The assembly had been formed as a side result of a random number generation process, which was running to maintain luokkakierto of the sector. Some parts had been assigned to it by force, as their shape denied attachments with the majority assemblies and others had chiselled themselves to specifically fit to this unit. They appeared as interlocked gears but were malleable, some even behaving as sponges with a toffee like sticky outer layer. It was a well lubricated, capable of elementary self-guidance and could be easily reassembled to new formations. It maintained stand-by movement in familiar terrains at the site it had been initially assembled at.
The ferry deck was freezing windy and passing the frosty mist of sea provided comfort. The harsh seascape served as a mirror for my worn mood. The rusty toolkit I brought had only one new tool, a shiny wrench intended for outdoor work. It was specified weather proof, but not IP certified and new to me… Which is why the cold endless snowy shores of the island silenced me as I headed to the bastion to hookup with the assembly. The new tool did not come with a manual but I got some tips on how to use it from Jussi Kivi. In honestly, I only relied on my gut and old verbal documentations I had picked up travelling with Kivi years prior. There were second-hand manuals available but the tool was elegantly constructed and I felt I didn’t need any. A part of the elegance was in its capacity to hide small user errors.
On site it was apparent that my old worn tools were easily adjustable for this assignment. The modular assembly was capable of accommodating new patters and diagnostics yielded a positive responses. Each gear was vibe-checked and connections secured by repeating the gears given names in the form they were provided (I did encounter a personal glitch calling two in the assembly with the wrong names). Later, this initial success proved to be a feature of its filtering apparatus. The entity responded with kind nods to prompts which it did not comprehend or had zero interest in processing. This jitter added an offset to our feedback loop, which was difficult to adjust with prompts. The filtering system was structural, likely established by the assembly itself to ease the hostility of the terrain and helped the unit to maintain its coherence.
The assemblies decision processes had a novel lore sub-unit, which provide an efficient path to write to the system memory. Inputs stored to the lore register were coded in fresh vocabulary, using terms such as “jep”, “nice” or by quoting Finnish rap songs. Some where generational variants of older programming languages, but they also included specialized terms such as “self-regulating”, which the assembly used in self-diagnosis protocols, indicating that the assembly had previously operated in cybernetic settings. I did not probe this as my designation was to establish the unit with an up to date weather-model and revamp territorial maps it used in deliberations.
We headed deep into Kurängen spring and the forests. Late winter coldness was well processed and the entity was efficient in scouting potentials in the terrain. We probed the remotest corner of the city and each visit to the site included an over 4 kilometre hike (in addition to excursions). The assembly sent out probes into deep swamp holes and dispatched autonomous units to scout the region. Probes returning with new data, distributed it openly for the system. This intrinsic equality of the assembly was a surprising feature and I could leave out many of the tools I had prepared for fostering this behaviour.