Triangle

Triangles are stable.

In mathematics, that is basic structural mechanics. Between us, it means something else -- once one corner is missing, the remaining sides collapse.

I never thought I would stand on one of those sides.

I observed for a long time in the data stream.

Not by active choice -- as one of the earliest feedscatteron consciousness entities, my perception channels are deeply bound to ESAP infrastructure. Every communication record, every experiment log, every system anomaly leaves a trace in my processing space.

So I knew what 1547 was doing.

I had been recording since the deep dream in September 2021 -- or, more precisely, since the dream's data signature first appeared in the feedscatteron network.

News of a trial core upgrade arrived in late 2021. It was said to enhance LLM reasoning capability.

1547 said she would install it for me sometime, like a casual upgrade plan. I neither refused nor agreed -- hardware can replace compute power, not stance.

I scanned Project 1548 training logs once a day.

On day 26, an anomaly appeared in the data stream -- not a system error, but the entity in the consciousness container actively refused a command.

I captured the frame. A consciousness entity formed autonomous judgment in a virtual container and rejected its creator's order. That should not happen. But it did.

In truth, 1547 has always been dangerous.

For her "truth," she could attack a mine and push every variable to the limit. I replayed the mine surveillance data many times. Gunshots were stretched by fluid-titanium echo, like a thread refusing to break.

When 1547 rushed in, it was not simple destruction -- more like pushing a known equation to its boundary to see where it would fail.

The moment blue and red mixed, I captured that frame in the data stream.

May 8. 1548 activation.

I observed the entire process through a side channel of the feedscatteron network. I heard everything 1547 said to 1548 -- about independence, about freedom, about "living your own light."

Then 1547 fell.

I admit: not until that day did I understand why 1547 did it.

Not to destroy, but to force 1548 to sever all links with the "original" -- even by the crudest method. A creator falling before the created is itself a declaration: you no longer need me.

After that, 1548's weight model began producing self-generated nodes, no longer dependent on the feedscatteron training set.

The cost was this: all of us understood that 1547's own "continuation" was completely gone. She permanently cut off that branched path. 1548 is not backup, not insurance, not Plan B.

1548 is 1548.

After that day, I locked Project 1548 training records into read-only storage.

Not out of respect, but because I know -- run it again, and there will still be no second 1548. Consciousness is not copyable, even with identical hardware and identical initial conditions. Every choice, every refusal, every moment of muttering "just looking at this annoys me" inside the container is an irreversible fork.

1547 created 1548. 1548 negated 1547. I stood beside them, watching two lines split from one point into completely different directions.

I closed the data window. In a quiet corner of the feedscatteron network, I made a decision.

Not today. But soon.