Daemon: Difference between revisions

<code> predefined times or in response to certain events.</code>

 

 

Among its first actions are to kill two of Sobol's coworkers. When they try to forcibly enter his mansion after connecting Sobol with the aforementioned murders, a number of police and FBI agents are maimed or killed by an impressive set of boobytraps, including an autonomous, murderous Humvee that is nearly impervious to everything they can throw at it. The Daemon then frames its actions on a handful of people to cast doubt on its very existence and withdraws from the public eye. It quietly offers certain people in key positions fame and success if they make a deal with the devil, or more accurately, the Daemon. Then, ominously, it goes silent. [[It Gets Worse|When it resurfaces, things go downhill. Fast.]]

 

 

The sequel, ''Freedom™'' (yes, the trademark symbol is part of the title), picks up shortly after where "Daemon" leaves off and focuses further on the motives and goals of the Daemon's actions. As well as those who oppose it.

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* [[AI Is a Crapshoot]]: Explicitly subverted. The Daemon is in no way an AI, nor is it ever claimed to be one. Experts repeatedly have to correct people who do refer to it as an "AI" by explaining that at best it is a distributed network of expert systems with a predefined set of actions, and in no way intelligent. Although its actions can be construed as evil, the Daemon itself is just a program and no more evil than a spreadsheet or word processor. However, it is very, ''very'' sophisticated and comprehensive.

** In the sequel it becomes clear that {{spoiler|[[Private Military Contractors]] involved at the highest levels of government are taking every advantage they can of the worldwide economic chaos caused by the continued progression of Sobol's goals to gain private power for themselves and make a quick buck at the expense of the American public.}}

* [[Crowning Moment of Funny]]: The government sets up a task force, very secret, highly classified, accessible by only those with the highest level of clearance. Meanwhile, in the Darknet, {{spoiler|the base has a giant glowing neon sign hovering over it in the Darknet's AR space, reading "Super Secret Anti-Daemon Task Force Base"}}. Closely followed (both in hilarity, and chronologically) by Loki {{spoiler|dragging a box over the whole base, right-clicking, and selecting "Kill Everyone" to order his minions to... well... you know.}}

* [[Decoy Protagonist]]: Oh, sorry, were you thinking this detective story would have the obvious hard-bitten [[Defective Detective]] (who knows very little about computers, yet the Daemon seems to be intently interested in) running the case? {{spoiler|Subverted when he comes back and does end up a major character.}}

* [[Defective Detective]]: Sebeck is cheating on his wife, whom he felt obligated to marry because he got her pregnant. His son is none too happy with him. And he's got an appetite for danger that borders on self-destructive. Then his mistress turns out not to be what she seems...

* [[Eye Scream]]: The Major {{spoiler|has Loki's eyes torn out - along with having his fingertips and tongue chopped off}} so he can to try steal his biometrics to try to sneak into the darknet.

* [[Fridge Brilliance]]/[[Fridge Logic]]: On one hand, everything worked perfectly. There were no bugs, glitches, mistakes, etc, despite the fact that there couldn't have been real world testing, beta testing, etc. The Daemon responded properly every time, and all the schematics produced working devices. On the other hand, Sobol was a genius with a ridiculously high IQ of 220. You can probably infer he was among the smartest people to have ever lived. Maybe he was just that good, putting this into [[Fridge Brilliance]].

** Rule #1: Matthew Sobol is SMARTER THAN YOU.

** Rule #2: No plan, no matter how well thought out, no matter how well made, no matter how many variables have been taken into account, survives first contact with the enemy.