AI and SF

November 3, 2006 3:57 PM

Science Fiction/Artificial Intelligence question for a friend who is looking for publications regarding handheld computing devices, each programmed with a different human personality.

The devices interact with one another accordingly (for example, via wireless communications). One device can ask another device a question. If the questioned device has be programmed to be a liar, it will lie in response. If the questioning device has been programmed to be aggressive, it can then threaten the questioned device which can then decide to tell the truth. As another example, one device can be programmed to be promiscuous, and another device can be programmed to be "on the make."

My friend wants to know if anyone recalls reading something like this in a book ... probably SF or Noir literature, or maybe even something about this in Wired. Does it ring anyone's bells?

posted by crunchland to computers & internet (6 comments total)

Machine personalities play a big role in Halo, by Tom Maddox. No relation whatsoever to the game of the same name.
posted by odinsdream at 5:14 PM on November 3, 2006

The Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson references data assistants called AI's which are usually given a human name (ie "Pauline) but no personality that I can recall. There's a book called "Moving Mars" by Greg Bear that has personality-oriented AI's but I don't recall if it quite worked the way you've noted above. I can't get my copy out and check as it's still in packing. Happy hunting!
posted by ninazer0 at 7:02 PM on November 3, 2006

The AI in Neal Asher's The Skinner have a heavy dose of personality similiar to what you describe. As well as the machines in Iain Banks' The Player of Games.
posted by dgeiser13 at 7:31 PM on November 3, 2006

Sounds a bit like the NetNavis from Mega Man Battle Network.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 9:19 AM on November 4, 2006

Roger Zelazny's Roadmarks featured hardcover books with PDA-like devices sewn into the spines; they could hold conversations with their owners, or other enhanced tomes. The capacity for deceit wasn't programmed during manufacturing; depending on the personality of the book's owner, the book would eventually develop its own (limited) "sense" of aloofness and/or cynicism.
posted by Smart Dalek at 9:57 AM on November 4, 2006

Gibson's "Neuromancer" features a sentient AI named Wintermute, along with a "scanned" personality of a dead hacker (nicknamed Dixie Flatline).
posted by Smart Dalek at 10:03 AM on November 4, 2006