Very true there are a bunch of ways Bob could have got the issue solved faster but this scenario is focused on him learning the relevant knowledge and integrating the relevant skills. Skill modules have two modes (that I could probably do with naming better in the article), one in which they puppet the person to get the job done and one where they slowly merge with the person so that they innately acquire the skill. The second was what Bob was doing.
RE labs and stuff that is totally correct but the hinted at background to the situation is that the estate groundskeepers (who in my mind are a specialised submind of the local angelnet) had sabotaged the envirotech deliberately in collaboration with a submind for Sophont Fulfilment; the latter having noticed Bob's boredom and contrived an adequate experience to stimulate him
Also the key features that make it a later setting example are how Bob is experiencing IA. It's seamlessly merged with his conscious mind. Unless he asks or is predicted to want to know Bob doesn't feel any difference between natural memories of his life experience and artificial ones drawn from an encyclopaedia file. The observations he makes could be a product of his brain or his natural thoughts could have been suppressed before they fully formed (because they were wrong/suboptimal e.g. "Perhaps it's a bunch of caterpillars") and replaced with the observations of the vastly more intelligent exoself programs. Contrast this to Alice who is consciously having to put effort in to follow instructions and learn from her intelligent aide. What she can do is fantastic, she can go from knowing nothing to picking up basic agribot repair skills in no time (all the while getting the job done) but it's functionally the same as if she was always accompanied by a skilled teacher. She still has to work for it. I hope that distinction makes sense, one is definitely less sophisticated and technologically simpler than the other.
EDIT: great story btw, I don't think I've read it before. It prompts a thought that "intelligence amplification" arguably overlaps heavily, but not completely, with "productivity amplification". The latter being any technology that boosts productivity, this may coincide with intelligence (such as a lateral thinking exoself module making one faster at solving riddles) but in many cases has no relation to it (like the mental link Shen has to her gardening bots). In the case of some of the tech we've discussed in this thread the distinction may be as subtle as ones personal settings, e.g: do you solve a problem by having your exoself do it for you or do you merge with the relevant skill modules and "do it yourself". From an external, black box perspective there may be no difference. But from a personal experience and personality shaping perspective the choice could be significant.
RE labs and stuff that is totally correct but the hinted at background to the situation is that the estate groundskeepers (who in my mind are a specialised submind of the local angelnet) had sabotaged the envirotech deliberately in collaboration with a submind for Sophont Fulfilment; the latter having noticed Bob's boredom and contrived an adequate experience to stimulate him
Also the key features that make it a later setting example are how Bob is experiencing IA. It's seamlessly merged with his conscious mind. Unless he asks or is predicted to want to know Bob doesn't feel any difference between natural memories of his life experience and artificial ones drawn from an encyclopaedia file. The observations he makes could be a product of his brain or his natural thoughts could have been suppressed before they fully formed (because they were wrong/suboptimal e.g. "Perhaps it's a bunch of caterpillars") and replaced with the observations of the vastly more intelligent exoself programs. Contrast this to Alice who is consciously having to put effort in to follow instructions and learn from her intelligent aide. What she can do is fantastic, she can go from knowing nothing to picking up basic agribot repair skills in no time (all the while getting the job done) but it's functionally the same as if she was always accompanied by a skilled teacher. She still has to work for it. I hope that distinction makes sense, one is definitely less sophisticated and technologically simpler than the other.
EDIT: great story btw, I don't think I've read it before. It prompts a thought that "intelligence amplification" arguably overlaps heavily, but not completely, with "productivity amplification". The latter being any technology that boosts productivity, this may coincide with intelligence (such as a lateral thinking exoself module making one faster at solving riddles) but in many cases has no relation to it (like the mental link Shen has to her gardening bots). In the case of some of the tech we've discussed in this thread the distinction may be as subtle as ones personal settings, e.g: do you solve a problem by having your exoself do it for you or do you merge with the relevant skill modules and "do it yourself". From an external, black box perspective there may be no difference. But from a personal experience and personality shaping perspective the choice could be significant.
OA Wish list:
- DNI
- Internal medical system
- A dormbot, because domestic chores suck!