E6 - Project Alicization

Source: Crunchyroll
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(Please feel free to edit the speaker names if incomplete or inaccurate. Names are handled on a best-effort basis depending on the info on the source file. Dialogue is left as is.)
[00:04] Asuna
    Where's Kirito?
[00:08] Higa
    What'd I tell you?
[00:10] Higa
    That kid's this project's biggest security hole.
[00:14] Kikuoka
    Yes. You were right.
[00:17] Asuna
    Is Kirito safe?
[00:18] Asuna
    Were you lying
    when you said you could treat him?
[00:21] Asuna
    Please answer me, Mr. Kikuoka!
[00:26] Kikuoka
    Because of the attack by the fugitive
    from the Death Gun incident,
[00:29] Kikuoka
    Kirito's brain sustained damage
    that modern medicine is unable to heal.
[00:35] Kikuoka
    However...
[00:36] Kikuoka
    Rath is the only place in the world
    that has the technology to treat him.
[00:42] Kikuoka
    I'm sure you've heard of it.
[00:44] Kikuoka
    The STL... the Soul Translator.
[00:48] Kikuoka
    If we use the STL
    to directly stimulate his Fluctlight,
[00:51] Kikuoka
    we can induce the generation
    of a new neural network.
[00:55] Kikuoka
    But it takes time.
[00:57] Kikuoka
    Right now, Kirito is inside a full-spec STL,
    which can only be found here.
[01:02] Kikuoka
    The treatment he's getting
    rivals that of any major hospital.
[01:06] Kikuoka
    He even has his own personal nurse.
[01:09] Asuna
    I understand. I'll believe you for now.
[01:13] Rinko
    All right, if we've come this far,
    why don't you just tell us everything, Mr. Kikuoka.
[01:19] Rinko
    Such as why an SDF official like you
    would use the Ministry as a front,
[01:23] Rinko
    what are you plotting here,
[01:26] Rinko
    and why you needed Kirigaya?
[01:30] Kikuoka
    If you're asking that,
    I'm going to have you help me.
[01:32] Rinko
    I'll decide after I hear your answer.
[01:35] Kikuoka
    Well, then, may I assume
    you're both familiar with the concept of the STL?
[01:41] Asuna
    It's a machine that reads a human soul,
    their Fluctlight,
[01:45] Asuna
    and allows them to dive into a virtual world
    indistinguishable from reality.
[01:49] Kikuoka
    Correct.
[01:50] Kikuoka
    But I don't think you know
    what this project's objective is.
[01:54] Asuna
    Objective?
[01:57] Kikuoka
    To create a bottom-up
    multi-purpose artificial intelligence.
SIGN    Project Alicization
[03:36] Asuna
    A bottom-up multi-purpose artificial intelligence?
[03:40] Kikuoka
    There are two approaches
    to developing artificial intelligence.
[03:43] Kikuoka
    One is top-down.
[03:45] Kikuoka
    Wherein you program the artificial intelligence
    with experience and knowledge,
[03:48] Kikuoka
    so that in the end
    it will learn to replicate true intelligence.
[03:53] Higa
    Including the research of Dr. Shigemura,
    who'd been working with us here,
[03:58] Higa
    almost everything considered an artificial intelligence
    right now uses the top-down approach.
[04:03] Kikuoka
    But a top-down type can't react appropriately
    to anything it hasn't learned about.
[04:08] Kikuoka
    In other words, at this time they haven't
    evolved enough to be called true intelligence.
[04:14] Kikuoka
    Next, bottom-up artificial intelligence.
[04:18] Kikuoka
    This is the human brain.
[04:20] Kikuoka
    It involves artificially replicating the construct
[04:23] Kikuoka
    of a biological organ comprised
    of one hundred billion linked brain cells,
[04:26] Kikuoka
    and generating intelligence there.
[04:30] Asuna
    Is such a thing possible?
[04:32] Kikuoka
    Until now, it was thought to be impossible.
[04:34] Kikuoka
    But the Soul Translator can scan a human soul,
[04:38] Kikuoka
    the quantum field we call the Fluctlight.
[04:43] Higa
    And to store almost the same amount of data
    as a human brain,
[04:48] Higa
    we've developed the Light Quantum Gate Crystal,
    aka the Lightcube, as a medium.
[04:53] Rinko
    Which means it can be used to copy a Fluctlight?
[04:57] Kikuoka
    Correct.
[04:59] Kikuoka
    We have, in fact,
    succeeded in replicating the human soul.
[05:04] Rinko
    Then why did you need to summon me
    at this point?
[05:09] Kikuoka
    Because, foolishly enough, we'd missed something.
[05:12] Kikuoka
    The fact that an unbelievably vast
    and deep chasm exists
[05:15] Kikuoka
    between a copy of the human soul
    and a true artificial intelligence.
[05:19] Kikuoka
    Higa.
[05:21] Kikuoka
    Show them "that."
[05:24] Higa
    Huh? We're doing that again?
[05:33] Higa Clone
    Is the sampling done?
[05:35] Higa
    Yeah. Everything completed with no problems.
[05:38] Higa Clone
    Glad to hear it. But it's pitch-black,
    and I can't move my body.
[05:43] Higa
    Is this a glitch with the STL?
    Sorry, but can you let me out of the machine?
[05:47] Higa
    Unfortunately, but I can't do that.
[05:49] Higa Clone
    Hey, what the hell?
    What are you talking about?
[05:52] Higa Clone
    Who are you?
    Your voice doesn't sound familiar.
[05:55] Higa
    I'm Higa. Takeru Higa.
[05:59] Higa Clone
    No way! What do you mean? I'm Higa!
    You'll know once I get out of the STL!
[06:03] Higa
    Calm down. Don't get worked up.
[06:05] Higa
    That's not like you.
[06:07] Higa
    You may be a copy, but you're Takeru Higa.
[06:09] Higa
    You calmly accept situations—
[06:11] Higa Clone
    I'm the same as ever!
[06:13] Higa Clone
    If I'm a copy, then I should feel like one!
    This... This isn't...
[06:17] Higa Clone
    No! Let me out of here!
    Let me out of this thing!
[06:20] Kikuoka
    You need to calm down.
[06:22] Kikuoka
    You're aware of the danger to your Fluctlight
    if you lose the capacity for rational thought.
[06:26] Higa Clone
    I am being rational!
[06:28] Higa Clone
    All right, then why don't I race that imposter there
    by reciting the digits of pi?
[06:32] Higa Clone
    3.14159265358....
[06:44] Higa
    And he's collapsed. One minute, eight seconds.
[06:48] Rinko
    There's a limit to bad taste.
[06:50] Kikuoka
    I apologize for that.
[06:52] Kikuoka
    But now you see
    why I could only explain it by showing you.
[06:58] Kikuoka
    Including myself,
    we've copied the Fluctlights of over ten people,
[07:03] Kikuoka
    and not a single one could bear the thought
    of being a copy.
[07:09] Kikuoka
    If full copies are out of the question,
    what should we do?
[07:12] Rinko
    What should you do?
[07:14] Rinko
    Raise them from the start?
[07:17] Asuna
    Could it be...
[07:18] Kikuoka
    That's right.
[07:20] Kikuoka
    Copy the souls of newborn infants and raise them.
[07:24] Rinko
    But what kind of environment
    would you raise them in?
[07:28] Rinko
    You can't create an exact copy of the real world.
[07:31] Kikuoka
    Yes, that's impossible. But we realized something.
[07:35] Kikuoka
    Plenty of perfect solutions
    already exist on the network.
[07:39] Asuna
    VRMMO worlds.
[07:41] Higa
    You got that right.
[07:43] Higa
    Using the Seed, we created small villages
    and surrounding landscapes,
[07:48] Higa
    and converted them for STL use.
[07:50] Kikuoka
    In the very first town we created,
[07:52] Kikuoka
    four members of the Rath staff raised 16 soul archetypes,
    that is, AI infants, to the age of 18.
[08:02] Kikuoka
    These 16 youths grew up quickly.
[08:05] Kikuoka
    Although we call them artificial Fluctlights
    for convenience,
[08:08] Kikuoka
    the way they turned out
    was more than satisfactory.
[08:12] Kikuoka
    They were all very obedient and upstanding.
[08:15] Kikuoka
    When they were joined in marriage,
    we gave them babies,
[08:18] Kikuoka
    in other words,
    new soul archetypes for them to raise.
[08:21] Kikuoka
    And after accelerating time in their world by 5,000,
    there were more and more generations,
[08:28] Kikuoka
    and by the time 3 weeks,
    or 300 years in their world, had elapsed,
[08:33] Kikuoka
    a massive society
    with a population of 80,000 had emerged.
[08:37] Rinko
    But at that level, that's a civilization simulation.
[08:41] Kikuoka
    That's true, huh?
[08:43] Kikuoka
    At this time, 480 years have already passed
    in that world,
[08:46] Kikuoka
    and the population of the capital, Centoria,
    has reached 20,000.
[08:49] Higa
    At this time, the artificial Fluctlights have matured
    into the bottom-up AIs that we'd hoped for.
[08:55] Higa
    So we were thrilled
    to be able to move on to the next phase.
[08:59] Higa
    However...
[09:00] Kikuoka
    That's when we noticed a certain major issue.
[09:04] Rinko
    Issue?
[09:05] Kikuoka
    A governing body called the Axiom Church
    had created laws known as the Taboo Index.
[09:10] Asuna
    Taboo Index?
[09:12] Kikuoka
    It contained, for example, a law forbidding murder,
    like we have in the real world.
[09:17] Kikuoka
    But just by watching the news,
    it's clear how often humans violate such laws.
[09:23] Kikuoka
    However, the Fluctlights obey those laws.
[09:26] Kikuoka
    Obey them excessively, you could say.
[09:29] Kikuoka
    This town is beautiful, and far too perfect.
[09:31] Kikuoka
    There isn't a piece of garbage on the streets,
    and not a single thief.
[09:35] Kikuoka
    Needless to say,
    no murder has ever been committed.
[09:39] Rinko
    And how is that an issue?
[09:43] Asuna
    Could it be that your objective...
[09:46] Asuna
    ...is to create AIs capable of murder?
[09:50] Asuna
    Both Kirito and I guessed that
    the reason for your interest in VRMMOs
[09:55] Asuna
    was because the technology could be applied
    to police work and SDF training. But...
[10:02] Asuna
    This project is far too ambitious.
[10:04] Asuna
    For an SDF official like yourself
    to attempt something of this scale...
[10:08] Asuna
    What you want is to build AIs capable
    of killing enemy soldiers in battle.
[10:13] Asuna
    Isn't that the reason?
[10:16] Rinko
    Is that true, Mr. Kikuoka?
[10:20] Kikuoka
    Five years ago,
[10:22] Kikuoka
    when the NerveGear was announced,
[10:24] Kikuoka
    it struck me.
[10:26] Kikuoka
    This technology had the potential
    to upend the very notion of war.
SIGN    Ministry of Internal Affairs
    and Communications
[10:33] Kikuoka
    When the SAO incident occurred,
[10:35] Kikuoka
    I volunteered to transfer to the Ministry,
    and joined the task force.
[10:40] Kikuoka
    I did all that
    so I could get this project off the ground.
[10:44] Kikuoka
    It took me five years to finally get to this point.
[10:48] Rinko
    Why did you decide to take part in this project, Higa?
[10:51] Higa
    Well, actually,
    my motive was a bit more personal.
[10:56] Higa
    I was friends with this guy
    when I was a student at a college in Korea.
[11:00] Higa
    And he died while serving in the army.
[11:03] Higa
    And so I thought...
    even if this world is never rid of war,
[11:08] Higa
    at least if people never had to die anymore, then...
[11:12] Higa
    I know it's a pretty childish reason.
[11:15] Asuna
    But you haven't spoken a word of this to Kirito.
[11:19] Kikuoka
    What makes you think that?
[11:21] Asuna
    If you had talked to him about it,
    he never would've agreed to help you.
[11:25] Asuna
    There's one crucial point of view
    missing from your story.
[11:29] Kikuoka
    And that is?
[11:31] Asuna
    The rights of the artificial intelligences.
[11:34] Asuna
    These so-called artificial Fluctlights
    have the same cognitive abilities as humans, right?
[11:39] Kikuoka
    It's not as if they have physical bodies.
[11:42] Asuna
    But they're no different than living beings.
[11:45] Asuna
    Forcing them to kill or be killed as tools of war...
[11:48] Asuna
    Kirito would never play a part in that!
[11:51] Asuna
    Never.
[11:52] Kikuoka
    It's not like I don't understand
    what you're saying.
[11:55] Kikuoka
    But to me, the lives of 100,000 artificial intelligences
    are worth far less than a single SDF soldier's.
[12:05] Rinko
    Anyway, why did you need Kirigaya?
[12:09] Rinko
    Why would you use him at the risk
    of leaking something so highly confidential?
[12:13] Kikuoka
    Oh, right. I was telling you all this
    to help me explain that.
[12:19] Kikuoka
    Why are the artificial Fluctlights
    unable to disobey the Taboo Index?
[12:24] Kikuoka
    That's when I came up with a certain experiment.
[12:27] Kikuoka
    If we were to block all of a real human's memories,
[12:30] Kikuoka
    revert him to childhood
    and have him grow up in the virtual world,
[12:34] Kikuoka
    would the subject be able
    to disobey the Taboo Index?
[12:38] Kikuoka
    To carry out this experiment, we needed a subject
    who was used to moving in a virtual world.
[12:42] Kikuoka
    And not just a week or a month's worth,
    but experience amounting to years.
[12:49] Kikuoka
    You understand now, don't you?
[12:53] Leafa
    I can't believe
    my brother got involved in something like that.
SIGN    Sunday, July 5, 2026 Sylvain
[12:58] Silica
    Do you think it's okay to trust Mr. Kikuoka?
[13:01] Lisbeth
    I really hope he's not hiding anything else.
[13:05] Sinon
    So we're just going to have to trust
    that the STL treatment will work, huh?
[13:11] Lisbeth
    Hey, so about Kirito and this... uh...
    this Taboo Index? What happened with that?
[13:18] Asuna
    There was a boy and girl
    who used to play with Kirito,
[13:22] Asuna
    and it seems like it was the girl
    who broke the Taboo Index.
[13:26] Sinon
    You mean she was influenced by Kirito?
[13:29] Asuna
    Yes.
[13:30] Asuna
    And what she broke
    was "accessing a restricted address."
[13:36] Higa
    We confirmed the death of another Fluctlight
    in the girl's view in the restricted address.
[13:43] Higa
    Most likely, she tried to help him.
[13:45] Kikuoka
    In other words, this girl prioritized
    someone else's life over the Taboo Index.
[13:51] Kikuoka
    That's precisely what we've been seeking.
[13:56] Silica
    That's a lovely story, but...
[13:59] Lisbeth
    If only it wasn't a study on weapons to kill people.
[14:03] Asuna
    I agree. But I'm amazed by what that girl did.
[14:07] Asuna
    After all, it's not easy to overcome yourself.
[14:10] Leafa
    Does that girl have a name?
[14:13] Asuna
    Yes.
[14:16] Asuna
    Alice?
[14:17] Kikuoka
    Right. That was the name of the girl in question.
[14:21] Kikuoka
    I was blown away by the staggering coincidence.
[14:24] Kikuoka
    Because "Alice" is also the name of the concept
    that became the foundation of the overall project.
[14:31] Asuna
    Concept?
[14:32] Kikuoka
    A highly-adaptive autonomous artificial intelligence.
[14:36] Kikuoka
    In English, that would be Artificial Labile
    Intelligence Cybernated Existence.
[14:41] Kikuoka
    The initials form the acronym ALICE.
[14:44] Kikuoka
    Our ultimate goal was
    to convert an artificial Fluctlight into an ALICE.
[14:52] Kikuoka
    Welcome to our Project Alicization.
[14:58] Leafa
    That sounds so complicated.
[15:00] Asuna
    I don't quite understand everything, either,
[15:03] Asuna
    but they said that if they had saved
    the Fluctlight of this girl, Alice,
[15:06] Asuna
    their research would've made huge advances.
[15:09] Lisbeth
    Meaning that...
[15:11] Asuna
    Remember how I said that in the virtual world,
    time passes at an amazing speed?
[15:16] Lisbeth
    Yeah.
[15:17] Asuna
    So by the time they noticed,
    two days had gone by in the virtual world,
[15:21] Asuna
    and that girl's Fluctlight had already been corrected
    by the Axiom Church.
[15:25] Sinon
    Corrected?
[15:27] Sinon
    I thought the Fluctlights only observed each other,
    but they were given that kind of authority?
[15:32] Asuna
    They said that, normally,
    it wouldn't have been possible.
[15:34] Asuna
    But a number of the artificial Fluctlights
    wield the "sacred arts,"
[15:38] Asuna
    which are system access rights
    in the form of magic,
[15:42] Asuna
    so they think
    they might've found some kind of loophole.
[15:46] Asuna
    Sorry! I have to go back.
[15:48] Leafa
    You have something to do?
[15:50] Asuna
    They said that they'd let me see Kirito sleeping.
    It's almost time for that.
[15:55] Lisbeth
    Tell us later how he looked, all right?
[15:59] Asuna
    He's inside a machine,
    so I might not get to see his face.
[16:13] Rinko
    This one's unit four.
[16:15] Rinko
    And that one's unit five.
[16:17] Aki
    Prototype one and unit six, now under construction,
    are at the Roppongi branch,
[16:23] Aki
    while two and three are installed
    in the lower shaft.
[16:27] Asuna
    Ms. Aki!
[16:29] Asuna
    What are you doing here?
[16:31] Aki
    Taking care of Kirigaya, of course.
[16:33] Asuna
    But I thought you were a nurse
    at a hospital in Chiyoda Ward.
[16:37] Asuna
    Were you pretending, just like Mr. Kikuoka?
[16:40] Aki
    Of course not.
[16:42] Aki
    Unlike that old man, I'm an actual nurse.
[16:45] Aki
    It's just that the school I graduated from
[16:47] Aki
    is the Tokyo Self-Defense Force
    Higher School of Nursing.
[16:53] Aki
    I am Sergeant First Class Natsuki Aki.
[16:55] Aki
    I pledge to protect young Kirigaya, life and limb,
    with full responsibility!
[16:59] Aki
    And so on!
[17:03] Asuna
    I'm counting on you, then.
[17:05] Aki
    Right. Just leave it to me.
[17:12] Asuna
    Kirito is coming back, isn't he?
[17:15] Aki
    Of course.
[17:17] Aki
    Kirito's Fluctlight is vital and active
    inside the treatment program, even as we speak.
[17:23] Aki
    And besides, we're talking about the hero
    who cleared SAO, right?
[17:37] Rinko
    Ms. Asuna?
[17:41] Rinko
    There's something I need to tell you.
[17:45] Rinko
    No... not just you.
[17:49] Rinko
    It's something I should confess
    to all former SAO players.
[17:54] Rinko
    You already know that
    during the SAO incident,
[17:58] Rinko
    Akihiko Kayaba and I were hiding
    in the mountains of Nagano?
[18:04] Rinko
    I had a micro-bomb implanted in my chest.
[18:09] Rinko
    Because of that, for two years,
[18:11] Rinko
    I was forced to collaborate with him
    on his terrifying project.
[18:15] Rinko
    But that wasn't really true.
[18:17] Rinko
    I was well aware
    that the bomb would never go off.
[18:22] Rinko
    The weapon he implanted in me was a deception
    so I wouldn't be charged with any crimes.
[18:28] Rinko
    It was the only present he gave me.
[18:34] Rinko
    Apparently, by the time he got into
    Toto Institute of Technology,
[18:36] Rinko
    Kayaba was already
    the head of development at Argus,
[18:40] Rinko
    but I didn't know anything about that,
[18:42] Rinko
    all I could see was a scrawny kid who was a shut-in,
    immersed in his research.
[18:51] Rinko
    You gotta step outside once in a while,
    or no ideas'll ever come to ya!
[18:59] Kayaba
    I need to come up with a way
    to emulate the feeling of natural light on the skin.
[19:05] Rinko
    Although I began dating Kayaba,
[19:11] Rinko
    I couldn't figure out
    why he never pushed me away.
[19:18] Rinko
    Well, from the start...
[19:21] Rinko
    ...I was the one who...
SIGN    Mass Murder in Popular VRMMO Game?
SIGN    Akihiko Kayaba (30) Suspect
[19:26] Rinko
    ...didn't know anything about him.
[19:29] Rinko
    When I went to his mountain lodge,
    it wasn't because I wanted to be his accomplice.
[19:36] Rinko
    I...
[19:38] Rinko
    ...intended to kill Kayaba.
[19:44] Rinko
    But... I'm sorry, Ms. Asuna.
[19:47] Rinko
    I...
[19:50] Rinko
    ...couldn't kill him.
[19:52] Rinko
    Kayaba knew I was armed with a knife.
[19:57] Rinko
    He only said, "What am I going to do with you?"
    like he always did,
[20:02] Rinko
    and then he went back to Aincrad.
[20:09] Rinko
    I... I...
[20:14] Asuna
    Neither Kirito nor I have ever blamed you for that.
[20:19] Asuna
    In fact, I'm not even sure if I really bear a grudge
    against the commander, Akihiko Kayaba.
[20:32] Asuna
    It's true that a lot of lives were lost
    in that incident.
[20:36] Asuna
    The commander's crime isn't something
    that can ever be forgiven.
[20:40] Asuna
    But... I know it sounds really selfish...
[20:44] Asuna
    but that short time I spent living with Kirito
    in that world...
[20:50] Asuna
    I'm sure I'll always look back on it
    as the best days of my life.
[20:56] Asuna
    Just as the commander did something wrong,
    so have I, and Kirito, too...
[21:00] Asuna
    And Ms. Rinko,
    you've also done something wrong.
[21:04] Asuna
    But it's not as if we can make amends,
    even if we're punished for it.
[21:08] Asuna
    It could be that
    we'll never see the day we're forgiven.
[21:12] Asuna
    Even still, we have to continue to face
    what we've done.
[21:28] Kayaba
    Really, what am I going to do with you?
[21:30] Kayaba
    Coming all the way here?
[21:36] Rinko
    What's going on?
    It's still early in the morning...
[21:55] Rinko
    Was that...
[21:57] Rinko
    ...a dream?
[23:36] Kirito
    Next time: Swordcraft Academy.