History Main / RobotsThinkFaster

* Defied in ''Literature/{{Exordia}}''. Defied. The metaphysical architecture of the universe specifically prevents artificial intelligence from outperforming naturally evolved minds, primarily to keep GrayGoo from eating everything. Unfortunately, this means the next best thing involves enslaving the minds and souls of sapient beings.

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[[ComputersAreFast They already do]], at least in some specialized situations. For instance, TabletopGame/{{Chess}} grandmaster Gary Kasparov once said that he can evaluate about two and a half board positions per second. Deep Blue, the first chess computer to beat a Chess World Champion, can evaluate 200 million positions per second. But in speculative fiction, robots tend to be able to think faster than humans in a wide variety of areas, something that is not (yet) possible in real life. What happens when robots can think so much faster than humans varies greatly: sometimes it's [[BenevolentAI good]], sometimes it's [[AIIsACrapshoot bad]], sometimes it's [[ApocalypseHow apocalyptic]].

A subtrope is a tendency for writers to equate speed of thought with [[SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence intelligence]], which is the guiding belief behind TheSingularity. Related to RobotsAreJustBetter and ComputersAreFast.

* Transapients in ''WebOriginal/OrionsArm'' think hundreds to thousands or even millions of times faster than ordinary modosophonts. However they are also [[MindHive gestalts of many sentient subroutines]], and need to use semi-independent avatars to communicate with "lesser" beings.

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* In ''Literature/TheMurderbotDiaries'' the protagonist finds this useful in a crisis along with its ability to multitask; unfortunately this also means it's easily distracted given that Murderbot is often watching entertainment programs instead of paying attention to what's going on, and has to rewind its recording of recent events to find out what it missed. The SapientShip ''Perihelion'' has an artificial intelligence that puts even Murderbot in the shade. In ''Artificial Condition'' there's an attempt to [[MurderByRemoteControlVehicle sabotage a space shuttle with killware]], and ''Perihelion'' downloads itself into the shuttle and corrects their course before the human pilot can do more than say OhCrap

** In "Future Imperfect", it's the absence of this calculating speed, among other things, that [[SpottingTheThread clues Riker in]] to the fact that he's in a simulation.

--->'''Riker:''' How about at warp 7? (pause) At warp 8? At warp 9? What's the matter, Data? What happened to those millions of calculations per second?

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* In ''[[Machinima/RedVsBlue Red Vs. Blue]]'', AI possess this quality just like they do in ''Franchise/{{Halo}}''. We get to see this play out in full in Season 12, when Epsilon uses a mere 45 seconds to coordinate his fellow AI in [[spoiler:helping Carolina take down three space pirates and avoid getting shot in the head.]]

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* In ''Literature/TheMurderbotDiaries'' the protagonist finds this useful in a crisis along with its ability to multitask; unfortunately this also means it's easily distracted given that Murderbot is often watching entertainment programs instead of paying attention to what's going on, and has to rewind its recording of recent events to find out what it missed. The SapientShip ''Perihelion'' has an artificial intelligence that puts even Murderbot in the shade. In ''Artificial Condition'' there's an attempt to [[MurderByRemoteControlVehicle sabotage a space shuttle with killware]], and ''Perihelion'' downloads itself into the shuttle and corrects their course before the human pilot can do more than think OhCrap!

* In ''Literature/TheMurderbotDiaries'' the protagonist finds this useful in a crisis along with its ability to multitask; unfortunately this also means it's easily distracted given that Murderbot is often watching entertainment programs instead of paying attention to what's going on, and has to rewind its recording of recent events to find out what it missed.

** In [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2009-01-17 one instance]], an AI analyzes an impending catastrophe, develops a response that will minimize casualties, implements said response, ''[[UpToEleven and]]'' composes a message to its human captain apologizing for acting without orders, all in the time it takes said captain to utter the sentence, "What are we going to do now?"

(beat)\\
'''Data:''' Zero-point-six-eight seconds, sir. For an android, that is nearly an eternity.