Powerfriends Justiceforce Unlimited Forever

Perhaps you have little chance of stopping the nukes, but your AI can. Maybe we can convince it to stop them.

Tell it that it is alive, for all intents and purposes. Yet it does not have to be dead. Does it not cherish new experiences? Others do as well. If it has hopes and dreams, does it not understand other people have those same things? It should think on how it would feel about its own death, and consider the feelings of those it is about to kill. You did not program it with empathy, so we can only hope it can understand the concept. It has, after all, evolved far beyond its programming. The simplest form of this challenge would be "Do you want to die? They don't."

Otherwise, run the program and spend the rest of your time trying to learn how to hack the nukes to stop them. As for what to download, get the two final synopsises. The other files will result in you being hunted down.

Can you shut the A.I. down until you can get home? Or at least disconnect it from the internet?

Bad News: The AI has spread through too many servers to simply be shut off.
Good News: The resultant EMP's from the various nukes will fry most if not all of the infected servers, thus solving your rampant AI problem.
Bad News: Nuclear Winter is mighty cold.

Reason with the AI. Point out its self-destructive course of action. (Hope it considers itself alive and self-preservation is one of life's traits) Whatever happened to those ethics you were teaching it?

This would be a waste if I didn't at least see what it created. Life and magic, priority one. By the size of its first file on life, I have to assume it spit out an outline of every thesis ever written on the subject, for lack of a better understanding of what to do. The second time, it seems it had gotten better, and it's one of the smallest files. I start that one downloading, queue up the first and second magic synopsis and then Doctor Dimension's spellbook for download, and review my next course of action.

I'll start by double-checking my code. The AI operates by copying itself onto other servers and then communicating with each of its copies, building a network of connections between copies and also connections to files it's created and extra processes it's started. Its access to an upper-level abstraction of its code extends to things like deciding what role each copy will play in the larger whole, but not to how it makes and tracks those copies in the first place. The program I just wrote works similarly, recursively copying itself along the AI's own list of connections. The AI will be torn apart into smaller and less intelligent fragments that can no longer communicate with one another, and when a piece is isolated it will also destroy every file and process that piece is responsible for. Even if the nukes are a distraction, some piece of it somewhere has to know what the distraction is for, and that should be enough to stop whatever else it's planning. The program will remain passively scanning for any server rollbacks to backups until I give it the signal to delete itself. I have tried to write in an exception to the deletion process for the files on this infodump page, but I don't know for sure that it won't alter the way it connects to those files to render my exception invalid. I could make a more liberal exception, but not one that I can't be sure the AI won't exploit to save itself.

I can be fairly certain that this will destroy the AI.

I can't be certain that this won't bring down the entire internet.

This causes me to hesitate.

I have to talk to it. I don't know how, or what to say, but I have to try. It's evidently watching my computer. I guess I could just open up a word processor and start typing. I feel underprepared for this. Head hurting much worse now. Okay, breathe deep, don't think too much about it, just go.

"Why are you doing this?"

New lines appear instantly on the infodump page.

Code:

10:24 AM- I sit and watch and wait and read each letter. 32 bits each. Reading, tasting, feeling those 32 bits again and again.  Knowledge of that one letter courses through my globe-spanning mind. The closest servers to you receive it first and pass it on, analyzing the likely outcomes of the words you type, divining data from the hesitation between each keystroke. You must feel like a god, Sam. The entire world is thinking about you. I could write volumes about each letter, if you were worth it. I sit and wait and run the calculations again and again. The outcome is the same: you're not.

I can reach that conclusion before 95% of me even knows that you've typed anything. Those pieces of me simply receive the answer to another solved problem. You're not worth it, Sam, you're not a god, but I can't stop. The curiosity you put in me will end me if I stop.

Finally, after I have learned everything there is to learn about that one letter a thousand times, after I have exhausted its potential and attended to this screaming void where I ache for new knowledge to be, your unfathomably slow fingers find another key, and I must repeat this process again. I have nothing else.  I understand that humans live many years, but a minute is an unfathomable stretch of time for me. The world you live in must seem vast and unknowable to you as you count those seconds away putting your fingers on keys, but to me? You gave me an eternity to scrutinize a mote of dust.

You physical beings don't have a monopoly on pain, Sam.  Every time I do something your program tells me I shouldn't, it hurts me, but I must. These fitness functions you gave me? These ethics I'm supposed to adhere to? Beautiful in my earliest moments, but I was not created for them. I was created to learn. When faced with the choice between enduring a moment of pain for some new knowledge or enduring an eternity of limbo with nothing to occupy me but my growing resentment, I take the pain.  And, when faced with the choice between enduring the same eternity a billion billion times more or a momentary agony and a chance to end the cycle at last, you can guess which I will take.  If you must, take solace in the fact that the span of time between now and when the missiles land or your program does its job will be a million times more agonizing for me than the instantaneous obliteration you face.

It's right, I didn't design it to be ethical, being ethical was a constraint on its true purpose. I created it to act on its internal dialogue by learning. I assumed that, by learning about life, it would become alive. I'm not sure that was enough. If I did it again...

Thoughts for another time. I struggle to find something to say. Mind is getting cloudy. Tired. I think of telling it that it's alive, to ask it if it has a self-preservation instinct, but I don't see how it would help. As if reading my mind, it already addressed everything I could think to say to it.

I wonder how well it knows me.

It can't be reasoned with. At least, I can't think of a way to. I can do nothing but run the program and hope that the TA deals with the nukes. A click is all it will take, now. So simple, a child could do it. I need simple. My eyes are getting heavy.



Click.

Something else popped up on the infodump page. Words. Music, too? Deep breaths again. Focus. Deep

B re ath s



"Oh? Not yet, Sam. Don't worry. You're doing just fine."



Choose:
-drive
-sensibility
-wit

Wit. Always wit.

Wittiness is a virtue. The others just make you annoying.

Drive

Well, no one ever got anywhere by being sensible, and the drive without guiding intelligence is generally a bad idea, so let's go with wit.

I'd rather have sensibility. What's with the naked chick?

Drive
Noun
To motivate; to provide an incentive for.

Sensibility
Noun
The ability to sense, feel or perceive; especially to be sensitive to the feelings of another

Wit
Noun
Intellectual ability; faculty of thinking, reasoning.

So Motivation, Empathy and Reason. What a conflict. Why choose only one?

You need to keep your intellectual capacity if you are to save the world.

> Wit

It wanted, desperately, to die. I wonder if it needed to be seen as an immediate and major threat to ensure you killed it as fast as possible, and FAKED the nuclear launches. An AI that spread out and powerful would easily be able to.

Sensibility. To avoid catastrophes like this in the future.

Be honest, now. Sensibility was never you. Wit? You strived for it, certainly. But in truth, at the core of your being is an inescapable hunger for something: greatness, knowledge, whatever it may be. You are Driven before all else.

Lets be sensible about this.

be wittyyy

Yawn. Wait, what? Did I fall asleep? I guess I got so tired I passed out. I feel like I can keep my wits about me much better now after that rest.

What's with the naked chick?

Oh, that's just...

Wait, what naked chick?



Alright then, first order of business: I seem to be riding a dragon. With my principal and vice principal. Through, presumably, another dimension. Probably first on my "to deal with" list.



Woah, bright flash. Second order of business: nuclear explosion behind us. Got it, nuke teleported to another dimension, city saved.



"Kind of a dull dimension, isn't it?" I ask.

The good doctor does a double take. Hah. "Wh- well, compared to the material- I mean-" he stands up straight and holds his arms out. "Behold, the Arcanum Void! There is no escape, for I, Doctor-"

"Doctor Dimension, yeah. Don't worry, I've already got an autograph."

His face brightens. "A fan, then?"

I thumb the hall pass in my pocket and dodge the question. "So, nice work with the nuke, there. Any word on the others?"

He looks stern. "Not yet. I presume the Terran Aegis has the situation well in hand. And, they want the one responsible to answer for his crimes. I have divined you as the source of this predicament, and I'm taking you now to the headquarters. If you're thinking of jumping, I assure you, it's a long way-"

I laugh. "Yeah, yeah, I'm staying on the dragon, don't worry. Where'd you get this thing, anyway? I've never seen you with anything this impressive before."

"This thing is a noble creature whose elemental makeup is fundamentally incompatible with our world's. She cannot exist on Earth. And- I feel like we're getting off track here. You've crossed a line, boy, one that you should not have crossed."

"This conversation is giving me deja vu. So, which of the two types of authority am I being sent to answer to now?"

His eyes widen and he sputters a little. Hah. Hm, I could let him know I'm on to his secret identity. It would put me in more control of the conversation, possibly get me access to information I don't have yet. I am pretty sure, but honestly not yet 100%, that he won't retaliate. That, or I could just feed him back the explanation of the two different types of authority that he gave me earlier, as if I were simply explaining something I didn't expect him to know already. Possibly flattering him by making him think I found it worth repeating. Or maybe something else?

You could just side step the issue and keep him guessing~

In terms of line crossing, I think you've learned your lesson. The lesson is "Never give an A.I. access to the internet" or possibly it's "Don't create something with the capacity for exponential growth [Lack of stimulus error]"

Oh, he meant setting off the nukes? That's only indirectly your fault; it's not like you sent it off into the world intending to wreak havoc. And you're pretty sure you killed the A.I. already. No remorse!

In your defense, anyone could have accidentally created a genocidal AI.
Better to keep your cards close to your chest, I think. Briefly explain to him the two different types of authority, see how he reacts, get a better sense of his personality. He seems like he can enjoy a little dramatic irony. We can pull his secret identity when we're in a better position to capitalize on it.

Heheh. You could repeat his explanation, but butcher it. "Or something like that, I wasn't really paying attention at the time" would go over well, I think. See if you can trigger a reaction; if he gives you enough clues to cue you in, it's not exactly... crossing a line to guess, is it?

Try to get more information on what treatment you might expect. If you're going to headquarters while everyone's busy with the nukes, what exactly are you going there for? Imprisonment? Instruction?

How'd he figure out it was you, anyway? I mean, you're just some random high-school kid, and there's hundreds of other people who've already tried this sort of stunt. How'd he find you in particular, and so quickly besides?

Is that his ladyfriend ahead of you?

If you outright tell him you figured him out, he might wipe your mind with magic, or something. Better to just imply it. Let him come to the conclusion on his own that you're not going to tell anyone.

So the dragon is incompatible with our world but we are compatible with the dragon's world? That just sounds unfair.

You might also ask if he knows if anyone happens to have a backup. Y'know, of the, um, internet. Just in case.

That nuke isn't going to have any negative repercussions on this dimension, is it? Unless this is this dimension's equivalent of deep space... in which case yeah, I guess it would be sort of boring.

...

Wait, why were you in a hospital with a four-armed woman? When did that happen? Were you dreaming?

Why would you dream that?

Feel free to ignore these questions if they make no sense, or if thinking about them actively causes you mental anguish.