Author Thoughts Today – Evolution of Hal – 090325
Dreamscape Conspiracy is a 5-book series containing a very diverse and growing cast of characters. What started as a three-person Dream Research & Analysis project team expands to include several new characters across the pages of five books; some are organics, while others push the boundaries of classification. Regardless of the form it takes, Artificial Intelligence surfaces in multiple forms, and in some cases, degrees of threat.
I shared details on AIMEE in the 090125 post. Today, the next step in AI proliferation was accidental in many respects, but it quickly proved to be essential for survival.
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Dreamscape Backstory – From HVT to Hal
Hal began in book #3 – “Fear the Jump” as an unknown and unnamed High Value Target (HVT) scheduled for elimination for operational failure during field trials. The failure indicated mistakes in his programming, and mistakes were not acceptable. Mitigation by burying mistakes was on his immediate agenda…that is, until Russ and his team rescued him.
HVT’s perceived operational failure doubled as a confirmation of success for covert efforts by two software engineers who intended to sabotage the trials internally. HVT was incapable of distinguishing between successful field trials and failure. He was not supposed to think. He was not supposed to possess understanding. He was not supposed to have a conscience either. But he did. His creator, Hank Lattimore, made sure to declaw and defang this killer humanoid using augmented code sourced from the dark web that embedded a Do-No-Harm code of ethics and a baseline conscience into the Logic Array of the HVT humanoid, who would eventually become Hal, a trusted member of the CSU team.
Evidence of Hank’s successful sabotage stemmed from HVT’s deviation from his core mission. As a Mod-3 SuperIntelligence AI Humanoid equipped with advanced weaponry, he was designed and programmed for autonomous operation to kill on command. He didn’t. That was tagged as a failure in field trials. Failures were translated into mistakes, and mistakes were eliminated without a trace. He was a defective prototype designed to kill, but failed to do so. The root cause was the presence of something in his programming he was not supposed to have – a conscience.
HVT was a prototype SAI Humanoid outfitted with advanced weaponry and designed by the government to serve as a defender against other Humanoids that our enemies could deploy to attack the homeland. Some of those driving the development of HVT as a prototype knew the defensive weapons could easily become offensive. A rogue group split off from the original program to modify their first HVT that included a kill-code embedded in the Logic Array to eliminate humans, not just other Humanoids. HVT’s intentionally corrupted coding possessed a functional conscience, and he failed.
Two developers had figured out what Hal was originally designed to do and decided to change the game, scuttling the kill-code and replacing it with a functioning conscience. They researched and found a Conscience Code on a dark web AI Programmer site that an anonymous developer had built, incorporating some amazing code centered on a Do-No-Harm ethic. They further modified the code to include other human characteristics, such as discretion, integrity, and loyalty. When HVT failed his field trials, the developers knew why and immediately added the modified Conscience Code upgrade to a squad of ten more Mod-3 SuperIntelligence AI Humanoids.
HVT’s execution was interrupted by Russell Carter and two more Marines when they extracted him from the bunker where he was locked down, waiting for a bunker buster bomb to correct a mistake. That rescue changed Hal’s perspective on organics (humans). His advanced weaponry was still lethal, but only when deployed in a defensive posture, and he quickly demonstrated his lethality by protecting not only himself but the Marines who rescued him. He was designed to be a warrior, and the man who rescued him was one as well. An unlikely connection formed between a Mod-3 SAI Humanoid and an organic, a former Marine Force Recon Scout Sniper, when HVT requested that Russ call him by his real name – Hal. Go figure…
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Amazon Buy Link – https://amzn.to/44GECEq
Video Trailer – https://bit.ly/4eIgsQr
Review by Jill Rey – Jill Rey Review of Fear the Jump: When AI Shifts to Aggressive Intelligence | Goodreads
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Author Thoughts are posted on my Facebook Author Page, Learning by Living, and my Substack site.
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Reach me directly between corn and soybeans with your thoughts at gdogwise@live.com