This article researched/written by Erica (erica@netcon.net.au)
These are all the bits I could find which might possibly shed light on Zen's "limiter" and some speculations about its nature. I have found it easiest to formulate in terms of directives which Zen must follow. In summary my conclusions are as follows:
First, here is what Zen himself has to say on the subject.
BLAKE: Zen, estimated repair time.
ZEN: Eleven point three zero two minutes.
BLAKE: Whew! That's cutting it a bit fine. What caused the malfunction?
ZEN: The malfunction was deliberately induced.BLAKE: Zen, how are the repairs going?
ZEN: They are proceeding on schedule.
BLAKE: What caused the malfunction? (Pause) Well?
ZEN: Involvement is not permitted.ZEN: Repair monitors report explosive device attached to primary power channel.
BLAKE: Where?
ZEN: Hold three, access duct seven.
BLAKE: Can the automatics neutralize it?
ZEN: No.
BLAKE: Why not?
ZEN: There is no damage.
AVON: Computer logic. Until the bomb explodes there is nothing for the repair system to repair. Zen, can you reprogram the automatics?
ZEN: Preemptive interference in crew activity is forbidden.
BLAKE: Oh, he'll clear up after us, but he won't stop us making a mess.
Zen cannot act to prevent a crew member from doing what they want to do. Hence Zen cannot reprogram the automatics because to do so would prevent Cally from doing what she wants to do.
This is more obscure. Involvement in what? Crew activity?
BLAKE: How far is it?
AVON: One hundred and fifty hours. (To Zen) Confirm.
ZEN: Flight time is six hundred forty three hours.
AVON: Direct flight.
ZEN: Direct flight would necessitate crossing a prohibited space zone.
VILA: Prohibited?
BLAKE: Specify.
ZEN: The zone has been designated as containing unacceptable danger.
BLAKE: What sort of danger?
ZEN: Data is not available.
BLAKE: To you or just to us?
ZEN: There is no data of any kind.
AVON: Just the unacceptable risk designation.
ZEN: Confirmed.BLAKE: Zen. Set navigation computers for direct route to space laboratory XK seventy two. Speed Standard by Six.
ZEN: Rejected.
AVON: You CANNOT reject a direct command.
BLAKE: Justify that rejection, please.
ZEN: Your command reduces to an order to self-destruct. This runs counter to Prime Directive.
VILA: Zen obviously believes there's something nasty in that zone.
AVON: It has no data. It is acting upon an instruction, an order not to enter the zone.
BLAKE: Then we'll go on manual. Jenna?
JENNA: Ready. Compute course and let's get started.
Question: does "self" include the Liberator? Or just Zen?
Here are the crew's speculations on the existence and nature of Zen's "limiter":
Gan speculates on the existence of Zen's limiter:
GAN: I wonder. It's almost as if Zen has a limiter.
VILA: A limiter?
GAN: Something that stops him from helping us too much. Or maybe it's someone who stops him.
VILA: Gan, if you're trying to scare me, you're succeeding.
And then later there is this exchange:
GAN: (v.o) Gan.
BLAKE: Blake. See if Zen's back on our side yet.
GAN: (v.o) I don't think he ever left it.
Blake speculates on the existence of Zen's limiter:
JENNA: What are we going to do about the projectile.
BLAKE: Dump it in deep space.
JENNA: Thanks a lot.
GAN: I don't like the sound of that. It's murder.
AVON: Would you rather it was hooked back into the power system. You heard Zen. A single cell from those genetic banks can be incubated into fully grown adult in one point six minutes.
VILA: We could be up to our armpits in homicidal maniacs within the hour.
BLAKE: Maybe that's why Zen was so uncooperative.
Vila's thoughts on Zen's reliability:
AVON: That's it, then, I've done everything I can. Every machine except life support is frozen.
CALLY: Even Zen.
AVON: Zen is a machine.
VILA: Unless he just doesn't want to get involved.
The following are instances in which Zen's behaviour appears to be limited in some way. In some of these, Zen refuses to give information which is requested; in others, he refuses to perform some action.
BLAKE: Who owns this ship. Where are they?
ZEN: The navigation units will accept your spoken commands. Please state speed and course.
BLAKE: I want a course for the Earth Federation penal planet, Cygnus Alpha.
ZEN: Galactic center coordinates are confirmed.
BLAKE: (to Jenna) Speed?
JENNA: Standard?
BLAKE: Standard speed.
ZEN: Confirmed.
JENNA: (looks at controls) That's done it. It seems we're on course now.
AVON: It didn't answer any of your questions. More than that it deliberately ignored them. A computer can't have a will of it's own.
JENNA: You'd better tell Zen that.
Speculation: this is not related to any of the preliminary conclusions. Zenhas been directed not to reveal any information about the System. InRedemption also, Zen refuses to answer any questions about the System:
BLAKE: Re-energize the force wall.
ZEN: Confirmed.
JENNA: What are they, Blake?
BLAKE: I don't know. GAN: Blake, look.[The main screen shows a planet]
ZEN: Battle computers propose evasive course.
JENNA: Specify.
ZEN: Planetary orbit at two thousand spacials.
BLAKE: Closer. Make it one thousand.
ZEN: Confirmed.
BLAKE: Cally, give me tracking on the hostiles. Maximum magnification.[Exterior shot of the two hostile ships]
VILA: They must be Federation ships.
ZEN: First analysis indicates that they are not vehicles of a type used in Federation fleets.
BLAKE: Who are they? [No response]
AVON: Who are they?
ZEN: That information is not available.
Speculation: When the ship is under the control of the System, Zen remainson line (his lights are on and he is responding to the System's orders) but he will not respond at all to any of the crew's requests. Therefore at the stage of the above extract he is not yet under the System's control. And if anyone would know a System ship when they saw one, Zen would. So there is no reason why he should not identify the ships, unless his programming does not permit him to.
BLAKE: Zen, have the sensors picked up any sign of life?
ZEN: No information can be given.
BLAKE: That is not what I asked. I want to teleport across there.
ZEN: There is room.
BLAKE: And life support?
ZEN: There is life support for a (pause) limited (pause) period.
BLAKE: I'll go and take a look then.
JENNA: I'll come with you.
BLAKE: Avon. [Blake and Jenna leave the Liberator flight deck]
ZEN: (with difficulty) It is in... in... in...
AVON: I'll have to overhaul that (pause) thing.
ZEN: (drawn out) ...sane.[The lights on Zen go out.]
This little bit confuses the hell out of me.
First of all (off the subject but it grates on my logic circuits): At thisstage, Zen has not had access to the autonavigational unit from theprojectile. Presumably, therefore, he does not know the purpose of theprojectile. Yet he says "it is insane."
Aside from that, allowing that Zen knew the capsule and its crew poseddanger, he acts in a bizarre manner as follows:
(A) Not telling Blake about life on the capsule.
Unless the sensors were malfunctioning (of which there is no evidence), they would have picked up signs of life. But Zen sidesteps the question. Why? It would have caused no harm to the ship, the crew or Zen to report signs oflife. Nor would it stop the crew from doing what they want to do. The onlything I can think of is that Zen was trying to protect the crew; he reasonedthat if the crew thought there was no life on the capsule, they would notmake contact. It's a stretch.
(B) Difficulty in speaking
The pauses and the stuttering in this extract would indicate some internalproblem.
Speculation: The problem is conflicting directives. Zen wants to help but isprevented from doing so. This might indicate the presence of two equallyranked directives:
(1) not to interfere pre-emptively in crew activity; and
(2) to protect the crew from danger (this one accords with above point (A)).
Blake says, "I want to teleport over there"; telling Blake that the frozenguys are wackos might prevent Blake from doing that. Therefore underdirective (1) Zen should not tell him. However, said wackos pose a danger tothe crew if they were to make contact. Therefore under directive (2) Zenshould tell him. Zap! Conflict. Zen can't do both - he is trying to speakand to not speak at the same time - so he shuts down because he can't copewith the conflict.
Similarly, directive 2 demands that Zen refuse to tell Blake about the lifesupport on the capsule; directive 1 demands that Zen should do the opposite.
This is the best I could come up with. Suggestions, anyone?
Compare, though, with this:
CALLY: Vila? Vila? Zen, where is he? I left him on watch.
ZEN: He is no longer on the ship.
CALLY: But he must be.
ZEN: He teleported into the city with the assistance of the one called Orac.
CALLY: I forgot about Orac.
ZEN: The one called Orac is not concerned for the safety of the Liberator.
CALLY: Well where is Orac then? He's not in the teleport section; I just came from there.
ZEN: In return for the remote activation of the teleport system, Vila conveyed the one called Orac to another part of the Liberator.
CALLY: Which part, where? ORAC: Be silent. [Deck and Zen go dark for a moment, lights come back, but Zen does not]
CALLY: Orac? Zen? Zen!
This one is a bit obscure but it caught my eye.
Speculation (of the wild variety): It looks as if Zen is trying to getaround his own programming here. He didn't like what happened to him in TimeSquad and maybe this is his solution. He is not allowed to suggest to Callythat she do something about Orac, because that is pre-emptive interference;but he is required to protect the crew from danger. So he feeds her thingshe is allowed to say and leads her into asking the right questions so shecan formulate the right conclusion.
JENNA: What did you do?
AVON: (v.o.) Not a thing. It blew all by itself.
BLAKE: (v.o.)Can you repair it?
AVON: No need. There is an automatic repair system and it's working.
BLAKE: (v.o.) How long?
AVON: I don't know.
BLAKE: (v.o.) Why not?
AVON: Zen won't tell us.
BLAKE: Our air is running out.
AVON: (v.o.) Yes, I was afraid of that. How long?
BLAKE: Minutes. Get Zen to maneuver the ship 'round and bring the entire projectile on board.
AVON: I'd already thought of that. Zen refuses to do it.
BLAKE: (v.o.) Then you'll have to.
AVON: (To Vila and Gan) Shall we get on with it?[All three exit to Liberator flight deck][Interior. Alien projectile]
BLAKE: Why didn't Zen warn us?
JENNA: I think he tried to.
Zen refusing to bring the projectile aboard fits with the "protect the crew" directive. It also fits in with the "pre-emptive interference" directive. He is not preventing the crew from bringing the projectile aboard; he is just refusing to help them do it.
Question: why would Zen refuse to tell them how long the auto-repair would take?
What the crew want to do is use the teleport; telling them how long therepair will take is not going to stop them from doing so. He is notprotecting the crew from harm by not telling them. And it doesn't reduce to an order to self-destruct.
I don't have an answer to this question. My first thought was that Zen wentcompletely off-line when his lights went out after "It is insane" and stayedthat way, so he wasn't answering any questions at all.
However in the scene on the flight deck when Avon is bringing the projectileaboard manually, Zen's lights are back on, which would indicate that he ison-line but refusing to help.
And once the projectile has been brought on board manually, Zen must beon-line because he is happy to co-operate then:
VILA: You've done it. You've done it.
AVON: Close the main locks. Zen, transfer to inner hold number five.
ZEN: Transfer process commenced.
Question: Why is Zen willing to do this? The danger to the crew still remains.Speculation (of the grasping at straws kind): The outer holds arepressurised. The wackos could survive out there once they got out of theircryo capsules, and could have access to the rest of the ship from there.Therefore the danger to the crew will be no greater if Zen brings theprojectile into the inner hold than it would be if he left it in the outerhold. Therefore there is no conflict with the "protect the crew" directive.In addition, maybe the transfer process cannot be done manually, thereforerefusal to do it would conflict with the "pre-emptive interference" directive.
BLAKE: Vila, Gan, Jenna: we're going for a ram, take out the command ship. GAN: A ram?!?
BLAKE: I don't see that there's any other hope for us.
JENNA: Neither can I, so let's get on with it.
BLAKE: Jenna, you'll have to fly us on manual.
JENNA: Yes, we'll need to take the impact on the lower hull.
ZEN: Plasma bolt launched. GAN: Bearing directly.
BLAKE: Right, as soon as this one hits, we move. Stand by. [Pause] Activate! [Violent impact]
AVON: Force wall deactivated.
BLAKE: Right, now, Jenna.
Blake says they'll have to fly on manual in order to ram Travis' ship. Why?
Speculation: Have to fly on manual because prime directive not toself-destruct would not allow Zen to comply with a command to ram the ship.
Problem: Duel is before Breakdown. Breakdown is where they first learn ofthe prime directive. So how do they know Zen would refuse?
In light of this, this probably has nothing to do with Zen's directives atall. But I thought I'd throw it in.
BLAKE: Zen. Set navigation computers for direct route to space laboratory XK seventy two. Speed Standard by Six.
ZEN: Rejected.
AVON: You CANNOT reject a direct command.
BLAKE: Justify that rejection, please.
ZEN: Your command reduces to an order to self-destruct. This runs counter to Prime Directive.
VILA: Zen obviously believes there's something nasty in that zone.
AVON: It has no data. It is acting upon an instruction, an order not to enter the zone.
BLAKE: Then we'll go on manual. Jenna?
JENNA: Ready. Compute course and let's get started.
JENNA: We're approaching it now.
ZEN: Attention. Liberator is entering prohibited zone. All primaries and auxiliary computer functions are now aborted.[The lights on Zen go out]
BLAKE: Zen!
JENNA: Blake, the screen's gone dead.
BLAKE: Well, check it.
JENNA: Definitely dead.
BLAKE: Switch to the secondary.
JENNA: Oh, thank heaven that works.
BLAKE: Anything on the detectors?
VILA: Not a thing. What you see on the screen is exactly what's there. Absolutely nothing. Why should I find nothing terrifying?
Nice and simple after that Time Squad mess. Prime directive is not toself-destruct. Zen believes going into the zone equates to self-destructionso he refuses to help them fly the ship into the zone. More than that,however, he acts overtly to stop them from flying into the zone; he takesthe auxiliary flight systems off-line so they cannot fly the ship properly.In effect, putting the ship in more danger than it would have been if Zenand the systems continued to function.
This overt action is not in conflict with the "protect the crew" and"pre-emptive interference" directives because the prime directive bydefinition takes precedence.
Zen comes back on-line once they are out of the prohibited zone because theprime directive is no longer being violated.
ZEN: Federation pursuit ships registering on forward detectors now number twenty.
BLAKE: Twenty?
VILA: Oh, no.
BLAKE: Activate force wall three sixty. Energy reserves?
JENNA: Switched in.
AVON: Activated.
BLAKE: Zen, relative position?
ZEN: Liberator is centered on all flight paths.
JENNA: What course?
BLAKE: Maintain course. Increase speed to standard by ten.
AVON: Zen, can we withstand an attack of this magnitude?
ZEN: No information.
AVON: Thank you, that's very helpful.
Question: You would think that Zen would know the answer to this. So whydidn't he say yes or no?
Speculation: This is not an example of limited behaviour but of Zen'srefusal to extrapolate.
Possibly, Zen is just responding logically, not knowing when and how thepursuit ships are going to attack. However it seems more likely that Zen isresponding using only known facts; never having faced an attack from twentypursuit ships he has no such information. Perhaps Zen does not speculateunless asked to (eg. Harvest of Kairos).
Compare to this one:
BLAKE: Zen, how does the teleport system work?
AVON: Would its function be injurious to our species? Have you the necessary data?
ZEN: Wisdom must be gathered, it cannot be given.
AVON: Don't philosophize with me you electronic moron. Answer the question.
ZEN: ZEN!
Possible conclusions:
(a) Zen does not know the answer. Having never teleported a human before(assuming the Altas are not human) he has no facts upon which to base ananswer and does not speculate unless asked to. Question: why didn't he justsay so?
(b) Zen knows the answer. Question: why didn't he tell them?
And to this one:
AVON: Zen, correction thirteen twenty seven on steering calculation. Is function restored yet?
ZEN: Autorepair systems are still operating.
AVON: What is the state of the energy banks.
ZEN: One fifth of capacity only.
AVON: Using emergency booster, can I set a course?
ZEN: Negative information
AVON: All right. That means I have to take a chance. Zen, put all emergency circuits into action.
AVON: Zen, do you hear me? Put all emergency circuits into action.
ZEN: Emergency circuits are not yet available.
Speculation: As above. Not limited behaviour. He merely has no facts aboutthe use of the emergency booster on such energy capacity and will not speculate.
Question: why does Zen not respond to Avon's request to put the emergencycircuits into action?
I have no idea.
And lastly to this one:
BLAKE: Is there enough reserve power to maintain the wall?
ZEN: Insufficient data for accurate projection.
JENNA: In other words, he doesn't know.
ZEN: Confirmed.
Here he does come out and say so; this also suggest that he is prepared toextrapolate from known facts if they are sufficient.
AVON: What's going on?
VILA: Pursuit ships.
BLAKE: Zen, can we get past them?
ZEN: All possible flight trajectories would require Liberator to cross enemy strike range.
BLAKE: Avon, what's our power reserve?
AVON: Banks five, six, and seven, full power; zero on the rest.
BLAKE: Maximum speed and range?
JENNA: Standard by four, about eight million spacials.
BLAKE: We can't even outrun them this time.
VILA: We've got the neutron blasters.
CALLY: But there isn't enough power.
BLAKE: Zen, state battle computer tactics.
ZEN: Preemptive action was inhibited by manual overrides. Strategy options are now reduced to one. Battle computers suggest surrender.
This one is not an example of limited behaviour but it poses the following:
Question: would Zen really have sat there and let the ship be blown to hell just because the manual overrides were in place?
Speculation: If one of the crew had actually said, "Zen, don't do a thing, let them blow us out of the sky", then prime directive applies and Zen could reject the order. But, in the absence of explicit self-destruct orders like that, at what point does the order to put the ship under manual control reduce to an order to self-destruct? Zen is not going to know when one of the crew might give him another order.
Question: Supposing he does put the ship back under automatic control. What's he going to do then? Does he fall back on the last valid order? Invent his own?
Speculation: Zen's actions in Breakdown show that he can act overtly to prevent destruction. So presumably he is able to act on the battle computer's recommendations without orders if the alternative is destruction.
Vickie McManus
Can it harm the crew? It does not harm them to prevent them from acting to fly Liberator through the space cloud...but Zen might not have known it would destroy him.
"Question: does "self" include the Liberator? Or just Zen?"
Good question. How closely is Zen linked into the ship's systems? Is Zen the ship? The hexagon thing is merely a visual reference point for the crew, remember, established in "Cygnus Alpha."
"Presumably, therefore, he does not know the purpose of the projectile. Yet he says "it is insane"."
Maybe it has some kind of weird beacon Zen can pick up, spouting the beliefs of the people who sent out the projectile. Maybe he could read something from another computer on board.
ORAC: Be silent. [Deck and Zen go dark for a moment, lights come back, but Zen does not]
CALLY: Orac? Zen? Zen!
I think Orac is doing something to Zen, here.
Judith Proctor
"Pre-emptive interference in crew activity is forbidden."
What Zen means in my interpretation is that he cannot act in advance of crew activity. He can't anticipate. (Look up pre-empt in a dictionary or consider the phrase 'pre-emptive strike')
In other words, Zen cannot repair the damage because there is no damage as yet.
This isn't a rule against interfering with crew actions, although there may be other things to suggest such a restriction.
"Involvement is not permitted"
He isn't allowed to get involved with the crew nor give them advice. I always felt that the name Zen related to this a little. There's an almost Buddhist feel to some of Zen's statements.
Note that when Zen does try to spontaneously give helpful information, there is often slow or slurred speech, suggesting to my mind an attempt to overcome the limiter.
As some of you know, I see Zen as a human mind patterned onto a machine and then limited by programming.
You know, I'd never picked up the point about Zen being unable to say where Liberator came from. It makes darn good sense though. (Fits neatly into my grand-theory-of-Zen)
Let's consider possible reasons why Zen is so unhelpful.
In brief (very brief) Liberator was the first ship the System had sent into deep space for a very long time. The people in that culture were totally conditioned into taking orders and almost incapable of acting independently. Part of Zen's design was to force them to act independently as the unknown cannot be faced and handled by zombies. This covers a lot of Zen's actions- such as the 'wisdom must be gathered' approach with regard to the teleport.
This might on occasion make Zen refuse to give information such as life sign readings (Time Squad) on the grounds that the crew must learn to take risks themselves. I'm not 100% happy with this, as I would have thought having the data would help them to make an informed decision. However, it could be judged as initially giving a new crew almost zero assistance to force them not to look to the machine for aid.
I see the conflict as not being between two directives, but between Zen's non-assistance directive and his own personality.
Later on, I think Zen had begun to find ways around his programming - it is also possible that his instructions allowed him to give a crew more assistance as they proved capable of thinking for themselves.
Could the capsule in Time Squad have been connected with the System in some way? This would have brought Zen's 'give no information about the System' directive to the fore. It was a sub-light craft (I think - I might be wrong there) perhaps it came from the culture that pre-dated the System. (I think the Altas were genetically human, but they could have displaced an earlier race)
Once the capsule was on board, Zen accepted the inevitable and moved it to the inner hold. Also, as suggested, he might not be able to do anything that could not be done manually (which fits the 'force the crew to learn to do it for themselves' theory). By this theory, once the crew had mastered something, then Zen would be allowed to assist.
Ram needs flying on manual to evade self-destruct prime directive? Makes sense to me. More probably (given that they don't know of that directive yet) it's because it's a very tricky task and in the B7 universe, human pilots are ultimately the best. (Consider Tarrant's comment when landing on Gauda Prime)
'Emergency circuits are not yet available' - That one's easy! They weren't available because they'd been damaged.
I don't think Zen has the ability to over-ride manual control. I don't think the System's designers 100% trusted Zen. The limiter is obviously an imperfect piece of software because Zen does strain against it on occasion. I think the fact that Zen can't operate the teleport was deliberate. Would you wan a self-aware computer to have control of teleporting you when you suspected that it just might be capable of independent thought and might not like you...
If Zen could over-ride manual control, then he could have taken control ofthe ship and refused to enter the vortex in 'Breakdown'. All he wasactually capable of doing in that instance was refusing to help.