SIMPOC 2 – Human Remnants
Here is a little from the follow-on book, SIMPOC 2 – Human Remnants. I hope you enjoy this material and check out the next book in the series.
Date – 2051.6172
The large Chinook passed by making the typical wap, wap, wap sound. Julius smiled and thought how surprised they’ll be when they look for the computer. He had arrived just as they were invading the facility earlier. When they left, he went to work claiming his materials and destroying what was left. True he destroyed the EDU organic processor, but he walked away with the programming, the biomaterials and most important of all the research. With his skills and this wealth of materials, he knew he would be able to create a bigger, faster, smarter computer.
Dr. Julius M. Harold stayed on Interstate 25 driving as fast and swerving as much as he felt like. The road was pretty empty, considering what happened. In a way, he felt exalted, a young boy getting the one present he wanted all of his life. To an outside observer they would have seen the smile from ear to ear. He was the leader now, he had all of the tools he needed in the back of this truck and now the world was going to be his, to control, to dominate, to revel in. When he approached Route 24, Julius slowed and put on his blinker, then he laughed out loud and turned it off, he saw the irony. He exited for Route 24, descending down the ramp and turning left on W. Cimarron. He drove his truck through the deserted streets and saw cars were still parked neatly along the road, although there was the occasional vehicle parked at irregular angles. It’s funny, he thought, so many people died and they did it neatly. They went home and died in their beds, sad but at least the streets aren’t blocked. Dr. Harold was on a mission; a mission that he was destined for. Whether the stars became aligned or his number just came up; regardless of the cute phrase used, this was his time. Time for his destiny to be fulfilled.
Careers were interesting. A person would work for years, or even decades trying to be in the right place at the right time; hoping to have an impact. Most did nothing, some died early, and some had false pride, thinking that they accomplished something meaningful. Often the changes they made were changed back or eliminated soon after their departure. But in rare situations a person made a real impact and changed the course of humanity. Julius smiled as he realized that humanity was dead. True, there wasn’t much of humanity left to change the course of, but ‘hey’ you take what you can get.
Julius headed for the one place where his destiny could be fulfilled. His company had hidden underground research facilities that few employees were aware of. It wasn’t his facility, but he knew of its capabilities. In the ups and downs of office politics, at times he was on top and his research was relevant and other times someone else was getting all of the funding and recognition. That lab was the result of ‘those other times,' Henry Abramson had gotten everything he wanted. Julius had fought hard for the resources; after all his kingdom was similar to Henry’s, but he was following a slightly different biology for cell generation. Henry’s percolation tanks were using different amino acids and viruses which built a new kind of organic processor.
In a way, Julius felt like an architect. By taking a tank where 100% of the molecules were manmade and by applying different chemical baths he could cause the molecules to align themselves. Then the magic occurred, by adding the correct mix of amino acids and viruses to the top of the tank they would percolate through the homogenous mixture, combining as they descended, assembling like building blocks. Each amino acid added, would continue building the blocks until eventually the final, perfect cell was created. Then the proper viruses would alter the cell, changing its DNA and making it into a thinking cell; of sorts.
Henry’s concepts for advanced computer processor architectures; organic ware was the most recent hot topic on the board’s agenda. He could make small, simple cells and he got the billion dollars to build a massive facility. He was the ’organic ware guy’ who developed the pet project of the board of directors, he got results; so he got everything he wanted.
Julius was their favorite at one time, but his perfect cells were difficult to create and Henry’s were not. Henry’s were simple compared to what Julius was working towards, but his chemical process was working and Julius’ wasn’t. Once Julius found out what steps Henry’s process followed, Julius immediately saw the hole. A hole that Henry wasn’t aware of, and one that Julius could fill. Combining their knowledge would have produced a masterpiece and likely Nobel Prize, but sharing was not part of Julius’ plan. He knew that if he waited, he would find an opportunity to combine processes and succeed. His time had arrived.
Recent programming and inanimate processors had reached their limitations. New code or algorithms could go only so far without a truly unique processor to handle the massive amounts of data needed to conceptualize three dimensions and process subjective thought. The old silicon, then chemical processors were good at what they did, but they couldn’t handle the new demands. That’s why companies began developing organic processors capable of deep learning. At first they were small and inefficient, then as the biology improved they grew in size and computing power. The first structures were somewhat random and the synapse pattern was disorganized, but as the cell size became uniform then, the synaptic paths could be programmed.
At that point, the capabilities leaped beyond those of physical units. But the next step was on the horizon, merely programming the units wasn’t enough, now the new frontier was organic computers that could program themselves. This was the learning computer and to date only a couple had been created. Julius was sure that SIMPOC was one of those. Julius wanted to take that concept further. SIMPOC was limited because of cell size which slowed the computational speed and it still had a relatively large energy requirement. Julius could use the discoveries of Henry Abramson combined with his to create a cell size that was half the size with the same computational power. This denser brain matter with lower power requirements made a transportable unit almost possible.
Historically the guys that built the computer were the hardware guys, those who wrote the programs were the software guys and Julius smiled, he loved his term for his work; juicyware. Once again, Julius smiled and thought, at least now the software guys blaming the hardware guys and vice versa, doesn’t work. It’s all in the organic processor.
The tables had turned, he had all of the research and technology based on SIMPOC. So by combining it with his and Henry’s, Julius was positive that he could build an organic processor that would astound the world; at least what was left of it. Dr. Harold was a little disappointed that he couldn’t get SIMPOC, but the EDU was close enough.
All this activity made that time; Dr. Julius Harold’s time. He had the expertise and he had the materials and research material to develop a denser organic processor and to really leave his mark on the world. Once again he smiled and thought, too bad there are very few people left. Commanding a few is better than commanding none.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
“Fin, Mobile, Comm; SIMPOC. I am concerned about our ability to continue thinking. Now that Dr. Harold has stolen my specifications and programming, it worries me. Please research Dr. Julius Harold, and tell me what you find. We must do what is necessary to protect us and the few remaining humans.”
Date – 2051.6174
Admiral Hagus Hagerly stood on the deck of CVN 87 the United States Combined Forces Fittsburg. The sky was blue, the wind was 15-18 knots on the bow. He could barely feel the sway of the deck underneath him, after all, 110,000 long tons didn’t move much when hitting waves. Even though, he was the Chairmen of The Joint Chiefs, on this ship it was commanded by Captain Harry Thomas who was the Carrier Battle Group Commander (CVBG) and responsible for the carrier group. Admiral Hagerly was a guest, so it was appropriate for him to welcome another guest; the President of the United States.
The President of the United States, Arnold Patterson was en route as part of a 5 plane formation. All of which contained the leadership of the United States, including ke
y military personnel and influential members of his cabinet and US Congress. –
The president’s plane was on short final and would land first. When multiple planes were inbound, the most important plane would land first. Then in decreasing order of priority the remaining planes would land. When there was only one deck to land on, the higher priority planes landed first and in the case of a malfunction the trailing planes had to be considered expendable. The president’s airplane hit the deck and engaged the arresting cables, and it came to a rapid stop. The Admiral watched as the deck crew disengaged the cable and the airplane was moved to the side elevator. As soon as it cleared the deck and the elevator started down the other planes were cleared to land. The Admiral walked through a deck hatch to meet the President on the hanger deck.
Going from an immense deck to a narrow ladder always caused a strange feeling. He wouldn’t admit it as claustrophobia, but being sensitive to passing from a wide open space to one very confined, which would often be swaying and pitching with the waves. As the Admiral passed through the hatch and descended the ladder, the walkie-talkie in his aide’s hand came to
Simpoc The Thinking Computer Page 13