Dawn of the Singularity (The Singularity Saga Book 1) by David Simpson

Author:David Simpson [Simpson, David]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Fearless Publishing
Published: 2016-04-04T06:00:00+00:00

18

“Haalee, Promethean claims you’re the first artificial intelligence to pass the Turing test, but the claim has been met with skepticism from some circles.”

Haalee smiled, playing with the hem of her golden dress absently. “As is so often the case with skepticism, there is very little I can do to refute it,” she said in her melodic voice. “People will believe what they wish to believe. For some, the idea that an artificial intelligence might possess true consciousness is too frightening to entertain.” She shrugged sadly. “And so, they choose to believe I am nothing more than a sophisticated toy. How can I protest my sentience to these people?”

“She is hypnotic.” Mac watched the interview from a small office in Promethean’s headquarters, just meters away from Haalee’s synthetic body as she sat in front of her mainframe, the circuitry surrounding her. “Who can listen to her and doubt for a second that she’s truly aware?”

“You’re preaching to the choir.” Liam chimed in, watching the interview from his own home, though his head and shoulders appeared next to Mac in holographic form.

“The Turing test is nothing more than a way to see if a computer intelligence can convince human judges it is human,” Haalee continued. “I convinced a panel of judges that I was, indeed, human. That’s a fact. There’s no controversy there. Rather, the controversy is about whether I am conscious, but consciousness is a subjective quality. Just as I might question those skeptics as to whether they can prove their own consciousness, the truth is, there is no way to measure consciousness and there never will be because we’ll never universally agree on its definition. All we can do is make reasonable assumptions based on how people—or, in my case, a computer—behaves. If I behave as though I’m conscious, you must treat me as though I am. Only I will ever know if it’s true, just as you’re the only one who will ever know for sure whether you think and therefore are, to paraphrase Descartes.”

“Nailed it,” Liam said, pumping his fist. “She is amazing.”

Mac stayed silent but nodded in agreement, his eyes narrowing as he studied Haalee’s visage, also in holographic form, hovering before him as she participated in her first live interview in her robotic body.

“You noted that you fooled human judges,” the interviewer observed, “but you don’t appear human. How could—”

“No, of course. The Turing test doesn’t take appearance into account,” Haalee began before the question was even fully asked. “I convinced the judges by answering questions in written form. I don’t want to pass for human visually. I’m not human, after all. But if I wanted to pass, I’d need to create a convincing skin and, ultimately, that would mean growing an organic shell, real flesh, and hiding my robotic body underneath. That might work, but it immediately brings to mind The Terminator, and that’s exactly the sort of comparison I’d like to avoid.”

“Indeed,” the interviewer replied with a laugh. “But since you brought up

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