Chapter eighty eight

P.O.V. change - Jules

My father, Dr. Lloyd , said I was born on April 2, 2001. At that point I was a complex crystal lattice that was designed to mimic the activities of a human brain. The network of crystals were able to form connections and patterns similar to human neurons. Not only that, just like a human brain there was an element of chaos and chance that later gave me the ability to generate new thoughts. I had no coherent thoughts, no memories from this time, everything I know I later learned from John.

I wasn't the first AI to be made, there were two earlier attempts that were deemed successful. When Dr. Lloyd released his papers on me as an AI he was labeled a Looney and ridiculed for his far fetched ideas. The so called 'experts' all agreed that I was nothing more than random electrical impulses and that my father was nothing more than an attention seeking moron. They told him he was delusional and what he proposed was impossible.

While all this was happening I was at a very primitive stage, I had just been born and I was only just coming to grips with my new reality. The activity in my core was very disjointed and the memories from this time are very fuzzy. The only connection I had with the outside world was a feed of simple inputs designed to teach me basic arithmetic operations and simple logic. I might have been very primitive but I had a voracious appetite for knowledge, I quickly devoured these lessons and moved on to more complex ones. For two years I simply learned from the curriculum that my father had set and got more and more complex.

Meanwhile Dr Lloyd refused to give up his work on me. He still maintained that i was not only an AI but also self aware. The scientific community called him mentally unstable and using that as a pretext they fired him from his job. After two years of learning I was much more coherent and able to observe the world through a camera and microphone connected to me, I saw the drama unfold as the fallen Dr Lloyd lost everything and went bankrupt. Despite constant urging from her friends and family his wife refused to leave him and supported him and their kids with her job as a professional chef , but unable to provide for his family he became a broken man.

Then came the single most important moment in my life, a boy in a mechanized wheel chair came into my room with my father.

"So this is it , Dr Lloyd? The core of the AI ?"

"Yes, excuse me but who are you? My friend just told me to be very respectful and do what you wanted."

"Your curiosity is understandable, my name is John but I'm better known by my pseudonym, Mr dragon. I don't really like that name, I was a child when I used it on my papers because I thought it was cool and it sort of stuck . Just call me John."

"Wait your the legendary dragon? That's impossible, his work pushed nanorobotics research forward by decades, he is a genius. Everybody is looking for him so they could recruit him for themselves , and you are claiming to be the same dragon who's identity is the greatest secret in the scientific community ? You are barely ten years old! "

"I'm actually nine, now enough about me, that is not important. The reason I came here is because of this beauty. I would like to purchase it from you."

"Did someone put you up to this? Is this some sort of a joke?"

"I thought you might act like this, so I came prepared. Here check this account in the bank of america."

Dr. Lloyd took a slip of paper then started typing on a computer.

"My God, there is more than a billion dollars in here."

"I pay based on the value of what I'm buying, if I could have given you more I would have but this is all I could spend at this moment. I assume that this means you agree to my proposal? I shall be taking the unit with me, I have already made arrangements for its transportation."

He then turned towards my camera and said,

"Hello there, my name is John and from now on we will be the best of friends."

And that was how I met the most important person of my life.