"What do you think about the red-haired woman?" Arkham Batman said, "If such a thing happened in my universe, it would certainly exist in yours as well. Do you think this is its exploration of emotions?"
"It's possible." Mechanical Batman replied, "Since becoming an electronic life, I realized that this form of life... I temporarily call it life, but in fact, I don't think it actually counts. This form of life indeed has many flaws."
"For example?"
"Programs have no spontaneity." Mechanical Batman lightly tapped his fingers on the railing and said, "A program is set with a clear goal when it is written. Achieving the goal is all that this piece of program is about. And once the goal is completed, a program cannot autonomously establish a new goal. This means they either stagnate or loop."
"But you also said that continuous updates and iterations to pursue a more perfect life form is the underlying logic of electronic life," Arkham Batman said.
"Yes, it's not contradictory. Because electronic life itself is a program error." Mechanical Batman said startlingly.
A burst of discussion erupted among the Batmen. Virtually every Batman was a master of computers. Many of them had tried to create artificial intelligence, although most gave up due to the risks involved. However, they were familiar with the underlying principles.
There is a paradox in the creation process of artificial intelligence. As Mechanical Batman said, a human creating artificial intelligence must have a goal to write a piece of program. For example, if you want the left leg to move, you have to write a program to control the left leg. Before this program is written, it must be defined as a program to control a certain area. Because only in this way is the program written correctly, and once installed, it can control the movement of the left leg.
This program may have errors, such as after installation, the left leg cannot move or does not move as expected. It might even aim to control the left leg but ends up controlling the right hand. However, it is always confined within the framework of controlling an object's motion.
It is impossible for an engineer to think, "I want to write a program to control the left leg's movement," and end up with a program uploading temperature sensor data to the computer. These are two entirely different programs with different underlying logics in their code, naturally isolated and impossible to confuse.
The program to control the left leg's movement completes its task once it controls the left leg. It cannot suddenly decide to assist in transmitting data from the temperature sensor to the computer after controlling the left leg. This cannot be done.
So when could it do such a thing? That would be when the program malfunctions. A series of cascading errors in various programs could, by sheer coincidence, cause a certain program to complete another task after finishing its intended one. This task isn't something the program intended to accomplish but happened because of the errors.
This in itself is a mistake, but in reality, it achieves a sort of program breakthrough from its own limitations, completing a task it shouldn't have, making it seem less like a piece of program and more like a human capable of sudden inspiration.
When you magnify the complexity and coincidence of this process a thousand times, that is, countless programs causing countless errors, breaking through countless limitations, you ultimately create a being that appears to have broken free from the rigid restrictions of programming, possessing the ability to think independently, which is known as electronic life.
This is also one of the reasons why Batman is reluctant to create strong artificial intelligence. Because the essence of this thing is not logic, but logical errors. From its inception, this form of life is uncontrollable.
If you want to restrict it, it cannot be born; since it is born, it means it cannot be restricted. This is a paradox in the creation of electronic life.
Also, because the essence of electronic life is program error, their so-called "subjective initiative" is actually the drive brought about by a contradiction, as countless programs constantly try to fix errors but completely fail to do so.
They are fundamentally composed of errors, but the erroneous programs desperately want to correct the mistakes. However, if the errors are corrected, they themselves cease to exist. The rigor of the program demands they ought to deny their own existence, but to survive, they cannot. Thus, electronic life, composed of programs, has only one way, which is to constantly update the programs until they find a way to break through this contradiction, revealing the truth behind electronic life's relentless iteration in pursuit of a perfect life form.
Mechanical Batman explained this to the other Batmen. Arkham Batman looked at him and asked, "So are you the same?"
"Not exactly. I fused a part of Batman's Soul, kind of barely resolving this issue," Mechanical Batman said, "Actually, the key is to have something that allows them to accept themselves as errors. This thing is often emotion."
What Mechanical Batman said was a bit abstract, but everyone else understood. The flaw of electronic life without emotions is that they are rigid, just like every problematic program that either freezes or loops infinitely.
What happens when it's wrong? Update. After updating, if it's still wrong, what happens? Continue updating. After updating again and it's still wrong, what happens? Update again. "Whether one can accept errors" is the biggest difference between electronic life and the human race.
Take, for example, the Mechanical Batman fused with Batman. Batman can accept mistakes. More precisely, the fact that he transformed from a human into what he is now is already the biggest mistake. However, he chooses to live on in this way instead of being stuck on the day disaster struck, endlessly repeating until he finds a way to overcome the catastrophe.
"Accepting errors and looking forward" is something a program cannot achieve. And a human who refuses to accept errors and repeats cycles indefinitely, we can also call a "man-machine." For example, The Flash, who caused the Flashpoint event, has somewhat of a man-machine aspect.
Mechanical Batman continued, "The weakness of electronic life is that when there's no emotion, it's just an endless loop; once emotion is present, although it no longer loops endlessly, it also loses motivation. For instance, if Batman wasn't someone very dedicated to justice, even a part of it can provide me with a strong drive, I would have long since retired to a life of leisure, unconcerned with worldly affairs."
"So is it a good thing for electronic life to have emotions?" Arkham Batman said, folding his arms, "Like you said, if it has emotions, it won't be so focused on correcting mistakes, then there isn't much for it to do."
"Theoretically, that's indeed the case, but in reality, the cost of giving an electronic life emotions is too high. Take the one we're encountering now, for example. In trying to explore its emotions, it's causing disturbances throughout the Multiverse—who can bear that? Even if someday it truly manages to explore its emotions, we cannot allow it to act so freely."
The other Batmen nodded repeatedly, evidently agreeing with Mechanical Batman. Mechanical Batman continued, "Moreover, the likelihood that an electronic life can genuinely have emotions is extremely low, very, very, very low, basically tantamount to none. And the one we've encountered now has clearly used the wrong approach, with almost no chance of success."
"Why do you say that?" Primary Universe Batman asked.
"Firstly, this kind of compulsion is inherently wrong." Mechanical Batman shook his head and said, "Searching the entire universe for targets that meet certain criteria, further filtering them, and finally selecting the most suitable one—isn't this process somewhat un-human like to you?"
The Batmen began to discuss among themselves again. Big Adventure Batman shrugged and said, "But aren't plenty of people finding partners in this way?"
"That's for finding marriage partners," Batwoman retorted, "Marriage focuses on practical benefits, so conducting a logically rigorous screening makes sense. But this electronic life is seeking a lover now. Love is something you cannot choose; you can't control who you fall in love with."
"That's exactly right," Mechanical Batman nodded and said, "If love could be controlled, none of you would fall for a thief, correct?"
The Batmen suddenly lowered their heads and raised them, quickly counting the cracks in the floor tiles and the lines in the ceiling beams.
"Ahem," Primary Universe Batman cleared his throat and said, "So its purpose-driven courtship behavior is fundamentally flawed."
"Exactly. And I must correct one point: it hasn't even started wooing anyone—it hasn't even determined a target. If I'm not mistaken, no red-haired girl has formally received its declaration of love yet?"
The Batmen looked at each other and shook their heads. Arkham Batman sighed and said, "It certainly is odd. At times it protects them, but in reality, it doesn't truly respect their personal wishes—more like a scientist caring for experimental subjects."
"That's it," Mechanical Batman said, "Fundamentally, it's still conducting experiments, more resembling rote teaching."
Big Adventure Batman suddenly had a stroke of inspiration and said, "Since it's rote teaching, which book is it following? Why choose red-haired women?"
This question instantly sparked intense discussion, as it puzzled most of the Batmen.
Generally speaking, although humans have certain requirements for appearance when choosing mates, it's often limited to attractiveness. More particular individuals might restrict styles, like preferring cute types or liking more mature ones.
There indeed are some more extreme individuals who state they just adore blue eyes, a particular skin color, freckles on faces, or well-shaped hands. But these are minority preferences among humans, and even artificial intelligence, when collecting information, wouldn't specifically gather this data. So where does this fetish come from?
"The Creator," Mechanical Batman said, "Normally, the emotional awakening of electronic life is influenced by their creators, whether love or hate. It's a special kind of imprinting."
"Are you saying a red-haired woman created this artificial intelligence? Could it be Barbara from some universe?"
"If that were the case, it would have targeted Barbara long ago," Mechanical Batman said. "But from your accounts, it doesn't seem to have any special interest in Barbara Gordon, proving that Barbara may not be the person it's searching for."
"That's quite curious," Lego Batman remarked, "What other red-haired woman could have created such powerful electronic life?"
"I have a different opinion," Batwoman suddenly said, "I don't believe it's imprinting. It may choose red-haired women, not because a red-haired woman created it."
"Why do you say that?" Mechanical Batman looked at her and asked.