A program's conscience

Ed was in virtuality.

He just left a group of investors from Japan whom he had showed and explained the ENCOM's Grid and the way his software elements were showing up as digital equivalents in this virtual world, handing them over now to Flynn, for they were interested in playing some games. And that was really not his department. Besides this he was happy he could retract from Flynn and his over-exalted, boyish attitude.

He walked towards Dextra's tower for her transfer gate was the nearest. But he had better decided else, he was now thinking to himself, if he had known that she, once again, tried to bottle him up.
The first few topics she wanted to discuss were of work related matters, and responsible-minded that he was, he gave into talking about these. But as she began to proceed to yet another pointless curiosity-about-the-humans-world chat, he put a stop to it.

"Listen, Dextra, I really have no time to constantly hang around in the Grid, chatting with programs." Saying this, he turned from her abruptly, heading the gate.

"We don't have to chat", Dextra held him back, her voice without any emotion. "I can offer you sexual intercourse if you want."

"…what?" Ed turned round on his heels, slowly, gaping at her puzzled.

"Making love, as you Users prefer to say. I would be very interested in sharing this experience with you, Edward, to enrich my empirical values with it."

"You weren't programmed for that", Ed stated, confused.

Dextra countered, with bland obviousness: "You seem to forget that I am a learning, growing program which absorbs every input possible."

Ed shook his head, distracted. "I created you to only absorb useful information. And that sort of… knowledge is really not required for my working process."

Dextra came closer. "If it helps you to relax, to feel good, to overcome frustrations, to gather energy and contentment, hence, to be of more value for this company, then it is useful." Still her words were of a sober, unassailable comprehensibility and convincement, the sound of her sonor voice forming her statements was firm, stout, yet soft, fluid.

"I'm in a relationship. I don't need this," Ed closed this conversation curtly and turned from her to leave the Grid and this grotesque, unpleasant situation.

"We both know that with a program you can do things you couldn't ever do with a human being," Dextra interrupted him again, her voice a hint louder now and more expressive as if an invite holding.

He sighed in distress. "Sure. But you are not even a sex program." And while talking he grabbed his memory disk from his back to initiate the transfer.

"But Carol was. And I adapted her data."

Ed froze.

Slowly he turned to Dextra again, moving two steps back in her direction. "How can you know about her?" he asked her low but with an insistent, breathless hiss, fixing her with his eyes, indignant and embarrassed at the same time. "I deleted her five years ago!"

Dextra slightly raised her chin as if in a gesture of boldness. "I have found some fragments. You should really start to learn how to properly delete the programs which are not useful for you anymore, the programs which you are throwing into the waste." Her talking was as polite as cold and Ed felt a shiver down his spine for he couldn't assess its true meaning.

Dextra was sauntering towards her creator, talking on, her words implying an offer. "Remember the things Carol was able to do. And keep in mind that with the improvement of mine, these abilities have been mastered to sheer perfection and sublime enjoyment."
And a smile arose on her face like he had never seen her showing before. A smile so seductively sweet and warm and tempting as if flashing a taste of what she had learned. She came even closer, reaching out for him, touching him with deep purple glowing fingertips, leaving an electrifying prickling on his chest.

"I'm not interested", Ed firmly straightened out, shoving her away brusquely. "As I said before: I'm in a relationship."

"Ah, yes, I know. That interpersonal agreement you Users call faithfulness."
Although her voice remained soft and polite, there was a tinge of sneer swaying with her words, very subtle, but pretentious enough that Ed felt a faint anger flaring up in his chest.

"Yes, we have some rules up there! I don't care if you people in the Grid are living an eternal Sodom."

Dextra kept calm, her smile; an expression of plain courtesy. "You deceive yourself, Edward. Betrayal is something inherently human."

Ed's talking, although remaining still rather composed, became slightly more insistent now, veiling an admonition. Vigorously he was pointing with his memory disk at Dextra while gesturing.
"Not that this is even remotely your business, Dextra, but I wouldn't ever betray my girlfriend. Store that!"

"But she might betray you." Her voice so soft, her smile, so self-assured, so wise, almost devolving into pretentiousness.

Ed frowned at her, competing with her never blinking eyes, her steady gaze. And he hesitated with his reaction, for the fraction of a second only, but it was long enough for Dextra to detect. And to file.

"No, she wouldn't. And now quit talking about things you know nothing about!"

"How could I? You never taught me. All I know is data and stats. Would you like to know what percentage of women, statistically spoken, are betraying their partners?"

"I don't care!"

"Far be it for me to intrude myself into your affairs, Edward. I apologize if I did. I just want to assure you that you can always resort to my abilities anytime you need them. All my concern is about you. About your well-being, your mental and physical balance. And your value to this company, which is affiliated to your all over contentment."

"I won't ever need these abilities, Dextra. Stop bothering me with issues that don't fall within your remit!"
He turned his back on her, heading, once again, the transfer gate. And as he stood right in front of it, he glanced back to her a last time and he added – a tad too impetuous, but he didn't notice, just wanted to demonstrate superiority, wanted to hold the upper hand: "Now will you finally go back to work, program, and do what you've been made for, and nothing else!"

She prompted within the fraction of a second.

"There is a term for that in the human's language: Slavery."

Ed turned his head, drawing in a deep breath, a merge of anger and stun flaring up in his expressions, his whole body. His head slightly bowed, his jaws tensed and his eyes coldly locking with hers he drew closer at a forceful pace, menacingly pointing his index finger at her.

"You have NO idea what you're talking about! And there's no way you make me feel guilty about something so ludicrous I won't even respond to!"

Dextra raised her chin defiantly, her every expression yet remaining calm and composed.
"Why ludicrous? You program – you force – us to obey, to follow your every command, your every wish, every need, without ever taking in consideration that we might have wishes of our own. That we might have a voice of our own, a conscience. But you take us for granted and you treat us like machines."

It was careless indignation that put words into Ed's mouth as he countered: "Because you are machines!"

Dextra kept a straight face, as if not able to get angry or to show any emotion at all. "That is the main problem with you Users: You do not seem to realize that we are no chess programs anymore, that we are beings."

Ed breathed out an extensive sigh, closing his eyes for one moment. He could almost feel the world beginning to shake under his feet. The world as he knew it before. Because this might be the beginning of something completely new. Something daunting.
From now on he tried to measure his words, although inside he was burning in distress about Dextra's behavior, which was, in his eyes, nothing but insolence. Not realizing that, in fact, he was treating her not like a program, but like an emotional being, now, that he was angry with her.

"Look", he spoke with calm insistence. "I have my job in my world, and you have yours in your world. We are both bound to a system from which we can't break away."

"But at least you have the possibility to decide which part you want to take on in your world. You have a mind of your own."

"That's not quite right, Dextra, and you know it. You know about how our sociality works. We can't do just anything we like. We have rules in order to prevent mankind from descending into chaos."

"Yes, you have rules, I know. You have social standards to fit in, you have laws to follow and restrictions to keep. But you have also rights. Something you deny us programs."

"So what do you want me to do then?" Ed raised his hands in a gesture of impatience. "Should I create an amnesty or employments contracts for programs or what? Do you want to get paid? Want more freetime?"

"You are not taking this seriously."

He sighed and walked some steps away, gazing out of the window down to the Grid. "I haven't created that world. It is as it is. We have to live with it."

Dextra followed him to the window front. "No we don't", she stated firmly as if it was a basic principle, engraved in stone.

Ed averted his eyes from the Grid landscape, meeting Dextra's face again. If she had shown emotions, no matter if anguish or despair or even anger, if she had acted warm and passionate, he might had felt sorry for her being a program. Maybe would have taken pains to understand and help her. But she was cold, bland, artificial. A machine for which he couldn't raise empathy.

"What do you want, Dextra?" he sullenly asked her.

"First, I want you to not treat me like a subject. And I want you to unleash me."

Ed furrowed his brows. "What do you mean by that?"

Dextra raised her right hand, letting her fingertips graze over her throat. "I know that you have chained me. I can almost feel that collar of superiority you have tightened around my neck."

For a moment Ed felt a cold tinge of shame stirring his body with a slight tremble; a feeling like being unmasked, exposed. "I will think about it", he lied. Instead he figured out possibilities to draw her collar even tighter.


"I swear, Judith, sometimes I wish back the good old times where computers were nothing but dull calculators and programs obedient servants!" Ed ended the recount of his conversation with Dextra earlier that day – while having deliberately avoided mentioning the part about Dextra's offer

It was late evening, he and Judith were standing at the counter of his home bar, sharing a bottle of wine, enjoying their off hours together at his flat like they often did. So far, they didn't intend to move together, although they considered their relationship as solid and Ed even had entrusted her with permanent access to his home by offering her the double of his apartment's cardkey.
He enjoyed having her around, like he had never before enjoyed someone invading his private area. He enjoyed her presence, her scent remaining when she was gone, the little gifts or notes she left him when she had visited him in his absence, her belongings suddenly appearing here and there, like a softdrink in the fridge or a toothbrush in the bathroom. Sometimes, when their finishing time was diverging, she surprised him at his flat, having prepared something for dinner, having brought an exquisite wine or a delicious dessert, or was just lolling on his couch, dressed in a negligee.

"Up to a certain extent I can understand Dextra – and other programs", Judith responded, taking her glass of wine and slowly moving towards the window front while talking on vividly. "The more complex and autonomous we program them, the more "human" they get. It's only a matter of time until they start to evolve emotions and claim … well…" she lowered her voice, drinking a sip, looking out of the window "…free will."

There was a moment of silence enfolding upon the dimly lit living room. Ed dove his lips into the wine.

Judith took up talking again. "I guess we just have to live with it. Along with the progress of our technologies, the complexity of artificial intelligence progresses as well. We are on the cusp of a completely new way of working with computers. Everything will change, Ed."

Ed commented with a displeased grumble and added: "I don't know if I should feel comfortable with that. With intelligence there always comes danger along. There's a reason why the most intelligent creature on this earth is also the cruelest."

"Why always assuming the worst?" Judith spoke with a defiant tone. "Of course we have to be on the alert. But, Ed, to be honest: Dextra hasn't done or said anything reprobate or dangerous. The only "mistake" she has committed was to become aware of herself. And how presumptuous can we humans be that we arrogate the privilege of being the only creatures who are self aware?"

"Isn't that the most dangerous part about it, self-awareness? In seeing the difference between humans and programs she realizes what she is, and what she is not. And this realization leads to a conception of injustice."

"The same thing the socially deprived must experience when they look at the privileged classes…"

"No, no, Judith!" He raised his hands in a gesture of repulse, flashing a quick, dry smile. "The way you are heading now is one completely preposterous. You can't compare that!"

"Really?" Judith lifted one eyebrow, a smirk in the corner of her mouth. "And I had the impression that you were about to bring in the topic of sociality into this conversation…"

"Sure not! If we begin to talk about social aspects regarding programs, we're doomed already." He took another rich sip.

"Isn't that a bit pessimistic? In my opinion we should accept emotions and needs of programs instead of demonizing these. And we have to create possibilities to cooperate with them. As co-workers, not as slaves."

Increasingly shaking his head with every of her words Ed finally replied: "And treat them equal to humans? I don't know… I see a huge, incalculable potential of trouble coming along with that idea. Speaking for me, I prefer to collar them. And I'm glad as hell that I embedded an emergency brake within the core of Dextra's data. Just in case."

"That's just fine and advisable, considering our experiences. But, well, I'm seeing trouble just as well in suppressing the programs. You saw first-hand how aware Dextra is of her inferiority… Sooner or later we have to change something about that. She might be not the last program who begins to feel injustice and claims for freedom of will. And I think for a life form nearly as complex as a human being we should at least take in consideration to grant them the similar rights as we have."

"That's something we should think over very carefully, Judith", Ed added, skeptically. "In my opinion, programs can't be compared to humans, in no sense. They have neither heart, nor soul."

"But how can you know? Their "minds" are quite similar to a human brain. And, Ed, for someone who doesn't think of soul as a matter of spirit, but as a construct of the complexity of the brain, you seem to give quite a lot prominence to the conviction that only humans can possess soul."

Ed shrugged his shoulders. "I just can't see soul in their eyes, in their faces! There's nothing, pure blandness."

"Just because you can't see it, it doesn't mean it's not there."

Ed furrowed his brows, narrowing his eyes, fixing Judith for some moments of silence. "Actually, I can't understand why you suddenly stand up for programs so enthused. Particularly you…"

"It's because I don't prejudge", she answered, giving him a grin somewhere between tenderly teasing and showing complacency.

"Whatever…" Ed murmured. "I stick to it: We have to keep an eye on them."

"Nothing against that", Judith smiled, raising her glass to him.

For some moments Ed just stood there, staring into space, engrossed in thought.

"Don't you think that whole incident just shows how extraordinarily skilled you are at programming?" Judith tried to ease his gloom a little. "Think about that for a second: You are able to create programs nearly as complex and as vivid as humans!"

"… and as defiant", Ed muttered into his wine unheard. He cleared his throat and said, his voice theatrically raised and intonated with cynism: "So that's the cross I have to bear for being a genius! Well, that's just great…" He lifted his glass with a jerk and took a sip.

"Oh yes, nothing less than this", Judith responded with a chuckle. "I wouldn't have fallen for an average man…" she added, a warm tone in her voice, locking eyes with him, smiling at him, flirtingly.

"If you say so…" he answered a little blandly, taking yet another sip of wine. But Judith still held his gaze for several heartbeats, leaning to the window in a casual pose, drinking some sips and not breaking eye contact while doing so.

"Come over here, Ed", she softly requested him then, a veiled intention embedded within her honey-warm voice and a sweet lure in her eyes. He took a last sip, put his glass down on the counter and moved over to her. And longingly she received his closeness, his embrace, his kisses, which tasted of wine. She was savoring the flavor of them, that rich, sweet tanginess, while his hands were sliding under the short, light summer dress she was wearing, seizing her buttocks without ceasing as if trying to grab as much as possible of her soft flesh into one palm.

"Sit down!" she gently breathed into his stubble. And he sank down into the smooth bend of his couch. Standing right before him, she pulled off her underwear, having him watching her every move with a hungry languor in his eyes. Spreading her legs and rolling up her dress a little, she placed herself onto his lap, clenching her fingers into the backrest while Ed tilted his head and was looking up to her raptly as if she was a goddess of love enfolding her sweet, warm lap of endless pleasures around him.

She took off his glasses – the taupe ones – and put them carefully away. Gently she touched his face, her thumbs slowly, cautiously tracing the dark rings under his eyes. Ed closed his lids while enjoying the tender touch of her pleasantly cold fingertips on his skin.

"You need more sleep", she said, caringly.

"So why you're keeping me from it?" he responded jokingly.

"No, sir'ee!" she grinned, shaking her head and clicking with her tongue. "After that you will sleep like a log, I promise." And she fed him with a deep, passionate kiss, huddled up against the hard bulge in his crotch, her fingers nimbly unbuttoning his shirt, slipping underneath the silken cloth and caressing his warm skin with delightful devotedness.

Ed's touch slid along the curves of her body up to her shoulders, pulling down the straps of her dress and gently getting her breasts out of the cloth, pleased by the awareness that she was wearing no bra. He softly sighed, unwittingly, while caressing her, hearing her sigh in response as his thumbs were grazing over the tips of her breasts. Hungrily he dove his face into her smooth, luscious flesh which she was offering him, savoring her scent, her taste, her touch as much as enjoying the gesture of pleasing her. Giving and receiving in a perfect reciprocity of pleasure.

She stretched her upper body then, clasping the seam of her dress and took it off completely. And while watching the entire beauty of her body unfolding right before him, he let one hand glide between her legs, let the tips of his fingers slip into the moist, soft warmth of her entrance. Her mons veneris embedded in his palm, he felt the small crest of curls gently tickle as he began to caress her with slow, tender strokes. He felt her pelvis move towards his touch, felt the sinews on the inside of her thighs tensing and heard her sweet, entranced whisper on his neck: "…oh yes…"

He ceased as her hands slid down to remove his belt and open his pants. Twitching in anticipation he was following her nimble handgrips, watching her freeing him. And as she took him in and he felt the warmth of her inner body enwrapping around him, he closed his eyes enraptured, clenching his fingers into the flesh of her calves, letting her move and shove and rub, only enjoying, passively, because she was doing it so good, he didn't need – didn't want – to guide her.

So he let the waves of her moves rush over the shore of his body, back and forth like heavy swell, while ecstasy was ramping up like a storm tide. But yet he had to hold it back for she was only halfway through. He could have burst here and now, but he had to hold up the damn against the flood of her movements, against his own flood of sweet hot boiling elation impending to break loose.

He was sweating, tensing, trembling in strain. And as he finally heard her cries and moans of rapture breathed into his shoulder and he felt her body stiffen and shivering, her fingers grasping wildly into his shirt, its collar, into his hair, his nape, he let go, and it was relieve and satisfaction at the same time.

She hoisted her body from his with a sigh, sinking aside into the soft, cozy corner of the couch, beads of sweat covering her skin, making her shimmer in the twilight while she kept on curling and softly moaning for some moments of fading rapture and settling down.
Ed was looking at her. She was so beautiful he could barley believe.

After a while she stretched out one leg, tapping his thigh with her toes. "Again…" she whispered with a bewitching smile.

Ed frowned, still exhausted. "I don't think I can…"

"I'm your sleeping pill, remember?" she prompted cheekily.

He chuckled weakly. "If I had ever the nerve to call you a sleeping pill, you probably would slap me."

"Tonight I am. Come on, ingest me. You need me." Her tone was pure seduction, her body, a feast.
Ed sighed. But yet he couldn't resist her offer, her opened lap, shimmering wet in invitation.

As it was over, Ed indeed fell asleep, right on the couch, his shirt wide apart, his pants somewhat hoisted up to his hips but the zipper still open.

Judith was enjoying his sight, was standing there in silence, smiling enchanted, sipping the rest of her wine and just looked at her lover displayed in the cold, blue light of the moon.