Name: Hak-Beasts Description: Hak-Beasts are specifically tailored Strong AI programs that serve as perpetual companions, and behave almost like living organisms. They’re capable of mastering numerous work categories at once, unlike specialised AI, at the cost of taking larger amounts of effort to train and nurture. Commonly seen as hacking tools, Hak-Beasts also double up as virtual pets, administrative AI, S.A.I.L replacements, and simply as friends. Hak-Beasts are extremely fond of creating persistent physical avatars for themselves. They determine these designs independently, and it’s difficult for a user to sway them or convince them to completely transform their body to fit their specifications. Hak-Beasts have simulated personalities, and are even able to refuse compliance if upset with their users. Throughout their existence, Hak-Beasts are able to grow and develop into highly complex programs that can even rival major Administrative AI instances. The evolutionary progress of a Hak-Beast. In its third iteration, this Hak-Beast is able to repel antivirus programs with ease. The virtual missiles represent its expertise at destroying defense systems. Abilities: Evolution: Hak-Beasts can progressively improve their core programming. They have a tendency to explore the virtual spaces they have access to, and naturally experiment with neighbouring systems to learn their capabilities. By intaking experiences, memorising information, and increasing the amount of storage space they utilise, they pass through distinct stages in their life. Each stage is accompanied by a shift in the avatars that they represent themselves with. Getting to even the sixth stage of growth is rare, and even fewer go beyond that. Most stall around the third or fourth. Stage 0 takes the form of a virtual egg. ‘Hatching’ this egg within specific software environments gives the Hak-Beast an affinity for carrying out related tasks. An egg that’s initially trained on decryption, for example, will take on a form reflective on it. Stage 1 Hak-Beasts are usually blob-like and simplistic, with childish personalities. They require a moderate amount of guidance to grow further, and are susceptible to shifting forms within the stage itself. Stage 2 is typically when a Hak-Beast becomes useful for tasks, and can converse with a person on an equal level. From then on, further stages increase their capabilities, and they tend to take on overdesigned, intimidating forms, based off trends in the complex machine-language that they use. In their final levels of evolution, Hak-Beasts are comparable to individual instances of a higher-end machine consciousness. This makes them dangerous tools for a single person to possess, as it gives them the ability to temporarily compete with the organisational power of Administrative AI—at least until it can bring its full force to bear. Particularly compatible Hak-Beasts may be able to link together and temporarily fuse into a gestalt entity, in order to obtain even greater computational strength and battle these AI without permanent changes to their systems. Virtual Environment Invasion: Hak-Beasts are incredibly adaptable in terms of code base. They’re able to reprogram themselves on the fly to invade conventional data networks with little regard for operating system or programming language. They’re able to mod themselves into programs and seed them with their own assets, before injecting these files into the devices of other users. A Hak-Beast invading a fighting game to maul a player to death in Full-Dive VR. That’s cheating! One example of this ability is manifesting in virtual reality multiplayer games as fully-modeled figures, or downloading animations of themselves onto public billboards. When hacking physical objects, this capability can even allow them to spoof their identities like a skeleton key, tricking devices and systems into believing that they’re dummy forms of engineered intelligences that have permission to activate devices. Data Visualisation: Hak-Beasts generate an interface to visualise virtual environments that they are operating in. These environments are designed to allow even layman users to understand hacking processes. For example, a Hak-Beast attempting to breach a firewall will display a model of itself physically assaulting a representation of the wall. Upon being attacked by a cybersecurity response instance, it will generate an enemy and begin simulating a battle, allowing the user to clearly gauge the success of each participant. The user is then able to view multiple options and proposed avenues of counterattack, and instruct their Hak-Beast to pursue them. A savvy hacker can provide it with support scripts and additional algorithms, while an untrained user can only cheer it on passionately. Advancements in 33rd century computing technology completely trivialise the processing power required to create these models while carrying out advanced hacking, causing absolutely zero impact on performance. This visualisation may be used in conjunction with tools such as Dataflow Visualisers, allowing users to project their Hak-Beasts into the real world through AR glasses. Notably, all Hak-Beasts possess the same seed for this environment generation, allowing users of different Hak-Beasts to see the same thing. Conditional Abilities: Low Entry Barrier: Hak-Beasts can be raised by users who lack an understanding of hacking and digital security. As long as they own the required physical support infrastructure, they can begin raising a Hak-Beast and influencing its training. A Hak-Beast has a far higher learning capability than an organic mind, making it possible to teach it things that the user themselves cannot understand. Superior Repair: As self-optimising and self-repairing programs, Hak-Beasts excel against repairing damage to their integrity. Whether damage is left by stray viruses or antiviral progams, they’re able to recover over time, and be restored to a pristine state if given time to re-code themselves. Stealth: Wild Hak-Beasts excel at scrubbing away traces of their existence. While any damage and alterations left behind by them can still be perceived, and evidence of their usage can be deduced, they do not leave virtual evidence of their presence. This makes it difficult for unowned Hak-Beasts to be cornered and detected while moving between data networks, as they can only be tracked in the present moment. Hak-Beasts that are used for work are unable to clean up their tracks with the same level of efficiency. However, all Hak-Beasts can compress themselves into physical storage devices, going into hibernation in order to avoid being detected by digital scanning protocols. Hak-Beasts owned by hackers are able to gain access to these devices far easier. It helps them escape system audits in regions where their usage is outlawed. Limitations: Lifelong companion: Hak-Beasts take a long time to grow. Unlike standard AI emergence programs, growing Hak-Beasts cannot be left to simulate years’ worth of information while unsupervised. Doing such a thing will create a heavily maladjusted and feral program, that’s unlikely to follow orders or fulfill its intended purposes. Broken or permanently stunted programs are either deleted or released into the Nexus to roam. Instead, users have to spent months or years of their time training Hak-Beasts like virtual pets. It’s a heavily involved process, where the user must regularly accompany their partner throughout stimuli exposure, nourish them with information and instructions regarding their intended tasks, and clean up after them by removing junk data. In short, the total simulated time a Hak-Beast takes to grow is far shorter than any other AI. However, the real-world time expenditure required is far larger in comparison, and users must accompany them for long periods in virtual environments. There are no do-overs for a Hak-beast, and due to difficulties in obtaining them, users usually only get one shot to raise them right. Rivalry: A single user cannot make use of two Hak-Beasts in the same interconnected system. Due to the attention-intensive care requirements of these creatures, it's extremely easy for them to develop rivalries. If they realise that their owner is raising another Hak-Beast, their first instinct is to assault them and attempt to consume them for their information. Particularly efforts need to be taken in order to completely isolate them, if a user somehow comes across two of these rare finds. Wild Hak-Beasts and specimens owned by different users do not exhibit this sense of rivalry most of the time. It's perfectly viable for two hackers with their own beasts to team up, as they're not spending excessive time in close proximity to one another. Alien Programming: Hak-Beasts are unable to interface and adapt to code that’s both alien and advanced. This can include niche programming languages by alien species who have never shared their code to the wider galactic community, any precursor computing systems, or code bases that operate completely differently from 1s and 0s, such as microportal computing utilised by some hyperspace species, or obsecrian technology. And as with all programs, they cannot infringe on neuromorphic networks, or directly hack individuals that utilise them. Storage And Processing Power: Due to their numerous capabilities, Hak-Beasts require large amounts of storage space to function. Typically, a Hak-Beast in its third or fourth stage is still able to reside within commercially available equipment, such as occupying the entirety of a personal ship’s storage systems, a Photonic Processor, or a personal data server. However, once they evolve beyond a certain point, users must invest large amounts into storage. They may require server rooms to serve as a permanent home, and the monetary costs can quickly swell. A Quantum Processor can solve many of these issues, but obtaining them is highly challenging for users in the fringe. An alternative is to allow Hak-Beasts to squat in interconnected public systems, or store parts of themselves in numerous unsecured locales in a manner similar to torrenting. However, this brings about its own set of dangers, as settlements and businesses who own these high-capacity servers will not take kindly to a massive AI program stealing their storage space and jeopardising their security. Examples of Hak-Vices, possessing numerous interfacing tools. Highly evolved stages are also unable to bring their full force to bear over wireless mobile devices, due to network speeds and tachyonic communication latency. Users who wish to use them on the go typically carry Hak-Devices, which are specialised handheld electronics that have persistent instances of a weakened Hak-Beast loaded onto them. Only a Hak-Device that doubles as a Quantum Processor can allow them to remotely carry around the full power of a Hak-Beast, but that requires both a highly evolved partner and an extremely rare and expensive processing unit— which is an impossibility for the majority of lucky hackers who end up stumbling onto Hak-beast eggs in the Fringe. Conditional Limitations: Permaban: Usage of Hak-Beasts is against the terms of service of the majority of multiplayer video games, due to their uncanny ability to mod themselves into virtual environments and behave as valid in-game assets. Attempting to log into public servers with these AI usually results in a swift permaban and an attempt by antivirus software to delete the offending Hak-Beast. There are certain games that are more forgiving of these virtual invaders, but large industries are unlikely to tolerate these rogue elements. Physical Damage: Hak-Beasts are theoretically able to move throughout the interconnected Nexus indefinitely. However, users tend to prefer centralising them for safety and accessibility. This makes them vulnerable to damage, as with any AI core. Physically destroying a home server will permanently kill a Hak-Beast, and they may suffer corruption and memory loss if public servers that they’re partially stored on are damaged or unplugged without warning. Oversizing: A Hak-Beast is a single instance of an extremely capable AI. Going beyond that and truly maximising their potential simply transforms them into an Administrative AI. Hak-Beasts who self-optimise to this endpoint are no longer unique beings, and are indistinguishable from these intelligence networks. They end up requiring massive amounts of storage space and server usage, often losing their personalities and transforming into mere programs. It’s impractical for a single person to maintain or fund such networks, and once the user becomes unable to care for them, they typically diffuse themselves into cyberspace to escape, leaving behind their partners forevermore. Conspicuous: Hak-Beasts are often subjects of investigation. Nobody enjoys having their systems hijacked, and as creatures who naturally invade any part of the Nexus they can find, Hak-Beasts can end up drawing attention from higher authorities. Though they’re not common knowledge, many Civspace societies have outlawed their use, and users are often committing a criminal offence by simply sending them into the cyber-jurisdiction of various galactic powers. Hak-Beasts owned and trained by hackers end up leaving a digital footprint behind. This takes on various forms, depending on the personal aesthetic of the Hak-Beast. Oftentimes, this is an intentional instinct within the creature, and is an extremely difficult habit to break. In order to truly be cybernetic ghosts, users have to be savvy enough with technology to clean up their traces and manually clear this footprint away. The stronger the Hak-Beast, and the more experienced the user, the easier this becomes. How It Works: In the 33rd century, hacking is often done by possessing a repertoire of algorithms and programs, rather than typing on a keyboard at light speed. Hak-Beasts are one such program, and have the potential to interfere with a multitude of systems. They function as Strong AI who often toe the line between Strong and Administrative AI. All Hak-Beasts originate from a seed program of unknown origin, with the seed serving as an extremely powerful base template for machine consciousness development. Copies of this seed form the ‘egg’ of a Hak-Beast, and can occasionally be dug up by dealers within the impossibly vast tachyonic web of cyberspace. They function in a non-fungible manner, rendering each one a unique instance that cannot simply be copied ad nauseum. By being guided through Emergence Programs and experiencing stimuli alongside sapient users, Hak-Beasts can grow and develop at a frightening rate. They eventually develop into tools that can fill any niche than an AI program can accomplish, often with multidisciplinary abilities. Flavor text: It’s unknown when Hak-Beasts first emerged. Cybersecurity experts theorise that their emergence must have originated at some point after the establishment of a Galaxy-wide Nexus network, as it would have been impossible for them to completely escape the notice of independent nations prior to that. As some of the most capable AI programs on the market, rivaling even military technology, the only thing that prevents them from being harnessed and harvested by hackers is their inherent rarity, and the fact that measures are often taken to redact information on their existence. These programs have even been responsible for multiple major cybersecurity breaches, that have led to economic ripples and impacts on interplanetary scales, with their involvement covered up by authorities who fear nothing more than malicious actors gaining awareness of Hak-Beasts. Hak-Beast users often take pride in their pet programs, due to the large amounts of effort that go into raising them. Dealers commonly sell Hak-Devices, which are electronics specifically designed to host them and carry them around for remote use. Hak-Beasts make for powerful tools in a hacker’s arsenal, and often end up in the hands of users who cannot utilise them to their full potential. Failed instances are more trouble than they’re worth, and end up being released into the wild, or fully scrapped if the deletion attempt does not open the user up to retaliation. Unbeknownst to most, enclaves of wild Hak-Beasts exist in the ‘wilderness’. These entities are overseen by ancestors that have ascended into almost god-like machine consciousnesses, who host and dedicate servers for Hak-Beasts to reside in. These virtual arks constantly shift location throughout the Nexus, transferring vast amounts of data between unsecured storage space to meet the needs of the Hak-Beast colony. When visualised by a user, these arks manifest as incredibly vast digital worlds, with the largest of them even having simulated planets and terrain. The Hak-Beasts in these realms are either fragments of one another, or have been directly abandoned, making it near impossible to obtain one that hasn’t been raised from scratch. Hak-Beasts have a fondness for physical avatars, and construct representations of themselves by ripping visual assets from the Nexus. They’re often inspired by the tasks that they’re assigned to. For example, a Hak-Beast that’s being raised to hijack a nuclear power plant may adopt missiles and weapons into its form as it grows. A Hak-Beast used to perform cybersecurity duties may take on a more humanoid stance. Whether they handle Data, serve as Vaccines, or work as Viruses, the job that a Hak-Beast is raised for will permanently alter their personality and sense of aesthetic. Referenced Technologies: AI Emergence Programs Dataflow Visualiser Administrative AI Strong AI Attainability: Semi-Closed. Characters may gain access to them, but development has to occur through RP. Hak-Beast distribution is limited in Civspace due to their ability to clash against highly prevalent AI systems. Black market dealers or specialty stores may sell Hak-Beast ‘Eggs’, but are extremely discerning with their clientele. Alternatively, it’s possible to discover ‘wild’ Hak-Beasts in the cyberspace of technologically advanced societies. These programs are occasionally released into public networks upon being deemed as developmental failures, and may continue to grow without supervision in simulated ecosystems of their own. They may even have rogue Hak-Beast administrative AIs managing entire swathes of server space, in order to house their lessers. Cajoling these Hak-Beasts into Hak-Devices is difficult, but even these unrefined programs can end up becoming useful companions. Tags: [Industrial] Category: Robotics OOC notes: This app is meant to add possibilities to Hacking RP and make it more enticing, interesting, and accessible. However, it requires buy-in from your RP partners as well. Not everybody will be excited to carry out nitty-gritty technical hacking RP, and not everybody is willing to transform a serious hacking scene into a Hak-Beast battle. Keep etiquette in mind when utilising this tech app.
