Innovation - Exploration - Colonization
RED PLANET PIONEER
RED PLANET PIONEER
I felt one of the things that is overlooked when one talks about artificial intelligence, is that as we download information into it, we are also downloading language. Especially in the creation of a new type of robotic being. We want this new entity to function normally within our society, yet we aren't acknowledging how complex the movements we take for granted really are. Walking, running, recognizing objects, differentiating between right and wrong. These two things, informtion and language. are inescapably locked. The more complex our creation is, the more productivity we expect to get out of it, the more it will rely on language to communicate with us. We see examples of this in our society today with each other. The individuals that study and who are hired to work in specialized fields have to learn a new language to describe the complexity of their work. Look at aeronautics, computer programming, architecture, the medical field, or any of the special operation forces within the military. All of these fields have a specialized language to help them describe the percise nature of what they want to do. I felt that the Dextoids within the novel would take on these same traits, using language that at times might be well above our own understanding in the moment, but would be apart of their lexicon. Admittedly I may have gotten carried away with the idea, but I couldn't help but try to instill that feeling of being in the presence of an intelligence (and a report) that at times were talking well above our heads.
Compendium
The Wordy Vehicle
The Quantum Perspective
The quantum computer is alive and well within this novel, and is one of the back stories as to why Dextoids exist. The novel itself is supposed to be a quantum report, gathering any available information concerning the Red Planet Pioneer Corporation. This allows for it to tell the story from so many different persepectives. Within the novel, across from the table of contents is the warning for this. "The following government document is encrypted and is the property of the Red Planet Pioneer Corporation". It's why at times the book speaks directly to the reader, and in the next moment is giving a report, or proceeding with the story. Again, taking a little creative lisence I felt that because we were able to tap into this type of environment, it would be a little unstable regardless of how much the designers tried to harness the energy and power of it. I felt something like a quatum report would always be explaining itself, always trying to pull you in to it's story.
The Message Digest
Again I took some liberties with what a message digest does as far as securing or protecting a piece of data, or in this case the novel. The breech in the cryptographic hash function causes the numbers to appear in the warning at the beginning of the book. It's job is to notify the user that the report has been compromised (you should have never opened that document). Blowing through that warning (hopefully!), the reader continues on with the book, they eventually come into direct contact with the message digest. Utilizing it's quantum capabilities the digest has come into contact with a much larger and deeper bank of information, a storgae device that is in touch with the universe. In chapter eleven the digest fawns over the reader at the knowledge and power it is now in possession of.
Dextoids
I was thinking in terms of something demonstarting a neat skill, an autonomous being, something dexterous. It wasn't hard after that to attach the "oid" like in android to the end of the word. Playing off the idea the designers had introduced sight into something they needed to act in real time, the Dextoid would have to be able to process or know the difference between right and wrong. They would also need inhibitors, or have unique ways of holding it back from overtaking the species that created it. I felt these things would or could be played off one another, and constantly be at odds internally.
Modulus of Resilience
The modulus of resilience is defined as the maximum energy that can be absorbed per unit volume without creating a permanent distortion.
In social terms, the modulus is the capacity of humans to come out of extreme shock, damage, injury and trauma, and get back to a normal life.
Photo Credits - John Gasca
Editor - Linda Borg