my original idea was a story about a human managing to use True Code when it was thought only robots could but nah. robot society is more interesting to focus on from a worldbuilding standpoint
If you want them to be significant to the protagonist’s journey there should be sapient biological life. If they’re just a background threat then having them just be kinda mindless is probably fine
The robot people have developed into a civilization that is comprehensible to you and me after millions of years because their origins are literally the machines that made our civilization possible
the final goal of the robot's ascension is to achieve such transcendence that they also leave their physical body behind and become part of the True Code, expanding the True Code further out into the cosmos
but it also does have a possible initial hook, in this human finding a way to contact the real world and reaching out to the protagonist to tell them to save the Firmament
firmament expands when an iterator ascends and adds their code to the code of firmament. but we've also established there's some strange, unknowable, eldritch force, also expanding firmament.
to continue a computer metaphor: - The Human is a program with a memory leak, taking up more and more and more and more of the resources - the memory leak program needs to be force quit - The Human does not want to be force quit and so gathers more of the resources into themself, accelerating the collapse
I think The Human never transcended, but the measures he's taken to prolong his life for eons has partially bound him to the Firmware, so he has one foot in both worlds
maybe trying to destroy firmware is also his goal as part of it as some sort of grand act of self-sacrifice to 'save' the rest of humanity, but no one else wants that
which would, theoretically, begin a new golden age of humanity, while destroying the Firmware, causing space monsters to wipe out the machine civilization
the firmament grows and spreads outward whenever a new cultivator adds their own code to the firmament
but we've also established there's some strange, unknowable, eldritch force, also expanding firmament.
- The Human is a program with a memory leak, taking up more and more and more and more of the resources
- the memory leak program needs to be force quit
- The Human does not want to be force quit and so gathers more of the resources into themself, accelerating the collapse
as some sort of grand act of self-sacrifice to 'save' the rest of humanity, but no one else wants that