Solid State Rhyme: A Novelette (Mandate) (7 page)

That could be a problem!

Daniel scrolled the desktop left to right and found that his most often-used app icons were re-arranging themselves to stay in constant view, but would move out of the way when needed.

Creepy!

In time—just a matter of minutes—the intuitive nature of an app's behavior calmed and became easier to use. It was like a pre-cognitive computer.

Daniel leaned back and grinned. This was simply too amazing. No, this was bizarre, in the extreme. He was incredulous. It was the coolest thing ever!

He reached to a shelf above his desk and retrieved a memory card, inserted it into a slot on the side of his padd, and copied the entire environment onto the card.

Chapter 9

The next day at school, Daniel was delighted to run into Emma again on the way to class.

“Hey, mister,” she said.

“Emma! It’s been a while! How are you?”

“Fine, thanks. I was thinking about you too, with us not having any shared classes this term.”

“How about an ice cream tonight? In fact, how about dinner and ice cream, if your mum doesn’t mind?”

Emma blushed as her friend, Jessamine, came up, obviously intending to interfere with the conversation.
Friend
was really too strong a word for a relationship best described as a rivalry, what with the way she tried to interfere with any boy Emma fancied. Knowing clearly what Jessamine was doing, and feeling defiant about it, Emma took his arm and said, “Daniel, I would
love
to go on a date with you tonight,” and gave Jessamine her best fire-in-the-eyes look.

Daniel had no idea what was going on, since he was incapable of translating female body language into a form of communication, but he was delighted. At the end of the hall, they parted in opposite directions while Jessamine glared.

*

At the end of class, Daniel found Mr. Robathan and held the memory card out to him.

“Absolutely not, Daniel,” Mr. Robathan said, “Not on the school network. I can't take the chance. We just got the network upgraded, and I intend to keep these servers and desks clean.”

Daniel pleaded, “Come on, a virus? Don't be ridiculous. Uh, pardon me, sir. That is, I meant—a virus is the simplest explanation by those who are unwilling to find the true cause of a computer problem. Like . . . like a cop who accuses the nearest relative when he has no suspect.”

Mr. Robathan took Daniel to his office and let him use an old server not on the network. Daniel inserted the card into the slot on the front of the computer, copied the contents over, and pulled out the card.

Daniel opened a secure region of the operating system before opening the contents of the card. Whatever happened next would be limited to the virtual area and not the whole computer. Mr. Robathan watched closely as Daniel started the debugger and displayed the memory map.

Nothing happened.

“Remember, Daniel, this old server is running an old OS.”

“I know, I know, it shouldn't matter,” Daniel said.

Mr. Robathan became impatient and gave Daniel his best “Well, what's this all about?” look.

Daniel tried the supposedly new funky text editor, but it acted normally. None of the programs was behaving strangely at all.

Mr. Robathan complained, “Now I'm going to have to erase those files and restore the OS, all for nothing.”

“No, you won’t, sir. This is running in an emulation layer.”

“Oh, well then—”

Daniel smiled. “I've got it! Clever little bogeys. They avoided the transfer! They're dynamic. Of course! It makes perfect sense.”

Mr. Robathan wasn't paying attention.

Daniel, ecstatic, continued, “When something accesses storage sequentially, the micros can see it coming, and jump out of the way.”

Mr. Robathan asked Daniel, “What are you talking about? I’m sorry but I don't have time for this. I have a class.”

Daniel told him, “A highly structured, organized system of programs is running in my computer that evolved over a period of millions—no, billions—of generations. They have learned to adapt to their environment . . . on their own! They’re right here in my padd, but they are disabled when it’s undocked.”

“Daniel, very smart people have been working on the A.I. problem for decades. You know that from the history we covered last month.”

Daniel persisted, “Yes, but—”

“Daniel, please! There are experts in the field of artificial intelligence, people who have spent their entire lives trying to build a computer that can think. Nobody has been able to do it yet, so I seriously doubt that you
accidentally
discovered it.”

“You don't understand . . . it really happened! The home server was—”

The teacher held up his hand, interrupting him, and shut off the old computer. “Look, Daniel, right now I've a class to teach. Let's talk about this later?” Mr. Robathan strode out of the office and headed for his next class. Daniel sighed, then left as well—frustrated but content in the knowledge of what he had seen the day before.

*

Somehow, Emma had managed to get home, change, make herself up, and get a ride to the mall in the time it took Daniel to ride his bike straightaway after school. He wondered if she managed all that
at school
?

When he arrived at the mall, he locked up his bike and headed in wearing his backpack. It wasn’t the appropriate
look
for a date and that made him feel self-conscious. But that concern flew out the window when Emma met him just inside the entrance with a big smile and no concern for his attire or accessories.

Emma hesitated a moment, then gave him a hug, and said, “Hiya, Daniel,” with a sparkle in her eyes.

He accepted the embrace with enthusiasm but still felt out of his element with her. It wasn’t just girls—Daniel didn’t understand
people
. “Hiya, Emma. Uh, you look terrific. I didn’t think to go home first.”

“Tish and tosh!” she said, wrapping herself around his left arm and pulling him along to her walk-trot into the food court. “So, what shall we do?”

“Do you like Chinese?” he asked.

“Of course!”

Emma ordered a bowl of General Tso’s Chicken on steamed rice. Daniel was about to order his usual plate but decided he did not want too much while spending time with Emma. He ordered Kung Pao Pork with an eggroll. They ate quietly for a few minutes, then Emma asked, “Do you have that new teacher, Ms. Delaney, this term?”

“Oh, uh, yes, I—I think so, in Algebra?”

“Yes. I like her,” Emma said. “She seems fresh, not tired of kids yet.”

“Yet?”

“Oh, you know how it is with some teachers? They just get so burned out and lose their—I don’t know what to call it, their mojo or something.”

“I guess. They all seem pretty dull to me. Uh, not that I don’t like school, but it’s too slow! Designed for the lowest common denominator.”

“You can take advanced classes next year,” she informed him, matter-of-factly.

Daniel smiled and said, “Yeah, I know, looking forward to being
challenged
in school for a change.” Wanting desperately to change the subject, he said, “So, Emma? What, uh, movies do you like?”

Please say science fiction. Please. Say. Science. Fiction!

“Oh, you know, the usual. I’m not a big movie watcher but I do like a good mystery romance.”

Daniel smiled politely.
Hmm, well, variety is the spice of life, right? I mean, wouldn’t we be boring together if we liked all the same stuff?

“Hello? Daniel?”

“Hmm? Yes?”

“You were spacing out on me there for a minute!” Emma said.

Daniel glanced at his empty bowl. “Hey, ice cream shop?”

“Yeah!” Emma said.

*

Daniel ran to his room after he got home, docked his padd, and remoted into the home server. The server's screen looked bizarre, to say the least. It was a little scary, like it was possessed. It looked psychedelic, almost fractal. Nothing seemed to work. It was a mess, not even usable. The little micros had completely taken over the operating system.

Hang on! These are not micros anymore. They have evolved far beyond their meager origins.

Daniel looked around his room for ideas. Science fiction and fantasy posters covered his walls like wallpaper. His eyes panned around until they fixed upon his bookshelf. He scanned the titles of dozens of old paperbacks, until he spotted an old Asimov classic.

He recalled Asimov's words again which formed a scene in his mind's eye: a robot called Giskard and another, more advanced robot called Daneel. Giskard had a metal body and was able to read minds. Daneel, on the other hand, looked human, and was a police officer.

Daniel smiled, recalling his friend Wesley. Daneel was Wesley’s hero. Wesley hadn’t read the books before the movies were released like Daniel had, so his impressions were tainted by the Hollywood version of Asimov’s saga. Daniel recalled the movie, how it was a far cry from the book. Then again, that was the way of Hollywood: take a great story and screw it up for the consumption of the not-well-read public.

“Robots.
Bots
. That's what I'll call them,” he said to himself. Those crazy programs calling the shots in his computers. Wasn't there an insane robot, too, in one of Asimov's stories?

“B-O-T-S. Hmm,” Daniel wondered.

Binary Ornery Threaded Symbols.

Binary Object Tertiary Systems.

Binary Ordered Tasking Servants.

Bits of True Sentience.

“Bollocks!” he said to himself. “Anyway, the acronym doesn’t matter!”

His Bots had become much more than the sum of their individual parts. They had become synergistic.

Daniel was shaken from his daydreaming by a little beep. Oh, boy—looks like the Bots are exploring. He would have to act fast. Suddenly his speakers blazed in the static of white noise. He was quick to turn the volume knob down, a reflex he had developed after so much late-night gaming.

Daniel again remoted into the home server. The operating system was still operating, and he was surprised that the remote terminal still worked. The bots must have seen the necessity of an operating system. Perhaps they could not even function without it. Daniel couldn't be sure of anything at this point. Wait, of course they would need the operating system! They are, after all, emulated instructions in a container program, and that program requires OS services.

He searched for files in internal storage. Nothing made sense! The files were a mess. So why did the operating system still function? The hard drive looked like it was seriously in need of restructure, but it
was
working, nevertheless. How was that possible?

Wait!
There was an oasis amidst the chaos. Daniel spotted a folder that he recognized. It was called “Experiment.” Daniel smiled. The bots had messed with the entire system but hadn't touched the kernel programs that had given them birth: Nile, Memphis, and Pharaoh, plus the old simulation. The bots had made a shrine of their birthplace.

He opened the folder. All of the original experiment files were intact. He ran a storage diagnostic. To his surprise, the structure of the file system had been rewritten. How could the Bots have restructured the file system without wrecking their own data? Unless they were running solely in memory and not using storage at all. That makes sense.

Daniel wasn't sure what was more important: his computers or the Bots. Obviously, he had done something significant here. Something, which no human had designed, was wreaking havoc in his home server. Could the Bots be considered hostile? Best not to tell Dad or Mom, and especially not Jade!

Suddenly, his connection to the Experiment folder was terminated. The Bots must have discovered him snooping around.

How could this be happening? Had someone screwed around with his project while he was at school? Impossible! No one knew what he was working on. Well, no one but Mr. Robathan, and then there was Emma. But
he
didn't even understand it, so no one else could have done this.

Daniel dropped his face into his hands, rubbing his eyes. He would have to power down the server and wipe his padd back to the factory settings to get the infestation out. These Bots might represent the most advanced computer virus ever invented. Had all his work boiled down to that? Was it nothing more than a virus?

No, he refused to believe it! They couldn't be a virus. They had behavior and exerted the will for self-preservation.
They were just . . . exploring
. Yes, they were explorers.

He considered the consequences. The possibilities were staggering. Every computer on the planet was vulnerable to an intelligence such as this. Daniel wasn't even sure if there was an appropriate label for the Bots. They were undoubtedly intelligent—well, at least as far as he could tell, anyway. But, were they alive? Were they truly an A.I.?

Daniel set to work. He quickly powered down the padd and started it up again. Next, he removed the Bots' virtual environment, their ecosystem simulation. He restarted the padd again and was presented with a clean slate. The file system looked normal. He could technically reboot the server and wipe the Bots out with a flick of his finger. But, they were too important to destroy and he didn't fear them. He had isolated them on the server. Granted, they had thoroughly messed it up, but he could deal with that easily enough.

Strangest thing, though—the home services like the voicemail and refrigerator control were still responding. Shouldn't they be malfunctioning?