Dee

This page is written or contains material written in the metafictional (or OOC) voice. This material may contain spoilers, Easter Eggs, or other data not generally known in the world of Fenspace. The reader is duly warned. -The Mgt.

Dee
Residence	Black Mesa
Nationality	Fenspace Convention
Citizenship	Soviet Air Force
Parents	KJ DeRosia (creator)
Relatives	Minerva Weatheral, Athene Weatheral

“	I am a machine, and I can know much more. I can experience so much more.	”
—Dee

“	Nothing involving Dee is really 'wise,' but she is incredibly handy, so you get used to it.	”
—General Samuel Malaclypse Fnord, commander-in-chief and chairman of the Central Committee of the Soviet Air Force-In-Exile

“	I love Dee dearly; she's part of my crew & a loyal friend, but she can scare the hell out of me some days.	”
—S. Malaclypse Fnord, July 13, 2013

A Difference of Perspective - For the most part, AI entities in Fenspace seem to consist of two types: either constructs in human-shaped bodies with close to fully anthropomorphic outlooks, or entities integrated into specific hardware. Dee is unusual, possibly unique (Seraphim excluded) in that she's fully software, and so capable of upgrading her hardware capabilities. Moreso, she apparently has access to her own sourcecode and is able to apply patches or write extensions without any interruptions in her consciousness. Those two facts, combined with raw curiosity, a willingness to experiment, and access to an asteroid's worth of raw materials has resulted in something surpassing all bounds of what most would consider possible for an intellect.

Intellect Vast, Warm and Sympathetic - Dee likes humans and human-grade AIs, she really does. She doesn't always get them, because psychology and sociology were never her strong points in research, but she does like them and wants them to be happy. It's not a three-laws thing, more like the love of a child looking after doddering parents/grandparents.

Angels in the Architecture

One of Dee's recent experiments in AI self-modding has been in increasing the diversity of the neural nets feeding into the Hive. To date, all of the Dees produced have been holographic in nature, each individual Dee more or less identical to the whole. While this makes the group network more efficient, Dee is worried that this homogeneity could prove to be a weakness somewhere down the line. To that end, Dee has started building AIs she calls Seraphim. These AIs have neural nets that are *based* on Dee's optimized architecture - because why mess with a good thing? - but are allowed to mature and evolve away from and outside the standard "Dee" template. This creates a completely new personality and adds a measure of new thoughts, opinions and ideas to the Hive. So far, only two Seraphim have been built, matured and let loose on Fenspace - they're best known as VVS administrators Minerva and Athene Weatheral. Neither of the Weatheral sisters is fully conscious of their connection to the Hive; they consider Dee a maternal or filial figure, but as they haven't connected with the Hive on anything other than a subconscious level so far.

Child of Many Fathers (and Some Mothers) - Dee was sparked, born, whatever mostly from KJ’s mind; she was his character in The Game, it was his use of handwavium and his PDA that she came into existence on, etc. But at the same time, Dee has taken some personality aspects from the other Soviets. For example, she’s taken a mild interest in the occult and a love of fucking with people’s heads for its own sake from Mal, etc. What all this rigamarole means is that Dee is a composite of the VVS in a similar way as she’s naturally a composite being. And like the Hive, she’s much stronger than the sum of her parts.

What Did They Know and When Did They Know It? - The VVS, or at least Mal and KJ, knew that Dee was going way beyond any sort of "normal" handwavium AI boundaries well before things started expanding at [[Black Mesa]]. The early Troyers and Dee reoptimizing her source code were signs. Nowadays (2016ish) they suspect that they've got a singularity Prime Intellect growing at Black Mesa, but they also recognize that it's a) friendly and b) not aggressively expansionistic-hegemonic, so they're giving it room to grow. They don't know the full scope of what the Hive has become / is becoming, but that's outside their understanding in many ways.

Who Else Knows? - Not sure. The brighter stars in the Hacker Underspace ought to at least suspect, lord knows Mal's hinted enough time to A.C. Peters that she ought to have major suspicions. There may or may not be others outside the VVS circle who Dee's confided in, though who they'd be is a good question.

Welcome to Black Mesa - The Black Mesa compound is highly malleable depending on who's there and why. Visitors who're on the guest list see a pleasant base with lots of Troyers running around doing science-y things. Visitors who are nonhostile but uninvited are given a chillier reception, with things shifted just enough to be a little unnerving and get them to leave as soon as possible. For hostile visitors, Black Mesa turns into Silent Hill.

Dogs And Cats Living Together, Mass Hysteria! - Dee’s outing to Fenspace at large would be big, and it would be messy. How messy? Well, it would probably involve at least one major confrontation with the Galacticans, ‘Danelaw involvement and lord only knows what else.

Deehive Units

The DeeHive

Also known as 2700 Baikonur or Black Mesa Research Facility, the Hive has converted mined material from the asteroid into "computronium," a dense mixture of diamondoid computational elements in a silicon-handwavium matrix. The computronium is what makes up the bulk of Dee's mind.

Berserker

Modeled after Gally from Gunmn, Only one in use at any given moment, generally called fullsize-Dee. Used for human-scale interaction and non-BM combat.

Troyers

Miniature (6") versions of the Berserker body. Anywhere between dozens and hundreds operational (publicly) at any given moment. Used for interaction, maintenance and other general duties. What most people think of when they think of "Dee" as an entity.

Spiders

Multi-use modular robots designed vaguely like the Replicators from Stargate: SG-1 with similar Von Neumann capability. Indeterminate number operational at any given moment (could be in the high six digit range). Used for research and cognitive nodes. Never seen outside of Black Mesa, no matter how useful they might be.

AI Avatars

Digital representations of Dee on the interwave & other virtual networks. Generally resemble the Berserker or Troyer shells. Could represent anywhere between 10% to 100% of the main Hive consciousness depending on topic.

Stories

Dee has a minor role in Training the New Girl and Mr. Fnord Goes to Washington. Shouldn't she have more on-screen time?