Network
Prologue
"One day everything will be connected" his father always told him. Alan never really knew what that meant until he began growing older and began to see what his father really did for a living. Everything was being rebuilt from the ground up. Entire cities were being torn down and in their place new buildings would rise out of the rubble. The government provided housing in neighboring towns for the people living in these cities being rebuilt until they were done. Alan was reading about these things in the news. It was happening all around the world at such a rapid pace. These rebuilt cities were being finished in a matter of a few months. Alan used to read how it once took workers years just to build a highway and here he was seeing these entire buildings being put up in a matter of a month when he was younger. Alan's father was one of the heads of this entire project and never really spoke of his work to his family.
They weren't rebuilding these cities for no reason. While rebuilding they were laying the foundation for a new system for the world’s population to communicate. Details were vague and the government wouldn't answer any questions. The only thing people could guess was whatever the governments plan was they thought of it as flawless. There was of course resistance. People wouldn't leave willingly to their temporary housing. There were riots and on a few occasions people would end up dead. Naturally when Alan found out that his father was part of all this it disgusted him. Whatever it was they were doing it wasn't justified. Then everything began coming together. New cars were being produced with no steering wheels. New computers were being made that didn't have keyboards. Once all this started leaking people began coming up with all sorts of crazy theories about robots and artificial intelligence. The government was doing their best to keep everyone under control and was doing a decent job of it. By this time almost all the major cities had been rebuilt with whatever new technology the government was about to implement. No one could figure out what this new technology was. There were no traces anywhere.
Alan was only 23 when they made the grand reveal and he was actually there to witness it. His mother kept asking and begging that he come back home to New York to see the reveal. She had no idea what it was but Alan knew it was her way of trying to get him and his father to talk again. His father never talked about what he was working on at his company. Alan didn't even know who he worked for but whoever this company was they were leading up this huge reveal in New York and apparently Alan's father was to be one of the few people there to unveil it. After weeks of his mother begging Alan finally caved and flew in. He figured it would also give him a chance to visit his sister in the hospital. Ever since the rebuilt New York, Times Square was blocked off but on this day it was reopened. In the center was a huge stage which was being used for the reveal. All the electronic billboards were, at the time, offline. Alan was beginning to become intrigued even though he still believed he was against whatever this was about. "What could possibly justify all those deaths?" he once screamed at his mother. Believed that it didn't matter what this technology was, it would never be able to replace the lives lost. He made his way the front of the crowd where there were seats sitting there with signs labeled just for his mother and him. He took his seat and looked around for the next ten minutes trying to see if he could see what this was all about but whatever this was it was well hidden. Then it started. All the sudden a group of people walked on stage and hade their mini microphones attached to their suits. They spent the next 30 minutes or so talking about keeping the world connected. They were talked about keeping the world on one network. Alan was of course feeling disappointed. The crazy theories of it being robots or artificial intelligence were being shot down quickly. This didn't even seem like a flawless plan like most people thought it would be. Alan began tuning them out.
The group of people started walking off stage except for three people, Alan's father being one of them. The other two began expanding on what they said about creating one huge network. Alan began spacing out. He was thinking about how they tore down all these cities just to create one network. Then it hit him, "what about those cars and computers?" he thought. Just about that time his father began talking.
"Now the four of us would like to show you our primary project that we can now reveal today."
Alan looked around, there were only three people on stage and no one else got up to get on stage. He was confused and he wasn't the only one. Alan looked back on stage and saw a huge grin on his father’s face.
"You're all looking in the wrong place. And yes, there are four of us." Then he pointed to the screen behind and it came on. A woman came on the screen. Alan didn't really see what the big deal was.
"Now I'm sure most of you are confused right now, and you all have a right to be," his father began, "Everyone, this is Amy. Now Amy is extremely special in that she doesn't have a physical form."
"Hello everyone!" Amy said to the crowd. Her appearance began to change.
Alan then caught on. If what he was thinking was right then the next words that were going to come out of his dad’s mouth were... "Everyone, Amy here was our first successful artificial intelligence that we were able to produce." Right after the words left his mouth there was a wave of whispers in the crowd. Alan caught his father’s eye for a few seconds and smiled. Alan realized in that moment that he wasn't against this, he was completely for it. Those crazy theories of artificial intelligence, AI for short, were actually true. And while it couldn't actually be proven, Alan believed that the theories of the government having a flawless plan were true too.
His father spent the rest of the event explaining how everything would work. Cars now have cameras and sensors all over the car allowing the AI to drive and all the owner has to do is tell the AI where they want to go. Now people only have to tell the AI what they want to do on the computer and it will do it. These cities were being rebuilt to allow for complete AI integration. AI would now handle everything and would have complete and unique personalities just for that individual AI. They would also have their own unique look when they would appear on a screen on a monitor or something similar. AI's began rolling out the next day. The government knew it would take some time to have the world’s population have their own AI and had planned accordingly. People could still use everything they had previous to this AI leap. They had also made breakthrough in storage devices allowing an AI to just fit into a small earpiece. At the time the earpieces were very limited and weren't released to the public just yet, years down the road is when that would actually become available and Alan led that project when he jumped onboard of this AI project a few months after the reveal. Once they got the earpiece functionality finalized they were able to allow the AI to jump from basically anything into the earpiece wirelessly where they could guide the human. They could then jump back into any other computer.
At this time Alan still hadn't gotten an AI. He had been so caught up in the project that he didn't think he had time to deal with someone talking to him all the time. After the earpieces were finally released to the public Alan went to his father and got an AI and named it Kayla, something that resembled his sister’s name, Carla. Things were becoming connected. This one giant network was becoming a reality and it was thanks to the introduction of AI's.
They weren't rebuilding these cities for no reason. While rebuilding they were laying the foundation for a new system for the world’s population to communicate. Details were vague and the government wouldn't answer any questions. The only thing people could guess was whatever the governments plan was they thought of it as flawless. There was of course resistance. People wouldn't leave willingly to their temporary housing. There were riots and on a few occasions people would end up dead. Naturally when Alan found out that his father was part of all this it disgusted him. Whatever it was they were doing it wasn't justified. Then everything began coming together. New cars were being produced with no steering wheels. New computers were being made that didn't have keyboards. Once all this started leaking people began coming up with all sorts of crazy theories about robots and artificial intelligence. The government was doing their best to keep everyone under control and was doing a decent job of it. By this time almost all the major cities had been rebuilt with whatever new technology the government was about to implement. No one could figure out what this new technology was. There were no traces anywhere.
Alan was only 23 when they made the grand reveal and he was actually there to witness it. His mother kept asking and begging that he come back home to New York to see the reveal. She had no idea what it was but Alan knew it was her way of trying to get him and his father to talk again. His father never talked about what he was working on at his company. Alan didn't even know who he worked for but whoever this company was they were leading up this huge reveal in New York and apparently Alan's father was to be one of the few people there to unveil it. After weeks of his mother begging Alan finally caved and flew in. He figured it would also give him a chance to visit his sister in the hospital. Ever since the rebuilt New York, Times Square was blocked off but on this day it was reopened. In the center was a huge stage which was being used for the reveal. All the electronic billboards were, at the time, offline. Alan was beginning to become intrigued even though he still believed he was against whatever this was about. "What could possibly justify all those deaths?" he once screamed at his mother. Believed that it didn't matter what this technology was, it would never be able to replace the lives lost. He made his way the front of the crowd where there were seats sitting there with signs labeled just for his mother and him. He took his seat and looked around for the next ten minutes trying to see if he could see what this was all about but whatever this was it was well hidden. Then it started. All the sudden a group of people walked on stage and hade their mini microphones attached to their suits. They spent the next 30 minutes or so talking about keeping the world connected. They were talked about keeping the world on one network. Alan was of course feeling disappointed. The crazy theories of it being robots or artificial intelligence were being shot down quickly. This didn't even seem like a flawless plan like most people thought it would be. Alan began tuning them out.
The group of people started walking off stage except for three people, Alan's father being one of them. The other two began expanding on what they said about creating one huge network. Alan began spacing out. He was thinking about how they tore down all these cities just to create one network. Then it hit him, "what about those cars and computers?" he thought. Just about that time his father began talking.
"Now the four of us would like to show you our primary project that we can now reveal today."
Alan looked around, there were only three people on stage and no one else got up to get on stage. He was confused and he wasn't the only one. Alan looked back on stage and saw a huge grin on his father’s face.
"You're all looking in the wrong place. And yes, there are four of us." Then he pointed to the screen behind and it came on. A woman came on the screen. Alan didn't really see what the big deal was.
"Now I'm sure most of you are confused right now, and you all have a right to be," his father began, "Everyone, this is Amy. Now Amy is extremely special in that she doesn't have a physical form."
"Hello everyone!" Amy said to the crowd. Her appearance began to change.
Alan then caught on. If what he was thinking was right then the next words that were going to come out of his dad’s mouth were... "Everyone, Amy here was our first successful artificial intelligence that we were able to produce." Right after the words left his mouth there was a wave of whispers in the crowd. Alan caught his father’s eye for a few seconds and smiled. Alan realized in that moment that he wasn't against this, he was completely for it. Those crazy theories of artificial intelligence, AI for short, were actually true. And while it couldn't actually be proven, Alan believed that the theories of the government having a flawless plan were true too.
His father spent the rest of the event explaining how everything would work. Cars now have cameras and sensors all over the car allowing the AI to drive and all the owner has to do is tell the AI where they want to go. Now people only have to tell the AI what they want to do on the computer and it will do it. These cities were being rebuilt to allow for complete AI integration. AI would now handle everything and would have complete and unique personalities just for that individual AI. They would also have their own unique look when they would appear on a screen on a monitor or something similar. AI's began rolling out the next day. The government knew it would take some time to have the world’s population have their own AI and had planned accordingly. People could still use everything they had previous to this AI leap. They had also made breakthrough in storage devices allowing an AI to just fit into a small earpiece. At the time the earpieces were very limited and weren't released to the public just yet, years down the road is when that would actually become available and Alan led that project when he jumped onboard of this AI project a few months after the reveal. Once they got the earpiece functionality finalized they were able to allow the AI to jump from basically anything into the earpiece wirelessly where they could guide the human. They could then jump back into any other computer.
At this time Alan still hadn't gotten an AI. He had been so caught up in the project that he didn't think he had time to deal with someone talking to him all the time. After the earpieces were finally released to the public Alan went to his father and got an AI and named it Kayla, something that resembled his sister’s name, Carla. Things were becoming connected. This one giant network was becoming a reality and it was thanks to the introduction of AI's.