Trevor's audio logs
Trev_001
Location
VALA_EXT-1 at Grasslands Ring.
Transcription
So I heard that Alexandra is recording these time capsules for… you, out there, I guess? Robot people of the future! Hi.
And I thought to myself, surely they'll want to hear more than the wisdom and insight of a brilliant scientist like Alexandra Drennan. Surely they also want to know what I was thinking. A dumbass hardware engineer from Staten Island. Tell us about your insights, Trevor. Why did you spend your last months on Earth helping a crazy old Russian guy build the world's biggest backup drive?
Well, let me tell you my story. When I w-
YES? YES, FRANK, I'M RECORDING RIGHT NOW. UH-HUH. NO. YOU KNOW WHAT, WHY DON'T YOU GO F-
Trev_002
Location
Transcription
So, what are you doing here, Trevor? Why are you trying to save the world? Well… look. I think humanity is awesome. I love humanity. As a species, we're great. I mean our track record is pretty mixed, but have you seen everyone else? I mean, what did you do today, animal?
Oh, I ate some leaves, sniffed my own butt, crapped myself and went extinct. Or, you know, I tore this other animal limb from limb, sniffed my friend's butt… crapped myself, and went extinct.
They really don't do anything interesting. I mean, you don't see animals directing Big Trouble in Little China. Birds can go, tweet tweet but it ain't exactly the White Album. I mean they can't even make a good cheeseburger, for chrissakes. They have no art! No cuisine! No pleasure. Animals are nice to look at, but you wouldn't want to be one.
Except maybe a cat. I could be a cat.
Trev_003
Location
GRODNA_EXT-1 at Eastern Wetlands
Transcription
So humanity is great. I really believe that, and that's why I'm here. But I have to be honest with you, individual people… not always my favorite.
I'm not the smartest guy ever, and I know that, but there are some people… man, some people are just so dumb, I don't even know if they're actually conscious. Sometimes I think their whole lives might be like a dream, they're just stumbling around, no idea what's going on, mumbling some random nonsense. And the thing you have to understand about our time period is that a lot of these people wield enormous power. They run whole countries and corporations. Yeah, that's right. We've handed over our civilization to people I wouldn't trust to tie their own shoelaces. And if they're dumb, then what are we?
I don't honestly have an answer to that, so just… please try to do better?
Trev_004
Location
Transcription
Now I have to talk science fiction for a bit, because I love science fiction, but it drives me nuts. There's this cliche that shows up over and over, and every time someone uses it, everyone pretends it's really profound.
It goes something like this: a scientist invents something good, but oh no, it's actually really bad! You could have something that makes your life better - but no, you can't! How dare you even want it! That's hubris! That's… playing God!
And it's never anything that reflects the real world, right? It's never, oh no, you invented a vaccine for cervical cancer! Oh no, you invented a new class of antibiotics. Oh no, you cured malaria - how dare you? Those diseased mosquitoes are way more important than human lives!
How did science fiction become so reactionary? You know, if we all thought this way, you guys wouldn't even exist. At least Alex agrees with me. She has good taste.
Trev_005
Location
Transcription
Strap in, this is a long one.
You may have heard the story of the carpenter who died to redeem humanity's sins. It's a powerful story. Bittersweet. Very human. And I just want to tell you that it's true. He was a real person. And his name was John, John Carpenter.
He was born in the year 1948 and he was the coolest filmmaker to ever walk the Earth. From Halloween to The Thing to They Live… the totally underrated In the Mouth of Madness, mind you… he just made classic after classic. All of his movies, really fun, really atmospheric, but also really smart. Even when they were goofy. Most directors would kill to have made just one of those movies.
And what did he get for it? A big fat truckload of nothing. Well, less than nothing. The studios, the critics, even the fans… they hated him. The Thing, OK, for example, which is about as perfect a movie as you can make. Completely torn to shreds. And his career never really recovered. Every movie after that was a struggle, and after a while, he just got tired of it and quit. He only really came back to movies in his seventies. How many works of genius did we never get because of that?
Look, I have a point here. People like Carpenter, people like Alex… they're not always appreciated in their own time. If you just do what's popular, you might never create anything important. Of course, we admire people who did the right thing, who didn't conform, but we only ever admire them after the fact. What matters is to support people when it's difficult.
Trev_006
Location
Lost Marshes (North 3), just south of puzzle #6
Transcription
Something I really like about Alex, one of the reasons why I'm here doing this, is that she's really humble. She has this incredibly positive view of humanity, She believes we can accomplish anything - but it's not about her. She doesn't think that she's smarter or better than anyone else. She just looks at us as a species, and even though she can see how small we are in the grand scheme of things, she thinks that we could conquer the stars and give meaning to the universe.
Even now. Even when none of us are going to live to see it. Isn't that awesome?
Trev_007
Location
Transcription
Today we were delighted to be visited by a bunch of protesters, these voluntary extinction weirdos who think we're creating soulless monstrosities that will destroy the planet. They broke into the facility and started yelling at everyone. Fun fun fun, right?
Then, oh ho, then one of them lunged at Alex. Big mistake. Chernyshevsky grabbed the guy and literally threw him across the room. I mean, almost threw him all the way off the dam. After that… eh, the rest of them had a change of heart.
Now I'm telling you this because mostly it's not like that. But these people do exist. And somewhere in their shrivelled little souls, they think that they're doing the right thing. They think they're being righteous.
Now to me, what Alex is trying to do is an obvious good. But… it's not the same for everyone.
Trev_008
Location
Transcription
After we talked about science fiction, Alex gave me a book… her favorite book, a novel called Athena. It's not exactly what I'm used to reading, but it's pretty good. And it really made me wonder how we're going to be perceived… if the project works out. Are we going to be mythologized? Is Alexandra going to be this distant, mythical figure instead of the real, funny, human person that she is? It's hard to imagine that we'll all have been dead for hundreds of years…
Man, I'm scared. I'm really scared. I don't want to die.
Trev_009
Location
Transcription
Man, this sucks. It's one thing hearing about the symptoms… it is another, totally, to experience them. I feel like an insect trapped in resin… slowly congealing.
I can keep working for a while, though… there's still a bunch of critical tasks. I don't know what I'll do when I'm done. A lot of people have gone home but Alexandra's still here. I don't think she left even once, not even when her best friend died.
We chatted a bit yesterday… she likes peanut ice cream. Not pistachio… peanut. At least we can agree that strawberry is an abomination.
Trev_010
Location
Transcription
How is this supposed to work? The system is meant to last centuries. Centuries! And yeah, Chernyshevsky's plan? Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
But I'm working with hardware that was deliberately designed to fail. Planned obsolescence, baby! Sell'em broken garbage just to make another buck. A buck you can't even spend, because in a few more weeks we'll be extinct. Was it worth it?
That's the part that Alexandra doesn't see. The greed, the stupidity, the selfishness. The way that we created this whole situation in the first place. She wants you to be like us, but if you ask me, there's a whole lot of human history and behavior you can just throw away. Chuck it in the trash. Right? You have a chance at a fresh start. Make the best of it.
Trev_011
Location
Transcription
Actually, let me issue a correction, OK?
I said Alexandra doesn't see the bad stuff about humanity. But she does. She sees it, and somehow she sees past it. She doesn't ignore it, she can just see one step farther. Like there's this mountain of garbage ahead of us, right? And that's all most of us will ever see, and she somehow sees beyond, to… I don't know, the Promised Land? I don't do metaphors. Or similes. Or whatever this is.
I mean, you don't care. I'm dead and you're a robot. But her ability to… to look reality in the eye… to see all the bad stuff out there and still have hope… I mean, it's amazing. I mean, I think that's why I… uhm… that's… y… you know what? Let's not go there.
There's still so much work and Chernyshevsky doesn't have much time left. Well, I mean… who does these days?
Trev_012
Location
Transcription
Everybody's gone except me and Alex. She's upstairs somewhere… haven't talked to her in days. The only reason why I know she's still alive is… she's submitting bugfixes.
I still have a lot to do myself. I've almost got the… tertiary backup thing working… this is the one that's really going to last if everything else breaks. And you know what, I think everything else might. The MLA? Still giving me all these hiccups… But… I don't know, I'm not a software guy. All the software guys? Yeah, they're dead.
These time capsules went a bit sideways, didn't they?
I was gonna tell you all about myself, and John Carpenter and all that stuff… but mostly I just told you about Alex. Funny. I wonder if I should just… I should just tell her… you know… just… tell her… just… just tell her… Maybe later.
Have to finish this first.