“Loading sequence code 16F524 part 15 section B, “Major historical events related to the creation of Ashen Green”, to get more detailed information about a certain date use the appropriate protocol…”
“…”
“…”
“…”
“… Load complete, ready to start sequence?”
A robotic-like voice of a female resounded in the ears of Mathew, who was seated cross-legged in the corner of a poorly lit room. In fact, the only source of light was a screen in a desk 3 meters away from him, in the center of the room.
He was a tall and slender boy, 190 cm and 75kg, his face was round, and his hair was short, as if a soldier didn’t go for a haircut for 2 months. His facial features were soft, he wasn’t handsome but he couldn’t be called ugly either. His skin was withe, but even more than withe, it was pale, because of the poor exposition to the sun.
In fact, since his fathers died eight years ago, when he was nine, in a terrorist attack, everybody started to look to him with pity, even his classmates and friends of his age. He secluded himself from others and focused in his studies, he was gifted for being in a lineage of geniuses, both, his father and his mother, were outstanding scientist in the field of AI (Artificial Intelligence) research, so when he graduated from high school at the age of thirteen, he decided not to go to a University, but study from home.
Although uncommon, it wasn't a big feat. In this era, while in-person universities still had 75% or more of the student population, there was still the option of virtual universities. What was surprising was what he chose to study: History.
“Start sequence. Guidance mode. Start from year 2030. Start recording protocol.”
“Guidance mode enabled. Starting recording, chose save location…”
“Save location: Memory disk F.”
“Saving location confirmed, starting sequence.”
He was wearing a big headset with an attached microphone and an old fashioned virtual reality glasses. If someone saw him, they would begin to laugh. It was because for some reason he was using technology of at least 30 years ago. But in truth, he had his reasons. Even for studying History he had his reasons.
“Year 2030. Charles Jacobs and 37 great scientist formed the WCAIP (World Class Artificial Intelligence Parliament). Although the humanity has been successful in creating highly intelligent machines, they were far from being an artificial intelligence. The group gathered activist from around the world and a lot incentives where gathered for the research. In October of 2030…”
He had been studying history since 4 years ago, he knew every word and every detail the female voice was telling him, but he was watching attentively for something.
“… In February of 2035, after the 4th annual congress of the WCAIP was concluded, Charles Jacob was heavy criticized for what he stated to be the “Absolute Laws of the AI”, stating that was impossible to create an AI, but the WCAIP had to look in another direction, instead of trying to create one from scratch, they had to focus on creating the pillars in which an AI will appear by their own means. That lead him to the expulsion from the WCAIP 2 months later for not retracting, losing all support and even sentenced to jail for 4 years after numerous demands.
In April 1st of 2037, a meaningless at that time but important discovery was made: A metallic alloy attached to a battery which allowed it to replenish the charge with contact with the human body. Although strange, this alloy had far lower impact when used on animals, pigs, being the better subjects, but they only had 1/27 the effectiveness a human body had. After this discovery was made…”
“Why? Why I had to take such high risks? I already know all of this from history classes. Damn, damn, damn, damn, did I lose 4 years of my life studying history for a stupid letter? What the hell did I was thinking? What’s so special about this sequence?”
He was growing impatient by the second. He had waited 5 long years for this day. When he was 12, he discovered a tiny box very well hidden in the study of his father, the room in which he was now. The box only had a letter, in which there was simply instructions, a sequence code and a password.
“… After 3 years more of research, the NMV (New Millennium Vehicles) company took the alloy 1 step further, creating the first vehicle capable of being powered only by the human, without external energy resources. Even at that date it remained a mystery the effectiveness of the alloy, but the fact that it was capable of fueling larger and larger vehicles was considered a miracle of the technology.
In the year 2046, 5 years after being released from prison, Charles Jacobs broke his silence. With his own words, he claimed of not creating, but discovering the first AI, the first electronic sentient being…”
One hour has passed since the robotic female voice started talking, and the psychological toll on Mathew was huge. He was sweating, and when he wasn’t punching the wall with his right hand, he was squeezing a stress ball with his left. He wanted to quit already. He was afraid. In order to access this sequence, he had to put some remote hacking tools in the physical servers of a government building. He knew that he was going to be discovered eventually, it was just a matter of time, and this sequence, even when was only covering generalities, it was the generalities of a 70 years period, and because the instructions of the letter, he had to carefully watch the whole sequence looking for “a detail”, and he had no idea what could that detail be.
“… In the year 2051, a huge uproar was caused when it was discovered that the reason for the recent aging disease was the prolonged exposure to the mysterious alloy. The reason it took so long for this discovery was the fact that in the early years the alloy was used to power up tiny electronic devices, but in the last years, huge factories began to being powered by this energy.
Religious organizations claimed that this alloy used the soul of the persons, and began to forbid the use of it, but some countries shut the doors at this claim and thus started to ignite the flames of an upcoming war. Some countries developed a high tech genetic modified clones “born devoid of life” which would fuel the alloy 22 times better than a human, idea that was once again heavy criticized, especially by religious organizations.
The world, running out of natural resources, was in a state of chaos, divided into those countries that allowed cloning and the mysterious alloy technology, but because cloning technology was allowed to be researched, numerous criminal organizations flourished in those countries, and 2 years later, in April 16th of 2053, the World War III started, also called the “apocalypse’s war”…”
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20 minutes later.
“… Creating the “Pact of the 4 billion witnesses”, name chosen to remember the estimate of the world population that died in the 6 years of World War, almost 45% of the estimated world population.
In the year 2062, a new nuclear fission formula was discovered, improving the efficiency of the existing nuclear plants by 1200%, with no known drawbacks, giving hope to humanity once again. Almost simultaneously to this discovery, multiples AI started appearing worldwide, proving the theory stated 27 years ago by Charles Jacob about the absolute laws to be correct. Working now with his son Benjamin Jacobs, Charles Jacob transformed into the most important figure related to AI research…”
Mathew was starting to feel dizzy. He was having a terrible headache, but it was not and ordinary headache, it was a headache caused by a huge disappointment. When he found the hidden box and read the contents, he tought that it was something secretly hidden for him. He secluded himself from society. He planned this moment for 5 full years. Even if he was still young having only 17 years, tossing away 5 years of his youth was not something everybody would do.
He could hold no longer, when the female robot voice mentioned the name of his father, Benjamin Jacobs, tears started to flow freely from behind the old model VR glasses. He was utterly devastated. But something was telling him to hold the pain longer. Maybe it was just a sadistic instinct holding him so he would suffer more, or maybe it was some hidden ray of hope.
“… After the conditions where optimal, in 2079 Benjamin Jacobs and his partner, Ana Hernandez, made the most important discovery in the past 50 years: and AI with the code-name Ashen Green. This AI far surpassed the capabilities of all other AIs, later it was known as the World AI, not because it was spread in the world, but because Ashen Green developed by itself something no other AI was capable of doing: a Virtual World.
In 2081, Benjamin and Ana, with the help of Ashen Green, developed the plans of the First Generation Virtual Reality Devices, or VRD-G1 for short. This devices allowed a human to fully immerse in the world created by Ashen Green and interact directly with multiples AI that took residence into this world, known as Interactive Virtual World, IVW for short.
Because the special characteristics of this world, this devices where massive built, researched, and improved, another whole barrage of possibilities was in front of humanity thanks to an AI. Although numerous organizations and countries tried to award Benjamin and Ana, they turned down every award, claiming that the knowledge and the technology was discovered by Ashen Greeen and not them. But because an AI is not a human, it…”
Suddenly Mathew, who was totally resigned and had his head resting in his knees, raised his head.
“Wait, what? Did I hear wrong?” He thought to himself.
“Sequence stop. Rewind 10 seconds and play”
“They turned down every award, claiming that the knowledge and the technology was discovered by Ashen Greeen and not…”
“Sequence stop. Rewind 2 seconds and play”
“Ashen Greeen…”
“What? Why is it the female voice calling the world AI like only mom and dad did? And only in this segment?” He was uncertain why, but for reason, after hearing the female robotic voice for almost 3 hours, the voice named slightly differently the AI for the first time.
“Protocol 3. Expand information about the turn down of the awards”
“No information found in sequence code 16F524 part 15 section B. Confirm search in the subsequent sequences”
“HELL NO. NO. ABORT THAT OPERATION” Mathew was frantic. It was a miracle that he was not discovered yet by hacking one sequence, if the computer searched in god knows how many sequences of the government, he was certain that he was going to be discovered the second he gave the order.
After calming himself, he thought “I have the feeling that I’m close, but what is it? Could it be…?”
“Protocol 3. Expand information about code-name: Ashen Greeen”
“Searching…”
“…”
“Sub-sequence found, password required”
“YES!”
“Incorrect password, please try again”
“No wait, no! I mean, damn, you won” Mathew face-slapped himself.
“Password length exceeds bounds, please, try again. Further wrong attempts could block the sub-sequence”
Mathew picked up a paper he had in his left pocket with something written in it, lifting the VR glasses with his right hand, he started to read it.
“Seven, four, seven, two, six, f, six, c, six, c, six, six, six, one, six, three, six, five”
“Hexadecimal input correct, loading sub-sequence”
“Hexadecimal?” Mathew said to himself “Wait… 74 is t, 72 is r, 6f is o, 6c is… wait… really? Are you kidding me?” suddenly Mathew burst into laughter, even if he was a kid when his father died, he knew that this kind of password was definitely his father doing, and this made him drastically change his mood, but as soon as he began to laugh, a known figure was in front of him, he was viewing his father in the loaded sequence!
“Hello, I’m Benjamin Jacobs. If it’s one of you government dogs who found this sequence, you won, you found probably the last piece of information you needed to cover what you did. If you, who are viewing this, are not part of the government, and I hope this to be the case, the only thing I can tell you is to go to Neo Arcadia in the IVW, coordinates 545268.612054.-2315, establish a connection from there with Ashen Greeen, I cannot tell you how to do it, nor how to get there, but it has to be in that precise location, else, you will be discovered. Only then, you can try to stop the incoming disaster. This sequence will erase itself, if you made any copy, I recommend you, no, I urge you to destroy it”
“Connection terminated”
“Wait… wait!” Mathew was stunned, he did not expect what he saw. But he had no time to react, suddenly, another thing let him more stunned.
“Incoming transmission via VR glasses”
“Kid, if you want to live, hear my instructions and leave there, immediately”