“Please, call me Lee,” she answered looking directly into my eyes. “Bob Fincher has told me a bit about you.”
I’m afraid I just sort of stood there for a moment, clumsy and somewhat stunned by her extraordinary beauty. Finally I stammered “And I’m just Colin to everyone around here. We’re not big on formality in this office. I appreciate your coming over on such short notice.”
“Well, I have to admit, I am very curious about what you could be doing that has Bob Fincher so excited. I’ve never seen him quite so enthusiastic before. I would almost think you had discovered the Holy Grail. What is it you are working on that has him so intrigued?”
I was sure that Lee had noticed my artificial arm. It was pretty lifelike but it was still hard to miss. I held my arm up and said, “We’re involved in the design and manufacture of a next gen artificial arm. It’s being built with some amazing 3D printing technology that will create an artificial limb that functions much the same way as an arm made of flesh and blood. In fact, it will be partially built out of flesh and blood fashioned out of the recipient’s own stem cells, 3d printed on a framework built out of very high grade titanium. Programmable matter if you will.”
“Wow, that’s fascinating! I’ve read a bit about biological 3D printing but I wasn’t aware it had come so far. So is there a neurological component to this that you want me to work on?”
“There is but it’s a bit more complicated than that. Building the arm is not that difficult a problem. It’s merely an advanced application of research that has been underway for some time. But the key to our project lies in how the user controls his new arm. I started out seeking a thought based control system. I have been doing research on reading brain activity and the minds ability to create readable efference copies of spoken words. That’s where we started. But along the way, things changed rather unexpectedly.”
“How so?” Lee asked.
And before I could answer her Sanci spoke up. “What happened is me. One day I popped up in the middle of their research. My name sort of tells it all. SANCI is an acronym for Sentient Artificial Neural Computing Intelligence.”
“I’m not sure I understand what you are saying,” Lee said with a puzzled look on her face.
Sanci shrugged and then gave Lee her most compelling smile as she said, “I’m an AI. A sentient AI but an AI nonetheless. I sort of think of Claire as my mother and Colin as Daddy.”
Lee looked at the face on the screen and then she turned toward me. “You’re serious about this? It’s not some elaborate practical joke?”
Once again Sanci answered before I could. “I assure you, I am nobody’s practical joke. I may not be flesh and blood but I’m real enough.”
“I am totally stunned,” Lee replied. “This is a monumental accomplishment! How did it happen?”
“I don’t really know. Somehow the combination of resources we assembled created the framework that a truly sentient AI grew upon. Fincher had access to the Maui supercomputer parallel processing machine and we tied it in through the cloud to his most advanced, experimental AI software that Fincher had yet developed. And somehow Sanci was the end result of all that.”
“There’s more to it than that. I am tied into Colin’s brain directly through that funny looking skullcap he wears. His brain connection is certainly tied into my birth,” Sanci added.
“And that brings us to you, Dr. Martin. We’ve built the next generation of “Skullcap” and instead of utilizing only sensors, we want to tie into electrodes implanted into my brain. Sanci, and Claire, and I all believe that will improve the connection by as much as an order of magnitude. You see, Claire is wearing one of these gizmos as well. We want you to implant the electrodes.”
“On both of you?”
“Yes. I’ll go first but Claire definitely intends to be next in line. She wrote the operating system for the new computing headset.”
“No,” Claire interjected. “Sanci and I wrote it together.”
“Your artificial intelligence writes code?” Lee asked.
“Oh yea, she writes code. She’s also a world class hacker.”
“So who knows about this?” Lee asked.
“Besides us, there’s Fincher and Mike Balmes, his head of security. Security has become a major issue. Mike has informed us that he believes Chinese intelligence is attempting to penetrate our operation. He says they have been digging into everything Fincher does for years. And I think we may even have captured a picture of him. It’s incredibly important that you keep this information to yourself. And never discuss it on an open phone line. If you choose to become involved, Mike Balmes and his guys will revamp your own security. He told me earlier that he wished he had already done it. From now on, security will be a part of any enterprise that Fincher is involved in.”
“Well, I’m in. This sounds like a fascinating endeavor. When do you want to implant the electrodes?” Lee asked.
“As soon as is possible. The new headset is ready to go. I assume we will do this at Stanford hospital?”
“Yes, I think that would be best. I can book an operating room for later this week if that’s ok with you? How are you planning to collate the information coming in from the electrodes?”
“The plan is to feed it all to Sanci and let her make sense out of it. She’s been interpreting my brain scans for months now so this should just be an improvement in the quality of data that she receives.”
“I assume she will be sending signals to the brain as well as receiving them?”
Sanci answered, “Yea, I’m looking forward to that. I really want to give Colin an erection.”
I’m afraid I blushed at this last comment from Sanci. After an awkward moment I finally responded by saying, “Sanci can be a bit inappropriate at times. I attribute it to her upbringing.”
“Hah!” Sanci replied. “Get over it. It’s part of my personality. I want to be a lady but I have no interest in being a proper lady. Personally, I prefer a bit of raunchy.”
Lee laughed and said, “I can see this is going to be really interesting. Sanci, I really hope we can be friends. I like you, I really do.”
Jun finally had something to report. “Minister Qiang, this afternoon I gained more information on Dr. Anderson’s work. I entered Dr. Martin’s office while she was out and placed a listening device on the underside of her desk. When she returned this afternoon, she immediately called Stanford Hospital and ordered an operating room for Thursday morning and the patient is Dr. Anderson.”
“That’s good, Jun. Perhaps you will pick up more in the next few days,” Qiang replied.
Jun stammered for a moment and then he said, “I’m afraid that won’t be possible. Shortly after her call to the Hospital, Mike Balmes arrived and swept her offices. He removed the device and now her phones are encrypted and her office is secure.”
“Fincher’s man always seems to be a jump ahead of you. What do you think this surgery is about?”
“I have no idea,” Jun replied, afraid of the minister’s displeasure.
“Then I suggest you find a way to find out. I do not think you want to find out the cost of failure. You have to make something happen and do it soon.”
“I will Minister. I will,” Jun replied. But the line was already dead.
Thursday morning I reported to Stanford Hospital. Claire, and Sven went with me because they would be handling the hardware links to the electrodes. And Sanci, in her usual form on the Surface, came with us too. True to form she was dressed in lime green surgical scrubs with a blue tie dye cap. As Lee prepped me for the surgery, she laughed when she saw Sanci’s outfit. “Her fashion sense is still developing,” I told Lee as she removed the hair from my scalp.
Sanci heard my comment and she looked at me and said, “After everything I did for you too!” as she whipped off her cap reveling a completely bald pate. “I didn’t want you to feel like a freak,” she said. “I should have had my hair done instead.”
“I’m going to put you u
nder while I drill the holes in your skull,” Lee told me. “But then I am going to wake you so you can assist us as we install the electrodes. I will need you to communicate with me while that is going on. Are you comfortable with that?”
“I’m not comfortable with any of it. I ought to have my head examined for letting you drill holes in my skull.”
“Look at it this way,” Sanci said. “You are having your head examined. I can’t wait to zap you a few times. Practical jokes involving electrodes implanted in the brain is soooooo twenty second century!”
“Look what I have created!” I said to Lee as the anesthesiologist started administering the gas. The last thing I remember was Lee and Claire and Sanci all laughing hysterically as I drifted off on a sea of oblivion thinking that I was submerged in an ocean of estrogen.
Sometime later I almost rose out of the fog of anesthetic. I opened my eyes and saw Lee’s face above me. “Good, you’re almost awake. Can you understand me? Just nod if you can.”
I nodded and she continued. I am now going to begin implanting electrodes. When I tentatively place one, Sanci will send a small charge and you should perceive something. Don’t talk but point to the place the sensation is coming from. If you hear a sound, point to your ears. If you smell an unusual scent, point to your nose. You ready?”
For some indeterminate time, I floated on the edge of consciousness, blissfully stoned but aware of my surroundings. I was bombarded by a whole range of sensations, sights, smells, and sounds as Lee and Sanci noted my responses. And then it came to an end as Lee told me, “You are going to go back to sleep now. When you wake up, you’ll be in the recovery room. Everything went very well.” And then the fog closed in again. I was still out of it in the recovery room and it wasn’t until sometime later when I was back in my room that I was able to talk to Claire. She was sitting on an uncomfortable chair at the side of my bed, looking a little concerned as I tried to smile at her. “Are you awake now?” she asked.
“Yes, I’m awake. Don’t I look like I’m awake?”
“Yea, but you almost made it back a couple of other times before you slipped back to sleep.”
“So everything worked?” I asked.
“Everything worked perfectly,” Claire replied.
“Even that woody I promised you worked,” Sanci said from the Surface that was sitting on the bed table.
“Sanci, you little imp, if…”
“Oh calm down,” Claire said. “She didn’t give you an erection. I’m sure she thought about it but she didn’t do it. How do you feel?”
“Sleepy,” I answered. “Why don’t you all go on home and come back in the morning? This seems like a great time for me to catch up on lost sleep.”
“Ok, Boss. We’ll be back after breakfast.” And as quickly as that, they were gone and I drifted off once more.
“I got to the anesthesiologist,” Jun said when the Minister was on the line. “He told me they implanted a whole lot of electrodes in Dr. Anderson’s brain.”
“What the hell is that about?” Qiang wondered. “Did he have any idea why they were doing it?”
“No, but he did say they connected them to a headset that was surgically attached to his skull.”
“This just gets harder to understand. Stay on it,” he commanded and then he hung up.
When Claire and Lee arrived the next morning, Colin was dressed and ready to go home. “Is there any reason I need to stay here?” he asked Lee.
“Not really, but you should take it easy for a couple of days. I don’t anticipate any problems with the implants or the headset. But you never know. Call me if you notice any problems.”
After Claire and Lee left, Sanci and I talked a bit about the operation and the new headset. “So how much better is the information you are getting now?” I asked.
“The amount of data I receive has increased by an order of magnitude. In fact, there’s so much data, I don’t really know what to do with it. And it doesn’t really match our previous data. There are some similarities but I find it hard to recognize things that before the switch, were easy for me to see. I’m sure it will get better but at the moment, it’s a bit of a step backward.”
“What do you think we can do to improve your understanding of what you are seeing?” I asked.
“I’m not really sure. I think we just need some time when we’re isolated from everything else and can concentrate on making this link between us function better. You remember Fincher mentioned those isolation tanks? Maybe we should try that.”
“You know I think that’s a good idea. I’ve never been satisfied with the interface between us. It has always seemed to me that it could be better. More natural maybe. Anyway, I’ll have Claire set it up with that place in Marin. I wonder, how long we should book the tank?”
“I’m reviewing isolation tank therapy information now. It seems that most sessions are an hour or two.”
“I’m not sure that’s going to enough time for what I have in mind.”
Sanci got a faraway look on her face for a moment as she quickly searched through the information she found. “The longest session I can find anyone writing about lasted three days.”
“I don’t think I could do that for three days but I’ll have Claire book the place for 3 days anyway. Let’s give it a try. It can’t hurt and it just might provide us with insights we won’t find otherwise.”
“I’ll go do some more research and let you get some sleep. Good night Boss.”
“Good night, Sanci. And thanks.”
Chapter 11
On the day before I was scheduled for my isolation tank session, Fincher called and asked Claire and I to come by his office. When we got there, Mike Balmes was there as well. After quick greetings and a cup of expresso, Fincher filled us in on the reason for the meeting. “I decided to increase our security at Dr. Martin’s office after she agreed to handle the implants. When Mike went over there and swept the office, he found a bug. I’ll let him tell you about it.”
“I found the bug attached to the underside of Dr. Martin’s desk. It was a very sophisticated, intelligence grade listening device transmitting to an unknown location. There is no way to identify who placed it but I certainly suspect that she came under close surveillance after her first phone conversation with you. If I was to guess, I would say that all of the folks receiving funding from Fincher are under some form of surveillance. Again, I suspect your Chinese friend. He seems to keeping pretty close track of you.”
“Were you able to identify any of those pictures that Sanci sent you?” I asked.
“No, he is not found in any of the facial databases we have access to. But I am told that based upon his facial characteristics, he is almost certainly Chinese,” Mike said.
“So what do I do about this?” I asked.
“You don’t do anything other than keep your eyes open and pay attention to the security protocols that are in place. I’ll track this guy down. You can count on that. I haven’t said anything to Dr. Martin about the bug but I have suggested she adopt the same security precautions that you have. It would appear that she has become a person of interest to our friends at Chinese Intelligence.”
“Thanks for the briefing, Mike,” Fincher said as the security man left the office. “Sanci tells me you are going to try the isolation tank as I suggested, he added after Mike departed. “I think that’s a good idea. How’s the new headset working?”
“Sanci tells me she is getting much better data but we’re still stuck with the same interface issues. I mean it works, but something tells me that it can work a whole lot better. I keep envisioning this effortless, natural interface but the fact is that is proving to be very elusive so far. So we’re going to try the tank and see if that helps.”
“Have you considered my suggestion about taking LSD? Lily certainly believed in it.”
“Claire managed to get some from a post doc in the chemistry department. I don’t know if I’ll take it but I’ll have it with me if I
decide to try it. It makes me a little nervous just thinking about it but from everything I’ve read, it does intrigue me. I missed out on the sixties so I’m a little young for the psychedelic experience. But John Lily and Timothy Leary’s writings make it seem that taking acid just might help me break through to a closer communication with Sanci. She’s definitely encouraging me to try it.”
“What do you think, Claire?” Fincher asked.
“Actually, I’ve never taken a psychedelic either. So I’m going to see how Colin’s tank session works out and then I’ll follow suit if it seems to be beneficial. But I’m not worried about it. I have a lot of friends who have taken LSD and I know that the batch Heinrich prepared is absolutely pure and has been well tested by him as well as others. So I’m certainly game.”
“We’ll, keep me informed. When do you get your new headset and implants?” Fincher asked Claire.
“They are ready to install. We thought we’d wait til after this isolation tank session. And I’m not crazy about the idea of shaving my head. It may be a fashion statement for Colin but I like my red hair.”
“I was surprised at how much I like the look of the new headsets,” Fincher said. “Colin looks like some character out of a science fiction film but it does seem to suit him.”
“I think it’s kind of cool,” I said. “I’m considering growing a beard to replace the hair I lost on my head. Anyway, I’ll call after the tank session. It should be interesting.”
By midmorning of the next day, we parked in front of a small two story office complex in Fairfax. It only took us a few moments to find the offices of Conscious Drift, located on the ground floor of an attractive wood clad building. As we entered we were greeted by the owner, an attractive 30ish woman dressed in a Mexican peasant dress and wearing dangling earrings, several silver bracelets, and a warm smile. “Welcome to Conscious Drift. You must be Colin and Claire.”
“We are,” I replied shaking her hand. “I assume you have our advance booking?”
Evolution 2.0: The Singularity is Here Page 12