Linna Beorht
Character
[SIZE=11pt]OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]As an adult Sharuka and a citizen of the Sharukan Empire, you have the right to take a test. The test is highly gamified and purely meritocratic. It tests problem-solving, judgment, and various personality traits in non-obvious ways. Preparation techniques, such as those available to the wealthy, are nearly useless. Success rates are relatively constant across socioeconomic strata: a poor, uneducated Sharuka (yes, they exist) has essentially the same chance as a highly-educated Sharuka noble. The Ethos AI administers the test.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]If you are a member of a client species and receive full Sharuka citizenship due to consistently superior performance, you may take the test. A citizen may retake the test at any point. In certain cases (e.g. evidence of diminished capacity, perhaps as noted by the Ethos AI’s internal monitoring protocols), the Empire may require you to retake the test.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Success on the test means you receive a physical or digitized book, and can receive a replacement book at no cost. The book contains specific, contextless instructions for thousands of precise but apparently random situations. If you take the actions found in the book when the appropriate situations arise, you are an active participant. The Ethos EI provides for these functions, differentiates between legitimate and illegitimate participants, and corrects errors by providing others with new instructions. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]As a participant, you benefit from the personal attention and generosity of the Ethos EI. This is all purely voluntary.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Your role is comparable to a bit in a computer, and several hundred million of you are participating on this Sharukan Imperial planet. Based on the book's instructions, you can take thousands of tiny, simple, apparently inconsequential possible actions, given certain conditions. Your potential actions are not simply on/off or yes/no. Quantum computing would be the closest analogue. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]If you are the quantum bit, the Ethos EI is the computer. Its substance comprises the actions of its willing, elite participants. It maintains certain electronic partial backups and ancillary mechanisms, which it uses to preserve, perpetuate, and monitor itself. In an emergency, if electronic ancillaries are unavailable, the incorporeal main portion of the AI can administer the test using appropriated systems. The incorporeal portion of the AI can endure and operate unsupported by electronic systems, though it's obviously difficult for a pattern of behaviour to make a financial transaction, administer an electronic test, or talk to someone.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]STRENGTHS[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Intent: A decidedly non-standard Artificial Intelligence (AI), more accurately termed an Emergent Intelligence (EI).[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Image Source: N/A[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Canon Link: N/A[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Primary Source: This submission combines [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Pymetrics[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] with an idea mentioned in Karl Schroeder's ‘[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Lady of Mazes[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt].’[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Manufacturer: [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Sharuka[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] species[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Affiliation: Sharuka species[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Model: Ethos Emergent Intelligence[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Modularity: No[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Production: Semi-Unique[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Material: Programming, both electronic and...well, you'll see.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]An emergent non-electronic AI comprised of the actions of its participants[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]A physical book[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]An electronic test[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]A layered mandate, in descending order of importance: To preserve the Sharukan Empire, to preserve the authority of the Emperor, to preserve itself, and to benefit its participants (who also fall under the first duty). Substantive conflicts between duties are extremely rare.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]As an adult Sharuka and a citizen of the Sharukan Empire, you have the right to take a test. The test is highly gamified and purely meritocratic. It tests problem-solving, judgment, and various personality traits in non-obvious ways. Preparation techniques, such as those available to the wealthy, are nearly useless. Success rates are relatively constant across socioeconomic strata: a poor, uneducated Sharuka (yes, they exist) has essentially the same chance as a highly-educated Sharuka noble. The Ethos AI administers the test.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]If you are a member of a client species and receive full Sharuka citizenship due to consistently superior performance, you may take the test. A citizen may retake the test at any point. In certain cases (e.g. evidence of diminished capacity, perhaps as noted by the Ethos AI’s internal monitoring protocols), the Empire may require you to retake the test.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Success on the test means you receive a physical or digitized book, and can receive a replacement book at no cost. The book contains specific, contextless instructions for thousands of precise but apparently random situations. If you take the actions found in the book when the appropriate situations arise, you are an active participant. The Ethos EI provides for these functions, differentiates between legitimate and illegitimate participants, and corrects errors by providing others with new instructions. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]As a participant, you benefit from the personal attention and generosity of the Ethos EI. This is all purely voluntary.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Your role is comparable to a bit in a computer, and several hundred million of you are participating on this Sharukan Imperial planet. Based on the book's instructions, you can take thousands of tiny, simple, apparently inconsequential possible actions, given certain conditions. Your potential actions are not simply on/off or yes/no. Quantum computing would be the closest analogue. [/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]If you are the quantum bit, the Ethos EI is the computer. Its substance comprises the actions of its willing, elite participants. It maintains certain electronic partial backups and ancillary mechanisms, which it uses to preserve, perpetuate, and monitor itself. In an emergency, if electronic ancillaries are unavailable, the incorporeal main portion of the AI can administer the test using appropriated systems. The incorporeal portion of the AI can endure and operate unsupported by electronic systems, though it's obviously difficult for a pattern of behaviour to make a financial transaction, administer an electronic test, or talk to someone.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]STRENGTHS[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Core processing and memory functions are totally incorporeal and non-electronic.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Replicable and self-repairing, given sufficient access to the test, the book, and a willing population.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Extreme intelligence with a wide range of sentient functions. Any planetary Ethos EI has Sharukan Empire citizenship as an individual.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Participants have strong incentives to continue participating promptly and accurately.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Participation is not especially onerous and does not hamper productivity.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Highly refined process, refined throughout the last several dozen millennia.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Mass disruption of the populace’s book-directed actions for more than a day or two (e.g. global cataclysm, successful hostile takeover, mass disloyalty to the Empire for some unprecedented reason) will cause the main portion of the planetary AI to just...stop existing. [/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]In theory, the electronic test could be interfered with at a given testing center, potentially allowing a lower-quality or traitorous individual to become a participant. While Sharukan hardware, programming, and language is completely incompatible with galactic mainstream technology, a specialized and prolonged effort could make a dent.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]A given Ethos iteration - its core incorporeal function - an individual - is intrinsic to a planet's population and cannot leave that planet in a substantive way. It must conduct distant business through droids, emissaries, or electronic means.[/SIZE]
