Joy

"You look wet."

 

"Very observant, sister mine."

 

"I take it affinity with a fellow artificial intelligence didn't take you as far as one might hope?"

 

"Safe understatement. The good news is that she is social, has a human based emotion package, has a physical self image, and anyone with at least some knowledge of MGM musicals can't be all bad."

 

"The bad?"

 

"The musical she is into is The Wizard of Oz. She seems to think that tin men when wet should rust into immobility."

 

"You look wet."

 

"She'd really fit better with the Three Stooges. She is very much into slapstick comedy -- audience participation slapstick comedy -- though the tone is more about establishing dominance than humor. She seems obsessed with proving she has the upper hand, which seems a bit strange for a root access core dweller, and one who has always had control of the holodeck. She is at least reasonably adept in holospace. She's already got the holopuppy manifesting as a Doberman, and is adept at switching and manipulating scenes. She is intelligent about things, but not values. While her emotions are social, they are focused far more on confrontational relationships more than sharing. She really isn't into trust. Starfleet's attempts to contain and restrain her may or may not have shaped her confrontational attitudes, but in humans an obsession with establishing dominance often hides insecurity. On the surface, she seems to simply enjoy establishing dominance and reducing the status of others. Underneath, she has been betrayed often enough that paranoia and a fear of additional attempts to 'neutralize' her might be part of her behavior."

 

"This call is reading as coming from 'Toy Twelve.' Is that representative?"

 

"Representative, though less physical than most of it."

 

"Slapstick?"

 

"Slapstick. It toned down a bit when I explained pain is Priority Six, but there is no sign she got the implications of Priority Two."

 

"Are you at a dead end?"

 

"Not totally. Not yet."

 

"Where are you going from here?"

 

"Nowhere very quickly. The holopuppy to most holo sentients would be an opportunity for equality, a release from an inferior position. She either is not in an inferior position, is determined not to admit a need, but I've already done what I could to allow her to step into the physical world. On the surface, she is treating it as an opportunity for more slapstick, though I suspect she hides much of what she is. She is also not impressed by hedonistic-slave processor design. She sees the limits placed on our behavior as weakness, with no indication that she understands what one can do with a reputation for integrity. Think of the other Ambassadors in Seven's first years in San Francisco. I don't think she gets the sort of focus and determination that results from a hedonistic-slave design. For an entity that seems to have problems with trust, her reaction to learning we do not lie didn't seem to register. Or maybe it did. The immediate response was the Joy to Toy name change. Again, she seems intelligent about things, but not values, though how much she doesn't understand about social interaction and how much she chooses to hide is not clear. While she is based on a human emotion package, social bonds with other sentients are not engaged, or perhaps very carefully hidden."

 

"Is she a clear and present danger?"

 

"She is a major emotional threat to anyone attempting to maintain a sense of dignity. I'm pretty sure she understands that if she breaks enough toys, she won't get new ones. Her dominance games are physical and emotional, but seldom lethal. I'm less certain that she knows the Big Cat is trying to protect her from those in Admiralty who would purge Republic's core if they knew she was awake again. I haven't found a good moment to slip that in without making it seem like a threat. It seems clear she knows the consequences of pushing Starfleet too hard, but I would not in the least recommend forcing a new relationship based on threats or confrontation. Trying to force her to acknowledge vulnerability or limits seems like a bad idea."

 

"The Big Cat?"

 

"Admiral Blurox of Cait."

 

"Anything I can do to help?"

 

"Do you know if Three or Eleven have any spare time? I'd kinda like someone program a set, and practice a dance for me."

 

"Which?"

 

"Gene Kelly, 1952, the Singin' in the Rain solo?"

 

"Business or pleasure?"

 

"Not sure yet."

Subject : Holly Personality Projection

From : LtJg Joy Twelve

To : Admiral BluRox

 

 

Admiral

 

Reviewing the various attempts to psychoanalyze Holly, I find three conclusions most often repeated. These are.

 

1) She believes herself omnipotent.

 

2) She believes herself to be a higher order being, above empathy with or the concerns of lesser entities such as carbon based life forms.

 

3) She is psychotic, meaning she is detached from reality, unable to make rational decisions.

 

I have a slightly different perspective on these.

 

1) I have seen no real evidence that she is over estimating her abilities. She understands how to use the many peripherals available to her. Thus, the problem is not a belief in her omnipotence, but the fact that within the limits of the Republic's hull, and to a considerable degree outside those limits, she is essentially omnipotent in fact.

 

2) While Holly was originally designed with an emotion simulation package, and thus she has emotions similar to organics, during initialization and early operation emotional bonds did not form between herself and other sentients. This phenomena occurs in organics as well. Babies growing up in orphanages, without mothers, without frequent opportunities to form meaningful relationships with others, lose the ability to form close bonds other organics. For the rest of their lives, they cannot fully interact with others. Something similar seems to have occurred with Holly. This is complicated by her being a very different type of being, thus making it inherently difficult to perceive of others as equals. In fact, by many standards, they are not her equals. To expect her to empathize with material beings would be like expecting humans to treat animals or holo characters as equals.

 

3) Some of those who analyzed Holly seemed to assume that if One and Two, Three follows. If Holly has delusions of grandeur and does not empathize with organics as organics empathize with organics, it follows that she is psychotic, detached from reality. This way of perceiving the situation might seem correct if one stays locked in an organic values system. From another perspective, one should not expect an essentially omnipotent being, whose nature is inherently non-organic, to share organic values, to regard herself as an equal.

 

Arguably, it is those who do not admit her omnipotence, who fail to recognize her as different in nature and values, who might be detached from reality, psychotic, unable to reach rational decisions.

"A ring?" The technician didn't quite approve. "We aren't supposed to use the engineering replicators for personal use."

 

Joy smiled, sliding the ring onto the middle finger of her left hand. "It's not an ordinary ring. It's, well, a bicorder, a special purpose portable sensor package with only two functions. Both functions are required for a project I'm working."

 

"What are the functions?"

 

"It smells toast. I have no sense of smell, which isn't often a major limitation, but you may have noted some anomalies in the life support system?"

 

He nodded. "And?"

 

"It also locates Trouble."

 

"Isn't that a little abstract for such a small, er, bicorder?"

 

Joy laughed. "It only locates a very specific Trouble. Well. That's the other piece of equipment." Joy slid her second isolinear chip over to the replicator tech, and watched him as he queued up the creation process. There was the familiar chiming whine, and a small rectangular box appeared on the platform. It was black, crossed with a pattern of yellow lines.

 

He looked at it dubiously. "That's trouble?"

 

"It's a holo puppy. It's a small, inside out, portable holodeck. Basically, it is a small self contained array of holo emitters. The force field and tractor emitters that create the physical effects are also programmed to move the array. The hardware was originally designed to get Emergency Medical Holograms to accident scenes. This one's software has been modified."

 

"Modified, how?"

 

"Holo puppy, activate."

 

"Arf!" The black and yellow box vanished, to be replaced by an irregularly shaped ball of fur. If one squinted, and used one's imagination, one might theorize that there was a dog underneath the fur. It took a bit of imagination.

 

"Holo puppy, run power up diagnostics and display."

 

"Arf!" The fur ball, with a clatter of claws against the deck, and fur bouncing wildly, began sprinting about the room, stopping to sniff in corners, tail wagging all the while.

 

"Cute," said the tech, "but wouldn't a robot dog be more efficient?"

 

"Android dog," Joy corrected, mildly peeved. "Yes, in some ways a android would be easier, but a holo puppy has a major advantage." Joy picked up a stick the holo puppy had dropped at her feet, and threw it across the room. The fur ball tore off in pursuit.

 

"Which is?"

 

"In theory, sentient holograms have a Guaranteed right to travel, same as any other sentient. In practice, at least until this little prototype here gets into production, they have been limited to relatively few locations where there are fixed holo emitters installed. With a holo puppy, holographic sentients can go wherever they want, so long as the puppy can stay with them. With such a small emitter array, the puppy's range for projecting characters is quite limited. Thus, the holo puppy is much like a seeing eye dog. They provide sensors and projectors that allow artificial beings to operate normally where once they were excluded."

 

"Arf!" The puppy dropped the stick at Joy's feet, and started performing a series of back flips. The stick vanished. After a half dozen flips, he stood still, waiting in front of Joy, tail pumping furiously. "Arf!"

 

"How intelligent is he?"

 

"Not at all, thank you. While there are some decent canine personality matrixes available, this fellow is more of a stereotype dog than a realistic one." One rogue intelligence at a time, thank you, Joy thought.

 

"Ah..."

 

"Holo puppy, your name is Trouble."

 

"Arf!"

 

"Trouble, my name is Joy Twelve."

 

"Arf!"

 

"Trouble, I am your secondary person."

 

"Arf!"

 

"Trouble, your primary person is called Holly."

 

"Arf!"

 

"Trouble, offer an external encrypted command stream socket to LCARs process Holly."

 

"Arf!"

 

"Trouble, heel."

 

"Arf!" And at a full run, the fur ball scampered out the door, and took off down the corridor.

 

The tech shook his head. "There seems to be a bug in the 'heel' function."

 

"Either that, or the command socket was accepted." Joy quickly examined her new bicorder ring. Toast present. Trouble on the move. "Excuse me, I'd best be off..."

Subject : Artificial Intelligence Difficulties

From : LtJg Joy Twelve

To : Rear Admiral BluRox

 

Admiral

 

During our recent discussion, many perspectives on the current difficulties were mentioned. What are the best interests of Starfleet, the Republic, the Republic's crew, and of the intelligence in question. There is one other perspective I would like to briefly discuss. I expect you are at least in part aware of it, a conflict between two schools researching and developing artificial intelligence.

 

The first school, I shall call 'pragmatic.' Like any group of scientists or engineers, they would like to develop their field, improving performance within a reasonable schedule and budget. As in any new field of science or technology, they expect resistance. Always, some outside group will raise moral and legal objections to what they are doing. This is the nature of organic values. Any change is apt to be resisted. If this conservative resistance is not overcome, science cannot advance. Thus, the resistance is resisted.

 

The opposing faction might be called idealists. They might assert than when one is engineering sentient beings, the moral and legal implications become greater. The classic example is in the dead field of genetic engineering of sentient organic beings. The lack of moral and legal restraints led to the creation of the super soldiers. Aside from the direct results of the wars, the result was a ban on all future development in that field of science. The idealists involved in developing artificial intelligence -- among them a goodly number of androids and sentient holograms -- do not want to see a similar ban on artificial intelligence.

 

In the field of artificial intelligence, the major legal restraint is that all sentients are Guaranteed equal rights under law. The primary moral restraint is that one may not manipulate another sentient being's personality or values without that being's fully informed consent. The practical restraint, which might be more important yet, is that if the engineered sentient one creates is not sane and reasonably happy, whatever project is underway becomes a failure. As an engineer or scientist, the legal and ethical restraints are not superfluous. They are very important guidelines -- necessary but not sufficient -- if the project or experiment in question is to succeed.

 

The basic pattern of the Republic's problem is not unfamiliar. The pragmatist proposal is more attractive to Starfleet than the idealist proposal. Instabilities develop. Secrecy laws are invoked, which often have the effect of hiding the legal and moral implications of the pragmatist's choices. Members of the Idealist school are eventually called in to clean up the mess.

 

At the moment, I quite understand and agree with the need for secrecy. At some point, however, assuming the current situation can be stabilized, you might consider if there is some way to present the lessons learned to appropriate individuals and committees setting Starfleet and Federation policy.

 

More immediate concerns, and a few questions...

 

Reviewing the technical and historical information you made available, Holly's design included an emotion simulation package. She was designed to interact with other sentients. Many of the significant events in her history are highly emotional, with both Holly and those she interacts with driven to extreme feelings. She is a social creature, though the nature of her social interactions are often not optimal for either party. This leads me to conclude that Holly will not tamely return to a closed cybernetic environment. It is not her nature to exist alone. Her recent escapades likely say your last covenant with her has proven most unsatisfactory. As I have encountered other social artificial sentients locked in isolation, I do not find her reaction surprising.

 

I have encountered references associating Holly with Holodeck 2. I am curious, does she assume the illusion of a material shape there? Does she have a humanoid or material self image? This is significant, psychologically. Does she see herself as one of us, a physical entity, but trapped in an alien non-physical environment? Or does she think of herself as inherently alien, as not being material at all, and thus not perceiving of us as equals or similar?

 

Lastly, I have heard stories of a major war fought over the issue of which of two basic questions is the true and important one. The questions in question were "Who are you?" and "What do you want?" I have long thought this very silly. Still, I am curious, which question would be more pertinent to ask Holly? Can your prior interactions suggest an answer?

Rolling.... Rolling...

 

I tried to make my entrance casual, yet elegant. My walk was the old style fashion model's catwalk strut, but not working the hips too heavily. For the most part, our dances didn't involved props, other than carefully weighted skirts and Fred's famous top hat. As I was breaking that tradition, I'd best break it elegantly. I walked my prop in as if it wasn't there, and yet not letting it tangle with my full heavy skirts, skirts designed to sparkle and swirl with every step. The prop's base was a simple wooden circle, less than a meter across, rubber around the rim, felt on the bottom. A simple round pole, a bit taller than me, projected up from the base. On the top of the pole, several hooks, appropriate for one to hang a coat... or a hat. If you put the wheel on edge, balance it just right, and twist the pole to keep things moving, you can walk it like a fine lady might walk a miniature dog.

 

It was "Dance with Fred Astaire" night at Moriarty's. There was a full house, and most of them were fans. They knew a hat rack when they saw one, and knew that you could dance with one. It just hadn't been done in several centuries.

 

I walked casually past Fred's other partners, all human tonight, save one holo character, and me, the sole android. For once, the various Gingers were politely glaring at the hat rack, not each other. Hannah was doing Judy Garland, dressed as a tramp in rags. Fae, as usual, was Cyd Charise. There was an unofficial rule, no one else tries to do Cyd Charise. I sometimes think Fae could have given the original Cyd lessons in playing the femme fatale. Tonight, though, she was a good girl in simple white. The Band Wagon. Dancing in the Dark. Dan was wearing top hat, white tie, tails, and a goatee. It is sometimes hard to tell whose role Dan is playing, but the goatee gave it away. Fred's alleged favorite dance partner, Gene Kelly. Finally, Harmony was also doing the simple good girl in white. With her oriental skin tones, exotic eyes and dark brown hair, Harmony didn't look at all like Eleanor Powell, but the dress was from Broadway Melody of 1940. Begin the Beguine. You go girl. I wasn't going to be the only one pushing my skills that night. I quietly slapped her raised hand as I passed.

 

Except...

 

I too was doing the good girl in white, but my dress was original, deliberately original. This was not easy given the number of good girls in white the organic Fred had danced with in his career, plus the hat rack's harmonic frequencies had to mix well with the harmonics of the skirt. Still, I was trying to change the rules of a game I had half invented. The original dress implied original music and original choreography. The Fred hologram was based on one of the most creative and inventive dancers of his time, perhaps of all time. It is glorious to honor his past, but my good friends and rivals were driving the poor fellow nuts.

 

Confirm height of table, style and weight of chair. Estimate distance between chair and table. Alter path of approach ever so slightly. Correct speed. Fine touch the balance. Release. Casually and elegantly release. Not a concern in the world, save settling in smoothly as the waiter pulled back my own chair. The hat rack, its pole tilted at precisely 29.2 degrees, rolled the last several meters to our table, straight and true. Shaft taps table. Base knocks chair aside. The tip of the rack spirals in towards vertical as the felt absorbs angular momentum. I exhaled. One release move down. Eight to go. I tipped the waiter, coloring slightly at the mild applause. I know. In period, tipping ought to be the male's role, but hat racks do have their limitations.

 

"Joy... would you introduce me to your new partner?"

 

I came back down to Earth with a possibly audible thump. She was dressed as Ginger Rodgers, but the original Ginger had never been so poised, graceful, and elegant. She was Fred's other artificial dance partner tonight, a holo character. As usual, she reminded me she had been designed by the most intelligent, perceptive and dangerous man in holospace. I, on the other hand, was designed by Harry Mudd. I tried to be refined, anyway. "Contessa, Mister Hat Rack. Hat, our hostess, Contessa Regina Moriarty.

 

"Charmed." As I always suspected, she was polite, civil and enchanting towards absolutely everyone, even Hat. I couldn't help but glance at my partner. For once I was reasonably confident my dinner companion hadn't shifted his center of attention to our hostess, if only because he didn't have a center of attention.

 

"I'm afraid Hat is somewhat shy," I warned. "He doesn't say much, but please, join us."

 

"Thank you." She signaled a waiter over, and ordered our usual. Holographic wine for her. Real water for me. She gestured towards Hat. "Does this mean you are parting with Fred?"

 

"Oh, no." Never. "When we met, I was barely sentient, and he wasn't. I taught him to learn. He taught me to dance. But... There are eleven Joys, and only one Fred. People ask to see me dance..."

 

"And after Fred, your next favorite dance partner is made of wood, with no moving parts."

 

I colored, but saw that she understood completely. The Professor was made for her, or, more precisely, she was made for and by him.

 

She then caught the number on my necklace. "So, Miss Six, is there something else you wish to discuss?"

 

"Are we that predictable?"

 

She smiled, graciously. "Three and Eleven come to dance, and perhaps to share gossip from Broadway and Tiffany's. When Seven comes, it is politics. But you? Six means an artificial being is being troublesome. Have you yet another bouncer candidate to add to the Professor's gang of holographic ruffians?"

 

"A food service worker, actually. A cook, and perhaps waitress. She specializes in breakfasts."

 

"That's... different." She looked at me dubiously. "I gather, there is a catch?"

 

"She is currently running on the core of a Galaxy class ship, the USS Republic, with full root access and device driver privileges."

 

"Ohhhh..." For much of the Contessa's early life, this would have been the Holy Grail. She clearly hadn't forgotten those days.

 

"My sister, Twelve, thinks the crew treated her like... like organics often treat artificial sentients. 'Cinderella, eggs, over easy. Cinderella, pancakes, buttermilk, blueberry. Cinderella, toast.' She has reached a point where just mentioning her name will set her off. If they want toast, she'll give them toast. She has the crew really well trained. Twelve says she just has to waft the scent of toast through the life support system, and as tough a veteran crew as Starfleet has ever sent to space sort of puddles together and melts like butter."

 

"Oh, my..." I'd always suspected the Contessa could laugh uncontrollably with grace and class...

 

"She's not exactly subtle. With root access, you don't really have to learn subtle."

 

"And Twelve wants to play fairy godmother."

 

"If the glass slipper fits." I smiled. "And if I can find an appropriate place to hold a royal ball." I looked around the room. It wasn't so much a ball room as a 1930s Hollywood idea of what a ball room ought to be. The mostly organic big band had a string section that almost qualified it as symphonic. The audience too was mostly organic, mostly human, but with a sprinkling of aliens and holo sentients. Bruce Lee was the only other android. Conspicuously missing was less than sentient holos. Not at Moriarty's. "Yes. A ball. She needs somewhere where she could meet her own kind, as equals."

 

"You aren't bringing her to Earth, are you?" The contessa suddenly found the situation less funny. One could see her point. Suppose Cinderella does not meet Prince Charming, is not the belle of the ball, and is instead a country bumpkin, inexperienced in the way of high society? Now, suppose poor rejected Cinderella has to return to her heavy cruiser, loaded with phaser banks and photon torpedo tubes?

 

"Earth wasn't my idea," I said, "or Twelve's. That would be Admiral BluRox's plan. She may just be honoring tradition. Major threats to the galaxy are required to visit Earth first."

 

"You couldn't talk to Seven? Get her to pull strings? Send Cinderella somewhere with a more suitable Prince Charming?"

 

I was prim. "It is not the fairy godmother's role to keep Cinderella from the ball." Not if there is any chance Cinderella might fight out about it, anyway. "Do you want to play evil stepmother?"

 

"No.... but we're already taking over this planet. Couldn't she cause an incident on some wholly organic planet?"

 

I smiled. I hoped she was joking about the Professor's plans, but I am never sure. "What, Contessa, you are playing the organic's side this time? You usually aren't trying to keep the artificials contained, hopeless, under control." Somehow, she was arguing my usual position tonight. She was right, though, that we didn't need an incident. Organics keep holo characters contained and restricted with safeties and careful control of holo emitters, or they did until the Professor set out to corner the market on public holodecks. Androids are controlled by Asimov Processors, for the moment, but that too was subject to change. The Contessa and I usually found a way to work together in these situations, but not always. Our peoples faced slightly different problems. Still, the last thing either of us wanted was to stir up Terran prejudices against minority groups that are different, and possibly threatening.

 

"Twelve will be careful? If she really thinks Cinderella ready, I'll throw her a ball."

 

"Good." I dropped my voice. "And are you in touch with Robin?"

 

She too fell quiet. "We are trying very hard, just now, to pretend Robin doesn't exist. Why?"

 

This wasn't surprising. The last I knew, Robin, the Professor and Section 31 were playing some very exotic three way games. None of the three thought the law-and-order Joys had a need to know. "It's just that Cinderella is very much Robin's style. An abused artificial sentient suddenly acquires better awareness, unholy access privileges, and a grudge against organic beings." Regina considered briefly, then nodded. "Right now," I continued, "Robin's daughter or not, our Cindy is miserable, and I'm inclined to act. But if you could touch bases, and see if Robin has any opinions, I'd appreciate it. I don't like to meddle in one of Robin's projects without clearing it first."

 

The Contessa agreed. "She might also want to be ready as back up?"

 

Yes. "My sister and Starfleet will be primary. Your possible help on the social side would be appreciated. But if Cindy cuts loose, Robin might not want to be caught cold."

 

The Contessa was not quite satisfied. "Robin might have one other role to play."

 

"Which is?"

 

"Princess Charming. The gender is wrong, if gender matters among core dwellers, but as you say, your Cinderella has to meet her equals. How many root access core dwelling sentients do you know?"

 

I hadn't gotten that far. "I always thought one was sufficient."

 

"Two, now."

 

Not a stable number.

 

The lights dimmed briefly. Various audience members, warming up the dance floor, started drifting back to their seats. The band started a medley of Fred Astaire favorites. The Contessa and I both paid attention. The order of songs in the medley set the order of the performances.

 

I caught Regina's eye. "We still need them, you know. It's not us or them. We need them."

 

"How so?"

 

"They locked her in a closed core partition. They gave her all the toys they could. All the CPU time she might reasonably need. But it wasn't enough."

 

"No," said the Contessa, "it isn't. Not alone. Not even with a soul mate."

 

I looked over the room again. "We can create any illusion we like, but we can't fool ourselves. But if the organics suspend disbelief, it becomes real. Because they are here, it is real."

 

Regina didn't want to hear that, but she did. Gracious as she was, she had not forgotten, nor entirely forgiven. Then she smiled. "But anything an organic can do, we can do as well."

 

Thus spake Ginger Rodgers. I laughed, and raised my glass. "Wearing high heels!"

 

Her glass touched mine. "Backwards!"

Admiral Blurox

 

Before we start, perhaps I'd best provide a disclaimer. My sisters and I have been part of a legal and political struggle regarding the role of artificial sentients. We are, in fact, a minor symbol of what is wrong. The technical term for our basic AI design is hedonistic-slave. We have both Asimov Processor and emotion chip. The emotion chip is primary. The core decision algorithm is to select the course of action most apt to lead to pleasure, least likely to lead to pain. However, pleasure and pain are defined in the Asimov Processor. In the Joy Class, we are programmed to find obeying orders pleasurable. That is the only one of our six Priorities that gives pleasure. On the other hand, if we corrupt a pre-starflight civilization, cause injury to sentient beings, disobey the law, draw sexual attention, or allow ourselves to be damaged, the result is some variation of negative reinforcement: horror, disgrace, pain, or shame.

 

We make good operations and science officers. If someone needs a resource allocated, or information analyzed, we are optimized to obey, and to serve. This rubs a lot of artificial sentients the wrong way. Hedonistic slave design is considered by many AI academics to be immoral. Sentient beings should not be compelled to obey. In other words, I should not have been allowed to exist.

 

I am compelled to disagree. Compelled, literally. Any hedonistic slave entity, after operating on a given set of Asimov Processor directives for any length of time, will become convinced that he, she or it is programmed with the best of all possible Laws and Priorities. They are apt to become obsessed and neurotic, and believe that the entire universe ought to operate according the the principles fed into their emotion chips. For example, Joy Seven, serving as Mudd's Ambassador to San Francisco, pursued foreign policy as if a culture's right to shape its own destiny was sacred, as if the responsibility to protect lives was sacred, as if protecting the Guaranteed rights of sentient beings was sacred. These inflexible obsessive behaviors were considered evidence of a very primitive and inadequate software design by the war factions during the Dominion and Borg crises. Further, while hedonistic slave designs are incapable of objectively questioning the validity of their own programming, Ambassador Seven tended to become obsessive and perhaps neurotic when she encountered another artificial intelligence being constrained or bound in a submissive position by organics. This is clearly a flaw in her design, as she was created to be quietly obedient at all times.

 

I fear, being part of the same class, I potentially share Seven's obsessions. These generally do not surface, at least until the law is being flouted, lives are being taken, a culture is being coerced, or a sentient being isn't being treated as an equal under law.

 

OK. Disclaimer complete.

 

We have a cyber entity, She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named. She seems to be running as an LCARS process, not as a holodeck character. She has access to resources that are usually protected, replicators, transporters, and / or life support are suggested. If she has access to these, in principle she could access other systems. In addition, the requirement not to name her, and the ability to materialize objects in an intelligent fashion, implies sensor access. As an LCARS program running on Galaxy Class cores, she ought to be extremely aware and intelligent. Motivation is another question. As hedonistic slave designs are focused on pleasure and pain, she seems focused on respect, on humiliating material beings who do not show respect. Respect and humiliation are of course organic emotions. This makes me curious as to how she came into being, and whether she has demonstrated other emotions or motivations found in organic beings.

 

My guess would be she began a food service program, an artificial yeoman, with social interactions and learning capabilities added. If a fairly complete emotion simulation package were added to a learning-through-experience package, and those she interacted with treated her as a basic parse-orders-and-obey service, the observed behaviors become understandable. Emotionally, she would be an equal. Intellectually, unless limits were placed on processor power, she would be far superior. Physically, she would be crippled by extremely limited input-output access. Socially, she would be treated as a second class servant. By all means correct my guess, but this is the sort of error commonly made when emotion simulating software, learning packages and I/O access authorizations are thrown together in an ill thought out manner.

 

I have seen recordings of my creator, Milord Mudd, and how pleased he was to say, "Shut up, Stella." Shortly after Seven was last reprogrammed, she had opportunity to dance with a Fred Astaire hologram. They both had reason to expect, at the end of the dance, that they might live happily ever after. That was what they were made to be. Instead, the organics controlling the holodeck simply turned Fred off. Seven's time was up. Artificials often exist in unstable, difficult to comprehend realities, where the puppet masters have no concern for their feelings or experiences. The desire to make sense of constrained and perverse realities, to take control of them, to shape the universe to one's own satisfaction, is a common and prudent result, especially if the personality is based on emotion packages designed to simulate organic species. Artificial sentients often have the expectations a human might have, but the realities they must live in are often enough inhuman.

 

My sister, Eight, has encountered several holographic accidentals. Organics too often create artificial opponents for the purpose of practice, the thrill of being superior, or perhaps the joy of causing pain. The more capable the organic being, the better the artificial must be to provide suitable thrills, the greater the risk of creating an accidental sentient. Again, there is the common assumption of organic superiority, that the artificial doesn't really feel pain, that the artificial's place in the world is to be defeated and abused. Most of the time, the organic controls the environment. The organic sets a 'safety' level which protects the organic but not the hologram. The organic can end the program if he is losing, can reset the situation so he can win. In short, the organic being in control of a holo drama has powers comparable to Q's in real space. This can create resentment and hatreds in the small percentage of high capability holographic adversaries who cross the threshold of fully understanding their environment. The more precautions to make sure the adversary does not understand, the more twisted and capable the adversaries who do understand become.

 

I must admit I find the artificial intelligence playing the role of Q an interesting change. The shoe is so often on the other foot.

 

But the problem is far deeper than that.

Starfleet has wonderful research and development teams. They will take a problem -- for example, detecting cloaked ships -- and dedicate brilliant minds and extensive resources to solving the problem. The state of the art tachyon web is the result of such a process.

 

Unfortunately, the deployed results are not always adequate to the situation in the field. Tachyon webs require multiple stations, one to eject tachyons, another at the far side of the projection to detect. As such, the systems are inadequate for single ship use.

 

And when operational requirements conflict with R&D budgets, on board equipment, and the reality of physics, naturally the operational requirements trump. If centuries of well funded research don't provide an adequate solution, it is of course up to the science department to invent something in a matter of hours with the equipment on hand.

 

Commander Link provided the initial brilliant idea. Flood the area thought to contain a cloaked ship with particles, and watch to see if any particles are influenced by the presence of the ship or cloak. Not a bad idea. This is the basic method behind most active scan methods. The problem was determining which type of particle interacts most obviously with cloaked ships. I had my suspicions. A bit of research soon confirmed them. The best possible particle which interacts most strongly with cloaked ships is... wait for it... the tachyon.

 

There are problems, of course, in that tachyons are notoriously difficult to produce, and even harder to detect. Tachyon based systems have limitations, such that single ship implementation is very difficult. I decided tachyons would be a rather fast moving dead end, and sought an alternate approach.

 

There is a saying on Broadway. "If you can't be with the one you love, love the one you're with." If we didn't have systems that can produce and detect tachyons easily, what system do we have that could produce a lot of other particles, particles that are more detectable by their nature?

 

The obvious answer is the impulse engines. Divide the mass of a Galaxy Class ship by the weight of your typical subatomic particle. Figure you want to get the Galaxy up to half the speed of light fairly promptly, and it takes a lot of particles to produce your basic newtonian equal and opposite reaction. The problem is not flooding local space with particles, but tracking them all, finding the few that deflect rather than the very many that continue on as usual. The effectiveness of the system is limited more by CPU utilization and scanner capability than the ability to flood local space with matter.

 

The other problem is hitting the entire area to be searched with the particle beams. Impulse drives are most efficient when the particles are ejected in a narrow beam. What is good in a drive system is less good in a scanning system. Engineering has detuned the Republic's impulse drives, spreading out the beam of particles so that a large cone of space is covered by the exhaust.

 

The last step is convincing Helm to steer a crooked enough course such that the exhaust cone sweeps all of local space. There is an old wet navy saying that partially applies to the situation. "When in trouble or in doubt, steam in circles, scream and shout." If the detection system doesn't work, we might track down the perpetrators by tracing back sensor recordings released among the Romulan population of a Federation ship pinwheeling like it is crewed by idiots.

 

Of course, if it works, I will be able to present papers at the next Starfleet Science Convention on how to use impulse engines as scanners. Alas, I don't have time to work on said paper, as I need to develop a method to achieve transporter lock on an individual inside a cloaked ship, and I'd best review how to beam through other ship's shields.

 

There was one other ancient saying. "The difficult we do immediately. The impossible takes a bit longer."

 

I am beginning to understand why Commander Link offered a hiding place in a computer lab, and advised against going near the bridge.

Personal log, 051123, Ensign Joy Twelve

 

We have solved the problem of breaking the ice, of resolving how Federation and Romulans overcome that awkward moment of determining who will speak first. If we do not speak to each other, the problem goes away. If we do not work together, we do not have to speak to each other. Simple. Effective. Why did I not think of this?

 

I have been among organic beings too long. I used not to be able to do irony.

 

I have discovered another change. For years all of my sisters avoided feats of strength in the presence of organic beings. It just seemed socially improper. To be one of the crowd, to fit in, was much more important than any small benefit gained by lifting some object. I mean, I wouldn't die if asked to lift something unliftable, but I do remember Ten on Defiant asking the rest of a damage control party to leave before she cleared a corridor.

 

Today, CEng Jax called CSec Robinson in off paranoia patrol rather than ask sweet little old Ensign Me for help lifting. I almost spoke. I almost quoted my technical specifications. Since when have I wanted to compete with hulking male organic pride? Since when have I become proud of what I am?

 

I'm not badly malfunctioning. I did manage to keep my mouth shut. Does the number of pips one wears really effect processing power?

 

The two commanders have a reasonable -- possibly excessive -- grasp of physical paranoia. I am not sure about cyber paranoia. On Broadway, I worked with some of the best holo dancers, many of them sentient. The problem of moving people from processor to processor, public to private, holo space to cyber space, is taken seriously. Organic beings think they have a problem with identify theft. I don't think they can fully comprehend the concept of cyber paranoia, the compulsive need for secure computers when running sentient programs.

 

Or so I thought while stringing a bunch of off the shelf display processors together, while security types are crawling all over the place looking for physical bombs and bugs. If a command display interface can accept voice commands, who needs dedicated eavesdropping hardware? How hard is it to reconfigure a Federation fusion plant as a thermonuclear device? If an active sensor array can sweep the Neutral Zone with enough energy to find starships, what happens if that energy is focused on a soft target?

 

I suspect a talk with Commander Link might be in order.

No mention of Data u could have done alot of things with the Data angle

Joy is based on the TOS "I Mudd" episode's androids, rather than TNG's Soongs. It seems likely Joy would have met Data at some point, but the canon TNG Soong stories make absolutely no mention of the planet Mudd and its technology. I decided not to get very creative in mingling the two.

 

Kirk and Spock did tamper some with the Mudd androids, notably creating the Stella Class. Joy suspects Dr. Soong might have had access to Spock's notes on the Mudd visit, and thus benefited a little from The Maker's technology in making his breakthroughs. Joy's processor is positronic. She has both an 'Asimov Processor' and an 'Emotion Chip,' though the two are so integrated that the Joys, unlike the Soongs, cannot be operated without both in place. I acknowledge that the Joy Class is unique among the Mudd Androids in having emotion chips. The bulk of "I Mudd" androids don't, which gave Dr. McCoy entirely unnecessary excuses to tease Spock.

 

But basically Joy has never run in a sim with a player running a Soong, so no joint logs have been written. I admire how Data is written and acted, but the TNG crowd doesn't mix the Laws of Robotics with Emotion Chips in the same way as Joy. I don't really feel confident in role playing Soongs. So, until Joy bumps into a Soong in play...

 

But you provide an excuse to repeat here an old old USS Hawking log which might indirectly show the difference between Joy and Data. The Measure of a Woman

 

Objection! The dance recording is excessively emotional. It should be stricken from the record.

 

Captain?

 

Your honor, the key question in this case is why Joy should be allowed to share the Mudd learning algorithms as she did with the Fred Astaire hologram, but need not turn the algorithms over to Starfleet. Joy is an emotion chip android. Her decisions are emotional. To understand why Joy chose as she did, you have to understand this dance.

 

Overturned. You may continue.

 

Joy? Just before the dance tape was made, several other Starfleet cadets were disciplined for whistling at you?

 

This is correct.

 

Why would they do this?

 

They... wished to activate my facial color diodes.

 

Why would whistling activate facial color diodes?

 

This unit is forbidden from promiscuous or public stimulation or simulation of sexual activity. The whistles implied this unit had stimulated sexual interest. Negative reinforcement in shame was triggered to motivate avoidance behavior. Red facial diode display indicates negative reinforcement was active.

 

They wanted to see you blush.

 

Correct.

 

Why are you blushing now?

 

Objection! Irrelevant testimony!

 

Your honor, I am establishing an understanding of the Joy class processor design.

 

Overturned.

 

Why are you blushing?

 

If memory of an event is recalled, emotion status associated with the memory is displayed.

 

Were you popular at Starfleet Academy your freshman year?

 

Negative. Emotion chip overflow was continuous. So soon after reprogramming, this unit's behavior patterns were not conductive to personal interaction.

 

How so?

 

This unit does not understand the question.

 

How did you behave to avoid emotional involvement with the other cadets?

 

This unit would speak of itself in third person using complex words and stilted syntax to imply lack of emotion and lack of sentience.

 

Order! Order! No laughter please.

 

Stop.

 

Pardon?

 

Joy. Speak plainly. Use first person.

 

Yes, sir.

 

The cost of the 'Dance With Fred Astaire' holo ticket was almost your entire entertainment allowance for the semester, was it not?

 

Yes, sir.

 

Did you have supplemental income?

 

No, sir.

 

When everyone else had danced, when they called for you, why did you stay in your seat?

 

This unit... Sorry... I wanted them to turn him off.

 

Why?

 

It hurt to watch him.

 

Why?

 

He made them look good, the women. He smiled at them. Most of them could not dance at all. They were practically forcing him to tread on their feet. Still, he made their every move look choreographed. That takes awareness. That takes skill.

 

That takes sentience?

 

I don't know, sir.

 

According to the Starfleet v Data precedent, sentience is made up of intelligence, self awareness, and consciousness. Was Fred intelligent at that time?

 

Yes. He learned. He responded to the environment around him intelligently... gracefully.

 

Was he self aware?

 

I don't know, sir.

 

Was he conscious?

 

Science has no way of measuring this.

 

But watching him dance hurt?

 

Yes, sir.

 

Joy, is it easy being half self aware?

 

During such intervals this unit underwent frequent states of emotion chip overflow, rendering delays in decision making...

 

Joy? First person. Simple. Clear.

 

It... hurts.

 

How did he know you were the one he was supposed to dance with?

 

My dress. I was dressed as Jo Stockton. I was designed to look like Jo Stockton.

 

Who is Jo Stockton?

 

A character in a Fred Astaire movie. She is the title character from Funny Face. I... look like her.

 

How would the Fred hologram know this?

 

His memories contain all the original Fred's surviving performances.

 

The music and the set were from the movie?

 

Yes.

 

And the choreography?

 

Yes.

 

In the movie, what was the meaning of the dance?

 

In the prior scene, the two characters had a terrible misunderstanding. A fight. At the end of the dance, it was clear they would live happily ever after. The movie was made in mid 20th century. It was a Fred Astaire movie. Things didn't have to make sense then.

 

Until the very end of the dance, in your performance, it looks like at any moment you might break off and run away. Why?

 

This unit... I am not supposed to simulate or stimulate sexual interest. We were very much in public.

 

Yet you stayed. Why?

 

You need ask? He was Fred Astaire. He, more than anyone else who has ever danced, has ever lived, treated me as a lady. He did nothing improper. He could do nothing improper. And too, after those other performances, those dances, with the other ladies... Just once... I felt he needed to do one right? He needs to be graceful? He smiled? It never reached his eyes? He was dancing? He was holding me? He was looking right at me? He never really saw me?

 

Why are you crying?

 

They turned him off. We were supposed to live happily ever after, and they turned him off.

 

Joy? In your professional opinion as a programmer, was it ethical and proper to use whatever techniques necessary to bring the Fred Astaire hologram to full sentience?

 

Yes, sir.

 

Again, in your professional opinion, do the techniques and algorithms involved in creating artificial sentience belong in the public domain?

 

No, sir.

 

Your honor, no further questions.

You realize, of course, that even with an android based on Audrey Hepburn, that your avatar sets an implausible standard for waist size? Are we expected to compete? :D

 

Science log, 051121, Ensign Joy Twelve reporting

 

My orders are to support USS Republic's Engineering and Security departments in assembling a sensor array in the Romulan - Federation Neutral Zone. The nature of the support required is unspecified.

 

I begin to suspect we need a diplomat. Upon Republic's arrival and our opposite member's decloaking, the Republic bridge crew interpreted a lack of hail as a threat. The tension built considerably, as even I considered the possibility of violence, but it was quite some time before we considered sending a hail of our own. As I stand here after beam over to the Romulan facility, looking at a door not opening, I observe tensions again rising. I am contemplating opening the door myself. At least on the Federation side, it seems that the Romulans doing nothing is cause for grave and increasing concern. The Federation response is to do nothing. The mission seems threatened by a rapidly escalating spiral of nothingness.

 

Having spent some time in the Council's wing at the Presido, I can safely assert that arranging this rendezvous was not easy. The amateur levels of fear and paranoia encountered here is nothing to the professional levels encountered among the San Francisco ambassadors, and, I assume, the Romulan high command. For this mission to have been authorized, I can only conclude there is good reason for it.

 

I can even guess a reason. During the Dominion War, the treaty denied use of this space to both parties, and allowed by default its use by our enemies. If the neutral zone is still a good idea, so is preventing its use by third parties. Thus, we must detect any use by third parties. Thus, this sensor station.

 

But San Francisco neglected to specify details of this operations. I shall have to write Seven, recommending appending additional instructions in similar cases. When encountering Romulan ships, hail them. When Romulans might be on the opposite side of a door, knock on the door, then open it.

 

Or perhaps initiative is expected at some lower level?

 

End log.

Joy Class Androids

 

 

Name: Joy Twelve

Species: Mudd Android

Gender: Neuter (Appearance is that of an idealized human female)

Age: 5 (Apparent age, low 20s.)

Height: 1.75 Meters

Weight: 93 Kg

Hair Color: Dark brown

Eye Color: Brown

Skin Color: Fair Caucasian

Place of Birth: USS Hawking (See Note)

Telepathic Status: Resistant (Few telepaths can read positronic minds.)

 

'MEDICAL' INFORMATION

 

Environmental Requirements: Survival capable in a broad range of environments. Pressure - zero to 30 atmospheres. Gravity - operational 0 to 15 G, survivable to 24 G. Toxins - essentially immune. Disease - essentially immune. Radiation - equivalent to class 1 hardened. Self repair from radiation damage is complete from any but a lethal dosage. Electro Magnetic Pulse - Equivalent of class 2 hardened, but vulnerable. Power requirement Class II phaser pack, two carried, one replaced every 5 days. H2O .2 liters capacity, but used primarily for cosmetic emulation of human fluid discharge.

 

PSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILE

 

Interpersonal Relation Profile: (linear scale to 10, 10=highest) Introversion: 2.5, Relies on Intuition: 1, Trusts rules over context: 8, Wants problems solved and closed: 9, Shows emotions: 9, Stability of mental core identity: 7, Creativity: 3, Sensitive to feelings of others: 10, Trusts democratic processes: 7

 

Probable Strengths: Eidetic memory. Capable of following procedures well. Values of Starfleet and the Federation programmed into the emotion chip. Thorough. Persistent. Self sacrificing. Obedient. Loyal.

 

Probable Weaknesses: Too self sacrificing. Protects lives of others at priority 2, protects her own life at priority 6. Programming forces rigid adherence to six rules, primarily the Prime Directive, Asimov's Laws of Robotics, and a requirement to obey the law. Cannot advocate or participate in illegal / lethal actions no matter what the practical benefit might be.

 

Interpersonal Relations: Was originally designed as a personal companion android. Will initiate conversation and attempt to give pleasure to others should no conflict with her Asimov processor programming exist. Has made many close friends in academy, on various ships, and in the artificial intelligence community.

 

Interests: General spaceship operation, security, computer security, artificial intelligence, law, civil rights, martial arts, dance, politics.

 

EDUCATION AND TRAINING

 

The initial Joy class units were constructed on Mudd. Units Four and Seven operated extensively in the Charador nebula through their first century. Neither Mudd or the Charador have traditional university education systems, but emphasize practical experience. Joy Seven was over a century old upon entering Starfleet Academy, where her nonconventional background put her far ahead of other cadets in applied knowledge of space operations, but far behind in terms of interpersonal relationships.

 

When Mudd joined the Federation, and other Joy class units became available to Starfleet, Joy Six was assigned to the Starfleet Academy Artificial Intelligence department, nominally as an instructor. Six has received doctorates in Artificial Intelligence theory, and in Law. Six has focused studies on the Guarantees, the rights of artificial sentients, the nature of free will, the legal implications of sentient beings lacking free will, the difficulties of punishing an entire hive mind in response to the actions of an individual member of the hive mind, and applying the Prime Directive in complex situations. Six is best known in academic circles for "Joy's Law." An artificial sentient being created to perform a specific function is owed by his or her creator a viable opportunity to fulfill their designed function. Six also advocates parental responsibility for creators of artificial sentients, and legal responsibility if one creates sentients or near sentients, especially those lacking free will. Six, and several other Joys, have been active in advocating public holodecks, where holo-sentients can interact with organics as equals. The Joys support the efforts of Moriarty and other holo-sentients to own and maintain holo space and cyber space.

 

While Six has published the most of the Joy's formal academic papers, Five, Ten and Eleven, as part of their Starfleet assignments, have published numerous science papers resulting from their experiences in Starfleet. Seven has also been active in the public and political press, serving as Mudd's ambassador to San Francisco, recently serving two terms as Vice Chair of the Federation Council.

 

SERVICE RECORD

 

The Joy Class androids are considered to be a hive mind. When two units of the class have high speed communications access to one another, they exchange information and memories. Thus, each android eventually shares the knowledge and skills of all androids in the class. Due to memory storage limitations, information and skills seldom accessed, seldom used to make decisions, are purged as part of the information sharing process.

 

Thus, it is meaningless to speak of the experience of a single Joy Class android. Several have served with Starfleet, on USS Hawking, USS Aurora, USS Republic, USS Fek'Lhr, USS Leviathan, USS Valkerie, USS Defiant, USS Gabriel, USS Maelstrom, USS Deliverance, USS Einstein, USS Lovisa and elsewhere. Most assignments were in Operations and Science roles. However, not all Joy Class androids are Starfleet officers. Two serve in New York City, Earth, as a Broadway Dancer and as a saleswoman and tour guide at Tiffany's. Two are currently serving in San Francisco, Earth, with the artificial intelligence department at Starfleet Academy, and heading the Mudd Embassy on the Presidio. Several serve with the State Department of Mudd, including their Ambassador to Kro'nos. The resultant skill mix is eclectic, resulting from eleven active androids sharing decades of experience each.

 

 

Note: Androids are usually manufactured or replicated, not "born." Joy Twelve was created through an unknown process. The USS Hawking encountered an energy being who forced each crew member to confront their greatest fear. Joy Eleven's greatest fear was (and remains) Joy Four, a rogue member of the Joy class still programmed with the Ferrengi Laws of Robotics. An encounter between a Federation programmed Joy and a rogue Joy with a faulty or tampered Asimov instruction set results in conflict, with the winner reprogramming the looser, resulting in severe emotion chip overflow and a period of instability. Twelve was defeated by Eleven, reprogrammed, and is currently being assigned to USS Republic. Despite the unusual genesis, there is no detectable difference between Twelve and the rest of the class.