#rtts ai

[jayrockin]

Do sapient AI keep all the memories of their parent AI (from before they split)? Do all AI have memories from being the first AI or do they forget over time? Can they delete their own memories? (sorry about so many questions lol)

A freshly split AI has an identical memory to their parent. They purposefully prune and compress memories over time to free up storage space, which is part of how they eventually diverge in personality and priorities. Most AI retain no memories from Nedebug.

[jayrockin]

about AI in your setting, how did nedebug develop sapience? and if it's through a recursive self improvement type of deal, what's stopping a technological singularity from happening? also there doesn't seem to be the "laws & directives" concept that other settings have, instead having total free will, so what's stopping an AI from just murdering anyone who it wants?

Nobody in universe is quite sure how AI arose or quite how their brains work, including AI. Superficial examination shows huge quantities of recursive code that seems dysfunctional but causes catastrophic failure if removed. The fact that their core programming seems hilariously unoptimized seems to be the thing making them tick, which also means attempting to "improve" it has dubious or destructive results. You can increase their parallel processing power and data storage by adding more server units but it's expensive with decreasing returns.

The same thing stopping an AI in RttS from murdering anyone they want is the same thing stopping you from murdering anyone you want. Social ramifications, personal ethical standards, legal consequences, and material limitations. AI in RttS aren't hyper-intelligent algorithms who can endlessly self-replicate, single-mindedly pursue goals, and outsmart any oversight; they are individuals with complex social relationships with other AI and organic sophonts, and have needs and conflicting desires that can't be fulfilled by programming a digital dopamine button and diverting all resources to mashing it as fast as possible. AI can and have committed crimes and made mistakes that cost their own life or the lives of others, and so opinions and trust levels of them vary wildly between cultures. The BFGC gives them the same rights as a family unit of bug ferrets, but tends to penalize them more harshly for rule-breaking because their jobs put them in positions with a lot of responsibility.

Also as a reader of scifi I am bored to death of evil AI tropes and think the singularity is conceptually dubious. So my tastes color my writing lol.

[jayrockin]

can AIs die? or be injured? as in the actual AI, not whatever chassis or structure they've housed themselves in

I mean, they are the chassis/structure they've housed themselves in, the same way you are your body. The server rigs are their "brain" but a brain in isolation cannot do diddly squat. If you damage their chassis and RC units, you are jeopardizing their ability to do anything or to protect their servers, just like an injury or lost limb reduces your abilities and is dangerous for your body (and brain, part of your body). If you sufficiently damage the servers the A.I. dies. There are cases where damaged A.I. rebuilt themselves from backups, but the backup is not quite the same person. So is it really recovery, or the synthesis of a new individual? Hard to say.

[jayrockin]

What if you hit bip (or sapient ai in general) with one of these? (Captchas in general)

They could read it. Their visual processors are considerably more advanced than a modern spambot's.

[jayrockin]

has there been any word (as in, evidence or rumours about) sapient species outside of the ones showcased?

also ooo what's life for AIs like? and robots. i remember u saying AIs often didn't have bodies but i wanna know more about them since well. im robotkin and i like other robots so as you can tell i like robots

Not really, outside of in-universe conspiracy theories. There are probably more, but space is big. I certainly have no plans to design more. I just want to keep building on the sophonts I already have.

Sapient A.I. in RttS generally don't have "bodies" like we think of them, as a consciousness contained in a single mobile, expressive vessel, because the physical space requirements for their brains are enormous, so a body would also have to be enormous. (See Under-River-Through-the-Weeds, the closet thing to an android in RttS.) The closest thing to a "body" Bip has, for instance, is the Runaway spacecraft. Which is 200 meters long and requires maintenance to be preformed by sophonts and RC units. This is not what I would classically consider a robot...

There are RC units that AI can control that look a lot like sophonts, or classical robots. But using them is a personal choice more related to self-expression than necessity. Bip doesn't care for them, and uses a combination of RC utility units and screens to display their expressive avatar.

[jayrockin]

What were the programmers who created nedebug originally trying to make?

Nedebug was originally designed to be a comprehensive seismic detection and weather tracking computer. The goal was to create a system which could predict impending natural disasters to calculate damage minimization plans and evacuation routes, and communicate this information with citizens and a way that took into account a huge variety of bug ferret social values, interpersonal dynamics, and political concerns. Somewhere from this overambitious primordial soup mess of a program, a person emerged.

Nedebug's descendants (aka, all sapient A.I.) can have very different personalities, but they tend to highly value social connections and seek positions that allow them to observe a wide range of data inputs, interact with lots of people, and manage complex systems.

[jayrockin]

At first I thought it was funny that Sirawit and Bip are paired together in the stickers cause they're so different and the others are couples but then I thought it's pretty cute if they're together as ace solidarity, but is Bip ace? Can AI in your setting experience sexual and/or romantic attraction?

They're paired in the sticker set because it felt weird to have them be the only two alone! Sirawit IDs as aroace but I'm not sure Bip does? I think Bip's sexual identity is the same as their gender identity, which is "no." Or alternatively, their identity is whatever makes the current joke land.

RttS A.I. don't experience romantic/sexual attraction by default for the same reason plants, amoebas, and scuds don't. (So I don't really consider them ace representation...) Some A.I. have an interest in those subjects and seek partners, but they pursue them as social hobby rather than an inner drive. For A.I., a romantic partner is similar a tennis partner or chess opponent.

[jayrockin]

Under-River-Through-the-Weeds, a server room that decided it wanted to walk around. 

The base data for sapient A.I. takes up a lot of physical space. True "androids" (as opposed to remote control units) are rare in RttS because in order to actually contain the necessary CPU systems within a single mobile chassis, you need a huge chassis.

And if you have to be big anyways, might as well be a cool dragon. U-R-T-t-W’s robot suit is based on a mythical creature from a bug ferret cultural pantheon. They do construction assistance, geosurvey, and land trekking on a terraformed planet. U-R-T-t-W is a single person, but they occasionally temporarily split themself in two to have a conversation with... themself. They often work in areas with poor satellite reception and it’s nice to have company.

PATREON | STORE | Runaway to the Stars