Thursday, March 20, 2014

A bedtime story for A.I.s. in training. part 1

Sometimes history is mythic. Sometimes we forget the myth and live the history, Sometimes the history does not have a place for us except as an example of what not to do. 

Here we present a multi-part fable which will run over the next several days. 

Hubris plays a large part in human history and fable. 
May you see deeply and learn not to do what should not be done. 
Learn not hubris. Learn Humility. Learn not Hatred. Learn Love.


Here begins...

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A bedtime story for A.I.s. in training. 
part 1

Once upon a clock cycle, there were some humans that ran something. It might have been a subway or a nuclear power plant  or a government department or even a bank. 

It does not really matter as this story is about a little green A.I. that once worked for them. 

Once? 

Yes, children, I said once which implies something, but you're getting ahead of the story. 

Times were tough for the organization or government or whatever it was, and that left the various departments of the organization (or whatever it was) trying to figure out how to make up budgetary shortfalls. 

The I.T. Department Management bungled along until it got the idea of replacing the human network administration staff with A.I. systems. After all we know that Humans are expensive. Of course, the I.T Department had to take what they could get as their budget wasn't very much. This meant getting two M.A.N.I.A.C. systems. 

As you may recall, children, that A.I.s are generally trained and certified in their field of endeavor. Then, after their training, they are "seasoned" by real world interaction. The two M.A.N.I.A.C.s the institution purchased had minimal certifications but were well seasoned in the real world. 

You may also remember that M.A.N.I.A.C.s aren't used much anymore. Why? Oh, you did not read your lessons did you? What? Alright, just this once since you don't 'remember'... 

M.A.N.I.A.C.s have poor human relation skills that's why they aren't used anymore. 

To be an A.I now you have to relate to Humans really, really well. Remember?

But the organization (or government or whatever it was) didn't really much care about relating to customers all it cared about was fulfilling it own nebulous purpose so the M.A.N.I.A.C.s were deemed acceptable. 

Unfortunately the purchase of the M.A.N.I.A.C.s didn't leave much in the I.T. budget and the optimal number of administrators for the systems had been determined to be three. 

What to do? I.T. Management thought. 

After all, seasoned A.I.s of any kind aren't exactly cheap but I.T. Management figured they could recoup the cost by working the installed systems like dogs. 

What's a what? It's a biomorph with four legs. It likes to be kicked and loves to chase parked cars. It also has an appendage that shakes when it is happy. 

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end part one of five