Diplomacy by way of asking loaded questions.

[diziet_sma]

[Sma's been around, quietly keeping track of things and mostly being an observer of stuff. Her curiosity on a subject is now up, so have a video post.]

Hello, Tranquility.

So, I've been through a jump now as a resident and not a new arrival, and I've been watching things and—actually, let me give some context.

Where I come from, a ship this size would have what we call a Mind. It's an artificial intelligence that runs at a considerably higher rate of speed than the average human-form sentient. Some like to talk to the residents directly, and others create humanoid avatars for interactions. They've got interests, personalities, and a predilection for interesting names, like the Very Little Gravitas Indeed and the What Are the Civilian Applications?.

Our settlements are run by Minds as well. We've also got what we call drones, which are human-equivalent sentient AIs, operating independently of Minds. We also have sub-sentient AI for menial tasks—maintenance, that sort of thing.

So there's the context. What I'm wondering is—does the Tranquility have any kind of AI at work here? And are any of my fellow-passengers familiar with AI technology?

Comments

Voice | 90% encrypted

[diziet_sma]

Where's that?

Oh, and I'm Diziet Sma, by the way.

perma all of the above

[logicunlocked]

A different time and a different place, like most everyone here, it seems. I've never heard of the Culture.

[diziet_sma]

I haven't run into anyone here who has, or else they're keeping quiet about it.

[logicunlocked]

I haven't met anyone from where I'm from, either.

But yeah, I've known a lot of AIs, and they were all like you were talking about. Personality, likes, dislikes, all that.

[diziet_sma]

Some of ours have a little too much personality. But then you can say the same thing for a lot of organic sentients too.

What sort of role do AIs play in your society? Are they treated as equivalent citizens? There are some people in the Culture who would argue that the Minds are a de facto government, although they'd probably resist that interpretation. Not least because trying to govern the Culture is like ... I believe the Earth phrase is "herding cats".

[logicunlocked]

[ After a couple of the conversations he's had on this topic since arriving, he feels a bit wary of answering too in detail. His own history is so wrapped up in the fate of the Freelancer AIs and the fact that they were the result of splitting by torture, and the loss of Delta only makes that sting more. ]

Uh, well, they're mostly used for military applications. At least the smart ones--uh, that's what you would have called a Mind. The dumb ones, the ones more like what you called drones, sometimes they're used to help soldiers, but they do have them to help run city defenses and that kind of thing.

I don't think people have worked out yet whether AIs should be considered citizens. I had a helper AI before I came here, though, and he was definitely his own person. I miss him, a lot.

[diziet_sma]

[Sma imagines briefly Skaffen-Amtiskaw's reaction to being classified as "dumb" or a "helper" and only just manages not to laugh.]

I see. Ours operate in every sphere of life—keeping the ships and Orbitals running and so on, and on the very, very rare occasion, military engagements. Our drones are certainly human-equivalent citizens, though.

Back home, I've a drone partner of my own—I suppose you could say that it's a essentially a bodyguard and aide-de-camp or secretary. I've been hoping it would show up here on one of these jumps, but no such luck as yet.

[logicunlocked]

From that it sounds like it had its own body.

[diziet_sma]

It does. A ceramic-metal composite casing, about the size and shape of a small suitcase. It usually hovers at about eye-level and manipulates objects with its effector fields. And it goes by the name Skaffen-Amtiskaw.

[logicunlocked]

Oh. [ He almost laughs, because that sounds so odd. The only AI he'd ever heard of having its own body was Tex, and she was in a humanoid robot. ]

My helper AI was installed in a neural port, in the back of my neck. [ a hand goes to touch it, mindlessly, though she wouldn't be able to see him do that. He's been doing that whenever he especially misses Delta's presence. ] I guess you could say we shared a headspace. I'm still getting used to only having my thoughts to myself. It's kind of lonely, really. Anyway, yeah. He's called Delta.

[diziet_sma]

I've heard of shared mindspaces like that. Though generally we don't use them in the Culture—our AIs like a certain degree of physical autonomy when possible.

[logicunlocked]

That's interesting. D enjoyed being with me, I'm pretty sure. That's the sense I got from him, anyway. We could sort of read each other's emotions, you see.

[diziet_sma]

When mindspace sharing works, it can be rewarding and very productive. I'm glad it was for you, though I imagine it must be rough being without now.

[logicunlocked]

It... Yeah. It is. [ His tone is quieter at that. ] I kept looking for him at first, but. Well. I would have found him by now.