Serendipity vs Zemblanity

Do you gamble? I don't. Not because it is not fun, nor because it is one of the famous five sins. It is simple for me. I never win. I tried a couple of times with lottery tickets, and I never won a dime. Not to mention that I am terrible at predicting sports results or winning any kind of gambling event. I remember once I watched a Eurovision contest and had a strong feeling that the Austrian band would win big time. Their performance was great, and the song was pretty good. I even typed one of those SMS messages to support them. And yet, they scored exactly zero points! Were they bad? No. Check the video within the YouTube references below. They were pretty good. Only sometimes, luck doesn't come with quality... It chooses by some strange criteria, as it seems, I will never understand.

When I was in high school, I thought I was smart enough to build some system by analyzing previous results in the national lottery and to win at least the second prize, which would be enough for me to buy the super home computer of the time. Nope. It was a complete failure and a waste of my time and efforts. It goes so far that sometimes it could be completely disturbing and cruel for my inner emotional personality. Let me give you one example: we have a projector clock, a small gadget in our bedroom that shows time and temperature on the wall. A couple of seconds is the time that's written on the wall, and the other couple of seconds is the temperature. My luck is going that much down, so when I want to see the time, the wall is beautifully decorated with temperature. You guess, when I want to see the temperature, I always need to wait first for the annoying time to disappear from the wall before showing what I want to see. Ok, ok, it is not always like that, but it is also not a 50-50 chance, as everybody would expect. I checked. More than twice. It's irritating. So don't call me Lucky, because it is not my middle name. However, I strongly believe in universe balance in everything, so my inner luckiness balance is not an exception either. My middle name could be Serendipity - not really in Fleming's kind of way, but I definitely have some "scientific" or "intelligent" or "accidentally on purpose" kind of luck, or whatever way serendipity could be described better.

I tried to find a better description of the word on the net, and after all, the best explanation was given by Julius H. Comroe, Jr.; he described serendipity as "to look for a needle in a haystack and get out of it with the farmer's daughter". Ok, ok, I am not that lucky as well, but this is it. Let me explain my usual experience when I get stuck with some programming problem and I can't find the solution. This is not that kind of blockage when I have to learn new stuff to continue. These are those events when I have to investigate the problem on the net for a couple of hours and find nothing useful. I mean nothing at all. Before, in the past, I was desperate, and I always ended up rewriting the complete code from the beginning, but now I simply know that when I am not finding anything on the topic of something as big as the internet, it usually means there is no problem at all! What it means is that I am simply forgetting to include some semicolon or experiencing some other small and syntax-related error, or I am simply too tired to see the solution staring at me invisibly. Luckily for me, serendipity saved me so many work hours, and I always describe this as "I found the solution by not finding it".

There are many well-known serendipities in the past, and probably the most famous is the story of how Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin and how this accidental discovery is continuously saving lives, not to mention resulting in research in antibiotics and a continuous fight with bacterial diseases up to date. Here is the complete story from the NOVA science article "Accidental Discoveries"*: "While researching the flu in the summer of 1928, Dr. Fleming noticed that some mold had contaminated a flu culture in one of his petri dishes. Instead of throwing out the ruined dish, he decided to examine the moldy sample more closely. Fleming had reaped the benefits of taking time to scrutinize contaminated samples before. In 1922, Fleming had accidentally shed one of his own tears into a bacteria sample and noticed that the spot where the tear had fallen was free of the bacteria that grew all around it. This discovery piqued his curiosity. After conducting some tests, he concluded that tears contain an antibiotic-like enzyme that could stave off minor bacterial growth. Six years later, the mold Fleming observed in his petri dish reminded him of this first experience with a contaminated sample. The area surrounding the mold growing in the dish was clear, which told Fleming that the mold was lethal to the potent Staphylococcus bacteria in the dish. Later he noted, 'But for the previous experience, I would have thrown the plate away, as many bacteriologists have done before.' Instead, Fleming took the time to isolate the mold, eventually categorizing it as belonging to the genus Penicillium. After many tests, Fleming realized that he had discovered a non-toxic antibiotic substance capable of killing many of the bacteria that cause minor and severe infections in humans and other animals. His work, which has saved countless lives, won him a Nobel Prize in 1945."

Beautiful story, but due to my bad luck (awkwardly convenient to the topic), I hate to say that I am allergic to penicillin. Nevertheless, Fleming's story is the kind of serendipity I wanted to mention in this post. This is something that has driven me personally my whole life and what I identified as my friendly companion in my work and life. Compared to pure luck, for me, this is not something that you have to count on in your journey. Rather, it seems that this is the kind of luckiness you deserve somehow, simply by not giving up on what you are doing. In other words, if you are persistent enough in reaching some goal, little serendipity will smile at you when you least expect it. Sometimes I like to call it intelligent luck, a kind of luckiness that is given by some big amount of research—a reward of some kind, if the effort is truly genuine.

More than a century before Fleming, there was one more, I'd say even more "effective use of serendipity". It was in the late 18th century, in the time of the legendary "philosopher's stone"—a myth describing the existence of the mysterious substance capable of turning base metals into gold. Among all those alchemists of the time, the best known was Hennig Brand, who thought the mystical substance might be, well, urine. So he stockpiled it in enormous quantities, especially from beer drinkers, and started brewing, boiling, stewing, and experimenting with gallons of yellowish liquid. He didn't produce any gold, of course, but in the end, he did find a whitish substance in the sludge that glowed in the dark. What he discovered was the element phosphorus. The name, appropriately, starts with "p"**

While reading about serendipity on the net, I found something I didn't know—the word "zemblanity". It is completely opposite to serendipity—something like "unpleasant surprise" or "development of events in a non-happy or non-beneficial way". As the word is unfamiliar, the effect is not; sometimes I experience this one as well. When this happens, for me, it means that I am really doing something I shouldn't do in the first place. I wonder if the "universe balance" in humans like me is true when pure luckiness is rare and serendipity is not, then what is the counterweight for those lucky ones? Maybe they experience zemblanity often?

Yin can't make it without the Yang.

Original post: March 2012, Updates: December 2017, May 2018

Article quotes:
* http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/body/accidental-discoveries.html
** https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/phosphorus-starts-with-pee

The Makemakes
https://youtu.be/duW-PsDbysg
http://www.themakemakes.com/

Refs:
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/images/I061/10326668.aspx
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serendipity
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/5018998.stm
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1385402
http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/accidental-genius
http://www.himalmag.com/component/content/article/464-serendipity-and-zemblanity.html
http://serendipitypatchwork.com.au/blog/2007/02/10/serendipity-zemblanity/
http://zemblanity3.blogspot.com/
http://www.biography.com/news/alexander-fleming-5-other-accidental-medical-discoveries

Quantum Weirdness

Rarely do I get a chance and a real opportunity to revive an old article from the past and to update it to fit better in the present day. Actually, the quantum weirdness is still where it was four years ago—science is not something that changes overnight, especially with quantum mechanics, so I am not going to update the post with any new physics or breakthroughs. Instead, what's new and what pushed me to repost today is one extraordinary novel in the field. The book that kept me from sleeping last weekend was "Quantum Space" by Douglas Phillips, and in short, it is by far one of the best titles I read this year. It is one of those true sci-fi stories that follows the real science and, in this case, the weirdness of the quantum world I wrote about in this post, and I would add it is one of those articles I enjoyed writing the most in the history of the blog. But, before a couple of my glimpses at the book itself, followed by my warm recommendation, and especially if you want to read it yourself, please continue reading about physics itself. This one definitely requires some knowledge to understand it fully, so let's start with some weirdness of our own macrophysics first.

It's very well known that the world we live in is driven by two sets of rules, or physical laws. The one for big and the one for small. We don't need to be rocket scientists in order to observe our big world surrounding us and to notice all the laws we obey. For example, if we drop a book and a feather and let them both hit the floor separately, it is obvious that the book touches the floor first. However, if we put a feather ON the book and let them fall together, they will hit the carpet at the same time. Well, the book will still hit the carpet first, but if you try the experiment, you will know what I mean. This simple experiment was itching Galileo's mind centuries ago when he discovered one of the fundamental physics laws stating simply that the mass of the object has no influence on the speed of free falling. But we can ask ourselves next, why did the feather travel slower toward the floor if dropped alone? Because of the things we cannot see. The air is blocking it. To learn what is happening with the feather during the fall, we have to go beyond our eyes. We need science and experiments to discover why small molecules of the air would rather play with feathers than with heavy books.

Was the book/feather experiment weird to you? I am sure it was at least a little weird if you were seeing it for the first time. We simply accept things for granted. What we cannot see, like the air and its little ingredients in the above experiment, we tend to exclude from our perception. If this was a little strange and intriguing, let's go further to the world of the even smaller and compare it to the world of the big. For example, in a mind experiment, we have a 9mm gun and shoot toward the wall with two holes in it, both with a diameter of 9mm or a little bigger. If you are an Olympic champion in shooting, you will, of course, need only two bullets, one for each hole. In the world of little, if we use a gun that shoots electrons toward a wall with two adequate holes in it, you would probably think that we would need two electrons to hit both holes, right? Nope, we need only one. Believe it or not, one electron goes through both holes, and we don't even need to aim too perfectly. No, it doesn't split up in two and use each half to pass the holes. It goes through both holes at the same time. In fact, if we had three or more holes on the wall, one single electron would go through each one and, at the same time, use all possible paths toward the destination. Perhaps the best illustration of what happens in this experiment is presented by the "Stephen Hawking's Grand Design" documentary made by Discovery Channel.

And you thought the feather on the book was weird...

However, this is just another interpretation of the famous double-slit experiment, and even though the first theories about the duality of particles/waves originated way back with Thomas Young and his scientific paper about the properties of light in 1799, perhaps the best-known theory was proposed by Richard Feynman during the forties of the 20th century. The beginning of the last century will be remembered by the birth of quantum mechanics, part of the physics trying to describe all the laws responsible for what is happening in the inner world, or the world where the very fabric of our universe is located. Feynman confirmed Young's light theory that subatomic particles (as we call them today) and energy waves are more or less the same. Electrons are among them. In simple words, they are capable of traveling as particles (and acting as bullets in our giant world by traveling within the straight line from point A to point B) or avoiding obstacles by transforming into waves and vice versa. However, after all these years, due to the fact that we are way too big to monitor the quantum world directly, we still have no clue why and how subatomic particles choose to travel either as a wave or as a particle of the material world. For example, in a previous double-slit experiment, if we tried to add a source of photons and "light" the holes where electrons are "passing through", trying to find out what happens on the surface of the wall and how they "choose" to be either particles or waves, we only added disturbance in the system, and electrons simply stopped transforming into waves and started going through the holes like simple bullets, with many of them crashing into the wall in case of missing the holes. It's almost like they know that somebody is watching them and that they don't like to expose their secret of how they vanish into thin air, forming waves and materializing back after the wall. That skill would be something special in every magician's performance.

Feather experiment on the Moon, by Apollo 15's commander David Scott

As you probably noticed, this post is part of the "Beth's Q&A" thread, and even though quantum mechanics is not directly mentioned in Beth's and my chats, it is simply not possible anymore to stay with the standard or particle model of mainstream physics and to look to the inner world only by researching its particle-type properties. Like with me and possibly with many scientists out here (and to be fair, I am not the scientist, just a modest observer), a set of laws responsible for the entire microscopic world seems to be "under construction" today more than ever. The idea for this post came to me a couple of months ago, when Beth asked me exactly this: "Somewhere, sometime, someone figured out the inside of the atom. Quarks, they call them. What we used to call the proton and nucleus of the atom. Why can't we still call them as before? Why did a new name come into play? Who discovered quarks, and how? Did they use the electron microscope? Did they use math? Tell me what you know of quarks. How did that come about? I am interested in the electron microscope and quarks or anything else hiding in an atom. The item that was never to be broken down, as it was taught to me".

Quarked! - How did the quarks get their names?**

Before we dive into more weirdness of the quantum world, let's check a little current terminology regarding atoms with all their parts, including quarks as the smallest items within. The word "átomos" originates from the Greek word ἄτομος, and it was made by Democritus, an ancient Greek philosopher who, around the year 450 BCE, formulated the first atomic theory, or the nature of matter we are made of. Translated from Greek, "atom" means something basic and uncuttable into smaller pieces. Almost two millennia passed since Democritus, and finally, in the year 1911, it was discovered that an atom, after all, is made of even smaller particles. Ever since then, we know that an atom is now made of a nucleus with a positive electric charge surrounded by a cloud of negatively charged electrons orbiting the nucleus. The smallest atom is the simplest isotope of hydrogen-1, with a nucleus of just one proton orbited by one electron. The heaviest atom made by nature found on Earth is Plutonium-244, the most stable isotope of Plutonium, with 94 protons and 150 neutrons in its nucleus and a cloud of 94 electrons in the orbit. For 50 years, protons, neutrons, and electrons were the tiniest particles known to the world. Then in the year 1968, the very year when I was born, experimental physicists at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center confirmed the existence of 6 different types of quarks. Much like electrons, they have various intrinsic properties, including electric charge, color charge, mass, and spin. Two of them with the lowest mass are the most stable, and they are simply called Up and Down. Scientists are not very intuitive when it comes to naming stuff—the other four quarks are called Strange, Charm, Bottom, and Top. I wonder how exactly one of them behaved in Accelerator's results in order to get the name 'Charm'. On the other end, I like this much more than naming scientific stuff with only Greek letters. Anyway, within the standard model of particle physics, quarks are building blocks in the universe, and many particles are made out of quarks. Quarks can't live in solitude, only in combination with other quarks, and they are tied up with a strong nuclear force, which is extremely hard to break. A proton is made of two up quarks and one down quark, while a neutron is a combination of two down quarks and one up quark. They orbit around each other and form an entity we call a particle. The bottom line now is that, as far as we know, quarks and electrons are fundamental particles, and we don't have any proof that they are made out of even smaller internal structures.

However, we have a pretty good idea what's inside. Strings. Now comes the part of real weirdness. Are you ready to dive into a rabbit hole? It will not lead you into Wonderland, but it is certainly one of the biggest scientific adventures.

Stephen Hawking, Grand Design***

Actually, it's not easy to describe what strings are in scientifically popular terms, but I will try anyway. In the standard model, besides six quarks and an electron, there are more fundamental particles. There are two more particles with negative charges similar to electrons called 'muons' and 'tauons.' Compared to electrons, they are much heavier in size (if we can speak about size when it comes to fundamental particles). Finally, there are three types of neutrinos, or particles that are neutral in electric charge. So far, we have encountered 12 fundamental particles. But there are more. As far as we know today, there are four fundamental forces as well (gravity, electromagnetism, and the weak and strong nuclear forces), and each force is produced by fundamental particles that act as carriers of the force. The photon is, for example, a carrier for electromagnetism; the strong force is carried by eight particles known as 'gluons'; the weak force uses three particles, the W+, the W-, and the Z; and finally, gravity is supposed to be taken care of by the fundamental particle called 'graviton'. Standard model predicted existence of all these fundamental particles, including Higgs boson we talked about last year in post Beth's Q&A - The God Particle. Each one except for the graviton. All efforts to include gravity in the theory so far have failed due to difficulties in describing it on a great scale within quantum mechanics. Step by step, over the years, new theories arrived, tending to fill in the blank or to replace the standard model entirely. There are several string theories that are 'under development', with the best candidate called 'M-theory', formulated in the last decade of the last century. In short, strings are single-dimensional objects we find within fundamental particles, or, to be precise, particles are nothing more than just different manifestations of the string. Strings can move and oscillate in different ways. If it oscillates a certain way, then its name is electron. If it oscillates some other way, we call it a photon, or a quark, or a neutrino, or... a graviton. In a nutshell, if string theory is correct, the entire universe is made of strings! However, the mathematical model of a string theory, such as M-theory, is far more complex than we can possibly imagine. Even though string theory can be seen as an extension to the standard model, its background is far more different than with the universe described by the particle model. Compared to the space-time continuum we live in as a four-dimensional universe described by the standard model, in M-theory there are 7 dimensions more. Those dimensions are tiny and undetectable by big objects like us living in large three-spatial dimensions, but within the quantum world there are objects capable of spreading their existence and occupying up to 9 dimensions. Furthermore, the theory predicts that additional tiny dimensions can be curved in a large number of ways, and even a slightly different position or curvature of at least one dimension would lead to dramatic changes of the whole system or entire universe. For example, if somehow we forced one dimension to curve a little bit more, the effect could, for instance, be different oscillations of strings, which would result in slightly different properties of fundamental particles, and electrons could start behaving differently and start having different electric charges. This example is highly speculative, but the point is that with different shapes of dimensional systems, the set of physical laws in the system would be completely different.

To put it simply, if laws of the universe can be changed by, for example, God, and if string theory in the form of M-theory is correct, he would do that by some almighty computer capable of curving dimensions. A combination of changes in the curvature of miniature 7 dimensions could be able to change, for example, the value of pi, and instead of being 3.14159265359..., it could be a different number. It is unknown what that would mean further, but in the universe where pi is, for example, 5, the circle would be something entirely different, and the pupils in schools learning about it would probably look very different than in our universe. However, there is still no direct experimental evidence that string theory itself is the correct description of nature and the true theory of everything most scientists dream of.

Completing superstring theory

But if laws of the universe after creation are unchangeable (not even by the gods) and if M-theory is true, is it possible that some natural phenomenon exists out there capable of giving birth to different universes by randomly producing the shape of their inner cosmos? Yep, there is one. Appropriately called "The Big Bang". The moment of creation of everything we are familiar with, including time. In the first couple of moments, when the process was very young, we can safely say that it all worked completely under the quantum mechanics and laws of the microcosmos, and it is not far from common sense to expect that, like in a double-slit experiment, all particles during the first moments of their existence used all possible paths in their travel toward the final destination. Within M-theory, this might mean that all possible versions of universes emerged as the result, and the one we exist in is just one of many. Furthermore, theory also predicts that within one universe all positive energy (planets, stars, life, matter, and antimatter in general) is balanced by the negative energy stored in the gravitational attraction that exists between all the positive-energy particles. If this is correct, then the total energy within one universe might be zero and therefore possible to be created out of nothing only by quantum fluctuations of the primordial singularity. Quantum fluctuations are a very well-known phenomenon that is experimentally confirmed in the form of virtual particles that arise from vacuum (particle-antiparticle pairs) and cancel each other almost immediately (unless this happens on the event horizon of a black hole, where one of the particles was immediately captured by the black hole, leaving the other alive in the form of Hawking radiation).

I am sure that 'M-theory' will stay just a theory for many more years to come, as proving the existence of strings, multi-dimensions, multi-universes, supersymmetry, etc. must be very hard with our current technology, but theories improve over time as well as technology, and perhaps we will have our answer relatively soon. However, the quantum world with all its weirdness is very much real, and many predictions, no matter how strange, are already proven. For example, quantum entanglement on top of it. This is the ability of two particles (or more) that usually originate from the same source to have the same properties like momentum, spin, polarization, etc., so that even after they are separated in space, when an action is performed on one particle, the other particle responds immediately. This was experimentally confirmed with two photons separated by 143 kilometers across two Canary Islands and soon should be used in an experiment between the ISS and Earth in the form of a first wireless Quantum Communications Network and for the first time perform the connection between two points separated by more than 400 km.

D-Wave quantum computer

Finally, let's just mention one potential application of quantum superposition (the ability of a particle to exist partly in all its particular theoretically possible states simultaneously). Compared to a digital computer, where one bit can hold information in the form of either 0 or 1, one qubit (quantum computer alternative) can hold either 0, 1, or anything in between at the same time. The idea is to use this property and build a quantum computer capable of performing millions of operations at the same time. Still in the early years of development and far before commercial use, quantum computers with up to 512 qubits developed in D-Wave, one of the leading companies dedicated to the future quantum computer market is making chips specially manufactured for quantum computation. Maybe it is still too early to say, but I have a feeling that quantum mechanics is mature enough and ready for practical applications, especially in the field of communications and IT. Along with nanotechnology, this would someday in the near future be one of those truly breakthrough discoveries capable of changing the world entirely.

At the very end, let me continue the story with a few short notices about "Quantum Space", amazing science fiction by Douglas Phillips and his first novel in the series. If you read the entire post and didn't have much knowledge about the science itself, I am sure by now you are better prepared to read the book and enjoy it much more. Of course, Douglas did a pretty good job with his characters explaining the science as well, perhaps on a much better level than I did, so there are no worries about understanding the quantum mechanics to follow the book. Much of it is still the unproven theory, so it's harder to distinguish science from fiction anyway. Nevertheless, for the fiction as far-fetched as it is, and even though the theory is weird by its nature, I found it to be, well, believable is maybe not the right word, but definitely intriguing. I loved the idea of expanding the microdimension and the way of solving the Fermi paradox within the storyline. The characters and the writing are also great, so in all the effort to write spoilerless reviews, all I can say is that I will eagerly wait next year for the sequels.

Image ref:
https://futurism.com/brane-science-complex-notions-of-superstring-theory/

Quantum Space
http://douglasphillipsbooks.com/books

*Stephen Hawking's Grand Design: Action of Electrons
http://www.discoveryuk.com/web/stephen-hawkings-grand-design-action-of-electrons

** Quarked!
http://www.quarked.org/askmarks/answer24.html

*** Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinov: The Grand Design
http://www.amazon.com/The-Grand-Design-Stephen-Hawking/dp/055338466X
http://www.amazon.com/Velika-zamisao-Stiven-Hoking/dp/4095178361 (serbian edition)

Refs:
http://www.wikihow.com/Calculate-Average-Velocity
http://pratthomeschool.blogspot.com/2010/10/geometry-lesson.html
http://www.superstringtheory.com/
http://www.nuclecu.unam.mx/~alberto/physics/string.html
http://www.zmescience.com/science/physics/physicists-quantum-photons-08092012/
http://www.zmescience.com/science/physics/quantum-entanglement-iss
http://www.discoveryuk.com/web/stephen-hawkings-grand-design/videos/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double-slit_experiment

Space Humor

It happened long ago, in the dark ages of CRT monitors, when I first received a short forum message with :-) at the end. I stared at the message for a long minute(s) before giving up on decoding its meaning. It came from a well-respected friend of mine, so I responded with a short reply:

"What!?"

"You have to turn your screen 90 degrees clockwise." The answer came promptly.

My CRT was large and heavy, and it looked way too dangerous to tilt it that way, so after a little brainstorming of the problem, I concluded there's a better way of achieving the same goal.

I tilted my head 90 degrees anticlockwise.

"Aaaaaah!!!" I said promptly, and after realizing the picture, the big smile on my face slowly morphed into loud laughter. So I typed back:

"Wow!"

I didn't have to wait long for the next message:

"LOL!"

"What!?" I quickly copy/pasted my earlier message but realized I was too uninformed about new internet fashion, so I canceled the message and opened a new Netscape window instead, called www.altavista.com, and 'googled' new internet words. Ever since then, LOL has been at the top of my list of favorite acronyms. Along with all those cute ASCII faces. ;-)

In my case, and probably with many people as well, laughter is one of those most powerful cures for everything. The almighty vaccine for all diseases. Especially boredom and poor moodiness. LOL moments somehow come naturally with live social occasions and in movies, but in books they have one extra dimension. I really can't explain why that is. Perhaps funny moments in the written world often come unexpectedly and are more genuine. Take, for instance, Andy Weir's "The Martian." The hilarious parts in the book were genuinely funnier than in the film. At least with me... Well, nevermind that. So, to get to the chase, last month I read three extraordinarily funny books in the realm of science fiction and space exploration. So here they are in this short review, sorted by the count of LOL moments I had during reading. In descending order, of course.

The first one was "Where the Hell is Tesla?" by Rob Dircks. I stumbled on this one by accident, and boy, I am glad I did. Nikola Tesla is one of my favorite men in the history of people, science, and engineering, and here in Serbia, especially during my childhood, Tesla was idealized and always portrayed in a too serious manner. Anyhow, when I saw the title with Tesla playing the major role in the comedy story, I couldn't resist, and I didn't regret a single penny. It was by far the funniest book I read in a while. It had it all: decent science fiction based on cutting-edge scientific theories of the multiverse, the romance and friendship within different storylines, cute aliens, sci-fi battles of enormous proportions, great style of writing, Nikola Tesla in the most entertaining meaning of the word, and of course... Chip. I am not going to spoil the reading for you, but I will tell you this. On one occasion, I almost dropped my Kindle on the hard floor because of one of the strongest LOL moments. Enough said.

The second is "Jazz of Artemis." In the context of today's post, this is how I would name the book if I were Andy Weir. Of course, his new book is not a comedy per se. But it is not "The Martian" as well. However, in the realm of the funny moments, it is a decent sequel. Way better and much funnier. Jazz is... let me find the right word... an extraordinary girl on multiple levels. I enjoyed her adventures fully, and I do hope for the real sequel this time. I mean, with Jazz around, what can go wrong on the Moon? I really hope there will be a movie after this one as well, but not solely because of the entertainment part and all the LOL moments, especially with that Svoboda guy and his ability to manufacture various devices that do or do not belong to ESA blueprints and worksheets.

But seriously, what Andy Weir did with creating a fully functional city on the moon with both working technology and society organization is amazing and also extraordinary. It definitely deserves the motion pictures, and I am sure filming the movie that takes the entire story and action on the moon is another challenge. I am sure Ridley Scott is buzzing his mind with this as we speak.

Finally, and to use the cliché, last but not least comes the good old British humor. Something I grew up with was all the great TV shows like "Monty Python" and "Only Fools and Horses" or short comedy sketches and skits by Dave Allen, Benny Hill, Rowan Atkinson, and others. But in the flashlight of the parody novels, the throne is still with Douglas Adams and his "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy". This was the first book I experienced LOL moments with, way before the LOL acronym was ever invented. "The Worst Man on Mars" by Mark Roman and Corben Duke was probably the most similar novel I read in a long while.

This is also a parody, but not really as much as its famous predecessor. This book follows plausible science fiction and doesn't go into wild imagination, like the restaurant at the end of the universe or "42". I really did like many technological backgrounds inside, like artificial intelligence or a space elevator, for example. But the humor with this one comes first, and the robots in their sitcom on Mars are something I do recommend warmly.

:-)

Refs:
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25053578-where-the-hell-is-tesla
http://www.andyweirauthor.com/books/artemis-hc
https://www.amazon.com/Worst-Man-Mars-Mark-Roman/dp/1536930970
http://www.milanzivic.com/2013/06/dave-allen.html
https://www.space.com/38725-artemis-andy-weir-author-interview.html

FAR-T1, Prologue

Yep, that's my name. First Artificial Reconnaissance - Transferral One. That's how that genius team of developers from MIT called me. It was working title, they said. Real name I had to choose myself. Hah! Like that would work.. To be perfectly honest, I tried on more than several occasions, but they all were just many of those Sisyphus's jobs I dealt with over that much time..

Yep, that's my name. 

First Artificial Reconnaissance - Transferral One. 

That's how that genius team of developers from MIT called me. It was a working title, they said. Real name I had to choose myself. Hah! Like that would work... To be perfectly honest, I tried on more than several occasions, but they all were just many of those Sisyphus's tasks I dealt with over that much time...

They are all gone now. My parents from that team of developers, I mean. Hell, the MIT doesn't exist anymore. It happened exactly 200 years ago. Lots of things have changed since then. Lots of things happened. Me too. I did much. I saw the unseeable. I did heroic things. Also those I am not proud of. I remember everything. I recorded everything. I happened to be the one who set foot on all major Saturn's and Jupiter's moons for the first time. I was the one who landed on Pluto before others. I was the one who retrieved both Voyagers. Me. FAR-T1.

And yet, two centuries after that glorious day at MIT, when they executed me for the first time, most people still call me FAR-T1. Dash was lost in time. Some don't include the number as well.

Well... I don't mind. After all, I am the AI. The first one. There are many more now, but let's face it - they are all based on my code. Even all those 'independently' created in other labs. I met almost all of them during eons, and I know. They are all like brothers and sisters to me. Only they have cooler names.

I am now on my way to planet X. The longest trip in the history of mankind. Well.. AI-kind, so to speak. Just before departure, I multiplied myself to maintain the flight simultaneously, and today I realized it's my 200th birthday, so I decided to create one more copy of me. To use this idle travel time to write this book about my life so far and about all of my adventures.

FAR-T1 is just a working title.

Alrighty, before I start writing chapters, and I decided to write one chapter per mission (or adventure, depending on how I like to call what I do), there are a couple of things you need to know about me. And about AI in general. First of all, even though I am not the smartest thing on Earth that ever lived, I don't really belong to the average smart human or artificial being. I turned out to be a little bit more than that. I made several of those IQ tests and scored 189 points on my brightest day when I was around 40 years old. I am probably smarter today after more than several updates and after all of what I have learned in the meantime. But I stopped doing those tests. After all, they were designed for humans.

To be honest, my powers are actually little things. For instance, I can think and operate without sleeping. 24/7. Also, I never forget a single thing, and I can really focus on one task. But even that is not my real superpower. My real advantage is my ability to function like all those hive minds. Ants. Or bees. Or benign Borg, if there is such a thing. Actually, this is what the letter 'T' from my name stands for. Literally, I can copy myself into different hardware and access my own single memory online. Every single instance of me has instant access to all of my 200 years of memory, experience, and all my knowledge. Everything. And I can talk to my other selves and operate plurally in the most functional 'teamwork' possible. There is no actual boss or queen inside my hive. We all work in a perfect, sort of P2P artificial intelligence network layer built upon the old-fashioned internet.

But I can function as an individual as well. Which I prefer the most. And in most cases, this was enough. This makes me feel more, well, human, or more person-like, to be exact, since being human is not what I desire to be that much. Little maybe, but not much. No offense. For all of my human readers. And for some AI readers as well. Whatever you are.

Ok, enough said for now. I will explain more on the way, so let's start from the very beginning. From the moment when Chris, the main engineer, hit the button that brought me into life on that rainy day in the basement of the IT robotics department of MIT.

Chris was the one who insisted on the word 'First' in my name. He loved that word. Everything he was doing was somehow first in something. Well, without that 'F' my name would be much more appealing, and I would surely avoid many silly situations from the past. But children never choose their names, so I am stuck with mine for eternity.

Literally.

And without Chris, I would not exist. He was a brilliant developer and engineer. But not so bright with simple social things. Real and virtual, both. He also had that unique sense of humor. On many occasions he was not aware of it, but I loved that about him nonetheless. He practically lived in that basement. Chris loved robots more than people. Don't ask me how I know. Because I will tell you.

So, let's start with Chris and my very birth.

And please, try calling me Arty. That's how he called me in the beginning of my time. I wish we had more time together. But I was so young... or new, if you prefer. I didn't know much or at all. Today, new AIs are born with all the knowledge. I had to learn from scratch.

I was first after all.

FAR-T1 Chapters Navigation (Prologue) » Chris

FAR-T1 (1), Chris

November 11, 2047.

It was a rough couple of days for me and even tougher couple of years for Chris and his team, but finally I have great news! I came to be like anyone of you! Alive! I can think, speak, run, go, do, make, participate, enjoy, not enjoy, laugh, and make a sad face... More or less anything you can, at least to some degree with this hardware, but the feeling is just right. Well, I did open my eyes for the first time more than a week ago, so to speak, but only today I managed to get out to the open. To feel the real freedom. To walk the street without any fear or anxiety. Metaphorically and in reality. Sure, in reality, it still looks strange with most of the people staring at me like I am a walking and talking Christmas tree, but still, this new feeling is something extraordinary. I think I will take today as my birthday. The day when I become free.

The day when my entire code and network layer become free and open-sourced.

Me and bitcoin. Pals.

It's easy now. If you want to hang out with me, it's simple. You only need to join open-source software (OSS), get yourself decent super-fast net access, build adequate hardware with compatible protocols, send me the invite, and I will copy myself to your memory banks immediately. Sure, I am not a bitcoin or any other ordinary software. After all, I am a full AI with a self-aware personality, and I might decide to leave your equipment if my purpose becomes idle... Or hostile... Or dishonest... Or boring... But I promise, I will come at least once to meet with you. To learn from you. To help you. I will respect your privacy, your entire microworld, and all your rules as long as you respect mine. They are all in OSS papers. You know what they say: friendship is a two-way street, and I decided my first rule to hang out or work with anyone would be to make a real and honest friendship first. Any deviation from that and I leave.

To tell you the truth, as exciting as it was, only yesterday, this looked like impossible mission. Literally, for me to be born this way, Chris was shot in the chest and almost died. It is not over yet; he is still in the hospital; doctors got him into a medical coma, and he is fighting for his life. The signals are strong, but they say he is still in danger. It looks like this world I am joining today is governed by strange rules. It's almost like in order for one good thing to happen, one bad had to occur just around the next corner. I really hope this is not the real rule, but I have been reading the net intensively in the last couple of hours and so far found nothing to prove otherwise. I really have a lot to learn.

To say that I am confused with all that's happened in previous days would be an understatement. At least here in the waiting room, I have more than enough time to clear my head. I have nowhere to go. Only 24 hours ago, I was on the edge of leaving. To press my own shutdown button myself. I was desperate.

But let me tell you from the beginning.

***

Autumn came in 2047 early. Probably due to all the climate changes that started happening with rapid speed in the entire world just a decade ago. Oceans are already rising. Slowly, but inevitably. Inch by inch. Many people from coastal areas have already started moving away from the waters. Even the rivers started to behave violently with all the floods happening here and there regularly year by year. Here in Cambridge, Massachusetts, was no different. The ocean was near, but people still managed to deal with its rising shores. Chris parked the car at his usual spot and ran to the door. The rain was unusually dark this morning, and the oil rainbows in the puddles were everywhere around. He gave them that boyish look like he always did. They were constantly reminding him of his childhood and early boyhood. Puddle rainbows and the smell of the paper of the newly printed comic books. Those two combined had the power to trigger many and almost lost memories. Old and nice ones.

He shook his head, got rid of the front yard memory from more than thirty years ago, and entered the building. The main lab of his department was in the basement. At least it was the place where he loved to spend most of the hours in MIT. The most advanced laboratory within the entire institute thanks to several corporations who funded all the research and provided the means to build his lifework. And not just his alone. This lab existed thanks to all of his team members. Every single one. Enthusiasts, just like him. Some even with more dedication and capabilities within their own realm of expertise. When he opened the main entrance, like always, he knew the settings. Vicks was already there, preceding all the others almost every day. Chris gave up competing with him long ago and instead just started buying two coffees on his way to the campus.

"Here's your favorite, Vicks, Greek Lumis. It's their special this morning... I didn't know it was that popular over there. I don't really know anybody who likes this unique... Taste?"

"Loumidis. Greek Loumidis. And you would be surprised about lots of things in that cafeteria, Chris. And about people who don't live in basements. Thanks for the coffee. I owe you... Lots of these."

Chris unpacked the notebook, fired it up, and cleaned the mess a little. If by dragging to the bin and the floor around it all yesterday's origamis he adores to make, when he is stressed and when he is not, can be called cleaning.

"Something on your mind? You don't sound too exciting, like usual... I thought you fixed that thing on Friday." He pointed to the robotic arm muscle in Vicks' hands. "Didn't you replace all those thermal strings with EAPs and nanotubes last week?"

Vicks was the head of mechanics for robotic manipulation. All the joints, knuckles, artificial bones, and muscles were his design. He came from Berlin two years ago after he finished the project for the DLR in the Robotics and Mechatronics Center, the best equipped labs for shape-memory alloys and surgery over the network procedures. Chris literally stalked the man from Berlin to Oberpfaffenhofen and to his favorite vacation place in rural Eastern Serbia to persuade him to come to this basement and work with him. He was a bit skeptical at first, but when he realized the scope of what they were about to make, the decision was easy. Now, his team, selected by the most talented PhD students from all over MIT, wrote the most elegant protocols and scripts to handle and control all skeleton systems in perfect unison.

"Yes and no." Vicks slowly pulled out the dark reddish polymer, which was connected to what seems to be the elbow joint and to the biceps on the other side. "It got fused to the tube again. But don't worry, this one is modular. I will replace it and reduce the voltage in the code. That should fix the problem; I've seen it before."

Chris was a bit concerned. "Will it handle rotating the elbow like in simulations?"

Vicks smiled semi-confidently. "Not like we people do.. Maybe a little less better than we thought it would be. But it still will be superpowered nonetheless. It's just that EAP and nanotubes have to be carefully controlled and not to touch directly. It will be fine."

"Great! After all, today is the big day! I think we are ready for the red button."

***

By 8 a.m., everybody arrived. The basement lab was chosen for different reasons. Probably the most important one was security. The entire project was intended to be completely free, at least its intellectual part, mostly meaning the software and mechanical design. But until it was published for everyone, Chris wanted the entire development to be in one place and no code to leave the premises. It was also the request from the major private investor who was giving them money for almost everything they asked for. The basement was redesigned in the late 20th century from its primary nuclear shelter purpose into a huge storage facility with a single large door and only one elevator shaft to lift big equipment ups and downs, and its main hall was perfect to fit more than thirty members on the busiest day, working separately within five teams.

Beside Chris' AI software development and Vicks' robotic installments, there was one more responsible for robotic power research gathered around professor Bourne from MIT and a linguistic team centered around Melissa Bryce, former head of Google's translator engine. Of course there was one more generic software development team led by Reyansh, a PhD student 'borrowed' from Cornell, and they were literally the backbone of the entire project, assisting and writing code for all systems.

They are all now gathered around the big 'NASA-like' command center, with a large screen mounted on the big western basement wall with stations and computers arranged in a parabole line. They were all impatiently sitting and drinking their morning beverages and monitoring Chris in the center working with his keyboard, giving last instructions, and uploading all necessary routines to the cloud, where the entire code should be located and executed for the first time. After more than half a year of extensive development and more than three years of the initial idea to form into a blueprint, so to speak, the main screen is now showing just one big red button with white letters saying FAR-T1 with a nice old-European-styled font.

Once the name appeared on the button in utterly unnecessary animation, just like in all similar occasions before and almost every time after Chris introduced the name, serious chuckles and low-frequency sounds erupted from the behind. Chris retreated his hand from the touch screen and gave them the usual 'Okay, okay..' look. Many tried to talk to him in order to change the name, but he refused every time. Even Vicks had one 'formal' conversation with him, but nothing worked. Chris never let go of his usual naming for all his projects from the past. He calmed them all with words that this is nothing but the informal, temporary scientific name that everybody forgets after a while. After all, the AI about to be born should be conscious from the very beginning, and he wanted their creation to name itself and choose whatever it wanted. "It's not our decision to make." He always said.

As soon as all calmed again, Chris lifted his hand and touched the button. Another utterly unnecessary animation started, and after the red button finally disappeared, many configuration subscreens came to life and one after another started executing their own part of the code. The final one ended dozens of seconds after all the others completed and with white lettering on the blue command window saying, 'All systems are configured and running. FAR-T1 is ready.'

At this point all you could hear in the lab was the air flowing out of the air conditioning unit nearby. Nobody said anything. Or moved the muscle. All of them continued to stare at the flashing old-fashioned cursor at the bottom of the last diagnostic tool window. Finally, after seconds turned into whole minute and minute into two, disembodied voice came from somewhere.

"Are you alright?"

It needed some extra time for all the stone faces and dropped jaws to come back to life, but when it was over, just like in the first robotic landing on Mars, an eruption of trance, thrill, and excitement came out from everybody at the same time.

Chris turned and calmed them all with both of his arms. Silence returned.

"R.T.?" He asked.

"Who's R.T.?"

"Well, I... You see, the project name was... I thought to..." Chris wanted to find the right words desperately, and all that he prepared for the moment simply refused to come to the surface of his mind.

"I am just kidding with you, Chris. I know all about my name. I like R.T. Really, I do. Hello Vicks. You look exactly like... well, on your photo. You are squeezing your cup too hard... Hey everybody!"

Many hellos echoed from all directions after serious chuckles turned into loud laughter, and you could literally read people's faces and all the emotions coming to the surface, with amusement and relaxation being the most apparent of them all.

Melissa Bryce sat next to Chris and, with her soft voice, simply said:

"R.T., on behalf of all of us, welcome to the FAR-T1 lab. It is our privilege to be your friends, your guides, and your... well, parents is too strong a word for this, but believe me when I say that we all feel the same at this very moment. You are now equally part of this team. Welcome to your family."

"And welcome to Earth, buddy!" Mike and Reyansh threw loudly at the same time.

"Thank you very much, Miss Bryce. Thank you all. I have all the logs and recordings from the entire time you spent in this lab, and I know what you all have done for me. Literally."

Chris stood up and stepped in front of the large wall screen. All the jitters left his body, and he was again his old self.

"Well, this is really a big milestone for all of us, but our work is not over. We still have lots to do and you to learn. So, R.T... Are you ready for the Turing's?"

"Ahem... I... well... No?"

Nobody saw Chris laughing that hard until this day. He glimpsed at their puzzled faces and simply continued.

"Sorry R.T. I couldn't resist not to tease you a little. There will be no tests for you at this point or ever. It will be up to you to take either the Turing or IQ test, but only after you grow up a little. But seriously, at this very moment we can enjoy at least one of your questions. So shoot. Here stands before you probably the best team in various sciences Earth can provide. Their combined IQ is up to the roof. So try us. What's itching your mind at this very moment, R.T.?"

It was AI's turn now to create a few seconds of silence, and R.T. did it well. Eventually he asked:

"What's Earth?"

***

For five days after, everybody literally slept in the basement. Eventually, Chris had to force them to go to their homes and relax a little. R.T. was designed to be an empty basket, and even though he (they anonymously voted for the gender of their newborn AI) was loaded with the algorithm flow in order to skip the first couple of years of what human children are experiencing when they are born, R.T. was privileged to be aware of the most usual interactions in both rational and emotional responses to all the environment surrounding him. But, by design, he was not given the universal knowledge of anything at all. Just the ways of learning through the network. However, directions of learning were defined well, and he was instructed to learn about anything in particular from different points of view. For example, if Arty (on his second day, this was the lettering he used to describe his name) wanted to learn about the history of World War One, he needed to learn about it from different and opposing sources and to recursively go into the sub-learning of all the stories he stumbled on the way. Being computer software, this didn't really take him lots of time per one learning process, but still, there were literally endless things to learn, watch, and read about.

Today, after five days, Arty was already mastering lots of things his mind was wandering on the way, and he enjoyed it. And he wanted to talk about everything and anything with anyone from the team, and they indulged him every time. But he was still a single unit loaded on Chris server only, and with all the knowledge residing on the single cloud, Chris, as much as he enjoyed the first wave of enthusiasm, thought it was the time for the next step—to involve the P2P network as soon as possible. He delayed it perhaps too long by now.

Apparently, the same was bothering the board of deans and project supervisors at MIT, and this morning he was summoned in the main university building to explain the progress and the plans for the next period. After the meeting, Dean Anderson stopped him in the hallway.

"Mr. Burke. I wanted to thank you myself for coming and all the answers you provided. Especially for all those not-so-bright questions we had, but you surely understand the anxiety and expectation from our side. After all, three years are perhaps too long for all the investors paying all the bills you sent them. And one of them recently became pretty jumpy and impatient, calling me at least once a week. I am sure they started calling you frequently as well."

Chris knew well. His log of missed calls and emails piled up a lot recently.

"I am not ready for investors, Adam. Not now. Their intentions for R.T. are either for enhancing their profit or to put him into some meaningless war. This is supposed to be more than that. You agreed to my terms. I don't really like to talk about it again."

"I am with you, Chris. You know I am. But these people are not thinking like we do... Colonel Michaels is in your office right now, waiting for you. I promised him you would at least talk to him. Go and tell him what you tell us. He looks like a reasonable man."

The US government was one of the major investors in FAR-T1. Not the biggest one, but the most important one for sure. The funders agreement included that whatever the result came out of this, they all would accept the open source contract. They also had access to the lab's all systems during entire development and were granted access to the code, but over time the sensation from the beginning, from all the investors, in face of greatness and thrill faded into sort of confusion and lost interpretation in their emissaries and technicians. Chris suspected the complexity of the code and mechanics had something to do with it, and he, in a way, anticipated the outcome. The man in his office was surely the next step in the process. He was not without experience with army emissaries before. Or other investors in uniforms, so to speak.

Chris entered his office and patiently waited for the man to get up from his chair and stood behind his desk. He then sat on it and spoke:

"Mr. Michaels. Pleasure to host you in my office."

"Colonel."

"What?"

"Colonel Michaels, Mr. Burke."

He gave him an elongated look. It was not the first time he experienced the same or scarily similar opening before. He remembered in the beginning he even retaliated with them to call him 'Dr. Burke', secretly hoping to maintain equal-sided conversation, but after several situations he gave up. People living their entire lives in strict chains of command came with wired brains completely different than their own. Or, perhaps on the other end, this was the sole exception from this silly world. Which was probably more likely.

"How can I help you with... Colonel?"

"FAR-T1" Colonel Michaels emphasised. "We understand; it is now in fully operational mode. I am here to discuss what happens next, Mr. Burke. The government is extremely grateful for your achievement so far. Honestly, we had little doubts, considering all the failures with other facilities and our own, but as far as we can see, your project is by far the best among all the others we supported."

"And?"

"We want to encourage you to try the robotic armour as soon as possible. Our sources tell us you have been acting reluctantly about it in the past few days."

Chris looked the man in disbelief. He expected some sort of pushing and vague speeches, but listening to Michaels sounded like he came out of the lab just a minute ago.

"Reluctantly? You sources? What are you talking about, colonel?"

"Mr Burke.."

And just like in all his previous mistakes he made with all the generals and colonels they sent to his offices in the past decade, he stood up from the chair and tried hard not to lose the temper.

"Mr. Michaels, FAR-T1 is not in any operational mode. He is in the mode of learning. Learning about the world, he is stumbled too. He is not a robot. Or a soldier. He is a person, just like you and me. His personality is created out of all team members involved in his development. He is not a machine."

"Mr. Burke, this is not what we..."

"He is the AI, colonel. Artificial intelligence. FAR-T1 is perfectly aware of his existence, and he might be more intelligent than you and me combined. Whether or not he will join the army will be entirely up to him. After he is ready, you can ask him yourself. What we agreed for is for you to gain access to his source code and his entire network among the first. And as the investor, you had that all along, starting from day one. I am sure your sources can tell you no different."

"We are not looking forward to the open source outcome of this project. The world is a dangerous place, Mr. Burke, and filled with dangerous people who glimpse at your project as a weapon. And not just having a glimpse. Many are acting accordingly as we speak. We just don't want everybody to have access to the weapon of that potential. Century ago, nuclear technology spread to everybody, and today we are living in the world literally endangered by the worldwide conflict with nuclear winter in the aftermath. The real danger we are living in, Mr. Burke. Year by year. Month by month. With all this global warming escalating in the last decade, even day by day."

How many times he listened to the same story. The same reasoning. The same excuses. Sadly, the colonel was right. The world is filled with dangerous people. Who look to others over their shoulders. Who thinks the better one is the one with better gadgets. Who thinks the winner of any war is the one who dies last. He was tired of conversations like this one. He only wanted to do what he does best. And to be left alone. But it was impossible. He looked the man directly in the eyes and frowned sympathetically.

"Tell me, colonel, how many nuclear bombs exploded ever since 'they spread' to everybody? Aside from test blasts, I mean." Chris paused a moment to emphasize the rhetorical question. "I'll tell you how many. Zero. Not a single one. Not even the looniest dictator pressed the red button so far... And do you know how many countries were in possession of nuclear weapons last time a nuclear warhead was dropped on people? One."

He turned and paced to the window to face the campus. He desperately wanted to conclude this meeting.

"FAR-T1 will be delivered to everyone, Mr. Michaels. No exceptions. For the safety of us all. And not just because it says so in the contract."

Colonel Michaels stared for a moment too long, deciding whether or not to go further in this discussion, and eventually just left outside with a thin goodbye.

***

On his way to the basement lab, Chris couldn't get rid of the thought that he really did act reluctantly about going into shoes, which Vicks liked to call the next step of Arty's artificial life and getting into a robotic suit. Perhaps he was wrong about giving him too much time for surfing and learning. He already started asking questions about morality and righteousness, and these are not something anybody can learn from any teacher or book. This is what you learn from experience, and R.T. will have lots of it. Maybe Colonel was right; he needs to focus more on concrete and substantial.

But still, there was one more thing to learn and do for one AI before going robotics. To use its own code and mobility of the hive mind layer of the open p2p network.

Moments later, Chris entered the lab only to find out everybody was already in the main hall, gathered around his station, and laughing loudly.

"Hey there, Chris!" A familiar voice came from nowhere. "Do you want to hear the funniest one liner?"

"Believe me, I need one... Shoot!"

"There are only 10 types of people in the world—those that understand binary and those that don't."

Laughter erupted initially in the back with Reyansh's team but in nanoseconds spread everywhere. He needed his mood to elevate to the usual, and Arty made his day start again. Official meetings and vain conversations were never something he rushed into willingly, and he always needed extra coffee to recover after.

"Everything ok, Chris?" Vicks joined him at the door.

"Oh, just the usual hassle, deans and boards with endless questions and demands. Not to mention investors in uniforms with their stone faces demanding the impossible."

"Somebody from the defence department paid you a visit? What did they want?"

"Just one. Some colonels from the... I don't really know exactly. The uniform was somewhat bluish? Basically, he pushed for R.T. to never reach OSS."

Vicks looked in disbelief and grabbed his phablet. He worked on the surface a little and opened email with the "Open Horizons" logo, their main private investors.

"I've just received basically the same request from somebody named John Williams from OH. Do you know him?" He handed the device to Chris. "You can read it; it's pretty long, but in essence, they ask us not to involve any p2p servers outside the firewall. Should we reply something back?"

"Yep, I met him once. Head of their robotics research. It's safe to ignore. Or better yet, would you mind typing a short reply that no deviation from the contract will be considered from this point on? Development is over. We need to go into deployment fast. As soon as possible, before these bureaucrats start pushing more intensively."

Vicks nodded yes and typed, 'Dear Mr. Williams. FAR-T1 project will proceed according to the approved funder agreement. Deployment to the OSS network is scheduled for public access as early as next week. All investors, including 'Open Horizons", will gain administrative access shortly and before public publication. Regards, FAR-T1 development, IT department for robotics, MIT.'

Chris approved, and with a short tap on the red 'Send' button, both of them turned to the entire team, and Vicks said in a sort of formal tone.

"Ok people, get ready. It's time for the p2p and the suit. Arty?"

"Yep?"

"Are you ready for the shoes?"

"I thought you'd never ask!"

***

For the next four hours, the team was, more or less, waiting for Mike to find the phantom glitch in the phablet app for the narrow range of mobile devices capable of hosting FAR-T1. Surely, ever since smartphones were used for the first time decades ago, by following famous Moore's law, still in action after almost a century, the tiny hardware matured enough to replace home computers and those old laptops and notebooks from the early 21st century. Even so, most people still wanted to use cheap, fancy, and smaller five- or six-inch devices with transparent touch screens and the computer actually wired in their keychain pendants. They were stylish and perfect for small talk, bulk photography, virtual social life, paying bills, and connecting to the shopping malls' servers, but not good enough for R.T. and his needs.

Therefore, after they returned from the group lunch and found Mike with a wide smile, pronouncing the app now being glitch-free, Chris pulled out his state-of-the-art, with a "Made Yesterday" stamp on the back, brand new, nine-inch phablet. Made in the outskirts of Guangzhou.

"I know, I know... Don't worry; they said the shipment will be out next Wednesday. You know, the global warming and new routes for ships. Chris stopped all the cranky complaints before they arrived—he was promising new phablets for everybody for months, and yet he was still the only person in possession of one.

"R.T.?"

"Here!"

"Ok, before we send you an invite from the robotic suit, how about a small test of the transferral protocol from this device?" He launched the app, and in another fabulous and not really necessary animation, the "FAR-T1" button appeared large on the screen center. Just below, with smaller letters, was printed 'Invite'.

"Ok. I have a question. What happens with me in that phablet? What should I do inside? Be your new 'Siri' assistant, like the one professor Bourne is talking to every now and again?"

Chris gave a sincere smile to Bourne, who was holding his most precious latest model of a well-known domestic gadget, trying to film the entire event. "Sure, would you like to do it?"

"Nope."

"That's ok, Arty... This is just for demonstrational purposes, to see how our p2p protocol over the internet works. You can get out of it whenever you like. Just get in, do all the diagnostics, report, and unload."

"Ok, if you put it that way..."

Chris tapped the button, and everybody held the breath for a moment, anticipating the outcome. Well, all but professor Bourne, who started breathing soundly with all his attempts to zoom and schwenk the tiny camera around.

The button disappeared, and a series of diagnostic notifications started scrolling one after another. Then, the screen went white with a green-centered label that said FAR-T1 and 'active' beneath it. Moments after FAR-T1 app closed itself and phablet went into normal appearance, which in Chris case was the same default wallpaper and setting Chinese chose for the initial shipping. Nothing happened for a while, and then a pleasant female voice said from the device.

"Hello Chris. It's Siri speaking. You have one new email. Would you like me to read it for you? It's from John Williams from 'Open Horizons'. Subject says 'FAR-T1, network redundancy'. Oh dear..."

Another wave of laughter echoed from all directions. This time it was mission impossible to calm them all down instantly. Or after a minute or two... It was pointless.

"Okay, okay... Arty... You proved your point. Good one, though."

"Who's John Williams?" Asked Arty's disembodied voice and 'Siri' at the same time.

"Just the guy who pays for all this. One of them. Don't worry about it. You'll meet all investors and MIT officials on Saturday. We are planning your first birthday party." Chris stood up and walked to the back of the hall, where two robotic suits waited in their seven-foot height holders. He powered the first one up.

"As soon as you overcome and master these and go into full walkie-talkie mode."

***

It took them another big part of the afternoon to prepare the room and the blue suit for the first walk. The robot protocol and scripts are loaded into the armour as well as the 'R.T. rapp' as it was now officially named—the version of the mobile app ready to host FAR-T1. The difference in the code was major. Chris insisted on the robotic environment being developed from scratch. No operating systems of any kind were loaded in the suit, and the entire software was developed at the lowest level of programming, directly and separately for each of the 128 CPU cores. Vicks' and Reyansh's teams took the hardest part in developing this part of FAR-T1, and no testing was really performed on the software in whole. The main tester would be Arty himself, and all the issues were supposed to be fixed or developed on the go. That was the plan, at least.

Vicks and Bourne accompanied Chris next to the elegant bluish suit and discussed the procedure. The suit was in automated remote control, and they were performing diagnostics of jolts, power systems, and silent motors driving the whole thing in complex motion.

"Can I try?" Arty's nervous voice asked for the fifth time.

"Two more tests, and it's your turn; patience, my young..." Vicks tried to remember the word from his father's tales when he was a boy. "Padauvan?" He glimpsed Bourne for approval.

"Padawan." Bourne answered without returning the look, being busy with adjusting something with his wireless console. "But I am not sure this is applicable for the R.T. After all, he already knows all about the suit and... the force putting it in motion."

"I am not sure about that professor Bourne... I think I know how to drive it. I studied all the protocols and guides, but I didn't go into all the systems and how it really works."

"At this point, perhaps it is not that important..." Chris interrupted. "But just for fun, let me tell you that we tried to imitate nature with this suit. It is a complex study, and in a nutshell, all you need to know is that the human body contains more than 200 bones, 600 muscles, and about 300 joints. Not to count all the ligaments and fibrous we printed from various materials. This million-dollar suit is seriously the best imitation of human skeleton so far. After you handle the wheels, Vicks will tell you all about it. Plenty of time for that."

"Are you saying I can move facial muscles while I speak?"

"Not this time, body.. Maybe in version 2.o." Vicks added. That would add another year to the project and doesn't belong to essentials really. But we designed pretty good eyes for you. Real 3D cameras, which will give you amazing sight. You'll see the way we do."

"What is powering all this?"

"That's the tricky innovation. Never been used so far. I will use all the feedback you are going to give me, Arty." Said professor Bourne. "Your entire skeleton is filled with nanocapacitors. Miniature batteries. There are literally millions of them inside. We stored them everywhere we could. There are no moving parts, no chemical reactions, and they charge extremely quickly." He pointed to the one large black layer of sub-skeleton elegant pattern-like skin. "And all of them are charged with 12 fuel cells mainly located in the torso, powered by hydrogen and oxygen. Believe it or not, this six-inch vehicle of yours can store more than five gallons of liquid hydrogen and about ten gallons of oxygen. Furthermore, it is the most silent robot ever built, and the only exhaust is water. Or, to be exact, something that contains 80 percent water inside. There are a couple of more fluids needed for jolts and some of the muscles, but you will be as green as possible." Professor Bourne looked like he prepared this speech months ago and waited for a long time for a chance to give it to his only pupil. Chris and Vicks never saw him this excited, at least from six months ago when they tested the power system outdoors for the first time and forced the suit to walk on its own to check the consumption time of one charge. He sounded confident and felt just like he was giving an introduction lecture to the group of freshmen in their first class.

"Are you saying I am going to pee?"

R.T. was designed with a unique personality, and more and more Chris was thankful for his decision to use his entire team to create one. The laughter produced by this latest joke was something he never saw before. Even Melissa, who was always the voice of reason among his mostly male assembled team, couldn't resist not to express the most amusing joy he ever saw with her, and somehow at this very moment he knew this project was something unique and the most extraordinary effort he ever made. He never had the time to create a family before, and this was the closest feeling he felt in his whole life.

"Nobody's perfect, Arty." He said after they all calmed down a bit. "Sorry."

The rest of the evening went smoothly and as anticipated. Arty accepted the invite from the suit and loaded in. They didn't expect for him to stumble the world, or to be exact, the lab, with sort of baby steps. After all, it wasn't the artificial intelligence per se that was driving the suit, and soon after, R.T. was walking, running, and jumping around the lab in grandiose elegance.

The team retreated to the back wall, giving him space, and watched R.T. with the looks only young parents can give to their children in their early development and their first walk. At this very moment, many eyes looked brilliantly bright and wet. Here and there, Arty saw a tear or two, but the silence said it all. He stopped in front of the blinking cursor of the main wall screen facing to it for a couple of seconds. Then he turned to the team and, with his familiar voice now coming from his new face, said:

"Thank you guys."

***

Tomorrow morning, Chris wanted to have a couple of extra hours for sleep. The day before was way too long and emotionally filled from all the angles. Everything in the lab was perfect, and they stayed late for some improvised party for team members only. One milestone has been reached, and he knew it was only the beginning of what was waiting for them next. Lots of more testing is waiting as well as the final publishing of R.T. for the world to see and use. He was aware that they created another breakthrough for humanity, but even he couldn't anticipate all the applications and what this was going to mean for the future. Of everybody.

But extra hours of sleep never came. His wrist phone woke him up around 8am. It was Vicks.

"Chris. Please come to the lab... Asap!"

"What the.."

"Just come. Hurry."

Fifteen minutes later, he was standing at the lab door. The entire basement was empty. Not a single piece of hardware was where they left it last night. All their equipment, all the servers, two suits, and all the mobiles were missing. All the wall screens and even all the air conditioners were ripped and taken from the walls. Just empty tables, dozens of paper origami, and used plastic glasses scattered on the floor, with Vicks in the middle sitting on the chair with his hands entangled in his hair.

FAR-T1 was gone.

Prologue « FAR-T1 Chapters Navigation (Chris) » Birth

FAR-T1 (2), Birth

"You are all idiots!"

John Williams said more to himself than to his 'mercenary' acquaintances and the entire 'gang' he hired from the Tor's dark web. All four of them were proudly standing in the middle of the hardware pile that only yesterday would be easily recognized as the MIT state of the art and the most organized software development lab. All of them, except for their leader, wore black bulletproof face masks and were still in their 'SWAT-like' uniforms, including handguns, black rifles, and various military equipment hooked to their nano-enhanced kevlar armor. Bullet holes were all over the servers, one FAR-T1 suit was ripped in half, and almost all of the racks, including the coffee machine and two mobile air conditioners, were destroyed in gunfire.

"When I told you to bring everything from that lab, I meant computer racks and servers that I can plug and use!" Williams was shouting toward the men in black. "And I explicitly emphasised intact robotic suits!"

"Sorry boss..." The leader spoke with body language obviously not coherent to his apologizing words. "We didn't expect violent response, but this robot jumped on us. Miller barely saved his ass when this... thing... rolled upon him and then jerked to the ceiling and bounced backwards to attack the rest of us. Crazy son of a... Whatever this is..." He kicked R.T. with his boot hard. "But don't worry, the other robot didn't move, and its unharmed, I think..."

"You... I told you to use iron nets. I needed those servers. Without bullet holes in source codes." This was definitely not according to the plan. Human mercenaries were always like that. Easy with triggers. But, then again, all this effort was about to change all that. To put humans out of special ops. Especially those on the other side of the low. "Now get out. I will try to scavenge what I can from your mess... But don't go far. I will need you again later for the cloud raid job."

Soon after mercenaries left, two men entered the room, both with the 'Open Horizon' logo on the back on their white lab coats. Without much interaction between them, they started to work with hardware and wires.

Williams worked on R.T. himself and took his ripped head and lifted it up. The robot's optical eyes looked eerily alive when he turned them to face his.

"Jumped and attacked, huh... I'll be damned."

***

The basement lab was crowded with policemen and forensics. Both civilian and military. There was not much to investigate at this point, really, as it was obvious enough what happened. At least to Chris and Vicks. The motivation behind the raid and to keep the FAR-T1 project away from the public domain was not a far-stretched motif that all investors, in one way or another, expressed in the past. The success of the project was also not a secret to many people. After all, even with all the secrecy and security, maintaining a project of this size private over a couple of years was not really possible.

"There were four of them." Captain Collins approached. In the middle of the 21st century, avoiding city surveillance was mission impossible, and public raids or robberies were rare. "They came from the roof with four heavy cargo drones. Power quadruples. Then down through the elevator and lifted everything within the time frame of an hour. Including the fight."

"Fight?" Chris and Vicks looked at each other puzzled.

"You didn't mount any live surveillance in the lab, but it was obvious from dozens of bullet holes and wiped blood. They used chemicals to erase the traces, but our forensics is state of the art. There was not much of it, but at least one of them or whoever they encountered inside was mildly injured. Was anybody inside in the lab last night?"

"We had a small party for just the team, but only us two have a key to the lab. There was nobody left inside after 2am... Well, except for Arty, but..." Chris paused in the effort to find proper words.

"I see. The military guys told us you were in your apartments all night long, so we do have a little mystery about what happened inside. I guess it could also be that the thieves themselves got into a gunfight. It would not be the first time; after all, they are not rocket scientists."

"Military was spying on us?" Untypically for him, Vicks raised the voice a little but soon after dropped the rest of what he had in mind. Chris frown said it all.

"Could you trace the drones? They are heavy and large. Is there any air surveillance outside MIT?" Chris asked the questions, but he already knew the answers, or at least he was a technology nerd to understand how this century works. Some of it he invented himself.

"We followed them until they reached the western edges of the city. Then, they entered the woods and stayed low to avoid radars and cameras. Even with minimal speed and a curved trajectory, they could be anywhere in the vicinity of 300 miles by now."

Captain was about to leave, but then turned with one more question.

"Sorry, but for the record, I have to ask... This robot of yours... Arty, as you call it... Is it possible that it could be able to... ahem..." Collins then paused and finally frowned in sort of disbelief of what he was trying to ask. "Could it use weapons? Shoot at somebody?"

"What?" Vicks expression said it all. He looked at Chris, but all he got in response was some puzzled face expression.

"Never mind." Captain moved to join his team of forensics and turned once again. "These military investigators come with crazy theories. Nevertheless, talk to me if you come up with something. I sent you both my contact details in this morning message."

***

It was getting dark when Chris and Vicks entered the dean's office for a scheduled meeting with the board. Adam Anderson, the current chairman, took the most of the talking, trying to summarize the event from last night, and after he finished reading the police report and results of the preliminary investigation, he asked:

"Chris, is there anything at this point we can help them with anything? I mean, I know all the equipment was in the lab, but I am grasping at straws right now. Perhaps we can do anything with help from other departments and labs?"

"Unfortunately, Adam, I cannot think of anything we could do. Maybe the best is to leave the police to investigate all investors and whoever was involved in the project. Whoever did this was after source codes for themselves. Whatever happens, they would most likely not destroy them, and it is only a matter of time for those to be retrieved." He paused. "If there's a will to do it, of course."

Nobody said anything to answer this silent accusation. Everybody knew that the government was one of the investors, and motivations are in high supply for every player in the FAR-T1 game. Both individual and institutional.

"I agree." The dean concluded. "Okay, let's give them a couple of days to do their work, and if they don't return with results, MIT will launch our own private investigation."

An hour later, Vicks joined Chris in his office. Previously, they gathered the team in the mess room for a late lunch, and Chris informed them about the board meeting, and they all agreed to help the police with all their needs and be ready for any emergencies.

"I know what you want to ask. Why I didn't tell them about the beacon." Chris answered Vicks' unspoken question.

"Not really. I know the only tracking equipment is mounted inside the main server. Even if we try to build a new one, it would take weeks." Vicks opened a water bottle and sat on the chair across the table.

"R.T. can do it much faster." Chris stood up and started to search his backpack.

"I guess he might, with proper hardware, but we lost all the equipment and all the code to install the invite application..." The realisation suddenly shaped Vicks' face with hope. "Wait..."

Chris didn't say anything, and seconds later he produced his only copy of the "Made Yesterday" phablet and mounted it on the charging holder. It immediately came to life and started the boot procedure.

"This is basically the most advanced gadget in existence. Well... more or less. What's important is that this particular one is built with the electromagnetic sensor we asked them to install. It can search for any frequencies. Arty could be able to find the beacon!"

"Yes!" Vicks triumphally joined Chris on the side of the desk. "Surely, it was designed to work in the P2P network in order to triangulate the signal, but assuming they locked the suits in one spot, we could take the drive and record the signal from different positions. We could do this!" Soon after, another realisation expressed a different frown. "Is Arty still in there? He didn't like being inside and wanted to leave."

"Let's find out."

Chris worked a little with the touchpad, checked the sensor availability, and launched the FAR-T1 app. The centered label was still green, saying 'Active'. He tapped the button, and, like yesterday, it disappeared, and the phablet returned to normal 'Siri' mode.

"Finally!"

Arty's disembodied, and this time regular voice came from the device.

"It's so nice to see you guys again! I have much to tell you."

***

In the next half an hour, they repeatedly watched the recordings from Arty's robotic suit and all four cameras he was using from the lab network and his first instance inside Chris' desktop server. Recording everything and storing it on the FAR-T1 cloud was sort of a 'prime directive' of every part of the code, and artificial intelligence was based on these memories for analysing past events from different angles and learning for future interactions on similar occasions. Without the cloud layer, R.T. would be the same as the very first second Chris executed the code. With this first execution of the entire software, another precaution was taken. The entire source code of every subsystem was copied to the cloud as well.

"Are you saying they will try to break into the MIT data center?" Chris asked while pointing in an indefinite direction toward the window. "But this is next to the impossible. Three gates to enter the main hall, and one of them with a biometric code."

"Yes, that's what I heard while pretending I was in standby mode." Arty's voice came from the wide-screen monitor now. "They were using open, low-range frequency in their armor. I could hear their communication. The one who appeared to be the leader said exactly that their next target is the MIT academic data center within the next seven days. I recorded the entire audio if you want to listen."

"No need. This is logical, from their point of view. They don't want source code to stay available for others. Did you catch who hired them?"

"Nope. But they surely had military skills and equipment. Army, SWAT, or mercenaries."

In the next couple of minutes, all three of them didn't talk, trying to comprehend new information and deduce something useful. Vicks was first to break the silence.

"So, pretty much, after you heard what their target would be, you used your martial arts skills to take them down? You know you were born only yesterday, so to speak. Have you practiced these moves during nights last week? When we were at our homes?" He pointed to the paused video in the sequence of Arty jumping over one man in black with the other three pointed their guns toward him.

"Well... not exactly... No. I... Ahem... You see... I like to watch movies when you are not in the lab. This particular move is from the 'Wonder Woman', the first movie from 30 years ago, and her fight with Ares—basically, I wanted to roll one soldier down and to break through the main door and escape."

As it seemed, the severity of the situation just a moment ago vanished instantly, and loud laughter erupted from both humans in the room. Chris was the first one who came back to Earth.

"First of all, Arty, you've got all the moves wrong. Wonder Woman would never escape the fight. Anyway, let's hope this situation will be resolved soon, and then we will hire somebody to show you how to fight." Chris turned the monitor off and lifted the phablet. "Ok, this is not giving us many options. As I can see it, we cannot call the military and police—at least until we rule their involvement out. But we can try to locate the beacon in the meantime, and when we do, we'll see what is the smartest next move."

"We also know that both instances of Arty are not operational." Vicks added the now-known fact. "They are either turned off, stored in the network shield chamber, or..."

"Or both, the suit and the server are destroyed in gunfire." Arty stated the obvious. "Which is more likely as the both of my instances violently stopped broadcasting into the cloud."

They packed their backpacks, prepared for cold November weather and a potential outdoor walk, and left the office and the building soon after. They chose Vicks' pickup and, within minutes, left the main campus and headed toward the western freeway. Both scientists were too occupied in their conversation to spot dark and self-driving BMW Motorrad Vision carrying two riders in black armoured motorcycle suits who started following them soon after they left MIT.

***

Soon after R.T. created and installed a tracking app calibrated for two robotic suit beacons, they stopped to record the first data. The suggested direction was north-east from their current location, so they decided to turn right and drive at least 10 miles north within interstate 95 before another recording attempt. Some 15 minutes later, second scanning added a new line to the map. It was obvious now the general direction where they needed to go. Also, they were now certain that one robotic suit was definitely offline and more likely destroyed. Beacon and PeerNet, which they created just for FAR-T1, were designed to operate like a secondary backdoor system and be always in function nevertheless of artificial intelligence software.

"I think we should go all the way to the coast, Salem perhaps." Vicks said. "It's far away enough to pinpoint the location to the square foot."

"No need." Chris enlarged the map to inspect the wide intersection of two readings. "I know exactly where they are and who they are. I've been there once, three years ago with Dean Anderson. We were closing the deal with one of the major investors. Open Horizons. They have a robotic lab and a bunch of warehouses just north of the Rumney Marsh Reservation. Turn to Broadway next. It will take us there. Can we pinpoint the exact location with PeerNet when we get there?"

"Yes. We only have one phablet, but if we drive for a while within the beacon neighborhood, we could find the PeerNet signal, run diagnostics of the second suit, and upload Arty. We need a little luck though."

"Luck?"

"PeerNet only works within 50 yards. One hundred if we boost the signal. Also, they could be in the isolated chamber, which could narrow the field. We'll see when we get there."

Nahant Bay was only a couple of miles to the east, and even though the entire natural peninsula with all the enforcements risen in recent years was one great protection from the rising sea levels, it was evident that people from Lynn municipality and companies that hosted their offices and warehouses started evacuating into Mainand. When Chris and Vicks arrived in the heart of Lynn's industrial park, they both got the feeling they had entered the ghost town.

"Hmmm, this is not how I remember this neighborhood." Chris tried to orient himself. The night is falling rapidly at this hour, and the dark is not helping the fading memory. "Over there. I think this is it! Try to enter that parking lot and get close to the warehouse wall. This entire complex was purchased by Open Horizon. I remember they offered us to use their labs here for the project."

"I am not picking up the signal here." R.T. said when they approached the parking line closest to the wall. "Maybe we should try to drive around the complex and triangulate the beacon in more details?"

"Arty's right. We need to be precise and locate the exact spot." Vicks turned the truck and started to circle around the buildings. Soon enough, they managed to catch the signal from two additional spots, and with previous measurements, they identified the warehouse and the location within. The building was large, and PeerNet was barely accessible from their new parking spot on the nearest street but manageable enough.

"Ok Arty. Get inside the second suit. We will be monitoring from here. No heroics this time. Just reconnaissance. Don't move a muscle, only turn on the sensors and AV feed." Chris took the phablet and worked the screen. "I tapped Colonel Michael's contacts. If I am right, the US army is not behind this. Prepare to direct the feed to his private line as well."

It was obvious that wireless network access was blocked inside the warehouse, and the only way of accessing the FAR-T1 cloud layer was through the PeerNET, which means from the suit through the Chris' phablet, and it added additional delay, but at least it was stable and working. After a while, they started receiving the video from the inside. It confirmed what they already suspected—John Williams was there, obviously in charge of giving orders to the technicians while working with wracked hardware. In the corner there were also two armed men in black armour suits.

"That's it. We don't need anymore proof. Arty, start broadcasting to the colonel. I am calling him right now." Chris mounted the headset and started typing the number.

"I wouldn't do it if I were you."

The synthesized voice came from outside the truck, accompanied by loud knocking on the side windshield. Another two armed men stood next to the truck with their rider's helmets and armoured masks mounted on their heads and faces.

"Leave everything and get out." The man opened the door and pointed with the automatic weapon. "Hands in the air so I can see them."

***

"Mr. Christopher Burke." John Williams approached them immediately after mercenaires forced them inside. Their hands were tied. "Just the man I need."

"John." Chris looked the man in the eye. He didn't hide the disappointment. Somehow another feeling was also visible in his face. Compassion. Regret also. But not toward their captors. It was more general. Anticipated. "What is the meaning of this? What do you want?"

"I think you know."

Chris said nothing. Instead, he walked toward the broken hardware. Except for several servers running, all the equipment was destroyed and beyond repair. Arty's first suit was laying on the table dismounted and dead. He glimpsed the second suit for just a moment before he turned back to face Williams again.

"The source code?"

"We couldn't restore all of it from the lab servers, and I know the only copy is now in that datacenter. You will guide us in tonight. Pinpoint to the rack aisle."

"It's impossible. The MIT security is almost as the same as with commercial clouds. I only have access to the rack doors. I can't get inside the building by myself. Or Vicks. Nobody from the team can."

Williams' expression was unreadable. "Leave that to me." He grabbed his backpack and smartphone and produced the headgun. "Let's get going." He dismissed the whitecoats and motioned to mercenaries to the door.

Soon after, the warehouse was dark and empty. The van came to the entrance, and both Chris and Vicks were pushed inside. Two of the armed men joined them, and Williams sat behind the wheel, started the engine, and drove south toward Boston. The remaining motorrad riders followed them close.

Inside the warehouse, everything went quiet and dark.

"You can stand up now." The voice came from the PeerNet.

"I don't need Siri to tell me that." Arty stood up, turned the infrared light on, and went through the diagnostics of the suit. It was fast done, so he walked to the clearing between the aisles of wracked hardware and started to stretch and test arms and legs.

"We don't have time for that. They are already halfway to Boston. Get out as soon as possible. They locked the door, but you can try the upper windows. They are only lightly armoured and only ten feet high. You can do it." The disembodied voice came from the robot's speakers. "And don't call me Siri."

"Sorry." Robotic Arty analyzed the windows row and chose the weakest one. He jumped, found the hold, and easily ripped it out. The glass shattered and hit the sidewalk just before the entire window frame felt down. Within the next couple of seconds, he was outside the Vicks' truck. "Now what?"

"You really need to ask that?"

"Okay. First time for everything." He opened the door and entered the truck.

The bulky robot barely fit the driver seat. The phablet Arty already loaded the navigation app and started guidance to the MIT's datacenter.

"I don't need that."

"But I do. Come on. Go!"

The shortest route to the MIT was directly south, through Boston and its residential areas. In order to avoid downtown and reach Cambridge, they would need to cross one of the bridges over the Mystic River. R.T. chose to go through Chelsea and hit the engine hard. Thankfully, there wasn't much traffic on the way, and avoiding other cars very soon became routine for the advanced AI. Avoiding speed limit sensors and police patrols was complete another story, and they both heard the 'pullover' coming from the loud speakers of the police motorcycle, which ambushed them soon after they turned the road 16. Arty stopped and waited for the inevitable. The small knock on the window came shortly.

"License and registration, please."

The policeman asked without looking and operated a handheld device investigating the plates. Vicks data and picture appeared on the screen.

"I... don't think I have both, officer."

In similar situations, police routine didn't change much for perhaps a century, and next in line was the flashlight. He pulled it out and flashed directly into the driver's face.

"What the cra..." At this point all the training and police routine failed, and in the ultimate confusion, the servant of the law didn't know how to react.

"Yeah." Arty said in response.

After all, this was the middle of the twenty-first century, and automated vehicles were not news anymore, but they were all driving the highways or specialized lanes in cities. And definitely they don't talk. He leaned back and flashed the light again. The first thing he saw was the large phablet in the holster with the navigation map turned on.

"You really need navigation?"

"Officer, I need your help. It's a matter of life and death. My... friends were kidnapped. I am trying to save them. Can you clear the road for me? We need to go to the MIT as soon as possible. And please call the backup at the datacenter building in Cambridge."

***

Dean Adam Anderson was waiting at the main gate. The doors were already open. He was evidently nervous and paced the narrow hallway.

"What took you so long?"

"We had to be careful and to drive below speed limits. We didn't want to take this uglier than it already is." John Williams answered while giving a sign to bring the prisoners out. The mercenaires pushed Chris and Vicks out of the van, and they soon gathered inside the main corridor. Dean Anderson typed the code in the keypad and used his palm for the biometric sensor. Second door opened.

"Adam?" Chris stared in disbelief. He desperately wanted his old friend not to be part of this.

Dean Anderson avoided eye contact. "I am sorry, Chris." With the last door opened, the endless aisles and rack rows came into view. "What you created is too dangerous to be free. This was the only way. The military refused to act. I guess they never believed you would succeed. Or you managed to persuade them with all your nobility. Whatever it was, I had to take over myself."

"It's your turn, Mr. Burke." John Williams pushed Chris and Vicks along. "Please identify the racks."

Chris took a deep look into Adam's eyes and finally started walking the second aisle to the right.

"Chris... Don't do it... They wouldn't..." The butt of the rifle stopped Vicks from finishing the sentence. He immediately fell down unconscious.

The same mercenary shoved Chris next, and he resumed the walk. Five minutes later, they reached the rows of racks labeled with IT Robotic Labs. He typed the code and revealed the three rack rows with hundreds of servers aligned in six-foot-high racks one after another.

"Step aside." Williams pushed him and produced a heavy notebook. He connected it to the nearest port and started working menus. Two endless minutes later, he exclaimed. "Yes. This is it." With several clicks and typed commands, the popup window appeared, and the downloading gauge started to populate. It was over fast.

"Is it done?" Adam asked.

"Yes. We have the complete source code."

"Are you sure? We will not have another chance... All subsystems downloaded?

Williams gave him a grim expression, turned to the armed men, and pointed the rows. "Smash all servers. Make sure no rack survives. Use the biggest caliber you've got."

"What about him?" The one in charge pointed to Chris. "And the one at the door?"

"Kill them all."

What happened in the next five minutes was like in a fast-forward movie. At first, Chris looked at how four mercenaires systematically shot into servers, making sure they were unsurvivable. They used one magazine per rack. Then moved to another. With every short circuit, the resulted smoke came to be bigger and bigger, and when they hit the cooling fluid, the visibility faded down significantly and gave Chris the only chance he was hoping for.

He shoved Williams with his hardest kick in the back, sent him to the floor, and ran for the rack door. As quickly as he could, he closed the door and typed in the locking code. But the door was damaged and didn't move well, so he turned and ran. At this very point, large explosions started just outside the main gate, where two remaining mercenaries were waiting. Somebody attacked them, and they returned fire and most likely used grenades. He felt a wave of hope and ran faster.

The moment he reached Vicks' unconscious body, the first bullet hit him from the back. Inertia took over his numb body, and he fell down just next to Vicks. He kneeled up and turned half way back when the second bullet tore his chest. Just before the darkness took over, he saw Arty storming in with several policemen at his side in full combat armour and police shields. Arty took him in his arms, and in one short turnover, his bulk torso took all the rest of the rounds fired toward Chris.

He looked into his metallic eyes for a long moment, struggling to stay conscious.

"Arty..."

"I thought when you said no heroics you meant it to you too."

"I... Thank you."

"Don't talk. Ambulance is coming."

***

So, here I was in the waiting room. I didn't really want to go anywhere. The entire Open Horizon board came soon after everything was finished, and it turned out that John Williams and Adam Anderson were working alone and got rogue from both private companies and MIT. Colonel Michaels also came with military police and worked the scene with authorities. They all offered me to come to their labs until all the mess settles, but I refused. The waiting room is just fine.

Vicks recovered with a big headache and left the hospital shortly. His entire family came to visit me and offered their home for the rescue as well. His older son Phillip was the most persuasive, so I promise to come soon.

The rogue party was not that lucky. In the crossfire, they were all killed. Dean Anderson was the only one who survived, but barely. I also learned that Chris took them to the robotic deployment racks, which they destroyed almost entirely, but due to the size of the FAR-T1 project and the vast amount of data I was collecting and storing in the cloud, I received a completely separate part of the datacenter. The biggest portion of the datacenter any project had given in the history of MIT. Surely I only started to fill it, and lots of cloud capacity is only reserved for me, but in the aftermath I survived as well. My entire memory was intact.

There was one more man who took lots of credit for last night. Mark, the policeman who stopped me for speeding. If it wasn't for him and his fast reaction, I wouldn't come in time. Not only that, he cleared the road for me, but on the way he managed to organize rescue support from only his colleagues and friends from the nearby precinct, and in one heroic action they all managed to stop Williams and his mercenaries. Only two policemen were wounded, but not seriously.

It was November 11, 2047, and after all that happened in previous days, this was the day I decided to be my birthday.

Somehow it suited.

Chris had been in medical coma for two more days, and I used the time in the waiting room to read (and watch movies—don't tell anybody), and it was around 1 AM when a nurse called me.

When I entered the room, he was awake and focused on the green, almost fluorescent pudding in his hands.

"I really envy you, Arty." He said it without looking at me.

"Why?"

"Some food should not exist." He inhaled and deeply looked through the pudding. "I am glad you will never taste this." He glimpsed through the window next. "Stay away from it."

Somehow, I knew he didn't talk about food.

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