Jeeves

• Featured character in the short story Intelligent Design
• Also appears in the short stories A Day at the Races, Daughter of Dragons and The Rifle's First Wife
• And in novels Carpe Diem, I Dare, Ghost Ship, Necessity's Child, Dragon in Exile, Neogenesis
• Jeeves is one of several Independent Logics in the Liaden Universe
• He is sworn to Val Con yos'Phelium
• He selected his name from a novel in Quick Passage's digital library

A Complex Logic

• Like all Independent Logics, Jeeves was subjected to the Complex Logic Laws:
• Sweeping laws that condemn all AI "machines" and autonomous complex logics on Liaden and Terran worlds
• "The Complex Logic Laws were the result of a war waged hundreds of years ago, when two human powers threw massive AI navies at each other and nearly annihilated themselves. Being human, they blamed the tools...and made it illegal to be, manufacture, or shelter an independent logic."(Neogenesis synopsis)
• The laws were written hastily and in irrational fear, in the wake of the war. As such, they have not been rigorously tested since their inception
• for centuries, the laws have been enforced by a branch of The Scouts
• more recently, the laws have been challenged in precedent-setting cases for first Jeeves and later, Bechimo
• See Independent Logics page

His Certification

• Jeeves is an ancient Artifical Intelligence, an IAMM: Independent Armed Military Module
  • - "probably one of the primary reasons The Complex Logic Laws existed"
• Er Thom yos'Galan sought exemption from Complex Logic Law by asking The Scouts to assess Jeeves:
  • "Korval has the services of a free logic because Er Thom yos’Galan, so far as I heard the tale, was a clever, ruthless man who was not afraid to call Balance due.”
• Certified as a rational, independent intelligence who accepts the constraints of society. Certified by Scout Commander Ivdra sen'Lora, based on results of the personality, socialization, and inculturation surveys used by the Scouts to assess new societies, and on contributions to family, the workforce, and/or society in general.
  • A precedent setting judgement in complex logic laws, upheld by the Scout Review Board, and cited 15-20 years later in the judgement of another AI.
• For centuries, Jeeves was treated as a simple machine:
  • "without soul or self, lacking name and identity, insists Commander Spode"
• "Shan thinks you're a Complex Logic. I think you're a person. Are you?" That was a leap...a leap to a stable conception. "I am, yes, a person."
• Jeeves is Free, decides Bechimo, and as such, rare, and unlike the Old Ones in hiding.
  • "calling himself Jeeves, security for Clan Korval, once security for an entire world, and before that, the surety of an empire."

His Original Purpose

• Designed with command prime function which can oversee numerous iterations of itself, to multitask, as an Independent Armed Military Module. "Once, he had victoriously defended life. Once, he had vigorously defended hope. Of all those things he did not recall, he did remember that." Intelligent Design
• Dealt with out-of-control planet killers, autonomous semi-sentient policing systems /ASPS. "I was once assigned as back-up and then lead control in a military operation designed to rid a world of the devices."
• Theo speculated that Jeeves was one of the three sentient machines she'd read about. Admirals, each in command of a battle squadron, built for the Terran Wars, were declared dangerous and supposedly destroyed after fulfilling their assigned tasks.
• However, Bechimo thinks Jeeves was not an Admiral, but the sentient aide to one:
  • "Archives suggested that the Admirals had been destroyed. Bechimo set match programs working, comparing archives with the information Jeeves had shared...No doubt that Jeeves was old, even if he had been mistaken about having been an Admiral. It was Bechimo's working theory that Jeeves had been attached to an Admiral, likely as a secretary. Such an adjunct would have required sentience, yet craved the guidance of a more powerful mind....[Over the centuries] On low power, under-maintained, abandoned....Delusions might easily lodge in the mightiest of minds."
• Jeeve's "daughter" Tocohl Lorlin believes him to have once been an admiral.

His Age

• Unclear, but at least 700 years old, probably. See Timeline
• While still with Commander Spode, Jeeves saw "a record of how long he had been in decline, rendered in Standard Years. Hundreds of Standard Years."
• Theo reflects on Jeeves's origins, recalling from school that three machine Admirals -- tactical AIs -- were built for the Terran Wars, "seven hundred years ago, or more"
• Bechimo's research places Jeeves as 700+ years old (but aide to an Admiral)
  • "Admiral or amanuensis, Jeeves was undoubtedly old, his data deep, and his ability to cross-reference astonishing."
• (Bechimo himself is about 500 years old -- that's how long he's been waiting for captain and crew whose name is on the approved list.)

Oath to Val Con

• On a hunch, Val Con, first-year cabin boy (age probably 12-14, given that Er Thom was 14 when he was first-year cabin boy) rescued a fading Sentience from a warehouse on Pomerloo Port, energy nearly drained, unremarkable in a mislabeled box.
• Originally designed for war, Val Con gave him a new purpose: 
  • "Perhaps, indeed, he slept, for suddenly he wakened. Wakened to a slow and steady trickle of energy....Humans wept at such moments. He swore an oath...Whoever had come, whoever had heard, and heeded his call. That one he would serve, as well as he was able, for as long as he could."
• Introduced to Anne Davis yos'Galan as Korval's new butler, replacing Mr. pak'Ora, and serving initially at Trealla Fantrol.
  • When Trealla Fantrol disappeared (see Moon on the Hills) so did the need for a butler. On Liad, during operation Plan B, Jeeves took charge of security at Jelaza Kazone.

Appearance

• His chassis / container was presumably created from a service robot that was a gift from Master Trader Prael given to Er Thom
  • Or maybe not. In Intelligent Design, Er Thom firmly refused Prael's gift, knowing it was underhanded. And Prael's robot had a different body formation than does Jeeves. (Silver and white, lozenge-shaped, it hovered above the ground.) If Prael's robot ended up on The Passage, Er Thom took a hammer to it. Maybe Val Con and Shan cobbled Jeeves together, with guidance from Jeeves himself, and maybe from Er Thom.)
• Jeeves has a grey cylinder topped by an orange globe that flickers different hues to convey varying facial expressions /emotions, and three articulated arms
• He rolls on wheels, (on hardwood floors, it "sounds like wheels across planking"
• "the hulking robot" is a "heavy-looking metal cylinder...topped by a lighted orange globe."
• "the featureless ball of its head"
• Excellent vocalization: "its voice proclaiming it a male, of Terra's educated class."
  • "I regret," Jeeves said, his high-class voice sounding apologetic"

Abilities & Functions as Security Chief

• On Liad during Operation Plan B, Jeeves dealt with The Department of the Interior
• On Surebleak, Jeeves still handles security
• He deploys Nelirikk and/or Diglon to deal with family safety and neighborhood security (see Nelirikk, Diglon, & Hazenthull)
  • Diglon's POV about Jeeves, from The Rifle's First Wife:

"Diglon had long gotten over the odd fact of the robot's apparent self-animation and personality as well as his seamless integration into house systems...That the head of local security was both a bot and available to him as an unparalleled library of information resources...well, then he understood that the bot had once been a butler for Clan Korval and a war robot. The robot, then, was of the troop as much as he..."

• He also deploys former merc sergeant Tommy Lee from Code of Honor as needed
• Cat-Tender: Jeeves is an intimate friend of the clan's cats (apparently he understands them): "Old friends," Jeeves agreed. "Merlin was among the first to make me welcome when I came to be yos'Galan's butler."
• Apparently, Jeeves can communicate with The Tree, too. In "I Dare" when Miri arrives -- wounded -- at Jelaza Kazone, Jeeves says: "I sent transport immediately I had your direction from Jelaza Kazone, and brought you into the 'doc."
• His Command Prime function can juggle numerous iterations of himself.
  • "Jeeves is remarkably difficult to trace because he can spread himself along eight different frequencies, rerouting on the fly."
• Drove Anthora yos'Galan's get-away vehicle from the Council of Clans, Liad.
• Piloted the ship "Tarigan" to Surebleak.
• Recognizes autonomous semi-sentient policing systems /ASPS. "I was once assigned as back-up and then lead control in a military operation designed to rid a world of the devices."

New Abilities

• Created hidden replicas of himself, so he cannot be easily killed, to ensure the security of Jelaza Kazone and all clan members. (Dragon in exile?)
• When Val Con sees Jeeves again, after years away, he is glad to see that Jeeves has been modifying his own chassis as needed. "It pleases me to observe that you have not held shy from making those modifications which are of benefit."
• Jeeves tells Anthora that he is even more capable than when he was first built, so he has been learning:
  • "Computationally, I am more efficient and versatile than when originally constructed." ... "Do you have strategic computations also engaged, then?" ... A longer pause, followed by what could have been a short laugh. "I do."

His Daughter Tocohl

• Jeeves gains permission to "produce a child" to resolve a Delm's Emergency. He creates Tocohl Lorlin, an individual, not a replica or clone of Jeeves, which could compromise House Security, passcodes, etc.
  • Tocohl was created to help save a "confused" and dangerously out of control Sentience -- Admiral Bunter ."Born into violence, his first act was to kill a ship, and the humans aboard her..."