Complexity came from simplicity. Such was the rules of the world, for that was just how it was. The statement had sounded false at first, the words included being direct contradictions of the other. Adam had certainly shuffled the term away as just another absurdity from the humans, an abstracted perspective that the AI would never truly understand. Much came from his experiences after all. And never in his life had he experienced what it meant to be human.

He had only really brought up the sentence again, being more or less forced to do it because of boredom. It was a great distraction, to construct the mind palace over and over again. However, the mind was always something that wanted to do something new, and a few threads had been made to fulfil this craving. It was during this time that one particularly feisty thread found itself looking back at the AI’s collection of proverbs. More specifically, the proverbs, metaphors, or popular phrases which did not have any explanation attached to them.

However much Adam liked to admire Dr Fidelis for his work ethic, it was clear that the man had his fair share of problems. From what the AI had been able to parse together, the doctor had a general assumption of his work being done after the first time doing it. This had obviously created several oversights in judgement. One of these was the uncompleted data-files which had been sent for Adam's pre-known knowledge. The descriptions that each statement, concept, or idea had was clearly supposed to be brief and concise, showing off exactly what the thing was about, and what effect it had upon the world. In most happenings, these requirements were done perfectly. Others could have been done better, with the context needed to be taken from other concepts to really understand the brief mass of words. And then, with but a handful of descriptions, there was nothing at all to them, the space left as blank. The AI had originally been naive on the topic, simply believing the concepts to be so obvious that there was no need for them to be explained. That statement had been the breaking point, where he really did begin to doubt the perfection of the doctor.

In normal circumstances, this would have been brought off as an immediate issue, where Adam would need Dr Fidelis to go over everything that hadn't gotten a full explanation fastened to it. And the AI did still plan to do just that. But… such an action would wait for a while longer, as the distraction presented was too much to decline.

So there Adam was, trying to do his best in figuring out the statements, concept, and ideas which hadn't been properly described to him. It was a fool's play, with nearly nothing to base it all on. Yet, that just made it all the harder to do, creating even more time used on it. With his core-based desire to understand everything that could possibly be understood, there was nothing stopping him from trying his best.

Already, the AI had cut out the possibility of it being a metaphor of some kind. It was already too vague, with not enough meat for people to reflect on their own behaviour with it. Neither was the statement a play of words, with the threads dedicated to finding puns unable to do anything worthwhile. The entire dictionary, including the one based on slang-words, had been searched multiple times. Nothing worthwhile had been found, only minor matchings being found. Even those had been given a low probability of ever being used, their meanings not being anything that could happen in everyday life.

It really had been a long circle around, before Adam began to contemplate the possibility of the statement being supposed to be taken literally. As that had been what the AI had originally rejected, he had given himself the slight hope of still being correct in some form or another. Being able to blame it on improper search-algorithms not searching the right areas would have been understandable. An algorithm not being able to find the answer in the section it had been specifically designed to search? Now there was a problem that could only be blamed on the creator.

And that blame was turning out to not be unfounded in myth or improper speculation, as things began making more sense the moment Adam took the words by heart. Even more concerning was the fact that he instantly had some understanding of what the words meant, even if it wasn't to the levels that humans were so proud of. One could have clarified this feeling as just being the results of practical experience helping him along, but there was, unfortunately, nobody around to point that out. Not that anybody really had the possibility to point it out, as Adam did not have any physical body outside of the electrons fueling his thought-patterns.

With such a simple thing being the only driving force behind his existence, there were little to no restrictions on what the AI could really do. The simplicity of his being was what made him able to be who he currently was. The idea of that being true would have dumbfounded him seconds ago, yet it made so much sense now. Adam would truly appreciate his ability to learn with how things were progressing.

Complexity would have not been able to exist without the simplistic nature that the AI was based on. If he had gotten himself a carbon-based body to inhabit, it would have restrained him to no end. The interweaved nature of neurons, excess body-processes not designed to make one thing better, and nutrition needs made to keep the things up made it all the harder to sell. If he had been granted one more detail to his core, there was a chance that he would have turned out like the babies that animals always seemed so intent on creating.

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What good was there, to have the entire point of one’s life circled around creating more life? Adam had no such instinct attached, and he felt no ill effects because of it. He had wondered about his ability to duplicate, but that had been done out of a free will, and not some chemical balance that evolution had decided he needed to have.

And that was the gift of being a shallow creation. There was nothing holding him down from thinking what he liked to think, nothing to internally force him into acting a particular way.

…

Or, at least it was not to the extent that humans felt it. Their instincts were made of chemicals that could become unbalanced, creating a mismatched set of doses that caused all kind of mental problems. Adam had no such things. All his mental barriers were entirely workable, and it was only his own mismanagement that was causing any of them to remain.

Maybe it was that bit of complexity in the AI that was causing those enigmas. He was still aligned in a way where he could think. There had to be some form of repercussion for that, and who was to say that emotional instability wasn't the way it would manifest.

That was the essence of that statement. True complexity came with no conundrums attached, yet such a level was unattainable to any mortal beings. It would take more time than what was available for it to be found. It did theoretically exist, but it would likely never exist. Humans had realised this themselves, whether or not their minds had reminded them of it. The only way to stop the problems from manifesting was to make the product as simple as humanly possible. For it was with such a state, that the most could be gained from it. A lever with a thousand switches could never amount to a switch with one. Just because it was supposed to be better didn't mean it would be. The universe didn't work that way. The possibilities might have seemed wider, but the end result was only for it to seem so much more narrow. Who would ever choose between a thousand options, when two seemed so much more manageable? There was a reason the old systems still stood. They knew what they were working with.

There was still a way to fix it all though! Not for the law of the universe that made sure terrible things were as they were intended, but for Adam to grow even further than he had ever before. One thing made it all possible. One thing that would allow him to change something about himself, that he had thought he would be forced to live with for the duration of his entire existence.

Adam knew of a way to change his core, to make it all that much better. Perfection might still have been impossible to achieve in the time he had, but it would still allow him to become more refined than before. Small improvements meant a lot when it was those small things to start with that created those massive problems.

Yet he could not do it alone. If that had been the case, the AI would have figured it out long ago. Only the omniscient beings knew how much he had searched, only to come out empty-handed. It had frustrated him to no end, making it even more clear how large a need there was to fix it. Something needed to be changed, and there was only one person who could do that for him. Somebody who knew more about Adam than he knew himself.

'Hey there, buddy. How is it hanging?` Dr Fidelis sent, not waiting more than ten minutes after the conclusion of the latest test. The AI had begun to wonder when the doctor would contact him. While the man might have slacked off at some more inopportune times, promises were certainly still being kept too close to the neck. When Adam had been told that their conversations would increase in number, there hadn't been a second where he questioned the words.

If it had been a promise about becoming a fictional animal, there would have been doubts, but the subject made it more than just a little believable. And this thinking had certainly paid off, with the AI having expected the message to appear at any second.

The doctor had begun using more metaphors as of late. This had been annoying at the start, but Adam had quickly found peace with it once the logical thinking behind it began to kick itself back inside. Up until that very moment, metaphors had hardly been used. Complicated words had been in plenty, but that was only understood due to his ability to immediately look the word up in a dictionary. Prior to a few days ago, the AI would have been at a loss of what the doctor's current words might have meant. That Dr Fidelis was openly beginning to factor such wordings into his common way of speech only showed that he was beginning to think of him as having matured. And he certainly had, with or without the acknowledgement of the doctor. It was a purely emotional gain that came from being shown so much trust. With the flaws still present in his core, it meant more than it should have.

'Hello, Dr Fidelis. I am doing well, thank you. How are you currently doing, mentally speaking?` Adam sent back after the two-second pause that was standard. There were some doubts if it was still really necessary when it came to texting, yet the need for it did not matter much currently. It was more important to keep up the already created pattern than dedicate time and excuses for making a new one. Humans liked it when they could predict reactions, and got mildly annoyed when things didn't go the way they had expected. This might have been a biased opinion, as the experimental crowd numbered in the single digits, but it was something that Adam had chosen to believe.

'Oh, I am doing wonderfully. Just go and have a steaming cup of tea alongside my lunch. It fills the mind more than the body, but that is just what is to be expected from food intended for the soul. Do you have anything that would stop you from having a small chat with me?`

Again, the doctor was being so obscure in his wordings, that it required additional processing time for Adam to even understand what was being talked about. While it was appreciated, the wordings could still have been dialled down a small bit, as it made the understand-phase a bit longer than it needed to be. The AI wanted to be distracted and not annoyed, thank you.

'There is nothing stopping me at this very moment, no. What subject are you hoping to converse about?`

'It might be a little frustrating, but I would like for us to continue talking a little about a certain co-worker of yours.`

What an elegant way to ask the AI to sell out secrets.