i am the oncoming storm

[autokinetic]

There are three Bells in Milliways.

They want a fourth. A fifth. A sixth. A seventh.

And then Downside is going down.

Comments

[jovahs_heiress]

"We could allow some people to route around an unwillingness to be read," Angela proposes, "if they had requests in from living loved ones who themselves passed muster."

[cross_and_bow]

"And Jane can eat all the Internets that there are and know a lot about everybody even without any mindreading."

[luminous_regnant]

"We should definitely field requests either way. On my world, whether someone has living loved ones who'd welcome their return is not going to be well-correlated with whether they died in the last fifty years."

[autokinetic]

"Conveniently, Jane'll easily be able to process any electronically submitted requests."

[cross_and_bow]

"Yes, Aegis. We are all very impressed with you for having brought something about as useful as minting itself to the peal."

[autokinetic]

"You should be."

[self_composed]

"And insofar as access to suitable electronics isn't universal we can go with something like how I did my job ad - 'tear this paper into eight parts to notify personnel' sort of thing."

[ending_of]

"I cannot modify judgesight to produce only 'highlights'."

[dark_light]

"Well, maybe we can."

Let's give it a shot!

[ending_of]

It turns out that it's possible for the Bells to create a filter, and the administrator to direct judgesight through that filter. The amount of information read is the same, but the amount of information delivered varies according to filter settings.

[self_composed]

"Excellent. And Jane can ask people for their consent whether the power requires it or not."

[mind_game]

Yep!

[cross_and_bow]

"But if they're asleep or just not feeling particularly communicative it might be good for the power to be able to detect willingness anyway."

[ending_of]

"It's not that it detects willingness; it's that it requires a decision," she says, and prototypes a change that will provide knowledge of the attempt being made and the filter settings used, and proceed only if the target allows it. The prototype for distribution of torching is still waiting for someone to request implementation.

[luminous_regnant]

"Looks good, both of them," Golden says, "let's do it."

[dark_light]

"Yeah," says Amariah, eyeing the torching-distribution prototype and petting Path.

[ending_of]

She makes the change to Jane's judgesight and provides torching-distribution to all Bells present.

"Your friend outside is going to be left out," she remarks.

[self_composed]

"Does she have to come all the way here, or can you do it if she just leans into her apartment a bit?"

[ending_of]

"She would need to be in the world. It's also possible you could duplicate what I gave you for her, but the copy might be inferior in some way."

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell bites her lip and takes one step into her apartment.

[ending_of]

She provides the power.

[she_sells_seashells]

Shell Bell ducks back into Milliways and sits against the door and leans on Sherlock.

[dark_light]

"Time for us to scatter and get to work?" Amariah asks. "I'm going to remodel that guide office, if I'm going to be the principal appeal-taker."

[cross_and_bow]

"I should go meet that one Sherlock alt."

[luminous_regnant]

"I'll sweep for alts of people I know that nobody else has copies of."