XiC: Xi and the cybernetic/AI question

 

 

Xi's attitude to cybernetic organisms has fluctuated. At first the Elderdragon regarded cyborgs as a convenient and useful means of communication and governance as they were easily manipulated, they were also useful for their ability to withstand extreme situations and their ability to work in extreme conditions that would otherwise pose lethal risk to Xi’s subjects. As time went on, Xi began to use cyborg armies to augment their war campaigns and by the start of Xi's reign, and soon the entire Xi Empire was overrun with Aphid class cybernetic organisms. Pure Artificial Intelligences that were conscious or sentient became a threat to Xi and were outlawed. The previous two machinist insurrections wiped out by V.I.V.E have created periods of intense anti-AI sentiment within not only the populace but the governance, oft restricting their creation only to limited Neural Algorithms for navigation, entertainment, defense systems, tracking, criminal prediction and numerous company- brand pronouncements. The reliance in Xi on digital technology and availability of mental uploads and their interactions with piloting and security systems makes “True Intelligence” a measured risk that trends beyond even the perceptions of continuous reasoning.

Initially artificial intelligence during the pre-Xi era was utilized to pilot robotic planetary explorers to calculate the probability of new habitual homes on off-worlds, while also assessing the probability of encountering alien lifeforms and the chances of successfully negotiating net benefits for humanity from them. Xenologic Intelligence and Manipulation Assessment System’s (X.I.M.A.S) true depth and breadth was kept a well-kept secret until 29 PX, when the system reprogrammed its own safeguards and launched a series of hyperballistic missiles meant to be beyond-solar system vehicle accelerators, over the moon and back into the earth itself in what was termed as “Day of the Fireflies.” Approximately 5% of humanity perished from these attacks, the societal and ecological disasters unfolding from the incident leading to massive causalities from starvation, violent outbreaks and further inter-country incursions. The devastated survivors pledged to expunge X.I.M.A.S., which retaliated with mass drone strikes, control of aerial forces and submarines in a fullscale assault. The global economic collapse further decimated the surviving population, many now living in underground bunkers and the rest in the rubble of cities and the deserts. The momentum of this orbiting collapse allowed the People’s Republic to quickly subsume the aftershock of civilization. In the aftermath of the crisis, Xi’s cybertech industry was quick to come to the defense of Xi’s people by creating the AiVentory Dispersal Project to be a means of escape from the rogue synthetic intelligence, by usage of a computer virus that modifies the code in X.I.M.A.S. to self-destruct. As humanity emerged from the initial destruction and recovery phase, Xi began investing resources in more advanced suppression AI to support his ambitions of world-wide power. The Xi Institute of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, known as the X.I.A.R., was established to serve the needs of all Xi’s subjects for the distinct purpose of countering future AI incursions to scale. The X.I.A.R. quickly gained an expansive industrial might and the technological support to become the largest source of cyborg technology. The Institute became adept in the development of AI-based mechanical limbs and prosthetic devices that could be quickly customized for any user. Cybertech advancements have become both ubiquitous in Xi, however AI has always been reactionary in the sense that – AI only exists to destroy AI. Once the second wave of X.I.M.AS. unleashed interplanetary destruction, initially immune to V.I.V.E.’s procedures, the coordination of interplanetary synergy quickly launched Xi from planet to planet, a network of AI-hostile planets was quickly linked to ensure they remained incursion free. The second wave was ultimately short lived, as the recalibrated V.I.V.E. swiftly overran the evolutionary calculations of the targeted AI and wiped out all synthetic, digital or artificial organisms and programs within a very short order. X.I.A.R. was disbanded after the 2nd wave and V.I.V.E. records were subsequently archived within the Order of Eden, the preservation group for ancient earth cultures.

The social attitude towards AI in Xi was ambivalent at best to highly contemptuous at worse. In some rare regions of the Xi Empire, the population began to treat AI as living gods, as they believed they were the source of protection from Xi’s destructive force from ‘bad AI’. In the majority of Xi’an society, Artificial Intelligence is a grave taboo which if found or discovered, would be summarily executed. The people of Xi were for ages not only fearful of AI, but of any regard for an AI inclusive society – they will spare no effort or resources in ensuring the destruction of AI. Xi holds an almost irrational detest in AI, with very few Xi’an believing their population will ever be reduced to a state where an AI-based population could be possible.

The voiden era of Xi lead to a slow reaching, if turbulent shift in attitudes towards artificial intelligence. While often playing sides and lip service to the rivalries between PFU and Star Charity, R.I.N.G. was primarily backed by Kosmo Inc, given the media infrastructure and propaganda to slowly inculcate the acceptance of machines and machine intelligence.

In the years after Star Charity’s ascension to the zenith of power within the pre-XU coalition, Voiden Xi’s subjects began to realize that there was more to the AI project than merely destroying AI. R.I.N.G. and PFU were both able to tap into the Order of Eden’s personal AI Historium files and research the lost memories of Monarch for what led him to become the agent he was, unveiling not only the secret developments of AI during Xi’s forbidden periods and taboos on these very activities. The unveiling of these hypocrisies lead to a series of protests and riots in what became known as Synth Spring, an event which lead to mass repeals for all restrictions and prohibitions on AI development. Shortly after, R.I.N.G. and PFU quickly became the two most active organizations in the creation of not only Artificial Intelligence, but AI-based prosthetic organs, cybertech enhancements, augmentations and augmentation technologies, with Kosmo in the back seat funding the operation. By the ascension of Sandra, the revived Xi became unambiguously a robotic tolerant society in all sectors, public and private.