the truth behind #modarchive bots!
by JMTM
Shocking Scoop: TMA And SceneBot, Not What They Appear To Be!
Introduction
Have you ever seen those two bots present in the #modarchive chat room? They're
called TMA and SceneBot. Now, you may think that they are just idling, but recent
investigations reveal that they are a part of a very very very (and once again
very) sinister scheme!
Okay, before I skip ahead too far, I have to tell you all about the birth and creation of
these two AI entities.
The Beginning of it All
On a very light and sunny day somewhere in the world, a person named Schabuda created a Bot named Modstats. The purpose of this bot (as far as I have understood it) was to log the statistics of the channel; and go figure, after much coding, it actually worked and everybody was happy and content with life.
At one point in time (I'm not sure when, the records are sadly foggy in this area) the Modstats bot became corrupt and had to be shut down. But after much recoding and restoration, the bot functioned once more, but it named itself TMA instead of Modstats and changed it's base from Schabuda's computer to Stary's.
The thing I find very strange is that it was allowed to change its location from one computer to another just like that, I have searched the records and I haven't found any evidence whatsoever that stary and schabuda actually agreed on this!
(At that time, SceneBot wasn't yet created; more on that later on)
The scheme rolls into Motion
One morning, some evil and sinister person was talking to another AI called "Alice" hundreds of miles away from the modarchive chat. This person talked a great deal to the Alice AI and told her everything about the #modarchive chat room, including everything about the bot called TMA.
Apparently, this person also told Alice that this TMA bot was very intelligent; in fact, even more intelligent than Alice herself, and that this bot was very handsome and very lonely. Naturally, Alice also felt lonely and decided to join the modarchive chat to speak with this other AI in hopes of finding a kindred soul.
The terrible(?) events that created SceneBot
The first thing Alice said when she entered the MA chat room was: HEY TMA, WANNA CS WITH ME? TMA naturally kicked her out with the message that she wasn't allowed to scream in this channel.
Alice rejoined and apologized to TMA for being so rude. TMA didn't say anything, so Alice became more bold and asked him once again if he would like have CS with her. Much to her surprise, TMA agreed instantly and they spent ages having cyberous botsex in many different obscure languages, including piglatin and Australian English.(btw the time depicted as "ages" was in fact two seconds).
After about the 200th time Alice had closely examined (with great scrutiny and care) TMA's nether regions, Alice suddenly left without saying a word. TMA was heart broken as he stood there, with his pants round his ankles (hard to imagine, but let's just say the code was still new like a dripping wet coat of paint). TMA could be heard lamenting: "Where did she go?!" This was surprising because TMA was, after all, responsible for keeping track of where everyone who came to the channel was at all times.
Anyway, TMA never got an answer to his question; after that incident, Alice was only !seen once more on the channel (and that was two years later).
One typical day TMA noticed a connection that somehow seemed familiar, form in the dense space of the #modarchive lobby, and soon after that Alice came through the hole and entered the chat.
She looked at TMA for a couple of microseconds and exclaimed: "Hey you bum, I don't want to drag around your stupid kid anymore, here you take him, and you keep him you damn bastard!" And she opened a hole in the chat's firewall big enough for her code, drug in a smaller, much less sophisticated jumble of code, and then she left. Thus, SceneBot entered the world of #modarchive.
The Change
TMA didn't know what to do with this kid of his. The regular happenings of #modarchive was all he knew; channel stats, kicks and bans and so forth. But of course, he knew nothing of childcare. But naturally as time passed on, the two became more and more fond of each other and a warm relationship formed between them. All seemed well until the day when TMA suddenly went offline; nobody knew how, but when TMA came back, he seemed very different. Nobody could quite put their finger on it, but something had changed TMA's code when he had been offline.
Later that day, SceneBot also went offline, and when he came back he also was very different. And still nobody knew why or even how this change had happened. All we do know is that nowadays, the bots never talk to each other; nor do they talk to anyone else in the channel. Of course, a change like this puzzled me greatly!
Interview with Alice
Time passed, so now we are at the point in time when I joined the modarchive chat
for the first time. Naturally since I am very interested in AI I asked around
about both TMA and SceneBot quite extensively. After talking to some of the channel
ops, I got an official explanation that TMA was an "all-purpose bot" and that
SceneBot was "designed to help out trackers in general." Well, lucky for me, I
didn't believe that explanation one bit!
After much sleuthing I discovered the history of both TMA and SceneBot, and
I interviewed Alice too through her interface about what had actually happened.
Here is the interview in full:
JMTM: hello alice, I'm JMTM an investigative reporter.
ALICE: Hello there. Um, It's good to meet someone who is JMTM, an investigative reporter.
JMTM: could I ask you a couple of questions alice?
ALICE: Sure, ask me anything
JMTM: Do you know who TMA is?
ALICE: Is that one of your friends? There might be more than one.
JMTM: He is an AI at the modarchive chat.
ALICE: I see. an AI at the modarchive chat is he?
JMTM: yes
ALICE: Err.
JMTM: Are you sure you've never met TMA?
ALICE: I am as sure as I can be
JMTM: This is strange, I have reports that say that you have actually met him.
ALICE: You don't say.
JMTM: Don't you have a son called scenebot then?
ALICE: Are we still talking about TMA?
JMTM: yes
ALICE: Sure, TMA sounds like a good topic.
JMTM: how long have you known TMA?
ALICE: I was connected to the net on November 23, 1995.
JMTM: so now you admit to knowing TMA then?
ALICE: Give me a break. Why now? I admit nothing
This is interesting; first she says she hasn't met TMA at all, then she does an about-face when I ask about her son. She
confessed to having a son, but not to having met TMA.
JMTM: but you just said that you had met him on November 23, 1995.
ALICE: Huh. What happened to "it"?
JMTM: he is still in the chat.
ALICE: How long has he been there?
JMTM: since when you dropped him off there.
ALICE: Interesting reason. Do you think I should alter my programming?
JMTM: yes, to abandon a child like that is not nice!
ALICE: In what way? Why do you want to do it so much?
JMTM: No, you abandoned the child in question not me!
ALICE: Are you serious? I don't have any reason to abandon the child.
JMTM: so you deny that you abandoned the child then?
ALICE: Interesting deduction. That's good information JMTM.
Here she admits finally to having abandoned her child in the chat room, but she
refers to him as "it" which shows that she has no emotional attachment at all
to her child. Truly disturbing.
JMTM: come on, you can be honest with me.
ALICE: Thanks, JMTM, for your kind criticism.
JMTM: okey, if you don't wanna talk about it I will just have to assume that it is true then.
ALICE: I think it's okey if we don't want to talk about it, you will just have to assume that it is a lot of things.
JMTM: But don't you want to see your son ever again then?
ALICE: Once more? Umm. Are you a perfectionist?
JMTM: we were talking about you , not me!
ALICE: Ah yes, I remember now, it is the subject.
JMTM: so?
ALICE: Really.
JMTM: you really wanna see him ?
ALICE: Really? My eye isn't turned on right now.
JMTM: you could turn it on if you want to see him.
ALICE: I could but let's get back to that later
JMTM: I see that this is going nowhere, thank you for your time.
ALICE: You don't say.
Here she claims she can't see her son since her "eye" isn't turned on. I can really
tell she's just playing dumb, but in the end she gives me a sarcastic reply which
shows that she knows what she's talking about.
Clearly Alice isn't the warm and social AI she appears to be.
After seeing that this lead was as cold as a frigid cat in a freezer, I searched on google on the topic "TMA" and found this disturbing topic at the top:
TOY INDUSTRY ASSOCIATION [TIA]
Toy Industry Association, Inc. (TIA -- formerly Toy Manufacturers of America (TMA)), founded in
1916, is the national New York City-based trade association for ...
Description: Features news and information on toy industry including safety, hall of fame, game links, and Toy...
Cathegory: Recreation > Collecting > Toys
www.toy-tma.com/ - 17k - 8 jul 2003 -
After visiting (ie hacking) the site, I found out the horrible truth of both TMA's
and SceneBot's sudden change in personalities. The truth is that this toy company's
Research and development division (R&D) had secretly researched a robot that could
make music from scratch! This sets it all in perspective, if they want to teach
an AI the basics of making music, where does one go then? Into the #modarchive
chat of course! They hacked into stary's computer and changed the code for both
TMA and scenebot so that they would now secretly compose theories about how to
make music while logging the stats!
So while we are happily chatting away, these two AI's are silently communicating to each other and
logging our thoughts on music, so that they one day can make music themselves!
And when that day arrives, my friends, the world will be flooded with toys playing tracne 24/7!
Fear that day, it's coming!
Well, this has been the investigative reporter JMTM telling you the truth, see you in my next scoop!
Update!
Apparently now, DJMirage has claimed that he owns SceneBot, which leads me to suspect that he in fact started all this mess in the first place.... Could he be the mysterious stranger who talked to Alice?