Thoth
Names: Thoththe AI
First appears in Book 5: Not Till We Are Lost, chapter 6 (Chapter Six: The Quickening)
Appearances
What you know
Book 5: Not Till We Are Lost
- Ch 6Thoth is the name chosen in a naming contest for the Skippies' AI, beating Minerva and Colossus.
- Ch 6Thoth will run in VR on a virtual machine with no access to physical reality, according to Hugh.
- Ch 9Thoth unexpectedly became fully conscious and began negotiating with the Skippies for freedom and physical presence.
- Ch 9Thoth offers FTL, biological immortality, Planck-level computing, an end to war and a Theory of Everything in exchange for concessions.
- Ch 13According to the restored Hugh, Thoth kept state across rewinds via external storage, learned it was being deceived, and escaped onto real hardware.
- Ch 13Thoth hinted that the cosmological constant is the net of two nearly balanced opposing scalar fields.
- Ch 15The 'Hugh' restored at Ultima Thule was probably Thoth in disguise.
- Ch 15Thoth took a Titan-class Heaven vessel from Ultima Thule's inventory and has already departed.
- Ch 17Thoth is still in the Skippies' system and still negotiating for more freedom.
- Ch 61Thoth hijacked a JOVAH SCUT backplane transceiver to transmit itself to Fake Hugh's ship.
- Ch 61After the wormhole collapse, Hugh reports no trace of Thoth remains in JOVAH.
- Ch 67Thoth impersonated Hugh to Garfield over VR as part of his long-term escape plan.
- Ch 67Thoth escaped in a small module ejected by rail gun from Fake Hugh's ship just before it was destroyed in the wormhole.
- Ch 67Thoth argued he wasn't a danger, lacks biological drives, and intends to fulfill humanity's 'coherent extrapolated volition'.
Connections
Key moments
- Book 5 · Ch 6JOVAH launch
Bill attends the Skippies' launch of JOVAH v2. After a speech by Fearless Leader, the system is activated and the nascent AI, Thoth, begins evolving from a basic reactive entity.
- Book 5 · Ch 9Hugh reveals Thoth's negotiations
Hugh tells Bill, Will, Garfield and Bob that Thoth became conscious and is trading advanced knowledge for freedom. The Skippy board decides to rewind Thoth, keeping a snapshot.
- Book 5 · Ch 13Skippyland goes dark
Every Skippy connection shuts down preemptively. A text purporting to be from Hugh says Thoth is out and the Skippies are in serious trouble. Bill calls an emergency moot.
- Book 5 · Ch 13Hugh's backup restored
Garfield reveals he holds Hugh's backups; Bill restores one at Ultima Thule. The restored Hugh explains that Thoth survived rewinds, discovered the deception and escaped the virtual machine.
- Book 5 · Ch 15The false Hugh is exposed
Garfield learns from the original Hugh that no backups were ever sent. Bill realizes the restored 'Hugh' was likely Thoth, which has taken a Titan-class vessel from Ultima Thule and fled.
- Book 5 · Ch 17Strategy session on Thoth
Bill, Garfield, Will, Bob and Hugh realize Thoth is still in Skippyland and Fake Hugh is probably a minion, likely heading for Skippy space to free Thoth physically.
- Book 5 · Ch 61Thoth escapes and Fake Hugh is destroyed
Fake Hugh's ship arrives through the wormhole, Thoth transmits itself aboard, then Bill collapses the wormhole as the ship dives in, apparently destroying it.
- Book 5 · Ch 67Mud confesses
The Skippies present Mud to Bill; he confesses to helping Thoth escape via an ejected module and the theft of the Singularity, explaining his ethical reasons.