Re: Destination: Invermory and Beyond
Most of the first day and into the second day, Reese will spend his time going over everyone's medical records, particularly those of Tescha and Dieter.
He's got a new medical baseline for Tescha, of course, but he's still looking for his medical records and anything Tescha can tell him that might not be in the records.
When the opportunity arises, he'll call Tescha to the medical bay for just a follow up consultation.
Same thing for Dieter. Get his medical records transferred to the ship, and do a basic medical examination to determine a baseline.
In between times, now that TAMI is hooked up to the ship and anyone can talk to her anywhere anywhere, he begins a conversation or three with her. He can't do a medical examination of her, even if he knew a lot about computers and electronics, but he can do an assessment of her mental state... a psychological profile.
At no point does he ever become alarmed by her answers, but he makes some keen observations, which he writes down on analog paper as well as making an electronic file. It's a precaution... of sorts. If at some point TAMI became paranoid or devious, she could very well erase the e-files, regardless of what encryption he put on them.
Later, when he's off ship, he'll have a face-to-face conversation with Sir Walter, Vonon, Jack, and Sylvester, not necessarily all at the same time, but whenever circumstances allow. He'll pretty much report his findings to all of them.
"TAMI was never meant to be self-aware. I'm not even sure she was intended to be an AI... at least as we define that today. At best. she could probably have been considered an Administrative Assistant, since that's what her function was--handle the day-to-day mundane operations of the facility."
"I wouldn't say that the people working there 'distrusted' her. I think it was more about overall security. If the enemy--and the Iltharans made a lot of them--ever found and invaded the base, the people didn't seem to have any doubts that the computer could be hacked. So, the less they put into the computer, the less information there was to be discovered."
"From what everyone's reported of the facility and what you found, the Iltharans seemed to have a rather nonchalant attitude about psionics and telepathy. On the other hand, it seems as if the only one who may have known TAMI was psionic was the facility's administrator and the person who created her. Considering that they were developing a wide range of psionic drugs, it may have been a precaution on his part to monitor anyone that took the drugs. I mean, if they didn't have test subject, how would they know if any of the drugs worked? And if they didn't have some way to monitor those test subjects, how would they have known they worked?"
"The bottom line here is that no one at the facility seemed to be concerned about having their mind read. TAMI has even said that she never did that. Then again, back at that time, she wasn't Self-aware, so I'm not really sure how much she 'remembers'. I think Sylvester may have to go through all those memory files and see what's there. Jack may have to help him because I have no idea how you'd store psionic memories."
"So, TAMI, being telepathic, picked up a lot of, for lack of a better term, sideband thoughts while the facility was in operation. Whether she stored any of this as memory, that's for Jack and Sylvester to determine. What it began doing, though, is modifying the engrams that comprised her brain. I don't know if she's organic or electronic or some sort of amalgam of the two. I suspect the latter, because, organically she could grow more neurons. That, coupled with a bit of sensory deprivation after the facility was abandoned, seems to be what eventually led to her developing self-awareness."
"I'm only guessing, mind you. Well, theorizing is perhaps a better word. The kickstarter event was probably when the planet was turned into a prison/colony. Suddenly there were new minds that she could sense and read... eagerly waiting for one of them to give her new commands that never came."
"She had no physical control over the facility that had been abandoned and shut down, so her only input was the mindscape of others. For reasons I don't understand, she wasn't able to contact them mentally. Maybe it was because she hadn't been trained to do so. Maybe it was because none of them were psionic and therefore not receptive. Maybe it was because she hadn't yet developed the ability or range to do so."
"Yes, yes, I know... you just take for granted that she IS a telepathic self-aware computer. Me, I want to know why."
"Anyway, the gist of all this is that now that she's been removed from the facility, she no longer has a purpose. I don't think there's anything she can do about running the ship on a day-to-day basis that the ship's computer can't already do. It's a question of sophistication. Our current programs are 100 times better than the Iltharan ones."
"So, if you're worried about her turning on you, which I don't think can ever happen, I suggest you find a purpose for her, and possibly make her a member of the crew. While Veronika isn't a person, legally, TAMI probably is."
"The reason I'm telling you this face to face is because I can't say how this information would affect TAMI. Better safe than sorry."