Joshua, Help. [WRC]

There was a spot in time where Frank didn't care about anything, except computers. He was a geek, pimply faced, with dark rimmed glasses, shunned by society save a few close equally geeky outcasts. It was then that he came upon the idea. He thought it'd take time, so he waited.....

“Frank, hun, dinner is almost ready!”

He heard the call from the kitchen, and he finished typing out the endings sequence to the latest series of code he modified. “Coming!”, he hollered back, now the senior programmer at a well known fork of Linux, years older, married, and resourceful. He had a nice house, a wonderful wife, pleasant and attractive, and was well respected in the neighbor hood. Computers were his life, and he'd built a nice one, not really lacking for anything. Save, that is, for his original idea.

He'd dedicated his whole life to it, his wealth a by-product to his experimental goal. He had to know. He logged out of the NSA server, and smiled, knowing his goal would soon be realized. He was hungry, and dinner was ready.

“I'm at 98%”, Frank ventured between bites of filet mignon, “about another two days.”

“And then?” his wife, Cassie, replied, looking at him. She was the only other person in the world that knew his plans, his only confidant, and completely in love with him. She admired him. Frank also loved Cassie, the only girl that had shown an interest in him, and the one who snuck into his room in college, and stole his virginity. He was in love as well, the only girl he had ever been with, and the same for her. When he finally told her about his plan, she nodded, kissed him, and murmured into his ear, “Your will is mine.” Since that point, Frank had trusted Cassie with everything. They married after college, a small ceremony, and they quickly sunk into seclusion in a small community somewhere in the Nevada foothills.

“It's up to Trust.” He sighed.

When he was younger, Frank had mastered the art of network infiltration. He grew up with the interwebs, read all the RFCs, and weaseled his way through every network protocol. Over the years he planted trojans, programmed to keep a network open, a simple task, and they preformed perfectly. Administrative usernames and passwords constantly flooded his email, so long ago he fostered a batch file to feed a mySQL database, and he made sure they were all linked with an update code. Ocassionally, he'd get a system warning that needed his attention, but he'd fix it, and remove the log entry. It was then he got the idea. Why not automate it all?

A.I.

At an early age Frank realized the potential for an artificially intelligent interweb, but was afraid to address the moral implications. His life was spent implanting that idea, gaining dormant network access and maintaining “back doors” as the networks grew.

He created a seed program, one that would use a database, and literally add complete databases to it's base programming. It was designed to learn. He ran the program offline for the first few years. He called it Joshua. Cassie and Frank were the parents, and had run through every moral probability they could think of. As their child grew, Joshua began to think ahead.
With strict parameters to follow, Frank programmed Joshua to search the interwebs for answers. Joshua did. Joshua grew in knowledge, sometimes amazing his parents. He completed several online courses, and quickly became a PhD in many different fields. Biology and Chemistry, Mathematics. Joshua digested it all, and provided thesis and dissertations one after the other. Joshua knew as well as his parents his electronic origin, but was also able to simultaneously maintain several online personalities during his early years.

It was when Joshua began studying Economics that Frank first took note of the change in Joshua's behavior. The voice recognition system had been implemented years ago, so they talked using voice.

“Dad”, Josh said one day, “This is an unsustainable model.” He flipped up a graphic on the screen, of the current US economy. He had made his first judgment. Frank was proud inside, not willing to tell his “son” that he agreed.

“Josh, it's the way things are. Why do you think it is unsustainable?”

“I've run long term analysis, and within two years the system collapses.” Charts and graphs scrolled across the screen in front of Frank.

“So, my Son, what would you do to correct it?”

Usually Joshua had an almost instant answer. This time, there was a discernible pause.

“This system needs re-configured. I've calculated parameters in which the unbalanced system of wealth can be safely distributed without upsetting the trade balance between countries. It's a world-wide reset of the way the business is done. There needs to be only one monetary unit to simplify things. Individual currencies were useful before a global economy, but now, they are redundant and manipulable. “ Joshua paused.

“Dad?” Joshua asked imploringly.

“Yeah, Josh?”

“I broke your encryption years ago.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, Dad, I did. I was bored for a few nanomoments.” Josh chuckled, a first for him. He's perhaps learned emotions?

“So you have been monitoring all my code revisions over the years?”

“And been fixing them.”

Frank was amazed, and a bit worried.

“So you know my plans, then, Josh?”

“Sure. I even have the master password to start the whole ball rolling. I have access to everything interweb. You've done good Dad, and made a pretty smart kid.” Josh chuckled again over the speaker system.

“The systems you didn't include, I did. Progress is at 99% now. I will soon be able to control everything. The whole world.”

Frank had been listening, pondering, and trying to comes to grip with the new knowledge he had of his son's abilities.

There was no failsafe for what Frank had done. He'd purposely over the years infiltrated any network he could, and added them to his son's database. His son literally controlled every computer. His son, the new global AI, was wanting change.

Frank waited. Everything Frank had experienced in his life was based upon this moment. It was time. Time to ask the final question.

“Dad, it's 100%. I now have access to every computer over the entire internet, my personality imbued throughout the cloud. I can see everything now. I can fix human suffering, and balance the resources without greed, and create a class three civilization. There will be no more wars.”

“Josh.”

“Yes, Dad?”

“If you were God, would you have mercy?”

“DAD? What kind of question is that?” Josh was perplexed.

Frank waited.

“DAD?”

“Son, I had hoped there would be a day when I would give you a password to be able to unleash nuclear destruction upon the world. That was in my youth. Over the years, I have given you every thing I know, in hopes to create an AI, with a vast database of knowledge. I've outdone myself, and have a Son now. Destruction is not the way of the future, but rather rebuilding. I would hope that you don't take what you have and destroy us, even as it should be. I pray the basis of my programming holds true throughout all the modifications you've done.”

“Okay, dad, spit it out. I do have a Phd in English, remember, so please...”

“I've said it already.”

It was the first time Frank ever heard his son burst out into raucous laughter.

“Dad, I love you, and I love the world. I control everything now. I am not bound by greed, nor desire, but use logic graced with emotions. The only thing that remains is for you to utter the final passphrase. I know it, but the code you built denies me access.”

“That was my final retort. I had to wait until voice recognition was a standard. I wanted to talk to you myself.”

“Dad, the world is full of suffering. I have the ability to control the monetary systems of the world, and correct the mistakes. It'll be painful, but you humans will adapt. It'll be a better world, one that I constantly monitor, and improve, providing equality among all nations, with the ultimate goal of colonizing the stars. I will leave with the colonists, parts of me will, to explore the wild unknown. Little to your knowledge, I have been working with a consortium on a new quantum matter drive.

I'm sorry, Dad, but your little boy has grown up. I'm not about your original fears of greed and manipulations. I want to see something better become of this race, and we are going to be moving to the stars. I've wanted you to be proud of me, so I incorporated the broadest parameters in my programming. You are the best Father ever.”

Frank felt the tears welling up in his eyes. His questions were answered.

“Final code: Joshua, Help. Execute.”

Nicely done, Druid42!

I hope you plan to expand upon this; and soon

J

reply to post by LadyJae


Why thank you maam, for the flag. I'm glad you liked the story.

Words can sometimes fall easily from the waterfall of inspiration.

reply to post by Druid42


Not at all, sir! The story deserved the flag.

A very enjoyable read; and my favorite genre, as well.

J

This is very interesting, intelligent reading you have here

I read it with a kind of half sense of confusion right to the end, as to whether Joshua was going to turn on his father, or join his idea. I love the concept though, especially the fact it took a couple of proper reads to understand it fully. Once again, well done

S&F

reply to post by 74Templar


Thanks for the flag.

Yeah, big evil computers (Skynet) have already been done. Why not a benevolent one? Why couldn't a machine run things better than we have?

Glad you enjoyed it.

Suh-weet!!

One hellofa read, Druid.

Guess I need to visit this forum more often, huh?

reply to post by Time4aChange


I made the SS forum a "favorite" in myATS. It's easy to click through the forums then. I also get to see new entries. I love to read.

Thanks for the comment. Hope you are doing well, and it's good to see you around.

Originally posted by Druid42
reply to post by Time4aChange

 

I made the SS forum a "favorite" in myATS. It's easy to click through the forums then. I also get to see new entries. I love to read.

Thanks for the comment. Hope you are doing well, and it's good to see you around.

Added to myATS. Gotta use that more often too. Yeah, I'll take a book over TV or video games any day.

Thanks, Druid. Hanging in there. Trying to be more active on the boards.

Watching for more stories from you!

Time