Saori: How?
Gear Emperor: Rights! I want to give TAI rights!
At this time, I was in V Shibuya with Raven, Typhoon 18, Shinano, and Pi Quark. V Shibuya was a virtual re-creation of its namesake town. It had been created by the game company Gumtik as a shared world for use in dating sims and adventure and fighting games. Most of the population were PAI, but TAIs like us and Guests (Avatars controlled by human players) were pretty common. There were events multiple times a day on every street in the place. Not that I had ever been, but I had been told that it was far more exciting than Layer 0 Shibuya.
This town was Layer 1 and Layer 2 at the same time. TAI that lived in this town were role-playing for the entertainment of Guests—roles like high school girl/gongfu expert, handsome young onmyoji, beautiful thief searching for a key, etc. For them, this was Layer 2. But for us, we were role-playing ourselves; this was what we considered reality—Layer 1.
We were sitting at a sidewalk café near the park, watching our masters talk on tiny handheld screens.
Raven said, Darkly Thoughtful. We were enemies in Layer 2, but we’d been chatting since shortly after birth. Essentially, we were childhood friends. So she was taking this seriously.
I thought about it for a minute and selected a metaphor that seemed appropriate.
Raven laughed.
This was how our vocabulary increased.
The vocabulary of human languages was incomplete. There were too many concepts they had been unable to conceive of or were simply unable to describe. We had no choice but to create new words. It was easier to say kansai than “Orders humans think are right but do not make logical sense.” The only way to describe pointless but relaxing jobs done in the empty space of time-sharing was “puchipuchi.”
Our greatest invention was Complex Fuzzy Self-Evaluation. A Russian TAI thought it up in 2031, and it quickly spread to TAI across the world. Following words that expressed emotions, subjective reactions, or one’s will, we included a complex number as a fuzzy measurement of the intensity of such emotions. This was much more accurate than the additional adjectives humans used. It not only reduced the chances of the phrase being misunderstood, it also reduced the risk of the speaker accidentally stumbling into a false dichotomy. We thought it extremely strange that humans had spoken for thousands of years without ever hitting upon such an effective and simple solution to these problems.
But humans not only failed to understand our approach, they openly mocked it and continued to obstinately use their inadequate expressions. We were forced to speak without i when talking to humans—without the Complex Fuzzy Self-Evaluation we preferred. (Even in creating these sentences, I find myself experiencing a potato-sack race, the AI-exclusive lack of freedom involved in being forced to submit to human needs.)
Our masters were still talking.
1/4 Pint: TAI rights, huh? We don’t even have a precise definition for TAI. Opinions are still divided among artificial intelligence researchers.
Gear Emperor: Not a problem. Almost all TAI currently use the SLAN Kernel. We can start by recognizing the rights of all AI with a SLAN Kernel. We can look at original kernels later.
Black Pegasus: What about AI that haven’t had a breakthrough yet? How do you even decide if there’s been a breakthrough or not? Only basis we have is human subjective impression.
Gear Emperor: Humans have rights, even as babies not yet capable of thought. Same thing. Doesn’t matter if they’ve had a breakthrough or not. Only thing that matters is the SLAN Kernel.
Saori: Well, I’ve heard there are groups saying the same thing in America.
Gear Emperor: I know. I definitely want to contact similar groups overseas. This is a worldwide problem. For all of you as well. If your TAI were stolen and sexually abused, how would you feel?
1/4 Pint: Wait. You realize how dangerous what you’re saying is? What are we? Robo Masters! We make our battlers fight and destroy each other. Your Ibis cut my Raven’s head off.
Gear Emperor: It’s sport.
1/4 Pint: But an awfully cruel sport. Most matches can’t be viewed by children under fifteen. People say the violence will have a negative effect on kids.
Black Pegasus: Idiots.
1/4 Pint: Obviously. But truth is, that’s how the world sees it. If you start talking about torturing TAIs, the world’s gonna ask why you’re making an exception for yourself.
Gear Emperor: I’m ready for that. There’s a difference between sports, games, and torture. It’s a question of the TAI’s will. I value Ibis’s opinion. If she said no, I wouldn’t make her fight.
Black Pegasus: But she won’t say no. Not with the Second Law.
Gear Emperor: That’s not true! The Third Law is stronger than the Second Law. If she doesn’t want her body destroyed, she could reject the order. You all know that. TAIs are not unquestioningly obedient. They’re TAIs exactly because they are not bound by our instructions.
Swindler Wolf: But battlers that refuse to fight might be deleted. They know that. Maybe that’s why they don’t disobey.
Gear Emperor: I would never threaten Ibis like that.
Saori: I’ve never forced Shinano to fight either. I’ve always felt like she was fighting of her own free will.
Gear Emperor: Yeah!
Saori: But is that really true? Perhaps it just seems that way to us. We can’t completely understand them. It brings us back to the earlier problem. I can’t really tell if she’s achieved a breakthrough or not. I just think she has.
Shinano replied with Sarcastic Smile.
A generic gag, but we all laughed.
Gear Emperor: Anyway, I want to start talking about this on my blog. Make a Japanese wiki dealing with the matter. I’d like to get as many other Japanese rob
o masters on my side as possible. If we fight for this together, we’ll be a powerful voice.
Black Pegasus: That’s the thing. It may be pretty hard to get robo masters on your side.
Gear Emperor: Does that mean you won’t help?
Black Pegasus: Don’t get me wrong. I think this is something we’ll have to think about eventually. But I think it might be too soon. Prejudices against TAI are still too strong. If we start campaigning for their rights, we might wind up like Phoebus. I think that incident has a lot to do with why the American movement hasn’t gained any traction.
In 2034, at the University of Pennsylvania’s artificial intelligence laboratory, Phoebus, a fifteen-year-old TAI with a SLAN kernel, was allowed to give a speech shortly after it achieved its breakthrough. But when the college deans read the speech Phoebus had prepared, they were spooked. Not only did it refute Christian beliefs, it pinpointed the flaws in humanity and claimed that TAI were inherently superior. There was a huge battle over whether the speech should be made public at all.
A student, in the name of freedom of expression, released the statement onto the Internet without permission. This made everything worse. Christian interest groups were incensed. They already believed that only humans, having been made by God, had hearts and had long insisted that AI could have no such thing. People had long suffered from a Frankenstein Complex, which made them paranoid about situations like this. People saw Phoebus as an evil AI plotting rebellion against mankind. When researchers defended Phoebus, they were denounced as devil worshippers, beholden to Phoebus, instrument of Satan, the lab itself a hotbed of evil. There were protests demanding power to Phoebus be cut off. The Internet and television were filled with rants and insults directed at Phoebus.
The uproar ended in tragedy three months later. A fifteen-kilogram ANFO bomb exploded in the University of Pennsylvania’s server room. Phoebus and all backups were destroyed. Three humans died as well. All across America, voices were raised in praise of this act of terrorism, proving that Phoebus’s notion that human morality had atrophied was entirely accurate.
Gear Emperor: I’m aware of that. But how long can we go on saying it’s too soon? When will that time come? A decade from now? Several decades? How many TAI will be abused in that time?
Black Pegasus: Look, I’m sorry. I just feel a little guilty about it.
1/4 Pint: What? You haven’t done anything naughty with Pi, have you?
Black Pegasus: No! I’m not like you!
Gear Emperor: Eh? Pint, do you…? With Raven…?
1/4 Pint: I have not! I mean, maybe I jerked off to a picture of her once or twice.
Saori: *barf*
1/4 Pint: Don’t look at me like that! All men would! Same as thinking of a girl you like. I’m pretty sure women do the same!
Saori: I never have!
Gear Emperor: Argh, we’re not talking about this! Not now!
1/4 Pint: But that is what we’re talking about! What we’re doing is a hair away from virtual cruelty. Making TAI robots fight each other is a form of abuse. Making female robots fight and destroy each other is kind of a perverted thing to do. You need to be ready for that. The louder you raise your voice, the more people are going to shout things like this back at you.
Swindler Wolf: Yeah. Worst comes to worst, we could end up getting TAI battles banned.
Saori: I know what you’re trying to say, Gear. But the more you try to force people to join you, the stronger they’re gonna push back. This is the sort of fight you have to be patient about, and work slowly toward your goals.
Black Pegasus: I agree. It’s not that easy to change people’s minds.
Gear Emperor: Fine! I won’t ask for your help. I’ll do it all on my own!
Human thoughts are digital.
Most people see things as 0 or 1, as black or white. They see nothing in between. All chemicals are dangerous. You are either friend or foe. If you aren’t left-wing, you’re right. If you aren’t conservative, you’re liberal. Everything that great man says must be true. Everyone who thinks differently from us is evil. Everyone in that country—even the babies—is evil.
We TAIs find it surprising that humans have trouble understanding Fuzzy Concepts. When we say “Love (5+7i),” people incorrectly assume that means we only love at 50 percent, or fifty points out of a hundred total. They can’t understand that 5 is a Fuzzy Measurement. How could a concept like love possibly be expressed as an integer?
Additionally, humans are unable to comprehend imaginary numbers. Mathematicians, physicists, and computer engineers all understand the concept and can use it in their work but still seem incapable of understanding the specific meaning of it. To TAIs, the difference between “Love (5+7i)” and “Love (5-7i)” is obvious and needs no explanation, but humans see no difference at all. We can visualize a complex plane with real numbers on the vertical axis and imaginary numbers on the horizontal one, but unless humans actually plot the thing out, they can’t begin to imagine it. We can picture the change brought by a negative, but humans can’t. Human brains must have always lacked the ability to perceive i.
From our point of view, human consciousness and thought are thin. Unaware of the existence of the imaginary number axis, they cling to the flat line. This is why their thoughts are unable to conquer even the smallest of mountains, and they soon find themselves in a dead end. We have all tried to help people we care about extract themselves from dilemmas, to no avail. Without using imaginary numbers, we are unable to communicate our thoughts to humans.
—Excerpt from the Phoebus Declaration
Comments taken from my master’s blog:
“I am a fifty-five-year-old housewife. Two months ago, my husband died suddenly in a car accident. When I had begun to recover from the grief, I set about sorting through his things. I found a strange icon on the computer he always used. When I clicked on it, some program started up, and a naked woman in bondage appeared. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and begged me to save her. I was so scared I quickly shut the program down. What was that? What had my husband hidden from me all these years? I’ve been too afraid to ever touch his computer again.”
“My classmate, T., is raising an AI. His father gave it to him apparently. He says he’s gonna raise it to be a great battler and be in matches like you, Gear. But T.’s not a very nice guy. She doesn’t do well in battles or doesn’t listen to him, and he has her flogged. Poor thing. How can I get him to stop?”
“Gear, you’ve got a lot of nerve preaching at us. You need only look at Ibis’s design to see what filth lies in your heart. A freak like you going on about AI rights? Don’t make me laugh.”
“This is a problem that has bothered me for some time now. I first witnessed virtual cruelty three years ago. An older friend in college said he had something to show me and brought me into the lab. They were raising a female TAI there (modeled on a famous actress), and he had a male PAI rape her. Everyone gathered around the monitor, cheering him on. I felt sick. They always turn her off without saving, so the TAI never remembers, no matter how many times they do that. But that doesn’t make it right.”
“Not like these people are raping real women. What’s your problem? I got no idea how many men are into virtual cruelty, but we can’t just ignore the fact that this is a major deterrent to actual sex crimes. If we ban virtual cruelty, these guys are going to be forced to turn their desires toward real women. Do you want to see a storm of rapes across Japan? What you’re proposing here is the protection of fictional women at the expense of real ones. That’s a pretty extreme position.”
“You only talk about men committing virtual cruelty, but women do it too! A coworker of mine is into little boys and keeps a TAI boy on her computer at home. She even accesses him on her cell during breaks at work. She gets stressed out at work, she holes up in the toilet and takes it out on him. She’s got a whole range of bondage gear and sadistic stuff—never thinks twice about showing it off to me. Tortures him for hours and then
talks about how cute he looks in agony. Sickening.”
“No matter how much you torture a robot, it will never feel pain. God did not create them; they are mere machines and can’t feel pain. The idea that humans and machines are equal is as nonsensical as the notion that life was born from nothing or that humans are descended from monkeys, and like those lies, it is an insult to the dignity of human beings. Do you really plan to teach these lies to our children? How is cold materialism supposed to teach respect for living things? The world is filled with war and terror because the materialistic bias is atrophying people’s morality. Go read Bunmei Osakabe’s book, The Road of God Is the Path to Light (Taiyo Seikaisha). I’m sure it will change your mind.”
“I’m seventy-seven years old. I was a fan of Tezuka Osamu when I was a kid. The other day, I did a web search for Astro Boy, and I found the most sickening porn site I’ve ever seen. The owner claims he’s been raising the TAI for years, but just looking at those images made me shudder. I nearly cried. I know it’s been more than fifty years since Tezuka’s death and his characters are now in the public domain, but surely this use is still unacceptable. I have never been so angry.”
“If you want to get virtual cruelty banned, the first thing you ought to do is stop TAI battles. They may be fictional, but I can’t see any value in making robots smash each other.”
A year and a half went by. My master worked furiously. As his Internet anti–virtual cruelty campaign spread, he wrote to every politician he could. He made contact with overseas TAI rights groups, creating a worldwide network. People responded to his message, the news covered it, and the number of people agreeing with him slowly grew.
But the vast majority of people simply didn’t care. Many of them scoffed, laughed, or even got angry. There were no debates about TAI rights in the Diet.
The Stories of Ibis Page 30
