Adam listened carefully, as the doctor explained the parameters of the day. The view around Troy had been more than just enticing, the AI unsure if he had ever seen something as large as that ever before. The road curved as it went along, giving trouble in seeing how far the area spanned to each side, yet he knew it was more than just a square kilometre of space. Perhaps ten kilometres? He hoped to find out soon enough.
*As you might remember, yesterday was spent entirely to get Adam adapted to the use of the interface so that he would be able to use it as efficiently as possible, without having to spend time tinkering with the different selections. While this goal might have been side-tracked at the ending parts of the test, the results have still come out in a clear positive. Adam, your work with your tools are fast, elegant, and without any noticeable flaws. I would congratulate you, but that would force me out of this perfectly tuned tone,* Dr Fidelis introduced the description of the test with, giving a quick recap on recent proceedings. The words were each measured carefully before being released into the world. This was heard in tone and pacing.
However, it was not found inside the words themselves, those being anything but professional. Why the doctor still stubbornly refused to make himself a script to follow, Adam could not understand. From previous conversations, many of the more word-intensive tasks had been delegated over to Dr Hale. Would it be so hard to put one more in her basket? For the doctor, that did look to be the case, sadly enough. The AI could only swallow up his minor conundrum. He could still understand what was being said, even if the way told was not up to the standards imposed on research-focused investigations. So, he counted to listen carefully, as the man kept on about the test meant to be started ten minutes ago.
*As the processed results showed such brilliant numbers, we were even able to skip one of today’s scheduled tests. Adam was supposed to have been given a day to focus on building certain types of creations from scratch, going out from a model made already. This has already been achieved in a more qualitative test, where Adam had built an incredibly realistic rendition of the human brain, being able to imitate movements with it, that gave it the semblance of life. Going by the specifications of the cancelled test, this result would have been given the highest possible score. Again, a great effort showed. We can only hope to see more of it. What else do I have to say?*
A few grumbles came through the earpiece, mostly being mutterings about a need for bullet-points. This was not reassuring.
*Ah, yes. This has allowed us to move forward to the next test, which will be one where we focus on destruction. Or, you could say that we are focusing on destruction in some capacity. It is more of a secondary addition, meant to give everybody involved a view based more on realism than anything else. This environment shall be your oyster, where you can do whatever you pleased. Of course, this is also limited to what is inside the capacity of utter destruction. When I finish talking, access will be given to the interface. No more instructions will be provided. Adam, you can ask Troy to move around. He will not know any more than you do. This should contain all the vital instructions. Also, this is what we will be concentrating on for this entire day. Breaks will only be had when the law requires me to give them. And, as a final notice, I am not allowed to extend any more tests into the night for the foreseeable future. Apparently, continued use of the puzzle has caused unintended consequences, so it will not be allowed. Please spend your time with this knowledge in mind. That is all. Goodbye.*
With those closing statements, Dr Fidelis ended off the connection, a slightly smaller screech sounding out on the earpiece. As the man was gone, Adam was allowed time to rethink the information gained, without having to constantly add more onto it all. Troy was just standing around doing nothing. There were some considerations about giving him temporary tasks to help him pass the time, yet the AI came to the conclusion that the man could live with a few seconds spent not doing anything.
According to the doctor, the day-long task needed to be done was to… do whatever Adam wanted to do. There was not much more to it, the AI having been given a tool capable of mass-destruction, and just thrown into an advanced reconstruction of what he guessed to be a large city. Two guesses as to what that meant.
Dr Fidelis was likely trying to see how he would use the power. Would Adam play around with it again, seeing if he could destroy anything, without thinking of the possible consequences? There had been a time where it had seemed he had been close to killing Troy with the help of a massive hamster wheel. That had been fully unintentional, a result of the AI focusing on the wrong results. He had just been checking out the different areas possible to affect when destroying specific areas in the air.
This was a test of precautions, to see if Adam could experiment with the functions given, in a way that could cause no possible harm to those close to him. It was an exercise in control, and he was sure that he would ace it. With his army of threads dedicated to thinking every action through, no scenario would be left untouched.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Those final statements done, access was then given to the interface, being shown again in its glorious two dimensions. However, there was a definite lack of larger options, creation and nearly all the other tabs having disappeared from its face. Only the option for destruction remained. The AI guessed that was alright, as the test was supposed to be about his interaction with destruction anyways. Though, he had in a way hoped that he would be able to use any down-time to show off his proficiency with puppeteering, summoning the human body that he had worked so hard on. Dr Fidelis had been so kind so as to make Adam a so-called copy-folder, which could be filled up with creations. This was still limited to creations that Dr Fidelis had manually put into the folder, yet that did not matter at all. The AI had not yet created something as complicated as the body, and he was sure the doctor would put whatever else in if it was requested.
Clicking in on the option, Adam was surprised to see a more refined rendition of the destruction categories. A few more had been added without his notice. Perhaps he had been a little too caught up in his creation schemes, as the changes now noticed were more than just game-changing. A new button allowed the AI to highlight different parts of a selected building, only destroying smaller parts without putting any damage to the other. An example of such was his ability to highlight a window and destroy it, without any area damage coming to the surroundings. If Adam destroyed a support pillar, it was possible that he would still destroy the building, but that did not count.
The new update may not have sounded like much, but it allowed a much more fine hand in destruction. No more was he a brute, destroying everything in a certain area. He was now one with a delicate hand, taking the earth apart atom by atom. If he desired he could possibly go even deeper. It all depended on his patience.
'I am ready to start,` Adam informed Troy, the man had begun to look around curiously. This did cause some confusion to the AI. The young man was seeming to be looking at something foreign, the put-together brows speaking of something seeming off for him. Adam had originally thought of the environment around him as a perfect imitation of a city, if only with the actual cities being made of more than one type of material. With the man looking around in that state of near-confusion, had he been wrong? How close were those towering buildings to reality really?
“That is nice to hear. I was getting worried that you were beginning to look up to Dr Fidelis too much, with all that time you made me wait,” Troy said, seeming to find it a great idea to sound playful. That kind of attitude was known to cause more focus, making the AI have nothing against it. However, those criticisms towards the good doctor were not felt as well-deserved.
The man had done his best to adapt to Adam’s need, given him plenty of time to work on his personal projects. This had caused several consequences, from what he could tell, starting from a semi-permanent stop from making another exception and only using the puzzle room at the designated times. Everything done had been done to help another being. Who was to blame the man for that? Troy might have felt irritated for having to wait a few minutes, yet that did not mean he could put blame on a good man.
'Everything done up until now has been for the sake of optimizing future tasks, as I hope you will understand. However, another line of topics, could explain why you look so unsure of yourself when inside this environment? Also, please walk towards the nearest building,` Adam sent, both as a statement, a question, and a request, all expected to be answered within a few seconds' time.
“Sure, sure, sure. Making everything perfect from the get-go does make it all easier in the long run, and since we are holed up in here the entire day, I can see where you are coming from,” Troy said, briefly looking around and judging the different distances. They stood in the middle of what would only be called an extra-wide road.
By the estimates made during earlier observations of cars, there could easily fit eight lanes of cars, giving plenty of distance to the nearest buildings. However, that did not stop the man from choosing a target and steadily moving towards it. By the AI’s own estimation it would take approximately forty seconds to reach the goal, giving the two plenty of time to talk of innocuous topics.
“As to why this place gives me the creeps? That might just be because everything here is similar to what I used to live in. It's just… well, it is not fully similar. It's close enough that I can draw links between the two, but not enough that I can see them as identical. It's enough to give me the creeps, is what I am saying.”
'Is it like the uncanny valley effect? Do you get any mental nausea of any kind?`Adam sent back, interested in the man’s words. There was likely not a genetic reason for the discomfort, more likely lying on a physiological one.
“In a way, yes. Mostly… no. I remember that thing you created yesterday. That made me want to vomit the first time I saw it. Pretty sure that it appeared in last night's nightmare, actually. When I look around this city, I can see that it resembles a city. The skyscrapers let me know that what I am seeing is a place that people are supposed to live. But, it doesn't match up with what I have in my mind. It's so… utterly empty. Not just in the spacing of everything, but many of the features that I have learned to live with don't exist here. Even the road that we are standing on makes me uncomfortable.”
Uncomfortable by the simple sight of a road in an area such as this. Adam knew it was not a general feeling, as the man had been near one during earlier tests. What was so different about what they were seeing now? Was it because Troy had lived in a large city his entire life, and the difference now seen was making him get a weird sense of deja-vu? Or, wait, did he grow up in a large city?
…
Now that Adam thought about it, he knew very little about Troy. Not of him as a person, though. Adam had already established a very detailed personality profile, but of the man’s history rather. Not much had been told about him over the testing period, and Troy had not spoken a lot about his past during their free time as well. This made sense, as any opportunity had been during social events, making it a priority to hide his lack of science-based education. Yet, this was also leaving a gap in the AI’s data banks. He needed to know more, and now was the perfect opportunity for it.
'Troy, did you grow up in an area close to a road?`