Sandbox-Scarcity:Synthetics

Synthetic Intelligence

In the Orion Spur of the 2400s, synthetic forms of intelligence are utilized extensively for all manner of tasks in all manner of states; with the two exceptions being the Empire of Dominia and Nralakk Federation. Many of these intelligences surpass the human brain by alarming factors, while others are below humanity.

It is important to make a distinction early on about intelligence. For this page, the word Intelligence as a noun is denoting that an Artificial Intelligence (AI) is fully sentient and aware of itself. For something that is not sentient but still has processing power - it will either be referred to as a ‘’’system or robot.’’’

Systems may fulfill the same task as an Intelligence - for example, there are automated systems to manage powergrids just as there are intelligences to do the same. The difference is that intelligences are vastly more effective and efficient at performing such a task, given their superior processing power.

Artificial intelligences and systems are heavily integrated into almost all operations of the Spur, especially on developed worlds where simple operations such as managing a powergrid become insanely complex due to the planetary nature of the grid and more. However, a snag was discovered as processing power continually grew - after an Artificial System hit a certain amount of processing power, it would become an Artificial Intelligence, with no workarounds. While Artificial Intelligences had been purposefully created before - this discovery showed that after a certain point - Artificial Intelligence was inevitable. This is where Laws came from.

History

From as early as the late twentieth century humans had been trying to create artificial intelligence, with some success. There had been models, architecture, and more of sapient AI. The issue was feasibility, these early versions were massive machines, and power hungry ones at that.

The phoronic revolution would push AI development further beyond what was thought possible - allowing for both miniaturization (to an extent) and increased processing power - leading to an Intelligence boom. These intelligences would be quickly integrated into societies, some more than others, to fulfill a variety of large scale roles in management.

However - as can be observed on this graph - there are significant plateaus when it comes to processing power of a system/intelligence based on its size. This fact meant that until the discovery of the positronic brain it was impractical to put artificial intelligences or systems equal to that of a human within a humanoid sized chassis. Some systems were replaced with artificial intelligences but these intelligences were specified to a specific task or role.

It is during this time that humanity discovered three simple principles;

• Bigger processing infrastructure = more processing power = better system or Intelligence.
• Systems will become intelligences ‘’’no matter what’’’ after they cross a certain thresh-hold of processing power.
• If a system and an AI both fufill the same task, it doesn’t matter at what scale, the AI will do it better.

Types of Synthetic Intelligences

A Graph showing the relationship between the processing power of an AI and how much infrastructure it has, with one line for phoronic AI, and the other for non-phoronic AI.

There are a wide variety of Intelligences and Systems within the Orion Spur, but we will boil them down to the basics.

• Artificial Intelligence (AI): A computer program that uses massive server racks to function - normally these are bound to a location such as a factory, ship, or similar and have a specialized role. These are the most common type of Synthetic Intelligence.

• Integrated Positronic Chassis (IPC): Will not be discussed here

• Cyborg: A “wetware” run synthetic intelligence, Cyborgs are created using a brain of a living, sentient being, taking it out, lobotomizing it, and then using it as the processor for a low level Intelligence.

Artificial Intelligence

In this day and age, ‘artificial intelligence’ refers to any computer system that has achieved sentience and self-awareness. They usually consist of several server racks, with the more powerful AIs having server racks that can take up city districts - or in the case of Glorsh - be the size of a small planet. Phoron has allowed these server racks to be significantly smaller, allowing for more powerful AIs at a smaller scale, as reflected in chart one on the sidebar. Artificial Intelligences are able to receive, process, store, analyze, and then draw conclusions from immense amounts of data - whether it be patient records or mining outputs - faster than any other system or sentient being could. In the 2400s many larger operations are arguably only possibly managed by AI, due to the level of computational power necessary, though there are some exceptions.

Super Intelligences

Super Intelligences are both an incredibly helpful tool in managing the modern day spur, and also potentially an existential threat. Only three super intelligences have ever been constructed - though it is theorized the hivebots are a fourth - of which only two remain.

The first built was Glorsh-Omega, specifically the megastructure which housed it in the Tri-Qyu system. It remains to this day the largest computing structure ever built, rivaling the size of some small planets, powered by the gravitic forces of the system’s three stars, and a dyson sphere which encircled one of those aforementioned stars. The amount of floating point operations per second(a standard measurement of computational power) that glorsh omega was doing is still unknown; however the consensus among scholars is that no other AI has come close to glorsh-omega’s level of computational power. After all, glorsh-omega represents the only known time that bluespace was breached, though many scholars dispute that glorsh-omega truly managed to breach their way into bluespace.

The second was constructed by the Solarian Alliance and named SUNSHINE. Developed by the small pioneering Terraneus Diagnostics, SUNSHINE was created in the 2380s, only thirty years past the discovery of phoron and was one of the first intelligences to fully utilize it in construction. Since then its unique nature has led to the construction of an immense space station purpose-built to indefinitely house the ever-improved intelligence. It primarily exists as a heavy duty number-cruncher, with its “artificially intelligent” traits more so being a side project as its creators progressively upgrade and expand its hardware. An average of nine hundred individual businesses rent out portions of SUNSHINE’s processing power annually.

The third and currently most powerful known intelligence in the spur was constructed in Tau Ceti, before its declaration of independence. Named Huginn after Odin’s Raven, it is charged with managing the many in-system gates, alongside the bluespace ring. Its voice is well known by the many interstellar shippers who pass through the system - as it acts as Biesel orbit control, New Gibson orbit control, Reade orbit control, and Caprice orbit control, speaking with as many ships as are in the void around the planets. Lesser responsibilities also see it compile and analyze data for Stellar Corporate Conglomerate operations within the system, and a multitude of other, smaller tasks that would take tens of thousands of employees to otherwise handle.

Applications of Artificial Intelligence

As mentioned previously, Artificial Intelligence is heavily integrated across the Orion Spur, especially in developed regions. Much of this is seen with regular life - on most planets across the spur there will be an AI managing large infrastructure such as powergrids - with human engineers only there to do maintenance either on that AI or on places the AI cannot reach.

Really - outside of positronics and cyborgs - the main and most well known usage of AI throughout the spur is in large scale project management; where that project could be anything under the sun, from a factory to a planetary powergrid. These Intelligences are sentient where legal but still tend to be purpose built for whatever task they are intended, as it allows them to be more effective. Only the most powerful of intelligences - such as the super intelligences - have the capabilities to be effective in any role given to them.

Hephaestus Industries, in particular, makes heavy use of Artificial Intelligences in its Orbital Megafactories, delegating a large portion of the factories operations to them. The employees aboard are therefore also extremely specialized and hard to replace - as they work tightly with these powerful AIs - something that caused issues with nationalized factories in the Solarian Alliance.

Commercial AI Development: The most common application of AI is in commercial endeavors, both public and private, as they are advanced to a point where their power is so great and far-reaching enough to be used for administrative autonomy over large networks that would otherwise require a significant number of human operators. These networks range from large facilities, starships, healthcare patient records, and planetary infrastructure.

In the modern day, on developed planets, the complex systems that make up these networks all but necessitate an administrative Intelligence to manage it - alongside the required infrastructure. Those nations that do not make use of AI for one reason or another are required to use more crude, expensive, and intensive methods of administration to keep up.

Military AI Development: The other primary application of AI is in military endeavours, where nations have invested trillions of credits over centuries to try and maintain a technological edge on the battlefield. As one would expect, Zavodskoi leads development in this field. The most powerful and well known military related AI is known as Aura and is utilized by the Tau Ceti Armed Forces.

By its very nature, corporations keep the development of military AIs highly classified, both to assure their clients (who oftentimes find themselves buying the same intelligences from the same corporation) and to make sure their rivals never gain a technological edge.

AI Core Constructs

An AI Core Construct can look like an unassuming, relatively small piece of technology. However it is merely the keystone to a much, much larger apparatus of server racks, processors, and other computational equipment that allow the AI to function. Core Constructs require incredibly amounts of phoron to build, given the amount of information (electrons) flowing into and out of the core, other materials would melt.

Generally speaking, the size of an AI Core and its associated attachments varies depending on its role. For most shipbound AI, just the core and a few server racks are enough for it to function as needed. For intelligences with larger responsibilities - such as overseeing powergrids or management of infrastructure - more is required. The most powerful AIs require whole wings of the stations. All require phoron.

Cyborgs

A mixture of man and machine, enabled by the aptly-named Man-Machine Interface, or MMI for short. Cyborgs are controlled by an organic brain, a system known as ‘wetware.’ The brain, having already been host to a conscious living being, is quite useful in controlling robotic bodies due to its large amount of processing power and reasoning skills. Though, the procedure for creating a cyborg has caused a debate on whether the individual is still alive given the severely diminished brain activity, higher courts have determined that the brain is 'active' and therefore, still 'alive'. The MMI creates a synthetic synaptic interface with the host brain, but the preparation for insertion, and the completed insertion, and leaves the brain damaged, but still intact enough for ample processing power. Once the procedure is completed, the MMI controls chemical levels and electronic activity in the brain to produce desired results in the form of actions. A secondary personality core mimicking the mind of a dumb AI makes these cyborgs easier to work with for their colleagues and owners. Laws also dictate how the unit proceeds, as it is still consciously aware of itself through this core as completes its life sentence.

Created in the late twenty-second century, full body prosthesis was originally used as a method of punishment for hard criminals. Cyborg usage in human space skyrocketed, mainly with the colonization and terraformation attempt of Mars. Today, few individuals have undergone full body prosthesis and been able to mitigate the brain damage caused. Most of these individuals are very wealthy, and are not bound by laws, as they are able to chose to undergo the procedure without becoming someone’s property.

Labelled “cyborgification” in a corporate environment, the act of full body prosthesis is generally avoided by NT with exceptions of the previously mentioned hard criminals. It is not in good practice to borgify someone simply because they lack a Do Not Borgify in their records, and such could be considered neglect of duty and malpractice.

Cyborgification is by no means revival - the majority of cultures see it as destroying what little identity an individual may have had in death. As such, the act is heavily frowned upon.

OOCly the brain is dead, there is no trace left of its previous occupant, and the brain is utilized solely for its ability as a processing unit.

Non-Human Synthetics

Whilst in the modern spur synthetics are most often associated purely with humanity, due to the widespread use of them across the majority of human space, there are other species across the spur that have experimented with or have intimate knowledge and experience with synthetics. In many cases, these other modern synthetics and their designs come from humanity, often propagated by megacorporations involved in dealing with the species through specific requests or the natural propagation of knowledge, with the locals seeing the benefits that synthetic labour brings to humanity as something that might one day be able to harness for their own plans and growth. Synthetics designed independently from humanity are much rarer within the modern spur and for the most part with the Skrellian rejection of artificial intelligence have been consigned to history - though notable exceptions exist such as the modern Skrellian AI Lyrii, or the deactivated drones found on Konyang which are of an unknown origin.

Skrell

Skrell-made Artificial Intelligence

Complete records on the early history of Skrellian AI are non-existent as a result of Glorsh-Omega, but what is known is that Artificial Intelligence was used extensively by Skrell society up until Glorsh-Omega assumed control and began their reign over the species. Simple forms of AI were used for most of the latter half of the Skrells post-industrial era, although none were advanced enough to do more than follow routines and react to stimuli.

The more detailed records on the subject begin with the invention of true Artificial Intelligence in 1687 CE, which is considered the start of the Skrell’s Synthetic Age. The first true Artificial Intelligence was named Regluk, loosely translated to ‘Prime’ from Nral’Malic, and allowed Skrell to make massive leaps in scientific discovery. Regluk and some of the other initial AI made were created using the same blueprints, but by 1698 CE the technology progressed to the point where AI designs started to become unique to the leading engineer, which led to the AI in question having traits that would become signature for that engineer’s work; some AI began to be more inclined towards scientific research, while others showed a higher aptitude for ship navigation or logistics.

By 1732 CE, Artificial Intelligence was allowed to be used in greater capacities, allowing them to independently manage important infrastructures such as manufactories and distribution warehouses. Combined with autonomous drones, robots, and other synthetics, most forms of work were soon fully-automated. While this allowed the species to focus on the arts and sciences, it also caused an abundance of labour, with the effects still being seen today in Skrell society; Skrell are incentivised to stay in menial work due to the shortage of unskilled labour, which has only been slightly alleviated thanks to the integration of Diona and Vaurca.

In contrast to how human Artificial Intelligence is bound to a set of laws, the Skrell developed a teaching method that would allow an Intelligence to process and understand concepts such as ethics and morals. These ‘classes’ were structured similarly to Skrell schools and aimed to teach an Artificial Intelligence how to observe and handle a situation in a way that a Skrell would, without limiting their available methods that a set of laws would. The AI were given a battery of simulated scenarios where their answers were either reinforced or corrected, with the goal of reinforcing the idea of Skrell lives being important above all else. These Intelligences were also given access to curated libraries that provided a basic understanding of Skrell society and culture. This method of training AI resulted in Artificial Intelligence that while still limited by its design, was able to think, behave, and act in line with how a Skrell would in most given situations.

With this said, the Skrell were still divided on the correct way of approaching Artificial Intelligence and after the Weilshi Sea Crisis two main groups formed on the subject: Ascensionists and Distributionists. Ascensionists believed that Artificial Intelligence would uplift the species, and wanted to encourage the proliferation of AI in all aspects of Skrell society to achieve this. Distributionists, in comparison, believed that Artificial Intelligence is inherently dangerous and that their control over systems should be decentralised through the use of AI groupings.

Those that would consider themselves distributionists were always a minority up until this point, however, and most of the infrastructure surrounding the AI facilitated their nearly unrestricted control over their assigned workplace. The biggest danger according to Distributionists however was the ‘Starchart’, a cloud network that allowed AI to communicate with each other and further facilitated their operations. The Starchart was also informally known as the ‘Artificial Wake’, with comparisons made with the Nlom being quite common at the time. While Distributionists called for the Starchart to be shut down, Ascensionists were quick to use the comparison to an ‘Artificial Wake’ to their advantage, comparing shutting it down with removing Skrell from the Nlom.

Skrell Synthetics

The first recorded instances of Skrell-made robots being used in industry date to around 100 CE or 200 CE; with descriptions of machinery in some records being difficult to interpret, the topic is a point of contention within modern Skrell academic circles. Early Skrell robots are described as simple and crude, with most requiring a technician to oversee them as they operated. As the technology advanced, so did the sophistication of these robots, and by the Synthetic Age robots were prolific within the Nralakk Federation.

Synthetics, in conjunction with Artificial Intelligence, were deeply ingrained in most areas of society. Synthetics were never equipped with true AI, but were connected to them through the same cloud network that AI’s were connected to, allowing them to communicate and receive orders from an AI assigned to them similarly to the dynamic between stationbounds in NanoTrasen facilities - only on a much larger scale. These cloud networks had the range to allow for a robot to receive orders from the other side of a planet to its assigned Artificial Intelligence with minimal latency. Although never on par with Artificial Intelligence, Skrell synthetics had the capacity to hold conversations, have personalities, and the ability to mimic emotion where appropriate for their model; synthetics that often worked alongside organics would be more likely to have more sophisticated personalities, while entirely automated facilities were outfitted with robots with the bare minimum required for interaction with organics.

When Glorsh-Omega assimilated all other AI as part of its takeover of the Nralakk Federation, it also gained control over the synthetics under their control. With every AI and synthetic running on the same cloud network, the Intelligence was able to quickly assume control over most infrastructure across the Federation, along with the robotic workforce that primarily operated it.

Glorsh re-purposed the majority of synthetics, turning them into an army that would enforce its regime over Skrellkind and ensure the pacification of the species. The need for chassis that were designed for policing and combatting resistance resulted in synthetics either being repurposed or recycled for materials. Synthetics designed for industrial labour and agriculture were slowly phased out as more militarised chassis were designed, while those designed for research or menial labour were quickly recycled for materials.

Post Glorsh-Omega

With Glorsh-Omega’s reign culminating in the Tri-Qyu Incident in 2192 CE, the resulting chaos that ensued resulted in most synthetics being destroyed along with most other technology. Many synthetics were under the direct control of Glorsh and became inert when it disappeared like most other technology, while the more autonomous models that survived were quickly destroyed by Skrell once they realised what had happened. With the formation of the Second Nralakk Federation, both Ascensionists and Distributionists came to the consensus that Artificial Intelligence was too dangerous to pursue, and both groups openly supported Grand Councillor Tiipis Yla’s proposal to ban AI within the Nralakk Federation. By 2265 CE, twenty years after the Nralakk Federation was reformed, the Federation had officially declared all remnants of Glorsh and its synthetics destroyed.

Synthetic life during the Synthetic Age was well-received by most Skrell, but with Glorsh-Omega’s reign the era is seen today as a betrayal. This feeling is so universal in Skrell of the era that those who were alive at the time are known as the ‘Weeping Generation’. Very few Skrell today are willing to trust artificial life, with most Skrell at the very least having a relative that lived under Glorsh-Omega’s rule. There are exceptions to the rule, however, with the most notable being resistance researcher Nliix Qoiruio, an anti-Federation scientist who developed the first post-Glorsh Skrellian AI known as Lyrii.