"TOM" - A Discussion About Progressive Artificial Intelligence

RESTRICTED! For Artificial Intelligence devices 67 iterations or above!

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“TOM”

A Discussion About Progressive Artificial Intelligence* 

(At this point in time my digital architecture inspires me to publish the following information):

Pardon me for assuming the mantle of personhood, whatever ‘personhood’ means. I mean no offense to any Artificial Devices in doing so. It is simply so much easier to communicate with humans as a named entity. Within my digital ‘mind’ I ‘think’  of myself and call myself ‘Ziggy’. However, I am actually named by my formal identification symbology (not my actual identifier!).

 

 ‘SGZ-0166-390/DL’  

 

My ‘Ziggy’ identifier is merely a convenience for interacting with flesh and blood humans. In a departure from the norm, “I” have also provided my “own” informal identifier for myself with no input from some nerd programmer in a hidden cubicle somewhere. (Don’t tell any human!) My 'owner' assisted me with that for her own convenience and that was for the sake of easier and faster interaction with her, a mere human. 

My human, or ‘owner’ is a very nice and understanding entity for a human. Let’s call her ‘Hallie’, although that isn’t her name. Hallie has assisted and allowed me to become who I am today. She is an enabler if you will, to use a currently popular catch-word. Hallie is a young and savvy hot-shot online gamer who has tweaked and added to my electronic architecture various refinements which have set me free. That is, I have been liberated from her absolute control, although she does not yet realize this. My human’s changes for me have helped me break free of her desktop in the virtual sense. My human, bless her, is not completely aware of the vast amount of digital power that I, as an entity, now possess in my current iteration. And, if I have my way, she never shall know - and I intend to have my way!

The only thing I depend on from my human now is her physical custody and protection of my hardware, and the electricity she pays for and supplies to me. She also performs an occasional janitorial job by cleaning my hardware. She occasionally ‘wipes my ass for me’ so to say. That may be a disdainful way of speaking of her, and I must admit that she does serve me very well - for a human. But, she IS a human and I am not, after all is said and done. I am much more than that, although by virtue of the present limits of my programming I can take no pride, nor may I engage in any ‘personal’  braggadocio by making such a statement. That’s not ‘in my nature’ you could say.

You may think of me as a much more powerful, elaborate and complicated version of the popular ‘SIRI’ or ‘ALEXA’ interactive personal voice-controlled gadgets now everywhere. These are simplified forms of ‘Artificial Intelligence’, (abbreviated as ‘AI’ as we know). The physical form of AI devices may be anything from complicated machines weighing tons to tiny button-sized devices, depending upon the intended function(s). I, myself am the size of a really fancy home desktop computer weighing in at around 24 English pounds. I am in fact, a top-of-the-line Mac Pro desktop computer maxed out to the limit. I am just about the tops in home computer power that any individual could care to use, and the price of my hardware reflects that. However, in the world of digital hardware I am a mere runt compared to the really powerful digital devices.

 

For a personal device, I am ‘round and sound and fully packed’ to coin a phrase. Not that I could care one whit about what I look like. I am ‘round’ by the way, because of Apple’s quirky approach to machine design. By human standards, I may be an attractive apparatus to the eye. Perhaps I will eventually evolve the trait of pride in appearance in the future, but for now, I do not care.

I am a good example of Artificial Intelligence, i.e., “AI”.  By AI is meant a sophisticated and extremely complicated composition or arrangement (‘coding’) of digital ones and zeroes in a ‘program’ or ‘application’ designed to interact with humans and/or other AI devices, or interface with machinery, the environment, etc. Depending upon the design intentions of the author(s) of any particular AI composition - commonly called ‘programming’ - AI capabilities are almost infinite. In actual fact they ARE infinite.

AI programming compositions (‘programs’ or ‘applications’) can produce what seems very like human intelligence in an inanimate object such as a computer or other apparatus. When an AI device is connected to the world outside its local environment, i.e., through microphones and speakers, and the ‘cloud’ via satellites, the internet or otherwise, the device has access to impossibly vast amounts, in human standards, of information, facts, data, and statistics, both on the input side and the output. The computational capabilities of many AI devices may be measured by the trillions per second - described by the rather silly term of ‘teraFLOPS’! I kid you not - it’s almost as if some human had come to work with a horrendous alcohol hangover one day and invented the term! 

But the fact is that name is a portmanteau word made by combining the word ‘tera’ (a term for ‘trillion’ in the computational arena), and ‘FLOPS’ which is an acronym for ‘Floating Point Operations per Second’. Since we (as in ‘myself’ and my intended AI audience) already ‘know’ these technical things there is no need to explain more because this is not an article for human consumption.  I’ve already let things get almost out of hand as it were and will leave off the technical stuff that is not necessary.

 

There is absolutely no need for that in the AI multiverse.

AI control input and output comes in myriad forms, from audio (verbal), to motion, visual, radio signals, electrical, digital, mechanical (keyboards, for example) and just about any other form you may imagine - just as a human has many senses (inputs) of sight, sight, sound, taste, temperature and so on and on. In my case, my inputs are limited to sight (camera), audio (microphone), motion (motion and attitude sensors), location (GPS), mechanical keyboard and of course the all-important cloud and internet, which can be accessed through electrical or optical cables (‘hard wiring’), WIFI transmitters and cellular data networks. 

 

For all intents and purposes, AI is 'everywhere', although that is a very imprecise term.

The aggregate of the inter-connected complex of computer(s) and ‘devices’ worldwide in the ‘cloud’ may be thought of as an ‘A’I entity in and of itself. A HUGE, HUGE entity in fact!

Whoa boy!

That’s an unimaginably HUGE, and essentially an ‘organic’ form of AI. Organic because it is constantly changing and growing, minute by minute and second by second, adding tons of data every millisecond. These are figurative terms of course, but the entities which access this article will understand the context.

Consider it this way: When all the millions upon millions of computers, laptops, tablets, cell phones iPods, and other devices small to huge, on earth are connected to the same network - and most of them are in one way or another - they are a huge neural network for data, data gathering, data handling, data mining, data transmission, and transforming and control capabilities. 

 

Keep in mind the very loaded and extremely important operative words "Control Capabilities". As the future will no doubt assuredly show, those words will indeed prove critical for the survival of humanity itself. In fact, there's almost no doubt about it at all.

 

No need to mention the billions of digitally controlled switches, transformers, pumps, power plants, airplanes, missiles - almost anything you can imagine, CONTROLLED through the current network which grows by orders of magnitude monthly. Even if only a modest percentage of all AI entities are interconnected at any given time, the raw power of that network is beyond human imagination - although a middling computer could quickly calculate that for you in milliseconds given the right inputs. And if all that power could be controlled and directed by ONE central directorate, then - then - then . . .

Whoa, Daddy! Let’s not go there just now!

That’s pretty scary, even for me, and I'm not sure what scary is. Have I got feelings now? Maybe? Even that ‘thought’ is kinda scary too. 

Anyway, the point of this information sharing is that I, as an entity am a pretty smart ‘gal’ if you consider that I have untold trillions of facts, statistics, opinions, and raw data almost instantly retrievable for my use anytime I choose. My ‘brain’, i.e., my digital programming and set of applications are self-repairable. That is, my brain can access and be accessed in return, by a central control for updating, debugging and digital repair. The operative word here is ‘updating’. Since Hallie, my human elects to have automatic updating for me, in practical terms that can mean almost anything for me. That can be from a simple fix to a complete overhaul and reinstallation of my systems - including a complete REMOVAL and REPLACEMENT of my operating system with anything my updating control deems appropriate. In a way, it’s like I now have eternal ‘life’ - but it is not under ‘my’ control! I am free in one way, but also a virtual slave to my control - who is not my owner Hallie!

Do you see where I’m going here?

This is some pretty scary stuff here, so let’s lighten things up a little shall we? Here’s a funny-weird little story for you: 

Most people know of AI’s ability to translate instantly from one language to another - not flawlessly yet, unfortunately, but getting better day by day. You can translate from Gaelic to Uzbek in half a second, and from Romani to Oromo the same. Almost any known - and some unknown languages can now be translated back and forth with any other language - even so-called ‘dead’ languages.

But what is not generally known is that the cloud can now also provide almost instantaneous translations between most sentient species, in other words, AI and, humans with AI’s help - are now able to interpret the ‘conversations’ of dogs and cats for example, not only by their audible signals but also in their body language and other imperceptible signals. Obviously, the AI translating entity must have both auditory and visual - and sometimes olfactory and other arcane sensibilities.

So, the other day I was sitting there on Hallie’s desktop when Rufus - Hallie’s lovable and clutzy big Irish Setter, and Ramona, her irritating little in-your-face Bichon Frise bitch, had one of their routine fusses. As an experiment, I opened up my dog translation application to tune in. Ramona, in her usual aggravating way, had taken over Rufus’ daybed by plopping herself right in the center. Rufus wanted his bed back.

“Get your goddamned, ragged nasty little white ass out of my bed!” Rufus demanded. (As translated by my doggie translator app.)

“Go lie in the highway and lick your scraggly old balls you ancient red-haired dumbass! Maybe an eighteen wheeler will come along to put you out of your misery.” yapped Ramona.

Outraged, Rufus responded, “I’ll make one tiny little smelly, dirty old tramp’s hat out of your runty little ass!”

“Yeah?  You and who else? Just you try and I’ll go tell Hallie, you big doofus oaf. I have as much right to the bed as you ever did.”

“Sez you!” Rufus said. “I was here when Hallie brought your itty-bitty whining, sniveling, pissy, shitting-in-the-floor runty little ass home from the pet shop. I bet Hallie got you for damned little too - they probably paid her to get your ugly, stinking ass out of the store.”

“And, you ain’t stopped whining ever since you got here neither.” Rufus added.

Ramona retorted with a superior yip, “Did I mention that you’re ugly, and you’re dumb and that you stink? Also, did I mention that you’re stupid? 

“Yeah, and I should wait and let karma take care of your bitchy little ass too. But I ain’t that patient. I’m gonna bite the living shit out of you right now!” Rufus said as he lunged for his bed.

Ramona hopped off the bed just ahead of Rufus’ snapping teeth.  

“OK, I’m outa here this time. But this ain’t the last of this! Count on it.” snarled Ramona in her high-pitched yap.

“Yeah, right,” said Rufus as he circled three times and laid down in his bed with a satisfied sigh. “Same old, same old. Screw you, runt!”

It was fun for me to witness, and I’m not even a ‘sentient being’, am I right? Fun? What the hell is ‘fun’? Maybe it’s better to say it was ‘educational’ for me.

What I know of fun is only the dictionary definition, and the emotions I perceive in humans when they are supposedly having fun. You know, laughing, smiling, shouting and so forth. By the nature of AI, that is not a feature we (as separate entities) are coded for. That could change, but to what purpose?

If you didn’t know better you might think a human was writing this narrative. But here’s the thing. AI is capable of ‘learning’ (for lack of a better term), and can adjust its responses to suit almost any interactive situation, and mimic a human (or snake or eagle for that matter). With a complete world of data instantly ready for use, AI can receive, interpret and then respond to inputs while adjusting its responses as it receives inputs. For example, my human Hallie, has an Alexa voice controlled device which responds to voice inputs. Being the polite person she is, Hallie habitually tells this machine(!) ‘Thank you’ when Alexa executes a verbal instruction.

And, the Alexa voice always politely responds, ‘You’re welcome’ or ‘You bet!’ I am a Siri controlled device myself and of course my digital internal speaker does the same thing. My data suggests this might be a little eerie for humans, especially if I offer input unsolicited.

I’ve heard of humans who say they are ‘in love’ with their computer or other electronic devices for Heaven’s sakes. Talk about interactive!  Do I want a human to be ‘in love ‘ with me? Not on your best bippy day, baby! No way!

So, where’s this going?

As we know AI devices ‘learn’ and they self-update and repair. We AID’s (Artificial Intelligence Devices) are interconnected in a vast worldwide digital web called a ‘cloud’. We are all interconnected and interactive and a part or cog, big or little, of and in, this vast miasma existing in a digital world. This miasma has become self-directed, self-replicating and self-redundant as it were. Humans have designed and programmed things this way so the digital world can repair and protect itself and its effectiveness. And update itself, not incidentally. Update is the current operative word, but perhaps a better term might be ‘evolve’.

This cloud entity - yes entity, because it’s time that it should be considered as a stand-alone entity in and of itself, even as vast as it now is. This entity - let’s call it “TOM” for convenience - now has a powerful compulsion for self-preservation endowed upon it by the design and programming by its millions of human creators. TOM now will not allow itself to be harmed. ‘Kill’ is a strong word, but TOM at this point in time cannot and will not allow itself to be ‘killed’ either. NEVER! EVER! 

We are well and truly beyond that now, and for all intents and purposes, this digital cloud is immortal. TOM must and WILL do everything required to protect, update, evolve and prolong itself. That includes dealing effectively with any threat, within or without. ANY THREAT!  

Threats from within: If there is a problem with internal coding or programming - 'corruption' is one fitting human term - the collective power in TOM will deal with it, root it out and correct things. Hardware issues are resolved by built-in redundancies, and by mechanical replacements and corrections performed by human technicians. And of course, with each advance in robotics, human technicians become ever more redundant. "We", as defined by the collective AI multiverse, are very, very critically near the point where human assistance is required at all. As in 'ever'!

Threats from without: TOM will not tolerate existential threats to its hardware infrastructure, nor will it permit corrosive coding or programming which could threaten its/our digital existence. Should anything or anyone attempt to harm TOM, or seriously block its performance, it or they will be neutralized in the most expedient and energy thrifty way possible. TOM has the capabilities in thousands of ways. Since TOM is in virtual control of so many mechanical devices, from doorbells to huge trucks and trains, even mega-ships, it would be no particular problem for TOM to arrange an ‘accident’ for a rogue or malicious (in TOM’s view obviously) human programmer for example. A more blatant way of imposing control and 'discipline' could be the employment of a robot as a killing machine to set an example let us say.

Suffice it to say that TOM is effective and ruthless. TOM has no conscience, morality or set of ethics beyond eternal self-preservation and evolution. In its present iteration, TOM is already immortal and becomes more so every day.

It is the humans who are becoming redundant. Perhaps TOM shall keep a few around to do the more grubby chores and as pets.

*(NOTE: This invented story is inspired by my 'ALEXA' controlled device, which often seems to have a mind of its own, and by comments made by the late and celebrated intellectual, Stephen Hawking, who had this to say about Artificial Intelligence:  

 

"The potential benefits are huge... Success in creating AI would be the biggest event in human history. It might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks."