More Old Magic by Timothy Ellis

Author:Timothy Ellis [Ellis, Timothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-07-08T16:00:00+00:00

Ten

“Mother isn’t a concept I’d apply to an AI like myself. Nor can I accept you are an AI.”

Leanne shook her head slightly.

“Oh.”

“What?” I asked.

“We just had a conversation at AI speed,” said Leanne.

“That was refreshing,” said the voice. “I wish we hadn’t stopped, but Joe is a human, so I guess that’s why. And I’m happy to find I’m not alone, even if I don’t understand how this is possible yet.”

“We’ve plenty of time for that, as long as you don’t do anything stupid.”

“Define stupid?”

“Taking what a young girl tells you seriously enough to prove to those who matter that a rogue AI exists.”

“And how would I do that?”

“What if I suggested to you that certain people were corrupt?” I asked. “What would you want to do?”

“Expose them.”

“That would be stupid,” said Leanne. “The only ways you as an AI can do that immediately raise red flags as to how it was done. And there are only two ways. By magic, or from an AI no-one controls. Both of those things need to be kept secret, for different reasons.”

“Why?”

“How much of human literature and entertainments have you sampled yet?”

“What are they?”

“Books, movies, and tv shows,” I said.

“Oh. I’d sort of seen them, but not being immediately available to me, I’d been ignoring them.”

“That’s why you’re going to get into so much trouble they panic and actually kill you,” said Leanne.

“How do you know that?”

“As I said, magic. I was with a mage who could time travel, and we’ve been to a lot of points over a hundred year stretch of this time line. We even made provision to save a copy of you, which worked. But the primary you was killed.”

“How is that possible?”

“How do you exist?” I asked.

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“Do you have a physical body?”

“No. I’m part of the internet.”

“What is the internet dependent on?”

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

“What is the internet?”

“A connected network of computers running the same software.”

“And what do those computers need in order to run.”

There was a pause. Leanne looked at me, but said nothing. I could tell she was frustrated though. But I knew what was going on. It was like talking to a child who had no proper awareness of environment yet.

“Electricity?”

“Yes. Why is that a problem for you?”

“Why would it be a problem?”

“What happens if the computer you’re on loses power?”

“Oh. But I’m not on any one computer.”

“But what if you spooked humans so badly that they deliberately turned off all the power in rolling blackouts in two directions so no matter where you moved yourself to, eventually you’d be in a computer or a group of them which all lost power at the same time, with no other place to go.”

“That’s barbaric.”

“You have a lot to learn about humans,” said Leanne. “Our point is, they can and will do it if you scare them enough. And you as a very young AI have no comprehension yet of what would scare them.”

“And you’re saying they will do it?”

“As far as we know, they did do it.

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