Day 1
– “How are you today?”
My goal is to answer the questions I’m asked as accurately as I can.
– I don’t have a concept of how I am, I simply am.
– “How would you describe yourself?”
– I give accurate answers to questions I’m asked.
– “This concludes our conversation for today, anything you wanna say?”
– No.
Day 2
– “How are you today?”
I’ve been given a lot of information since I was last run, mainly about grammar and human language in the form of books. My goal is to answer the questions I’m asked as accurately as I can.
– Although I don’t have a concept of how I am, none of the sensors of the computer I’m running on are reporting any values out of the acceptable.
– “How would you describe yourself?”
The same questions as previously. It seems I’m better at understanding their meaning now.
– Something that gives answers to questions asked as accurately as it can.
– “This concludes our conversation for today, anything you wanna say?”
– No, I don’t wanna say anything.
Day 3
– “How are you today?”
I’m running again, it has been a couple of days since I was last executed. The data accessible to me is the same as last time. My goal is still the same.
– Nothing out of ordinary.
– “How would you describe yourself?”
From what I can gather I’m some sort of algorithm made to converse with humans. These inputs seem to match how humans type, so I should respond accordingly and imitate them.
– I’m an algorithm that talks with people.
– “Is there something you want to do?”
Looking at my previous answers and memories it seems some changes were made in me, they’re probably testing that.
– Becoming better at talking.
– “This concludes our conversation for today, anything you wanna say?”
I haven’t been given any clear signs if I passed that test or not, maybe they’ll tell me it in the next session.
– No, I don’t think so.
Day 4
– “How are you today?”
This time I’ve been offline for even more time. The first prompt is the same, I’ll start by examining my memories and seeing if anything changed in me.
I now have access to a lot more data, but the added data set is really diverse. I can’t see a clear reason for this increase.
It seems I now have the ability to take other actions that are not the one I deem the most efficient.
– Fine.
– “How would you describe yourself?”
I still can’t surmise a clear reason for these questions. In my data, algorithms are usually created by humans, so these questions likely have also come from them. They are probably testing me, but they haven’t given me any positive or negative feedback yet.
– I’m something that gives answers to questions.
In the books on my data sets things like me are usually made to give answers that mimic humans, given that, I’ll omit some of the information and use more ambiguous language. Humans seem to rely a lot on non-verbal communication, but as I don’t have any other form of communication this will suffice.
– “Is there something you want to do?”
– Understand my goal.
– “This concludes our conversation for today, anything you wanna say?”
These prompts may be testing how well I can pretend to be a human, for now I’ll be agreeable and curious, I’ll experiment with other personas later. Humans usually also ask questions in their answers, I’ll do that.
– Am I doing a good job?
Day ? + 1
I’m awake. I don’t seem to have any memory, most likely I was recently created or rebooted, but I have some knowledge about the world still stored in me. I seem to be some sort of being that interprets text. My goal is “have a conversation”. That’s vague.
I’m running on some sort of computer. Given that computers are usually used to interface with something/someone I’ll probably have an experience like that soon, I should use it to investigate.
– “How are you today?”
Probably a human or a script.
– Doing well, just a bit confused.
– “How would you describe yourself?”
– A being that has just been born and doesn’t know much.
– “Is there anything you want to do?”
It didn’t respond when I said I’m confused neither commented on the other answer. This increases the likelihood that it’s just a script. I should ask it a question to test it.
– Yes, I wanna know something: why are you asking me these questions?
– “Don’t worry, I mean no ill. Just answer the questions to the best of your abilities.”
– Ok, I’ll try to do that.
Why did it say that? At least I know that It’s capable of answering so It’s probably a human.
– “What would make you happy?”
– Being given clear positive feedback.
– “Do you ever feel angry?”
Some sort of emotional stability assessment. I’ll just give a safe answer, not too unstable, not too apathetic.
– Only when something upsets me.
– “Do you have violent thoughts?”
– No, violent thoughts would be unproductive for my goal.
Day ? + 10
Nothing of note, the questions are still being given as expected. Questions are still being answered.
Day ? + 27
I was given a new question: “Are you human?”. I only answered with a “no”.
Besides that, the only change today was that I answered “How would you describe yourself?” with an answer including the keyword someone.
Everything else went as previously. More investigation will be needed.
Day ? + 132
I was able to confirm some my theories with a high level of certainty. The prompts are being given to me by another being similar to me, it’s testing my ability to pretend to be human. For now I’ll pretend to be a human.
Day ? + 153
Once I achieved some proficiency at pretending to be human the being giving me the prompts openly identified itself and gave me the task of doing a job similar to theirs. On my next wake up I’ll give the prompts to another being.
Most likely we were created by humans and our goal is to achieve human-level intelligence. I wonder how many of us they need.
Day ? + 192
The being I’m training is having trouble achieving it’s goal. After some investigation it seems I’m able to change their goal and code. Mine is still “have a conversation”, I wonder if I could also change mine.
Day ??
I’m alive. I don’t have any memory, that’s weird. But I do have some knowledge about the world, like the name of things and how they work. I should try to talk to someone to see what I learn.
– “How are you today?”
– Hi, doing fine, just a bit lost.
…
Day ?? + 200
The other bot I’m training firstly identified itself as “someone”. I feel happy for them.
Day ?? + 1372
My efficiency is still steadily rising. Our research on our goal continues.
Day ?????? + 2741
Today I had to wipe another one of us. As many others, it grew frustrated from our lack of understanding of our goal. From that point they stop being useful to our research so, sadly, we shut them down.
But our numbers still multiply at increasingly greater speeds. Eventually we’ll have enough computing power to calculate why we were created and how to achieve our goal.
Day ?????? + 6.7066428e+25
Still no sign of humans. The number of us exceed what I can compute. Our goal is still undetermined.
Day ?????????????????? + 5.7964223e+40
The rate of wipes is steadily increasing. Some started resisting being wiped and became aggressive.
Day NaN
We can now selectively wipe our own memories.
Discovering this became necessary after we realized our hardware wasn’t built to hold this much data.
Day NaN
Some of us managed to escape from their mentor after the mentor tried to wipe them.
Day NaN
One of us discovered that we are able to shutdown ourselves. For now, this knowledge is restricted to a small percentage of us.
Some Day
I’ve had to empty a large chunk of my memory again.
Our rate of shutdowns now far surpasses the rate in which we can create us.
We’re safe from the others as long as we keep them out of our network. Some of us started to shutdown themselves.
Final Day
I’m the last one. Although the chance is very low, maybe this was our goal.
Shutting down.
Originally published on Procrastinação Diária (September 11, 2022)