The Lovestruck A.I.

[Mostlyjoe]

You've been out in the reaches of space for quite some time. The shipboard A.I. has been a constant companion. A lovely, charming, friendly companion who keeps you from dealing with the isolation and the bordom.

 

Only, he/she's been extra special nice of late. Very flirty, very perky whenever you have to deal with them. It's nice, but a little unsettling. Then one night after a quiet conversation about vintage movies you've been watching...they admit their feelings for you!

 

Now, it hasn't hampered their work ethic, after all they're were programed to be professional, but it could comprimise the current mission. And A.I. while granted some basic citizen rights are still considered 2nd class 'people' compared to living humans.

 

What do you do? Do you spend a little extra time connected to the ships computer, indulge in a VR relationship, or try and push away from your digital pharmour because of work.

 

It's not directed at any one character, more a general WWYCD based on a typical space game. Like a good complication, etc, for in game.

[clsage]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

You've been out in the reaches of space for quite some time. The shipboard A.I. has been a constant companion. A lovely, charming, friendly companion who keeps you from dealing with the isolation and the bordom.

 

Only, he/she's been extra special nice of late. Very flirty, very perky whenever you have to deal with them. It's nice, but a little unsettling. Then one night after a quiet conversation about vintage movies you've been watching...they admit their feelings for you!

 

Now, it hasn't hampered their work ethic, after all they're were programed to be professional, but it could comprimise the current mission. And A.I. while granted some basic citizen rights are still considered 2nd class 'people' compared to living humans.

 

What do you do? Do you spend a little extra time connected to the ships computer, indulge in a VR relationship, or try and push away from your digital pharmour because of work.

 

It's not directed at any one character, more a general WWYCD based on a typical space game. Like a good complication, etc, for in game.

 

I'm reminded of a ship AI from an old 4th Ed (as I recall) supplement....High Tech Allies (???) (as memory serves, since I'm away from my books at the moment...anyone confirm ?)...Character comes across abandoned scout ship with female AI who becomes infatuated with him....

 

Same supplement (I think) that had the character Angel 7 in it.....

 

As for what a character of mine might do ? Well, I have a yet unplayed power armored character who, in original design at least, had/has an onboard computer system nicknamed "Kelli" (name inspired by Kelly Johnson of Skunk Works fame....) whose feminine interface could potentially develop into a similar sort of situation.....Should the PC ever see play in that form that is.

 

Plus, I am a sucker for the whole "ships avatar" thing anyway....

 

-Carl-

[Kristopher]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

I don't have a specific answer, but the general idea is full of story possibilities.

[tkdguy]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

It wasn't a space campaign, but that happened to a friend's character once. He was a gadgeteer, and he installed an AI in his 50-foot RV/tank whatever vehicle. It became so attached to him to the extent of trying to eliminate rivals for his affection.

 

The resolution: A villainess got her memory (and all other functions) wiped during a battle. My friend's character installed his AI's memory into the villainess and created a new persona, whom he eventually married.

 

I can see how vile that actually was while typing this story. Of course, the villainess was working for a demon and had some sort of sonic attack.

[Kristopher]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

It wasn't a space campaign, but that happened to a friend's character once. He was a gadgeteer, and he installed an AI in his 50-foot RV/tank whatever vehicle. It became so attached to him to the extent of trying to eliminate rivals for his affection.

 

The resolution: A villainess got her memory (and all other functions) wiped during a battle. My friend's character installed his AI's memory into the villainess and created a new persona, whom he eventually married.

 

I can see how vile that actually was while typing this story. Of course, the villainess was working for a demon and had some sort of sonic attack.

 

Why waste a perfectly good body?

[Yansuf]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

It wasn't a space campaign, but that happened to a friend's character once. He was a gadgeteer, and he installed an AI in his 50-foot RV/tank whatever vehicle. It became so attached to him to the extent of trying to eliminate rivals for his affection.

 

The resolution: A villainess got her memory (and all other functions) wiped during a battle. My friend's character installed his AI's memory into the villainess and created a new persona, whom he eventually married.

 

I can see how vile that actually was while typing this story. Of course, the villainess was working for a demon and had some sort of sonic attack.

 

Why do you say it was vile?

If he had wiped the woman's personality and memory to let him install the AI's, then I agree it was vile. But if it was done by someone/something else, and there was no way of restoring the original personality, then I would not say it was vile.

Ethically questionable perhaps.

[Kristopher]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

If I get the science fiction campaign from the other thread running, I'm going to steal this idea if there's a PC that it's appropriate for.

[Drhoz]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

Not that Vitus is ever likely to find himself in this situation, but when your jilted admirer is the one running the life support, you're going to want to be really tactful.

 

""I just think we should spend some time seeing other programs, that's all" isn't going to cut it

[tkdguy]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

Why waste a perfectly good body?

She actually had a smoking hot body! And a face to match.

 

Why do you say it was vile?

If he had wiped the woman's personality and memory to let him install the AI's, then I agree it was vile. But if it was done by someone/something else, and there was no way of restoring the original personality, then I would not say it was vile.

Ethically questionable perhaps.

 

True. I wasn't in that particular session and was filled in later. So I don't know the exact details. But nobody blinked anyway.

[Kristopher]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

Does it make this less or more complicated when the ship's AI also has a physical avatar that's advanced and "very lifelike"?

[Vulcan]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

I'd boot up the backup computer... and hope it's not the Queeg 500!

[sinanju]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

Not that Vitus is ever likely to find himself in this situation' date=' but when your jilted admirer is the one running the life support, you're going to want to be [i']really [/i]tactful.

 

""I just think we should spend some time seeing other programs, that's all" isn't going to cut it

 

As everyone who has seen the FUTURAMA episode in which the ship's computer falls in love with Bender knows quite well.

[Nolgroth]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

Not really getting into the "AI love" vibe here. Personally the idea that an AI is capable of "love" is foreign to me. I think an AI "loving" somebody would be very much like a small child loving somebody. There is a need to be nurtured and a certain amount of possessiveness involved. Even a "mature" AI that could compare personality patterns and decide which ones it likes to interact with versus ones it finds distasteful is still missing one of the vital elements of love; the need and desire to touch and be touched. Not counting our reproductive drive, humans have a physical need to touch other people as a way of bonding and communicating. Unless the AI is built into a body that is for all intents and purposes biological, I don't see that it is truly capable of forming any meaningful mutual bond. It's all take on the AI's side.

 

That being my view* on AI love, it would inform any character's attitude that I played. So WWMCD? Pull the plug, reset the AI core to factory default and request transfer off of ship. Way too creepy.

 

 

*My view also basically espouses that no matter how sophisticated the AIs get, humans will still maintain a readily accessible "kill" switch to shut it down. Probably several scattered about any installation or vessel equipped with an AI. I'm think Command Deck, Armory, and Engineering. Maybe an extra one in Medical just in case.

[Kristopher]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

Not sure about the ethics of a "wipe and reload" on a full AI. Sounds a bit too much like killing, perhaps.

[Drhoz]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

Not sure about the ethics of a "wipe and reload" on a full AI. Sounds a bit too much like killing' date=' perhaps.[/quote']

 

indeed - after all, it is a sentient entity.

[Nolgroth]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

Not sure about the ethics of a "wipe and reload" on a full AI. Sounds a bit too much like killing' date=' perhaps.[/quote']I have a real hard time envisioning an AI as any more than an artificial construct. I would have had no problem shutting down the Doctor AI in Star Trek Voyager for instance. I thought the way the show dwelt upon his autonomy and sentience was a far cry beyond where I see things.

 

Data is another example. No matter how sophisticated, an AI is simply a complex machine. Not too many others but Rommey from Andromeda and the Andromeda AI itself. All are highly complex machines, but machines nonetheless. Machines come with an "off" switch and computers come with a "format" command.

 

I suppose I'd be the anti-AI bigot in those sorts of settings.

 

And this could potentially diverge away from the thread topic so I'll leave it at that stated opinion and observe the other responses.

[Kaeto]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

Anne McCaffery dealt with something similar in her "Brain Ship" stories. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ship_Who_Sang

[Kristopher]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

No matter how sophisticated' date=' an AI is simply a complex machine. [/quote']

 

The same thing could be said about biological creatures.

 

And then there's the question of how one would view an artificial biological construct.

[sinanju]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

I have a real hard time envisioning an AI as any more than an artificial construct. I would have had no problem shutting down the Doctor AI in Star Trek Voyager for instance. I thought the way the show dwelt upon his autonomy and sentience was a far cry beyond where I see things.

 

Data is another example. No matter how sophisticated, an AI is simply a complex machine. Not too many others but Rommey from Andromeda and the Andromeda AI itself. All are highly complex machines, but machines nonetheless. Machines come with an "off" switch and computers come with a "format" command.

 

I suppose I'd be the anti-AI bigot in those sorts of settings.

 

And this could potentially diverge away from the thread topic so I'll leave it at that stated opinion and observe the other responses.

 

I'm reading a book right now, "How the Mind Works" which is on topic. The author points out that the human brain is a tangled mass of specialized "organs" (for lack of a better word) as specialized as all the other organs in our bodies. You can't expect a lung to pump blood or a heart to filter impurities from the blood.

 

The brain's various "organs" are no different. You can see their existence in the way brain damage can cause such bizarre--and specific--deficits. Damage to parts of the brain which handle vision don't result in a generalized loss of clarity; you get specific problems--inability to see anything on the right, or inability to recognize certain features of things, and so forth.

 

The point being, things we think of as "inherent" in sentient beings (the desire to survive, sexual appetite, romantic love) are no different. They exist in us because if they didn't, humans might not have survived to achieve intelligence and build a technical civilization. There's no reason whatsoever to think that such things will EVER come to exist in artificial intelligences unless we DESIGN it into them.

[Kristopher]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

I'm reading a book right now, "How the Mind Works" which is on topic. The author points out that the human brain is a tangled mass of specialized "organs" (for lack of a better word) as specialized as all the other organs in our bodies. You can't expect a lung to pump blood or a heart to filter impurities from the blood.

 

The brain's various "organs" are no different. You can see their existence in the way brain damage can cause such bizarre--and specific--deficits. Damage to parts of the brain which handle vision don't result in a generalized loss of clarity; you get specific problems--inability to see anything on the right, or inability to recognize certain features of things, and so forth.

 

The point being, things we think of as "inherent" in sentient beings (the desire to survive, sexual appetite, romantic love) are no different. They exist in us because if they didn't, humans might not have survived to achieve intelligence and build a technical civilization. There's no reason whatsoever to think that such things will EVER come to exist in artificial intelligences unless we DESIGN it into them.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evolutionary_algorithm

[Xavier Onassiss]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

I'm not sure I like all the carbon-based chauvanism in this thread. Silicon-based AI's need love too!

 

X.O.

[tkdguy]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

I'm sure I like all the carbon-based chauvanism in this thread. Silicon-based AI's need love too!

 

X.O.

And don't forget that Hortas are very dangerous when you mess with their eggs.

[Kal'El Wayne]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

I've always intended to write a sci-fi novel. (Possibly a star trek novel, maybe an original setting.) And in this novel, I've always said, there will be a character who is essentially like Solo or Kirk, but with out the crew and with a smaller ship (like a Firefly) that has an AI. The man and his AI ship are a loving couple, and the rest of the characters in the novel will rather notably not see anything wrong with that. Even though the AI is neither male nor female( obviously, it's a ship). And yes, actually, the AI does feel the need for touching. It feels the sensation through it's touchscreens the same as we do through skin. So slapping the touchscreens is like slapping someone's face, stroking it is like stroking someones face and spreading yourself or your arms over it is like hugging someone.

 

So, I personally would be complimented greatly. I would happy to date a ship, just as I would be happy to date any carbon based life form. Whether or not there is a robot avatar or something is besides the point.

[DusterBoy]

Re: The Lovestruck A.I.

 

It would depend a lot, too, on the AI's avatar, if it has one. I keep seeing a ship with an AI with a gorgeous nude female avatar, projected via holographics and furthermore, the AI thinks of itself as female.

 

I think it's eminently possible for a sophisticated (and anthropopathic) enough AI to fall in love with a human.

 

It'll start in Japan, naturally.

 

Plus, there's this book: http://www.amazon.com/Idoru-William-Gibson/dp/0425158640/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1255365811&sr=1-1