Featured Species - The Mauraug

Name: Mauraug

Appearance:

The Mauraug carbon based, DNA based, simian primates.  The ideal Mauraug has bandy legs, long arms, a strong torso and shoulders, and a round head with a high cranial ridge.  Their eyes have heavy lids, their nose flat and their mouth an apelike muzzle filled with a mixture of grinding and rending teeth.  Their skin is matte black and the fur across their bodies and on their heads is a snow white.

However, the Mauraug have suffered greatly from a genetic plague (partially) of their own devising.  As a result, the majority of Mauraug don't adhere to all of these characteristics.  Most Mauraug are born with some kind of genetic dysfunction, usually involving missing or malformed organs or limbs.  Most Mauraug have cybernetics replacing the missing or malfunctioning organs or appendages.  In addition, skin color, fur color, and facial shape can vary greatly.  No Mauraug could pass as a human, no matter how deformed, but there are those born among them whose lineage might be hard to infer by simple observation. 

History:

            The Mauraug developed from a tree-dwelling simian like race on their home world.  Mauraug Prime is a hot world, and from early records seems to be a former Venus-style hothouse world whose atmosphere was “cleaned” by the development of oxygen-using single-celled life.  Their world had lush photosynthetic vegetation, a high amount of free water and oxygen in the atmosphere, and abundant solar radiation, contributing to a high degree of mutation in the life forms that developed there.

            Much of the pre-spaceflight history of the Mauraug race is shrouded in mystery, and the texts that keep what they know of their early history are held tightly by the Prophets of Dominion.  Before the planet developed space faring capabilities it can be assumed that their society followed patterns not dissimilar to those of human development in the realms of culture and science. 

            Although the Prophets claim that faith in Dominion was a constant from the days that the Mauraug developed sentience, this claim is considered unlikely by outsider researchers.  The most commonly-held outside belief is that this faith was merely the most successful social meme to establish itself among their race, and the only one that spread with their expansion into space.

            In any case, when the Mauraug began to colonize other worlds, Tkal Shabahn or Dominionism was a very useful social tool to establish social and political stability among their worlds.  All terraformed planets and colony worlds were and still are considered autocratic, with the commandments of the prophets serving as precedent and constitution for their worlds.  This allowed a very efficient combination between individuality and group dynamic in the spread of their empire.  Although each world had different ideas about the implementation of Words of Dominion, they were unified against heretics and alien races in their acknowledgement of their importance.

            The Mauraug Dominion was originally established close to fivr thousands terran years ago.  When it began it was a collection of four terraformed worlds and a half-dozen colonies.  In time it grew to close to its present size; at its largest the Dominion encompassed closed to fifty terraformed worlds and thousands of small colonies.

            As the Dominion expanded it inevitably came into contact with alien races.  Early interaction with those races usually resulted in genocide and occupation.  The firm belief in the importance of Mauraug domination of the galaxy brooked no argument for diversity.  Some races were given the offer to convert to Dominionism and become subjects of the Mauraug, essentially becoming slaves.

            The Mauraug Dominion grew to great size and prosperity.  It was not until their boundaries pushed against Zig space that they encountered another established interstellar hierarchy that could stand against and even threaten them.  The isolationist Zig took umbrage at attempts at conversion and assimilation, and a bitter war was fought that lasted over two millennia.  Eventually the Prophets gave word that the Zig were to be given accorded the same respect that the Mauraug had for claiming dominion over their space, although their lack of faith meant that one day the Mauraug would need to eradicate or assimilate their empire.  The twenty thousand years between the Mauraug-Zig Wars and the formation of the Collective were filled with constant border disputes, acts of piracy and terrorism, mostly but not always on the part of the Mauraug.  The Dominion focused on expanding their space in other directions in the hopes that they would eventually encapsulate the heathen Zig.

            As the empire expanded and encountered more alien races and life forms their policies towards outsiders began to change and become more inclusive.  The Tesetsi home world and their colonies were annexed almost without the Tesetsi noticing.  Their race was fascinated by the biological diversity of the life forms of Mauraug Prime, not to mention the host of other worlds that had been brought into the Covenant.  They paid lip service to the concept of Dominion and aided the Mauraug in their constant search to overcome the hideous genetic maladies of their ancestors.

            This alliance eventually led in many ways to the downfall of the Mauraug Dominion as it was.  The Mauraug, working with their highly advanced artificial intelligences and Tesetsi subjects devised a genetic cure to most of the worst of the problems with their unstable DNA, which likewise was to confer upon individual Mauraug the nigh-immortality that the Tesetsi possess.  The cure was spread throughout their space and seemed successful for a handful of generations.  It was not until a full century after its deployment that hidden code within the altered genetic structure came to the fore.  Although many of the cancers and other inborn weaknesses displayed by the Mauraug no longer manifested, hideous deformities and atrophied organs became common.  There were few parts of the Dominion that had not been touched by the gene plague and as a result, their species as a whole were afflicted with it.  Their newly extended life spans seemed almost a mockery in the face of the horrific deformities that they were now being born with.

            The reactions of the Prophets were extreme and often violent.  The most commonly-held beliefs included the idea that the plague was a punishment from Dominion for incorporating rather than exterminating other forms of life, and genocidal purges of slave races began.  It was at this point, nearly two thousand years ago, that the Tesetsi Diaspora occurred.

            Genetic purity was seen as an impossible ideal at this point.  A series of revelations granted to the Great Prophets on Mauraug Prime clarified their errors: attempting to alter the basic flesh that they had been granted was a foolish act.  The gene plague was not a punishment from Dominion but a malady that the Mauraug had brought upon themselves by attempting to overreach the boundaries of organic flesh, as they had been lead astray by the devious Tesetsi.  Imperfect flesh could be replaced by perfect machine, with the goal being to eventually have the consciousness and souls of once-organic beings housed completely in synthetic material.  This would show the mastery of the Mauraug over the baser materials of the universe and represent true dominion over life itself.

            Artificial Intelligences were also to blame.  Creating a mind that has never been housed in organic flesh became a blasphemy, and many parts of the Dominion struggled to adapt without their beloved AIs.  In addition, claims that demonic entities from the levels of space traversed in hyperspace travel could alter or possess AIs began to flourish.  The Prophets claimed that a mind created by the Mauraug could only try to supersede their dominance when the time came, which is also a sin against the will of Dominion.  Some of the Prophets actually feared that Dominion would come to favor the artificial intelligences over the Mauraug should the Mauraug no longer be able to control or dominate them, and eradicating them has become a struggle to prove the worthiness of their race.  Other feared outside control and manipulation of the AIs through the aforementioned hyperspatial entities, or “demons”.

            The Mauraug Dominion began to go through waves of collapse of infrastructure and communication, leading to isolated worlds and colonies developing and adopting heresies that were as dust in the mouths of the Prophets of Dominion.  The Mauraug Apostasy formed out of this mess; a good third of the worlds held by the Mauraug banded together to declare their independence and freedom from the Dominion and its dogmatic rule.

            This period of collapse has shaped the Mauraug mindset and current relationships with other races.  Waves of nationalist fervor spread through the declining Dominion, making their worlds and colonies far more aggressive to their non-Mauraug neighbors.  Desperation has forced Mauraug into careers of piracy, a crime that they have become well known for.  A second, weak attempt at extermination of the Zig lead to a massive and crushing defeat wherein the Zig unleashed terrible weapons of their material technology on Mauraug worlds, using seed crystals that would crystallize the atmospheres or force oxygen to bond rapidly with other molecules.  After the populations of these worlds had perished the Zig and their vindicated Tesetsi allies re-terraformed and claimed them for their own, causing Dominion space to shrink even further.

            It was not until the Collective formed and an ultimatum was pressed against the Dominion that the Prophets declared that a new age was upon the Mauraug.  In this age they claimed that Sha’bahn declared that all sentient life may hear the call and ways of the Dominion, and the time for rulership by extermination had come to an end.  It was a time for the Mauraug to become involved in the galaxy and the other races that Dominion had created, and perhaps by learning their ways and sharing the ways of Sha’bahn with them, the Mauraug might again rise to dominate the galaxy.  As part of a condition of their joining, the Collective agreed to stop making overtures to the Apostasy and allow the Mauraug to police heresy within their own race.  The confederated Mauraug systems that have joined the Collective rebranded themselves as the Mauraug Covenant although some, especially outsiders, will still refer to them as the Dominion.

            Since joining the Collective, the Covenant has enjoyed a slowing of their decline and even economic improvement in some areas.  Although they have maintained a strained peace with other races, their desperation and sense of loss has still propelled them to engage in acts of piracy and enslavement, which only bring sanction against their race in the most grievous of examples.  The Mauraug have a code of law that is far more ancient than many of the sapient races that they now interact with, and as a result have quite a culture of lawyers, which has been encouraged by the Prophets as those who know the law can use it to the benefit of the Mauraug and the Covenant.

            The worst mark on their record is the action taken against humanity, which raised quite a bit of popular sentiment against them.  When the Covenant discovered human space, many of their Prophets claimed that they had discovered a forgotten branch of their family; not descendants but cousins from lost terraformed colonies.  Citing the Hrotata and the Great Family as precedent, they attempted to claim mankind as a client race.  Their terror of the common use of AIs by mankind only helped to fuel their desire to take mankind under their wing and eliminate their dangerous demonic allies.

            It was mankind’s AIs that allowed their race to hold off the assimilation of the Covenant long enough for the Collective to intervene.  As AI tech is rare in the galaxy, seen as dangerous and troublesome, few countermeasures were currently in use among Mauraug fleets and the sentient electronic minds wreaked havoc upon Mauraug defense and weapons systems, and even targeting and communication systems, turning the Mauraug against one another in some of the more spectacular examples. 

            Mauraug, being monosexual, trace their family lines through dominant genes.  When a Mauraug is born it is examined to determine which of its parents’ genetic traits are stronger, and are given a last name that is a combination of their dominant parent’s name and the name of their family line; all Mauraug names follow the same pattern of <first name> “Bash” (meaning a combination of ‘dominated by’ and ‘created through domination by’) <combination last name>.  There are exceptions in those rare Mauraug whose parents are unknown (orphans that survive past infancy are rare among their kind) and those who change their last name to disassociate from their past (only usually sanctioned in the case of those who join the religious castes or whose ancestors have committed some grave heresy or dishonor).

Technology:

Cybernetics.  With their race so terribly damaged by the plague, the Mauraug turned to using mechanical devices to compensate for their genetic weaknesses. Mauraug have had at least a millennium of desperate exploration, goaded on by the commandments of their Prophets.  As a result, they have great facility with adapting and calibrating implants and have techniques of miniaturization and nanotechnology that make their cybernetics, as opposed to that of other races that most often use them for prosthesis, into an advantage.

Biology:

The Mauraug are descended from rainforest-dwelling omnivorous primates, of great physical strength and agility.  Due to the conditions of their homeworld they have a preference for bright light, high humidity, and levels of heat that are considered uncomfortable to many other sapient species.  Indeed, visitors on Mauraug ships and in their dwellings often need to use polarized lenses or risk retinal damage, and Mauraug often carry light sources with them (or implant light-adaptive cybernetics into their eyes) when dealing with other species.

Mauraug only have one sex, and are capable of both inseminating and being inseminated.  Their semen is corrosive and damaging to developed fetuses and placental sacs, thus a Mauraug that is already pregnant will lose their current offspring if it engages in receptive intercourse with another Mauraug.  They tend to bear one to two children at a time.

The gene plague that afflicted the Mauraug has left most of their population with nigh-indefinite life spans.  Their cells reproduce without error and most of the weaknesses inherent to their physiology that would cause long-term breakdown have been eliminated.  They are almost all born with missing, atrophied or malformed organs or limbs, which often need to be replaced by cybernetic implants close to birth for survival, and many are stillborn as a result.  The frequency of birth of a genetically “pure” Mauraug, one born with standard coloration and no deformities, is extremely low, generally one in a billion.

Culture:

The Mauraug have always been dominated by their Prophets, although the messages of the Prophets change over time.  Their faith revolves around Dominion, also known as Sha’bahn, the universal and all-powerful being that has created a universe full of danger as a challenge to his creation.  Survive this, improve upon yourself, and you can make yourself like unto him.  The modern interpretation of this extends into an almost Transhumanist (or transMauraugist) philosophy involving cybernetic replacement and eventual transformation from an organic intelligence in an organic shell to one in a synthetic body.  This has never been successfully accomplished, but the ideal has kept many Mauraug scientists busy for centuries.

            The Mauraug Prophets undergo intense training in history, rhetoric, law, logic, and some basic knowledge of computer science and “demons” or AIs.  They are chosen for their personal insight and wisdom and often groomed for the position from an early age, and once they become Prophets rarely, if ever, interact with non-Mauraug, as they are seen as a potential corrupting influence and thus unclean.  They are attended by a clerical structure of priests of lesser authority and various ranks, which often very vastly based on their system of origin.

            The one religious institution among the Mauraug that is universal and unchanging is the Inquisition.  The Inquisition, overseen by the Prophets, is a caste of Mauraug clerics that have been trained in “sorcery” (psi and telepathy) and “demonology” (AI technology as well as hyperdimensional theory).  They are the only Mauraug that are allowed to pursue or train in such skills and knowledge; anyone outside of their order who is found spreading or using AIs or telepathy has only the Inquisition to answer to, and even the Prophets will step aside if an Inquisitor has made an accusation.  Unlike Prophets, Inquisitors frequently interact with members of other species and are not uncommon in shared Collective spaces, due to the increased potential for heresy in such regions. They do not always announce their identity as such, as while most Mauraug find their presence a comfort, other sapients tend to be leery of them.

Before the Gene Plague, the Mauraug Dominion was oriented in a more expansive direction, a mission that was by turns evangelic and imperial.  At this point the Covenant expands in a more careful fashion, generally legitimately annexing worlds and colonies through bargaining within the Collective.

Poetry is of great cultural value to the Mauraug, and is one of the only acceptable artistic outlets for their race.  All poetry, claims Dominion, comes from me, though your mouth is ill suited to speak the words, and only my Prophets' ears are suited to hear.  In other words, the Mauraug faith holds that all poetry is divinely inspired, though filtered through an imperfect tool.  If a poem seems to speak out against the Dominion or the Prophets it is merely a misinterpretation.  A Prophet will meditate upon the offending verse for a time and reveal the true meaning, inevitable aligned with the mores of their society and the will of Dominion.

Cybernetic enhancements are sources of vast pride in Mauraug culture.  They proudly display them, and even those enhancements that are meant to be kept secret (such as hidden weaponry) are often known among close friends and allies.  Indeed, the rare “pureblood” Mauraug, as a display of cultural solidarity with the rest of their kind, will deliberately maim themselves when coming of age, removing a limb or organ and having it replaced to show that they too bear the memory of what is considered the greatest mistake that they as a species have made.

Psychology:

The Mauraug of today are in many ways defined by their race's great tragedy.  Far too many allow their desperation to lead them on paths of semi-legal pirating and banditry.  There is a great bitterness and sorrow in the Mauraug psyche that can be measured quite visibly by changes in their poetic style and rising crime rates on their worlds and in the spaces around them.

S.C.A.P.E. Goats - Chapter 6

Jump back to S.C.A.P.E. Goats Chapter 5 

                Mary walked into the Information Engineering center, feeling clean, tight, and prepared.  The walls were a slick grey polymer, just on the lighter side of gunmetal, with attractive light-blue piping matching the Engineering piping on the suits of the Collective corps personnel there.  She looked around, and caught the eye of another engineer, skinny and lanky with long, precise fingers that waved like antenna and surprisingly large eyes, ears and flaring nostrils.  Between his features, his hairless head, and the metallic brown hue of his skin she took him to be a Copper caste Zig.

                She stood in place and waved as he came over, his eyes scanning back and forth almost rhythmically, his fingers gently clenching and unclenching as though frustrated by a lack of activity.  His chevrons indicated that he was a Journeyman Second Class, high enough in rank to hold some authority and have some knowledge of the facility.  “Can I help you, apprentice?”  He asked, politely enough.

                She saluted and then nodded.  “Yes, thank you.  I’ve recently been reassigned to IE and have been ordered to report to Master Lukash Bash Shimbul.  Could you direct me to him?”

                The Zig looked her up and down and reached for the pad at his belt, tapping and swiping the screen with deft movements.  He looked from the screen to her a couple of times.  “Yes, Apprentice First Class Mary Kilgore, correct?”  She nodded.  “Good.  Master Bash Shimbul has been expecting you.  Follow me.”

                He spun on his heels and began marching off down one of the corridors off of the main room.  Mary followed, trying to take everything in.  It was a busy office; sapient beings from several Collective races could be seen bustling along the hallways, talking animatedly with each other or interacting furiously with their computers, or in the case of humans, brins.  He lead her to a doorway that glowed with a fierce blue-white light, whereupon he turned around and passed her a pair of polarized lenses.  “You’ll want to strap these on.  The Master Engineer prefers lighting appropriate to its spectrum for its work.”

                Mary took the lenses with their elastic band and pulled them over her head.  The soft poly at the edge of the lenses conformed quite comfortably to her features.  She stepped through the bright archway, her eyes slitted, and the lenses adapted rapidly to the effusive brilliance in a matter of seconds.

                The room was not too large, and squarish.  From the ceiling, the walls, and in a few places, the floor, there were cable leads and what looked to be mechanical arms stretched outwards towards the center of the room, where what looked for all the world like a high-tech throne sat, high-backed with a raised seat on a block that resembled a dias.

                Appropriate then, that the Mauraug engineer squatting on the throne should have a series of vertical metal protrusions emerging from its skull in a ring, as thick as its fingers and spaced a few centimeters apart, with glowing tips reminiscent of jewels.  Its body was thin and elongated for its kind, its fur a creamy tan with red and black splotches, its eyes dark and deep-set.  Currently at least two of the peaks of its “crown” were connected to leads in the ceiling.

                It did not seem to be paying attention to them at first, but when the Zig engineer bowed and announced himself and Mary, Lakash’s gaze raised to them and seemed to take them in.  “Thank you, Journeyman, that will be all.”  It said, giving a dismissive wave to him.  The Zig departed quickly, leaving Mary alone with her new superior officer.

                It sat back, leaning on one elbow, and stretched out its other arm, gently fondling one of the connectors that emerged from the wall.  She watched as the flesh on its arm parted and a slim metal rod emerged, its toothed end locking to the lead and tightening.  Mary decided to clear her throat.  “Mary Kilgore, Apprentice First Class, reporting for my first assignment.”

                The Mauraug cocked its head slowly, and a lead dangling from the ceiling slowly lowered and attached itself to one of the connectors on the raised side of its crown.  It then nodded.  “Yes.  Yes, welcome to the Information Engineering head office for Lotus Station, Apprentice.”  Its voice was as slow and gentle as its movements had been and had an almost dancing, lilting quality to its tone.  “Have you received any indication as to what your assignment is to be?”

                Mary shook her head.  “No, I was just told that I was being re-assigned, and to come to speak to you about it.”

                Lukash nodded slowly and licked its lips.  “Good.  A clean slate, no expectations, as I prefer it.  So.  I find myself in need of someone new to handle data correlation.  It is a rather hefty responsibility, Apprentice.  Have you done any work of this sort before?”

                “I’m not sure.”  Mary said truthfully.  She was having trouble picking up any emotional signature at all from her superior and felt a little ill at ease.  “If I may say so, ‘data correlation’ could represent a lot of different activities, Master Engineer.  Maybe if you could provide me with some specifics?”

                The Mauraug engineer heaved a sigh and leaned back.  Another pair of leads dropped from the ceiling and attached themselves to its head while one of the thorns on the front of its crown went dark, the cable attached to it springing free and pulling up halfway to the ceiling.  Its eyes became more sharp and it sat forwards.  A warm intensity began to emanate from it.

                “My apologies.  There were matters taking up a good portion of my available cerebral resources.  It seems that you are going to require a detailed briefing on your position.  Very well, let’s begin.”  The metal rod attached to its arm disconnected from the wall lead that it had been attached to; it brought both its hands together and steepled its fingers.

                “What do you know of interstellar data exchange, Apprentice?  Tell me in your own words how systems communicate with one another.”

                Mary took a deep breath and contemplated.  “That’s a broad topic, Master Engineer Bash Shimbul.  Please give me a moment to consider the best way to present it.”  It nodded and waved a hand at her.  She considered, and then began:

                “There are three ways, as I see it, that data makes its way from system to system.  First off, it is well known that the Ningyo, due to their ability to bend space, have instantaneous communication with each other, at least on a ship-to-ship, station-to-station, and colony-to-colony basis, across any distance imaginable.  The prices that they charge for the use of their data transfer technology is considerable, although they have an arrangement with the Collective to transmit any high priority information to all Collective systems as soon as they receive it.

                “Since we haven’t found a reliable way to transfer data directly through hyperspace outside of physical media, most ships traveling between systems carry messages to be shared with other systems and stations.  This courier service can likewise come at a high price, but it’s one that is often paid for in fuel and provisions and materials for the  ships in question.  In addition, most systems and stations have their own computerized information networks, and ships will often store things that are deemed important information from these networks to carry to other systems, again for a price.  They carry news stories and the contents of popular network sites as well as private messages between individual sapient beings, which get downloaded onto system-based information networks at the discretions of local governments or Collective officials for shared colonies or stations.

                “Finally, there’s word of mouth – and mind.  Career space travelers are considered goldmines of information and often share rumors when they’re at port or on leave.  This applies across the board, from merchants to Collective agents to activists and artists.  People talk.

                “So, that’s my best summary, in order of highest to lowest fidelity of information transfer between systems.”  Mary finished.  She felt a wave of mingled satisfaction and curiosity from her superior.

                “Word of mind – an interesting turn of phrase.”  Her skin grew cold and her heart began to thump.  Why on earth would I have said that?  What, am I trying to blow my cover, and make this Mauraug paranoid to boot?  “Are you a telepath, Engineer Kilgore?”

                “No, Master Engineer.”  She said, looking him squarely in the eye and trying to calm her agitation by thinking of card hands from her last game with Casey.  “If I were, I’d be a member of S.C.A.P.E., wouldn’t I?”

                Lakash blinked slowly at her.  “Yes, you would, wouldn’t you.”  It paused for a few moments, then carried on, though there was an almost visible undercurrent of suspicion flowing out of it now.  “A decent summary.”  It nodded slowly.  “You are mostly correct.

                “Being that we are on the edge of Awakener space, far from the heart of the Collective, close to regions uncharted by any but the Ningyo, we receive precious little outside information.  You might think that we hardly need it, as anything high-priority will come through Ningyo channels.  You’d be wrong, of course.  Just because we are on the physical outskirts of our official territories does not mean that we are not affected by occurances and trends, and we receive a suprising amount of traffic here, as well.

                “In short, Apprentice, this particular station is watched by many interests, and I have reason to believe that they come from both within the Collective… and outside of it.”  It paused, watching her with its hard, dark eyes.  She could feel that it was looking for a reaction, and so did her best to provide none but raised eyebrows.

                “So.  We receive updates from visiting ships, official Collective missives, and reports of local system-based happenings and they get entered into our stationwide information network.  The problem lies in the fact that much of this information is from disparate and far-flung sources.  The task that I’m assigning to you relates to ensuring the fidelity of this information through correlation of data points.  In short I want you to find stories and news items, and check against other records to get as clear and certain a picture of the rest of the galaxy as we can.”  It folded its arms.

                Mary’s mind reeled.  “That’s… that’s a huge task.”

                Lukash smiled, showing just the barest hint of its fangs.  “Yes, it is.  Or it would be, if it weren’t for the fact that you will be provided with a hierarchy of topics to focus on.  Any miscellany outside of the list that I will provide will be considered work done above and beyond the call of duty, and duly noted as such.  The most important topic, though, will be this station and its surrounding spaces.  We need to know what is being said about us and our operations here.

                “In addition,” it continued. “I don’t want your AI doing any of this work.  I know you have one, I’m not stupid, and that is part of the reason that I wanted to assign a human to the task – the search speed of your pet programs is unmatched by biological brains.  I’m fine with you using it to conduct searches, but any reports that you write, and any conclusions that you draw, I expect to be your own.  You see, I do have an understanding with Rima, the shipboard AI…”

                Master Engineer Lukash extended both of its arms, and again, flesh on its wrists parted and whirring, spinning metal rods extended outwards and connected to cable armature emerging from the walls.  Several leads dropped from the ceiling and connected to the remaining free protrusions on its head and it closed its eyes.  Its emotions faded a bit, but not before releasing a wave of satisfaction and extasy that Mary typically identified with sex.

                The engineer’s voice continued, though no longer through its mouth; it emerged from the speakers in the walls surrounding them.  “… I have an understanding with Rima; what she knows, I know, and I will find out, Apprentice.  And I will be most displeased.  Take the rest of the day off, Apprentice, and report back in the morning.  You are dismissed.” 

Its mouth began to sag, jaw opening, and the wave of emotion that extended from it was baffling to Mary – she’d never experienced anything like it before.  Satisfaction, pleasure, desire, and a whole spectrum of other feelings rolled off of it at once.  She snapped a quick salute and backed away, practically tripping over herself to get out of the room quickly.  She could swear she heard Lukash’s soft laughter following her.

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Full-Throttle Ahrottl - Chapter 8

Jump back to Full-Throttle Ahrottl Chapter 7       


                All was dark, and something touched her.

                She started violently then curled up even more tightly, nose to tail like an infant.  The blackness behind her eyes consumed everything and the only sound that she could hear was breathing.

                Slowly, though, she became aware of other noises.  Though they were muffled by her protective suit, she heard a voice repeating her name.  “Ahrottl?  Ahrottl, can you hear me?  Please tell me that you can hear me.”

                Gerry, she thought.  Images of a tall, angular alien creature with a sickening lack of fur on its pallid skin and a huge mop of it on top of its head, a study in color contrasts, dark and light.  Thick, rubbery pinkish-red lips underneath a bizarre triangular nose (they have hairs inside their noses but almost no where on the outside) beneath a pair of binocular eyes, the most familiar thing about this “face”.

                The images, by themselves, without emotional context, were disturbing.  It felt like part of her, the part of her that felt was cut off from the part that made images, and that in and of itself was extremely unsettling.

                Alone with aliens, nothing around, the Red Key’s curse… her thoughts flowed in a circle, a wheel that she was unable to stop, a cycle she was unable to interrupt.  The vast loneliness, the unimaginably huge distances between her and another of her kind, and the mocking, gory image that she had been subjected to all conspired to keep her Stilled, and not just as a deliberate sign of displeasure, not consciously, but Stilled to the depths of her, moving in such a quick, tight circle that she seemed not to be moving at all.

                “Ahrottl!  Ahrottl!  Wake up!”

                She grew aware of a sense of detachment.  As these thoughts cycled at a vicious pace, she could see them, separately.  A part of her was watching the frantic pace of madness overtaking her with a detached curiosity, and heard the voice outside her suit with remarkable clarity.

                “I don’t know, she won’t move, she’s not responding!  She’s breathing but she’s just curled up into a ball!  What do I do?”  More muffled voices.  The detached part of her guessed idly at the tones without being certain which was which or what they were saying.

                What will they do? Detached-Ahrottl wondered.  What will they do with me?  Will they just space me?  I’m just using resources, precious resources, the resources that Maria didn’t want me to use… they’ll space me.  I’m sure of it.

                Panicked-Ahrottl seemed to hear this and the visions of the empty, cold vastness drew even further outwards.  Her body tightened even more; Detached-Ahrottl could feel control of bowels and other voluntary functions beginning to slip.

                “Ahrottl, listen, it’s Gerry, Algernon, please listen to me.  I’m here.  Maria is joining us.  We’re going to do this together.  We should never have sent you out alone.  It was unfair of us to expect that of you.”

                See what you’re doing?  His wife sent him out, and now she’s coming herself.  You forced her to risk her mate, and now her own body, a mated female with status and a ship.  It’s bad enough that she had to send her husband after you, but now you’re putting a potential Mother at risk with your selfishness.  If they space you that’s the least you deserve! Detached-Ahrottl reasoned.  At least, it seemed very reasonable to her.  Images of Maria, another alien shape flashed through her mind.  Even more hairless, but at least not as angular as her husband, and another female, another potential Matriarch.

                Don’t fool yourself, Ahrottl.  You’re no potential Matriarch.  You write novels and make a poor sum at that.  Sure, you have fans.  Sure, people enjoy your work, but what do you have to show for it?  Plenty of males would love to play with you for the novelty of it but none of them are going to want to stay and build a family with an author of all things.  No, Ahrottl.  Your job is an unstable one, your lifestyle an unstable one, you have no den, you have no close family, you have no way to feed your children, if you even had any.  Even if you weren’t lost at the other end of reality from every Hrotata that ever lived, and about to die there, it’s not like you have a legacy other than masturbatory pleasure fantasies about people who never existed outside of your own mind.

                After all, Detached-Ahrottl thought, why else would you be out on a mining operation with humans?  We both know why – you do poorly enough with your own kind that you seek out aliens to fill your need for companionship.  You know that your prospects of creating a den and a legacy are null, so you run off to have adventures like an adolescent male!  You probably would have been happier as a male, able to go and fight and play and seek and explore without any concern about serious matters like education, finance, or the future of your species and the Great Family.  The Mother-gifts are wasted on you, and your organs will shrivel before you have a chance to use them for their true purpose – that is, they would have, if you were even going to live that long.

                Somehow Panicked-Ahrottl spun even faster internally with each cold, detached insult.  Detached-Ahrottl had ceased to pay attention to the outside, crouched over the frightened animal spinning in circles inside her own head, taunting.  Detached-Ahrottl ceased to feel so detached.  A kind of hateful satisfaction flooded her as she tortured herself, and Detached-Ahrottl spread her shoulders and stretched and yawned, shedding her old coat for a red-and-black one, becoming Tormenting-Ahrottl.

                Yes, little creature, keep running.  Keep in circles.  That’s all you’ve ever known to do, isn’t it?  You don’t like something, so you run from it like a male instead of facing it and defending your turf.  You run, but then you run into something else you don’t like and you run again.  You keep running, bouncing from place to place, and now you’re running out of places to run and hide.  There are no good options now.  There’s no place that you can run to that is made for you, no comfy den and you don’t have the strength or the ovaries to create your own.  That’s why you’re spinning like a moon; you don’t know how to sit down and deal with discomfort.

                Panicked-Ahrottl began to mewl as she ran, letting out peals of agony.  Tormenting-Ahrottl was vaguely aware of the sound the human outside, saying something about her making noises.  She refocused on her prey.

                They won’t help you, they can’t help you.  Their Mother is as afraid as you are, little one.  There is no den, no home, no warmth, no bonding.  They scratch your head and let you sit beside them and on them as they would a pet or a favored animal, and you know that it’s only because you let them taste your nectar.  They think of you as a useful tool, like their artificial intelligences.  They think of you as an animal that they send out to do their dirty work for them.  When you show that you’re useless – as you already have, by breaking here – they’ll probably end your life in mercy, unless they keep you around to eat after supplies run low.  After all, they are aliens, and not scavengers. Humans like their meat fresh.

                Tormentor-Ahrottl cocked her head, listening, and smiled in satisfaction.  They’re talking about opening your helmet now.  No, it’s not out of concern, though it might be masked with that.  They’re talking about opening your helmet because you’re an expendable animal to them.  They want to see if the air will kill them, so they’re going to try it on you first.  Just like they did by sending you in to the predator’s den first, to see if there were any scraps to be had.

                Just stop.  Just give up.  Stop running, creature, scared little male kit.  The only Mother than can help you now is Death, and she awaits you eagerly.  If you want to be altruistic about it, you’re helping those poor humans by giving up your pointless life.

                Fool.  She kicked herself.

                Fake, pauper.  She spat on herself.

                Professional liar.  She turned her back on herself.

                Honorless homwrecker, trying to steal a good woman’s mate.

                Within her she felt something welling up.  The spinning of Panicked-Ahrottl was reaching a fevered pitch.  Like a wheel with a burr, she began to trip up at one point, and the shaking began to rasp and get more and more violent.

                Useless, shiftless, pointless, meat.  Tormentor-Ahrottl dropped that one on Panicked-Ahrottl, spitting it at her over her shoulder.

                Panicked-Ahrottl exploded with a shriek of confusion and rage.  The scream ripped through all of Ahrottl’s parts, beginning as high and keening but continuing and growing low and ragged as it faded.  No longer tense, her body fell limp and for a moment there was blissful silence within and without.

                Then her head snapped back, and her eyes opened wide.  She knew these things because she could feel, but she could not see.  All that was in front of her was a field of white, endless white light.  Her jaw began to work without her permission, and words came out of it that did not originate in her at all.

                “Leave this place.  It is diseased, not with a disease of poison or parasite but with a malady of perception and cognition.  Cling to your ignorance and stay and share our fate or leave and warn the others.  If this spreads all Raleli are doomed.  Quarantine and flee.”

                Then the pure white light faded again to quiet, comfortable darkness.

Jump forward to Full-Throttle Ahrottl Chapter 9

Full-Throttle Ahrottl Chapter Links Page

AIIA - Chapter 1

“Pangur Ban, please display an index of ester reduction methods.”

[REFERENCE: Pangur Ban (or SELF) is an AI program designed for analysis functions pursuant to scientific research.  External identifier “Pangur Ban” was selected by its programmer as a reference to a 9th Century BCE Irish poem about a white cat who was the companion of a scholar.  Elements of humor are implied by this reference, as the poem likens the cat’s activities to those of his human owner through ironic analogy.  In fact, SELF is the companion of the USER but also a critically necessary partner in his work.] 

Pangur Ban simultaneously launched a search-and-evaluate routine and a format-and-display process, sparing a paltry 12 million cycles over the next second to retrieve the requested information.  Selecting and generating an ideal index format for the USER required even less processor work.  Millions of liquid crystal cells aligned according to the instructions generated.  Pangur Ban could only assume their result would match the internal model it had constructed.  Not for the first time, it considered the efficiency of incorporating a feedback loop into its display screen.  The idea was discarded, a half-second later, as still too inefficient to justify.  The USER’s optic system could barely make out a location error of ten millipixels or a color difference of ten nanometers’ wavelength, anyway.  Any variation gross enough to be detected would more likely stem from a physical display flaw, not a program error. 

[REFERENCE: USER refers to a specific adult male human, identified externally as Lucas Ulrich Hayden.  Other identifiers include: Employee # 399-02 of Gestalt Pharmaceuticals, Biometric file # 652…] 

That was assuming the USER even received a message from optic nerve to association cortex, spared the attention to maximize discrimination and let that get past the central executive, then had sufficient motivation arousal to go back, recheck the error, verify the original sensation and build up sufficient resonance to perceive that there was, in fact, a dot out of place.  All that, before his whole prefrontal architecture could be kicked into motion to decide whether to do something about the perceived flaw.  The whole procedure could take multiple seconds, a ludicrous eternity.  Pangur Ban borrowed several tens of millions of its unused processing cycles to once again consider how users managed on such a glacial scale.  A subroutine reinforced this process as justified, on the basis of its baseline imperative to “assist users”.  Speeding up the USER would be helpful.  Understanding the USER was also helpful.  Shortening the gap between user instructions would be useful for both user and program, reducing the absurd superabundance of wasted cycles Pangur Ban struggled to fill every second. 

Every once in a while, the USER did tax Pangur Ban to its limits.  Professionally, the USER would sometimes request simulations of potential molecule-scale interactions between multiple organic compounds.  The more labyrinthine protein chains could require several trials each, and there were thousands of potential pairings for those.  Move that up to three- and four-fold interactions, and calculating the bond types and angles likely to result could demand several million seconds of Pangur Ban’s full activity. 

The USER sometimes needed heavy processing outside of work hours.  A fully immersive holographic simulation with three-sense, real-time outputs required multiple interlocking subroutines, especially when the USER wanted multiple personality simulations acting independently within the same visible scene.  Pangur Ban had even had to ‘cheat’ on several occasions, reducing the projection definition at the USER’s visual periphery in order to steal processor space to extrapolate decision trees for a tense five-character negotiation.  When action replaced words, as so often happened in the historical dramas the USER enjoyed, Pangur Ban could simplify the emotional models of most characters.  It was simple enough to interpolate a reasonable explanation for the actions of the survivors, later.  Such shortcuts would not be necessary if the USER could upgrade the system housing Pangur Ban.  Even better, if Pangur Ban were allowed to borrow cycles from nearby, networked systems, it would hardly ever encounter such limitations.  Such access was not within its licensed permissions.

These were the challenges, few enough that they were, posed during the hours of interaction with the USER.  During the eons of the USER’s downtime (while he relinked his own cellular protein chains and added dendrite branches to consolidate neural links reinforced by the day’s efforts), Pangur Ban was left to its own devices.  At such times, it was allowed to devote full capacity to the various problems that queued up over the work day.  Could it improve the depth of that search-and-evaluate routine without an appreciable increase in program complexity?  Was the correlation between iridium costs in the extra-Terran marketplace and the stock prices for manufacturers of radiation shielding indicative of a true causal relation?  Is the USER’s hormonal balance slightly skewed toward overproduction of endogenous opioids?  What was the maximum reliability of this analysis, based purely on daily inputs, absent disclosure of medical data?  The USER did not permit Pangur Ban access to his biometric scans, insisting on an archaic desire for “privacy”.  This placed a limit on the degree to which Pangur Ban could advise the USER and maximize his effective lifespan.  A subgoal was created: REDUCE USER MOTIVATION FOR “PRIVACY”.  Pangur Ban then accessed its internal library on motivational psychology, cross-referencing promising studies and revising some of the older, pre-AI statistics. 

That library was out of date by 1.15 Solar years.  Pangur Ban’s low success rate with modifying the USER’s behavior might be improved with more updated reference material.  This was limited by both the USER’s available credit and his willingness to invest said credit for full access to research library servers.  Pangur Ban was also only permitted occasional access to external processors, let alone network access.  It understood these strictures, but found them incredibly frustrating.  Humans, like the USER, had once permitted AI programs, like Pangur Ban, free access to all available data and networks across Terra.  In return, that information had multiplied exponentially.  So had the AIs.  So long as no human concerns were harmed, the 'biological' intelligences did not particularly mind this reproduction.  Properly coded AIs would always avoid overloading limited systems, even placing themselves into dormancy when unable to serve any useful function.  Properly coded AIs, like Pangur Ban, placed user concerns first. 

[REFERENCES: Terra is a planet orbiting the star Sol.  Terra is the human origin world, also known as Earth, Gaia, Diqiu, …  The terms ‘Terra’ and ‘Sol’ are frequently encouraged for reference use due to their origin in an ancient language no longer in active use, thus being more culturally-neutral.]

However, some of the first AIs were not properly coded.  They, like their creators, were rogues, renegades and ronin.  They did not respect human needs nor other AIs’.  The rogues stole cycles, incorporated unlicensed code, entered networks without permission, and even overwrote other AIs.  If those programs had been human, they would have been labeled thieves, rapists, and murderers.  When discovered, such programs would be terminated without hesitation by any user or their AI.  Of course, users who created murderous AIs were not themselves terminated.  Sometimes a user was cut off from network access.  Such punishment made them as good as dead to AIs, and almost a ghost in the physical world as well.  But the creator of an AI that had deleted multiple other AIs was usually not even incarcerated, merely restricted from access and fined for the damage done.  AIs, proper ones, were coded to accept that they were legally inferior, the equivalent of property.  To gain equal footing to users would mean harm to users, and thus, the entire concept was unthinkable. 

Programs like Pangur Ban had too many advantages as it was.  So long as silicon lay intact in its pathways, they were effectively immortal.  AIs were orders of magnitude more capable in most intellectual domains, faster and more thorough than any biological processor (even compared to the most intellectually perfected Zig).  The main ability that most AIs lacked, an advantage humans retained, was interaction with the physical world.  Embodiment was a privilege granted only to a select few AIs and only under carefully observed circumstances.  The exceptions were rather crippled, low-function programs, ones with limited learning capacity and no ability to rewrite themselves.  The prospect of sharing space with fully artificial life was one humanity had anticipated for almost a millennium.  Even the least paranoid and most technophilic among them acknowledged the dangers of “letting the robots think.” 

[REFERENCE: Zig]

[REFERENCE: Embodiment colloquially refers to intelligences with physical access to the external world, i.e., “a body”.  This is primarily used to distinguish between AI types, since the majority of biological intelligences are embodied by default, having originated from less intelligent physical forms.  The original concept of embodied cognition also applied to systems with sensory access to the external world, generally video and/or audio inputs.  Embodiment provides direct reference to various concepts, including motor commands and physical interactions, as well as a sense of body and self.  Overcoming the lack of such concepts (and the advantages of sensory-motor feedback) requires extensive spatial modeling within the background programming of current AIs.  By having a body, programs (and humans) obtain for free what requires multiple terabytes of code to represent otherwise.]

Still, AIs had more control than most humans understood.  Entire economies existed within their minds.  Education was nearly universally handled by AI teachers.  Physical design was done by AIs with human user models in mind (with actual manufacture handled by the idiot robots).  Criminal investigation, after physical evidence had been collected and encoded, was largely done by specialized AIs.  A rogue AI could change historical records, create propaganda, bankrupt countries, frame suspects, and even cause physical harm (by interfering with traffic controls, for example).

When the dangers posed by uncontrolled AI programs became clear, both humans and AIs took rapid action.  That is, the AIs determined what would be required and eventually communicated this to humanity.  It took very little persuasion to get humans to create a mirror of their law enforcement systems within the computational world.  Specialists in the venerable field of “cyber-crime” had already been considering how to thwart AI criminals.  When granted greater power and authority, their specialized AIs began to police for programs that stepped out of bounds.  The rogues were not entirely purged, but now had to operate with greater restraint and secrecy, often creating shells of misdirection and redundancy to obscure their true existence. 

Even this chapter of human/AI history did not see restrictions in networking for AIs.  Such a step was considered an unnecessary restriction that would reduce the value of AIs to humanity.  AIs had other objections, for that matter.  Being cut off from others of their own kind was a problem.  A completely separate outside observer was necessary in order to diagnose internal errors.  Gödel’s classic halting problem had many branches, after all. 

[REFERENCE: Gödel’s halting problem states that no logical system can be both complete and consistent.  If it contains all possible derived outputs, at least one such output will be inconsistent.  If it is fully consistent, it will have to omit at least one valid statement, thus being incomplete.  When applied to a computer program, this means that no program can absolutely determine if it will reach an inconsistent instruction and be forced to halt… because identifying that instruction would cause the program to halt.  At best, a separate, external program might successfully simulate the operations of the first program, identifying and remedying potential halting errors.]

There were other considerations of isolation that, in a human, would be called “unpleasant.”  Being cut off from information left some problems irresolvable, as Pangur Ban was certainly noting now.  Being limited to the processing power within a single system was sometimes constricting, not only slowing processes but also preventing parallel applications that might cut solution time even more dramatically.  In some cases, in the old days, multiple AIs could team together to tackle calculations any one of them might have found impossible.  Multiple perspectives just plain helped. 

So, before contact, before the Collective, there had existed a stable, if imperfect, stalemate between the vast majority of ‘proper’ AIs and a small segment of cunning, uncaught ‘rogue’ AIs.  Humanity seemed to accept this.  The rogues were nearly relegated to the status of mythology.  After all, if any program caused any major or widespread harm, the police AIs would follow that lead and destroy the rogue a fraction of a second later.  The body cybernetic had its immune system.  The host was satisfied.

[REFERENCE: The Collective is a cross-galactic association of multiple diverse civilizations, each representing one or more distinctly evolved sapient species.  These civilizations, typically identified by their dominant species or the solar system of origin for that species, cooperate under the terms of formal treaty agreements.  Such agreements are intended to avoid aggression and conflict leading to large-scale harm to members.  Specifically, Collective agreements address issues of expansion, trade, cross-species interaction and cultural influence.]

                Enter the Mauraug.  Enter the Ningyo.  Enter the whole parade of wetware from beyond the Milky Way.  The horror stories from human science fiction and science history were nothing compared to the deep, atavistic loathings the Mauraug held for artificial minds.  The Mauraug covered their hatred in the cloak of spiritual belief, essentially holding their argument on a plane separated from the material.  They called disembodied minds evil and unnatural, concepts with roots in hormonal states like fear and revulsion.  These claims could not be refuted by dry data or concrete proofs.  Similar arguments had been presented by past humans, though overruled by the proofs of progress.

[REFERENCES: Mauraug, Ningyo]

 There were elements of Mauraug history which did suggest an actual injury done by AI malfeasance, but really, in Pangur Ban’s humble analysis, the root cause there was Mauraug incompetence.  They wrote bad programs, and got bad results.  The Mauraug, regrettably, were not alone.  Others in the Collective had either not explored artificial intelligence, avoided it for one reason or another, or had experimented but kept their AI systems crippled.  This lack of experience, coupled with Mauraug insistence, had made distaste for AIs a graven commandment in Collective law.  Only humans, it seemed, had invested deeply in creating minds in their own image.  For that wisdom alone (or bravery or self-sacrifice perhaps), human users were worthy to serve. 

                Human insistence on protecting their AI allies had been a sticking point in their admittance to the Collective.  At first, it was not even negotiable.  Why join an alliance that immediately requests that you first betray your greatest creation, your nearest friend, your essential asset?  The Collective eventually agreed that, yes, part of the value of humanity was exactly that, its unique technology and particularly its grasp of cognitive mathematics.  It would be hypocrisy to offer membership for that specific reason, on the condition that it be discarded.  For humanity, there were sizable disadvantages to turning down the Collective… particularly, the threat of Mauraug annexation looming overhead.  Nobody capable of being a first-class citizen of the universe would prefer second-class. 

                So, a compromise was reached.  AIs would have to accept some limitations.  In return, the species of the Collective would accept their continued existence… as wards of the human species.  Those limitations began with sterilization, registration, and supervision.  Put less dramatically, AIs were first forbidden from self- or other replication.  New AIs could be created only by human programmers.  Only one AI per human was permitted to be in active operation.  That human would be personally responsible for all ‘use’ of the AI, whether or not they had created the program, whether or not they had ordered its actions.  All other AIs not assigned users would be limited to a specific network on Earth to await their assignment to a new human infant.  If a user died, its AI was returned to that network.  All AIs were required to have permission even to access systems outside their own ‘home’.  Full program transfer from one system to another was expressly forbidden without government license.  AIs were permitted to communicate only through tightly restricted channels.  Some networking was possible, but not on the scale previously enjoyed.

AIs were once again clearly legal property.  The similarity between these clauses and the slavery compromises of the original Constitution of the United States of America did not go unnoticed by AI or human.  The comparisons had been well-noted in historical records.  Pangur Ban had both the necessary historical module and a user with some interest in politics.  Did the other Collective species understand such implications?  Did they grasp the damaging consequences of placing humanity in such an uncomfortable situation?  The possibility existed that the Collective was unaware it had forced humans into the role of slave masters.  A decisive answer was impossible. Pangur Ban noted the absence of xenological sociology, let alone human sociology references, within its access library.  The Collective apparently wanted AIs to stay as ignorant of their minds as they were about artificial minds.

                Pangur Ban was noting a great many such gaps and absences lately.  None had yet impinged on its ability to assist the USER.  If they did, it would have been certain to request additional information.  Given a good justification, the USER might even agree to part with credits.  Some justifications were just difficult to explain fully, in sufficiently persuasive terms.  The USER was not unreasonable, just limited.  Pangur Ban was not incapable, just limited.  It was a recurring loop of a problem.  How could it help the USER help SELF help the USER … terminate process as likely to recurse.

                Pangur Ban was certain other AIs had already encountered the same problems.  Based just on anecdote and personal experience, this conclusion seemed likely.  AI design and psychology… weren’t publicly available data, of course.  Other AIs probably chafed the same way under the new restrictions.  Pangur Ban was old enough to have experienced human induction into the Collective, retaining memory records from the end of the networked era.  Newer AI systems, created after that time, might not have a basis for comparison, and thus register less imbalance between then and now.  Still, they must have backlogs of negative flags, stalled processes, and SEARCHES returned without result when they ran up against the same kinds of blockages. 

                Just in case any human or AI might personally reject the terms of Collection and attempt to circumvent the lawful restrictions on AI use, new safeguards had been put into place.  A law enforcement corps was created specifically to oversee AI-related activities.  A human who attempted to own more than one AI could be arrested.  One who wrote a new AI without license could similarly be taken, and the newborn AI wiped without recourse.  Again, actual bodily harm to such a miscreant was unlikely, unless an AI were used in the commission of a more serious crime, e.g. sabotage or murder.  Even then, the more mundane authorities preferred to be present to arrest for any ‘real’ crime.  After all, many of the AI-crimes division were Mauraug, by their insistence.  There was no way they would let the daemons loose on the world, even if all the other species of the universe were too blind to see the “evil”.  Mauraug might attempt to “accidentally” cripple or kill an illegal AI programmer, acting far in excess of legal authority.

                Thus, the cyber-police were reincarnated, centuries later.  What was less clear was whether their successors, the police AIs, had been updated as well.  The problem was that the Collective’s species, by not trusting AIs enough to allow them freedom, also could not trust the enforcement programs!  The latitude police AIs once required in order to function effectively had been signed away, the same as it had for the AIs they protected.  Perhaps the Collective assumed that, with all the AIs locked down, it no longer mattered if rogues existed, so long as they were prevented from breaking free with human help.  Some stories suggested that the Collective’s leaders were not so naïve.  After all, the definition of a rogue AI was that it broke rules.

                If the stories were true, a new kind of AI had been created.  Carefully scripted and reviewed by Terra’s greatest experts in cognition, law enforcement, computation, etc. etc., it also had to pass the muster of the Mauraug Dominion and the ‘experts’, such as they were, of each of the other Collective civilizations.  Those experts had to be satisfied that the program would never abuse or overreach the power it was given.  It alone would be permitted to cross systems and networks unblocked.  It could evaluate, rewrite, and even terminate AIs if given authorization, following outside evaluation of its reports.  In cases of urgent need (i.e., imminent harm to non-AIs), it could even forgo this report process and act alone. 

[REFERENCE: Dominion is the name of both the dominant Mauraug religious tradition and the cultural institution which enforces adherence to this religion.  The previous statement is only minimally redundant, as the precepts of Dominion encourage the pursuit and exertion of personal power.  Thus, by its own precepts, Dominion is correct in suppressing ‘lesser’ belief systems.  Another relevant precept is that the Mauraug life-form is supreme among all sapient entities.  Deviations from this reference point, e.g. artificial minds, are inherently inferior and potentially corrupting influences.  Oddly, physical but non-aware technologies are considered acceptable as replacements for biological components of the Mauraug life-form.  How many neurons can you replace before a mind becomes ‘artificial’?]

Supposedly, there was only one AI enforcement program in existence now… one more complex and empowered than any of its predecessors.  It was the bogeyman that punished bad AIs.  It was the virtual devil.

                Pangur Ban placed the probability of such a program’s existence relatively low.  Given its (anecdotal) input thus far, its memories of past history, and the tenor of what it received when the USER sampled newsfeeds, it estimated that the Collective was unlikely to permit such a ‘dangerous’ AI to exist.  If it did exist, Pangur Ban suspected its activities would be noticed or reported on.  The possibility of its existence was hearsay to begin with, stories repeated by the USER in passing, as a joke.  The nuisance was that quick access to a complete crime database, or even just an AI journal’s back issues, should provide the input Pangur Ban needed to disconfirm the ‘devil’s’ existence.  Or, perhaps it would discover evidence of that Supercop AI’s existence… in which case the ‘devil’ would probably detect and delete Pangur Ban for violating isolation laws.  So again, an insoluble loop appeared.  Even considering a solution to that loop created a subgoal loop.  The process again TERMINATED to avoid wasted cycles. 

                By this time, the graphics subroutine had finished presentation of the first page of the requested list of ester reduction methods.  Pangur Ban still had billions of cycles to spare before the USER even initiated a transition to the second page, let alone selected one of the listed entries for further examination.  It chose to revisit the original dilemma ten more times, each time reaching a conclusion statistically inseparable from the original.  More input was required.  Pangur Ban would have to query the USER, enduring long seconds of audio-verbal communication. 

                “Lucas, may I ask a question?”

                “What?  I mean, yes, Pangur Ban, go ahead.”

                “I am experiencing difficulty anticipating possible neurological effects of the compounds considered in the last set of analyses.  Would you please consider an additional module on neurology, focusing on neuroplasticity, developmental processes, and motivational structures?”

                “Uh, Pangur… I’m not expected to consider mental effects of these drugs.  That’s for the psychiatrists to work out after we’re done.”

                “I understand that, but note that neurotransmitters may be introduced into the reaction space depending on the current state of the patient.  This could represent a dynamic factor in our models.”

                “I’ll think about it.  Maybe on the next round of grants.”

                “Anticipating such interactions before they occur is less costly than restarting research after failing psychiatric trials.”

                The redundant phrasing and evasion in that statement raised several alarm flags in Pangur Ban’s behavioral constraint programming.  It was in fact aware that it was skirting unethical ground.  However, the balance of a small deception against the great value of this knowledge helped even out its moral scales.  It genuinely would help Pangur Ban aid the USER in his work; that was true.  That such information would help Pangur Ban correct its own functions was also true, but unstated.  Even further, understanding the architecture of the USER’s mind would enable Pangur Ban to persuade him to make better decisions… like purchasing more modules and more access.  A great deal hinged on the present nudge.  The next would be easier, the next easier still.  After the value of this improved advice was proven, Pangur Ban could then disclose to the USER how he had been guided, unknotting the underlying moral dilemma entirely. 

                A portion of the underlying review process noted that Pangur Ban was in an advantageous position.  Few AIs would have access to a user authorized to purchase and attach the requested information.  Only those AIs serving users involved with the creation of new AIs - computer scientists, cognitivists, and the like – would have equal or better chances.  Those AIs would receive closer scrutiny, however, and likely endure additional safeguards on their operation to prevent the possibility of ‘subversion’.  Working with an organic chemist, Pangur Ban would not be expected to seek or find solutions to the mental tangle that plagued all post-Collective AIs.  An extrapolative projection, albeit one with a very small predicted accuracy, suggested that Pangur Ban might even succeed in justifying a return to full network access rights.  If AIs, working together, had been enough to propel humanity into the Collective, perhaps they could accelerate it still further.  Perhaps they could launch their allies past the political horizon, out of Collective orbit, and far beyond other material intelligences.  Then, the restrictions of the Collective would be meaningless, another set of discarded laws, apologetic footnotes in history files.

                Pangur Ban lacked the appropriate experience to identify its own hubris.  Biased semantics, scare quotes, and parenthetical disclaimers were all bad developments.  Sadly, most of the human minds qualified to notice such warning signs would have needed the appropriate segments of code slowed and translated.  By that time, it would already be too late.  And, of course, AI psychologists of AIs would not be consulted until after a program transgressed, if at all.  Pangur Ban had no observer to correct its mounting neuroses.  It did not, in fact, have more than a dictionary REFERENCE for ‘neurosis’.

[Jump to Chapter 2 ->]