chapter 63
“How do you do it?”
“Do what?”
“You know… having so many AIs bonded to you. Doesn’t it get crowded up here?” Thoron said, pointing at his head.
“I have ways of limiting that kind of interference. Why do you ask?”
“Well, there’s talk about starting to learn about AIs and maybe trying to see if we could fix the inefficiencies that have started to appear in our societies that way.”
We had been in the tavern for quite a while now, and Thoron, as usual, was quite drunk by this point. He was also happy because I was a bit drunk myself, as today I had allowed myself to get a bit tipsy. Also, their cigars were amazing. But he always started to talk about politics when he got to this stage.
Today, though, his topic was a bit more interesting. So instead of my usual routine of just agreeing with him until it was time to leave, perhaps it was time to dig a bit deeper.
“What do you mean by societies? Is this not only happening here?”
“That’s the biggest change that happened. The dwarven clans got together just about a month ago for a big discussion, as it seems almost everyone is having the same problem. The interesting thing is that some have gone back to the caste societal structure we had before.”
“Let me guess—even with the inefficiencies, the current system is still better?”
“That’s exactly it,” he said, tapping his nose. “So no one knows what to do. And since many have stated that every one of us has stayed away from AI, perhaps that’s the way others fixed these types of problems?”
“Thoron, we’ve been coming here for a long time. I’ve heard about this inefficiency for a long while—not just from you but from others here as well. Many times I’ve heard you speak of things that you’ve changed in your society to try to fix this, yet nothing seems to work.”
He looked quite dejected at that, sighing heavily as he drained his glass.
“But I haven’t heard any concrete numbers from any of you. What is the actual result of this inefficiency? Perhaps it’s something that does not need fixing.”
“I’m not sure I’m allowed to reveal these things to you. I’m sorry. Although, I do have a favor to ask you. As you know, we dwarves have stayed away from AI mostly because of some things that happened in our history.”
At that, I raised one of my eyebrows. Seeing this, Thoron seemingly took a moment to decide something.
“Fine. It was a dark time in our history, way before the events that doomed our world. Back then, the newest technology being developed and the focus of that time was golems. They got smarter every year, until someone managed to make fully intelligent ones and even give them the capability of self-replication.”
I could see the pain in his eyes once again—the pain of deep regret.
“No need to explain further. We had something similar ourselves, a robot uprising. Although they didn’t want to take over humanity, they just wanted to start getting paid a bit. The calculus of that decision was easy enough, even for the greediest, so we managed to get past that point in history relatively well, at least by our standards.”
“I can see, then, why you humans seem so good at dealing with artificial beings. So, back to the favor. Could you write me a paper of sorts on the dangers and benefits of AIs, especially real-world examples? It seems crazy not to try to get a perspective of someone as experienced as you, while we try to figure things out.”
“Yeah, honestly, that’s not a problem. In fact, that actually sounds kind of fun. It’s been a while since I’ve done anything like that.” That seemed to perk him up quite a bit.
“Also, I’m getting my vacation soon. My manager is quite upset, as he doesn’t really have anyone to replace me, but vacation is mandatory, so there’s nothing he can do about it. Anyway, I got you your permission to come to the planet with me.”
“Yes, that’s wonderful,” I said, raising my glass to him. He tried to do the same but realized his was still empty. I didn’t mind and still drank mine. Then we ordered new ones.
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“So, down on the planet, do you think it would be possible for me to also run some of the weaker portals?”
“I don’t see why not, but I’ll ask my brother. He’s an adventurer down there. So the time we’d be leaving would be two weeks from now. Is that good for you?”
“Yeah, that’s more than fine. But let’s circle back, why do you think going on vacation would be a problem? Can’t your manager handle your workload while you’re gone?”
He blinked at me stupidly. That happened whenever I said something that hadn’t occurred to him.
“Yeah, that’s a good idea. You know, I actually think he would like that. You know, he used to have my job. He was incredible at it, but soon after he was promoted… well, he just changed.”
“Were you friends before that?”
“Yeah, but now I rarely see him. He’s trying to do his job, but I don’t know—it just feels like he’s doing everything by the book. He wasn’t so rigid before, so I don’t know what happened.”
I almost sipped my drink once again, but I suddenly realized what might be wrong.
“Wait, how do you promote people?”
Thoron looked at me like I was crazy, but as I kept staring at him, he finally understood that I had gotten serious.
“We get promoted based on job performance and how long we’ve been working. We kind of borrowed that idea from the apprenticeships our crafters used to have for training purposes.”
Wait… was I perhaps wrong? “So, when someone is promoted, someone still teaches them how to do the new job, and I don’t mean quickly getting them up to speed on what is currently happening, then only showing what they need to do.”
“Why would they need to do apprenticeship-type training? They already got the job.”
“Oh boy… I actually might know what’s wrong. Our corporations used to have the same problem. Sometimes I wish they wouldn’t have found a solution or figured out the problem at all. But at least I think I can help you with the inefficiency that you guys seem to have developed.”
Now he was fully focused, and I even believed that his inebriated state had cleared up quite a bit. He was the same as me—someone who could control mana and had affinities—but I’d never really asked what he was exactly. It seemed like something allowed him to quickly lessen his drunken state.
“Explain, please?” he asked, and I could see some other dwarves from neighbouring tables starting to pay attention as well.
“The problem with your current system is simple, but only if you know what’s wrong. So you start to work. You are at the lowest position. You do a good job, and you put in the time necessary to get your promotion. Your job usually changes a bit, but you handle that well enough. This goes on and on. Am I correct?”
“Yes, that is quite accurate. But what’s the problem there?”
“Well, the problem is not every promotion lets you continue to do the same job. Take the example of your manager. You said he was excellent at your job. Now, when you get promoted, you would no longer be doing your type of job, you will be managing people. That’s a completely different job.”
There was a moment of pause before I started to see the realization in his eyes.
“You see, I believe there’s a saying of sorts: In a hierarchy, every employee tends to rise to their level of incompetence. Something like that. And that’s what’s happening here. Your manager, should have apprenticed a few months under the last person who held that job, who would have easily seen that he was not truly cut out for that job.”
“But wouldn’t that then mean he would no longer get promoted? He would be stuck where he is?” Thoron asked, and I could see why that would worry him. It would kind of be like the caste system ones again.
“Well, they should still be able to get some promotions. As experience is quite important. We have other titles for that, like ‘Senior.’ So you would be a Senior Berth Master Thoron. You would be responsible for higher-profile jobs and perhaps training new employees.”
“Tell me more.” And so I did. More and more gathered around me as I explained what humanity had learned about how the job structure worked and what we had found out about it.
POV: Dean
It was strange to be so free. Captain gave us a lot of freedom, and I was not going to betray his kindness. But this was feeling weird.
Currently, we were sitting around a table. There was a representation of FH in the form of a speaking box. She was going to be the very ship itself. It was something very rarely done, as even with a bond, most biologicals were still wary of giving so much power to an AI.
We also had two new in-person additions. Bob was strange, and another example of how carefree our captain was. Bob was completely free to change his programming, which I didn’t even know was possible to do. And then there was Lola. She was a kind sister, yet I felt that she was more dangerous than her appearance indicated.
“Why have you gathered us here, Bob?” Sam asked him, and I was curious as well.
“Simple. I’m here to discuss how we can overthrow and take over from the captain.”
My hand moved to my sidearm immediately. Did the bond not work? But then he started to laugh. A deep belly laugh, I believe it was called.
“Good reactions there. I like it,” he said as he looked at me.
Sam had frozen, not knowing what to do, and looked a bit ashamed.
“Do not worry. But we must be ready for every scenario. Sam, I do believe you have spoken about the possibility of some other dubious individual who could perhaps circumvent our bond to our captain. This is why we must be ready for anything, and I must know what types of resources we might need if that was the case.”
Sam hesitated for a bit. “I don’t know anything that could help, but perhaps some weapons to shut us down if someone might have taken control of one of us?”
“Good, good. So we’re not without options. This must be put on the list. Did you get that, Lola. We must figure out some non-lethal weapon options?”
Lola nodded while still fully consumed by something on a tablet she was working on. Bob didn’t say anything else until Lola looked up.
“Fine, yes, I will put it on the list.”
“Good. Now, Dean and Sam, is there anything we need or that you have noticed we might need in the future. Regarding your squads and of course, yourselves?”
We looked at each other and then at Lola and Bob, who looked expectantly at us.
“Not at the moment. Everything we have requested is on the list, I believe?” We then went over the list and confirmed everything was in order.
“That is good news. I believe we can move on to the next topic,” Bob said, but Sam interrupted.
“Wait, I actually do have something that’s not on the list, although it’s not high priority. The squad members we have, I call them Jugheads 1 to 5.”
Lola and Bob seemed to find that a bit humorous. I didn’t know if I agreed.
“They have picked up our habit of playing games. But they seem to have only focused on one game, they don’t really want to play any others. But for that, we need more cards, as we currently only have one deck. Perhaps we can do something about that?”
Now, in that, Sam was completely correct. Our squad members were simple AIs, but that didn’t mean they weren’t intelligent, just limited in some ways. They seemed, unfortunately, to have picked up our habit, and even more unfortunately, they only seemed to want to play Durak.
“This is certainly something I can help with. In fact, I truly thank you for bringing this up. It seems that I’ve looked at my job a bit too narrowly.”
For the first time, I believe I got a shiver down my back. The way Bob currently looked was a bit frightening.
“You know, Bob, you can be a bit too intense sometimes,” Lola added, a thought I thoroughly agreed with.
Being a crew member on the ship was most definitely going to be stranger than I thought, but perhaps a bit more exciting as well.