Eight Lies Of The City

1) The nine Artificial Intelligences (Difference Engines – or AIs) that seem to rule different sections of the city have no way to communicate with each other and each appears to be totally unaware of the existence of any of the others. They have no way to propagate themselves and each is as old as the others. There are no “young” or “old” AIs. They are all the same age and they all seem to have a common creator – thought who, or what, that was (or still is) is knowledge lost in time.

2)There are only nine AIs.

3) The goop that the AIs produce to feed the city’s population actually varies in taste, nutritional value, and long term effects from AI to AI and from pool to pool, neighborhood to neighborhood. The goop is not based on any other life form, and is certainly not related to oozes and jellies commonly found in underground caves and in other subterranean locations.

4) The buildings in the city have their origin there and were not transported from other places and other historical periods. Their apparent variation – in both design and construction materials – is a testimony both to the ingenuity and to the unique architectural skills of the city’s residents.

5) The AIs are unaware of the importance the city’s residents place on the five classic, or “noble” hobbies of the city – or the eighteen “lesser” or “ignoble” hobbies either.

6) There are certain nocturnal creatures that prowl the city at night. These monsters are taking advantage of the fact that the AIs, for some reason, cannot recognize them and so, as long as they wait for the sun to set before they come out, live a charmed existence.

7) The AIs are either have no alignment at all, or have alignments that are so idiosyncratic that they defy human, and even metaphysical characterization.

8) The AIs cannot be bribed.