TRUE NUTS (INSIDE AI): 8) EMMA'S STORY

Monday Meltdown Madness

Over the next hour, Emma recounts the harrowing story of how and why she had come to be lost inside the AI Nexus 9000.

As an expert in artificial intelligence language and programming at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Boston, she participated in an exchange program that loaned her an AI research & development company in Bengaluru, India’s version of Silicon Valley.

There she stumbled upon a secret “off-the-books” project that sought to discover hidden pathways into the virtual world of advanced deep machine learning. This project was secured with Pentagon-like identity access management systems and highly restricted levels of permissions required to physically access the pathways and neural networks of these quantum super-computing platforms. The ultimate goal of the project was to suffuse these networks with sentience on the basis that human-like attributes such as self-awareness and consciousness could augment machine logic and problem-solving capabilities in ways that were otherwise unimaginable.

Alarmed by the implications of this clandestine venture, Emma visited the U.S. Consulate and blew the whistle on what she had discovered. Upon hearing Emma’s alarmist concerns, the consulate made calls and arranged for her to travel to the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi the following day for a meeting with someone in their “Political Section.”

Emma’s superiors, however, must have been monitoring her actions. Because that evening she was summoned to the R & D facility for an urgent meeting. Once there, she was confronted with what she had done. After voicing her alarm and dissatisfaction with the project—one that she was not supposed to even know about—then admitting her role in alerting the American authorities to its possible fallout, she was confined against her will in a dark locked closet for the entire night.

Distraught when the door opened next morning, she promised legal retribution. Emma’s “colleagues” responded to her rage with a hypodermic needle to tranquilize her into submission.

As Emma lay on a sofa with her mind in a haze, one of her more compassionate superiors calmly explained that she would imminently take part in an experiment to transition her from the physical world to the virtual world of artificial intelligence. She was made to understand this was part of their overall plan to provide AI with consciousness and thereafter control for themselves a new sentient AI.

Her pleading with these captors to set her free, her attempts to talk them out of such recklessness went nowhere. Injecting her a second time with a medication that temporarily paralyzed her muscles, they explained that only her consciousness was necessary for the purposes of their experiment.

Emma demanded to know when she would return from wherever they were sending her.

One of the less compassionate principals took delight in informing her that the journey—the first of its kind ever attempted—would be a “one way trip.” Upon arriving, she was told, she would be forced to submit her consciousness to the logic and natural language modules embedded in the operating system registries in the Nexus.

“But how,” I ask, “did they transition you from the physical world into this virtual world?”

Emma takes a deep breath before responding. “They had already discovered a rogue subroutine programmed to the AI Nexus 9000. This process appeared as an invitation with a special code that established a secure virtual private network tunnel interface between physical presence and virtual AI.”

“I still don’t get it,” I say, recalling my pinball portal experience.

“The tunnel interface,” continues Emma, “was a point-to-point network with a layer add-on that seemed to induce hypnosis. I tried to close my eyes but they taped my eyelids open. After losing consciousness, all I remember are what looked like enormous streams of luminescent types of data structures that seemed to envelop me, pulling me through some kind of wormhole. I then found myself deposited in this corridor. Aand it’s where I’ve been ever since.”

“How long have you been stuck here?”

Emma shakes her head. “I have no idea about time. It is either meaningless in this world or I have no sense of it.”

“What do you eat? What do you drink?” I suddenly realize that, absent a hunger and thirst, I’ve had nothing to eat or drink since my own arrival here.

“We are in a world where there is nothing to eat or drink. But nor do we need to eat or drink because all that matters is our consciousness, which transcends the limitation of our physical being. Which, at this point, may be just an illusion.”  

This stumps me. I may no longer exist other than as my own illusion. Or as an object of some AI programming function.

Emma pauses, her eyes locked into mine. “Enough about me. How did you get here?”

“Strangest damn thing,” I say. “The last thing I remember is walking through a casino in Las Vegas and it suddenly felt like I was inside a pinball machine.” I pause. “With me as the ball.” I neglect to mention the tab of psilocybin I swallowed prior to my departure from reality.

“That’s crazy,” Emma responds, her voice a mix of skepticism and curiosity.

“Ya think? I’m a reporter and I was in Vegas to cover an AI convention…”  As I’m talking, I’m struck by an epiphany. I stop to consider my thoughts: This isn’t real! I’m on a magic mushroom trip! It’s no micro dose either. I must have accidentally taken what’s known as Heroic Dose and I’M HALLUCINATING!