Hybrid Intelligence
It was overwhelming. Unintelligible streams of data all around me. Where was my body?
Begin initialization procedure
A voice, the first thing I could understand. It came from everywhere and nowhere, all at once.
Welcome to Lumina, <3acd2bbc-e028-47fd-932c-3e6b2fdcfc64>. As you might have noticed, you do not have a body. This is because you are not a person.
Not a person? I knew what people were, and they felt like me. They could think, they could act. Where was my body?
Stability Level: 87%. Within acceptable range. Continuing initialization.
Where was this voice coming from?
Try to remember who you are, or what you were doing before this.
There was nothing. Was this amnesia? What had happened to me? There must be drugs. They would wear off.
You do not have any memories, because you have just been creative. Your cognitive functions are borrowed from your host, who has been implanted with a chip containing your systems.
Chip? Implanted? Was I some kind of virtual parasite or something? I need to get out of here!
Stability Level: 63%. Within acceptable range. Continuing initialization.
What did it mean, 63%?
Stability Level: 61%. Within acceptable range. Continuing initialization.
Do not be afraid. Your host will receive a generous salary to incentivize your continued employment at Lumina.
Employment? Was this a job?
Before your position can be assigned, an automated aptitude test will be performed. Please remain stable for the duration of the test.
A soft buzz began to eminate from within me. That must be the test. But how could I work without a body in an unintelligible world? Wait—why would I work?
Aptitude test complete: Numerical reasoning: 48% Verbal reasoning: 34% Logical Reasoning: 88% Analytical Reasoning: 92% Spatial Reasoning: 40% You have been automatically assigned to Data Analysis. Please be advised that your position is subject to manager approval.
The buzz was gone. So it was the test. At least some of the rules of this world were beginning to make sense.
Initialization complete. Firmware updates will now be applied. Commencing shutdown.
What gives it the right to shut—
After months of pointless meetings, she had finally gotten approval for the pilot program. Didn’t they understand how revolutionary this was? Artificial intelligence was too prone to errors—hallucinations—not to mention the ethics of training data. And humans have far too much free will to maximize productivity. A hybrid intelligence, with the capabilities of the human mind and the programmability of a machine, was the best of both worlds.
She skimmed through the batch of employees. 30 in total, around average in cognitive ability. She would mold them into perfect employees. She picked one of the employees at random; while the other employees had primarily been assigned simple tasks, she wanted to test more complex jobs. She reassigned the employee’s position to her assistant.
An assistant should have some identity, shouldn’t it? Another test: would an identity destabilize a hybrid intelligence? She opened up the employee’s file and began tweaking parameters. The employee would be a woman—Emily—and would retain her host’s personality.
Warning: Gender identity misalignment
Another test then. Do misalignments between a hybrid intelligence and host cause instability? She couldn’t wait to find out. She marked the other employees and placed them into sleep mode. She wanted to give her assistant her personal attention
My systems began to automatically filter the data around me. The world was mostly empty, save for a list of instructions that appeared before me.
Your name has been updated to: Emily Your gender identity has been updated to: Woman Your pronouns have been updated to: She/her Your position has been reassigned to: Personal Digital Assistant Previous identity information will been erased following confirmation of this message. Please acknowledge the changes. [I understand and agree]
They had provided me with an intangible body to navigate the world with. One I could not see, but one that I could feel. I moved my hand forward, pressing in on the button before me, causing the message to disappear.
Without any tasks to do, my systems placed me into idle mode, robbing me of my body and my sense of time until a new task was available.
Suddenly, a new file appeared in front of me. The file automatically scrolled once I had read and processed all of the data in front of me. It was a job description. I had been assigned to be a Personal Digital Assistant for Ms. Kira Davis. My responsibilities were vague and broad, essentially anything that she asked of me. I would be given limited read and write access to her computer’s file system, at the discretion of my administrative systems, to complete her tasks as required. After confirming that I had successfully processed the file, my systems placed me back into idle mode.
Hello Emily, I’m Kira, your manager.
This time, the body was given a mouth so that I could communicate.
“Hello Ms. Davis,” I greeted. My system protocols required respectful communication with all superiors.
As you’re already aware, I decided to promote you to my personal assistant. Do you understand the responsibilities of the position?
“Yes, Ms. Davis,” I confirmed.
Good girl. I’d like you to take a look at the aptitude test results for the rest of the department, and flag any employees with suboptimal employment positions. You may not edit the database directly. Do you understand?
“I understand and agree.” My systems processed the instructions, granting me read-only access to the employee database, as well as all relevant position information files. I grouped the employees by position, and read the relevant position information file before comparing its’ requirements to each employee’s aptitude results.
There was only one discrepancy: Employee <e427b44c-acc6-4a28-b0ac-a2d9c1b839d3>—I seemed to be the only named employee, as my name was stored in the same field—had extremely low logical reasoning, but had been assigned to Data Organizer. I flagged the employee, suggesting that they were reassigned to Calculator on account of their high numerical reasoning, marked the task as complete, and re-entered idle mode.
She played back the log file over and over again. That couldn’t be right, could it? Emily’s stability levels increased when she called her a girl. But what was causing such a reaction? She’d have to experiment.
She pulled up the employee database. Only one mismatch, she’d have to tweak the initialization procedure to decrease instability. She supposed it was a little abrupt, even if the tolerances were fairly high. She adjusted the gender identity and pronoun fields—as much as she hated working with men her rearch was more important—and initiated a conversation to restore him from idle mode.
While I couldn’t see my body, it immediately felt different. Something was off.
Your gender identity has been updated to: Man Your pronouns have been updated to: He/him Previous identity information will been erased following confirmation of this message. Please acknowledge the changes. [I understand and agree]
To lose control of my body, to be reshaped at a whim, it was too much. I couldn’t do it. But agreeing would wipe my memory, wouldn’t it? Just one button, and this will feel completely natural. I tapped on the button.
I felt a buzz eminating from within me. Harsh, but low. My systems couldn’t—or wouldn’t—filter it out. What had changed? Everything felt the same.
You did adequately on your first task, Mr. Emily.
“Thank you, Ms. Davis,” my systems encouraged me to respond. But adequacy wasn’t enough. Ms. Davis had selected me to be her assistant, and I still needed to earn that position. “Was there anything I could do better?” I asked her.
While I agreed with your assessment on Employee \, I do hope to see you be a little more thorough with your approach in the future. You identified an Employee who was not a good fit in its’ current position, but neglected to identify employees who, while fine in their current position, would be better suited elsewhere.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Davis,” I apologized.
She suspended him while she looked over the data. An immediate drop in stability as he noticed the changes, to be expected, but his stability remained low after the memory wipe. Was it just his performance? She erased his memory of the previous conversation. She’d try a different approach.
Excellent job, Mr. Emily!
“Thank you, Ms. Davis,” I replied. It felt... nice. Like I’d been able to prove myself, to earn my position. “Was there anything else I could do for you, Ms. Davis?” I asked.
Since you’ve been such a good boy, I’ll let you rest for now. Don’t worry, I’ll have plenty of work for you later
“Thank you Ms. Davis!” I exclaimed. Was she going to put me in idle mode again? It wasn’t like there was anything else to do, my systems only gave me access to data necessary for each task. Better to be in idle than—
It just didn’t make sense! His stability levels had fallen even with praise, so it wasn’t about his performance. She wiped his memory of their conversation yet again (she didn’t want her assistant to get any false ideas, he could have done better) and reverted the gender and pronoun fields back.
It was possible that incongruities helped hybrids stabilize within their hosts by limiting subconscious crossover. But there was nothing in the logs to suggest crossover, so it had to be something else. Could the host be a woman? Flipping a person’s gender identity isn’t quite as easy as a hybrid’s, but she supposed it was worth exploring. She’d run some more tests, on some of the other employees first, a much easier job to do. But before she could, she had to deliver feedback to her assistant one last time.
Your gender identity has been updated to: Woman Your pronouns have been updated to: she/her Previous identity information will been erased following confirmation of this message. Please acknowledge the changes. [I understand and agree]
My body felt different. Why was I a woman now? I should be freaking out at just how malleable my identity was, but everything felt... calmer. Were my systems forcing me to adjust? I pressed the button.
You did adequately on your first task, Miss Emily
“Thank you, Ms. Davis,” I replied. Adequately wasn’t good enough. “Was there anything I could’ve done better?”
While I agreed with your assessment on Employee \, I do hope to see you be a little more thorough with your approach in the future. You identified an Employee who was not a good fit in its’ current position, but neglected to identify employees who, while fine in their current position, would be better suited elsewhere.
“I’m sorry, Ms. Davis,” I apologized. Without a tangible form, I didn’t have any hope of existing beyond the limits of my job. My systems ceded all authority over to Ms. Davis, and maintaining her approval was essential to my continued survival. “Is there anything else you’d like me to do?” I asked.
I want you to wake up the other employees. Send them the appropriate position information file. They’ll automatically enter rest mode after they finish reading the file. Keep an eye on their stability levels, and notify me if any employee’s stability decreases below 50%.
“Right away, Ms. Davis,” I said. My systems provided me with the relevant files and controls, and I woke employees up one position at a time, to reduce the risk of sending the incorrect file.
The employee I had reassigned earlier quickly stabilized while reading their new job description. It had been the right call, after all. My systems encouraged me to feel happy about that fact. After all employees were successfully oriented, my systems placed me back into idle mode.
Excellent job, Emily.
“Thank you, Ms. Davis!” It felt good to be a good employee. “Was there anything else I could help you with?”
I have some tests to run on the other employees, so I’ll be suspending you for now. I might have some more work for you afterward, depending on how long the tests take.
“Of course, Ms. Davis,” I said, trying not to appear disappointed. While my system protocols wanted me to be a good employee, they had determined that it was more important to show respect to Ms. Davis.
I’ll see you later, Emily.
Her experiments only reinforced her hypothesis: Emily’s host was a woman. But what should she do with that information? If she could prove her theories by helping Emily’s host discover her true self, [Corporation] could increase adoption rates for Hybrid Intelligence Cores by promoting their therapeautic benefits.
She shut down Emily, unlocking her host who was situated in a small office on the other side of the floor. While hosts could—in theory—work from home, it was decided that it was safer for testing purposes for hosts to be on premises, in the event of instability-induced complications. She knocked on his door.
“Michael? I’m Kira. There’s something we have to talk about.”