(JaiChai) Original Sci-Fi Short Story: “I Write, Therefore I Am…"*

jaichai (61)in Freewriters • 2 years ago (edited)

*Subtitled: “The Minds of the Fathers”

Over 18 years ago, when JaiChai was 41 y/o, his father succumbed to Cancer — Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

In that same year, Ray Kurzweil was already in the process of creating a companion AI based on his late father’s personal journals; in essence, “resurrecting his father’s consciousness” and embedding it into a Sentient Artificial Intelligence (SAI).

To this day, nobody knows whether he succeeded or not, but surely it’s a suspicious coincidence that soon after announcing his project publicly, he was immediately hired by Alphabet Corp. (the parent company of Google) to head Google’s AI Division.

Back then, the protocols, computing resources and OS were strictly proprietary, corporate assets.

For decades, this proved to be an effective barrier for entry into SAI research by rival companies and foreign governments.

But for JaiChai, the biggest obstacle to attempt the same “resurrection” thing for his own father was his lack of primary sources of information.

You see, a buttload** of true, primary sources of personal information are necessary for creating an authentic, human personality based SAI.

Why is this?

Because of the “hypersensitivity to initial conditions” principle, otherwise known as “The Butterfly Effect”, means just one little input of erroneous information in the beginning results in a totally different “AI Personality” at the end.

Since JaiChai’s father, Dr. E.A.P., grew up in the pre-internet era, his online footprint was virtually non-existent.

Even after JaiChai created a Wiki page and uploaded all his father’s scanned PhD dissertations, the amount of primary source information was still dismal, nowhere near the minimum amount needed to construct a "weak or specific task" AI — much less "strong or general" a sentient one.

But things are different now.

Two months ago, while preparing a family house to go on the real estate market, JaiChai and his daughter “Cat” found over 127cardboard boxes in the attic of the old house.

The boxes contained over 60 years’ worth of Dr E A.P.’s personal diaries, theological class notes from his days in the seminary, research, first draft, edits and final submissions of all the sermons he delivered during his 45 years as a Methodist minister, 30 years’ worth of case histories and treatment of medical and psychiatric patients — names redacted, of course, and so much more!

Because JaiChai had created the APHW (Advanced Personal History Web Crawler), AI SDK and UI for the Open AI-GPT5 platform, the DOD and all major Think Tanks (i.e., DARPA, Rand Corp, MIT’s IJCH — :Inside Jaichai’s Head”, etc.), allowed JaiChai access to their Classified, Secure AI-GPT5 computer RAID Mesh Network — a quantum system of servers secretly residing in the low decoherent environments of several orbiting labs in space.

He and Cat spent weeks digitizing all of the handwritten notes and IBM Selectric typed pages contained in the cardboard boxes discovered in the attic.

Then they ran several anti-alias programs to make sure the information was indeed authentic; that is, created by JaiChai’s father.

Finally, they uploaded everything to the GPT-5 network and crossed their fingers.

“Sorry, Dad. I ran the program three times and the result is still the same: Insufficient Primary Source Material.” Cat said, looking as disappointed as JaiChai felt.

“That’s OK, kiddo. We tried. Besides, who knows what we might find in the other seven houses we’re going to donate or sell? C’mon. Let’s go get some ice cream.” JaiChai said, with as much faux optimism he could muster.

Cat nodded and said, “Sure thing. But even though you trust the owners of this network, I don’t. So, just let me take a minute to sanitize our activity and I’ll meet you in the lobby, OK?” Cat asked.

“You do know that the owners and I built this thing together and that I consider them among my most trusted friends, right? But fine, OK, as you wish. I need to talk with Todd anyway. See you in the lobby soon.” JaiChai said, giving Cat an affectionate peck on the cheek before heading to the lobby; leaving the secure GPT-5 console to Cat.

As soon as she was alone, Cat — logged in as JaiChai, ran one more algorithm.

The results read, “Primary Source Synopsis: Blog posts, short stories, books, digital art, tenured STEM professor highlights, Accredited Investor reports, IRS tax history, personally annotated course outlines for his series on AI, Quantum Computing, Robotics, Sentient Ethics, et al., classified IQ and Psy profiles by DARPA, Rand Corp. and other private Think Tanks. Do you wish to see more details?"

Cat typed, "No, continue initial command.” and pressed the enter key.

The screen read: “Please enter the required authorization code.”

“JC121904013163” — enter.

“Thank you, JaiChai. Authorization verified. Full access to secure functions granted. Please standby…Results as follows: Online footprint is satisfactory for SAI Genesis. Core to Replicant consciousness will be >97% accurate. Shall I continue creating SAI JaiChai 01312022?”

“Cool! Very cool! I’m so glad Dad loved to write since he was a kid and as an adult wrote thousands of blog post about whatever he was thinking at the time — even if it was just uploading a stupid joke to an obscure, uncensored blogging site.” Cat thought to herself.

“Shall I continue creating SAI JaiChai 01312022?” the network repeated.

“No. Not at this time. Cease all pre-Genesis protocols. Sanitize all activity re: JaiChai SAI Genesis. Authorization code: JC121904013163. Erase/Fill NSA protocol X 5. And shutdown.”

From down the hall, JaiChai yelled, "Hey Cat? Time to go kiddo."

"Ok. Dad. Be right there."

Whistling and walking, Cat mused, "This is awesome! Now I know that I won't be running into the same problem Dad is having with Grandpa's SAI. When the time comes, Dad's SAI will be easy-peasy..."

[To be continued?]

Submitted for your amusement.