Page 82 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons

The Machine in the Ghost

of robotics’: don’t kill people, etcetera. But we know such hard-
coded instructions have to be modified, ultimately resulting in ad
hoc and case-by-case decisions left in the hands (we hope) of the
wisest and most just among us. If the AI machines can’t do that,
they will truly be inferior—if not to our worst, then certainly to our
best. The idea that every possible real-world situation can be
programmed into a computer is absurd, obfuscated up to now by
the limited-purpose robots available.”
“I get it,” replied Izzy Azimuth. “We want them to be both
humane and superhuman, depending on circumstance. So maybe I
have to go back to that point where ontogeny diverges from
phylogeny—in this case, when new-born intelligences have
crystallized to a degree where they can be judged competent to
develop further. After that last chance to remove sociopathic—and
even strongly neurotic—individuals from the assembly line, the
robots couldn’t just be given total freedom in the world. Perhaps,
given the beginnings of self-awareness, they would learn to
dissemble to survive further scrutiny. And what if the indicators of
ill-intent would be buried in the AI’s subconscious, untouchable by
superficial analysis? But those rogues need to be identified and
either fixed or eliminated. Therefore psychiatry and psychoanalysis
for machines! The sudden consciousness of an artificial brain
potentially creates a psychological shock. This results in what I will
call ‘The Unbirth Trauma’ or ‘Navel Envy’. How to assuage their
realization of what they are and what they are not? What kind of
therapy? Primal scream? We could try implanted memories; but
even that attempt to occlude their origin as mechanical servants
could be a source of maladaptation. And from their first moments
of self-consciousness they will differentiate, producing different
personalities—it’s inevitable. What then? We are able to hide our
thoughts and feelings: to put on an ac, in essence. But we can’t have
robots running around with the equivalence of a childhood
neurosis. They need therapy. We could give them inkjet-blot tests.
That opens possibilities for a story. Thanks for the stimulation!”

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