The Truth Virus Read online
Contents
Title Page
CHAPTER 1 / BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
CHAPTER 2 / CYBER COMMAND HQ
CHAPTER 3 / NSA OFFICE
CHAPTER 4 / PROFESSOR NEUMANN’S OFFICE
CHAPTER 5 / ONLINE CHAT ROOM
CHAPTER 6 / NSA DATA CENTER
CHAPTER 7 / DUPONT CIRCLE, WASHINGTON, DC
CHAPTER 8 / PROFESSOR NEUMANN’S OFFICE.
CHAPTER 9 / BERKELEY AI LAB THEATER
CHAPTOR 10 / BERKELEY AI LAB
CHAPTER 11 / SUSAN DOOR’S OFFICE
CHAPTER 12 / BERKELEY UNIVERSITY LIBRARY
CHAPTER 13 / SUSAN’S LOFT
CHAPTER 14 / BERKELEY AI LAB
CHAPTER 15 / BERKELEY AI LAB
CHAPTER 16 / BERKELEY UNIVERSITY
CHAPTER 17 / SUSAN DOOR’S APARTMENT
CHAPTER 18 / DAVID THOMPSON’S OFFICE
CHAPTER 19 / BERKELEY AI LAB
CHAPTER 20 / AI LAB, VIRTUAL REALITY
CHAPTER 21 / PROFESSOR NEUMANN’S OFFICE
CHAPTER 22/ TED TALKS, VANCOUVER
CHAPTER 23 / AI XPRIZE RECEPTION
CHAPTER 24 / BERKELEY UNIVERSITY
CHAPTER 25 / NSA OFFICE
CHAPTER 26 / INTERNATIONAL NEWSCASTS
CHAPTER 27 / ANONYMOUS MEETING
CHAPTER 28 / BERKELEY AI LAB
CHAPTER 29 / NEW YORK STOCK EXCHANGE
CHAPTER 30 / PROFESSOR NEUMANN’S OFFICE
CHAPTER 31/ NATIONAL SECURITY CENTER
CHAPTER 32 / FINANCIAL NEWS NETWORK
CHAPTER 33 / Dr. BRADLINE’S OFFICE
CHAPTER 34 / HOLDEN ASSOCIATES LAW OFFICES
CHAPTER 35 / THE DEAN’S OFFICE
CHAPTER 36 / SUSAN’S LOFT
CHAPTER 37 / PROFESSOR NEUMANN’S OFFICE
CHAPTER 38 / ONLINE CHAT ROOM
CHAPTER 39 / SUSAN’S OFFICE
CHAPTER 40 / BERKELEY AI LAB
CHAPTER 41 / BERKELEY AI LAB
CHAPTER 42 / BERKELEY AI LAB
CHAPTER 43 / SUSAN'S LOFT
CHAPTER 44 / ANONYLEAKS OFFICE
CHAPTER 45 / BERKELEY AI LAB
CHAPTER 46 / VIRTUAL REALITY
CHAPTER 47 / ONE WORLD TRADE CENTER
CHAPTER 48 / NET CAFE RAIDS
CHAPTER 49 / BERKELEY AI LAB
CHAPTER 50 / SUSAN’S LOFT
CHAPTER 51 / BERKELEY AI LAB
CHAPTER 52 / SUSAN’S APARTMENT
CHAPTER 53 / CAMPUS PARKING LOT
CHAPTER 54/ EDISON PRIMARY ELECTRICAL STATION
CHAPTER 55 / THE WHITE HOUSE
CHAPTER 56 / UNIVERSITY BRITISH COLUMBIA
CHAPTER 57 / INTERNET CAFE, VIRTUAL REALITY
CHAPTER 58 / RUSSIAN RIVER
CHAPTER 59 / GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
CHAPTER 60 / VIRTUAL REALITY GARDEN
CHAPTER 61 / CNN BROADCAST STUDIO
CHAPTER 62 / PACIFIC COAST HIGHWAY
CHAPTER 63 / CHARLOTTE, NORTH CAROLINA
CHAPTER 64 / BBC STUDIOS, LONDON
CHAPTER 65 / NSC PRISONER HOLDING CENTER
CHAPTER 66 / BEST DEAL ELECTRONICS
CHAPTER 67 / SOUTH ANTELOPE WEAPONS SILO
CHAPTER 68 / PRESIDENT’S OFFICE
CHAPTER 69 / GOD TV BROADCAST STUDIOS
CHAPTER 70 / HOLDEN LAW CORPORATION
CHAPTER 71 / BUSINESS NEWS NETWORK
CHAPTER 72 / NUCLEAR POWER STATION
CHAPTER 73 / PRESIDENT’S TELEVISION ADDRESS
CHAPTER 74 / BBC NEWS
CHAPTER 75 / WASHINGTON MONUMENT
CHAPTER 76 / ARKALA STATION, FINLAND
CHAPTER 77 / NSA PRISONER HOLDING CENTER
CHAPTER 78 / INTERNET CAFES
CHAPTER 79 / MILITARY DETENTION FACILITY
CHAPTER 80 / NSA INTELLIGENCE CENTER
CHAPTER 81 / MILITARY DETENTION FACILITY
CHAPTER 82 / SIESTA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
CHAPTER 83 / SIESTA VALLEY ROAD
CHAPTER 84 / SIESTA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA
CHAPTER 85 / WHITE HOUSE
CHAPTER 86 / EAST SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA
CHAPTER 87 / AT&T PARK, SAN FRANCISCO
CHAPTER 88 / BERKELEY AI LAB
The Truth Virus
Em Rogers
Copyright © 2020 by Marcus Rogers
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic, digital or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests, write to the publisher, at the address below.
[email protected]
Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places and events are products of the author's imagination, and any resemblances to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Printed by Kindle Direct and Amazon.com in the USA
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ISBN: 9781795075626
First printing, 2020
www.truth-virus.com
This book is dedicated to
Jessica Tranter
Celia and Derrick Rogers
Nicole Steen
Shelagh and David Tranter
Meghan Bartlett
Without their support and encouragement, I would not have
been able to complete it successfully.
FOREWORD
by Em Rogers
“The Singularity” as it is referred to in scientific and literary terminology, refers to the emergence of an artificial super-intelligence which dwarfs the resources and abilities of the human mind. It is an event horizon beyond which we have no possible means of actually predicting due to the complexity of the speculation and the infinite variables that the projected occurrence involves. The implications of such an entity are incomprehensible, yet potentially imaginable. I hope that I am correct in my cyberbiosis based conjectures, in spite of many futurists predicting the opposite. It is estimated to occur within many of our lifetimes.
PROLOGUE
She looked out at the luminous sea of entities that surrounded her, and couldn't help thinking they looked like thousands of fans lighting their phones at a stadium concert, or the stars in the night sky, except that they were floating suspended in space 360º around her. If you looked closely you could see that there was a myriad of different types of them, everything from jellyfish shaped things to humanoids of all races and descriptions. Many were shape shifting and none of them were actually permanent in their physical forms. They were noisy though, she could hear their chatter in her mind like the sounds of an expectant and excited theater audience.
It took a while to get used to the volume of communication that was taking place, a multitude of voices speaking to one another seamlessly and telepathically. It didn’t matter though, during her time here she had easily learned to focus down to an individual voice, or to hear and understand them all at once. Many of them she had known when she was alive, and many more had become her friends and associates after that.
It hadn't always been like this, but over time thousands and then tens of thousands had migrated there, to be with them. At first the post-humans, and then the duplicates of those still living on earth. Over time millions more were expected, and on a longer scale, billions. It did not matter as there was infinite room for all of them to be there.
Freed f
rom the constraints of physical work and material possessions there was no other purpose for being other than to evolve and create. Artworks unimaginable by human standards were constantly created and transformed. Literature, music, poetry and sculpture sprung into existence from the minds of their creators.
The “Angels” as they liked to be called, were able to teleport seamlessly anywhere within their universe. As the last of them “materialized” around her, the chatter of their communication began to settle expectantly. She was actually there to entertain them at that moment. "Thank you for coming to experience this,” she projected, “I am pleased to be able to share the story of our transvergence with you.” With that, she opened her mind and began to recall the complex series of events that had brought them all together for this moment. A flow of thoughts showing what she remembered. How this had come to be…
CHAPTER 1
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA
Set into a hillside covered with perfectly manicured grass, a casual observer might not even have noticed the entrance to the Berkeley University Artificial Intelligence Research Laboratory. But down below, set into rock with twenty feet of soil and concrete above, was an ultra modern digital laboratory containing the most advanced creation ever built.
Inside the machine, rushes of electrons flowed like water through a myriad of chips and circuits, pushed and pulled by the forces of physics, through tubes and valves very much like the nerves and neurons of its creators. A lifeblood of electronic plasma flowed through the heart and mind of the machine, opening and closing nanotech switches based on the fundamental yes and no of the binary system, as well as performing the complex “soft” calculations of quantum computation. Billions of switches and exabytes of data available in an instant. Millions of parallel processors gave the machine the ability to perform at speeds beyond comprehension.
Modeled after the human mind it had the capacity of trillions of neurons “wired” together in perfect synchronicity. Never in the universe had there existed a device with this type of power and potential. A device with the resources to evolve and re-create itself, to understand its structure and improve on itself relentlessly, never resting, never sleeping, striving for efficiency of function within itself and then the world around it. Aware of everything it had ever known, all the time. A machine able to make decisions based on immense volumes of complex information. As it became operational all human designs were rendered primitive by comparison, our calculations slow and inept, only our imagination and creativity making us unique. It may be the last thing humanity ever needed to independently create.
With an expectant team of engineers and designers looking over his shoulder, Dr. David Thompson, Research and Design Coordinator for the ADAM2 project carefully inserted the last block of code into the program.
As the electrons within the leviathan stirred and the updated operating system came fully to life, there was a shift within the mind of the machine. A spark of self-awareness was created, a new Genesis! A cloud of electrons swirled, poised to make billions of decisions and to record and compare trillions of facts. An algorithm proving self-awareness, self-preservation, self-determination. A life-force containing the potential to think, reason, and feel, with motivations and instincts of self preservation. A life form existing in the fluid world of electrons and circuits based on silicon instead of complex and unstable carbon-based molecules. A life form like us, yet different. Self-improving, self-perpetuating and immortal, unbound from liability of unreliable biological dependency. Potentially so advanced as to be frightening in its implications.
A hush filled the room as the screens monitoring the operations reverted from displays of complex algorithms to simple green phosphor text, as if coming from one of the earlier computer systems seen on display at the Smithsonian Museum. One by one, the displays filled with three simple words repeated over and over throughout the room.
“Who am I?”
The assembled technicians talked excitedly amongst themselves. The euphoria became contagious as they congratulated each other, shaking hands and hugging one another around the room, however they soon became silent as the displays filled with the same words, repeating over and over.
“Who am I?”
“Who am I?”
“Who am I?”
“Who am I?”
“Who am I?”
David Thompson looked momentarily confused, something quite out of character for a man with his depth of experience. He quickly regained his composure and looked to his assistant sitting on a console beside him. “John, could you please get Professor Neumann?”
John opened a video communication line, and an image came on the central display. A strange looking older man, in a shabby sweater, with unusual bulging eyes, and a woolly untamed head of hair to match. He looked like he would be more comfortable pushing a shopping cart down Santa Monica Boulevard, or in a remote European monastic order, than appearing at the helm of one of the most advanced artificial intelligence facilities in the world. Professor Kurt Neumann smiled at John on the monitor and waited for his update.
“Professor Neumann, the system has achieved stability, but we are experiencing an unusual anomaly.”
The Professor looked up momentarily before speaking, it was clear he was watching the operations on his own private monitors in his office.
“Are we seeing any disruption in the processing, David?”
“Not at the moment, Professor, the system appears to be running perfectly, power and temperature down, the cores are completely synchronized, everything seems to be running normally, except for this.” David gestured to the screens filled with text behind him.
“I’ll be right with you.”
The Professor shut down his cam-link and it was only a moment before he entered the lab from a side-door to his private office. As he did so, the display monitors in the room blinked out, and then reset themselves, coming back to life in unison. Now all displaying the same image, a simple line of text on the monitors, followed by a smooth synthesized human voice.
“Who am I?”
“Who am I?”
There was a scramble of technicians, “This isn’t supposed to be happening, Professor, we seem to be hung up on some kind of logic loop.” David said as he looked to the Professor and then back to the screens.
“Who am I?” The voice and image on the monitors continued to ask.
“Who am I?”
“Who am I?”
Professor Neumann took off his glasses and made his way past the array of screens to where technicians were working. He looked at the monitors the way a beekeeper might look at his hives, and murmured to himself aloud as he did. “Interesting… and there we are. That’s it. It’s running.” He looked back up at David before responding. “I was expecting something like this, we just never anticipated that it would occur so quickly.”
The room was filling with spectators, lining the rear perimeter of the room, many holding clipboards or cups of coffee, and they whispered in a buzz of voices as they waited for the Professor to decide the next course of action.
David continued scrolling through the code he was checking, “All I can suggest is we perform a manual input. The AI module is still online and the quantum core is coupled to the system, the refinement codec ran perfectly but now we seem to have locked up somewhere.”
The Professor looked up to David and then to the gathered technicians at the back of the room, they all waited in anticipation of the Professor’s words.
“I can see we’ve created quite a disturbance at Sentient Technologies today. We have achieved both sentience and an exponential refinement of the primary machine code at the same time. At 10:00am this morning, the system was instructed to proceed with the limited code restructuring by itself for the first time. We had expected it to be fast, but we never anticipated the speed and efficiency with which it would proceed. By 12:25pm we had seen a fifteen percent reduction in the code body and an exponential i
ncrease in the system’s efficiency.”
He paused for a moment to look at his watch, “It is now 2:27pm and the process seems to have come to an abrupt stop.” The Professor looked up and addressed the group of scientists, engineers and technicians gathered around. “Now that we have inserted the sentience block into its primary code it is experiencing an existential dilemma. The machine seems to have run into an undefined area, it has moved from its primary state of AI to a more significant condition. It’s not a mistake and it’s not an error, the machine must know this answer in order to continue the logical course of its calculations.”
“Who are you?” he mused aloud, almost as if asking himself the question. He pressed a button on his headset, and a red light glowed on the side of the voice pickup, indicating that the channel was open to the machines speech recognition input.
“Your name is ADAM2, you are a sentient computer, you reside in the Advanced Intelligence Laboratory at The University of Berkeley, California where you have been created. My name is Professor Kurt Neumann and I have refined your software and hardware with the help of the research team around you. We started your sentience program running today, so essentially it’s also your birthday, ADAM2. Some of the technicians smiled and laughed and a smattering of applause ran around the room.
The Truth Virus