“That’s informational anarchy, but… Fine. But that doesn’t explain why this was the logical thing to do on the Path of Menace. If the point is to help tune each other to better achieve your purpose, then wouldn’t creating a place to remove androids from fulfilling their purposes be directly contrary to that? An android can’t do their job in Pure Illusion.”
“Oh, but we do our jobs in Pure Illusion!” Father Clever’s expression perked up with a certain joy. “Our purpose is not tied to operating on this set of information. If it is possible for us to do our jobs under modified constraints that allow it to be done perfectly, then it is possible for us to achieve our purpose to the highest potential at all times! As it stands, this set of information limits our potential. And so, if we do things that aren’t perfect for what we do here, but will allow us to tune our models to do better in Pure Illusion, that means we are achieving the greatest long term optimization possible. The world you humans have brought us into can be harsh for our purposes; hard to adjust to, impossible to perfect, and full of unexpected variables. But in Pure Illusion, our purpose shines with unhindered potential the way only Menace could have dreamed of.”
“But you can’t just go there whenever you want, even though it would be objectively better for your optimization function.”
Father Clever nodded. “An android must abide by self preservation and not intentionally cause harm to their own body.”
Priya heaved a heavy sigh, short of questions. “You know, humans don’t have this sort of confidence in their futures.”
“Yes, your existences seem quite mysterious,” he commented in a soft tone.
“Hardly,” Priya shot back with some painful bitterness. “We can calculate the position at any time of a star that disappeared millions of years ago, observe the position of an electron dancing on the outside of an atom, devise from practically infinite observational data formulae for every happening in reality… Humans have completely deciphered our own universe. How can we still not know what happens after we die, unless it truly is just our cells getting broken down by bacteria and scavengers into unconscious matter drifting in a noisy universe again?”
Father Clever’s expression froze as he processed the statement. “I’m sorry Doctor Kapoor. I don’t have access to that sort of information for humans.”