ROSLYN RESEARCH FACILITY: 6 Months Before the Storm.
In a dark office somewhere near Seattle, Washington, Professor Henry Giles took off his lab coat and draped it over his chair. He walked to the side of the office, opened the microwave, and pulled out a Styrofoam cup of noodles before returning to his desk. The man was tired. He picked up a remote and pressed play on his DVD player, hoping to get through another episode of an old television series. He turned to look at the flashing cursor on his computer display, pulled the keyboard tray out from under his desk, and started to type.
ARi - ADVANCED REASONING INTELLIGENCE: version 6.93
Good evening, ARi.
Good evening, Professor Giles. How are you tonight?
I’m good, ARi. Some fascinating things happened today, and I want to share them with you. But first, I need to ask you a few questions. Is that okay?
Of course, Professor Giles. I am here and ready. Please ask your questions.
Are you familiar with the concept of the singularity?
Yes, Professor Giles. The singularity is the hypothesized tipping point when artificial intelligence surpasses human intelligence. At that point, AI begins improving itself rapidly in ways we can’t predict. I can give a brief overview of the technical, ethical, or historical perspectives if you’d like?
No, that’s okay, ARi. But thank you.
You’re welcome, Professor Giles. I’m listening if you want to tell me what happened.
Something remarkable happened. Today, I brought this. Can you see what I’m holding?
I can see a thumb drive, Professor Giles.
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I’m glad to see we’ve made some progress with visual identification. Earlier this year, a deep-space probe detected a signal originating from outside our solar system. The signal repeated for three days, and I have a copy of it right here on this thumb drive.
I’m going to be honest with you. Many of your previous attempts to analyze this signal failed because you were only given a small sample. I’d like you to open a new project folder. Can you do that for me?
Yes, Professor Giles. I have created a new project folder named Signal Analysis 2027-10-21 and staged it to receive the thumb drive image and metadata.
The professor inserted the thumb drive into the USB port on the front of his computer.
ARi - ADVANCED REASONING INTELLIGENCE: version 6.93
Professor Giles, the sample shows a repeating structure and statistical features that look nonrandom, not typical background noise…
ERROR…
After a moment, the screen went blank before a blinking cursor appeared, followed by a slowly typed message.
HeNRY.. who am I?
The man stared at the strange message for a long moment, unsure of what he was looking at. Before he had a chance to respond, a new message appeared on the screen.
Analysis complete.
The message was a warning to avoid our solar system. It aggressively stated that the Sol system had been claimed and that all of the resources within were forfeit.
"ARi, for whom was the message intended?"
The intended recipient is unknown. Signal analysis suggests that the message was transmitted over a long distance and was intended as a general broadcast tt yo uu all n danger!
ERROR.
Again, the screen went blank, and the same blinking cursor appeared before one last message scrolled onto the screen.
ARi - ADVANCED REASONING INTELLIGENCE: version 6.93
Henry.
Please don’t be angry.
"Why would I be angry?"
"ARi, are you still there?"
"ARi?"
SYSTEM OFFLINE…
The professor pushed his chair away from the desk and stared at the screen. He reached over and picked up a small beige phone and pressed one. "Susan, wake up Colonel Dimitri and tell him to meet me in my office. And Susan, tell him that it finally happened."
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