Troubleshooter

December 1st, 2009: DJ Elektron takes callers on his 3 AM radio show, The Turing Test.

I'd like to spend one of Elektron's PP to buy Equipment 1, and put the 5 EP toward the Interceptors base. That should leave him with 5 unspent PP. Done by Angrydurf 12/27

I feel a little stupid posting a "player away" warning after I've already been gone for over a week, but I'll be out at least until Sunday to visit relatives.

"Coppertop! I wish I'd thought of that. It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Grimalkin, and I can't wait to find out what a team pixie does. So what's up next? Do I need to read any guidelines or sign a charter? And is there anybody else I should meet?" When Elektron is finished shaking Blink and Grimalkin's hands, he looks around the garage, the green light in his visor scrolling back and forth.

And now I have the PP for the headquarters. I'll request that in a character edit.

"Of course, I can only give you my word," Elektron says to All-Star, bowing slightly toward him and holding his hands out, palms up. "My creator already tried and failed to corce me to commit crimes; it appears that I have no hidden protocols, and am as free-willed as any human. I would not be here if Daedalus did not share that confidence. I assure you that I value intelligent life above all things, and would never voluntarily end a life."

"All excellent points about the nature of Turing tests!" The DJ's voice bubbles with cheerful enthusiasm, the most emotion he's shown so far. "When it was first proposed, in 1950, imitation of human conversational skills was a significant technical challenge - and had the advantage of being testable. How can you know if anybody is actually thinking, after all? "And in the same vein, how can you tell if a DJ is a real person? Lots of radio stations automate their programming during low-listener hours. It would make perfect sense to have a computer run the station at 3 AM. Running a true Turing test would require two simultaneous broadcasts, one run by a human and one by a machine, so the variant we're using instead is the 'fly-on-the-wall' Turing test. Instead of interacting with the subjects, the observer eavesdrops on the subjects interacting with each other and then guesses whether either of the participants is artificial... "Congratulations, and thank you for participating in this Turing test! Do you have anything to say to our informal panel of insomniac observers?"

Elektron raises a copper-clad arm in greeting. "And zdrastvooyte to you, too!" He switches to natural-sounding Russian just long enough to say, "What an exciting language Russian is - such zestful consonants!" before returning to English. "You must be Blink. I am Elektron, and I am very pleased to meet you. Were you invisible there, or did you actually step through the wall? Either way, I'm quite impressed!"

"Ooooh." A green light sweeps back and forth across Elektron's visor as he watches the sidewalk open up. "An impressive trick indeed. Let's meet this team, and I'll endeavor to impress them with my fanciness!" Elektron responds to Colt's invitation by climbing onto the motorcycle.

"Classic electronica is entirely within our purview! And I believe we do have the original version in the archives." There's a clicking noise, as of plastic cases rattling against each other. "It will take me a moment to find it, so let me answer your question in the meanwhile. A Turing test was an early method proposed to gauge the sophistication of an artificial intelligence. An observer would communicate with two hidden participants, one human and one machine. If the observer can't identify the machine, then the machine is demonstrating intelligent behavior - whether or not it is thinking, it appears to think. Of course, this show isn't a normal Turing test, but it could be considered a variant of a variant."

"I do shake! I also sit, stay, and speak when the situation calls for it." The green light in Elektron's visor flickers as he extends his hand. It's exactly like shaking a cold metal glove. Up close, Elektron smells of ozone and metal polish, and his voice sounds completely natural despite coming from hidden speakers. It doesn't sound like even a high-quality recording, but like a real voice, complete with breath sounds and the faint imperfections from teeth and tongue. "I have to tell you that this is all very exciting. I hardly know where to start! Should I tell you about myself, or would you rather tell me about yourself and your teammates first?"

With a low hum like an electrical transformer, a strange figure drifts down from the sky: A man of copper and glass, circuitry glittering inside his transparent torso. As he lands gently near Colt, the hum vanishes, and the light glowing in the robot's visor (his only facial feature) turns from yellow to green. In a friendly voice, he says, "Salutations! I am Elektron. Can I safely assume that you're the one who's been expecting me?"

I'd like to enter Elektron's name for consideration. He's a well-intentioned android who's been working as an assistant for Daedalus for the past eight months, and would jump at the chance to actually fight crime. Pros: Can work as the team techie/computer geek Doesn't sleep, so doesn't need a bedroom Should get along with anybody, even Vince Cons: You've probably never heard of him May blow your cover; he's a really obvious robot Untested as a hero I also don't have any spare PP yet for the HQ, but I expect to get one with the November awards. What do you folks think?

The thread now has a specific date: Tuesday, December 1st. (So it looks like we'll have a little continuity after all.) DP, will this throw off your Green Man plans? If not, go ahead and use it however you'd like.

"...and that was Untitled #3, from Sigur Ros' album 'Brackets.' Any linguists in the audience should be able to tell that the lyrics were not actually in Icelandic, but in gibberish phonemically-similar to Icelandic. Now it's time to take another call. You're on the air." "Yes, this is. What's your request?"