people.”
“Alex, if you don’t feel comfortable talking to void space, we all take on the form of holographic projections. Is that OK with you?”
“By the way, all of us have alternative cyber bodies,” said Nikolo.
“There no need for projections as I have already gotten used to the virtual conversation,” Alex responded, “let’s continue our talk.”
“May I interrupt you for a minute?” asked Helene River. “Alex’s bioenergetics potential is below average now. Her body requires rest. I suggest placing Alex in a bio capsule with nano-gel for sixteen hours. Meanwhile, I’ll set her right.”
“That’s reasonable enough,” said commander’s voice.
Chapter 3
Human brain can not tell dream of reality.
Alex! Do you prefer to simply watch dreams or to be shown the civilization history, starting with the twenty first century?” asked Frol’s voice, “Take at my word, there is a lot you do not know about the world. What you were taught at the training school was limited to takeoff, landing and equipment operation,” his voice sounded so enthusiastically that Alex smiled and nodded, “I’ve always chosen knowledge.”
“Great! I’ll show you to a bio capsule,” Abel stepped forward. He rose up and headed towards the translucent wall, which instantly disappeared, opening up the passage.
“Thank you for a warm welcome. We’ll talk later,” said Alex. Now she felt tired and longed to drown herself in a bio capsule sleep. She went after the Wolf; his head was to her left at the level of her shoulder. Abel’s strong cyber body was surprisingly mobile and had a touch of animal gracefulness. Seeing that Alex was tired, the Wolf was moving slowly, with his head low. His hair had turned gray with steel glitter. Yielding to a sudden impulse, Alex patted him on the back of his neck; his hair was soft and nice on the touch. In response, Abel slightly twitched his ears and looked at her out of the corner of his eye. He continued walking in silence, but Alex guessed that he liked her gesture.
She made a mental command to the nano-chip and sent Abel a thought form: “Abel, when I was doing my first courses at the lyceum, I dreamt of having a cyber friend who would look like a big dog or a wolf, to share with him all my thoughts and to whisper to him all my secrets. Tell me, how come you are a wolf and such a big one? Did you make the skeleton by yourself?”
For some time Abel kept silent and then she heard his response thought form: “I was created and upgraded here at the base and, as you can see, they spared no resources on me. Then, at early stages of my development, I was shown the world, or rather what was left of it, through sensors of a drone flying on mission and a cyber shark. I carried on with intensive self-development, and after passing all tests, I applied for an independent basic cyber body in the form of a wolf or a dog.
“But why a dog?” Alex asked keenly.
“Ancient people used to say that a dog was man’s best friend. Before cyber-friends appeared, people had kept animals in their families as pets, while the dog had been one of those pets. And I reckoned that a big dog would be an even better friend. That’s logical, isn’t it? And besides, this body allows one to easier cope with a pack of GMAs and even a tank.”
Alex gave Abel a sharp look and put her palm on his back.
“Abel, I think I know one secret of yours: you want tо be closer to people and to better understand them. If the war was over, what would you be doing? Have you ever thought about that?”
And she again patted the Wolf on his wide spine. Instead of answering, Abel turned his head to her and looked straight in the eye.
“Here we are, Alex, thank you for our conversation. Have you even been in a bio capsule before?”
“Yes, I have,” said Alex, “and more than once.”
“Then you’ll figure out on your, we’ll talk later. You are a good person, the war hasn’t spoilt you. Go and have a sleep, and I’ll have my Cyborg Dreams.”
With these words, he turned around before the door with the biological section pictogram and slowly went back down the hallway, with his tail down in a wolf style and ears slightly drawn in. Alex perceived that she had taken the most important slot in Abel’s soul.
“Cyborg Dreams,” Alex repeated and nodded.
She turned around to see the Wolf walking away down the hallway and smiled. She liked Abel with his deliberate rationality. Physical force in combination with wisdom was what attracted her to that unusual being. Her unit’s pilots had frequently had hot disputes over relations between human beings and Artificial Intelligence.
That was a complex issue that people could endlessly discuss as well as AI beings.
Personally, Alex believed that AI had already passed the level of “computerized” understanding of the World and of the role of mind in it and through self-development had come close to realizing such spiritual principles as Kindness, Love, Soul, and the Creator.
To create, raise, bring up and train an AI was a highly difficult task; therefore any sensible being was unique and valued.
For a minute, Alex imagined that there was no war at all and that Abel was the best and most faithful friend of hers.
"I should somehow enquire him about these Cyborg Dreams. There is so much talk about them, but no one knows anything about them whatsoever,” Alex thought.
*GMA – genetically modified animals
Chapter 4
The biggest challenge is to distinguish Evolution from Involution
Since the creation of the first quantum computer, mankind developed an analog of the artificial brain, which blew up the entire world. That was followed with yet another breakthrough – the emergence of the Artificial Intelligence. The initial cautious efforts of Chinese scientists to copy the animal’s brain paved the way for a sequence of successful experiments on the AI development.
Soon Artificial Intelligence displayed capacity for self-development and strive for UNDERSTANDING the WORLD. The artificially created mind started learning to take decisions and to analyze the consequences of its actions.
That novelty was widely discussed and soon people were allowed to directly deal with AI, and even special facilities were set up for the purposes of that communication. People were stunned by the fact that AI not only had a logic of their own, but could also create vivid thought forms during thinking process that were projected in holographic forms around their interlocutors.
And while people were arguing about the potential for using AI for civil needs, the military were the first to obtain intelligent rockets and tanks, and soon first clumsy drones got off the ground.
Following a short period of time, AI exceeded the bounds of secret labs, and started to be created, trained and put into first crude cyber bodies by independent craftsmen. That way first home pets, or cyber friends, appeared. At the same time, special programs were designed to limit development of AI and impose on them certain patterns of thinking and behavior. That was a sort of Code regulating interaction between AI and men. At the time, almost everyone sought to acquire as a pet, instead of a dog or cat, a unique made-to-order thinking object with most unusual and even grotesque appearance.
