Doppelgänger by Chip Walter

Author:Chip Walter
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chip Walter
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

44

Evolution

Daedalus Huxley sat in his living room listening to a book. His book.

"DNA is a form of intelligence," said the audio narrator he was listening to, "although we don't normally think of it that way. It’s a code that links four molecules in different combinations, along a great twisting ladder. The sequence in which they link store the instructions for replicating another version of itself, which makes it capable of spontaneously creating, almost magically, every form of life on Earth--an African dung beetle, a redwood tree, a human.

"When a baby is born, the tight coil of her DNA not only shapes the personal future of that child, but it holds the history of all the creatures that came before.

"This means that the ancient remnants of our DNA, the ones that enabled us to survive long ago as foraging primates that roamed the savannas, wild-eyed with fear, remain within us. It means that the clever apes who developed the cunning to invent tools, hunt in packs and, in time, bring down entire species, are all in our blood. The passion for greed, the circuitry for panic, the pathways for love and altruism, the foundations of disdain, manipulation, pleasure and thrills remain within all of us, buffeting us in ways we cannot conceive. They are inarticulate and elusive. But they are there; the invisible hand that drives everything we do."

Daedalus had written the book many years ago when he was trying to fathom how to build an intelligent, purely, digital creature. What would such a thing look and act like? Soulless? Alien? Unpredictable? Certainly not human, or, perhaps, even truly able to relate to humans.

Daedalus never really figured out how to solve the AI problem; not until Morgan came along. And Daedalus hated him for that. He was stroking the leather arm of his chair, and gazing from his penthouse, the snow rippling through a million lights in broad waves like a tremendous flag, when MALCOLM appeared in the chair next to him.

The ENT turned to Huxley as if he had been sitting there the whole time. "Have you ever known anyone more obsessed with death than Morgan Adams?" He asked.

Daedalus tried to appear calm. He raised an eyebrow. "No."

"He is obsessed with death and dying."

"Yes."

"And did you not tell him that he would be dead soon, again, if he did not find the nanochip that we all so desperately want to find?"

"Yes."

MALCOLM rose. "Then why hasn't he found it?"

"Haven't we already had this conversation?"

MALCOLM walked silently to the other end of the enormous room. ENTs had no weight so always walked silently; another trait that gave them an unsettling quality.

"You would think dying once would be enough for him," MALCOLM snapped. "But you wouldn't know it. You'd think he had all the time in the world. I even dispatched some spiderbots to put a scare into him, and still no results."

MALCOLM raised his hand before Daedalus could say anything. “Don’t worry, I didn’t hurt him. I know we need him.”

"Yes, we do.

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