Story: "Hairpins" Part 4
Feb. 26th, 2014 12:03 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithThis story belongs to the series Love Is For Children which includes "Love Is for Children," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys,""Saudades," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," "Touching Moments," "Splash," "Coming Around," "Birthday Girl," "No Winter Lasts Forever," "Hide and Seek," "Kernel Error," "Happy Hour," and "Green Eggs and Hulk."
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, JARVIS, Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanova, Bruce Banner.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: This story is mostly fluff, but it has some intense scenes in the middle. Highlight for details. These include dubious consent as Phil and JARVIS discuss what really happened when Agent Coulson hacked his way into Stark Tower, over which Phil has something between a flashback and a panic attack. They also discuss some of the bad things that have happened to Avengers in the past, including various flavors of abuse. If these are sensitive topics for you, please think carefully before deciding whether to read onward.
Summary: Uncle Phil needs to pick out pajamas for game night. He gets help from an unexpected direction.
Notes: Service. Shopping. Gifts. Artificial intelligence. Computers. Teamwork. Team as family. Friendship. Communication. Hope. Apologies. Forgiveness. Nonsexual ageplay. Nonsexual intimacy. Love. Tony Stark needs a hug. Bruce Banner needs a hug. #coulsonlives.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Skip to Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9.
"Hairpins" Part 4
Wasn't there something about dancing bears ...? he thought, the image plucking at his memory. He knew that Natasha loved ballet, although she rarely expressed it. Perhaps with the right coaxing, she would let it out more.
"Dancing bears," Phil decided, and ran a search for that. He loved StarkSearch. In addition to the usual safe mode, it also had an Intelligent Search option that would learn a user's preferences and sort out the most promising results. It had started off a little better than Phil's former favorite, but the more he used it, the more accurate it seemed to get. Plus it didn't leave any breadcrumbs in cyberspace at large, and it offered him the option of saving or deleting his search on the tower servers.
At first the search turned up irrelevant things like circus bears, traveling caravans, and street performers. The same images appeared in paintings and sketches, some of them quite old. Then Phil started finding teddy bears in tutus, or t-shirts with dancing bears printed on them. "Getting warmer," he said.
Next Phil tried searching for 'dancing bears fabric' on the premise that if he could find suitable cloth, then he could commission someone to make it into pajamas. That led to big colorful quilt blocks and a wide variety of Grateful Dead swag. A few images of teddy bear picnics and Winnie the Pooh also appeared. Most of them had backgrounds of pink or blue, or worse, distracting patterns.
Phil set about sorting the images into things close to what he wanted, with the best ones at the top of the page and others lower down. Then he filtered out the irrelevant ones in the last row by dragging them into the trash. This was the true beauty of StarkSearch: it popped up new suggestions at the bottom and let Phil float them to wherever he felt they belonged. Occasionally a new one would appear higher up, usually with a question mark on the corner. He could tap that to confirm its position, or touch and pull to move it elsewhere.
Soon the first images of large or small bears on a white background began to appear. They were boring, but the concept was moving in the right direction. Phil's interest gave a hopeful little quiver upon seeing them. He bumped those toward the top of the screen. Then he saved the search.
Next, Phil opened some of the files he kept on Natasha. Clothing preferences, both professional and personal. Furniture. Things she had bought for the two-floor apartment that she shared with Clint. Favorite art. An assortment of books that she liked to read, mostly nonfiction.
It was a stretch, because Phil had very little information about her childhood, almost all of that ugly examples of systematic abuse. Still, Phil thought that he might manage to extrapolate from Natasha to Natka in terms of taste. He opened a comparison page and started dragging images onto that from Natasha's files. StarkSearch had a 'correlate' function that Phil also loved, which would seek for patterns across two or more sets of information. Once he had a page full of samples, he activated that and then went back to the search page.
* * *
Notes:
Tame dancing bears appear in circus performances and other venues. They are associated with Russia, although not restricted to that culture.
Machine learning may use any of several problem-solving methods. A good program can even learn language just by reading instructions and interacting with a game or other program. You can see JARVIS trying different things with the Avengers to see what works and what doesn't.
Breadcrumbs are bits of information left in cyberspace as people move through it. There are various ways to stay anonymous online, but they reduce the efficiency and effectiveness of many experiences. Restricting the information to a secure server is one way to get around that.
To see the progression of the search, view the quilt squares, Grateful Dead bears, teddy bear picnic, and Winnie the Pooh swatches. A search often starts with widely scattered results and then spirals closer to the goal.
Visual and interactive search engines can improve usability. JARVIS uses additional information to filter the raw results more finely as a search progresses. He also uses the placement of images on the page to indicate his level of confidence in the findings.
These are the large and small plain bear fabrics.
The reward system in the human brain is what delivers, among other things, that little thrill upon getting a right answer or reaching a goal. Given Phil's work in espionage and handling, it's reasonable to expect that his brain delivers a very satisfying jolt of pleasure upon finding information or helping one of his people. This deals with motivation and decision-making, in that people are more inclined to invest energy in activities that result in pleasure. Popular video games are designed to trigger the reward system. JARVIS combines his knowledge of human neurobiology and cyberspace theory to evolve programs that are not only effective but also enjoyable -- which of course activates his pleasure circuits in return.
A correlation function is a way of comparing different batches of information to see how they overlap and interact. This can be useful in such tasks as predicting which future data points will match a certain subset of criteria. There are many different heuristics, or ways of solving a problem based on personal experience. JARVIS is better at crunching numbers and handling raw data; Phil is better at making subtle emotional observations and estimates. Put them together and they move in the right direction quite briskly.
[To be continued in Part 5 ...]
Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, JARVIS, Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanova, Bruce Banner.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: This story is mostly fluff, but it has some intense scenes in the middle. Highlight for details. These include dubious consent as Phil and JARVIS discuss what really happened when Agent Coulson hacked his way into Stark Tower, over which Phil has something between a flashback and a panic attack. They also discuss some of the bad things that have happened to Avengers in the past, including various flavors of abuse. If these are sensitive topics for you, please think carefully before deciding whether to read onward.
Summary: Uncle Phil needs to pick out pajamas for game night. He gets help from an unexpected direction.
Notes: Service. Shopping. Gifts. Artificial intelligence. Computers. Teamwork. Team as family. Friendship. Communication. Hope. Apologies. Forgiveness. Nonsexual ageplay. Nonsexual intimacy. Love. Tony Stark needs a hug. Bruce Banner needs a hug. #coulsonlives.
Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3. Skip to Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9.
"Hairpins" Part 4
Wasn't there something about dancing bears ...? he thought, the image plucking at his memory. He knew that Natasha loved ballet, although she rarely expressed it. Perhaps with the right coaxing, she would let it out more.
"Dancing bears," Phil decided, and ran a search for that. He loved StarkSearch. In addition to the usual safe mode, it also had an Intelligent Search option that would learn a user's preferences and sort out the most promising results. It had started off a little better than Phil's former favorite, but the more he used it, the more accurate it seemed to get. Plus it didn't leave any breadcrumbs in cyberspace at large, and it offered him the option of saving or deleting his search on the tower servers.
At first the search turned up irrelevant things like circus bears, traveling caravans, and street performers. The same images appeared in paintings and sketches, some of them quite old. Then Phil started finding teddy bears in tutus, or t-shirts with dancing bears printed on them. "Getting warmer," he said.
Next Phil tried searching for 'dancing bears fabric' on the premise that if he could find suitable cloth, then he could commission someone to make it into pajamas. That led to big colorful quilt blocks and a wide variety of Grateful Dead swag. A few images of teddy bear picnics and Winnie the Pooh also appeared. Most of them had backgrounds of pink or blue, or worse, distracting patterns.
Phil set about sorting the images into things close to what he wanted, with the best ones at the top of the page and others lower down. Then he filtered out the irrelevant ones in the last row by dragging them into the trash. This was the true beauty of StarkSearch: it popped up new suggestions at the bottom and let Phil float them to wherever he felt they belonged. Occasionally a new one would appear higher up, usually with a question mark on the corner. He could tap that to confirm its position, or touch and pull to move it elsewhere.
Soon the first images of large or small bears on a white background began to appear. They were boring, but the concept was moving in the right direction. Phil's interest gave a hopeful little quiver upon seeing them. He bumped those toward the top of the screen. Then he saved the search.
Next, Phil opened some of the files he kept on Natasha. Clothing preferences, both professional and personal. Furniture. Things she had bought for the two-floor apartment that she shared with Clint. Favorite art. An assortment of books that she liked to read, mostly nonfiction.
It was a stretch, because Phil had very little information about her childhood, almost all of that ugly examples of systematic abuse. Still, Phil thought that he might manage to extrapolate from Natasha to Natka in terms of taste. He opened a comparison page and started dragging images onto that from Natasha's files. StarkSearch had a 'correlate' function that Phil also loved, which would seek for patterns across two or more sets of information. Once he had a page full of samples, he activated that and then went back to the search page.
* * *
Notes:
Tame dancing bears appear in circus performances and other venues. They are associated with Russia, although not restricted to that culture.
Machine learning may use any of several problem-solving methods. A good program can even learn language just by reading instructions and interacting with a game or other program. You can see JARVIS trying different things with the Avengers to see what works and what doesn't.
Breadcrumbs are bits of information left in cyberspace as people move through it. There are various ways to stay anonymous online, but they reduce the efficiency and effectiveness of many experiences. Restricting the information to a secure server is one way to get around that.
To see the progression of the search, view the quilt squares, Grateful Dead bears, teddy bear picnic, and Winnie the Pooh swatches. A search often starts with widely scattered results and then spirals closer to the goal.
Visual and interactive search engines can improve usability. JARVIS uses additional information to filter the raw results more finely as a search progresses. He also uses the placement of images on the page to indicate his level of confidence in the findings.
These are the large and small plain bear fabrics.
The reward system in the human brain is what delivers, among other things, that little thrill upon getting a right answer or reaching a goal. Given Phil's work in espionage and handling, it's reasonable to expect that his brain delivers a very satisfying jolt of pleasure upon finding information or helping one of his people. This deals with motivation and decision-making, in that people are more inclined to invest energy in activities that result in pleasure. Popular video games are designed to trigger the reward system. JARVIS combines his knowledge of human neurobiology and cyberspace theory to evolve programs that are not only effective but also enjoyable -- which of course activates his pleasure circuits in return.
A correlation function is a way of comparing different batches of information to see how they overlap and interact. This can be useful in such tasks as predicting which future data points will match a certain subset of criteria. There are many different heuristics, or ways of solving a problem based on personal experience. JARVIS is better at crunching numbers and handling raw data; Phil is better at making subtle emotional observations and estimates. Put them together and they move in the right direction quite briskly.
[To be continued in Part 5 ...]
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-26 07:11 am (UTC)REally nice symbiosis!
• ugly examples of systemic abuse
> systemic or systematic ?
Thoughts
Date: 2014-02-26 07:19 am (UTC)Yay! I'm glad that worked for you. It's a different flavor of relationship than what JARVIS has with Tony, which helps diversify the experiences.
>• ugly examples of systemic abuse
> systemic or systematic ?
On closer look, both apply: widespread and methodical. But I think "systematic" makes better sense in context so I'll change it.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-26 07:36 am (UTC)~Evangel
Thank you!
Date: 2014-03-01 06:22 am (UTC)Yay!
>> It's been a while since I last commented, <<
That's okay. Feedback is always welcome, but not required.
>> but the moment you started about dancing bears I thought of Anastasia and the song from that movie, "Once upon a December." <<
That is one of Natka's favorite movies, although I don't think she's seen it yet this early in the series.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-26 08:57 am (UTC)Hmm...
Date: 2014-03-01 06:20 am (UTC)Maybe 24?
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-26 10:56 am (UTC)- Emmy
Thoughts
Date: 2014-03-01 06:07 am (UTC)Okay ...
>> However, this start on the story is not grabbing as many of my headmates who are invested in the series as other bits. I'm thinking it's probably the fact that this section of the story doesn't have the same flavor of narrative tension the other stories we've seen have (even the fluffy ones). <<
Tell them that there will be a significant chunk of tension later in the story, as Phil processes some of the implications of realizing that JARVIS is a person.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-26 12:02 pm (UTC)It would take someone willing to take a risk and introduce a radical concept change like that... which historically doesn't happen nearly as often as people think. [which is why we're still using mouses very similar to the original design for example]
Thoughts
Date: 2014-02-28 07:38 pm (UTC)That's good to hear.
>> The problem is that a] nobody (in the industry) has thought of designing a UI like that, <<
That's what creative people are for. We imagine cool shit and describe it. Actually building it is the job of somebody with the relevant engineering skills.
>> b] the legacy problem, to whit, people prefer interfaces that resemble ones they are familiar with, hence incremental change is slow and tends to be linear. <<
Until someone builds or suggests a better mousetrap. A visual interface is much more efficient than a text interface when you are searching for an image or an object. Text interfaces are more efficient when you are searching for information. (I assume that StarkSearch has a text mode for data searches.) If you show people a better way of doing something, they tend to go for it, even if it looks weird. But it takes a pretty obvious leap of improvement to overcome the resistance to new interfaces.
>> It would take someone willing to take a risk and introduce a radical concept change like that... which historically doesn't happen nearly as often as people think. <<
True.
>> [which is why we're still using mouses very similar to the original design for example] <<
I wish. Mouse design started out adequate, became excellent for my use, and is now rapidly heading away from anything I can use at all. None of the later bizarre shapes were workable. Laser and cordless mice either do not work at all, or die on me after a week or two. And now it's almost impossible to find a corded trackball mouse.
I've been trying to figure out some alternative interface that can be made to work without destroying my hands. Upper-ball mice are out. A touchpad is workable but those don't seem to be sold separate, only embedded in some things like laptops ... all of which are now unusable for me due to keyboard issues.
It's maddening.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-02-28 08:04 pm (UTC)Granted, there's some weird & wonderful designs out there, but standard mouse designs have changed much.
and thinking about it, I'm probably wrong on one count. I'm fairly sure that various radical improvements have been suggested/created by people within the industry... however, to date very little of that has made it past management and marketing.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-02-28 08:07 pm (UTC)Alas, it's wireless. Most wireless tech does not work for me. A wire has a plastic sheath to insulate the signal. Sending the signal through the air leaves it vulnerable to interference, and I tend to kill technology.
>> I'm fairly sure that various radical improvements have been suggested/created by people within the industry... however, to date very little of that has made it past management and marketing. <<
True of many things, alas.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-26 12:22 pm (UTC)-Wynjara
Well...
Date: 2014-02-28 08:40 am (UTC)Dancing Bears
Date: 2014-02-26 01:02 pm (UTC)I like this story. It's interesting to see how Phil and Jarvis are getting a feel for one another.
Re: Dancing Bears
Date: 2014-02-26 01:04 pm (UTC)-firstar28
Re: Dancing Bears
Date: 2014-02-28 08:28 am (UTC)Natka likes that movie, although this early in the series, she may not have seen it yet.
>> I like this story. It's interesting to see how Phil and Jarvis are getting a feel for one another. <<
Yay! Their relationship grows slowly, because both of them are methodical and cautious, not given to impulse. They're building a firm foundation one piece at a time.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-26 03:13 pm (UTC)Thank you!
Date: 2014-02-28 07:34 am (UTC)I'm delighted to hear that. JARVIS is such an odd blend of eager to please, shy, curious, and reserved. He is very carefully trying different things with Phil to see what works, testing for acceptance before edging closer.
>> I'm a computer nerd anyway, so Phil's perspective on JARVIS is interesting. It makes for a story with a texture I like quite a lot. <<
Phil's view of JARVIS is built up of many layers, some of them more accurate than others. Phil is figuring out a lot of stuff now, but not all of it has quite floated up to his conscious mind yet.
I really appreciate the confirmation. My own computer skill is ... well, my blogging icon says "There is now a Level 0." So I'm thrilled that this story is making sense to a real computer nerd.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-26 08:27 pm (UTC)Meg
Yes...
Date: 2014-02-28 08:14 am (UTC)It's something I would find useful too.
>> I'm generally pretty good at putting together a useful string of search terms, <<
Same here.
>> but being able to find the common ground between to sets of results could be very useful! <<
It's akin to other methods of refining a search, such as excluding or adding a term; but cross-references multiple sets will tend to give you a much more concise batch of results.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-26 10:16 pm (UTC)I'm a little surprised at Phil's lack of google-fu, though. I can't figure out if he's really that bad at crafting a search string, or if it's just that it's always feels agonizingly slow to watch somebody else google.
Thoughts
Date: 2014-02-28 06:54 am (UTC)Yeah, it would be awesome.
>> I'm a grad student in statistics, and it makes me twitchy thinking about how much processing power that would take (never mind writing the program in the first place). <<
Things to consider:
* Tony started coding artificial intelligence at 17.
* JARVIS can render fully detailed 3D holograms in realtime with no apparent bandwidth drain.
* In this case, one of the sets was probably 2-3 dozen sample items from Natasha's stuff. If bandwidth was a concern, crossing that with a thousand or so search results would probably suffice, rather than recrawling the whole of cyberspace.
>> I'm a little surprised at Phil's lack of google-fu, though. I can't figure out if he's really that bad at crafting a search string, or if it's just that it's always feels agonizingly slow to watch somebody else google. <<
Phil is not bad at google-fu. He's searching for something outside of his experience range, which means he doesn't know the vocabulary to bring up the right things quickly -- plus he's searching for a general product type, rather than knowing exactly what he wants already. That slows down the rate.
If he'd gone looking for, say, the President's datebook or a particular model of gun, it wouldn't have taken him more than a minute or few. That's the kind of stuff that Phil handles regularly.
(no subject)
Date: 2014-02-26 11:17 pm (UTC)Thoughts
Date: 2014-02-28 06:38 am (UTC)Phil's awareness of JARVIS is kind of fuzzy as this stage. Phil has a sense that there's more going on than meets the eye. Tony did tell the Avengers, when they moved into the tower, about it having an artificial intelligence. But it's not necessarily obvious to go from there to personhood in one giant leap.
The search engine, though? That's part of JARVIS. It's a natural outgrowth of Tony saying, "Find me a..." or "Where'd I leave my..." or "I need a reference on..." all the time. I suspect that the public interface is something they developed later so that Tony wouldn't have to tolerate Stark Industries employees being slowed down by stupid search engines. To JARVIS, this is much like being asked to hand someone a book; it's just something he does.
>> I'm so used to Phil understanding that JARVIS is a person. <<
Yeah, that's an effect of me writing out of order. The early part of this series is probably the longest I've gone without breaking timestream. But then I got into longer stories and started writing shorter things to keep the flow going, and it got out of order. This can introduce literary complications like what you just described. Sorry about that.
Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-03-01 02:36 am (UTC)Re: Thoughts
Date: 2014-03-01 05:38 am (UTC)That's good to hear.
>> I found it a little...creepy is the closest word I can find, but it doesn't fit one hundred percent...that Phil was treating a person like a machine. <<
To me, it's creepy if people do that on purpose. If they don't really understand who JARVIS is, that's a bit different.
Then again, consider how many rich people treat other human beings pretty much like appliances.
>> I'm sure JARVIS gets it all the time, but it doesn't make it right. <<
True. On the other hand ... it's safer for JARVIS to watch people very carefully before revealing himself in full.
>> Now that you've explained that this is something JARVIS does, then I have a reference. I am one of those people that knows quite a bit of useless trivia, and I'm pretty good at research, so people are always coming to me for information. This sounds a lot like that. <<
Same here. I sometimes refer to myself as the Bard-O-Matic. And sometimes the universe directs people to me; I've had total strangers wander up and ask me to make book recommendations, or read labels to them.