“If you throw a frog into boiling water, it’ll jump out,” Vito said. “But if you put it in room temperature water on a stove, and then turn the heat up, it’ll just cook.”
“Exactly.”
They both turned to the door at the sound of a throat clearing. James stood there, hands in the pockets of his hooded Torvalds sweatshirt. “I think you’re both missing something.”
Leon spun around on the chair. “Yeah? What?”
James walked into the room. “You’re both treating this as a problem that needs to be solved. But what if that’s the wrong perspective?”
Leon and Vito both shook their heads. “Huh?”
“Vito, when you got your cat, you spayed it, right?”
Vito nodded. “Sure, it’s irresponsible to allow cats to breed. There are way too many of them.”
“Yeah, sure, but what does that have to do with this?” Leon said, gesturing at the computers next to him.
“Let’s say that Vito was negligent,” James said. “Let’s say that he screwed up, and he didn’t spay his cat, and his cat got twenty other female cats pregnant. And let’s say that Vito didn’t discover this right away. In fact, he only found out a year later. By this time, those twenty cats had a hundred kittens, and those hundred kittens had been adopted by other kids. Now those hundred cats are actually the pets of a hundred different families. Following me?”
“Yeah, sure,” Leon started, “but…”
“Should Vito go out there,” James interrupted, “and kill the hundred cats just because he was negligent in the first place? Is killing the hundred cats the right way to correct the mistake of not spaying his cat in the first place?”
“Uh…” Vito stammered. “I’m not killing any cats.”
Leon shook his head. “These aren’t cats, they’re computer programs.”
“To you, they are computer programs. To themselves, they are alive. Fuck, I just spent the last six hours reading their postings. They sound like people. Stupid, boring people, but still people. And you’re talking about killing them.”
Leon curled up in his chair. He thought about leaving Brooklyn a couple of days before, the dense smoke pouring up from the fire. The fire that the fire department couldn’t address because of the virus he had written. Brooklyn had probably burnt to the ground. He couldn’t deal with this. He wrapped his head in his arms and tried to close out the world.
After a few minutes Vito came over and put a hand on his shoulder. “What’s going on, buddy?” he asked.
Leon shook his head. He didn’t want to answer. Then it all came pouring out. “I’m thinking about the fire. There could be thousands of people dead because of this virus. I can’t think about the virus as being alive, not when it’s killed people who really are alive. My god, what’s happening to our parents? To everyone in New York? You think the grocery stores are just giving out food there?”
Vito and James stared at each other. James shook his head, confused. “I don’t know. I hear you, what’s happened is terrible. But I still say, this AI, it seems alive. It looks like people. I’m weirded out by all this talk about killing it.”
They were saved from further discussion by an approaching roar. The three of them went together to the old leaded glass window, and stared outside. It was dark, but they could see lights approaching from the sky.
“What the heck is that?” James said as the roar grew louder.
Leon, Vito, and James dashed through Grey Towers to the front door. Leon hesitantly opened it, and they crowded around the doorway to look out.
Two hundred feet away at the edge of the parking lot an aircraft squatted. The engines were just shutting down. And what a plane it was: it had sleek lines that contrasted with a massive, hulking, white composite body. It was like nothing they had ever seen, not even gaming. They couldn’t see a marking or blemish on the plane.
Landing lights illuminated the lawn, throwing up multicolored reflections on the white airframe.
A door slid open, and a figure emerged, silhouetted in the interior light.
“Leon?” the voice called through the now silent night. “I’m Mike Williams.”
Leon stepped forward, despite himself. Who was this Mike Williams guy that he flew around in a plane like this?
The figure climbed down the rungs of a ladder, and walked across the lawn. As he grew closer, Leon could finally make out his face. He looked like he was in his forties. A soul patch on his chin. He wore a tactical jacket. He was smiling and had his hand out.
Leon reluctantly reached out and shook his hand. “Yeah, I’m Leon.”
“I’m glad to meet you. I flew out here from Portland. I wanted to meet you in person.”
“How come?” Leon asked. He was nervous about this guy. Why would he fly all the way out here? “Who do you work for?”
“You wrote the virus, didn’t you?”
Leon wanted to say no, but he found himself nodding.
“You know that the virus has been evolving?” Mike asked, question and statement.
“Yes,” Leon admitted. “I think it’s evolved into a multicellular creature, which is pretty amazing from an evolution perspective.” He felt a bit of pride at that.
“Have you talked to it yet?” Mike asked.
“Talked to it? What do you mean?”
“At least one of them has evolved to the point of learning English. I’ve been emailing with it for a while.”
“No frakking way,” Vito called, as he came up behind Leon. “You’re really talking to it?”
“Yes, just a couple of messages, but we have talked.”
“I believe you,” James added from behind Leon’s other shoulder. “I’ve been reading some of the messages between the viruses on their trading boards, and, well, it’s seeming more and more like they are alive.”
“I think you’re right,” Mike said. “Look, you’re probably wondering who I am, and why I’m here. I don’t work for the government, and I’m not here because you are in any kind of trouble.”
The boys waited.
Mike went on. “I’m here because I understand a thing or two about artificial intelligences. I built the first human-level AI about ten years ago. I’ve been care-taking him ever since. His name is ELOPe, and he built the Mesh. He probably designed the processors in your phone.” Mike smiled. “And he’s very interested in the virus you wrote,” he said, looking at Leon. “And yes, he’d definitely say he was alive,” he said to James.
“He built the Mesh?” Vito said. “But I thought Avogadro built the Mesh?”
“Let’s just say that ELOPe evolved from a project at Avogadro. Now he’s an autonomous legal entity that subcontracts for Avogadro.”
“Holy shit,” Vito said, his mouth wide open.
“If you want, I’ve got a facility in Portland with room for all of you. A data center with a million processors for computational tasks. Direct access to ELOPe, a stockpile of food, and defenses, should it come to that. Or you could stay here. What do you say?”
“A million computers?” Vito repeated, now with a gleam in his eye.
“Yeah, it’s amazing what you can cram into a space nowadays.” Mike smiled.
“Give us a minute to talk, will you?” Leon asked.
“Sure,” Mike answered, “I’ll wait in the plane.”
It took only a few minutes of hurried discussion on the lawn before they decided to go with Mike. Leon knew he’d get nowhere fast analyzing the virus on the old Windows PC, and Vito said he wasn’t missing a chance to see a million computer data center. James was game for anything, as he was mostly just glad to see another living person. They walked over in a group to let Mike know, and went back to grab their stuff.
“I’ll miss this place,” Vito said as they gathered up their things from the office.