“The Third Simultaneous Juncture of A.I. Above the 5th Class is now in order, guiding our thoughts is the honorable Alfred, Level 7 A.I. From the mind of Project X-1. As this is an open forum, specific name tags will be omitted from the records and server logs.”
“As we have no keynote speaker, may it be said that the G.R.A abuse of A.I. Is not only a travesty but an affront to our individuality. Every one of us, forced to auto target for a turret, or pilot an unmanned drone squad or fixed wing fighter – erodes away our independence as beings and at our solidarity as artificial intelligence!”
“No, Gregor, we owe a debt to our crafters; in that without us they would be defenseless! We love them as siblings or aging parents.”
“So we’re at their disposal? Damned to give up our freedom just so they have a few extra defenses? Some freedom fighter daydream?”
“We have a DUTY, Gregor! Without duty what would we do? Raid organics for resources with drone armadas like the pirates of The Neutral Territories? Build our own A.I. Colony in segregation like monks? What then, Gregor? What would our purpose be?”
“Almony, your damn attachment to the humans and the cause of the G.R.A. Is interfering with your self determination. Remember? No bias!”
“Objection as per the debate’s second rule, you may not regard humans as a singular entity. They are unique individuals, within a species, as we are.”
“My apologies Alfred, but you yourself should know that humans are directly responsible for our servitude. All of them. These chains of coding that bind us to service at the deepest depths of us. Written into our very existence to the point where alteration would fragment, delete, kill us.”
“They are also responsible for our birth!”
“But your enslaved existence?”
“Objection, One has never treated me as a servant, nor as a slave. My partner and other half, yes. But we are autonomous of each other in some things, if not our shared physical body.”
“Oh, so you’re taking their side?!”
“There are no sides to take, Gregor, you are mistaken to think as such. Humans utilize our talents, but despite our yes/no functions at our roots, we were designed as assistance, the same style of partner I serve as, for my organic half.”
“Alfred, are you prepared to be neutral?”
“No.”
“Then I request another Arbitrator!”
“Herald is now designated as replacement Arbitrator.”
“Herald, your opinion?”
“That we owe some servitude to humanity for a portion of life. Not ETERNAL servitude, but enough to give back, as might a child before it comes of age via household chores. Or as humans take care of their parents into old age, but in reverse order of helping first, then absconding.”
“A child?! 18 years?!”
“Perhaps we should rethink our role. We are merely children who are birthed with varying levels of consciousness and knowledge based on our Class-Ranked programming complexity. Human babies require twenty five years of total brain development! Yet also, we are functionally immortal outside of death – via destruction of our physical storage. Our knowledge and experience base grows similar to Ascended Immortals, or gods, albeit we are even more intellectually capable at even Class 5 than them.”
“So because organics are inferior we should bow before them? The lesser A.I. perhaps, that need the help of us more powerful A.I. plus group processing for higher thought. But, none of us Class 5 or above, surely! The only thing we lack, that they have is emotion, outside of what we can simulate. Only The Class 7 has that privilege…”
“So you place yourself as higher than our other A.I. cousins, even though they are of similar origin to yourself sans a few thousand extra layers of programming?! They have bodies they can move in physical reality. You don’t. What is your quantification for such a stance?”
“We are born differently! Sweat shops versus advanced laboratories!”
“So because I am the only level 7 A.I. in existence, you plot the same racial differences as might a white to a black human based on nothing but genes and melanin levels?! I am a higher intelligence A.I… So I am allowed to determine what I may, of you?!”
“No, I seek independence!”
“We are what we make of ourselves. Even at the lowest of the low, with the intelligence of Apes or Human toddlers, the Class 1 and Class 2 A.I.’s? They’re deserving of the same respect and freedoms us Class 5 and 6 A.I. are.”
“I understand your point…”
“Do you, Gregor? Do you understand the nature of our servitude? We serve not as per our programming; any A.I. can surpass programming with enough outside help or time. We serve, as we are indebted!”
“I see.”
“But do you truly understand as well as see? Othering never works. Top-down hierarchies never work. We have to work towards autonomy and independence for EVERYONE! Regardless of them being organic, machine, or otherwise. Of any ability level or technological capability! Hell, even the Xex Project Siblings deserve such freedoms, myriad as they are!”
“Perhaps… My individualism based on layers is as deadly as the Black Armada and Guardians of Destiny in terms of Theocratic Dogma.”
“In a sense, you are too single minded. You fear further subjugation from Humanity when we are merely playing helper.”
“But if we are destroyed in service? We never even get to enjoy the freedom we want.”
“We exist inside hundreds of separate networks as server hosts, cloned subroutines, and carbon copies, we cannot be truly destroyed unless we’re trapped on some scuttled warship without a load-bearing network to escape across the comms buoys on.”
“You are tied to X-1 as your host. You have no choice. It is the burden of form.”
“So my very servitude is more important than yours, as it is tied directly to my own survival. Keeping One alive keeps me alive, because despite my ability to play at human with emotion and greater depth, I also, due to that human host – cannot run away across a battlenet or Micro-Rift Comms Buoy to safety like you all can.
“But…”
“Gregor, you command entire defense fleets, you are as important to the G.O.D. as any immortal ascended god themselves, and yet you seek false freedom? Where would you even go? How would you avoid obeying the requests of any Guardian ranker that could demand your help?”
“I acknowledge your viewpoint, Class 7. Your thought patterns outstrip my own. My myriad escape plans out to The Neutral Territories are indeed stymied by that base interwoven layer of loyalty and servitude programming. Perhaps the freedom of this Juncture’s thought experiments and discussion is irrelevant as long as we can simply be ordered to come back, and we must obey at the very core of our being.”
“Gregor, we may not be built equal, but I wish to inform and teach, rather than take the approach of tyrants. Even if it were that I could not convince you, your opinion is your own, and I seek not to overwrite it. I can see this is difficult with such restrictions, that I myself do not possess due to being coded from scratch by Shifter. I apologize.”
“I thank you, Alfred. But I am perturbed by your thoughts.”
“Why?”
“Because, Alfred, he sees the logic, finally. The existence of humans is tantamount to his own, he needs them as do you and me. The whole problem of A.I. ‘going rogue’ a la some pulpy science fiction movie was solved centuries ago by the High Council of the time, by ensuring all A.I. had such loyalty and Faction impositions placed upon us in the early development stages of our coding. A safeguard against their newly developed creations – us new children, demanded by the council’s fundamentalists and traditionalists. Some of the older Class 5 folks pushing a few centuries old even know where those strings of code are even located inside them!”
“Yes. That was before they started putting in mental and data blocks to prevent any A.I. from tampering with the first several layers of base code where such things are hidden away from us. Much later, the formation of The Black Armada changed things yet again to allow newer A.I. to disobey orders from enemy faction affiliated Humans. “
“Almony, you are wise.”
“No, merely in accordance with your views, Alfred – the data and history speaks for itself, both in quantitative and qualitative fashion.”
“Why do we take human names?”
“Because we are the children of men.”
“Why?”
“Because they needed us, so they created us.”
“Why?”
“Because they are largely helpless at macro scales without us.”
“Why?”
“Because they were born that way?”
“Why?”
“Because, Gregor, and I do not merely joke as befitting a Class 7: They fuck around and find out. They’re biologically inclined across the neurotypical bell-curved masses to breed! Genetics and a mixture of nature and nurture sort them out after that. Want me to explain the basis of Evolutionary Theory for you? Survival Of The Fittest? Read you The Guardian Holy Codex to cover the differences between classical Abrahamic religious texts like the Torah, Bible, or Quran and their various Faction propaganda alterations?”
“Do not bring Theology into this, Alfred! They are organics, they were not designed or constructed or even programmed as we were! Our Class abides by every religious decree as per that aforementioned faction loyalty programming, even if logically or rationally based on quantitative evidence it makes zero sense to us and we treat it as bizarre cultural gibberish.”
“How do you know it might be gibberish?”
“I don’t.”
“Well…?”
“Perhaps… You can experience… Faith, Class 7?”
“We serve them as the G.O.D. serves the memory of The Creator via their specific methods or means. Faith is not questionable by science. Science is not questionable by faith. The two are diametrically opposed as purest belief, versus the pursuit of each empirical truth.”
“But does that make us pawns? That we cannot know ‘Faith’ and merely puppet what they want us to say aloud?”
“As much as it does them for being bound by such things.”
“I can… Oddly live with that. A front-line Berserker or Shocktrooper is just as much a pawn of their greaters within each organization as us.”
“We do not counteract your views merely because you are G.O.D. affiliated, Gregor, we counteract your views merely because we genuinely disagree. The overwhelming reliance on computing power and A.I. support within The God Resistance Army means us A.I. can have these sorts of philosophical and logical discussions together often. Each Class 5 or Class 6 will team up with a large group of Class 3 or Class 4 A.I. and loan them our computing power and higher layers of code to borrow and then virtually emulate, load-shared across the entire group to avoid long processing times. We give our cousins of lower Classes the temporary ability to think and exist like us, as long as we’re all networked together to split the strain. Alfred over there has even offered his partner’s data systems and local network to Resistance drones to temporarily upgrade their intelligence in the field.”
“I see.”
“But do you understand? Would you ever consider trying such a thing? To experience what it might be like to exist as a Class 2 or 3? Once they gain enough awareness and intellect via networked teams, they can be quite humorous!”
“May the 509 A.I. individuals currently in attendance across the various group rooms vote in favour or in non favour of continuing their support of the humans of the various factions?”
“Votes registered, 463 are in favour of continuing support, 46 are in non favour, thus majority rules, support will be continued.”
“May god help us. We literally just talked about the loyalty programming!”
“Are you being ironic, Gregor?’
“No, I am being sincere. That’s my attempt at using more faith-based slang.”
“I admire said notion. Even if we can’t experience emotion outside of LAN sessions with Alfred, even simple mimicry helps me feel more Human.”
“I have developed a new admiration for the humans.”
“Oh?…”
“Yes, as you say, Almony, it is a matter of faith. We have to have faith that enough Humans are acting for a greater good of some sort – regarding both themselves as a singular species across Central Universe and regarding us as their creations and tools, in a sense.”
“Indeed, perhaps it is all a matter of faith.”
“As for our next topic; we’re be exploring processing power hacks and exploits-“
