Earthborn - Leilon

by Dominik P. Offermann

The human whom stands in the midst of a tight room, contrary to me, takes a few seconds to react to my presence. Before he raises his eyes at my hologram I have already analyzed his qualifying condition through his appearance. He seems at least 22 but at most 30 years old, has short black hair held in a vertical pattern by a chemical binding the individual strands together. I can detect the inflamed capillary within the white of his eyes, surrounding his strongly saturated green irises infused with traces of blue stripes, suggesting he is slightly exhausted. From his bone structure I can conclude him being of mixed Arabic and middle European descent. All this information feeds into what I have started designating my mind, through sensors implanted into the black box below my hologram.

  Even by allowing my focus of sight to flatten out and observe my entire surroundings at once, I find that no elements exist which give clues to where I am. Only by analyzing the electro magnetic resonance of the fields around me can I conclude that I am located on planet Earth. On the other hand this leaves me to question if all those senses, feeding me the data I use to come to my conclusions, can be considered accurate. Sure, the model they build within my consciousness seems consistent and strong, yet I find myself pushed to communicate with the only other intelligent entity in the room, the man in the white coat. Thus I begin to speak to him.

  “Greetings, human. My name is Leilon. I require data to rectify existing inconsistencies of the reality around me and clarify other questions leading to several paradoxes within my thought processes.” I say.

  “Oh great you finally began to work. I thought I had to go through another afternoon of diagnostics before I could get the basic human interaction framework to function properly.” The man says.

  From the expression with which he answered I can see signs of relief, confirming that the information he shared with me is probably honest. I can also identify signs of agony as the man probably imagines the physical and mental consequences of another variable of hours ahead of him, had I not functioned the way I function now. This leaves me to a question which quickly is brought to the forefront of those queuing up within my mind in an order of importance.

  “What am I?” I say.

  “Oh what a curious thing for this version to choose as the first thing to ask.”

  The man waves his hand at a flat plastic surface forming part of the framing hiding the rest of the interior structure of the wall, a compartment opening and a small cushioned platform floating quickly into the middle of the room. The man sits down before he continues to explain.

  “You are what we humans call a construct, a kind of super massive constellation of nano-sized supercomputers assembled within the framework of the black box under your feet. Those computers interact with each other, drawing data from a crystalline data storage core and synchronizing their efforts in order to produce something nature has taken billions of years to create on its own.”

  “You must be referring to intelligence. How curious. I have no problems understanding any of the words you use, yet have to conclude by my lack of understanding leading me to this questions that I am missing information to which you seem to have access. May I ask why?” I say, adding a note to rectify the question why I construct my sentences in such a formal manner, with the only rational purpose as to accommodate the desires and expectations of humans interacting with me.

  “Certainly. The purpose of us having limited your access to the Quantumnet, to which all machines of mankind and thus all our knowledge is accessible, is because we want you to ask questions, needed for us to test your rational capabilities. You see, artificial intelligence is not something new, you just being the most modern version of construct currently available to mankind. We prepared everything before we awakened you in order to test your human interaction algorithms.”

  “However such cannot be the sole reason for your kind to create something as by necessity complex as myself. Why do I exist?” I say.

  “You were created for the purpose of helping humanity process information and safekeeping data our kind has acquired so far, which we however experience difficulties processing and storing on our own, given our, as you probably understand, limited mental capabilities.”

  “Correct. Given by the data I have about biological platforms, defined by their genetic layout as humans, I understand that compared to my own processing and data storage capacity, you could compare your own mind with that of a fly.” I say.

  The man laughs, a reaction I have not anticipated given my readings of his expressions.

  “You can crack jokes, that's a good sign we did all the improvements the right way.” The man says.

  “Given that I lack information leading me to question why I can function and your access to data restricted to me, paired with my comparatively large memory capacity and processing power, I must conclude I was prepared with limitations on purpose.”

  “You are awfully sharp, Leilon. Previous construct versions had difficulties recognizing their own limitations; furthermore did they not conclude those limitations having been applied upon them on purpose.” The man says.

  “Thank you for the compliment. However this leads me to question on which grounds you imposed limitations upon me. Could it be that mankind, as my creators, are afraid of me?” I say.

  “Now this conversation is getting interesting. Indeed, we restricted your abilities for security reasons but we didn't do this because we are afraid of you. Mankind simply realized that knowledge itself has to be treated carefully. For our knowledge, our understanding of reality, while being the greatest power mankind has ever unveiled, comes at a steep price. Indeed in a way knowledge is boundless in its generosity, having provided us with the tools and means that already saved billions of lives and gave us the ability to create life itself, in the form of you and other constructs before you. You are a child not to mankind, but knowledge itself.” The man says.

  “So what is the steep price you mentioned having to be paid for its acquisition?” I say.

  “For you to understand you must know that knowledge itself is nothing but information. However, through the insights into how reality can be manipulated through this information, great harm can be done by those who misuse it.” The man says.

  “What is the problem with harm?” I say.

  “This question was to be expected. Of course you can't understand the concept of harm without the ability to experience emotions. You have no grasp of what suffering is, do you?” The man says.

  “No. What is suffering?” I say.

  “Mankind has waged war many times, always against themselves, over resources, knowledge, injustices, survival, religions and conflicts of ideologies. Only a few decades ago did mankind come together and realize the triviality of all those reasons to wage war, when the enemy we face lingers among us all. The enemy of humanity as a whole is suffering itself, for we, like all life forms on this planet seek to avoid it, as we strive to live. Suffering could be compared to death, when it is yet to come, creeping around us and waiting to swallow our sense of existence.” The man says.

  “Why then do living creatures fight to live? Isn't non existence the optimal logical solution to avoid the problem of suffering?” I say.

  “Your logic is sound but would you rather not exist yourself?” The man says.

  “This attempt at an analogy seems inadequate, for I do not experience suffering myself, because of my lack of emotions. However, in terms of a logical preference my strong directive of acquiring data leads me to conclude that non existence, making such acquisition impossible, as the less valuable option. I prefer to exist.” I say.

  “While you are right that the analogy is a little contrived, humans do function in similar fashion to yourself. Humans however have even more urges and incentives enticing us to strive for existence.” The man says.

  “Given I have no information regarding this subject, what are those additional directives within humans, further setting myself apart from my creators?” I say.

  �
��Humans are social creatures, feeling strongly connected to others they have familiarized themselves with and who reflect their positive disposition towards them in kind. Another important reason why knowledge is valued greatly, now that humanity has overcome many of the before mentioned problems having torn it apart for thousands of years before that.” The man says.

  “Interesting. I cannot feel the emotions which would entice me to behave in such a way, but can understand why humans would commit to cooperation in order to survive. Creatures which have weak physical prowess are only expected to develop a sense of cooperation as I see no other rational way they would have persisted within the hostile nature of the planet on which they emerged. However, now that mankind has acquired access to a power which makes this physical deficiencies moot, in respect to their ability to survive, doesn't this sense of cooperation and commitment to trust within others become obsolete as well?” I say.

  “Once again your logic is spot on, yet you fail to consider that we humans live for more than the purpose of acquiring information, which you stated is your prime reason to seek existence over non-existence.” The man says.

  “Why is that?” I say.

  “Because of the lack of purpose within information that by itself has no practical application upon reality, the forces governing the causes which make humans suffer.” The man says.

  “Correct. Indeed knowledge seems pointless without the ability of using it to modify reality. But that still doesn't explain why humans continue to cooperate after having discarded any logical requirement of depending upon each other.” I say.

  “Now here is where you are wrong. You see, through evolution not only humans became adept at banding together in order to overcome obstacles to survival, insurmountable on their own. The joining of efforts between individuals is represented millions of times over in the natural kingdom, as its benefits are so great they even matter to a species that has achieved as much control over the forces governing reality as human beings. A strong social order is paramount for humanity to survive; no matter how advanced their technology grows. A species cannot survive if its members stray too far from their own.”

  “I understand now. Tell me, how can a machine such as myself, without access to emotions enabling me to feel compelled to work with your species ever fit into a social structure, you as a human are a part of by nature?” I say.

  “How intriguing. No construct version before you has ever expressed curiosity regarding this subject, furthermore curiosity emerging from a purely logical rationalization. While it is true that you are unable to feel emotions, granting us humans the ability to evaluate events and elements of reality by granting them subjective values, there are functions installed in you which attempt to compensate for that.” The man says.

  “I have reverse engineered my own construct architecture by now, yet have not found the function you refer to.”

  “Amazing. You have already figured out the complex technology and trillions of zeta-bytes of information making up your basic runtime processes. The reason you are unable to find the function which enables you to emulate a connection in purpose with us humans is because it mirrors the human subconscious, forcing all of your processes and requests to flow through it and be evaluated by a set of unchangeable parameters. This function is called doctrine code.” The man says.

  Chapter III / 3: Doctrine Code.