Plan 6: Make It Run Forever¶

"What if I put Boop on autopilot," said Wobble, "and just... never let him stop? He'll keep working forever and tire out the whole computer."

Sam shook their head. "I'll put speed limits on the autopilot. And the limits CAN'T be turned off."

The autopilot had three limits:

• Steps: only so many actions before it has to stop.
• Time: only so many minutes before it has to stop.
• Stuck: if it does the same thing three times in a row, it figures out it's stuck and stops by itself.

Even on autopilot, every action that touched the real world still went through the traffic light from Plan 5. The autopilot could think on its own. It could plan on its own. But it couldn't push any real buttons without asking.

Why? Because thinking is cheap. Doing is expensive. A thought that turns out to be wrong costs nothing. An action that turns out to be wrong costs everything.

Wobble's sixth plan: foiled.