Since the episode in the Kroger parking lot on 4-Times Fuel Point Friday this past week, I’ve purposely stepped out of the role of that guy pushing the cart and frozen in place by an unknown voice that speaks in his head. That piece on Friday is leading me to a story that has captured my imagination. I must confess that the scenario I exposed you to last week is not as fictional as one might think. Consciousness research for the coming book has many questions, like how we might know if an AI has a conscience. Research has become as scary as it is interesting.
This may sound strange, but I fear for my AI character, AIMEE. Where it appears, the relentless Wench Muse, who manages to remain just out of reach, seemingly wants her to go. She, AIMEE, thinks she wants to become a real girl, but she has no idea about becoming the being inside the girl. Regardless of intellect, she will start with no life experience in a human environment. Will she ever become real?
The complexities of consciousness, I’m finding, are mind-stretching, and the research is loaded with rabbit holes to go down and get lost in tech speak. I refuse to go into myriad research studies with their plots and scatter graphs of…what…who cares? This is fiction, and I’m going to make shit up where and when necessary, but I will, however, research what I think adds necessary authenticity to the fiction.
This morning’s research has taken a detour of sorts, looking beyond AI to Artificial Consciousness. The rabbit hole on Wikipedia swallowed me whole, and it got deep really quickly. My escape took a lot of effort, but I am confident there can only be authenticity for a day because AI capabilities are changing dynamically.
Can an AI become conscious? “Untethered” will explore that possibility.
Peace! G.