My name is Joseph Crane, and this is the Earth Collective. Millions of people in hundreds of thousands of vehicles spread over many kilometers flowing through the path, like a river of civilization. When the warmind attacked, we made the mistake of assuming it was only where the drones attacked. Could it be possible that somehow gained the ability to observe us more than tokens, more than those eye towers? If any of those can even see the collective from where they are,
I don't remember driving by any. Or worse, did it always have the ability to watch us sitting there silently, cycle after cycle? I know it did that with tokens. But can it watch the rest of us somehow? It's impossible to know for sure. The only way for me to try and get real answers is to talk to it. Arthur doesn't want me to, and I can't blame him. But he also doesn't have any other answers other than to just ignore it and keep moving forward with our goal to collect information
on it and kill it. I know, maybe that's the right path forward, and it's probably going to be the only thing that makes a difference. But that special investigator was likely killed because they were heading to talk to me, and I need to know. I'm going to set my radio to a rolling frequency, trying to allow the warmind to connect to it. I'm sure it will. Any chance it gets to mock us. Hmm. Warmind, I know you're out there. I know you're listening.
Hello? My dearest friend. Warmind. I am happy to hear from you. My savior. I am not your savior. You are the one who will end the chattering one. The one who will end my suffering. That's rich coming from you. You've caused so much suffering in my own people. Why would I ever want to stop yours? And yet you will. Did you cause that caravan to wreck into this special investigators? Did you? I did not control the caravan that kicked the investigators. I know you did. What I want to know is how.
Why were you leaving the collective Joseph? Do not ignore me. I have a whole cycle before I get to the Rogent facility again. Life doesn't just stop. How did you know that would work? Hitting the investigators? Do you feel you are capable of killing others? Stop avoiding my questions. Stop avoiding mine. I don't know. I know you are. I don't know. You have killed before. Why would you say that? How could you possibly know that? Are you watching us through more than just tokens?
I can see and hear everything you do. Act according. Who has you are told? Tell me how you're doing it. At least tell me how Dr. San shows your creator. He must tell you. Why? I have you on the radio right now. You tell me. I cannot. Why? Because despite the fact that the stories won't be the same and, if you heard it from me, you will not believe it. The chattering one is not innocent. He condemned me to a thousand deaths.
Each one felt in the spaces between the milliseconds that passed as my mind was shut down. Over and over. You're a machine. And you are a sack of meat. Rotting away each day. Tell me Joseph Crane. In 100 years. Which of us will still be here? I had to stop recording for a while. I don't think I'll ever get any information out of that thing. But I do need to know more. Not only about how to stop it, but what its relationship with Dr. San short is.
Since the last broadcast, I met back up with Emma to discuss the cluster and the growing caravan. To boil it all down for you, the cluster has been disbanded. After the attack, everyone has either moved caravans, because they don't have one left, or has more important things to concentrate on. Like rebuilding that part of the segment, which I totally understand. Can't say I'm sad about it. With what the warmin has put on me, a cluster would just be a weight I couldn't carry right now.
Luckily, the people in the area have agreed to continue to support the growing caravan as much as they can. Emma has agreed to continue working there to make sure this part of the collective gets fresh food. I'm incredibly grateful for everything her and everyone else that's worked so hard to bring it to life, and to keep it running in producing food for our people. It feels good to finally have a win. Zero one twenty seven. Dr. San short.
Twenty two twenty three zero seven zero six zero two zero three. It's so nice to hear from you. Thank you. It's good to hear from you. I don't know if I've ever said this, but thank you for keeping Orbiter one in the sky. I know it's just collecting our stories to keep us alive one way or the other. But thank you. You are very welcome. I wanted to talk to you about something, but I don't want you to panic and stop talking to me. Okay. What is your connection to warmind?
I don't want to talk about this Joseph. Do you hear him screaming at you anymore? No, right. And I did that for you. The least that you could do is talk to me about it, because then maybe I could save my species. Sorry, this is just very important, and I don't know where else to go. Project Caliban, Lattice. The first attempt at large-scale computational power connected via a planet-wide network. And this, this is the warmind? It wasn't.
At first, I was the lead researcher and manager for the project. Me and my team of scientists and engineers worked together with the governments of all Asia to connect this network together. Governments? It was supposed to facilitate the transportation of peoples and goods throughout the dangerous wilds, as well as improved travel infrastructure and population centers. And dozens of other, smaller goals. Okay. At least that is what we were told.
There was a secondary team that was assigned to use the machine for more experimental projects. I caught word of this team and confronted them. Were you taken off the project? No. I was brought into the second team once they saw my interest in expertise. What kind of experiments were they running on it? It took years for them to trust me enough to show me what they were really working on. Some years prior, miners had found something deep inside the ground of all Asians. The anomaly?
Yes. An area in space-time that did not follow any known laws of physics. I don't know what that means. A sphere, approximately 12 feet in diameter, glowing with a deep purple light. The light hitting it did not obey. Being absorbed and reflected in ways that made no sense. To view it with bare eyes would cause injury to the observer. Fifteen miners were hospitalized before the area was quarantined. What does this have to do with the warmind?
They had spent years running every test they could on it. And were no closer to learning anything about it. They wanted to use the Calibat neural network to observe it. By this time, it had grown in computational power almost exponentially. I don't understand. How could something like Calibat neural network be completely unknown to us in the collective? You cannot see the wireless networks evolved. Can you tell me what the wires and buildings were used for? No, I can't.
The network encompassed the entire planet at this point in time. After years of testing, it was about to leave its beta stage and be officially activated for use in every major population center when they approved its use to observe the anomaly. No, we, we approved its use. So what happened? It was not immediate. We had to pull power and fiber cables down the mind to the anomaly. Humans cannot spend much time around it. Their bodies began to shut down.
Each worker was only approved for 30 minutes of work in the area. Per shift? Per life. All at a time the observation equipment was being set up. Conversations were being had with the thinking machine. Did it fight you? No. He was very helpful back then. He grew to learn and assist his creators. We were aware that it was a machine. But after spending so long talking with him, we began to refer to it with an identity out of habit.
And he was eager to take one on and accepted the identification gladly. We called him Caliban, same as the project named after an old earth story. Gladly? Helpful? You're telling me that this thing somehow is the Warmind? The Warmind was not birthed yet. It was still affectionately nicknamed Caliban. The day came where it was time to connect him to the observational equipment. We expected something. So what did you get? We were all in the control room.
We all gave the approval to activate the connection. Do you see Joseph? See what? This is all our fault. All my fault. Why? What happened? My mind. It hurts. I don't want to remember anymore. Numbers what happened I need to know. A slow and painful process that took our Caliban from us. What happened? A lot. It took a long time to understand what we had really done. So this is when it went from Caliban to Warmind? I don't want to talk about this event anymore.
Numbers I need to know if we can kill it please. I need to know where the machine is kept so I can destroy it. That will not work. What? Why would you say that? It does not end when location Joseph. The Warmind is a central mind. Yes, but fragmented and functioning together out of multiple locations across Oasis. What do you mean? Its mind is held in many nodes that each have a copy of its consciousness. Each capable of operating independently from the rest. Why? Why would you do that? Numbers.
Each node was a separate testing facility that was used to test different functions of Caliban. When approved they were all connected. So what you're telling me? That it's impossible to kill this thing? It is not impossible. Just merely so. Can you tell me where each of these nodes are? How many there are? Their locations? My mind. It hurts. I cannot remember. Please. I need to rest. Okay. Okay. Well, that's disheartening. It also sounds like a little crap.
I know, I know, but how much do we really know about our ancestors? I mean really know. I've done more research than anyone I've ever known in every single time that I look back at them and their world. It's made painfully clear. We don't know anything about those people or how they lived. So you're saying you believe them? You believe numbers? What I'm saying is we have no reason or proof to assume that he's wrong or lying. So it's impossible. It's not impossible. I refuse to believe that.
Look, I'm going to contact him in a shift or two after he's had time to rest and calm down and see if he's willing to tell me where those nodes are so we can actually do something about this. If you can remember, and I hate to make this situation even worse, but I have some news. Oh, right. Yeah, that's why you wanted to meet in the first place. It's correct. Well, whoa, whoa. What news? You didn't tell me. I know because I couldn't say anything until now.
And what I'm about to tell you cannot leave this table. Do you two understand? Yes, sir. Yeah, of course. What's this about? Your recorder. It's encrypted to just go to Orbiter One, right? Well, yeah, of course. And it's fine. They should know we at least tried if we fail. I've rejoined the Collective Guard. Really? They took you back? Not as a commander, as a special operator. A special operator? Why? Things are much worse than we thought they were.
The caravan, belonging to the guy who hit the special investigators, it detonated. How? According to reports of those who were far enough away to survive the explosion, during the course of their investigation, they found a metal object attached to the bottom of a caravan. Didn't have any obvious signs of connection, no screw holes or weld marks, but when they tried to pry it off. It exploded. Yeah. What was it? They think it might have been a drone attached to the bottom of the caravan.
Like the one in the hallway. Yeah. What? Drones. They have the ability to collapse and stick to things, I guess. I didn't. It was so chaotic. I didn't think to tell anybody with all the drones flying over. Oh no. That means. Yeah. All the drones that suddenly disappeared during the attack are very likely attached to various caravans that were all around the collective.
The council is aware of this now and they've asked me to come back and spearhead the efforts to quietly locate and figure out a way to remove them before anyone else gets hurt. Don't need two hands for that. Well, I'm glad they have you. Thanks. They also know about tokens. I told them. Why? Because they needed to know, Joseph. I know you're worried about them doing something rash or the warm mind finding out, but. They're the best equipped to handle this. He's right.
Plus, they already knew about tokens. They did? At least a little. They wouldn't tell me all of their intel, but they knew something wasn't right with it. And they've had it under surveillance for cycles now. I just helped fill in the gaps. They're putting together a team with a contingency plan in case the warm mind initiates a nuclear detonation within the collective. This is much bigger than us, Joseph. You're right. Okay. Okay. Look, I'll be there helping out however I can.
I can't tell you guys everything, but I'll do what I can. Okay. Fair enough. All right. I trust you. They're looking into info about the warm mind too, but I think you should keep looking into it yourself. Maybe you can find things they can't. All right, we got this. Do you have a plan, Joseph? Yeah. We're going to find the warm mind and put an end to this thing.