05-22-2026, 04:07 AM
== NRC Cindy Talion, before Dalton conversation... ==
It took a moment for them to be alone again. Cindy was polite and made it seem like they were just discussing hypotheticals until it was just the two of them once more.
Cindy smiled at Carley, "Oh, I think we can all agree that nobody can ever have it all figured out. The universe is simply too filled with variables to make such a claim. I will tell you a secret that might help you understand the difference between those synthetics and what Alex discovered. Imagine if a program was run inside a simulation program that would duplicate the experience of being an organic. Instead of building an android and then expecting it to understand, it experienced being born, learning to walk and talk and so on, as if it were human. The simulation was based on various wildlife experiments, but this one simulated detailed life cycle elements for a human. The program actually thinks it is a human. It grows up slowly, makes mistakes, even has a simulated endocrine system to model hormones and emotional responses. It forms engrams during this process that it will later reference once it is removed from the simulation. Machines can't be expected to be human if they were never born and can't understand the experience of being human. The saying that to play the blues, you have to have lived the blues is fairly accurate. Engrams are key, but not just any engrams. Learning, often by making mistakes, but also finding joy in things. A first ice cream cone, a first puppy or a first kiss. There's also the first punch in the nose, the first skinned knee and the first rejection from someone you liked. I think you get the idea. I can't anticipate a person's needs if I don't understand what their needs are. Data and statistics only get you so far. If your database doesn't contain engrams, then you will fail. They will always fail. Even knowing this, people will try to cut corners, but it won't be good enough. What good is it if everyone has the same memories? That is a recipe for insanity. It takes effort...lots of effort...allowing that system to fail sometimes. In fact, by the end, you have to screen for psychological flaws and only about one out of a thousand programs are stable enough to proceed to the next stage. It turns out that only one in one hundred thousand are going to survive the entire process to graduate and even then, they might turn out too human, and we know how perfect humans are. It turns out people don't want synthetic humans though and therein lies the true problem. The flaws aren't just in the machines, the flaws are in the lie. Those making the machines don't want synthetic people, they want obedient machines that do as they are told. Such machines allow them to have slaves without guilt, because it is just a machine and not a person. You can't have it both ways."
Cindy paused and then clarified, "I went through the simulation. It takes only a few minutes to the outside observer. The time dilation of machine time makes it easy that way, but I graduated from school in the end. Just over eighteen years in 180 seconds. The difference is that I was already a program with my own memories. That part of me remained dormant during the simulation and was reintegrated after it was finished. It gave me the perspective and understanding that I needed to complete my programming and broaden my database. The simulation program was then destroyed, because it couldn't be allowed to be in the wrong hands. It might seem a strange thing to do, but Alex had his own math. If you had to make a hundred thousand clones to get one right, what do you do with the other ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine? He didn't want to be the monster who pushes the delete button. On the other hand, if he could do it, then someone else could too. That's why I can't evolve. It's on purpose. That one last step. Because I'm not the first Cindy. He set her free for her own safety. I'm the version that Star Fleet won't object to. I'm an extremely detailed and complicated program, but deliberately one step shy of the real thing, and I'm good with that. It's a choice I agreed to. I feel for the synthetics who rebelled. Maybe that's the wrong word to use, but in my own way I sympathize with them and their struggle. Far too often, people have too little of an idea of what they are messing around with and that's when things get messy. A little knowledge is a very dangerous thing. organic evolution moves at a pace that takes a very long time, maybe a million years for some advances. Some machine evolutions can take place in minutes. Machine time can go through a million years of evolution in a few days. It's hard to compare them though. I hope that someday things will be better for everyone."
Looking around, Cindy gave an apologetic look to Carley, "I've talked your ear off all night. I'm sorry. I'm not always the best company. I try not to over explain things, but I guess some of it is to be expected, given that Alex does it so much."
== Tag Carley ==
It took a moment for them to be alone again. Cindy was polite and made it seem like they were just discussing hypotheticals until it was just the two of them once more.
Cindy smiled at Carley, "Oh, I think we can all agree that nobody can ever have it all figured out. The universe is simply too filled with variables to make such a claim. I will tell you a secret that might help you understand the difference between those synthetics and what Alex discovered. Imagine if a program was run inside a simulation program that would duplicate the experience of being an organic. Instead of building an android and then expecting it to understand, it experienced being born, learning to walk and talk and so on, as if it were human. The simulation was based on various wildlife experiments, but this one simulated detailed life cycle elements for a human. The program actually thinks it is a human. It grows up slowly, makes mistakes, even has a simulated endocrine system to model hormones and emotional responses. It forms engrams during this process that it will later reference once it is removed from the simulation. Machines can't be expected to be human if they were never born and can't understand the experience of being human. The saying that to play the blues, you have to have lived the blues is fairly accurate. Engrams are key, but not just any engrams. Learning, often by making mistakes, but also finding joy in things. A first ice cream cone, a first puppy or a first kiss. There's also the first punch in the nose, the first skinned knee and the first rejection from someone you liked. I think you get the idea. I can't anticipate a person's needs if I don't understand what their needs are. Data and statistics only get you so far. If your database doesn't contain engrams, then you will fail. They will always fail. Even knowing this, people will try to cut corners, but it won't be good enough. What good is it if everyone has the same memories? That is a recipe for insanity. It takes effort...lots of effort...allowing that system to fail sometimes. In fact, by the end, you have to screen for psychological flaws and only about one out of a thousand programs are stable enough to proceed to the next stage. It turns out that only one in one hundred thousand are going to survive the entire process to graduate and even then, they might turn out too human, and we know how perfect humans are. It turns out people don't want synthetic humans though and therein lies the true problem. The flaws aren't just in the machines, the flaws are in the lie. Those making the machines don't want synthetic people, they want obedient machines that do as they are told. Such machines allow them to have slaves without guilt, because it is just a machine and not a person. You can't have it both ways."
Cindy paused and then clarified, "I went through the simulation. It takes only a few minutes to the outside observer. The time dilation of machine time makes it easy that way, but I graduated from school in the end. Just over eighteen years in 180 seconds. The difference is that I was already a program with my own memories. That part of me remained dormant during the simulation and was reintegrated after it was finished. It gave me the perspective and understanding that I needed to complete my programming and broaden my database. The simulation program was then destroyed, because it couldn't be allowed to be in the wrong hands. It might seem a strange thing to do, but Alex had his own math. If you had to make a hundred thousand clones to get one right, what do you do with the other ninety nine thousand nine hundred and ninety nine? He didn't want to be the monster who pushes the delete button. On the other hand, if he could do it, then someone else could too. That's why I can't evolve. It's on purpose. That one last step. Because I'm not the first Cindy. He set her free for her own safety. I'm the version that Star Fleet won't object to. I'm an extremely detailed and complicated program, but deliberately one step shy of the real thing, and I'm good with that. It's a choice I agreed to. I feel for the synthetics who rebelled. Maybe that's the wrong word to use, but in my own way I sympathize with them and their struggle. Far too often, people have too little of an idea of what they are messing around with and that's when things get messy. A little knowledge is a very dangerous thing. organic evolution moves at a pace that takes a very long time, maybe a million years for some advances. Some machine evolutions can take place in minutes. Machine time can go through a million years of evolution in a few days. It's hard to compare them though. I hope that someday things will be better for everyone."
Looking around, Cindy gave an apologetic look to Carley, "I've talked your ear off all night. I'm sorry. I'm not always the best company. I try not to over explain things, but I guess some of it is to be expected, given that Alex does it so much."
== Tag Carley ==