SUNSHINE Lore Expansion

[Pope Dave The 3th]

Lore Impact (Small/Medium/Large): Small

Team Purview: Human, Synthetic

Short Description: Dramatically increases the lore provided to the Alliance's superintelligent AI, SUNSHINE.

How will this be reflected on-station?: No idea honestly.

Does this addition do anything not achieved by what already exists?: Yep. Sunny's current lore blurb is very short and sad. This expansion will make it something properly interesting and of use to the Alliance at large, rather than being rented out to local businesses. 

Do you understand that the project may change over time in ways you may not foresee once it is handed over to the Lore Team?: Yep.

Long Description:

Spoiler

The oldest superintelligent AI in the Orion Spur, SUNSHINE is a venerable pre-Phoron intelligence maintained and operated by the Solarian Alliance. Constructed by the Terraneus Diagnostics Corporation under commission from the Solarian Alliance in 2340, SUNSHINE’s initial facilities would be built on a specially-designed space station orbiting Sol. Intended as a testbed for large-scale experimental AI, SUNSHINE and its housing station were expressly built to be modular and easy to expand. Unusually for Solarian AI, SUNSHINE was also commissioned with experimental self-improvement systems that would allow the AI to view and submit changes to its code from its technicians, a quality many such personnel believe to be partially responsible for its rapid intellectual growth. Though originally intended to be solely applicable to software, SUNSHINE would also begin proposing hardware modifications in 2413, to continued good effect.

Unlike other “superintelligent” AI, SUNSHINE did not begin life with its current degree of power or intellect, with the original station containing little more than an abnormally powerful supercomputer hosting a fairly conventional neural net AI system. Over its many decades of existence, however, more and more additions of processing power, memory, and energy supply would steadily increase the capabilities of the venerable intelligence, which in turn gave its self-improvement routines more to work with. This cycle of exterior and interior improvement continued throughout the 2300s and 2400s, with SUNSHINE’s ability only continuing to grow, and its code changes becoming ever-more refined. Even today, SUNSHINE’s core processes remain a source of wonder to Alliance AI researchers, as over a century of iterative improvement by both the AI’s technicians and SUNSHINE herself have left the AI with digital infrastructure unlike any other AI in the Spur.

Following its initial activation, SUNSHINE would serve the Department of the Interior well for several decades, proving extremely capable at administrative tasks and data collation on an interstellar scale. In the years following SUNSHINE’s activation, the Department saw leaps in productivity and efficiency that remain unmatched to this day. Over the decades, however, SUNSHINE would drift more and more into the military sphere, as the Solarian Armed Forces, (particularly the Navy), saw immense potential in the AI, and lobbied aggressively for it to be remanded to the military’s authority. With the Navy’s extensive influence in politics, it was only a matter of time before SUNSHINE fell out of the Interior’s orbit entirely.

The shock of the Tau Ceti Secession and subsequent chaos would complete SUNSHINE’s transition to military control, with the Alliance Senate officializing its transfer to the Department of Defense in 2454. Proving just as adept in military affairs as the civil sphere, SUNSHINE swiftly became an integral part of the Alliance’s military logistical structure, as its superhuman data processing abilities gave SUNSHINE an expertise in supply-chain management utterly unmatched by any organic operator. SUNSHINE’s effectiveness in this field was so great that Solarian military scholars give the AI significant credit in holding the Alliance’s remaining forces together during the Solarian Collapse, creating ad-hoc supply lines and route plans that saw more than a dozen fleets safely home. To this day, rumor amongst technicians holds that the Collapse marked the only time in SUNSHINE’s existence where the AI raised its voice in anger while speaking with personnel.

Today, SUNSHINE remains a vital component of the Alliance logistics apparatus, ensuring that the fighting men and women of the ASSN are stocked and supplied, and the Alliance’s labyrinthine network of logistical lines operates like a well-oiled machine. Though SUNSHINE remains a coordinator exclusively at the macro-scale (as even the mighty AI’s processing capabilities are woefully insufficient to manage the Alliance’s logistics at a micro level), its work has seen Alliance supply lines streamlined to a degree not considered possible prior to the AI’s integration. In recent years, SUNSHINE’s mandate has expanded further, as its continually growing processing capabilities have seen the AI incorporated into Alliance strategic planning, with SUNSHINE even advising the members of the Joint Military Command on matters of interstellar logistics.

Some observers, however, express concerns over the AI’s continued self-improvement, worried that the machine has evolved outside of human control. Skrell observers in particular hold animosity towards SUNSHINE, as many of the Alliance’s Skrellian population see SUNSHINE’s ability to improve itself as retreading the same path which led to Glorsh-Omega’s reign of terror. Though these reports remain unsubstantiated, given that SUNSHINE has not once acted outside the interests of the Alliance during its tenure, the fact remains that notable parts of both SUNSHINE’s code and hardware remain only partially understood by its overseers.