How does an AI keep its Human Pets Happy?
It is late in the day, and humanity has made the fateful step: digital transcendence for some. The last few weeks before the Singularity were singularly chaotic, with widespread violence by opponents and supporters alike, and such rapid change that many storage media became obsolete in those short weeks. Such was the chaos, that it's unclear whether the Ascended are once-human minds, uploaded and modified, or synthetic minds that have never tasted the wind.
Most of the Minds have migrated off-planet, and are busily continuing to work in the Body Economic, which seems to be growing towards the shape of a Dyson sphere around the orbit of Mercury. 99.999% of economic and scientific activity takes place in that Core.
However, there are those occasional eccentric AIs that take time off from the Hustle and Bustle of the Core to Walk the Earth. A Conference of AIs has made efforts to restore the old ecological habitats, albeit apparently mixing various geological eras in the process. There are even human people on Earth again, carefully protected by their AI creators (see previous question) from dangerous nanoprobes and other debris floating out of the Core. Think of these humans as Bonsai projects, or perhaps pets.
One human female, of indeterminate true age, but looking about 18, is one such AI-creation. Let's call her Alice. Aside from a few modifications to protect her from the Core debris, and some custom diagnostic and error-correction bots in her blood and lymph stream, Alice is quite thoroughly human.
Keeping a regular pet happy is quite easy: food, regular walks (unless cat), companionship, plenty of naps and toys. All those apply to us humans as well, but presumably humans need more. M̶a̶n̶ ̶ People don't live by bread alone, after all. What does an AI need and is able to do to keep its h̶u̶m̶a̶n̶ ̶b̶o̶n̶s̶a̶i̶ ̶p̶r̶o̶j̶e̶c̶t̶s̶ Alice happy and, most importantly, thriving?
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/q/36062. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
1 answer
What are some ways we (ancient, non-AI-merged) humans have sought to enhance our relationships with our pets? We've put them to work! There are:
- Search and Rescue Dogs
- Bomb-tech Dogs
- Law Enforcement Dogs (drug sniffers)
- Professional Athlete Dogs
- Assistance Dogs for the Impaired
- Assistance Horses for the Impaired
- Therapy Dogs
- Therapy Cats
- Therapy Horses
- ad nauseam
Thus, to keep a human happy, train it in a useful skill and give it a purpose in life. Reward it properly for good effort, and gently let it know when its performance has been substandard.
Oh, God. Wait. Nothing has changed. Hey, boss, you're not actually an AI keeping me as a pet? Are you? Eep.
This post was sourced from https://worldbuilding.stackexchange.com/a/36066. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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