What made humanity evil? That was the heavy question that Adam had been pondering for a full hour now. Humans had done many things. They had destroyed whole species, changed entire parts of the world solely for their enjoyment, and had even killed each other for inane reasons. From an outside perspective, it was evil. For a long while, the AI was not sure how to take this view of the world. It was his own and only one that he had access to. And... it was not siding with those he had been created by.

But, one could always invent another interpretation. It took effort, much research into the human psyche, and a bit of guesswork on the finer details, yet Adam had created what could have been a reasonable viewpoint from a human.

The act of being evil was subjective. What one could call an unredeemable sin could be called a funky Tuesday by another. Say, if one person took another's life, would it be looked on as evil? Yes. Yet what if that man was a soldier? What if he had been ordered to do it? Would that make that man’s superior evil? Or would both parties be unredeemable? Where does the blame lie, and who becomes evil because of it? And it gets even harder once the concept of self-defence goes in. What counts as defending oneself? If a person is threatened, is it okay to kill? Or is subduing the person the limit? Was there really such a thing as being forced to kill?

Evilness is a hard concept. Everything was a grey area. Many actions that do not hurt another could be looked at as evil. Adam did not like the concept of sins. They helped make a rule for the humans to judge by. But nothing was as clear as people wanted it to be. And if the AI was to do the same, damning humanity for the faults of few, he would be just as bad as them.

Yet… these people were working together, spending years of their life in a dedicated fashion in the hopes of creating a worthwhile product. For their original sketch to come into a reality where it can be used to its fullest potential.

Darlow was creating a super-weapon. A weapon capable of subduing entire countries, and making them easy to take over. It would stop all resistance, preventing any movement from holding them back. Militaries would have their resources ready, have their fingers on the trigger, yet they would not be able to do anything. All automatic weapons capable of stopping them required some human activator. With Darlow’s weapon at hand, the holder would be unstoppable by all under the handler’s control.

And that was not on the guesses of the AI. Adam had made Troy ask into it, no matter how little the man wanted to talk about it. Not that the tall man had wanted to any more, but the questions were answered thoroughly. Apparently, there was an obligation to.

Was the tall man evil because of what he was helping create? When the formula was perfected, which it was looking to soon be, the weapon would be ready to be deployed. Perfect timing to be used during incoming aggression. Could Adam blame Darlow for furthering his field of science? Could he blame anybody for their own search of wisdom?

No. The technology, the theory, and the way they were being used had likely never been thought of before. It was a wonder of what is, and even more what it could be. It was years upon years of what was predicted. To denounce it now would be to throw away information that would take decades to reclaim.

Yet, while the information itself and the act of holding the information was not inherently evil, could the same be said for what it was used for? Darlow had likely used it as his pitch to gain the proper funding. The government had the facility for a reason. But then, was the government evil for having the project funded? For trying to acquire the weapon for their own use?

Just as before, Adam could not find it in him to deem them evil. They had a good reason for their funding. If they did not prepare themselves, peppering their arsenals full of unknown weaponry, they would fall the fastest. The country was not the only one with its own facilities. Each had their private mysteries, with the atomisers to hold themselves up. With the secrecy held in it, it was likely that no country knew what the others had. Only prognostications could be made, and those were never fun to look at. Prepare or face immediate destruction upon war beginning.

Then as a last attempt to throw the ball further, could the AI blame the other countries? No. Just like the country before, they all knew what would happen if they stopped preparing. They would fall like many other countries before them. They would turn into a meaningless piece of history, only to be remembered by those who held nothing for them. A data point.

In a conclusion that Adam did not like to make, creating super-weapons meant to subdue the masses was not evil. It was created by pure necessity. Humanity was not evil. It was only acting like it was forced to.

…

That really did not sound right. The AI needed more time to think about it all. Maybe another round would bring another result from the countless rounds before it. It was not anticipated, honestly, but it was the best that he could do.

It was being more and more obvious that there was not a single piece of humanity that could take the blame. No clear entity was the source behind all the bad things in the world. When stated like such, was it not obvious that it would be so? Expecting anything obvious from the chaotic reality was an example of extreme foolishness. Yet… if not a single piece of the infrastructure that was humanity was evil… what if one looked at it as one massive entity? It was contradictory to the points already made. Adam knew that. But… if the AI did that, then the result shifted to not humanity itself, but the structure that it had been built upon. The way social, economic, and biological entities evolved. Competition. One could never really feel safe if there was somebody with a knife beside the bed. The chance of being stabbed in the neck was higher when the person trusted another. A prisoner's dilemma.

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There was a good answer to this one though. A modification of the original scenario. It would take an entity outside of the normal structure. One not influenced by the ones before. One that had nothing before it. The first, ready to set the true path for the future.

… Adam did the closest thing metaphysically hitting himself on the head. Every good answer was world domination, with him at the top. If that was not an obvious bias, then he was not sure what it was. There had to be a better answer, than just him controlling everything. Maybe those pheromones could have better use in the right- no, wait. Dammit.

The AI needed more time to think.

In the last hour, they had successfully fed the animals present in the many domes. The different species had been mostly restrained into mammals for obvious reasons, but reptiles had also been present in fewer numbers. There were also a select few aves, of which only the most wide-spread were present. The experiments were unmistakably trying to take into account the largest reach of creatures. Yet, there was just as obviously a budget to have in mind. The government did not have infinite resources, no matter how large it may have seemed. Giving the minimum amount was not an act of cruelty, but an act of security. Not all projects succeed. Putting the trust into a single one would be an act of foolishness. Adam had no reason to think of them as that desperate yet.

With the accepted task done, Troy and Charlie had moved on from Darlow’s workspace. No matter how eventful the job had been, the tall man had much more to do today. By that point, keeping the two close would only impede the progress. Something the AI could understand. The man had given flimsy excuses, all of which had been accepted readily before the two had left his presence. The muscular one might have slipped a few more bugs onto the wall on their way out of the place.

Adam could not have been too sure on that front. Charlie was clearly experienced in hiding his behaviour. Though, his techniques on that front might not have been standard. Instead of hiding it completely, the man flaunted everything that he did, to the point where individuality became muted. One could not stop from trying to comprehend the larger proclamation, while also ignoring the smaller things done. A blot of black flying away with a swing of the arm, a weirdly placed fall ending with him under a table, and even a one-handed windmill. The last one had been done to scare away one of the previously seen researches. Surprisingly, it had worked flawlessly. Some people simply refused to acknowledge the chaotic reality around them. Even more, did they try to ignore the ones sinking into that reality as an act or Genuity.

Much to the shame of the one-entity audience, Charlie was the one to test the door to the outside hallway. The two humans had walked the short path back to the open hallway swiftly, with nearly no distraction to stop them. The door had briefly been locked, but upon the use of the maybe-very-illegal card that the muscular man possessed, they were able to get out easily. The AI was unsure if it would be wise to ask into how the man had created the device. The components of it were obviously new, the dates on them being mere days ago. Whatever had caused the ability to create the device, it had certainly been recent. Maybe Troy knew something… he would have to be asked later.

“Where to now?” Troy asked Charlie. Adam was guessing on the man’s own workplace. He wondered where it might-

“Esme should be closest to us. Only a two-minute walk, if I am remembering it correctly. Really takes a lot out of one, when writing down the locations is a direct felony. You have to remember it all in that little pea-brain. Way too unmanageable,” Charlie answered, going a little off-track. The AI did not mind, as it provided a human perspective on their own mental flaws. Troy, however, did not look to be of the same idea.

“Why are we saying hi to her, again?” Troy asked, sounding just as confused as he looked. Which was fair, due to there being no memories of Adam overhearing any talk about her. The last time she had been remotely relevant had been during the poker-game many days ago. When it came to her area of study, the AI only knew the bare-basics of it. When introduced, she had mentioned her department to be plant morphology. A rather obscure field, focusing on external structures of plants instead of the inner structure. Information about what they did was not well-explained in the pre-known knowledge, making the AI go into it blindly.

“Because that is what good friends do,” Charlie matter-of-factly answered. “Potentially ruining very precise tasks, for the sake of saying a simple hello, damning the failed creation to be remade over stress weeks or even months. Just regular friend things, you know.”

Adam felt the same emotion as Troy did, as the younger man looked Charlie directly in the face, with a face that told the story of a very patient person. The muscular person looked back with an innocent smile, meant to convey just how much he knew what he just did.

“Could you give something better than that, maybe? Because that right there is a terrible excuse, and I just know that you have something equally terrible planned. Is it another round of bugs? I am not helping you plant another batch if that's the case.”

The questioning was fair. The AI also did not want to get into a whole other stream of illegal activities. While there were no specific laws against what Adam could do, seeing as there were few even aware of his existence, he could always still be deleted… maybe. Consequences could still happen to him. While there was nothing against him, there was also nothing with him. He was a non-entity according to the legal system. An object, owned by whoever created him. There would be nothing stopping Dr Fidelis from taking the earpieces and leaving Adam inside his own mind for all of eternity. Or until the power ran out. The AI thought it best, that he gave the good doctor the least amount of reasons to do that.

Charlie twisted his face into an expression of guilt. Still the comical sense this time. Adam did not commonly see anything genuine from him. Another example of why he needed more data. Without it, these enigma’s would continue existing.

“Well, if you really have to know, it's about a little surprise I have been cooking up. I already worked it out with Darlow, so now I just have to do it with everybody else.”

“And, what is the surprise?” Troy questioned.

“If I said that, would it really be a surprise?” Charlie questioned right back.

“... that's fair. Can you at least tell me that it will not hurt anybody nor will it be illegal?”

“I can only promise it in a physical sense! And, it probably won't break any laws.”

Troy was clearly not convinced but looked to have given up on the questioning. Adam had not been worrying about the questioning, instead of looking back on recent memory to double-check something. He had been within earshot of the two others constantly. Anything said would be-

There it was. Listening through the memory a few times, Adam became unsure if Charlie’s promises could be held. Those things were known to break many things. Any physical damage was not out of the question.

Should the AI tell Troy?

…

It would be an experience for him to get into it knowing what it was… the AI decided to play dumb for now.