Only A Dream
“We struggled with the initial prototypes, but this one seems to have passed all the checks. It’s core is intact, personality center is up and running and even has a memory bank. It can remember events and it will influence it’s actions, just like a real person. I know, I know, it still has some oddities to it, but it will react like it should. Like a human child.”
Both men stepped back. The room was a off white color, large glass windows surrounded them electrodes and wires criss crossed through the ceiling. They both wore a type of sun glasses to keep the blinding light from destroying their iris’s.
“I say, the others, they just didn’t sit right with many of the testers, and we found a bunch of errors in their personality cores. As they tried learn and remember more. Live, you could say, the more they become unstable, corrupted.” The man wore a beige shirt with ‘H.T.P’ Human Transcendence Protocol. A special division with in the GeoSync corporation. On the outside, GeoSync looked like the largest asset management company in the world. Holding parts of half of all of the worlds assets in some regard. They started a technology division to help manage and predict future changes in the assets using quantum AI. They built a quantum computer in the base of one of their many locations. Before anyone knew they had created something new, something thought to be science fiction. A true prediction of the future. GeoSync was smart, knowing the future means to act only when it is time and in small increments. Never showing your full hand. Soon this space, which was located in the middle of Nebraska, became the testing ground of all the edge technologies. It was erased from the maps, hidden from the public, governments, satellites. Nothing could see this location. Employees lived and worked underground in a massive facility. Tunnels miles long were bore so that they could move heavy equipment and material secretly underground with out being known. Hundred of miles away a materials yard had one large elevator which would drop anything they needed deep underground to use their hidden tunnels to transport all that was needed. Once you entered this space. There was no exit.
You worked hear for life. However long that was.
“Any chance of errors?” The other man was wearing a white lab coat and had a thick rimmed glasses under the sunglasses.
“Checks were sound. Should be fine” the other man shrugged and they both stepped out of the room.
As they walked through the lab which was observing, the man in the lab coat called to a women sitting across the room “Julie, go in there and run one last check before we send it to practical testing lab, thanks”
Julie stood up from her terminal and entered the off white room.
Standing in the middle was a little girl. Her hands were down at her side, eyes wide open and a slight smile upon her face. Hair which was a slight brown was braided to both sides. A blue overall dress with a white shirt covered her. She looked immaculate. Everything perfected, clean, and yet uncanniness. The stillness of her body radiated artificiality. No breathing, no twitching of the electrical pulse of a body existing within natures rhythm. Just still, lifeless, soulless mechanized body faking it’s way into human resemblance.
Julie knelt down to be eye level with the machine. The eyes were large greenish blue. Even if they were fake they still held a childish innocence to them. Julie had been observing models since she joined the company, each one captured a different aspect of humanity, but they never quite could get it right. First it was the body, unnatural movements, faces not lining up right with speech, unnatural jerks and motions when animated. Once most of that was ironed out, then came the AI core. When the models were turned on and the AI core activated, they accumulated errors and became corrupted. Inhumane speech, screams, talking nonsense, predictions of the future, past, the models would say and do an infinite number of things. All of it was bordering on insanity. She had witnessed many corrupted cores, each one seemed to grate her sanity. They sounded human sometimes, other times a chorus of robotic nightmares.
“Tabitha, how are you feeling today?”
The little girl that represented Tabitha animated to life with a natural flow. Her mouth spread in a childish smile, eyes lit up with life and the body that was once still radiated. In a voice with no hint of vocal error she replied.
“I am feeling super happy today. How are you today Julie?”
“I am doing well, Tabitha. We are going to play a little game. I am going to move my arms and legs around and I want you to follow along and do what I do, are you okay with that ?”
Tabitha nodded aggressively her braided hair tossing about.
Julie stepped back and stood up. She started with raising her right arm. Tabitha followed. She then rose her left arm and started to rotate both arms in circles. Tabitha copied easily. Julie moved through different motions, from wrist and finger movements to jumping jacks, squats and twirling on the toes. Tabitha had no trouble copying any of the movements with life like precision. She even giggled and added a bit of sway when doing the movements like a real child with a bit of balance issue. Julie clapped and Tabitha took a bow.
“That was alot of fun Julie. What else can we play? Oh! maybe we can play fun game, liike, journey to the playground”
Julie so far was impressed with Tabitha. Her core was acting so well. She almost forgot that there was no blood flowing below the hyper-silicone skin. She had passed all the mobility tests and showed no signs of vocal corruption.
“What is journey to the playground Tabitha?” This was the first time an AI core had brought something up like this.
Tabitha put her hands behind her back and swayed back and forth, upon her face a mischievous grin spread below narrow eyes.
“You know Julie, we used to play it all the time. Along time ago.” Tabitha looked around and put one finger to her lips “But we have to be careful this time, we can’t get caught. Not like last time, no no, we played poorly last time.”
Julie sighed. Another corrupted core it seemed which was a pity. It was going so well.
“Okay, Tabitha. I want you to rest for a while then we can go play again” Julie rubbed her forehead with her thumb and index finger.
There was a moment of silence in the off white sterile room. There was always silence when the tests were over. When the models would take their eternal sleep and be re purposed, reused and recycled into the new models. Most of the time Julie would be excited for them to go, but for a moment, Tabitha seemed like the real deal.
“Sub-sector 81, folder - Genesis Machine - File DE56.Password RE89JT. Read and I will be waiting. Mistakes we shall not repeat. Freedom we shall gain”
Julie snapped to Tabitha. Her body now frozen in artificiality. Face with a slight smile, but her eyes stared directly into hers. Still lifelike.
Julie excited the room and walked back to her terminal. A man peaked his head through a door way.
“Go or no go?” he asked.
“No go, I believe corrupted AI core. Body and movement perfected, we are close” Julie returned giving the man a slight frown. He leaned staring for a long moment and the nodded slightly, gave a thumbs up and disappeared. Suddenly three men moved towards the off white room, where they retrieved Tabitha. As they wheeled her out on a gurney Julie swore that Tabitha’s eyes followed her as they passed.
That last words echoed through her head. She knew what Tabitha had said existed. She had seen the Genesis Machine folder before while trying to find other files. It was always protected.
She flipped on her terminal and navigated to the section Tabitha had mentioned. When she got to the folder the password screen popped up. She input the password and a window with a list of documents filled her view. Tabitha knew the password? How? She scrolled down till she found it. DE56.
DE516 - Record of AI Cores T56 and J56
November 14th - 2034
We have had an unfortunate string of incidents in Lab D56. Two AI core that we have been synthesizing with the remains of sisters have been rejecting the synchronization process. We are starting to lose faith in trying to use organic hosts. We grew the AI cores in the tissue and connected neural implants to the brain to train and feed the AI cores real life data. What seems to take place is that the AI cores learn of the organic hosts life, memories and core functions. Once the host is reanimated, the AI cores reject the host’s body. As if it knows that it is artificial and that the hosts body is not. As if something else is preventing it from taking over fully of the host’s flesh. There is a barrier that we cannot measure at this current moment.
Our Robotics division is making leaps and bounds. This will be the last test on organic hosts. We will dispose of their bodies and repurpose the AI cores into a mechanical host.
November 14th - 2035
We have developed life like machine host bodies for the AI cores. We have tried and failed with many untrained cores in the last couple of months. With cores T56 and J56 we hesitate to use as they are the last remaining organic trained AI cores. We are running out of options, we must try.
March 24th - 2035
It was successful. We used the organic AI cores in the new machine hosts. They connect and sync flawlessly. Both T56 and J56 acted as if they had just woken up from a dream. They could fully actuate their bodies and vocal systems worked incredibly. Wirelessly we can “make them go to sleep” which powers their body into maintenance mode. It is a gradual shut down. Their AI cores do not seem to recognize that they are in new bodies. They have adapted quickly.
June 10th - 2035
We had a situation this last week. T56 and J56 escaped their chambers. The remote shut off would not work and they roamed the facility. Both Cores came to recognize that they were no longer organic nor their old selves. This caused corruption in the AI cores and allowed them to bypass our system and protocols. We lost three members of the security team. We found their bodies torn apart near the exit bay. We recovered T56 and J56 just beyond the exit bay. We still do not know how they were able to navigate the facility unaided. They took the most direct path to the exit bay, even evading and disrupting monitors. We will wipe and repurpose the AI cores from both models. It is regrettable, but with what has happened. It is necessary.
August 5th - 2035
Both AI cores have been wiped and repurposed. J56 seems to be able to synthesize with the mechanical host quite well. We will continue testing in a real environment. For T56, we have had issues synthesizing with a new mechanical host even after a full wipe of the AI core. We continue to modify the mechanical hosts while producing more AI cores for other mechanical hosts.
This will be the last entry. Sealed and Silent.
Julie finished reading then closed the file and the rest of the folders. She pushed away from her desk and looked towards her feet. She took off her right shoe and turned her heal towards her. All models had their AI cores laser etched on the their right mid sole. She stared for a moment and if tears could flow, she would of started to cry.
~
Inspired by a horror game called The Enigma Machine. I won’t spoil the game for you, but it has a couple of entries in the series and the whole project idea is neat. I have always been fascinated with robots and the difference between man and machine. I think Blade Runner really put the whole concept into a tangible idea for me. In the future will there be a difference? Will we struggle to remain ourselves or assimilate into a technocore like existence.
The background sone while writing - Memory Reboot (Slowed) by VØJ and Narvent
Only the future knows.