Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
[Story][Season 0] Scaling Issues
[Story][Season 0] Scaling Issues
#1
Scaling Issues - 17/Jul/2012
It was getting a bit much.  Arthur and Janet were effectively the manufacturing arm of a multi-million dollar industry.  Plus two human secretaries.  Kevin Wright and, he guessed, Nurse Blake.  Five people who did packing and shipping.  Eleven people.
He'd modified the original Body Builder so it could be directly controlled by Janet's AI core, then built two duplicate copies.  Same friendly quirks as the original, so, no problems.  Eventually they'd understood Kelly's crab-bot well enough to add a remote control interface, and it was now Janet's second remote, confined to the workshop.  It helped.
"Quantity has a quality all it own", a quote attributed to Stalin.  That was one good reason to mistrust it, but when you started to multiply things a thousand-fold life certainly started getting more interesting.  The "Wright Frame" was now so popular he'd backed-up orders for over two hundred; he'd only sold about a hundred, so far.  Projected sales of over two thousand for the year.
Interesting, it didn't seem to be something Fenspace had picked-up on.  Here in Mundania (one of his science fiction friends called it), it was going really well.  It was only months later that he found 'not licensed for off-planet use' in the terms and conditions.  Kevin Wright claimed that made it 'more sexy', would increase sales on Earth, and, anyhow, people who wanted one would just ignore it.
He'd reasonably complete plans for a fully automated factory when Miss Lidzt ('Dana'), his secretary, came to him.  She still used a gym to hang-on to as much of her good looks, as The Machine had given her, as possible.  While there she got to know another recently joined member, and things were going quite well.  Then she noticed the way discussions always drifted to her work, and began to wonder about industrial espionage.  The suggestion that her exercise partner knew where to get loans at really good rates also troubled her.
Arthur sat her down, and talked to Dana about her finances.  Then wrote her a large personal cheque that'd take a lot of immediate pressure off.  A call to Kevin Wright and they had contact numbers for a reputable investigations agency, that dealt with industrial problems.  They agreed to take the case, and strongly recommended getting the police involved.
"If I had an Angel to spare, she'd be going undercover at the gym, about now", thought Arthur.
What worried Arthur was that either he'd need a new AI to run an automated factory, Jenny certainly wouldn't do it (and he wouldn't let her).  Or, he'd need a lot of humans on a workforce, and any industrial secrets he had would disappear.  It wasn't that he distrusted people, in general, but with the wages he could pay and the bribery levels likely someone would sooner or later crack.  Also, if he went for the AI factory, the 'taking jobs from humans' people would be all over him.
Then there was Alice.  She'd arrived last week.  Her waved appearance wasn't quite as slick as the Hollywood Machine managed, but it was quite good enough to pass as human.  Unfortunately, the first thing she did was raise the back of her shirt to show him her serial number.  And, it was one of his.
He'd paid to have her stay in a local hotel, and a small stipend to keep her going.  Janet had gone out clothes shopping with her.  The only other thing she needed was a Nokia phone charger - better than relying on bare wires and guesswork.
Her story was she'd been waved up into consciousness, and effectively told she was an exotic sex slave.  Somewhere in Australia.  They seemed to think she'd be barely sentient, but she'd been smart enough to escape, stealing the other two, as yet unwaved, robots.  So, $150k worth?  How on Earth, or off it, had they planned to make their money back?
She made her way with a friendly group of Aussie students, who were returning to Dublin.  The unwaved robots were cached in Australia, and she could tell him their serial numbers.  Yes, they were his.
It'd taken him a while, but Arthur'd worked-out how to contact Sarah.  A proposed contract for collaborative work, with some carefully placed misspellings scattered through the text.  A covert message soon appeared, and he memorised it's content before it self-erased, as he thought it might.
Let's see how they could upset the slavers...
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Reply
 
#2
META "Scaling Issues"

Arthur is getting so totally out of his depth he's not sure he can see daylight, up there, any more.

The follows "AI Privacy", and is followed by "Warranty Void".
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Reply
 
#3
Well, if he continues getting deepre he should end up buried... but since he is the protagonist in a handwavium adventure, he probably will get so deep that he will come out on the other side.
Reply
 
#4
Yes, but, who do you ask for help? How do you find someone?
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Reply
 
#5
Yep. Unless I am mistaken, therse is not even a Convention yet ~checks wiki~ The Articles of Convention were signed in Floating Island Con in summer 2009, and the Treaty of Kandor will not be until March 2010, so he will have to find his own help, or learn how to do it himself.

Well, if you even get the interest for a political fic, I can see Arthur settign himself as one of the driving forces behind the Articles and/or the Treaty,all for the protection of his creations.
Reply
 
#6
Rakhasa Wrote:Yep. Unless I am mistaken, therse is not even a Convention yet ~checks wiki~ The Articles of Convention were signed in Floating Island Con in summer 2009, and the Treaty of Kandor will not be until March 2010, so he will have to find his own help, or learn how to do it himself.

Well, if you even get the interest for a political fic, I can see Arthur settign himself as one of the driving forces behind the Articles and/or the Treaty,all for the protection of his creations.
My first pass at a time-line for the 'Arthur' stories put this one at the start of December 2009.
So, Arthur hasn't had anything directly to do with The Articles.
But, I wouldn't put it past 'Angel' Sarah to have been involved, on some level.  She'd really enjoy that sort of thing.
I could see Arthur being involved in the Treaty of Kandor, the bits to do with non-homo sapiens rights as persons, anyhow.  Things like Turing Tests, maybe held in physically isolated Faraday Cages (with precautions against FTL communications, when that becomes an issue).  Need to make sure you're testing who you think you are...
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Reply
 
#7
I can see them putting a 'subject' in it in a double-blind test, throwing up a negative result.... only to find that it was in fact an ordinary person off the street. Back to the drawing board.

Ellison Voight and Allen Kampff have a lot of work left to do.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
Reply
 
#8
Dartz Wrote:I can see them putting a 'subject' in it in a double-blind test, throwing up a negative result.... only to find that it was in fact an ordinary person off the street. Back to the drawing board.

Ellison Voight and Allen Kampff have a lot of work left to do.
The Turing Test is arguable a test of role-playing (or, more crudely, lying).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turing_test
Can your AI role-playing being a human?
That sounds better than "we're designing AIs to lie so well humans can't spot them doing it".
But, your point is well taken.  Something might be intelligent, but do they have the "social intelligence" to get on with a human society?  Part of this is empathy and the ability to (correctly) model the behaviour of other intelligences.  Then, there is the matter of being concerned enough about those other intelligences to cooperate with them in cases when you have spare resources left over from what you need to survive.
Maybe that is the "Give A D*mn" Test? [grin]
(That is the religious version of the test, by the way. [grin] )
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Reply
 
#9
Most AIs in Fenspace are very humanlike. Both intelligence and social wise.
Reply
 
#10
HRogge Wrote:Most AIs in Fenspace are very humanlike. Both intelligence and social wise.
Is this part of the "handwavium being friendly" rule?
Or, is it based on expectations?
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Reply
 
#11
Ace Dreamer Wrote:
HRogge Wrote:Most AIs in Fenspace are very humanlike. Both intelligence and social wise.
Is this part of the "handwavium being friendly" rule?
Or, is it based on expectations?
Maybe even both. Most Fen AIs are the avatars of vehicles or androids... and most of them seem to be a human just with a different body.
Reply
 
#12
Ace Dreamer Wrote:But, your point is well taken.  Something might be intelligent, but do they have the "social intelligence" to get on with a human society?  Part of this is empathy and the ability to (correctly) model the behaviour of other intelligences.  Then, there is the matter of being concerned enough about those other intelligences to cooperate with them in cases when you have spare resources left over from what you need to survive.
By that definition, pre-SOScon Noah Scott would have trouble passing the test...
--
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
Reply
 
#13
robkelk Wrote:
Ace Dreamer Wrote:But, your point is well taken.  Something might be intelligent, but do they have the "social intelligence" to get on with a human society?  Part of this is empathy and the ability to (correctly) model the behaviour of other intelligences.  Then, there is the matter of being concerned enough about those other intelligences to cooperate with them in cases when you have spare resources left over from what you need to survive.
By that definition, pre-SOScon Noah Scott would have trouble passing the test...
I never said there might not be false negatives, as well as false positives. [grin]
--
"It is the business of the future to be dangerous" - Hawkwind
Reply


Forum Jump:


Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)