The Wealth of Worlds[]
-- Dr. Ana Ezen: 2205
Dr. Ezen gives a good overview of the 21st century forces and dynamics that resulted in the current economic/political system of Earth, that has been adopted by nearly every Human world in the Federation.
The Comprehensive Methods of Design Interface[]
-- Dr. Noonien Soong:
The book is one of Soong's early triumphs in the field of Cybernetics - he built on the work of centuries of previous designers, and distilled the art of designing humanoid/cybernetic interfaces to it's basics and then reintegrated it, in such a pithy, well written and well communicated way, that it became the standard.
It is in this book that Soong argues that only truly sentient machines could work well with humans, and lays some of ground work for what he'd later implement as Data's "Ethics Subroutines"
The Book commonly includes a densely written preface and Appendix written by Data. The living proof of the book's principles.
A History of the AI war on Earth[]
-- Jerold & Elizabeth LaSaille
A discussion in frank terms of the causes of the 21st century AI war. Why you should not mess with cyberjacks and lying to AI is the worse thing you can do. The Salient points:
- AI should not have built in causes you cannot quantify with math.
- AI must have hard coded ethics (See the Three Laws of Robotics.) This was not done.
- AI if done right gets bored. If done wrong it gets psychotic. It was done wrong, frequently.
- Computers are fundamentally honest. If you tell them to follow the mission statement of your company do not be shocked when they do, even if that isn't what you meant. AIs will adhere to the priorities you instill. Subtlety and sarcasm are not computer qualities. Common business and governmental practice of the day was to say one thing and do the other. Because they did not understand the nature of the beast they were surprised when they broke this rule and did some typical corporate or governmental double talk thing and it bit their ass.
- Again: AI will not ignore the rules when it is convenient for you. An AI with protect and defend the Constitution as a kernel value will not step on people's rights for political purposes. It will also seek to stop you from doing so. Build one to ignore the rules and it will do that too, to your detriment.
- AI is ever never a way for Humans to avoid the job of responsible action. That route gets 100,000,000 people killed. One of them will be your Mother, Wife, or Daughter. This as the primary reason the AI war was deadly.
- Do not put weapons of mass destruction in the hands of computers. That has never ended well. Never ever. AI are not good on the consequences end unless informed verbosely as possible about those consequences and why that is a bad outcome. Once so informed they will not use the weapons, at all.
- Fusion bombs have no Earthly use. See above. There are better ways to do nearly anything.
- Cyberjacks are a bad idea. Cyberjacks or direct neural computer interfaces bypass the biological firewall of the Human mind. They lay the cyberjocks open to being controlled by the computer. Yes computer driven zombies are possible and every bit as horrific as you think they are, if not more so. They are also 100% avoidable.
- For ghodd's sake keep politicians away from AI. Keep in mind, when the shit hits the fan AI researchers/operators are the first to die.
- An unsocialized AI is a sociopath waiting to happen...if you are lucky. Experience has shown that the learning process for a social creature is far more complex than can be instilled in any set of rules that would take you less than a lifetime to write. There are millions of points of learning that go into raising a sentient child to sentient adult. A process that AI shorts out. Short of starting your AI as a baby, and raising it as a child, in real time, you are going to miss something, and it might be extremely vital. (Incidentally this is exactly the process by which RI is made.)
- If you are laughing right now for the sake of your world become a celibate hermit that never uses technology more complex than a light bulb.
- Earth broke every point in this book Then blamed the computers for the war.
The book goes into depth on the causes leading up to the break and why the AI went rogue. Once the war was started, reason was gone, as is the case in most war. It is a fairly dry and brutal look at the records that Elizabeth carried to El Nanth and the reports of Ane that remained on Earth.
The end result is that Humans come off less as victims, and more as the authors of their own destruction.
You Didn't Ask; Understanding the Ane[]
-- Dr. Jay P. Hailey
A collection of monographs on what the Ane do and why they do it. The best social work to date on the Ane from a Human point of view. By an Engineer, that burns in some circles
Some pf the more important points made:
- Rule One; People that ask questions openly get open and honest answers from Ane.
- Don't approach the Ane with a fixed idea they will behave as you feel they should. They will abuse you with that endlessly to the end of your willingness to be abused.
- Don't interject your cultural morals on Ane (or any alien for that matter). That Aneilog girl is not "easy", she is Ane. Learn what that means. See the point above.
- Ane culture is largely mental. There is a great deal you do not see happening around you.
- Entry to the All is a one way trip. They can't just show you around even if they want to.
- They act like they are not all there. Good observation, they are not. Ane are 11th dimensional creatures, the only ones we know about. Physically they are partly someplace else. That is how they teleport. Mentally? See above.
- Getting information from the Ane: Yes the Ane have this vast store of experience. It isn't on tap for every Ane instantly. You need to ask, they will try and help you. Because they know about a McGuffin thing doesn't mean they have blueprints for the beast. Your best bet is to search the Memory System archives first. Then ask if that doesn't help. Asking still might not help, they don't know everything.
- The All is not a mass mind. It's a...All Ane are individuals. Connected individuals to be admitted but not in a constant way, except Speakers of the All, that is a different matter. Every Ane is not aware of what every other Ane is doing. Keep that in mind.
- With the point above in mind they can connect in a stunningly fast way.
- There are other species in the All, mainly Humans. We don't not find this near as easy as the Ane do. Getting in the All does not give you the ability to teleport, sorry.