AI and why AI wont become self aware in wh40k

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**the42up**

chuckz1487 wrote:
RLRAFTERMAN wrote:
AI will never become self aware because all computers/mechanical machines require programming (orders) to be input manually by a techpriest. They only do what the program tells them to do and nothing else.

isnt that all machines? At some point though machines learn to automate processes. My question is why in other sci fi realms do machines become self aware and turn against humans, yet in wh40k they seem like simple machines that need an operator.

There is actually a rather simplistic answer to this, it boils down to the mathematics underlying programming-

the imperium only programs using discrete mathematics. This pretty much means that AI will never arise. Everything is computational.

Programming based on estimation methods (i.e. distribution, density, etc functions) is how we think and the basis of AI. Especially when those equations are situated in simultaneous equations models.

You just can't have an AI using discrete mathematical programming models.

**the clone**

Does anyone know much about the men of iron? Probably something to do with it

**Formosa**

Grey Templar wrote:
chuckz1487 wrote:
RLRAFTERMAN wrote:
AI will never become self aware because all computers/mechanical machines require programming (orders) to be input manually by a techpriest. They only do what the program tells them to do and nothing else.

isnt that all machines? At some point though machines learn to automate processes. My question is why in other sci fi realms do machines become self aware and turn against humans, yet in wh40k they seem like simple machines that need an operator.

Because that already happened during the Dark Age of Technology.

Humans created a race of sentient robots called the Men of Iron to serve them(they were basically Terminators). They rebelled and nearly drove humanity to extinction, mankind won. Just barely.

Every since, the human psyche has had a massive and healthy fear of technology. The Adeptus Mechanicus's doctrine holds that a true self-aware AI is an abomination, they remember what happened in the Dark Ages.

So in place of AI, they have the machine spirit. A cross between advanced computational algorithims(little different from our computers today in basic function) and human nervous tissue. By making their AI substitute rely on humans both for input and construction, and regularly wiping system data, they ensure that a sentient AI never appears again.

So the Imperium has what we today would call AI, but they are not sentient. They're just really advanced computers.

The old fluff has men of iron getting to the point where they can't be told apart from humans, and leaves it up in the air who won the war, this is also referenced I think in prospero burns, when the machine intelligence tells the humans, that they are not human.

Dum dum duuuuuum, doubt they are related as the old fluff has likely been retconed, would be cool though.

**Lord_Inquisitor_Doge**

Formosa wrote:
Grey Templar wrote:
chuckz1487 wrote:
RLRAFTERMAN wrote:
AI will never become self aware because all computers/mechanical machines require programming (orders) to be input manually by a techpriest. They only do what the program tells them to do and nothing else.

isnt that all machines? At some point though machines learn to automate processes. My question is why in other sci fi realms do machines become self aware and turn against humans, yet in wh40k they seem like simple machines that need an operator.

Because that already happened during the Dark Age of Technology.

Humans created a race of sentient robots called the Men of Iron to serve them(they were basically Terminators). They rebelled and nearly drove humanity to extinction, mankind won. Just barely.

Every since, the human psyche has had a massive and healthy fear of technology. The Adeptus Mechanicus's doctrine holds that a true self-aware AI is an abomination, they remember what happened in the Dark Ages.

So in place of AI, they have the machine spirit. A cross between advanced computational algorithims(little different from our computers today in basic function) and human nervous tissue. By making their AI substitute rely on humans both for input and construction, and regularly wiping system data, they ensure that a sentient AI never appears again.

So the Imperium has what we today would call AI, but they are not sentient. They're just really advanced computers.

The old fluff has men of iron getting to the point where they can't be told apart from humans, and leaves it up in the air who won the war, this is also referenced I think in prospero burns, when the machine intelligence tells the humans, that they are not human.

Dum dum duuuuuum, doubt they are related as the old fluff has likely been retconed, would be cool though.

The issue is that the Emperor and other Perpetuals have been around since long before the war with the MoI.

**Fisheyes**

The reason that AI wont become self aware is that its against the law. I recall seeing a while back that the Emperor had 3-4 laws that every imperial world needed to follow. They were something like:

-Everyone must pay tax to the IoM (both resources and human lives)
-No psychers
-No "excessive" genocide
-No AI

**Psienesis**

The ban on AI (Silica Animus) is not from the Emperor, but from the AdMech, going back thousands of years before the Emperor revealed himself to Mankind.