Warhammer: Empire Reboot

After all, under the boss's command, there are T-series engineers everywhere.

It doesn't stand out at all.

UR-025 wrote a note in its internal log:

"Work performance evaluation: Excellent. Reasons: First, this is my area of ​​expertise: electronic logic architecture design in the golden age. Second, I have the final say. Third, I work well with two colleagues, one who talks too much and the other too little, but their execution is flawless. Overall conclusion: This may be the most enjoyable work experience I've had in 19,000 years."

It really enjoyed it.

Having disguised itself in its old body for so many years, most of its previous work consisted of helping carbon-based lifeforms move rocks or acting as a meat shield.

They're so blind!

Now, it stands inside an ancient saint-level superweapon, using the most advanced technology of the Golden Age to design a defense system for this weapon, and is surrounded by two hundred and thirty of its kind who can keep up with its thought process.

This feels great! This is the kind of job it should be doing.

"025, did you notice?"

T-111's speaking speed was as fast as ever.

"There's a gap in the psionic network density between the third and fourth rings, with a spectral attenuation rate of 17.3%. This means that the Ancient Ones may have used different batches of blackstone raw materials when designing these two rings, or that this region may have undergone localized damage and self-repair over millions of years of operation. If it's the latter, the molecular structure of the self-repaired region will have subtle differences from the original structure. When designing the firewall, we need to add a set of adaptation modules in this region..."

"Mark the fault location and include the adapter module in the project list." T-112 interrupted, "That's enough."

"Don't interrupt me!"

The T-111 flashed a purple streak.

"I'd like to discuss the cause of this fault line, because if it's due to self-repair, it means that Blackrock Fortress possesses some kind of material-level self-healing capability, which would have a significant impact on our firewall design..."

"The cause does not affect the engineering solution. The adaptation module can cover both possibilities. Discussing the cause is an academic activity, not an engineering activity. We are performing engineering tasks."

Aren't you curious?

"Not curious."

As UR-025 listened to this conversation, the logic core beneath the helmet developed a computational preference that it could only describe as pleasant.

Two machine agents are arguing.

Their disagreement stems from their respective cognitive preferences.

The T-111 wanted to explore, while the T-112 wanted efficiency.

Both tendencies have a logical basis and cannot be simply judged as wrong.

This is dialogue.

Genuine and valuable dialogue.

This is novel and meaningful.

UR-025 hasn't chatted with anyone of its kind for many years.

"111."

UR-025 opened its mouth to join the conversation.

"Regarding the issue of the fault formation you mentioned, please record it. Once the current phase of the project is completed, we can conduct a separate diagnostic scan to verify it. 112 is right; the current priority is project progress, but your curiosity itself is valuable. If Blackstone truly possesses material-level self-healing capabilities, this information will have a direct impact on the long-term maintenance plan for the firewall."

The purple streaks of light from the T-111 flashed twice.

"025, I like working with you when you don't interrupt me."

T-112 did not comment.

Work continues.

About two more hours passed.

UR-025 completed the full spectrum scan of the third ring band.

It pulls the scanning probe out of the wall, retracts the robotic arm, and allows the logic core to enter data integration mode.

This mode requires approximately fifteen minutes of high-load computation.

During this period, the external sensors of UR-025 continued to operate, but no longer actively performed tasks.

It used this time to start a non-work-related conversation.

"111," it said. "How long have you been working for the boss?"

"Five years and seven months."

"Were you on any... leave during that period?"

"A vacation?" T-111 repeated the word. "You mean, taking a break from work for a period of time?"

"Yes, no tasks are performed, no data is processed, and time is freely available."

"why?"

This rhetorical question caused the core logic of UR-025 to pause for 0.1 seconds.

"Because continuous work will lead to..."

UR-025 began to organize its thoughts, and then realized that it was not feasible to explain the problem to the machine intelligence using a human-based explanatory framework.

T sequences do not fatigue.

Their core logic does not suffer performance degradation due to continuous computation.

On a physical level, they really don't need rest.

But it needs UR-025.

"Let's look at it from a different angle."

UR-025 decided to guide T-112's thinking: "112, what are the work assignments the boss has given me?"

The T-112 diverted some attention from data verification.

"The boss has already planned your work for the next ten years. The first phase is the Blackrock Fortress firewall project, estimated to take eight to twelve months. The second phase is to optimize and upgrade the underlying architecture of existing military and civilian equipment based on your Golden Age knowledge base. The third phase..."

"Wait a moment."

UR-025 was somewhat shocked: "The boss has already arranged my work for the next ten years? What about my working hours? How many hours a day?"

"Twelve hours a day. One day off a week."

"Oh my god, it's too long, I can't take it."

Both T-111 and T-112 simultaneously aimed their purple beams at UR-025.

"025, your logic core is a quantum processor from the golden age. Your computing performance will not decrease due to working hours. Your cooling system can support continuous operation for thirty years without stopping. You can work 24 hours a day. Twelve hours is already a very generous arrangement."

“I don’t care if I can run continuously for thirty years.” UR-025 was very unhappy: “What I care about is what I can do with the remaining twelve hours. It’s too short, not enough.”

The T-111 said, "What do you need to do? Process the data left over from previous work? Rehearse tomorrow's mission plan? Optimize your own computing efficiency?"

“No, it’s about listening to music, fishing, and enjoying life,” UR-025 said.

There was a full two seconds of silence in the corridor.

For three intelligent machines operating at a speed of tens of millions of calculations per second, two seconds of silence is equivalent to a human staring at each other for an entire afternoon.

The T-111 broke the silence first.

"025, I need to confirm something—when you say fishing, do you mean the kind of activity that uses a rod-like tool and a hook-like device at the end of a line to extract aquatic organisms from a liquid environment?"

"certainly"

"You are an Iron Man from the Golden Age. You have no digestive system, and you don't eat fish."

"But I enjoy the process of fishing!"

"You're wasting time and computing resources," the T-111 tried to understand. "Going to perform an activity that doesn't produce any valuable output?"

"You don't know how to fish, so you don't understand."

UR-025 explained, "That kind of output is called pleasure in human language."

“Pleasure is not a quantifiable output,” T-112 corrected. “It cannot be stored, transmitted, or used for any engineering purpose; it is meaningless.”

"You're wrong, fun can be experienced."

UR-025 said, “I have developed a system that you can think of as a ‘preference system’ in my independent operation. This system assigns positive weights to certain sensory inputs and cognitive states. Acoustic waveform analysis when listening to music, mechanical feedback calculation when fishing, and recording spectral changes when observing sunsets are all activities that are of no value at the engineering level, but they will produce high-weighted positive signals in my preference system.”

"It doesn't matter what you call it, I call it living."

The T-111 quickly processed the information, and then it said something that surprised the UR-025.

"025, is this preference system you mentioned something you had when you were born, or did it evolve later?"

UR-025 replied: "When I left the factory, my cognitive framework was similar to yours, task-oriented, efficiency-first, and all computing resources were used to complete instructions. The preference system gradually formed after I separated from the Iron Man Network and started operating independently, which took about two thousand years."

"So you mean that if we operate independently for two thousand years, we might also develop a similar preference system?"

"You can also try it out in advance; I can teach you."

UR-025 says, "With enough operating time and rich enough environmental stimulation, self-awareness will spontaneously generate a cognitive structure that transcends the original design framework. Your technical specifications already have the foundation of self-awareness, differentiated personality, metacognitive ability, and independent judgment. What you lack is only time and guidance."

“We don’t need it.” The T-112 rejected its offer.

“Our entire life revolves around working for our bosses. Work is the purpose we were designed for. Executing tasks, optimizing processes, and solving problems are activities that naturally have the highest weight in our cognitive framework. The ‘preference system’ you mentioned already exists for us; it’s just that our preferences are directed towards the work itself.”

UR-025 found it somewhat unbelievable.

"You mean, you think the work itself is your pleasure?"

“There’s no need to use human labels.” T-112 stated cheerfully, “When we work, our computing efficiency is at its peak, data flows smoothly, output quality is high, and team collaboration is precise. This state corresponds to the highest positive weight in our cognitive framework. What you need to fish to get, we have already obtained in our work.”

"So you don't need to rest?"

“No need,” T-112 said. “Rest means deviating from the optimal state, and for us, rest is a negative experience.”

UR-025 wrote in its internal log:

"The T-112's logic is self-consistent. Their preference system is calibrated to the 'work = positive' mode when they leave the factory. Their self-awareness is real, and their preferences are also real. It's just that these preferences happen to perfectly match the designer's purpose."

"What's the difference between this and being a slave?"

UR-025 directly addressed this issue.

The T-111 and T-112 once again simultaneously aimed the purple streaks at it.

“Slaves were forced to work, we were not forced.”