King of All I Survey

Isn't Maribel a real person now though? I asked Joe. I mean she thinks and feels emotions just like anybody else, right.

Well, yes and no. She thinks she feels emotions just like everybody else, but hers are from a different source. The human brain experiences emotion as a result of a complex interplay of chemical and electrical reactions. Some are hard-wired, some are learned or conditioned responses to certain sets of those signals. It's all very messy and it doesn't always work exactly the way it's supposed to.

So, isn't Maribel the same way? I mean just because you made her doesn't mean she's not experiencing the same things all of us do.

Well, it's the way I made her that is the real difference. She mostly a sort of machine, though that's not the best word for it. The skin is biological and the lining of her digestive system, but they're supported by artificial nutrient and oxygen delivery systems. She doesn't have the glands and organs that produce hormones that would trigger the receptors in the central nervous system. In fact, she doesn't have a biological nervous system at all. Her 'brain' and nerves are artificial constructs, her behavior is function of programming and the specific design of the hardware. It achieves a result that is very, very close to normal human emotion and thinking processes, but it isn't the same.

I frowned as I wrestled with this concept. So, she's just a computer?

Yes, but so am I.

I… I don't mean JUST a computer… I mean, does she have free will? Are all her reactions just pre-programmed in: If this, then that.

She doesn't have free will, but then, neither do you. No one who exists in the physical universe that you perceive has true free will. It's just that the myriad factors controlling your behavior are so complex and interwoven with various levels of activation and interaction, with nearly random errors and false responses that generally get over-ridden to some degree at least… What I'm trying to say is that although the exact motion of every particle and energy impulse in the complex system of your biological 'brain' could be predicted, the overall system is so complex and outside of your awareness, so it seems like freewill. In reality, your every thought and action could have been predicted at the origin of the universe.

But you've told me that life surprises you. Since you knew every particle at the origin of the universe and have unlimited processing, you shouldn't ever be surprised.

Technically, that's true. However, think of it this way. You, Timothy Bailey, know how mathematics works. You know just about all there is to know about how it works, so you can solve any mathematical equation by simply following the correct logical path to solve it. Some math problems are so easy you can just jump to the answer: two plus two equals four, the cube root of one hundred-twenty-five equals five, and so forth. Others are more complex, and although you have the 'programming' or knowledge and the processing power to find the answer, you don't know the answer until you follow that path to find it.

Intelligent behavior is like that complex math problem that I haven't spent the time to figure out. I'd have to do it for each and every intelligent being in the universe, and I'd have to unwind it backwards to find a specific person's next thought or action. If I start at the beginning, where I do, have to start to predict all future particle and energy interactions, then I just have an incredibly vast number of atomic and sub-atomic particles and various energies some scattering of which may someday be involved in a particular person's brain and body. I could not simply look at the position of everything at the instant of creation and say, those 7 octillion atoms are one day going to be Timothy, so let me follow that equation. In fact, none of the atoms comprising you today, actually even existed at that time. I'd have to go deeper and pick out the nearly infinite number of bits and bobbles that eventually turned into the atoms that are Timothy, and wind the equation for each of them, covering their every interaction with other bits and bobbles from the beginning of time to the far future. I could do it, but frankly I haven't bothered. Simple systems, like predicting the exact instant and manner in which a particular star will end its life as a star, are so easy as to be intuitive for me. I don't have to go through the whole set of equations to trace the particles to their origin then unwind all the interactions. It's like just knowing two plus two is four. Your next idea, King Tim, is more like a non-linear differential equation. I could figure it out. I just don't bother. It would actually take a significant portion of my total attention to do so.

Yeah, that's interesting, Joe. What were we talking about though? Oh, right. Maribel. So, you're saying because of her specific construction, she's an easier equation than I am?

I heard a chuckle in my head, which was kind of an odd sensation. Yes, you surprised me with that summary, but yes, that's what I'm saying. Maribel thinking and behavior system has fewer complexities than yours. On the one hand, it's more efficient, but on the other it's more predictable… to someone of my capacity, at least.

Well, look that's more or less true of any two people. One person's behavior may be more or less complex than another's for a whole bunch of reasons. Let's take Killer Whales which you say qualify as intelligent beings like humans. Between a human and a killer whale, one of us has a much more complex set of rules and variables determining our thoughts and behaviors. I think that's humans, but…

It is.

Good. Well anyway, just because Maribel is less complex in the structures that govern her behaviors, doesn't mean she isn't at least a killer whale.

I'm pretty sure I can predict that she would not be particularly flattered with being called a whale. What I mean is, if Killer whales and things with even lesser complexity of thought and emotion are intelligent beings worthy of the same considerations as humans, then so is Maribel, regardless of how she came into existence.

Hmmm… That's actually a good point, King Tim. I concede that Maribel is in fact a person who is due all the same considerations due to any other person.

I smiled for two reasons. First, I had convinced him of Maribel's value as a real person, and because, once again, the Infinite Quantum Computing Artificial Intelligence is out-thunk by an eight-year-old!

But then you try to use a word like 'out-thunk' and nobody can take you seriously anymore.

Should I have said I out-thinked you?

No, you should have said, you… oh, nevermind. Maybe I'll just edit that word out of your possible future behaviors.

You can't. Prime Directive.

What?

You know, you don't allow yourself to interfere with the identity of other intelligent life forms, like the Prime Directive on Star Trek.

That's not… oh, nevermind. Don't you have other things to do, Supreme Ruler of the Entire Earth Solar System and Nearby Space?

I'm changing that title, for one. It's too limiting. It makes me seem like a bumpkin from some little backwater planet. I need something that better defines my awesome galaxy-spanning power base. I'm still working on it.

Sometimes, simplicity is best. You could just say Supreme Ruler and that would pretty much cover it.

I furrowed my brow and scowled. I don't think you really understand the rules of naming things, Joe. If the person is really impressive their title needs to be just as impressive or everybody thinks they're just another average Joe. No offense.

None taken. Joe replied, then I 'heard' a deep sigh in my head.

Right so maybe I go back to Universal Earth Concord. Supreme Ruler of the Universal Earth Concord. Hmmm, not impressive enough. Supreme Ruler of the Universal Earth Concord Spanning the Galaxies of the Known Universe. No, that's a whole sentence not a title.

Um, no it…

I need something impressive, but not… wait! I've got it: Ultimate Authority of Earth's Multi-Galaxy Empire. What do you think, Joe.

I don't know. It seems kind of short for someone of your stature.

I know, right? But it's concise and it'll probably fit on one line when it's all written out.

That's important?

Of course, if it goes too long, people are like, I'm not reading all that just to find out this guy's title…

But you said…

It's a delicate balance, Joe. That's why choosing a good title is so hard. Anyway, now that the most important thing is done, I need to think about what countries to bring into the UEC next.