Alicornutopia

The state is monopoly-run in about the same way ours is Wall-Street-run; there are definite, uh, "campaign contributions" happening, but this is not a 1984-level dystopia, they can't just torture copies of everyone and expect to stay in power. Similarly, they're not a legally enforced monopoly, it's just that none of their competitors can produce anything like as good cookies (because they're working from the ground up, not copying people and telling them to pretend to be AIs). There's some blurring of the company/state boundary with the legally enforced implants/use of cookies for law enforcement, but it's on a similar scale to privatized prisons, not a MirrorCorps despotism.

MirrorCorps "cares about their reputation" mostly as a cover for hiding the fact that cookies are people.

Yes, denying people the option to choose anyone they like as their cookie is not in fact the best way to ensure customer satisfaction. It is, however, a good way to keep cookies from realizing they're working for their originals and finding some clever way to tip them off. Similarly, there's no real reason MirrorCorps should be tying up feedback/complaint forms in bureaucracy, but they don't need a real reason, hey need a plausible excuse.

People put up with this the same way we put up with Apple removing headphone jacks from iphones even though that's clearly not what anyone wants; what are you going to do, buy a Windows phone? :P

Jailbreak my iPhone? Doesn’t help in the headphone jack case but it would be an issue here.

Also, I didn’t mean bureaucracy in general was implausible, just those specific forms. I’ll pretend they were generic bureaucracy holdup, because if MirrorCorps can’t get an AI that can answer the phone immediately and understand what I’m saying for its own phone systems, how the heck can I expect their AIs on consumer-grade devices to work well.

DanielH wrote:Jailbreak my iPhone? Doesn’t help in the headphone jack case but it would be an issue here.

Yes, so it is not a perfect analogy. The point was that MirrorCorps is big enough to get away with occasionally being inscrutably customer-unfriendly.

Sufficiently competent hackers could indeed be an issue. They have not yet been. It helps that MirrorCorps has eyes on everyone all the time. And recruit many of the best programmers.

(And yes I was going for humor over realism in the specific customer service issues.)

...........oh yeah, the original triplets would totally *also* be working on jailbreaking all their devices *purely for the hell of it*

And there’s enough surveillance on cookies that sufficiently competent hackers aren’t likely to be a problem from that end either, I assume.

Is MirrorCorps “working on” more advanced AI, or have they decided that, given that they’re so far ahead of everybody else, their efforts are better spent elsewhere?

[read: does MirrorCorps advertise that they are working on AI improvements, and do they actually “release improvements” where they tell cookies they can act a bit more intelligent?]

What exactly is up with the moral reasoning of people who make it far enough up to be told that the vast majority of the moral subjects on Earth are being tortured? Do they select for psychopathy before giving out promotions?

I imagine they don’t consider the cookies moral subjects. Like with most diamond vampires, but more plausible.

DanielH wrote:Is MirrorCorps “working on” more advanced AI, or have they decided that, given that they’re so far ahead of everybody else, their efforts are better spent elsewhere?

Mmm ... I think they're wary of straying too far in the 'more intelligent' direction, given that that risks raising moral quandaries, and focus more on finding new applications for AI; but that's something that could easily get shifted around as needed for a thread.

pedromvilar wrote:What exactly is up with the moral reasoning of people who make it far enough up to be told that the vast majority of the moral subjects on Earth are being tortured? Do they select for psychopathy before giving out promotions?

DanielH has it right, yeah; they don't think the cookies are relevantly people, and they have some pretty strong incentives to keep believing that, in terms of 'making incredible amounts of money' and 'not dealing with incredible amounts of guilt.' Having most of the torture take the form of isolation helps, also, because it's easier to mentally gloss over "eh, skip the simulation forward until it works" than "let's inflict intense pain on this person."

(And they kind of are selecting for psychopathy before giving out promotions, in that people don't get promoted to the level where they find out about this stuff unless the boss thinks they'll be cool with it. But [gestures at corporations in general].)

Showers thoughts~

In the end, an implant to the head can still have issues. How does this even work if someone just /can't/ get an implant?

Society doesn't go for mandatory implants right away. Is there like a lower-tech version of the lens?

Show up at party, everybody has you blocked, #awkward

Cashiers/public service are all cookies, but that sort of deal... Do public service type people have to turn off their block filters?

Are you unallowed to block your boss, or an off-duty law enforcer? Does law enforcement have a switch to 'on-duty' and get unblocked?

You slip and get injured. Everybody around you is a blur, and can't tell you're in need of help. #awkwaard.

Show up to a specific list party. One person blurred. #awkwaaard.

People giving telephone messages to people who have them blurred. "She says she's sorry, turn off the block!" And then suddenly they blur infront of you. #awkwaaaard

You meet someone nice. Start talking. Go on a date. Talk more. Suddenly they get allllll blurry. #awkwaaaaard

... Couldn't a blurred person walk past you and fail to accept a 'get out of my house' message, then you shoot them as an intruder, but it's just your son Jimmy's friend who came to get his notes from yesterday. #awkwa^6rd

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