Need help writing a scifi novel

Pyrolocks

Member
Okay, so if you clicked on this, you must have some interest in science fiction and you understand it requires some stretches of reality. That being said, I try to stick to fact as much as I can.

One of my characters, Seth, is a military android that was built with advanced technology in the 80s. He was designed to run with all of his memories stored as RAM so that if he was captured or destroyed, none of the confidential data could be compromised.

I realize that alone is hard to swallow but it's important to the plot. Plus, it gives him a more human outlook on death as being final. His software is on a solid state drive of sorts so he would reboot but he wouldn't be himself.

Seth serves the military for twenty years, receiving several upgrades and repairs during this period. He also develops sentience. This liability of independent thought combined with his seriously outdated technology, they decide to retire him. Seeing as how he was still functional and could be useful at some point, they allow him to assume a "normal" life. He was making self repairs and attentive maintenance while working as an English teacher for 8 years until exciting plot happens.

At the point in the story that I'm currently writing, he requires a new motherboard. It's insanely old and unfortunately as a soldier, he's been repeatedly exposed to the common kills of motherboards. What I want to have happen during the replacement procedure is memory loss (3 years or so) but not all of it. This is where I get confused because it's my understanding that RAM is stored on the motherboard.

Also, I'm assuming they would likely install a newer motherboard. Would it be compatible? Please help?
 

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
If he suffered memory loss, that would have to do with a hard drive, which is non-volatile storage (does not lose data when powered off) whereas RAM is volatile storage (loses data when powered off). Unless he's something like Data from Star Trek and he has 'Memory Engrams" then he will not suffer memory loss, unless all his memories are stored in RAM. He would then lose all his memories.

RAM sticks themselves interface with a motherboard and can be changed between motherboards (depending on the type of RAM the motherboard supports) and again once the RAM loses power, any data stored in it is cleared.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
This could be viable if certain memory sectors on the RAM failed or became corrupted. Then if you tried to dump the existing RAM data onto the new platform as a 'backup' of sorts, those sectors wouldn't be readable and would effectively be lost.
 

Pyrolocks

Member
Data's mind is set up very similar to the human brain. I like that concept and have used it in the past with other stories but Seth was specifocally designed to wipe upon failure. The enemy can't hack what's not there.
Hmmm, I read somewhere that the loss of memory stored in RAM is not an all at once loss. Of course, since RAM is stored on the motherboard, removing the old one would take them all...

I'm looking for a cause of some significant but not total memory loss that can't be avoided.

This could be viable if certain memory sectors on the RAM failed or became corrupted. Then if you tried to dump the existing RAM data onto the new platform as a 'backup' of sorts, those sectors wouldn't be readable and would effectively be lost.

So, in effect the memory loss would've occurred before the motherboard swap? I hadn't thought of that... that would make sense though. Would there be any order to the loss or would it be random?
 
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JerseyJames

New Member
or that the RAM on the mother board consists of a few to many individual sticks of RAM, (think HAL , 2001) there by damage (memory loss) can be selective (as "while the auxiliary power source to my RAM sticks allowed them to be transferred to the new motherboard, The last three years of memory were unrecoverable due to a damaged Ram Stick , so .... plot thickens! :eek:
PS :cool:sounds interesting ! any way to know when your final draft comes out ? what's the title? or if you'd like a slightly warped proofreader ;) to go over a rough Copy ? inquiring minds want to know ! :D PMs gladly accepted! :p
 

Pyrolocks

Member
I'm so excited!:) All of this is so helpful!
I was trying to figure out a way to have him lose memory but it seemed really stupid that there was no way to transfer the data. Why would the military build something they can't collect direct information from? I was thinking that maybe the port they used to upload went bad or that Seth intentionally damaged that function but I feel like they would've scrapped him for that. Lol

PS :cool:sounds interesting ! any way to know when your final draft comes out ? what's the title? or if you'd like a slightly warped proofreader ;) to go over a rough Copy ? inquiring minds want to know ! :D PMs gladly accepted! :p
You say warped like it's a bad thing. Lol! I'm always looking for proof readers but I must warn you, its a romance novel. Lol. A poorly written one at that. It's funny though because Seth is very much alive to me. I can watch some terrible scifi movie and he'll cringe in my head. I just wish the words would work the way I want them to!

Also, you seem super cool, despite being from Jersey :p.
 
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You could equip him with two motherboards for the 'memory loss' bit or two hard drives, whichever, so that any 'sensitive' stuff could be on one and encrypted in such a way that only the 'owner' could access, that way you have an option of if he's kidnaped and the kidnappers cant decrypt information they could then seek out the owner to try and obtain information, another twist to the plot perhaps?
 

Pyrolocks

Member
You could equip him with two motherboards for the 'memory loss' bit or two hard drives, whichever, so that any 'sensitive' stuff could be on one and encrypted in such a way that only the 'owner' could access, that way you have an option of if he's kidnaped and the kidnappers cant decrypt information they could then seek out the owner to try and obtain information, another twist to the plot perhaps?
Thats an interesting idea... maybe a different book. Seth would never let himself get exploited but I have another character that's not quite as well trained. :D
 
But then again, anyone even partly Human is always open to exploitation, someone purporting to be a 'friend' asking for your details. Perhaps this character should have a self destruct option. ;)
 

Pyrolocks

Member
But then again, anyone even partly Human is always open to exploitation ;)
This is a good point. He could definitely be overpowered or mislead by someone he trusted but he would erase everything before allowing the enemy to get it. He doesn't want to die though. He'd do everything in his power to avoid it.

Seth: "You should know that while I'm not governed by the laws of robotics, there's a portion of the third one that I'm quite fond of and inclined to obey."

The technicians exchanged quizzical glances.

"Azimov? No? Really? Shame on you."

As for a self destruct, he used to have a bomb of sorts built in but they removed it when he started working as a teacher. Something about possibly malfunctioning and killing a bunch if kids posed an issue. Lol
 
I like the bomb idea, some kids need a bomb putting under them to wake them up and actually start learning something! Human evolution seems to have removed part of the brain that controls learning, probably due to all the junk food in the diet!
 

Pyrolocks

Member
I like the bomb idea, some kids need a bomb putting under them to wake them up and actually start learning something! Human evolution seems to have removed part of the brain that controls learning, probably due to all the junk food in the diet!
Bahaha! Seth jokes about but when they put it back after he gets redeployed, he's less than happy. He teaches college English so it's not quite as bad for him but there's always one in every class that just doesn't care.
 

JerseyJames

New Member
^^^ Yeah, that be true. When I was in High School, did a lot of sketching & such. One day in English class (while i was busily sketching away) the teacher chastised a student for not paying attention. His retort was "Why are you picking on me? Jim's not paying attention !!! why don't you pick on him?" My reply was "Because I DO pay attention and I get A's on all my tests" ... (while I kept busily sketching away) . Out of the corner of my eye , I saw the teacher basically raise her eyebrows and flip her hand over, palm up in the probably universal gesture that said ... " SEE " ... Always have remembered that ...:D
 

Pyrolocks

Member
Ahahaha! I used to read in class (and doodle) and the teachers never bothered me for the same reason. I'd get a new teacher and they'd try to catch me off guard but they all gave up. XD
 
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