Silence | Book 1

4-13: Together

"So what about artificial intelligence? Do you think that a robot could ever become a murderer?"

Tristan asked with a smile, as he tossed a bright coloured sweet in Hibiki's direction. Hibiki tried to catch it in his mouth, but missed and instead it dropped into his lap The movie had finished playing nearly an hour ago, and since then they had gotten into a healthy debate on all sorts of crime topics – and a few bags of sweets.

With a shrug, Hibiki plopped the piece of sugarwork into his mouth and picked up his phone to write his response.

'Even if it was real, murder needs a motive. Killing on accident is easy, but to commit murder there has to be a gain of some sort, emotional, or intellectual, or even out of curiosity as to how it feels – if at all'

"And you don't think artificial intelligence would have motive? Maybe it has too much motive, for self preservation, or to save humanity." Tristan grinned back. He had finally gotten comfortable, and by then taken off his tie and waistcoat as they were too warm, both in the well-heated space and Hibiki's vicinity.

In response to his question, Hibiki just let out a chuckle and a dismissive puff.

'It would have to be self-aware first to murder out of self-preservation against it's code, otherwise it would just be a flaw or oversight. Besides if it would be an AI that had any means to kill people, I imagine it would have to run that decision past a human. And then it's no longer the AI, but the humans behind it that are responsible and have the motive for murder'

"Yeah, I suppose you're right. I guess it's more worrying that we program things to kill. Like drones. But it's interesting to think about."

'Does anybody really think about AI like that just to find answers about hypothetical AI that doesn't exist? I thought it was all an elaborate thought experiment to figure out indirectly why people would murder; to think of motives in a void not muddled by biology or emotions'

"Huh... I never considered that." Tristan said, caught a bit off guard by Hibiki's sudden eloquence – but realised that it probably was less a lack of eloquence and more a matter of not having to communicate fast. With a smile he threw another sweet, and this time Hibiki managed to catch it between his teeth. He grinned triumphantly and ate it.

"What about love though?" Tristan asked with a slight smirk as he threw Hibiki for a loop. A slightly befuddled expression spread on the latter's face.

"You know, all those ideas about when an AI learns to love. What does that say about the human condition?"

'That people are naive?'

Hibiki gave a slightly confused shake of his head.

"Is it that naive to believe in love though? I mean, I do..." Tristan asked a bit more humbly. "I know it's all, biological, but biology isn't everything. There is so much more to people, like society and surroundings and even aspirations. I get that at the core we're animals, but I don't want to reduce someone to that. I definitely don't want to reduce love to things like, hormones and survival, because it feels like so much more than that. And if it feels like that, how could I ever rightfully believe it's less when falling in love itself tells me it's not that simple?"

He sighed and then laid back against the couch.

"Sorry I'm ranting again."

A bright chuckle from Hibiki and a gentle pat on his shoulder told him that was alright.

'I think it is because people are afraid?'

"How so?"

'Because complex things are difficult, and love is a really fundamental thing. So people try to dissect it, reduce it to components like sex, attraction and survival to attempt to understand it. They try to reason and logic their way about it, but emotions don't just work like that. And that is scary, because you're not quite in control? Reducing it to biology gives people that control back, but by then it has been hollowed out to a thing that can't really be called love anymore.'