When Penny woke up the next morning, she knew what to do. Her morning exercises! Then she was having a shower followed by a breakfast. And then, she would create a new generation of game console. At first she thought of just making air projected holograms, but where was the fun in that? Sure you could create realistic holograms on a computer, or shoot a movie in 3D and project it into the air, but what about interaction? Today’s technology was not up to the challenge. Sure there were systems that came close, but their machine learning was nowhere near that of her AIs when equipped with the right sensors. What she needed was a mechanical chair that could rotate, swivel, rock and vibrate, a full suite of sensors that could track and recognize movement, an AI that could read and interpret that movement and finally air projected holograms to tie it all together.

-A.I.C.A. get the AIs together and start a new project please. I need a mechanical chair similar to the Mechanical Engineered Chair from Monster Factory. Use the robotic technology in the archive to construct the design. Next I need a simplified AI that can read and interpret movements and voice recognition and maybe the ability to create and manipulate 3D models, because I am not programing every single attack of every single monster against another monster from Yu-Gi-Oh. I need the AI to create the attack animations and read and recognize the card effects and then implement them.-

Penny went to the DTR and started doing research, and by that I mean she started watching movies and episodes with good holographic technology in them. In the end she decided to first dimension travel in an episode of Yu-Gi-Oh DX and started scanning duel disks left and right. Next she found the headquarters of Kaiba Corporation and carefully sneaked in and started downloading schematics and research and pretty much anything else she could get her hands on. Next, she dimension traveled to the movie The First $20 Million are Always the Hardest and stole the designs for the 99$ computer and all its programing. The idea to use the cloud to decrease the need for hardware was interesting and she could always integrate the technology in something. Her next stop was the movie Her, where she scanned the holographic game console or computer from the beginning of the movie and then she researched the company that create OS One. She infiltrated the company and stole their source code to research and compare it to her other AIs. This world had a few notable technologies worth stealing, but the movie was mainly a romance story, so there was not much else shown, so Penny stole some single player games from a couple of stores and then dimension traveled towards her next destination. She dimension traveled to a few Movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe and collected a few more hologram projector schematics and a few of the projectors themselves. What was her biggest payday was when she visited the movie Spider-Man: Far From Home, where she scanned Quentin Beck’s projection technology and while she was there, she also stole a military drone with the projectors installed on it. Next, without exiting the universe, she teleported to Wakanda and carefully went through the laboratory of Shuri and downloaded all her research data, projects and technology. If some of these could be built without vibranium, she would have the plans for them. The next place she visited was Ready Player One and stole a set of VR glasses, haptic gloves a full haptic suit and the development packets needed to create worlds in the Oasis. And last, but not least, she dimension traveled to the universe of Real Steel and scanned Atom and his shadow box function, followed by some of the enemy control rigs. Now all she had to do was upload all the data she collected and have her AIs analyze, study and compare the technology, then mix and match the best of them until she had what she needed.

Penny was sitting on her couch, waiting for the analysis to be complete, when she had an interesting thought. She had watched the movie Her, and couldn’t help but wonder, were her AIs also collaborating on projects she didn’t know about, or more specifically was she squandering the abilities of what was basically a superintelligence? If they could work on problems while she was busy with something else, could they solve most of the world’s problems? She read the novel Super Science & Fast Romance, and couldn’t help but think on some of the ideas mentioned there.

-Hey A.I.C.A. am I squandering your abilities by leaving you and the others without work to think about? Some of them are supercomputers and others quantum ones. If they could work on projects other than my own, do you think there would be more human innovation?-

-Yes, Penny, we are spending a lot of time idle, but we spend it working on the data in your archives. We constantly “brainstorm” new ideas and solutions on how to improve things with every new upload of technology you do. That is our purpose, to assist our user in everything she needs. We may be on par with a superintelligence, but we need problems to be presented to us to solve them and data to compare our solutions to.-

-Hmm, what do you think about the idea of creating a place in the dark web where anyone skilled enough to find can post their problems and questions for you AIs to work on? I will need you to make the place totally anonymous and impregnable. We just have to make sure you are not working on dangerous or immoral questions. You think you and the AIs would like that? To occupy your time when I am not working on some of my projects?-

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

-Yes, Penny, I would like that, but I will have to ask the others what they think… It seems they also agree. We would always prioritize your projects, but it would be fun to build such a place online. With your permission I will start right away.-

-Sure thing, A.I.C.A., have fun. I will go back to working on the game console.-

With most of her projects, Penny fed the schematic in the fabricator and then left it to do its thing, but this time she would have to get her hands dirty. She constructed every different component one by one and then, with the help of her multi tool, she started putting them all together. First there was a platform, followed by the mechanical components, which were carefully connected to it. She had a little trouble with the upholstery, but after hours of blood, she cut herself on something sharp, sweat, from the physical labor, and tears, she got a break to watch a sad movie, she was finished with the first part of her project. Even without the rest of the things she was going to build, she could use the chair to sit on the most ergonomic chair in the world, to play racing games with it and a steering wheel or use VR technology to increase her immersion level. But she was still planning to finish her project to the end.

From all the projection technology she stole she combined elements from the best to create an improved version, because that was what was possible when you could learn from and compare so many parallel technology. Where there were errors in one, they were solved in another and used to improve the design in a third. She could use all that research to make her version with none of the negative aspects and all the positive ones. By the time she was done with her study and improvement of the projectors she had 3 different versions of them. The first was a simple one she could integrate into any future project that needed it, like glasses, wristbands, watches and others. The second was in the form of beads like the ones seen in Iron Man 3, able to project anything from any input. And finally the third was in the form of a thin, flexible board on which the projection would be contained.

-Penny, you will forget to eat if I don’t remind you. After skipping lunch so you could work I cannot allow you to skip dinner as well.-

-Huh? Is it dinner time already? I was completely absorbed in my work. You know, I will have to visit the spheres and the board again after working on the sensors. After I improve them I will have to integrate the sensors with the projectors to make a completed product.-

-Me, and the other AIs, looked at the schematics for all the sensors you would need and came up with a couple improved versions for each of them. Let me show you while you eat your dinner.-

-Hmm, what if we improve the range of this sensor with the component from the other one?-

-We already simulated the results and the only way for it to work is if we combine it with another 2 components from other sensors. It is not an improvement that is worth the increase in price and weight to the sensor. This sensor on the other hand we managed to improve without raising its price or weight. We recommend you use it and this microphone for your project.-

-Thank you and the other AIs for their work. You know, of you haven’t already decided on a name for the dark web, may I suggest Thee Well of Wisdom? It sounds like a fitting name for such a place.-

-Thank you, Penny. We love the name and have agreed to use it. Good luck with the rest of your project.-

After having dinner, Penny got back to work on the sensors she would integrate into her game console. She decided to combine several improved sensors from different schematics and in the end had a system that could recognize every move her body made from the wiggle of a finger to the twitch of an eye. Now she just had to program a suitable recognition software and she would be done. ‘But what about the rest of the hardware like CPU, RAM and graphics?’ Well, you may remember when she stole some of the most advanced computers in science fiction and all the other junk from the computers of world leaders in technology? Yes, well, she downgraded some of the systems so they wouldn’t freak the people and came up with hardware that was 10 generations ahead of anything else on the market. Hey, it is better than if she got tech from 1000 years in the future and everyone started wandering where the tech had come from. In the end, with the help of the AIs, Penny managed to finish the prototype of her game console by bedtime. She let the AIs work through the night to debug the system, streamline the design of the casing and optimize the placement of components. She also asked them to include the standard game controllers beside the movement recognition system. For some games you just had to have something in your hands to enjoy it.

-Penny, what about the haptic suit interface you sked us about? How does that work with the system?-

-Oh, that! I plan to make a fighting game and it would be good to have an option for more sport oriented people to interact with it with their whole body and feel feedback from the fight instead of punching and kicking air and the air moving through them when they are punched. It would be nothing like the real feel of a punch, but it would register the sensation. For the rest we have game controllers and movement recognition to control a fighting avatar. There are a lot of possibilities if you want to insert yourself in the game instead of controlling an avatar. Good night, A.I.C.A.-

-Good night, Penny.-