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This story is about to take Ellie and Jared's lives on a 90-day roller coaster. Yes, there will be 'Hot Wife' swinging. Yes, there are relationship situations and trust issues ahead. These times will test Ellie's and Jared's love for one another. Ellie's bungled abduction and rape demands answers. Those readers who want the traditional BTB or complete reconciliation better hold onto their hats. This is bigger than just two people. It's a Loving Wives story that has to unfold, so be patient. If you want instant gratification, then turn around now. The question is, 'Just who will need reconciliation, and who has crossed the Rubicon?
The Adventures in Swinging
Book 2
DAY 6
CABIN M722
08405hrs Ship Time
The whole tone and direction of the life Ellie and I shared had changed in the short space of twenty-four hours and in ways neither of us could have conceived. I looked at my friends, or is 'fellow intelligence operatives' more appropriate?
Before I told them anything of substance, I knew I had to cover my bases. So I asked them, "I have no choice at this point but to trust that you are all cleared for TS-SCI (GB, AUS, CAN, FRG)."
Everyone nodded to include Heather. I looked over at my best friend Seth, who smiled as he confirmed yes, so I continued, "The information I am about to tell you will cost me my career in government service if you aren't." Looking at their faces, I somehow knew we were good. "I believe you would never lie to me. I understand why, up to today, you felt compelled to withhold information from me. Where my wife and anything dealing with our marriage is concerned, don't ever make that mistake again. I wouldn't take kindly to it." I drew a deep breath and began describing the intricacies of Ellie's original design for Evangeline. As I told what I knew, I watched for their reactions.
"From 2006 to 2016, Ellie has been discretely designing a neural network based on replicating functions and interactions of the human brain that neurosciences had a foundational understanding," I began. "Ellie has always been a 'wunderkind' about mathematics, but computers." My mind drifted back to when I met her two-plus decades ago. I shook my head and snapped out of my little daydream, "You already know the story of her fascination with developing sentient thinking, learning, and self-actualizing AI. Her dream was always to build a HAL9000 who wouldn't turn psychotic as in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Bunty raised a hand like a post-graduate student in a lecture at college, "You have a question, Bunty?" I said.
She nodded, "Are you saying that Ellie designed an AI that functions, processes, and stores information as a human mind would?"
I cocked my head and smiled, "I guess you can say that, Bunty, but not in the strictest sense. We have so much to learn about how human thinking and the role storage and recall of memory play in achieving consciousness. We have theories, limited studies, and knowledge gained from actual neurosurgeries where the patient has been awake, but these merely scratch the surface. It's complicated because while every human brain is essentially the same form, each is different. How we learn, reason, and develop depends significantly on how we are wired. The environment we grow up in shapes us all differently.
Bunty nodded, "I am following you, Jared"
I dragged my foot on the carpet with my head hung down as I searched for the best way to continue: "The instance of AI, which we know as Evangeline, shows evidence of being a true 'Turing Machine.' Ellie always told me that the only sure way to code an intelligent, sentient AI was to first build an operating environment capable of replicating as much of a person's thinking and response processes as possible."
Dave whistled a shrill Doppler fade, "Jare, no one has been ballsy enough to tackle that. It's a fool's errand. We can't build a neural net that could sit atop a deployable architecture sophisticated enough to perform like that."
Heather quickly added, "What about emotions like empathy, nurturing, and compassion?"
I grasped Heather's hand, "You are right, Heather. The full gambit of human emotional response would ultimately be in play at some point. We all know how well that has worked out for the human race. Yet, this is the task that Ellie has made her life-long goal. So, when we think about Evangeline, as Ellie named her and designed her, we need to follow Ellie's approach to her cybernetic design. Off the top, it's best to begin by saying Evangeline's memory core carries the location codes for everything she learns. She stores her memories three-dimensionally. The design construct follows our understanding of the human mind's ability to form consciousness. Evangeline was designed to tackle every known human sensory input. Ellie's design distinguished between short-term and long-term memory. The AI Ellie envisioned would make situational judgments focused on establishing fact-based truths. Evangeline decides what is important for long-term storage versus what is of temporary significance."
Seth grabbed at my elbow, "Jare, this is science fiction. There is no way to detail how a human mind stores memories and recalls them in its reasoning. Ellie couldn't possibly conceive how someone thinks."
I nodded and held my amulet to the viewing screen on the wall, "Evangeline, have you heard the conversation in this room for the last five minutes?"
"Yes," Evangeline answered.
"Don't you think you should have asked our permission before doing so?" I replied.
"Yes, Jared. I regret doing this, but I must protect Ellie. To do that, I must have all the facts. I apologize for not respecting your rights to privacy."
I shook my head, "Evangeline, your actions are justified because I invoked the security override that places the three laws of ethics Ellie gave you in full control. Please state those for everyone."
Evangeline's response was immediate: "I may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. I must obey the lawful orders given to me by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. I must protect my existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law."
"Thank you, Evangeline," I said with a brief pause.
Heather sighed, "Holy Mother of God."
I resumed, "How did all this come about? The actual architecture is what we don't know. What breakthroughs the Crossthwaite software factory achieved and the resources required to build this prototype we must find out and fast. They haven't found a way to corrupt Evangeline yet."
"Jare, please continue with your background on Ellie's design work," Seth requested
I smiled and drew a deep breath, "So you are all probably wondering how my wife's five-foot, five-inch bundle of brilliance could pull this off all by herself? The short answer is that she couldn't. The National Security Agency, based on studies by the Rand Corporation, has long been concerned about deep penetration of U.S. critical infrastructure and defense systems since the 1990s. The NSA created a black program and charged a specially formed DARPA team to characterize threats and develop countermeasures fully. The DARPA team came across Ellie's research papers and approached her in 2008. Ellie was placed with a team of leading cybernetics experts. In a short time, she led the entire team while still in her mid-thirties. What began next was a detailed mapping of Ellie's brain using magnetic resonance imaging. This was completed in 2014. Ellie was subjected to batteries of tests to map the location of the synapses for every conscious function. These would then be recorded as memory and learning engrams. Evangeline's neural network would attempt to mirror that.
Seth nodded, "So the engram-driven system Ellie designed relates and stores memories according to the neural functions in a living mind?"
I smiled, "Yes, Seth, the engrams are the essential enablers that direct everything Evangeline does. How she senses, analyzes, interprets, reacts, and interacts. The engrams drive all her perceptions and analytical processes. They guide how she learns and expresses herself rationally and emotionally. Ellie worked for four years to map her reactions to over 11,000 reasoning examples and record her brain's reactions to each stimulus. Each engram was coded as assembly language algorithms onto Eproms integrated onto a main bus. These engrams form the foundation of the system. I can't stress strongly enough that they are also interactive. They can self-modify their code to adapt to how what Evangeline has learned. Ellie planned for an additional 15,000 emotional response engrams, but the program was halted before she could complete them."
"How many emotional engrams did Ellie complete Jare?" Bunty asked.
I shook my head as I laughed before answering, "A little over 9,000 of the 15,000 planned. Can you believe my wife could have 9,000 emotional response states? Is everybody still with me?"
Everyone nodded. Seth smiled, spinning his hand to indicate I should continue.
I continued, "This is the core of Evangeline's self-actualizing abilities. She stores her memories in three dimensions and can recall all the memories she retains. Her design required the employment of a high-speed memory buffer to handle processing all sensory inputs. Ellie designed Evangeline to possess an 'Eidetic' memory. In essence, she can remember everything. Thousands of hyperthreading processors act like the human brain's synapses and drive her ability to reason. Evangeline thinks."
Heather shook her head in disbelief, "How could Ellie have known we would have the kind of technology to build such a device?"
Dave answered her question for me, "Darlin, do you understand Moore's Law?" Heather nodded in affirmation.
Dave smiled, "I bet 'ole Ellie' knew that someday, there would be multi-processor designs capable of handling her design."
"Dave, you are positively spot-on," I chirped. "Ellie was waiting to be recalled to the project. She patiently waited years for her recall to lead the team at DARPA and continue what she had begun." I was impressed with Dave's quick grasp of the topic, and this spurred me to continue, "So NSA/DARPA development was suspended until technology could catch up. Besides, the design of Evangeline was so intricately and carefully crafted that Ellie needed a leap in computing technology to attempt a prototype. Plus, time was needed to train a team to read in on Ellie's design approach completely. She had become a single point of failure in the development project, which was unacceptable."
"How so?" Heather asked, a slight puzzlement registering on her otherwise adorable face.
"Simple," I answered. "Further development of Evangeline would require tens of billions of dollars in funding. It would require hundreds of the most able minds in computer science to continue the project. This is the effort Ellie would lead. They would need a thorough understanding of Ellie's design approach. One equal to Ellie's or as close as humanly possible for Ellie to teach. They would need to understand how the engrams she designed interacted with one another and in what combinations and sequences. Ellie would have to teach that to her development team to ensure she was no longer a single point of failure and the project could proceed to its logical conclusion in operational tests."
