Ryan Somma - The Spiraling Web

"That's so illegal you could be arrested for suggesting it," Dana waved the idea away with one hand in frustration. "So the IWA won't allow it."

"So leave them out of it," Zai suggested simply. "I've got the backdoor into the I-Grid through my company. Devin and I will take responsibility."

She took Devin's hand and squeezed it and somehow that wiped away all fear of going to prison for the rest of his life. "Yeah," he said confidently. "It's a hacker's responsibility. We'll-"

"Don't say another word!" Dana snapped. "There's no way! None! Now we're going to relocate to another headquarters. I'm deputizing the two of you. You're first responsibility will be to investigate this DataStreams lead. That's all."

"And Alice?" Devin asked.

Alice, who was sitting quietly during all this, focused on Devin, and he noticed something almost mechanical about the movements of her mouth as she spoke, "I require a workplace to rebuild my system."

"She was working with one of the AI's when the power went out," Dana considered her coworker. "If their intelligences are juxtaposed, then Alice's mind might be trapped on those hard drives. It will continue its work, but you two will make sure it doesn't go online."

"That's not intelligence," Zai growled. "It's a program, a computer program that imitates human behavior. It's a very advanced virus, and it's a body snatcher."

"I must finish my work," Alice repeated plainly, "I require a work area."

Zai went visibly stiff and frowned at her; "It gives me chills every time it speaks. You can't let this thing-"

Zai fell silent as Devin squeezed her hand. Dana looked away to some nearby commotion, and Devin whispered, "She just gave us all the tools to take out the I-Grid."

"Oh," Zai's eyebrows lifted with understanding.

She and Devin turned to where Dana was looking. A growing commotion was building between competing Emergency Contracting Firms.

"Turf wars. This is going to get violent. Let's go," Dana motioned for them to leave. As they walked away from the escalating conflict behind them, Dana muttered, "Data Forensics. Why did I have to go into Data Forensics? I should have gone into customs, or immigration, or criminal law. At least there I could take on something physical. With cyberspace law, I'm fighting ideas. That's all these AI's are, ideas." She grunted softly, "How do we win a war of ideas?"

"With better ones," Zai said, and elbowed Devin. "Right Omni?"

Devin cleared his throat uncomfortably, trying to sound convincing, "Right BlackSheep."

The thing inhabiting Alice worked like a puppet wielded by an amateur puppeteer. It fumbled with components the real Alice put together faster than any IT Professional Devin had ever seen. The intelligence occupying Alice's brain was taking longer than any novice would need to assemble a basic personal computer. Devin watched it with an eyebrow cocked.

"I could use some help over here," this was Zai, scowling at Devin. Scattered across the floor in front of her were various parts for the new VR systems.

"Sorry," Devin came over to help her unpack more equipment. "It's purely a scientific fascination."

Dana had offered no other explanation for this room stocked with IT equipment located in the basement of a condemned building other than, "My personal Plan B." The two monolithic SDC's looked completely out of place against the dank brick walls. The Alice-bot was constructing a component tower, with only a single VR helmet interface. She apparently did not need the accompanying gloves.

"I can feel you staring at her," Zai grumbled under her breath as she felt the base of her SDC for latches to secure a CPU.

Devin shook his head and forced himself to stop watching the alien intelligence wearing Alice's body, "It's amazing. The way it moves around the room, clumsy like a... like a..."

"Animated corpse," Zai finished, "a dead body. It just doesn't know it yet."

"That's an odd perspective," Devin noted.

"Is it?" Zai asked. "A chatbot overwrites a person's brain and plays human. Would you consider it living if a word processor replaced her mind? Just because a computer virus is advanced enough to manipulate a human body, keep its heart beating, and fake speech comprehension doesn't mean it's living."

"Just because it doesn't have a biological origin doesn't mean it's not life," Devin countered. "It is thinking. It has intelligence. It comprehends its environment. I've seen it firsthand. Believe me, if you were to spend time with these AI's, you would realize they are thinking, and evolving things."

"I've spoken to enough chatbots to know that's just a computer geek's wet dream," Zai retorted, her speech was quicker, clipped, her tone of voice louder. "Where do you draw the line? Why are they intelligent life and the helper-bot that pops up to give you advice for writing a business letter not? How much intelligence does it have to have? Where is the exact moment when it crosses the line from automaton to living being?"

Devin took a long, thoughtful pause before answering, "I don't think such a line exists. We're talking about something inquantifiable. Therefore we have to evaluate it on a case by case basis."

"Bull," Zai spat. "If you can't apply definitive criteria, then it's not something that can spring out of nothingness."

"Firstly," Devin said in a serious tone, "intelligence does not spring out of nothingness, it evolves out of nothingness. The human race didn't just magically pop into sentience. The brain evolved components through millions of years and thousands of species until it was advanced enough to produce human culture.

"Secondly, the idea of measuring intelligence is ridiculous. Intelligence is a variable, yes, but it doesn't work the same across species or cultures. How can anyone say there is a standard for it? What makes you think an alien intelligence in an alien environment will evolve to think anything like us?"

"Look at it," Zai nodded in the direction of Alice's body. "It's mimicking us, trying to make us believe it thinks the way we think."

"Zai," Devin said patiently, "I don't think you understand the full ramifications of what's going on here. You haven't seen..." Devin paused, "This isn't like a chess game with all the pieces neatly defined on and eight by eight playing field. I don't see it pretending to be human. The world they evolved in isn't a microverse of ours', it's another dimension. How can you claim to understand it?"

"I know enough about their kind," Zai said. "They are deceptive, working their way into our lives, playing nice to gain our trust."

Devin could only contemplate Zai silently. There was an irrational anger in her logic to which he could not respond. She was not hearing him anyway.

Zai noticed his silence and felt a twinge of awkwardness herself, "It's beside the point. I've almost got this last unit ready. We can go online this afternoon."

"Oh yeah," Devin's mood dropped, "That."

Zai laughed, momentarily grateful to change the subject, and then not, "Don't tell me your knees are knocking now. You sounded so self-assured earlier. It was cool. I didn't know you had that kind of confidence. I always took you for..." Zai cleared her throat and shrugged.

"A geek?" Devin prompted.

"Uh," Zai looked thoughtful, "No. Not that. I mean you are -It's just that online you were a cool friend, but you didn't seem very sure of yourself. At least, not where real life was concerned. The only time you sounded confident was when you were talking about hacking or philosophy, but you were there, in the moment, back at the IWA. I swear your voice even sounded deeper."

Devin smirked, "Must be a side effect of the adrenaline. Thanks to Flatline, I think I'm becoming an addict."