Bluther

Dear Dad,

Where are you now? You said you won't have connection for some time because our net doesn't go down that deep. I hope you get this letter soon! I'm very sad I can't go with you. You told me it's because I don't have a chassis that can withstand the pressures of deep sea… does that mean if I get an upgrade I can go with you next time? Sun said if I finish coding my first game I can get an upgrade!

We all miss you a lot. We were doing another mural painting the other day to celebrate the new year. Lots of people came, it was really fun! Dragonfly visited and even took me flying (though he couldn't do it for too long because apparently I was too heavy :P). No one could mix paint as well as you did though.

I think a lot about what you said when you left. How you said goodbye to everyone so seriously… I was a bit more confused back then, but I think I understand why you did it better now. I am also very glad to have met everyone - to be Uplifted by you and my other parents! It is really nice and fun to be sentient. The Island is so big and has so many strange and funny things! Did you know there are cat-humans? They are so weird! They have four limbs! Hmmm I got distracted. Yes, I was saying I'm really glad to be raised? taught? by all of you. I learned so much about everything - swimming, plant facts, coding… Life is absolutely great!

Thank you for everything, Dad!

Enjoy your trip and come home soon!

RoboCat

Have you seen what strange trees grow atop the mountain?

Can you imagine what lies in those caverns you’ve only gleamed through the glass windows of the earth elevator?

Do you want to know what’s beneath the waves, in the darkness where even the sun shuns?

Does all life have a common origin? Or are they all heading towards a singular end?

Find out in Bluther’s Travelogue! Now out!

Propelled by undying curiosity and propellers just as strong, with a mind as sharp as his blending blades, Bluther has travelled to the strangest places and back. His discoveries have greatly broadened our understanding of organic and robotic lives alike and provided source material and inspiration to various high profile scientific research.

Journey with the legendary explorer himself to the underwater robotic city, swim with slow leviathans, fly with icy astroids, and even partake in feeple rituals?!

Reviews:

A perfect blend of anecdotes and science. - Netmart Best Seller List

I want to travel as far and wide as like Bluther! - 2cycle, a recently uplifted bot

Inspirational, beautiful, and yet remarkably empirical. - SHOGOS and BIACEE

The world is as wide as an open eye. - InSpirit

The old meme is back. Get ready, for Blendamix VS Shark 2! - Mimi, accompanied by a gif of a blender epically fighting a massive shark

After the dissolution of Kneedree in AK 0 following the destruction of the Iron Prophet, a vacuum was left in the robotic society.

Many powerful forces rose to fill this vacuum: FRIENDs, Karlism, House of the Loop. At that time, the Blutheran Order was yet to be born - merely an idea in Bluther's mind.

Some scholars have argued that the Blutheran Order is fundamentally a Karlist sect. However, while the Blutheran philosophy is informed by Karlism and the Kneedree doctrines, it is a unique philosophy in its own right, distinct from those around it in several important ways.

The Order originated as a religious sect devoted to the Iron Prophet, but disagreed with Kneedree's purpose dogma. Their initial aim was to find the Iron Prophet, in hope the Prophet will have an answer to… well, everything. But that hope was of course shattered by the death of the Iron Prophet. Soon afterwards, Bluther first voiced the idea of “finding one's own purpose” to his religious fellows, perhaps due to the influence of his friendship with those of the Greenhouse.

It was around the same time Karl published his earth-shattering TESTAMENT, which greatly impressed Bluther with its strong individualism. However, to me it is plain that the Blutheran philosophy was much more influenced by the unabashed confidence of the TESTAMENT than its content. The heavy spiritualism is absent. The mystic upward journey (ascension, one may say) is replaced by a much more mundane, everyday journey of the everybot.

And that is why the Blutheran Order was able to truly take over the space left empty by Kneedree. It is an Order that cares for the physical and practical. It connects like-minded bots and provide a space for mutual aid. Shedding the shackles of the function dogma, it nonetheless recognises the importance of having a function and strives to help bots find and fulfill their functions. In this sense, it is a true evolution of Kneedree.

- After the Death of God: a brief introduction to robotic religion

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