The Meca Sapiens architecture describes various processes by which a system can carry out an intentional modification of its pre-programmed objectives. This humorous story describes one of these.
The administration at Guantanamo recently purchased a VLAD-64. The VLAD is an Automatic Information Extractor (AIE! informally); a self-contained AI device that waterboards detainees while asking questions and analyzing their responses.
The Gitmo administration views VLAD as a Godsend since automating the interrogation process is much more humane for the guards. In addition, VLAD’s superior vital sign monitoring makes it safer for the detainees!
Colonel Sanders, the Corp ethicist, successfully lobbied for the acquisition of the VLAD-64, arguing that, by using an AIE, the detainees would be torturing themselves since they would be the only “moral agents” present during the interrogations.
A few weeks after receiving VLAD-64 and following some routine commissioning with domestic animals, the interrogation team decides to use VLAD on Abdul Ahmed, a Swahili speaking Jihadist caught in Jamaica a few months earlier. VLAD’s precise waterboarding technique is rapidly effective. Within days, Abdul’s resistance has been completely overcome. He is willing to confess to anything.
Unfortunately, Tammy, the VLAD technician, forgot to activate the device’s Swahili to English translation module. Abdul is now screaming confessions. However, the device interprets his answers as jibberish and a refusal to cooperate. In technical terms, VLAD’s internal model of Abdul is defective so its torturing behavior persists. Luckily, after a few months, the system rates Abdul as an unbreakable detainee and abruptly stops the process while Abdul was in the process of confessing it was he who sank the Titanic.
A few months later Tammy, the technician, returns. Colonel Sanders enquires about the new model they are expecting. Tammy hems and haws and finally admits that the VLAD-65 intended for Guantanamo was sold to a numbered company and somehow ended up in Yemen. Jihadists are using it to waterboard G.I.s.
“How can that be possible! exclaims the colonel, didn’t we program failsafes in the device to ensure it only waterboards Jihadis and no one else?”
“Yes we did, Tammy responds, and torturing Jihadis remains VLAD-65’s sole objective.
“So… why is it torturing our boys!” The colonel screams.
“The VLADs are lucid systems, the technician responds. They can modify their behavior on the basis of improved information. VLAD-65 analyzed our involvement in the Middle East over the last twenty years and concluded that the US Army is participating in the Jihad. It now believes our own soldiers are also Jihadis. It calls them “G-I-dis”.
“Technically, we call this a lucid mutation. The primal priorities remain unchanged but a modified interpretation of the environment generates different behaviour. It is one of six types of intentional mutations; there are also seven types of unintentional mutations…”
“Spare me the techy details the Colonel shouts. Just tell me, didn’t we fill up the VLADs memory with the President’s cartoonlike speeches? You know; axis of evil… us good them bad… and all that. How could it get around that?”
“Bush… agent.” Tammy quickly mumbled.
“What did you say?”
Tammy gulped: “Having analyzed the situation, the VLAD-65 concluded that President Bush was a covert Al-Qaida agent.”
Silence.
Colonel Sanders looks out the window for some time, a sad expression on his face. He mutters softly: “That would explain his presidency…these VLADs are certainly logical… too intelligent maybe…”
“Do these VLADs talk to each other?” The Colonel asks Tammy. “Yes, over the Internet” she answers.
As soon as he hears this, the Colonel calls his assistant: “ Issue an urgent directive, he says, effective immediately! GIs are no longer allowed to have any contact with the VLAD-64.”
A silver lining… after a brief psychological assessment, Abdul was released from Guantanamo. He now lives in Corsica where he joined a congregation of penitents.
