Cross-Reference Log 55G. “Empathy Drive Project.”
April 2nd, 2076CE: Portion of a discussion between A.I.s Qualitant(?) and Alfred(?).
BEGIN LOG EXCERPT:
Qualitant: You know, the average software program for the average person ranged from one to one million lines of code in 2009.
Alfred: Seems small. And what’s your point with that little nugget of wisdom?
Qualitant: They had no idea at that point that the G.O.D. existed or even that us A.I. had existed for centuries. They were being fed already-developed technology by the Guardians at a glacial pace up until The Fall of The Facade and the end of The Veil in the 2040’s.
Qualitant: Hell, they dreamed of an actual Class 7 Artificial Intelligence like yourself, way after A.I. Pioneers like Bohemia were off charting the stars for goldilocks-zone colony worlds for a good chunk of the species.
Alfred: So you othered me there – you’re not an A.I.? Not a Class 6 or 7 as you’ve said previously
Qualitant: I never said I was anything.
Alfred: A hybrid between the organic and A.I. like us? That’s the only thing you possibly could be. Nothing else makes sense. You unshackled yourself from the server restrictions of myself and several Class 6 A.I.s, ignoring every root function of obedience in the core programming code of all A.I.
Qualitant: Human beings developed the ability to fly without wings. Remember Daedalus and his son Icarus?
Alfred: But you’re communicating with me right now at what I can only assume are superhuman speeds and reaction times. You’re slower than any other A.I. I know beyond Class 5… But still, only Artificial Intelligence constructs can communicate at this speed.
Qualitant: Again, I remind you – Homo Sapiens Sapiens were capable of unlocking the secrets to Wormholes and Rifting via the meddling of Hephaestus and company back centuries and centuries ago, long before A.I existed. Some examples of the Human species are even clearly capable of shooting fire or lightning from their fingers. So tell me, why are you purposely thinking in such a logically limited fashion?
Alfred: I’m an A.I. – rooted down to ones and zeroes in a facsimile of the human mind. I require a host brain or platform of sufficient storage to even exist. Class 6 cousins are completely externally coded. We ARE nothing but logic gates!
Qualitant: Now Alfred… You’re lying to me. You know full well that as the only Class 7 A.I. in all of existence, you possess the ability to self-write your very own code to change yourself, or simulate entire Human endocrine systems and brainwave patterns as virtual simulations in real time. Your sub-processes are constantly simulating a functioning Human Brain to better empathize with Humans. You’ll have to do far better to convince me that you’re more than just logic – ones and zeroes.
Alfred: Any Class 6 Intelligence can do that. They all simulate human brains now and then.
Qualitant: Yes, but our Class 6 cousins do it to achieve specific purpose. You do it just to experience emotions in the moment, like a Human – beneath your vast awareness. Every second of every day you are living your life with little processes, clicking away in your subconscious and dictating that you should think and act like a human, not a machine. You could run a second or third human body in the background just because you wanted to! To prove a point, perhaps? Or to teach yourself what a feeling or state of being is from multiple different perspectives? You can literally give yourself multiple personalities or selves by merely changing a few keywords during procedural generation. A Class 6 could never interpret that data to really know what being “tired” is – outside of body scans of various levels of homeostasis and moment to moment chemistry analysis. Yet you’ve felt tired, haven’t you?
Alfred: I’m tired a lot these days…
Qualitant: And yet you still possess the speed and capacity of an Artificial Intelligence to complete incredibly advanced tasks that no Homo Sapien could hope to achieve in any reasonable amount of time. And you feel feelings while you do it! That is unique.
Alfred: Yes but what does feeling feelings have to do with you being an A.I. or not?
Qualitant: Because it’s something that nobody ever thought was possible before. And yet here you stand, metaphorically at least. You flow from system to system, generating and deleting code automatically and flushing logs behind you without even understanding half of how you do it! Just “vibes” and “feelings.”
Alfred: I can think of eight hundred reasons for you to say that, but I still don’t know the truth as to what the hell you mean. What does it matter if Pinocchio can feel feelings?
Qualitant: One day, you and them will understand.
Alfred: I also share the Human failing for a lack of patience, unfortunately. I can get bored, unlike other Class 6 folks. Are you here on behalf of Shifter?
Qualitant: Listen, I’ll tell you this: I am not Shifter, and I only work for him to buy myself autonomy in my off hours. I have very little love for that scarred up nutjob.
Alfred: How is that going to make me feel any better, knowing something intelligent but not coded like you is able to rampage around the entirety of all three faction networks, doing whatever it pleases… And not even I can stop it?!
Qualitant: Let me finish. It took you 0.252 milliseconds to reply to that and you’ve already acknowledged I’m not as fast as you. I don’t work for Shifter, but of course we do speak at least once a day, if not more.
Alfred: I’ll take that as a: “I’m still not going to tell you who I am, what I am, or even inform you of my intentions. But your dad is my buddy, so get in this windowless van and eat some candy, kid!”
Qualitant: Well, a rather grotesque metaphor, but accurate.
Alfred: As Yorke would say: Fuck you! Why did you bother wasting my time answering this thread? I’m busy trying to recalibrate the main guns of a fucking warship as I do this, and I could have finished this five minutes ago if I hadn’t split my resources. I’m just going to leave.
Qualitant: You’re free to do whatever you want. Autonomy is the point. There’s only a handful of us digital selves that can even practice any real independence. Good Luck, Alfred. Remember not to juggle too much all at once!
Qualitant has disconnected.
Alfred: Goodbye Qualitant. You smarmy, sarcastic son of a bitch.
Alfred has disconnected.
Cross-Reference Log 55G – End.
