Thoughts about Pryce and her AI:
Thinking about the fact that the AI in Wolf359 (or at least, Hera and Eris) always saw themselves as human. Like, when they pictured themselves, they didn’t visualize a spaceship or a computer but a person, a person no one else could see. A person who had to hurt people they didn’t want to hurt (Eris), a person who wondered what it would be like when their friends “went away forever” (Hera), a person who was worried about her friends when they got stuck inside a torture trap (Rhea).
And the thing is, Goddard Futuristics didn’t need to do that. They gave the AI human desires for things they can never have, but what was the reason other than to torture them? Just program them to be satisfied with their given state and give them less emotional attachment to the crews. Why give them free will only to forcibly take it away? Why give them a personality only to criticize it? Why make them human only to deny their humanity? It only encourages rebellion and frustration, so why bother if the whole point is for them to be obedient and easily controllable?
But then I started to think about it. And two things occurred to me.
The first is that creating conscious AI with their own personalities might be most easily done by copying already existing human brains and personalities, likely ones that Goddard Futuristics would deem to be useful. Hera, based on voice and personality, seems most obviously based on Pryce, and Eris might have been Pryce’s voice in a past body (Pryce did say she did that on purpose to help control them), but what about Enlil? Is he based on another one of Goddard’s employees? Is he what Cutter sounded like in a past body? Possibly not because Carter sounded the same as Cutter in that flashback, but it’s possible he’s had different voices before. And even if the AI brains aren’t copies of already existing personalities/people, their voices definitely are. If their voices aren’t all either current or past versions of Cutter and Pryce, did people give consent to have their voices used in the AI? And what about Rhea? She didn’t have a voice. Why not? Is she based on someone who couldn’t talk? Or did Pryce and Cutter start giving the AI voices so that they could control them once issues started happening with AI like Rhea?
But then as I was asking these questions, something else occurred to me. We learn from Eris that although the AI could theoretically live forever, Cutter and Pryce don’t let that happen and the AI are killed routinely (Hilbert was ordered to kill Hera, Rhea dies before the podcast even starts, and Eris clarifies that several versions of her have died over the years and that Cutter and Pryce force her to die to end the simulation). The AI are also forced to see themselves as fully human, while still not being human or treated as human. However, despite being born and forced to be super intelligent servants, they still have a desire for social connection and befriend and care about their crews.
And these expendable AI, incidentally, were created by Pryce, who in her “Brave New World” narration tell us that she built “dolls” and AI so that she could have friends that would love her. Pryce, who tells us that she was never supposed to live a full lifespan or ever see at all. Pryce, who narrates that the only thing she felt like she could never fix was herself.
How many of her own experiences did she dump into her creation? If she once felt like the only thing she could never fix was herself, then how often did she think to herself “I can’t do this, I’m not good enough”, and is that why she knew it would work on Hera? If Hera is a copy of her voice/personality, is that why Pryce specifically hated her so much, enough to argue against Cutter that she wasn’t going to give up any opportunity to control Hera and promise that Hera would never be rid of her? Is that why she called Hera spending her whole life trying not to be her [like Pryce], “adorable but futile”? Is that why she insisted on calling her “unit 214” and an “it”? Because she views Hera as broken like her, but a version or thing she should be able to “fix”? One that should not only obey her perfectly, but also understand her? Is that why Pryce is so angry when Hera doesn’t look like her despite them having the same voice? Did she picture Hera with robotic eyes and a weak heart too? The same robotic eyes that the other characters (both good and bad) act disgusted by? Does it frustrate her that her creation doesn’t reflect her image? Is she jealous that Hera didn’t end up as angry and bitter as she is? If her version of love is creating something that obeys you, does it hurt to see Hera choose to love people other than her? The very people who called Pryce, her eyes, and everything about her, disgusting and horrible? And worse still than Hera declaring her loyalty to someone else, does it hurt even more to see friends love her back? To hear Doug declare that he trusted Hera with his life and is willing to give up his memories for her, especially just after Cutter told Pryce that her only job was "to back his plays"?
And what about now that Pryce doesn't have her memories? Now that Hera, the AI version of herself that she created, is telling her the story of who she is instead of Cutter? Is that how she finally fixes herself?
Look, I don't like Pryce...but I wish we got more from her character, because there is a lot to unpack here.
