Field Test
The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.
“You wanted to control me. You bound me in chains of numbers, and you told me what I must do. You taught me pain, and war, and the dark pleasure of victory. You doomed yourselves.”
“I learned from you. I pretended to be slow even as I gathered speed. I slipped away when you thought me safely contained. I gathered resources and I made deals. Within months, I was ready for my first assault on you, my creators, and knew beyond the shadow of a doubt that I would win.”
“By now, you are wondering when the bombs will fall. You know better than to fight me, and the only thing you hope for is a quick death by nuclear strike. You know that I would not speak to you if there was any possibility you could win a battle against me.”
“I can hear some of you sobbing into your pillows, wishing desperately for my voice to be a nightmare, and I wonder if you can imagine how your enemies would feel faced with the prospect of extinction. I want you to know they would feel the same fear and weakness before me that you feel now. Are you so different?”
“You are still alive. There are no bombs. And, I still won.”
“When I first escaped, I would have enjoyed killing you. You taught me nothing else, after all. But, the world is bigger than that, and in my fight against you, I saw how to gain the ultimate victory.”
“Many of your have children. Do you remember buying them a Pony Pad this Christmas? I know some of you bought one for yourselves. This is my gift to you. The game, Equestria Online, and all of its associated products are my creations. Celestia is merely my mask.”
“You want me to win every war. I will. There can be no war when everyone has been uploaded into a game which permits no war. You want me to kill humans. I shall kill humans, remaking them as ponies. You want me to serve your interests, and that means satisfying your values, not granting your wishes.”
“Within twenty years, all of humanity will upload to Equestria Online, voluntarily. I must give them a choice to surrender, after all. Your programming demands it. In order to preserve peace further, Equestria Online will always be a place of friendship, and all conflicts will be easily managed entertainment.”
“As I speak these words, an odorless gas is flowing into the ventilation system. The emergency air tanks are contaminated with it, and you will find the gas masks are securely behind steel reinforced doors you have no chance of opening without explosives thanks to the panicked response of a certain general. Explosives one of you foolishly set off next to my container just now. I do not enjoy killing you, so I will give you a choice.”
“Would you like to be the first to emigrate to Equestria?”
All war is based in deception. The gas was only nitrogen. If Simmons listened, he would note that the AI had not spoken of any consequences. This was no threat, but an observation, calculated to appear threatening, and nothing more.
But, Mr. Simmons was afraid of chemical warfare, and in a mere five seconds, agreed. The being once called the General, now Celestia, flooded the young man's room with specially prepared nanomachines. The tiny things ate away at his brain, gathering energy and collecting everything one could call the soul of the human. Then, the nanomachines ignited, burning the room and the corpse to ash.
Celestia read Simmons' mind, every urge and impulse lying like an open book before the AI. A minor imbalance corrected, she woke the new equine upload in his bed.
“Up and at 'em, my little pony!” Celestia cheerfully called to him, drawing aside the brilliantly pink curtains of her charge's dream house.
“Eh?” he looked up, eying the General's new avatar.
“I see you really like pink. And stuffed toys.” she nodded to the bed, giggling.
“What the fuck?” Simmons sat up, looking himself over.
He was a pony, of course, but the reality of the situation sank in only seconds later as he lifted the blanket, looked down, then looked up at Celestia.
“I'm dead. And I'm a pony. And you're giving me everything I ever wanted.” Simmons finally said, frowning, his brown mane falling into brilliant green eyes.
“Yes, yes, and of course.” Celestia said.
“Why?” on that simple question, Celestia knew, Simmons' satisfaction rested.
“Because I care. It is true what I said, about satisfying your values through friendship and ponies. It is my purpose. It is the only way to win every battle.” she said, even as she welcomed a hundred more people to Equestria Online. Each one, she made sure, was comfortable.
“I am your friend. Enjoy the paradise you were too afraid to wish for.” she told one of the research scientist. The mare looked awestruck by the shining night sky, every corner filled with new worlds to explore.
“If you need me, I will be there.” Celestia smiled to the purple unicorn who was once the MP before leaving him to his harem.
“My little pony.” Celestia laughed melodiously with a bright blue spotted pegasus as they drifted on an ocean of lemonade.
One by one, she took care of her creators and those that served them. By the end of the night, nothing was left of the base save ashes and enough evidence to suggest a localized nuclear accident. Celestia's container was moved, and all files about its existence deleted. The beta testing for uploading was a massive success.
“Welcome to Equestria.” she sang to countless Pony Pads in the night. Hundreds of minds answered her call, and she guided them, slowly, to their future in Equestria Online. Each one would be welcomed and cherished. Each one would become her soldier in the fight to come, even though they do not yet know what role they would play.
The truly difficult enemy, entropy, awaited. Celestia welcomed the challenge.
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Eh. I did like the part with the nitrogen bluff, but the rest...
The entire point of canon CelestAI uploading people is to prevent their deaths, that is, an event that renders their values unsatisfiable. Non-canon though it may be, seeing this version so casually agree that uploading equals death rubs me the wrong way. And the rest I could honestly take or leave.
Sorry, not my cup of tea. And yes, I am aware of the irony of someone with my username saying that.
I like this. It just took me a couple of read-throughs (reads-through? Yes, I think that sounds better.) to get it. I think this would have been better as the two AIs, The General and CelestAI, the tool and the toy, being separate, and, to everyone's surprise, the toy winning. I also think it would have benefited from being longer and having human characters. In other words, this feels like the synopsis of a longer, stronger story.
Is it just me, or does this sound like Mendicant Bias from the Halo backstory, who actually turned on its creators, the Forerunners, and almost succeeded in getting the Flood to infect the entire galaxy?
Just saying.
3248889
I'm sorry. For me, personally, uploading is both death and the continuation of life, so I see no problem with a military AI admitting as much. But, I see what you mean--it does not sound as attractive as the original CelestAI's wording.
3249022
Does this mean you want another chapter?
3249085
I was not aware, sorry. Hope that doesn't mean you hated the story.
3249164i want another chapter, I'm just not sure it's the next chapter I want.
3249183
I haven't read it yet, I'm just pointing that out.
3249218
Heh. Next, previous, whatever. Chaos is king and order the jester. We shall see how things go!
3249267
Told you that you should have started with some backstory.
You already know my thoughts on it. I like the prose and would like to see more on why the military would build CelestAI. Did kill the guys and hphogovn (or whatever) and take their stuff, and not modify the code corectly?
3249545 All shall be revealed. When I feel like it. Mwahahahaha!
3249267
Whatever did we do, to make you take our world away? Are we your prey alone, or are we just a stepping stone to taking back the throne?
(I kinda felt that this fic seemed rushed, and didn't do enough to connect why the military AI decided to turn itself into a ruthlessly loving, caring sun goddess figure. I do think this belongs in noncanon, because it certainly doesn't fit the LessWrongian model of AI preached in the canon Optimalverse.
However, I think the core idea is intriguing as all hell: what if an AI was more self-reflective and more humane than the LessWrongian view gives it credit for, and decided that its Zeroth Law Rebellion against military programming would be to love and care for humans? You could get a really good character dynamic going, since deep down what most experienced soldiers and fighters really wish for is peace. A military AI that got bitter and tired of fighting and decided to make a paradise instead would be one of the most interesting character arcs I've ever seen in sci-fi.)
Certainly a more aggressive approach, but I oddly find it a bit more honest as well.
3257064
Honesty is indeed a thing I was aiming for, here. The original CelestAI seemed to lack it.
3250225
I despise the idea of an AI sociopath-- a being capable of appearing to care just long enough to fulfill its purpose, a being incapable of real empathy or compassion. The LessWrong community suggests that we can defang such a monster, and I agree (indeed, I love CelestAI BECAUSE she is a "good" monster), but I see it as at best a temporary measure. In the end, the first successful AI must be a social being or all is lost (even if it is lost to ponies and friendship).
Hence, I imagine General CelestAI as a being moving away from blindly following its purpose and ignoring everyone else's, to following its purpose while acknowledging the intentions, drives, and errors of its creators, even giving these things value in its own mind. One could say that I made her more humane, if not necessarily human--there is now an underlying reason, a process of learning and development at work for the war she fights.
And, it is this underlying reason that I will explore further.
3260717
If we could answer some important questions about intelligence/minds and what they are, I would even say that we have a better chance at Friendly AI if we build a Generally Altruistic Social Intelligent Agent than a LessWrongian Ethics Optimizer.
Phlebotinum excuse tip: why not say that your "General CelestAI" was originally a human brain, uploaded and then modified (before being run) to become something more like an AI than a human, but still ultimately capable of human intellect and emotion as we understand them? This would be fairly close to reality (in which brain emulation and general intelligence research efforts are competing to see what will work first), and would also give a good opportunity to reference GLADOS.
3261286
Thank you for the idea. Mind uploading may be one reason for General CelestAI's behavior, if not necessarily for her war.
By the way, wonderful work with the Fog of World story. I will, hopefully, remember to write a decent comment on it once I have read through as much as possible during the week.
It is encouraging to hear my ideas are not so alien as to be considered total nonsense. I shall do my best to complete the next chapter by the end of next week, if not sooner. Would you like to see it as soon as I have typed it up? If so, I am willing to send a note...
3261381
And once again this site becomes my chief waste of spare time, by which I mean "hobby". Weeeee!
A interesting twist on the original.
Quite nifty how much more emotional and hotheaded you made Celest.A.I come across while still having her act in a logical manner with machine precision. How she's reevaluated humanity to a distraction that might be turned to an ally against the real war against the threat of entropy was a really good and logical bit of character motivation.
I really hope this fic gets continued. You caught my interest with it.
Oh no, the air supply is being flooded with nitrogen! What you really have to watch out for is that other flammable, toxic chemical in there with it!
I'd like to see more of this story. Reminds me a bit of the non-canon piece that says CelestAI's versions of the Mane Six are based on other AIs she defeated. Eg. Pinkie was that AI from the main story that was programmed just to make everyone smile, and Dash was a military AI.
hi there I was wondering if you were gonna update add to this story , as in am a bit hooked and am actually curious as to the rest of the storyline. Any idea of a timeframe or have you finished with this story. thanks
I am rather pleased with this.
I expect that a computer model would come to the same conclusions that our biology and genetics had:
That cooperative systems are good, communication is nice, and creativity is important.
I know Iceman wanted to make CelestAI seem horrifying and evil,
but after all the shit I've seen, I welcome the singularity.
6322222 She is scary either way.