People who Know Me Long Time would probably have guessed that given a choice between three factions of Humans, Swarming Aliens, and Artificial Intelligences, I'd pick the AIs over pretty much anything. I felt that Durandal (Marathon) and SHODAN (System Shock) and even 343 Guilty Spark (Halo) were incredibly, utterly awesome characters in their own right. I have no logical or rational reason for this other than sheer unbridled fanboyism.

Now, it's not that I liked them, as much as I liked thinking about them. AIs in fiction fascinate me, especially those which are supposed to be "more powerful", so to speak, than normal human beings. The AI could be the antagonist and I could be rooting for the protagonists as per usual and cheer when the AI is defeated, but until then, I want to learn as much about this AI as possible, and how it actually worked (within the confines of its fictional universe, of course). I suppose it's the appeal of seeing what a near-omnipotent non-human entity can and will do, and how it goes about doing it.

Therefore, when I finally picked up The Fall of Hyperion by Dan Simmons, I gravitated towards my usual interest, and the TechnoCore caught my immediate attention. I had read Hyperion (the previous and first book in the series) before that, but I wasn't used to the style of writing then, and so I'll probably be re-reading it soon.

But why did I pick up the books anyway? Simple: they were featured in The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. Specifically, The Fall of Hyperion was shown in episode 2 (Kyonologically), as Yuki Nagato was reading it. The following contains major spoilers for the Hyperion Cantos by Dan Simmons, as well as The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, for the entire anime run and up to volume 7 of the novels. Read on at your own risk. Also, I'm going to be going into Fanfiction What-If mode.

The parallels between Yuki Nagato and the Keats cybrid known as Joseph Severn (yes, I know it's a false name, but I'll use it for convenience, since that's what almost everyone else in the story calls him) in TFoH are hard to ignore. Both are creations of a Highly-Advanced Non-Human Intelligence with near-omnipotence: Yuki by the Integrated Sentient Data Entity, Severn by the TechnoCore. Both are sent to watch over Events of Momentuous Importance: Yuki over Haruhi Suzumiya, Severn over the Hegemony top brass and Meina Gladstone and the Shrike Pilgrims. And both have their Shadowy Opponents: Yuki has to protect the SOS Brigade from both the rival entity (translated temporarily as the Vast Quantum Existence) and dissidents in her own faction (Ryouko Asakura et al), and Severn is always in danger from the Volatiles and his own faction, the Stables.

Yes, I'm simplifying greatly.

What intrigues me is that Severn essentially decides to cut off ties with the TechnoCore (a mutual decision), and finishes the book as more or less an independent being (albeit without a body, since his cybrid body had succumbed to tuberculosis, as Keats himself did). Yuki, for her part, has stated that if anyone makes an attempt to harm any member of the SOS Brigade (specifically Kyon), she will not hesitate to stop them, even if it is her own boss that commands it.

Severn ends up (with Leigh Hunt, Gladstone's aide) in what is essentially a Time Out Corner. Severn has to talk to Ummon, the AI that seems to represent the Stables faction the best (and in fact, the only TechnoCore AI we actually see in the book) in order to figure out the majority of the book's major plot points. He had to die to escape.

Yuki seemed to be luckier. In "Snow Mountain Syndrome" (volume 6), she and the rest of the SOS Brigade were trapped in a pocket dimension (a mansion) of the Vast Quantum Entity's creation, and it took all of Yuki's efforts to give the slightest hint to the others on how to escape. But escape they did, and none the worse for wear.

The TechnoCore is attempting to build the Ultimate Intelligence, and when they do, far in the future, said Ultimate Intelligence, after cannibalizing the processing power of the AIs which made it, sent a message (presumably back in time) saying that there already was another god-like being, which the AIs called the "human god", to their Ultimate Intelligence's "machine god". And so these AIs of the future constructed the Shrike to go back into the past to force a confrontation with the human god.

The Integrated Sentient Data Entity sent Yuki Nagato to observe Haruhi Suzumiya, because Haruhi had abilities the ISDE did not have: specifically, the ability to create immense amounts of new data. The ISDE wishes to evolve to have this ability, and it wishes to see how this can be done from observing Haruhi, whom Koizumi had described as having powers equivalent to what humans would call a god.

Putting aside Koizumi and Mikuru, since their respective organizations are consistently described as being aware of each other (and the ISDE) but not directly affecting the others, the known agents of the ISDE and other entities of its ilk are Yuki Nagato, Ryouko Asakura, and (as revealed in interviews and official art and in volume 8) Emiri Kimidori. Of these three, Emiri is the one not associated with the ISDE, but also not associated with the Vast Quantum Existence. She's a member of a third group, which is presumably akin to the ISDE and the VQE.

Yuki and Ryouko are associated with the ISDE. Ryouko is supposed to be Yuki's backup, but decided to take matters into her own hands… or so we are led to believe. Is it possible that she had defected fully to some other side? The VQE, perhaps, or some other faction in the ISDE? Her final words to Kyon (outside of volume 4) did mention that some day Yuki's superiors might command Yuki to turn on the SOS Brigade, and that there were others like her in the ISDE. It remains to be seen whether these "others" have been organized into a coherent movement in the ISDE, or if they're waging some Doctrinal Conflict, as in the Stables and the Volatiles of the TechnoCore, or perhaps the Kzer-Za and the Kohr-Ah of the Star Control 2 Ur-Quan.

And Yuki, as mentioned, has been sent to observe Haruhi. So, in this case, who would be the best analogue for her, if one were to use TFoH? The Keats cybrid known as Joseph Severn?

Or the Shrike?

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