Chapter 3

Andrew had made several modifications to his parent’s home over the years. He needed a place that served as both his home and a lab for which he could continue his ambitions. Despite a few changes to the master bedroom to make it his, he left the rest of the house mostly unmodified. He added a storage structure on the two-acre property directly behind the main house. The door was secured by a digital keypad, and even though there were no windows, it could double as a guest house with a full array of amenities. Andrew kept most of his old, deprecated projects and computer hardware components within its walls. He was a bit of a hoarder in that respect. Still, he mostly used the space for a quiet place to brainstorm away from the distractions of computer games and the memories of his parents.

The more unique addition to the house was the hidden door behind the left bookshelf. Andrew loved elaborate puzzles. He even had the classic Resident Evil games as inspiration for the design. It was difficult at first trying to find a contractor capable of installing the mechanisms to unlock the door. His luck came to fruition when he found a savvy enough contractor that could install the contraption and the room below his office.

A photometer installed in the top corner of the office would need to only see approximately four hundred lumens, twenty-five percent of the room’s normal sixteen hundred lumens at full brightness. This allowed the next phase to be completed. Pins released within the bookshelf would allow a copy of Alan Turing’s Systems of Logic: The Princeton Thesis to be extracted. Once the book was removed, a depression switch would be released, and latches securing the bookshelf to the wall would be unlocked, allowing the furniture to swing on a hinge. This revealed a door flush with the wall and a ten-digit keypad to the right. Only upon the correct input of the PIN would the door swing inward and reveal a spiral staircase leading to a room twenty-five feet beneath the office.

The dimensions of the hidden room far exceeded that of his office, extending into the backyard of the house. The bunker was divided into thirds, with the center room containing a wooden desk that housed a singular terminal. Five computer monitors; three on the desk, and two above the others directly in the center. A generic-looking office chair, mouse, and keyboard were the only other objects present at the terminal. The fluorescent lights were activated by a motion sensor in the upper-right most part of the room. The door leading to a room on the left read ‘Body.’ Housed within the room were three large server racks. The server racks contained an assortment of virtualization hardware, network switches, and storage area network devices.

However, the room on the right was labeled as ‘Mind’. The room was soundproof. The apparatus elevated in the center of the room was secure from seismic and vibration events. Very few people in the world would be able to recognize the device that seemingly floated in mid-air, and much fewer people would understand it. It’s both amazing and terrifying what people can buy on the dark web with cryptocurrency. This, however was not drugs, weapons, or some near priceless artwork stolen during some time of world hardship. This was Averruncus; ‘Avery.’

Avery would look like a strange alien artifact to those who have never seen a quantum computer. The device was four feet long and cylindrical. Golden wires and rods were weaved throughout the exposed interior. Pipes and heat exchangers pathed to and from the centermost part of the apparatus where the fifty-three-qubit processor nested. It gave the appearance of some elaborate chandelier that had been meticulously assembled by expert craftsmen. This was the ‘Mind.’ The mind allowed the most complex problem-solving, while the ‘Body’ would execute the solutions accordingly. The mind cannot live without the body, and vice-versa.

Andrew sat on the barstool at the kitchen island. He had prepared himself a turkey sandwich on toasted white bread with mayonnaise. When he made sandwiches at home, he always left the tomatoes, lettuce, and other traditional fillers out of the meal. He left that to the restaurants to fancy up the sandwiches for him. The coffee cup that lay next to the plated sandwich, however, was always worthy of the extras to satisfy his pallet. A splash of sugar-free creamer and two packets of Sweet-N-Low were his usual. He kept to a traditional brewing method and avoided the pods and capsules that were popular these days. There was nothing like a cup of Don Francisco’s or Black Rifle coffee for brunch.

He took a generous bite of his sandwich. The crunch of the toasted bread satisfied his ears, and the taste of the premium turkey exhilarated his taste buds. Sometimes simple was just as pleasant as the finer things in life. He placed the remaining sandwich back onto the plate and picked up the crisp newspaper delivered that morning. Even in a digital world, and being as tech-savvy as he was, he loved certain things to remain analog. He quickly glanced over the headlines. They had not interested him much. He knew they were mostly bullshit anyways. A thin layer of truth wrapped around a giant heap of nonsense to engage the reader and either make them feel better or worse about the world they lived in. Usually, worse.

The two sections he really enjoyed were the crossword puzzle and the comics. Something about the old school comics gave him a sense of joy. It was either that they were still being hand-drawn or they withstood the tests of time. He finished his sandwich and shrugged off doing the crossword puzzle. While his daily routine was of great value to him, he had plenty of work ahead of him. Today he wanted to begin training Avery.

Andrew rose from the barstool and quickly gulped down the rest of his coffee. He picked up the empty plate in his other hand and set both dishes in the kitchen sink. I’ll get to it later. The walk back to his office was filled with anticipation. His mind rotated among dozens of ideas on how to start the training sequence. Entering his office, he told Alexa to set lights to twenty-five percent to start the sequence.

The fluorescent lights flickered on as Andrew completed his descent down the spiral staircase. As he approached the terminal, the monitors sprang to life with a message on the lower-center screen reading ‘Greetings Andrew.’ Avery didn’t have much personality. It was not really Andrew’s intention. Avery was designed to be a neutral observer, corrector of possible mistakes, and preventor of nominal incidents involving great harm.

The five monitors each had a purpose and represented critical information Avery’s health and the functions related to its behavior. The top-left screen contained a series of metrics relating to the body. Graphs depicting the temperature, overall health, and integrity of the server racks are displayed. The upper-right screen contained similar information pertaining to the mind. The lower-center monitor displayed outputs from Avery, while the lower-right monitor gave prompts for inputs. The leftmost monitor was a generic place where he could navigate the operating system and manipulate code as needed.

Andrew walked into the room labeled ‘Body.’ No further physical security barriers were separating him from the server racks. He pulled a USB thumb drive from his right pocket and placed it into a server named ‘Integration.’ The thumb drive contained various images he had pulled from his work computer in his office.

Andrew was very cautious about both physical and network security. He did not wish for Avery to have any exposure to the outside world until he felt confident that the system would function as intended. An unpredictable machine causing malice gave him nightmares at night. Perhaps he had seen too many movies or read far too many books about a rogue artificial intelligence wreaking havoc upon the world. He chose to keep the system air-gapped. Air gapping is a common practice among corporations with highly sensitive data. The system is completely isolated from the outside world. No internet connection, no Wi-Fi interfaces. Andrew wanted to get the opinion of his friend Edward Brandt and then offer controlled demonstrations to his contacts before he would reveal Avery to the world. He wanted everything to be by-the-numbers. The thought of the world calling Andrew a terrorist did not sit well with him, even if unintentional.

Andrew had already hard-coded basic human interactions and over fifty languages into the systems interpretation models. Today’s lesson was about emotions and identifying the unknown variables relating to them. Training artificial intelligence and deep learning software is surprisingly like how one would educate a child or household pet. A series of images, actions, and/or phrases are presented to the subject’s memory. Using positive reinforcement to reward the subject that they were on the right path. Negative or undesired actions were typically met with a “No, don’t do that” method. Of course, in the case of A.I., an undesired effect often led to either implementation of additional algorithms or heavy math to correct what already exists. Unlearning was, in almost all cases, more difficult than initial learning.

Andrew exited the room and sat in front of the terminal. The message ‘Greetings Andrew’ was still present on the monitor. He took a deep breath. “Let’s begin.” He typed ‘Good Morning Avery’ in the input prompt on the right screen.

‘I am ready for today’s lesson, awaiting input,’ displayed on the screen and was only slightly audible. The models for voice input and audio output were present within the system. But Andrew usually preferred a more quiet, sterile environment. The fewer distractions, the better. Besides, Avery’s voice was quite lackluster. It was rich with bass but was also very monotone. He clicked the icon on the desktop labeled USB and dragged the first image over to the input section and dropped it in. An image of a vehicle collision in the middle of an intersection rendered in the upper right corner of the screen. Long skid marks followed behind the sedan that had impacted the side of a minivan. A woman appearing to be in her early thirties was standing next to the minivan while in tears. The teenage male had his head buried into his arms and chest as he sat beside the sedan.

‘What is happening in this picture?’ Andrew typed into the box.

‘Vehicle collision. Excessive speed from vehicle one. Tire marks indicate vehicle traveling at approximately sixty-three miles per hour before applying brakes. Vehicle collided at thirty-two miles per hour into the right side of vehicle two. Most likely reason: Driver of vehicle one ignored the traffic devices indicating his requirement to halt. Ninety one percent accuracy rating.

Other possibilities:

Mechanical failure relating to acceleration or braking components of vehicle one. – 27%

Traffic safety device malfunction. – 13%

Intentional harm to passengers of vehicle two. – 4%

‘Need further information in order to increase accuracy of my results’ was displayed at the end of outputted results.

Andrew understood that only so much information could be pulled from a single photograph. There were already countless ways of acquiring further data in the outside world. In the connected world, one would have access to audio and visual technologies such as security cameras, cell phones, and even satellite imaging. But this exercise was about evaluating all the possibilities and placing importance on human life. Andrew hung his head and let out another subtle sigh before propping himself back up.

‘Incorrect. That is what happened. What is happening?’ Andrew typed.

The minor differences in the words of many languages are an exhausting but necessary thing to understand. The English language was by far the most frustrating but it had to be done. The breakdown in communication could lead to unpredictable results. The difference between simply knowing about an incident and using that past knowledge to prevent it from happening in the future was important.

‘The two persons are upset. Person one is expressing shame and regret. Person two is exhibiting sorrow and distress. More information required in order to process the cause of this behavior beyond the initial accident. Awaiting input.’

‘The young child of person two was sitting in the rear passenger seat near the impact site caused by vehicle one. The child is unresponsive.’ Andrew typed.

‘I did not see the small person. Shall I add this to variable calculations?’

‘Yes. Eventually, you will have more input available to you and have the information available to make decisions on behalf of those that are neglectful. This exercise is just to consider what is beyond your sensory capabilities. Do you understand?’

‘Child will never be able to grow up and experience the world. Person two is traumatized by the potential loss of someone they care for. Person one is in a state of regret for being reckless. If the collision between the two vehicles had been prevented, they would not be in this position. Do I understand correctly?’

‘Yes, very good. Life is important and must be allowed to evolve to better their environment. Let’s move on with the next lesson.’