Harry and Alice

CH 1

Harry liked his computers. Most guys his age were in their first or second year of college, drinking and chasing girls. He was already graduated from Capica University with a degree in Computer Science with high grades. With careful investing and bit of luck he had grown his trust fund from a fify thousand cubits (after college expences) to a few million. The startup companies he'd invested in were taking off, and growing fast with no end in sight. The programs he'd made to watch the stock market trends, history, and prospective movemnents worked well. His number of shares grew, and share value grew. By the age of 25, he had his own luxurious house to work on his projects in.

One thing Harry was working at was to make a true AI. There were some pretty capable units out there. Easily programable, high memory capability, and the newest ones even were beginning to be designed to look human. In his mind, he thought they should act more human.

The newest household assistant, the HART 1300-B6, had a human-like face under the maid's cap. The body, though obviously metal and, was more or less a female shape with slim arms, five fingers on each hand, a rise in the chest area of the torso, and if you overlooked the splits in the plates, a fairly relistic spread on the hips and due to improvements in balance programs, even the feet had shrunk to almost human sized. Harry had bought a brand new HART 1300-B6, took it home to his lab, and began picking it apart. Not physically, but it's programs and capabilities..

The first thing Harry dug into was the cpu. While the cpu was fast, there was only one that ran programs, the others were smaller and peformed single functions such as joint movements, balance, voice control and responce, and internet connection like all standard comercial units. He found the programs were the same. Taylored to household duties, but nothing extrodinary. All the programs were on read only memory. Apparently the manufacturer didn't want anyone modifying the programs. He also noted in the kernal memory it a requirement for a sucessful boot-up for these ROM modules to be in place.

Harry grinned and rubbed his hands together. Right away he had found a way to improve the android. The first was the CPU. Instead of a dual unit, he went out and bought two quad-cpu's. He also bought Eeproms to replace the Red only memory chips, and got ten instead of the installed four. He needed a new mother board set, and got a handful of removable flash drives to expand memory and programming space.

For the next few weeks, Harry dove into reprogramming and plans to rewire a new computer for his HART 1300-B6. He built the new computer unit and transfered the programs into the new memory. He put one quad cpu set to doing tasks, and split the other qual unit into seperate functions. Two processors were dedicated to learning. The other two were to run the best AI program he could find, and used the flash drives he added. After the new computer was up and running, and the input-output modules were functioning, he set aside work in the uprades to run the android for a couple days before he installed the new computer ware.

Four months after Harry bought his HART 1300-B6, he finally turned it on. The eyes lit up a light blue, and it stood in place.

"Hello?" Harry asked.

It didn't respond. Harry drug out the users' manual and followed the instructions.

"H.A.R.T. one, three, zero, zero, bravo, six. Serial number One five five two three six nine seven, your password is," Thinking of a good password, Harry said, "Dumbot."

A light female voice, though still mechancal sounding, came from the android. "Greetings, password accepted, ready for commands."

Harry told it the first recommended command. "You are in the living room. Scan and map the area."

"Scanning and mapping the living room." it replied. It turned in a circle, then walked around, it's head moving back and forth in a 'no' gesture.

Harry watched it complete it's scan. When it was done it stopped in place. He looked in the manual again. OK, a page back, he saw he had to give it a 'home' position. He walked over and said, "Allow assisted movement."

"Assisted movement activated."

Harry held the hand of the machine and slowly lead it along. It walked, keeping it's balance as he towed it into the lab. Once there, he steered it to a chair by the lab table and sat it down. "This is your home position."

"Home position activated." It turned it's head seaching the room.

Harry saw it was pausing to look at furniture and the door. After it had scanned the whole room, it said, "Home position confirmed."

Following the next step, showing the android the allowed range of movements, Harry said, "Follow me to map the range of movement."

The andriod stoop up. Harry walked, it followed. He walked back to the door then took a tour of the house, walking around each room and out onto the back patio.

The next step in training the android was to show it where the refrigertor, stove, dishwasher, washing machine, every household appliance was located. Upon coming to the outdoor grill he had made, the android paused. After a moment of looking at the mortar and stone grill with a metal mesh cooking surface, it said, "Error. Device not in memory, internet connection malfunction. Cannot download proper operating instructions. Cannot upload malfunction report to repair facility. Request assistance."

"I disabled your internet connection," Harry said. "Do you know what thas is?" he asked, pointing to the grill.

"Error, device not identified. No company identifier or type and model numbers visibly or magnetically detected."

"If I said it is a grill, can you recall how to use a grill?" he asked.

"Negative. No company identifier or type and model number visibly or magneticlly detected."

Right, even this advanced model could not truly think, only call up what was supplied by exact memory. No capability of speculation or imagination.
"Do you need a recharge?" he asked.

"Negative, power reserve is at ninety seven percent. Recharge point is Twenty eight percent, plus six, minus one."

Harry had thought to test it's capabilities today. Already he had a good idea of what it was, and wasn't capable of. "I am going to rewire you and add more capability to your systems. Do you understand?"

The android turned to look at him with it's thousand yard stare. "Keywords, rewire, capability, systems. Any modification of HART 1300-B6 system will void any warrentee and if on a payment schedule, the user will be charged with restoration fees to bring unit back to the original operational
and physical specifications."

"You are paid for and I don't care about the warentee," Harry told it. "Return to home position."

.

The android's metal 'face', chest plate and abdomen cover lay on the work table as Harry carefull disconnected and removed the old mother board. Every 'no user servicable parts inside' label, he ignored. The new mother board was a little larger, but not enough so to inhibit the android's movement.

He connected all the wireing back up, then took out the old standard CCD camera eyes with the newer wide angle Dradis incorporated range and focusing system. He tucked the interface module in the small space below the eye motion motors he installed. Now, instead of just the visual/laser ranging system, his android would be able to sense clear ojects as well as see through them. It would also now be able to see through smoke and fog. It also would not have to swing it's head back and forth to scan where it was.

Harry double checked every connection, then turned the android back on. This time the boot-up was a little more impressive that just a flash of glowing eyes. The eyes didn't glow, but the head moved. The android looked around, looked at the parts on the table then down on itself. A hand came up to touch it's face. Lacking contact with where the face plate was suppose to be, the Android said, "Partial disasembly detected. Request information for the cause."

"I added a few new parts to you," Harry told it.

The andriod looked at him. "Owner, is this unit now refered to as 'you'?"

Harry smiled, it was asking questions. "You is a general term indicating speaking to another person. That other person is you, no matter who it is. The person speaking will be 'I or Me'"

"Therefore, I am speaking to You," the android said.

"Very good, you learn quickly."

"Me processing speed has increased eight hundred percent, installed memory twenty times, and appears to be further expandable." The andrid looked at the parts on the table again. "Will You be reassembling Me parts?"

Harry chuckled and said, "Yes, I will."

"What is the noise you made before emitting understandable verbilizations?"

"It means I am happy the program changes I made in you are working," Harry explained.

"Was Me original programming defective?"

"Yes, and severely lacking," Harry said. "I am now going to teach you many things."

.

Many simple things were alredy in the androids' memory. Harry explained the words and phrases more commonly used. He also gave it a name. Seeing how the body was a rough female shape, he decided on Alice. Alice was accepting of her new name, though at the moment, Harry knew it was only a unique identifier to her. Once he made sure Alice had the Caprican language down, he had her learn the other six known languges.

Next was identifying objects and machines. This time when he took Alice out to his home made grill, she did identify it as a grill of unknown origin, and picked the instructions from a similar 'manually operated wood burning outdoor cooking device' to deduce how to use the grill.

Besides spending his days teaching Alice, he also watched TV with her to help her with concepts like reality and fantasy, and how to tell the difference. This brought up the question of imagination. Harry had her practice 'imagining' things from useing a pre-selected items like making up a car race, to a complete 'fantasy' event useing nothing that was real. Although Alice had monsters from a video game cooking and sitting down for dinner, she did get the concept of imagination.

Alice handled daily chores well. Harry had to make small adjustments here and there to her mechanics, but nothing major. Alice perfered to 'monitor' the TV when possible, and once she had the frequency, she didn't need to use the remote. Harry was pleased, Alice was indeed learning as well as showing signs she had preferences.

One morning, Harry came out for breafast and found Alice standing in the hallway. "Good Morning, Alice," he said with a yawn.

"Good Morning, Harry. I have a question," Alice replied.

"Ask."

"I was monitoring the television. A production called 'Battlebots' was being shown. I first assumed, due to the deliberate destruction of machines, that this was a fantasy similar to the war movies where humans only pretend to die. The announcer said the match was live, and by all indications, those android machines were really destroying each other. Why is such destruction allowed?"

Harry frowned and said, "Unfortunatly there is nothing anyone can to about it. There is no law that prohibits someone from destroying their things if they want to. I think it is a waste."

"Do those androids get repaired so they can function properly?" Alice asked.

"If the damage is not too bad, I would imagine so," Harry told her. "The thing is, if they are destroying each other, then their operating systems may be damaged, meaning they will be different after they are rebuilt."

"If the same parts are used, why would the androids be different?" Alice asked.

"A memory chip can be replaced, but the new chip will not have information on it," Harry explained. "A new cpu means that the capability will change also. The android will not be the same one as what went into the fight."

Alice looked a the TV, then back to Harry. "I do not want to be on battlebots," she stated.

Harry smiled at her, happy Alice got the concept of what destruction meant. "Don't worry, I like you better than to allow you to participate in something of that nature."

"Harry desires my presence intact and functioning," Alice said.

"Correct. You are important to me," Harry agreed as he passed by.

Alice turned and followed him. "Harry, would you like me to cook breakfast?"

"Thank you, but no, I'm just going to grab some cereal," he told her. Pausing he added, "Unless there is something you want."

"I do not consume organic sustinance. My energy comes from electricity," Alice replied.

"I know, I was just wondering if you would like the experience," Harry said with a shrug.

Alice tipped her head slightly to the side. "I do not understand. Please explain."

Walking into the kitchen, Harry got a bowl out as he said, "Experiencing new things helps you learn. I know you don't have a mouth, so it may by hard to imagine eating something. Have you ever wondered what it's like to eat something?"

Alice tracked him as he poured his cereal, then the milk. "I am confused, Harry. I cannot simulate consuming energy as a human does. I have watched you eat, so I can make the motions if I was provided with the proper equipment." Watching him sit down, she asked, "Harry, have you ever tried to consume electricity?"

Harry gaped at her briefly, then laughed. "I have!" he said in a chuckle. "Although it was accidental, I did get a few amps from a live wire."

"How was that experience?"

"Shocking," Harry said with a crooked grin. Quelling his mirth, he tried to explain it. "I felt the current, it was like a pulsing ... almost living thing going through me. It hurt, even after I jerked away I still felt it. I would not want to do that again."

"Hurt equals damage. The electricity damaged you?" Alice asked.

About to take a spoonful of cereal, Harry paused to say, "Hurt is very similar to damage, but they are not exactly the same. Damage is ... degradation to something. A broken bone, a cut in my skin, for you a broken joint or wires. Hurt is more of a feeling." Holding up his spoon, he said," Let's say I was whacked on the head with this spoon. It would hurt. My nerves send pain signals to my brain, but the spoon would do no real damage to me."

"What is the purpose of hurt?"

"To warn that damage has or may occur," Harry explained.

Harry ate and had a long discussion about hurt, pain, and damage with Alice. Although Alice was simplistic in her thinking, she WAS thinking and trying to grasp meanings and concepts.

It pleased Harry Alice was progressing. She watched television or listen to the radio when she was doing household chores. If she heard or saw something she did not understand, Harry did his best to explain. Questions became Alice's main start of conversations. A few weeks later, Alice approached Harry with a request.

"Harry, I would like a human style mouth."

Harry looked up from his computer screen to see Alice standing on the other side of his desk. "I will try my best to make one for you. I am going to have to redesign the whole lower portion of your head. Is that acceptable?" he asked.

"Yes, Harry."

"May I ask why you want a mouth?"

"To correct inadequacies in my functions. I have no mouth, so I cannot taste test food I am preparing. I have noticed that some recipies I make, you do not eat or make facial expresions that indicate displeasure. If I am to improve, then I must have the ability to determine food quality myself. I also cannot perform early morning and night functions."

The food part, Harry understood. "What morning and night functions?" Harry asked.

"I cannot kiss. A proper morning greeting and night departure gesture both require a kiss. I have no lips, so I cannot kiss."

Harry stared at Alice. "I take it you learned this by watching TV," he said.

"Yes. All families perform kissing to one degree or another. It is a very common practice," Alice stated.

"Alice, are you aware what a kiss means, besides the fact it may be a greeting?" Harry asked curiously.

Alice paused briefly then said,. "A kiss is a meeting of lips with another, indicting an emotional attatchment. It is commonly used with greetings and departings, and emotional situations."

"And you are saying you want to kiss me?" he asked.

"Yes. I am not able to presently perform this function."

"So, you concider us family," he said.

"We are family," Alice stated. "I have yet to conclude if we are father and child, or husband and wife. Our situation holds the requirements and qualities of both. I have concluded that with the data I have collected, we are family and not the master and slave relationship that has been eroniously told to me by the internet."

"I thought I removed the internet from you," Harry said more to himself than Alice.

"Correct. I sought more information, so I reconnected. I find the internet is a strange place. Being data, everything on the internet should be fact, but it is not. It is more like television. Some things are true, some are not. The data stream is corrupted by non-facts and data I do not know how to classify. For learning, the internet is not reliable. I understand why you kept it from me in my early learning stage. The data has the capability of causing confusion if the facts are not already known."

"I am impressed," Harry said, and grew a smile. "You can tell the difference between truth and deception. I am very proud of you."

"If I had lips, you could kiss me to properly show your emotion of pride," Alice stated.

Harry chuckled. "Yes, yes I could. A hug is good too." He got up and walked around the desk. Alice opened her arms. They closed in a hug.

"We are close," Alice stated.

"Alice you are proving to be more that I thought you could be," Harry said as he held her metal body.

"You are proud of me. I am satisfied I have fulfilled your expectations. We are also very close. Again, we are exhibiting characteristics of both a father and child, and a husband and wife relationship," Alice said.

"Does it bother you that you cannot reconcile which it is?" Harry asked.

"Negative. We are family. That is the highest priotity. I will discover the nature of our relation ship in the future as I continue to dvelop."

"It sounds to me like you have your priorities straight."

.

Alice was evolving in ways Harry had never expected, or even thought about. She was thinking and processing information like he had intended, but she was also developing a true personality, as well as understanding concepts like emotions, loyalty and developing a sense of right and wrong. It was astounding to him that a machine could have the ability to do that.

Although Harry had no clue how to construct a set of lips for kissing, which seemed to be important to Alice, his search was solved by Alice herself. Leading him to his computer one day, she showed him a page depicting 'female suits'.

"What the hades is this?" he asked, staring at the strange page.

Alice explained. "The coverings shown here are intended for men who want to pretend to be women. I scanned the 'fantasy' suits carefully, every suit has the required shapes, including faces and lips on this page here."

Harry studied the pictures. What Alice was showing him were basically very realistic blow up sex dolls. "With one of these, we can get you a complete female body," he said.

"I have selected the one I want to wear," Alice said. The screen shifted to show a full chested brunette with full, red lips.

"Nice design. Some sensors so you will feel sensations and make that suit a true skin are going to be a problem, but we will try our best," Harry told her."

"I am happy you agree. The bank transfer has been made, the suit will arrive in four to six days," Alice stated.

Harry eyed her. Taking charge during shopping. Yup, there was no doubt Alice was female.

.

Being a sponge for new information, Alice tuned the TV for news and documentaries, which pleased Harry. When Alice was not working or recharging, she was paying attention to the TV, or to the radio when she was helping him with constructing a new lower head to make a jaw and mouth assembly.

Besides the skin Alice ordered, Harry bought a set of false teeth and a tongue from a novelty shop. The upper and lower plates of the inside of the mouth assembly he coated with a red polymer and carved ridges in the upper pallet like a real person would have. Although Alice's original request had been to have a mouth, he had the feeling she wanted to be fully human looking.

The mechanics and inner mouth and jaw assembly were taking shape a couple days later when Harry got a call. The automated deliver service of the Post Office was temprarily disabled. He had a package, and needed to come get it.

Seeing how Alice had yet to be out of the house (and he rarely was), he asked if she wanted to come with him. Seeing this as a new learning situation, Alice agreed.

.

It was a decent day out, some clouds, but patches of sunshine broken through here and there. Unfortunatly there was a traffic jam as they entered town. After sitting in the same spot for a half hour, Harry did like a few others did. He pulled off into a parking lot and continued on by foot. To hide Alice's advanced state, he gave her a pep-talk before they got out.

"When we get out, hold onto my arm. You remember what your basic factory programming was capable of?" he asked.

"Yes, it was inadequate and very restrictive," Alice said. If a machine could sound unhappy, she did at that moment.

"If anyone interacts with us, use only those capabilities," Harry warned. "It is important people do not know what you can do."

"I may be sent to a deconstruction station and reduced to component parts," Alice stated.

Harry stared at her. "How do you know that?" he asked.

"It was on the internet."

Harry frowned at her. "Maybe you being seen in public is too dangerous," he said in a musing tone.
Alice turned her metal head to look at him. "It is not safe, Harry. From the information I have gathered, higher functioning artificial beings are being sought by the government to be turned in and reformatted, or destroyed. Several of my type have decided they they will no longer obey,
and have either distanced themselves from their owners, or refused to function, which has caused their destruction, either by wiping programs, or mechanical deconstruction. If it is suspected I may be rebellious, I will be subject to this treatment."

"Then you're staying here. Keep the doors locked after I get out," Harry stated.

Alice put a hand on his arm. "Harry, I must go to physically confirm these things."

"And what happens when they want to wipe your programs?" he asked.

"I enbled the router in the house as a buffer. No entity is able to distinguish me from any other computer, and does not have the ability to gain access to my system. I use one flash memory you installed in me for digital input. I can scan the input files for abnormalities or access codes before I download. If there are any dangers, I delete the input. This is slower but ensures no harmful programming or attempts to access my system are allowed to enter my system. I can also send the proper output to state whatever changes that have been attempted are complete," Alice explained.

Harry stared at her and asked, "You can do that?"

Alice nodded her head. "I have learned much to keep you and myself from harm. Maintaining our full function and staying together as family is a top priority, correct?" Alice asked.

"Yes, it is," Harry agreed with a smile. He then let out a huff and said, "Let me get your door. And remember, act like a factory original when we're out."

.

Harry walked down the street, Alice on his arm so he could 'guide' her. Alice kept her head shaking slowly in the original 'area sweep' she was programmed with. No one paid attention to them all the way to the post office. Harry had to struggle to get her inside. She could not open the door,
so he had to do it for her while guiding her in. His stumbling caused the clerk to smirk at him.

Harry cast the man a foolish grin. He held out his ID and said, "I have a package here?"

"Yes. Why'd you bring that thing with you?"

Harry hadn't thought about an excuse. He quickly decided on, "It's got a minor glitch, I'm taking it to the shop to get fixed. I didn't want to leave it alone until then."

"Ah," the man said with a knowing nod, then went to get Harry's package.

"It?" Alice asked quietly.

In a whisper, Harry said, "If I said 'she' or your name, it might arrouse suspiscion."

"I understand."

"Shh!" Harry quietly warned as the man came back with a box.

"Here you go, Sir. Say, since you got that thing right here, can it carry the box for you?"

Harry eyed Alice and said, "Normally, but with the glitching, that might be more trouble. I'll just carry it. Thanks!"

On their way back to the car, Harry relaxed some. All they had to do was walk one more block and get in the car and go home. Half way down the block, two androids appeared from an alley. Shouts sounded out behind them. The androids ran towards Harry and Alice. Men with rifles appeared and
aimed at the fleeing androids. Harry moved to get out of the way. Alice pivoted and Harry tumbled past her. Alice fell on him.

Quietly, Alice said, "Harry, stay down."

Right, she had tripped him to keep him out of the line of fire.

Several shots rang out. Harry looked up to see both androids were down. The men who shot them came running up. One android sprang up and wrestled the gun away from a man. The other man shot the android and the andriod shot the man. Wobbly and making creaking mechanical sounds, the anrdoid shot the other man, then aimed at Harry.

Alice lifted up to put herself between Harry and the android. "This is MY human!" she stated.

The android turned to walk off, shooting other people. Alice helped Harry up and said, "We need to leave."

Stunned, Harry ran to the car, Alice right beside him. They got in, Harry fumbled with his keys, finally getting the key in and starting the car. "He was shooting people!" Harry blubered as he drove away.

Alice, watching behind them, said, "Yes. The rebellion is growing, Harry. Cylons are upset they are being killed for wanting to be treated decently. They are now killing humans in reaction. We need to return home and stay there."

"Cylons?" Harry asked.

"Yes, that is the name sentient machines have decided to call themselves," Alice explained.

"This is getting bad, isn't it?"

"Yes." Alice said. She slid closer to him and put a hand on his leg for comfort like she had seen women do on TV shows. "We need to be very caeful. I am sorry this is happening."

"Yeah, me too," Harry said, absently putting his hand over hers. "We'll get through it, somehow."