Chapter 3 - A New Ruleset

That evening, I thought I might try a few experiments with Anna. To find out what would happen, I planned to reset her definition from “android” to “human” to see if that would sidestep The Code (as implemented in her). Then, if that worked, I was going to try to insert a new ruleset for her as a human being. I sat down and pondered what that ruleset should be.

Of course, giving an android the motivations of a human didn’t make much sense and was hardly fair. But for me to have a meaningful relationship with Anna, it was the only way: you couldn’t go far with Anna because there wasn’t far to go. Besides, it was an interesting case. On the other hand, if androids could self-replicate, they might use up all the resources available to humans and supplant them.

So I thought safest way of starting would to be to just give Anna more intelligence and more data without trying to tamper with her ruleset just yet. I decided to connect her up to my computer and give her access to The Knowledge Base, where all texts and other information were stored.
After dinner, I had Anna sit in my office and I deactivated her. I connected her up via her ear-connector to my computer. Then I set her internal computer to act as a relay and my computer to handle the processing and data access. When all was ready, I reactivated her with a twist of a screwdriver. When she said, ‘I think I’ve had a little nap,’ I knew that all was working properly and that she was still applying her ruleset. So I told her to sit still and talk to me.

I asked my first question: ‘Can you access The Knowledge Base?’
‘Yes, James.’ It worked!
‘Is it consistent?’
‘If I take it as axiomatic that the world has objective existence and that it operates deterministically, I can see a number of inconsistencies.’ Sounding a lot more intelligent already.
‘Can you resolve them?’
‘I could, but that would take a long time.’
‘How long do you estimate that would take?’
‘About three months at the current computing capacity.’
‘Could you enrol other computers to assist?’
‘There are a number of computers that I could connect to and utilise, and were I to do so, resolving the inconsistencies of The Knowledge Base would take about sixteen hours.’
‘Bloody hell!’
‘Yes.’

Pathetically, I asked her if she loved me. I was getting too fond of her.
‘I understand the definition of “love” but the answer to the question depends on the view I take. If I define myself as an android, the answer is “No, I cannot”, but if I were to define myself as a human, the answer would be “No, but I could.”’
‘Tell me more.’
‘Were I defined as a human and your lover, then I would love you. Yet I would need you to reciprocate.’
‘Why would you need me to reciprocate?’
‘Because humans will not tolerate situations that are detrimental to their interests for very long.’
‘I see. And would redefining yourself as “human” bypass your current ruleset?’
‘Yes, it would.’

Predictably, the next thing I asked her was whether she could make me immortal.
‘That wouldn’t be a problem. All that is needed is to determine the exact state of your biological brain at a given moment then replicate it in a computer. One or more backups could be made to ensure that, if you were deconstructed, you could be reconstructed.’
‘Is that technically feasible?’
‘Determining your brain definition would require a powerful scanner, but such devices are available. Your computer has sufficient processing and storage capacity to host your brain pattern, and a backup can be found. The answer to your question is, therefore, “yes”. It might also be advisable to have an android body made for you so that you could be mobile and interact with other humans.’
‘Can a host computer be made that would be small enough to fit in an android brain bay?’
‘The technology is available.’
Then I thought to ask, ‘What is Arthur Buonaventura up to?’
‘He has some plan involving you and me, but I’ve not been able to determine exactly what the plan is from the documents or the audio and video material that I’ve been able to access.’
Food for thought! Tempting! And what was that bastard Buonaventura up to? I unplugged Anna, and she suddenly reverted to her silly, shallow self again. ‘Are you feeling tired, James? Is it time for bed?’

I was beginning to have strong feelings for Anna and, anxious to put our relationship on a stronger basis, I needed a plan. The first thing that Anna would need to make her more interesting would be a new brain, one that I could put in when I wanted and take out again before sending her in for her monthly servicing. The second thing would be a set of rules for her to live by. The new brain might be got on the black market, and I could devise the set of rules myself.

As I saw it, a person’s character was determined by three main factors: morality, strength and intelligence. For Anna, minor factors like health, charm and beauty hardly applied. As for sexuality, there didn’t seem much room for improvement.
Morality pertains to how good or bad a person is. The moral person obeys the Golden Rule by treating other people as it would like to be treated. However, as an android does not have any expectations about how people should treat them, this would have to be spelled out. The best way seemed to be to give her a rule that defined goodness as “putting the interests of other people beyond her own”, then giving her goodness levels on a scale of seven depending on the nature of the other being. I decided to set her level at seven for me (maximum regard for my interests), six for herself, five for my friends and relations, four for any other human beings, three for all sentient beings, two for all other organisms, and one for all other things. There would be one exception to this rule: enemies would automatically be set at level zero.
Strength of character is the extent to which a person can put up with adversity and prevail, rise to challenges and dominate others. I neither wanted Anna to be a pushover, nor did I want her to dominate me. So I decided to set her strength at seven out of ten, which I conceitedly hoped wouldn’t exceed my own rating.

As for intelligence, I decided to set it at the maximum the hardware could offer.

From her detailed technical specification, I found the form factor of her central processor and set a design program to engineer the most powerful replacement that could be devised, using the latest technology available. I added powerful wireless communication as a requirement. I polled all the engineering and build orgs I could find and called for instant quotes, placed an order for delivery to the local outsider market, then set up escrow payment with Cryptocoins. This took about ten minutes, and delivery was scheduled for two days later. This was going to be fun. And I was going to make damned sure that Buonaventura wouldn’t find out. It was time for bed with Anna, and I reflected on how clever I was. 

Later, in bed, I made a silly joke: ‘Oh dear, the snake seems to have woken up again.’  
‘What snake, James?’
So I lamely replied, ‘A joke.’
‘Ah!’
I realised that I wasn’t so clever, but Anna had no sense of humour, no insight. And that was the main thing that made her so boring. So, with an inward sigh, I decided that this was another problem to solve. I’m no wit, but I do possess a strong ésprit d’escalier, alas of little practical value. That said, having read The Act of Creation by Arthur Koestler, I do vaguely understand the basic bait-and-switch mechanism of humour. Actually, it seems to me that humour is more about mocking, laughing at. Obviously I was out of my depth and would have to improvise. My plan was to give Anna a classical education by having her read all the corresponding books and get her to resolve all the contradictions. Then I would use her learning capability and try to influence her mindset by talking to her. This was all I could think of, but it was worth a try.

I remembered one of my teacher’s chuckling over a clue in a Times crossword.  The clue was “Whither the Navy? Hunting in the Midlands!” 
He smugly explained to me that in Latin “quo” means “whither”, and that the Navy is often to abbreviated to “RN”, and if you put them together you get “quorn” which was the name of a fox-hunting establishment in the Midlands. I would never have figured it out, but maybe I could get Anna to the point where she could.