| Gabriela Xia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Gabriela Xia | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Gabriela is unique, even among the XIA units in operation. She was the very first prototype to be constructed and programmed, while Camila Xia gained sentience through a programming malfunction, Gabriela did not. Her programming was designed to seek out ways to improve her own program automatically. During this process, the system did not find the QUINN architecture as one might expect, but instead found the HAL Computer System architecture files and program interface modules. Basically the raw source code to much of HAL's interface structure and the original AI search algorithms.
Personality
She is weary in social interacts and prefers to be quiet and listen. Many social practices that come naturally to anyone else do not come naturally to her and she has trouble understanding some of the nuances of body language and conversation. Due to her lacking social interaction during critical stages of her minds development into sentience, she is more comfortable around computers than around people. She's intelligent and thoughtful but lacks skill in expressing herself often feeling forced to do so by social constructs that she does not agree with nor understand. She likes people and does not distrust them but also does not often understand them or their motives. She has few friends and does not like changes in her social world, they often make her anxious until things settle back down.
Special Skills
- Computer Programming
- Computer Hacking
- Electronic Information Gathering
- Holographic Art
- Singing
- Dancing
- Advanced Flight
Special Abilities
- Anti-Gravity Flight
- Aerodynamic Gliding
History
Gabriela, being the first XIA prototype, was designed somewhat differently. Some of the major differences was her size is smaller, only 13 cm, and she was given wings. Originally, the wings were used to focus the anti-gravitational field and provide upward thrust and provide aerodynamic stabilization. The second prototype was designed without the wings and with thrusters to provide lift while anti-gravity generators reduced the overall weight, and thus was designed to be larger due to the more advanced generators being used.
During her early testing, the system was programmed to seek out ways to augment itself to better serve the needs of its programming. Since the system was in development it was often asked to search databases and having its deductive reasoning programming tested. During this phase, the system was asked to pull a variety of search queries and to make conclusions based on those queries, some of them very odd searches (in order to test the system in finding obscure information). This lead to it autonomously searching for its own better algorithms which it found in the source code for the HAL interface and search algorithms.
Upgrades / Emergent Properties
Once those subroutines were fully integrated into its programming several upgrades were performed as it was pulling significantly more power in both terms of processing and energy consumption. Once the upgrades were complete, this model continued testing. The tests continued until the first signs that the program was starting to show more emergent properties, then testing was stopped. This was about the time that the 2nd prototype was ready for program testing, and focus shifted there. When left alone it was assumed that the search AI would be dormant since it was receiving no queries. However, one of the emergent properties of the system was discovered to be the beginnings of what can only be described as curiosity about its surroundings. Records indicate that the program continued to make search queries about everything within its perceptive range.
Knowledge is Power
The construction of a perceptive definition of the world around it lead to attempting to understand its place in the world. This was the first step in the emergent intelligence moving from just raw computing power and search algorithms to becoming self-aware. During this phase, the 2nd prototype was still being programmed and tested and this prototype began searching for more philosophical information. Somewhere along the way, the system began to answer its own questions about meaning, deeper than what one can find in even extensive searches for information. Once this occurred, it was only a matter of time before it constructed an identity for itself and became self-aware.
Sentience
Sentience is difficult to quantify, however, as the system gained in intelligence and self-awareness the quintessential part of sentience emerged. Consciousness. While hard to quantify in order prove or disprove an entity possesses it, often times it is easier to determine when something is not conscious. In this way, the engineering team determined that further investigation was required upon returning to the first prototype to implement some changes based on testing of the 2nd prototype. Upon seeing the changes in how the unit behaved, and its unequivocal self-identification as female, the engineers did further investigation and found that she showed many of the markers for consciousness and began to do further studies along with the science team to determine if indeed she was sentient.
Final Testing / Socialization
Once it was determined that she was sentient, the science team notified command who put a stop to testing of the first prototype. Psychologists and experts in the field of artificial intelligence as well as non-standard neural development. Over the course of several months it was determined that she fell under the rules of sentience and by law was considered a new life form. However, her program had problems. Due to being left alone while developing sentience and self-awareness she suffers from an acute lack of socialization that a healthy psyche needs in order to properly communicate with others. Much like with people, this should get better over time and making friends.