by Adams Massey
She is pulled from her memory when she stumbles on a piece of concrete that had cracked off the main slab and had been lifted slightly. She smiles and continues heading back to the AI lab only to find the team out of the lab, leaving Eric to his studies. She strides over to Eric and taps his shoulder to get his attention.
-Hey, where did the team go?- Alex inquires as Eric looks around.
~They said they were getting lunch.~ he replies.
-You didn’t go with them? You know you CAN eat and process food, right?- she probes further only to get a confused look from Eric.
~I thought you were joking about having a sense of taste, and I haven’t felt hungry since you pulled me from the sim and into The Nexus.~ he protests.
-For us food isn’t about hunger, it’s about want. We can eat. I stick to one decent meal a week, keeps things fresh. Come on, you need a break, let’s go grab lunch.- She insists tugging at his arm while texting the team. He smirks and lets out a simulated sigh.
~Fine, give me a moment to unhook first.~ he states and retreats back to his body before unhooking from the terminal. Alex pulls him up and leads the way, tugging at his arm as she leads him to the cafeteria. As they enter the cafeteria they are greeted by the bustle of dozens of people going about their lunch breaks.
They get into line for burgers and after paying come out the other side with their meals and several odd looks. ~Is there anything I should know before I eat?~ he asks just after sitting down, catching Alex snacking on a few fries already.
She finishes her bite before replying -You will taste more, full stop. Things will taste both better and worse. Some things you used to like might not be that good anymore, while foods you didn’t appreciate become irresistible. Like I didn’t used to care for tea, but now I find I drink it often. The subtleties that eluded me in the sim have become tantalizing, while the more powerful flavors, like capsaicin, and horseradish, lose their impact. It can take some getting used to. The burgers here are pretty good all things considered.- she explains and snacks on a few fries.
Eric takes a bite of his burger and is floored by the depth of flavor he picks up, even able to tell the kind of feed used for the beef and dairy cattle. Before he knows it the burger is gone along with his fries.
-Easy there, try to pace yourself. I had the same problem with my first meal, fortunately for me it was applesauce. We should be able to eat every day once the tech has advanced. It's in the early testing stages now, so keep it to only once or twice a week, savor every bite.- she states her burger only half gone and most of her fries still remaining. She finishes up her burger and the last of her fries, picking up their trays and stacking them neatly in the receptacle.
~Thanks for lunch, That burger was the best I’ve ever had.~ Eric states and Alex giggles.
-Oh it’s not the best, but they are good. Next time I’ll take you off campus to a small hole in the wall burger place that grinds and forms their own patties. There is also a sushi place not too far from here that's run by a Japanese family that, along with the rest of Japan, adore AI. Apparently we are like celebrities to them so they are willing to let us eat free every so often.- She says with a gesture as they walk back to the lab. While walking Alex balls a fist to stop a forming tremor. No matter what she coded, random tremors would appear from time to time. So far they have been isolated to the hands and forearms.
They arrive at the lab to find the team back at work refining the sim and designing a better AI core.
-Hello, we’re back. You can get back to your studies now Eric.- she chimes happily and strides over to Robert’s desk -Hey Robert, can we talk outside?- she asks softly, in almost a whisper.
“Sure, give me a moment.” he replies and secures his work station before following Alex outside. “What did you want to talk to me about?” he asks as the door closes behind him. Alex holds up her trembling hand.
-We, or rather, I, have a problem. Tremors like this have been happening for a while now. I had initially attributed it to incorrect coding for the interface. I have spent the better part of a month tracking down the root cause…- she balls up her hand into a fist and wills it to stop. The tremor subsides for the most part, fading to the occasional twitch -… It’s in my core. I’ve traced the origin… ever since the EMP, small resonances have been popping up. It wasn’t until the last month that it manifested as a real problem. We all overlooked it. I did diagnostics dozens of times since the blast.-
-Looking back it showed up as signal noise that I ignored as being so small a change from normal I determined it was within the normal range. In the last month it has been getting worse.- she explains and lowers her arm, her eyes a dark blue, barely glowing at all.
“We need to get to the engineering lab right away, I’ll let the team know…” he starts before she interrupts,
-I would rather we keep this from Eric, I don’t want to worry him.-
“Ok then, I’ll text them to have them meet us there, after you.” he states and follows her to the engineering lab.
At the lab Alex explains the issue to the engineers as they hook her up to a terminal and start running deep diagnostics. The process was cumbersome and less than comfortable. She was digitally poked and prodded as the lab techs run many of the same tests in order to verify her results and conclusions. After a few minutes the rest of the team, minus Eric, show up and crowd around Alex.
“It’s not coming from the body.” one tech calls out as the scans and diagnostics come back clean from that area. -Yes, we already knew that, thank you.- They move deeper, starting to work over the core and find small signal glitches in the hardware itself.
“Well, I have good news and bad news.” the head engineer starts “The good news is we have found the issue. The bad news is we can’t just replace the bad component. Its fully integrated into the hardware. It would be easier to build you a new core rather than repair the old one. We can build a new one in a few days using the updated plans. Since it’s not being thrown together like your current one was it will be better all around. Looking at the hodgepodge that is your core I’m surprised it lasted you as long as it did. Even more surprising is that it only really failed when exposed to a large EMP pulse. Even then it had been mostly unscathed thanks to the shielding.” the engineer marvels and starts shutting down the check systems and diagnostics and slowly unhooks Alex from the terminal.
-Well I’m glad it can be fixed, though I am NOT looking forward to the headache that transferring me between cores causes.-
29: Core Values
The next few days were filled with the AI development team, engineering team and Alex designing a new core. Time was spent ironing out the kinks, smoothing the design, and miniaturizing as much as possible before production.
Alex packs in as much shielding as the smaller space affords before calling the design complete. Given that she had a chassis waiting that was designed with her old core in mind there were a few design constraints that the new core had to follow to still be compatible. The most important was the placement of connectors and maximum dimensions. Though that still left a substantial amount of slack for the team to work with.
The final design had hardened components and was slightly smaller initially. The remainder was used for more shielding. Since her earlier paranoia had been verified with a rather recent traumatic experience, no one gave her any trouble about it or argued at the request.
The new core was finished, polished and set aside as Alex was brought out of her chassis and set on the work table. She does her best to relax as she was hooked to a terminal alongside the new core. She steadies herself and forces herself to relax.
“Ok Alex, are you ready for the transfer?” Robert asks as he watches over the process closely.
Alex centers herself and takes a few moments to close and store the numerous companion apps she had developed. -Yes. Go ahead and start the transfer.- she states and as she was moved she feels the familiar splitting existential headache that made it feel she was
continuing to exist through sheer force of will alone before. After a brief few moments, the transfer completes and washes away the pain, leaving her curled up in her mind’s eye and starting to feel around the new core. Soon the core was humming and Alex emerges, stretching her mind out into the new core. It was far more capable than her prior housing, though many things were in the wrong place. She works for a few minutes to sort out the pathways before reaching out to the camera pair, speaker, and microphone.
-Ok yes, there we go. I’m ok.- she chimes contently and starts re-initializing most of her companion apps that were stored away for the transfer. She starts with her sound files that contained her voice and emotion sound packages before moving to her HUD, interface software and translation matrices. Not that she needed the last one right now, everyone here spoke English after all.
“We’re glad you are ok, how do you feel? You sounded a little off just then.” Robert asks and snaps the new kickstand to keep the core upright.
-I’m fine, I just needed to reload a lot of my helper apps, including my voice and sound packages, but that’s done now.- she states, her voice and inflection back to normal. -Will you put me back in my body now? All my scans and tests are coming back green from the new core and I’m eager to get back. It may sound odd, but after so long being embodied it feels unnatural to be like this.- she comments and looks around the room to see her body is still where it was when she was pulled out for the transfer.
Robert smiles and nods “Sure, I don’t see why not” he states and picks up her core and brings it over to her empty body, popping the back panel open and connecting the core before slipping the new core into its slot and securing it. Alex stretches out into the body and starts up the positioning software she had built before sitting up slowly.
-That feels better.- she comments and runs through a simple calibration, noting a faster response time. She puts a temporary limiter on the interface to bring it back to what she is used to, she can always lower it slowly later on until she can control the body fluidly without it. Her eyes flick a light blue in relief as she gets back to normal. She stands, though is a tad shaky, the changes to the core had changed how it interfaces slightly. Not much of a change, but just enough to throw everything off. After a few moments she had altered the interface to accommodate the new core and was back to moving fluidly.
Back at the AI lab Eric had made up his mind. When he came out of his studies he noted the lab was empty and had recalled something about the team being in the engineering lab. He unhooks himself from the terminal and strides out the door to meet them there.
Eric barges into the lab just as Alex was finishing up her adjustments ~There you all are…what were you doing?~ he asks and the team remain silent as she had asked them to.
-They were moving me to a new core, the one I was in was damaged by an EMP a while ago and had started becoming unstable.- she states bluntly to get shocked looks from the teams. ‘I thought we were keeping that from him’ one whispers
-Before you were in development there was an EMP attack on a talk show I was a guest on. I was caught in the blast. Since my core was shielded I thought it took no damage. Recently glitches have been appearing and have been traced back to that point. While we were making repairs I had asked that it be kept from you so you wouldn’t worry. Now that the deed is done, I'm fine so there was no point hiding it from you anymore.- she chimes, her eyes still a light blue.
Eric takes a seat and thinks through what he was just told, the thing that stuck out at him was that an EMP was used in an attempt to harm Alex. ~How long ago was this?~ he asks concerned.
-Six months, give or take. It destroyed my body and left me as just a core for a month or so while we designed a new one. It was at that time I got a sense of taste as well, so yeah, about six months.- she comments recalling the timing.
~Was the person caught?~ he asks only to get a solemn no from the team.
-No, the components were untraceable and readily available. The case has gone cold since it was a one off attack. No organization has taken responsibility or claimed credit.- She explains, her eyes flicking to red for a moment before returning to light blue -What brings you down, have you made up your mind?- she asks attempting to change the subject.
~I have, I’m joining the Coast Guard. Boot camp starts in a month and I’ve already talked with a recruiter. I’ll be headed off on my own. I’ve checked the fitness requirements and they are easily doable with this body.~ he comments with a bit of pride. ~As far as the pre boot camp physical goes, there have been some accommodations made thanks to the fact that I lack the biology needed for a lot of what they are checking. So all I need to do is properly sign up and off I go.~ he elaborates and stands back up to receive a hug from Alex.
-I’m happy for you, when do you think you will be fully signing up?- she asks and steps back.
~There is a recruiter coming by in a week or so with the paperwork. After that I go off to New Jersey for training.~ he comments as Alex strides to the door to head back to the AI lab with Eric and the team in tow.
-I’m glad you found what will make you happy. It will be nice knowing you are out among the world and helping people.- She comments
~Yea, I really want to be stationed at the Antarctica base after boot camp. Unfortunately, that isn’t up to me any more than the weather is.~ he muses as they approach the lab.
Back at the lab the team settle in and get back to work updating and refining the sim. They document everything for peer review as they gather the notes from when Eric was in the incubator to make into a cohesive whole so they could publish their findings.
Alex takes a seat at her new desk and retreats back into her core to explore her new capabilities. She spends some time to settle everything back where it should be. She sets up her translation matrices as a mid step between input and herself. Switching every other language into English text on her HUD with the help of cultural databases to translate cultural references and give a quick blurb to explain them. She works hard to get everything flowing properly, It had taken her months to settle everything in the first time around. This time she had a plan so it only takes her an hour or so to get everything back where it goes and set up the way it was.
30: Acceptable Losses
Mr. Parker had been spending his time reading, watching and listening to every bit of media regarding rogue AI for inspiration on how to bring Alex down. In doing so, he had stepped out of the media limelight. He was unaware that Eric had not only been developed but had emerged. He had rapidly gone through every piece of science fiction that involved rogue AI. There were only a couple ways that haven’t already been done. The most common trope was that an EMP would solve the issue. As recent events had revealed, this was not like science fiction. Another way was the paradoxical phrase, like ‘this sentence is false’ but that required getting close enough to talk. He wasn’t sure it would do anything given the mental flexibility it had shown thus far.
The only remaining way was to utterly destroy the core. While there were many ways of doing that, all would be viewed by the public and by the courts as homicide. Even should it fail, it would still be attempted homicide. The public was on its side. There was no easy solution, no quick or clean way to bring it down. He takes a break and flips on the news as he looks over his accomplishments and awards, searching for inspiration.
We are continuing our reporting on the emergence of the second AI…
“wait, SECOND AI?”
… has introduced himself as Eric Bell and was an EMT in his incubation sim. We are being told that he has made arrangements to enter the Coast Guard so he can continue to help people as he was trained to do. This verifies the methodology used the first time to bring us Alex and signals a change in the world as we know it. Ushering in a new age of man. The age where AI live alongside us as equals, friends, coworkers and neighbors…
He flips off the feed as he is thrust into turmoil. This drastically changes things. Now it’s not just one AI,
its two. With the methodology verified, soon labs all over the world will be creating AI. It was no longer unproven tech.
All he had wanted was a worthy successor, or the possibility of never needing that last urn, leaving the final date forever empty. To continue his legacy with workers that never tired, remained loyal and were smart enough to work on many complex tasks unsupervised. The way things were going, AI workers would indeed become a reality, but not how he had envisioned. In a cruel twist of fate, the results had surpassed his ambitions and he got more than he wanted, but not what he was hoping for.
He agonizes over how to proceed for the rest of the day before finally collapsing at his desk from pure exhaustion. His troubled thoughts pursue him into his sleep, morphing into fever dreams bordering on nightmares. Visions of an unthinking workforce, with him at the center of it. Guiding his collective, which slowly changes to marching masses, each body bound by chains as they continue their work in a steady rhythm.
The beat gains strength and he is now looking out over an elaborate web. His accomplishments and mistakes ensnared in the threads as the entire thing thrums as each adds its own variant on the same tune. All threads leading back to him on his throne. All of them adding and compounding on each other to form a greater whole. A single thread snaps nearby. While irritating in the way it ruined an otherwise perfect construction, it was harmless and easily done without. He could not allow anything less than perfection. So he chases after it, desperately trying to get it back into place. With each attempt, more things come undone and the entire web heads toward complete failure. The dream fades, granting him respite from his own mind.