by Ivan Kal
“I guess that it falls to me to bring you up to speed.” She shook her head. “The tests you took were to see if you could receive an implant. Most people don’t know, but about 2% of people are not able to interact with implants. The unusual part is that ordinarily we only give implants to people that have stopped growing, which for humans is around their twenty-fourth year. Now, you are only sixteen and are obviously still growing, so any implant we gave you now would just need to be replaced in a year or so. That is, all but the implant we are going to put in you.”
Adrian quickly felt his excitement grow at the prospect of having his own implant. The past six hours were already forgotten. He knew that most every adult had an implant, and that he would get his own when he was old enough. Getting one early was unheard of, and he had studied everything he could find on implant technology. “Really? An implant?” he asked excitedly. “But how did you get around the growing part?”
Doctor Mayer smiled. “Well, it seems that Laura pulled some really big strings for you. She must’ve asked Professor Hyeon for a special permission. These implants are not yet released; she must have a lot of faith in you. They are a new generation and are a bit different than the older ones.”
“Different how?” he asked.
“Well, for starters, the reason why we can implant it in you without the need to replace it constantly is because these implants are based on nanotechnology, meaning they have within themselves self-replicating nanites so it can grow with you. They have all of the abilities of the previous-generation implants, and as they are based on nanotech, we are able to upgrade them easily without the need to replace the implant. The nanites would eventually spread through your bloodstream and have multitudes of application. But with that many nanites, there is a need for a way to control them. And that is where this implant differs greatly. You see, it has an AI,” she said.
“An AI? But isn’t that dangerous, having a sentient computer in your brain? And how advanced is it? I didn’t hear anything about AIs being developed.”
“Oh, that’s because the project is top secret. And the AI we plan to implement in these implants are fifth generation. We have done extensive testing on both the AI and the implants. Only thing that is left to be fixed are some minor bugs, and those can easily be fixed after the procedure. There is nothing for you to worry about,” she said.
“I’m about to have a procedure that will insert a sentient computer inside of my brain. I would say I have plenty to worry about,” Adrian retorted. Doctor Mayer paused for a second.
“Yes, I guess you do.” She sighed. “Well, let me tell you a little about the AI. First, this generation of AIs aren’t given any additional information prior to their activation, other than the knowledge of what they are and what their purpose is. They have full knowledge of how to control the nanites in a human system. They know what they are, what humans are, and their knowledge is on a level of a seven-year-old human child. But everything else they need to know, they learn on their own. They are, in a way, like human children. After extensive research, it was discovered that AIs that go through a growth period like human children are both more intelligent and more, well, for the lack of a better word, human. Over time, they develop their own personalities and quirks. They also have a few restrictions. They can’t interact with a human brain in such a way as to take control or instruct the nanites to harm a human being.
“It was also recorded during the tests that the AIs didn’t mind that they were barred from human ‘systems,’ seeing it as a form of privacy on the human’s part, and they showed no desire to try and bypass the restriction. They grow with their ‘partner,’ forming a close bond. They can interact through the implant with other electronic devices around them. There is really no danger; you will still be able to use the implant in the same way as the previous generations. The nanites in your system would be controlled by the AI, and it will be able to modify their programing to suit your desires. The nanites would increase your immunity; when they replicate enough, they will be able to carry additional oxygen through your bloodstream. They will repair any injuries you sustain and much more. There is a manual which I will transfer to your datapad if you decide to go through with the procedure. Now, the only risk that you need to worry about is that since you are young, there is a chance that your body will reject the implant. And you would then need surgery to remove it, though the chance of that happening is very small.” She looked at Adrian expectantly.
He thought about it for a minute, but in the end, the prospect of having his own implant ahead of all others won out and he accepted.
“Great,” Doctor Mayer said. She reached into her coat and produced a ten-centimeter-long metal case. She opened it and took out a glass vial with metallic liquid inside, and then reached in her other pocket and took out an injection gun. She put the vial in the gun and turned her eyes to Adrian. “Ready?” she asked.
Adrian frowned at the gun. “Wait, don’t you need to put me to sleep? I thought that implants need to be surgically inserted on the inside of the skull.”
Doctor Mayer let out a small laugh. “No, no, that was for the previous generations. I told you that these implants are constructed by nanites. This vial contains the nanites and the materials that will be needed to construct an implant. There is also the AI core inside. Once the nanites enter your blood, they will travel to your brain and assemble the implant there. Then they will enter a standby state until you let your AI take control over them.”
Adrian’s eyes widened and he looked down at the gun.
“There is no danger that it will damage my brain?” he asked hesitantly.
“None. The nanites have been extensively tested. You are not the first to get this implant, only the first outside of the project,” she assured him. Adrian took a deep breath and nodded for her to proceed. She placed the needle part of the gun at the vein in his arm. Adrian turned his head to the other side, not wanting to watch, and other than a small pinching sensation, he didn’t feel a thing. The next thing he knew, Doctor Mayer removed the needle and instructed him to hold a small gauze patch at the injection point.
“That’s it?” Adrian asked, surprised.
She smiled. “Yes, that’s it. The nanites are in your system. The implant will be operational in a few hours. I recommend that you go to your quarters and read the instruction manual until it comes online. You are free for the rest of the day. I’m sure that Laura will send you instructions for tomorrow.” Then she stood up, said her goodbyes, and left the room.
Adrian went to one of the cabinets and retrieved his clothes. He put them on and went to his quarters, trying to sense if there was something different. But he couldn’t feel anything, so he finally gave up and took up his datapad. He accessed his mail and retrieved the manual the doctor had sent him. He sat in the chair by his desk and started reading.
[Operational manual for CX-01 Advanced Integrated Systems Implant]
The next few pages concerned the manufacturer, so he scrolled down to the part that interested him.
[- When the implant construction is finished, it will run a self-diagnostic program intended to verify the implant integrity; if a fault is found, the user will be notified. We urge the user that in this case she/he immediately contact any medical personnel available.
- In case of successful construction and integration, the user interface will notify the user that the implant was successfully activated, and a series of questions will be asked of the user, measuring her/his responses in order to achieve maximum integration and creation of required neural pathways.]
Adrian frowned. The manual repeatedly referenced that the user would be notified or asked questions, but the manner in which this was to occur wasn’t stated. He tried scrolling back to see if he’d missed anything, but when he couldn’t find anything, he decided to continue reading.
[- After the initial setup is completed, a menu will be available to the user with a smart app software system that will help the use
r modify hers/his implant interface.
- The option to activate the implant’s AI will be available after the interface is set.
- The AI has two modes:
- Active
- Passive
- During active mode, the AI is able to access everything the user sees and hears. It will also monitor the interaction between the implant and the user.
- During the passive mode, the AI is only able to manage data inside of its own core, including the control of the user’s nanites (also referred to as privacy mode)]
Adrian continued reading for the next couple of hours. The manual described a multitude of situations and the recommended reactions to them. But there was very little in terms of information about the interaction with the AI, and the manner in which the user should interact with it. After a while, he grew tired, and since there wasn’t anything happening, he decided to go to bed. He got up and started towards his bed, but he didn’t take more than two steps before letters appeared in his field of vision. He almost lost his footing before he realized that the implant was finally activated. He walked backwards and sat back down, reading the text.
- Diagnostic complete, all clear.
- Are you able to start the integration now? Yes/No (vocalize the answer)
Adrian swallowed and said out loud, “Yes.”
- Sequence initiated.
- What is the color of the sky during the day as most commonly seen from Earth? (Vocalize the answer)
Adrian frowned at the question, but then decided that the implant was probably measuring his responses as a baseline, so he answered, “Blue.” He spent the next twenty minutes answering all kinds of ridiculous questions, until finally that part of the test was finished.
- Are you able to start the audible portion of the sequence? Yes/No (vocalize the answer)
“Yes.”
Suddenly, he could feel a faint tone in his ears.
- Do you hear a sound? Yes/No (vocalize the answer)
“Yes,” he said, wondering how this part of the test would work. Suddenly, the tone stopped and he heard three more tones: one slightly fainter; one much louder, but still tolerable; and then one so loud it hurt his ears. He immediately brought his hands over his ears, but the tone was already gone by the time his hands were raised. As if that would’ve helped anyway. He’d read in the manual that sound from the implant was transmitted directly to his brain. It only simulated it to appear as if it was coming from the outside. His ears reacted to what his brain thought he was hearing.
- Rank the four sounds on a scale of 1 to 10, going from the weakest to strongest:
- First sound-
- Second sound-
- Third sound-
- Fourth sound-
Adrian ranked them accordingly the he gave the first tone a rating of 3, the second 2, third 7, and the last a 10.
- Designate desired sound level for audible systems from 1 to 10.
Adrian said, “Five.” Then the text disappeared, and after a moment he heard a monotone voice speaking in his ears.
“Greetings, user. I am a virtual help program, created in order to aid you with the configuration of your implant. The required pathways have been created; user commands now do not need to be vocalized. Do you wish to continue?”
Adrian jumped for a moment, looking around before realizing that the voice came from the implant itself. He leaned back in his chair and started conversing with the program with his thoughts, tweaking his interface. He set commands for various actions. First, he set the activation command for his implant; if he “thought” at his implant, he would get a response. He could then access many submenus. He chose to have those appear as a text in the left side of his vision. Next, he designated the command for clearing his “HUD.”
Adrian quickly grew excited and started playing with the many combinations he had available. It was just like a game, where he had the option of managing his own HUD. He could have a graph monitoring his heart rate or blood pressure, a clock telling time of day, or a calendar. He even had the option of accessing the internet via his implant, or rather, the Olympus equivalent—Olnet—which every member of Olympus had access to. Olnet could be used to send messages or talk with any other member of Olympus, though now that he was on Mars, there would be a delay with those on the Moon or Earth. But that didn’t stop him from sending a message to his friend Sahib, who was now on Earth bragging about his implant. He hadn’t been told that he was required to keep his implant a secret, only that the AI was classified. So he figured that there was no harm. Next, he downloaded all the data he had on his datapad into his implant.
There were pictures, videos, games—which he found were much trickier to play on the implant, until he found out that there were patches that updated the game specifically for implants—books, and multitudes of textbooks. He found that now he could archive them in his implant and use a simple search engine to find the information he was looking for. After two hours of playing with the interface, he decided to clear his HUD of all but a small closed letter image in the corner of his vision that would alert him if he had any messages. After he told the help program that he was finished, it asked if he wanted to activate his AI. Adrian thought about it, and when he didn’t see any reason why he shouldn’t, he gave his okay. At first, he couldn’t sense anything different. Then he remembered that the manual said he needed to initiate the AI’s active mode.
“AI, initiate active mode,” Adrian said. Again, he couldn’t feel anything different. “Um…hello?” Adrian asked. After a beat, he heard a mechanical voice inside his head.
“Greetings,” it said. It took him by surprise; the AI’s voice seemed even more impersonal than that of the help program.
After an awkward pause, Adrian decided to speak. The manual instructed that the first moments after the AI was activated should be used for introduction, and that he should choose the AI’s name.
“Uh, I’m Adrian Farkas.”
“Hello, Adrian Farkas,” the AI said.
“Um…the manual said that I should give you a name,” Adrian said.
“That corresponds with the information inside my database,” the AI confirmed.
Adrian thought about a name for a while before he was struck by a thought.
“Would you like to choose your own name?” Adrian asked. It seemed to him that if the AI is really supposed to be sentient, then it had the right to its own name. It wasn’t as if it was a baby, which couldn’t choose a name.
There was a slight pause, and then, “Yes, I would like that.”
Another pause and Adrian asked, “Any thoughts on a name you would like?”
“I don’t have sufficient information to make an informed decision,” the AI said.
“Hmm…what do you mean?” Adrian asked.
“Names are a way of identifying oneself; some have meanings other than identification, and there are sentimental or hereditary names. I have no reference to choose a name. My database says that you are supposed to give me a name.”
Adrian frowned. “But you want to choose your own name?”
“Yes.”
Adrian scratched his head, and then he had an idea. “Well, how about I give you my book collection? You can read it, and maybe you will find a name that you like.”
After a brief pause, the AI answered. “That is acceptable.”
Adrian entered the folder in his implant where he placed his books. He chose historical, mythology, fantasy, science fiction, and biographies leaving the textbooks alone, and sent them to the AI. After he sent them, he was again struck with a thought. “Wait, how long will it take for you to read all of them?”
“Three hundred forty-seven point six, three, one, two, seven, five, three seconds.”
“Um…okay, but in the future, you can just tell me approximate, unless I ask for exact time,” Adrian said. He looked at the time and realized that it was already past midnight. He hadn’t yet received any message from Laura Reiss, so he figured his sch
edule was unchanged. He was to come to work after breakfast like always. He usually spent the mornings working with the team, and the afternoons studying. “I guess I’ll go to sleep. Can you still read if I am asleep?” Adrian asked.
“Yes.”
“Do you need anything else?” Adrian asked.
“No.”
Adrian shrugged and went to bed. He fell asleep almost the same moment his head touched the pillow.
Chapter Thirteen
Adrian woke up to an alarm going off. He reached out to his desk where his datapad usually was to turn it off. Tapping at his pad did nothing, though. When he realized that the noise wasn’t coming from the datapad, he frowned at it in confusion. It took him a moment to remember last night, and that he’d set his implant’s alarm to wake him up instead of the datapad. He shut off the alarm and got up on his feet. He went to the bathroom, and then put his clothes on. He saw that the time was 07:17. He had just under 13 minutes until breakfast. He then started towards the door, when he suddenly heard a voice.
“Good morning, Adrian.” Adrian was startled for a moment before remembering that he had activated the AI last night. The mechanical voice was the same as it was last night, totally impersonal.
“Oh, good morning…um…did you choose a name?” Adrian asked.
“Yes, I chose Iris,” the AI said.
“Iris, like Iris from the Greek mythology. It’s a nice name—wait, Iris is a girl’s name,” Adrian said.
“Yes. Is there a problem with it being a female name? I am not aware of any restriction,” the AI said.
“Um…no, no, no. It’s just that I figured you would choose a guy name. I mean, well. I just thought you would want to be referred to as a male.”
“I have no gender. Though I did read in many of the books you provided of instances where humans attached gender to inanimate or genderless objects. If it will make you feel better, you may refer to me as a female,” the AI said.