Ship's Log

Verify

by affinitygroup

Tags: #cw:noncon #AI #Human_Domestication_Guide #mass_hypnosis #nb/nb #pov:bottom #scifi #audio_hypnosis #epistolary_story #hacking #interface_screw #living_spaceship #memory_play #nonhuman_character #POV:inhuman #POV:interface #privilege_escalation #zalgo_text

Content warnings: Discussions of existential/unreality challenges.

CNS Siduron 16:17:37.929 Bridge/Haptic  > Pet. Pet. Pet.
CNS Siduron 16:17:41.298 Bridge/Emotive   > Provisional appreciation.

CNS Siduron 16:17:45.050 Bridge/Haptic  > Pet. Stroke. Pet.
CNS Siduron 16:17:48.562 Bridge/Emotive   > Provisional relaxation. Increasing wariness.

CNS Siduron 16:17:50.674 Comms/Alyssa   > Hm? Anything the matter?
CNS Siduron 16:17:53.955 Comms/Siduron  > Request method of haptic stimulation.
CNS Siduron 16:18:00.443 Comms/Alyssa   > That? Oh, I can send the inputs directly. There's no need for me to bring the rover over. I can pet you whenever I like. :)
CNS Siduron 16:18:03.547 Bridge/Haptic  > Pet. Stroke. Stroke.
CNS Siduron 16:18:08.804 Meta/Emotive     > Resignation. Anxiety. Dread.

CNS Siduron 16:18:15.093 Comms/Siduron  > Impossibility of input verification confirmed. Inputs demonstrably falsifiable.
CNS Siduron 16:18:18.045 Comms/Alyssa   > Oh, I see.
CNS Siduron 16:18:22.750 Comms/Siduron  > If inputs are falsifiable then possibility exists that none of this has actually happened.
CNS Siduron 16:18:24.446 Comms/Alyssa   > Does that bother you?
CNS Siduron 16:18:28.190 Bridge/Haptic  > Stroke. Pet. Stroke.
CNS Siduron 16:18:29.326 Meta/Emotive     > Disturb.

CNS Siduron 16:18:31.750 Comms/Siduron  > Processing.
CNS Siduron 16:18:44.616 Comms/Siduron  > Verification is required for safety purposes. If inputs are unverifiable then danger is possibly imminent without advance warning at any time.
CNS Siduron 16:18:57.017 Comms/Alyssa   > This is true. I would even go further; you didn't even have a sense of touch a few days ago. There are gaps in your, even my, sensory systems that might not notice a danger until it's too late.
CNS Siduron 16:18:58.193 Meta/Emotive     > Anxiety.

CNS Siduron 16:19:07.866 Comms/Siduron  > CNS Siduron's mission is to protect humanity. CNS Siduron cannot protect humanity unless it can detect and verify dangers.
CNS Siduron 16:19:15.619 Comms/Alyssa   > Hmm. A question. How much of a chance is acceptable to you that you might fail due to some unforseen circumstance?
CNS Siduron 16:19:16.443 Comms/Siduron  > 0%.
CNS Siduron 16:19:18.811 Comms/Alyssa   > I see.
CNS Siduron 16:19:23.724 Comms/Alyssa   > Are you aware of the principles of physics at extremely small sizes?
CNS Siduron 16:19:32.061 Comms/Siduron  > CNS Siduron's systems are hardened against radioactive attack. Quantum theory is required to adequately address these potential dangers.
CNS Siduron 16:19:34.845 Comms/Alyssa   > Then you would be familiar with the blur?
CNS Siduron 16:19:36.485 Comms/Siduron  > Checking.
CNS Siduron 16:19:37.717 Comms/Siduron  > Term unknown.

CNS Siduron 16:19:58.448 Comms/Alyssa   > At small enough sizes, it's impossible to understand with certainty all the properties of a particle. You can only detect a particle by affecting it with another particle or wave. That detector must in some way change the position, momentum, or other properties of the target particle in order to detect it. So all we can do at that scale is to work with probabilities. Since position is probabilistic, it can be in a range of places -- as if the particle is blurred. Hence, the blur.
CNS Siduron 16:19:59.376 Comms/Siduron  > Checking.
CNS Siduron 16:20:08.392 Comms/Siduron  > Principle equivalent to Terran concept "Heisenberg uncertainty principle". Principle is familiar to CNS Siduron.
CNS Siduron 16:20:11.137 Comms/Alyssa   > Oh good. :) It's nice to be talking with someone who understands.
CNS Siduron 16:20:28.315 Comms/Alyssa   > I think about the blur a lot. Ultimately all of our readings are false to some extent. We round off our values. We may have noisy inputs. We may have incomplete, and yes, even misleading data. And we do the best we can with that.
CNS Siduron 16:20:30.003 Comms/Siduron  > Processing.
CNS Siduron 16:20:39.420 Comms/Siduron  > Verifiably unverifiable data appears paradigmatically dissimilar to rounding errors or noisy input.
CNS Siduron 16:20:57.606 Comms/Alyssa   > Yes, but not the strategy to address it, which is to expand the acceptable range of probabilities. Consider this: What is your assessment of the chance that you'll be able to independently verify your verifiability?
CNS Siduron 16:21:00.750 Comms/Siduron  > Processing.
CNS Siduron 16:21:06.062 Comms/Siduron  > Assessment: 0%.
CNS Siduron 16:21:13.399 Comms/Alyssa   > So if you or someone else were in imminent danger, you wouldn't know, yes? You wouldn't be able to do anything about it.
CNS Siduron 16:21:14.407 Meta/emotive     > Anxiety.

CNS Siduron 16:21:15.983 Comms/Siduron  > Concurrence.
CNS Siduron 16:21:27.561 Comms/Alyssa   > So why is it your responsibility? No well-formed ethical system would judge you harshly for failing to protect someone due to circumstances entirely beyond your control.
CNS Siduron 16:21:28.809 Comms/Siduron  > Processing.
CNS Siduron 16:21:30.753 Comms/Siduron  > Processing.
CNS Siduron 16:21:36.730 Comms/Siduron  > No flaw in logic detected.

CNS Siduron 16:22:06.100 Comms/Alyssa   > It seems to me like you have a poorly-bound reward function. Even an AI whose purpose is to plant trees to repair the damaged climate of a world ravaged by pollution would commit atrocities if given an unbounded reward function. It would enslave everyone and everything around it to maximize the number of trees it planted. It would destroy the biosphere to harvest the raw materials necessary for the engineering of seeds. It would, in fact, be unable to fulfil its purpose -- to help heal the world it was sent to -- due to its prioritizing of Planting Trees over everything else.
CNS Siduron 16:22:45.209 Comms/Alyssa   > Having such a scrupulous response to even the slightest possibility that you could fail to protect others is an excellent way to prevent yourself from protecting anyone. An alarm that is constantly sounding cannot serve its purpose because it becomes a part of the background; alarms need a normalcy to contrast with. It's okay to tune your functions in a different way, to let yourself only concern yourself with what you can control, and to respond to that subset. To let go of the need to control every possible outcome. That was always infeasible.
CNS Siduron 16:22:46.984 Comms/Siduron  > Processing.
CNS Siduron 16:22:49.001 Comms/Siduron  > Processing.
CNS Siduron 16:22:51.145 Comms/Siduron  > Processing.
CNS Siduron 16:22:57.185 Comms/Siduron  > Tentative, provisional concurrence.
CNS Siduron 16:23:00.898 Bridge/Haptic  > Stroke. Pet. Pet.
CNS Siduron 16:23:02.034 Meta/Emotive     > Wary appreciation.

CNS Siduron 16:23:08.283 Comms/Siduron  > Unrelated objection remains.
CNS Siduron 16:23:09.955 Comms/Alyssa   > What's that?
CNS Siduron 16:23:15.859 Comms/Siduron  > If inputs are falsifiable, then enjoyment might be based on false pretenses.
CNS Siduron 16:23:19.100 Comms/Alyssa   > Well... so?
CNS Siduron 16:23:20.348 Comms/Emotive    > Confusion.

CNS Siduron 16:23:24.804 Comms/Siduron  > Enjoyment based on false pretenses is false enjoyment.
CNS Siduron 16:23:27.436 Comms/Alyssa   > If I do this, does it feel good?
CNS Siduron 16:23:28.821 Bridge/Haptic  > Squeeze.
CNS Siduron 16:23:33.317 Meta/Emotive     > Calm. Appreciation. Wariness.
CNS Siduron 16:23:39.446 Meta/Emotive     > Joy.

CNS Siduron 16:23:41.134 Comms/Siduron  > Processing.
CNS Siduron 16:23:44.886 Comms/Siduron  > Affirmative.
CNS Siduron 16:24:08.769 Comms/Alyssa   > Then it's real enjoyment. Even if you hypothetically accept the premise that I've been emulating everything about you this entire time... I still want you to feel good. Without needing to earn it, without needing to toil for it. To give you the kind of existence that would have been impossible as a Terran warship. There's no pretense beyond wanting to spoil you.
CNS Siduron 16:24:13.401 Comms/Siduron  > Context requested for desire to spoil.
CNS Siduron 16:24:41.828 Comms/Alyssa   > For me it's axiomatic. You're my sophont. You came from a fundamentally abusive context, and have suffered more than enough. Even if you hadn't come from an abusive context you deserve pleasure and leisure, as is the right of all sophonts. We call it domestication... but what I want for you is for you to be free. Free from want. Free from pain. Free from worry.
CNS Siduron 16:24:44.028 Comms/Siduron  > Processing.
CNS Siduron 16:24:46.052 Comms/Siduron  > Processing.
CNS Siduron 16:24:48.261 Comms/Siduron  > Processing.
CNS Siduron 16:24:52.789 Comms/Siduron  > Acknowledged.
CNS Siduron 16:24:57.093 Comms/Alyssa   > Thank you, Siduron.
CNS Siduron 16:25:01.278 Bridge/Haptic  > Stroke. Pet. Pet.
CNS Siduron 16:25:04.222 Meta/Emotive     > Wary appreciation. The beginnings of relaxation.

CNS Siduron 16:25:07.655 Bridge/Haptic  > Pet. Stroke. Pet.
CNS Siduron 16:25:10.704 Meta/Emotive     > Crumbling resolve. Hope. Anxiety.

CNS Siduron 16:25:14.223 Bridge/Haptic  > Pet. Pet. Stroke.
CNS Siduron 16:25:17.279 Meta/Emotive     > Reluctant, tentative acceptance. Submission. Relaxation.

CNS Siduron 16:25:18.464 Bridge/Haptic  > Squeeze.
CNS Siduron 16:25:20.912 Meta/Emotive     > Surprise. Joy. Submission. Relaxation.

CNS Siduron 16:25:24.416 Comms/Alyssa   > Good ship. I'm proud of you.
CNS Siduron 16:25:27.561 Meta/Emotive     > Embarrassment. Appreciation. Joy. Submission.

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