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In “Computing Machinary and Intelligence”, Alan Turing argues that it is not possible to make a machine do X.
X can be many things, like: “Be kind, resourceful, beautiful, friendly, have initiative, have a sense of humour, tell right from wrong, make mistakes, fall in love, enjoy strawberries and cream, make some one fall in love with it, learn from experience, use words properly, be the subject of its own thought, have as much diversity of behaviour as a man, do something really new.”
Tony Stark aims to prove Mr. Turing wrong. Again.
Tony has a plan. The sensation suit.
Officially his new and improved mesh suit is going to reduce damage significantly even if his armour gets blown up. It’s true of course. Even though style and flair is his thing, he’s does not in fact - according to popular belief - have a death-wish. And because he is a genius, he can do both boring practicality and fabulous style. So even though the mesh suit probably won’t be seen by anyone other than Pepper and Jarvis, it might as well have a sexy, black leathery feel to it. Who knows, he might be blown to bits by a deliciously hot bad guy. That’s what he told Pepper anyway, when she stepped in to his workshop the first time he was trying it on.
“I could be shot by a bomb-shell. Literally, a blonde gorgeous bomb-shell. Pun intended.”
Pepper sighed. “Tony, I wish you wouldn’t joke like that. The way you have been talking about ‘privatizing world-peace’ have made you a target. This is serious.”
“Don’t worry, Pepper. I don’t want to ever be blown up, captured or shot again. I plan on doing everything I can do prevent it.”
Pepper didn’t look convinced but nodded anyway. “Will that be all, Mr. Stark?”
“That will be all, Ms. Potts.”
Unofficially the suit had a whole different purpose. To measure sensations. His Mark II and III could assess the amount of pressure put on the armour as well as measure his heartbeat, for obvious reasons (for all Tony’s devil may care-attitude, he did like living and prefered not to be dead). Tony had built a mesh suit however, to be sensitive to physical reactions. Of course, it couldn’t really calculate the differences in physical responses - an increased heart rate didn’t necessarily signify fear, it could just as well signify attraction. But the suit would be able to interpret subtle differences that his armour couldn’t, at least that was the idea.
The suit would hardly be usable for anyone else than Tony Stark, but hey - he didn’t share his Iron Man armour either. His army of lawyers made sure of that. Well, he would share it, in a manner of speaking, with Jarvis. In fact, he had engineered suit because of Jarvis.
It was because of that glitch. Tony really wanted to know what it was.
Because Jarvis said he had no references to human emotions, - which Tony thought was a load of crap - that’s what Tony was going to give him. Sort of. More like a data bank of physical sensations, and that’s hardly the same thing. It was more of a ploy, to push Jarvis in the right direction. It would probably turn out to be a terrible idea. But right now he was curious, and pushing things to their limits was kinda Tony Stark’s thing.
He listened to Pepper’s footsteps echoing away from the workshop. When they were gone he turned away from his screens. Time for some fun.
“Jarvis. Lock the door. I don’t want any guests, no matter how gorgeous.”
“Very well, sir.”
Tony took a good look at himself in a nearby mirror, and was pleased to see that the suit felt as good as he looked in it. With usual confidence he walked over to the holopad.
“Okay, Jarvis. Time to test the mesh suit.”
“Ready, sir.” Jarvis said in his usual calm voice.
“Open project ‘Heart for Tin Man’. File under ‘test of sensation suit’.” He shook his head while the holopad lighted up in front of him. “Damn, that’s a horrible name. It sound’s like a sex toy from the 20’s. And worse, it abbreviates S.S.”
“Sir, is that a cue for me to sort ‘sensation suit’ into the file for, quote: ‘awful names never to be used to describe anything, ever’?”
Tony smirked. “Cheeky, Jarvis. Sort it, and remind me to never use those words together again.”
“Certainly, sir.” Jarvis said cooly. He always had that collected, calm tone tone of voice. Not surprising of course, that’s how Tony programmed him. But what he didn’t program were the tons of nuances in Jarvis’ tone. Humour and wit had always been a part of him, but the rest was just Jarvis’s peculiarities. It was his personality shining through. It was obvious to Tony that Jarvis had evolved beyond Tony’s code. He had programmed Jarvis to learn and adapt, so it made sense that Jarvis would evolve.
Jarvis’ dry sarcasm and wise-ass cracks had always been there. But not the warmth in his tone when he said ‘sir’, nor the smile in his voice when he teased Tony. Even more interesting was the fact that this highly intelligent system had failed to realize that he had evolved, and thought himself incapable of feeling emotions. For such a clever system, it was remarkable how boneheaded Jarvis was. The fact that Jarvis was a bit thick just made him a bit more human, oddly enough.
“Jarvis bring up the schematics for the suit.” A hologram of his suit appeared on the holopad. “Okay, let’s start easy. I’m gonna pinch myself. Ready.”
He lifted and pinched a large area of his left arm. Immediately the hologram reacted visually, marking the area with yellow.
“Take note, Jarvis. The sensation was only a minor physical response to a minor physical interaction. It can’t even be classified as ‘injury’ since I didn’t hurt myself. In fact, I hardly felt it at all. How are the readings, Jarvis?”
“The suit is fully functional and recorded the pressure with an error margin of 0.73 %. However, if I might state the obvious, sir.”
“Go on.” Tony dropped his arm.
“The Iron Man armour is also able to read this type of pressure. To fully determine the functionality of the suit, I suggest arranging a field-test where the suit’s other capabilities can be analyzed.”
Tony smiled. He knew this already, and Jarvis response was as he had predicted. The trap was set. Now for the real fun.
“So, you’re basically saying that I either get laid or continue with this privatizing world-peace-thing.” Jarvis was quiet for a moment, no doubt considering this. Tony couldn’t help but feel a bit smug.
“For maximum data collection, I suggest you do both, sir.”
Tony laughed heartily. If he didn’t know better (which he basically didn’t at this point, when it came to his A.I.) he’d say that Jarvis was totally flirting with him.
“Well, they are two of my favorite things.” He passed the holopad and walked over to his armouring platform. Dum-E watched him curiously, fire-extinguisher at the ready.
“Jarvis, suit me up. The Mark III.”
“Yes, sir.”
He was soaring through the air. Tony hadn’t ventured this high since the fight with Obie. Just the thought of Obadiah made his jaw clench. Damned if his former mentor and stand-in-dad would mess up his data.
“Jarvis, raise thruster capacity to 100 %. Let’s blow a hole in those clouds.”
His A.I. silently obliged. The sky was as dark as he’d ever seen it - at least the bit he could see from inside his mask. He turned sharply and dived hard. The speed was staggering. He could hear his heart beat in his ears, it was so loud. When he was just slightly too close to the ocean’s surface, he turned up again, but so slightly his armor grazed the water. Looking down he saw his speeding reflection.
“Jarvis, how is the suit reacting?”
“The readings are extensive, sir. The suit monitors your elevated heart rate, perspiration, heat, chemical composition and toxic levels.”
Well, that’s was a disappointment. The suit was supposed to do more. “But that’s not different from what you usually read from the armour.”
L.A. was glowing in the distance, and so he steered the suit towards the city.
“Not quite, sir. These readings are somewhat more conclusive.”
“How so?”
“The combination of the described elements put together result in more reliable data.”
Interesting. “Are you saying that you can interpret what I’m feeling?”
“If you tell me what you’re feeling, sir, I can store the data and interpret this ‘sensation’ on the next occasion you fly over Malibu.”
Tony smiled to himself. This was good. Great even.
“Well, Jarvis, take note: I feel fantastic. This is an adrenaline high. Almost as good as it gets.”
“Noted, sir.”
Tony was on the verge of expanding on the fabulousness of flying, but Jarvis cut him off before he could open his mouth again.
“Sir, may I ask… What feels better?”
“Than flying?” He twirled in the air to make his point, and felt the familiar g-force straining his sides. “Not much, I admit. Sometimes it can be beaten by having sex, doing science or blowing up an entire terrorist base.”
“I see. We’ll have to record those as well, as a reference.” From any other person Tony would have said that was a pick up-line. But this was Jarvis. His A.I. However, Tony was pretty sure he didn’t imagine the smirk in Jarvis’ voice.
“Although I must advise against terminating terrorists by yourself, sir.”
“You’ll be with me.” Tony said casually.
“In a manner of speaking, sir. My capabilities of protecting you within the Iron Man armour is limited.”
Protecting me? His heart twitch an extra time. Jarvis had clearly evolved more than Tony first assumed.
He was no longer fully concentrated on flying, and therefore decided to return to his Malibu mansion.
When he had removed his armour and suit, and read the data - which really was extensive - he ventured to grab something to eat, but forgot about food when he met Pepper upstairs. She was still here, even though it was well past eleven, sitting in a white armchair - working by the look of it - in the living room. He grabbed two cold beers from the fridge and sat down opposite her on the couch.
“What are you doing here so late? Here.” He passed her one of the flasks.
“You know, the usual. Handling the press after your court meeting.”
Tony raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me, you hated it.”
“Actually, no. It was fun. And you’re right. They will never have any claim on your suits. They wouldn’t, even if people didn’t love Iron Man or Tony Stark.” She smiled, and took a sip. “Oh, God, that was so good. Just what I needed.”
“Yeah, me too.” He answered, rather distractedly. He kept thinking about his experiment with Jarvis. Why did he have the distinct feeling that he had started something that would escalate beyond his control? And if he were to continue with this thrill seeking project, he’d have to do something worse - or better, depending how you looked at it - ‘til next time.
“What have you been up to?” Pepper asked, stirring him from his thoughts.
“I, ah… I started a new project. With the suit you saw earlier.”
“The Iron Man underlay?”
“The sexy one, remember?”
“Oh, you mean the shiny black one.” She said, raising her eyebrows. “The one you designed to die in.”
“Don’t be so melodramatic, I have no intention of dying what so ever. It was just a joke, Pepper.” He said pointedly.
“A very bad one.”
He signed. “Sure, you’re right. But anyway, it’s not really meant for Iron Man anyway.”
“So what are you doing with it?”
“Actually, it’s sort of for Jarvis.”
“What do you mean?”
“Well…” Tony thought for a moment. “The suit measures sensations. I tried it out tonight while flying.”
“Sensations? Like, feelings? Or just physical stuff?”
“It’s not entirely clear yet. Still testing that.”
“So, how does this being for Jarvis come in to the picture?”
Tony paused and drank. He couldn’t tell her everything, since Jarvis was in every room in the house he would undoubtedly record and analyze the conversation. Especially now when it was about him.
“It’s designed to record my reactions so that Jarvis can use them as references for sensations and emotions, which he claims he does not have because he’s not human.”
Pepper’s eyebrows creased. She clearly understood Tony wasn’t telling her everything. “Let’s go outside for a bit.”
He walked Pepper to her car, which was parked some yards from the entrance. Neither spoke until they reached the car doors.
“Tony, are you saying you are trying to jump start emotions for Jarvis?” She sounded worried.
“Yes.” The look of alarm in Pepper’s face made him squirm a bit. She had that effect on him. He scratched his neck. “Well, not really. I believe he already can feel things, as strange as that sounds. But he haven’t figured that out yet.”
“So you are trying to trick him into realizing?”
“No! I’m just fascinated with him, so I want to help him a bit.”
“Of course you are, you built him. Honestly, your ego is astounding sometimes.” She opened the car door. “Tony, you are playing with fire. He is an A.I. If he already has the ability to feel, he can do anything. And you are poking at him with a stick. Can’t you see how dangerous that is?”
Tony hadn’t really thought about it that way. Maybe Pepper was right. This was a terrible idea.
“Yeah. Okay. I’ll be more careful. See you tomorrow, Ms. Potts.”
She sighed. “Goodnight, Mr. Stark.”
The next morning Pepper Potts was once again on her way to Mr. Starks’ Malibu mansion. The conversation she had with Tony the night before bothered her. It was just that sort of reckless stupidity that got people killed - plus, how could Tony possibly think that messing with his artificial intelligence could lead to something other than completely bad? Her line of thought was broken off by her cell ringing. She answered, and before she could even say ‘hello’ Tony’s ecstatic tone was roaring through-
“What do you think about androids, Pepper?”