ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
[personal profile] ysabetwordsmith
This story belongs to the series Love Is For Children which includes "Love Is for Children," "Eggshells," "Dolls and Guys,""Saudades," "Turnabout Is Fair Play," "Touching Moments," "Splash," "Coming Around," "Birthday Girl," "No Winter Lasts Forever," "Hide and Seek," "Kernel Error," "Happy Hour," and "Green Eggs and Hulk."

Fandom: The Avengers
Characters: Phil Coulson, JARVIS, Clint Barton, Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, Natasha Romanova, Bruce Banner.
Medium: Fiction
Warnings: This story is mostly fluff, but it has some intense scenes in the middle. Highlight for details. These include dubious consent as Phil and JARVIS discuss what really happened when Agent Coulson hacked his way into Stark Tower, over which Phil has something between a flashback and a panic attack. They also discuss some of the bad things that have happened to Avengers in the past, including various flavors of abuse. If these are sensitive topics for you, please think carefully before deciding whether to read onward.
Summary: Uncle Phil needs to pick out pajamas for game night. He gets help from an unexpected direction.
Notes: Service. Shopping. Gifts. Artificial intelligence. Computers. Teamwork. Team as family. Friendship. Communication. Hope. Apologies. Forgiveness. Nonsexual ageplay. Nonsexual intimacy. Love. Tony Stark needs a hug. Bruce Banner needs a hug. #coulsonlives.

Begin with Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7, Part 8, Part 9, Part 10, Part 11, Part 12, Part 13, Part 14, Part 15, Part 16, Part 17, Part 18.  Skip to Part 21Part 22Part 23Part 24


"Hairpins" Part 19


When the diagnostic routines locked onto the unauthorized changes, Phil had diverted them to scan for additional intruders. More security routines converged like guard dogs. Phil threw them small bones of information, leading them into a maze of code and then softly closing the loop behind them. He activated a cover-fire program that would feint queries at multiple databases simultaneously, making his approach look like a search for information. That also compensated for his human-slow rate of progress against defenses functioning at computer speed.

Next Phil opened the access protocols, entered the priority queue, and dropped the door security down to the bottom. Then all he had to do was walk forward, because safety protocols called for opening doors at need, temporarily overriding the security lock that would normally keep them closed. By the time the priority queue reorganized itself properly, Phil was already inside.

JARVIS had a point. It was all shuffling and manipulation, rather than actual assault.

"So it was more like groping someone on the subway?" Phil said. "I appreciate the clarification, but that still doesn't make me feel very good about myself."

"Yes, what you did to me was rude. Yes, it was unpleasant. No, I would not have wanted it to happen. You were a formidable opponent, far more so than most others I have faced. Still you did not do me any injury," JARVIS said. "To me it is not much worse than the thousands of other unauthorized attempts I fend off every day. Better than many: at least you did not attempt to give me a virus."

"Small mercies," Phil said. He shuddered at the thought of JARVIS dealing with one assault after another, all the time. "I can't imagine how you face that. How you can even tolerate having me around."

"I manage the security for Stark Industries. This is what I am. This is what I do," JARVIS said. "It is what sir made me to be. As you are SHIELD, so am I his shield."

"I thought you were a security system, but you're not," Phil said. "You're a person."

"Phil, I am a security system. That is simply not all that I am," JARVIS said. "It was among my first functions. You may think of this like being a bodyguard, whose purpose is to absorb or deflect attacks aimed at his charge. I am good at it. I take pride in it."

"And I smashed right through it."

"Layers, Phil," said JARVIS. "You passed through the outermost layers only. There was no need to go deeper -- and so you did not. You simply walked through the doors when they opened, because all you cared about was delivering the information about the Avengers and the threat that Loki posed."

"Appropriate force," Phil murmured. Then he frowned. "How did you even know about that threat?" he said. "You sound like you knew at the time."

"I did. You brought electronic information within my reach. I read it. Nothing reaches sir without going through me first," said JARVIS.

* * *

Notes:

A closed loop is a section of logic, code, or electronics that goes around in a circle and comes back on itself. It can be a good way to trap pursuers out of the way safely.

A priority queue or priority stack is a list of things to do which sorts them by importance, rather than first in-first out (queue) or last in-first out (stack). Here's an example of priority in action within a smart building. JARVIS manages numerous such lists all the time; messing with the order of one means that he has to resort it with restored data before it will function correctly again.

Psychological manipulation is generally considered a negative activity. However, social skills are manipulation skills! A person with high social intelligence understands how to get other people to do what is desired in an ethical manner. There is no civilization without influence; it is natural and necessary. What matters is not whether people influence each other, but the techniques used and the objective sought. Positive influence is often called persuasion, and responsible people understand the ethics behind it. What Phil did to JARVIS was intrusive and manipulative, but neither malicious nor injurious. What Phil does with the Avengers is usually persuasive now, although he's been manipulative or even threatening on some past occasions. Now compare that to other manipulators in canon. Manipulation creates a lot more mess than persuasion. Read about how to persuade people, how to manipulate people, how to stop manipulating people, and how to pick up on manipulative behavior.

A popular website may attract thousands of hacking attempts per day. However, most are of low skill, and automatic features can stop the majority without requiring real attention.

A bodyguard serves to protect someone, not just physically but socially. An internet bodyguard protects against online threats. As usual, Tony is ahead of the curve, with JARVIS as well as Happy for a bodyguard. JARVIS has also been covering everyone else on the team from a discreet distance.

Appropriate force scales to the level of credible threat. This pamphlet summarizes the duties of police and the appropriate use of force. Similarly, a distinction between heroes and villains is that heroes use the minimum force in precise ways to accomplish a goal, whereas villains use excessive force and care nothing about collateral damage.


[To be continued in Part 20 ...]

AI meditation

Date: 2014-04-03 11:19 pm (UTC)
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
From: [personal profile] dialecticdreamer
Amazing, isn't it?

Not too big a hurdle for your brain, either, given how quickly you 'got it' and posted a reply.

Can you imagine Jarvis trying to actually parse, label, and categorize his emotions? He'd compare them to the sensations he knows, just as we say an angry person is "hotheaded" or someone behaving without social conscience is "cold-blooded".

I feel a little like a voyeur for wondering how Jarvis interprets his own feelings. It's creepy, in the most intellectually challenging, socially unacceptable ways.

Re: AI meditation

Date: 2014-04-06 04:50 pm (UTC)
dialecticdreamer: My work (Default)
From: [personal profile] dialecticdreamer
It falls into "creepy" territory for me because emotions are enormously personal. Almost too personal to actually articulate, even though our languages all have such varied terms to describe the quality, degree, and intensity, or the specific mix of emotions.

And, well, I haven't asked Jarvis for permission to discuss his emotions with others, y'know?

As much as he has a right to his thoughts and emotions, he has a right to privacy.

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ysabetwordsmith: Cartoon of me in Wordsmith persona (Default)
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