milliways_bar | (no subject)

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tali'zorah

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Jean-Luc Picard enters the holodeck doors, decked out in his Dixon Hill outfit, ready to become his favorite detective. When he's dumped into a bar full of patrons that don't all look human or dressed for the era, he's confused, but decides to play along. That's why he'll be found by the fireplace, watching the goings-on with great interest.

Tiny!Tag: Jean-Luc Picard

(OOC: Due to migraine, this post is in auto-slowtime, and also taggable until it falls off the front page. Thanks!)

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"You're very astute," Picard says, admiringly. "But what do you mean, where I come from?"

The glowing eyes behind Tali's faceplate wink on and off a couple of times as she blinks in confusion. "What? I thought you were...um. Have you never been here before?"

"I have not. Is that a problem?"

"No, it's just that most newcomers are...hm...bewildered is probably the right word. Not that you can blame them - everybody comes here by accident, and no one is sure why or how people are brought here."

"I'm confused, yes. I don't understand why the holodeck didn't load the program I wanted. I'm certainly not bewildered, however--the holodeck has acted up before."

This conversation has suddenly wandered into very confusing territory, even by Milliways standards. "What's a holodeck?"

"Part of my spaceship's technology," he says. "I can load a whole holographic program and participate in it on the holodeck."

"And these programs are sophisticated enough to simulate the behavior of sentient beings? Like carrying on a conversation with you, for instance?"

That sounds suspiciously like AI, and makes Tali rather uncomfortable.

"Indeed. On my world that's known as AI, or 'artificial intelligence'." Picard nods. "Does your world not have such technology?"

"Not if we can help it," Tali mutters. "Sorry. I mean to say that every time someone's created AI in my universe, it has been a disaster. And it's illegal."

"No, it's all right. I can see how AI would be frightening. I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable." Picard offers a small smile.

"It's all right." Tali thinks for a moment. "It is also possible that we don't mean the same thing when we say 'artificial intelligence.' We have virtual intelligences, which are capable of some very sophisticated functions including parsing languages, but they are not self-aware: they don't act on their own initiative."

"No, my world has androids and the like." Picard pauses. "What kinds of problems have you had with AI?"

"We were nearly exterminated and driven from our homeworld by the Geth - AIs we built to serve us," Tali says. "That was three hundred years ago. Every artificial intelligence built since - every one I've ever heard of - has turned against its creators."

Well, that's rather distopian.

"I have no idea what to say," Picard says, looking horrified.

Tali suspects that the newcomer probably doesn't want to talk about AI anymore. Neither does she. Since the whole topic of AI was a tangent in any case, she has a perfect excuse to change the subject.

"Back to what you were saying before, about your holo-deck," Tali says, stumbling a bit over the unfamiliar word, "I doubt you will believe me if I tell you that you're not actually there. After all, I'd be programmed to think I wasn't part of a simulation. But there must be some kind of override, naturally?"

Picard nods, and uses the code words to override the simulation. It, obviously, doesn't work.

"Strange," he says, looking more curious than frustrated.

"Maybe that will make me sound more believable when I say that you are not in a simulation," Tali says. Of course, the visitor could attribute the failure of his override to some kind of serious malfunction, and try something else: Tali certainly would, were she in his place. ~~And it's not like the Enterprise holodeck hasn't had some crazy-weird malfunctions before.~~ "There's no reason for alarm, though. Milliways is safe."

"Well, it's all starting to add up. I didn't expect to see aliens in my simulation, so that certainly makes it seem more reasonable that it isn't one."

"Nobody expects this place," Tali says. "Not at first, anyway. I've heard there's a Landlord who decides to pick people up more or less at random, but I don't know anyone who's ever met him. As you can probably guess by the population of the bar, he seems to have a particular fondness for humans."

"I had noticed the ratio being skewed in that direction," Picard says, thoughtfully.

"Lots of them are twenty-first century humans, too," Tali says. "But I know humans hadn't yet gotten past their own moon by that time, so you must be from much later."

"I'm from the 23rd century," he agrees. "From the Earth country of France."

"France, France...I do not think I've heard of it," Tali says apologetically, "but then again I know little of Earth. I am from the late twenty-second century myself. Tell me, do your ships use mass effect cores or something else?"

"We use warp cores," he says, and goes into an explanation of how they work.