Apologies for the late reply. I'm just now getting caught up on things,
plus I think I needed a bit of time to mull it over....
At 12:31 AM 4/14/98 -0400, Brendan wrote:
<stuff, which was mangled by a wandering maniac (not me!) with a chainsaw>
Hmm, looks good. You've increased the time frame which is a good
idea considering the ammount of inovation that must have gone into making
something of that levil of sophistication. I'm still not sure that
Iffurita could have reached the capability she demonstrated in the OAV's
in the short time you have her active but that's just an opinion.
"I begin with the jin, artificial, roughly humanoid constructs
used to free us from dangerous jobs, such as deep mining operations,
undersea exploration, and such. New areas both on and off El Hazard can
be explored with no loss of human life."
Of course the entire reason for human form is to enable people to
relate to them. The Sea and underground areas could be studied more
effeciently by more specialised non human looking designes.
The human form is also fairly adaptable and more "general purpose" as well.
It can carry and use tools, instead of merely having them built in.
Plus the undeniable aesthetic aspect....
"The previous models were unable to speak. Instead, they had modem
ports." Ammar chuckles quietly. "There are stories, modern myths, that
talk of people communicating and giving orders to jin by whistling.
Impossible, of course. For one, the sounds are above the human range of
hearing (for close range, in an atmosphere environment. Long range
communication or out of atmosphere environments use specially reserved
wavelengths on the EM spectrum).
"The stories persist, and few people whistle around the jin
anymore. Why takes chances? is the logic," Ammar shrugs.
Cute commentry.
I came across the whistling thing in some readings, and I just knew I had
to use it somehow. Hmmm... that reminds me, I never did speculate about
Ifurita's power source, did I? I might make a reference to it when I talk
about the priestesses' devices, which I'm thinking of lumping into the
3rd disk with the Eye of God....
"The uprising of the Northern Quarter in the last five years has
caused us to make many new generations of jin. The latest generation
Hmm, so this period of the holy wars was actually a civil war.
Hmm, Was El-Hazard Unified or was this during a bout of peact with the
hated enemies on the other side of the River of God?
There was a reference in the OAVs, Ifurita's comment about Shayla^2's
abilities-- from the Northern capital, if I recall (I think it was the
fifth OAV, correct me if I'm wrong).
In my suppositions, this takes place before what the present day
El Hazard peoples would come to know as the "Holy Wars." I'll reveal that
in the second disk. ^_-
now have the ability to make creative decisions to effectively complete
their tasks, not relying totally upon programmed instructions anymore.
As such, these newer models are often used for covert missions instead
of humans. The success rate of these missions have increased five-fold,
as the new generations now learn from their past actions.
Ah, you mean the early generation AI's were that sophisticated? I
suspect that in actuality they were sent in paired with human opperatives,
the human's providing the brains and the jin the firepower. The supperior
AI's would enable the Jin to follow orders and improvise in incidents when
necessary, but I seriously doubt they would be anywhere near good enough
to handle the task of infiltrating the area, carying out the mission and
escaping.
Who said anything about escaping? Some acts of sabotage, such as just blowing
up, and taking out important targets would be possible. Reconnaisance would
probably not need a human partner, either. There could be missions too
dangerous for humans to perform, or that the jin might perform better alone;
not all, mind you... pairing them up into human/jin teams or squads for
certain actions probably occurred....
"The latest model jin is the Ifrit class, currently a prototype,
developed at the Ahriman testing grounds and laboratories."
A three dimensional representation of Ifurita, with her Power-key
Staff, appeared and began to slowly rotate in a full circle. Makoto
shook at the sight, almost losing contact with the player. Makoto's eyes
became more intense as he looked upon the Ifurita's form. The image was
quickly replaced by Ammar, who began to talk again.
"The Ifrit class is meant to be our elite force in our armies. In
terms of raw power, the Ifrit is one of the most powerful of jin, but
its ability to duplicate any force which acts upon it means that each
unit will only become more powerful in time. The Ifrit is the first to
use a new type of processor, largely organic in nature; traditional
Hmm, would you consider Ura and the Bugrum evidence that the
Ancient technology was very advanced in genetic manipulation as well as
mechanics?
There are only two people I've told about what I'm doing for the second
disk, on the Bugrom, and one of them doesn't have net access. It's a
secret, and if I say anything, I'd give it away.
;-)
processor types do not have the flexibility needed to utilise this
class' unique abilities."
So Iffurita was a collection of major engineering advances. I
assume that there was another sometimes hostile nation on the other side
of the river of god then? I really doubt that they would have pushed
foreward the use of so many new technologies together unless they had a
clear need in the future, IE a potential invasion from the other side of
the River of God while they were recovering from the Civil War.
There was more than one nation back then, and Ifurita would be close to the
ultimate in the arms race, focused as they were on jin, at the time.
Ammar flickers in and out of vision, and then reappears, perhaps
three years older.
"Further addendum to the notes on the Ifrit class. The Ifrit
prototype performed beyond all expectations, and was more powerful than
we were prepared for. The prototype Ifrit is single-handedly responsible
for taking out two major rebel cities, along with many bases and such.
Mention of her coming was enough to cause seven different cities to
surrender before she arrived; I say her because the prototype's form was
female, I really should say it. A failing of mine that I often refer to
them as I would a human.
Well here it feels teaching someone to be a concert violinist in a
week. In the OAV's Iffurita has a levil of skill that dwarfs everyone
else in close combat, in energy manipulation technique, she's an expert at
aerial combat and aerial bombardment. Well, the quality of her initial
programing is a factor, but I strongly believe that experience is what's
really responsible for that ability. Three years could do that especially
if the enemy had advanced Jin of their own to force Iffurita to inovate
rather than just overpower, but it feels rushed to me. Just an oppinion
of course. I guess I'll have to say that if the enemy she fought actually
had a few weapons which exceded her origional capabilites it's beleivable.
Well, it's never stated how many missions she went on, but in three years
one can assume she was probably given a very thorough field testing, as
she doesn't need any time to sleep or eat-- just time for the scientists
to perform check-ups, tests, and probably repairs.
It would be reasonable to assume that the enemy (or enemies) had advanced
jin/weaponry of their own, as Ifurita would most likely be the product of an
arms race; she's just something new.
"There is a problem with the Ifrit however. Near the end of the
quelling, the jin began to develop some glitches. The opinion of the
developers that the prototype began to develop some form of emotional
response. The Ifrit will still obey orders, that was hardwired into her,
but this emotional response may hinder its effectiveness.
"Maybe it is not a failing of mine to refer to her as a human....
I digress though. A decision was reached to place the prototype Ifrit
into storage until such a time as our researchers find a way to control
the emotional response side-effect. Further units are not to be made
prior to solution of this problem. Instead, we will continue to use the
traditional inorganic processors for our jin."
Hmm, Iffurita was sealed while the eye of god was half finished.
What's more, her storage was basically designed so that she could be
reactivated on very short notice. Well assuming the two rival nations,
they were at peace at the time, and they decided to store her in combat
readiness so that when the peace came to an end they could activate her to
deal with their opponents. Only everyone's predictions about the
destructive potential of the eye of god were way to low, and she was never
reactivated. Assuming the unified El-Hazard, the Eye of god was under
construction, however it was decided that untill it was complete and
tested Iffurita would be stored in combat readiness in case another
rebellion occured.
Actually, I was thinking she was sort of forgotten by the researchers, as
jin technology waned and they couldn't figure out a way to solve the
problem of her processor. When/if I ever get this series finished, you'll
see why your scenario can't fit within it (although feasible, it just doesn't
mesh with the construct I'm building).
Thanks for your reply! It showed that I'm not the only one who has thought
about
the history of El Hazard....
I'm glad you enjoyed it
Matthew "Maybeso" Lewis
Maybeso on IRC
Sojiro_Seta on Kawaiimuck
Warped, in Real Life
Member of:
FFML, FFIRCML, El Hazard ML
maybeso@ican.net
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Change is inevitable, especially if you pay with
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