What does Ivy know?

[g33k]

We know that she sees/knows/whatever everything that gets written down.

We have WoJ, IIRC, that this includes teh Interwebz.

What about non-text?  Drawings, paintings, etc?  Does she "know" all the labels on a technical drawing, but not see the image they are labeling?  She know all the praise heaped in print onto the Mona Lisa, but does she need to go see it in-person to know what all the hype is about?

She saw the script for Star Wars (and every other movie, including those that never got beyond the script) but does she "see" the movies that are made, as they are recorded onto film (and now digital)?

Speaking of digital (and teh Interwebz) -- that all comes down to 1's & 0's, which is textual (digits being text) in addition to being logical... so does that mean everything online, not just stuff that's obviously-text?


I mean, I can see all manner of grand strategic (and even close-tactical) advantages.

But... I'm being kind of skeeved-out here.  All that porn, all that hate-speech, private journals of the psychotic, etc etc etc...  In the head of little Ivy.
 
What about it, folks?  Ya got any sort of relief for me, from my creepy ideas?

[Snark Knight]

I believe the WOJ about her getting the internet said it included the disturbing stuff. The archive construct was absolutely not meant to cope with the sheer amount of information online in the modern era, let alone the psychological effects of being flooded with all the nasty bits. It's a minor wonder she hasn't gone all Ultron already. But she is capable of deleting information for the oblivion beings that have been out-of-print for a thousand years. She may be adapting the same to, say, filter all YouTube comments directly to spam.

The catch-all of any knowledge meant to be recorded also includes pictures, oral traditions, etc though. Probably even include Maggie Sr.'s map of the Ways stored in the gemstone Harry got.

[Mira]

Ivy doesn't know anymore than any other intelligent girl her age, she is merely a vessel... Now the Archive, that is a different story and I believe it was said it knows everything that has been written down and is currently written down..

[pcpoet]

I think the archive and ivy are two distinct personalities.  I think the archive does its best to protect ivy but cant because at the same time they are the same entity.

[Mira]

I think the archive and ivy are two distinct personalities.  I think the archive does its best to protect ivy but cant because at the same time they are the same entity.

I doubt that it does,  in fact it is the vessel that seems to give up everything to accommodate the Archive...   This was a huge factor as to why Ivy's mother suicided at a young age, remember Luccio got on Harry for even giving little Ivy a name.

[pcpoet]

does Lucio even understand the archive in anything but a superficial manor.  split personalities happen in humans to protect the ego when abuse happens. the archive is an inventorying system for information passed down daughter to daughter. it is a mantel that was created all  Ivy is the set of experiences that has happened out side of the info being stored by the mantle ivy can if she chooses access this info if the archive chooses to allow it. remember when Dresden wanted some info to save his daughter and ivy knew she had it but could not access it to give to Dresden in the end as a work around she could tell him who to go to and ask to get the info. this tells me that ivy only has access to the info of the archive when the archive believes it is fulfilling its function.  the archive seeks to protect ivy but when it comes to its mission and stated purpose will sacrifice the sanity to fulfil its purpose.

[Bad Alias]

Ivy couldn't give him the information. Nothing says she couldn't access it.

[Kindler]

My grandfather, later in his life, was an early software developer. Everything he did was in machine code, so the guy could read binary as easily as you could read English (maybe as well as a bilingual person could read in their non-native language).

I'd argue that yes, she does know images, videos, etc. Her line when she explains what the Archive is in Death Masks is, "I know it. I understand it." So even if she doesn't have direct access to the images, she understands binary (and any other language format) so well that she can see the pictures they create.

[morriswalters]

It all depends on just exactly what Jim means by anything all human knowledge.  If he means something produced by printing or writing, most images wouldn't be up for grabs for her.  And neither would the internet.  But if you don't include digital collections then the archive could never be sure that all the data she is trying to suppress was really gone.  Since printed pages can exist as image files.

[Kindler]

Agreed. Consider hieroglyphic or pictograph written languages, too.
Though, what about oral histories? Some Native American tribes, for instance, don't write all (or any) of their stories. What if Shzgoriata'gl is part of those stories?

[Avernite]

Agreed. Consider hieroglyphic or pictograph written languages, too.
Though, what about oral histories? Some Native American tribes, for instance, don't write all (or any) of their stories. What if Shzgoriata'gl is part of those stories?

Well maybe that's why so many tribal stories have gotten written down over the years (or the tribes/their culture wiped out).

[g33k]

It all depends on just exactly what Jim means by anything all human knowledge.  If he means something produced by printing or writing, most images wouldn't be up for grabs for her.  And neither would the internet.  But if you don't include digital collections then the archive could never be sure that all the data she is trying to suppress was really gone.  Since printed pages can exist as image files.

I believe there is WOJ that the Internet is specifically included... and it's kind of stressing the functionality of the Archive.

This will explicitly also include all sorts of encryption, steganography, etc etc etc:  you need to enter the cleartext for the encryption-algorithm to work on, and BOOM, Bob's yerIvy's uncle.

I remain unclear about things that are simply art, graphics (e.g. the Mona Lisa, and films like Star Wars, etc etc etc), that don't incorporate text (modulo signatures on paintings, credits/subtitles/etc in movies, etc).
 

[Bad Alias]

Ivy: One day, you need to tell me what
went on between you two.
Kincaid: Interesting. So HE never wrote it down either.
Ivy: I do not enjoy not knowing.
Kincaid: I enjoy you not knowing.

Dresden Files Accelerated-RPG Manual "by Ivy"