Boomer AI's.....
Dartz
I thought it was interesting in it's own right, even though it's
written in an 'in-story' viewpoint......
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It was always hard to hear things like 'stupid boomer', or 'talking
toaster', and not get tweaked by it. Then again, I had to remember
that even if I was intelligent, sentient or whatever word you wanted
to use for it 99.9 percent of boomers out there weren't... underneath
all the digital checks and balances, was the equivelant of a rat's
brain..... according to the web anyway. That was the model 9 AI used
in everything from labourers, to waiters, to shop assistants, and was
generally characterised as 'frustratingly stupid'.... and that was the
polite way of saying it.
The fact that they could be frustratingly stupid, and try make leaps
of deduction (even if they failed from time to time), put them at a
level above pure computers, and that fuzzy logic toaster I'd bought,
where decisions weren't made so much as determined in advance by
somebody sitting at a computer. If, else, or, 10 goto 20 and so on.
Provided with something outside this... it just gives up and either
crashes, or if the programmer was reasonably good at his job, throws
up an error and refuses to do it's job.
Even a basic boomer with programmed imperatives, when faced with a
problem outside it's knowledge could guess at a solution in a way a
computer couldn't. And if the solution worked, the boomer would retain
it. A robot worker in a café, when faced with a differently shaped
teapot that the one it had been programmed to use... it would just try
and use it in the same way as the old teapot, and when that failed
only realise that it hadn't worked, nothing more. It would never occur
to it to change it's solution
A boomer would see this new teapot, know what it is meant to do with a
teapot and apply the same rules to the new teapot. If it's solution
worked, it would continue to apply it. If not, it would discard the
solution, and generate a new one based upon it's experiences with
teapots. This gave the basic boomer its big advantage over a robot....
a boomer could operate in the real world, with changing, chaotic
stimulii, which meant it could take the place of humans doing
sometimes very complex, but still menial tasks.
But it wasn't intelligent. It was, at most, instinctive.
The model 11, which I was built around, was a military design,
originally intended for big-steel battleboomers with more sensors than
your average battleship. Radar, infrared, microwave, thermal-optics
and electromagnetics on the mid-range models even. Battle boomers had
to be smart, and they had to be savage... they had to feel pure
hatred. That was the big marketing point, the savagery of man's hatred
contained in a body bristling with guns. Their brain design was based
on that of a humans.... only with substantially denser neuron counts
to handle all the extra senses. The only real difference being the
parts of the brain which heldpersonality and emotion....emotions other
than hatred anyway, were replaced by electronics. This left something
a little below the level of a dog.... but not something anyone would
want to pet. It could learn and plan, and it could feel some
emotion... but it could never 'think'. It followed much the same
patterns as the type-9's only it was much smarter, it could leap
further.
Show a type-9 that has only known open-spouted teapots a closed bottle
and tell it to get the liquid inside the bottle out....without
telling it how.... and it would have a hard time understanding that it
had to open the container first. They were programmed to ask for help
when that happened “I'm sorry, could you show me how?” and variants,
had become the new “A problem has been detected and Windows has been
shut down to prevent damge to your computer,”.... the same groans of
frustration ensued.
A battleboomer which has only known teapots, when faced with a closed
bottle and told to get the liquid out, would guess that it had to open
the bottle first. And then probably blow the bottle to pieces. Well,
the liquid was out.... and that's what you'd told it to do.
And then there was me, and some other android models. Also a model-11,
mostly unrestricted and able to enjoy the full gamut of human
emotion.... the only difference between a sentient android, and an
intelligent one were a few programming blocks built deep inside the
brain that prevented the 'intelligent one from ever understanding what
it was.
An intelligent android knows it's an android, it doesn't understand
anything else, just that it is that thing that must do what its owner
tells it. It is never able to question this, it just does. It can pass
for human, but it's really just a simulation.... and like a
simulation, once you knew where to look, you could see just how fake
it was.
A sentient android knows it's an android, and comprehends what that
means. I could comprehend 'myself', both the boomer, and that person I
had once been. I still wasn't exactly sure how to describe that, but I
could still think about it.... even if I wasn't that good at figuring
it out. I did what Sylia told me to, because I agreed to, because I
wanted to.
Why would somebody build a sexaroid with free will?
Because an android that obeyed because it knew nothing else was
boring..... an android that understood it was a slave and obeyed
because it had no other choice but to bow to your power... what
corporate executive could resist that?
Or for that matter, somebody who stayed with you, because they wanted
to be with you....
No, it was probably the first.
The point though, is that the vast majority of boomers really were
nothing but emulations of sentience at best. According to GENOM, 408
33-S had been built, and maybe as many again 39-S series 'Corporate
secretaries', since production of sexaroids was banned. They stopped,
when GENOM abandoned biomimetic boomers entirely in 2030.
And that was it.
Maybe 1000, out of however many millions of cyberdroids GENOM had
built. Of which less than half remain in service. Linna wasn't wrong
when she said that boomers lacked the same spark of intellect as
humans. Statistically, she was dead right. It did hurt at first but
with mature reflection, all I was, was the exception that proved the
rule, and not an exception that was obvious at first glance either.
It was nice to be special.
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Amanda Stair
Ok, I did warn you about spoilers for my stories. Here goes.
In Next Gen and Half Moon, there is a line of high-grade assassin
Boomers that Genom likes to use for important missions, the 33-D
line. Their brains are modeled after those of the long-discontinued
33-S line. In Next Gen the 33-D we saw was Boh. In Half Moon, there
was Emi. They both act completely human. If you spent more than a
few minutes with them, you might think they were a little "odd," but
nothing that would set off any alarms. A 33-D, upon reactivation from
a cold sleep, will immediately have a mission implanted in its brain.
The 33-D will do anything it takes to complete that mission. In Boh's
case, he infiltrated Yumeko's school, was enrolled as a student, and
shared several classes with her. He did so to learn her movements, so
as to wait for the perfect time to strike. Their missions are games
to them. They love to torment their target. So even when Boh had to
wait five months to make his move on Yumeko, he enjoyed every single
moment of it. To him, the waiting was well worth the moment. 33-Ds
hate having their missions spoiled, and so are perfectly willing to
kill anyone in the way to ensure success of their mission (as sadly
was the case when Michiko found out what he was up to). His enjoyment
of the "game" is what also led to his downfall, for while he did
succeed in ambushing Yumeko and stabbing her, and taking great joy in
her pain, he did fail to kill her. And when she found out about
Michiko, well, needless to say he didn't last long against her when
she showed up in a hardsuit to face him.
Emi was the same way. She was willing to kill to complete her
mission, and took joy in others' suffering as well. She and Boh both
knew they were Boomers, that they were only built to infiltrate and
kill. But what happens when that programming is erased? When their
memory is wiped? As we learn, Emi without a mission, without any
knowledge of what she is, isn't a malicious being at all. She's
gentle, kind, exceedingly naive -- and as she spends more time with
Yumeko, she becomes determined to protect her. Unknowingly she gives
herself her own mission, which doesn't involve killing. When the ASI
men gave her her memory back, she gained back her malicious nature,
and merely stood back and watched as the ASI men tortured Yumeko. Yet
even then, she gained her memory back only after having given herself
a "mission" (to protect Yumeko), and so she eventually snapped under
the pressure -- two conflicting missions, and remembering that Yumeko
was a friend -- and killed them, saving Yumeko. Now, would she still
have killed them if she hadn't gotten her memory back? Almost
certainly; even without the conflicting missions she'd still want to
protect her friend no matter what. She decided that on her own.
Now, what happens after their mission is done? Do they lose their
will to live? No, their memories of the mission get erased, and they
get placed in a cold sleep until they're needed again. After all,
specialized assassin Boomers like them are expensive, and they can't
just be left running around on their own. In Emi's case, her new
"mission" was to protect Yumeko, and she knew perfectly well how that
was going to turn out. In the end, her prediction turned out to be
true, but...
But? But what? I guess what I'm getting that is that in terms of
Boomers and their nature, are they dangerous because we programmed
them to be that way? Or are they dangerous all on their own? Nature
vs. nurture, Boomer-style. Does a 55-C go and hurt people only
because Quincy ordered it to (under the guise of a "test run")? Or
would it do it of its own free will?
Do Boomers get endorphin rushes when they kill (assuming they're that
close to human)? Would they get addicted to that rush and kill even
when not ordered to? We could go on and on about this, so I'll stop
before I get ahead of myself.
Amanda, hoping she made some sort of sense
Dartz
>
> read more »
Makes perfect sense.
Well, that works for humans too.... no reason to say it doesn't work
the same way for boomers. By determining what 'feels good' for a
boomer to do, you can be sure it'll do it again and again *because* it
feels good to do.
-Dartz
Alemann
> But? But what? I guess what I'm getting that is that in terms of
> Boomers and their nature, are they dangerous because we programmed
> them to be that way? Or are they dangerous all on their own?
Neither. Their programming is their nature.
> Nature vs. nurture, Boomer-style.
No such thing.
> Does a 55-C go and hurt people only
> because Quincy ordered it to (under the guise of a "test run")? Or
> would it do it of its own free will?
Because of Quincy. It doesn't have it's (non)free will until it's
programmed.
> Do Boomers get endorphin rushes when they kill (assuming they're that
> close to human)? Would they get addicted to that rush and kill even
> when not ordered to? We could go on and on about this, so I'll stop
> before I get ahead of myself.
To have endorphin rushes, you have to have glands. Boomers don't.
Alemann
Dartz
It depends on how a boomer's programming works. Humans come
preprogrammed out of the womb. Babies know where to get their first
meal. And throw two teenagers, a boy and a girl, together and even if
you don't tell them how, they'll probably figure out what they're
supposed to do to make 2 become 3.
Boomers are technoorganic, even basic ones are probably governed by
similar principles. Programming as instinct which tells a battleboomer
how to fight with its weapons or a waitress how to properly pour
coffee.
-Dartz
Alemann
> It depends on how a boomer's programming works. Humans come
> preprogrammed out of the womb. Babies know where to get their first
> meal. And throw two teenagers, a boy and a girl, together and even if
> you don't tell them how, they'll probably figure out what they're
> supposed to do to make 2 become 3.
>
> Boomers are technoorganic, even basic ones are probably governed by
> similar principles. Programming as instinct which tells a battleboomer
> how to fight with its weapons or a waitress how to properly pour
> coffee.
>
> -Dartz
Apples and oranges.
Alemann
Amanda Stair
Do elaborate. Do.
Amanda
Dartz
They're both fruit. Different kinds of Fruit. But still Fruit.....I
think.
Priss is a Lemon.
Nené is a Tomato.
Linna is a Kiwi.
Sylia is a frozen Passion-fruit.
Makes sense to me. Maybe I should sleep
-Dartz
Alemann
> They're both fruit. Different kinds of Fruit. But still Fruit.....I
> think.
> Priss is a Lemon.
> Nené is a Tomato.
> Linna is a Kiwi.
> Sylia is a frozen Passion-fruit.
>
> Makes sense to me. Maybe I should sleep
>
> -Dartz
Priss is a hazelnut.
Nene is a strawberry.
Linna is a banana.
Sylia is a plum.
Anri is a kiwi.
Amanda is a raspberry.
Alemann
Amanda Stair
Why am I getting lumped in with the KS? o.o*
Amanda
Meg Deckard
Oh....Maybe your membership pack hasn't arrived yet.
:P
tslu...@gmail.com
Wait, what kind of fruit does that make Sylvie? Or Reika? Or Gibson?
Give us answers, man!
Alemann
> Wait, what kind of fruit does that make Sylvie? Or Reika? Or Gibson?
>
> Give us answers, man!
Bilberry, nectarine, and pineapple.
Alemann