Fan Fiction ❯ Love In Binary ❯ Hiroshi's search ( Chapter 3 )

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

Sakura sat next to her brother and gently inserted a cable into the socket of the metallic shape on the bench. The room was dark except for a single light above the sibling's work. Masahiro was poking around in the guts of the device, making absolutely certain that nothing was physically wrong with it. He didn't want it to arise only to be unable to walk or talk. Sakura flipped open a hatch on the side of the skull and plugged another wire into it. Then she checked that every cable was properly attached to the machine before she did anything else. She tapped her little brother on the back and he looked up and removed his safety goggles."I think we're ready to upload the association programming. Finish your check and close up the body." she said, obviously eager to begin. Masahiro beamed his excitement and quickly ended what he was doing. He sealed up the complex and detailed frame of what he hoped would someday become the first true A.I and sat opposite his sister. The android they were working on was sleek and humanoid, every part of it looked strangely human but still cold and lifeless. The heat grills on the chest could be a ribcage, the fleshless, metal cranium appeared like a skull, the thin limbs may be bones and the segmented support frame might just be a spine. The cold dead orbs that will someday function as eyes stared lifelessly at nothing, being yet to encounter any sort of vision. A tingle ran down Sakura's back as she thought of the thing rising up, coming alive and seeing the world for the first time through those dead pieces of metal embedded in it's head. Soon life-giving electricity would flow through those wires, bringing movement and thought to what was currently just a lump of refined minerals. The young woman began loading the information into the computer's 'brain' and they both held their breath as they watched the information flow silently from one machine to another. A few minutes later and it was complete. Masahiro reached over and touched a control. An overhead screen lit up as it began to display the android's output. So far it was blank. He flipped it's eyes on and words began to appear on the display.'A CEILING, SILVER, 70% CHANCE OF BEING AN APARTMENT GARAGE, 87% CHANCE OF BEING CREATORS HOME......'The last few dots appeared slowly, indicating that the android was waiting for a new object to analyse. Sakura picked a picture from a tool table next to her and waved it infront of the unmoving shape. More words appeared.'A PHOTOGRAPH OF TWO HUMANS NEAR A TREE IN A PARK. PICTURE TAKEN IN AUTUMN DUE TO LEAF COLOUR. 86% CHANCE HUMANS ARE BROTHER AND SISTER, 94% CHANCE HUMANS ARE RELATED. 78% CHANCE HUMANS ARE CREATORS. PICTURE LIKELY KEPT FOR SENTIMENTAL VALUE.......'Masahiro decided to try a real challenge. He took an image of a famous Craythan painting and held it infront of the robot's 'face'. The robot had not been programmed with knowledge of specific paintings yet, only of their existence.'A REPRODUCED IMAGE OF A CRAYTHAN PAINTING. THE ARCHAIC STYLING IS TO BE NOTED FOR ITS RARENESS AND VALUE. PAINTING SYMBOLISES LIFE OF ALL FORMS.......'The boy sat back in his seat. It really worked. This was the first stage in creating A.I. He turned the machine off and stared at his sister in amazement. There was a long silence whilst they comprehended all that they had seen and then they burst into laughter and grabbed each other. They were actually doing it. This was the first part of their journey to creating an artificial being. This was the last time it would be activated before it was complete, he and Sakura had decided that once it was self aware then it would not be reactivated until it had emotion. They wanted it to have a mind that was complete, they wanted it to never experience life with only half of it's consciousness. But this was a success. This meant that they had one of the only androids with true recognition and association abilities. When they downloaded the self awareness and emotion programming then it wouldn't have any knowledge anymore, the memory space would be used up accommodating the beings mind, but it would be capable of learning new things to which the association could be applied. And it would learn fast. Now the siblings only needed the emotion and self awareness data, but maybe even less than that, Masahiro had already designed an exceptionally well built version of self awareness all on his own. With a little more work then he could have the programming custom built himself. Leaving only emotion still needing to be acquired.Hiroshi wandered along the streets, following the directions Frorbek had given him. He wasn't really much good at anything but something told him that this little data stick was worth a lot of money. And maybe worth something else too, some sort of life changing discovery. His friend had given him three addresses to try. First was the roof of a skyscraper, apparently the person had set up a temporary lab so he could continue his robotics whilst doing some sort of experiment with frayt pigeons. He was unsure of the details but the guy had sounded smart enough so Hiroshi was going to see him first. He reached a blue tower and stepped into the elevator. He didn't need to use the old controls to move between floors, the computer system was capable of reading his brain and taking him exactly where he wanted to go. The doors slid shut and the elevator began to ascend towards the sky. Hiroshi was a kind person and a little bit shy of meeting new people. The only person he was normally be open around was Frorbek. He may be an ugly squid man but he was a big softy really. He was Hiroshi's only real friend. Story of his life. The young man had never had any friends at school, he had glasses and scruffy hair and wasn't much to look at. Not to mention a lack of redeeming features, he was no good at sports, he was clumsy and he wasn't very smart. He had tried to get into university and failed the entrance exams three times. Then he ended up in that job at the cantina and now he didn't even have that anymore. Things had been going downhill for a long time now, but just maybe this data stick was the start of something better. His only good characteristic was that he was kind and caring, but no one had ever seen that as anything more than a weakness. Maybe that was why he only ever associated with aliens. Because sometimes he felt like one of them.The elevator stopped moving and the door slid open. Hiroshi shook the thoughts out of his head and proceeded down the corridor. He located a ladder and climbed up towards a hatch leading to the roof. He flipped it open and dropped back to the floor in a flurry of feathers and a scream of rage."Noooo!!!!!!!!! My birds, you disturbed my birds!!!!!!!" came a voice. Hiroshi nursed his arm where he had bashed it on the floor and wondered what the hell was going on. The frayt pigeons landed on the floor and began hopping randomly around the corridor. Hiroshi brushed feathers off himself and laboriously climbed back up to the roof. As he poked his head out of the hatch a wrinkled face came inches away from his and began shouting at him."My-my-my-my-my-my-my birds..... I-I-I-I-I-I-I can't handle this, you have DISTURBED my birds!!! How dare you, they were very, very precise in their positions and now they are....... disturbed." the bespectacled man stammered."Um..... I'm sorry?" said Hiroshi, surprised by the encounter. The entity turned away from him and strode across the rooftop."It-it-it-it just won't do, my birds are very delicate, it is very easy to upset them and now they are disturbed, it will take me hours to sort this out.""Are..... are you Dr Mazdec?" asked Hiroshi who had now climbed onto the roof and was peering at the paper Frorbek had given him. The short, elderly doctor stared at him through thick, round glasses. He was clearly very upset by all of this."I-I-I most certainly am and I will thank you not to forget it. Now who are you and why did you disturb my birds?" said the man confronting Hiroshi."I.... I'm sorry, I wasn't aware that they were there." Hiroshi decided to go for flattery, "I heard that there was an expert robotics mechanic and I came to ask a favor of his genius."The old man subsided a little but still looked cross. He walked over to a desk and fished around for some bird food which he began to sprinkle around. Hiroshi took a look around the rooftop engineering bay. The desk was covered with all sorts of strange instruments and occasional packets of bird food. Above it was a very large sheet, suspended in the air by four poles and covering an area of the roof about twenty metres squared. Beneath it was a portable workbench complete with wiring, power cables, computer terminals, overhead monitors and a half finished android. There was a fridge, a portable outhouse, a makeshift kitchen, a tent and a lot of bird cages. Dr Mazdec himself was very short and old and totally bald, only a few strands of grey were noticeable on his wrinkled scalp. He wore a very grubby lab coat with extra large pockets, out of which were protruding more unusual tools and instruments and, inevitably, bird food. As he wandered around scattering crumbs he was pursued by a growing cluster of pigeons, who actually looked a lot like him. Frayt pigeons had three, large eyes and were rather fat with very yellow feet and one large feather right on top of their head, making them look comically cartoon-like. This man seemed to have some sort of fixation with the things and in having it he was gradually becoming more and more like them."What exactly is it you want young sir, I am a very busy man and I don't often make time for whipper snappers like you, especially ones that disturb my birds.""Well you see I acquired this data stick but I don't really know what's on it and...." Hiroshi began but the old man raised his hand and his eyes widened as he stared at nothing, apparently listening for something. They both stood very still for a few minutes and then Hiroshi spoke up."Excuse me." he said, but there was no reply. He walked over and tapped Mazdec on the shoulder. "What are we waiting f.....""AHHHH!!!!!!!!" the little man screamed and leapt into the air, making Hiroshi jump out of his skin."You-you-you-you startled me young man. Who are you?" inquired the senile human. Hiroshi was about to answer until he noticed that a goggly-eyed pigeon had landed on Dr Mazdec's head and was giving him exactly the same look as it's new perch. He decided to give up here and try somewhere else. He handed the doctor another odd pigeon that had landed on his shoulder and left via the ladder.Converting /tmp/php6PKyms to /dev/stdout