The Mech Touch

Now that the smart AIs of the SF-02 came online and joined the Larkinson Clan without issue, Ves and the rest of the Design Department couldn't wait to try out their functions.

Of course, before they could make full use of the SF-02's awesome processing power and the clever direction of the smart AIs, they had to feed them with a lot of data. Discover exclusive tales on My Virtual Library Empire

Just connecting them to the galactic net was a stupid idea, at least at the start. The 5 smart AIs were still children in terms of artificial life forms. They were highly impressionable and were constantly developing their own views and opinions.

This was why the Larkinsons selectively took out pieces of data and fed them to the smart AIs piece by piece.

Commodore Reze already told the Larkinsons that they should not drip-feed data to the smart AIs, but also make sure to provide their own human opinions on the subject matter.

It was these human perspectives that allowed the smart AIs to understand the context around a topic and how it related to other topics.

Those that provided the narration held a lot of power during this necessary growth process. They directly imparted their own values and philosophies to the smart AIs, causing them to resemble their teachers in many ways.

In the case of Sovvy and Stella, Ves did not really care too much who taught them how to run a starship or fleet. He delegated the responsibility of showing the two starship-oriented smart AIs the ropes to the Larkinson Navy.

What truly mattered was the raising of Polly and Momo. Both of them would soon play an essential role in the design process of many important Larkinson mechs.

Ves and Gloriana had a disagreement on how to divide their teaching responsibilities to the two R&D-oriented smart AIs.

"ABSOLUTELY NOT! I WILL NOT LET YOU POISON POLLY'S ARTIFICIAL MIND WITH YOUR SLOPPY AND HAPHAZARD DESIGN HABITS! SHE HAS THE POTENTIAL TO BECOME THE THE MOST PERFECT MECH DESIGN ASSISTANT, BUT YOUR DESIGN STYLE WILL POISON THE WELL AND CAUSE THE SMART AI TO CRASH WHEN TRYING AND FAILING TO RECONCILE TWO DIVERGING DESIGN PHILOSOPHIES!"

"Oh, come on, Gloriana! Polly is not that incompetent! I am sure she will be able to comprehend your design philosophy as well as my own so long as we feed her our collaboration works. Besides, I am giving you completely free rein when it comes to educating Momo. The least you can do is give me space to teach Polly."

Though Gloriana calmed down a bit, she still rejected the notion of letting Ves teach Polly how to design mechs in his style.

"I am already letting you do whatever you want with Aria. Seeing that you have chosen to put her in charge of the SF-02 processor cluster, it is important that Polly can serve as a strong enough counterweight against her suggestions. There is no point in letting both Polly and Aria mirror your thoughts and design style. They will turn into two clones of yourself that hold different responsibilities. The two smart AIs will not truly be able to argue against each other and formulate better solutions through conflict."

She admittedly raised a good point.

One of the reasons why Ves and Gloriana worked so well together was because their views on mechs were completely different for the most part. They held different priorities and appreciated different aspects of mech designs.

When their views came into conflict with each other, they always had to reaffirm their stances proof and logic, which kept them sharp and prevented them from growing too complacent in their existing gains.

However, Ves obviously felt unwilling to surrender Polly entirely to Gloriana when she already received the full claim of Molly.

"I can use the same argument in relation to Molly." He retorted. "It is not a good idea for both R&D-oriented smart AIs to become your artificial clones in thought. The two need to occupy different perspectives in order to generate fruitful conflict and discussion. Why don't we make this fair and agree to teach Polly together? I will teach her 50 percent of what I know while you teach her the other 50 percent. As for the risk of generating potential conflicts and glitches… we will deal with that problem when it happens. If we are lucky, the smart AI will be able to reconcile our contradictory stances by itself."

"UNACCEPTABLE! I will never agree to a 50-50 split when your Aria holds greater sway than my Momo! We should set a 80-20 split instead. I will handle 80 percent of Polly's lessons while you teach her the remaining 20 percent."

"60-40."

"70-30."

"70-30."

A 70-30 split sounded reasonable. Polly would obviously inherit most of Gloriana's design style and methodologies, but learn enough about Ves' methods and mech designs to know how to deal with living mechs.

Ves did not care too much about having a greater influence on Polly as he saw good value in a smart AI that held contrarian opinions when it came to mechs.

Of course, there were advantages to raising a smart AI that aligned closely with a teacher.

For example, once Gloriana properly raised Momo, the former would be able to delegate a lot of assignments to the metallurgy-oriented smart AI without too many complications.

The smart AI's output would definitely match Gloriana's standards and design style so well that it was as if an inferior copy of the woman had completed all of the work!

This was one of the most important functions of a smart AI of a processor cluster. The potential time savings were enormous, but only if the smart AI learned what he or she needed to do when given specific assignments.

After the two Senior Mech Designers of the Larkinson Clan divided their responsibilities, they began to suspend their normal design work in order to teach 3 of the 5 smart AIs how to make themselves useful in mech design projects.

The lessons started out simple, but steadily rose in complexity. Many advanced theories were based on the foundations of simpler theories. Only by starting from the ground up and going up would they be able instill proper respect and understanding of the science and technology that served as the basis of every form of human technology.

That was especially important when teaching a design philosophy to a smart AI.

Ves did not know whether it had anything to do with the excellent software engineering of the Red Fleet or the mystical properties of Mentalist Crystal fragments, but he found that Polly picked up his lessons on living mechs unusually well.

[Is this basic mech design to your satisfaction?]

"That… is a basic but serviceable living mech design." Ves admitted as he studied the projected mech design in mild shock. "It sort of lacks the artistry and feel of a defined style that you are confident in, but given how less than a day has passed since I started to tutor you, your progress is amazing."

[It is not difficult to derive this mech design. My database contains almost all of the living mechs that you have designed. I have dedicated a considerable amount of processing power to analyze them and identify their similarities. By transplanting your most common design elements into this basic knight mech design, I require less time and processing power to replicate the 'charm' of your design philosophy.]

This response made Ves scratch his head. He grew confused. Not even Alexa Streon was able to comprehend and apply the basic principles of living mech design so easily.

The design work produced by Polly so far matched the standard of an Apprentice Mech Designer.

Soon, she would be able to design a mech that was on the same level as the work of a Journeyman Mech Designer.

Would Polly break through at that point, or would the Red Kingdom completely disregard her existence?

After observing the smart AI in action for a time, Ves tentatively concluded that it was not possible for her to form a connection to the Red Kingdom.

Her inherently inhuman nature prevented her from accessing the Red Kingdom.

That was actually an advantage in this case as no one was able to reproduce living mechs with the help of the Red Kingdom. Ves had yet to realize his mech design!

It made sense in a way. Polly was a smart AI that was extremely strong in making mech design-related calculations and deductions. Even if the fleeters did not do their best when developing her template, at most her activities wasted more processing power than usual.

Ves widened his eyes. He suddenly realized that Polly essentially worked like a rational mech designer!

Everything fell into place after he made this comparison. He figured out how Polly operated and how to best make use of her services.

He continued to teach Polly how to design living mechs. While she was not ready to tackle more advanced applications of E-technology, it was no problem for him to impart methods on how to design simpler solutions.

Both Ves and Gloriana sought to raise Polly into a powerful assistant that could automate many tedious design-related tasks.

They not only wanted to make use of Polly to run simulations much faster than before, but they were also willing to delegate very simple work assignments to her. So long as she functioned as a rational mech designer, then she should be able to shoulder this burden without too many issues.

However, as Ves was only allowed to teach Polly 30 percent of what she should know during this stage of her growth cycle, his wife soon kicked him away, forcing him to spend his time elsewhere.

He decided to take Aria under his wing and teach her about the art of mech design and craftsmanship.

[What is art?]

"Shouldn't you have an answer to that already?"

[I have hundreds of answers from different individuals in my database, but since I am expected to derive my art from yours, I must first know what you think about this subject.]

"That is fair enough." Ves responded. "I have a lot of ideas about it, but not all of it is coherent or easy to explain. When you study my mech designs, you will find that I have designed many of my works with aesthetics in mind. How mechs are portrayed on the outside has a large influence on how they are perceived and used by people."

[Do you treat art as a tool to convince humans to make better use of your mechs?]

Ves grimaced a bit. "Yes, but that is only one of the reasons that determine my approach towards art. I do not see my works in such a utilitarian perspective. Every mech design deserves to be unique. My mechs should have their own personalities. It is through individualism that my works can transcend the definition of products and truly become alive. That is art from my perspective. Good art seeks to change our society for the better. Stuff like quality, cost, size and so on are not so important. A mech can perform awful, but still become a good art piece as long as its appearance is distinctive enough to change people's opinions. A good piece of art can change the course of history without firing a single shot. That is the power of art."

[So you see art through the lens of power and influence.]

"Maybe. I do not characterize it that way, but I can see how you can make that conclusion. These are rather abstract and high-level ideas. There is no need to explore them too much at this stage. On a more basic level, art in my opinion provides added value as it affects the emotions and behavior of both aliens and humans. An intimidating appearance can instill confidence among humans and fear among aliens. It is about creating value through indirect means. So long as a mech manages to produce greater results through art, it is worthwhile. A mech that is devoid of any strong artistic qualities is like a blank canvas. It won't make any mistakes, but it also won't be able to do anything special. To me, that is a wasted opportunity. It is more than worthwhile to take a risk."