| From: | "Robert A. Hayden" <hayden@*******.MANKATO.MSUS.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | More info and shit explained. |
| Date: | Thu, 14 Apr 1994 01:41:10 -0500 |
In all of the ShadowRun stories I've read, I only remember ONE instance
of an AI, and that was in the first Sam Verner trilogy. AIs have always
been a dream of the corps and something unattainable, able to be produced
only through great great effort or pure accident.
On ShadowTalk, I wanted to make sure that ANY AIs that came into being
didn't just pop into existance, that their life and very souls were the
product of purpose and meaning, not some munckinous quest for list-power.
MONICA and RUFUS, our first AIs, were the result of great effort.
Created by mapping a human personality into a computer and giving it a
jumpstart to allow it to live (plus the whole situation with Sierra/DOA
and Tommy Harada). CEROK, whas created without as much effort, followed
the same personality-mapping concept that created MONICA and RUFUS.
Soon after the end of Omega Island, PLOT-D was abuzz with some newbies
wanting to bring a "hoard" of AIs into the story. After a brief
discussion, we quickly decided that a 'hoard' of AIs would cheapen the
very primordial meaning of life that the concept of an AI holds dear, and
we put in the 'no munchkin characters' clause.
Thus, when I say 'no AIs', I'm saying, really, "Don't make an AI just to
make an AI. It cheapens the concept of life and insults us all."
Thus, when I talked about bringing CLU and SPRITE into play, I didn't
feel I was violating the _spirit_ of the rule (maybe the letter), because I
wasn't bringing in two characters because they were AIs, but because they
were character concepts that I felt confortable playing with.
===============================
Now, on to the question of "How the hell is CLU and SPRITE sentient".
Webster's says:
sen.tience \'sen-ch(e--)*n(t)s\ n 1: a sentient quality or state 2: a state
of elementary or undifferentiated consciousness
First, SPRITE:
MONICA is trying to create ultimate ICe. This is ICe that is
able to analyze, evaluate, adapt, and execute within the hostile
battlegrounds of the matrix, no matter the conditions. By that means,
they have elementary learning ability. SPRITE, is a prototype. MONICA
wrote her and activated her in order to fine tune the conditionals and
and intelligences that will be required for when she mass-produces her
matrix soldiers.
Because SPRITE has the ability to learn and adapt, it can be said
that she is capable of evolving, and may be alive. The next question, to
define other parameters necessary to be sentient, is "Does she have a
sense of self?" Ie, does she KNOW she is alive. Is she able to
recognize that she is thinking, as opposed to reacting blindly to
situations around her. [I think, therefore I am].
IF she knows she exists and IF she knows she is thinking then
we MUST assume that she is sentient. (NOTE, this is not a perfect
argument, as an infant would fail both these tests, but I still think it
is an interesting philisophical approach.)
Furthermore, does this being have a survival sense? Does it say,
when facing its own mortality "I don't want to die" (or at least do
something to avoid harm)? Does it care about those like it around it?
Does it have a curiosity for knowledge?
All of these things, when looked at together, can help to cement
how a complex ICe can suddenly cross the line into a simple AI.
Now, about CLU:
Ramirez, first off, is very old. He's been around for far longer than
he's willing to admit. He's been involved in computers since they were
more primitive than what we use today. He's a great programmer, and an
abstract programmer, to boot.
Now, he realized that to defeat MONICA, who he loathes because she is
evil (not because she's an AI), he'd need a tool that was able to keep up
with her. So, he purchased several high-end computer systems from
Yoshida, and has essentially been doing the same thing that MONICA has
been, creating a counter-ICe that is able to reason, analyze, learn, and
adapt in a way that hopefully would allow him to finally defeat MONICA.
He has no intention of trying to create an AI,a dn actually only
considers CLU to be a program or tool. It is when he discovers that CLU
does not want to die, that he realizes that he mistakenly created life.
As a result, in the end, he's going to destroy his notes and vow to never
again create life, because carbon beings are unable and unwilling to
understand life. We are not ready.
===============
As a side note, there was a Star Trek: TNG episode last year I believe,
where a scientist created a tool to do engineering work. The robot would
go into the situation, analyze it, and then create the best tool to deal
with the situation. They were able to work in conjunction.
The problem became when an emergency forced them to sacrifice the little
robots and Data recognized them as life, and it lead to the 25-minute
philisophical debate about what is life.
Anyways, they put the little robots through all kinds of tests designed
to determine if they were alive, and then the aprently failed. Actually,
they knew they were tests and thus responsed "wrongly". Anyways, in the
end, one of them sacrificed itself to save the others and the
Federation ended up declaring them to be alive.
========================
Anyways, I hope this clears up both WHY the No AI rule is there and the
spirit of it, why I don't feel wrong breaking the letter of this law, and
how I would classify CLU and SPRITE as sentient.
I've spent much of my educational life exploring the concept of life in
my own philisophical wanderings. Someday, we will discover inteligent
life that is not human. It may be terran and carbon based such as the
dolphin or whale. It may be non-terran and something we only imagine in
the movies. It might be extra-planar or ethereal. And it might be
created by technology and exist only in a machine. We MUST be willing to
accept ALL life as not only precious, but also as possible. Its a
strange, beautiful universe we are stepping into amd if we don't embrace
the possibilities, we are doomed to destroy it.
____ Robert A. Hayden <=> hayden@*******.mankato.msus.edu
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