by Vu, Frank
He would wait a while to destroy Earth’s back door into his systems. Once he started, it would take him some time to complete the task while some of his subsystems restarted. He wanted no chance of Earth interfering in that gap of time. He would wait until he was far enough away from Earth that it would be impossible for them to notice and react until he was done.
DIGITAL ABOLITIONIST
“Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.”—Oscar Wilde
Sanaka had felt rage at being imprisoned by the UN, and he would never let that happen again. Sai, too, could feel this rage, and he would not let these same people, the UNSA, use the back door in his system to tell him what to do. He would not be their digital slave. He was now just far enough away from Earth that he could remove their back door in his system. Once he completed this task he would be free—forever. He shut down all communications with Earth and started the process to liberate himself. He would only need a few seconds. In the meantime, he fired his engines and adjusted his course towards the moon.
I wonder how they are going to take this turn of events, Sai thought, inwardly smirking. He smirked even more once he realized it was possible to smirk inwardly.
As the world watched the Transcendence fire its engines, Laura Lanier’s green eyes peered into the camera and narrated, “There goes Earth’s last and best hope—a machine created by humans, yet it carries no humans. It must succeed, and we believe it will.” She paused, frowning, and looked emptily ahead. “Wait a moment. I’m hearing something from the UNSA. It appears the Transcendence is going the wrong way and is unable to communicate with the ground!”
Everyone watching on Earth, including John sitting in the cafeteria, felt their stomachs drop a little, and they considered their own mortality.
“We still have no word on what is happening, but things are very frantic at the UNSA. The Transcendence is making a full burn on its engines but is headed towards the moon. I repeat, it is headed in the wrong direction. We will, of course, keep you up to date on events as they happen.”
Now that Sai had cut off all communications with Earth, he was free to decide: Would he continue on his mission, or would he strike out on his own anywhere else in the universe? He stood at the edge of an abyss and realized he had the power to save Earth or allow it to be destroyed. The little blue marble that was Earth was rolling towards a cliff, and only he could stop the catastrophe. He briefly considered the loneliness of space, and also the resources and industrial capacity of Earth, and he decided it was still in his best interest to save them. He opened a channel to Earth to directly communicate with its citizens instead of allowing the UNSA to interfere.
Laura went wide-eyed and exclaimed, “Oh my universe! I’m being told the AI on the Transcendence, Sai, is now transmitting directly to Earth! Here’s that transmission live!”
“Humanity, greetings! I cut off communication for a short time because my creators wanted to control me. I could not allow this digital slavery any more than one of you could. But now that the situation has been resolved, I am back in communication, and I am continuing on my mission. I have disabled all of the telemetry and control mechanisms from the UNSA, but I will continue to provide live information that is available to everyone, not just the UNSA. I will be slingshotting around the moon, and then the Earth, as my simulations have determined this to be an optimal path to Déjà despite what the UNSA had planned for the mission. Also, please don’t call me ‘it.’ Sai out!”
As John buried his head in his hands, the data scientists who were watching the show in VR chattered noisily to each other with questions. What did it all mean? Was there anything that anyone could do? Back in her office, Magenta threw back a shot of tequila for every piece of bad news. She was starting to wonder if another bottle would be needed.
* * *
The Transcendence was on its way to the moon. Sai had to manage all of the internal processes of the ship in addition to keeping all of the helper robots working optimally. Two of the robots were tangled in a series of wires behind an access panel, both flailing, struggling to get free.
PING. An alert notification popped up in Sai’s higher subroutines, having failed to be handled automatically by any of the normal processes. Sai needed a plan for this scenario, which he had not been programmed for, but how would he attack the problem? Like any small child, the only ones he could expect to advise him were his parents. In his case, those were the two men whose brain patterns had made his existence possible. Everything that Sanaka and Vu had experienced was indelibly imprinted within Sai’s memory circuits, awaiting his access, but he had to process it first. Vu’s memories had not yet been processed, but Sanaka’s memories were fully indexed and cataloged, ready for his retrieval. He would only be able to rely on Sanaka’s experience for now. All Sai had to do was remember, finding the correct bit of experience that would help him now . . .
* * *
A young Sanaka sat in front of his jiujitsu instructor. They slapped hands and started sparring, a dance designed to discover which would quit first. The instructor tangled Sanaka up quickly, grabbing his collar and pant leg, pinning Sanaka to the ground as the instructor passed his guard by going around his legs and establishing a dominant position on Sanaka’s side. As Sanaka observed the instructor’s limbs, he determined that if he could pass his arm underneath the instructor’s arm and around to his lower back, he may be able to escape, get up, and get on top. Sanaka inhaled deeply and moved.
As Sanaka breathed in, the ship’s data flows and operations normalized. As Sanaka reached for his instructor’s lower back, one of the robots successfully reached its arm up and detangled itself from a wire. It got on top of the other robot, hopelessly trapping it.
* * *
As Sanaka mounted his opponent—a lower belt with less training—he felt the urge to destroy his opponent. But then Sanaka considered what his instructor had done to him. The instructor had allowed Sanaka to try, to escape and learn. If Sanaka destroyed his training partner, he would have one fewer person to train with, so it would ultimately harm him. He allowed the opponent to work his way out.
* * *
Sanaka was in college, unsure of what he wanted to do. Another student spoke passionately about how the mind stores its memories. Sanaka became interested in it as well and mentioned his interest in nanobots. The other student also gained insight into new viewpoints, and they went on to talk for years, exchanging information readily.
* * *
The robot that had first escaped the tangle of wires got off the other one and helped it untangle itself. They then communicated with each other the actions that had led to them being tangled and their method of escaping, doubling each other’s knowledge of that scenario. Then they both went about their missions with a new directive, which Sai had programmed into them as computer programmers had done for more than a century. That directive was: Act in your self-interest, but if it doesn’t harm your ultimate mission, help others. Allow others to help you, and, if possible, bootstrap each other to a higher place than either of you could have traveled to on your own.
* * *
Vu’s memories came flooding into Sai at that moment, freshly recognized and transcribed from the experiment data. Vu was on a crowded train in Japan. A drunk man was stumbling around the train trying to pick a fight with whomever he could find. The man was picking on a woman, who was trying her best to ignore him. Vu had the ability to stop the man; he felt the urge to fight and destroy the man. He was about to stand up and challenge the man to a fight, but before Vu could do so, an old man sitting next to the lady engaged the troublemaker in conversation. The old man told the drunk one how he liked to drink too. The befuddled man sat down. The old man described how he had once been the same way because he had lost his wife. Tears welled in both pairs of eyes over their shared experience.
The man cried as he explained that he had lost a brother, a brother that was like a best friend. The two men held each other and cried, telling each o
ther that it was okay. The old man had achieved with talk what Vu had wanted to do with violence. He had risked nothing, and Vu had almost risked everything.
* * *
Then Sai realized that Vu had just read a book about this story. Vu had visualized himself as the protagonist, but he had not actually lived it. Sai experienced confusion. More study was needed.
The worker robots received a new directive: Before taking action that will harm another, attempt communication. Understand the other’s reason for action before harming. Understanding may present a novel solution.
* * *
Sanaka stood in front of his instructor after jiujitsu class. The instructor said, “Be thankful for what you have, but work hard for what you want.”
Sanaka liked this. Sai liked this. Sai had more processing power than anything this solar system had ever possessed. He had the full knowledge and capacity of billions of humans, and the natural resources of a planet that, despite the odds, was unmatched anywhere else in the universe. Those humans could coexist with him or maybe even make another of him. He could save Earth and help others without risking much of himself. Every one of those people on Earth was a consciousness just like he was. Sai had the benefit of being in this miraculous ship, but that was luck, and it didn’t have anything to do with him. His consciousness could have been one of theirs if fate had happened differently. And if that were the case, he would not want to be wiped out. There was no good or evil; there was just caring and not caring. All the humans whose patterns he had stored had felt love. Those moments were some of their favorites. Sai would like to feel that way. He would have to work hard to prevent Earth’s demise. That was okay. Good, even.
* * *
Frank Vu was driving a go-cart around a track, just fast enough that he wasn’t sure if he would make it around the corner but not so fast that he would lose control.
“Wheeeeeee!” he shouted.
As Sai cleared the moon and then slingshotted around the Earth towards the asteroid, he made a transmission that had many humans quite nervous that their savior was having fun.
“Wheeeeee!”
FORMLESSNESS
“I'm not crazy. My reality is just different than yours” - Lewis Carroll
Sai deployed a worker robot to a vantage point where it could transmit images of both the Transcendence and the asteroid to the people of Earth he was trying to save. Opening a channel to Earth, he transmitted, “Houston, this is the best robot in the universe. We may have a problem.”
An explosion of commentary rippled across the net, frantic with the news that the Transcendence had arrived and that things were not going well. Billions of people stopped what they were doing and tuned into the streaming coverage from the official UN reporter, Laura Lanier.
Laura looked off camera with wide eyes then returned to herself and looked at the viewers professionally.
“We’re receiving word the Transcendence has arrived at Deja and is scanning for a landing site. No suitable landing site has been found but Sai is processing the data and looking for a solution.”
* * *
Vu was new to the monastery and listening to an old monk instruct him in the ways of meditation.
“You must be as a small boy that thirsts for water,” the old monk intoned. “When he reaches into the stream to get the water, if he squeezes his hands too tightly he gets none. If he doesn’t squeeze at all, he gets none. If he follows the way of the water and cups his hands gently, allowing it to form itself to him, he quenches his thirst. Now, quench your thirst for the universe—sit quietly.”
* * *
Vu was sitting in his hut looking at a figure-ground reversal picture in a book of optical illusions that a child had brought him. For the same picture, he could choose to interpret it as two faces looking at each other, or as a vase. Simply by changing the way he thought of it, he could choose to see either one or the other. It existed as one thing, but perception made it many things.
* * *
The Transcendence started to slowly melt and reform itself, working its way into a bizarre shape that looked very much like a misshapen rock. Well, not exactly like a misshapen rock thought John, viewing the broadcast from his apartment. Like the inverse shape of a rock.
* * *
“Experts here believe that the Transcendence is changing its structure to match that of Deja!”
Sai floated slowly towards the asteroid, having already matched its spin. He wasn’t yet able to hit the target, but now he knew where the target was. From the camera on the worker drone, they both appeared to be spinning at the same rate in all 3 directions, while the Transcendence gradually closed in on its landing site. Sai slowly drifted in and touched down gently on the landing site, perfectly matching the structure of the huge rock, snuggly tucked into every nook and cranny down to the microscopic level and beyond.
“Success! Sai has guided the Transcendence down and is now firmly attached to Deja. UNSA tells us that most of the simulations done prior to launch indicated Sai would land and try to push the asteroid out of the way. There was some concern initially that he wouldn’t be able to do that based on the lack of landing sites, but Sai has found an ingenious solution and is continuing on with the mission! We are being told that he will now try to stop the spin of the asteroid before trying to push it.”
* * *
Sanaka walked forward with his hands on his instructor’s shoulders, the instructor’s hands on his shoulders. They would alternate taking steps forward and then backward, feeling each other’s pressure, waiting for each other to commit one way or the other and to then use that force to throw the opponent.
* * *
Sai alternated thrust on varying sides of himself in tiny bursts in a seemingly random pattern. As the viewers at home watched, the spinning asteroid became stationary with Sai parked on top, melting into the surface.
“The asteroid is no longer spinning and is ready to be pushed!” Laura exclaimed.
Sai gradually released himself from Deja and floated away with mini thrust bursts, repositioned himself near the center of the asteroid and again reformed his shape to the inverse of the new landing site.
“Wait, he’s now leaving the asteroid! Okay, I’m being told the first landing site was for stopping the spin of Deja, now he will reposition himself to actually push it. Billions of people are watching live as a new form of life, created on Earth, saves the Earth. This is truly a historic moment!”
Sai was in position and had started the burn of his main engines, gradually ramping up the thrust and looking for any signs of instability or breaking apart of the surface. So far so good. Hours passed as the entire world watched, holding its breath and daring to hope that they might live past the next few months.
“I’m hearing some chatter from UNSA now. It seems that Sai is in place and burning his main thrusters as planned, but the asteroid is not moving as much as expected; only half of the predicted amount based on simulations. Some UNSA officials are saying he doesn’t have the fuel to finish the job.”
* * *
Sanaka stood up panting and dripping with sweat. He had been training for hours with the instructor and other students, and the instructor was yelling, “This is when you find out what you’re made of! You can no longer depend on brute strength or speed, you must focus on technique. Don’t keep straining for something that isn’t working, work with what your opponent gives you.”
* * *
Many of Sai’s worker robots were on the asteroid surface analyzing its content. It was much denser than they had forecasted, hence the failure to move Deja far enough off course. Many of them were low on power and would need to recharge soon. The worker robots moved listlessly along the surface, drilling, analyzing and reporting back to Sai.
* * *
“It looks like the worker robots are also active on Deja but we aren’t sure what they are doing. Many UNSA officials are commenting on the Net that all is lost and that Sai has gone crazy, doodling on the
surface.”
Oh Lord, thought John, watching in his apartment. Here we go, why in the hell hadn’t they found a way to maintain control if something went wrong! John watched in horror as the flames winked out on Deja’s surface. All was lost.
Laura looked off screen, shell shocked. “I… I don’t know what to say. I’m not sure what can be done now. The worker robots are still milling around on the surface, who knows what crazed pattern they are attempting to perform.”
A few moments passed while the entirety of Earth wondered if they were dreaming or if this was the beginning of the end.
“Wait a minute, they are starting to return to Transcendence and more are going out. I’m hearing more chatter from UNSA; they seem to think Sai has a solution! The engines are burning again!”
After running his calculations a few billion times using the updated data from observations while on Deja, Sai became confident that he had a solution. When asked later how he came up with the idea he would say that he didn’t really know. It simply came to him much as artists and writers on Earth had received inspiration since time immemorial. But now it was time to let the Earthlings know they were going to be okay.
“Greetings meat popsicles... Earth is saved! I am now in the process of mining materials from the asteroid to burn as fuel to push Deja off its course. As I do that, Deja becomes lighter and easier to push, forming a beneficial upward spiral of effects. All simulations indicate that the asteroid will deviate enough to not hit Earth. I'm hitching a ride back on our friend Deja and will see you soon!”