InsaneJournal

Tweak says, "REDRUM! REDRUM!"

AGENT 13 [Sharon Carter] (agent13) wrote in thedoorway,
@ 2013-10-26 14:00:00

Entry tags:

!network post, howard stark, sharon carter / agent 13 (616), steve rogers / captain america (616)

Well, it looks like I'm doing this for the Halloween party. Which leaves me about five hours to find violet coveralls.

Anyone have some goggles I could borrow?

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	Dorian \| Tony tonystark 2013-10-26 11:22 pm UTC (link)
	You should be, too, shouldn't you? I mean, you think, therefore you are. Your own existence is the only thing that you can be entirely sure of. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony doriangray 2013-10-26 11:23 pm UTC (link)
	I think I'm a character from a book. I think, maybe one day, this'll end and you'll wake up and you'll remember it all. But I won't. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony tonystark 2013-10-26 11:32 pm UTC (link)
	I don't accept that. Maybe you were a character from a book, maybe the tesseract made you from spare atoms and a blueprint in someone's mind, but you're more than that now. You have your own mind, your own thoughts, your own memories. There is so much more to you than was written in the pages of that book. And anyway, I don't want to wake up without you. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony doriangray 2013-10-26 11:36 pm UTC (link)
	I don't think I'd be if it weren't for you. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony tonystark 2013-10-26 11:44 pm UTC (link)
	Maybe, maybe not. But I'll always want you to be here. So I guess we'll never have to find out. I'll tell you what. If we ever find a way to leave and get far, far away from the tesseract, I'll bring you with me. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony doriangray 2013-10-26 11:46 pm UTC (link)
	Do you promise? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony tonystark 2013-10-26 11:52 pm UTC (link)
	I promise. And if I ever wander off, you can install my backup hard drive in the other Tony Stark. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony doriangray 2013-10-26 11:58 pm UTC (link)
	Well -- you'd best keep it up to date! (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony tonystark 2013-10-26 11:59 pm UTC (link)
	I'll set it up to sync over iCloud. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony doriangray 2013-10-27 12:00 am UTC (link)
	How big is it? How many Gigs does it take up, you memory? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony tonystark 2013-10-27 12:14 am UTC (link)
	I couldn't tell you right off, but I believe it was measured in exabytes. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony doriangray 2013-10-27 12:15 am UTC (link)
	I don't know what they are. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony tonystark 2013-10-27 12:18 am UTC (link)
	A gigabyte is 1000³ bytes. A terabyte is 1000⁴ bytes. A petabyte is 1000⁵ bytes. And an exabyte is 1000⁶ bytes. So.. circa Extremis, when I was also using my brain to run my armor systems... several billion gigabytes. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony doriangray 2013-10-27 12:24 am UTC (link)
	That's another thing I'm not going to be able to comprehend for a while. I understand it, but the scale -- what it means. I'm not there. You must think differently, don't you? (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Dorian | Tony

tonystark
2013-10-27 12:51 am UTC (link)

Honestly, it's all deeply weird, and very confusing, and brains don't really work like that, since information affects the way neurons grow together and synapses are connected &c &c &c. So for most people, asking how many gigabytes their brain stores is like asking how many gigabytes the ocean stores. It's sort of meaningless. But mine is... weird.

It's hard to say, since I have little to compare it to. But I know that my mind has worked differently ever since Extremis. It rebuilt me on a cellular level. There's still hardware in my brain, my body from what I used to be. It kind of freaks doctors out, which is fun. I can still run the operating system now, if I need to. It's just not my primary OS anymore.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony doriangray 2013-10-27 01:00 am UTC (link)
	It isn't really something I've thought much about, how brains work. Either neurologically or psychologically, and certainly I haven't really dwelled on yours. Obviously it's a part of who we all are, but the systematic breakdown of it all has always fetched me as being far too impersonal to me. If that... makes any sense at all. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony tonystark 2013-10-27 01:04 am UTC (link)
	No, it does. I've always found the idea of stripping the human brain of its mystery to be a bit depressing. To say if we can really define everything a person is by their neurons and the way they fit together. By their genes, or their synapses, however complex. To make it finite takes some of the beauty out of it. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Dorian | Tony

doriangray
2013-10-27 01:10 am UTC (link)

I agree with you. It's sort of a... sum of its parts thing. I mean, we're more than animals. We're more than here to live, procreate, and die. Whether or not we believe there is anything spiritual or magnificent about what we are, whether or not we believe in the existence and power of immortal souls, to eliminate the person is to eliminate agency and choice. We are not rules by what we are comprised of, but by ourselves.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

Dorian | Tony

tonystark
2013-10-27 03:18 pm UTC (link)

To reduce a human to his synapses is almost to remove any element of choice, agency, or humanity from a person. I don't particularly believe in immortal souls, but nor do I entirely believe that all we are is cells and electricity.

Even if I'm wrong, it doesn't help us, really, to think that way. Even if all we have is the illusion of choice, it's simpler, easier to act as if our choices are our own, because that's how we experience them. The objective reality is... unimportant.

(Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony doriangray 2013-10-27 03:31 pm UTC (link)
	Some lies are better believed, Tony. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony tonystark 2013-10-27 03:33 pm UTC (link)
	I give you my word that those are the only lies I'll tell you. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony doriangray 2013-10-27 03:40 pm UTC (link)
	I know that, Darling. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony tonystark 2013-10-27 03:45 pm UTC (link)
	I like to say it, sometimes. Keeps me accountable. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony doriangray 2013-10-27 03:47 pm UTC (link)
	I think in some ways, we keep... each other accountable. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)

	Dorian \| Tony tonystark 2013-10-27 05:48 pm UTC (link)
	I think so, too. You reign me in without holding me back. It's good, it's a good balance. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread)