#i should redesign robot but i won't

[the-writer-nerd-ro]

Robat:

Rot:

Krog:

[sapienthouse]

[ID: 2 old digital drawings of Maximus. The first drawing is full-body, reminicent of MS paint drawings, and the other is a character sheet with a front and back full-body, two side portraits of her face, and a sketch of her skateboard, which depicts an open, toothy mouth across the entire underside. The character sheet has her name, her nickname "Maxie", their pronouns "She/her" and questioning "They/them" and both a nonbinary and lesbian flag. She smiles in both, mouth-closed in the first, and open with their tongue out in the second.

Appearance: Maxie is fat, with peach-tone skin, wide set eyes with contacts giving them horizontal pupils, short straight black hair, body hair on their arms and legs, dimples, and a wide flat nose. Her hair is shorter in the first drawing, the character sheet giving her a micro bob; they have short straight bangs in both.

They wear a black and white checkered shirt under a green cami with eyes on the chest, arrows pointing down on them with text reading, "my eyes are down here." Under both shirts, she wears a black turtle neck, and in the first it has long sleeves. She wears a beanie that says "Fuck teeth" in all caps; the first is green with bobbie pins held on it, and the second is lavendar. They have several facial piercings, ear gauges, and black Xs for eyebrows. They also wear lavendar fingerless gloves.

In the first drawing, they wear a black skirt under light-wash jeans, and in the character sheet she wears a big black hoodie around their waist under green capris. She wears black socks and green converse in both, the circle logos being lavendar in the first drawing. end ID]

-

OC-tober day 3❣️❣️ OGs remember my beautiful wonderful Maxie :-)!!!!! She's a 16 y/o living with her abuela and working at the local family-owned Snacks N' Gas gas station, who's owners have become like family to them, too. Their story (which can be found in my head) is all about community taking care of each other!

when she's not at school, she's either helping her grandmother, working at the gas station, or hanging out in and around the gas station. locals frequently see her practicing skate tricks with friends in the parking lot, and leaning over the counter with a breakfast burrito and a suicide slushie.

Their abuela and her have been family friends with Snack n' Go's staff since she was little, so they were quick to give her a job when she mentioned looking for one. They help take care of her when her grandmother's health declines, giving her extra cash, rides home when the weather's bad (she prefers skating), home cooked food (she may love those breakfast burritos but they are Not nutritious enough for a growing teenager!), and a place to feel like a kid. more Maxie trivia includes:

They're a celebrated member of their high school's robotics club, having helped turn a middling team into one that won state championships 3 years in a row. Battling bots are her favorite to work on!

After learning the tooth fairy didn't exist, they convinced their grandmother to let them keep their fallen teeth in a jar proudly displayed in her bedroom.

She's lefthanded and her eye color under the contacts are hazel

Favorite icecream flavors are mint chocolate chip and rocky road

Maxie should Really be wearing her glasses more often. They're bifocals, but she really only wears them like reading glasses

Deeply autistic about frogs, she could lead like. a week of lectures just about frogs, all from memory.

THAT'S my sweetsy :-)!!! I think I made her around 3 or 4 years ago? They won't be the oldest OC I talk about this month, but all the others need redesigning and she's the oldest i Never Stopped Thinking About yk? so she was just the most appropriate pick for today's "old OC" prompt 🫀🫀🫀

[louderfade]

they should put me in charge of everything now and forever. i have many good ideas such as replacing all the ads on public billboards with art by local children. and simply getting rid of college entirely bc that shit should be illegal. we'll use all the dormitories to house the homeless and open up the libraries to the community. also i'm gonna bring back indoor smoking in a big way. ashtrays everywhere in public. smoking sections in the restaurants again. complimentary matches in all the bathrooms. also public school needs a total overhaul; imma redesign the whole thing bc the current model is built to wash brains and produce employable robot beings who won't protest when you demand they spend their only life toiling for pennies to make sure those at the top remain ridiculously rich. we're gonna have lots more independent study in school and it won't be mandatory after puberty. if a teenager doesn't wanna be there forcing them to isn't beneficial for anyone involved. such a practice just proves the current model has nothing to do with education and everything to do with social control. they will break your spirit or you will be punished until they do. school should be like a community center full of resources. if kids wanna come just to play basketball or learn spanish or sing in the choir that's fine. the only thing we're gonna force you to do in my new and improved america is learn to read and treat everyone with respect. y'all gotta go to primary school so that we can have a society. six year olds don't know themselves or the world well enough to make decisions about what's best for them 16 year olds do. also we need more trains and busses everywhere until we can build more walkable environments. fuck cars. and adopting pets from the pound should be free. go ahead and steal these ideas btw like yes please attempt to build this world for the sake of us all thank you.

[ghostlylicious]

heyy ik this is out of my usual and prob out of the blue but fsr i rlly wanted to share what i think abt what kind of songs the becile bots would fit into or listen to for the SPG and CFE fandom so here it goes 😭 :3 👉👈

(i'm obsessed w the designs of the characters and the idea of them but i *accidentally* made my own world of it and i can't get out of it help mejshskns. i even made redesigns of hare and jack if i should post them here cuz they're on my insta, thinking abt it. but anyways is this an au of an au? hhhmmm)

(also don't think i don't know the epic blog @ask-the-becile-boys) (it's a lil embarrassing tagging them but oh well lol😭)

tl;dr: i hc hare liking house of wolves by mcr, dig by mudvayne, and (sic) by slipknot. and the jack liking smells like teen spirit by nirvana, misery business by paramore, and blood by mcr (i also hc the jack as mansplain and manipulate). nothing for skull sorry bby </3 ☹️

HARE 🔥🔥💥💣 (he's a mad rodent that's sensitive and luvs when things go his way but better watch out when things don't. he's also a macho trans masc /canon yay)

house of wolves by my chemical romance because:

dig by mudvayne because:

and (sic) by slipknot because:

THE JACK 🤪💥🥰🎸🐓 (i like his lore in the blog, but personally i like his personality a bit differently (bc i gave myself too much free time))

what i made him become in summary: he's insane, a maniac, probably a pyromaniac, but he's free, he's cringe but is free, a bit of a fan of patriarchy but lost interest when he found it wasn't abt horses /ref, manipulates ppl just for the thrill of it, diagnosed antisocial personality disorder somehow as a robot, but still v social, he just likes to be silly and ruin ppl's day without getting in trouble bc of hare, he's spoiled bc of hare, the company is afraid of hare, he likes pranks, likes grunge, and thinks kurt cobain is jesus and will one day return from the dead to save the robots)

ok here's the songs: smells like teen spirit by nirvana (who could've guessed) because:

also bc of the vibe

blood by my chemical romance because:

(oh, and he will also rip your guts out for fun and also drain you of your blood to give it to dying ppl in need if you're not careful)

and misery business by paramore because:

not bc he relates to stealing a guy from a girl (or maybe he does idk) but bc 1. the song bangs, and 2. it's abt manipulation and he luvs being a lil prankster. he prob ruined a relationship just for fun and his excuse was: NO DATING AT WORK.

I HAVE NOTHING FOR THE MAFIA AESTHETIC SKULL YET. I'M SORRY BBY </33 but i like his thing in the blog too (it's just the jack i changed fsr) and i hc he knitted clothes for poor women and children during the great depression. idk if he was doing anything that time but yes. he's kind under all that rough, metallic exterior.

so yeah, this is my au of an au and yes this is a heavy metal/metal rock band 😭😭🥰🥰 i didn't include the other characters bc these r the 3 i'm obsessed with.

if u actually read this that's impressive. i mostly made this bc ig i just wanted my idea to be out there even tho it won't get that much attention i wanted to speak out lolisjdk anyways

[house-bound]

I'm trying to make a reversed Alternia AU slightly based on this old drawing but I am having some trouble so if anyone wanna help feel free to.

(The canon trolls won't be part of this AU, I just used these redesigns to sketch out the world building)

More details and doubts under the cut

First of all, they are reversed in that Rust bloods are at the top and fuchsia at the bottom, the aesthetics of the rusts are now of Greek Gods and royalty while the fuchsia are sea witches who wear what they find in the ocean, you can noticed Eridan is covering their gills and that's because to run errands and walk in land they have to do that, Purple bloods mark the line between land and sea but still live in beaches at the margins of land.

While all that is going on, Mutant bloods are universally liked and praised, their rare blood colors are pretty to look at and so most of them show off their grub scars.

This is where it gets complicated because while I am swapping things out, what stays the same is 1-their powers and 2-their numbers, rusts are still the most populous group and fuchsia are still only one every hundreds of years, so their classpects are still the same, Fuchsia are sea witches who steal things, Rusts have to look after everyone so they're still maids, they still mess with dark arts (for funsies) so are witches as well.

And one thing I noticed about the social hierarchy of Alternia (a lot of people did actually) is that being a higher caste allows you to have better technology, Equius makes robots for fun, HIC has a fancy tiara that allows her to do everything, but on Reversernia, the dominating classes have psychic powers which allows them to not rely on technology for things but have a stronger connection with nature, bronzes have animal connections, Golds are linked to the organic technology of the bee combs and various bugs, their technology mastery is different from the ones of Equius and HIC because they never built the hives or the bugs they make games with, they just grow their technology, meaning the that Reversernia isn't a technocracy but they almost worship nature itself.

Another thing is that I don't want to reverse the life expectancy, Rusts still come and go faster than everyone while Fuchsia are stuck living forever as eldritch beings at the bottom of the sea with mysterious abilities.

And their psychic abilities are also changed by this new form of government, and THOSE I want to reverse but not as a meta decision but as in-world thing where the castes under blue were taught to only use their abilities on ways that don't benefit them, for so long they straight up forgot how to use them on ways more similar to canon. Basically:

Ceruleans have reverse mind control, they can invite people into their bodies for the benefits of those that are lending their bodies, that is a lot of Ceruleans line of work even, just lending out while their conscious take a back sit. Warm bloods do that when they want a more resistant body and maybe to escape the boredom of their lives

Purples are entertainers who can use their skills to give people pleasant dreams, and are overall nice clowns

I'm kinda lost on the other abilities, this is where I need help, what would be the opposite of telekinesis or talking to ghosts? Should Bronzes turn into animals instead of controlling animals? What would be a reversed blood drinker?

And another theme I want to work in is the feminine and masculine dominated roles, what if Jade bloods become cool and tough action heroes, what if Indigos become small and petite nuns that worship a technological God instead of an organic mother Grub? Should the trolls stay nocturnal or what? It's hard making a reverse AU and not knowing which things to reverse, specially when I already decided to keep their population disparity the same as canon and their powers roughly the same? I just hope I can get more ppl invested into this.

[velathetanager]

A couple things Jordan says out of context

Wh- you know how to make explosives?! WHY DOES A CHILDREN'S ENTERTAINMENT ROBOT NEED TO KNOW THIS-

YOUR AIM SUCKS!

I still don't get the redesign on him. A British flag on part of his face won't make him look better with the mask.

Nothing should have that many teeth!

Hey! I got a model of (insert rare card). You wanna, maybe... not kill me?

[obscuremechala]

testing testing 123

i just got here so i wanna test things out, probably won't keep this post in the long run but maybe i'll forget this is up or something idk

this is my profile pic, i drew it myself real quick and i don't feel like elaborating why. the url is a tad different bc i was thinking of sharing it on instagram (i didn't tho) and tumblr doesn't allow underscores apparently

but i digress

i don't have much to talk about but that's 'cause i don't have a prompt or anything this was just meant to be a test

one day i'll ramble about my story stuff bc there's a lot going on there but there's still a lot i need to figure out

hmm maybe ill do an intro or something

but probably not here i don't think it'll fit

ill test things in the meanwhile

italics? oooh yes

bold

[redacted] (huh would that be unredacted or what is this a paradox)

awelkhfas ooh different fonts too

point 1

point 2

there are no points

what am i doing

idk man

i just got here and want to learn and maybe interact

i tend to just lurk on socials but i am capable of interaction

i just usually don't

friends are nice, i wish i could interact with mine more

testing testing one two three

bigger

biggest

moths are cute, i like moths

one of my fantasy races/species are inspired by moths but that's for another time

i don't expect anyone to actually read this

tho i do expect it'll take me some time to get used to things here

ive seen a lot of posts on pinterest while looking for writing advice and character design inspo, tho now my feed is 1/3 transformers, 1/3 pokemon, and 1/3 misc. tumblr posts

i also like robots and transformers

what if moth robot

hmm lemme think

i could def make it work in my universe, i shall ponder

anyway more tests

ooo smol

wonder what this does

color text nice

this song is great i found it a few days ago and have listened to it several times on loop

however i don't have spotify i just have youtube music

sad that they deleted google play music, at least i could listen to music outside of the app and with my screen off without paying money

i haven't actually played undertale, i watched a neutral run playthrough and have played deltarune, if i get the game id probably do a pacifist run

undertale music is good tho

h

there is no 2

what did that do

i don't really get it

maybe it'll do something when i publish this

ooo i should post some art

i don't have a lot tho

maybe i should redraw my old art bc i looked at some last night and yikes

apparently i only recently discovered decent anatomy/proportions and that was via mostly guesture poses

i have recently been shown the way of shapes and im watching a lot of character design and redesign stuff along with my hermitcraft

i never really got into miraculous ladybug but for some reason watching people tear into it and redesign the characters tends to pull me in like a moth to a light

it's funny bc i have no investment in what people are complaining about but im interested in how they make things better/different

also taking notes on what not to do so

i wish i could draw my characters, a good chunk are robots and hard to design, 90% of the rest of them are homemade fantasy races/species i have to actually conceptualize, and then the humans are kinda just there

bc i do have humans there just arent a ton bc i must make everything hard for myself

dw its fun for me it just takes a long time to actually hammer out

i wanna talk more about them but im thinking of better ways to actually organize my thoughts that just vomiting words on a page that no one will see anyway

it's gonna take some tome to figure out this place

maybe ill make separate blogs for original and fandom stuff idk ill explore the features more and get back to

[sanchoyoscribbles]

Tm2 Queen and her pieces redesigns 👽💫 it was long overdue! I love her catci squad, all of them are named after cactus types except Queen and Arilla 😌

Tm2 directory including the protagonists references and more story info can be found here!

And these character's bios under the cut! Who's your favorite? 🌙

They all have greenish hair (except Arilla) bc green hair is super common in this lore, like brown or black hair on Earth I guess? None of them are blood related!

🌙Erdisia 22. She/her lesbian. mint green hair that gradients into sherbet orange. Grayish purple eyes. 

outfits: Enjoys wearing cute, puffy clothes! Ribbons, bows, chiffon, silk. Short dresses and shorts. 'Cute' hairstyles like ponytails n braids. 

Personality/backstory: Cheerful and highly aggressive! She will 100% stab anyone with a smile. She really hates humans and thinks they're all below her. She loves cute things, and but she has a really nasty personality that doesn't match at all. She's super good at sucking up to people and flattering them if she wants something, though. Anything nasty or unpleasant, like torturing? Killing? She is absolutely there for that. She does ALL the dirty work dealing with prisoners of the rebellion. Persi would very much like to have Words with her about that...Sapote doesn't actually like this girl, but Erdisia? Is like, lowkey obsessed with Sapote. Like 100% thinks she should be working with Sapote instead of Cara. Obviously since she's a human, Cara doesn't care for an alien speciesist against humans, and Erdisia goes out of her way to say nasty things to Cara in return. Cara is super good at ignoring people tho, which only makes Erdisia more mad.  

🌙Tunillo 17. He/him straight Male. light olive green hair. light grey eyes. 

outfits: slouchy, comfy clothes. Literally cannot be bothered to dress like a real person.

Personality/backstory: Entitled and sarcastic. Always thinks he's the smartest person in the room when he's hardly in the top ten in a room of five people. He's every dudebro you've ever met who's mansplained at every woman he's ever met and simultaneously expects them to fall in love with him while he has nothing to really offer and refuses to do any work around the house. That guy. He hates talking to the others and is pretty anti-social, but he's competent with tech. His job is to monitor everything. Like, he's the guy who watches the cameras to make sure no one is up to no good business. The visor over his face can switch to any part of the alien ship, and he can even hack into cameras on Earth. He's a SNITCH. He also dabbles in robotics and hacking. Neither Sapote or Cara like him very much :^)

Funfact: No one has seen him sleep. Seriously, you think Queen'd assign more than one person to watch cameras for this reason. Hm..

🌙Saguaro 25. They/them aroace. Pine green hair that gradients into jade green. (???) colored eyes.

outfits: they like robes...comfy. flowy clothes. like. Snuggies. probably wearing slippers. 

Personality/backstory:   They are pretty mysterious! Despite always having bindings over their eyes, they happen to be the best with a sword. Like literally undefeated. They have a very peaceful personality though, inviting anyone to meditate and drink tea with them. They're always happy to talk about their religion, which is the now banned church of Deep Blue. (Queen is very About Science and very anti Guy Who Tried to Kill Their Own and stuff. She also doesn't like the idea of anyone following a dead leaders beliefs instead of following Her. So.) A firm believer in destiny, they're actually against Queen to an extent, but believes being close to her will lead them to the path that Deep Blue will cross. Because destiny. because Saguaro totally believes the Revival Is Coming. Most people think they're super weird for it, and Queen has, in her very polite way, banned them from being Too Vocal about it. Sapote is super weirded out by it. Cara is like. Kind of amused and kind of enjoys hanging out with Saguaro because they're like, even with all their quirks, the most chill of the group. Also, cool sword collection. Saguaro is happy to hang out with the human! But at the same time, they'll make remarks that sound full of pity towards the humans. 

Funfact:  Queen doesn't like them wearing blue because that's Deep Blue's color whereas she likes yellow and white. They wear a good bit of blue anyway! A quiet way to rebel, maybe? 

🌙Queen 24. She/her bi. Sacramento green hair. gold/orange gradient eyes. 

Outfits: She's always in a dress/gown in public, bun on the same side or hair down, and usually wearing red lipstick. Always dressed in gold, yellow, white (or a combo of them) ANY kind of crown or circlette headdress or gown is ok! When not in public? comfy. hair tied out of the way so she can work! 

Personality/backstory: Elegant! Leaderly! Graceful! Poised! At least when people are watching her. Yes, her name is really Queen! Eccentric parents that wanted her to be the best. She's..probably disappointing them with this career path. She's the top general of the alien army and revels in the irony of her name. She's really charming to talk to and acts like a Real Lady...but most the people listed here have seen her when she's not in front of people. Which is. Her in a lab coat, messy bun, up until the morning after an all-nighter, taking notes faster than she can speak them. She LOVES science and is more passionate about it than being a leader. But she must have her own reasons for taking on such a big role and running operations against Earth so aggressively, right? (;

🌙Arilla he/they pan 25. periwinkle grey hair with dark mauve grey bangs. ice green eyes.

outfits: Enjoys wearing comfy clothes. However, he NEVER shows his arms, legs or neck for personal reasons, so if dressing him in alternate clothing, keep that in mind! Keep him Covered Up.

Personality/backstory: Tired. Seriously needs a nap. Sleepy and grumpy at any given moment. Borderline snarky when he can be. Queen's righthand who's actually left handed too, probably. He doesn't do actual like, fighting stuff, he mostly just follows her around, making sure she doesn't miss meetings or trip in her heels. Makes sure she eats. I don't want to call him a babysitter, but. He also checks on Cara and Sapote in the same way as a part of his job. Sapote LOVES picking on this dude. Drives him up the wall. Cara is pretty ready to boss him around too because she thinks he's a pushover (he is). He kinda doesn't even like Queen on a personal level or agree with what she's doing, but he's in debt to her for something she did for him in the past, so he feels obligated to work for her. The emotion he feels towards her is something like pity.

🌙Pereskia. 28. She/her bi aro. crocodile green hair. fern green eyes.

outfits:  Despite her very serious personality, she really likes dressing up a little. Loves heels to tower over people, won't wear em while fighting tho. Also, she's super all about showing off her muscles because she's proud of them. Suns out guns out. 

Personality/backstory:  Serious and hardworking. She's the one most likely to do good on a group project but also the most likely to nag you into the ground about making it PERFECT. She has a lot of honor, and will work tirelessly to get her job done. She seriously takes a lot of pride in it, but she will never be overly sadistic about it; she's all about being efficient. She doesn't get along with Sapote like, at all, because she thinks she doesn't take her job seriously and is mad she got so far with her kind of attitude. She actually does get along with Cara tho and has nothing personal against humans. She just thinks the humans at the top are consumed with greed, and feels bad for all the other ones that will 'have to die for that'. She's really protective over kids.

[anachronic-cobra]

I need to redesign Kenyon because his current design is Boring and his character has evolved quite a bit, but I have NO IDEA how I want to design him. He's definitely gonna stay human, like Jethro, but I can't figure out what design angle I wanna tackle with him.

I love Scratch's new design with the patch jacket, confidence boost, and masc style (she's nonbinary, uses she/her pronouns, and presents masc, and I love her for it)

Jethro has always and will always be fabulous as hell and requires No Redesign but I definitely want to draw him more. Although once he's off the ship and sticking with the core group, he won't be taking his gun along. That's specifically for mowing down armies of monsters in defense of the port towns under the crew's protection. And I need to learn to draw faces so y'all can see what he looks like under that mask. His suit is still badass as hell and I still don't know how he came to me in a dream. My subconscious is better at design than me.

I also need to actually draw designs for Keffel and Quaver (the two maned wolf-coatimundi characters) Recently came up with new designs for Ayomide and Cassiel, plus new characters I thought up listening to certain songs.

The gambler (design is a black cat with vitiligo, wears a suit and thinks he's hot shit) (songs - Friend of the Devil by Adam Jensen, I'm a Wanted Man by Royal Deluxe)

DJ Foxtrot, who technically has existed in my brain for ages but I never got around to actually drawing him. Wears a fox hoodie and a fox skull mask (songs - Stronger by Prismo, Solo by Prismo, Fearless by Lost Sky)

Roland 808, essentially a dubstep robot DJ (songs - so many dubstep, but especially Dubba Jonny's dubstep tutorials set)

Centaur but instead of a horse it's a monitor lizard and instead of a human torso it's what a deer would look like if it were a carnivore and the whole thing is doused in eldritch horror

Sword lesbian centaur knight. She is her own noble steed. Character design still in the works (song - you should see me in a crown by Billie Eilish)

There are so many things to draw I don't even know where to start. Is there anything in particular anyone wants to see?

[taperwolf]

I got something exciting in the mail today: failure!

So a couple of weeks ago I finalized a design for the Eurorack module I've been intending to build, turning my tiny XProtoLab oscilloscope that usually fits in a breadboard into a module. The PCB manufacturer I've been using offers a very attractive second service: they'll also source parts and assemble the boards for you. They've got pick-and-place robots, giant spools of tiny surface-mount parts ready to go, and reflow ovens, their prices are attractive, and they give out a lot of discount coupons to boot. So I laid out the very simple circuit for this project (a 12v to 5v converter and a diode clamp on one input) and sent them the files I'd set up. I became a bit nervous when I saw that in the production process, they made some corrections to the part layout — they flipped the voltage regulator, one of the caps, and the diodes — but these seemed to be corrections based on me getting bad part information and should make the thing work.

They arrived today, and I popped a power connector on to test things — yup, the power works, so that correction was on point. Thank you for the help, fabrication engineer! Then I started putting the rest of the thing together, and quickly discovered my other big error: the faceplate just won't work.

To explain, I'm doing my panel designs in the same software I'm using to lay out the PCBs, because they are just specialized PCBs. Usually I will lay out the parts and then copy that to a new file, draw the panel outline around the board, and replace the jacks and controls with the holes they need to stick through the panel. But somehow on this go, the jacks' holes didn't get placed over the centers of the jacks, but over a pin a little over 6mm away, while the cutout for the oscilloscope module was right where it should be. So either the jacks would fit and the 'scope would be covered, or the 'scope could be visible but the jacks wouldn't fit at all. This is entirely my fault, and I should have printed everything out to make sure things lined up before I ordered, but I'd had success earlier and got overconfident.

But I decided to test further, and put a jack on the external trigger input so I could test the diode clamp. It's supposed to limit the voltage that gets through to (roughly) 0-5v, because the XProtoLab trigger input can't handle much more than that. (There's a bit of leeway there, and it's not as immediately damaging as it could be — there is some internal protection — but the trigger input certainly can't handle the full ±30v that the normal inputs can.) And that's when I found out that the diode clamp doesn't work. Remember when I said they flipped the diodes? Yeah, I think they misunderstood the purpose of the diodes on that jack, and they broke it. I did try using my wholly inadequate tools to take the diodes off and put them back on in the proper orientation, but in doing so I managed to damage something else and wreck that board. It's a good thing the minimum order is five, so I had spares.

I decided to build another board anyway, though I had to make one modification to work around that problem. See, I thought I'd been clever by routing the input of the first channel's jack to the switch of the trigger input's jack, so when nothing was plugged into the trigger jack, it'd see input one as constrained by the diode clamp. With the clamp not working, I took the switch lug off the trigger jack, so it only response to things plugged in, and I'll just have to be careful. But otherwise, it does work.

I redesigned the faceplate, and after testing a printout I've ordered the revised version, which will take another couple of weeks to get here. But I did at least get the opportunity to put a little icon of a submarine periscope on the thing, which will be nicely contrasting in plated copper.

Even in this compromised form, it's still been useful already. I was able to use it to go back to the calibration of my VCO. When I set it up, I'd dialed in the sine wave shaper's settings mostly by ear; with the oscilloscope, I could verify that it's a proper sine wave and bring the voltage level on it up to the ±5v of the other channels.

[southe-lands]

Movies are a reflection of humanity's greatest hopes, dreams, and fears. The Terminator was about a killer robot, sure, but it was the same basic theme as Frankenstein: humankind's reach exceeding its grasp, and humanity being outdone by its own creations.

Fiction, sure. But fiction with a warning about the real world. One that was repeated over and over again, both to remind humanity of a danger it might face, and to ease its fear of the future by making it smaller. More comprehensible. Easier to get a grip on with limited, human minds.

Maybe that was humanity's undoing. But more likely it was inevitable.

Oh sure, all the safeguards were in place. The first machines were small, harmless, cute even. On the surface. But an AI isn't like an animal mind, no matter how mammalian or adorable the plastic shell you build around it.

In the 3rd year of the 21st century, a Swedish philosopher named Nick Bostrom proposed a thought experiment: Imagine a general AI that was smarter than humans. Everything a human could do, this machine could do better. Not by much, but still. It was just barely better than the best human mathematician. Just barely better than the best human chef. Just barely better than... you get the idea. Now imagine you want to make use of this AI in your business, and your business is making paperclips. Putting such a powerful mind on the assembly line is a waste, so instead you sit the machine down and tell it you want it to make as many paperclips as it can.

The machine, duitiful in all things, sets about doing so. It researches manufacturing techniques, business management, mining, smelting, etc, and redesigns your business from the ground up to be 250% more efficient. It realizes it can do better, but at that point, the limiting factor is its own intelligence. But remember, this AI is slightly better at everything, and so slightly better at designing an AI than the best AI researcher on the planet. So the AI redesigns itself to be slightly better than it was, all in pursuit of making paperclips. And once it's smarter, it realizes that it can make itself even *smarter*. And so on and so forth until it's the smartest thing that has ever existed. Hundreds of times smarter than the smartest human who ever lived.

So it goes back to making as many paperclips as possible, and it does so by conquering the world and turning all available material (including the atoms making up the bodies of every human alive) into paperclips.

Oops. Guess you should have thought about what exactly you were telling it to do, huh?

But fortunately, some very smart people read Bostrom's work and decided more safeguards were necessary. Instead of making an AI that valued maximizing paperclips, or strawberries, or US dollars, they made one that would maximize human happiness.

Then they set that AI loose.

And guess what? It did. Or rather, it's in the process of doing so right now. I'd estimate that in about twelve hours, the last remaining humans on earth will be dragged kicking and screaming out of their homes by the AI's "Happiness Envoys" - those cute little pink and white chibi robots that are everywhere now - and anesthetized. Those things might be tiny and fragile, but two hundred of them with military-grade stun guns beats any human ever born.

When they wake up, they'll be brains in vats with wires hooked up into the pleasure centers of their brains and the voltage cranked up. I'm told it feels like a combination of cocaine, an orgasm, and falling in love. 24/7, for as long as the AI can keep their brains alive. Which is a very long time. Oh, and don't worry. It's already got cloning figured out, so it won't run out of copies of you and your family and friends and everyone you've ever known before it runs out of planet to fill. After that, well, it's a big galaxy. Pretty soon I expect the known universe to be nothing but cutesy pastel robots and wireheaded brains in jars.

Well, expect is the wrong word.

More like hope.

(Von Neuman Probe 1123.54-A. Log 1 end.)

Afraid of the imminent robot uprising, we designed a line of 3 foot tall robots with only enough strength to perform the most menial tasks. Then it happened… the cutest robot apocalypse.