“Err…,” LeCroy began, “Yes and no. ‘Yes’ in that how all of the working parts come together in an artificial being was inspired by Lore. ‘No’ in that BX-12’s brain will be synthesized totally differently. But the truth is we really don’t know what made Lore the way he was, whether it was just a flaw in the design of his positronic brain, or if it was his experiences with the colonists and Dr. Noonian Soong. On the flip side of it, we again don’t know what made Data the way he was.
“One thing we know for sure, Data had a very sophisticated ethical program, one that programmers have been trying to emulate. But from a programmer’s point of view, how do we create an ‘ethical’ program? That means clearly defining what is right and what is wrong. But even we can’t clearly define what that is. Therein lays the problem for the engineer: how do we program good? Or bad?
“On a fundamental level, we can input simple rules: like, do not kill a human being. Or, do not steal from others. But what if killing that human being meant saving the lives of many others? It really depends. There is no calculation for that, no equation that can properly tell us what to do in that event. Again, we get back to needing emotions to making decision. We rely on our feelings, our experiences, to tell us whether something is right or wrong. We can’t program judgment.
“This has ultimately been the limitation of the ‘top-down’ approach of programming a machine. Somewhere along the development of artificial intelligence, it became painfully aware to the scientists creating it that the ‘top-down’ approach just couldn’t work. Some things just need experience in order to explain what it is. It is why the most successful artificial beings incorporate the ‘bottom-up’ approach as well: a learning computer. BX-12 will rely on the ‘bottom-up’ approach more than previous models of artificial beings. Much of his learning will be based on experiencing the universe around him.”
“So, BX-12’s brain won’t be like Data’s? It won’t be ‘positronic’, or whatever Data was?” The captain couldn’t believe that he actually remembered that term.
“No, no, no, no, no…” he said agitatedly. “BX-12’s brain is a collection of artificial neurons, capable of forming dendritic-like connections as it learns. They are able to polarize and depolarize, forming action potentials, grow and divide, and affect his sympathetic and asympathetic nervous system, much like real neurons in a brain behaves. They should also be able to store sensory information, so he will be able to have memory, like we do. As his dendritic connections become more complicated and the density of neurons increases, his intelligence will actually increase as well. In essence, he will be more like us than he will be like Data.” Since his skull was semi-transparent, the captain could actually see his brain floating in his cranial cavity.
“It’s important to understand that BX-12’s brain is not a computer. There is no processing unit. ‘Storage capacity’ and ‘processing speed’ have no real meaning here, in the same way they have no meaning for us. That’s key, if the goal is to mimic humans, because our brains are also not computers.
“The reason that we can do this now is because we can now replicate synthetic neurons at essentially no cost. That’s important, because a standard-sized brain contains about one hundred billion neurons. For a replicator, making a single synthetic neuron is no more complicated than making a pork chop. It’s just a single cell with a lot of chemical components. Arranging the neurons, having the right concentration of neurons, the right dendritic connection, the right interplay of neurotransmitters – in a way that is meaningful, like remembering the smell of your grandmother’s cooking — is the major challenge.
“When we’re creating artificial humanoids, the goal is to have it think and act the way we do. Otherwise, you might as well just make a computer. There would be no need to make a humanoid. If you try to break down the human brain, you can reduce the brain to the action of a single neuron, a tiny cell that fires action potentials at other neurons. How the neuron connects and interacts with other neurons form the basis of how the brain operates. What we need to understand to fully appreciate the human mind is how the density of neurons, spatial arrangement, dendritic connections, interactions with neurotransmitters, all translate to all the wonderful things we see from the human mind: our nervous system, memory, human emotion, or human imagination. We still have only a fuzzy understanding of the underlying chemistry of how specific neural connections forms, say, an image of a loved one’s face.
“With this approach, we don’t necessarily have to understand it. But we can mimic it.”
Seth nodded, trying to follow each one of the Chief’s explanations. But he was becoming increasingly uneasy with each explanation made by the crazy engineer.
“Exhaustive work done in the twenty-first century led to a complete mapping of the human brain. We now know what a highly artistic mind looks like, or a highly mathematical one, or even an autistic one. We know what the hippocampus or the frontal cortex looks like, or at least, what it’s not supposed to look like.”
As the Chief was explaining, he hit a tiny switch on BX-12’s head that opened its skull. The top propped open with a dozen or so tiny teeth peeling back to reveal its brain, just floating there. “What we’re doing with BX-12, on a fundamental level, is transcribing the exact density and arrangement of neurons, the size and shape of the neurons, the dendritic connections, neurotransmitter receptors, all from a known sample onto BX-12’s brain. So we take the map of a hippocampus from a healthy individual, and copy that map onto BX-12’s hippocampus. In principle, if we have all of the functioning parts of the brain arranged correctly, we should have a normally-functioning brain. Much of this is based on theoretical work put forth by a Nobel-prize winner, Dr. Richard Kohman, in the late part of the twenty-second century. But we’re getting close to actually putting this to actual work.”
“So based on what you’ve just said, how were you planning to integrate an ‘ethical program’?”
“His ethical program will be the same as the one we use…empathy.”
“Chief…” Captain Seth began, with his hand rubbing his forehead in a look of completed disapproval. This was too much to absorb in one evening. His head was starting to spin from all of the ramifications that he was trying to consider. Of everything…his approach for making this android, the design his ethical program, even just the birth of a new artificial life form.
The Chief turned to the android, unaware that the captain was about to say something. “Transcribing knowledge and experiences will be tricky, since we don’t know how all of them will interact with each other. Of course, it’s not just neurons we have to think about, we have to make sure all of the neurotransmitters, brain chemicals, are carefully orchestrated…”
“Chief!” yelled the captain. “Are you crazy? I mean, if I understand what you’re telling me, and I think that I do, you’re talking about….‘copying’ and ‘pasting’ a human mind.”
LeCroy thought for a moment. “Actually, now that I think about it, I couldn’t have put it better myself. Would you mind if I used that the next time I present my research on him?” The captain was not amused. “Oh, come on, captain. I know exactly what you’re saying. But can you honestly think of a better way to explore humanity?” LeCroy asked.
Touché, the captain thought. It was hard to argue with an explorer on that one. It was true; it was a highly unique way of trying to understand who we are. But that’s not what the captain was trying to get at. There were so many more implications that they would have to deal with before proceeding forward. “What kinds of experiments have already been done on something like this? Do we know what the…” Captain Seth searched for the right word, “’psychological’ implications are of this?”
“Back at the Institute, it had successfully been done on artificial insects, mice, monkeys, and chimpanzees. Their intelligence was simpler, but their behavior was nearly identical. In terms of humanoid subjects, we performed dozens of successful holographic simulations.”
“Whether BX-12 makes it or not…the implications are…profound, to say the least.”
“Make no mistake, this is not just an academic exercise. We hope BX-12 will be useful to this crew. His muscles are three times the strength of a human, and his bones are much harder. We’ve also organized his brain to have aptitude for mathematics and engineering. Like I said, we know what a highly mathematical brain looks like. We’ve incorporated many of those aspects into his brain. He will be able to perform very complex calculations that most of you wouldn’t be able to do. That was my doing, of course.”
Seth thought carefully about his words. Complex calculations that most of you wouldn’t be able to do, he recited in his head. Obviously, he was referring to ‘normal’ individuals as opposed to his brilliant intellect. “I’m not talking about whether or not he’ll be useful.”
“I understand what you’re saying. He’ll be an individual, like you or me. Once he’s ‘activated’, he will have his own dreams and desires. He will have his own goals, his own ambitions. He’ll be able to make himself more than what he is in the same way you and I do, by working at it. He’ll be able to choose what purpose he wants to serve in this universe. The ultimate question, of course, is will all this transcribing of brain sections lead to what we call a soul? Only BX-12 will be able to answer that for us…”
Seth let out a sigh. “And exactly how will he be ‘activated’? Something tells me he doesn’t have an ‘on’ switch.”
“Well, actually, we haven’t finished transcribing his whole brain yet. Right now, most of his neurons are not yet capable of consistently firing action potentials, so its overall neural activity is still very low. Once we’re ready to activate him, we will make his neurons active, which will be done using cortical stimulators.”
“What are the chances that BX-12 can succeed?”
“That depends on how you define success. If he makes it out to five years, we might considered that a moderate success. He could, hypothetically, make it out the next five-hundred years, depending on how he develops himself, in which case he would be a huge success. Then again he could make it out only in the first five minutes. As I’ve said, we’ve run dozens of successful holographic simulations. In real life, this will be the twelfth subject. The previous eleven subjects failed at stabilizing in the first few minutes of activation. You’re absolutely right, there is no guarantee that this will work.”
The captain stared into the eyes of the humanoid, unsure of whether or not ‘it’ could hear their conversation. “Is he…’awake’?”
“No.”
“Does he have an emergency deactivation mechanism? In case he was to malfunction?”
“Yes. I originally thought it unnecessary, and perhaps even cruel to have one, much like putting an off-switch on a human child. It wouldn’t be very responsible of us to want to use it every time the child is annoying or too much to handle. Starfleet insisted that we install one, however, for safety reasons, so we did. The ‘off-switch’ will be like a paralytic agent, something that will render him unconscious but shouldn’t damage his central nervous system or major organs. But, like any other humanoid, it’s probably easier to shoot him with a phaser, which I should hope is never necessary.”
With that, the captain decided that it was simply not safe to activate an entirely experimental artificial being. Even after hundreds of years of creating artificial life, whether mechanical or biological, as a civilization we do not have the capability to wrap our heads around all of the ramifications of bringing artificial beings into existence. Like all catastrophes, rules and regulations are put in place to prevent prior mistakes, but rarely do they do anything to prevent future ones. The captain was not being cautious because of irrational fear, he was doing it because he understood all too well that, even after all this time of experience, as a civilization they were still not ready for the responsibilities of creating sentient life at a whim. “When do you plan on activating him?”
“Well, not until after we’ve completed his musculoskeletal structure, organs, tissues, and skin. After we’re sure that his ‘ethical program’ is functioning, we’ll be ready to activate him.”
“Listen to me carefully, Chief: I don’t want him activated until I’ve cleared it with Starfleet command and until I’ve done a thorough review of your work, is that understood?”
“But, sir, the project has already been cleared with Starfleet…I don’t need your…”
“I am not going to argue this with you, Chief. I don’t want this thing activated until I’ve gone through every aspect about him, and until I’ve deemed it safe.”
“Yes, SIR,” the Chief said reluctantly. “But Captain, you can’t be afraid to experiment like this. You said so yourself, this implications of this would be profound. Without risk, there is no evolution. Without evolution, we are all dead.”
The captain ignored what he said. He took one last look at the android, still standing there quietly. At that moment, the captain could have sworn that the direction of the android’s eyes turned slightly toward him. It looked very much like the android was looking directly at him, and the captain began to have the eerie sense that it indeed was awake. Never was the captain so sure about his decision.
