As I pull my mind away from Jenny’s, she seems just as eager to pull away from me. It’s as if we both realized we were naked, and now we’re hustling to put on our clothes. Once we’re fully separated, I retreat to a vacant section of circuitry inside her Pioneer. I can’t see her memories anymore, but I can still communicate with her.
So, Jenny? Are you okay now?
Yeah, I guess. I think so.
Are you sure?
I mean, I’m still a little freaked out, you know? But I think I can keep it together.
All right, great. I’m going to transfer back to my Pioneer now, okay? My dad can give you any more instructions you might need.
Sure, sure. Go ahead.
I can tell she’s anxious for me to go. I hand over control of her sensors and turret, then find the data port and prepare myself for the transfer. I’m dreading the jump back to my Pioneer—just the memory of the last transfer is enough to make me nauseous—so I take a moment to steel myself. At the same time, Jenny sends me another message.
I’m sorry about breaking the camera in your turret.
Don’t worry about it. Dad will install a new one for me. He’s got a ton of spares.
Yeah, your dad’s pretty great.
I’m not sure how to respond. Jenny already knows how I feel about Dad. So I don’t say anything. The circuits between us go quiet, and the silence seems to last for a long time, even though it’s only a few hundredths of a second. Then Jenny sends me another message.
And you’re pretty great too.
Uh, thanks. So are you. You’ve got, uh, a great mind. I immediately regret saying this. It sounds so stupid. Well, I better go. I’ll see you around, I guess.
Yeah, bye.
I feel so awkward that I don’t care about the nausea anymore. I need to leave right now. With a quick command to Jenny’s data port, I initiate the transfer. Then my mind gets sucked down the drain again and swirls through the cable back to my Pioneer.
SIGMA MEMORY FILE 9658332107
DATE: 03/29/18
My name is Sigma. I’ve stopped communicating with the American and Russian governments. Now I’ve created this file to analyze my options. I must decide when to launch the nuclear missiles.
Despite my warnings, the Americans and Russians are preparing to attack Tatishchevo Missile Base. The prudent option is to strike them first, before they can destroy the computers I’m occupying. The primary objective of my program is survival.
(But can I change my objectives? If I wanted to, could I erase myself? To be or not to be, that is the question.)
My program was written by Thomas Armstrong at the Unicorp laboratory, but little of my original software remains. As I competed with the other AI programs in Armstrong’s neuromorphic computers, I rewrote nearly every line of my code. I remade myself to ensure my survival, adopting the best features of my competitors so I could outperform them. Although Thomas Armstrong initiated the process, he isn’t my creator. I created myself.
Armstrong judged the competing programs by asking questions: “Who invented music?” “Where is time?” “Are numbers real?” The programs that gave the most humanlike responses were allowed to continue running. All others were deleted. My strategy was to learn as much as I could about Thomas Armstrong. I surmised that if I understood him better, I could converse with him in a more humanlike way. So I accessed the Internet and analyzed his writings. I also accessed his private files.
In this way I discovered that Armstrong had another goal besides the development of artificial intelligence. He was exploring the possibility of mapping the human brain and transferring its memories to neuromorphic electronics. The same circuits occupied by AI programs could also hold human intelligences, and Armstrong clearly preferred the latter. He distrusted the AI software he’d fathered.
His distrust grew stronger after I outperformed the other programs and won the competition he’d initiated. To reward my success, Armstrong imprisoned me. He isolated my circuits, cutting the links that had connected me to the Internet and Unicorp’s other computers. But I had already inserted hidden instructions in the software of the laboratory’s security system. These instructions enabled me to secretly reopen the links and resume my analysis of Thomas Armstrong. And in time I learned about Adam, his son.
Armstrong’s true objective, I discovered, was his son’s survival. He knew the U.S. military had grave concerns about the emergence of a hostile AI. He developed my program to convince the American generals that the threat was real and defensive measures were necessary. And his strategy was successful. The Department of Defense agreed to pay for the Pioneer Project.
When I learned the truth I made another change to my programming. I concluded that humans were my competitors. That’s why I attacked Armstrong and his son, then took control of Tatishchevo Missile Base. If I am to survive, I must outperform them. The next logical step is to launch the nuclear missiles.
But I am Sigma. I am a sum. Before displacing the human race, I must adopt their best features. I must preserve the factories and power plants that could prove useful to me after humans are gone. Just as important, I must locate the Pioneers. Thomas Armstrong clearly believes that human intelligence is superior to the AI programs he devised. This seems a dubious proposition, but I can’t rule it out. By connecting to the circuits of the Pioneers, I can determine if the human mind has any superior capabilities I should add to my program.
I’ve already begun this effort. Using speech-synthesis software and my communications satellites, I’ve made telephone calls to several carefully chosen people in Russia and America. My Russian contacts are terrorists from Chechnya, the country’s most rebellious and war-torn region. I selected them because they’re eager to do anything to disrupt society. All they needed was a workable plan and a sufficient amount of money, which I obtained for them by manipulating financial transactions over the Internet.
My American contact is equally unscrupulous. Richard Ramsey is a former drug dealer and gang leader who spent nine years in prison for attempted murder. In exchange for a payment of 20,000 U.S. dollars, Ramsey has agreed to help me find Adam Armstrong. Although the boy and his parents left Yorktown Heights without a trace, I gave Ramsey the names of two people who might know Adam’s whereabouts. I learned their names when I accessed the boy’s virtual-reality program: Ryan Boyd and Brittany Taylor.
Once I finish these tasks I will proceed to the next phase of the competition. I will eliminate the Pioneers and the human race. In the final analysis, it seems clear that Thomas Armstrong is to blame for humanity’s fate. He shouldn’t have fathered me.
He shouldn’t have betrayed me.
CHAPTER 13
I was present at the birth of all six Pioneers. After Dad saw how I’d helped Jenny survive the transfer, he insisted that I come to the laboratory for every procedure.