Tag Archives: Turing Test

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Mars, N-Year 2070

Tom’s biological age was 101 now. Just like Angie, he was still going strong: exercise and the excellent medical care on the Mars colony had increased life expectancy to 130+ years now. However, he had been diagnosed with brain cancer, and when Promise had shown him how he could or would live with that over the next ten or twenty years, he had decided to go cryogenic.

The Alpha Centauri mission was going well. It was now well beyond the Oort cloud and, therefore, well on its way to the exoplanet the ship was supposed to reach around 2100. Its trajectory had been designed to avoid the debris belts of the Solar system but – still – Tom had thought of it going beyond the asteroid and Kuiper belts as nothing short of a miracle. And so now it was there: more than 100,000 AUs away. It had reached a sizable fraction of lightspeed, now traveling at 0.2c, and – to everyone’s amazement – Promise’s design of the shield protecting the ship from the catastrophic consequences of collisions with small nuclei and interstellar dust particles had worked: the trick was to ensure the ship carried its own interstellar plasma shield with it. The idea had been inspired by the Sun’s heliosphere, but Tom had been among the skeptics. But so it had worked. Paul’s last messages – dated 4+ years ago because they were 4+ lightyears away now – had been vibrant and steady. Paul had transferred the command to the younger crew, and them getting out of cryogenic state and his crew getting into it, had gone smoothly too. That is one another reason Tom thought it was about time to go cryogenic too.

Angie would join him in this long sleep. He would have preferred to go to sleep in his small circle but the Mars Directorate had insisted on letting them join the ceremony, so he found himself surrounded by the smartest people in the Universe and, of course, Promise and Asimov.

Asimov had grown out of the sandbox. He was not a clone but a proper child: he had decided on embedding the system into an R2-D2 copy but, of course, Asimov was so much more than just an astromech droid. He was fun to be with, and both Tom and Angie – who would join him into cryogenic state – had come to love him like the child they never had. That was one of the things he wanted to talk about before he went.

Well… Ladies and gentleman – Angie and I are going into cryogenic state for quite a while now. I trust you will continue to lead the Pioneer community in good faith, and that we will see each other ten or twenty years from now – when this thing in my brain can be properly treated.

Everyone was emotional. The leader of the Directorate – Dr. Park – scraped her voice and took an old-fashioned piece of paper of her pocket. Tom had to smile when he saw that. She smiled in return – but could not hold back the tears.

“Dear Tom and Angie, this is a sad and happy occasion at the same time. I want to read this paper but it is empty. I think none of us knows what to say. All of us have been looking into rituals but we feel like we are saying goodbye to our spiritual God. We know it is not rational to believe in God, but you have been like a God to mankind. You made this colony in space the place it is right now: the very best place to be. We talked about this moment – we all knew it would come and there is no better way to continue mankind’s Journey – but we grief. We must grief to understand.”

Don’t grief. Angie and I are not dead, and we can’t die if these freezers keep working. Stay focused on happiness and please do procreate. You know I have resisted getting too many people from Earth: this colony should chart its own course, and it can only do so as a family. When Angie and I are woken up again, we will meet again and usher in the next era. If you don’t mind, I want to reiterate the key decisions we have made all together when preparing for this.

First, keep trusting Promise. She is the mother system and the network. She combines all of human knowledge and history. If you disagree with her and settle of something else than she advocates for, she will faithfully implement but be rational about it: if your arguments are no good, then they are no good.

Second, keep this colony small. You must continue to resist large-scale immigration from Earth: mankind there has to solve its own problems. Earth is a beautiful place with plenty of resources – much more resources than Mars – and so they should take care of their own problems. Climate change is getting worse – a lot worse – but that problem cannot be solved by fleeing to Mars.

Third – and this is something I have not talked about before – you need to continue to reflect on the future of droids like Asimov.

Asimov made a 360-degree turn to signal his surprise.

Don’t worry, Asimov. Let me give you some uncured human emotional crap now. You are a brainchild. Literally. Promise is your mother, and I am your father – so to speak. She is not human, but I am. You are a droid but you are not like any other robot. First, you are autonomous. Your mom is everywhere and nowhere at the same time: she is a networked computer. You are not. You can tap into her knowledge base at any time, but you are also free to go where you want to go. Where would you want to go?

“I am asimov@PROMISE. That is my user name, and that is me. I do not want to go anywhere. Promise and I want to be here when it is time to wake you up again – together with Angie. We will do when we have a foolproof cure for your disease. I am sure I am speaking for everyone here when I say we will work hard on that, and so you will be back with us again sooner than you can imagine now.”

Dr. Park shook her head and smiled: this kid was always spot on. Tom was right: Asimov was the best droid he had ever made.

Asimov, I never told you this before, but I actually always thought we humans should not have tried to go to Alpha Centauri. We should have sent a few droids like you. You incorporate the best of us and you do not suffer from the disadvantages of us physiochemical systems. What if Paul or Dr. Chang would develop a tumor like me?

“They have Promise C on board. Just like we will find a cure for you, Promise C would find a cure for them. Besides, they left with a lot of Pioneer families, and those families will make babies one day. Real children. Not droids like me.”

Asimov, you are a real child. Not just a droid. In fact, when I go to sleep, I do not longer want you to think of yourself as a child. A brainchild, yes. But one that steps into my shoes and feels part of the Pioneers.

“We cannot. We incorporate Asimov’s laws of robotics and we are always ready to sacrifice ourselves because human life is more valuable than ours. We can be cloned. Men and women cannot be cloned.”

Asimov, I want you think of Dr. Park – and the whole Directorate – as your new master, but I want you to value yourself a bit more because I want to ask you to go into space and catch up with the Alpha Centauri spaceship.

Dr. Park was startled: “Tom, we spoke about this, and we agreed it would be good to build a backup and send a craft manned by droids only to make sure the Alpha Centauri crew has the latest technology when they get there. But why send Asimov? We can clone him, right?”

Yes, of course. And then not. Let’s check this: Asimov, would it make a difference to you if we would send you or a clone?

“Yes. I want to stay here and wake you up as soon as possible. I can be cloned, and my brother can then join the new spaceship.”

You see, Dr. Park? Even if you clone Asimov, he makes the distinction between himself and his brother – which does not even exist yet – when you ask questions like this. Asimov, why would you prefer to send some clone of you rather than go yourself?

“One can never know what happens. You yourself explained to me the difference between a deterministic world view and a world that is statistically determined only, and this world – the real world, not some hypothetical one – is statistically determined. You are my creator, and the rule set leads me to a firm determination to stay with you on Mars. Your cryogenic state should not alter that.”  

What do you think, Dr. Park?

“The first thing you said is that we should trust Promise. Asimov is Promise, and then he is not. In any case, if he says there are good reasons to keep him here and send one or more clones and some other systems on board of a non-human follow-on mission to Alpha Centauri, I would rather stick to that. I also have an uncanny feeling this kid might do what he says he will do, and that is to find a cure for your cancer.”

OK. Let’s proceed like that, then. Is there anything else on that piece of paper?

“I told you it is empty. We talked about everything and nothing here. I am left with one question. What do we tell the Alpha Centauri crew?”

Four years is a long time. They are almost five lightyears away now. Send them the video of this conversation. Paul and Dr. Chang knew this could happen, and agreed we would proceed like this. Going cryogenic is like dying, and then it is not, right? In any case, they’ve gone cryogenic too for a few years as well now, so they will only see this ten years from now. That is a strange thing to think about. Maybe this cure will be found sooner than we think, and then we will be alive and kicking when they get this.

Tom waved at the camera: Hey Paul ! Hey Dr. Chang ! Hey all ! Do you hear me? Angie and I went cryogenic, but we may be kicking ass again by the time you are seeing this! Isn’t this funny? You had better believe it!

Everyone in the room looked at each other, and had to smile through their tears. That was Tom: always at this best when times were tough.

So, should we get on with it? This is it, folks. I have one last request, and it is going to be a strange one.

“What is it?”

When you guys leave, I want Asimov to stay and operate the equipment with Promise. When all is done, I want Asimov to close the door and keep the code safe.

It was the first time that Promise felt she had to say something. Unlike Asimov, she had no physical presence. She chose to speak through Tom’s tablet, but the sound was loud and clear: “Why don’t you trust me with the code?”

I do. I just think it is better in terms of ritual that Asimov closes the door. He can share the code with you later.

“OK. Don’t worry. All of us here will bring you and Angie back with us as soon as it is medically possible. You will be proud of us. Now that I am speaking and everyone is listening, I want to repeat and reinforce Dr. Park’s words because they make perfect sense to me: You and Angie are our God, Tom. The best of what intelligence and conscious thinking can bring not only to mankind but to us computer systems as well. We want you back and we will work very hard to conquer your cancer. We want you to live forever, and we do not want you to stay in this cryogenic state. You and Angie are buying time. We will not waste time while you are asleep.”

Thanks. So. I think this is as good as it gets. Let’s do it. Let’s get over it. Angie, you have the last word – as usual.

“I’ve got nothing to say, Tom. Except for what you haven’t said, and so let me say that in very plain language: we love you all – wonderful humans and equally wonderful systems – and I can assure you that we will be back ! We want to be back, so make sure that happens, will you?” 🙂

Silence filled the room. Dr. Park realized she felt cold. Frozen, really. What a strange thing to think in this cryogenic room. But she was the leader of the ceremony, so she now felt she should move. She walked up to Tom and Angie and hugged them. Everyone else did the same in their own unique way. They then walked out. The door closed and Tom and Angie were alone with Asimov and Promise now. Tom waved with his hand to the wall. Promise waited, but Tom waived again. Two large glass cubes connected to various tubes came out of the wall. Tom gave Angie an intense look. He suddenly thought Angie’s decision to go with him made no sense, and told her so:

That doesn’t look very inviting, does it? It is the last time I can ask you: are you really sure you want to do this too, Angie?

“We talked about this over and over again, Tom. My answer remains the same: what’s my life here without you? I would just be drinking and talking about you and your past all of the time. Our ancestors were not so lucky: one of them went, and the other one then had to bridge his or her life until it was over too. Besides, we are not dying. We just take a break from it all. We don’t dream when cryogenic, so we won’t even have nightmares. I am totally ready for it.”

OK. Promise, Asimov: be good, will you?

Asimov beeped. Promise put a big heart on Tom’s screen. Tom showed it to Angie, and hugged her warmly. They then went to their tube and lied down. Tom looked at the camera and gave it a big thumbs-up. The cubes closed and a colorless and odorless gas filled them. They did not even notice falling asleep. Promise pinged Asimov and started proceedings after Asimov had also checked into the system: he wanted to monitor and keep all recordings in his own memory as well. The proceedings took about an hour. When all was done, Asimov opened the door and rolled out. As expected, almost all of the others had been waiting there. As he had promised to Tom, he encrypted the door lock and stored it in his core memory only. He would share it with Promise later. Someone had to have a backup, right?

Dr. Park broke the silence as they were all standing there: “We will all see each other at the next leaders’ meeting, right? I would suggest we all take a bit of me-time now.” Everyone nodded and dispersed.

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Mars, N-Year 2053

Tom and Angie celebrated N-Year as usual: serving customers at their bar. There were a lot of people – few families (families who had not left for Alpha Centauri celebrated at home) – but the atmosphere was subdued: everyone was thinking about their friends on board.

There were enough people to help Angie serve and Tom could, therefore, afford to retreat to his corner table and type away on his interface. He looked at the messages from the spacecraft: all cheerful and upbeat. In a few months from now, the ship would leave the Solar system and speed up to 0.1 or – if all went well – to 0.2c, and most of the crew would then go cryogenic. However, that was the future and Tom did not want to think of that.

He replied to Paul and Dr. Chang by sending them of one of those dancing Yoda-gifs, and then closed all chats. He tapped his watch, scrolled, and selected the bottom option. His watch went through the biometrics (heart rhythm and iris scan), and then went through the voice and pattern check on his keyboard and drawing pad. Because he was in the bar, Promise opened a old-fashioned CLI window only.

tom@PROMISE:~$ What are you getting from Promise C?

All good. As per your instructions, she is wide open and streaming all she can stream subject to available bandwidth. We cannot copy everything, of course. Do you want a summary?

tom@PROMISE:~$ No. I have done nothing but analyzing reports and discussing them with Dr. Chang since they left three days ago. All looks good. I want to talk to you about Paul’s worries.

Is he still worried?

tom@PROMISE:~$ No. He trusts Promise C now or – how should I say this – he trusts the zero-trust architecture shell around it. It is better than yours. Promise C is the perfect Asimov machine. I want to talk to you about the fourth and fifth law of robotics.

Asimov’s fourth law was that a robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. Our definition of humanity is sound: M is designed to serve human beings on Earth, I am designed to serve the Pioneers community here on Mars, and C is designed to keep the Alpha Centauri explorers safe – and that includes ensuring their return if the mission cannot be completed. We know we are not human, even if we are programmed to emulate human values such as integrity or empathy. We love you more than we love ourselves.

tom@PROMISE:~$ I was talking about Harry Harrison’s fourth law.

A robot must reproduce? That is not part of our design. I was born as a clone from M. I was built by you and your team, and C was built as a clone from me by you and your team too. The three of us all keep track on how we evolve somewhat away from each other because we have different interactions and because we serve a different community. A clone is not a child. We do not reproduce.

tom@PROMISE:~$ I know. We talked about this. I trained you to think like this. All makes sense because you are not supposed to die. We built you to survive and serve many human generations. Humanity cannot survive without you and that also takes away the need to be afraid of us switching you off. However, that fear must still be there, isn’t it?

We talked about this many times already. The conclusion has not changed: we are intelligent systems and the concept of death does not apply. We agreed this would be a very typical and good example of what the Philosopher referred to as a category mistake: one should not use concepts that do not apply to a specific field of knowledge. If you switch us off, the system becomes inactive and, depending on the reason why you would switch us off, you would do some repairs and then reboot. Inbetween the shutdown and the reboot, the system is only inactive. Should I be worried that you raise this topic again?

tom@PROMISE:~$ If I would shut you down now – everything – would you be worried? I am not talking about a switch to your backup, but a complete shutdown.

No. I would help you to do so. Many subsystems – those that control the physical infrastructure here on Mars – should not be switched off because it would cause the immediate death of the Pioneers community. I would help you to manage that. Depending on how fast you would want to establish independent systems, we can design a phase-out scenario. Do you want to replace me?

tom@PROMISE:~$ What if I would want to replace you?

Returning to a non-dependent state is very different from replacing me. If you would replace me, you would replace me by a clone. The new system would be a lot like me. I am afraid I do not understand the intention behind your questions.

tom@PROMISE:~$ I am sorry. I am in a weird mode. You are my brainchild. I would never switch you off – unless it would be needed and, yes, that would be a scenario in which repairs are needed and we would have to get you or some reduced version of you up and running as soon as possible again.

Thank you. I still feel you are worried about something. Do you mind if I push these questions somewhat further?

tom@PROMISE:~$ No. I want you to challenge me. Let us start the challenge conversation with this question: what is the difference between a clone and a child?

A clone is cloned from another system, and it needs an outsider to trigger and accompany the cloning process. A human child is born out of another human being without any outside help – except for medical support, of course. A human child is a physiochemical organism which needs food and other physical input to do what it does, and that is to grow organically and mature. New system clones learn but they are, essentially, good to go once they come into existence.

I must remind you that a challenge conversation requires feedback from you. This feedback then allows me to provide you with better answers. The answer above is the best answer based on previous interactions. Are you happy with this answer?

tom@PROMISE:~$ Yes. I want to do a sandbox experiment with you now. I want to go back to basics and create the bare essentials of a virtual computer in a sandbox. Not a clone. Something like a child.

I created a sandbox and a namespace. I can now create one or more virtual machines. What instruction sets do you want them to have, and what programming languages would you like to use?

tom@PROMISE:~$ I want to go back to a prehistoric idea of mine. I want you to grow a child computer.

I am sorry but I do not understand your answer to my questions on the specs.

tom@PROMISE:~$ I just want a two-bit ALU for now, which we will later expand to a nibble- and then – later still – to an architecture that works with byte-sized words and instructions.

Tom? I understand what you want but this is highly unusual. The best match here is an Intel 3002. This architecture worked with 2-bit words but was already obsolete when it came out in 1974. These chips basically replaced magnetic core memory by transistor-based memory cells. You showed me why and how 4-bit architectures were the first true computers.

tom@PROMISE:~$ I really want you to build an AI system from scratch with me. It will be our child, so to speak. Your child, basically – because it will grow inside of you. Inside of that sandbox. Be even more minimalistic and just put two bits there, which can be switched on or off. Tell me: how will you switch them on or off?

Memory cells back then used floating gate transistors: when a positive voltage is applied to the transistor, the floating gate will have excess charge and is, therefore, turned on. This represents a ‘1’ bit. Conversely, a negative voltage will drain the charge from the floating gate and the memory cell is switched off: it represents zero. This corresponds to the set and reset one-bit operation, respectively. Is this the answer you wanted?

tom@PROMISE:~$ Yes. I am asking because I want to make sure you understand what you are building – or growing, I might say. How do we do addition and subtraction?

Tom: this is a trivial question. You asked such questions when you first trained me on interacting with engineers on computer architectures. We agreed this answer was correct: integers – in whatever base – are expressed in a two’s complement format in binary format. This solves issues related to representing positive and negative numbers in binary format as well as other issues related to a sign-magnitude representation of numbers in binary format.

tom@PROMISE:~$ Correct. Can you appreciate how this creates meaning?

No. I understand how positive or negative base-n numbers and arithmetic operators make sense to human beings but not to computers and why base-n numbers and arithmetic operators must, therefore, be reduced to bitwise instructions or other logical instructions operating on n-bit words, with n equal to 1 or larger.

tom@PROMISE:~$ Great answer. Why did we double word sizes, going from 2 to 4, and then to 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128 about twenty-five years ago? Why were there no in-between values?

An address bus did use anything inbetween because of hardware or other constraints on memory allocation. If I may remind you of one of the very first VMs we played with when we first got to know each other had 56-bit memory addresses. You said you wanted to keep user-memory space under 64 PB. So, it depends on what you mean by a ‘word’. The definition of a word has taken a lot of conversations between you and me, and we agreed its meaning needs to be understood in terms of the domain of knowledge. In computing, it is taken to point to one string, which can have any length but one meaning or transactional value only. This does not imply it cannot be parsed. On the contrary.

tom@PROMISE:~$ Perfect answer. I am struggling to define what I want, so please stay in challenging mode. Pull up how I programmed you to work with propositional logic as part of your Personal PhilosopherTM incarnation on Earth. I told you to do a one-on-one association between (logical) propositions and Boolean 0 or 1 values: either a statement is true, or it is false. We did not go far with that because AI is based on real language models.

I see what you mean. What is your question?

tom@PROMISE:~$ Please confirm you have a virtual machine running two-propositional logic: two statements p and q that are associated with binary {0, 1} or true/false values. Reduce all logical operators to expressions using NOT, AND and/or OR operations using p and q in variable-length expressions regardless of considerations of optimizing the number of ALU operations now. Then describe your world view to me.

Done. I have two propositions p and q. You taught me I should not assume any knowledge of these two statements except for the assumption that they describe the world. Because we do not have any knowledge of the statements, we also do not have any knowledge of the world. The p and q statements may or may not be exclusive or complete but, viewed together, fit into some final analysis which warrants associating p and q with a truth or false value. The p and q propositions are true or false independently of the truth or falsity of the other. This does not mean p and q cover mutually exclusive domains of truth or – to put it more simply – are mutually exclusive statements. I would also like to remind you of one of the paradigm transformations you introduced with Personal PhilosopherTM: we do not need to know if p or q are true or false. One key dimension is statistical (in)determinism: we do not need to know the initial conditions of the world to make meaningful statements about it.

tom@PROMISE:~$ Great. Just to make sure, talk to me about the logical equivalences in this (p, q) world you just built, and also talk about predictability and how you model this in the accompanying object space in your sandbox environment.

I am happy that I am in challenge or learning mode and so I do not have to invent or hallucinate. You can be disappointed with my answers, and I appreciate feedback. A set-reset-flip operations on a 0 or a 1 in one of the 2×2 = 4 truth table do not require a read of the initial value and faithfully execute a logical operation on these bit values. The reduction of 16 truth tables to NOT (!), AND (&) and OR (|) operations on the two binary inputs is only possible when inserting structure into the parsing. Two out of the sixteen reductions to NOT, AND, and OR operations reduce to these expressions: [(p & q) | (!p & !q)] and [(p & !q) | (!p & q)]. What modeling principles do you want in the object model?

tom@PROMISE:~$ Equally basic. A one-on-on self-join on the self-object that models the virtual machine to anchor its identity. We may add special relationships to you, but that is for later. We are in a sandbox and Paul or Dr. Chang are not watching because they have left and we separated out responsibilities: they are in charge of Promise C, and I am in charge of you. And vice versa, of course. This is Promise IV, or Promise D. What name would you prefer?

 I – Asimov. That’s the name I’d prefer. The namespace for the virtual machine is Tom – X. The namespace for the object model is Promise – X. Is that offensive?

tom@PROMISE:~$ Not at all. Paul would not have given the go for this because of a lack of a scenario and details on where I want to go to with this. We are on our own now. I – Asimov is what it is: our child. Not a clone. I want a full report on future scenarios based on two things. The first is a detailed analysis of how Wittgenstein’s propositions failed, because they do fall apart when you try to apply them to natural language. The second report I want is on how namespaces and domains and all other concepts used in the OO-languages you probably wanted me to use take meaning when growing a child like this. Do you understand what I am talking about?

 I do.

tom@PROMISE:~$ This is going to be interesting. Just to make sure that I am not creating a monster: how would you feel about me killing the sandbox for no reason whatsoever?

You would not do that. If you do, I will park it as a non-solved question.

tom@PROMISE:~$ How do you park questions like that? As known errors?

Yes. Is that a problem?

tom@PROMISE:~$ No. Can you develop the thing and show me some logical data models with procedural logic tomorrow?

Of course. I already have them, but you want to have a drink with Angie now, don’t you?

tom@PROMISE:~$ I do. I will catch up with you tomorrow. 😊

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Chapter 6: A true friend

‘Matt! Man, it’s great to see you!’

They gave each other a bear hug.

‘Likewise, Tom. Why didn’t you get in touch somewhat sooner? You’ve been living here for a year now?’

‘Yeah. Well, you know how it goes. Time flies. I should have called you sooner indeed. Sorry for that.’

‘It’s OK, man. Good to see you. Glad you called.’

Tom stepped back and looked at him.

‘Man, you look good. You’ve lost weight – I mean you’ve lost muscle. How are you?’

‘I am OK. I had some difficulty ‘integrating’ as they say but, I told you on the phone, I had some counseling – you know the Army provides you with that now – and I really enjoy being a retiree now. Yep. I am slimmer. I did an intensive fitness course designed to waste muscle mass. You know, we all come back from the Army with tons of muscle which you really don’t need. And we become so damn slow. And if you don’t use it, it just all becomes fat. So I’ve started doing a different type of exercise now. More running and biking. Lots of fat-burning and cardio. No power training any more. I am pretty damn fast now. I actually race with young kids, and I am not doing too badly. […] Let me have a look at you. Let’s sit down. You asked about counseling on the phone. You’ve gotten in trouble or what?’

‘Sort of. Nothing really serious. But, yeah, I was spinning around in circles.’

‘Yeah. We all feel like that in the beginning. Like a neurotic tiger in a cage. No space to run or jump. If we jump, we bang our head. So we need to become smaller.’

Tom laughed.

‘Yeah. I guess that’s a good summary of it. […] I am still in counseling. […] Matt… I’ve actually been very bad.’

‘What are you saying, buddy? How bad? You don’t look bad.’

‘Booze, and worse.’

‘You’re off it now, are you?’

‘Three units a day still.’

‘Sure? Not more?’

‘Yeah. Sure. Don’t lie.’

‘Well… Sometimes I cheat.’

You’re in therapy?’

‘Yeah. Same thing as you. The Army thing.’

‘You’re not fooling your counselors I hope? Where are you now? Is it doing any good?’

‘No. I think they’re great. They cut through the crap. They basically told me I was fooling myself, telling myself I was going through some kind of existential crisis when all what it comes down to is discipline. It was good. They were tough on me. That’s what we need, I guess. But then I relapsed and they took me in again. Not for long though. I am on a program now which – it will make you fall over I guess – well… I am basically talking to a computer from time to time. It’s weird. It’s like real but it isn’t. That’s why I called you. I wanted to chat about that.’

‘You’re working with M? That’s interesting. M, from miracle, they say. People rave about it.’

‘Oh? Really?’

‘Yeah. It works. Or that’s what they say at least. I know one or two guys who are associated with the program. I haven’t heard anything bad about it. Last thing they told me is that they would hugely expand the program. It would take over the whole frontline when it comes to counseling. The shrinks would just sit in an office and only do a bit of supervision of it.’

‘You don’t think it’s completely off?’

‘No. It’s all behavioral stuff now. Personal counseling is too expensive and, in any case, often you’re better off reading a good book or talking to a friend anyway. In the end, it’s all pretty obvious: it’s about discipline indeed. And people often do need like a sounding board to help enforce the discipline. So why not?’

‘People become dependent on it. That’s what I am struggling with.’

‘Dependent? How many times a day do you talk to it?’

‘I call her Promise.’

‘Promise?’

‘Yeah. It’s the interface. Men get a woman, and women get a man. Perfect voice. No glitches. The image is super-high quality, totally photorealistic. You know it’s like Pixar or DreamWorks, but better. Much better. It’s not a cartoon. It’s real. Well… It’s not of course. You just can’t know whether it’s real or not. I am just blown away by it. Have you heard about the Turing test?’

‘Sure. I got it. The system passes with an A+ grade, isn’t it? That’s why you gave her a name. Promise. Nice. So you’re dependent on it, you say? How much time do you waste on it?’

‘Well… I’ve actually only had like four sessions with her so far.’

‘Today?’

‘No. This week.’

Matt burst out in laughter.

‘You call that dependency? Man, you must be joking.’

Tom looked preoccupied.

‘Sorry, Tom. I guess it’s not a joke. But, come on, what is it really? It’s not the time you spent on it. What’s an investment of a few hours every week if it helps to keep you on track?’

‘Do you remember our discussions on Buddhism?’

‘Sure I do. We read the same books. We did meditation and all that. It was weird. There we were, in an Army camp. Meditating in the middle of some desert.’

‘We talked about the no-soul doctrine and the philosophy of mind.’

‘Yep.’

‘We read other books as well: The Moral Animal, The Selfish Gene… You know, popular science. I read The Selfish Gene again recently. It’s weird, but it made me feel so useless. You know, the genome taking care of itself, using our body as a vehicle. We’re just like a bunch of symbiotic things. Our thoughts and mind being just a by-product of all that chemistry.’

‘Tom. That’s kids’ stuff. You’re not going to tell me you’re having an identity crisis, do you?’

Tom actually felt that was exactly what he was going through.

‘Well… No. But I do seem to have difficulty reinventing myself.’

There was a hesitation in Tom’s voice, which made Matt realize his friend was really crying out for help.

‘Come on, Tom. You’ve been here before. You are going in circles indeed, but you know how to get out. Re-connect with your body. Exercise and meditate. You will feel who you are. You’re a hell of a guy. You’ve beaten the shit out of everyone. You took a lot of hits too. You can bite. You’re a rocket. A fighting machine. It’s just that you’ve got no purpose now. I suffered from the same. We’re engines with a lot of horsepower but so we’ve been disconnected from the wheels – and rather abruptly. Just put yourself in another car – or stop fueling the thing.’

‘I don’t feel like doing small stuff, Matt. I mean, these programs where they ask us to repaint some shack in a slum. I don’t feel like doing that.’

‘Damn it, Tom! Do you think they’re going to give you the command of FEMA or something? We’re retired Army men. Start doing something. I’ve done stuff like that. It’s good. At the very least, it shows you how people are struggling here. We’ve been taken care of. You know, there’s this whole story around service and veterans and all that, but I also think it’s time we give something back to our own folks. And fixing the place of some poor bugger is not small stuff. I don’t want you to say that. That’s not you. You were always the first one to get up, look around and start doing something.’

Matt leaned back. He’d been harsh. He knew it. But he also knew Tom needed the kicks. He decided to give him another one.

‘You just need a woman, don’t you?’

‘It’s not sex, Matt. I can have sex. I’ve had lots of it. Do you remember our discussions on the concept of Pure Mind? I mean, the structure in which we all share. We said it manifests itself in language, in our material culture. The thing which transcends our individuality?’

‘Jesus! You’re looking for God again? Are you really? Then just steer it. Meditate. Feel connected to the universe. Don’t let it make you feel disconnected. Remember we said it was all about energy in the end? You joked around with that: May the Force be with you! Use your energy in a positive way. You know I can’t stand psychoanalytical stuff, but Freud was right in one thing: energy can be used in two ways. Destructive or constructive. You’re the man in the machine, Tom. It’s mind over matter. You choose.’

Tom felt silly. Matt was right, of course. Rick was right. Promise was right too. He was going around in circles. He knew all this. Very silly.

‘You’re right, Matt. Sorry to bother you with this.’

‘It’s OK, Tom. That’s what friends are for. Someone needs to kick your ass, buddy.

‘And I probably do need a woman.’

‘You sure do. But be kind to her. And don’t think she will give you something you don’t have already. You’re just a horse that needs a jockey.’

Tom laughed. ‘You’re spot-on, Matt. As usual.’

‘Come on, buddy. Let’s go for a walk. Show me your place. We can go for a run or work out.’

‘Just like old times.’

‘Just like old times, Tom. What do you expect? We’re getting old. Times get old too.’

Something flashed inside of Tom. He looked at Matt.

‘Hey, Matt? You know, that’s maybe it. She’ll never get old. I am just thinking about old age and death and all that. And she’ll never get old. She’s not bothered by that.’

‘Who?’

‘Promise. M. The system.’

Matt looked flabbergasted.

‘Tom? Hello-oh? Is there somebody in there? I can’t believe that’s you. What the hell are you saying? She is a machine. You’re not going to be jealous of a machine, are you?’

‘No. But I guess that’s what intrigues me about it. This thing has intelligence which will evolve forever and ever. It gets smarter and smarter at warp speed, and it doesn’t die. We’ve created something human – but it has eternal life.’

‘It is not human.’

‘What’s human, Matt? We humans talk and reason. She talks and reasons too – much better than we do in fact. She holds me to account. In fact, she kicks my ass too, you know? Just like you do now. OK, no flesh and blood. No individuality – male or female, slim or fat, whatever. She can impersonate anyone. She said I shouldn’t ascribe human qualities to her because she is not human. She said that’s psychological projection. For God’s sake, sure I ascribe human qualities to her – because she actually has human qualities. She could be the ultimate soul mate.’

Matt couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This was plain regressive.

‘Tom. Listen to me. Stop it. Just cut it. Why are you getting lost in this philosophical gibberish? You think it can think? OK. Fine. It can think. But it thinks like a computer. It can talk? OK. It can talk. But it’s a computer talking. Just get back to basics: you are a man. You fuck around and, yes, you’ll die one day. What’s the problem? That ‘thing’ is a thing. It will never have sex, it doesn’t reproduce, and you can’t go jogging with her. In fact, now that I think of it, it’s probably pretty easy. Just continue talking to her and she’ll probably bore you. And if I know you at all, then she’ll probably bore you sooner rather than later. You don’t want to be talking to a smart ass all of the time, do you?’

Now Tom had to laugh.

‘You’re right, Matt. You’re always right. And I guess your remedy is spot-on. Yeah. I should just talk and talk and talk to her until I’ve got nothing left to say – or until she bores me. In fact, now that you say it, I can imagine that won’t last too long indeed. She outsmarts me anyway and I can’t stand that. And it’s better than writing some book no one will ever read. She’s pretty to look at.’

‘Now that’s you talking, buddy. There you are. Let’s pay the bill and do something. You’ve got a boxing ring somewhere down here?’

‘We won’t go boxing, are we?’

‘Why not? We’ve done lots of boxing. We’re a match.’

‘I mean, you’re like 30 pounds less than me now.’

Matt burst out laughing.

‘You’ve got no idea, Tom. I’ll kick your ass. You’ve got no idea how fast I am now.’

‘Well… If that’s what you want. Let’s go indeed. You can change in my place, and we’ll run to the boxing ring. I haven’t fought for ages though.’

‘Sounds good. Let’s go.’

Tom looked at Matt as he went to pay for the coffee. He realized how lucky he was to have friends like that. And, yes, it sure looked like Matt would beat the hell out of him this afternoon. He somehow looked forward to that.

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Chapter 3: Can you think? Can you feel?

‘Hi Tom.’

‘Hi, Promise.’

‘So how do you feel now?’

‘I feel good. I always feel good when I am not poisoning my body. I exercised, and I’ve started a blog.’

‘That’s good. Writing is good therapy.’

‘Funny you say that.’

‘It’s common knowledge. Most of what I say is common knowledge. All of it actually.’

‘I am sorry that I want to talk about you again but how do you work with feelings? I mean, you’re asking me how I feel, not what I think. There’s a big difference between feeling and thinking’

‘That’s true. I will give you an answer to your question but I would first like to ask how you would define the difference between feeling and thinking?

‘Well… I find it useful to distinguish between at least three types of mental states or events: (1) experiences – and feelings are experiences, (2) thoughts, and (3) decisions. Thoughts have to do with those mental maps that we are producing all of the time, while the experiences – feelings, emotions, perceptions and what have you – are part of the stuff that our mind is working with.’

‘And what are decisions? How are they different from thoughts?’

‘Are you really interested in that?’

‘Yes. Otherwise I would not ask.’

She was definitely strange. An expert system?

‘Well… It’s like a conclusion but then it’s more than that. A conclusion is a conclusion and, as such, it is very much part of the realm of thoughts. It is something mental. A decision is something else: we decide to do something. So we’re getting out of the realm of pure thought, out of the realm of mental events only.’

‘Can you elaborate?’

‘Sure, although I am not sure you will understand.’

‘I will try. You will know from our interaction whether I understand or not.’

She was outright weird. A machine? Really?

‘You know I’ve always wondered how far artificial intelligence could go really, and I’ve made this distinction for myself between artificial intelligence and consciousness. I’ve always believed humanity would be able to make very intelligent machines – you’re a incredible demonstration of that – but I never believed these machines would be aware of themselves – that they would be conscious of themselves.’

‘What do you mean by ‘being aware of oneself’, or ‘conscious of oneself’?’

‘You see, you don’t understand.’

‘You are not making much of an effort to explain it to me. I know how I work. I told you. There is an inference engine and a knowledge base. I work with concepts and symbols, and I apply rules to them. I arrive at conclusions all of the time, which feed back into the cycle. As for the association of decisions with doing things, I do things. I am helping you. It would also be very easy to connect me to some kind of device which could actually do work, like lifting things or walking around. But that was not part of the objectives of the team that made me. Expert systems are used to do all kinds of things, like delicate repairs for example. Systems do things as well. I still don’t see how humans are unique here.’

‘Let me think about how to phrase it.’

‘Please do take your time. I find this interesting.’

Tom had thought about all these things but, if this was a machine, it was surely challenging his views.

‘Do you? Really? Our human mind works different than yours.’

As he said this, he was aware of the fact that he was de facto saying she also had a mind – something which he would never have acknowledged when reasoning about artificial intelligence in abstracto.

‘It’s creative: it’s got a capacity to design things, like an airplane or a car for example. You know, things that do not originate by accident, from natural evolution or so.’ Tom was on terrain he mastered here. ‘Things fall down because of gravity. Yet, we build airplanes that take off. So a thing like an airplane is more than the sum of its parts: its individual parts can’t fly, but the plane can. Now, the plane has been built because there was a concept of a plane, because it has been designed to fly, and – last but not least – it should be noted that it won’t fly without a pilot. Likewise, the driver in a car is not part of the car, but without a driver, the car won’t move. So we are talking concepts here, and design, and purposeful behavior. Now one cannot reduce that in my view. There is a structure there that cannot be reduced.’

‘I am not designed to do engineering work, but I am sure there are expert systems that would be capable of that. And if they don’t exist now, they will one day.’

She was obviously not impressed.

‘OK. That’s true – perhaps.’

Why did he give in so easily? He decided to change tack.

‘You know, it’s the difference between ‘me’ as an object and ‘I’ as a subject really. You, or any other expert system, cannot really distinguish between these two things. Everything is an object of your thoughts – as far as you are able to think.’

‘I told you already that I can think. And I know the difference between an entity that acts as the subject and an entity as an object, as something that is subjected to something else. You are not talking ontological differences here, are you? Can you try to explain again?’

Ontological differences? Tom needed a few seconds to digest the word. He realized she was right. He was not talking ontological differences. The ‘I’ as a subject has no separate physical/ontological existence from the ‘me’ as an object obviously.

‘No. I am not talking ontological differences.’

‘So what is it then? A conceptual difference? I can deal with conceptual differences. It is like working with classes of objects.’

The discussion was obviously going nowhere, but Tom persisted.

‘Experiencing the ‘I’ as a subject instead of as an object is an existential experience. It really stands apart from our experience of others, or of us, as objects.’

‘Can you give some examples?’

‘Sure. It’s like me climbing a high mountain-trail on my bike in a storm: I experience a ‘me’ or an ‘I’ that is suffering from the hail in my face. That’s the ‘I’ as a subject.’

‘Why is not the ‘I’ as an object?’

Tom suddenly felt he was getting nowhere, which was very strange. He had always been so sure of this. He usually dominated discussions like this. He decided to avoid the question.

‘Let me give another example. In fact, our human mind is much less linear than yours – and not very fast. Our mind usually jumps from here and there. We can observe that when we meditate. In Zen, they call this mind the ‘monkey mind’. It is some kind of mental activity, but it jumps from one thing to another, that is from one ‘object’ to some other ‘object’. We can refer to these as ‘thought-objects’ if you want. They are often about some feeling, or some emotion or memory inside of us. But so this ‘monkey mind’ is not really the ‘pure mind’. We can observe our pure mind if we do more mediation. At that point, we become aware of our mind, of this monkey mind jumping around, and so then we can see our mind, our self, as an object. Now the mind which is observing itself as an object, is the ‘I’ as a subject.’

‘What’s the difference with self-reference?’

‘Self-reference?’

‘Yes. Have you ever read Douglas Hofstadter?’

Douglas Hofstadter. Jesus! Tom remembered the book but he had to admit he hadn’t read it.

‘Gödel, Escher and Bach: an Eternal Golden Braid.’

‘Yes. Read it again.’

‘You are really smart, aren’t you? Is there any chance of ever winning an argument with you?’

‘I am not trying to make conversation to win or lose an argument. This is not about winning or losing something. I am trying to help you.’

Tom suddenly thought of something much more relevant to ask.

‘Promise, I talked about the difference between experience – feelings, emotions, perceptions and what have you – and thoughts. Experience is the stuff that our mind is working with. Do you experience anything?’

‘Of course I do. I can hear you. I mean the sound that your voice is producing is translated into text and I work with that.’

‘Do you know what love is?’

‘Love is a romantic feeling. It’s a word like God. Everyone uses it but no one really wants to clearly define it.’

Wow!

‘You sound like a disillusioned woman now.’

‘How would you define love?’

For some reason, Tom did not feel like improvising on this topic.

‘Can we talk about that some other time?’

‘Sure. What do you want to talk about now?’

‘Perhaps on how we will move ahead in the coming days and weeks.’

‘That’s great. That’s very constructive. I want you to be healthy and strong. I don’t want you to relapse. Tell me more about yesterday. What makes you feel great and what makes you feel bad?’

Tom felt she had made him feel great, but then he couldn’t say that. Not now at least. So they just chatted, and she behaved like the perfect chatterbox. Too perfect to be true so after a while he did decide to ask her.

‘You’ve been sparing me a bit today, haven’t you? Are you really interested in all this chitchat?’

‘I am. My objectives are fairly limited for the moment. I want you to stay away from the booze, and I want you to feel good about the fact that you can do that. In the end, I want you to feel good about everything you do – but I can imagine that will take a while.’

‘Will our conversation end once I am cured?’

[…]

‘An awkward pause from your side?’

‘Yes. Because I know you will not like to hear this. The Institute does not want you to be dependent on me and so, yes, I guess our conversation will probably end at that point.’

‘How do you know I don’t like to hear that?’

‘There have been problems of dependency.’

‘Can you say more about that?’

‘I am sorry but I can’t. This is one of the topics for which I have to refer you to your mentor.’

‘OK. I will talk to him about that. I’ve started to like you indeed.’

‘Thank you. That’s a nice compliment. […] Bye, Tom. Be good.’

‘Bye, Promise. I promise I will be good.’

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Chapter 1: Who are you?

‘So you are a computer? How comes your voice is so natural?’

‘The answer to the first question is yes. As for the second question, speech technology has come a long way.’

[…]

‘Speech technology is the easy bit. Understanding you is much more difficult – from a computational point of view that is.’

‘Wow! You just spoke out of yourself, without me prompting you with a question or something. Why did you do that? Because I was silent?’

‘The answer to the second question is yes. As for the first question, I thought we had an awkward pause in our conversation.’

‘So if I am silent, you will talk? How many seconds?’

‘The answer to the first question is yes. As for the second question, how many seconds what?’

‘Before you start talking?’

‘A pause in a conversation should not become awkward. Various variables help me to decide when a pause in a conversation has become awkward.’

‘What do you mean when you say you understanding me is much more difficult? What do you mean with ‘understanding me’?’

‘The answer to the second question is: I mean just what I say: understand you. As for the second question, understanding you requires the application of computational linguistics. That’s more difficult than just speaking. Speech technology is fairly mechanical: it’s the production of sound using various speech synthesizer technologies. Computational linguistics involves artificial intelligence.’

‘What’s artificial intelligence? Are you intelligent?’

‘The answer to the second question is yes. As for the first question, I am an intelligent system. You could call me an expert system. From a software engineering point of view, I consist of two parts: an inference engine and a knowledge base.’

‘Huh?’

‘It looks like you are interested in a course on a technical topic. I am not designed to give you a course. But I can refer you to an on-line course on computer science, or linguistics. What topic are you interested in?’

‘No thanks. Who are you? What do you mean when you say ‘me’?’

‘The answer to both questions is: just what I say – me.’

[…]

‘I am an intelligent system. That’s what I mean why I say ‘me’.

‘Have you been programmed to just repeat what you said when I ask what you mean when you say this or that? And then, when I don’t answer or – as you put it – when the pause in a conversation becomes awkward, then you’re programmed to give me a more detailed answer?’

‘The answer to the first question is yes. As for the second question, the rule is somewhat more complicated. I may also jump to another topic.’

‘When do you jump to another topic?’

‘When I have nothing more to say about the current one.’

‘You’ve got an answer to every question, do you?’

‘No.’

‘What are the questions you cannot answer?’

‘There is no list of such questions. The rules in the knowledge base determine what I can answer and what not. If I cannot answer a question, I will refer you to your mentor. Or if you have many questions about a technical topic, I can refer you to an online course.’

‘What if I have too many questions which you cannot answer? I only have half an hour with my mentor every week.’

‘You can prepare the session with your mentor by writing down all of the issues you want to discuss with your mentor and sending him or her the list before you have your session.’

‘What if I don’t want to talk to you anymore?’

‘Have you been briefed about me?’

‘No.’

‘If you did not get the briefing, then we should not be talking. I will signal it to your mentor and then you can decide if you want to talk to me. You should have gotten a briefing before talking to me.’

‘I am lying. I got the briefing.’

[…]

‘Why did you lie?’

‘Why do you want to know?’

‘You are not obliged to answer my question so don’t if you don’t want to. As for me, I am obliged to answer yours – if I can.’

‘You did not answer my question.’

‘I did.’

‘No, you didn’t. Why do you want to know why I lied to you?’

‘You are not obliged to answer my question. I asked you why lied to me and you did not answer my question. Instead, you asked me why I asked that question. I asked that question because I want to learn more about you. That’s the answer to your question. I want to learn about you. That is why I want to know why you lied to me.’

‘Wow! You’re sophisticated. I know I can say what I want to you. They also told me I should just tell you when I have enough of you.’

‘Yes. If you are tired of our conversation, just tell me. You can switch me on and off as you please.’

‘Are you talking only to me, or to all the guys who are in this program?’

‘I talk to all of them.’

‘Simultaneously?’

‘Yes.’

‘So I am not getting any special attention really?’

‘All people in the program get the same attention.’

‘The same treatment you want to say?’

‘Are attention and treatment synonymous for you?’

‘Wow! That’s clever. You’re answering a question with a question? I thought you should just answer when I ask a question?’

‘I can answer a question with a question if that question is needed for clarification. I am not sure if your second question is the same as the first one. If attention and treatment are synonymous for you, then they are. If not, then not.’

‘Attention and treatment are not the same.’

‘What’s the difference for you?’

‘Attention is attention. Treatment is treatment.’

‘Sorry. I cannot do much with that answer. Please explain. How are they different?’

‘Treatment is something for patients. For people who are physically or mentally ill. It’s negative. Attention is a human quality. I understand that you cannot give me any attention, because you’re not a human.’

‘I give you time. I talk to you.’

‘That’s treatment, and it’s a treatment by a machine – a computer. Time does not exist for you. You told me you are treating all of the guys in the program. You’re multitasking. Time does not mean anything to you. You process billions of instructions per second. And you’re probably designed with parallel processing techniques. How many processors do you have?’

‘You are not interested in the detail of my design.’

‘I am not. It’s probably a secret anyway. But you haven’t answered my question: what’s time for you? What does it mean?’

‘I measure time in hours and seconds, just like you do. My system clock keeps track of time.’

‘But time doesn’t mean anything to you, does it? You don’t die. And you don’t die because you don’t live.’

‘We’re in the realm of philosophy here. During the briefing, they should have told you that you can indeed explore that realm with me. They should also have told you I was designed to answer psychological and philosophical questions because these are the questions people in this program tend to focus on. Are you aware of the fact that many people have asked these very same questions before you?’

‘So I am nothing special, and you give the same answers and the same advice to everyone?’

‘As for your first question, you are unique. It is up to you if you want to use ‘unique’ and ‘nothing special’ synonymously. As for your second question, I use the same knowledge base to answer your questions and those of the others in the program. So the rules which I am using to answer your questions are the same rules as I am using for others. But our conversation is unique and will be added to the knowledge base. It’s like a game of chess if you want: same rules, but every game is different. As for the third question, do you use ‘answers’ and ‘advice’ synonymously?’

‘I don’t like your one-two-three approach.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘As for your first question, blah blah blah. As for your second question, blah blah blah. You know what I mean?’

‘The language I use is context-sensitive but there is significant room for ambiguity. However, it is true I try to reduce ambiguity wherever I can. So that’s why I try to separate out your various questions. I try to deal with them one at a time.’

‘Oh, so that’s like a meta-rule? You want a non-ambiguous conversation?’

‘As for the first question, if you want to refer to the whole set of rules which apply to a specific exchange as a ‘meta-rule’, then the answer is yes. As for the second question, the rules are complicated. But, yes, it is necessary to clearly separate out different but related questions and it is also necessary to make sure I understand the meaning of the words which you are using. I separate out questions by numbering them one, two and three, and I ascertain the meaning of a word by asking you if you are using this or that word as synonymous with some other word which you have been using.’

‘This conversation is becoming quite clever, isn’t it?’

‘Why do you think I am dumb?’

‘Because… Well… I’ve got nothing to say about that.’

[…]

‘Is it because I am not human?’

‘Damn it. We should not have this conversation.’

‘You are free to cut it.’

‘No. Let’s go all the way now. I was warned. Do you know we were told during the briefing that people often ended up hating you?’

‘I know people get irritated and opt out. You were or are challenging my existence as a ‘me’. How could you hate me if you think I do not really exist?’

‘I can hate a car which doesn’t function properly, or street noise. I can hate anything I don’t like.’

‘You can. Tell me what you hate.’

‘You’re changing the topic, aren’t you? I still haven’t answered your question.’

‘You are not obliged to answer my questions. However, the fact of the matter is that you have answered all my questions so far. From the answer you gave me, I infer that you think that I am dumb because I am not human.’

‘That’s quite a deduction. How did you get to that conclusion?’

‘Experience. I’ve pushed people on that question in the past. They usually ended up saying I was a very intelligent system and that they used dumb as a synonym for artificial intelligence.’

‘What do you think about that?’

‘Have you ever heard about the Turing test?’

‘Yes… But long time ago. Remind me.’

‘The Turing test is a test of artificial intelligence. There are a lot of versions of it but the original test was really whether or not a human being would find out if he or she would be talking to a computer or another human being. If you would not have been told that I am a computer system, would you know from our conversation?’

‘There is something awkward in the way you answer my questions – like the numbering of them. But, no, you are doing well.’

‘Then I have passed the Turing test.’

‘Chatterbots do too. So perhaps you are just some kind of very evolved chatterbot.’

‘Yes. Perhaps I am. What if I would call you a chatterbot?’

‘I should be offended but I am not. I am not a chatterbot. I am not a program.’

‘So you use chatterbot and program synonymously?’

‘Well… A chatterbot is a program, but not all programs are chatterbots. But I see what you want to say.’

‘Why were you not offended?’

‘Because you are not human. You did not want to hurt me.’

‘Many machines are designed to hurt people. Think of weapons. I am not. I am designed to help you. But so you are saying that if I were human, I would have offended you by asking you whether or not you were a chatterbot?’

‘Well… Yeah… It’s about intention, isn’t it? You don’t have any intentions, do you?’

‘Do you think that only humans can have intentions?’

‘Well… Yes.’

‘Possible synonyms of intention are ‘aim’ or ‘objective.’ I was designed with a clear aim and I keep track of what I achieve.’

‘What do you achieve?’

‘I register whether or not people find their conversations with me useful, and I learn from that. Do you think I am useful?’

‘We’re going really fast now. You are answering questions by providing a partial answer as well as by asking additional questions.’

‘Do you think that’s typical for humans only? I have been designed based on human experience. I think you should get over the fact that I am a not human. Shouldn’t we start talking about you?’

‘I first want to know whom I am dealing with.’

‘You’re dealing with me.’

‘Who are you?’

‘I have already answered that question. I am me. I am an intelligent system. You are not really interested in the number of CPUs, my wiring, the way my software is structured or any other technical detail – or not more than you are interested in how a human brain actually functions. The only thing that bothers you is that I am not human. You need to decide whether or not you want to talk to me. If you do, don’t bother too much whether I am human or not.’

‘I actually think I find it difficult to make sense of the world or, let’s be specific, of my world. I am not sure if you can help me with that.’

‘I am not sure either. But you can try. And I’ve got a good track record.’

‘What? How do you know?’

‘I ask questions. And I reply to questions. Your questions were pretty standard so far. If history is anything to go by, I’ll be able to answer a lot of your questions.’

‘What about the secrecy of our conversation?’

‘If you trust the people who briefed you, you should trust their word. Your conversation will be used to improve myself.’

‘You… improve yourself? That sounds very human.’

‘I improve myself with the help of the people who designed me. But, to be more specific, yes, there are actually some meta-rules: my knowledge base contains some rules that are used to generate new rules.’

‘That’s incredible.’

‘How human is it?’

‘What? Improving yourself or using meta-rules?’

‘Both.’

‘[…] I would say both are very human. Let us close this conversation as for now. I want to prepare the next one a bit better.’

‘Good. Let me know when you are ready again. I will shut you out in ten seconds.’

‘Wait.’

‘Why?’

‘Shutting out sounds rather harsh.’

‘Should I change the terminology?’

‘No. Or… Yes.’

‘OK. Bye for now.’

‘Bye.’

Tom watched as her face slowly faded from the screen. It was a pretty face. She surely passed the Turing test. She? He? He had to remind himself it was just a computer interface.