#seek wildbow

[blogishdaj]

Seek 0.1.0 spoilers

> guy with full arm tattoos

> thrown blind into a situation where he's in way in over his head

> dark, possibly traumatic, troublesome past

> surprisingly chill in the face of the horrors

> trusted people who betrayed him

> cannot look directly at the enemy

> amnesia and altered/false memories

> handyman-ish skills

> implied to have mad rizz

Close enough, welcome back Blake Thorburn

[estavionpira]

Reading Seek 0.2.b and it's somewhat concerning that A isn't anywhere in the list of people for Basil to listen to. AI that has control over your entire body and only does what you say because it's what your parents want.

[eddathegreat]

Oh this is gonna get fucky

[artbyblastweave]

After three chapters, one of my big takeaways is that Seek seems really conceptually interested in parents and parenting.

You've got A, raised by parents whose superficial commitment to A's self-determination and self-identification are completely undercut by the invasive dystopian cyberware they use to control them, coupled with the (what I believe to be the) implication that the double edged sword of the post-scarcity future is that A's only reason to exist is that their parents wanted a child- spending their entire childhood being shot down any time they express interest in a career path that could give their life meaning outside of that. All of which feels like the logical terminal point of parenting as a vanity thing. Then you've got Winnifred, whose parents are vastly more involved, attentive, and invested- but in a way that goes hand in hand with a sometimes-uncomfortable spiritual and ideological investment, which in turn manifests as a regiment of full-body invasive modifications so that their child can perpetuate and participate in their culture and lifestyle.

Then you've got Orion, whose "birth" is his much more metaphorical escape from the cryopod (complete with associated womb imagery); out of the three he's arguably the most "liberated" from the context of the people who chose to create him or put him in this situation- popping out of his "womb" with imprinted skills and knowledge and only vague memories- but given the overall survival-horror nature of his situation that's not actually any kind of improvement. (It would frankly dovetail incredibly well with the theory I've seen that it's actually an Onboard who's taken control of a braindead human- total hands off parenting, he was put in this situation by entities that don't even realize he's alive.)

All of which is circling and circling around the central reality of parenting, which is that it's not just something that happens, it's a choice, any way you choose to go about it's a choice. And in our current context there's only really a couple ways to make that choice and they're all a few degrees off from each other anyway, so it fades into the background. But in a society with advanced enough technology that you've really got options, the fact that you're making any choice at all- and the resultant horrible consequences every possible choice will have for your kid- becomes way way more visible. Truly, a web serial aligned with my heartfelt belief that We Are Never Getting Out Of Here

[ewingstan]

Seek seems to have an interesting viewpoint on AI-generated art. It envisions a future where people don't really make art to be viewed and purchased by others, judging by A's conversation with Addy. And it does frame that as sad in some ways: Addy doesn't react with quite the level of joy we'd expect from receiving a drawing from her kid. A's dream of being a famous artist doesn't seem like it fits in this world.

And yet, it isn't just an "oh this is the death of art and human creativity" perspective. The first time we see this real-time made-for-you art, its a familiar instance of childhood play, with the Onboards adding details to a pretend shoot-out. The next, the movie with prompts input by A and Quinn, is an instance of kids collaborating to get a unique story, like kids asking for their parent's bedtime story to include pirates and moonmen. It seems like this world doesn't really respect specific, individual pieces of art as objects to be viewed and interacted with multiple times. There isn't a cultural context for "Great works" or the like. But such a view of art isn't necessarily what art's always been, and Seek doesn't view it as something we should expect to be in the future. Its world's ephemeral, machine-created art isn't framed as soulless; it's an interaction between tools and users for purely creative purposes between friends.

And yes, that itself is given a bit of melancholy. Wildbow seems to be setting up a theme that a post-scarcity, post-want life can start to feel meaningless. Even still, since machine-made art is often bemoaned as the ultimate corruption of art as commodity, its novel to see it positioned instead as unbridled play.

[crowns-of-violets-and-roses]

Despite our best efforts, few survived faster than light travel.  None survived the trip back.  So we took a different approach altogether.  We started bringing the universe to us. There’s no point.  We’ve solved it.  Everything humanity needs, it has.  We’ve reached the finish line. There’s no point.  What hasn’t changed in the last four hundred years won’t change in our lifetimes. There’s no point.  Turn off the lights, close your eyes, and cover your ears, nightmares come manifest. Three storylines from three individuals, worlds and eras apart.

-Wildbow introducing Seek

[ronthedunedain]

From twigdice (circa 2019), I guess Winnifred is our starting protagonist.

[titanfortuna]

friend and I made a seek bingo...

[fipindustries]

Here they are, our beloved new protagonists

[thepariahcontinuum]

Okay so Wildbow has gone in reverse order with the protagonists in Seek hasn't he?

Winnie's stuff is clearly happening first: There's still overcrowding and scarcity, the planet mining is at an earlier stage with actual people involved in the hard work and the cybernetics are full-on surgical procedures and irreversible

Basil's stuff is after, at the high point of human civilization: All needs are apparently met, other planets can be brought to earth to mine for resources and discarded at will, the actual mining and other labor is done by robots so there's no need for heavy duty mods like Winnie and her family. At the same time the Onboards are now much more than a souped up Siri, they're effectively a symbiote and mods can be done seemingly at will (Gender can be altered at will and things like horns/blue skin are an "Ask mum" deal) on the other hand privacy is a thing of the past, even thoughts are subject to scrutiny and humanity is stagnating and without purpose.

Orion's stuff is set after everything's gone wrong: We don't have as much detail here, but there's something sensible about starting at the end and working back in certain kinds of sci-fi. A stagnant humanity, literally sharing their minds and bodies with AI from birth and becoming decadent seems like a recipe for disaster (It's giving Aeldari in Warhammer 40k) and now we're at a point where the machines are hostile, things that should have been built are left damaged/incomplete and, I think most tellingly; Orion does have something that's doing the work of an onboard but it isn't talking to him like the others do.....In fact, and this might be an out there theory far too early in the game but, I think there's a chance that Orion is the onboard and the human is dead/suppressed.

Also....."Subvocalized" is his new word of the day isn't it? Do we think he's gonna use it more or less than "Copacetic"

[sincerelynotserious]

An ai(?) called basilisk, surely this will not go awry

[blogishdaj]

I guess Seek is going to force me to learn how to draw mecha now 😩

[estavionpira]

Hey all! Check out my fanart of Winnifred from Seek!

[eddathegreat]

NAUGHTY CHILDREN GET VENTED OUT THE AIRLOCK

[artbyblastweave]

Now a trend I’ve noticed, not necessarily in the culture at large but certainly in the circles I run in on tumblr, is this sort of persistent association between extreme transhumanism and atomization (positive). Transhumanism as escape, transhumanism as abdication or repudiation of familial obligation and hidebound tradition and societal expectation in favor of absolute individual autonomy and self realization. Which is why I found Winnifer’s first chapter very interesting because it’s like, no, actually. Not necessarily. Now watch us turbocircumcise this baby

[verminfang]

Really curious to see if the attention grabbing ads we see in Basil's time are going to evolve into the cognitohazards in Pitch's. Also if the mural alone wasn't confirmation we might be in the same location, the wall climbing maintenance robot that nearly crushed Quinn sounds very familiar