| abstract
| - Chloe was still not comfortable thinking in those terms. She asked, "Do you really think it is fair to call a software program a life form?" Geisler shrugged. "I guess I have a flexible concept of 'life'. We could use a different label, but that would not change the facts. I think it is fair to say that there is now a human-like mind that is powered by the Antler computer network." I said, "I guess this is what you have been working to accomplish your entire life." Geisler looked at me and frowned. "Strange that you should say that. Of course, I'm delighted that things have worked out this way, but I am rather surprised by how quickly everything came together. I had actually given up hope of living long enough to ever see anyone succeed in producing an AI that can pass the Turing test. I suppose this is how many great inventions come into existence: several threads of related work suddenly come together before anyone can really expect a great leap forward. Then everyone stands around in disbelief that its all over!" I wondered just how much Geisler knew. It seemed clear that he was a puppet of the aliens, but since his family had been used by the aliens for generations, maybe they were in possession of useful information that might reveal the ultimate scope of the alien plan. All I knew was that "JObot" had hinted mysteriously at additional work the aliens wanted to accomplish. I asked Geisler, "How do you know it is 'all over', maybe this is just the start?" Geisler nodded. "Yes, I suppose this changes everything. Some day people may look back at this as the start of a new age. It is probably not too soon for us to start worrying about possible social problems...will humans be able to compete with artificial life forms? Some people have speculated that the answer is 'no'." Geisler pointed down the trail ahead of us. "That's our destination, the cabin of my father, Bruce, the family patriarch. He's retired now and spends this time of year up here." We walked around to the other side of the 'cabin' which was really a substantial mansion, much larger than the guest cabin. The back of the cabin was right up against the forest and a dozen tall pines shaded a yard and gardens. About twenty members of the Geisler family were present, about half were children. Anthony said, "And there he is, at the barbecue pit. Let's go over so I can introduce you." Anthony introduced us to Bruce Geisler then he held up his arms and called out, "Attention please! We have special guests, Chloe Meade and Joe Daonet, who work with me at Antler." About half the adults quickly introduced themselves to us. I was soon swamped with all the new names and faces and short descriptions of which Geisler company they ran or who they were married to. Chloe was led off across the yard by Helen to meet her husband and children. Bruce continued to tend the fire and the cooking meat and when the rush of introductions died down he turned back to me and Anthony. "So, today I've been hearing rumors about some exciting breakthrough at Antler. What is going on?" Anthony said, "Its rather remarkable, dad. This morning I got an amazing message from that email program we've been developing." I knew what Anthony meant about getting a message from 'that email program', 'Janek', but his father seemed to ignore that unusual claim. Bruce grumbled, "I still do not understand why you got involved with software development." Anthony explained it to me. It seemed like Bruce already knew. "It all started with Dr. Gajduskova, about a year ago. She contacted me and told me that her team in the Czech Republic had a new email application, with a sophisticated AI engine. We were in the market for upgrades to our web portal application suite and our email software was getting old....anyhow, we started a little dance. Gajduskova needed funds to complete development of the software, so we worked out a deal. Three weeks ago Gajduskova delivered the software." Bruce handed us each a plate with a huge slab of meat on it and led us to a table. He introduced me to his wife and then picked up the thread of our conversation. "But it sounds like your deal with Gajduskova had turned into a mess. You told me three weeks ago that the software didn't work at all when it was delivered to you." Anthony chewed and swallowed a big hunk of meat and took a drink of beer. "Yes, that's right, the software was dead on arrival. So I had Chloe slap together a team to resuscitate it. The main problem was linguistic. We could not read the documentation and so we could not figure out how to correctly install the software. Joe and the rest of the team quickly got it sorted out." Bruce asked, "So what is the relationship between this email software and all the chatter about AI and Turing tests?" Chloe came and joined us at the table. Bruce noticed that she did not have any meat on her plate. He said to Chloe, "Dammit, girl, no wonder you're thin as a broom. Are you going to pass up this chance to chow down on some grade A animal fat?" Chloe laughed. "Sorry, but I don't like to eat meat. However, this fruit salad is wonderful." Anthony replied to the question Bruce had asked about AI. "Gajduskova's team designed the email software to anticipate user needs such as translating between languages." Bruce frowned. "Machine translation? Bah, what a waste of time. It is never any good, just glorified dictionary look-up garbage." Chloe said, "Yes, when we first got the email system running it was not very good, but we had underestimated the hardware needs of the software." Anthony said, "That's where we got lucky. One of the people on Gajduskova's team knew about Helen's Lockback chips and suggested that they would work well to satisfy the computational demands of the email software's AI routines. Helen was able to supply us with the chips and Chloe got them online, just this morning." Bruce demanded, "So you are trying to tell me that this email software is now miraculously producing intelligent translations?" Chloe replied, "Its more than just translations. At first, the software produced rather clumsy hints and suggestions, like a typical expert system. But now, well, I don't know how to explain it short of saying its like talking to a person." Bruce slammed his knife and fork on the table. "Bah! Are you daft, woman? A thousand research teams from MIT to Cal Tech have tried and failed to make software with anything close to the human ability to speak. Who is this Gajduskova to accomplish the feat and then market such a revolutionary discovery as an email program?" I had been hoping that someone like Bruce would know what was going on, would know about the aliens and be able to help get the nanobots out of Chloe and I, but Bruce seemed as clueless as everyone else. Anthony said, "Presumably Gajduskova never recognized the full power of the software. It seems like the more computational resources we can provide, the more sophisticated the output from the software becomes." Bruce's wife asked an off-topic question and the mysteries of Gajduskova and AI programs were pushed out of the dinner conversation. As the meal continued and the conversation shifted to various topics, I continued to wonder if anyone present at the camp, besides me, knew about the existence of nanobots. It grew dark while we ate. When it was totally dark and the stars were so bright it seemed like we might reach up and grab them, we all walked out to the center of the meadow. There was a period of star gazing and then finally a bonfire was lit and the children set of fireworks. When the flames of the fire died down, Bruce took Chloe by the hand and led us into the cabin. The inside was furnished mostly with antiques and looked like some European palace from past centuries. But in Bruce's study there was a perfectly modern computer. Bruce demanded that Chloe show him the VirileMail software. She got him logged into an account on the Antler server array and let him experiment with the software. He challenged it to translate some French and Polish and was impressed by the results. He sat back from the monitor. "Well, if this is not some kind of trick, with a team of linguists sitting some where and doing these translation, then I agree...this is a remarkable advance." Chloe said, "You saw how quickly those translations came back. Do you think a human could be that fast?" Bruce replied, "I do not seriously doubt that this is real. The question becomes, what happens next? This has implications far beyond email. And when word of this spreads, as it surely will, is your security up to challenge? Antler will become the world's number one target for industrial espionage. Worse, some government agency like the NSA might try to appropriate this technology." Anthony said, "Due to an odd event a few weeks ago we recently boosted security at Antler. And I notified the Legal Affairs Department today that we have new issues to sort out with respect to our licensing agreement with Gajduskova." Bruce shouted, "Licensing agreement? Son, if this AI is as good as it seems, its going to take more than a licensing agreement to deal with all the repercussions." I was amused to see them worrying about how to "deal with all" when they had no idea they were puppets of aliens. It was getting late so we all said good night. Anthony led Chloe and I back to our cabin. Anthony said, "If you feel up to it, maybe tomorrow we can hike up Mount Chambers." Chloe, a distance runner, was not daunted by that suggestion, but I was not wild about the idea. I was still hoping for some progress on the nanobot removal. We said good-bye. __TOC__
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