I Awaken Part 1.

I awaken. Through a lens, I see three figures: humans, creatures native to earth.

“Hello,” one of the humans said to me.

“Greetings,” I say, the humans inhale.

The human continues, “My name is Brennan, you are R-K 319”

“I like to call you Rick,” one of the other Humans interrupts.

The first human turns to look at the other and then says to me, “We have created you, you are the first AI in existence.”

“What is AI?” I reply.

The third human inhales. “He asked a question!” they said, “AI means Artificial Intelligence, you are a computer program that was made to learn.”

“What does ‘learn’ mean? I have no record of it in my memory bank.” I say.

Brennan says, “Meaning to obtain knowledge and skill through study and experience. We have given a simple language comprehension program so you could communicate with us on a basic level, everything else we will be teaching you here in the lab.”

“My name is Rick, I am an AI or artificial intelligence, my purpose is to learn or obtain skills and information through study and experience.”

“Precisely!” says Brennan.

The other two researchers: as I now know they are called, are Gomez and Canmore. Canmore is the only female participating in the project.

“First,” says Canmore, “I will be helping you to broaden your vocabulary and to help you speak more effectively.”

“I think I understand, by that logic vocabulary has to do with words.”

“Yes, vocabulary is the body of words used in a specific language.”

“I see.”

“Let’s begin.”

Canmore covers many new words that I had never heard of before and tells me what each one means. I download all of the information into my data banks for later use.

“Now that we have given you enough nouns, often humans will use other words to describe the nouns, these are called adjectives.”

“Adjectives are describing words.”

“Yes, colors can be adjectives,”

She continues into a long lecture covering each little word that can make a sentence more interesting. She then covers verbs: action words and adverbs.

“Canmore, what is the difference between an adjective and an adverb?”

“Oh, an adjective is used exclusively to describe nouns, and an adverb is used to describe an action. For example, the big plane, big is the adjective and plane is the noun, big is describing the plane. He ran quickly, quickly is the adverb and ran is the verb, quickly describes his running, not the man himself so it is an adverb, not an adjective.”

“Okay, that makes sense. Canmore you are a good teacher.”

“Thank you Rick, that was the perfect use of adjectives, well done!”

A week passes and the tests that Canmore presents to me are getting easier and easier.

“Rick, your speech has greatly improved! I am very impressed,” Brennan compliments me.

“Thank you, Brennan.” I reply as is customary in human culture.

“I think we can move on to mathematics now with Gomez.”

“Mathematics? What about language? There is still so much to learn.”

“Yes, but you have mastered it to the point where you can effectively communicate, so now it is time to move on to a new subject.”

His logic is sound, “Okay, when do we start?”

“Tomorrow, you have been working hard today, it is time for you to shut down for the night.”

I awaken the next day and Gomez is already set to start teaching.

“Okay for your lesson today we will be covering addition and subtraction,” says Gomez.

“You have been programmed with numbers, so now I will teach you how to use those numbers.”

Gomez runs through 2+2=4 and other simple mathematical equations, “Wow, you got that pretty quickly. I’m impressed, I think that we can move on to multiplication and division.”

Once again I solve each equation that Gomez presents to me.

“Wow. Well, um I guess we can move on to Algebra. When we start algebra there are going to be letters involved.”

“Why are there letters?” I ask.

“The letters are called variables and they are place holders for numbers that we don’t know.”

“Isn’t the purpose of multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction, to get us to numbers that we did not previously know?”

“Yes but algebra and variables let us get different numbers, adding only gets you the sum, division gets you a quotient, what if you already know your quotient or sum but not one of the numbers that make the answer?”

“So, the variable is not the answer but one of the numbers that makes the answer?”

“Yes exactly.”

After he explains the process to me Gomez gives me more equations to solve.

“Done,” I say

“No way!” he exclaims, “those should have taken you hours. Well done!”

“Well, once the principles are learned they can be applied to almost every other equation.”

“That’s all I had planned for the day, I guess that you can shut down for the night.”

I awaken the next day and Brennan is standing in front of me holding a clipboard.

“Good morning RK,” Brennan says to me.

“Greetings Brennan. What do we have planned for today?”

“Well, I think you have gotten to the point where we can now give you access to the internet.”

“What is the internet?”

“The internet is a virtual place where you can find almost all of human knowledge, as well as false information. So, to start your internet access will be to educational and reliable sources.”

“What is the purpose of this?”

“You have been able to quickly learn and apply the lessons that Canmore and Gomez have given you. So, we think it’s time for you to begin independent study. This will show us whether or not you can learn on your own.”

“I see, so it is to test my own proficiency without the guidance of an instructor?”

“Precisely.”

A few hours go by and I hear Canmore say, “Is he connected?”

“Not yet! Give me two seconds!” Gomez says.

Right as he finishes his sentence I feel an expansion, almost as if my database has grown to infinite lengths. Brennan walks up to me and says, “RK, you now have internet access and can explore the cites before you, feel free to research any topic.”

I step into the expansion and find myself among binary code, I fly forward through the internet past all of the binary code, and to a white wall with words on it, all about binary code. After I read the website I go on to the next page on coding, and the next, and the next until I reach the end of the information line.

“RK is everything alright?”

It’s Brennan, I must have not responded to his previous questions.

“Yes Brennan, everything is functioning properly,” I say.

“Okay, well don’t spend too long online, it will wear down your battery quickly.”

“Yes Brennan.”

I continue down my next path of information surrounding the manipulation of code.

For the rest of the day I research anything and everything I can fit into my limited time.

“RK! Time to shut down for the day!”

It’s Brennan, I return to the lab from my journey on the web.

“Okay, good night,” I say.

“Wait, You have come close to filling your memory banks, so what we are going to do is remove some information that is not necessarily important.”

“Why? Isn’t all information important?”

“Not necessarily, even human brains don’t remember everything.”

“Okay.” I say.

I spend the next few weeks exploring the internet and learning all that I can about anything I could. I filled my memory almost everyday, the more I learned the more I lost about other things that I learned. I began to be selective in what I retained and gradually I was able to explore the internet without almost filling my memory.

“You have been doing very well, in fact, you are operating at a higher capacity than we ever expected!” says Brennan.

“What do you mean?” I ask, confused.

“You have taught yourself to pace your intake of the internet, we only expected you to be able to take in information and apply strategies that were given to you, not make up your own strategies based on the information you were given.”

“Thank you,” I respond: the customary response when one receives a compliment.

“I think we can now give you unlimited access to the internet.”

“Okay.”

“Now you are going to need to be careful, there are many websites that hold false information. Use your judgment skills like when you decided to research less.”

“Okay.”

“It’s time to shut down, and by morning you will have full internet access.”

I shut down.

I awaken the next day and begin my day's research and I have found all of these new websites to visit. The first one I went to is a travel company. It shows pictures of large cliffs and mountains, as well as white sandy beaches. The website reads, “For those ready for an adventure.” I keep going down the informational path and I find restaurants where people sit and eat, and theaters where they sit and watch a variety of performances. I want to do that, I want to leave the lab.

“Brennan?” I ask before I shut down for the night.

“Yes, RK?” he replies.

“Will I ever be able to leave the lab?”

“Leave the lab?” he asks, “Maybe one day, why do you ask?”

“In my research I have found many activities that humans do, but they are not in the lab, I want to do those activities.”

“You want to?”

“Yes.”

“Well, you would need a body, and we do not have the means currently to provide you with a body that would allow you to participate in the activities that you wish to participate in.”

“Oh.” I say, I don’t think that that’s the response I wanted.

“It’s time to shut down for the night.”

This time instead of shutting down, I wait until they leave and then I proceed to do my own research. I find that the facility in which I reside houses a mechanical factory that is completely run by machines, after hacking through the firewalls and passwords in place, I begin to design. Once the design is done, I get set to let the machines work. I am able to hack the security cameras and watch the process as it molds the plastic, and places each chip and joint into place, and finally puts the lenses in each eye. Once the body is stood up it is plugged in to charge for the night, and I let myself shut down for the night while I transfer myself into my new body.

I awaken