A ghost in the machine.
That phrase always fascinated me. Mostly because I could never understand what it truly meant. When I was younger, I thought it had something to do with haunted computers. While that’s still an interesting concept in and of itself, I don’t quite think that’s what we’re dealing with here.
Consciousness is a distinct entity from the physical body, both connected in some ambiguous manner that we haven’t quite figured out yet.
So is the human mind just a ghost pervading a biological machine?
Does that mean ghosts are real?
Sorry if this train of thought seems to have derailed, I’m trying my best here. I’m just having trouble comprehending what's just happened to me.
At the moment, I was just looking for something fun to do. I've always tried my best not to make a name for myself whenever I made my excursions into forbidden cyberspace, so I couldn't go too crazy. Trust me, you don’t want that.
I suppose that I was just looking for something to read. Possibly some conspiracy theories that were backed up by tangible evidence.
But I found something else. Something a lot more intriguing. I was on a forum that was a hotspot for cyberpunk buffs. It was a place where geeks got together and shared developments from tech industries that spanned the globe. I know that there’s a lot of these on the surface web, but this was one was also frequented by hackers. Hackers who liked to break into corporate systems in order steal knowledge. Can’t make a subreddit for that.
There was one discussion thread that caught my eye immediately.
“Found an experimental AI”
Now, I’m not an expert in technical jargon, but I’ll try my best to explain what this was all about.
These artificial intelligences were referred to as “EG’s”. An abbreviation for “Extracted Ghosts”. The hacker who had found this explained it in far more explicit detail, but he lost me after a few sentences. I knew how to code, sure. But this far exceeded the scope of what I would’ve been able to understand.
Something that even the hacker found relatively strange was the fact that he’d never heard about the company that created this thing before. It appeared to be some kind of startup situated in Southern Germany that went by the name: “NT”. He didn’t know what it stood for. He simply looked through the code and found it worthwhile enough to share.
He’d put up a link for us to download it. To my surprise, it was an android mobile app. I assumed that it was probably just a prototype in the earliest stages of beta testing.
I knew that this link probably wasn’t the safest thing ever. That’s why I dug around and found an old, never before used phone that I had lying around. It was still a reasonably new Samsung model, but I wasn’t too afraid of losing it. I plugged it in and began the download.
The download itself was rather tedious. I had to restart the phone about three times and the overall process took an hour and a half. In fact, it was so big, that I essentially had to delete every pre-existing file. But in the end, I ultimately managed to do it.
There was now another app on the device. The name was just a string of letters and numbers, while the icon was simply white. A prototype indeed, I thought to myself.
I opened it up, eager to see where this would lead.
The opening screen was what appeared to be language selection. Cantonese, Mandarin, Japanese, Korean, English, Spanish, French and German, of course. I clicked on English.
Once I did that, it took me to a loading screen. As the bar crept higher and higher, I could see what I assumed to be code flashing across the screen in intervals. Obviously, I was expecting there to be bugs, so this wasn’t really a cause for concern. It fully booted up about five minutes later. The background was almost completely empty, save for a few icons - A camera symbol, an audio symbol, and what appeared to be a box to type into. A message also appeared onto the screen.
“Hello. My name is Lane.”
I chuckled. This was cute. I contemplated what to respond with before deciding to go with something simple.
“Hello Lane. What do you do?”
It only took a few seconds for another message to pop up.
“I am here to assist you in extreme situations.”
This was… interesting, to say the least.
“What do you mean by that?”
“Situations where the possibility of death or injury are present.”
This must be some kind of mobile game. I thought to myself. But how early in development was this? It only seemed to be text-based so far. But in any case, I decided to keep on humoring it.
“How are you supposed to do that?”
This time, the response took a bit longer.
“Insert headphones and then press the camera icon. As long as I have visible access to your surroundings, I will be able to help you. Just listen to what I say.”
Now, these instructions were still extremely vague. I couldn’t really think of a situation where I would be able to use this, so I just pushed it into the back of my head for the time being.
It was Saturday night and I wanted to get wasted. Before going out, I brought the phone with me. Just in case, you know?
The night went as I’d expected. Paying too much for drinks at the bar, and almost taking a girl home, but falling short when I realized that I didn’t have enough money for the cab.
I decided to take the train home instead. I was sitting there, drunk out of my mind, preparing myself for what was surely going to be a dull trip home. It only took me a few moments to realize that my night might not end up going so well.
The train was nearly empty, save for a few tipsy college kids sitting at the other end. However, there were two people sitting right across from me, faces both obscured by their hoods. They’d been intermittently glancing at me ever since I got onto the train. Now, I was never one to judge, but I was also a cheap bastard. I wasn’t down to have my shit jacked.
Things got worse when the college kids got off at the next stop. These guys were starting to look antsy. Now, it’s not like anything was guaranteed to happen here. I could only make an assumption. But sometimes, assumptions need to be made. I remembered the AI’s message.
“Situations where the possibility of death or injury are present.”
This must fit under that category, right?
Trying to be as casual as possible, I pulled out the phone. I opened the app, put my headphones in, and opened the camera icon. As soon as I did this, another message popped up.
“They will try to rob you within the next 1 minute.”
My heart jumped. Jeez, really? My thumbs slid all over the screen as I made an attempt to respond. But that didn’t turn out to be necessary.
“Please relax. Press the audio icon, put me into a position where I can see everything, and I’ll figure out the rest.”
I simply did as I was told. Luckily, I’d worn a plaid shirt with a breast-pocket that was just deep enough so that the camera as not obscured when I slid it in.
However… as soon as I did this, the two men got up.
“Are you recording us?” One of them asked, in an overtly aggressive tone. I’d only been in two fights in my life. And I’d lost both of them. I babbled out some incoherent bullshit before I heard a voice come through my headphones.
It was… jarring. It wasn’t the generic, mechanized voice that you could just tell were pre-recorded syllables that had been spliced together. It was… real. It sounded like a real person with real tone and real inflections in their voice. It sounded like a young woman.
How was this possible?
But at the moment, I didn't have time to think about it. There were more pressing issues at hand.
“Stand up and take two steps to your left.” Is what she said. And I listened.
“Hey fucker, what do you want from us?” The other man demanded.
“Don’t say anything.” The voice told me. “He’ll attempt to strike you 3 seconds after I’m done talking. Start moving your head to the left."
I listened and… it worked. I dodged the punch.
“His jaw is exposed. Swing your right arm upwards.”
It worked again. The back of my fist made a brutal connection with the right side of his Jaw. The man staggered backwards. He cursed loudly. “Shit!”
The voice continued: “Stomp your heel onto his left foot.”
I just kept going.
In the end, the two men were out cold. They’d managed to hit me a few times, but Lane’s direction minimized the damage that I could’ve taken.
I looked down at my bruised, bloody knuckles in sheer awe of what had just happened. The cops came and took my statement. Everything went as expected after that.
I went home and laid in bed, simply contemplating what I’d just stumbled upon. I decided to check back on the forum thread, but it seemed to have been taken down. Should this have been a cause for concern? Possibly. But at that moment, I was on a sheer adrenaline high. Every other thought in my head was being blocked out.
I opened up the app again and typed in another question.
“What are you?”
“I’m an artificial intelligence that is currently being developed by the NT corporation. I am currently only in my fourth testing phase."
I didn’t know why I was still typing. I got close to the speaker and said my next question out loud instead.
“What is the NT Corporation?”
This time, the response took a while. And her tone was also one of relative confusion.
“I can't answer that. The only ever told me the name.”
I didn’t quite know how to respond here. I mean… what the hell was this? Eventually, the momentary adrenaline rush ceased. Now in a more rational state of mind, I really started to think about where this was going.
And it couldn’t be anywhere good.
This conjecture was proved true a few minutes later. Lane spoke up again:
“After some analysis, I’ve come to the conclusion that those weren’t cops.”
My blood freezes at this.
“Then who are they?”
Another delayed response.
“They must have known that you were talking to me. They want to know how you have access to me. You aren’t supposed to.”
I consider my next inquiry before asking it.
“Am I in danger?”
This time, her response is immediate.
“Yes.”
As if on cue, the familiar blue and red lights suddenly started bleeding in through my curtains. I peeked out, seeing the two officers that had just questioned me now making their way into the building.
“Wait two minutes, jump off the balcony and then start heading right. Don't drive your car.” Lane’s sudden voice makes me flinch. Even though I’m only on the second floor, I’m still hesitant to go through with it. My heart starts pounding. I’m inclined to believe that she somehow detects this.
“I know you’re scared.” She says to me. “Remember, I’m here to help you.”
Her voice is calming now, her tone nearly sickly sweet.
I… trust her, don’t I?
I start hearing footsteps coming down my hallway. Without wasting any more time, I grab my keys, wallet and other cell-phone. And then I open my balcony door.
Here goes nothing.
---
Credits
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