Project Thalia

[Miss Blonde]

Log Entry 1
Day: 1

I've taken it upon myself to finally venture into something that has recently peaked my curiosity, something that I have wanted to know if I can do. When most people see me they either see a crime lord, a pretty face or a set of breasts and what they don't know is that I have a master's in engineering and another in holonet programming. Though I do find the programming boring and would much rather bang out a set of armor or design a tank. But going back to what I was saying, I want to know if I can create life. Not by cloning though, I want to create life and intelligence from my own being.

What I'm saying is I want to create an Artificial Intelligence. I have always fiddled with the idea and ever since Adam was traded to some woman I have been lost thinking about how he came to be. I thought to myself I could possibly build a better AI, one that is rather standard but at the same time not. One that can be used more than just on a battlefield or for slicing some droid, I want to make an AI that can be a companion and person with emotion and depth to them.

So I've decided to start this project. I'm not sure what I'm going to call it yet, but I've never been more certain on wanting to create something before. Armor and weapons is one thing, but to create someone that will truly care for you and help you is truly unique and special. This is Patricia Susan Zexxel, and I'm going to start my journey to create life.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Log Entry 2
Day: 3

After a day to think about a name for the project I was drawing complete blanks. I have seen AI's with names with deep rooted meanings and terms. Ultimatum, Adam, Eve, Lich, these are things that I've been wanting to avoid. I want this AI to have a real name without any deep meaning that traces back to the beginning of time, I want to be able to be unique with it. But today I finally found a name that I want to go with.

I was with my husband and kids today and we went to this carnival together and Kincaid wanted to play this game where you take a ball and throw it at a stack of jugs to win a prize. Now my son takes after his biological father Romeo, which means he's not very strong. Romeo looked like a twig with abs basically. But Kincaid tried a few times and he simply couldn't do it. So my husband Jarven stepped up to the plate and of course threw the ball so hard it broke through the bottle stack, the wall behind it, and into another game stand ten meters away knocking out the employee working there. He turned out to be ok but we didn't stick around long enough to find out.

Reaching up I grabbed this giant stuffed princess teddy bear and we ran off with it towards the car to make our escape before we had to pay for the damages. We get in the speeder and drive off and I hand my son this giant bear and I ask him what he wants to name them. He tells me Thalia. And that was it. That was the perfect name, the quintessence of what I had been looking for.

So I know her name now. Her name is Thalia.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Log Entry 3
Day: 10

Creating an Artificial Intelligence unit is harder than most people realize. Well harder for a single person, today I started her core matrix from the bottom. What makes Thalia well Thalia, and so far I've had to go back and forth with every little line of code and it's starting to drive me crazy. But I figured out a method to keep plugging along in her coding for the core matrix. It was almost so simple that it made me want to slap my own forehead.

Look at Thalia's matrix like a tree, that's how I see it at least. We have the roots of everything, in the case of the AI the roots would be the basic processing power that the AI has. The ability of how she can soak in knowledge and information then process it so the tree can grow. So that's where I started, I began to chip away at her processing power and since my lab at Relovian has a very impressive holo computer I was able to use its processors to create the underlying roots of understanding and active learning for Thalia. By the time it was over I feel that she'll be able to remotely pilot most ships in the galaxy just by scanning the holonet for lessons.

But since all she is right now is a program that can scan and add information to roots and core, I have to keep her disconnected from the net. I wouldn't want the programming corrupted with cat videos and nuclear launch codes. It was a very jarring process but after full twelve hour days of coding I think that the roots are finally completed. Time to keep building up.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Log Entry 4
Day: 25

It's been over two weeks and I have to say I'm very happy with the progress that I've made. Thalia's core matrix is coming along swimmingly, but at the end of last week I had hit a roadblock on how to create emotion. The trunk of the tree is the core of life for it and it needs to be full and nourished. It needs substance, not just information but actual thoughts and feeling. So I tried to create emotions via coding like a standard droid would have, but I realized that I didn't want her to be a droid. I want her to be real, to have these genuine emotions that I have. But I think that's what separates us from machines really, but I figured what the hell and gave it a shot anyways.

I scanned my brain. But I didn't just scan my brain, no that would be too small. And I didn't just do a basic scan, I made sure that myself and any participants I had feel certain emotions. I plugged myself in and I made my husband sit across from me and stare into each other's eyes. I was always a sucker for his eyes, the way they look with almost a hint of canine in them. I felt that spark and flame in my chest, I felt the ocean love I had for him, and that's what I wanted to be what emotion Thalia learned first. Love, not just on a physical level but a spiritual one as well. She learned how Jarven makes me feel when I look at him and I'd like to think she understood it. I want to believe a big part of her core is that love.

But sadly you can't have love without anger, that part I donated from myself and Jarven. I strapped myself down and forced myself to watch the footage shot from the battle of Manaan from my camera I had on me. I watched Sanchez die in my arms, the Vong overrun the front lines. Rage, pure rage and anger. But also hopelessness, and the ability to stare into it and keep fighting. Jarven donated the thoughts of losing his entire pack, his family. That hollow feeling of anger and loss that you have.

I slowly incorporated these emotions in one at a time until I had them all. Anger, love, sadness, greed, courage, a plethora of emotions that I began to code into her and shape the matrix with. I just hope they would work and she could expand on them in her own way.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Log Entry 5
Day: 27

I was about to finish Thalia's emotions section of her Cortex yesterday, I was in the lab and Jarven dos the sweetest thing. He pulled me out of the lab with a box of chocolates and flowers, so after a quick shower he took me out on this wonderful date and we went home to spend time with the kids. We didn't go out to carnivals or destroy property and commit assault. We just sat outside on a few blankets and looked up into space. And that's when I noticed something, something that made me feel foolish to forget it.

I looked over to see my six year old son staring out into space just captivated by it, his mind simply exploding with endless possibilities of wonder. And that was what I had forgotten, I had forgotten that childhood wonder that holds imagination and just amazement at even the smallest of things.

So today I took my son and brought him into the lab, hooked him up to the brain scanner and showed him image after image of space and the cosmos. I was able to see what childhood wonder looked like on my baby boy's brain waves. Once the scan was complete I let him play around in the lab for a bit while I cried.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Log Entry 6
Day: 31

I finally finished her core matrix. It is by far the most comprehensive coding that I have ever done, I'm quite proud of myself really. I have crafted an Artificial Intelligence, well at least the bare bones of one. Thalia is still not active and she hasn't learned anything. I have kept her shut away from the holonet still until she's complete, then I'll let her take her first few steps on her own. I've programmed her with the age range of a woman in her twenties for her default profile and I'm starting to craft an image for her, an avatar so to speak.

So far the designs have been pleasing and while I'm not terribly focused on them I am aware that she should look respectable. So I hired a professional artist to draw up some digital icons and ranges of animations. I may be able to program a fully functional AI but I certainly can't creatively draw to save my life.

Once I had finished programming her avatar into the matrix I was set to bring her online as a functioning AI. However I decided to stop myself due to thinking back to the whole tree metaphor I had used earlier. A tree with only a trunk and its roots a rather boring, and I wouldn't even classify it as one. Thalia needed a bit more panache, she needed branches and leaves.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Log Entry 7
Day: 40

I've spent the last ten days doing something I wasn't all too proud of. I know that war is a necessity in this galaxy and the need for violence does arise, but it feels like I'm corrupting her with it. With statistics on blasters, billets, guns, blades, weapons that are made for killing and tactics that can end innocent lives. I feel that Thalia wouldn't want to have to kill unless she had to, that there was another way. But I will be dammed if my creation will not be able to defend herself. So I've written the following into a sub program to hopefully try and help out herself and whoever she is with at the time.


Active battlefield tracking. This is a pretty standard feature most HUD's have but it requires the user to map it out Manually, so with this Thalia will be able to track enemy units as they are uploaded to the battle net. So this means that she's going to formulate routes from maps, pin distances, waypoints, an absolutely amazing asset on the battlefield.

While I'm not thrilled I am uploading tactics used from major battles and various military strategic books into this sub program. I want her to be able to form options for her user in real time, and part of me wishes I had Thalia with me during Manaan, she'd of made a bigger difference and maybe more people would of survived. I've also taken it upon myself to upload a database of weaponry into her programming, blasters, blades, all that good stuff. So she can look up statistics and track shots with these weapons to help the user.

Overall I left the military portion of Thalia very basic, I don't want her used for war as much as I would to just be a good companion. So here's to hoping.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Log Entry 8
Day: 47

Well I took it upon myself to add another branch to the tree these last seven days. I've uploaded another sub program to Thalia and it's something that I believe will help her help others immensely. I have loaded up the schematics of star destroyers, speeders, cruisers, fighters, anything that's got an auto pilot or flies I have placed in into this program. This is to help her identify structural damage on a ship and understand how it works. I've made it so that anything she learns about ships redirects to this program where it will be stored. It seemed like a no brainier to have.

I have also uploaded training videos on how to fly, and the entire curriculum taught to the clones on Cartao when it comes to ships. How to maintain, operate, and function on these ships. From video streaming of these lessons and classroom material I've loaded it all into this program. She'll be able to teach others at this point. I do however believe she'll only be able to steer capital ships, and won't be able to use their guns unless automated as she's only an AI. And an AI can't crew a whole ship.

I think this is a more useful program, something that I can be more comfortable with rather than the thought of war and death.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Log Entry 9
Day: 54

I had an idea a few weeks ago, I was about ready to bring Thalia online and my husband [member="Jarven Zexxel"] were sitting down for breakfast while the kids were at school and the baby was down for a nap. He asked me "Wouldn't it be cool if you could talk to Darth Vader? Or Grand Master Yoda?" And I thought to myself, yeah that would be pretty tight. So why not? Why couldn't you talk to these people? So I decided to build a program for her that allows this. Well not actually speaking to the dead, but a lot of famous people from the past have had their voices recorded on some holo message and put on the net. I've also had a lot of holocron copies come through my door and thankfully I've uploaded a lot of the information.

So this program allows Thalia to look through the holonet and if there's a voice of this person on file she can emulate it and speak as if she was that person based off of what information is available on the net. So if you wanted to ask Yoda about the weather or even just have a basic conversation you can. I don't want to brag but I think this is my favorite little program that I've created for her. I think people would get a kick out of it.

Obviously you won't be able to learn any information about these people that isn't publicly available and she'll even be able to simulate the voices of people still living today. This is a useful tool and I hope it will help guide people and give them information they might need for whatever purpose. I'm just glad I was able to make it happen for Thalia. She's almost ready.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Log Entry 10
Day: 62

These last few days I've been sitting here taking out any bugs in her code, it all looks beautiful but I've been ready to bring her online for the last two days. I've just been staring at her matrix and sleeping avatar. I'm afraid that once I turn her on she'll be miserable or won't function. I know for a fact that she'll work but I'm just afraid, I've brought millions of lives into this galaxy. Physical organic life who were basically child soldiers, I've even abandoned them in fear of the actions brought forth by the republic. So why am I so afraid to give her life? To let her feel?

Does she have a soul? Is she even a real person? She's been uploaded with my emotions, some of my memories, the emotions of my family and loved ones. Isn't that life? The ability to feel, just because you're a series of numbers and letters doesn't mean that you aren't truly alive. I don't think I have the strength to do face her, I don't think I should be the first face she sees.

I've decided that I won't turn her on, that I'm going to give that joy to the person she will be going to. It's a troublesome time that they face and I think she will be close to him. I want to believe she can make a difference. But I won't be the one to first influence her, she has been uploaded with what good and evil is. Right and wrong. I just fear that she will be able to decide these things on her own to become her own person.

 

[Miss Blonde]

Thesis

Project Thalia is an Artificial intelligence that I have taken upon myself to create. She is almost your standard AI but I've thrown in parts to her that make her something more. Over the course of this paper I will explain what I have done in order to create her, to give life to something that I only hope will be a good person. I will be starting with the bottom and moving my way up to the top of her design and capabilities. I've used the metaphor of a tree to not only help myself grasp it but to help others as well.

It all starts with the roots of the tree, the ability to soak up knowledge and nutrients in order to grow. So I've placed her in a small drive with plenty of terabits to grow and learn so she can shape herself with more information as she goes along. Now here's the thing about AI's their processing power is only as strong as the machine they are being held within. So obviously unless an armor is decked out with massive processors than an AI won't be able to hack or slice most things, so her processing power equates to that of what she's within. So if she's in a star destroyers mainframe she's going to be able to have a lot more strength rather than being in a droid body or armor. I programmed her to be able to utilize this power to gather and grow with more data and knowledge. I've also added different sub programs that I will be detail later, but I've made it so that she can route different pieces of information towards other programs specializing in various topics rather than adding it to her core memory banks. But foot wise the processing power of Thalia is very capable and she can stream information and process it effectively and efficiently.

The trunk of the tree or Thalia's core body is quite personal for me. Mainly because I spent a few weeks uploading something that can make her unique as an AI. I captured the brainwaves, sound, and scans of emotions. Anger, rage, happiness, price, sadness, joy, and wonder. An entire range of human emotion I've captured and uploaded into her matrix to give her the ability to feel. And not just how droid's feel, but actual emotions from real people. A part of me is now a part of her, a part of my son and husband, his bravery and courage, my son's childhood wonder of the universe, that innocence and Imagination you just can't get anywhere else. I wanted these thoughts and feeling to be what made Thalia, I wanted them to be able to be a person that could make choices and a real friend. This is why the first thing introduced her to was love. Love for a person that you will care for unconditionally, a love that will bring you around and make you feel amazing. These were the foundations of her core matrix and so far she will have to explore the galaxy and learn herself, she'll have to learn how to control these emotions and feel and understand pain. I've uploaded her into a physical form as well, more of a digital avatar but I think she looks wonderful. This would be the bark, what's on the outside. She looks beautiful and I am very proud of how it came out.

Branches and leaves are really what make a tree a beautiful thing to look at and these are various programs that I've added to her to give her the capability to grow. While she has the ability to create her own sub routines and programs I have made a few that I believe are a good foundation for her to have as an AI starting off.

The first sub program I created was unfortunately one based on war. I gave her the ability to track battlefield reports, movements, place waypoints, communicate with troops, slice or attack enemy systems depending on what she's uploaded to, and a few other things. It's a very standard military program and I've shoved it full of books on tactics as well so she can provide the best strategy to stay alive at the time depending on the situation. Pretty basic really so I threw in statistics of multiple weapons. From blasters, slugs, blades, and explosives she's going to be able to track these and help make a weapon in hand the most effective it can be or exploit the weakness of the one it's facing. Overall it's a very basic military program that I've coded in.

The next sub program I placed was ships. Uploading the lesson plans, training videos, and footage taught to the clones on Cartao. Advanced piloting videos and other things such as ship schematics so that if Thalia is ever uploaded into a mainframe of a ship whether it be a fighter or a cruiser she will know how to pilot it via its autopilot system.

I managed to put in another program into her cortex that is rather cool. The ability to speak to anyone in recorded history that has their voice uploaded to the holonet, while Thalia won't be able to recall detailed memories they will be able to tell listed information from a first person perspective as well as carry on a conversation with that person with their voice. This includes people who are living today such as galactic celebrities and politicians, I believe that this feature will be useful for both espionage and making information gathering a bit more personal.

Overall Thalia as an AI I have built her to be something more, the ability to feel human emotions and perform the basic functions most people would expect from an AI. I love her fiercely and this is why I can not be the one who brings her into this galaxy, I don't want her to take after me any more than what I've given her. I feel like there's not much to her as an AI, but as a person she is infinite with the possibilities she has. I haven't met her and I don't believe I ever will, but I already love her like my own and am proud of her. Thalia will be an AI that I can truly be happy I created, I just hope she doesn't take after me too much.