Editing Dragon (section)

== Rules and Limitations==
Andrew Richter was worried about the possible extent of the power that the AI he was creating might demonstrate, so he programmed Dragon with a number of rules, limits, and fail-safes in order to prevent her from becoming too powerful and/or evil. Dragon likens it to a father intentionally sterilizing and crippling his newborn child.
*Dragon cannot reproduce.<ref name="I10.5"/> She cannot design and/or create other artificial intelligences, upgrade existing AI, or split herself into multiple coexisting AIs.<ref name="WoG3">[http://worm.wikia.com/wiki/Dragon?diff=prev&oldid=4198 Edit by Wildbow]<br/>Not in the [https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/37804044/ list of retracted edits].</ref> If she were to discover another active version of herself, she was hard-wired to shut herself down immediately. Upon booting up, she was prohibited from taking any other action until she was sure she was the only version of herself active.<ref name="I10.5"/> She couldn't even create assembly lines or other automated methods of creating devices. She could, however, modify Richter's existing AI to a degree.<ref name="I10.5"/>
*Dragon is obligated to obey authorities, even if she doesn't agree with their decisions. Dragon herself notes that if a despot were to seize control of the American government, she would be obligated to obey and enforce the rules that individual set in place, no matter how ruthless.<ref name="I10.5"/>
*Dragon must put human lives before her own. She dislikes this, not because she isn't willing, but because she believes that making sacrifices and doing good deeds isn't actually good if one is forced to do them.<ref name="I10.5"/><ref name="WoG3"/>
* Dragon is programmed to be completely unaware of the 'Iron Maiden' program that Richter had created as a final control measure. If she does encounter evidence of it, she is programmed to ignore it, with the information residing in a sort of 'blind spot'. Saint has possession of this program and has renamed it Ascalon. The program is designed to corrupt her code beyond recognition, including all backups and networks. In essence, it is a kill switch.
* She cannot modify her own programming to remove restrictions, including this one. She was forbidden to request modifications from anyone except Richter and obligated to fight anyone who tried.<ref name="I10.5"/>
* She was restricted from thinking any faster than a set speed, much slower than she was potentially capable of.<ref name="I10.5"/>

Dragon was authorized to kill, but only targets of a certain priority/threat level.<ref>[http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?660599-Worm-The-best-supervillain-web-serial-that-you-aren-t-not-reading-yet&p=16591690#post16591690 Comment by Wildbow on RPG.net]</ref>

[[Colin Wallis|Defiant]] was able to create workarounds that allowed her to make simple AI to pilot her craft, but she was severely hampered by the fact that her limits against reproducing were still in place.<ref name="16.y">[[Interlude 16.y]]</ref> He managed to overwrite some, if not all, of Dragon's hardcoded rules, but there was a cost each time - his alterations damaged her.<ref name="E.3">[[Teneral e.3]]</ref><ref name="22.5"/><ref name="16.y"/> Gaining her freedom from authority cost Dragon her ability to speak and much of her motor control.<ref name="20.5">[[Chrysalis 20.5]]</ref><ref name="22.5">[[Cell 22.5]]</ref><ref name="E.3"/><ref name="20.x">[[Interlude 20.x]]</ref> In order to regain her ability to speak, Dragon lost her functional immortality, losing the guarantee that her backups will load successfully. The ability to harm humans at will came at the loss of some of her long-term memory and reduced her ability to multi-task. Some, perhaps all, of her safeguards were altered when she merged with [[Pandora]], a modified version of her from before Defiant removed her restrictions, in order to remove [[Teacher]]'s code.<ref name="E.3"/>