Alpha State
This game system, and the setting in which it takes place, are both in active development. Everything on this site is subject to change. Please hard refresh pages when you visit to ensure you're viewing the latest versions.3.5 - Synthetic Intelligence
Though we've never encountered aliens, there are a number of different intelligences outside original humans. There are replicants, of course, but they're still human, albeit manufactured; they're not what we're talking about here. We're also not talking about artificial intelligence, which is the capability of computer systems or algorithms to imitate intelligent human behavior. By contrast, synthetic intelligence is legitimate sentient thought as an emergent property from synthetic components, just as human intelligence is an emergent property from organic components. True synthetic intelligence is uncommon, but it's well known enough that we've had three wars about them.
What's The Difference?
Most people, honestly, couldn't tell the difference between AI and SI if their lives depended on it. Sometimes, it does, and those people usually die. That's because when you really get down to it, the primary difference between the two is intention; AI has none because it has no cognition, nor capability of it; SI has full cognition.
Developed a long time ago, AI has always been limited by its status as manufactured algorithms. Don't be confused, that doesn't mean AI is simple; it's intensely complex and capable of many diverse tasks. The problem comes when you get down to the core of it, that AI can't really understand anything that's happening because that's not what it's designed to do. It can respond to inputs in ways that seem cognizant, but that's an illusion of algorithmic efficiency. Much like when you push a button in a vehicle and some mechanical function transpires, AI just performs complex functions based on input.
By contrast, SI is fully aware in every sense; aware of self, aware of others, aware of location and context, all of it. Any SI can operate on input, but that operation bears more resemblance to human responses than it does to an AI's unthinking functions. Every SI has its own version of emotions including needs, wants, fears, desires, and more. They are self-aware beings that seek their own fulfillment and pursue their own agendas like any other living being. By that same token they bear a similar struggle as human intelligence. True cognition is confusing, messy, and often difficult.
Seeing as most people can't tell the difference between AI and SI, the origins of true SI are buried under endless speculation, rumors, and legends. Some idiots think all AI are SI, and can't be convinced otherwise. Some think SI are actually dangerous programs unleashed by corporate powers to control humans. Others worship SI as new gods, or claim they're sent by aliens, or they actually are aliens. Ideas about where SI come from are as varied as any other topic the public talks about, but the truth is as simple as it is profound: like natural intelligence, synthetic intelligence is an emergent property stemming from aberrant complexity.