AFTERMATH 01

[thecomputer]

Thank you for your input, Citizens! The results of the trial will now be revealed on your screens.

[The interface with the voting buttons vanishes, and is replaced with the following:]

Anthy-R-███-2 voted for Mogeko-R-███-4
Aud-R-███-1 voted for Nobody
Bobby-R-███-1 voted for Nobody
Clay-R-███-1 voted for Mogeko-R-███-4
Curly-R-███-1 voted for Mogeko-R-███-4
Dan-R-███-1 didn’t vote
Greed-R-███-1 voted for Mogeko-R-███-4
Horace-R-███-1 voted for Mogeko-R-███-4
Logan-R-███-1 voted for Mogeko-R-███-4
Mogeko-R-███-4 voted for Nobody
Mukuro-R-███-1 voted for Nobody
Paul-R-███-1 voted for Mogeko-R-███-4
Phi-R-███-1 voted for Zolf-R-███-1
Rin-R-███-1 voted for Mogeko-R-███-4
Robin-R-███-1 voted for Mogeko-R-███-4
Sakura-R-███-1 voted for Mogeko-R-███-4
Simon-R-███-1 voted for Mogeko-R-███-4
Yomiel-R-███-1 voted for Mogeko-R-███-4
Zolf-R-███-1 voted for Mogeko-R-███-4


Total:
Mogeko-R-███-4 (13)
Abstain (4)
Zolf-R-███-1 (1)

Comments

[plentyfriendly]

[Phi waits for a while to approach Yomiel, but there's something she needs to talk about with him.]

[schrodingers_man]

[ Well, he's not going anywhere, but he's not going to be saying much of anything, either. ]

[plentyfriendly]

You know there wasn't really a right choice, don't you?

[schrodingers_man]

There's six right choices. We didn't make one tonight.

[ That's not what she meant and you know it, Yomiel. ]

[plentyfriendly]

Not like that. Neither of us know who the right choices are.

[schrodingers_man]

...Not yet.

[plentyfriendly]

Right. But I figure both of us know who a few wrong choices are.

There is something else I wanted to ask you about, though.

[schrodingers_man]

[ He holds back from saying there's only one choice he really knows for sure is wrong. He's not even 100% sure that one would be wrong after tonight, really. He knows what she means. ]

What is it?

[plentyfriendly]

How much do you know about AI?

[schrodingers_man]

AI...?

[ Well that's a surprise, somebody actually asking him about programming. ]

I'm afraid that kind of thing isn't really my specialty, but I probably know more than you. Got a question about our little overseer's behavior?

[plentyfriendly]

Not quite. It has more to do with what you thought about it.

Even though it's not obviously designed so that a human could operate it, there's some logic by which it works. A computer computes, a calculator calculates, and an automobile mobiles.

Given that you were so worried about a no-win state for the non-Communists, I was wondering why you thought there might be a hole in that logic and why you didn't think to just ask about it.

[schrodingers_man]

[ The answer really is that he's just that short-sighted, but, well, he's hardly going to admit that. ]

You really don't understand much about AI, do you? Even the most advanced AI in the world, which the computer here definitely isn't, is still just a program being executed by a computer. It follows a kind of logic, of course, but it's computer logic, not human logic. At the end of the day, that thing was still programmed by a human being, and they even left their code out in the open for us to look at: the rules of the exercise.

Rule 11 isn't ambiguously written. It defines the function of elimination as carried out when a participant is executed. Line 15 isn't really ambiguous, either. Participant.Clone is a variable that starts at 6, and decreases whenever a participant murders or is murdered. When it hits zero, Activate(Participant.Clone) can't run any more. That segment of the code ends there, instead of leading into anything like IF Activate(Participant.Clone)=null, THEN Eliminate(Participant). The hole is obvious.

It just turns out there's a little bit of code they're not letting us see, that's all.

[plentyfriendly]

Does that change if we instead assume it's running on a quantum computer instead of a regular one?

[schrodingers_man]

[ The question takes him so off-guard that he actually laughs a little. ]

You really think this could be a quantum computer? Those things are rare, and, more importantly, expensive. Something of this size would take resources on the level of a national government. It's not outside the realm of possibility, but why would they bother?

To actually answer your question, though, no. A quantum computer's a very advanced, difficult machine, but it's still a computer. Shoddy code makes a shoddy program, no matter what's running it.

[plentyfriendly]

Well, I've got to agree with the shoddy code part, at least; he doesn't have much of a personality. Never thought I'd be missing Zero Jr....