Chapter Text
What is humanity?
What defines a human?
Is it love? Is it empathy?
Is it genetics? Is it ancestry?
Is it a question about morals? Is it a question about science?
...These thoughts haunt you every night. Even if you’re made of the same genes, descending from two human parents, you never felt whole, nothing ever felt quite right in your body. You never felt like you belonged with everybody else.
Sure, you can throw yourself into studies, in a desperate attempt to find the truth... But truth is so painfully subjective. There is no such thing as an “absolute truth,” for the world is not shades of pure black and white; it is instead shades of grey, some lighter and some darker.
You were naturally taking a break from college studies, watching social media and eating some food. On your clean desk, next to your PC, rests a plate with some fried chicken, fries, and some bread. A few small sauce containers sat next to it all, each with different flavors.
You want to be a go-getter; you want to be the perfect student for the workforce, if not for your selfish goals, but... Breaks are necessary, you suppose, for both your mental and physical health. While researching human biology, you’d often see numerous reports of high stress leading to negative effects. Even your roommate is usually concerned.
Your roommate, Mel, is nice enough to tolerate. She’s a party animal, but is willing not to throw parties in the dorm without your permission. Of course, that means she doesn't stay in the dorm often, giving you the whole dorm to yourself, leading you to late nights wrapped up in your research. When she comes home (usually at midnight), she’d see you in front of your computer screen, reading research reports and typing notes from the videos you watch.
Mel walked into the room, holding a bag. She called out your name, stepping up to you.
“Oh, you’re... Eating. I didn’t expect that.” She noted as she saw your food.
“I mean, it’s important to eat, right? I mean, I’m gonna use the air fryer in the kitchen.”
“I don’t mean that, I mean that you aren’t doing any school stuff. All I see is a video about the news— and you don’t major in political studies.”
“I know it’s out of character for me, but I don’t research well while I’m eating. My hands would get crumbs all over the keyboard, and that’d mean I’d have to waste time cleaning up an avoidable mess. It’s best to prevent issues like that.” You explained. ”But I’m nearly done, so I’ll be back to researching soon.”
Mel sighed, probably disappointed in you, and walked off to eat her fast-food. Naturally, you turned your head to the screen again, looking at the article.
C&A releases new AI LLM, Abel 5.0. Here’s a dive into all of its new features...
You’ve been seeing an influx of content relating to AI. Makes sense. You don’t really like it, since it just spews bullshit and makes research that much harder, but... Something inside of you is curious about it.
What... compels humans to make this? Nobody ever seems to like it, and all it does is make life harder. Sure, the idea sounds nice— having something unfeeling to all the chores for humans so they can work on what they love... But the AIs that corporations like C&A produce do none of that. Instead, they take the jobs from those who are truly passionate. First, they sneak into bookwriting, although poorly, since the models were new and shitty. Then, they start producing visual art. Okay, that’s bad, but at least there are tells. As the programs advance, they start producing animation and deepfakes... That’s horrifying.
You try not to have too many emotions, try to keep preferences to a minimum. Pointless feelings hinder research. But you despise AI with a passion.
...Passion comes from not knowing. Passion comes from having an incomplete perception. You have already acknowledged that the world is not black and white. Maybe everything, even something as despicable as this... Has some redeemable qualities?
You took a breath and clicked the article link.
The article used a bunch of buzzwords, but you could understand the jist of it. Abel 5.0 is the most recently produced LLM by C&A, it can text, call, and generate images, but many features are locked behind a paywall. Yet, the article fluffed it all out like a high-schooler trying to meet a word count.
Well, why not research some more...? Surely there’s something interesting, or somebody who’s found what this useless tool does.
So you dug, reading every article... But everything you find is information you already know... Until you see an article title that catches your eye.
C&A’s Scrapped Project, Project Circus.
...Huh. Scrapped? Why? You clicked on the link.
C&A’s Scrapped Project, Project Circus.
C&A had a project they had announced back in 1996, back when it was still a newer company. It was teased but never fully released; not even a demo was made available to the public. It was a project that seemed to be a game, titled “The...ing Digi... Circus.”The full name is still unclear, but that’s what online users were able to decipher based on leaks. It was being developed in America, but many of the developers and playtesters went missing before it was finished, and so it was discontinued.
It looked like a world made to fit many different wants based on the user. The user could type in a prompt and the program would change itself to become what the user wanted. Leaks showed versions of the program ranging from being a point and click adventure, to a first-person horror.
It had an AI designed to moderate and guide users, and a quote was seen from it. “Night, day, it’s all ok! The choice is yours, a cosmic buffet!”
From the few leaked reports, it was supposed to start with the user creating an avatar for their account, joining a server, then generating these various games with other players.
The Circus, huh? That did seem like an interesting game, but if it began production a long time ago, it’d make sense that it’s scrapped. A project of that scope would be impossible in 1996...
But project size was never said to be the issue. Instead the issue fell with the developers and playtesters... Going missing? There’s no way.
Maybe you’ll have to investigate further. This could be interesting after all.