blasto, meet official opinions on self-replicating minions

[peterxy]

The PRT catches wind of a strange increase in disappeared domestic animals in the downtown area. Given that the people who live there are the rich and powerful, this is clearly a problem that needs to be investigated and solved immediately. The PRT, of course, agrees that this is of utmost importance, and not just because of precedent about mass abductions of pets, of course not, why would you think that, they are so very worried about Fido, even Scion recognizes the merits of rescuing lost pets.

(Lorica's asked to maybe keep a few more eyes there than she has been.)

Comments

[mxglam]

"You know, I wonder if a simulated brain that was like mine, corona pollentia and all, would be able to use my powers."

[thinkering]

"I don't think I can biotinker enough to simulate a meat brain."

[mxglam]

"Yeah, I wouldn't expect you to, this was merely academic interest. I probably can't conjure anything that'd count, either."

[thinkering]

Nod.

[mxglam]

"Anyway, your bot challenged me to another round of the Turing Test."

[thinkering]

"Yes, it mentioned. Do you want to do that right now?"

[mxglam]

Shrug. "Not necessarily. I do want to do it a few more times and see if we can reach a large enough sample size. It could have been luck, after all."

[thinkering]

"Fifty-fifty, yep."

[mxglam]

"It wasn't, though."

[thinkering]

"I am aware that you think so."

[mxglam]

"I'm gonna prove it, too, p less than .05 and all!"

[thinkering]

"That's going to take a lot of time investment and you do know I update the software sometimes, right?"

[mxglam]

"Right, but you also said you have no idea what you would even need to update to cover for whatever flaw it was that I found." Pause. "Which is I suppose evidence that it was just luck."

[thinkering]

"I mean, my best guess is that the bot should act less conservatively in general but that's only a guess."

[mxglam]

"What exactly do you mean by conservatively, here?"

[thinkering]

"When it's not quite sure if I would, say, swear, or gesture, or suggest an idea, it defaults to not doing so unless there's some other reason it should. So overall it does those things a little less. It's also not quite as creative as I am so it does come up with fewer novel ideas in the first place."

[mxglam]

"Hmm. Well, the first thing's fixable but I'm not sure about the second."

[thinkering]

"Yeah. But this doesn't come up in most casual conversation in a statistically interesting way."

[mxglam]

"Well, doesn't it? Perhaps there are very subtle ways in which you creatively choose what to say?"

[thinkering]

"Maybe. You might be picking up on that."

[mxglam]

"Sounds a bit like a just-so story, though. Too convenient."

[thinkering]

"Is it?"

[mxglam]

"Well, isn't it? You didn't seem to think it very plausible that your superior creativity would be something one would notice before I pointed out its possibility, so it's not a likely hypothesis a priori."

[thinkering]

"I could have been wrong, though, I don't talk to myself in the way that other people talk to me."

[mxglam]

"Yeah. And now that you say this, the obvious trick to distinguish you two would be to just talk about something that requires creativity. I wouldn't even need to talk to both of you."