to say that they are only partly real, and only part of the time. They are legends, spirits and ghosts - the spectral backside of the OS-tans' world, and not even the OS-tans themselves are sure if they exist or not.

Besides, I think it's already been established that our view on most theorycrafting done here is basically a hivemind anyway, so I'm not very surprised

[Bella]

The less tangible an object, the less corporeal and "present" in the Open world they will be if they are personalized. I would even go as far as to say that they are only partly real, and only part of the time. They are legends, spirits and ghosts - the spectral backside of the OS-tans' world, and not even the OS-tans themselves are sure if they exist or not.

Sounds about right to me. It's interesting you should mention them being almost mythical to the OS-tans, since I was considering the same thing - that they might be a subject of lore to most -tans, though there are surely some exceptions. I imagine BASIC-tan makes herself known quite readily - given her status as DTSS-tan's assistant and beginner-friendly (one might even say beginner-tempting) nature. Lisp-tan is another odd case, since I imagine she has some sort of relationship with Lisp Machine-tan, though I haven't worked out the exact details of it yet. x.x

Besides, I think it's already been established that our view on most theorycrafting done here is basically a hivemind anyway, so I'm not very surprised

At this point, neither am I.

[Bella]

YO NEJ. This is probably a dumb question, but does Colossus-tan have a human name yet? I can't recall if it was ever mentioned in-story and she doesn't have a wiki article for me to refer to, so...

If not, can I suggest the name Coleen Flowers?

Also, recent reading about DEC has made me want to -tan literally every major PDP release, even the obscure boring ones like the PDP-9 (basically the PDP-7 II), PDP-15 (PDP-7 III), PDP-14 (the PDP-8's slow-witted industrial-controller cousin) and PDP-16 (the possibly-schizophrenic one who didn't know what to do with its life so it did a little of everything without become especially good at anything).

[NejinOniwa]

She doesn't, but I always intended for her not to have one...

We'll see about that.

[Bella]

But it works so welllllllll. ;0;

[Simonorged]

Might I suggest that for the wiki Linux XP has a doppleganger darker color scheme.