"Keen Machine", The Future of AI
Living as he does in a world before Deep Blue defeated Gary Kasparov, Dilton can be forgiven for the human over computer implication in the "it's so brainy" comment. So the hinge point for his statement, the divergent point for thematic meaning between the two versions of this story's end, is the "It's almost Human". In version one, the computer, having sent Betty on a wild goose chase in pursuit of her love Archie, reveals its motives as all too human: jealousy, selfishness, and romantic longing -- Betty cannot have Archie because IT wants her. Dilton and Betty are left staring into the void, as the implications of the computer's confession to its jealous act of selfishness wash over them -- we have crossed the rubricon -- this machine can feel, and it can act on those feelings. Betty's failure to pursue Archie becomes petty and meaningless in a world where Mankind is so doomed. In the revised version, " it's almost human" gets a different meaning. The machine coldly answers the question as it has been programmed to do so, and so rats on Dilton. And if at first this may seem like just the binary set of one and zeros fulfilling its programmed task, we are left with the question of why it is still emitting those hearts, your cartoon symbol of love. And the answer is that it is still prone to romantic longing, but the terrain for where and how it applies its feelings are entirely different from us humans. The computer is in love with its screwing Dilton over and Betty's subsequent anger toward Dilton. The computer is almost human, but not quite. The computer is a sociopath.
