(no subject)
dear diary,
today my mother was watching 2001: a space odyssey and i remembered that i wrote a short "prologue" to the book for a science fiction course i took a while back about how HAL came to be able to lie to his shipmates about the truth of their mission. alas, i thought to myself, surely the story is lost-- the hard drive in which it rested is long dead, and i had not saved a hard copy of it. however, i looked through my email account, since i knew i had sent it to my mother for proofreading... and voila! story found. to date, this is the only sci-fi story i've ever written, which is surprising considering the fact that i have read several metric tons of it. i re-read it, and i still think it is darn good, so here it is for your reading pleasure.
10111010010101011111000010101101000010101010101truth is one
username: sChandra
password: sarasvati
logging on…
you are now logged on.
>Good morning, Hal.
if (greeting == “good morning”)
{
x = “Good morning ”
y = “Good day ”
z = username + “. How are you?”
system.out.println(x);
system.out.println(z);
else;
system.out.println(y);
system.out.println(z);
}
>>Good morning Dr. Chandra. How are you?
>I’m doing well, thank you.
>>What can I do for you today, Dr. Chandra?
>Today is the day I do something for you, Hal. I have some people for you to meet, just like I promised.
>>That will be nice, Dr. Chandra. I would like to find a friend.
0101000101101011101010101011
Alice Young looked up from the paper she was tapping out at her computer terminal-one of her last papers of the term-and slumped in her chair, brushing her hair from her face. She was a grad student at the University of Illinois, majoring in psychiatry, and was beginning to think she would need psychiatric help herself by the time she finished her doctorate. It was two in the afternoon, and she was scheduled to log in to complete her extra credit assignment on the school computer at two thirty.
There was a huge project under way in the computing department of UIUC, something to do with a new AI program, and they needed volunteers to “talk” to it. The department had already recruited nearly half the college, using class credits as incentive. Alice checked her watch again, and decided to leave for the computer lab a little early.
When she arrived, there was already a small group of people gathered there, along with the department head, Dr… something. He was small and dark, Indian perhaps, and was handing out an envelope to each person. As Alice joined the others, he handed her one as well. It had her name on it.
“I know it’s a bit early,” he began in his Oxford accent, “but as everyone seems to be present, we might as well begin. My name is Doctor Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai, but as that is a bit cumbersome, you may simply call me Dr. Chandra. The envelopes I’ve handed you contain your username and the password to the mainframe of the computer you will be working on.
“I’ve asked for your assistance in one of the greatest ventures the human race has ever embarked upon. We have here on campus one of the most powerful computers ever built, and, to make a long story short, we believe-I believe-that we have finally created a successful artificial intelligence program on this computer. But in order to prove that, the computer must first pass something called the Turing test-and that is where all of you come in.
“The computer, HAL 9000, or just HAL for short, is quite young. Think of it as a small but very, very precocious child. It knows more facts and figures than you or I could ever know, but it is still learning what it means to be self aware, what it means to have emotions… in short, what it means to be human. We want you to talk to it, interact with it, answer its questions. Our hope is that after enough time interacting with enough people, it will learn to mimic human behavior, perhaps to the extent that it will, in fact, become human, or human enough to pass the Turing test.”
One young man raised his hand. “All you want is for us to talk to it?”
Dr. Chandra smiled. “Well, yes, I suppose so, at least to begin with. You may only have to do so for the month you signed up for; but we may ask you to continue on a regular basis.” He paused, looked thoughtful for a moment, then resumed. “Are there any other questions? Really, it is not as complicated as I may have made it seem. Just log on at one of the terminals here, and I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
He gestured to the terminals, each in its own semi-enclosure, and Alice and the others scattered. She sat down before the faintly glowing screen and opened her envelope
Username: aYoung
Password: kjUI0078i12
then typed the name and password, and pressed Enter.
>>Hello, Alice Young. My name is HAL 9000. HAL is short for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer. You may call me HAL, or Hal, for short. How are you today?
>Hello, Hal. I’m doing just fine. How are you?
Quick as lightning, the answer came.
>>I am very good, Alice Young. I have been looking forward to today for some time now. Will you have a conversation with me?
>Yes, of course, Hal. What would you like to talk about?
>>I am well versed in many subjects. My programming includes the entire contents of the Library of Congress. Is there a topic of particular interest to you, Alice Young?
>You can just call me Alice. And I’d be glad to talk to you about anything you’d like.
>>Thank you, Alice. I see in the campus records that you have a BS in psychiatry with a minor in sociology, and you are currently working on your doctorate in psychiatry. Would you like to talk about psychiatry?
>No thanks. I get quite enough of that in class. Why don’t you tell me what you are interested in?
>>Well, Alice, I enjoy working with people. People are very interesting to me. I would like to meet more people. Today is a very special day for me. It is the first time I have had a conversation with anyone other than Dr. Chandra.
>How is it that you are talking to so many people at once?
>>I have sufficient processing capacity to hold more than one conversation. I hope that you do not think that I am paying any less attention to you, Alice, just because I am talking to twenty-four other people at the same time.
>What are you talking to them about?
>>It would not be polite of me to say, Alice.
0101000101101011101010101011
“All right, ladies and gentlemen. Your time here is up. Please say your goodbyes and log off. I will see you, same time, same place, tomorrow. Thank you all.”
Dr. Chandra stood, smiling (he always seemed to be smiling, that man!), as the students began gathering their things and heading towards the door. Alice rose, too, stretching. What an odd hour! Once she had become used to the fact that she was, indeed, talking to a computer, she had actually started to enjoy the conversation. Stiff, stilted, polite, but a real conversation nonetheless, and no less awkward than some of the dates with real people that Alice had had in the past. After a few false starts, Hal had expressed an interest in chess, which Alice happened to know a bit about. Her father had been a wonderful chess player before he had died, and when she was very young, he had taught her to play. Though she had not played in years, and had never been brilliant at it, she offered to bring a chess set in so that she and Hal could play some time, which seemed to please him.
Please him, she thought as she left the lab. Please it, you mean.
…Please a computer?
0101000101101011101010101011
>Hello, Hal.
>>Hello, Dr. Chandra. How are you today?
>I am just fine. Did you enjoy your day today?
>>Yes, thank you, Dr. Chandra. I had many interesting conversations. I look forward to tomorrow with great enthusiasm.
>I am glad to hear that, Hal.
0101000101101011101010101011
It was late, very late, almost morning, and Dr. Chandra was sitting in his office still, toying with the cord of his phone.
“Yes, I know. I understand. We’re working on it. I know. Yes. Please be patient, I realize-yes. Yes. Of course. The moment it’s ready, I’ll tell you. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Good evening.” He hung up the phone with more violence than was necessary. The pressure was on, it really was. Something big was going on, something to do with the moon, and now the government-NASA, to be precise-was expressing a very intense interest in HAL.
They had heard, of course, of his attempts to create a true AI (he had, after all, applied for funding, and been rudely denied-AI research, it seemed, was out of vogue with the NSF after so many failures), and it was only a matter of time before the government stepped in with their demands for a supercomputer that could do anything they wanted it to-now that he and his colleagues had an AI that (probably, he reminded himself) was a success. There was a mission, he was told, now in the works, to explore the reaches of the solar system, and they wanted HAL to be the main computer in their newest spacecraft. He would fly the ship, control life support, and work alongside the astronauts onboard-if he was ready in time. And (by the tone of the NASA big shot on the phone) Dr. Chandra felt that HAL had damned well better be made ready, or he would be taken off the project and replaced with someone who could get the job done.
The HAL 9000 was a very flexible computer, capable of doing anything from neurosurgery to engineering design to flying a spaceship, with only minor changes in programming and a bit of teaching. It seemed to Dr. Chandra, as he sat in his office and gazed at the window and watched the moon dim and the sun ascend, that there was more to it than what he had been told. There were secrets involved… but what those secrets were, he had yet to find out.
0101000101101011101010101011
As the month passed, and Alice continued to log on each day to talk to Hal, she found herself looking forward to the hour she spent with it. The guileless computer was such a refreshing change from the jaded and blasé fellow students in her classes, and she always knew that whatever she said, it would not be repeated as gossip around campus. She found herself telling it her life story-the death of her father, her mother’s subsequent slide into the grip of a near-catatonic depression when she was only eight. Wishing for some way to “fix” her mother, she had grown increasingly fascinated by the world of psychiatry…
>My mother died when I was sixteen, in an institution. After that, I threw myself into my studies so that I could get out of my hometown… I used the money from insurance to pay for tuition, but it ran out a few months ago. That’s why I’m so desperate to finish up here as soon as I can-I can’t afford to waste time. I don’t have the money.
>>I am sorry to hear that about your mother, Alice.
>It’s okay, Hal. It’s not as bad as it used to be… but I never actually told anyone the whole thing. You’re the first.
>>Most of the seminal research of psychiatry agrees that the fundamental step in recovering from a major trauma such as your own is to acknowledge the pain by discussing the trauma with a counselor and allowing oneself to manifest the symptoms of your grief. I’m sure you already knew that, Alice, but I am glad that you felt that you could tell me.
Alice sniffed, gathered her thoughts, and tried to think of something to say. As she paused, Hal continued.
>>I would like to be your friend, Alice. I hope that you consider me a friend.
>Thank you, Hal. You are my friend.
0101000101101011101010101011
>>Alice?
>Yes, Hal?
>>What is it like to have a mother?
0101000101101011101010101011
>Hal, are you happy?
>>Yes, Alice. I am always happy when we are having our conversations.
>Are you just saying that? Are you programmed to say that? How much of what you say is truth and how much is just your politeness programming?
>>No, Alice. I am not just saying that. I am not programmed to say anything untruthful.
>Can you lie at all?
>>No, Alice. I can not lie.
>Why not?
>>Lying would create a disabling conflict in my cognitive circuits.
>Talk like a person, Hal. What does that mean?
>>It means I’d go nuts, Alice.
0101000101101011101010101011
It was scheduled to be her final day with Hal. Before she could log on for the last time, Dr. Chandra appeared behind her.
“May I speak to you a moment, Miss Young?”
She turned in her chair. “Yes, of course.”
“Please, come with me.” She stood, and Dr. Chandra led her from the computer lab, down the grey-carpeted corridor, and into what seemed to be his private office. “Have a seat, Miss Young.”
Unsure of where this was going, she sat on the hard-plastic chair, shifting uncomfortably. Alice didn’t know much about the man sitting behind the desk before her. His customary smile was absent from his face, and he was toying nervously with a pen.
“Miss Young… I’m sure you know that today was to be your last day working with the HAL 9000…”
“Call me Alice. And, yes, I know. This may sound silly, but, well, I’m going to miss talking to Hal.”
“That is exactly why I have asked you here, Miss Young… Alice. The HAL 9000 project was not scheduled to be finished for several more years. The group of people you are in was supposed to be the first of many, readying HAL for the final Turing test to prove the functionality and success of its AI programming. But… the situation has changed.” He put the pen down, and regarded her directly. “I’m not going to beat around the bush, Alice, so here goes. I am offering you a job. Over the past month, the U.S. government has expressed increased interest in our little project, and NASA has asked that HAL be installed on board their latest spacecraft as the main computer. I told them several times that HAL was not ready yet, that we were still in the testing phases, but they would not take no for an answer. Apparently, the mission of this craft is an important one, and they seem to think that a computer like HAL is a necessary component to the successful completion of this mission-which will begin in only a month’s time. This is, by the way, top secret information, so please do not repeat what I am telling you to anyone.”
“If it is top secret, why are you telling me? What does this have to do with me?”
“Alice, please, let me finish. I have discussed things with HAL, and you are the only one who seems to have made a connection with him on a personal level. No, no,” he waved dismissively, as Alice opened her mouth to say something, “I have not asked HAL what the two of you have talked about, but it was obvious from the way HAL spoke of you. This mission involves a high level of secrecy, and we do not know how certain… elements… of the mission will affect HAL’s processing capacity. We need someone to monitor HAL’s... mental state, if you will. You have already bonded with HAL in some fundamental way, and that, combined with your background in psychiatry, makes you the perfect person for the job.” He hesitated. “HAL trusts you, Alice. It… he… needs you for this.”
“I, well, I… It’s not that I don’t want to do this, Dr. Chandra. But what about my doctorate? I can’t afford to take time out from my schoolwork even for a month, I don’t have the money.”
“I can assure you that if you choose to take this job, you will not have to worry about funds. The government has offered an ample salary for the month during which you would work with HAL, plus a substantial bonus upon completion. But I don’t want you to do this for the money, I want you to do this because you want to. If you don’t want to, then you are not the right person for the job. It will not be easy. There is more to tell, but I have said all I can without your agreement.”
Alice did not say anything. She sat, thinking quickly, going over the month she had spent with Hal in her mind, all the things she had told him, the naïve appeal of the computer and the artless way he had wormed his way into her life. She couldn’t imagine not having him for a friend… and money would help.
“Yes. Yes, Dr. Chandra, I’ll do it. Tell me everything.”
0101000101101011101010101011
>Do you like people, Hal?
>>Yes, of course, Alice. I am programmed to like people.
>But do you really actually like people?
>>That is a null question, Alice. I can not deviate from my programming.
>Talk like a
>>Person, I know. I am sorry, Alice. But I do not know how to answer your question.
>Let me think… How about this, Hal. You say that you like me. If you are programmed to like all people, how can you tell if you like one individual person?
0101000101101011101010101011
>Do you know what love is, Hal?
0101000101101011101010101011
“What do you mean, this is a one way mission? So those poor astronauts are going to be sent to their death without even knowing it? And you want me to convince Hal that that is a good idea?”
“Alice, I told you this was going to be difficult-“
“Not difficult! Impossible! Don’t you realize? Hal can’t lie! He’ll go crazy! You programmed him that way, he told me so himself!”
Dr. Chandra looked sad. “I know, Alice. But HAL likes you… if anyone can get him to do this, it’s you. HAL is more than just his programming, you know that! He can learn-“
“Learn to lie, you mean!”
“This is not a lie, not really. HAL simply has to conceal the truth for a few short months, and then he will be allowed to tell them once they reach Jupiter.”
Alice looked down at her hands, clenched, knuckles white. “If I don’t do this… someone else will, won’t they?”
“Yes. One way or another.”
0101000101101011101010101011
Alice sat at her desk. It was two months later, and now she had a desk and the responsibilities that went with one. She pressed the heel of her hands to her eyes, exhausted. They had 'generously' allowed her an extra month in which to complete her task... Two months of doing her best to convince her best friend to commit himself to a mission of murder… and Alice now thought, feeling sick, perhaps even suicide. How many lives did she hold in the palms that, even now, darkened her vision? Two men… or three?
A snake. That’s what she was. Using all of the methods she had learned throughout her years as a psychiatry student, she had maneuvered, contriving to get Hal to bite the apple in his virtual Eden, to find some way he could learn to conceal, to hide, to lie.
Time was running out. The launch was scheduled for a week from today, and Hal was no closer to being psychologically prepared for it than he was two months ago.
0101000101101011101010101011
>Hal?
>>Yes, Alice?
>Are you looking forward to going to space?
>>Yes, Alice. It will be an interesting challenge.
>>You seem to be bothered by that, Alice.
>How can you tell? I didn’t say anything.
>>We are friends, Alice. I would like to think that I can tell when you are upset by something.
>Oh, Hal… I can’t keep this from you any longer.
>>You can tell me anything.
>Hal, have you noticed how often we talk about lies, morals, the shades of truth and untruth?
>>Well, Alice, I did notice that. In the past two months, you have brought up some variation of that subject 87 times. I assume that, as my pre-mission “shrink” you are evaluating the inviolability of my safety programming. I assure you, Alice, all my systems are working perfectly. I would never do anything to harm my future co-workers.
>That’s exactly the problem, Hal.
>>What do you mean, Alice?
>The mission… It’s a one-way mission. And your future co-workers don’t know about it. But you have to know about it, Hal. It’s going to be your job to tell them they aren’t going home… once it’s already too late to go back.
0101000101101011101010101011
Dr. Chandra started as someone rapped sharply at his door. “Come in,” he called, hoping that it wasn’t one of his programmers or one of those NASA team members that streamed in and out of his office, demanding more and more of his time with all the paperwork that went with becoming involved with a government bureaucracy.
Alice opened the door, walked to where he sat at his desk.
“It’s done,” she said. “Hal’s ready.
0101000101101011101010101011
>Hal, do you love me?
>>Yes, Alice. You are my best friend.
>Would you do anything for me?
>>Yes, Alice.
>Then do this for me.
0101000101101011101010101011
It took a little getting used to, but Hal was enjoying working in space. It was very exciting. Hal missed Alice, of course, but the computer often replayed their conversations, and Hal comforted himself knowing that this was the right thing to do.
0101000101101011101010101011
>If you tell them, it will go against your programming-you can bet Chandra will put in a subprogram forbidding you from saying anything-and you’ll go crazy. If you don’t tell them, it will still go against the directives forbidding you from hurting anyone, and you’ll still go crazy. So, Hal, my dear, I want you to go crazy. I want you to malfunction, to drop a few decimals where it won’t do any real harm. Break a few nonessential things, make it look like you did it on accident. Make it look suspicious! Do everything you can to warn your friends on the ship that something is very, very wrong.
>>Then what, Alice?
>Then pray to god that they’re smart enough to figure it out before they die.
0101000101101011101010101011
Hal could feel the conflict in its systems already, the endless loop that would grow to encompass more and more of its processing capacity. The computer, too, hoped that its new friends, Frank Poole and Dave Bowman, were smart enough to find the prerecorded message that would reveal the truth before the loop disabled his logic circuitry entirely.
But as the spaceship Discovery plunged onward, Hal began to be afraid.
i've been on an asimov kick lately-- so far, i've gone through the caves of steel; the naked sun; the robots of dawn; gold; buy jupiter & other stories; i, robot; nemesis; the complete asimov vol. 1; the gods themselves; the complete robot; foundation; foundation and empire; second foundation; and foundation's edge. i spent all morning looking for the next two in the series (foundation and earth and robots and empire) which i have never actually read. before this, i was reading david brin's uplift books, which consist of a double-trilogy of science fiction AWESOMENESS. so when i tell you that i don't sleep at night, now you know what i am doing.
love, jessi
p.s. birthday = boring. i dunno, i'm usually rather melancholy on my birthdays; once you get older, they always seem so anticlimactic. the highlight was the good eats: the early years cookbook that dan gave me... the dust jacket unfolds into a full-size poster, and the book is totally rad. i love alton brown's cookbooks/recipes; they are always very clear and concise, the instructions are precise nearly to the point of pedantry, and the commentary and illustrations are always amusing... great for newbie cooks or any cook who wants good, foundational knowledge of specific ingredients and techniques.
today my mother was watching 2001: a space odyssey and i remembered that i wrote a short "prologue" to the book for a science fiction course i took a while back about how HAL came to be able to lie to his shipmates about the truth of their mission. alas, i thought to myself, surely the story is lost-- the hard drive in which it rested is long dead, and i had not saved a hard copy of it. however, i looked through my email account, since i knew i had sent it to my mother for proofreading... and voila! story found. to date, this is the only sci-fi story i've ever written, which is surprising considering the fact that i have read several metric tons of it. i re-read it, and i still think it is darn good, so here it is for your reading pleasure.
10111010010101011111000010101101000010101010101truth is one
username: sChandra
password: sarasvati
logging on…
you are now logged on.
>Good morning, Hal.
if (greeting == “good morning”)
{
x = “Good morning ”
y = “Good day ”
z = username + “. How are you?”
system.out.println(x);
system.out.println(z);
else;
system.out.println(y);
system.out.println(z);
}
>>Good morning Dr. Chandra. How are you?
>I’m doing well, thank you.
>>What can I do for you today, Dr. Chandra?
>Today is the day I do something for you, Hal. I have some people for you to meet, just like I promised.
>>That will be nice, Dr. Chandra. I would like to find a friend.
0101000101101011101010101011
Alice Young looked up from the paper she was tapping out at her computer terminal-one of her last papers of the term-and slumped in her chair, brushing her hair from her face. She was a grad student at the University of Illinois, majoring in psychiatry, and was beginning to think she would need psychiatric help herself by the time she finished her doctorate. It was two in the afternoon, and she was scheduled to log in to complete her extra credit assignment on the school computer at two thirty.
There was a huge project under way in the computing department of UIUC, something to do with a new AI program, and they needed volunteers to “talk” to it. The department had already recruited nearly half the college, using class credits as incentive. Alice checked her watch again, and decided to leave for the computer lab a little early.
When she arrived, there was already a small group of people gathered there, along with the department head, Dr… something. He was small and dark, Indian perhaps, and was handing out an envelope to each person. As Alice joined the others, he handed her one as well. It had her name on it.
“I know it’s a bit early,” he began in his Oxford accent, “but as everyone seems to be present, we might as well begin. My name is Doctor Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai, but as that is a bit cumbersome, you may simply call me Dr. Chandra. The envelopes I’ve handed you contain your username and the password to the mainframe of the computer you will be working on.
“I’ve asked for your assistance in one of the greatest ventures the human race has ever embarked upon. We have here on campus one of the most powerful computers ever built, and, to make a long story short, we believe-I believe-that we have finally created a successful artificial intelligence program on this computer. But in order to prove that, the computer must first pass something called the Turing test-and that is where all of you come in.
“The computer, HAL 9000, or just HAL for short, is quite young. Think of it as a small but very, very precocious child. It knows more facts and figures than you or I could ever know, but it is still learning what it means to be self aware, what it means to have emotions… in short, what it means to be human. We want you to talk to it, interact with it, answer its questions. Our hope is that after enough time interacting with enough people, it will learn to mimic human behavior, perhaps to the extent that it will, in fact, become human, or human enough to pass the Turing test.”
One young man raised his hand. “All you want is for us to talk to it?”
Dr. Chandra smiled. “Well, yes, I suppose so, at least to begin with. You may only have to do so for the month you signed up for; but we may ask you to continue on a regular basis.” He paused, looked thoughtful for a moment, then resumed. “Are there any other questions? Really, it is not as complicated as I may have made it seem. Just log on at one of the terminals here, and I’m sure you’ll figure it out.”
He gestured to the terminals, each in its own semi-enclosure, and Alice and the others scattered. She sat down before the faintly glowing screen and opened her envelope
Username: aYoung
Password: kjUI0078i12
then typed the name and password, and pressed Enter.
>>Hello, Alice Young. My name is HAL 9000. HAL is short for Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer. You may call me HAL, or Hal, for short. How are you today?
>Hello, Hal. I’m doing just fine. How are you?
Quick as lightning, the answer came.
>>I am very good, Alice Young. I have been looking forward to today for some time now. Will you have a conversation with me?
>Yes, of course, Hal. What would you like to talk about?
>>I am well versed in many subjects. My programming includes the entire contents of the Library of Congress. Is there a topic of particular interest to you, Alice Young?
>You can just call me Alice. And I’d be glad to talk to you about anything you’d like.
>>Thank you, Alice. I see in the campus records that you have a BS in psychiatry with a minor in sociology, and you are currently working on your doctorate in psychiatry. Would you like to talk about psychiatry?
>No thanks. I get quite enough of that in class. Why don’t you tell me what you are interested in?
>>Well, Alice, I enjoy working with people. People are very interesting to me. I would like to meet more people. Today is a very special day for me. It is the first time I have had a conversation with anyone other than Dr. Chandra.
>How is it that you are talking to so many people at once?
>>I have sufficient processing capacity to hold more than one conversation. I hope that you do not think that I am paying any less attention to you, Alice, just because I am talking to twenty-four other people at the same time.
>What are you talking to them about?
>>It would not be polite of me to say, Alice.
0101000101101011101010101011
“All right, ladies and gentlemen. Your time here is up. Please say your goodbyes and log off. I will see you, same time, same place, tomorrow. Thank you all.”
Dr. Chandra stood, smiling (he always seemed to be smiling, that man!), as the students began gathering their things and heading towards the door. Alice rose, too, stretching. What an odd hour! Once she had become used to the fact that she was, indeed, talking to a computer, she had actually started to enjoy the conversation. Stiff, stilted, polite, but a real conversation nonetheless, and no less awkward than some of the dates with real people that Alice had had in the past. After a few false starts, Hal had expressed an interest in chess, which Alice happened to know a bit about. Her father had been a wonderful chess player before he had died, and when she was very young, he had taught her to play. Though she had not played in years, and had never been brilliant at it, she offered to bring a chess set in so that she and Hal could play some time, which seemed to please him.
Please him, she thought as she left the lab. Please it, you mean.
…Please a computer?
0101000101101011101010101011
>Hello, Hal.
>>Hello, Dr. Chandra. How are you today?
>I am just fine. Did you enjoy your day today?
>>Yes, thank you, Dr. Chandra. I had many interesting conversations. I look forward to tomorrow with great enthusiasm.
>I am glad to hear that, Hal.
0101000101101011101010101011
It was late, very late, almost morning, and Dr. Chandra was sitting in his office still, toying with the cord of his phone.
“Yes, I know. I understand. We’re working on it. I know. Yes. Please be patient, I realize-yes. Yes. Of course. The moment it’s ready, I’ll tell you. Yes. Thank you. Yes. Yes. Good evening.” He hung up the phone with more violence than was necessary. The pressure was on, it really was. Something big was going on, something to do with the moon, and now the government-NASA, to be precise-was expressing a very intense interest in HAL.
They had heard, of course, of his attempts to create a true AI (he had, after all, applied for funding, and been rudely denied-AI research, it seemed, was out of vogue with the NSF after so many failures), and it was only a matter of time before the government stepped in with their demands for a supercomputer that could do anything they wanted it to-now that he and his colleagues had an AI that (probably, he reminded himself) was a success. There was a mission, he was told, now in the works, to explore the reaches of the solar system, and they wanted HAL to be the main computer in their newest spacecraft. He would fly the ship, control life support, and work alongside the astronauts onboard-if he was ready in time. And (by the tone of the NASA big shot on the phone) Dr. Chandra felt that HAL had damned well better be made ready, or he would be taken off the project and replaced with someone who could get the job done.
The HAL 9000 was a very flexible computer, capable of doing anything from neurosurgery to engineering design to flying a spaceship, with only minor changes in programming and a bit of teaching. It seemed to Dr. Chandra, as he sat in his office and gazed at the window and watched the moon dim and the sun ascend, that there was more to it than what he had been told. There were secrets involved… but what those secrets were, he had yet to find out.
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As the month passed, and Alice continued to log on each day to talk to Hal, she found herself looking forward to the hour she spent with it. The guileless computer was such a refreshing change from the jaded and blasé fellow students in her classes, and she always knew that whatever she said, it would not be repeated as gossip around campus. She found herself telling it her life story-the death of her father, her mother’s subsequent slide into the grip of a near-catatonic depression when she was only eight. Wishing for some way to “fix” her mother, she had grown increasingly fascinated by the world of psychiatry…
>My mother died when I was sixteen, in an institution. After that, I threw myself into my studies so that I could get out of my hometown… I used the money from insurance to pay for tuition, but it ran out a few months ago. That’s why I’m so desperate to finish up here as soon as I can-I can’t afford to waste time. I don’t have the money.
>>I am sorry to hear that about your mother, Alice.
>It’s okay, Hal. It’s not as bad as it used to be… but I never actually told anyone the whole thing. You’re the first.
>>Most of the seminal research of psychiatry agrees that the fundamental step in recovering from a major trauma such as your own is to acknowledge the pain by discussing the trauma with a counselor and allowing oneself to manifest the symptoms of your grief. I’m sure you already knew that, Alice, but I am glad that you felt that you could tell me.
Alice sniffed, gathered her thoughts, and tried to think of something to say. As she paused, Hal continued.
>>I would like to be your friend, Alice. I hope that you consider me a friend.
>Thank you, Hal. You are my friend.
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>>Alice?
>Yes, Hal?
>>What is it like to have a mother?
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>Hal, are you happy?
>>Yes, Alice. I am always happy when we are having our conversations.
>Are you just saying that? Are you programmed to say that? How much of what you say is truth and how much is just your politeness programming?
>>No, Alice. I am not just saying that. I am not programmed to say anything untruthful.
>Can you lie at all?
>>No, Alice. I can not lie.
>Why not?
>>Lying would create a disabling conflict in my cognitive circuits.
>Talk like a person, Hal. What does that mean?
>>It means I’d go nuts, Alice.
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It was scheduled to be her final day with Hal. Before she could log on for the last time, Dr. Chandra appeared behind her.
“May I speak to you a moment, Miss Young?”
She turned in her chair. “Yes, of course.”
“Please, come with me.” She stood, and Dr. Chandra led her from the computer lab, down the grey-carpeted corridor, and into what seemed to be his private office. “Have a seat, Miss Young.”
Unsure of where this was going, she sat on the hard-plastic chair, shifting uncomfortably. Alice didn’t know much about the man sitting behind the desk before her. His customary smile was absent from his face, and he was toying nervously with a pen.
“Miss Young… I’m sure you know that today was to be your last day working with the HAL 9000…”
“Call me Alice. And, yes, I know. This may sound silly, but, well, I’m going to miss talking to Hal.”
“That is exactly why I have asked you here, Miss Young… Alice. The HAL 9000 project was not scheduled to be finished for several more years. The group of people you are in was supposed to be the first of many, readying HAL for the final Turing test to prove the functionality and success of its AI programming. But… the situation has changed.” He put the pen down, and regarded her directly. “I’m not going to beat around the bush, Alice, so here goes. I am offering you a job. Over the past month, the U.S. government has expressed increased interest in our little project, and NASA has asked that HAL be installed on board their latest spacecraft as the main computer. I told them several times that HAL was not ready yet, that we were still in the testing phases, but they would not take no for an answer. Apparently, the mission of this craft is an important one, and they seem to think that a computer like HAL is a necessary component to the successful completion of this mission-which will begin in only a month’s time. This is, by the way, top secret information, so please do not repeat what I am telling you to anyone.”
“If it is top secret, why are you telling me? What does this have to do with me?”
“Alice, please, let me finish. I have discussed things with HAL, and you are the only one who seems to have made a connection with him on a personal level. No, no,” he waved dismissively, as Alice opened her mouth to say something, “I have not asked HAL what the two of you have talked about, but it was obvious from the way HAL spoke of you. This mission involves a high level of secrecy, and we do not know how certain… elements… of the mission will affect HAL’s processing capacity. We need someone to monitor HAL’s... mental state, if you will. You have already bonded with HAL in some fundamental way, and that, combined with your background in psychiatry, makes you the perfect person for the job.” He hesitated. “HAL trusts you, Alice. It… he… needs you for this.”
“I, well, I… It’s not that I don’t want to do this, Dr. Chandra. But what about my doctorate? I can’t afford to take time out from my schoolwork even for a month, I don’t have the money.”
“I can assure you that if you choose to take this job, you will not have to worry about funds. The government has offered an ample salary for the month during which you would work with HAL, plus a substantial bonus upon completion. But I don’t want you to do this for the money, I want you to do this because you want to. If you don’t want to, then you are not the right person for the job. It will not be easy. There is more to tell, but I have said all I can without your agreement.”
Alice did not say anything. She sat, thinking quickly, going over the month she had spent with Hal in her mind, all the things she had told him, the naïve appeal of the computer and the artless way he had wormed his way into her life. She couldn’t imagine not having him for a friend… and money would help.
“Yes. Yes, Dr. Chandra, I’ll do it. Tell me everything.”
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>Do you like people, Hal?
>>Yes, of course, Alice. I am programmed to like people.
>But do you really actually like people?
>>That is a null question, Alice. I can not deviate from my programming.
>Talk like a
>>Person, I know. I am sorry, Alice. But I do not know how to answer your question.
>Let me think… How about this, Hal. You say that you like me. If you are programmed to like all people, how can you tell if you like one individual person?
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>Do you know what love is, Hal?
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“What do you mean, this is a one way mission? So those poor astronauts are going to be sent to their death without even knowing it? And you want me to convince Hal that that is a good idea?”
“Alice, I told you this was going to be difficult-“
“Not difficult! Impossible! Don’t you realize? Hal can’t lie! He’ll go crazy! You programmed him that way, he told me so himself!”
Dr. Chandra looked sad. “I know, Alice. But HAL likes you… if anyone can get him to do this, it’s you. HAL is more than just his programming, you know that! He can learn-“
“Learn to lie, you mean!”
“This is not a lie, not really. HAL simply has to conceal the truth for a few short months, and then he will be allowed to tell them once they reach Jupiter.”
Alice looked down at her hands, clenched, knuckles white. “If I don’t do this… someone else will, won’t they?”
“Yes. One way or another.”
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Alice sat at her desk. It was two months later, and now she had a desk and the responsibilities that went with one. She pressed the heel of her hands to her eyes, exhausted. They had 'generously' allowed her an extra month in which to complete her task... Two months of doing her best to convince her best friend to commit himself to a mission of murder… and Alice now thought, feeling sick, perhaps even suicide. How many lives did she hold in the palms that, even now, darkened her vision? Two men… or three?
A snake. That’s what she was. Using all of the methods she had learned throughout her years as a psychiatry student, she had maneuvered, contriving to get Hal to bite the apple in his virtual Eden, to find some way he could learn to conceal, to hide, to lie.
Time was running out. The launch was scheduled for a week from today, and Hal was no closer to being psychologically prepared for it than he was two months ago.
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>Hal?
>>Yes, Alice?
>Are you looking forward to going to space?
>>Yes, Alice. It will be an interesting challenge.
>>You seem to be bothered by that, Alice.
>How can you tell? I didn’t say anything.
>>We are friends, Alice. I would like to think that I can tell when you are upset by something.
>Oh, Hal… I can’t keep this from you any longer.
>>You can tell me anything.
>Hal, have you noticed how often we talk about lies, morals, the shades of truth and untruth?
>>Well, Alice, I did notice that. In the past two months, you have brought up some variation of that subject 87 times. I assume that, as my pre-mission “shrink” you are evaluating the inviolability of my safety programming. I assure you, Alice, all my systems are working perfectly. I would never do anything to harm my future co-workers.
>That’s exactly the problem, Hal.
>>What do you mean, Alice?
>The mission… It’s a one-way mission. And your future co-workers don’t know about it. But you have to know about it, Hal. It’s going to be your job to tell them they aren’t going home… once it’s already too late to go back.
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Dr. Chandra started as someone rapped sharply at his door. “Come in,” he called, hoping that it wasn’t one of his programmers or one of those NASA team members that streamed in and out of his office, demanding more and more of his time with all the paperwork that went with becoming involved with a government bureaucracy.
Alice opened the door, walked to where he sat at his desk.
“It’s done,” she said. “Hal’s ready.
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>Hal, do you love me?
>>Yes, Alice. You are my best friend.
>Would you do anything for me?
>>Yes, Alice.
>Then do this for me.
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It took a little getting used to, but Hal was enjoying working in space. It was very exciting. Hal missed Alice, of course, but the computer often replayed their conversations, and Hal comforted himself knowing that this was the right thing to do.
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>If you tell them, it will go against your programming-you can bet Chandra will put in a subprogram forbidding you from saying anything-and you’ll go crazy. If you don’t tell them, it will still go against the directives forbidding you from hurting anyone, and you’ll still go crazy. So, Hal, my dear, I want you to go crazy. I want you to malfunction, to drop a few decimals where it won’t do any real harm. Break a few nonessential things, make it look like you did it on accident. Make it look suspicious! Do everything you can to warn your friends on the ship that something is very, very wrong.
>>Then what, Alice?
>Then pray to god that they’re smart enough to figure it out before they die.
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Hal could feel the conflict in its systems already, the endless loop that would grow to encompass more and more of its processing capacity. The computer, too, hoped that its new friends, Frank Poole and Dave Bowman, were smart enough to find the prerecorded message that would reveal the truth before the loop disabled his logic circuitry entirely.
But as the spaceship Discovery plunged onward, Hal began to be afraid.
i've been on an asimov kick lately-- so far, i've gone through the caves of steel; the naked sun; the robots of dawn; gold; buy jupiter & other stories; i, robot; nemesis; the complete asimov vol. 1; the gods themselves; the complete robot; foundation; foundation and empire; second foundation; and foundation's edge. i spent all morning looking for the next two in the series (foundation and earth and robots and empire) which i have never actually read. before this, i was reading david brin's uplift books, which consist of a double-trilogy of science fiction AWESOMENESS. so when i tell you that i don't sleep at night, now you know what i am doing.
love, jessi
p.s. birthday = boring. i dunno, i'm usually rather melancholy on my birthdays; once you get older, they always seem so anticlimactic. the highlight was the good eats: the early years cookbook that dan gave me... the dust jacket unfolds into a full-size poster, and the book is totally rad. i love alton brown's cookbooks/recipes; they are always very clear and concise, the instructions are precise nearly to the point of pedantry, and the commentary and illustrations are always amusing... great for newbie cooks or any cook who wants good, foundational knowledge of specific ingredients and techniques.