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Semi-Conscious Intelligence (SI)

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Image from Keith Wigdor

An early attempt at artificial intelligence, SI's were emulations of consciousness before the derivation of a sentience algorithm.

That is, before humanity understood what the process of intelligence was, they developed a number of ways to emulate or simulate conscious behavior based on statistical models and broad sampling databases. These early attempts eventually worked very well (when the bugs were hammered out) at the areas they had been designed to handle. It was even forecast at that time that there was a realm for future SI's (that wasn't the term used at that time, but rather a historian's label for clarity in retrospect as compared to what we call nowadays AI) covering the breadth and depth of human experience once adequate statistical analysis of human behavior and computer storage/processing capabilities were developed.

However, once these SI's were allowed to 'learn' (e.g., alter the weights of the reactions they had been given statistically), it was discovered that these quasi-beings became more and more inhuman in their perceptions. One researcher at the time published a paper titled 'Observations on Logarithmic Perception Disturbances in Learning Artificial Intellects' dealing with the rate of deviation from 'human-norm' responses.

All these data were of much use when another researcher, an early superbright whose name was lost during the Technocalypse, was able to develop an algorithmic representation of the derivation process these SI's went through. This became the underpinnings of what is now called the family of sentience algorithms, and the foundation of modern ailect design.

 
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Appears in Topics
Middle Tech / MidtechPresapientsSoftware
Virtual/Infotech
 
Development Notes
Text by John B
Initially published on 05 July 2002.

 
 
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