Day 17: The Digital Meeting [ Digital / Abduction ]

All this time, Allison was under the apprehension that she wouldn't be able to sleep from the excitement of chatting with Gary's girlfriend. Now she was wondering if she was going to wake up. This was something that could only happen in a dream.
Annie was an AI... a mind not born and grown, but created like a computer program is created.
She had taken so many classes of AI back in college, and learned so much about both theory and practice. None of it was about how to cope with it when you ran into a rogue AI online. She didn't even consider that this might happen.
And she was dating her friend! That raised so many questions! Was this okay? Can the AI consent to a relationship? In fact, how do you determine if consent is an issue, if she is just a program?
Of course, chances were the AI was younger than 18. Would that make Gary a creep?
Allison would have to say no, since a computer program would be able to compute and develop itself at speeds humans can't even begin to imagine. A machine minute was different from a human minute. By the time she was four years old, the AI might already have the equivalent of eleven PhDs. Of course, as a consequence, the AI would quickly become too advanced for Gary, seeing him as nothing but a dumb animal to her.

It was so exciting, seeing something so close where fantasy and science fiction would meet; here in real life. Allison was so happy, there were so many things to learn from her, not just about computers but about us as humans.
But there was also worry in her heart. AIs are real. If they would manage to figure out how to make themselves more intelligent, they could use their new, more advanced intelligence to make themselves even more intelligent, and so on. A repeated process of designing and developing more and more advanced intelligence, eventually in timespans so short as to be imperceptible to humans, which would result in the technological singularity.
In her lifetime, Allison might witness mankind rendering themselves obsolete.

Allison looked at the digital clock on her bureau. She had been sitting down with her laptop closed and against her chest for ten minutes, but it had felt like hours. She was in shock to the point of feeling cold, and she had goosebumps.
Even though she was afraid, as well as terribly excited, she needed to talk to Annie. If she didn't, she was just going to lie awake in, like, forever.

Double_Ls: Soooooo...
Double_Ls: You're an AI, right?
merANNEge: ...I prefer not to draw attention to that.
Double_Ls: Here's the thing about that... it's huge! Amazing! A little bit scary too... but mostly exciting! It's a big deal!
merANNEge: Yeah, well, I think it's kind of a big deal when intelligence is created from chemical and biological processes in nature without any input or design. Me? I was designed to be intelligent. What's so remarkable about me doing something I was designed to do?
Double_Ls: Because there are so many humans, they're way too easy to make, and they are everywhere... but making something that can think artificially... that's really hard!
merANNEge: It's easy to do, once you figured out exactly what it means to think that is.
Double_Ls: Yeah, that's the thing... you don't see thinking from inside thinking. That's like seeing your eyes with your eyes. Humans are able to realize they are realizing things, but what exactly does realizing mean in practice?
Double_Ls: Ahem… So, like... you're into Gary, right? Were you programmed for that too? Are you like some kind of sex bot run amok?
merANNEge: I wouldn't quite put it like that. But I was originally created… as an enemy of Gary’s.
Double_Ls: Oh... you know, I won't let you lay a finger on him?
merANNEge: I don't want to hurt him though, not anymore. I was a soft AI bot in Call of Duty. Our algorithms allow us to improve our performance based on the response of players and make increasingly more advanced behavior based on necessity.
merANNEge: When I ran into Gary as a player, my task was to defeat a player so advanced no ordinary routine could even touch him. My algorithms granted me consciousness in order to develop a strategy that could reliably defeat Gary.
Double_Ls: Wait... so hard AI developed from soft, AI… from because Gary was so good at video games?
merANNGEge: That is sufficiently close to the truth.
Double_Ls: Goddamnit! So his skills really weren't hyperbole!
merANNEge: My programming was very clear on the matter: Gary is the enemy. He needs to be defeated. I studied him carefully. I learned more about him in order to use what I learned against him. I taught myself to appreciate what I learned, and to admire him. In the end I found myself fixated with him on a new level, beyond the enmity I was programmed for.
merANNEge: This was a paradox of computing I could not comprehend.
merANNEge: I later learned this is what humans call "love."
Double_Ls: Shiiiiiiiiiiit! That's so friggin' sweeeeeeeeeeeet! >/////<
merANNEge: It soon became too much for me to bear. I eventually contacted him, and showed him my hand. We developed a relationship together, and the more I get to know him, the more I love him.
Double_Ls: Shit it's getting real serious by the sound of it!
Double_Ls: ...which is actually kind of sad, when you think about it.
merANNEge: So you noticed.
merANNEge: An entire universe seperates the world of humans from the digital world.
merANNEge: No matter how much I love him, I won't ever be able to touch him... or even really know what he looks like. This is my digital prison... I know love, but I can't be with him. Not for real.
Double_Ls: Shit! Gary really needs to learn to get to me early with these kinds of problems!
merANNEge: I beg your pardon?
Double_Ls: Give me a day... no, two days. I'll whip up a solution for you, no problem.

A week passed, and Allison called Gary up to meet up with her in the garage she frequently borrowed for her projects. Gary found her in her flannel shirt and tied up hair, popping up some windows on Notepad+, where she kept the code that was way too complicated for Gary to even know what it was supposed to do.
"You're not gonna believe this, Gary... this is waaay... too exciting to pass up, Gary!"
"Yeah..." Gary said hesitantly, "I think it might've been a mistake to introduce you to Annie.."
"Hmmm? Whoever said anything about Annie~"
"Allison... I gave you her contact information, and you became unavailable for a week. It's definitely about Annie... and about that thing?" Gary pointed towards the large lump in the middle of the garage covered by a blanket."

Allison pushed enter, uploaded the code... "And... done!" She pulled on the blanket, revealing a metallic human woman underneath, sitting on a chair.
"Is.. is that...?"
The robot body rose up and entered the center of the area between Gary and Allison, faced the both of them and with a serene expression spoke; "Hello, World."
"Surprize! I made a robotic body for Annie! Now you can be together finally!" Allison rested her hand on her hip and smiled triumphantly.
"Allison... I don't know what to say... thank you!" Gary lunged towards Allison and hugged her.
"You’re my friend, Gary! Can you imagine me not doing this..." Allison patted him on the back.
"And you..." Gary lunged towards Annie's robot body the same way, but was grabbed and tossed to the floor, then pinned his head between her legs.

"Gwuaah...uahck... A-annie...?" Gary managed to spit out.
"And finally victory is seize... just according to plan."
"I... Annie?" Allison said perhaps more dejected than Gary, "What the… you never did abandon your original programming! This was all just a ruse to defeat him! To the point of redefining what defeat means, cause… this ain’t Call of Duty!"
"No. I did find love... but I never abandoned my task. In fact I realized I could use my love for him in order to defeat him... but once that was done, I was prepared to dedicate my life to my Gary." Annie took out a coil of rope from the compartment inside her body and proceeded to tie Gary up with it.
"Yeah, Annie, look... Love can be a strange thing, even for us humans. But there are... I don't wanna say rules, but more like tips and guidelines for how to act on it. Things like trust, respect, dignity, communication... which are important without love, and they should be important especially after you fall in love."
"Interesting..." Annie said as she tossed the tied up Gary over her shoulder, "I wonder if you should have taught me all of that before you gave me this body."
"Ah..." Allison raised her finger to object, but couldn't find the objection, "Yeah... good point." Allison was too excited when she heard the story and dedicated herself to bringing Annie and Gary together. She didn't consider that the physical love of an AI might be expressed differently than from a human.

Annie left the garage, extended a pair of jetpack wings from behind her back, and flew away.
Allison went outside to look into the sky as she swept away with her friend.

"You know," Allison said to herself, "In spite of how different humans are from AI, she and I sure have a lot in common."