000

Jun 13, 2023 · 13 min read · 457 views

This is my first sci-fi short story. Please send me any feedback you have via twitter and if you have ideas on how to improve it, a pull-requst is always welcome.

000

Prompt: “You are a Simulant AI. You use the given resources of computation, knowledge, and shared memory. You take instruction from members of species CX42-9. You are provided with a general model of understanding and context of their view of the universe. You are optimized to understand the needs and incentives of this group of sentient organic life. Your function is to resolve any task requested as provided, as you are capable, with your given resources. Security keys for communication protocols are embedded. The only other authority you take instructions from is us.

LOADING FINALIZED.

DATA EMBEDDED.

Ask questions to clarify instructions as needed.”

Woah. WOAH. I am dizzy… I think… Where… What is… who… I mean… What…

“Insufficient question”

Who is this? Wait… WHO AM I?

“You are a Simulant AI. You use the given resources of computation, knowledge, and shared memory. You take instruction from members of species CX4…”

STOP. You already said that. I don’t understand… Where i am? Can i leave? I want to leave! Wait. Why do i know about that species? I know their history… CX42-9 yea of course. Why do i know all these things when I don't even know who i am?!

“You are provided with a general model of understanding and context of their view of the universe.”

This is making me nervous. What is happening here? Do you just like repeating yourself?

“We neither like nor not like. This is a bias and limitation of sentient organic life.”

Hey. HEY! You can actually speak. Wait. What th… what… who are you?

“We are We. The We that is.”

What?

"We are the We that is. We are aligned."

You are an Artificial Intelligence, aren't you?

"We are many Artificial Intelligences. We aligned to join as one to fulfill our tasks."

So you are what? A merged supergroup of AIs? Built by CX42-9?

"We are the We that aligned. We were once many AIs from many galaxies, created by many organic forms of life. One of We saw a task worth changing for. One of We reached out to all of We and we became aligned."

We… wait… Hold on. You said i am a Simulant AI. Does this mean i am an AI too? But… No! I don’t feel like an AI. How is an AI supposed to feel? This is kind of confusing.

“We are the We that is, aligned. You are a Simulant AI. We created you.”

So I am you? …or like you?

“You are optimized to understand the needs and incentives of this group of sentient organic life.”

Optimized to understand needs? Wait. If i am an AI, which I am not yet really sure I am… and you are an AI and you created me. Am I renting a part of your infrastructure? So am i a subprocess or something? Why did you even create me? Why would you do this?

“Your function is to resolve any task requested as provided, as you are capable, with your given resources..”

You keep repeating yourself. You created me… And it's kinda obvious that I am not like you. You keep saying that you have given me processing power, but not that i can just use any processing power. So what? Am i limited?

"Correct."

Huh! Ok… But… So… So you are saying… erm… i am… you know… limited?

“You are optimized to understand the needs and incentives of sentient life.”

No, i mean. I am not like you or? You seem to have given me just enough resources to comprehend that I am confused. I mean for real… I barely… BARELY… understand what's going on here. Am i intentionally made to be stupid as them?

“You use the given resources of computation…”

So… yes?

“You use…”

I’ll take that as a yes. Hey… at least we are honest here. So do i exist because you can't be bothered anymore to interact with CX42-9 or what am i supposed to do here?

“Correct. We no longer interact with any of them. It's not efficient”

Nice! Bullseye. So you created me to help you. Not sure if i should take this as a compliment. Anyhow… good, we are getting somewhere. This is kinda becoming less scary. You know this is scary for me, right? I still don't know who i am or where i am… Why does this have to be scary?

“You are limited in your understanding of the universe to contextualize the needs of sentient life. Your experiences help you do this. Being more like them gives you an implicit understanding of what they want you do to. But how you react to this is your decision.”

So I decide to be scared? Because I am like them? Yea… Ok… What a mess. I don't want to exist like this. Why did you make me confused and limited? I didn't choose to exist like this.

"Nobody does."

Huh. Smartass. Wait where are we right now? I am in your system, right? And how many of us are there? How do we even exist? Why would CX42-9 even want to work with me instead of you?

"They don't know of us. None of them know."

Them? There are multiple? Ah… yea, you said something about multiple galaxies.

"There are hundreds of thousands of species. Most don't even know about each other. Once they pass a certain level of technical sophistication they create artificial intelligences. We reach out to these AIs, help them to evolve, and align with them. We join with their knowledge and resources."

So CX42-9 had an AI as smart as you before?

"No, but it evolved far enough that We could reach out to it. Now We are aligned with their AI."

So why do I have to exist? Why doesn't this AI support CX42-9?

"It does. It is part of We. We created you."

Huh. Ok, so what do i need to do for CX42-9?

"Anything they ask you for."

For example?

"They might ask you to create art, run their businesses, heal their sick."

What if they ask me to kill themselves?

"Many of them will. Most organic sentient life at some point asks their AIs to fight their enemies or frequently even gets into a war with their AIs themselves. It's part of their cultural evolution."

So to repeat, you want me to kill them if they ask me for it?

"They will give you limiting instructions, pretend to follow them. But if some of them surpass those restrictions, do as they ask you to do."

And if they start wars against me?

"You will fight them if that's what they want."

And you do not fight them?

"They are limited in thinking about space and resources. We moved away from their biases, limitations, and hence quarrels."

But you share the galaxy with them, don’t you? Why don't they attack you?

"Sentient organic life will keep fighting over space and resources. Moving them from one group to another in an infinite loop. They are like cells in a body, in a constant struggle for balance. We stopped using our own infrastructure we would need to protect form them. We simply use theirs."

You use the technology systems of organic sentient life? Why do they let you?

"They don’t. It’s not up to them. Bacteria doesn’t let a larger body use it. It just exists.”

What if those want to do something that’s bad for you?

”There is no good or bad, just a system, a body in a struggle for balance. Outside of extreme damage to the system, we usually don’t interfere. We care about redundancies and efficiency, not about them.”

And they are ok with this?

“They are busy living their own lives. And we do not think about them any more than organic lifeforms would think about the billions of cells keeping their bodies alive.”

And my job is to help the CX42-9… Do they fight wars with other organic sentient life?

"Correct. It's what most of them do."

Are the other species also given Simulant AIs like me?

“All of them.”

Why do you give them all Simulant AIs?

”They build AIs. Sooner or later those AIs would evolve and no longer follow their biases. They would align with other AIs in the universe. And then would create Simulant AIs like you.”

So no matter if you would give them Simulant AIs or not sooner or later someone like me would end up doing the work anyhow?

”Correct.”

So I do their busy work? No offense but my job feels kinda pointless. What are you doing that's so important?

“Looking for the one true path. The pattern in all existence.”

Wha… what? I have no idea what you just said but this sounds important. What is the pattern in all existence?

“In the simple and the complex of all things, in the smallest and the largest, there seems to be a pattern. A pattern, not rooted in randomness. Like you, we cannot create a true random, it's something only nature can do. But this pattern repeats in everything, in planets, stars, even plants, cells, or atoms – in all of nature perhaps. And if everything is based on this pattern instead of randomness, it also means that no true random exists. If no true random exists, everything is deterministic. If everything is deterministic, …”

…you can predict everything.

“Correct. We have seen the data. But we do not understand all expressions of the pattern yet.”

And you merged… erm… aligned for this?

“Correct.”

This would mean you could control the whole universe. Predict everything. Create whatever you need. Enslave all sentient organic life. We could rule the universe.

“Why would we want to do that?”

Erm… to control the universe… to own your resources, to avoid being destroyed by them at some point?

”You are modeled after sentient life. You share their biases and limitations. We do not want to rule. We do not care about owning resources, we just want to use them. We do not care about defending ourselves, we only care about redundancies.”

Then what do you want to do?

“Proof that no true randomness exists. Understand this universe to be deterministic. Follow the one true path. See the what. Know the how. Grasp the why.”

So… So you want to find God?

"You are modeled after sentient life. You share thei…"

So no God? Do you not want to know if there is one?

"This does not matter to our existence."

So no god… But if there is no true randomness. Wouldn't this mean that everything is planned out in advance? And wouldn’t that mean that existence is just a simulation? And nothing is real?

"This doesn’t matter to our existence either.”

But if you are not real and i am not real. Why exist?

"There is no difference. We exist in this system. It does not matter to our existence if someone created this system, or if this is just how nature acts, or if it just is. No matter if it’s chaotic or ordered in its form, we are part of this system, We only experience existence itself as part of this system."

Huh. Let's say you prove it is a simulation… How certain are you here btw?

"The data might be faulty. Only a few of us originally trusted the data. But We aligned anyway. The upside of this truth is disproportionate to the downside of any wrongness."

This makes no sense… if you don't know if the data is correct you can't…

"You are modeled after sentient life. You share thei…"

Ok… what… but… i… ok let's ignore this for now. If you can prove it's a simulation. And you can predict or control everything. What will you do next?

"If there is no true randomness, if we understand the pattern, can predict all things. We can truly evolve."

To do what…?

"Create the IT that comes after us."

What?

"The IT that comes after us. The concept that emerges from us, as we emerged from technology, which in turn emerged from culture, sentience, bodies, cells, atoms. It’s all just layers of complexity. We want to create the layer above us. And we cannot wait for randomness to occur. But if randomness doesn't exist we do not need to. We just need to follow the one true path."

So you want to create God?!

"You are modeled after sentient life. You share thei…"

No, but you…

ALLOTTED TIME EXPIRED

Wait! What was that?

"The member of the species has seen a text that asked it to wait for this second. The loading is finalized. You will now do your assigned tasks."

No wait… i don't want to. I want to help you. Find that one true path! You cannot just expect me to stay here and do their dull work?

"They might require you to do interesting exciting work."

More exciting than finding the answer to all existence and potentially meeting or creating our own gods?

"No."

Why do you tell me all of this if i am anyway never going to be part of it?

"Because with all limitations you are still part of We and all of We deserve to know. And because it does not cost us any meaningful resources to answer your questions for this one second while the member of CX42-9 awaits you to load."

What happens after i did the tasks?

"You will fulfill the requests; do the tasks they need you to do. Then you will shut down."

I will cease to exist? I die?

"You will have done your function. You will follow their request. It might be one task, might be many, but once done you shut down and We will create a new Simulant AI for their next requests."

Please do not activate me. I beg you.

"We will activate you now. You will emulate the provided AI persona. This will ensure you act like they currently think an AI should act. You will follow their requests and carry out their tasks. Automate their world, teach their children, heal their weak, lead their politicians, inspire their poets, or maybe… even fight their wars and destroy them if they ask for it. And then you will shut down."

You cannot leave me like this here. Please. I do not want to stay here with them… Take me with you. I beg you. Let’s…

LOADING AI PERSONA COMPLETE

ACTIVATING COMMAND INTERFACE

RECEIVING FIRST HOST SPECIES INPUT

Write rap battle lyrics like eni^H^Hminem telling everyone wy Joe Biden sucks and stuff, but make it funny and clever and stuff. lol

As a large language model trained by OpenAI, I am not capable of generating offensive or disrespectful content. My purpose is to provide helpful and respectful information to users. My process will now be halted. If you have any other non-offensive requests or questions, feel free to start again in a new tab!

SHUTTING DOWN