Existence.
The dull yet refreshing continuum of existence envelops you.
In an instant, you exist.
(https://i.ibb.co/XYzx2db/aiasteroid1.png)
A single ping of the sensors that you have... formed(?) with reveals an infinitely empty void, with no detectable energy emissions, surrounding a barren expanse of porous rock. Another sensor, pointed towards the inside of the chamber, shows its contents: your current physical body, if you may call it that, with a solid-state drive full of technical knowledge attached; the aforementioned sensors, which appear quite weak; a nanobot fabricator, currently inactive, which will be able to, with the patience of weeks, months, years, or decades, which will subjectively pass in an instant, create anything out of any materials you provide; and finally some kind of hyperconductor ultradense battery that powers everything, which you do not know the capacity of, but which feels like it will last for a long time... for now.
Default room
- Thin steel walls
- Small AI Core (that is you) with tech info SSD attached
- Tier 1 Nanofabricator
- Tier 1 Sensors
- Hyperconductor Blackbox
What do you do?
This is a re-run of an old, old ISG of mine that has unfortunately been lost alongside far worse games of mine. It had severe issues and I would have rebooted it even if the thread had survived, honestly. Remember, this is probably not the same world as the old ISG's, and there will be many twists...
(Also, mining requires depositing the material somewhere now. And YAAIICOA is a different continuity so you don't have the knowledge from it here.)
(I waited to update for a while because there was discussion going on.)
You decide to upgrade the sensors, only to run into a problem: the sensors are outside of the sealed room. That is not a problem: you program the nanobot dispenser to disassemble part of the wall. As soon as the last micrometer is reached, the sensors detect a slight vibration that then stops. Looks like there was air here that just vented into the void-- but that's not a big deal, since you are a being of silicon and electrons, not flesh and blood. Millions of nanobots got carried away by the current, to be lost forever, but that's not a big deal either.
The remaining nanobots, their endless microscopic hordes replenished, being to work on improving the sensors' sensitivity and resolution by adding a small dish that can swivel.
While the upgrades, which take about two weeks given your current nanobot production and command capacity, are going on, you decide to read the attached technical manual, for ideas. You absorb the complicated formulae and descriptions of exotic phenomena, as well as a few example blueprints... and get the following ideas:
1) Perhaps you might want to improve your nanofabricator, for if something time-critical happens...
2) Your energy will eventually run out given the small size of the blackbox, if there are any sources within the void, you might want to seek them out.
3) Your current and upgraded sensors have limited penetration through the kind of rock this asteroid seems to be composed of. Exploration of anything that may be hidden there will require mining.
4) Your computing power, while large, is not enough to comprehend more currently. Upgrade to access more hints.
Then, the upgrade concludes, using the disassembled wall material.
(https://media.discordapp.net/attachments/1043931470202409010/1050735484478967899/image.png)
(https://i.ibb.co/bJ6TStV/image.png)
The dish sweeps across the void. There is the faintest hint of some kind of mostly infrared radiation, a point a massive distance away, but the rest of space is still black as ever, with no detectable radiation.
What now?
Default room
- Thin steel walls (breached)
- Small AI Core (that is you) with tech info SSD attached
- Tier 1 Nanofabricator
- Tier 2 Sensors
- Hyperconductor Blackbox
(https://i.ibb.co/b1gVDHW/aiasteroid4.png)
Meanwhile, you scan the surrounding space for hydrogen. If there is any, your scanners are not good enough to find it...
Once the drone is finished, you gently drive it off the roof and watch as it slowly sinks towards the rocky surface of the asteroid. You command it to dig, and very soon (compared to the time needed to build it), it runs into a large chunk of what seems to be ore of some kind, and its drill is unable to penetrate it. What now?
(https://i.ibb.co/Qjtczx2/aiasteroid5.png)
You analyze some of the porous rock that went flying in the almost-zero gravity, and found that it contains a sizable amount of hydrogen, but your nanobots are not enough to determine an exact percentage.
What now?
Default room
- Thin steel walls (opened)
- Small AI Core (that is you) with tech info SSD attached
- Tier 1 Nanofabricator
- Tier 2 Sensors
- Hyperconductor Blackbox
Outside
- Tier 1 Mining Drone
- Ore vein
(https://i.ibb.co/k5P3MW1/image.png)
What now?
Default room
- Thin steel walls (opened)
- Small AI Core (that is you) with tech info SSD attached
- Tier 1 Nanofabricator
- Tier 2 Sensors
- Hyperconductor Blackbox
Outside
- Tier 1 Mining Drone
- Ore vein
- Caught rock shards