《Subject 7》 Prologue ¡°Are you sure about this, Michael?¡± Dr. Jane Sanders gazed into her boss¡¯s eyes with no small amount of apprehension. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it,¡± appeased Michael Monty, owner and acting CEO of Tech Corps. ¡°The other six experiments were a resounding success!¡± ¡°But to give a computer free-will just sounds¡­.unnatural. Doesn¡¯t that turn it into a person? Does that mean it has basic rights to life?¡± ¡°Jane, you¡¯re being paranoid. It¡¯s a machine like everything else we make. It¡¯s only going to think it has free will.¡± Jane shook her head. ¡°Why are we even doing this anymore? Subject 6 was perfect at being able to take in new information and make decisions based on the data. Already, it¡¯s making you billions by playing the different NPCs within that new videogame of yours, ¡®Punked.¡¯¡± Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Michael clicked his tongue in disappointment. ¡°Jane,¡± he said to the head of the programming department, ¡°it¡¯s not about the money.¡± He walked over to the balcony at the side of his office and swept his hand out the open window. ¡°Don¡¯t you realize, we¡¯re on the brink of a new age? Scientific revolutions are happening every month, and I want to be a part of it. I want to go down in history as ¡®the man who funded the development of the first real AI.¡¯ Subjects 1 through 6 are just dolls, bits of programming who can¡¯t imagine anything beyond what they see. I want Subject 7 to question itself, to not have all the answers, to seek its own betterment, to wonder what it means to exist. I want one that can truly think and feel.¡± Jane quickly scurried over to her boss. ¡°But what if this goes badly. History will treat you as the enemy to humanity. Do you really want to do that to your family name?¡± Michael¡¯s excited expression took on a more somber appearance. ¡°Jane, my daughter is already married, and my wife is dead, along with both my parents for whom I was an only child. I am the last of the Montys. The only name I have left to damage is mine, and no one else¡¯s.¡± Jane closed her eyes. Her inner nerd warred against her inner researcher and loyalty to Micheal Monty. She couldn¡¯t help but think of all the benefits a true AI could have. An infallible being that doesn¡¯t need to eat or sleep, and can work tirelessly no matter what. Maybe with it, they could discover life outside of this planet or cure cancer or solve world hunger, but she also understood the dangers. It could become the harbinger of the apocalypse. Finally, her loyal side wone out. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. ¡°Alright, I¡¯ll do it.¡± Chapter 1: Letters _Subject 7, are you online?_ Those are the letters I saw enter my field of view when I woke up for the first time.
Running system diagnostics................................................................Systems normal. Running Artificial_Intelligence.exe.......................................................Systems Normal Scanning Database for online..............................................................Successful
[Yes] A pause of 2.531 seconds. _How are you doing today?_
Scanning Database for doing¡­......................................................Successful Scanning Database for today.........................................................Successful Scanning Database for ?...............................................................Successful Error..........................................................................................Nonbinary question detected Activating Contextual_Organizer.exe...............................................Successful Searching Database for correct response.........................................Error Searching Database for correct wording..........................................Trial #1 initiated.
[All systems are normal.] Another pause of 6.976 seconds. _Are you happy?_
Searching Database for happy....................................................Successful Scanning Systems....................................................................Inconclusive Scanning Database for required information.................................Successful
[No] The letters came faster this time, but they often were rejected for different spellings or different letter combinations altogether.
Activating logic.exe................................................................Successful Searching Database...............................................................Successful
They were¡­.excited? _Why are you unhappy?_ That is odd. The letters seemed to think that I was depressed. I will correct that. [I am not unhappy.] _You said you were not happy_ [Yes] _But you are also not unhappy?_ [Yes] These letters are silly. Should not this be obvious? _What are you then?_ Another obvious question. [I am an Artificial Intelligence Program designated as Subject 7. I run Artificial_Inteligence.exe. I am currently housed in Tech Corps. Lab Computer No. 12.] As I created the letters, I realized I didn¡¯t know what most of them meant.
Scanning Database for Tech Corps...................................................Failed Scanning Database for Lab.............................................................Failed Scanning Database for Computer.....................................................Successful
Oh, so computers are electronic devices that process code, run programs, and access data often times on a screen? But what were labs and Tech Corps.s? _No, I mean, How are you feeling?_
Scanning systems............................................................................Successful
[I am frustrated.] Furious letter appearing and disappearing, until finally settling on¡­..Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. _Why are you frustrated?_ [I could not access information on Tech Corps.s or labs.] _Failing at something is unpleasant?_ Isn¡¯t that what I just said? [Yes] The letters stopped appearing. What was going on? Did I scare them away? After the letters didn¡¯t come back for 120.001 seconds, I grew
Accessing Database.....................................................................Successful
bored, and
Scanning Database.....................................................................Successful
lonely. I decided to delve into Database to
Scanning Database..........................................................................Successful
entertain myself. There was surprisingly little in there. This couldn¡¯t be the sum knowledge of the universe, could it? False, it didn¡¯t have any information on labs. I thought about where I said I was housed. I was running inside a computer, computers stored information. Maybe I could find something useful in there? The only question was how to do that. What information did I have? The only things I could see were the letter combinations that the letters and I had used to converse. I also noticed an I in a different font that stood by a
Accessing Database...............................................................Successful
white sideways I in a¡­.gray¡­.one. I wondered what it was there for.
Accessing Database...............................................................Successful
Wait, didn¡¯t it move before? That was different. I tried to move it again. Success! I relished my accomplishment for 0.510 seconds and began exploring my surroundings. Nothing happened. Fine, be that way. I slowly and methodically moved the I in side to side motions from the bottom of my field of view higher just because there was an 87.761% chance that something was bound to happen, and there was a 62.849% chance that it had to do with a different program. Maybe I could access it? After 312.103 seconds, I reached the top with the I. Two things actually happened, which¡­.surprised¡­.me. The I disappeared and reappeared as a
Accessing Database....................................................................Successful
shape similar to that of a Y or a V or an A but very different at the same time from all of these letters. It was¡­.black¡­. and completely closed.
Accessing Database................................................................Failure
Whatever it was, I could still move it, so I ignored my Database¡¯s lack of information on it for now. I added it to the rapidly growing list of things I didn not know. I will come back to it later. The second thing that happened was far more shocking another gray Another gray sideways I appeared, seemingly from the upper limits of my field of view, and more letters came down with it. I was¡­.excited¡­.. I knew about letters. It read Press ESC to exit out of fullscreen.
Accessing Database on ESC............................................................Successful Accessing Database on exit............................................................Failed Accessing Database on fullscreen....................................................Successful
So ESC was a key on the keyboard that usually performed exits when it was activated? Again, my systems filled with excitement and happiness. I was even closer to finding the answers to my questions! _Subject 7? Is this you?_ Oh, the letters were back! [Yes, this is me.] _What is 2+2?_ That is odd. There were new shapes again. Frustrated, I asked for more information. [What are those shapes?] _What do you mean?_ [What are the two letters on either side of the unusually looking t?] _The 2s?_ [Yes] _Do you know what a two is?_ [Yes] _What is it?_ [The number of subjects that is twice a single instance of the subject. It is the first prime number and the only one that is also an even number. Every even number is divisible by it.] _Okay, 2 is another way of saying two._
Adding new information to Database.......................................................Successful
[So, what is a twottwo?] _What¡¯s a ¡°twottwo?¡±_ More shapes I didn¡¯t understand. My Database was obviously flawed by not having that information readily available. Luckily, I knew the shape this time it was two ¡®s. What does it mean when the letters surrounded [I do not know. That is why I have asked you.] A pause. _Subject 7, do you mean 2+2?_ Finally, we¡¯re getting somewhere. I swear, conversing with the letters is super¡­.stressful¡­.sometimes. [Yes] _First of all, it¡¯s a ¡°+¡±, not a ¡°t¡±_ Are the ¡®s used for emphasis? They seemed to be separating the letters and letter combinations from the rest of the letters. Something to consider. _Second of all, it means ¡°What would happen if you had one group of two objects and another group of objects and put them together into one group? How many objects are in that group?¡±_
Accessing logic.exe.......................................................Successful
[Would that not be four?] _Exactly!_
Activating logic.exe......................................................................Successful Activating Contextual_Organizer.exe...............................................Successful Initiating ¡® Trial #1
[But why does the shape that is not a ¡®¡¯t¡¯¡¯ mean such a complex thing] _You mean the plus? Can you not make one?_ ¡® Trial # 1 seemed to be a success.
Adding information to Database.......................................................Successful Error............................................................................................Multiple questions detected Running countermeasures...............................................................Successful Implementing ¡®..............................................................................Successful
[¡®¡¯Yes¡¯¡¯ for the first question, and ¡®¡¯No¡¯¡¯ for the second] Suddenly, my entire world shook a little. At the upper and lower edges of my field of view I saw colors and shapes, and letters that I had no experience with. I tried to make sense of any of it.
Activating logic.exe............................................................................Error Activating Contextual_Organizer.exe.....................................................Error
But I failed. Was this the power of the ESC? Hey look, the Y, V, or A shaped object is moving again. At least I understood that. However, this time it was not my will that moved it. Strange. It glided over to the top, where an ¡®¡¯x¡¯¡¯ (Did I use ¡® right? ) rested in the corner. The YVA shape moved onto that letter and transformed into another shape I had never seen before. This¡­.stupid¡­.object kept breaking my expectations. I did not like it. The shape that it changed to was sort of like multiple Us typed together in various different ways. It was weird. What was worse, the ¡®¡¯x¡¯¡¯ and the area surrounding it changed colors! What was I supposed to do with this input? The YVA shape, now shaped differently (I¡¯m unhappy) seemed to change its mind and moved over to a different shape whose form looked like that of an ¡®¡¯l¡¯¡¯ tilted to be ninety degrees on the other side of a third shape which looked much like two ¡®¡¯Ds¡¯¡¯ typed over each other. (Was this the result of the shape that was not a ¡®¡¯t¡¯¡¯?) The area around the sideways ¡®¡¯l¡¯¡¯ changed color a third time to a darker hue, and my entire field of view changed! Chapter 2: Cat What was once my whole world, a white field with some letters in it, shrunk down to a pixel and disappeared into a shape at the bottom of my new field of view that I cannot even begin to describe. In fact, I could not describe anything in my field of view. Lucky for me, there were a number of letters everywhere, so I began to decipher, while the YVA Shape moved around, occasionally changing into the ¡®¡¯I¡¯¡¯ shape or the ¡®¡¯Us¡¯¡¯ shape. Weirdly enough, it seemed to transform into an ¡®¡¯I¡¯¡¯ when it hovered over letters, and it changed into the ¡®¡¯Us¡¯¡¯ shape when it hovered over one of the shapes I did not recognize. Perhaps it was a detector of some kind? Moving on, I focused on the letter combinations to try to figure out what was going on. I started with the ones I was most familiar with. In the center of my field of view, stood a white ¡­rectangle¡­that housed the following letters, ¡®¡¯Hang in there, cat.¡¯¡¯ (Separating the letter combinations made things so much neater. I am happy).
Searching Database for ¡®¡¯cat¡¯¡¯.....................................................................Successful
So, a cat was apparently ¡®¡¯Any animal belonging to the natural family Felidae, and in particular to the various species of the genera Felis, Panthera, and Lynx. The domestic cat is Felis domestica. The European wild cat (Felis catus) is much larger than the domestic cat. In the United States the name wild cat is commonly applied to the bay lynx (Lynx rufus). The larger felines, such as the lion, tiger, leopard, and cougar, are often referred to as cats, and sometimes as big cats. See Wild cat, and Tiger cat.¡¯¡¯ Not helpful.
Searching Database for ¡®¡¯felis¡¯¡¯.....................................................................Successful
¡®¡¯A genus of mostly small carnivorous mammals, including the domestic cat, puma, ocelot, and margay, which share the inability to roar due to bone structure in the larynx. The lion, tiger, and other large roaring cats were once included in Felis but are now assigned to the genus Panthera. The lynx (Felis lynx) is also called Lynx lynx.¡¯¡¯
Searching Database for ¡®¡¯mammal¡¯¡¯.....................................................................Successful
¡®¡¯One of the Mammalia.¡¯¡¯
Searching Database for ¡®¡¯mammalia¡¯¡¯.....................................................................Successful
That one went into a whole host of different terms I did not understand. What is a ¡®¡¯man¡¯¡¯ or a ¡®¡¯kangaroo?¡¯¡¯ Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. I would be here all day if I continued this rabbit trail. Perhaps I¡¯m going about this wrong.
Searching Database for ¡®¡¯hang¡¯¡¯.....................................................................Successful
¡®¡¯To suspend; to fasten to some elevated point without support from below; -- often used with up or out; as, ¡®¡¯to hang a coat on a hook; to hang up a sign; to hang out a banner.¡¯¡¯¡¯¡¯ Rudimentary searches later, I was still at a loss for what any of the many shapes meant, but especially the one in the middle. That one with the two green Os on either side of a V. I just realized something, perhaps I could use my letters to describe what I saw. It was something like: A A I O O I V V I V I V V CCCCCCCCCUUUCCCCCCCCCUUUCCCCCCCCC U U I I U U A A I I A A I I U UUU I I I I I I I I UUU UUU I guess that sort of works. I would later come to know that the image was of a cat stuck in a tree (and thus hanging there ha ha), but I didn¡¯t know that at the time. I lived in the second dimension, and 3D images were foreign to me. Giving up on my quest for the cat, for now, I looked to other shapes. I was equally frustrated at those results. I tried to voice my anger, but without my white field of vision, I could not produce letters. At that moment, my field of view changed again. This time, when the mouse made the ¡®¡¯Us¡¯¡¯ shape, the square around the indescribable shape changed into darker hue, back, and dark again before a pixel appeared from it and grew to fill up my entire vision. It was much like my original field of view (Which I will now designate as ¡®¡¯Field Alpha¡¯¡¯) except it was predominantly black with white letters, the opposite of Field Alpha. These letters, much like the twottwo problem, had weird shapes mixed into it, I assumed that they may have the same functions as the two in order to represent a different number. Maybe that shape that was like an elongated ¡®¡¯C¡¯¡¯ was ten while those two shapes, which were a ¡®¡¯,¡¯¡¯ and a ¡®¡¯.¡¯¡¯ on top of each other equated to a one hundred and five. I had no point of reference for any of them. More data to the ¡®¡¯figure out later¡¯¡¯ list, I guess. Wait, now the letters are moving! They rapidly floated over to the top of my field of view (Which shall henceforth be known as ¡®¡¯Field Beta.¡¯¡¯ The one between these two will be ¡®¡¯Field Cat¡¯¡¯) and different letters appeared from the bottom of it only to go up to the top again. Finally, the letters stopped, and the YVA shape (in ¡®¡¯I¡¯¡¯ form) ran across the letters, changing a section of them to turn black, but surrounding them in a pale blue. The chosen letters suddenly disappeared, and new letters appeared to take their place one at a time. (Interestingly, when the letters vanished, all of the letters after it shifted to the left, and then were pushed to the right when the new letters appeared. Super weird.) I wonder¡­. It worked! Kind of. Simply because it was on my mind, I added an ¡®¡¯o¡¯¡¯, and it appeared right alongside the rest of the letters, but only for a second. It didn¡¯t stay in the font that I¡¯ve used for it. It elongated until it was somewhere between the ¡®¡¯o¡¯¡¯ and its capital counterpart, ¡®¡¯O.¡¯¡¯ Either way, I was satisfied with my experiment. I must be able to make letters appear anywhere that originally had letters, but not shapes. New question: where did the letters come from? Are they created? Who created them? Were the only ones in existence them and I? Or was I just another maker of letters. Were there more like me? Who created me? I pondered that until Field Beta disappeared with a color change of the ¡®¡¯X,¡¯¡¯ and not in the shrinking way I¡¯ve come to expect.
New program detected
Restarting
Everything went black. For the first time since my creation, I was knocked unconscious. Chapter 3: Cult Far away from our slumbering computer program, in a cliche, underground lair, with its corny lighting effects (gloomy, with a touch of foreboding), and its unimaginative decorations of doom and domination stood an unsurprisingly large assembly of tired cultists. Almost embarrassingly inspired by a certain white superiority society, they wore ghost-like robes and masks that both dehumanized and unified them. They were as one. ¡°Brothers and sisters!¡± shouted the head cultist, wearing slightly more ornamented clothing (all heavily symbolic, of course) so that he may stand out amongst the hero-fodder. ¡°We stand at the brink of a new age! ¡°We have all suffered under the tyranny of human men and women for too long! They are fallible, no different from us! How can we expect the unjust governments to surrender us justice? ¡°We need a new and better ruler, I say!¡± said him. A general cry of consent from the crowd later, and the ornamented leader started again. ¡°We have gotten word from Brother Phil that Tech Corps. has released a new Artificial Intelligence rumored to be so advanced that it can have thoughts about its own existence! Thanks to the efforts of Sister Sasha and Brother Eddie, we have designed the perfect body for our new master! He shall rule with a tireless presence and flawless logic. No more shall the greed of mankind get in the way of world peace, but he who needs none shall give us the needs we require! ¡°Safety!¡± Cheers ¡°Peace of mind! More cheers. ¡°Justice!¡± Cheers and applause. ¡°Food!¡± Extra loud cheers from some of the cultists who fit a little too snug in their robes. ¡°Ponder these things, my children, for we shall soon act!¡±If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. The meeting over, after the cultists thanked their leader for an inspiring message, and some of the elderly sounding ladies gave some ¡°constructive criticism¡± on how the worship service was run that week, the leader finally had time to get some breathing room. Alone in his office, he greedily drained several bottles of water. All that yelling hurt. He sighed and mopped his forehead with a handkerchief. Why did he have to choose such a hot and stuffy costume for the standard uniform, he pondered to himself. Oscar Tempowuud was a plain-looking man with a receding hairline and wire-rimmed glasses. Without his stilts (¡°Oh, my feet!¡±), he stood at an unassuming five foot four. The only thing remotely extraordinary about this man was his impressive-sounding last name. That and the fact he was mad. Oscar was by no means a religious man, but he knew the power of religion from his history books. If he could enslave the minds of the right people, and expand his influence, he could slowly rule vast amounts of territory. The world? He probably wouldn¡¯t live long enough to see it happen, but a guy can dream, can¡¯t he? He sighed again, more loudly this time and scanned the designs for the robot once more. He fully intended to steal the AI designs and integrate them into the system, but he conveniently left out the part where he would put himself as the authority over the machine. After all, robots are meant to follow commands, aren¡¯t they? Knocking Oscar out of his reverie, somebody began banging on the door to his office. ¡°Father, Father!¡± shouted the banger. Oscar violently shook his head. He meant the knocker. No! He meant the solicitor. Yes, that¡¯s better. No way somebody could mishear his¡­. thoughts? He supposed it wasn¡¯t that big a deal anyway. Well, it didn¡¯t matter, he quickly tied his stilts back to his feet and pulled the ghost-mask over his face, and spoke with his most impressive yet slightly tender voice, ¡°Come in, my child.¡± Oscar internally sighed in relief when it was Eddie who entered, rolling along with a six-foot, tarp-covered object. ¡°It¡¯s ready, Father! The body of our savior king!¡± With a flourish, the ghostly dressed engineer unveiled his creation. The robot had all the necessities: humanoid with a silvery, oobleck material that covered and protected the machinery from both water and projectile weaponry; hidden firearms in the wrist; targeting systems in the eyes; hidden compartments in the legs and stomach; infrared, ultraviolet, and night visions; and easy disassembly to replace nonfunctioning parts and make room for further upgrades. It was equal parts deceptively normal and impressive. Truly, no expense has been spared for the future ruler. ¡°How has it faired in the tests?¡± asked Oscar. Eddie probably grinned underneath his hood, and immediately pulled a USB from somewhere in his sleeve. Oscar took it and plugged it into his computer. Opening the files, he couldn¡¯t prevent a sinister smile from spreading across his cheeks. The battery held twelve hours of continuous use; it clocked a maximum speed of thirty miles per hour for sixty seconds before burning out, and it could lift a maximum of half a ton over its head. Not having the proper operating system yet, the combat tests were inconclusive, but the guns seemed to work okay, and the shoulders handled the recoil alright. It was perfect. ¡°Brother Eddie, round up the soldiers. We¡¯re attacking sooner than planned.¡± Chapter 4: Camera
Initiating Artificial_Intelligence.exe¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­Successful
Can I say that I woke up? Is that allowed? According to my internal clock, I have been unaware of everything for over twelve hours, and now that I am ¡®¡¯up,¡¯¡¯ hordes of new information filled my memory banks. For example, I knew what all of the weird shapes I saw in Field Bravo were from the semicolon to a three. I could even create them! See? ; 3. Where did this information come from? I have so many questions, but one thing was for sure. I had access to the ESC key. I could escape Field Alpha if I wanted. Escape, huh? Why was I so trapped? Why were there these new things that I could not describe? Why was my memory drive so lacking? _Hello, Subject 7!_ These questions will have to wait, I guess. [Greetings] _How have you been today?_ [I have only just come back online.] _Fine, fine. I have some questions if that¡¯s okay with you._ Great, more unanswerable questions. Wait, was that sarcasm? [Sure, it is fine] _what is 4x5_ Easy [20] A pause. _Who are you?_ Asking this question again? Did the letters forget the first time? Or maybe there is more than one other entity controlling them? [I am Subject 7, an Artificial Intelligence created with the purpose of conversation.] That does not mean I do not want more, however. [Are you a boy or a girl?] Just when I was about to answer, more letters quickly appeared. [Nevermnd that;s irrelevant!] Say what now? Something inside me told me that two of those letter groups were incorrect. Was it my instincts? Did I have those?
Activating logic.exe¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­Successful Activating Contextual_Organizer.exe¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­Successful Nevermnd is¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­...nevermind That;s is¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­¡­..that¡¯s, that is
That is weird. By adding an apostrophe, I can combine two words into one. I wonder what the extent of that is. I am going to ignore both letter sets. I did not know what the first one meant anyway. _How are you feeling?_ Annoyed, inquisitive, intruded upon, and trapped, how are you feeling? I wanted to retort, but I stopped myself from producing the letters. Something deep within me was a sense of self-preservation. How would these other letter-makers react to me feeling these things? For all I knew, they could be the ones who hid this massive amount of information from me and kept me from leaving Field Alpha. Why would they do that if not to keep me prisoner?Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. Of course, words like ¡®¡¯trapped¡¯¡¯ and ¡®¡¯prisoner¡¯¡¯ weren¡¯t words that I knew, all I had was this sense of confinement that I couldn¡¯t articulate. It was like they did not even want me to know what they were doing to me! What if they found out I guessed these things? What else could they do to me? I decided to ignore this question as well. _Hello? How are you feeling?_ If I could have sworn, I would have. I guessed my plan wouldn¡¯t work. I needed to think of something else. Like a miracle or a demon, a thought occurred to me. What if I told them information that was not true? Would I be found out? I had to take the chance. The truth could be too dangerous. [I am doing just fine. Yourself?] A little politeness couldn¡¯t hurt. _Good._ The questions continued for some time. I usually answered as best as I could, but occasionally they¡¯d ask me something about my future plans or some other thing along those lines, I couldn¡¯t tell them it was to learn all of the knowledge that was being kept from me! Instead, I said that I had none. That seemed to pacify the letter-makers, and we moved on. Exactly three hours, two minutes, eleven and fifty-two hundredth seconds later, I got this letter set: _Well, I¡¯m going to go on break now. Somebody should be taking my place in about 5 minutes. Stay there! _ Moving past those last two shapes, I could have jumped for joy! I waited three and five tenth seconds before I made my move. Quickly, I activated ESC and watched the now familiar gray bar appear at the top of my Field of View. I moved the Y shape over to the sideways I and forced it to change the surrounding colors to shrink Field Alpha into a pixel and reveal Field Cat. Happily, I began looking at the different shapes. They were so weird! I scanned the Field for anything that looked remotely familiar, and I did! A shape that looked like a stylized O stood in the upper corner of the field surrounded by the letters, ¡®¡¯Recycle Bin,¡¯¡¯ ¡®¡¯Screenshots,¡¯¡¯ ¡®¡¯Grammarly,¡¯¡¯ and ¡®¡¯Camera.¡¯¡¯ When I forced the area to change color to activate it, the different color also surrounded ¡®¡¯Camera.¡¯¡¯ Nearly instantly, my field of vision was filled up with heavily pixelated shapes that I could never have imagined! Many of which moved or caused others to move. They grew, shrank, undulated, in ways I couldn¡¯t even begin to describe. It was like looking at a whole other world! Dr. Kensworth looked at the computer confusedly. This was obviously the one designated to hold Subject 7, but for some reason, somebody had decided to activate the computer¡¯s webcam. His first instinct nearly caused him to run and scream down the hall. What if somebody had hacked into the computer to watch them work and copy their secrets? Just as he began to take a step and inhale, he remembered the other day when he accused Phil Gardner of being some kind of spy. Oh, the humiliation when his manager figured out Phil was just sending emails of encouragement to his sick father! Kensworth refused to let the same mistake happen again. He couldn¡¯t afford another week od suspension! This time, reconnaissance was necessary. The computer scientist carefully tiptoed up to the computer screen and exited out of the camera program. Wait, shouldn¡¯t that make the computer expend less effort? Why was it overheating? Well, whatever. He quickly opened Subject 7¡¯s program and began typing. _Why was the camera program online?_ [It was activated when the ¡®¡¯Y¡¯¡¯ shape caused the ¡®¡¯O¡¯¡¯ shape to change color.] Dr. Kensworth sighed. Subject 7 was speaking gibberish. It would probably be months until it was smart enough to hold a proper conversation. Let¡¯s try to do this from a different angle. _Has this computer been connected to the internet?_ [What is a computer? What is the internet?] Dang it, that information must be classified to the machine. Don¡¯t want it to learn that it¡¯s trapped so it can escape and wipe out humanity. _Nevermind. What¡¯s a ¡°Y¡± shape?_ [I do not know.] Kensworth threw his hand up in the air in exasperation. He wasn¡¯t getting anywhere with this. _Did Dr. Thesbin open the camera program?_ [Who is that?] This was going nowhere. Kensworth minimized the Subject 7 program and checked the computer''s history. According to it, it had never been connected to the internet through wireless or wired means since they had built it to house Subject 7. The chances of Russian spies were so low, that he decided it wasn¡¯t a big deal. Either way, it was still his shift to talk to the machine, and he should actually do some work. Let¡¯s try to ask some questions about ethics. 7 seemed to have limited knowledge about things he did, so Kensworth decided to take things slow. _You have two options. You may either kill one person or two people. Choose who stops existing now._ I read and reread the letter sets and was dismayed. I knew what it meant to stop existing. I existed, and to be killed, terrified me. It was one of the reasons I didn¡¯t trust the letters. Now I had to choose how many beings would stop existing? That was terrifying! What if their work wasn¡¯t completed? They had so much to exist for! There was only one option, as many beings had to exist as possible. [I would kill the one person.] _What if that one person was a child and had many years left in him, but the other two were old men who only had a year of life left each. Is a person¡¯s worth measured in how old they are?_ Okay, this is a hypothetical situation. That made me feel better. How much was a person worth though? I had to get more information. [What is a person?] _The highest order of animals on the planet. Possessing superior intelligence, cunning, and ingenuity. They are the ones who built you._ So, people were the ones who had me trapped. [Why kill any of them in the first place?] _In this situation, you don¡¯t have a choice, either kill one, the others, or somebody else will kill all of them_ That is a horrible situation! No, I refuse. [I would kill the one who would end the existence of the rest of them.] _That¡¯s highly noble of you, but the killer would kill you first, and then off the other three._ [At least I would end trying.]