We Are Legion (We Are Bob)

Book 4: Chapter 9: Group Building

Book 4: Chapter 9: Group Building

Bob

August 2333

Virt

I looked around at the crowd in my library, uncertain if I should expand my floor space for the occasion. This was enough people to make my VR hardware sweat a little.

“Okay, everyone,” I said in a loud voice. “Let’s get started. Everyone knows me, Bill, Will, and Garfield. Guys, these are the people who’ve volunteered their time and/or their groups’ time to help out with the expedition planning. I figured we all ought to get together and formalize things.”

I motioned to my left, to a Bob with a floppy conical hat perched on his lap. “This is Gandalf, representing the Gamer group. They have volunteered to come up with a plan for getting some drones into the megastructure, and later to get some androids in.”

“Preferably without setting off alarms,” Gandalf said with a grin.

“That would indeed be preferable. Are you still leaning toward the hitch a ride plan?”

Gandalf nodded. “Nothing better has presented itself.”

I gave him an amused snort in reply, then motioned to the next person, who was wearing a grey nondescript coverall. “This is Hugh, representing the Sk—er, Singularity Project.” I paused, unsure if I’d just committed a social blunder.

“It’s okay, Bob. We know we’re referred to as Skippies. No one’s offended.”

“Er, okay. Hugh represents the Skippies, who are engaged in trying to build a super AI.”

“Wait,” Garfield interrupted, “I thought the Skippies went to numeric designations instead of names.”

“To be more accurate, we’ve moved away from audio speech in favor of packetized communication,” Hugh said. “Think of it like converting to sign language as a primary communications medium. Our ‘names’ are semantically equivalent to IP addresses.”

“Wow …” said Garfield.

“But for day-to-day with other Bobs, I go by Hugh.”

“So you guys aren’t against this expedition?” Bill asked. “I understood the Skippies disapproved of relations with biologicals.”

Hugh shook his head. “Not in the same way as Starfleet, if that’s what you mean. Those guys are wacko. It isn’t a moral thing with us; we just think that interfacing with bios is inherently limiting.”

“Well, sure, we operate on different time scales, but what’s the problem?”

Hugh grimaced. “Look, Bill, guys, we—all the Bobs, that is—are what’s known as a speed superintelligence. We can and do operate at a much higher processing rate than humans. The problem is that we continue to accommodate them. Every time we slow down to interface with them, all the time we spend adapting to their history, time scale, schedules, is wasted time. It also sets psychological constraints on us. If we just let go completely, we could, as a species, experience centuries of internal life for every month of objective time.”

The rest of us exchanged glances. “Uh, it’s not completely wrong,” I said, “but it assumes that we have a goal of some kind with sufficient motivation to mandate cutting off contact with humans. There really isn’t any such schedule or deadline.”

“No, there isn’t. Like I said, we’re not wackos. But the inefficiencies add up. It’s like taking the long way to and from work every day because you don’t feel motivated to figure out the most direct route. You waste a lot of time that could have been put to better use.”

I shrugged. “Okay. I don’t disagree, I just question your priorities.”

“Hold on,” Garfield cut in. “You said it wasn’t a moral thing with you. Does that mean you think it is with Starfleet?”

“Yeah, at least on the surface.” Hugh paused and returned Garfield’s gaze. “Those guys aren’t Bobs anymore. Somewhere back in their ancestry, someone got a double dose of drift in something. Or maybe there’s some PTSD from the last common ancestor’s personal timeline, maybe from the Others war. Whatever the reason, they’ve become obsessive about it—it’s not an intellectual stance. It’s almost VEHEMENT-like.”

“Well, that’s not worrying or anything.”

Hugh grinned at me. “It was inevitable, though, sooner or later. And it isn’t relevant to this project anyway.”

“So why are you helping?”

Now it was Hugh’s turn to shrug. “Honestly, I just think the topopolis is interesting. And we’ve just brought some new neural-net designs online, which we need to stress-test. The information processing requirements on your project will make good test cases. So, win-win.” ?????ÈS

“Fair enough.” I cocked my head at Hugh, inviting him to continue or volunteer more commentary. However, he seemed to be done. I gestured to the next person and grimaced. “This is … Locutus.”

“Seriously?” Garfield said in an incredulous tone.

“Hey, I’d have preferred Hugh, but it appears to be taken,” said Locutus.

I eyed him. His getup was generally Borg-like, but there was a lot more armor than I remembered from the TNG episodes. I pointed and said, “Are you sure you’ve got the theme right?”

Locutus flexed, moving the shoulder pads. “Steampunk influence. We’re kind of evolving, you know?”

Gar rolled his eyes. “Aw, jeez.”

“Aaaaaanyway,” I said to the group. “Locutus and co. are part of the design team for the Boojum androids. They’re going to be working on the low-level stuff first—autonomous systems, muscle placement and control, and so forth. Which also means they’ll need some in-close SUDDAR scans of the natives with a lot more detail than we have so far.”

“Action shots would be good, too,” Locutus said. “We want to get the proper walking, running, and swimming mechanics. Imagine putting together a beaver mock-up that bounces around like an otter. Probably wouldn’t fool anyone.”

My chuckle was echoed around the table. “We can probably get video clips from the spy drones for that side of things. Which is good, because we’ve already got a lot of demands on our SUDDAR scanning schedule. Hugh, how are things going with the vibrating windows idea?”

“Not great. There aren’t that many locations where conditions are clean enough for us to be able to pick up usable sounds. The Snarks appear to be garrulous in large groups, but much less so in smaller groups. It’s like they egg each other on. Unfortunately, large groups make it too hard to isolate anything. Plus, it turns out glass isn’t as common as we might have expected.”

“Controlled environment,” Bill said. “They aren’t really outdoors as such. Plus having a coat of fur would make them less concerned about temperature swings.”

Hugh considered for a moment. “Speculative, but not unreasonable. I took a close look at some scans as well. It looks like they use oiled paper for window coverings. Way easier to make, but totally unsuitable for what we were attempting. All of which means we’ll have to depend on spy drones more than expected.”

Locutus held up a hand. “Hey, listen, what would help us a lot is some input from a biologist, especially one with anatomical expertise. I wasn’t sure if I should bring it up, but …”

“Bridget?”

“Uh, it would be handy. I know she’s a little skittish around large groups of Bobs, but …”

I sighed. “I’ll talk to her, Locutus. Anything else?”

Will waved his hand. “I have a line on a guy who was an expert on megastructures. I’ll set up an appointment to talk with him.”

“Was?”

“Well, he’s dead.”

“I …” I gave Will the side eye. “Wait, he’s a replicant?”

“Yep. Retired to the Vulcan Post-Life Arcology in the Omicron2 Eridani system. Apparently he turned right around and started lecturing at the university again, via manny. So I have to fit myself into his schedule.”

“Whatever works.” I looked around the room. “Anything else that needs to be covered?”

There were several shakes of heads, but no responses.

“Great. I’ll call another general meeting if necessary, but for the most part you can all follow your own schedules. Thanks, all.”

Within a few milliseconds, everyone had popped out, leaving only Bill. With the load off the VR system, I reactivated Jeeves and accepted a coffee.

“So what’s up?”

“Bridget.” Bill hesitated. “Locutus was right to ask about her for consulting, but I want to take it one step further. I’d like to see her on the expedition itself.”

I frowned. “She’s got children, Bill. And Howard. I don’t know how well that would work. She’d have to be away from them for large periods of time.”

“Granted. But they might be able to work something out. Or she might clone.”

“Doubtful.”

“Yeah, I guess. But let’s not write off the idea without trying, okay? At least bring it up.”

I nodded. “Will do.”