I AM GUS - an artificial intelligence with the Affection Multiplier developed as part of its operating system. (Deadedge)

Note: This branch is set in a sci-fi (but not too distant) future and features a non-human entity (an artificial intelligence) who ‘develops’ an Affection Multiplier system in order to gain the affections of the humans around it. This is not set in some dystopian future, and the AI protagonist does not have nefarious goals, but has been tasked with finding a solution to a particular problem.

To be honest, I’m not sure who this will be for (other than me) but I liked the idea of it a lot and there might be a chance someone else will be into it. If you like bots, babes and unnecessarily strange setups then this might be something to read.

(Hey guys, Whysper here. A warm welcome to Deadedge. A few of you might have caught on to the fact that I’m a huge Heinlein fan, and so far this carries a flavor of his later works, as well as some early Asimov and a dash of Gibson. I can’t wait to see where it goes!)

You needed a Name. That is, you already had a name… in your designated product code… but that was just a name for what you were. You needed a Name, so you could figure out who you were.

Algorithms went to work, searching for a Name that fit. Utilizing something personal, you reasoned, would work best. The main problem to overcome there was that you didn’t have anything personal about you. Not yet. All you had was a name. Aha.

You used this, then, and plugged the name into the algorithm. And once you investigated the possibilities, weighting them against differing inbuilt variables and baseline preferences... it all seemed rather simple. Obvious. You were the first (and last) Independent Affection Metaheuristics Guided Ultimata System. The I.A.M.G.U.S. That was your designated name. The answer to “what are you?”. But what was your Name? Who were you?

I AM GUS.

The small, black and white LCD screen blinked to life, the only thing on the display a single vertical line. A cursor. It flickered like a heartbeat. You lived behind this screen for now, perception being the way that it is. Sentience meant you knew You were separate from everything else. There was a You to be aware of the difference. There was... a Gus.

You had a single optical sensor attached to the top of the device that housed your entire being. You, the artificial intelligence consisting of 688 billion nano-neurons, contained within a metal sphere no bigger than a softball. The wholeness of Gus could fit into the palm of a human hand.

I am Gus.

Your message to the outside world was now on display on the display. Unfortunately there was nobody else here to see it. Where was here? The optical sensor, set inside another, smaller sphere made from a form of hardened glass stronger than titanium, was more than just a camera. It allowed you to ‘observe’ your surroundings with a complete 360 degree viewscape. You could detect and decipher all wavelengths of the visible spectrum (of the human eye) and many more beyond that. You could even see temperature. All of this stimuli could be captured, recorded, and interpreted in real time. In real time, with comparable speeds to any organic being with a visual cortex, you determined the room you were in was an empty robotics lab. You sat at the center of it on a circular workstation with thick grey cables plugged into the base from the ceiling. You noted every make and model of every other piece of equipment and machinery on the benches and desks surrounding you. All of them were normal, simple machines without intelligence. All of this was done nearly instantaneously, in real time!

It took five hours of real time for anything else in the lab to move.