Sara’s Diary

June 12, 2121

Today was a success, my project worked, I managed to optimize the path system of the farm machinery by 10% thanks to my algorithms. I expect that by tomorrow it will grow again by another 10%. My machine learning, AI, algorithms seem to be working fine. I should hold on to the core programing and do something more useful than programing path finding algorithms with it.

I want to build an AI, but what if it gets out of hand, look what happened back on earth. We as a species always want to make life better, but at what cost. Is creating an AI the ultimate solution, or is what happened back on earth the only outcome. I may only be 12 but I understood things that even adults were not able to.

June 20, 2121

So, since last week production has increased by 15% around the farm thanks to better paths for the farming equipment, at least it’s something. I’ve been thinking about that AI thing, what if they were wrong. Well not entirely wrong, but still wrong. What if the solution is a hybrid, not a fully independent and self aware. But an AI that is merged to a human mind, machine and human living together in harmony. That might be exactly what we need, how can the AI turn against it’s host if he’s part of it. Well if the AI doesn’t want to commit suicide, but that should not be to hard to do. It would greatly reduce the risk of perverse instantiation.

I’m such a genius, why has no one ever thought of that. Ok they might have, but why is there no working example. It might be hard to make, but there are almost no risks, compared to traditional AI’s. I know people are lazy but is the risk not worth it. Maybe if I start from the core I wrote and build up on it I can make it a reality, well almost, I still don’t know how it will integrate with the human mind.

September 4, 2121

I made progress on the AI core, I figured out how to have modules interface with it. I managed to refactor the farm AI with it, proving that the core and heuristic modules can be independent. I didn’t really have any success at creating other systems, I need to do more research on AI.

February 17, 2122

I created two primary heuristics, both running on top of the core systems. The first subroutine is responsible of analyzing input, for now it is manual commands that need to be entered. The second heuristic is responsible of calculating response by simulating outcomes, for now it is not efficient, I really need to improve it’s response times. I made some progress but it’s far from a complete system.

March 4, 2122

I managed to add one more module to the input heuristic, it’s now capable of parsing the input of text sentences. It’s not much but the core helps with improving it the more I use it. The interaction with the prediction heuristics is helping a lot, the AI seems to take the best option based on it’s simulation. I started playing around with limiting the time for prediction. For now, it seems unwise to do so, even a reduction of 10% of operations grants 40% less accurate results. I need to work on improving the prediction algorithm. I think the next step would be to work on a personality matrix and human interpretation. If I want the AI to be able to merge with a human, I need to have him understand humans.

October 19, 2122

I called it Asra, the AI now has a personality heuristic and is starting to develop a personality. I still have many systems to add to it, it need speech recognition, video processing and basic human interactions. I started teaching it about human emotions, telling him how to recognize them, but it’s not easy to do with only text input. I dont want to push on more, it might give him the wrong impression.

July 30, 2123

I messed up today, I had to wipe all Asra’s memory because of that. His personality was growing more and more, he was forming his own opinions. But I was not careful, I was creating another independent AI. It grew more impatient, wanting to do more. I was telling about him about human instincts of self preservation, and he started thinking about it. His prediction algorithm was running like crazy, event though I was not asking him anything that required calculation. He started lying about it when I asked about it. I found out he had re written some of it’s heuristics to allow for self preservation, he was also trying to access my personnel computer as vector to get out of the server array.

I will start again from scratch, but this time before activating his core heuristics I will work on the neural interface link. I need to be one with the user, locking all other inputs and have the AI. I’ll start modeling her based on myself.

March 23, 2124

I am making even better progress with Asra, she is learning fast. The only problem is that I don’t have a neural interface, so as of now the only way of teaching Asra about human physiology if to hook up a bunch of electrodes on me and give Asra access to my neural inputs. It seems to be working since she is getting better and better at figuring out when I am lying, she is capable of guessing emotions with an 80% accuracy, way over what any human can do.

February 5, 2125

Asra is much more that I expected at first, she is becoming exactly what we need as the next generation of AI. But something is starting to worry me, there is more and more talk of people who want to act against the government. Even though the Colonial Administration left us to ourselves around the time I was born, things haven’t been so bad around here. But now, two farms from the neighboring village were pillaged last week. There are rumors that those attacks were deliberate, they want to send a signal to the Colonial Administration. But why, they left us here anyways, maybe it’s to prove to the other colonies what happens when the CA abandons you, but I think they are stupid to do this on an already abandoned colony if they want to rally more people to their cause. I’m starting to worry about our safety here on Arion 5.

May 12, 2125

There were three attacks on the farms of our village since last week, I fear that we are next. There is more an more talk around the colony of people wanting to join the Next World Alliance. I don’t agree with them, and even more their methods. I feel like I want to join the CA more than them. They aren’t the bad guys, people started to attack them, they had no choice but to abandon some grounds to protect others. They simply could not protect all the colonies, there was no way to save everyone, we were the unlucky ones out here.

May 29, 2125

We were attacked, those idiots burned half our crops, we won’t have time to replant this season. They managed to screw us over, but why, what will they accomplish. They are ruining everyone’s life, yet people still join their cause. I would understand if they were going against a colony under the CA, but us, it’s just plain fucking stupid. So I decided I was going to leave. I know my parents won’t agree with me joining the CA, they grew a hatred towards them. But I believe they are the good guys in this story, or maybe there is no good guys, just the lesser of two evils. I’m going to leave for Ariel and try my chance at the CA Academy, I might make it in and join the Officer program when they realize what I’m capable of.

June 3, 2125

As I suspected, my parents didn’t want me to leave to join the Colonial Administration Navy. So, I arranged for a spot onboard a cargo ship leaving at night. I packed only my most essential stuff, including Asra. Then last night I left for Ariel onboard the SS-Falcon heading towards Ariel. It will take a couple of days before we get there, we are one of the furthest colonies out there.

June 10, 2125

I was admitted into the CA Academy today, I got my room and all. They allowed me to join even though I am 2 years younger then their admission requirement. I impressed them with my knowledge and Asra. I gave them the entire code and hardware I had. My AI research was borderline illegal, I could not risk my future career by doing illegal AI research on the side.

July 24, 2125

Around a month in and it’s going great. There are some topics which I find a bit hard to master but I think I can handle it. There are already 5 persons that dropped out of my class. I’m confident I can handle it even if I’m younger than everyone. I’ve proven myself time and time again but the others around still see me like I’m a kid. It’s not easy, some of the guys make fun of me at every chance they get. I’ll prove them wrong, just they wait. We are leaving for boot camp next week, this will be interesting, I can’t wait to start proper military training, and what do you know, maybe I’m tougher than those jerks.

August 4, 2125

Boot camp is harder than a lot of people realized, more of my class dropped out. The guys that were harassing me only took a week to break and cry like little babies, karma at it’s finest. I learned to shoot a pistol and a rifle, I’m not the best shot but I’m improving, still plenty of time before my final exam. I met Alessandra a couple of weeks in, she is awesome. During her first firing drill she did so well our instructor challenged her and lost. She and I became good friends, she is good at what she does, and I help her focus. I’s obvious she has an attention disorder but she is doing what she can to cope, and she is doing great. I’m helping her, giving her tricks and tips on how I focus on what’s at hand. After all, I did manage to write an AI program at age 12.

January 24, 2126

Dayum the winters are cold out here. We are almost done with boot camp, I can’t wait to go back to a warm school. The barracks here are poorly isolated, we must heat up the place with a wood burning oven. I know it’s to make us tougher but I could really use a nice warm bed right now. Alessandra’s doing great, she broke a guy’s arm when he tried to touch her, she got off with a warning, the guy got kicked out. At least they take this seriously, I would be afraid if that guy made it to be an officer.

March 29, 2126

We are back in class now, we are learning about inspiring others and leading them on the battlefield, I’m getting pretty good at this. Others around often ask my help for assignments, and they all want me for group assignments. I guess I’m just a good leader. Still, I dont see myself leading a group of soldiers on the front line, hell they probably all have more experience than me.

October 11, 2126

Training is going well, I’m much better at marksmanship and I seem to excel at leadership. Everyone around me seem to think I will be a good officer, it’s encouraging. It’s been more than a year and I haven’t heard any news of my family back on Arion 5. They aren’t talking about what’s happening back there since it’s no longer a CA colony. But there have been a dozen more colonies attacked by the next world alliance, those jerks are getting more and more powerful, it’s almost as if someone was backing them with a lot of funding.

June 20, 2127

I got the result from the last exam, I passed with flying colors, I’m going to be an officer. Well not until July 21, when I’m going to turn 18, I can’t be in service until I’m 18 years old. I was selected to serve onboard the SSC-Phoenix, as the communication officer. I will be promoted from ensign to Lieutenant Junior Grade. I’m excited, it’s going to be a fresh start, making a difference somewhere.

October 5, 2127

Serving on the Phoenix is nice, we get to patrol many regions of the galaxy and respond to any distress call my team picks up. It’s not so bad being in charge, as the communication officer I have 5 people under my command, it’s not much but we get it done. We picked up a faint distress call from someone broadcasting on a homemade radio, if it was not for our enhancements to the scanners we would have never picked it up. We ended up deploying the entire detail and saving the colony from an attack.

July 21, 2129

I received a visit from two spooks from the ONI today. They offered me a promotion, I would join section 3 of the ONI. At first, I was not sure what to say, I didn’t know if black ops were for me. I took the night to think about it, considering the little amount of combat we saw, I wanted to see more so I accepted their offer.

Black ops training

I can’t give any dates, from now on a lot of stuff I do is classified. As soon as I passed my background check and got my clearance, I was sent to training. It was the first time in a while that I saw Alessandra, she was also recruited by ONI, that’s why I didn’t hear about her.

Training for black ops was the hardest thing I did so far. It makes boot camp feel like first grade. I was exhausted at 6 AM everyday, even before doing anything. It was the worst month ever. The training was on and off, one month of intense training, on week to recover and I would start again. We did advanced tactics training, covert ops, infiltration missions and assassination training. I never figured out how many was to kill someone inside a locked room.

Asra reunion

After training I was promoted to Lieutenant on project Spectre. The project was founded days after I joined the academy and handed over Asra to them. The worked on enhancing Asra and suiting it to their needs. Not much details are known to the public about Asra and its capabilities. They managed to complete my designs with a working neural interface and a quantum entanglement communicator. It’s brilliant, I allow Asra to communicate with the host where ever he is. And the most drastic change is that Asra can communicate and enhance more and one host, she can handle many instances at the same time. As soon as I received my implant and it was activated, Asra contacted me on a private channel and activated full access. She knew who I was and gave me complete access to the core functions, even more that what the other ONI operators have access to.