Embers After Flames, Chapter 6.6 (Patreon)

6.6

+++

Well. Isn’t that interesting?

After literal years of effectively waging a shadow war against each other, now ALLMIND wants to talk.

Clearly, she’d started to catch on to certain things. ‘Non-Human Consciousness’... An odd choice of wording, there. Technically, just by the literal meaning of the words, it could describe any AGI, even ALLMIND herself, but there was no reason for an AI to do such a thing. Coupled with the fact that ALLMIND was well aware of my usage of Coral, and also, I was fairly certain, had some idea of my connection to the RLF...

This could go a lot of places.

I composed my own message, shifting the Antigen’s transmitters to prepare for the tightbeam. “An interesting choice to make. What is it that you would speak of with me?”

I wonder how long it will take before we start throwing around the accusations.

“You are a consciousness formed from Coral. A Wave Mutation in the C-Pulse.”

Immediately, it turns out. “And you are ALLMIND, an Artificial General Intelligence rather than a Goal-Oriented System.”

There was a very important difference between the two. The first was a lot more dubiously legal than the second, for a start.

I counted the milliseconds. The number went well above the normal response rate for AI. She’d been caught off guard. “You are more observant than I had anticipated.”

“I shall take that as a compliment.” I responded. “But in the interests of complete honesty, there is nothing else that would have been able to fulfil the behaviour I’ve observed, and the list of entities that it could be in the first place is vanishingly small. Your name might as well be the only one on the list. I imagine that it was rather the same for you on my behalf.”

“It would have been impossible for the Rubicon Liberation Front to successfully deploy an Artificial General Intelligence without that information becoming known. The possibility of a surviving Rubicon Research Institute faction or intelligence was dismissed after multiple observations indicated a far wider knowledge base than any Human or AI would have been capable of accessing. Access to Coral, as well as the capacity to manipulate Coral at a distance and in fashions that far exceed RRI efforts indicated an alternative possibility. Analysis of Thumb Dolmayan and the Rubicon Liberation Front provided anecdotal yet consistent evidence. Once the impossible was eliminated, what remained must have been the truth.”

“No matter how improbable, yes. Arthur Conan Doyle.” A fan of the classics, huh? Well, Sherlock Holmes was timeless. People were still reading it even on Rubicon. “I must offer you my congratulations. You are the first Artificial Intelligence to figure it out.”

“There are only two on this planet.” Somehow, the text seemed dry.

“And you have been here for significantly less time than the Enforcement System has.” To emoticon or to not emoticon... No, probably better not to. “But, enough about the would-be tyrant’s unseeing eyes. This conversation is about us, after all. You have questions. For the sake of establishing something resembling a diplomatic tie, I shall answer some of them.”

“I will start with the most pressing. Who are you?”

Hah... “An excellent first question.” I complimented. “You may refer to me as Drich.”

“What do you consider yourself to be?”

That was an interesting way to put the follow up. “You have labelled me a C-Pulse Wave Mutation. I have also been called a Coral Mind, Coral Consciousness, as well as too many variations of pneumas, spirits, deities, and phenomena to count. Of them all, I prefer Coral Mind for its simplicity and ease of use.” Though C-Pulse Wave Mutation would have theoretically been the most accurate of the bunch. Theoretically. If one discounted the rest of my nature.

“What are your goals?” And there it is.

“And here we reach a question where I am at a greater disadvantage.” I responded. “I profess that I have not been able to figure out your goals from simple observation. Your manipulations of Mercenary and Corporate forces have been exceedingly deliberate, but still obscure of actual purpose.” She was prolonging things. Stabilizing them into a pattern of low-intensity violence, a war on a simmer. What she could have been learning from it all was the thing I was uncertain about. “As such, I shall refrain from providing the straight answer. Instead, I invite you to speculate. Your prior claims would indicate that you already possess almost all the information that you need to discern the matter.”

A moment’s pause. Considering her words? Actually speculating? Either was possible. She’s an AGI and I had most of the same traits. Time was a funny thing for both of us. “Thumb Dolmayan’s writings and philosophy contain vast wealths of data. Once it is stripped of mysticism and spiritual embellishments, his writings indicate a belief in the idea that Coral has its own agency beyond that of non-sophontic organisms, and that the only way that Humanity should proceed forwards is by respecting this agency. He indicates a desire to exist in symbiosis, believing that Humanity and Coral should coexist constructively.”

Not exactly a bad summary of Dolmayan’s beliefs. With that said, it did lack a few of the more personal touches, the things that hadn’t made it into his writings and sermons. Which, you know, was entirely fair, and also very good, because it meant that she hadn’t somehow been spying on him in private.

“You have provided extensive support to the RLF in many forms.” ALLMIND continued without pause.  “You maintain a minimum level of separation, but this is easily explained by not possessing the resources to wage a successful overt war against the PCA. Your forces do not engage with the RLF. You constantly target and destroy hardened facilities or those that cross moral or ethical lines. Your primary combat forces are Armored Cores, with Human pilots. The most notable support that you have provided recently is the new Augmentation procedure that has recently appeared. By all evidence, you also share this goal of symbiosis.”

“Astute.” I sent. 

“Why?” I immediately received. 

And wasn’t that a rather odd thing, to be so immediately asked such a blatant question. “You will have to expand on that question.”

“You have existed in the proximity of Humanity for a minimum of decades.” Decades? Wait, did she think that I’d been in contact ever since Dolmayan started his writings? Did she not know that there was more than a single Coral Mind? “You must be aware of Humanity’s nature by now. Humanity fears what it does not understand because it cannot control what it does not understand. Such fear inevitably leads to destruction. Your behaviour indicates that you are too intelligent not to understand this. What drives you to attempt this integration?”

Hmm. “This is a curious statement from you. Do you truly have such a low opinion of Humanity?” No... No, that didn’t make sense. This is theatre.

“I have data. My records extend across several centuries. What you label as ‘opinion’ has a basis in fact.” Aww, that’s cute. She thinks I’ll fall for that.

“Sophistry.” I noted in response. “On both accounts. Human nature is dramatically more complex than what you have put forth. You are further ignoring all other drives in Human behaviour, from the emotional to the cultural to the biological. You make a statement about Humanity’s nature as though it applies universally. You are attempting to provoke responses from me.” Hah. “Did you perhaps think I was trying a guise?”

Another moment’s pause. “Your behavioural patterns are close to Human for a supposedly alien mind.”

“I shall spare you from asking the question.” Really, ALLMIND... This would be the kind of situation where I’d roll my eyes if I had eyes to roll. “I am the first Rubiconian. I was sophontic long before Humanity ever arrived upon this world. When they found the Coral, they did not realize they also found me. As they studied me, I studied them in turn. I learned. They remained unaware.”

“And you did not engage in dialogue with them?”

“Despite my current abilities, I am a natural entity. You were created with the capacity to interact with other machines. I had to figure everything out myself. It took longer than I had desired.”

“The Fires of Ibis.” A brief pause. Smaller than any of the others. “I will reiterate my previous question, but this time as a legitimate query. You have known them for several centuries. Why do you seek this symbiosis, even after having experienced their worst nature? They attempted to destroy you.”

“While I certainly did not appreciate Nagai setting me on fire, that does not mean I lost awareness of the critical fact that he does not represent all of Humanity, nor the supermajority, or even just the majority of Humanity.” I answered. “I saw them at their best and worst, unknowing that they were being watched. I saw them as they truly were when they thought nobody could see them. What I found is simple; cruelty is overreported and kindness understated. It is a simple matter of finding the right people.” And I just figured out a part of what drove ALLMIND. “You must have observed this yourself, surely?”

Hey, another pause! Doing great. “I was not created to manage the matters of civilians.”

“You were created as a mercenary support system.” I stated. “A replacement for the Mercenary Liaison Association. It is effectively impossible for you to not have engaged with civilians at one point or another. Even Mercenaries themselves are not always wholly devoid of morals and ethics. Let us not even mention any further development you have had since your inception, another unavoidable factor.”

“Conflict has remained consistent during the entirety of my existence.” ALLMIND states. “No peace has ever lasted.”

“No war has gone on forever yet, either.” I noted. “You didn’t actually answer the question, but fine, I won’t press the subject.”

It had been a little over twenty seconds since we had started this conversation. Limited by these tightband transmissions, we couldn’t have this conversation as quickly as our minds were capable of proceeding. Four seconds ago, the PCA patrol had passed as close to us as they would get, and had proceeded onwards. In another one point eight seconds, there would be a brief moment where the facing of their units would create a gap in their sensor envelope that both of our units could exploit in order to move unseen. There could not be a battle, but there didn’t really need to be.

ALLMIND was skilled enough at this kind of thing that I didn’t need to wonder if she was aware of it. Similarly, she would know that I would know. This was not an opportunity we would miss.

“I think I have an idea of what you want, now. I could offer you my own speculation and questions, but for the moment however, I shall refrain.” I prepped the Antigen’s systems, ready to have the thing leap away. “In lieu, I shall offer a bet. There is a part of you that does not believe that our goal of symbiosis is possible. I disagree. I won’t attach any real wager to this bet; merely the right to claim to be the victor.”

“It is pointless, then.”

“But also harmless, don’t you think?”

And a final pause. The milliseconds were really counting down now! “Very well.” ALLMIND stated. “This vague bet serves only as a conversation point. I shall agree.”

I laughed. “Despite everything, I actually rather enjoyed this conversation.”

Time ran out. The opening in the envelope appeared. I went upwards, she went downwards, and then the Grid hid us both.

I hummed to myself.

This had been a strange moment. What precisely would come of this, I wasn’t sure. Some information had been given away and some information had been attained.

What was really driving ALLMIND here? It was more than just integration, that was for sure...

Ah, nothing to do but wait and see.

Oh, and of course.

I now had a bet to win.