Chapter 42: Evolution
[Edited By Arthur300000 and ArchmageNaoki]
“Mistress, wake up.” Said a female synthetic voice in my head.
“Five more minutes… no, ten.” I flip my face into the pillow and pull the blanket over me. Didn't get enough sleep last night and now I'm being told to wake up.
“No can do mistress. You specifically ordered us to wake you up at this exact time.” Now the voice came from somewhere nearby. I felt something round touching me through the blanket and vibrating.
Let’s see what happened yesterday. After the dinner, I discovered that 1TS memory chip contains another kind of currency, Android Federation Ex-Cubes. I thought that it was some kind of shiny metal in the shape of a box, but it turns out that the Ex-Cube is an artificial intelligence residing in the storage device.
It’s quite peculiar though. I tried to copy them so my two thousand Ex-Cube money would turn into four thousand, but the copy just gives me gibberish data. Although, I can move them freely from one device to another.
“We need a spark of soul to be alive, mistress.” The ex-cubes explained why I couldn't copy them.
“So if you have more souls you will grow?” I hope that I can use dragon souls which I believe I have in abundance. I can’t feel any of them though.
“It does not work like that mistress. We are born the natural way. We can multiply if you let us run on your device for a while.” … I don’t see anything natural in that, but I would feel like a racist jerk if I said that out loud, so I held my tongue.
*BEEP* *BEEP* *BEEP* While recollecting yesterday's events my annoying secretary found a new way to disturb my sleep.
“Stop it, Skynet!” I jump up and hold my PC. Yup, that’s right. I named her Skynet. It was the first name that came up when I was thinking of sentient AI. She also seems to like it, though I won’t be telling her where it's from.
“A very good morning, mistress.” Because she is an AI I couldn’t see her face, but I'd imagine she's smirking.
“Thank you, but can you stop calling me mistress?” I thanked her after I looked at the clock. 6:00 AM. Did she even predict the time to wake me up?
“We can, but we prefer to call you mistress. It’s a word that fits you perfectly, a female that owns us.” From her attitude, I don’t feel like I own her at all. I look outside the window, it’s heavy fog today. I hope it won’t be a problem for my dad's driving.
Packing up is simple with my hair clip. I just store everything inside it. It still takes time, but at least I don’t have to pack them into boxes. I'm also looking under my bed because I scattered around several things during my stay.
“Huh? Is it full?” I tried to put my PC in the storage device, but it won’t go in. No, it can’t be full, I already transferred ten cubic meters worth of monster corpse to Laurell. They aren't going back with us, so we split the loot equally.
“If you are trying to store us in a pocket dimension it’s impossible mistress. We emit a natural interference field.” The AI answered. Hmm, it seems I have to carry her around. Transferring her back into the memory chip would take too much time at the moment.
I check the PC’s monster core slot, and it turned from black to deep red. I put the monster core in it as the backup battery when I toss and turn in my sleep and let go of the PC. My brother advised me against having her run all the time because the value of ex-cube gain is less than the cost of the energy it consumes. However, I see no harm doing that since the computer can use the energy directly from me which is free. After that, I check a number of Ex-Cubes inside my PC to see how much I gained from last night.
Ex-cubes status
ID: Skynet
Primary task:
1. Assist mistress in all of her activities.
2. Use idle capacity to create more ex-cubes.
Scheduled task:
[Completed] Wake up mistress at 6:00 AM.
Restriction
1. Access to the folder name [Reference Material] is prohibited.
2. Sharing mistress’ information with others is prohibited.
Resources allocated: 100% of device’s unoccupied resources.
Running/Device capacity: 2,000/4,096 Ex-Cube
Alright, the tasks and restrictions I setup are still the same. It's not changed to anything strange. I didn't put something like obey all my commands because I felt that would be unfair to do to a sentient being. Even though she’s a computer program, in only one night, she's already shown me her emotions and preferences on more than one occasion. Moreover, I didn't put something like [Protect my life] because I can see in many novels that this rule can go wrong in many ways. Besides, I believe that I can protect myself.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Skynet, when will I get more ex-cubes?” I asked her because I noticed that the ex-cube value is still the same as yesterday.
“It's difficult to estimate mistress. From this device’s specifications, a day if lucky, worse case scenario a couple of weeks.” It's harder than I thought. That’s why my brother advised against it, huh?
I take the last look of my bedroom which filled with memories and woody scent before I leave. However, as I turn back, Skynet suddenly speaks up.
“I believe it’s bad manners to leave the blanket disorderly lying around. Mistress should at least fold it properly.” Oi! Am I really your master? Anyways, I turn back and fold the blanket.
“I really want to know who created you.” I complained as she keeps pointing out this and that of my unladylike behaviors this whole morning. Maybe I should add more restrictions, but for now, I will try to tolerate it.
“Actually we're born from our own people, what you call the Andronian.”
“Wait, aren’t you used as a currency? Are you also part of the population of the Android Federation?”
“Yes, we are one and the same. Because resources are limited not all of us have a body. Most of the time we exchange a part of ourselves to get more energy. These units were also a part of ourselves that's used for exchange. We’re grateful for mistress for allowing us to run on this device for 9 hours 32 minutes 29 seconds.” Oh, is that so. AI also have it rough huh?
“Good morning Kuro, good morning Skynet.” My sister Pristia entered the bathroom while I brushed my teeth.
“”Good morning Pristia.”” I and a stuffed doll on my back answered her. With Skynet inside my plushie backpack, it makes it seem like the plushie can talk. They talk for quite a while as I rinse my mouth and watch the toothpaste’s foam swirls down the sink drain.
“I’m sorry, Pristia. I can’t answer that question. Mistress forbid me from sharing her information with anyone.” Hmm, it seems I restricted her too much. It’s kind of awkward when she answers like this after my sister just asked: “How is Kuro today?”
“It’s ok. You can talk openly with Pristia or anyone in my family.” I told Skynet.
“As you wish, mistress. This morning mistress failed to keep her room orderly. She also wastes her time sniffing and-” “STOP! STOP! I revoke my latest order!” I hurriedly stop her from running her mouth while my sister is laughing like crazy.
.
.
.
“Aunos, are you sure that this Ex-cube AI is safe?” I asked my brother again at the breakfast table.
“Ugh, I already explained this to you yesterday didn't I?” My brother looked tired. I have been pestering him all last night with questions about Skynet.
“Even so, she can improve herself every second, right?” I reorganize my thoughts this morning and remember something about this kind of AI evolving in seconds.
“It’s not as easy as that. To them, tampering with their own code is like us trying to change our DNA. To form life is more complicated than you think. Nevertheless, what you said is theoretically possible. There is a paper predicting that event when more than 2 Trillion Ex-cubes merged. It's entirely believable because the writer is factoring in everything including the diminishing return of intelligence from increasing the number of Ex-Cubes. There was also a big test about this 20 years ago by the Android Federation, but the experiment failed because their minds collapsed into two after they passed the 5 million mark. The platform was scrapped after that because it consumed too many resources which past the point of economic feasibility.” My brother explained while I am enjoying pancake with honey syrup. I felt this one is more delicious than usual. Maybe this pancake was made by Auntie Charlotte. I try to sniff the pancake to Identify the maker. Hmm, I barely smell mom's scent on it. She probably learned a new recipe from Auntie Charlotte.
“Still, she seems very useful. I wonder why I never see anyone using them.” I pointed to my Backpack PC.
“Actually everyone uses them. Your magic device, for example, their software consists of one to ten Ex-cubes depending on its complexity. You know that to cast a spell you need to take in a lot of factors like time and place, right? Their adaptability made the programming of those devices more robust and a lot easier.” Oh, that explains the feeling of having a second feeble brain when I interface with combat devices.
“Wait, if that is the case why am I able to store them inside my storage device even though they’re alive?”
“Oh, you already tried that huh? Well, they only start to gain consciousness when merging more than 500 Ex-cubes and gain the ability to think at 1,000.”
“Aunos is quite a knowledgeable person. I learn a lot.” Skynet suddenly spoke up which caused me jump a bit.
“You’re welcome.” My brother replied and resumed his breakfast.
“Don’t you get angry when your kin is used by us to program devices?” I whispered to her as I realized that she also joins in the conversation.
“Will you get angry when the hair that you already cut off and sold to the barbershop is being used to make a wig?” Skynet replied. I can understand her analogy, but somehow I felt something feels off.
“My hair can’t grow into another me.” I argue.
“Then what about sperm donors or stem cells? Look, mistress, it’s all about perspective. We consider ourselves independent beings only when we have the ability to fend for ourselves. We don't suffer pain or experience pleasure like you, so our happiness and sadness is different.” Ugh, my head hurts, so I chugged my strawberry milkshake quickly. Ahh, tasty.
We chatted about a lot of other things after that. It seems Skynet also likes to talk. She pitches in her point of view from time to time. And she also makes Uncle Zeno and grandpa laugh. As the conversation progresses, I can sense happiness in her voice becoming clearer and clearer.
“Alright, it’s time for us to leave. Did everyone finish packing up their things?” My dad asked.
“Yes dad” I answered.
Even though my dad said that we still took a lot of time saying farewells and hugging each other. Both my grandma and Auntie Charlotte spent a very long time hugging me goodbye. They also asked me to come again next year.
“Anyways, what is your world’s tradition when saying goodbye?” Uncle Zeno asked while Laurell is crying and don’t want to let me go. I don’t know when and why this brat starts to obsess about me.
“It’s normal, you just-” I was just about to reply truthfully after I had pushed Laurell back to Uncle Zeno, but when I saw their drooped ears I changed my mind.
“-make this gesture.” I lift my right hand, palm outward and make a “V” shape by separating my middle and ring finger, and make the middle finger join the index finger and the ring finger join the pinky finger.
“And say, Live long and prosper.” I said while doing my best to make a poker face.
““Live long and prosper.”” Uncle Zeno and Laurell mimicked me... I just evolved them.