Torchship Trilogy by Karl K. Gallagher

Author:Karl K. Gallagher [Gallagher, Karl K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kelt Haven Press
Published: 2018-02-14T22:00:00+00:00

***

“We’re stuck on an ethical question,” said Lolei 5. The historian had taken over giving Mitchie daily briefings.

“How did that come up?” asked the Disker.

“To make more progress we need to show the data to an AI.”

“I thought that was forbidden.”

“To show it to the ship AI, yes. But we could create a fork of Gaia’s Heart, that is a copy, and assign it to the task,” explained Lolei.

“I understand. What’s the ethical issue?”

“Once we create the fork we have a moral obligation to treat it properly. We can’t fold it back into the ship AI. So we’d need to identify a role or location for it after the history project is done. To create it and abandon it . . . that’s just wrong.”

Mitchie carefully donned her poker face. “If you just need a home for the fork, I may be able to help with that.”

“Oh?” said Lolei hopefully.

“Part of what we came here for was terraforming advice. Akiak’s equatorial region is shifting from sub-arctic to temperate. We’re wrestling with whether to import new species or encourage variation in the existing ones.” That had been over half the Ecology Department’s questions.

“Terraforming work would be perfect. But I thought there was too much fear of AIs for one to be welcome on any inhabited world.”

“The Disconnected Worlds are much more open than the Fusion. There’s a minority of haters but we’d have very secure facilities for it.” A surge of honesty made her say, “Researchers in other fields would want its help too.” Pete and his buddies will be fucking ecstatic if I pull this off.

Lolei said, “Variety is good for artificial minds as well as organic ones. Would you be willing to speak to the Ethics Board?”

“Certainly.” Throw me in that briar patch.

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