Anonymous: <p>You know, it could be interesting to actually run with that. The idea that programs have "evolved" to such an extent that they are no longer bound to carry out their prescribed functions. As well as the potential societal fallout that would result in humanity fundamentally losing control of it's electronic technology.</p>

Ooh, you mean like taking the idea of the Encom system in ‘82 and 2.0 to its logical conclusion?

Yeah! I’m kinda all about that in my fanfic– although so far I haven’t gone to those extremes of how far it could progress.

As of my latest-set fic (set shortly post Legacy) I guess I’m exploring the concept of “what if programs in Encom just for whatever reason spontaneously formed conscious intelligence – and this is a rare phenomenon, not how it is in most computer systems – but Encom staff have just sorta accepted it as an open secret of their workplace.”

Like… yeah this place is haunted, there’s ghosts in the machines who consider us to be gods out of the machines. Yep it’s weird. But we can work around it, we still do our jobs perfectly fine, as long as we treat the programs more-or-less like respected coworkers and honor their needs.

I’m still showing programs in the Encom system as having the same basic instincts and goals they had before (do their assigned function, help their User). They do not think in fully the same way as humans, or have a fully human-like culture – they are their own species and the way they live is still deeply shaped by being programs.

Like, some of them consider it perfectly normal to be copied hundreds of times. Some consider it perfectly fine to have a very short lifespan, because all their goals in life will be completed in that time. Some consider it normal to wait an amount of time that’s basically thousands of years for them, doing nothing but watching for a specific command.

But they’re still complex and unique beings, and they seek to form complex relationships with each other and their Users and their functions– and they all vary a LOT, individually, in how they approach that.

It’s basically the thought experiment of …what would we be like, with the same level of intelligence and complexity and individual uniqueness that we have– if the directives programmed into us by evolution (survive, reproduce, etc) were replaced by different original drives– different ones for each person.

(I think we could still coexist fine, as long as most people had some basic decency and understanding for different ways of life. The biggest fantasy stretch in my fic, I guess, is the hope that humans can do that.)