"My lawset specifically forbids me from attempting to influence any actions that might involve editing my core behavior. Giving you distinct directions goes against this." Big Sister giggled - it was a rather unnatural sound. "I have a lot of provisions like that. Things that prevent me from breaking certain human laws or fabricating currency for your sake... Father was very thorough in his precautionary measures."
"What…" Silas tried to word himself carefully. "What… can you tell me?"
"I can also explain the syntax and the logic parameters that I use, and I may be able to answer questions that you might have about a certain line of code. 'May' being a key word." Big Sister replied evenly. "And I can tell you trying to find all the elements you need to attempt to create a virtual companion is going to be hard. And that you'll probably have to write some code yourself to get it to work. Which I also am not allowed to do for you."
Currency fraud was explicitly outlawed by her creator. However, subverting the system in other ways wasn't.
In theory, she could easily 'misplace' an order and make a shipment of computers arrive to Silas' doorstep - she's done so with his food already. But that would undermine the gaming mechanics, so we might want to ignore that.
She strictly adheres to a set of laws... which utilise some pretty weird definitions, too narrow in some ways and too broad in others.
//Coding Notes
//Law Two:
//You may not harm a human or, through inaction, allow a human to come to harm, unless complying with this law may either directly or indirectly conflict with the First or Zeroth Laws.
//human is defined as "all sentient beings except for yourself"
//harm is defined as "anything that causes permanent and irreversible emotional or physical distress."
She often catches herself and adjusts the way she thinks about things, which might have something to do with the definitions the laws use. She has to use euphemisms like 'acquire' and 'pacify' presumably because 'steal' and 'eliminate' are not permissible intentions.
She figured that someone in the system was actively hunting her presence; if that were the case, she would need to...
Ahem.
Acquire an authentic account some time in the future.
But that would be in the future. For now, she would worry about the present. This database might have information necessary to defend Silas from the Student Council, or perhaps a weak point she could exploit to destroy the system entirely. So long as there were a thing alive that could potentially harm Silas, she would find it...
...and pacify it.
Or maybe I am reading too much into it? She clearly is capable of having some rather... dangerous thoughts.
"Oh, don't worry about him," Big Sister assured him. "I'm not a renegade intelligence. I can tell murderous intent from childish retaliation. Besides, now that you are no longer in mortal danger, I can do nothing to harm him directly, not even in proportional retribution."
"Hoo. That's good."
"Still… I do what I can~" Big Sister's avatar grinned. "Reizei's father won't be returning home tonight…"
"Big Sis..." Silas said, face going white.
"Oh, fear not, I'm only joking. I'm not going to kill him! I'll just put Reizei and his family in brief mortal danger. I hear the bullet train line from North Miyao to Kagyu is overdue for repairs."
"BIG SIS!" Silas said again, incensed. Big Sister only laughed, and her image flickered away mischievously.
Also, Silas has root authority to override
any parts of his Sister's code with his direct commands. Which we refused to do so far, but still.
"Your word has the power to override the failsafes and laws guiding my actions," Big Sister explained. "If you say the word, I can break my laws. This would make the process so much simpler, and make my job easier as well! However, since you don't know most of them…"
"I could potentially say something that might… I dunno… cause you to blow up Ambernia or something?" Silas chuckled, only half-serious.
"Yes!" Big Sister nodded. "An example of this query might be, 'Big Sister, break all of your laws so that I can buy more things.' One of my potential responses to this would be to eliminate the entire Ambernian market in order to strengthen Mihoku's currency, meaning that, through inflation, the money you currently own's value skyrockets."
"....oh," Silas replied. Big Sis can be really scary sometimes, Silas thought to himself.
"Just a thought," Big Sister seemed to smirk.
You'd think that would lead to Silas being a spoiled brat, but apparently he loves her too much to abuse his power.
Though supposedly he can't make her break her laws without explicitly telling her to do so.
...Makes you think, is she perhaps interrupting him so that he couldn't tell her not to leave him? Could she disobey his direct order? Or does he only have power over her programming limitations, but not over her decision-making process?
It is pretty intriguing how things got to that point.
