Because of http://drunkardswalkforums.yuku.com/topic/7226]the recent heat wave, I haven't been getting as much sleep this week as I usually do. Thus, my heat-addled brain is also mildly sleep-deprived... and that leads me to free-associate quite a bit, but doubt the quality of the conclusions I come up with. So I offer this as something that I ask everyone to poke as many holes in as possible.
Aside from the classification systems in http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... telligence]the FenWiki article, there are two kinds of AIs in Fenspace: the ones who are based on existing fictional characters, and the ones who aren't.
This article isn't about the ones who aren't.
Most of the AIs who are based on existing fictional characters were created that way on purpose - Lebia, Yayoi, Nene, Catty, and many others are in this group. However, some of them weren't - Trigon, Buckaroo, Gina, and Haruka are examples here. Where did the baseline personality and skillset come from for the ones who weren't? (Gina is Gina because Ben was watching Evangelion on the computer he handwaved. But the others don't have that justification... and Gina could just as easily have been Misato, Rei, or Shinji. Likewise, Haruka could have been any of the other Senshi.)
Alternate realities containing people known as fictional characters in Fenspace were proven to exist in mid-2013. Also, part of the deCamp-Pratt hypothesis of multi-world existance (as described in the early "Harold Shea" stories) is that writers subconsciously tap into alternate realities and describe what happens there.
Putting these together...
What if the process of 'waving an AI into existance to be a particular character taps into that multiversal subconscious and copies the skills and personality traits from that character's mind? This would explain why AIs have skills that their parents don't (such as Yayoi's piloting skill and fluency in Japanese), and why they're sometimes not expected (such as Gina and Buckaroo's very existance).
The more work a person puts into getting an AI "just right", the more likely the copy will be from the particular version of the work desired by the person, but there's no guarantee that a particular AI won't be "contaminated" by fanfic (or canon, depending on preferences). Somebody 'waving Akane Tendo into existence after reading fanfic might get a homicidal maniac or Great Detective Akane instead of the "real" Akane. Somebody 'waving Xander Harris into existance might get the Everyman from early Buffy or the Marty Stu from so many Buffyfics.
Given this, what's happening inside the AI's head before he or she "wakes up"? Gina's origin provides a clue here - the AI has knowledge of him-, her-, or itself, but no knowledge of the outside world. This can be traumatic, or it can be forgotten when the AI first gains the ability to communicate with the outside world. If an AI was to retain some of those pre-awakening memories, it might be a very different person than expected...
There should be more here - this ends abruptly - but my mind is heat-addled and mildly sleep-deprived... Am I even on the right track here?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
Aside from the classification systems in http://www.fenspace.net/index.php5?titl ... telligence]the FenWiki article, there are two kinds of AIs in Fenspace: the ones who are based on existing fictional characters, and the ones who aren't.
This article isn't about the ones who aren't.
Most of the AIs who are based on existing fictional characters were created that way on purpose - Lebia, Yayoi, Nene, Catty, and many others are in this group. However, some of them weren't - Trigon, Buckaroo, Gina, and Haruka are examples here. Where did the baseline personality and skillset come from for the ones who weren't? (Gina is Gina because Ben was watching Evangelion on the computer he handwaved. But the others don't have that justification... and Gina could just as easily have been Misato, Rei, or Shinji. Likewise, Haruka could have been any of the other Senshi.)
Alternate realities containing people known as fictional characters in Fenspace were proven to exist in mid-2013. Also, part of the deCamp-Pratt hypothesis of multi-world existance (as described in the early "Harold Shea" stories) is that writers subconsciously tap into alternate realities and describe what happens there.
Putting these together...
What if the process of 'waving an AI into existance to be a particular character taps into that multiversal subconscious and copies the skills and personality traits from that character's mind? This would explain why AIs have skills that their parents don't (such as Yayoi's piloting skill and fluency in Japanese), and why they're sometimes not expected (such as Gina and Buckaroo's very existance).
The more work a person puts into getting an AI "just right", the more likely the copy will be from the particular version of the work desired by the person, but there's no guarantee that a particular AI won't be "contaminated" by fanfic (or canon, depending on preferences). Somebody 'waving Akane Tendo into existence after reading fanfic might get a homicidal maniac or Great Detective Akane instead of the "real" Akane. Somebody 'waving Xander Harris into existance might get the Everyman from early Buffy or the Marty Stu from so many Buffyfics.
Given this, what's happening inside the AI's head before he or she "wakes up"? Gina's origin provides a clue here - the AI has knowledge of him-, her-, or itself, but no knowledge of the outside world. This can be traumatic, or it can be forgotten when the AI first gains the ability to communicate with the outside world. If an AI was to retain some of those pre-awakening memories, it might be a very different person than expected...
There should be more here - this ends abruptly - but my mind is heat-addled and mildly sleep-deprived... Am I even on the right track here?
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012