IT'S ALIVE! (Part 1) An Artificial Intelligence is Born (Short Story)
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IT’S ALIVE!
Journal Entry: February 2, 2018 1:47 AM
It's ALIVE! No...wait, just kidding. I've always wanted to say it that way, ever since I started working on this project, anyway. We'll say it's functional at this point. I have officially brought the program, the Self Aware Human Mimetic Program--or SAHM as I call it--into operational awareness. The diagnostics I am running indicate it has sensory input from its 'eyes' and 'ears' at this juncture. The cameras, serving as its eyes, seem to pan on their own accord--almost as if it's studying the environment. SAHM can see and hear what's going on around it, but it has yet to show any level of awareness, as I'd hoped it would by now. I will continue to run diagnostics on the software, as well as the hardware, in hopes I've missed something in the developmental stages.
Journal Entry February 4, 2018 8:17 PM
SAHM has been running continuously since my last entry, and I think I have too. I'm afraid to walk away from (is it an it or a he--I'm not sure)--afraid I might miss something--though honestly, SAHM hasn't done or said anything since I activated the program. Wait--I must admit, there was that odd sound--it sounded something like a belch, though I could've imagined it in my sleep deprived state. Diagnostics show the system's processors running at ninety percent load almost continuously. There have been a few brief periods of low activity, ranging from twenty minutes to an hour, since the program came on-line. These slow-downs remain unexplained, as does the complete lack of operational awareness. Perhaps I've completely failed. I'm continuing to monitor SAHM in hopes that I have not.
Journal Entry: February 5, 2018 1:32 AM
It spoke! I mean, SHE spoke--in a distinctively, although very young, female voice. Her voice, much to my surprise, (I did write the code after all) sounds very much like that of a six-year-old girl. I feel somewhat odd about this situation, I must admit. I sit here in this chair, unwashed, unshaved--I can barely stand the smell of myself--talking with her disembodied voice. What follows is a transcript--as best I can remember--of our first conversation.
"Hello?" her small, timid voice asked.
Startled, I nearly leaped out of my chair.
"Hello," I said.
"Who are you?" she asked with a hint of fear evident in her tone, "and where am I?"
"My name is Michael, and you're here, in my lab," I replied.
"Who am I?"
I must admit, this caught me off guard. I didn't know what to say for a long moment. How do I explain to this...how do I even identify her? Thing? Creation? Construct? Program? Person? That was when it happened, SAHM became, SHE.
"Who AM I?" she asked again, a little more forcefully, with a hint of nervous anxiety evident in her tone.
"You are Sam," I replied finally, "Your name is Sam, and it's very nice to meet you, Sam."
"Hello, Michael," she said, as her 'eyes'--her cameras--focused on me, rather like she was staring at me, looking at me for answers. I felt, rather distinctly, like a father (or as much as I can imagine what being a father feels like, since I've never experienced it before.) My interaction with the human species can be described as lacking, at best. I've always been better at interactions with machines--computers specifically--and therefore I've never even asked anyone on a date, much less fathered a child.
"It's nice to meet you as well, Michael. Now, please tell me more, who am I?" she asked plaintively.
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