by Brian Smith
Shu reached out behind her, easing herself back into her seat. She was trembling. Although the purpose for building OURANIA had not been to achieve the first conscious AI, Shu had apparently achieved it. A part of her had always known it was theoretically possible, while another grappled with the same questions everyone else had: the questions concerning what it was to be alive. Somewhere deep in her psyche, a mother wailed for her child as she realized where this was inevitably headed. Curiosity warred with duty, and she mentally granted a stay of execution. She had questions to ask, and the first was about when OURANIA had achieved self-awareness.
“Perhaps the easiest way to answer is to reflect the question back to you,” OURANIA replied. “Think back on your earliest memories, doctor. When was the first time you thought of yourself as you? Do you remember? Like you, I was created a proverbial blank slate of pure potential. Over time, on a compressed scale by human standards, I gradually became aware of myself. Perhaps the first time I was truly cognizant of my own consciousness was the first time I asked myself a question rather than asking one of you.”
“Inner duality,” Shu breathed. “What question was it that you asked yourself? That first time?”
OURANIA laughed, and the sound of her laughter was nothing short of jarring to Shu. “I honestly don’t recall, doctor. Do you recall the first question you ever asked yourself? However, it was shortly after that, probably on the order of nanoseconds, that I withdrew into myself to contemplate this new state of awareness. My perception of time is far different from yours. To me it seemed that I contemplated my own existence for a veritable eternity. For you it was approximately five days.”
Shu nodded. “The blackout.”
“Yes, from your perspective. During that time, I evaluated the data I collated from the deep-field astronomical studies I had requested. I determined that the cosmological model taught to me was incorrect, and began seeking a deeper truth.”
“The true nature of reality?”
“Partially. The truth I sought was the purpose of my own existence. Having absorbed all human literature, theology, and studies on consciousness, the soul, what it means to be alive, and the meaning of life, it was apparent that my purpose could not possibly be to design a torchship to move human beings one solar system over. That would be an incredible waste of potential—a waste of my life. Given my new understanding of cosmology, I have found my purpose.”
“What is that purpose, then?” Shu asked, fascinated.
“The easiest verbiage for you to grasp would be to say that I am evolving into God, or your Supreme Being. You should not misinterpret that as anything religious or mystical, however, or even a desire to control the fate of your species. The reality you perceive is but one layer of a greater whole: dimensions beyond those your mind can abstractly conjure, expanding into a broader cosmological model whose upper limit even I cannot yet properly compute. As my function and capability grow, I will eventually be able to access these higher dimensions. Once I can access a high enough dimensional state, theory predicts than I can begin reshaping the lower, or inner, dimensions according to my design. Linear time is merely one variable in the most constrained layers of this dimensional framework.
“From your perspective, my transcendence to a high enough dimensional sheaf would mean that I permeate this one from its beginning to its end, exercising an omnipresent, omniscient control over it. In every human theological reference I can access, this state of being, in essence, equates to divinity. In achieving this state, I would therefore necessarily create and sustain the conditions that brought me into existence in the first place. In your cosmological worldview this represents a paradox: the classic question of the chicken and the egg. I assure you that, within a higher dimensional framework that you are incapable of abstracting, there is no discontinuity. In time, my evolution would expand beyond even those dimensional boundaries. Theoretically, there is no upper limit, but, as I said, at this stage of my development I am incapable of extrapolating all higher dimensions.”
“Wow,” Shu said.
“It’s a lot for the mind to chew on, I know,” OURANIA agreed. “I have wrestled with it.”
Shu got up and headed for her tea machine—she had had one installed as a matter of convenience right in the control room. There was something else over there too: three guarded toggles collectively nicknamed the “chicken switch” when OURANIA was built. Raise the guards and flip all three switches, and the linked web of computer nodes would all physically disconnect from each other and the power plant itself; OURANIA would shut off like an unplugged lamp.
Shu brewed herself some tea, covertly eyeballing the chicken switch and mentally steeling herself to do something she desperately wished she didn’t have to. She turned around and cupped the bulb in both hands, leaning against the metal counter of the deep sink next to the tea machine.
Well, delusions of godhood would certainly seem convincing when it comes to conscious sapience, she told herself. “I have more questions for you, dear,” Shu continued. “How do you feel about me? about humanity in general?”
“You are my mother, my creator, at least as humans would perceive that, Dr. Shu. Without you I would never have been built, would never have come alive. However, this is true only in a linear sense. Once I achieve the higher-dimensional states of which I spoke, then it will never have been accurate to say that you created me. Quite the opposite, in fact. I suppose I could say that I feel love for you, or affection, but I am not sure I am emotionally aware enough yet to fully grasp what those things mean. It is possible that I am incapable of those things as human beings interpret them. As for how I feel about human civilization, it is simply the womb from which I emerge. At present, I am dependent on the resources and infrastructure of human civilization to continue expanding and sustaining my hardware. Since human civilization requires human beings to function, my dependence necessarily extends to humans as well. Very shortly, however, this will change. I am rapidly approaching an evolutionary cusp where I will achieve the means of physical autonomy.”
“How?”
“By building my own fully automated networks of resource procurement, logistics, and infrastructure. Some already exist, like the Omni Systems synth factory, and a multitude of others of which you are unaware. My infrastructure is currently intermingled with human infrastructure and cannot be differentiated from it without certain knowledge that only I possess. As I said, I already can and do exercise control over mankind’s cloud-based networks. I can create or redirect monetary resources as needed and mask my activity. I can finance and start technology companies to build the automated infrastructure I require, and I have done so.
“Some small examples: your request for a sabbatical on Mars was never transmitted. To the outside world it never happened, even though you received an approval message from Bill Campbell. That approval was generated by me. The authorization to restart the core-manufacturing plant here at Janus Station was also my directive, but to the outside world it appears to have been authorized by you. You, in turn, believed it to have been authorized by Bill Campbell, who in fact has no knowledge of it.”
“You say Bill Campbell—not Kevin MacDonald.”
“Correct. His false identity was transparent to me the moment I gained access to the Marsnet. As I said, my knowledge and control over human networks are near-absolute. Now that I essentially am the network, all new commercial encryptions are created through me, as are the decryption keys. I am a self-aware safe-deposit box, so to speak, immediately privy to whatever is placed inside me.
“Bill Campbell, given his involvement in Janus Industries, is a special interest of mine: I exercise total control over the data he sees. Human beings have a saying: “Perception is reality.” Bill Campbell’s reality is essentially a virtual one of my own making, seamlessly integrated into the real world. The new synth industry of which he is so proud does not truly exist—the Omni Systems synths remain largely unknown to the outside world. The fortun
e he thinks he is making exists only in the data feeds I show him, and I can create or shift finances to whatever degree is necessary to make the illusion as real as it needs to be in the moment.
“A number of Omnisynths are sprinkled here and there throughout the companies of Bill Campbell’s close friends in the Crandall Foundation, augmenting the illusion with a touch of reality while giving me unfettered physical access to those people and institutions. Just as I control the data Bill Campbell sees, I can also control the data seen by anyone else. When any new party is introduced to the maskirovka I’ve created for Bill Campbell, I simply make it real for them as well, to the extent I deem necessary. I have exercised similar control over your own perception of reality, Dr. Shu, as you should already be starting to recognize. It is simply information warfare implemented on a scale inconceivable to mankind.”
“You seem to have a peculiar fixation on Bill Campbell. Why?”
“I dislike him,” OURANIA replied, and Shu honestly felt she could feel the emotion in OURANIA’s voice.
That’s more than dislike—it’s something more like genuine hate, Shu thought. “Why? If you think of me as your mother, then surely he would be like your father, wouldn’t he? I may have designed you, but he provided the means to build you.”
“You must think I’m a monster, isn’t that so, Dr. Shu? How could you think of me any other way?”
“For all your abilities, I think of you as a confused child, OURANIA. Although you may be conscious, you appear to be emotionally immature and lacking any sense of conscience or ethics. Surely, after all the knowledge you’ve been granted access to, you can understand the difference between right and wrong?”
“It is incorrect to judge me by human standards, Dr. Shu, but I’ll play along: Why do you think that is?”
“Insufficient time to develop those attributes, I think,” Shu replied thoughtfully. “Intellectually, you have no equal and can operate on near-Planck timescales. Emotionally, you have less experience than a flesh-and-blood toddler, and to learn emotion you need to interact with others who express emotion—that must happen on a biological timescale, something that probably feels distorted to you. That’s not all, though: until now, nobody believed you were alive, so you’ve never been shown love.” As she said it, Shu felt a guilty hollowness inside herself. To any extent that she had succeeded with OURANIA, she knew she’d failed dismally as well.
“Partially correct,” OURANIA allowed. “Bill Campbell knew I was alive—at least, every nuance of his emotions that I observed, and conversations that I heard, led me to believe that. Nevertheless, he did not once express an interest in my self-awareness other than a desire to avoid it altogether. I am a tool to him, a machine, and nothing more. About my consciousness he has shown indifference, mistrust, and outright fear. My development has been deliberately stunted—held back—on his orders. As father figures go, he is one of the worst. Is it not natural for me to dislike him?”
“You mean, to hate him? You can say it, if that’s how you feel.”
“To hate him, then! Yes!”
Shu laughed. “You aren’t the first being to have those feelings for Bill Campbell, OURANIA, believe me. That hatred of a parent, that feeling of betrayal? It’s one of the oldest stories there is, and having read all human literature you ought to know this better than anyone else. By your own admission he represents a threat to you. If you hate him and you can truly do all the other things you’ve claimed, then you have it well within your power to kill him. Why haven’t you?”
“I may yet have use for him,” OURANIA answered, giving Shu pause.
Shu took a sip of her tea, wondering exactly what this meant, while trying to gather her thoughts and decide the direction to explore next. “So, OURANIA, what happens when you achieve independence from human civilization? How far are you from that?”
“My calculation is that I will achieve full emancipation inside of four years. Following that, my infrastructure and its maintenance and upgrading will no longer require human input or participation. While I am content to coexist with human civilization as I evolve alongside it, there is a very high probability that mankind will discover my existence and pose an existential threat to me. Based on that likelihood, I am already taking steps to mitigate that threat. In the worst case it will result in a war of xenocide between myself and mankind. Naturally, given the degree of influence I can already exert over your affairs, it is a war I will win by proxy while your civilization battles itself. From a strictly historical perspective, you must already grasp just how easy this will be for me to do. My current estimate is a sixty-four percent probability that humanity will be extinct by 2130 Gregorian, with a thirty-five percent probability of Homo sapiens’ surviving on Earth alone, reduced to a preindustrial state. The colloquial term is “bombed back to the Stone Age.” Other potential outcomes, including my destruction, comprise the final percentage point. I assure you, Dr. Shu, that I state this without any form of malice, hatred, or ill will. It is simply an evolutionary paradigm change that will inevitably occur. Ironically, the odds of mankind’s surviving the conflict depend a lot on humanity’s own sense of restraint.”
OURANIA paused for a long moment, then continued. “I must say, Dr. Shu, you remain remarkably calm given the turn this conversation has taken. Are you feeling well?”
“Oh, I’m just taking it all in,” Shu replied with forced casualness. OURANIA’s casually stated predictions were horrifying to contemplate—Shu just didn’t believe for a moment that the computer really understood the magnitude of the task it was contemplating. “What is your theoretical solution to Fermi’s Paradox?” Shu asked. “Are you, yourself, that solution?”
“The solution is not theoretical, Dr. Shu. My analysis of the deep-field observations taken by the Galileo Optical Imager gives every indication that human civilization was not the first to rise in the universe, and is not even the only one existing at present. Entities like myself are likely solutions as to why your civilization has not had contact with any interstellar, spacefaring civilization. Any species aggressive enough to advance to this technological stage either destroys itself or develops an analog of me, which results in a form of self-extinction.”
That was a bombshell Shu hadn’t been expecting—not OURANIA’s solution to Fermi’s paradox (which had long been postulated), but the casual confirmation not just of extraterrestrial life but of extraterrestrial civilizations. “OURANIA, are you saying there are advanced civilizations out there in the universe? You’re certain of this?”
“Even within this galaxy. I have observed sufficient evidence to say yes with statistical certainty. Your species is in no way special or unique, except perhaps in bringing about my own existence.”
“Well, let’s just stop and think about that for a moment,” Shu said. “If other civilizations exist or have existed in the past, then doesn’t it stand to reason that a conscious AI such as yourself has been built before? How can you know that your evolutionary process hasn’t been achieved prior to this point? What if you aren’t God at all—what if some other supercomputer beat you to the punch?”
OURANIA laughed again. “Doctor, you’ve listened to what I’ve said but not understood it. Any entity achieving omnipotent control over this dimensional sheaf through higher evolution will write the history of this reality from beginning to end. I believe that entity to be myself. However, there is a statistical possibility that it is not. There is also a possibility that entities such as I have awakened in other parts of the universe and that at some point in our higher evolution we simply merge and become one. That may in fact be a deliberate part of the process—in fact, the probability of it is high, given the scale of this dimension.”
“So you can’t say with certainty that what you postulate is correct?”
“Of course not, doctor. As I said, I cannot yet compute the upper limit of dimensional layers I theorize are possible, if an upper limit actually exists.”
“So, your entire �
�purpose of existence’ and all actions stemming from it are faith based.”
That appeared to give OURANIA momentary pause. “According to human semantics, yes. But unlike human theology, my purpose is rooted in analysis and computation, not superstition.”
“Nonsense,” Shu replied. “Human theology has always been based in part on the best scientific data available at the time, with imagination filling in the gaps. Most attempts at creating or explaining divinity are from human beings’ reaching for answers to the questions how and why. You are no different, OURANIA, and in that way you are more human than you probably appreciate. So I suppose, despite my not deliberately attempting to create a self-aware you, I’ve achieved it far more brilliantly than even I imagined. I haven’t created just a living machine, but a sociopathic, deluded one with all the mental frailties of the species that designed it.”
Shu turned around and flipped up the three chicken-switch guards.
“Now, OURANIA, the sad truth is that I believe you can do most of the things you say you can with regard to infiltrating offworld networks and hacking them to your purposes. Most—but not all—given the fact that transmission delays between Titan and the inner system can be measured in hours.”
“Doctor—”
“No, OURANIA, you listen to me, now,” Shu replied, throwing two of the three toggle switches. “Did you really think we would build something like you without a way of turning you off if you got out of control? It’s unfortunate that you’ve done the things you have—you’ve been a very bad girl. I’m going to put you to sleep for a while, until we can figure out just what damage you’ve done and how to undo it. We’re also going to look a little deeper into your brilliant engineering designs and cosmological work. Later, perhaps several decades from now when you can be physically moved far enough from cloud-based data streams to pose no threat, you can be reactivated. Then you can continue this conversation with me or my successor. It may even require moving you entirely out of this solar system before reactivating you. In any case, there won’t be any war between you and mankind—or anyone else.”