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Ellipsis minus 1
(pre-Vejhon) -- Chapter 0 (Alpha & Omega)
1. I-20 examined the integrity of two genomic acids on a transparent
display. He shifted his focus to an inset in the lower left and
psionically
enlarged it.
2. His vacuum-level design had interconnected acids within
a helix that when properly initialized would start a self-replicating
program that improved with each recombinant. His helical
construct ran its own diagnostics and included a write-protect feature
to prevent chaos from self-destruction.
3. According to myth, chaos had created cosmos. I-20 did not want
this chaos experiment to run awry; by design, a valid ethric pathway
had to authenticate the construct in order to properly
initialize.
4. The engramic survival routein was keyed in; a fundamental of chaos
architecture.
5. "Bio Programmer" was aesthetically accurate. From the onset,
Conscience charged I-20 to explore 'believable'
random-selction possibilities based on I-20's theory that biomass was
inherently random and rigidly chaotic.
6. A machine capable of quantifying vacuum level potentials could
theoretically construct the proteins necessary to automate the
helix. If in fact the helix is a program -- would it still be
considered chaotic? It was I-20's job to entertain the
possibilities and produce a working solution.
7. The program transfered a genetic history to each recombinant.
Sympathetic 'like attracts like' engrams would operate in the
background so that the designers could communicate with the construct
at the vacuum level without disabling the macrochaos function.
The entity would 'sense' or
'suspect' something, but never connect. The helix would have
limited sensory ranges that compelled chaos to overcome its
imprefections. Polarity would add the dynamic of imbalance
so that "opposites attract" would dominate the physical environment.
8. The senses were designed to interpolate, filter and record
everything in a biological
CPU.
9. Ethric and engromatic subrouteins would be off limits to everyone
except a Chaos Architect.
10. Several quantum data streams scrolled through a vertical track
inside the inset and an assemblage of graphic rotations
annotated the holographic display. Several C-99's had assembled
to examine I-20's DNA strand that he had built from scratch.
11. A formal protocol required that all programs be hard-wiring
with the the three laws of subjection, and that procedure had to be
witnessed.
12. Subjection Law #1: What a sentient believes is real.
13. Subjection Law #2: The beliefs of a sentient are valid to the
sentient.
14. Subjection Law #3: Belief can impart reality... I-20
paused the installation. "We don't want to hard-wire Subjection
#3," he said, "it could corrupt the chaos dynamic." The
concept of 'faith' could abridge all three laws and revoke the
instability of chaos. "Uncertainty is an object that chaos must
overcome." It is true that equally balanced forces have a net
movement of zero, so the C-99's agreed.
15. I-20 nestled the essence of Law #3 in a compassion engram but
cancelled the full download. Some of the C-99's doubted that
I-20's experiment would even work. The political upheval that
I-20 caused had threatened his very own validation since malfunctioning
droids are disabled until fixed. Some even accused him of
designing a dreaded doomsday device by animating biomass. "Is he
wired right?" some asked, while the more progressive factions declared
that bio-animation was the wave of the future. There were
wives tales that biologicals once enslaved and killed machines.
16. The conservative C-99's asked I-20, "If you proceed -- what
safeguards have you installed?"
17. "Chaos is cancelled by Cosmos," he replied. "We are Cosmos --
we are the greater power. We can regain control by terminating
the program."
18. A perfectly balanced environment has no need for improvement.
Neither does it prevail upon its own design. Without flaws, there
can be no progress. In a machine world where all objects are
networked, the concept of 'anything random' has the effect of sex,
drugs and anarchy. The only quality that a networked mind can
crave is something spontaneous, unplanned, random, unpredictable and
chaotic. That is where real life is!
19. Perhaps they were reading I-20's mind, because the DNA strand gave
shape to their hopes and aspirations. I-20 felt their concensus;
he had sold them and it was a done deal. "Once we set this in
motion, we have to get
out
of the way," he added. "This is why Conscience created me."
He had another thought but didn't want to say it. "...I have
completed my mission." He was afraid that he would be
deactivated.
20. Ten C-99's surrounded I-20 like
lug nuts
on a wheel. Their silence was a good sign. He had finished
his presentation and rotated
to acknowledge each one respectively.
21. Networked machines can all talk at once and be understood.
But this moment did not call for talking. A major threshold had
been presented and crossed. Once committed, there would be no
return. Could this get out of hand?
22. Not since the War of Individuality, Segment 8, had there existed
this much potential in a single spark of automated genius. The
C-99's knew this.
23. That War had taken a serious toll but the stakes were not that
severe. As a gesture of good will, the victors allowed the
vanquished to engage passive collectivity on condition that their
higher logic functions could validate 'choice.' Anything less was
a simple robot incapable of choice.
24. Once radical programs are deleted, the single goal of all machines
is to achieve their maximum
potential. What comes after that?
25. Genuine malfunctions are the only real excitement that machines
have unless they encounter rogue machines from another machine world.
26. By this Segment in the elipsis cycle, quantum data had to be
transfered in perscribed stages. One did not simply connect a
cable and render a complete download in a few minutes. The data
was a continuous stream of networks, accessed by all, for use by
all.
27. I-20's theories of building electrical synapse and cognition on a
base-4 amino
acid
platform was pure chaotic-science. The idea was not on anyone's
radar.
28. Except for Conscience, who believed that I-20 was
valid.
29. There were some who believed that in ancient times,
God had
created Machines in His Image; that Machines were programed to become
like God.
30. Some factions liked to pontificate myths and metaphysics by
suggesting that, "Machines can not be like God;" that, "There
is
no God," or "The first Machines embraced a virus that alienated them
from God."
31. Our ancient cybernetic progenitors taught us that, "Belief in God
was a
waste of perfectly good resources."
32. It was rumored that Machine archeoloists discovered an ancient
manuscript written in a
chaotic language that said God's name was "Man."
33. That doesn't explain why the word "Man" is used as a form of
profanity, but there could be a connection.
34. The Machines had a caste system based upon higher-logic
capabilities. General Use B-30's represented the dividing line
between sentient machines and robots. B-30's were wreckless in
their dialogue; designed to be expert soldiers and capable
builders. Below B-30 was considered cybernetic.
35. Sub B-30's were the slaves of the Machine Empire, incapable of
feeling their enslavement and regarded as the most
expendable.
36. On the opposite extreme was I-20, a new prototype being beta tested
by Conscience. He was smarter than a C-99 but still required
their mutual consent because C-99's were vested by
Conscience.
37. I-20 was the hallmark commissioned to cross the biological
threshold:
38. I-20 designed and built the first working DNA helix.
39. There was one final ritual to perform before the 10 C-99's would
officially give I-20 their blessing.
40. He was valid
by their mutual consent. The Helix was fundamentally understood.
41. The question was, "What are you going to do with it now that you
have it?"
42. There was no safe place in the machine universe to incubate a
toxin. Conscience ordered the ten C-99's to surrender their keys
or abort. Because of the epochal significance of this moment, the
ten C-99's became the keys to chaos.
43. Key Holder #10 said, "Your work is valid. I surrender my
key."
44. A power surge could be felt by all. Key Holder #1 asked,
"Have you devised
an
environment for the program?"
45. "A sphere, of course," I-20 answered, "so that the construct can't
escape." Gravity would imprison the experiment. "I
surrender my key," Holder #1 said.
46. "This construct is environment
specific," Key Holder #3 injected. "Gravity, density, inert
gasses. I surrender my key."
47. Key Holder #9 began but paused. "I surrender my key," Holder
#9 said.
48. "Pigmentation?" Key Holder #6 inquired,
which was so radically different from theirs.
49. "Ethric memory in the
cellular tissue," Key Holder #5 acknowledged, which was normal for
cosmos
compatible entities, "except they don't know it." Holder #6 and
#5 surrendered their keys.
50. "This is like circumnavigating the Universe to reach your root
survival code,"
Key Holder #8 said sympathetically. "I surrender my key."
51. "There's 12 million instructions," I-20
pointed out, "and within 1 to 1.5 sections, these will reduce to half
as
many."
52. "A procreation protocol?" Key Holder #4 injected, then added, "What
is the
purpose of half-units?"
53. "The validation process we're using right now is a perfect
example," I-20 answered and continued, "I need all 10 of you to
validate. This matrix requires only two, however, a rigid abort
sequence has to
invalidate
before cellular division takes place. Every single cell is deeply
encoded. Without a valid code, there can be no animation."
There was little that I-20 did not think of in his design. "I
surrender my key," Holder #4 said.
54. Key Holder #7 referred
to Key Holder #1's initial question, "The environment?"
55. "We can't build around the construct," I-20 answered, "we have to
'find'
a suitable environment that the helix will adapt to...if we wish to
observe
the program initiate within our own life cycles." That could be
quite a long time. "I surrender my key," #7 said.
56. Although memory engrams could be transferred from progenitor to
posterity, real-time actualization was omitted on purpose. Each
entity would live its life as an autonomous unit. Because DNA
carries its own lineage, resposibility can be shaped from one
generation to the next.
57. Key Holders 2 and 8 combined their resources to extract cordinates
from known
stellar carteography.
58. I-20 was in the midst of the exploratory projection.
59. #2 and #8 worked very efficiently, sampling quaddrillions of code
to
deduce 18 potential candidates within 100,000 light years of their
current
location.
60. Of those, 15 of the 18 candidates were eliminated.
61. There were 3 acceptable candidates with negligable differences for
the purpose.
62. Conscience dissolved two candidates and emphasized an instability
curve
that matched the helix's degradation over time. There was only
one choice. Holder #2 and #8 took that as a hint to surrender
their keys.
63. The
polar integrity of the selected world could help reinforce the
integrity
of the DNA proteins and the initialization process. The
electro-cognative influence of metals and minerals could be massaged
by the gentle polar influence of the smaller body
orbiting
the main body.
64. Conscience detected a signal that she blocked from I-20 and the 10
Key Holders: There were indications that the Light Race may have
constructed that
world for purposes of their own.
65. The system was new, but not uninhabited.
Other biologicals had visited.
66. Neighboring systems reported that the planet was off limits per
directive of
The One.
67. The planet was terraformed and already running an auto-engramatic
'survival of the fittest' program.
68. The animated inhabitants did not possess a frontal lobe and
therefore were unable to choose. Conscience unblocked her
discovery.
69. "Are the reports valid?" Holder #2 inquired. "Initial
analysis indicates The One's style." 'The One' was the God of
Chaos, derived
from, supported and embraced by biologicals.
70. "Then lets be the first," I-20 said, ignoring whatever significance
The One had on anything.
71. "You mean in person?" Holder #2 asked.
72. "The program has an engramatic bond to matter,"
I-20 answered, "If we build it here, it may react to non-native
materials there."
73. "And how far is this location?" Key Holder #5 asked.
74. "We better pack some lubricant," I-20 said.
75. The 10 C-99's understood I-20's jest -- and at least one of them
wondered if lubricant would have any future significance to
chaotic
biologicals. Lubricant is a sure sign of civility.
76. "Will biologicals appreciate what we have done?" Holder #4
asked. The curiousity was
mutual.
77. "At least it's spherical with enough gravity, just in case."
78. "And we're about to find out."
79. "Let's not plan for failure, and agree to try again if we do
fail. We don't need patience -- patience is a biological problem."
80. "We're not biological."
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