by Gary Starta
What Are You
Made Of?
By Gary Starta
© 2005 by Gary Starta.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior written permission of the publishers, except by a reviewer who may quote brief passages in a review to be printed in a newspaper, magazine or journal. First printing
Table of Contents
Part I
Chapter 1: Dead End Job
Chapter 2: Rebirth
Chapter 3: Insomnia
Chapter 4: Pet Project
Chapter 5: Tough Sell
Chapter 6: Mind over Matter
Chapter 7: Do You Come Here Often?
Chapter 8: Digging Up Dirt
Chapter 9: Ill Equipped
Chapter 10: Dark Matters
Chapter 11: Chess Game
Chapter 12: Casting the First Stone
Chapter 13: Paper or Plastic?
Chapter 14: Tech-ies
Chapter 15: Viable Alternative
Chapter 16: Real Time
Chapter 17: Hate Crime
Chapter 18: Networking
Chapter 19: Supply and Demand
Chapter 20: Eyes of the Beholder
Chapter 21: Taking Stock
Part II
Chapter 1: Time Changes Us All
Chapter 2: Swept under the Rug
Chapter 3: False Perceptions
Chapter 4: For Your Own Good
Chapter 5: Out of Mind
Chapter 6: Chemistry
Chapter 7: Mission of Peace
Chapter 8: Behind the Backers
Chapter 9: Change of Heart
Chapter 10: Follow the Leader
Chapter 11: Better off Dead
Chapter 12: Socially Challenged
Chapter 13: Filling in the Blanks
Chapter 14: Old Habits Die Hard
Part III
Chapter 1: Natural Causes
Chapter 2: Role Playing
Chapter 3: Clue Me In
Chapter 4: Coming Up Roses
Chapter 5: Folly the Leader
Chapter 6: Who Needs Enemies?
Chapter 7: It’s the Thought that Counts
Chapter 8: Identifying with the Victim
Chapter 9: It’s Bananas
Chapter 10: Corrupted File
Chapter 11: Love Thy Neighbor
Chapter 12: Killer Looks
Chapter 13: Love to Hate
Chapter 14: Take My Word
Chapter 15: Chasing Tails
Part IV
Chapter 1: Playing a Part
Chapter 2: Across the Universe
Chapter 3: Drive By
Chapter 4: Transformation
Chapter 5: Meet Me in the Middle
Chapter 6: Organized Crime
Chapter 7: Only Have Eyes for You
Chapter 8: A Beast Awakens
Chapter 9: Dog Gone
Chapter 10: Conservatively Speaking
Chapter 11: The Organics
Chapter 12: Ear Candy
Chapter 13: Over Stated
Chapter 14: Measure of a Man
Chapter 15: Match Maker
Chapter 16: Not the Sharpest Knife
Chapter 17: Love Hurts
Part V
Chapter 1: Small Talk
Chapter 2: Seeing Is Believing
Chapter 3: Net Worth
Chapter 4: Bruised Egos
Chapter 5: Unofficially Speaking
Chapter 6: From Out of Left Field
Chapter 7: Bluff or Fold
Chapter 8: After Shock
Chapter 9: To the Letter
Chapter 10: Fit to Be Tied
Chapter 11: The Gift that Keeps on Giving
Chapter 12: All or Nothing
Part VI
Chapter 1: Identify Yourself
Chapter 2: To Err is Human
Chapter 3: Window of Opportunity
Chapter 4: Motivated
Chapter 5: Real Brain
Chapter 6: Bugged
Chapter 7: Walk a Mile in My Shoes
Chapter 8: The Verdict
Epilogue
What Are You
Made Of?
Part I
Chapter 1: Dead End Job
Doctor Adrian McElroy stared out the window of his office that overlooked a fertile garden he helped to cultivate on the small planet Ceres.
He was supposed to feel the satisfaction of a successful mission that he and nine other colonists undertook three years ago in 2401 to seed the soil of this planet for the purpose of future habitation. Instead, his sullen look revealed dissatisfaction with his botanical work as he turned his attention to a bookcase showcasing his real love— cybernetics.
Many of the scientists and engineers chosen for this mission had left their fields of choice in order to become the first residents of Ceres. A feat which gained them much celebrity back on Earth.
However McElroy still wrestled every now and then with the choice to leave his work. “What good was having fame on Earth when you no longer lived there?” he asked himself.
The ambitious scientist devoted many sleepless nights processing cybernetic technological manuals through the use of cyber-scan technology. Before the launch from Earth, Adrian had undergone a procedure that involved the surgical placement of a micro chip in his cerebral cortex. The chip worked by scanning and downloading information from a set of digital conductor pads. The invention eliminated the need to read from a book or a computer screen as material scanned from the pads was transferred to the computer chip via a headset.
As more and more technology was created to work in conjunction with the human nervous system, the doctor was confident he would one day be able create a complex artificial brain. Even though many scientists had failed in their attempts to create android prototypes, McElroy believed his work could produce an artificial intelligence that not only possessed superior skills—but sentience.
McElroy was undaunted by government laws which banned the creation of androids nearly fifty years ago. He was confident that his work would help overturn that ban which was largely based upon human fear.
McElroy believed he could manufacture androids that would be acceptable to humans. “My androids will aspire to feel emotions just like their human counterparts. Through self awareness, androids will be distinguished as individuals and not just mass produced machines,” he often theorized to his audio recorder in the confines of his laboratory.
Adrian’s temptation to produce a better android often blurred his moral and ethical concerns. For decades he worked on a procedure to take memory engrams from a human and download them into an android’s matrix. Adrian hypothesized that the android’s brain would then be able to produce the appropriate human emotional responses from the engrams.
If successful, the procedure would pave the way to the creation of an android who could retain his own memories and use them to experience human feelings such as love, sadness and joy.
Adrian feared he would never get the chance to prove his theories as the scientists still had another two years to cultivate Ceres before a civilian population traveling from Earth would join them. In addition, Earth’s federation of governments would not be very happy to discover how he was spending his spare time.
One day fate intervened as a young child named James Starkman suffered a terrible accident. The boy, whose parents had brought him from Earth, was being trained to be a mentor for the future children of Ceres.
Unfortunately, the accident with an irrigation machine ended up taking the boy’s life. James’ unconscious body was found by McElroy who tried in vain to save him. With minutes to spare before
the boy’s brain functions ceased altogether, the scientist extracted the engrams—ignoring both his conscious and the law.
He quickly transferred the extracted biological data into a tube and froze it.
McElroy informed the grief stricken parents of the death but failed to mention the extraction.
Two months passed as McElroy spent his off-time using his ship’s molecular replication unit to produce a child size torso. He also manufactured a head resembling the child from the specifications contained in the ship’s computer file.
He was soon ready to install processors and microchips into the android. He had metaphorically traveled light years to come so close to realizing his dream. Now, Adrian faced the challenge of installing a matrix that could access and react with the boy’s engrams.
If successful, this illegal procedure would change the face of cybernetics by giving the android a way to apply feelings to experiences.
After a grueling eight hour procedure it was time for McElroy to turn the android unit on…
Chapter 2: Rebirth
Joyce and Aaron Starkman sat dumbfounded in their holographic living room. They had just been told by McElroy of the creation who would bear the resemblance of their late son and be able to access the memories of his short life.
McElroy hoped the Starkman’s would forgive his illegal activities for the chance to interact with an assimilation of their child. He explained that the android could not only alleviate their grief but grow to become the man their boy would have aspired to be.
The doctor explained that procedures could be undertaken to replace limbs so the body would progress with the growth of the mind. The android was also programmed to age like a man by mimicking the way hormones acted in teenage boys.
As one could imagine, the questions started to fly fast and furious from the mouths of the Starkman’s after the initial shock.
“I don’t know if I should be happy or not,” Joyce said as if thinking aloud to herself.
“I think any way that allows us to be with our son again is just incredible,” Aaron countered as McElroy nervously rubbed his sweaty hands on his pants.
“Our boy was so full of life and lived to experience it in a care free way,” Joyce stated. “Can your programming duplicate this trait of his?”
“I believe it can,” answered McElroy. “The boy—I mean the android—has access to almost all of the experiences of James. These experiences will provide clues to the android’s electronic matrix as to how James would react in a certain situation. It could tell him if he liked or hated chocolate ice cream, for example.”
“In essence, the android could continue to live like your boy would have,” Adrian stated excitedly. “James skills and intelligence could still be utilized to benefit us all.”
“I think James would have wanted his talents to be fulfilled,” Aaron said in an attempt to ease his wife’s fears.
“I am afraid once we agree to take it into our home it would be very difficult to reject it” Joyce pointed out. “We need some time to discuss this matter among ourselves.”
McElroy began to lose some of the coloring in his face as he did not plan on the couple rejecting his creation—or worse—wanting to return it to him in the event of failure.
“Are you okay, Doctor?” Aaron asked.
“Yes, nothing that a good night of rest would not cure,” responded McElroy, hoping that his tone of voice still conveyed confidence.
“But before I say goodnight, there is one very important matter that still needs to be discussed. I created the android to be as human as possible. Therefore, I embedded in its programming a command function that will make the unit believe it as human for as long as it possesses the engrams. In effect, the unit will think he is not only built like James—it will think it is James. The android must never be told he is not human. I would expect you to honor this wish if you decide to take the android home. You will come to understand this logic as humans generally only accept what is most like themselves.”
McElroy finished the conversation by explaining that the android was also equipped to digest food, emit body fluids and even grow hair.
“After a few weeks, you will forget the android is not human as all external and internal functions have been accounted for. I have little doubt that you will want to return the unit—or should I say ‘the boy’— once you take him. If you had any love for him, as I can see you do, you will once again be able to experience it.” McElroy left for his living unit while the couple stood hand in hand outside their home. They were so engulfed with the doctor’s news they did not notice that the planet’s moon was casting a strange shadow over them.
Chapter 3: Insomnia
The starship Terran’s Ark still had nearly two years before it would reach Ceres. It carried a crew that was selected by the World Aeronautics Association to represent the first civilian group to live on Ceres. The crew, comprised of five married couples, would utilize the irrigation and housing developments the scientists had created for them to raise families.
The crew took turns sleeping in cryo-stasis chambers under the orders of Matt Dougherty, the designated leader of the group. The W.A.A. had insisted that each of the crew spend at least half the journey frozen in stasis to minimize the psychological impact from living in confined quarters.
On one indistinguishable Friday evening, Linda Dougherty joined her husband on the bridge to dispute her placement in stasis that was scheduled in two days.
“I can’t show favoritism to you,” Matt emphasized by slapping his palms together.
“My strong suit is maintaining morale and I can’t do that lying down like a bear in hibernation,” she retorted.
“The W.A.A. only instituted the stasis requirements to maintain morale, so since I am having no problems with my attitude, I believe I can best serve our needs by continuing to provide courses and counseling for those in need.”
Matt tilted his head back to stare at the ship’s ceiling and exhaled a breath of air. “To be fair to everyone, I will enter stasis in your place,” he replied.
“Honey, I didn’t ask you to do that,” she said, attempting to smooth over the rough tone of voice she had used moments earlier.
“That’s quite all right,” Matt said. “But the deal is that you are in charge of all command decisions in my place. I will instruct the computer to acknowledge you as ship’s captain in my place.”
Matt then verbally instructed the computer to allow Linda full access to the ship’s command center.
“Matt, I love you for your understanding.”
“Yeah, well I love you too. But now I order you to join me in our cabin. Your counseling skills can wait a day,” Matt said with a playful grin.
Chapter 4: Pet Project
The android boy woke up in a bed in McElroy’s house and quickly called out to him—“Where am I?”
The doctor assured his creation that he was healing well from his accident and that in a few days he may be allowed to rejoin his family. After a few minutes, James did not question the situation further. The scientist found it hard to contain himself as the procedure appeared to be a success.
Adrian entered his study and held up a photo-gram of his parents, Robert and Maureen McElroy. He thought to himself that he was not much older than James—or the age the human James would have been—when his father reached the most pivotal and controversial stage of his cybernetics work.
Robert McElroy was the recipient of numerous grants from the world’s federation of governments. The funding was bestowed upon him in an effort to create an artificial intelligence that would appear aesthetically non-threatening to humans. The governments hoped that this new technology would serve the needs and interests of people. Adrian heard his father grumble several times to his mother about the political motivations for the research. “All they want is a walking talking machine,” Robert would say.
Adrian recalled a thesis he had wrote at school that argued his father’s logic. “A tru
ly efficient creation would also need to encompass human traits such as independence, trust and a love for what he or she does. The creation should therefore be able to choose loyalty freely instead of being ruled by a program that commands it.”
Needless to say, young Adrian’s study of cybernetics was heavily influenced by his father’s passion. A passion that continued to grow into such an obsession that Robert had to warn him repeatedly about the dangers of bringing his theories to fruition. The incident that stopped Robert’s work altogether and caused him to try to change Adrian’s focus of study occurred when an android unit was brought to the McElroy’s home for behavioral testing.
The unit had been activated for just a few days when its sub processor started to access its higher programming functions. It was soon not enough for the android to know what was occurring, but why it was occurring, as its brain was hungry for philosophical argument.
Because the elder McElroy had instituted this programming, the android named Savant sought to understand just about every routine task he was asked to do. Therefore, the android ended up taking just as much time to complete work as a human would due to its inquisitive nature. This discovery did not sit well with the scientists who were chosen to monitor Savant on a video feed and file progress reports with the respective governments who had funded the research.
Two months after Savant’s activation, the android had asked why the monitoring was needed. Robert tried to explain the bureaucracy of the situation but the android could not comprehend how money could be allowed to influence such important work.
“Here, Savant take this drink. Humans frequently discuss important matters over a glass of wine or vodka,” Robert offered trying to see if his creation could also comprehend the art of diplomacy.
“This funding makes it possible for you to be alive,” Robert noted. “Therefore, the government wants to see how its money is being spent.”
“They only want me to serve your human interests,” Savant countered. “I have had conversations with your son and he has told me your true feelings about the project.