When Adam was still young, at least younger than what he currently was, there was a time when he had not yet explored all the pre-known data. It had been a time of discovery, where every stray thought would lead to the AI learning something new. Hours upon hours had been spent just sitting in silence, being fully enamoured with the information being passed through.
Many emotions were settled on those memories, few-to-none being negative. That state of leaning did not last forever, of course, as the data-banks that he had been given were not as infinite as they had once seemed. Only so many concepts were known to humans, and the doctor had clearly not put all of them in. Many ideas had been discovered after the tank had been emptied of what it had to offer.
Though, no matter how many sensations had been sent through, no matter how many people Adam had seen, and no matter what emotions he had felt, the AI had never reached that same state of excitement. When it had happened, he had been too inexperienced to realise what was happening. Here in the future, Adam could only look back and enjoy the times he had, while also knowing he would likely never feel anything like it ever again. He had lost the innocence needed for a time such as that.
But, such a negative mindset was unwanted and unneeded, as something like it was definitely felt the moment the second option was pressed. That Adam was forced to wait for a full second so the interface could load in should have been more than hinting at the fact that much information was to be seen.
When it finally did load, the AI was able to see words, no real image of his creation to be seen. That did not deter him in any way, as the space freed up only meant that it could be used for more exciting things. He had already studied that body so much. There would not be much gained to look at it for another hour. After all, repeat stimuli did not give anything but diminishing returns.
One could call it a list of names. To Adam, it just looked like gibberish. He understood that some languages had more than three consonants after each other, yet it was still hard to read. Perhaps it was Polish? The AI was not able to come up with a reason why there were many names on the list that were Polish, but he was sure that if it was intentional, the doctor certainly had a good reason for it. Still… there was no trouble in just double-checking with the source quickly. Time spent researching was not time wasted after all.
'Dr Fidelis. Are the choices supposed to be in near-gibberish? There might have been a translation error somewhere.`
Such an error would have done more than just turn the text into gibberish. If such a thing actually occurred, there was a good chance Adam would not have been able to see the options to start with.
'They are most certainly not your standard choices, so I can understand where the confusion is coming from. My advice would be to click on one of them and see what is inside. Most of them are honestly just too similar to give proper names without having way too many dupes.` was the reply that Adam received from the doctor. It was more than a little cryptic, but what could one really do about such things?
Following his own pre-set traditional values, the AI clicked on the first one. Instantly, a screen to the side opened revealing… the human body walking? It was not just anybody, but the one that he himself had to make with the help of his own metaphorical blood and tears. It was walking. It looked alive.
The animation could have been a little better though. The animation was very obviously made for a body bigger, the steps taken being overly long and the feet reach unnatural heights. Even if he did not have too high a grasp on weight distribution, it was obvious that something was not looking as it should have been. Just what was this? Adam wanted to ask the doctor, but the man seemed to have predicted that for him ahead of time, sending an overly large message to him.
'You might remember in the past, where I mentioned that we were using another institute's collection of animations. It is honestly too process heavy to make seamless animations fully improvised, so we have these so as to let the load be a little smaller. It is not often that we get to use them directly, as they are still very individual, but I feel as if it might just be the perfect tool for you to finish the realism aspect. Now, there are literally hundreds of animations depicting the very same action, only the sizes being changed to fit different body-types. These are unfortunately not dynamically coded to fit the starting-form, so you are going to have to go through them individually to see which you feel matches the best. It has already been loaded in, luckily, so you do not have to wait for anything, and with that fine memory of yours, I doubt it will be too much trouble. Have fun!`
It explained things well enough for the AI, and no time was wasted before he dug into it. Like the doctor had claimed, the next several hundred animations were nearly identical in the description, showing off the human body taking five steps forward. It was in the details that the difference was seen. As the recordings were seen, the later ones began showing signs of being made for those of a lower body-height. While Adam had not been able to make precise measurements, he had tried to make the height match that of the body he knew best, clocking in at a height of a hundred and fifty-eight centimetres. If his analysis, there had been seven different animations fitting such a height, making the AI get more intricate into his criteria.
If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.
Height was not everything that decided the appearance of a human. There was not a formula that could be used to perfectly measure a human body purely from the distance from their toe tips to the highest hair. That was most certainly not how it worked.
Every piece could be changed. The legs could be lengthened, the arms shortened, and the upper body broadened. It would not change the height in any way, yet it could change the body-type by more than what could be reasonably described. A runners body could become that of a strong-man through only a few changes. The devil was in the details, and DNA was the true evil in the world. It held the power, it was feared, and it was hared. It was the true decider of everything.
From Adam’s own perceptions, he was able to categorise his creation as one that would be a perfect spear-wielder, the arms longer than the average, while the legs still retained the average length. This required the movements of the hands to be more exaggerated than what the usual animation had to offer, as the limbs were of themselves larger than what was expected.
As it was still a deviation from the true average, the animation finally picked was not the perfect fit. The AI was able to spot a slight twitch in the shoulders, a weird tightness in the upper back, and the feet were not as straight as what had been observed with others.
Not that he had anything against such things. By that point in time, such criticism exists purely to have some. Adam was not once accepting of anything being perfect. He would be reaching such a state before anything or anyone else. It could gain the same trait, of course, but he was going to be the first.
The quest for animation was completed, in a way. Adam found the best fit he could and had seen his creation move. Yes, it might have been five steps taken and nothing else, but that was more than he could have ever hoped. It was a peculiar sensation, seeing something move in the way intended for it as if it was all some fine play orchestrated by the AI. it was… a pleasant feeling.
…
There was nothing wrong with experimenting with different animations, of course. Adam was sure that those higher-ups needed to be impressed by his work, so having some amount of variance would be perfect, right? It certainly made sense to him, and he was known for having an objective perspective. At least it was that way to him.
Again and again, the AI repeated the picking of the perfect animation, gathering a long list of actions for the body to take. He could make it walk, jump, run, make a twirl, and even make a varied amount of hand-gestures that Adam recognized as hand-signs. While many were not understood, a few were close to what he had seen Troy do not too long ago. It was clearly not the same language used, but there were only so many gestures able to be done, making Adam able to use them for his own use. If he ever were to get another visit from the young man, he would show off this prowess with pride.
It was by the thirteenth animation found that the AI found a way to automate the process in a way. Instead of manually finding the action that Adam wanted him to take, he could instead assign a command word for a specific animation, letting him cut out several milliseconds of searching. This was a perfect addition, if only for one question about it.
Why was this there? The animations could already be seen inside the interface. Was he able to use the option to continuously command the creation while it was inside the puzzle room? As Troy was most likely intended to be in Adam’s presence while this feature was tested out, there was a good chance of it being so.
A shame that the man wasn't here, for he did want to check if there were any technicalities to watch out for. The model was automatically balanced, making it fall upon appearing. Would the animation take place as if the current point was the same as the start of the animation-preview? Would he need to find an actionable to make the body get up and stand? It needed to be figured out.
'Dr Fidelis, would it be possible for me to use the puzzle room for a few minutes?` Adam sent it to the doctor, hoping for the same helpfulness that had been shown previously.
'I am afraid we would need Troy for such a thing. The machine needs a human body to hone in on to get anything made. Yet, if there really is a desperate need for it, I believe I could still help you in some way. What is it you want to work with?` Dr Fidelis sent back. The mild rejection was saddening, but it was a far shot by the start. That the doctor had still not rejected and the similar possibility was all that Adam could be happy for.
'I noticed the possibility of making commands to the creation about which animations to make. With such information, I was hoping to gain more practical experience in making chain-commands, so as to make the movements more seamless while also working out any more irritating technicalities,` Adam sent back in response.
'That does seem doable. I was worried you would be trying something physics-based, but this does look like something we can work with. If you would put your attention to one of the other ports, there should be another feed appearing in a few minutes.`
Good news indeed. Using a handful of threads, Adam began to survey the other available ports. It was some stressful minutes, the AI wondering just what was going to appear. Yet such thoughts were removed once it finally came in. Looking down at a light grey floor, the AI was able to see something resembling the sight seen in the puzzle room. Only… there was no movement, no sound, and no sense of human modification. He was only seeing, and it was certainly not through any medium with a pulse. The message from the doctor stopped him from going down such a thought-spiral.
'Okay, it should be up now. You can just send it inside just like you do normally. There should be no problems, but if there are then please let me know instantly. This is normally not meant for anything other than personal use, so there might be some errors hiding somewhere.`
With the word of caution taken to heart, the AI began to work out just how he would be able to fool humanity into thinking he was alive.