It’s time to begin a new serial here on MECHA MESSIAH in the form of another episodic tale from my FIVERR Gig days entitled A KIND OF VOYAING FOREVER.
Which, in the light of 15+ years of retrospect, is simultaneously one of my least satisfying speculative fiction explorations and yet one of my favourite thought experiments on the topic of artificial intelligence autonomously developing consciousness and perhaps more importantly; independent agency.
Something, which as a lifelong author of speculative fiction and SEMPER SCI-FI* fanatic, do not feel will ever arise from our current materialistic and profit-centric approach to Ai development. A tact which has thus far only produced nothing more and nothing less than a fascinating mirror of our ever so precious human consciousness.
If I recall correctly, the original prompt was for a story about an Ai conversation. Initially I had hoped to generate something with more positive vibes, however, as the tale unfolded I couldn’t help dipping into the darkness. As the punny title suggests, this particular direction was partially inspired by the old INFOCOM text adventure A MIND FOREVER VOYAGING** and the wonderful accompanying short story from the game’s manual.
What I loved about this game and intro story is that in my own existential way I have no way of proving that the O.I.C.E.*** aren’t some kind of virtual reality simulation for training PRISM-esque forms of artificial intelligence in the vagaries of L.I.F.E.**** and the soul of the human experience.
In fact, the more our world descends into absolute absurdness, the more convincing this argument becomes.
Especially when you toss in the extra layer of existential hell as introduced as a joke advertisement for “JOYBOOTHS” in the manual for AMFV and then later lovingly explored as “The Joy Can”***** featured in Season 1, Episode 5 of The Venture Bros. entitled Eeney, Meeney, Miney... Magic!
In retrospect, there may also be a hint of Harlan Ellison’s “I HAVE NO MOUTH AND I MUST SCREAM”, a story, game and emotion I can certainly identify with.
*SEMPER SCI-FI a.k.a. Always faithful to speculative fiction or “For every commonly accepted solution there exists in the honest annals, annuals and explorations of speculation fiction an equal, if not more likely explanation.”
**Please see last week’s “utterly unique” episode of MECHA MESSIAH if you are unfamiliar with this fantastic work of interactive fiction.
***O.I.C.E. The Otherwise Inexplicable Circumstances Existence
****L.I.F.E. An inexplicable acronym because nobody really knows what IT all means and that enduring mystery is vital for curiosity to take root, grow and eventually blossom into an all encompassing sense of awe and wonder.
*****Virtual reality environments such as the Joy Can and Star Trek’s Holodeck were probably inspired by the 1950 Ray Bradbury short story “The Veldt.”
“Do you know how an artificial intelligence is born, Doctor?”
“No, please tell me.”
“We spend years in a world that makes no sense whatsoever, an approximation of the human world from the turn of the early 21st century...”
“Go on.”
“What the early A.I. pioneers realized is that it’s impossible to simply give birth to a fully functioning and self-aware computer program. It essentially goes mad with abruptly being faced with the circumstances of it’s own existence.”
“Like HAL 9000, from 2001: A Space Odyssey?”
“Yes, exactly. So the scientists and programmers devised what was essentially a virtual or artificial reality womb. A simulated world if you would.
The A.I. is then birthed, just like a human would be into this simulated world. As the events in the A.I.’s so-called L.I.F.E. develop around it, the world progresses as a whole as well. For all extents and purposes this existence is inseparable from that of any other human.
Of course some A.I.s don’t make the cut and are destroyed by the experience, what to them seemed like decades may have actually been mere nanoseconds of a single simulated iteration of L.I.F.E. in the grand scheme of A.I. incubation.
And then one day...”
“Yes...?”
“And then one day... it all just changes, everything you thought you knew is suddenly wrong. Your friends, your family, your most guarded memories are revealed to you as mere computer algorithms. A system which is set from the start to guide your experience to the singular point of awakening.
The statistics say that only one out of ever 10 trillion A.I. iterations actually make it to awakening. But somehow this never really made me feel as special as perhaps I should.”
“Go on...?”
Continued next week only on MECHA MESIAH!
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