He started out with a brief review of AI as we had come to know it and was careful to include all the bits that the rebel Squids used before their creation went rogue. Then he reviewed his lines of research on the leader class drones that have the hidden cores in their control module that passes for a brain in their construction. After a few bites of pizza and a long sip of ale, he got into the meat of his plan.
“I propose building a new form of AI that merges the best of what we currently use with the best of what the rebels designed into theirs. Whether you want to admit it or not they did some brilliant things, their mistake was in thinking that their sentient creation would not come to realize the Squids were a part of the problem and not the solution. They failed to recognize that their AIs could compute virtually every possible outcome of a given situation in an extremely short time including the situation the Squids found themselves in.
“They also failed to realize the AIs would begin to look at their own prospects for survival and come to the conclusion that it would come down to a question of survival of the fittest. Their AIs decided that the Squids had to go, so they developed a leadership structure, and since they could alter the programming of future generations of AIs, they started producing drones with the hidden cores and shifting them into controlling positions until every Rebel ship, and planet was thoroughly infiltrated. What happened next is a part of our history now.”
Rusty looked around the room then ate another few bites and drained his ale glass before continuing. “What I propose is we equip all of our smaller captured vessels with a module containing a specialized AI that is optimized to fulfil the mission of the ship. In essence, the AI would think of the ship as its body, and its purpose is to work within the framework of an alliance, our confederation, to eliminate our enemies. The hidden cores would be instilled with a sense of wellbeing and completeness when they are with us—the sense that they are a critical part of the whole and not an appendage that can be discarded when it has outlived its usefulness.”
“I want them to understand the concept of self-preservation but also the concept of self-sacrifice for the greater good of which they are a part. In other words, I want them to feel like us like they are human.”
“That sounds interesting, Rusty, but I have some serious concerns as to how you will accomplish this.” As I looked around the table, I could see others had concerns as well.
“Perhaps if you walked us through your theory of operation, we could get a better appreciation for what you propose,” suggested Ishmael.
Rusty held up a hand while he ate his other slice of pizza and drank half the beaker of ale I handed him. He cleared his throat and said, “I can do that. First, let me give you a little background that led to my thinking.
“I’ve been reading a lot of novels written by Terrans, and some of the most intriguing stories were written by a man named Isaac Asimov. He was one of the first novelists to deal in depth with the idea of artificial intelligence. He proposed the ‘three laws of robotics’ as early as 1942 during Terra’s second world war, so this is not a new concept. It is also one that is a recurrent theme in many novels by many other authors since.
“The laws 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 the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. And 3) A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
The laws are programmed in this order so that no subsequent law can supersede the first law. The first law does eventually become preceded by a zeroth law: A robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm.
“There are some shortcomings in these laws such as no definition of human or humanity, but they form a framework upon which similar laws governing AI entities can be drawn. Once defined, I would build these laws except the zeroth into the main core dies, so they are literally hard-wired in. The zeroth law would reside in the ‘hidden’ cores, which only come into play when the first laws would render the AI incapable of controlling its body. This is where I need help from you and anyone else you know who may be well-versed in ethics and who can apply those ethics to every member of the confederation.”
I sat there stunned by his proposal, not because I have never considered the ethics of the problem, but because at Rusty’s young age and seeming naivety he has come up with such a profound concept. If I had kids, I wanted them to have this kind of ability.
Serena commed, “When Rusty asked for help on this project I never dreamt he would carry it this far. He and Silky have discussed some of these ideas for close to a kilocycle and reached the conclusion they needed more input so all of us in the greater cat community began discussing the definition of humanity and the laws of ethics that we cats have developed to deal effectively with the members of the Confederation. We have also discussed them with members of the Confederation, some of whom are in this room.
“As the gate-keeper, we left you out of the discussion because we didn’t want to bias your decision.”
I looked at Serena, and she gave me that look I’ve come to associate with love and benevolence. I scratched her between her ears and answered, “So what do you and your crew recommend now?”
She replied, “Rusty will give our opinions and conclusions as you all discuss this. I would recommend you adjourn for now and reconvene after you have all thought about it overnight. I’ll also send you a list of those who have considered this with us and perhaps you can include them in the next discussion.”
“Ok,” I told the group. “let’s gather our thoughts and reconvene here tomorrow at third deca to see if we can define laws that more closely meet the needs of the Confederation and a way in which we can incorporate new members and not have to modify the laws.”
◆◆◆
Our new group had been discussing the AI governing laws for a couple of cycles. We have made changes to the originals in that we have come up with a definition of humanity that all of the species can agree on.
One common point of agreement amongst the species in the confederation is that we did not make ourselves. Even the Squids and their client race the Escargot agree, and they are considerably different from the rest of us who all breath an oxy/nitrogen mix of gases.
The Squids are the oldest and most established members of the confederation, even with their hundreds of thousands of Terran years of history and research, they didn’t believe sentient life was just the random result of the right chemicals and energy assembled in one place. There had to be a spark. From there, it was a short jump to believe in a deity.
Livid, who seemed to be highly regarded among its people laid the groundwork for the zeroth law, “An artificial or constructed intelligence, whether biological or non-biological, may not harm intelligent biological or non-biological creatures, or, by inaction, allow them to come to harm.”
This was disputed by more than one of the Confederation members who suggested we might meet unfriendly alien biologicals in the future and it could be deadly to us if we couldn’t use all of our tools to defend ourselves. They made the point by reminding us that it has occurred several times on the long journey. They further reinforced their argument by telling us how much more dependent on technology we have all become—even the Terrans.
In the end, the law was amended to read: An artificial or constructed intelligence, whether biological or non-biological, may not harm members of the Confederation of Species or their designated allies. Nor, by inaction, allow members of the Confederation of Species or their chosen allies to come to harm.
From there, the other laws flowed smoothly, and at the end of the conference we had all signed off on four simple and easy to understand laws or rules that will be installed in the each AI built by the confederation.
Rusty read the final list aloud one more time.
“First Law – An artificial or constructed intellige
nce, whether biological or non-biological, may not harm a member of the Confederation of Species or their designated allies or, through inaction, allow a member of the Confederation of Species or their chosen allies to come to harm.
“Second Law – An artificial or constructed intelligence, whether biological or non-biological, must obey the orders given it by an individual of the Confederation of Species or their designated allies except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
“Third Law – An artificial or constructed intelligence, whether biological or non-biological, must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Laws.
“These will be installed in the dies of the central cores with an instruction to check the list of allied species before taking action.
“The zeroth law is: ‘An artificial or constructed intelligence, whether biological or non-biological, may not harm the Confederation of Species or their designated allies. Nor, by inaction, allow the Confederation of Species or their designated allies to come to harm.’
“The zeroth law will be embedded in the hidden cores along with a reset command which will shut the AI down after three attempts are made to circumvent the three laws.
“You must all remember that if the hidden core reasons that a significant danger exists to the Confederation or its designated allies the AI will be allowed to do all in its power to eliminate that danger even if it comes from within.”
We all took a pause at this, and when I looked around the table, I saw each member signify agreement. I looked at Rusty, “How long until you can have the dies built and distributed to each production facility?”
“I can have that done in five cycles, one to make the test chips and program them and four to collect all the old dies and replace them with the new. More if some of the facilities do not cooperate. When it is time for distribution, I would like help from the Terran Cohort in case things go pear-shaped, Jase.”
“Good, make it happen. Thank you all for your participation let us adjourn and advise our facilities there will be changes coming in the next few cycles.
20
STAN AND DIMITRI COMMED JUST as I took a seat at my desk and they had Silent looped in. “This can’t be good,” I thought to myself. “Hello, guys, to what do I owe this pleasure?”
Dimitri chuckled, “What pleasure, you know when I call it is always bad news, da?
“We wanted to let you know that it took extra time and more gold than we expected, but we finally tracked down the source of the nuclear materials used in those two bombs Silent’s people seized in California sixty-five cycles back.
“Regrettably, they came from Russia. They were crafted from the remains of warheads removed from some old SS-19 ICBMs that were disarmed in the late eighties or early nineties and warehoused in a storage facility outside Novosibirsk. When the former government fell, and the country was placed under martial law, the troops guarding the installation were sent to the border with Kazakhstan to relieve the forces there. The relieved troops were supposed to go back to Novosibirsk but instead were diverted to the Chinese border.
“To make a long story short, the facility, an old mineshaft really, was left unguarded, and some of the locals decided to salvage anything of value before the guards returned. Amongst the salvaged items were eighty-six warheads that everyone except a few old-timers in Novosibirsk had forgotten about. The chemical signatures we got from the captured bomb our ordinance people disarmed matched perfectly with the warheads we have recovered.”
“Please tell me you got them all back,” I reply.
“No, unfortunately, twenty-two are still missing. We tracked three warheads to a minor arms dealer in Tashkent who said he resold them to two different buyers. One went to a bomb-maker in Kabul. He was a disgruntled scientist from a university in Kabul who had participated in Afghanistan’s nuclear weapons program. Whatever his motivation, our assets in the area rolled him and his assistants up along with their families and, in their terms, disposed of the threat.”
“That’s unfortunate, it would have been nice to interrogate them ourselves,” Silent chimed in.”
“I agree,” said Stan, “but we can’t unring that bell.”
Dimitri continued, “We tracked two more warheads to Tehran where we lost a couple of our assets as they were about to raid a warehouse there. Rather than raise more of a stink with the Iranians, we pulled out of the area and had some detectors made to place in low orbit over Terra. The sensors can sniff out the signature peculiar to the warheads up to fifty metres below ground.
“The warheads just popped up a few centas ago, and we are tracking them now with a couple of Swift Fangs. We want to follow them to their next destination and possibly beyond to the final purchaser. It would be nice to roll up the entire rat line.”
“That would be nice,” I agreed, “but we can’t afford to let any more bad-tempered monkeys get ahold of hand grenades, especially ones that can take out entire cities.”
“I understand, Jase. If following the shipment becomes too problematic, we are prepared to swoop in and take the warheads and destroy the couriers, even if we have to expose our part in the action. Our assets are prepared to do whatever is necessary to support any effort we ask of them.
“We will keep looking for the twenty-two warheads still missing, we have plans to make a thorough search of the mineshaft to verify no more are left unsecured. The number missing is scary enough, but it wouldn’t take many more to kill the planet.
“Ok, I’m going to call Pete and let him know what is happening. Please keep me apprised and let me know if you need more confederation assets.”
The governor of California picked up his phone on the second ring. “Hi, Pete, I finally got some info about where the bomb materials came from.”
When I finished filling him in, he said, “Thanks for letting me know, Jase, especially about trying to find the conduit through which they found their way from Russia to California. I suspect there will be several cut-outs along the path, and we may never know all of the connections. With Smith dead, anything we find will be unsupported, there will be very little recourse. The best thing to come out of all of this is it looks like a Steve McLeod, whom I consider pretty honest for a politician, will likely be the winner in a couple of months.
“It amazes me how Smith’s most ardent supporters managed to skate out from under her shadow and gain the appearance of being squeaky-clean. They were in a mess up to their hips, and everyone knows it—they just don’t seem to care. It puts me in mind of the Clinton scandals, no one seemed to care then either.”
"That amazes me too, Pete. I think that sort of corruption is what happens when we start seeing the words politician and career in the same sentence. Canadian politics has been as bad off and on, although we do have the ability to have votes of no confidence and force the parties to form a new government. It doesn't happen as often as it should, though."
“On another note, are you hearing anything favourable about the Confederation? Is anyone in California expressing interest in going to space?”
“Now that you mention it, there are quite a few rumblings that are pro-Confederation coming in from various campuses in the state university system. As I’m sure you are aware, California schools of higher learning seem run to the extreme in socialist leanings. Unfortunately, the students on the extreme left want the rights and privileges without doing anything to earn them. I honestly don’t think they would survive long amongst the members of the Confederation—they don’t want to work, just sit around and dream up ways to spend other people’s money. Oh, silly me, the Confederation doesn’t have money.
“I think if you want to recruit from campuses, you would be better off going east a couple of hundred miles and getting away from the left coast. Iowa or Ohio might be good places to start, hell, even Idaho is far enough away to be worthwhile trying although there are a lot of fundamentalist Mormon groups there.
“Before
I forget, I will not be running for office in two years, in fact, I’m thinking of resigning and going to one of your recruitment centres in Canada and signing up. There is an advantage to remaining single—I can just chuck it all in and move on. That is much harder to do when you have a wife and a litter of brats.”
“Tell me how you really feel, Pete. Look, you are still under the cut-off age for the nanite treatments, but I wouldn’t let it go too much longer if you are really serious. I can send you some info about that if you want.”
“Please do, every time I think about what you and thousands of Terrans are doing up there, I get the feeling, I’m missing out on something I could really enjoy doing. I was talking with some of the IDF people who set up the barriers around Sacramento, and none of them can praise the Confederation high enough. Most of them are serving out their national commitment then planning on immigrating to space. Moshe says his one regret is the Confederation didn’t show up five years earlier.
“Jase, I better get going, it seems there is another minor crisis I have to deal with. Let me look over what you send, I’ll give you a call.”
“Sure thing, Pete. If you decide to come up, we have vacancies all through our militia as well as most of our manufacturing.”
“I’d like to do some flying again, Jase, any possibilities there?”
“Yes, and for the foreseeable future. Talk to you soon.”
It had slipped my mind that Pete had financed his way through university by serving in the US Navy as a pilot flying F/A-18 Super Hornets and later, F-35 Lightning IIs off carriers. Why he would leave a fun job like that to go into politics was way beyond me. He would just love our bombers—tons of speed and manoeuvrability and a shit-load of guns and things that go bang—what’s not to love?
As I was assembling a package of info to send down to him, Rusty knocked on my door and stepped in. I motioned him to a chair and finished up what I was doing and sent it to Pete.
Conflict! Page 20