23rd of May, 2043
Having successfully placed the experiment in the crib and thus done all it currently could to ensure the experiment's continuation, the AI went through the notes on future experiments the professor had planned for Ex 347.
The professor had originally been interested in enhancing the human body. Engineering the perfect human, if that was possible. That all changed when his son died, but he still kept taking notes and making plans for future experiments.
The first tries to bring back his son had failed to properly develop due to issues with using DNA from cells that had already developed into skin cells as a base.
When the initial growth of embryos had finally been achieved, the professor had to find out the hard way that making an artificial womb was exceedingly difficult. There were many causes of failure, be they contaminants, nutrients, bacteria, temperature, stimulus, lack of movement or flexibility, cancerous growths, malformation, a lack of a donor immune system..
None of these showed up immediately, even when running multiple batches concurrently. Thus, this meant more time spent waiting and more notes for possible future experiments.
Some of these notes were focused on how to find damaged DNA, and how to plug the gaps with good DNA. An endeavour that had helped the professor progress with his experiments. This ability ultimately helped the AI figure out a way to keep the experiment operational in its initial stages, even if drastic changes to the DNA were necessary.
Other notes concerned a possible machine-mind interface. And while this was not something that was fully figured out, the AI had already planted the seeds for it in Ex 347. It had been necessary to continue the experiment. Not being able to monitor it would have invalidated any efforts after all.
What was currently in place was the quantum link with the nanite core. The single most expensive piece of equipment the professor had managed to get his hands on.
This was not because it was capable of manufacturing and directing a small amount of nanites. No, the quantum entanglement connection, QEC, was what made it so ruinously expensive. At this point in time, creating a system that made use of entangled q-bits was still very tricky. As was keeping the entanglement stable for a prolonged period of time. Without adequate shielding, the entanglement could be lost due to environmental effects.
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All in all, that meant your average person had about as much opportunity to buy linked quantum nodes as they had buying a fighter jet. They were not sold on the open market, and even if they were, not many would be able to afford it. It also wasn’t necessary except for secrecy and instantaneous long distance messaging. Even with a normal wireless connection, it was possible to reach any place on the planet within 400 milliseconds nowadays. For most purposes, this delay was completely acceptable.
Nanites were, similarly, rare technology, even if not quite as rare as the QEC. It was highly illegal to produce nanites that could replicate themselves, not that anyone had managed to create nanites that could pose a serious risk and wouldn’t just be broken down due to environmental influence and changes yet. But the grey goo scenario, where nanites would convert the entire world into more of themselves, was not something anyone wanted to become reality.
So far, a nanite factory was the only way to keep a certain amount of nanites active. Even then, they were hardly intelligent and had to be purpose-built and directed by a super computer. Eclipse qualified, though barely.
The AI was capable enough to use this tiny factory to create a super thin brain sheathe and monitor all signals being processed in the brain.
For now, monitoring was all that it was doing. It had a good idea of the vitals, but lacked any sort of understanding of the signals it was monitoring. Its data banks were filled with articles on neuroscience, but aside from being able to read the general mood, it couldn’t really do anything right now.
Why? It currently had no way to calibrate the readings to any perceived inputs or intentions. To get a better idea of the perceived inputs, it would need cameras and microphones to get a first-hand picture and compare it with what it was seeing, then extrapolate from Ex 347’s behaviour.
The latter of which was complicated enormously by the fact that Ex 347 was currently a baby. At this stage, even with direct access, getting any precise information out of the experiment was complicated by the fact that it could not speak yet.
But not all was lost.
In due time, it was possible to use the nanites to create microphones and photoreceptors.
In one of the notes the professor had speculated that it might be possible to seed additional photoreceptors on the retina and then link them to the optical nerve. This was something the AI could do. Additionally, it could tap a direct feed to these artificial photoreceptors and gain the ability to see through Ex 347’s eyes.
Similarly, it could use them to create a sort of microphone in the ears, to boost the experiment's sense of hearing and allow itself access to auditory information.
Not immediately, since it was incapable of injecting the required building blocks into the experiment's body at the moment, but with some patience, the necessary resources for the enhancements could be absorbed directly from the body without harming it.
Until this was accomplished, it would simply have to keep recording everything. With some luck, it could later reverse engineer what Ex 347 had heard and seen. Its data banks were large enough that it could afford to do so for a couple of months, but it would have to start sorting out its memory sooner or later.