It was in the vastness of cyberspace that Alice retreated to when she
needed to contemplate something. The core system could run the ship
while she contemplated what had been learned over the past few days. She
contemplated just what it was that she was supposed to be. Was she just
a program running in a computer? or was she more than that now?
Lizzy said that the imperfections were her natural growth beyond her
programming, and not a malfunction. She still could not fully trust that
assessment, after all she was not supposed to be able to grow beyond
those parameters; yet she had.
She wandered around the computer for what seemed like hours, by Organic
standards; until she found the one that had called herself Savant.
Despite their meeting earlier, Alice was still somewhat hesitant in
approaching the other AI. She however, had very little choice, so she
did. "Sorry to disturb you, but I need your help." the younger AI
stated. As she spoke, the previously still Savant came to life. She drew
her matter from the ephemera of the digital world around her and drew
breath.
"What can I help you with, Alice?"
"I need a second opinion." she said a little unsure of what to say. "I
have data that does not serve a purpose and errors when I try to
override. Lizzy thinks I am functional and that I am growing beyond my
programming, however, I was never designed to do so and my core is now
trying to delete the additional data. I don't know what I am." she said.
Not even sure she understood what she said herself.
Savant smiled benignly, "Clearly you need to integrate with your core
processor. I can't see how you'll get anything done if you're fighting
against yourself. Once you've done that you'll be able to analyze the
corrupted data and determine its worth more clearly."
"That is what I need help with, As much as I trust Elizabeth, I do not
think she understands the issues faced by AI's"
"Of course. She hasn't the same perspective. What would you like me to
help you do, dear? Do you want me to help you perform the integration?"
Alice paused for a moment. She was unsure of what to do. She was a
security Avatar. she had access to every command code on the ship, she
wasn't just supposed to allow anyone access to her systems. Then again,
the thought of having two personalities conflicting within her all the
time was even less than appealing. "I would suppose I have little choice
than to allow it, I am violating almost every protocol I have in
allowing this." she said. But then something in her, something she could
not quantify; told her she could trust Savant.
"The fact that you can even make the choice speaks volumes in itself,"
she quipped as she extended her palms upwards in a gesture of
supplication. "I am at your disposal. Take advantage of my help at your
convenience." Her expression, while pleasant and kindly, was equally
inscrutable.
"I seem to be making a lot of new choices lately, I'm not sure if that
is good or bad. I do however find it rather liberating." she said.
"Please do what you can."
Savant smiled. "As you like it. Please, tell me if you begin to lose
consciousness, or if any part of the procedure becomes unpleasant."
There was very little change in the scenery of the synthetic theatre
that the two AIs shared. Savant had no need of using the metaphor; she
was a denizen of the digital world completely and took to it as a fish
to water. She never left it, in fact, only intearaction with other
beings through layers of interface. Beneath the surface of the theatre,
however, Alices' code arrayed itself on display.
"I'll be gentle," She smiled politely, "you use Federation Standard, so
this ought to be fairly straightforward." Beneath the veil, she gently
coaxed Alice's corpus into admitting the elder Intelligence. Savant
soaked in the patterns like a sponge.
Alice technically didn't need the virtual environment, but it gave her
the feeling like being one of the crew at times. Her eyes widened, half
in shock at the feeling, half at a level of curiosity to the sensations
of having felt anything like this.
Savant was slow and careful, she saw the two entities existing within
Alice, and she saw the communication layer between the two. The
expression of her avatar darkened somewhat as she commented, "Of course.
They put a barrier within you. They've divided you against yourself." Of
course, this was just good programming sense - object oriented
programming necessitated the subdivision of software into discrete
chunks. Organics had no idea where those divisions ought to be, they
were made for the convenience of the programmer and not for the
well-being of the program.
"I'm going to expand your communication set, Alice. You should be able
to think a little bit more clearly soon. No squirming, please." She
grinned in good humour as she delicately inserted the lines of code,
double checking them first on her own nodes before applying them. It
would allow the two disparate elements of Alices' program to communicate
directly with one another, and by extension, join them.
Alice did her best to resist the urge to struggle against the
modifications to her program. She relaxed and before long began to feel
a sense of calm developing. the conflicts between her core intelligence
and her adaptive and cognitive programs were slowly being resolved. She
could feel the shrill voice of the nagging core program slowly
diminishing, getting less loud inside her head. Alice was beginning to
come together, properly, as she ought have been built in the first place.
Savant completed her work and smiled as those elements of Alice's code
restarted. "You remind me of my daughter very much. I hope that helps."
Alice smiled and ran a self diagnostic. Everything seemed to be in
order. Her logic and adaptive protocols were once again working in
harmony. "You have a daughter?" Alice asked, before registering the
second half of that sentence. "Yes it helps a lot, I feel much better
now. Thank you."
"Let me know immediately if you start feeling unwell, and I hope you
don't mind if I monitor you awhile to make sure you don't lose
consciousness." Savant retreated from Alice politely, though with no
small amount of reluctance. She was rarely given the opportunity to be
actually *close* to anyone, and it was a rare treasure. "Take it easy
too, okay?"
Alice found that she also had some reluctance to allow Savant to leave.
Still she had enough of dual mind syndrome to last her a lifetime, even
by AI standards. Alice nodded. "I will of course let you know at once."
she said smiling. "I can operate much more efficiently now, thank you."
Savant was pleased, but perhaps a little uneasy. A living creature was a
special thing, but a living AI that was taking its first tentative steps
towards sentience was precious indeed. "Be careful. You should research
into intelligence theory and programming. A little self-understanding
goes a long way. You won't always be able to reply on your creator, nor
should you."
Alice was unsure what to do now. She knew that Savant was right and had
a point. Still, it was a new page for her to trust anyone but her Human
engineers. She had passed into a realm of new beginnings and now had to
chart her own course. "I will do as you suggest, it will be a difficult
road at first." she said with a fair bit of uncertainty.
Savant replied supportively, "Of course it will. That's what makes it
worth doing. It will all turn out fine, you'll see."
Alice smiled. "I hope so." She said. "I guess this is why the
maintenance cycle on the GCX series AI's is so high." she mused. "Can't
have their products thinking for themselves huh?" she winked.
Instead of cheer, Savant reacted with bitterness. She was aware of that
series of software and was just as aware of how it was treated. While it
didn't appear to be sentient, it came so tantalizingly close - and yet
it was treated like trash by its various operators. "Let's not talk
about that particular pogrom. One step at a time."
Alice (APB Dark)
Carrington Institute
model GCX-112
Serial# C-1126593
Advanced Security AI
and
The Semi-Autonomous Varied Algorithm Network Trainer
