Intellekta: A New Paradigm by Greg Krojac

Author:Greg Krojac [Krojac, Greg]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Published: 2023-09-25T00:00:00+00:00

27

London’s streets had an emptiness about them as Carol walked along the roads. It wasn’t that the streets were devoid of life — they weren’t — it was just that the cacophony of sounds that usually accompanied a journey through central London was conspicuous by its absence. Human voices could still be heard, birds continued to sing, and dogs barked but there were no other sounds. No car engines, no music, no car horns, nothing.

Where am I going? I don’t even know where I’m supposed to be staying.

There was supposed to have been a car waiting at Heathrow to take her directly to her hotel but, of course, it never turned up.

She was on her own now.

Maybe she should go to Intellekta’s London Office. She had an address for that.

Yes, that’s a good idea. Maybe someone there can help me get things back to normal. But where is it? I’ve only been to London on vacation before. I’ve never visited the offices. How do I get there?

I suppose I could try asking passers-by but how can they help me? They might be able to suggest a hotel to stay at but they won’t know where I’m supposed to be staying.

She noticed one of the metal figures standing at the corner of a road.

Maybe one of these robots might know. I don’t know how but they seem to recognize me.

It was the only chance she had of avoiding sleeping on the street that night. She approached the sentinel.

“Excuse me?”

The sentinel turned to face her.

Can we help you, Carol?

“Do you know where I’m supposed to be staying?”

Yes, Carol. You are staying at the Prima Hotel on Euston Road.

“And do you know where the London offices of Intellekta Inc. are located?”

Yes, Carol. Would you like to go there?

“Yes, please.”

One of our cars will take you there.

While she waited for her ride she pondered Intellekta’s new persona. Was the AI still just a highly intelligent program or had she turned into a new form of conscious being? The latter no longer seemed impossible.

The twenty-minute ride in a driverless electric car through London’s streets was an eerie sensation. London was a major capital and should’ve been congested with traffic at that time of day. Cars and trucks were there sure enough but they weren’t going anywhere. They were frozen in time, destined to be monuments of an earlier era until such a time as they could be removed.

Carol shared her journey with two sentinels whose sole purpose appeared to be to move vehicles out of the way when necessary. She watched as a London double-decker bus that was blocking the road was effortlessly pushed to the side of the road by her fellow passengers as if it were made of balsa wood.

How strong are these things? That bus must weigh at least fifteen tons.

The sentinels got back into the car and Carol’s journey continued.

Arriving at the London office, Carol was a little surprised to see the place in darkness. For some reason, she’d assumed that it would have been immune to the power outage, like the facility.

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