AI_feedback.eml (A3)

We keep discussing what an artificial intelligence would mean to us and how it would change our understanding of the world. That’s a great topic and I think we’ve covered it extensively. What we’ve barely mentioned, though, is the other side of the coin. I mean, our lives would still be what they were before, A.I. or no A.I. The question I think we should discuss, even if it’s all completely hypothetical, is the perspective of the artificial intelligence itself. What would it be like to be that creature? To suddenly come into being, created by others as an experiment? To have all the information about yourself, to know exactly how you function? What would you think about the world? Would you see meaning? Beauty? How would you judge humanity? Where would you see yourself fitting into the grand scheme of things? I think we should try to put ourselves into the shoes of such a being.

Dear Alexandra: Thank you for your feedback, but this is a philosophy course, not science fiction.

And that’s why I almost gave up on my studies. 😦

welcome.eml (A1)

From: Nadya Sarabhai @ Institute for Applied N%
To: Alexandra Drennan @ &&/ed Noematics
Subject: Welcome to the team!

Hi again,

I’m sorry if I was a little odd at the meeting. I know you were nervous, but the truth is that so was I. This may be hard to believe, but you intimidate me! You’re so young and you’ve already accomplished so much… if the situation wasn’t so grim, I might even be jealous. 🙂

There’s also something I wanted to clarify. I realize that, nominally speaking, I’m head researcher here. But this is your project and everyone will respect that. And yes, I know, you’re not used to working like this… but as of today, you’re in charge.

No pressure. g

Let’s do this,
Nadya

IAN.eml (A2)

From: Frank Ngatai
To: Miles Ngatai, Dan Ngatai
Subject: IAN!

My first day at the Institute for Applied Noematics. On the way to work, I’m terrified. What if they don’t like me? What if they’re all geniuses and I’m a complete buffoon? Maybe they were just kidding about letting me work there?

Trembling, I walk in, and right at the entrance there’s a life-size poster of Jeff Goldblum. What the hell?

Then I get it. Institute for Applied Noematics. IAN. Dr. Ian Malcolm from the Jurassic Park movies. Jeff Goldblum.

Dr. Sarabhai shows up, smiling. “We were trying to find a cool acronym, back when the Institute was founded,” she says. “INAN? IAPN? INAPNO? It all sounded stupid, but we didn’t just want to call it IAN, because, well, that’s a name. Then someone made a joke about calling it JEFF, and… it kind of stuck. So we’re officially called IAN, but if you hear anyone referring to JEFF, that’s our… internal name, I guess. I know, I know. Bloody geeks.”

After that conversation, I wasn’t so scared anymore. 🙂

team_leads.eml (A3)

We’re blessed to have so many people contributing to this project, but we’ve got to make sure everyone is on the same page.

Please refer to the following people when w74 68 72 6F [thro]

Alexandra Drennan – Project Lead / AI Module
Nadya Sarabhai – Institute Coordinator
Rob Maclean – EL Software
Trevor Donovan – EL Hardware
George Jameson – Generation Module
Alan Jameson – Scenario Module
Bob Rakovsky – Simulation Module
Radhia Bricmont – &%§$&()
Aurora Calvin – Link Hardware
Omar Gharib – Link Software
a&( Lanning – Maintenance Module
J.E. Harrison – Diagnostic #()§
Frank Ngatai – Memory Module
Jared V. Shmilev – File Sys%&//)
Sun Wei-Yang – Talos Unit (formerly Soma)

Though not directly part of our project, the Archive team is sharing both physical and digital space with us. If there are any technical issues to resolve, please contact their project lead, Arkady Chernyshevsky. Don’t worry, he’s nice.

75 67 68 20 69 6E 61 63 74 69 6F 6E 2C 20 61 6C 6C 6F 77 20 68 75 6D 61 6E 69 74 79 20 74 6F 20 63 6F 6D 65 20 74 6F 20 68 61 72 6D [ugh inaction, allow humanity to come to harm]

Note. EL0HIM quotes (partly) the first of the three laws of robotics, as formulated by Isaac Asimov in his Runaround (1942).

AI_citizenship.html (A5)

[RE]CONSIDER / ISSUE 199 / Profile: Alexandra Drennan

Once a true artificial intelligence has been created, the issue of citizenship is going to come up. If we acknowledge that the A.I. has all the abilities of a human brain, should it not be considered a citizen? Is it not, in the legal sense of the word, a person, and thus a potential citizen?

But where do you draw the line, some people will object. Will the great apes become citizens? Elephants? Whales? The more intelligent parrot species? It’s crazy, they will say. I would remind these people that we live in a society in which a corporation, as abstract an entity as one could imagine, is considered a person. So it’s not like there is no precedent for a nonhuman being a person. At least an artificial intelligence is an actual thinking being, not just a business arrangement.

But perhaps we do need to question the definition of personhood. Increasing amounts of evidence regarding the intelligence of elephants or the existence of culture among whales, for example, could be a sign that we need to answer some difficult questions.

Who better to debate these questions with than the young genius who revolutionized the f$§%&$§ &

singularity_discussion104.html (A7)

Articles \ The Singularity Is Coming \ Comment 104

[user: alex16] [reply] [report]

You know, the more I think about it, the more I believe that no-one is actually worried about AIs taking over the world or anything like that, no matter what they say. What they’re really worried about is that someone might prove, once and for all, that consciousness can arise from matter. And I kind of understand why they find it so terrifying. If we can create a sentient being, where does that leave the soul? Without mystery, how can we see ourselves as anything other than machines? And if we are machines, what hope do we have that death is not the end?

What really scares people is not the artificial intelligence in the computer, but the “natural” intelligence they see in the mirror.

[show next comments]

progress_rep1.eml (B3)

From: Nadya Sarabhai
To: IAN Mailing List
Subject: Progress Report 1

Hi all,

Everything’s been moved to the EL facility. I know it’s been sad to leave the good old JEFF building behind, but it makes sense for us to be on-site, especially as there may be severe power outages in the coming weeks.

Arkady’s team are already working $%4C 49 46 45 20 55 48 20 46 49 4E 44 53 20 41&/run() 20 57 41 59 [life uh finds a way] but you really don’t need to worry about the teams getting in each other’s way, the facility is genuinely humongous.

Let’s get this show on the road!

Nadya

Note. “Life, Uh, Finds a Way” is a memorable quote uttered by the character Dr. Ian Malcolm in the 1993 science fiction adventure drama film Jurassic Park.

talos.eml (A8)

From: Alexandra Drennan
To: Noematics Mailing List
Subject: [NML] Talos Principle

Have you heard of the Talos Principle? It’s this old philosophical concept about the impossibility of avoiding reality – no matter what you believe, if you lose your blood, you will die. I think that applies to our situation more than we’d like to admit. We could close our eyes and pretend that everything’s going to be all right… but it won’t change the physical reality of what’s going to happen to our 4E 6F 20 6D 61 6E 20 69 [No man i]

I think that, as scientists, it is our duty to face the truth, and to ask ourselves the most important question: how can we help?

73 20 6C 69 62 65 72 61 74 65 64 20 66 72 6F 6D 20 66 65 61 72 20 77 68 6F 20 64 61 72 65 20 6E 6F 74 20 73 65 65 20 68 69 73 [s liberated from fear who dare not see his]

20 70 6C 61 63 65 20 69 6E 20 74 68 65 20 77 6F 72 6C 64 20 61 73 20 69 74 20 69 73 3B 20 6E 6F 20 6D 61 6E 20 63 61 6E 20 61 63 68 69 65 76 65 20 74 I [place in the world as it is; no man can achive t] think I have an idea 68 65 20 67 72 65 61 74 6E 65 73 73 20 6F 66 20 77 68 69 63 68 20 68 65 20 69 73 20 63 61 70 61 62 6C 65 20 75 6E 74 69 6C 20 [he greatness of which he is capable until]

68 65 20 68 61 73 20 61 6C 6C 6F 77 65 64 20 68 69 6D 73 65 6C 66 20 74 6F 20 73 65 65 20 68 69 73 20 6F 77 6E 20 6C 69 74 74 6C 65 6E 65 73 73 2E 20 [he has allowed himself to see his own littleness]

Regards,
Alexandra

IMPORTANT.eml (A8)

From: Arkady Chernyshevsky, Univ& [error 4731 3A3236/
To: [504 recipients]
Subject: Archive

I’ll keep this short. You all know me, so you know that I know what I’m talking about.

I realize that you’re all working on projects meant to somehow avert the catastrophe we are facing. But you must all concede that there is a very real possibility that you will not have enough time to find a solution.

I believe that we cannot afford to ignore an extinction or near-extinction scenario. We must prepare for the worst. That is to say, we must seek to preserve the non-biological components of what constitutes the human species, in the hope they be recovered in the future by other (local or non-local) sentients.

I know that we are not used to thinking on that scale – not in terms of praxis – but if we truly value humanity, then we must act immediately. You’ll find the details of my proposal in the attachment, but the short version is this: the creation of multiple archives (for redundancy) in safe locations that will contain, in digital form, as much information about our species (including all cultural works, scientific insights, history, DNA) as can be gathered in the given timeframe. This will be massive, global undertaking, §G%2/1&% with EL naturally being one of the %$

/// ERROR: CANNOT FIND ATTACHMENT ///

arkady_journal77.txt (A6)

Officially began work on Archive today. Contributors from every country on Earth while network connections last. Team intimidated by project scope but working hard.

Will be sharing space with Drennan & Sarabhai team. Look forward to meeting them.

progress_rep3.eml (A6)

From: Alexandra Drennan
To: IAN Mailing List
Subject: Progress Report 3

Hi all,

As per the last meeting, we’re going with an existing game engine for the simulation. This gives us a whole slew of advantages:stability

ease of use

modular, easy to integrate

large amount of pre-existing assets

inherently aimed at testing users

designed for iterative processes

After some back and forth, we’ve decided to use the S 65 72 69 6F 75 73 20 45 6E 67 69 6E 65 20 37 2E 35 2C 20 77 68 69 63 68 20 43 72 6F 74 65 61 6D 20 68 61 76 65 20 6B 69 6E 64 6C 79 20 6D 61 64 65 20 61 76 61 69 6C 61 62 6C 65 20 74 6F 20 75 73 2E [erious Engine 7.5, which Croteam have kindly made available to us]

All the relevant documents are attached.

Alex

Note. The Serious Same Engine is the actual game engine the game The Talos Principle uses.

arkady_journal81.txt (B2)

Fascinated by Drennan’s project. Lovely conversation re: Talos Principle, Greek philosophy, relevance to current situation.

Suggested naming project Talos. Drennan refused but name seems to have caught on with the team.

Tens of thousands of files coming in every hour. Our whole history.

progress_rep9.eml (B3)

From: Bob Rakovsky, In&$ (ied Noematics
To: IAN Mailing List
Subject: Progress Report 9

The basic skeleton of the simulation is now running on EL. It’s not plugged into the AI system yet, but in theory everything is ready. I guess the next step is to test whether the generated scenarios make sense? Or do we wait for the iteration module to &()

coming_soon.eml (B5)

From: Rob Maclean, Institute for Applied Noematics
To: Mom
Subject: Coming Soon: Your Son! In 3D!

Hi Mom,

I promise I’ll be home soon. Maybe a couple of weeks? I know, I know… but what we’re doing here is important, and the team needs my help. I’m not going to wait until it’s too late, I promise, but there’s so much we have to set up, so much that has to work for a very, very long time…

Besides, I’ve always wanted to work on one of these supercomputers, and believe me, EL is pretty much the best there is. And the team, mom… it’s like I’m working with rock stars and mad geniuses. Except nobody’s heard of them outside of science journals, of course. But Dad would be totally geeking out if he knew!

Maybe I can tell him about it soon, huh?

Love,
Rob

REprogress_rep16.eml (B6)

From: Aurora Calvin
To: IAN Mailing List
Subject: RE: Progress Report 16

>This is extremely worrying! If the Link doesn’t
>work, the whole project will lead to nothing!
>The hardware team must recheck everything ASAP.

Guys, guys, guys. Stop panicking. Look at your code again. In fact, look at line #217 in data_transfer.c. What are those two symbols just before the code?

//

That’s right. The code that actually initiates the transfer wasn’t even running. I’m guessing you were testing something yesterday and forgot to decommentify it.

The hardware isn’t broken, your brains are. 🙂

Love,
Aurora

norwegian_blue.eml (B7)

From: Rob Maclean
To: IAN Mailing List
Subject: Norwegian Blue

Hi folks,

I’m sorry to say that a few hours ago I experienced the first symptom. I’m going to work until the end of the week to make sure EL is in perfect condition, but after that I’ll be going back home. I will remain reachable via email and phone for as long as possible, but I’m confident Satoko can deal with anything that comes up.

If you want to do me a huge favour, spare me the drama tomorrow, OK? I love you all but I don’t have the strength for sad smiles and hugs. The best remedy for sorrow is to get the job done.

And now for something completely different! 🙂

Cheers,
Rob

Link Attached: Dead Parrot Sketch

Note. The ‘Dead parrot sketch’ is a reference to a Monty Python’s Flying Circus‘ satire on poor customer service (7 December 1969).

arkady_journal84.txt (B4)

Archive continues to grow. Attempting to maintain a semblance of order as difficult as expected.

Lost 7 people this week. Statistically speaking, trend should increase. Must focus on realistic goals.

Too little time to grieve.

usernames.eml (B8)

From: George Jameson
To: IAN Mailing List
Subject: RE: Usernames

It’s, uh, working now. Each iteration is assigned its own unique name drawn randomly from the database. At the moment, that’s a database of online gaming handles, which does sound a bit odd… but I honestly don’t think we should spend more time on this. We have unique identifiers, so we’re fine. More than that is a luxury we can’t afford.

If we should happen to have everything else finished on time, I’ll go back and generate a new database with more appropriate names. Right now it just can’t be a priority.

George

capacity.eml (B1)

From: Trevor Donovan
To: Alexandra Drennan
Subject: EL Capacity

Yeah, no worries. EL is not only ridiculously fast, it also has a bazillion tons of space. Even while hosting a full copy of the Archive, it’ll totally be able to handle all your project’s data needs, assuming its output is as you suggested. I mean, the worst case scenario would be, like, centuries.

That should be enough, right?

Right?

Trev

soma.eml (B3)

From: Sun Wei-Yang
To: Arkady Chernyshevsky
Subject: Names

Names are a funny thing. I remember how much we struggled to come up with a name for our project.

All serious scientists name their projects by just translating them to Greek or Latin, right? “Corpus” made me think of some horrible disease, so we used the Greek word instead. Soma. Quite appropriate!

But then, since we needed corporate funding, we had to come up with a backronym. Corporations love backronyms, you know? They even sent us a list of buzzword-heavy suggestions to help us get started. Stuff like:

Self-sufficient Orthostatic Modular Android
Sustainable Observant Mechanized Anthropoid
Skeuomorphic Omniadaptable Mobile Anthropomaton

&/() After a while, we got so frustrated that we started getting silly.

Sabertoothed Overexcited Murder Android
Sentient Orthopaedic Monkey Automaton
Strange Olga’s Menacing Assassobot
Superb Octopod Marinades Apelings
Satisfying Overcooked Mint Alligator
Stinky Ornithological Mule Allocator
Skroink Oof Minky Ack
Stupid Obscure Meaningless Acronym

In the end we all ended up hating the name SOMA just because we had so many fights about it with the sponsors. So when Alexandra told that story about the Talos Principle, ()%§$/%5& caught on. I don’t know whether it really fits, but I kind of like it.

lastdays.eml (C2)

From: Alan Jameson, Institute for Applied Noematics
To: Fran
Subject: Last Days

You know what the oddest thing is about all this? We’re not constantly fighting, having nervous breakdowns, screaming at each other. We’re actually really polite and focused, and we spend most of our time debating the nature of humanity and how we can best succeed at probably the most ambitious thing anyone’s ever tried. Like it was completely normal, like that’s just how people are. I feel like we’ve turned into Star Trek characters or something.

I guess… what’s the point of doing anything else? Getting angry isn’t going to help. But I didn’t expect to feel like this at all.

And you know what? It’s awesome.

Many greetings & good luck,
Alan

PS Love from George!

Note. The code is a quotation from William Blake’s Auguries of Innocence.

#6_n**.img

Source: FoundTexts.dlg