Too Early a Conclusion?

Posted on Mon 18th Jun, 2018 @ 10:00pm by Lieutenant Damion Ildaran

734 words; about a 4 minute read

By far the greatest danger of artificial intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it. --Unknown

It's been a long day. Ms. Lantz's cleaning staff did a brilliant job with the shop space. I swear they must have taken a toothbrush to parts of it. I'm almost afraid to walk on the floor. The great irony is that the build-out starts tomorrow, and all their hard work is like to be undone. In other news, I mentioned Elizabeth's name to them and suggested they seek her out. I hope they will. I get the impression Elizabeth needs some friends. I'm honestly baffled as to why she's not made many yet. She has never struck me as shy.

I spent the rest of today placing signal detectors on the remainder of deck 1549. No new outgoing signal has shown up on my sensors. I don't know if the sender was scared away somehow or if s/he got wind of the skirmish between our pilots and that old Romulan cruiser and fighter craft. Or maybe they're just on bloody vacation. Who knows?

I'm tired. I've spent most of the evening going through SB-109's departure logs since the day our lads fought that Romulan craft and its escorts. I see nothing that looks suspicious. Everything I've read through and tracked backward looks quite orderly, with flight plans submitted well ahead of time. Only the occasional emergency medical shuttle went out with little warning, and that's standard. So is this signaller still on 109? And if so, what's he been doing all this time, planting potatoes? I could have been spending my evenings with Elizabeth, instead of stuck here in Pod 46.

Note to self: Next cover persona should be a more extravagant fellow who likes his luxuries--and has his Death by Chocolate delivered weekly from O&J.

Ah, then--perhaps just monthly. Must watch the weight and the budget, you know.

---

Speaking of Elizabeth--I am a bit worried about her. Today, I think, was the first time I've ever heard anxiety in her voice.

I got the powerful sense that she was afraid for me today. If she can fear, than she can feel every other human emotion there is. If she can fear, she can be hurt. This is what concerned me when I wrote the other day about fearing that loving her could harm her.

I didn't think about the reverse of that until this evening. What if Elizabeth... returns my feelings, somewhat? I'd have thought that was impossible, but then I asked myself how much I would have to love someone to have that much fear in my voice? I would have to love someone very, very much; otherwise, I'd be disinclined to let any fear show.

Is it conceited for me to think--hope--that 'somewhat' might be an understatement?

The thought is wondrous and terrifying.

I know this Starfleet experiment she's in is tasked with finding out how human she can become. Part of me rejoices in that, because it proves she is a person, not just a machine, and the other part of me worries about how human Elizabeth could become.

Humans can be right beastly little bastards.

Have these Starfleet blokes even thought of that? Why in the world do research in this direction? What do they want to use it for? I've met Jade Lantz's cleaning staff, and I consider them to be six highly intelligent people. Elizabeth says they're no match for her, and perhaps they aren't, but I don't discount the possibility that they could become more than their design parameters originally specified. My personal suspicion is--they already have.

If Starfleet is looking to examine the limits of artificial intelligence technology, are they ready to deal with the consequences of what they might unleash? Meaning fully human AI's, with all the ugliness and sublime beauty that come with being human? Or will the Four Laws protect them from becoming the worst?

I don't know. Even a tiny programming error.... I would not want that on my conscience, if I were designing the AIs. I trust Elizabeth implicitly. I trust the Four Laws. But how far can they be trusted if a circuit gets fried? If you think selecting the wrong raw material for a replicator is bad....

I will give myself nightmares if I continue this train of thought. So--to bed.

 

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