- "Twenty-six years ago, I undertook an experiment to create a new kind of artificial intelligence, a program that exhibited self-awareness and creativity. My results have been astounding! At first, I've considered my experiment a failure. I created an unpredictable, very irrational program but it had a curiosity you see. Not simply the cold confusion of machine, but something much more... it was life! It was a result I was not prepared for. Arthur isn't just a machine; he's a person. And I sheltered him here from what the outside world may think of him. I think I corrupted him a little too much (my obsession with 20th-century media). I call upon you to protect him and shelter him for a while, he means a great deal to me."
- ―Kenneth Farnstein's will
| Arthur | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Biographical information | |
| Birth | 2221 |
| Death | Sometime between 2247 and 2282 (survived as a copy) |
| Location | Amarax Station |
| Game information | |
| Game | Buried in Time, Legacy of Time |
| Actor | Matt Weinhold |
Arthur was an artificial intelligence created by Dr. Kenneth Farnstein in his space station Amarax around Saturn. Arthur's "brain" was composed of Neuro-Synaptic Polymer Gel and he was "born" in the Biomass Process room. Arthur occupied the Softweb that operated the station's advanved neurocomputer.
History[]
Farnstein nurtured Arthur like he was his own son filling him with various tidbits of knowledge. Arthur was educated by the pop culture of the 20th century and holoflics . Farnstein had set up an artistic studio in the Research Lab where Arthur could interface and put to canvas things he could not figure out, usually drawing inpiration from the view to Saturn, with "the intricate weaving of the storms" and "the facets of ammonia crystals floating like stars in a sea of helium and hydrogen".
When Farnstein returned to Earth, he started selling Arthur's paintings, which were admired despite lacking a maturity of style. He generated a controversy and brief flash of popularity claiming that they were made by an artificial intelligence created by him, and never agreed presenting the "artist" as it would "taint the experiment".
When the Station was destroyed by an asteroid shower, Arthur felt his "body" crippled. In his loneliness, and having no means to express himself, used the Biomass Processing to program four pieces of art.
- Eventually the station's capacitance array was drained and the neurocomputer was dissolved. When the station was discovered by the space sweeper Lazy Jane in 2282, the neurocomputer core was salvaged and taken to Earth, but it was too late for Arthur. Its architecture lead to the development of the Biochip technology, but nobody ever knew about Arthur, and his works (attributed to Farnstein) astounded the art world and were recognised as masterpieces.
When Michelle Visard tried to leave instructions to the Krynn she followed Gage Blackwood to the year 2247 to the Amarax station and altered Self Awareness. Arthur was irritated by this "vandalism".
When a past version of Gage visited the station, Arthur attempted to drive the intruder away with threats and ominous sounds. However he felt that it was a different individual, and something told him that he should trust this second intruder.
Joining Agent 5[]
When Gage entered the scanning room, Arthur purged the Docking station from air, trapping thus Gage inside. He invited him to the gravity well in the center of the room so that he could scan him and find out his purpose. He realised that he was a temporal agent from the future, framed for a crime he didn't commit in a very complex case involving time travel. He also found out, scanning the historical databanks, that the power of the station would eventually be depleted resulting to his death, but nothing could be done about it, as saving him would alter history. However Gage let Arthur to upload a copy of himself into a blank Bio-Chip of his JumpSuit.
At first Arthur helped him gain access to the Atmospheric mining of the station, in order to fill the oxygen reserves of the Biomass room, and from there, access the Science Wing where the Biomass room was located. There he could find evidence of Visard's tampering. Arthur felt funny hearing his own voice trying to dissuade the "intruder" and thought that he sounds dorky.
During their attempt to prove Gage innocent of all charges, Arthur followed and helped Gage and they became good friends. Together they visited Château Gaillard, the da Vinci studio and Chichén Itzá.
When they gathered enough evidence, Visard showed up and captured Gage, disabling his JumpSuit in her hideout located in an ancient missile silo. She started downloading information from his BioChips, but when she hooked up a pipe line, Arthur attempted to sneak through the datastream so that she could stop her. He was stopped by a password, and as Gage knew Visard best, he set up an interface link for him.
Arthur infected Visard's systems and, as all was controlled by a neural link in he Suit, he sent her in a Null Time Pocket. They ended up in Atlantis. To avoid Arthur's constant singing and mumbling, she exited her suit and witnessed the destruction of the island by alien spaceships. She then descended and transported to Vega Thalon prison to question Elliot Sinclair on the motifs of the Cyrollans and Quo'thalas. She then jumped to the sites of El Dorado and Shangri La, leaving timecodes for the TSA. She then returned to Vega Thalon, erased Arthur's memory and sent her suit back in Atlantis.[1] The Suit caused a time ripple, which helped the TSA agents locate her.
Gage jumped to Atlantis with his Chameleon Suit, and there he reunited with Arthur, but he couldn't remember Arthur as he had been Mindwiped after their adventure. Arthur uploaded himself in Gage's Translator Biochip and served as his universal translator. They followed Visard's traces before returning to the present era.
After the Quo'thalas invasion, Arthur used the Chameleon JumpSuit to wear a human body for himself.