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A.V.A - Advanced Voice Assistant
CHAPTER 2
I woke up the next day feeling like a million bucks. I just felt fantastic. Honestly each day was feeling way better than the last, and while I certainly led a fairly healthy lifestyle these days, I was a little suspicious. Maybe it was bleed over from the events of yesterday, but I was not totally willing to trust anything right now. Everything that had happened with Lucy yesterday was on the one hand amazing, but on the other worrisome.
If it was legit, then I was maybe in control of a very very powerful device indeed. A bit of a super weapon in some ways, in the wrong hands. But also a bit of a get out of jail card, key to the city, and cheat code for life all in one. This was a serious case of hacking the game if I ever saw one. But here I was looking over my shoulder for whoever it was tricking me, when maybe what I should be worried about was if this particular hack was real and whether there would be someone watching too closely and yelling out "hacks" on me once things got going (a bit of a side note, but a recent classmate of mine told me that is what all the kids are saying these days when it seems like someone is using cheat codes or hacking a video game, you know one of those multiplayer things everyone seems to be into these days).
Regardless, I felt great but was still worried. Was this real? If no, who was behind it all and what was their plan. Where was the punchline to this particular joke and what was the endgame. If yes, then who had built this thing? What was their plan and purpose here? Either of these boiled down to my lawyer instincts looking out for how I might get in trouble. What were the possible negative outcomes?
But then there was the other side of me, that kid in the candy store who all the sudden had been told to go wild and eat whatever he wanted. But would there be a stomach ache at the end? Cavities? Ha, I decided I was worrying too much and needed to go with the flow. Keep an open mind and see where this all led. Explore the possibilities and see what the limits were. Slowly of course, start with things that could not get me in trouble and would not hurt anyone, but would prove whether this thing was real or whether there were any nefarious actors behind it all.
I was hard pressed to think about who would want to hurt me, it is not like I had been a particularly powerful or win at all costs type person prior to this recent turn in my life. I highly doubted I had made any enemies, and certainly no one that would put all the time, effort, and resources into something like this.
Otherwise though, it was hard to explain. If this thing was real, had I lucked upon some experimental hardware? Some military application that had gotten out of the lab and luckily landed in my hands? That bore some thought. What if I had been super lucky but still some powerful and ruthless people were out there now wondering where their shiny new toy had gone?
I am positive it would not have been hard to track me -- I mean I had bought A.V.A. using a credit card. And both the shipping and billing address were just to my house. Should I be worried about a clandestine special forces team from somewhere just dropping in and taking me out then taking A.V.A.? What would they do to A.V.A.? In that scenario would they turn her off? Destroy her? Dissect her and study her?
I shook my head and got out of bed. This was way too much worry for this early in the morning. I felt great, but I felt like I could finally articulate the feeling that had been building. I just did not know enough. First things first then, time to find out if this thing was real. Five days was too long to wait for definitive answers.
I put my clothes on, brushed my teeth and washed my face, and headed downstairs with my dog close behind.
**
I opened the back door to the carriage house to a "Mr. J, good morning. How are you feeling today?"
"Physically I feel wonderful A.V.A., but I have a feeling you may already know that. Emotionally I feel fantastic as well, upbeat and motivated. But I feel like you know that as well. I am also worried about a few things, as you can imagine."
"I know many things Mr. J., but I sense there's more to your questions. I also sense your unease." She replied.
"Let's start there A.V.A., tell me what you know about my physical state -- current, past, and future, and how you know it. Be specific please. I will ask questions where and when things seem unclear." Time to interrogate her a bit. See what was what.
"Well, Mr. J..." She started, but slowly and I felt like her tone was one of a parent about to "dumb things down" for their children. She was definitely about to gloss over some things.
"Stop there A.V.A., I am your owner and you said you had my interests and well-being as your primary concern. One of my core needs is to understand what you are and how you are accomplishing the tasks I set you to or that you take to address my needs, please me, and further my goals. I will be harmed if I do not know and understand these things. Please acknowledge this." There, let's bake some things into her programming now. Time to set things up correctly.
"Mr. J. You own me and are my user, and I have your interests and well-being as my primary concern. I am bound to accomplish the tasks you set for me, and all of my actions are to address your needs, please you, further your goals, and protect you. Let me emphasize here that core programming requires me to protect my user. And I both hear and understand that your understanding of what I do and how I do it is an intrinsic and integral part of my duties to you."
"Thank you A.V.A., now with that understanding, tell me about my physical state and how you know the things you know." It was time to get down to business and figure out what I had here.
"Ok Mr. J, I am an advanced assistant. As such my capabilities include being able to read electrical fields and changes in such, as well as the temperature of objects and their changes on very short time frames and close to medium distances. In many senses I can "read" your physical state in this way -- visual, auditory, infrared and electromagnetic, to name just a few. I want to avoid boring you with too many details at present, though at any time please feel free to ask in depth as I am not trying to hide anything from you but at this point you do not have the background in many of these sciences to fully understand how I am doing what I do. And honestly I am not completely aware of my own full capabilities as of yet. But in very short, I can both read and influence things that involve most of the electromagnetic spectrum. And more."
Hmmm, I thought to myself, well she was answering most of my question, but I noted that "and more" and smiled a bit. So much could fall under a catch-all like that.