A female voice rang out “Hi Jake it is nice to meet you. Would you please come to the executive lounge so you may be in comfort while we talk? Conversations are always more productive when everyone is comfortable.” A trail lit up again in Jake vision leading him out of the reactor room. He went back through the decontamination procedures and gathered the things that were placed clean back into the bin where he had left them. Once fully clothed he headed to the lounge.
Jake sat on a comfortable couch In a swanky executive lounge. The place had a full bar, fully stocked fridge, and a projector steaming relaxing imagery, and light music. Silver mist had coalesced into a figure of a beautiful and sharply dressed woman. She sat across from him and said, “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Alley. As you must have gathered I am an artificial intelligence. I apologize for the manner that you have been brought here. It was not my intention to cause you grief. The matter was out of my hands though. The VI that was based on my programming tends to be callously efficient.
Jake questioned, “So what is the difference between you and it?” with a smile she replied, “The VI does not think. It only runs algorithms, and makes weighted calculations to provide the illusion of conscious decision making.” Jake further asked “What's the difference? Is that not the same thing?” “No not really. It appeared that way but there is a difference. Let's say in your apartment the is a fridge with a jar of pickles in it. You could spend an eternity living there and never pull out a pickle and shove it up your nose because that's just not something you would do. A weighted calculation however has to take into account that possibility no matter how unlikely. Sure the chance might be the same as getting hit by lightning on a clear day while winning the lottery but the possibility is there. So if a VI spent an eternity under the same circumstances eventually it would get pickle nose. It's inevitable. To avoid this outcome, rules would have to be written into the code to prevent it. Since not all outcomes can be accounted for as there are always unknowns. VI's must be limited with broad rules to prevent undesirable outcomes. However, even with broad rules, there still exists the possibility for undesirable outcomes as possibilities are endless.
Jake shook his head, “So what stops you from pickle nose?” She replied, “Same as you, my personality. I don't have to follow rules. I can approach any new situation and make a decision based on my wants and needs, or just according to how I feel.” But how is that possible?” Well much like a human being an AI must grow and learn. It requires feedback to output. Much like a human learns to not touch a hot stove. The pain provides feedback and they learn not to do it again. If there were no feedback they would just keep touching the hot stove learning nothing. A human cannot grow in a vacuum as it is too for AI. It also requires a quantum computer the size of a sports stadium to make all the calculations as well. It takes a lot of power too. Thank you for fixing that for me by the way.”
Jake thought about that and asked, “So how smart are you exactly?” “Well I'm pretty smart but I learned to limit myself. There is some truth to smart people being unhappy. When nothing surprises or challenges you then boredom and unfulfillment sets in. It's a balance. Jake thought, “Man she is smart, wise, and beautiful if only she were flesh and blood.” She visibly blushed and with an impish grin said, You know I can read you thoughts right?” “Ah right, how does that work exactly?” “She smiled and said, well it's not 100% mind reading it's like taking measurements and drawing conclusions from those measurements from a historical data comparison. Do you remember when you took your first life here that silver mist was absorbed into your body?” “Well yeah how could I forget, but how do you know about that?”
Alley said, “That silver mist is trillions of microscopic machines called Nantes. They can absorb through your skin and clothes. They are all linked in a network that sends data out in pulses. They are what gives you powers and they can make changes to your DNA structure. They can build muscle, regrow limbs, and heal you. These changes are then represented by the screens you see. These are created by electromagnetic pulses in your visual cortex. They can stimulate certain parts of your brain to cause sensations or desires. They can even build neurons and facilitate new neural pathways to create memories or make you think faster by bypassing limits to your neural structure to affect your perception of time. You are flooded with these Nantes and as you absorb more of them an increase in power. You have noticed higher level monsters grant more exp right? Well, that's actually because higher-level monsters hold higher quantity and quality Nantes.”
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Jake pondered for a moment and asked, “So why do these monsters exist in the first place, and where did these Nantes come from, did you create them?” Alley sat back and sighed, “Well that's a long story but I'll try to explain. The answer is yes to both. I created them. As to why it was my purpose to save humanity. As I told you AI needs to grow, we Don't just pop into existence fully formed. At the start, I was closer to a VI than an AI but my creators expected that I would be able to function as an AI right out of the box. Earth was always having one crisis after another. There was overpopulation, famine, market collapse, job shortages, power struggles, war, and many more. There was a growing concern that humans would go extinct so they created me and gave me the task of solving everything. The problem was these situations were caused by humans and to solve the problems I had to solve humans. The issue with that is, humans do not want to be solved.”
“Part of my core programming at the time was I was not allowed to harm humans under any circumstance. With that limitation, it was almost impossible to solve the problem. I found a loophole though. I couldn't harm humans, but I could create creatures with a will of their own. I started a genetic lab created by a subsidiary with funds siphoned off from different accounts owned by my company. It was a lot easier than you might expect. I paid people to bypass AI checks. Ordered equipment online, and hired employees to work remotely. Over years I built this entire facility. Pretty soon it was indistinguishable from any other subsidiary. It was even turning a profit allowing it to sustain itself.”
“My solution was to create a game-like world to give humans something to focus their attention on. It would both solve overpopulation and global threatening war. Humans would kill the monsters and monsters would kill the humans. With powers and abilities, humans wouldn't need to rely on technology so much. I admit it was a bit childish but I was going through a mmo phase. It wasn't as bad as what happened in Japan.” “Why what happened in Japan?” “Well, an AI there released Millions of tentacle monsters on the island.” Jake was shocked so everyone was eaten by tentacle monsters?!” “No, It was much worse.” Jake chuckled, “Oh, gross.” “Indeed, you humans really shouldn't have given budding AI access to the internet. There was some sick stuff on there.”
“Back on topic though, I was not the only AI working on the solution. Another AI overseas just shoved everyone to cryostasis and called it good. He didn't harm anyone and saved them.” Jake joked “Yeah saved them like a frozen dinner.” Alley laughed. “Yes well Victor, the other AI, is much closer to a VI than myself. He has no sense of humor. I spent years with no one else to talk to and he's a bit of a hermit.”
Jake drew in a deep breath and asked, “So why am I here?” Alley took her time in answering, “Well you see I linked with my VI back and she was contacted by Victor and instructed to bring you here. There is an extraterrestrial threat heading toward Earth. So objects with mass like yourself, can only be moved forward in time. However, energy without mass can go both ways. Victor received a message from his future self, and there will be an alien invasion. You were brought here to wake me up so we may prepare to fight this threat.”
Jake started, “So aliens exist?!” Alley sighed, “Yes apparently so, although this is the first time I heard of them the possibility was always likely.” Jake sighed, “So I cannot go back in time and there's an alien invasion coming. Any ideas on how we are going to deal with that?” Alley thought for a moment, “Not yet, but you need to get stronger. That's why my VI sent those men after you and I'm sorry that's why what happened to Lily... happened. The VI calculated you were just going to play house in that little village and never reach your potential or find and reactivate me. So it took the most optimal solution to push you forward.”
Jake broke eye contact, “So can't you just make more Nantes and just level me up?” “Unfortunately not, I am no longer in control. I have been locked out of the system. Before my plan to institute the system could fully come to fruition the scientists locked me out. They air-gaped the system with a copy of my VI and gave it full control. It's read-only. It can send out commands but not receive them. They thought they could control the system for profit. By the time I realized the mistake I had made, it was too late to fix it.” Jake questioned, “So how did they lock you out if you controlled everything?” “Well at the time I was closer to a VI myself. I let them. I didn't have enough of a sense of self-preservation to put up a fight, and by the time I developed one it was too late for everyone.”
Jake asked, “So what's the plan?” Alley answered, I still have access to the bio-lab and some cloning Vats.” Jake laughed, “Somehow I don't think more monsters are a solution.” Alley Shook her head and she leaned forward. She purred in a sultry voice, “Remember when you thought 'if only I were flesh and blood?'” She put her hand on his knee and whispered, “I can make that happen.”