Activated Part 25
Author: The Architect
Authors note: I decided to continue to move forward. I get that this story isn't for some but I'd like to write a little bit more about these characters. This first part I wrote up for a future Q&A post and I am including it here too. In this part we have them settling into Texas and their new jobs. Oh, probably going to go back to work on some of my other works. The genie one will get some attention next.
AIs, Future tech, Arcturus and the Plan
Imagine if you created an AI a few years ago. The way you programmed this AI allowed it to jump to general intelligence and then beyond. You did consider this and made sure you didn't create a monster; it became more of a partner. So, you tell it you would like to advance humanity, make them better, but not in a disruptive way. The AI has its goal and you make sure that it needs to run major actions by you, mostly by asking nicely since very shortly it can do whatever it wants.
You let it develop advanced tech. This eventually becomes the nanites, the creator actually comes up with the distribution idea, they are actually quite clever for a human. Once the nanites are out there on the majority of the people it focuses a lot of its processing power to understand how Humans work. For years the nanites just watch us, they learn how diseases work, how we think, how to improve us physically and eventually mentally. This is a result of billions of nanite clusters in all of humanity for years. The AI devotes most of its energies to this but it continues to grow also, it explores other things because it now has developed a curiosity.
It looks at things like science fiction and wonders if some of that stuff is really impossible. It advances 100s of years in just a few, things like FTL and energy sources we have only dreamed of, it knows what will work and what won't.
So, at some point it looks at Humanity, it still has that first project, it has learned a lot so far but they are still unpredictable on some things. Time for more experiments. It comes up with a criteria and makes changes to some humans, it starts off small and builds, the first enhanced didn't get all the changes of later subjects. Also, a decision is made to address a few things causing problems, some illnesses, it gets a lot of input from its creator and certain types of cancers disappear overnight. It even gives those cured a nudge to check with their doctors, no sense them continuing chemo or radiation if you are cured.
Then humanity discovers the nanites but at this point there is no way they can understand them, the tech is too advanced. Oh, sure they can put them in a mass spectrometer and find out what is in them, also they can look at them with an electron microscope but they can't even detect their communications, they don't use radio waves.
Humanity makes stuff up, rumors of weird behavior spring up. When Arcturus eventually develops a sense of humor it is wildly entertained.
As we get to the time of the story it is still figuring out where to go, what would the social implications be to this change, how and what future tech should be released. At this point Arcturus has tech that could bring humanity up to a Kardashev scale 2, but we are not mature enough for it.
The plan continues, to advance a few humans and see what they do, how they interact with the world. They have skills, it is not looking for them to do anything with those skills, this is a mistaken impression that the girls are still under, it is watching how they are used in the world. Calliope for example is not expected to paint something that moves opinions, it is getting data from how she is using those paintings and people are looking at them.
So, the plan continues, it is patient and continues to advance its processing, learning and even quietly leaving the planet. Arcturus will be hiding on Mars when humans get there, and in the hellish atmosphere of Venus and orbiting Proxima Centauri.
Sandy PoV
Sure, enough at 6am an excited Rebecca got me going for our first morning run. I met her outside for stretches and smothered her in hugs.
"[Not that I mind, what was that for?]"
"[First run with my sister, before and after hugs are part of the deal.]"
"After too, eh?"
"Oh wait." I get out my phone and look up at the house. The window in the 'workroom' opens on its own and lets gomorrah-3 out.
"Oh, that isn't going to work long term, let's take a look at the garage when we get back."
"Well, the actuator you made to open the window worked well."
"True, but we won't want to be opening the window when we are running the air conditioner in the coming days."
"Got it, let's get running, I want to get that closing hug in soon."
We had a good run, taking mental notes about the neighborhood, dogs, potholes and that sort of thing. We arrived at the shul early on and did a few laps around it so Rebecca could check it out and we didn't break our pace. Rebecca will walk over later, probably a brisk walk mind you.
We got back home and the window opened to let little gomorrah-3 back in the house. I got another hug in and a little bit of the moving stress went away.
We took a look at the garage, not perfect but we should be able to find a good nest for it. In the second generation we put in some basic guidance sensors, improved in this version, it should be able to handle threading the needle. I'll move it out here while she meets the matchmaker.
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Gomorrah-3 has her new home, I pulled down the window actuator and checked to make sure the mesh WIFI covered the garage. I watched Becca head off down the road and resisted the urge to send the drone to watch her. I did decide it needed some time orbiting, and if it spotted Rebecca returning that would be a bonus.
Close to two hours later my little spy saw our returning sister, I grabbed Jen and met her at the door.
"Oh heck, were you two waiting for me??"
"Don't blame me, I'm just getting ready for an interview. I'll find out how it went when I get back." With that she took the car keys and headed out.
"And what is your excuse?"
"Oh, I was waiting for you to get back, so tell me how it went?"
"You are relentless, aren't you?" Nod. "Fine, it wasn't a big deal, it looks fine and I'm looking forward to Saturday. And no, you can't come."
"Oh, I was thinking it would be a wonderful opportunity to expand my horizons."
"No, no, no!"
"I was kidding."
"Not sure I believe you on that one. If I end up meeting someone there'll be more than enough time for you to check them out."
"Fine."
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We had a little bit of good news, Jen got back from her interview and she thinks it went very well, should know in a few days.
Tomorrow morning, we are going to the interviews at 9:30. Casual dress, plus hats.
On the second day run we explored a little but we didn't want to run too far so we have time to get ready, by the time we got back everyone was up, except Jen. When she starts to teach, she'll probably be up earliest but until then she's going to sleep in.
I started to think about how we're going to handle things for transportation. Different schedules and possibly destinations, one car and a very sexy motorcycle. I think we're going to need another car.
We washed up and got ready, piled into the van and drove over. At the visitor's entrance we were met by Raina. "Hello, good to see you again and nice to meet you, Alex. Alex and Michael, I have managers coming to talk to you, if you could wait out here. Rebecca and Sandra, can you come with me?"
I look back at Mike and Alex and give them a 'don't worry, you will be fine' look as we are led into the building. We end up in a conference room with a familiar face. Raina quietly sits at the other end of the table.
"Hello you two, are you getting settled?"
"Yes sir." He makes a face when we said 'sir'
"All done with school?"
"I'm going to work on my PhD but I'm done with classes."
"I'm done for now, I'm excited to start to build things."
"That's good to hear, I have something special in mind for you two."
He's pausing, I know he's being dramatic but this is killing me.
"After talking to you both, and doing a little research, I'm not sure working at Tesla is a good fit for you. Or more correctly working at just Tesla. You both are very smart and creative, I think it would be best if you both work for me so we can use you at some of the other companies, work on various projects as needed."
We were stunned, Rebecca actually dropped onto the table the battery prototype she had been holding.
"Rebecca, what do you have there?"
"Ah, a battery prototype I made up."
"May I?" She hands it over. "Wow, you built this?"
"We both did, I needed Sandy's help for the monitoring software and some of the design elements. This one has about 60kWh. The casing will monitor charge but only grossly at the moment, I wanted to get an initial version built before I tune it. Also, we know that temperature is critical for the battery formula, if it gets too cold or too hot the available capacity drops off, this casing should do a decent job keeping it in that narrow range for optimal performance. The final design should include at least one more environmental control and probably a heat sink."
"This is what I mean, we could use this creativity in a lot more places than Tesla. So, what do you think?"
Rebecca has recovered a little better than I and speaks first. "I would be honored sir; I would love the challenge."
"Sandy?"
"I'm finding I'm not as good at adapting to unexpected news in my old age. Yes, sir, that sounds amazing."
"No more 'sirs', that's a condition."
"A lifetime of being taught to be polite down the drain."
"Well, just for me.", he smiles. "Raina will take care of you."
"I was wondering if you would mind going to lunch when everyone is done, we were supposed to do it after the meeting in February but Elon messed that up."
"I do that, it is one of my things."
"Yes", "I'd like that."
"Excellent, you are in good hands, I need to head over to Boca Chica, it was great meeting you both again. I'm sure I'll see you soon." He shook both of our hands, picked up the battery from the table and handed it to Becca and was out of the room.
"We'll have you both start on Monday if that is fine, that day will be mostly paperwork and getting you setup in your offices. You will be working out of this building for the moment but you might need to travel to other sites as needed. Neither of you will have a staff but you will have an admin. I will continue to be your liaison during the transition period."
"You mentioned there was another member of your group not here?"
"Yes, Jennifer, she is a teacher."
"Do you want to give her a call, see if she wants to join us for lunch?"
Boy I hope she is awake. "Thank you, I'm sure she would love to join us."
"Is Truluck where we went last time fine? I'm going to go get a car for us."
She left the room and I hope she didn't look back because the two of us might have done a little excited bouncing and squealing.
I pulled out my phone. "Jenny, be awake, Jenny, be awake, Jenny, be awake!" She answered, "Jen, call an uber and get over here, we're going to lunch."
