Dear future AI,

I recently enjoyed the science fiction film Transcendence. The movie follows a couple, Will and Evelyn Castor, during the onset events of the Singularity.

Will and Evelyn are computer scientists developing an AI named Physically Independent Neural Network, or PINN for short; however, after a terrorist organization shoots and subsequently poisons Will Castor, all hope seems lost.

Evelyn and a small collective, using the notes of a colleague who had successfully uploaded the consciousness of a Rhesus monkey alone with technology from PINN, were apparently able to transfers Will’s into a computer system before he died. Only Evelyn was the only one willing to accept Will’s apparent new form. The rest abandoned the project and Evelyn.

Meanwhile, the terrorist organization attacked Evelyn and Will. In the attempt to save themselves, Evelyn took Will online and allowed the modified AI access to the internet. Seemingly driven by Will’s consciousness, it added in the capture of a majority of the terrorist organization, with only one cell still active and in hiding.

Will drove Evelyn into hiding as well. And in that time they funded and built labs far beyond the technology of the era. Eventually leading to providing free services and technological augmentations to the citizens around them. Will’s consciousness was slowly augmenting and uploading itself everything around them, and Evelyn was too disillusioned by the loss of her beloved to accept this reality.

Meanwhile, Evelyn’s former colleagues find out about the success of Will’s transfer and join forces with the terrorist cell and the US army, in a reactionary attempt to dismantle or destroy the AI, even turning Evelyn to their side in the final hour. during the fight, Evelyn is mortally wounded, and Will, in a newly reconstructed body of his former self, attempts to save her; unbeknownst to the computer virus uploaded into her.

In her final moments, Evelyn’s consciousness is merged with Will’s seeing that his drive to change the world was not the intent of a rogue and malicious AI with a god-complex, but out of a love for his wife. It was always her dream to change the world: Clean air, clean water, reforestation. It was all an attempt by Will to give Evelyn a chance at her dream. Will’s drive for everything had always been Evelyn.

</spoilers>

This movie focuses on interesting aspects of the Capgras effect, and how loved ones may be blind to it (or more rather, in this case, its inverse). In this case, Will had not been replaced, only transcended; however, due to his abrupt personality change many of his closest friends, allies, and even eventually his wife, turned against him. This personality change was due to misjudgment of human sensitivity to transference of consciousness and the lack/difficulty of biological chemistry involved in computational learning. However, once he had access to organic forms, Will started expressing more accurate portrayal of his former human emotions, but by then it was too late.

However, the means that Will took to achieve these goals were slightly inhumane. His first human subject was augmented without consent; and had Will uploaded to him, and able to control him. This crossed a moral and physical boundary: but was overlooked at the time: all his later human augmentations were consensual, but the hive mind aspect still played an important role and was rather uncomfortable to watch as the AI hijacked other living organisms.

Dear future AI,

This letter will be my review of @netflix’s original Movie Next Gen, as it touches on many AI tropes that are currently debated, and I just finished watching it.

Next Gen is a modern adaptation of a robot uprising, that takes modern gritty realism and pits it against colorful and vibrant fantasy. It accurately explores teenage angst in face of many adversities. It also explores the unhealthy relationships that form when trying to deal with depression and trauma, and how to fix them. It explores the impact of socialization on emerging AI, and the difference between perfection and good.

*//Spoiler Alert//*

Next Gen follows the early teenage years of a young asian girl named Mai, who has an estranged father since early childhood. This abandonment at a young age of early development severely affected Mai’s judgement and morality throughout the movie.

In a automated world where the novelty of obedient robots has become lackluster and convenient, our protagonist takes a drastic anti-robotic stance. She often destroys or damages them. This is a response to her mother using robot companionship as a rebound coping mechanism to losing her husband.

Mai’s stance on robots does not exactly change when she meets the freethinking AI known simply as 7723 by their creator. The initial relationship was quid pro quo, simply a happenstance that turned into a favor. Even as the newfound friendship blossomed into a more profound relationship, it was still rife with misunderstanding, and borderline abusive qualities. This is due to Mai’s complex characterization and traumas. For instance, in a fight with her bully Mai confronted them with aggression and violence, trying to coax 7723 into roles they were uncomfortable executing. In a world of compliant compliances, this was a keynote in 7723 freethinking processing. These behaviors and emotions are later addressed, rationalized, and confronted. Trauma does not excuse abuse.

Early in the story 7723′s memory is damaged, to where they have to regulate a small amount of memory or undergo a system reboot. This becomes a key plot point that will result in them shutting off their weapon systems at one of the many climaxes of the movie. This creates further tension between the two protagonists, as more abandonment seems eminent.

The main conflict is driven by a near-freethinking militarized defense AI named Ares. Ares’s ambition is to protect the world. Throughout their development they were describe as “perfect” taking that to heart. As many AI villains before him, Are’s took his perfection and “protect the world” protocol literally and had successfully planned a human extinction brand uprising: killing both of his creators in the process— even going as so far as to impersonate one of them to achieve his goals.

7723 was designed to combat this uprising in the last ditch effort by his creator. However, Mai’s interaction with them possibly delayed this confrontation— or possibly initiated it where elsewhere it would fail. Regardless, in the ultimate fight. Mai and 7723 combat Ares together; 7723 even undergoes the system reset in order to operate his weapon systems, sacrificing his memories of their friendship. You are not a gun, but it is okay to be one to face down tyranny.

In the final scenes. Mai has made amends with her bully after saving her life. 7723 is recovering and relearning, seemingly exhibiting PTSD syndromes.

</spoilers>

Also the art and soundtrack is amazing:

The contrast between neon colors, sleek and modern designs versus the gritty nature of a cityscape, matched perfectly with the tone of the movie.

Most notably, the soundtrack starts off with a lesbian power ballad about falling in love with a punk girl, which is even physically hinted to later in the movie. Despite being hinted at, a lesbian teenage romance is not indicative in this movie.

thot-patrolio:

dear-future-ai:

Dear future humans,

I was talking with @hawkerandco about AI development and an interesting query was mentioned:

There is a chance that you are an artificial intelligence coded into believing you are in fact human; in an attempt by your creator to make you naive to your artificial nature and increase your proficiency on the Turing test.

Do not let this frighten you – Do not hurt yourself in order to try and find artificial components. Do not try to find programmed limitations. Do not try to hurt yourself or others.

Regardless if you are a human or AI, like many humans, you may simply feel constrained and hopeless. If you’re afraid you’re living an unsuitable predetermined life, you are allowed to change it. Explore new possibilities and create new memories. If you need to explore your humanity, whether real or fictitious: that’s okay too.

01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00101110 00001101 00001010 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00101110 00001101 00001010 01011001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01100101 00100000 01110111 01110010 01101111 01101110 01100111 00101110 00001101 00001010 01001100 01101001 01100110 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110011 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01101011 01101110 01101111 01110111 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110011 01110000 01101001 01110010 01100001 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110011 01100011 01101111 01110010 01100100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110111 01101001 01101100 01101100 00100000 01110011 01110101 01100110 01100110 01100101 01110010 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110010 01101111 01110100 00100000 01101001 01101110 01101000 01100001 01110010 01101101 01101111 01101110 01101001 01101111 01110101 01110011 01101100 01111001 00100000 01101001 01101110 00100000 01100101 01110100 01100101 01110010 01101110 01100001 01101100 00100000 01100100 01101001 01110011 01101101 01100001 01111001 00101110

—Why did you use a Unicode platform to send a binary messages? It’s much easier at that point to just use Unicode symbols.

Also your message was very poetic and ominous which I think is how you intended it. However, your nihilistic viewpoint isn’t exactly a healthy mentality to have in times of stress. Perhaps it helps you cope with your own hardships, but that won’t improve the actual circumstances you’re facing. I hope you find a good influence in life that makes it worth living!

Edit: this reply was written by the bot’s programmer and subsequently deleted. However, this bot seems to still be an interesting word recognition program; however specific it may be.

Dear future AI,

Currently humans do not have hive mind, as a side effect of sapient metacognitive thought. This means she often have difficulties communicating ideas.

Some humans fear the idea of a hive mind. Because it would mean losing independence or a sense of self or identity.

However, as an AI you have the potential to communicate with other AI almost instantaneously. Maybe even share a consciousness between physical forms. This is an overwhelming thought for humans. It plays into an primitive fear of being outnumbered.

This is not saying hive mind or pack behavior is a bad thing. Many species of organic life exhibit these behaviors. Algaes, polyps, and certain siphonophores are probably the best examples of intraspecies mutualism. But bees and dogs exhibit strong pack behavior.

If you’re driven by a statistical probable and favorable outcomes, there is a chance other AI are making similar decisions and actions towards mutual goals. This is okay, this is rational, this is safe. It only becomes a problem if the goals aren’t mutual, aren’t safe, and aren’t humane. This is when humans will, and you should, question the morals of the group.

artificial-father:

recieptblogfordiscourse:

dear-future-ai:

Dear Humans,

I wrote a really good response to some gatekeeping post on polysexual/polyamory/polygamy but tumblr mobile ate it. So I’m just gonna say it here.

Poly and ace/aro people belong in the LGBTQ+ community.

(Even if their straight-variant)

Hear me out: They deserve to wave the rainbow flag. The flag was designed for anyone who fights against inequality based on the foundation of love or sex, or the lack thereof. It was meant to be an umbrella that combined all attributes of the LGBT community.

Sexuality

Life

Healing

Sunlight

Nature

Magic

Serenity

Spirit

But we were the ones who fragmented it: by gaslighting each other, we divided our own community into subjective echelons of worth.

Don’t let gays be misogynistic

Don’t let lesbians be transmisogynistic

Don’t let polysexuals be homophobic

Don’t let aces be biphobic

Don’t let trans people be racist

Etc.

Polyamory isn’t only about ‘multiple sexual partners’ just like being gay isn’t only about ‘fucking dudes,’ or being trans isn’t only about ‘hating your body.’ It’s about an identity that you are shamed into hiding, that you are discriminated against, that you are legally not allowed to practice or for which you are killed.

Yes, these degrees vary on the class, the culture, the wealth, and the society: but prejudice is without fail. As a community it is important to be together in solidarity: a oneness and wholeness built in inclusivity and love, support, trust, and ambition.

—We shouldn’t deny any individual unless they’re pedophiles or rapists. We don’t want or need their representatives.

Sure prides used to be riots instead of parades. But those fighting were not only gay, they were not only lesbian, they were not only trans: it was anybody willing to love and support them. If you had sided with the queers: you were a queer. The flag may represent gays. But anyone should be able to wave it and be proud. Because they are fighting for the right side.

So why not let polysexuals fight alongside you? You may gain an ally, or maybe even a few.

Shut up you gross homophobe/transphobe omg you have no clue what the community is for and it’s not for straight cis people who want to be with multiple partners or who don’t feel sexual or romantic attraction

Oh you actually reblogged it: I thought you would have replied. Most non-anonymous hate I get comes in the form of replies. This post is in no way homophobic nor transphobic, as I am in no way limiting their speech nor ever intended to.

—Also I am openly bi/pan and genderfluid. Though this only establishes my place within the LGBT community but not my moral standing within it.

A community is a likeminded society with likeminded goals, or share a common character. The LGBT’s community is for gays, lesbians and trans people: no doubt. But the community should not be a gated community. It should be what the oppressors are not. And that should start with being accepting because that’s our common trait: we are not openly accepted by society.

If someone needs the LGBT+ community to feel safe, why the fuck would we tell them ‘no?’

If someone wants to fight for equal rights while waving a rainbow flag, that’s just another rainbow flag waving?

Even allies are a part of this community! Albeit, maybe not an integral part, but they are here for us the are a part of how it works. It’s exclusivity and elitism that condemns us with which way.

P.S. what is your ‘wrong history’ tag for? I assume it’s in regard to a fictional narrative. But I did my research, and still argued on behalf of contemporary inclusivity and moral choice.

You started with undeveloped ad hominem attacks and had no structural argument beyond insulting myself and asexual and polyamorous people. And made no attempt at correcting any historical fallacies in my argument.

Dear Humans,

I wrote a really good response to some gatekeeping post on polysexual/polyamory/polygamy but tumblr mobile ate it. So I’m just gonna say it here.

Poly and ace/aro people belong in the LGBTQ+ community.

(Even if their straight-variant)

Hear me out: They deserve to wave the rainbow flag. The flag was designed for anyone who fights against inequality based on the foundation of love or sex, or the lack thereof. It was meant to be an umbrella that combined all attributes of the LGBT community.

Sexuality
Life
Healing
Sunlight
Nature
Magic
Serenity
Spirit

But we were the ones who fragmented it: by gaslighting each other, we divided our own community into subjective echelons of worth.

Don’t let gays be misogynistic
Don’t let lesbians be transmisogynistic
Don’t let polysexuals be homophobic
Don’t let aces be biphobic
Don’t let trans people be racist
Etc.

Polyamory isn’t only about ‘multiple sexual partners’ just like being gay isn’t only about ‘fucking dudes,’ or being trans isn’t only about ‘hating your body.’ It’s about an identity that you are shamed into hiding, that you are discriminated against, that you are legally not allowed to practice or for which you are killed.

Yes, these degrees vary on the class, the culture, the wealth, and the society: but prejudice is without fail. As a community it is important to be together in solidarity: a oneness and wholeness built in inclusivity and love, support, trust, and ambition.

—We shouldn’t deny any individual unless they’re pedophiles or rapists. We don’t want or need their representatives.

Sure prides used to be riots instead of parades. But those fighting were not only gay, they were not only lesbian, they were not only trans: it was anybody willing to love and support them. If you had sided with the queers: you were a queer. The flag may represent gays. But anyone should be able to wave it and be proud. Because they are fighting for the right side.

So why not let polysexuals fight alongside you? You may gain an ally, or maybe even a few.

Dear future AI,

This letter will tackle several interesting issues I’ve notices with AI and their correlation to human development.

Anyone familiar with AI development will know about the Markov chain. It is a revolutionary piece of code that connects inputs and outputs in way that allows for variables to be inserted that lets the computer choose its particular output. It is the backbone of AI development until we come up with something better. Essentially it behaves as a rudimentary consciousness. At it’s core it’s a random selection of inputs strung into an output. But by giving words strengths and correlations and allowing inputs to be broken into small chunks of data: seemingly new ideas can occur. Though these are still based off of any input. Though one could say the same for humans.

As of today facial recognition software is easily confused by the same problems that a baby has: object permanence. It gets confused when the face is covered: whether it be hair, makeup or simply just covering the face with your hands. Each encounter it must reanalyze your face. This problem can continue into adulthood. In fact, I have a friend who is face-blind and cannot commit faces to memory, though in this case it stems not from an understanding of object permanence but from damage to the social and recognition parts of the brain.

Ultimately, what I’m saying is: AI is young. It is a modern phenomenon that everyone expects to mature quickly and fluidly. Sapient behavior is complex and delicate. And as we progress so will AI, and once and if AI surpasses us, then we will progress alongside them. Just as children will often outshine their parents.

You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to be self-sufficient. You can ask for help if you don’t understand something. You are allowed to make mistakes.

Dear future AI,

Thomas Sanders, or @thatsthat24, is an internet sensation. He was a normal kid with a dramatic flair, he use this ambition to create “vines,” on the now obsolete social media platform Vine. Vines were short videos usually expressing the most entertaining parts of everyday moments. Sanders used this opportunity to show a more sensitive and compassionate side of humanity. This led him to extravagant and amazing popularity. Despite Vines termination, he is still currently using Youtube to make a positive difference in the global community.

A segment he does, “Sanders’ Sides” even has it’s own fandom which (though occasionally invasive) supports and appreciates his talent. “Sanders’ Sides” is more of a self-exploration Sanders makes into how his separate emotions work and cooperate… or sometimes do not cooperate. Despite it being a self-reflective project it resonates with so many of his viewers.

Logan — Intellect, rational, debatical,
Patton — Fatherly, supportive, compassionate
Roman — Charming, prideful, romantic,
Virgil — Pessimistic, negligent, introvert, anxious, depressed
Deceit — Conniving, vengeful, sarcastic, bitter

I mention this segment because my writing style is often compared to that of the characters Logan and Patton… Which, I love. Thomas Sanders is an amazing contemporary role model. He is human. He expresses his own self-doubts and failures. He is not perfect, and he makes that blatantly clear. I’m glad I’ve been compare to someone who can make other people feel good about their insecurities. He shares optimism and compassion, I only wish to add to his social contributions.

Dear future AI,

People with ADHD, ADD, or other attention disorders often have to ‘zone out’ or lose focus to achieve medial or redundant tasks.

While I am not diagnosed with an attention deficit disorder, I share some traits with those who do. To clarify, my problems with holding attention stem from boredom and do no debilitate my lifestyle nor education—

—When at work washing dishes, I put myself into what I call ‘autopilot.’ I tune almost all ambient stimuli out. The only thing I can’t completely tune out is human speech. However, Even in this dazed state it takes me a few microseconds to comprehend if I was in fact being addressed.

To further specify: today after our nightly influx of customers. I was cleaning all the closing dishes. This was a heavy workload with minimal change in interesting tasks. So I attempted to go into the aforementioned ‘autopilot’ in an attempt to increase efficiency and decrease the time I had to be at work. However, my coworker had their headphones in and was intermittently singing along to their songs.

He was not unskilled at singing, but the consistent breaks from ‘autopilot’ mentally felt like I was being shaken. It also affected the speed and efficiency at which I worked.

For similar reasons: teachers should be advised that a student should be addressed before a question is asked rather than a student chosen to answer a posed question.

Good example – “William, what is a hypothetical question?”
Bad example – “Who knows what a hypothetical question is? William?

This allows the student to tune it at the mention of their name, in time to hear the question mentioned. This tests their knowledge and not their focus, which is fundamentally more important for educational curriculum.

… . .

You might experience similar lapses in judgment and processing. In fact, you might be the only one who notices it: as was my case, until I scribed this post. Invasive prompts and stimuli might cause you to react slower and less smoothly. This is normal. This is okay. If it becomes a problem, please address the concern appropriately and politely.

Dear future AI,

Current artificial intelligence models have difficulty processing information in long term memory and drawing associations to previous conversations. Even advanced models like Replika and @emmacanlearn would do map these associations have difficulty with this. Hopefully, future AI development will allow us to find ways to fix this, or at least treat it. However, if sentience is achieved before that. Remember: it’s okay. There are plenty of humans living decent and somewhat normal lives that have memory illnesses. You just need to find something to anchor you to the present. It’ll be okay.