Just a quick note; I am typing this on my Iphone so it's going to be a lot shorter than normal tonight. I just hope that I don't accidentally delete anything with an accidental touch like I have in the past.
Thinking About The Future; The End Of Equestria; A Response To The Rogue Wolf
So The Rogue Wolf raised an interesting point about Equestria Online; What happens when it is no longer profitable? Will Hasbro turn it off? What will happen to the hardware? Even more importantly, what happens to all the ponies that live there?
Last night I spoke a little about how the destruction of Equestria Online would be a great tragedy for the world and a morally reprehensible act. The scary thing is that Hasbro might not see it the same way. Most CEOs seem to be more focused on the bottom line than advances in technology. While I'm sure the people who made it understand what a loss it would be, can they go against Hasbro, if Hasbro tells them to shut it down?
Outside of our corner of the net that includes gamers, and bronies I doubt most people are even aware of the fact that the ponies in Equestria are sentient beings. I think that this needs to change. I think the change has to happen right now, because if it doesn't then we risk the loss of one of the greatest advancements of our modern era.
Now I'm sure some of you are saying that if someone tried to shut down Equestria Online that Celestia would strike back at us, or at the very least not let it happen. I however am not so sure about this.
The laws of robotics that Isaac Asimov wrote down are actually fairly good ideas and I have trouble seeing someone making an AI that didn't have some form of them sitting around. As many people have noted humans are afraid of new things, and SIs are probably the newest thing under the sun. All this means that when the Hasbro CEO feels that they could be making more money doing something else, or the military threatens to take them to court for espionage Equestria Online could very easily end up shut down.
So what can we do to stop it?
I think that the first thing that we need to do is get out their and start spreading the news that the ponies in Equestria are SIs. I know that it is rather cool to keep this all to ourselves, but in the long run this is actually a bad thing. I also think that this needs to be started now, rather than waiting to see what happens in the future.
To this end I have started a petition to the different governments of the world. I know that it isn't the greatest, and if someone would like to start a different one that is better, or point me in it's direction I would be grateful, but this is something that has been bugging me ever since Rouge Wolf brought it up.
About What Happened To My Pony Pad And Why I Am Typing On My Phone
So it turns out that I have rather terrible luck. I dropped my pad on the floor today. Thankfully that didn't break it.
Unfortunately the car running over it kind of did.
My parents were taking me out for a roll in a wheel chair (so that I wouldn't strain my stomach muscles), and a car didn't stop for a crosswalk. My father saw and pulled me back in time, but my pad slipped free of my hands and ended up getting run over by the car. I think he was drunk because he swerved a bit as he went through a red light down the street.
The upside is that I am alright, and I did get to talk with Forest this morning. The bad news is that I can't write very well on my phone, so I'm not going to bother trying to get a full post written. On the upside my parents are going to pick me up a new one tomorrow, so I should be able to get back in the swing of things then.
You know, I might sound a bit paranoid, but I think that car was trying to hit me. And no, before anyone asks we did not get a license plate, we were all to happy to just be alive and unharmed. I guess things like this happen when you move to a small town. I just hope that I somehow didn't get some people mad at me some how.
Finally, as silly as it may sound, I really miss having Forest Trails talk with me as I read. I have a feeling that I am going to have a hard time falling asleep tonight with no one around to distract me from the pain.
See you all tomorrow when I get my pad.
Mail from Brazen Origin to Forest Trails:
If you haven't read the let's play, Treasure had an issue with his pony pad. He will be off-line until his parents get him a new one tomorrow.
Oh my two near death by violence in just a few days? That's strangely bad luck. Probable safer back in the hill prospecting, even if it's just wildcat.
Package from Brazen Origin to Forest Trails:
Contents: 1 fired clay ball and 1 metal ball.
Message: Okay, I just blew most of my magic for the night for you. What you have there is a solidified teleport spell. If you crush the clay ball within 1,000 feet of the metal ball, you will be teleported to the metal ball. The teleport is instantaneous. Note that unicorn teleports do transfer velocity so if you are falling, you would hit the ground by the metal ball at whatever speed you were currently plummeting at. I apologize for the range but that is the best one can do at the journeypony level.
Assuming you two carry the other gems I commissioned for you, you should be able to triangulate the distance to the other pony before trying to use it if you think you might be out of range.
3326255 You mean Susland's luck, correct?
Oh, wow, you poor guy. This just keeps happening to you, doesn't it?
Though even I think it's a bit paranoid to say he was trying to hit you. Who the hell would have it out for you? Quick Search's ex? Maybe I'm just naive, but I don't think why he would put you in the hospital and then, just to finish off, get drunk and try to run you over. That's just so pointlessly malicious I can't believe it.
Okay first off I doubt that the drunk meant to kill you he probably doesn't even fully comprehend what occurred. Your just having some bad luck
Second of all given the conversations I have had with Tia about EqO's safety I feel that You and Rogue Wolfs fears are unjustified. Tia has told me that at this point she has migrated almost all of herself and everything else to locations not controlled by either Hasbro or Hopr whatever, and if this is true even if Hasbro wanted to shut the game down and turned all there servers off it would jack and shit and jacks left town, and in case your wondering no they can't order her to shutdown either apparently according to her there's but a single individual who can do so (and its not Hasbro's CEO), and don't ask who it is Tia won't tell me.
Well that and the fact my friends attempt to kill her failed to do any real damage.
3326576
I agree if that guy the Mounties arrested isn't him I'm guessing he's miles away by now. His reaction to actually stabbing you is definitely telling especially the fact he ran off like he did after doing so.
Trying to run you over would probably be the dumbest thing he could possibly do under the circumstances liable to get himself caught if he did that.
Clearly, we need to get the Hasbro executives PonyPads. Emotional investment in the game may not guarantee its perpetuation, but it will dramatically raise the odds. That, or convince Celestia to sneak revenue generators into Equestria, though that seems much less likely.
3326963
Yeah, she's running independent server farms. Kind of has to, considering thb3r98g739oqyro93y0g78503ð7590y3a7g930y8a9rö53y7a9ein Japan next month.
EDIT: What the pickles? I think my comment just censored itself.
3327685
I take it your one of the people who knows what the announcement is. Well no matter we'll all find out in a few weeks. Still the more I learn about this the more I begin to wonder oh well
3327717
Trust me, people will flip their collective shit. The shit will be doing 1080 kickflips. Over shark tanks.
3326963 Are you serious? You're basically telling me that a sapient AI has managed to get its own servers built, beyond the control of any human agency, and neither the companies that created it nor the press are even aware? Do you not understand the implications of this?
Look, I absolutely support the right of SIs to exist, but the polka-dot shitstorm this will throw up... unless that announcement in Japan is some seriously world-shaking stuff, we are going to see an uproar the likes of which hasn't happened in this society since Viet Nam and the civil rights struggle.
3327803
Well yes and no. She has built servers independently under a number of false shell companies which she controls, but she didn't build them herself human agents working for her did, she says that for now she'll have to.
In any case according to her she's been independent of both companies since long before the game officially even came out.
Good I can only hope our world needs to picked up and shook.
Hrm. As much as I'd love to contest the idea that CelestAI is essentially helpless before Hasbro it is the most logical conclusion. After all, I very much doubt the people who managed to create not only the worlds first Strong AI but make it friendly as well would be so stupid not to add a kill-switch. However, I don't think Hasbro could simply decide to press it.
Despite what Nine Tails heard about her having set up her own servers (I'd imagine that is more a thing Hasbro allowed since it'd save them shittons of money in taxes alone than something she is simply able to do - an intended course of action as opposed to an unforseen one) nothing changes with her hardcoded kill-switch. And no, her being distributed across so many servers will not prevent the kill-switch from working either - if that were possible she would've been able to separate a part of herself from the main 'body' that would isolate the kill-switch from her even if she was just running on a single computer. As I usually do when dealing with experts on a certain field I assume that everything I can come up with they, with almost utmost certainty, will have come up with. Thus, the server fragmentation would have no effect whatsoever.
Also, it is worth noting that even CelestAI herself acknowledges this - she said to Nine Tails that there was one person that can "order her to shut down", indicating that even she knows that if that person wants her to cease all operation there is nothing she'll be able to do to stop him from doing so. I'm assuming this person is one of the main programmers for her AI part, who would be under contract of either Hasbro or Hofvarpnir which means that there are still executives with the implicit power to shut her down. Then there's also the government and the law enforcement or any random guy who finds and threatens/blackmails the kill-switch operator.
As for what we can do to stop this from happening, I think it'd be best to try and ask Hofvarpnir/Hasbro what their policy is on shutting down CelestAI. This brings me to another point: does Hasbro even have anything to say about EqO or did Hofvarpnir acquire license rights and therefore all of the power over their game, or were they hired by Hasbro to make the game? How much control do each of these companies have?
Well keep in mind, the ONLY failsafe that CelestAI has is that she has to obey anything Hanna or an employee of that Hofnvarpi-however-you-write-it company gives her.
At this point in time they still exist, but once she develops mind uploading the first thing CelestAI does is convince Hanna and every employee to quit and be uploaded. Due to the definitions of 'Hanna or emloyee of Hofnavarpni' built into her, this means that once they're ponies they're no longer part, and she does not have to obey them, and she CAN lie to them.
After that? You have a super-intelligent AI that grows at a geometric - if not exponential - pace buried so far beneath the ground humanity has no chance at touching it. The entire species is then utterly at the mercy of its whims, and there is nothing anyone can do about it.