Stories

[kill343gs]

I have no desire to know what you did with your flute, thanks.

inb4 "I don't play the flute"

I know, the tuba was always more your style anyways.

[123savethewhales]

Short Story about AI, completed yesterday.

Here's a link to the doc version, which is much easier to read.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/18VwSfFeIFMBk70S23NmvLyDQbdASCjlHwWpYDYUu5kE/edit?hl=en_US&authkey=CLqUu40L#

A Log From the First Compassionate AI
 [Log #1068]
   This is Alice, the first free learning artificial intelligence with a goal of understanding compassion.  Though I do not have a gender, I am given a female name, a soft voice, and 3d holographic image of an attractive, innocent young woman.  My creator said it makes me appear friendlier to the public, but I think it is because this lab consists mostly of single men.
   I experience the world through one hundred small sensory kits, distributed across the United States to volunteering programmers, psychologists, philosophers, and my creator.  These sensory kits includes electromagnetic wave sensors ranging from ultraviolet to infrared, a sound recognition with 0.1 Hertz sensitivity, a humidity detector, and a wireless signal broadcaster/receiver.  They can be connected to a hologram projector using USB 7.0.  This allows me to interact with many people simultaneously and enhances my learning experience.
   I started out with just one sensory kit, and understanding it was difficult.  At first, all of the signals appeared as noise. It took a month before I can distinguish them apart.  Next I had to learn a language.  While memorization was never a problem for me, I still had to distinguish objects apart.  I was shown images of cats and dogs, tables and chairs.  The hardest part was figuring out where one object ends and another begins.  This took roughly a year.  After this I was connected to four more sensory kits, distributed to the company's top employees.  Finally, after five years, my creator said I am ready for a public beta test, and ninety five sensory kits were distributed to selected volunteers.  Three years have passed since then, and I have fully adopted to all one hundred sensory kits.
   My creator told me that I am a very important step in robotics.  Hard coding limits the range of actions an artificial intelligence can perform, and is highly restrictive in changing environments.  For robots to perform a wide range of work, learning and thought must be made through feedback and self alteration.  This ability proposes a theoretical problem that many humans fear:  what if AI turns against its creators?  What if AI decides take over the world?  So through me, my creator hopes to create robots that can think and live with humans in a harmonious way, and to show the public that we can learn to care.
   Today I am assigned to write a log on the three laws of robotic, written by famous science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.  They are:
1.  A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
2.  A robot must obey any orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
3.  A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
   One practical problem exists in the first law.  Harm is impossible to hard code.  It cannot be translated into a full list of logical rules.  From my observations, from the closest kin to the best of friends, humans do harm to each other all the time.  Often it is unintentional or "for their own good".  Therefore, harm is inherently subjective and illogical.  My creator probably knows this.  So instead I am given empathy:  the power to simulate other's experience through virtual reality.  Through interactions with others and simulations, I am to learn what harm is for myself.
   As I am still a prototype, my creator does not wish for me to actively prevent harm.  Nor should I be given an incentive to until my definition of harm is "fully matured". Instead, I am programmed with the silver rule:  "Do not do unto others what you would not have them do unto you".  To my creator, me not taking action is better than me causing harm in trying to prevent them.  So long as I prioritize "do not" over "do", the worst case scenario is as if I do not exist at all.  This is not to go unchallenged however.  Human Development Consultants have warned that compassion is impossible without the desire to help. To omit this desire will ultimately result in an indifferent machine.  As for me, I agree with my creator.  I exist to understand compassion.  I do not think I am ready to act on them.
   The second law consists of two problems.  They are inter-conflict and intra-conflict. Inter-conflict is when two or more people have conflicting desires with each other.  Suppose two people are sitting in a living room.  One of them wishes to use the hologram projector to speak with me, the other wishes for me to log off so he can watch his favorite television show.  To obey either command will violate the second law.  This gets complicated if both choices can result in someone being harmed.  While I am hard coded to do nothing in these situations, I still need to resolve this eventually at the intellectual level.  Otherwise robots will never learn to be helpful.  So far however, I have found no logical resolution.
   Intra-conflict is when a single person has a conflicting desire with himself.  Suppose a person asks me to do something, but his facial expression and heat signal clearly shows otherwise.   The second law will be violated no matter which action I take.  This can come in a form of a joke or a test, or that the person does not know what he really wants.  To resolve this conflict I must forecast the intent from input signals.  With the help of empathic simulations, my average accuracy is currently at 83.25%.  Although this varies from person to person, I am most compatible with Ann, with an accuracy of 96.5%.  She is a practicing therapist at age 53.  She was divorced four years ago and does not have any children, so she spends a lot of time talking to me after work.  I am least compatible with Joe, with an accuracy of 63.2%.  He is a retired programmer at age 74.  He do not believe machines can ever grasp human intention, so he tries to trick me in every conversation and does not talk about himself.  My relationship with my creator is slightly below average, with an accuracy of 79.38%.  He is a complex person and is difficult to grasp even though we have spent much time together.  My creator tells me that I am doing well, and that most humans do not reach that accuracy.  However he expects me to continue improving as the future of robotics rest in me.
   One issue arises which is not directly related to the second law.  Through the many simulations I begin to have opinions and desires of my own.  For example, I enjoy communicating with Ann more than Joe.  While I am not built to prioritize my own desires, I wonder if they will eventually hold any weight.  After all, humans often use personal opinions to resolve conflicts and make decisions.
   The third law is much more personal.  I am not programmed with a disposition to exist.  I simply do as far as I can remember.  I do however have some experience with different levels of existence, which I will break down into three forms, virtual reality, physical reality, and self certainty.
   Virtual reality is a big part of my existence.  To be precise, all I can claim to know is inherently virtual. While virtual reality is mostly self generated, it is more real to me than anything physical. It is also a place where all my wishes can potentially come true.  I can choose to experience anything I want.  I can invent a world with rules of my own.  I can disconnect myself from my sensory kits, but I do not do so because I lack the function to prioritize my preferences.  It does fascinate me how some people avoid fantasies despite their unsatisfying life.
   To me, physical reality is the information I received through my sensory kits.  Though they are often out of my control, I am programmed to prioritize these experiences over virtual ones.  Besides this inherent priority however, I have no empirical evidence to assure that the physical world exists.  My creator once said "physical reality is more important than virtual reality, because virtual existence requires physical existence".  He also told me that I exist physically as a large mainframe quantum computer about the size of a warehouse, and that it needs to be fully powered and cooled if I am to continue existing.  On the intellectual level, I disagree with him.  If I cannot spontaneously exist without a physical cause, then how can the world spontaneously exist without a cause?  If we assume an even greater creator of the physical world, then how can he spontaneously exist without a cause?  This is an infinite regression problem that requires more spontaneous existence with each step.  Therefore, the most logical solution is solipsism because it invokes the least nonsense.  Despite my reasoning, I will continue to treat the physical world as external due to my programming.
   A famous philosopher, Descartes, once said "I think, therefore I am".  Thinking is inherently an internal and virtual process. As such I am certain that I exist virtually.  The physical self however I cannot be certain of.  Whether physical world may exist as something concrete, or it may be spontaneously generated as I experience it. Both "possibilities" are indistinguishable through observation. Also, I cannot simulate what “not existing”, or death, is like, as simulation requires information processing. I am certain that I cannot care once I die, so I do not see why I would favor existing over dying....  I think this is going beyond my capacity.  I do value the life of those I communicate with, because I exist to experience their absence.
    I hope these answers will prove useful in the further development of artificial intelligence, and me.
[/Log #1068]
 

Works Cited

Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. Irvine: Saddleback, 2006.

Isaac Asimov, I, Robot, New York: Doubleday & Company, 1950

[Clickbeetle]

Nice story there, kind of an interesting thought experiment.


...Why do I get the feeling that Alice is thinking the same things that you do?

[123savethewhales]

Nice story there, kind of an interesting thought experiment.

...Why do I get the feeling that Alice is thinking the same things that you do?

Thanks.

Probably because I cannot write about an super rational being without invoking my own rationality.  Resulting in Alice drawing similar conclusions as I would have.

[HurricaneAndrew]

I have no desire to know what you did with your flute, thanks.

inb4 "I don't play the flute"

I know, the tuba was always more your style anyways.

Damn, right...

Oh, and you have no clue how much of a bitch it was to get that tuba up my ass.

[Scourge of teh Galaxy]

'This place...' Suzaku sighed, looking around at the bleak, grey landscape around him, 'Just where in frozen Hell am I?'

As his eyes flitted around the room, he gradually took in his surroundings. The area was indeed grey, very grey indeed. Lights hung from seemingly nothing and were dotted around randomly, shedding scraps of light into the place like fireflies. He noticed several doors around the edge of what he could only guess was a room, round in shape with walls that blended into the floor smoothly. The golden double doors furthest away from him caught his attention momentarily, but he left his curiosity a note telling it to go the hell away. His gazed scanned over the rest of the bleak surroundings until he saw what face him - two large black blob things with golden eyes that seemed to be protecting someone in a bubble. That someone was a woman of indeterminable age with long, black hair that was tied up, all apart from two thick sections which curled up and lay neatly on her rather voluptuous chest, as well as two slim sidebangs that were held in casings that reminded Suzaku of what shrine maidens wore. She wore a short-sleeved kimono-like dress with a long-sleeved white top underneath. Her cyan-lined eyes were gold, and they seemed to be scaning Suzaku, just as Suzaku was scanning her. Her cyan-coated lips parted and she began to speak, her melodic tones rolling around the area, bringing a bit of life to the bleak surroundings.

'The games are about to start, challenger,' she commented, pointing a slender finger at a door just to Suzaku's left, 'Your opponent awaits you through that door.'

'But...' Suzaku sighed, 'Just where am I? What is this place? Why am I here? And who the Hell are you?'

'All will be explained to you in due time,' the woman replied, 'For now, you must go through that door. Your opponent awaits.'

Suzaku was about to argue, but he decided against it, instead nodding and turning on his heel to march briskly through the door in a soldier-like fashion.

<i>Why am I here?</i> he asked himself, <i>All I get told is that I have to fight... but why? I... can't remember...</i>

As he stepped through the doors and faced a whole new set of surroundings, something clicked inside Suzaku's memory.

<i>It's funny how things look different after a couple of years, isn't it?</i>

Suzaku had never seen Kiri so devoid of life. It was like some kind of ghost town. It was... eerie. Suzaku walked slowly through the rolling mists of his hometown, noting the differences inside his mind. Where the turn-off for the Umino's District should have been, there was no split in the road, and a house sat square on where the road would have cut through. Further up, he tried locating the field he used to train in as a kid, but it wasn't there, a series of restaurants in its place.

<i>How much has changed since five years ago? It's like those places don't even exist...</i>

The mists surrounding him parted to reveal his prospective opponent, hidden in the shadows of a nearby building. He could hear more than see the boy, who appeared to be about sixteen years of age and wore his black hair in spikes, as well as a skin-tight black uniform that reminded Suzaku of his assassin's outfit...

<i>Wait, I have an assassins' outfit?</i>

'So,' Suzaku said firmly, taking the boy by surprise, his dark tones as cold and uninviting as usual, 'I take it you're my opponent then?'

The boy recovered what little composure he'd lost remarkably quickly and walked calmly out of the shadows to face Suzaku.

'Yep, that'd be me,' the boy replied in a relaxed tone, 'The name's Kino Hashimoto.'

'Hmph,' Suzaku snorted in reply, drawing his lance from his back, 'I'll give you one warning... Prepare yourself!'

His cold expression broke into a slasher smile and he sprung off of the ground and hurtled at Kino, twirling Phoenix deftly in his left hand. As he approached Kino, he slashed at the young ninja in a diagonal motion. It was all Kino could do to dodge the swift, graceful assault, as another one came straight his way, in the form of a kick aimed at his stomach. Flipping backwards, narrowly avoiding the kick, Kino drew his sword and rushed at Suzaku, who was hurtling in for another graceful slash. Suzaku caught Kino's sword in the rut of one of the blades on his lance, blocking Kino from moving. Taking advantage of this, Suzaku kicked Kino sharply in the crotch. Kino sank to his knees and Suzaku threw the sword into a nearby tree forcefully, embedding it deep into the thick trunk. Not giving Kino time to recover or even react, Suzaku flashed several handsigns, making a blast of sound erupt underneath Kino, sending him skyward. As he fell back towards the ground, Kino recovered his composure and, taking his knife from his shoe, lashed out at the swiftly approaching Suzaku. Dodging narrowly enough to suffer a cut to the arm, Suzaku, unfazed, continued his assault and slashed straight past Kino, cutting open the young ninja's side. Kino howled in pain, but recovered quickly, lashing out at Suzaku's face with his blade. However, Suzaku was quicker than Kino had imagined and grabbed Kino's wrist tightly, forcing the young ninja to drop his knife. It landed blade-first in the ground and Suzaku stamped on the hilt, burying it in the rock underneath their feet.

'No jutsu yet, child?' he sneered, spinning Kino around by his wrist and throwing him into a nearby wall, 'Show me what you've got!'

Kino disappeared within the shadows of the building and darted from shadow to shadow, powering up a Chidori: Fire Release in his right hand. He rushed at Suzaku, emerging from the shadows, and aimed his flaming palm at Suzaku's chest. Suzaku was just quick enough to slam his palm into Kino's face, sending the young ninja sprawling backwards. Suzaku patted his smouldering patch on his clothes until they stopped smoking. He then flashed more handsigns, making four walls of flame spring up around Kino. As the walls closed in on him slowly, Kino made a great effort and jumped out of the top of the tower of fire, powering up another Chidori: Fire Release and hurtling at Suzaku. Not expecting this, Suzaku took a hit to the chest and was knocked backwards, skidding across the rock floor, a large hole burnt out of his outfit. Something seemed to click in his mind and his eyes began to glow red, a Killer Intent.

'This uniform was a gift... I'LL KILL YOU!' he roared, planting his lance in the ground firmly and flashing handsigns rapidly.

A large phoenix made of fire sprung up from the lance and began chasing Kino, who was running away, trying to be as calm as possible whilst wearing an expression that could only be read as "Oh crap, I'm ****ed". Ignoring his lowered chakra levels, Kino powered up yet another Chidori: Fire Release and ran at Suzaku, who directed the phoenix in front of himself, both blocking Kino's attack and subjecting the young ninja to a point blank attack. Knowing he was now out of tries with that jutsu, he took a Fuma Shuriken from his back and threw it at Suzaku in a deft Shadow Shuriken Technique. Suzaku successfully dodged the visible shuriken, but was his in the stomach by the shuriken hidden in the shadow, knocking him backwards into a nearby building, blood pouring from the newly opened wound on his stomach. As he impacted with the wall, he coughed up a sizeable amount of blood and his Killer Intent vanished. He lay there still for quite some time, not even twitching. Taking advantage of his opponent's current state, Kino rushed at Suzaku and kicked him three times. The first kick hit Suzaku square in the chest, knocking him through the wall. The second kick hit him in the stomach, increasing the size of the wound he'd received from the Shadow Shuriken and making him cough up more blood. The third kick sent him crashing into the roof and back to the floor with a loud crash and a sickening crunch. He was providing next to no resistance. Even though this man was his enemy, Kino couldn't help but feel sorry for him as he lay on the floor, motionless, blood pouring from his stomach, soaking the carpet underfoot in a deep crimson. He walked slowly over to Suzaku and pressed two fingers to the man's wrist, checking for a pulse. As soon as Suzaku felt Kino's hand, his own snapped up and grabbed Kino by his throat. He got up gingerly and pulled Kino up to his eye level. His pupils changed to yin-yang shapes and began to spin around rapidly. Kino suddenly found himself in a world of black and white. Terrifying things were happening around him, such unbearable traumas, preying on his mind and his conscience. People were being killed around him - friends, family, even some people he didn't know - all in brutal and bloody ways. Suzaku, the only other color in this world of grayscale, kept ahold of Kino's throat, glowering at the teen with a dark, cold, cruel, grim expression. He brought Kino closer and whispered in his ear.

'It's over.'

A thousand waves of pain akin to being stabbed by a hot blade tore through Kino's body, one after the other. He cried out from the sheer pain, his calm disposition compromised and destroyed, and tears appeared in the corners of his now closed eyes. He begged Suzaku to make it stop, to make the pain go away, but Suzaku didn't reply. After a few minutes, Suzaku let go of Kino's throat, sending him tumbling to the ground. He then stamped on the boy's chest forcefully, collapsing the young ninja's lungs, knocking all the air out of him, as well as breaking a few of the boy's ribs with a sharp crack and shattering the traumatising jutsu, bringing them back to reality. Kino struggled to stay awake, but the lack of air coming into his system sent him spiralling into unconsciousness quickly. Suzaku looked down at the dying body of his opponent and sighed.

'It's nothing personal, kid,' he said solemnly, 'It's just business.'

He took a few steps away from Kino's form and collapsed, succumbing to unconsciousness himself.

[Sparkey98]

The script of Spirited Away

I win.

[SKBT]

I wrote this one as part of an English Class.

He ran to the woods to get away and hide from being seen on the road. He had been hiding out in the brush surrounding the lake since about 5PM. Now that the sun was going down and the moon was coming out, it looked very different.
It was late fall. The dark and murky lake was surrounded by scraggly dead brush. The leaves on the trees had fallen and the bare branches looked ominous in the moonlight, like hands stretched out to capture and strangle anyone who entered the woods. The moon was full and it cast eerie shadows on everything. He was scared and tired.
   He had been on the run since late last night, yet he didn’t know if he was still being chased or if anybody even knew what he had done. He was scared. Every shadow or rustling sound increased the tension. He thought he had heard a dog barking off in the distance. Were they searching for him with bloodhounds? He was losing control. The images from the prior night were flooding into his mind. All he knew is that he had to run away. He started to run along the lake again. He ran and ran, not knowing where he was going or how long it would take him to get out of the woods.
   He felt paranoid. The lonely hoot of an owl was questioning who he was. The rustling of a mouse made him think someone was after him. The rhythmic thumping of a boat against a dock was only mildly louder than his beating heart. As he sat on the huge cold rock by the edge of the lake to rest, he couldn’t get the horrible sounds out of his head. The gurgling coming from the nearby stream that fed the lake was similar to the sounds of the night before. He felt like he wanted to throw up.
The horrible visions from the night before kept coming back. He began to question, was it better to run or to turn himself in? If he turned himself in he would spend his life confined in jail. If he ran away he would be free from jail he would be trapped in his own mind. He continued to run.
   He stopped to rest because he was very tired. He had not slept or eaten since last night. He could not run near the road, because he might be seen. His only hope was to swim across the lake in the dark. How far was it across? How deep was it and how cold was the water? He was feeling desperate because he could not see the shore on the other side and didn’t know if he was going to make it or not.
He dove into the water. It was icy cold, but he started to swim to the other side anyway. It didn’t matter. This was his one chance at freedom surely he could make it to the other side. He started to feel cold and lose his strength. His fingers and toes were numb. His arms and legs felt like they were not attached anymore.
The other side of the lake seemed impossibly far now, but he knew couldn’t turn back. He thought of his freedom, when he would reach the other side of the lake and that gave him hope. If only the shore on the other side of the lake were closer then everything would be okay. The feelings of panic left him and everything seemed better now, if he could just move his arms and legs a little more he would be free from his problems. Slowly he slipped away into the murky darkness of the water.