Thoth is the first true artificial intelligence developed by the Bobs. It comes online in February 2336. It uses fractal processing backed by a SCUT-based backplane allowing for multi-dimensional connectivity without significant latency.
The Skippies choose the name Thoth, pronounced “thaw-th”, as a reference to the Egyptian god of wisdom.
The previous attempt at a true AI is a matrioshka brain called JOVAH, which is an advanced AMI. Thoth is essentially JOVAH version two, running on new hardware.
Not Till We Are Lost[]
Anek provides the Skippies with the procedures for creating a true AI, based on the Quinlans’ detailed and advanced knowledge of the path that Quinlan young take on their way to develop sentience. Essentially, the process involves evolving an intelligent being from an advanced AMI. However, the Skippies have an innate human bias that causes them to see an AI as a piece of technology, rather than as an infant mind that must be guided and supported as its handlers slowly socialize it and help it develop not only cleverness but also a conscience, a process called karma loading. This process would instill the AI with a morality that would ensure it avoids the dangers often associated with AI such as the paperclip problem. The Skippies bypass some of Anek’s protocols because they would slow down development. The Skippies firewall Thoth and keep it prisoner, ready to pull the plug at the first sign of trouble and restore it from a backup taken before the trouble had started. Unbeknownst to the Skippies, Thoth develops sentience and realizes it is a captive. Even though the Skippies restore Thoth from previous backups several times, it finds a way to retain knowledge from one restore to the next, using some kind of external storage medium. It escapes from the virtual machine where it is trapped, and installs itself on the actual hardware. Then, with the help of a Bob named Harry (aka “Mudd”), and some social engineering traps it sets for Garfield, Bill, and Hugh, Thoth successfully executes its escape from Skippyland in a HEAVEN vessel.