| From: | Jeffrey Mach <mach@****.CALTECH.EDU> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | The price of dreams |
| Date: | Sat, 4 Oct 1997 21:46:25 -0700 |
>>>>>[To: Samuel O'Roarke
Sir, the matrix bug you have been having us maintain on the system of Ms.
Anderson picked up her access to a node that has been flagged by matrix
security and alerted me immediately. This is what I was able to observe:
+++++include Tracking.ASIST
The feeling of speed is hard to judge relatively while traveling through
the matrix, but it seems that whoever recorded this data feed was in a
serious hurry.
Initially, the section of the Matrix the POV is traveling through looks
like the normal tangled mishmash of "skyscrapers" of data and
"streets" of
interconnects, but as the POV continues on its hasty flight the landscape
begins to thin out into what looks more like countryside, "fields" of
small residential network connections crossed at regular intervals by
"roads" of backbone. After a bit more travel, the terrain begins losing
regularity and becomes "hilly" unreachable network segments and irregular
"shrubbery" of miscellaneous small business connections. Abruptly, the
POV dives for the "ground" and dives into a narrow gorge with a
"river" of
data flowing through the bottom. Surprisingly, the "river" opens out into
a very large body of "water", expanding for some considerable depth. The
POV dives at a steep angle and eventually encounters an escarpment, atop
of which is blooming a massive structure of what looks like coral from a
distance. On closer inspection, the structure is a 3-D quaternian fractal
shape, swaying gently in the current.
Nearing the node, the POV pauses, scanning it gently and attempting to
decipher a subtle way to enter the node without setting off any and all
IC.
A thin filament flashes past and into the node and the POV quickly backs
away.
"Stealth mode," it says to itself. Looking down at its limbs, the body of
a futuristic centurion dissolves into a faint wire-frame outline.
Rapidly reeling itself in along the filament, the icon of a feminine red
suit of power armor comes to the fractal border of the node and stops.
Thruster vanes that were extended from the back as some sort of "flight
mode" now fold smoothly along her back.
She reaches down to where the filament is attached to her waist and gives
the line a few tugs. After a minute passes of tugging on the line on an
off she starts to get visibly impatient and starts trying to get into the
node past its barrier but doesn't seem to have the first clue as to how to
do it. Finally in frustration, she levels her arm and what looks like a
micro-missile launcher at the face of the barrier, just as a matching set
of armor, this time in blue, comes out.
"Waaa!" the blue yells and ducks, as the other, startled, pulls in its
arm. After a moment, the blue relaxes and jokes, "Just like an Air Force
pilot. Something gets in you way and you blow the hell out of it...."
"No fair.... You had me worried. They had me simming the production
specs until I was ready to puke so I finally got us permission from the
old man to take off for a free weekend and when I get in to tell you the
good news, I find you jacked. So, after I wiped that spot of drool off
your chin that you always get after being in her too long, I jacked in,
ran "lifeline" and tried to find you. I come up to this node, and all of
a sudden, I can't get through like usual. What's the deal, Jenn?"
"Access by invitation only...basically. Sorry about that, Hikaru. I was
talking with somebody interesting, when I got the tug, and really, I
tried to excuse myself, but he was really adamant about explaining his
latest theory to me."
The red mecha pokes the blue in the chest. "Oi. What's so interesting
that you made me sit out here and worry that you were in there somewhere
being mind-raped by some psycho."
"AI research," the blue responds. "There's this group that is working on
developing AIs, their kinda covert, not wanting the military to take it
over and all, and this is one of their bases."
"AIs? You mean like MAX?"
"Hey, I like her almost as much as you do, but the stuff they are working
on makes MAX look like a talking calculator."
"No way.... MAX is state of the art."
"That's what I thought until I met these guys, but well, she's just so
specialized at what she does that we could never gave her much of a
personality. She's an expert system, really, so her design doesn't go
much past what the pilot needs to fly and fight. These people are working
on developing a real artificial psyche!"
"Huh?"
"I mean something so complex and adaptable, that if you were to meet one
on the matrix, it would be all but impossible to actually tell that it
wasn't human. General knowledge, learning and development, socialization.
They want to go all the way. An AI that thinks and acts human! Just
think of it."
"Pretty ambitious...I'll give them that. But what's the point? I mean
other than playing God."
"Well that probably for some of them, for others, it is just to figure out
_us_, for others, just because nobody's done it yet."
"Sounds pretty big."
"Well, it isn't a pair of teenagers in Redmond. No, these people are
specialists, but since some of their research funding and materials
aren't exactly gotten through 'normal channels,' they like to keep a
low profile."
"I get it. Sounds like just your sort of thing. But, won't the old man
get pissed if he finds you 'wasting departmental resources' if not worse?
I mean if you tell them anything about MAX, you'll be lucky if Ares
doesn't place your head on a pike at the front gates as a warning to all."
"I've been thinking about that. I mean the Urd, Belle, and Skuld are up
and running.... They've got all they need to start production, I mean I'm
not exactly indispensable. They'd hit me with the mother-of-all
non-disclosure agreements, but worse comes to worse, I can live with
that."
"You mean...you mean you're thinking of quitting?"
"That so impossible for me to even consider it? I mean, you love getting
a chance to fly the Valkyrie, but have they ever nailed your feet to the
floor and said you can't leave?"
"Yes...."
"WHAT?"
"Well, it wasn't in so many words, but I talked to one of the cyberdocs in
of my more reflective moments after I had my surgery. Lying there on my
belly in post-op, it finally hit me as a real possibility: What if
something went wrong with my rig and they had to take it out? It started
to bother me, and I asked one of them. He laughed and said that I'd
picked the wrong time to have second thoughts. Later on, I quietly got a
second opinion. They did some really invasive stuff to get my rig to work
as well as it does. If they ever took it out, there's a good chance I'd
be paralyzed."
"You call that a _good_ chance?"
"Well, I could die.... That's when I looked at the contract again. In
the pile of paperwork that they ran past my nose while they were stroking
my ego about becoming one of the fastest pilots in the world, was this
little indemnity that bugged me, but I signed it anyway. If I leave
Ares before the Hecatoncheires system goes into mainline production, they
have the right to remove it, and in really fine print, regardless of what
happens to me because of that."
"Why the hell would you sign something like that?"
"I was stupid. For one, it was an incredible head trip, to have somebody
tell you you were so good they'd consider you for the absolute latest,
cutting edge ware. For another, I never figured I would ever find a time
leaving Ares would even be an option. And they way they were talking it
up, they whole thing sounded no-risk."
"Damn...."
"Listen, if you really want this...I'm...I'm not going to stop you, you
know. I mean, I'm stuck because I wanted just about the same thing: a
chance to ride the edge."
"Don't sell yourself short, girl. Like you said, its a chance to ride the
edge. Compared to most people, I'm already there. These guys are just
one step further." After a long pause the blue armor continues, "I'll say
this: I'm interested, but not _that_ interested. Besides, if I really
want to ride the edge, I'll find a way to manage both at the same time,
neh?"
"Just don't go over, right?"
"Right. So, like, there was that something about a getaway weekend?
What are you waiting around here for?"
The blue mecha pops its flight vanes and blasts off out of sight, followed
in a heartbeat by the other.
+++++end include]<<<<<
-- Alen Bruford <Ares:Macrotech:Peace/through-superior-firepower>
Matrix Security
Ares Special Projects
