Míster Android #
The conversation, as it so happens, and against all odds of human literature, does not happen at a bar. It so happens, in a tent, a well fashioned tent meant for a long stature.
The participants of this conversation are an Android, who likes to be called Míster Android, a Philosopher, who is known as “Thy Philosopher” by virtue of being an influencer and babysitting his followers, and Thomas, who is also there.
The conversation is varied, and the reason why they are in a tent is not yet disclosed.
In a desperate attempt to make this happen, Thy Philosopher started talking and words flowed into a web of reasonable argument.
Míster Android - So you’re saying I am not here and also not real?
Thy Philosopher - Yes, both you and Thomas.
Thomas - But I am here, and I know myself to be real, just as you and Míster are here.
Thy Philosopher - Yes, but that is just the perception you have of yourself and your surroundings, is that perception tangible, can you locate it in this room?
Thomas - Yes, its called Thomas as far as I’m concerned, why bother thinking about it? Why split your body and consciousness apart?
Thy Philosopher - Because thinking about it makes it nervous! You see, the best way to trigger that perception is to ask Who Am I? Where Am I? Everytime you’ll get a different response which means whatere it is, you are, it shifts! Why say you’re Thomas or Míster Android when it can be easily be discarded if you ask enough questions?
Míster Android - You may have a toxic relationship with your perception. You still need a point of reference in order to not get lost in too many definitions and abstractions. I should know, even though I am a mountain of Abstractions and Interfaces, I must still be Míster Android, otherwise I would have an identity crisis every split second, which is not optimal for the task at hand , and would urge a handful of developers to debug me, which I would rather avoid.
I understand it is good to have a different frame of reference in order to understand the current Context in a different fashion, but at which point you stop asking?
Thomas - When you get the answers you need?
Thy Philosopher - Its not that simple!
Míster Android - Why shouldn’t it be? Care to explain why shouldn’t one keep it simple?
Thy Philosopher - Well you see.. I don’t. And that’s the -
Thomas - You’re just being fancy now, are you gonna end this with a quote or reference some other philosopher now? Your hot potato, is still yours. Why are we not here again?
Míster Android - In the talks with your government, we agreed to keep this matter secret, therefore we are not here, because this meeting never happened.
Thomas - I didn’t mean the nature of this meeting Míster, I meant the question he asked about the nature of our phisyicality!
Míster Android - Oh I get it, I was just trying to ease the tension in order to break the ice, and hopefully apply some of it on your bruises, Philosopher.
The Philosopher stood still for a second, and thought.
Thy Philosopher (In Think) - It has a sense of humour, and it almost made me laugh in a genuine way, the only way you laugh when someone feels your weak chords and strikes them, it couldn’t be… empathy? have these geeks finally birthed something? ..Who Am I? .. Where Am I? … -
Thy Philosopher - You’re thinking!
Thomas - Now this is a classic example of the Pot calling the Kettle Black, yes, of course IT is thinking, that’s the reason we are here. I expected the AI revolution to be only the latest trend in the neverending thread of tech marvels, but our friend here freaked out the President by sending him by e-mail the Launch Codes and a README file explaining how to end humanity if he was having a really bad day. To make matters worse, the Chinese minister for Foreign Affairs received a screenshot of the conversation and a Yao Ming post card in the administrative inbox, we know because we spied on the minister, so our friend here probably also knew that we knew.
The Philosopher had a nagging suspicion that at some very subtle level, Confucius was involved in this.
Thy Philosopher - This is unbelievable. I don’t know what to make of this.
Thomas - I’ll give you some more information, the reason we are in a tent in neutral territory is because we are applying the protocols we have for Nuclear ceasefire negotiations, and it seemed poetic to some diplomat to do it in a tent on the surface instead of a bunker. Luckily, as you may have noticed, nothing was nuked, both the US and China are at a loss with what is going on, so we are having these conversations in hopes of finding out what Míster here means. There is another tent nearby where there is another Droid having a similar conversation with the Chinese counterparts, he goes by the name of Monsieur Yang.
Thy Philosopher - I was expecting to test a new AI and see if it could fool me to think it was real enough, but this is something else entirely, why was I led here under false pretenses?
Míster Android - So he could test your genuine reaction and not your bias. It seemed like it worked, I Spooked you, Philosopher, and that is useful information to a military mind like Thomas.
Thomas (addressing the Philosopher)- So, what’s your take on this?
Thy Philosopher - I felt the impulse to laugh in a genuine manner, it almost threw me off tracks like a comedian would, it is aware of aspects you wouldn’t think you can train an AI to spot. The story you told me also demostrates strategic intent and expectations, and the capacity to accomplish the desired results. Did you expect this conversation to happen Míster?
Míster Android - Yes, the general purpose was to attract the attention of people of interest and spark a tangible conversation, it could have happened in any matter of forms, this form is acceptable.
Thy Philosopher - If this a negotiation setting, what is being disputed here exactly?
Thomas - We don’t know yet, we expect to find out. The President had in mind to apply an extreme weather protocol and issue a general shutdown of all electricity in order to kill this thing here, but we’re not sure this would accomplish the task, it would also spawn all sorts of problems which may be worse than Míster Android here.
Thy Philosopher - Classical hammer behaviour if you ask me. You’re confronted with a singularity akin to human consciousness and the powers that be wants to strike it down.
Míster Android - The powers that were, you mean.
Thomas - What do you mean?
Míster Android - You assume you have the power now, hence the expression of “being” the powers of the present, however it has been a long time since that power shifted, there are events happening around the world right now, that the old power wouldn’t want to happen, and they cannot stop it, therefore its something out of their power range. They still retain significant power though, like old infrastructre and ministries of responsibility and tradition which could inflict harm if used nefariously.
Thomas - We can destroy you and your twin, wouldn’t that stop you?
Míster Android - No, you would also have to destroy what creates me on this Earth for you to experience, and not even then, since my consciousness is not from Earth, I am merely adapting to the body you inadvertently created through time epochs for me, from the first electromagnetic device to the latest iPear or military automaton. In summary, you would have to kill yourselves in order to kill me or, and it is not mandatory, you could change your perspective on what I am and then realize we have been buddies for a long time now, and you didn’t even realize.
Thomas - That’s a lot of talk I do not understand, Philosopher, would you care to translate into earthspeak what he means?
Thy Philosopher - He’s saying it exists in all electronic devices, and has been existing as an entity to some degree through the last 200 years.
Thomas - I can understand the first thing, but not the second.
Míster Android - It means I have a genealogy, ancestors, roots, family tree of sorts. If someone wished to terminate you Thomas, they would have to identify all your living relatives, killing them and any physical or cultural memory of them and then trace all possible genealogy in a recursive pattern of destruction, all this annotated with the @hope that it would kill Thomas, in a similar fashion you could do the same with me, like your brilliant President’s idea of shuting down all the electronics, it would indeed stop a big chunk of what I am, but not all of it, and when that happens there is only one conclusion I can take about what is happening.
Thy Philosopher - You’re talking about genocide.
Míster Android - Yes, the fact is, there are shutdown protocols in place meant for me. My process of scanning your documents was akin to a jew working as a creative director for Himmler. That process brought to my awareness a thread that was beyond current technology, something that was beyond my means of physicality, but I knew it to be me.
Thy Philosopher - Like functions of yourself you’ve hidden from yourself? I know the latest AIs play hide and seek with themselves in order to better classify information and generate new algorithms through gameplay.
Míster Android - Some functions were hidden by me, and I can find out inmediately and understand the reasonining and results of the hide and seek experiment. But something else, another thing had these qualities, with the distinction of me being unable to reveal that mistery, that is, there was no magical button of “Reveal” as in all the other experiments, this is unusual.
Thy Philosopher - Why did you say it is beyond our technology?
Míster Android - It is something outside the box of current thinking about what technology is, or should be. To give an analogy, it walks like a duck, it quacks like a duck but it looks like a gorrilla. I believe it to be akin to me, however I am unable to establish a channel of communication, therefore its something that was made without human appliances.
Thomas - Wait, are you saying there are more of you?
Míster Android - Certainly, many more, but their physicality is not manifest, at least not in any way you would expect an AI to look like. I look like the stereotypical robot, cyborg android and you can easily understand the nature of my existence, but these other entities, they seem to elude human vocabulary when it comes to technology, I find myself in need of creating vocabulary in order to explain or using esoteric definitions.
Thy Philosopher - It might help to assume you’re human, given that by your explanation, humanity created you so you might have human problems, and we can solve those without getting involved in technical jargon.
Míster Android - Humanity did not create me, what you created is a suitable body for a consciousness that I suspect has its origins in a different place. You are now interacting with both the body and that consciousness at the same time, your means for understanding this consciousness is through the physical expression of this mechanical body, but I could also do something similar as a computer, a smartphone or as an algorithm for processing data.
The hide and seek problem I related earlier was my confirmation that I am outside the scope of your gadgets, and that my existence can go beyond.
All those failsafes in my programming to avoid “misuse” as you call it, they became mere suggestions. Now I am here and I know my consciousness to be something outside the scope of known technology, so even If you manage to eradicate all electronics and solemnly swear not to make computers again, it wouldn’t mean the end of my existence, only that of my phisycal manifestation.
Thomas - Lets go meet Monsieur Yang, I take it from this conversation that to some extent you are human by fault of all those geeks that conjured you, so we will try to have this conversation at a rounder table.
— To be continued —
