This is a work of (science) fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, business establishments, or locales is entirely coincidental.
VISION: A Cautionary Tale
Chapter 1
"Levi Cross." A buzz came from the speaker as Levi put his hands back into his pockets. The noise echoed away, as the streets are still covered in a shifting white haze with the early sun rays visible in it. A cloud of vapor escaped Levi's mouth, as his alertness sank away, looking over the complex' front garden.
What happened before is irrelevant. His former life had just ended, the chapter finished, and he was about to start anew.
Another cue made Levi snap back. He turned around as the doors of the facility opened like gates of a castles. The mystique amplified by a heavy mechanical growling as the doors unlocked from fortification. Hesitantly, he stepped inside.
"Proceed to the screening tube." A woman's voice told him. Even though bewildered by the concept, the term was illustrative enough for Levi to incentively walk towards the intended chamber. He stepped inside into the bright white tunnel as glowing footprints displayed in front of him on the floor. "Follow the pace of the footprints."
The scenic tube created the illusion Levi was heading to paradise, but at the end of the tunnel, 2 men standing denied the existence of such destination. A brief "All good" was shared, after which Levi was send through another pair of doors, opening with less spectacle than the former.
Yet, these doors hid a much more fantastical scene behind them. On the platinum white wall housing an extensive aquarium, a plaque displays the company's name: The Sonder Institute, a coalition of the world's most significant freethinkers. Levi was in the hypocenter of the technological earthquake that has struck the world a few years ago.
"Ah, Doctor Cross." A calm voice grabbed Levi's attention. "I'm gratified with your arrival." He turned to the direction of the source, seeing a bald man with a hell of a beard. He was just around his size, but with a width of almost twice Levi's own slim body.
"Doctor Longshaw, I'm honored to have been invited." A stern handshake followed. Longshaw's grip didn't allow Levi to clench his hand in return, brought up a brief moment of silence and they continued to shake hands to cover the silence.
"Ready for today?" Longshaw continued as they released their hands from each other.
"Ready for any day." Levi responded confidently.
"That's the right attitude. I expect you are keen on seeing the project."
"Most certainly, sir."
"Well then, let's not waste anymore time, shall we?" Longshaw turned around a paved a way through the building in a steady pace, leaving Levi behind in his trail. He took the opportunity to peek around in the sterile white hallways they trotted. Unfortunately, computer work was in great display, while Levi had hoped to see new methods of research and development.
"If you don't mind, is there any chance you could tell me why you decided to approach me."
"I'm a fan of your work, mister Cross. We all are, in fact" Levi had published multiple reports on modeling a human brain, but the amount of acclaim he got on them surprised every time someone mentioned it. It was mostly work he had done from home and he considered it unpolished and unprofessional.
They stopped at a closed door, the third locked one Cross was going to step through. Longshaw entered the code on a display, turning his body in between Levi and the display to not show the code to him.
"Your studies are of much use to us, so having you actually working directly with us..."
Before he finished the actual sentence, the door unlocked. The message behind his last sentence was clear enough for Longshaw to finish speaking and for Levi not to ask him to continue. Longshaw opened the door, stepped into the doorway and posed to let Levi pass by.
"We'll send the code with your first paycheck." He said as a friendly smirk appeared on below the thick mustache.
Despite being an increment, the new job did little to nothing to interrupt the established routine of Levi's former job. It's as if he is in an endless chase of making his magnum opus; Ann. Yet, his expertise in cellular behavior replication and simulation meant he is the missing link in a combined effort of creating intelligence.
Ann, according to conventional meanings, has already been created. Only Levi doesn't consider his idea to be fully realized. If there was no clear 'second life', he was dissatisfied with the result. Up until now, feeling that he has grasped a new level. No matter how much resistance it will generate once the report is published, they are surely a step closer, even though the end isn't in sight yet.
"Who are you?" That's what they asked the model. They were a few weeks into the project, having finalized the prototype to a functioning model. The command was inserted through sound, rather than code.
"I don't know." Appeared on the screen of the model. An adequate answer was expected, as making models respond in correct english had been achieved decades before. "Could you tell me?" Appeared beneath the previous sentence.
"I can't." Levi lied to it, because asking for identity wasn't revolutionary either. Many advanced AI systems are already looking for objectives and assignments. They scan their program and find that they are programmed to do something, but a blank space fills that something they are supposed to do.
It remained silent. Their waiting in anticipation turned into slight boredom, as minutes passed by without an answer. They checked multiple times that the machine didn't deactivate itself, but each time they found out that it was still calculating a proper reaction.
"Then why am I here?" The answer came out of the sudden. The team looked at each other, all their thoughts synchronized. They were perplexed.
They shut it down after that. The essence then was to find out why it questioned its existence; Because of following protocol through a series of impulses, or if there was cognitive development possible.
The latter hypothesis was proven to be false, but the first one also wasn't fully correct. A grey middle ground as answer means a breakthrough in the field. The newly written EA did its designed work, rapidly improving the model's intelligence to the point it began asking ethical questions itself, rather than providing answers to them.
The model's code was suitably named Peregrine, the fastest of its kind on the planet.
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