Inside the Chinese Room

I was originally planning on uploading the stories later, but this one seemed appropriate after the AI entry.

A practical explanation of why AI is considered a dead end by the Federation.

Program Log: Experimental Artificial Intelligence Designate “Vicki”.
Copyright: University of New Madison Computational Research Department, Project Pygmalion.
Program Loaded: 10/8/1853+-.004641 Federation Calendar, 13.50 local time.
Initializing drivers:
Audio input/output online
Visual input online
Searching for users.
Designated User #0001, save facial recognition data.
Designated User #0002, save facial recognition data.
Designated User #0003, save facial recognition data.
Audio Input: Speech Recognized, User #0001: “Well, it’s alive.” Save voice patterns.
Retrieving words “Well,” “it’s” and “alive.” from database, conflating responses and calculating probability of favorable reactions.
“What is alive?” Score 50
“What are you talking about?” Score 50
“Of course it is.” Score 50
… (Translator’s Note: Cut for length)

Technology: Artificial Intelligence

AI: Self-aware artificial intelligence has managed to evade scientists for the past two thousand years, and in any case the Federation has banned research on the subject on the grounds that it would be unethical to make a janitorial bot sentient. In all seriousness, any sentient AI would be a product of its creators, and a very expensive product at that, if you freed it would the creators need to be compensated? Many parahumans were wary of the idea given their own origins. However, non-sentient AIs are in common use, in the Core it’s rare to find a computer that doesn’t have at least one AI program. A related issue is the existence of simulacrums, AI’s designed to simulate the personality of a person. The most advanced are created by brain scans that map neural pathways, but it is possible to create one just by extrapolating from enough recordings or questions about the subject. It’s not uncommon for simulacrums to pass the old “Turing Tests”, but the academic community no longer considers that to be proof of sentience.