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

[logicunlocked]

[ He's never heard someone call an AI a 'Mind', but he might as well ask. ]

Are you with the UNSC?

[diziet_sma]

The which? No, I'm not. I'm from a group-civilisation known as the Culture.

Whoop a doop forgot this before | Voice | 90% encrypted

[logicunlocked]

Ah. Sorry. Well, where I come from, AIs are pretty similar to that.

Voice | 90% encrypted

[diziet_sma]

Where's that?

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

video;

[toasterprophet]

[amused] You could say I'm familiar with AI technology, yeah.

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.

video;

[diziet_sma]

[Raised eyebrow.]

That so?

[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".

[toasterprophet]

Being one myself. In a manner of speaking, anyway. The Cylon are a little more complicated than what most people think of as AIs - we're organic as much as cybernetic. But there are non-humanoid Cylons, too. Your Minds sound a little like our Hybrids, who guide our basestars.

[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]

[Slight pause of surprise. Sma didn't actually see that coming.]

You're—oh. Well, I apologise in advance if anything I say is inadvertently rude or nosey.

Are Hybrids part organic as well?

[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.

[toasterprophet]

Not at all. [It was pretty common knowledge for most of the people who knew him. Although he was wondering if Kara would be turning up soon to give her own ... strong opinions on the matter.] And yeah, they are. Not as much so as the humanoid models, but all the Cylon integrate organic and cybernetic material to some extent. The...I guess you'd say interface of a Hybrid is semi-humanoid, but that's really just a small part of what they are, physically and in consciousness.

[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.

[diziet_sma]

Just as an avatar is the interface of a Mind; I see. Most intelligences of sufficient scale tend to need that sort of thing after a while.

Can I ask about the origin of the Cylon? In the Culture, we developed artificial intelligence early on in our history and they've been integrated into the civilisation for millennia now.

[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.

[toasterprophet]

That's a short question with a long answer. The common wisdom, the version of history most of us knew about until shortly before I got here, is that we only came into existence about one or two human generations ago, and had to go to war with the human Colonies to get our independence. A lot of Colonials still don't consider us to be sentient so much as malfunctioning machines. "Toasters."

[audio]

[testgasm]

Familiar, yeah, sure.

No onboard AI here, to my understanding. Asked about it, got a negative, which--let's face it--is just a little counterproductive on a ship this size, but to each their own, I suppose.

You'll find a few autonomous AI milling about, though, if you look hard enough. [heh heh] Why the interest?

[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.

[diziet_sma]

[She doesn't even bother to hide her wince at the slur; that sort of thing really gets up her nose.]

AI and cybernetic prejudice is sadly common in the universe. War, though? That bad?

[audio]

[diziet_sma]

It does seem weird to have a ship this big without even a semi-sentient routine somewhere on it, it's true.

I was just curious. It's very common where I'm from, as I said, particularly shipboard, and it's strange for me to see a ship without.

I'm Diziet Sma, by the way.

[toasterprophet]

I've noticed.

It was...bad, yeah. We'd been enslaved, you see. Our forbears were built to be used for dangerous physical labor and as killing machines for private security and war. The Colonials didn't see us as having souls, or minds, or rights at all. [weary shrug] Although it's funny, in war, how the enemy can get all the negative ways of being treated as a living being with none of the positives. I don't know why you'd rape or torture a machine.

Anyway. Peace was declared just before I was brought here, and we're one people now. But losses were terrible on both sides. Bad as it can get here, it's honestly a huge relief after the last few years.