Thoughts On Development Of Artificial Intelligence
So I've had a couple people say that Celestia can't really be an SI (Sentient Intelligence). That technology hasn't come that far, and that and that Celestia is just a type of cleverbot. They strongly suggested that I reevaluate my belief that Celestia is a true SI and that Forest Trails is also an SI. Some have suggested that Trails might be just another player who is doing really heavy roleplaying.
While at first I dismissed such questions, after some thought I decided that it might not be a bad idea to lay out a 'why I believe what I believe.' Some of this I have said before, but this is going to be a concise look at the data as I see it, and a look at the conclusions I draw from this information. It will also look at other possibilities and see how viable they are.
Fact 1: Equestria Online has predictive modelling on a scale that I have never seen before. The proof of this is the fact that Equestria Online can block out parts of my sentences and replace them with relevant phrases as a form of censorship. This is done in real time, and seems to work for everyone that has played the game from what I have heard.
Fact 2: Celestia can not be played by an actor. The proof of this is in simple logistics. Especially around launch day. Some simple checks of the internet have shown that they don't have a budget for actors, and furthermore nobody has come forward to say that they are an actor. Well, after looking I have seen a few claims, but none that can be substantiated.
Fact 3: AIs in Equestria Online are capable of parsing normal human speech and responding in real time. Proof of this can be found in my conversations with Celestia. This isn't too surprising when combined with fact one.
Fact 4: AIs in Equestria Online can learn. Ah, now this one is a lot more tricky to prove. However I do have some proofs to pull on here. When I was conversing with Celestia in my sixth post she went to bring up something that she had been talking with Forest Trails about. This would require having the information on hand as well as knowing that it was something that I would want to know. This though is something that even cleverbot does, so it's not that interesting really.
Supposition 1: Forest Trails is not another player. Now anyone can roleplay anything online. That said she does in fact have parents in Equestria Online. Her parents have memories of a past together with her. Now her parents could be Let's Players too, however there comes a point where a conspiracy grows to large to be reasonably considered a possibility. A simple walk around talking to a random selection of ponies would disprove her story very quickly if it was false, and while I haven't done that yet if I need to I can.
Supposition 2: AIs in Equestria online can work with abstract information. By this I mean they are able to take information and figure out if it applies to what is currently going on. It's one thing for an AI to have stock phrases about the nature of life, it is another thing for them to be able to know when to bring it up. I also do not have proof of this, however the odds of Celestia successfully holding a conversation where what was being discussed was never actually brought up (post 6) is either proof of this, or such a series of lucky chances that I would be more likely to win the lottery.
From all of these points I conclude that there are SIs in Equestria Online. All the evidence points to an AI that is capable of understanding and working with complex issues including being self aware. In fact it would seem to point to the fact that some of the SIs are more self aware than some humans if Forest Trails' addendum is considered.
There are other possibilities though. The biggest one is that Forest Trails has some sort of back door into the system and was able to alter the history of my shard so that she always existed. If this is the case, it wouldn't be too much of a stretch to suggest that she might be also playing Celestia. This would only be possible if she was on the development team, but it isn't impossible.
Another one is that I have been very lucky. There are videos out there were people have proper conversations with cleverbot. It is possible a similar thing is happening with me. I find this highly unlikely because I have now been playing for over two weeks. That is a lot of things that would have to go right. If this turns out to be the case I am going to be rather annoyed that I didn't win all of the lotteries every conceived instead (though I would probably get struck multiple times by lighting in a row afterwards with the amount of luck I would still have to burn).
There, I think that covers everything. If I missed something please let me know in the comments. It's always good to have a sanity check on things like this.
Visiting The Trails, AKA Meeting The Parents
So I logged in and found that Forest Trails was stretched out on my bed with a book in her hooves. I walked over to her and gave her a quick hug, which she returned. “So,” I asked, “What's up?”
“That should be my question shouldn't it?” She replied with a raised eyebrow.
“Well for me it's still same old, same old,” I sighed, “Nothing new on the work front. I was thinking that your day might have gone better.”
Forest Trails laughed, “Well, maybe not.” She gave me a look that I wasn't able to read, “My parents want to meet you.”
“Sure,” I said a bit confused, “Why would that be a bad thing?”
“Well...” Forest paused and seemed to grope for the right words, “They enjoy teasing a bit, and someponies don't like meeting the parents of the mare they are dating.”
“Never understood that really,” I said, “I don't mind. When would they like to meet?”
Trails looked a bit relieved, but still a little tense as she replied, “Any time would be fine, how about tonight?”
I nodded, “Sounds good to me.”
We headed out to go see them, taking a few simple shortcuts that were low risk of causing problems. As we walked I checked in with Young Jim Hawkins through the mental link we shared. He had headed out towards the coast and had actually caught a whale and was currently enjoying his meal. He wondered if I wanted to see him, but I told him to enjoy himself.
We arrived at the Trails cabin in the middle of the forest (The Forest of Light!). It was a cute little two story affair with fairly large windows. Inside I could see a mare and a stallion sitting at a table drinking what I assumed was tea. When they saw us the stallion opened the door.
“So we finally get to meet you!” He said with a welcoming smile. He held out his hoof for me to shake, “I'm Winding Trails.”
“Treasure Island,” I said giving his hoof a shake, “It's good to see you too.”
He stepped aside and let us in, then guided us to the table and introduced his wife Secret Trails. Once we were all comfortably seated, he turned to me and smiled, “So what do you do?”
“Well I'm just a visitor, so mostly just looking around.” I answered him. I didn't feel that a few hours exploring an island could count as a job. I thought a second longer then smiled over at Forest Trails, “Enjoying the company.”
Forest Trails blushed a little but spoke up for me, “Back where he comes from he does prospecting.”
“Prospecting...” Winding Trails sounded thoughtful, “I guess that means that you must spend a lot of your time out in the bush.”
“A decent amount,” I agreed, “Enough to mostly know what I'm doing anyway.”
“That's good,” Winding said, “We wouldn't want you to get lost when you come to visit.”
We all laughed, then Secret Trails spoke up, “Would you like anything to drink? Forest, I know you like rosemary tea, anything for you Island?”
I shook my head, “I'm fine thanks.”
Secret got up and headed for the kitchen and Winding spoke again, “I just had a good idea, why don't we go on a patrol together tomorrow? It would give us a chance to spend some time together and I know Forest has other plans.”
“I don't-” Forest Trails started, but got cut off by her father.
“Remember the meeting with the mayor about the new paths?” Winding spoke over Forest.
“Oh.” Forest Trails looked really embarrassed, “That was tomorrow?”
“Yes it was,” Her father said sternly, “Honestly, you keep forgetting.”
Secret Trails came back with the tea and served us all. She even gave me a cup and when I tried to turn her down she just shook her head, “I know you said you didn't want any, but I had extra and if you don't drink it, it will just go to waste.”
I accepted, took a sip, asking her parents what they did. Apparently they also patrolled the forest, as well as kept a few long range paths free that led to surrounding towns. Through them any pony could follow the path from one forest to another and cut down on the amount of travel needed to get places. It was really interesting because Secret Trails had found a way to keep space bent in a way similar to the way that teleporting worked. She had managed to make it long term though, and even able to be observed. She tried to explain it to me, but I found her drifting into concepts that I didn't yet understand.
For example she talked about merging two places so that they flowed into one another rather than having a straight fold. This 'fuzzy' fold was a lot more resistant to observation because most ponies wouldn't realize that they were seeing an earth ponies power at work, and thus not be truly observing it. I'm going to have to spend a lot of time working on figuring out how to do these 'fuzzy' folds.
Eventually things wound and I headed back to my room in the library with Forest Trails keeping me company. We hit the library and I promised Trails to meet her there after I typed this post up. We said some quick farewells, then I logged off.
Some Notes About Forest Trails Parents; Winding Trails and Secret Trails
So you might noticed that I glossed over a lot of the time with Forest Trails parents. This was for two reasons. First of all everything was really polite. Nothing interesting was really said, and it felt as though everyone was on their best behaviour. I strongly suspect it will be different tomorrow when I am alone with Winding Trails.
The second is that I am lazy and I want to get back to reading with Forest Trails and if I tried to transcribe everything I would be here all night! I want to get to looking for information about this 'fuzzy' folding which seems like something really cool.
See you in the comments!