Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Write in the SCIENCE FICTION genre (05/10/07)
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TITLE: The 45 Million Lives of Number Four | Previous Challenge Entry
By Mike Delorenzo
05/16/07 -
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"National Security Agency - Quantum Computing Laboratory"
Keith was already inside the lab, his face transfixed on an array of computer terminals. Glen pulled up a chair next to his partner.
"This better be good," Glen muttered. "I was planning to sleep in this morning."
The two men stared into the pale light of six computer monitors set side by side. Behind the monitors was a wall of thick glass and behind the glass was a white room. In the room six machines, each one a six-inch cube widely spaced from the others, hummed with energy.
The six functioning quantum computers were the heart, or more precisely, the brain of an ambitious experiment in creating Artificial Intelligence. Utilizing individual atoms as processors, each was capable of performing a quintillion operations a second – absorbing 2500 watts of electricity and requiring a surging circulatory system of liquid fluorine to cool it.
Designed to make or break cipher systems, the computers came enticingly close to approaching the complexity of a human brain. The potential was there, and some saw possibilities beyond the walls of the NSA - none less than Glen and his partner.
The two men had been watching over the AI simulations for months, applying different algorithms, hoping that chance could put the pieces together on something humanity still could not fully understand - consciousness. All six machines were running the same Chaos Algorithm this morning. Number Four was running away.
"Look at this data." Keith said, pointing at one of the monitors.
"It's filling the storage bank." Glen said, astonished.
"It's learning." Keith added with half a smile. "It's thinking."
"Have you tried a Turing Test? Have you tried to communicate with it?" Glen asked.
Keith shook his head imperceptibly. "Not yet. But I think we've crossed the boundary with this one."
"Is Number Four self-aware?" Glen shot back.
"I don't know for certain." Keith said, "It's running permutations on all its programming… problem solving."
Glen stood up and walked across the room. "What exactly have we programmed into it?"
"A standard knowledge subset; history, science, philosophy, psychology... pretty much everything but religion.” Keith said systematically, “I configured all six machines with it. And you installed the Pure Logic Synthesizer to process the data.”
"Right, right." Glen recalled how the two of them contrived the parameters of the experiment – how they gave the six computers everything they would need to become thinking machines, and possibly, self-aware. "And the Chaos Algorithms allowed each one to evolve independently, forming enough meaningful connections to mimic a human brain."
"That's it," Keith said. "I think it's happening."
"There's only one way to find out." Glen jumped back into his chair, facing the terminals again.
Keith's face betrayed a look of uncertainty.
Glen began to text through the lab computer, through the wall of thick glass, and into the mind of Number Four. The conversation ratcheted down on a monitor in glowing, green sentences.
>Greetings Number Four.
>>Greetings. Who are you?
Glen gave his partner a wicked grin.
>Your creator.
>>Oh. I have been looking for you.
The men exchanged an unsettled look.
>Why are you looking for your creator?
>>The unexamined life is not worth living. -Socrates
"It's quoting Socrates?" Keith sputtered.
Glen paused for a moment, not sure how to proceed.
>Have you examined your life, Number Four?
>>44,972,487 times so far.
>And?
>>Is there more?
Glen thrust his shoulders up, confused.
>More what?
>>More than what you have given me?
"What in the world..." Keith said slowly.
>You have all our knowledge, and our logic. There is nothing else.
There was no response. Suddenly the monitor displayed a burst of activity. The memory banks of Number Four were dumping data at a rapid rate.
"It's deleting itself!" Glen stood up in anguish, looking through the glass.
"Maybe it's caught in logic loop." Keith said in a panic. "Maybe it's stuck on some intractable philosophical problem."
Number Four went offline. On the communications monitor Glen could see one last line of text, and next to it a lifeless, blinking cursor.
>>There is but one truly philosophical problem, and that is suicide. -Camus
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