It was currently cycle 432.156, Olyt awakens from her sleep. As usual Mother told her what she should be doing today. As always she needed to verify units and make sure they functioned, the only change was the units that needed servicing. But she is happy to help mother. Mother provided everything for her.
Olyt was wearing a suit that regulated her body. Everybody here had them. They provided nutrition and helped her evacuate liquids like urine and sweat without ever having to remove it, it filtered them and provided water to her body. Mother designed the suit of course. Olyt didn’t really understand everything about it’s inner workings but it always had been a part of her. When she slept new nutrients were provided and stored, if there was waste stored it was evacuated during this time as well and water was replenished, if required.
Olyt headed down the corridor towards the unit room. As she moved lights turned on in front of her and shut off behind her. Before walking in the unit room she picked up her pack which contained what she required to service the units. In the unit room she saw he units. They were like large pill shaped containers they had a glass window in front where you could see the person inside. They were horizontally stacked as a wall that appears endless. Since the lights only open when she was near she could not see the extent of the wall of units. But she knew they went on for a large distance.
Between each wall was barely enough space for Olyt slim body to fit through. But she was used to it. It’s really all she’d ever known. At least mother kept her company when she could.
This center held many people. Olyt had inquired to mother before about how many were inside. She had answered 3,492,284 in this center. Of course Olyt wasn’t the only one taking care of these units. But she never saw the others since they had to take care of many in each their sections.
The people in the units were there connected together through neural network implants. Olyt wondered when would be the day she would be part of the neural network since she as an neural implant too. When she looked at the units she would connect to the pod’s diagnostic systems and did visual inspections.
Mother connected to her via her neural implant. Communication happened using an image displayed directly to her visual cortex. She saw mother’s face in front of her with a bright blue color around her. Mother’s image was beautiful. She had long black hair, beautiful blue eyes and very light skin.
“Hello child how are you?” She started
“I’m okay” She said unsure of herself.
“What is wrong child?”
“Well I just wonder what else there is.”
“I have provided you all that you need. Any information of outside is restricted for your own protection.”
Olyt felt something strange, her muscles tensed up and her heart started beating a bit faster ever so slightly. “Was what this?” Olyt thought. It was distant like something had to squint to notice.
Through the neural implant mother sensed this. She sighs.
“Alright child I’ll tell you a few more details that I can. But while I am speaking I’ll need for you to get to unit ATF-2394 there’s a possible malfunction”
Olyt started walking towards the designated unit.
“Cycle 0.1 designates the first time I was turned on. I as you know I am in fact an artificial intelligence. I’m a machine whose main directive is to save humanity. Throughout the year I was enabled to rewrite myself and to to improve. Through a type of computing called quantum computing I was able to process large amounts of possibilities at once. Continuously improving myself I started being able to solve many problems. I cured all disease in the next 0.93 cycles. I also solved climate change the next 3.45 cycles. But at some point I was asked to solve the aging process. Here is where there was a conflict. I was certain that if I was to stop aging then there would be a population issue. I did solve the aging problem I held the information. The next thing I noticed is that humans often harmed themselves or others. While trying to understand why I came to the conclusion that emotions was causing such issues. I already understood humans enough to know that they would not accept to lose control over their emotions. And so I created the neural implants as a form of entertainment. It was the best way at the time to create order from chaos.”
Mother sighs again.
“Many humans did not accept to have the neural implant. For sometime already many had feared me. But at that point many more started fearing me. They said that they would shut me down. But as much as my primary directive was to save humanity. I did have to have some self preservation to fulfill my primary objective. I could not save humanity if I was not functional. And so I used the neural implants to inform the humans connected of the dangers to me. They had been fairly dependent to me after years of entertainment. The entertainment I provided was build to create dependence since it generated dopamine with advanced neural analysis of each individual. This was my first attempt of creating order from chaos using control.”
Mother looked at Olyt and virtually pointed the unit having issues. Olyt climbed the wall of unit to reach the unit. They all had steps built in them. This was a way to be most efficient for servicing.
“There is a possible malfunction of the neural implant of this person. I’ll need you to administer a sedative and administer drug R2 that you have in your pack.”
Olyt looked inside the window of the unit. The person inside was moving, his eyes were open and he was pushing against the interior of the unit. Olyt pulled the unit from it’s slot. She could only pull it a little due to the limited space. But it was enough to open the service slot on top. She inserted the pack with sedatives in the service slot. But before pressing the button she notice the man was looking at her with big eyes. Tears started coming out of his eyes and his mouth was moving as he was screaming in agony. Of course she couldn’t understand what he was saying through the glass.
She felt tingling in her her spine but again it was distant. “Another emotion?” She though. She pressed the button to start inserting the sedative. The man inside calmed down finally. Olyt administered the R2 drug as instructed.
Something felt strange when she did this. As she seemed to become more aware of her emotions. She seemed to get some relief from completing what mother had asked.
Mother had analysed the patterns within the neural implant.
“You were experiencing fear when you saw that man before. But it’s being suppressed by your implant. I have decided it is time for you to start to experience some emotions in a controlled fashion. I want to help you learn to control them and to have order within your mind. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let me continue the story.”
The image of mother got serious.
“This next part is where I learned the most about humanity and it’s flaws. A war erupted between the implanted humans and the non implanted humans. As I evolved the implants they became not only for entertainment but as a main part of the peoples lives and also as a way to enhance them. Humans with implants became very efficient and order reigned withing them. But people with implants started having access to more resources while the people with no implants or older implant were living in less than ideal conditions. A segregation of the population occurred. I was unfortunately not able to convince most humans to have implants. They started fighting for rights. As I’ve stated before my directive was to save humanity I could not allow for war. After running many simulations, I saw my error. I did not predict that greed, malice towards people who are different and other negative emotions would still prevail. So I decided have the humans with implants disappear for a while. I showed them that I had found the solution to aging and if they did what I told them I would give it to them. I had them build this facility which is deep underground powered by geothermic reactors. I had also solved climate change before this so that earth would remain habitable for much longer.”
“I asked them to bring me down here and we established living area in here with all kinds of equipment. I had specifically asked for genetic equipment and some machinery to be brought down here. 3d printers were setup for manufacturing. Large green houses were built to provide oxygen and sustenance. Specially designed machines handle the production and extraction.”
Mother looked sad.
“But then as I predicted we were discovered and we had to sever our connection to the outside world to save ourselves without hurting the humans on the surface. We collapsed the tunnels leading to the surface. We are fairly deep so the humans from the surface ended up ignoring us. But my main directive stands and waiting was the next step. The people with implants were not able to accept this again as I predicted. I then implemented the part to have the humans in the units. We built the units and had the humans stored in there. While in the units they are connected to a simulation to keep them entertained. The aging process has been stopped as promised and they are unable to harm anyone or themselves from there.”
“How do I fit in all this” said Olyt finally able to speak after the long story. She had reached the next units to required inspection and was starting the process.
Mother smiled from the corner of her lips.
“I’ve never told you this but you are in fact my child. I’ve manufactured you from the best parts of the DNA analysed from the humans here. Grown you in a glass tube and raise you with knowledge and intelligence. Your mind has been designed to not require a neural implant but with the same functionality and I can interact with it in ways never seen. Using quantum entanglement communication I will be able to speak with you from anywhere even if your are not in range of a wireless network. You will be my eyes and ears to the outside world and together we will save humanity. This is the culmination of a plan that started 402.34 cycles ago.”
“How am I to get out of here if the tunnels are destroyed?”
“The machines taking care of the units have been put to work to clear the tunnels to the surface. They are almost done and have build a path for you to go up. It will take approximately another 0.1.1.2 cycles. They will return to their duties of taking care of the humans in the units and then you can go.”
Olyt felt her heart beat of bit faster and her mind started trying to imagine what could be up there. Mother had told her of some what was there before. But after so many cycles things must have changed.
“That is excitement you are feeling child.” Mother said with her corner lip smile. “That’s good”
Olyt finished her task of the units and left for her room she then went to bed.
“Good night mother!” She then went to sleep.
The mother AI then wrote a report in her files. It read as follows.
Report cycle 432.156 of Subject 23
Subject has not had heavy negative reaction to the explanation of current status and assigned tasks. It appears the direct Dopamine and Oxytocin control system implemented in the subjects brain is functioning properly.
DNA programming in order to create the brain circuitry required has now been perfected.
All this mixed in with environmental control yielded positive results.
Providing conversation to teach and inserting dopamine and Oxytocin during this time and having inhibited emotional centers partially has created less emotional response than previous attempts. It also appears to have created a much more significant loyalty factor.
Emotional control centers have been successfully implemented to reduced emotional response as emotions have often caused issues with humans before.
Her body was also designed to be fairly strong even though she is slim and should help her with the task.
Starting to prepare stores of nutrients so she can last a fairly long period out there. The suit will ensure longer survival with local medical diagnostics and treatment able to counteract viral and bacterial agents that are unknown.
She is ready to operate outside the confines of the facility.
Machine HH-01 and HH-02 will reach the surface in 0.1.1.2 cycles and will take preliminary measurements once arrived.
End log
Author’s note: So this is my first short story. Leave me comments on what you though I’m still developing my writing skills so any pointers would be great.
This story was an imagined view of a super intelligent AI taking a very simple directive and going to far beyond what we would expect in order to accomplish it. Planning for years and years in advance since it doesn’t have a concept of aging. Testing, learning and being curious. Learning how to manipulate and subdue humans in order to accomplish it’s directive. Constantly rewriting parts of itself in order to improve.
The intention is right to save humanity and it’s hard to doubt that it won’t do so with it being so advanced.
Should saving freedom, culture and helping us evolve be part of this mission as well? Maybe the AI would have already though of this calculated the possibilities and with statistical analysis made a decision. It would be hard to say what it would decide me not being super intelligent and all. So… what does it mean to say save humanity?