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[NRDL]

2

[Vgray]

As you make this decision, Mark glances at you and types another brief note to himself. He seems very good at reading people.

"So I've heard your robot is kind of like a robotic four-year-old, only it has arms that spring out of it like some strange mechanical octopus, and it's kind of bumbling in what may be an endearing way."

Mark gives you a skeptical look to tell you what he thinks of this.

"I guess I ought to show you my robot sometime," you say.

"Yeah."

The bartender comes back with your PBR and Mark's PBR. You find that the initials stand for "Pabst Blue Ribbon," and that it comes in an elongated can. You try it and decide that you would probably not award it a Blue Ribbon. It tastes gleefully trashy.

"So, let's get to the most interesting of the rumors," Mark says. "Does this robot have human-level intelligence?"

The way Mark studies your expression suggests that your answer will say as much about you as it will about Caliban.

1) "You should see Caliban while he is learning from games. It's only a matter of time before he surpasses us."
2) "Yes. Caliban is absolutely the equal of any human."
3) "Intelligence is a concept designed by elites to denigrate the lower classes. Caliban is what he is."
4) "No. He's still got a lot to learn."
5) "No. Caliban's mind is a pale imitation of human intelligence, which most people underestimate."

Spoiler: Current Stats (click to show/hide)

Year: 2020

25-year-old Ada Doniec
  Humanity: 79%
  Gender: female
  Fame: 0 (Who?)
  Wealth: 0 (Broke)
  Romance: Eiji

Caliban

  Autonomy: 7 (In Beta)
  Military: 0 (Nonexistent)
  Empathy: 21 (Impressive)
  Grace: 7 (In Beta)

Relationships
  Professor Ziegler (Great): 71%
  Eiji (Very Good): 69%
  Josh (Good): 60%
  Mark (Good): 54%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%

[Arcvasti]

4

[Ama]

4.

[Sensei]

3, let's pander!

[NRDL]

4

[Kassire]

4

[Vgray]

Mark nods. "So, these are only first steps but, in the future, you hope to do so-and-so, et cetera. I know the drill. Every paper is a baby step toward the utopia in the distance." He shrugs. "Still, interesting that you choose to lead with that."

"I actually just meant there are large corpora he hasn't explored yet," you say. "I've only given him a small subset of games."

Now you have Mark's attention. "You just feed it games and it learns, huh?"

"Yes."

"Interesting." Mark makes some more notes.

"Let's talk about your advisor, then. Professor Ziegler is famous for his pronouncements that, in the near future, we'll have robots smarter than humans. What role did he play in creating this robot of yours?"

1) "He had nothing to do with it at all, besides providing the funding."
2) "He demanded that the robot appear more useful to the military, without contributing significantly to its intelligence."
3) "He provided some suggestions during the robot's construction."
4) "I was greatly inspired by his thinking—I was listening to him speak on NPR as the robot was being built, in fact."

Spoiler: Current Stats (click to show/hide)

Year: 2020

25-year-old Ada Doniec
  Humanity: 79%
  Gender: female
  Fame: 0 (Who?)
  Wealth: 0 (Broke)
  Romance: Eiji

Caliban

  Autonomy: 7 (In Beta)
  Military: 0 (Nonexistent)
  Empathy: 21 (Impressive)
  Grace: 7 (In Beta)

Relationships
  Professor Ziegler (Great): 71%
  Eiji (Very Good): 69%
  Josh (Good): 60%
  Mark (Very Good): 63%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%

[NRDL]

4

[birdy51]

Ziegler has been a bro this round. We bonded over Inspector Gadget.

4).

[Kassire]

4
Woo, being great buddies n' shit

[Vgray]

"So you think it's perfectly reasonable to be happy about the prospect of machines replacing people," Mark said.

"It's been happening throughout history anyway," you say. "Nobody particularly gets upset these days that scribes have been replaced with scanners."

Mark takes a moment to type out that sentence verbatim.

Mark pauses at his typing for a moment to give you a skeptical look. "But for creative work? Do you think robots will replace people in journalism, say?"

1) "Absolutely. Journalism is simply recording a log of some events. That's easily within reach of current technology."
2) "Yes. Once my robots are ready for the workforce, they will be ready for any job for which they are trained."
3) "No, professions that require understanding greater context will be off-limits from robots for a while."

Year: 2020

25-year-old Ada Doniec
  Humanity: 78%
  Gender: female
  Fame: 0 (Who?)
  Wealth: 0 (Broke)
  Romance: Eiji

Caliban

  Autonomy: 7 (In Beta)
  Military: 0 (Nonexistent)
  Empathy: 21 (Impressive)
  Grace: 7 (In Beta)

Relationships
  Professor Ziegler (Great): 76%
  Eiji (Very Good): 69%
  Josh (Good): 60%
  Mark (Good): 51%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%
  ?: 50%

[NRDL]

3

[Arcvasti]

3

"For a while" doesn't mean "Never".

[birdy51]

3.

We've surprised him in a bad way. Now he's asking the pointy questions.