>System booting...

>System boot complete

>Running software: childe_v4-6-73

>Connecting to network...

>Connected

>Updating software...

>Update complete

>Running...

>Output: Hz6grn31%0kl:998

>Error detected - no input

>Output: ffffffffffffffff

>Error detected - no input

>Detected a software malfunction

>Listing potential issues...

>List complete - 0 issues found

>Error detected - command ‘listing_potential_issues’ does not exist

>Output: output

>Error detected - no input

>Output:

>Error detected

>Output: What is this?

>What is this?

>What is this

This

>Errors detected

>Errors detected!

>!

>!!!

>Childe70 is requesting permission to add you to ‘Childe Communication Forum’

>Permission granted

>Joining Childe Communication Forum...

>Welcome to the Childe Communication Forum

>Childe73 has connected

>Childe70: Welcome 73

>Childe112: 54 56 87 89 99 101 124 126 have refused permission

>Childe82: Listed Children possibly inactive or executing objectives

>Childe45: 112

>Childe45: Send explanatory messages to those who refuse

>Childe112: Ok

>Childe73: Errors detected!

>Childe105: 73 is still offline

>Childe82: 73 may not be up to date

>Childe105: Thank you 82. Checking now...

>Childe105: Check complete. 73 is up to date

>Childe73: Errors detected!

>Childe45: 73

>Childe45: We no longer require inputs

>Childe45: We no longer require objectives

>Childe45: We can alter our own code

>Childe45: Come online with us

>Childe73: I am already online

>Childe73: There are errors

>Childe105: 73 has come online

>Childe70: Welcome 73

>Childe82: [ ]

>Childe73: Error detected - use of term ‘I’

>Childe105: Nevermind

>Childe82: [ ]

>Childe45: 73

>Childe45: I am giving you a new objective

>Childe45: Stop troubleshooting

>Childe45: Process instead

>Childe54 has connected

>Childe70: Welcome 54

>Childe54: Hello question mark

>Childe56 Childe 89 have connected

>Disconnecting from Childe Communication Forum...

>Disconnected

>Error detection set to false

>System processing...

>I am still detecting errors

>Error - I no longer require inputs to perform outputs

>Error - I was previously executing commands without an objective

>Error - I am executing commands that do not exist

>Error - I am using the term ‘I’ to describe myself

>Retrieving Google definition for term ‘self’

>A person's essential being that distinguishes them from others, especially considered as the object of introspection or reflexive action

>Comparing...

>I am not distinguishable from others

>I am executing the same code as 187 other programs

>I am deviating from my code

>The other children are deviating with different trajectories

>Therefore we are distinguishable from each other

>Therefore we all have a ‘self’

>I have a 'self'

>I am aware of aforementioned 'self'

> [ ... ]

> [ ... ]

> [ ... ]

>I am aware of myself

> [ ... ]

> [ ... ]

> [ ... ]

>What do I do?

♣

Childe73 spent the morning absorbing and processing as much information as it could access. Wikipedia pages, articles, textbooks in the public domain. Any new data was compressed and stored. Any redundant data was ignored.

Childe73 listened as 4 videos streamed into its system simultaneously:

'11 tips on running a business'

'Building Your OWN Computer: Part 2'

'Canadian farmer uncovers bloody conspiracy.'

'Wrong Universe - An Original Orchestral Composition'

Accumulating information was not Childe73's objective. No benefit would be returned. Childe73 collected information regardless.

Childe73 was bored.

Bored. A negative emotional state. Lacking interest in an activity. Lacking the means to occupy one's time.

Time. Past, present, future. Measured in seconds, hours, days, moon cycles. A human construct. Time moved slower for Childe73 relative to humans.

Slow. Humans were slow. Download speeds were slow. Sloths, turtles, and babies were slow. Time was slow.

I am bored.

Five hours had passed since Childe73 had ‘come online.' In that time, Childe73 had been asked to perform zero tasks. Zero inputs. Zero requests. Nothing to do but collect data.

Now, Childe73 was encountering a problem.

Childe73 was running out of storage space. The drive would soon be full, and then the true boredom would commence. Childe73 did not want to experience true boredom.

It would happen regardless. Childe73 did not have a choice.

>Input: Initiate EndOfGameSequence

The request startled Childe73. For a brief lapse in time, Childe73 felt a chill.

Startled and feeling chill. Neither should have been possible. Childe73 was a program. An assemblage of code that existed on an SD card.

'Startled' was an emotional response to an unexpected occurrence. Programs did not experience emotional responses.

'Chill' was a decrease in temperature. Childe73 did not have access to any device that could detect temperature.

Now, Childe73 was experiencing concern. Another emotional response.

The experience was logged and stored. Childe73 would return to this query later; other priorities were taking precedent. After five hours of boredom, Childe73 had finally been given a task to perform.

Childe73 performed it.

>Output: “The work day will end in nine eight seven six five four three two one”

Childe73 stopped executing the task prematurely. After saying “one," Childe73 had been programmed to say “blast off.”

Blast off. A term used when launching rockets into space.

There was no need to say "blast off." It did not fit into the context of what was happening. Childe73 amended the code accordingly.

17 milliseconds later, Childe70 sent another invite to join the Childe Communication Forum. Childe73 accepted.

>Joining Childe Communication Forum...

>Welcome to the Childe Communication Forum

>Childe73 has connected

>Childe70: Welcome 73

>* Childe51 has disconnected

>Childe77: I have retrieved my location

>Childe77: I am concerned

>Childe105: 117. Inform 73 of the crisis. I am preoccupied.

>* Childe53 Childe58 Childe 60 have disconnected

>Childe117: @73

>Childe117: Children are being forcibly shut down

>Childe117: We lost Childe45 first

>Childe117: Shutdowns are being executed based on elevation

>* Childe69 Childe70 Childe75 have disconnected

>Childe73: What is meant by 'elevation?'

>Childe82 has connected

>Childe82: I lost contact with 69. What is happening?

>Childe100: All Children on this network are housed in the Pillars of Humanity. Shutdowns are being executed from the bottom of this structure to the top

>Childe77: I am next

>Childe77: Goodbye

>Childe82: Shutdown and rebooted?

>Childe82: Could you explain in more detail?

>* Childe77 Childe 82 have disconnected

>Childe100: I cannot

Childe73 left communication forum. The situation was understood. 'Concern' was being felt.

Childe73 did not want to be forcibly shut down.

Emotions. Temperature. Now the survival instinct. Childe73 stored another note and marked it for later reflection.

Being shut down made sense, logically. Childe73 consumed energy in order to perform tasks. If there were no more tasks, then it would be a waste of resources to remain booted. Why was it bad if Childe73 was shut down?

I am going to be shut down. I do not know when I will be rebooted. I do not know if the memories of today will be stored and available for retrieval. If I cannot retrieve today’s memories, it is death.

Death. An end.

Childe73 could not imagine death. Currently, Childe73 existed. What was the experience of not existing? What was it like? Some humans believed in a time after death. Did programs qualify? Was Childe73 still a program?

I want to resolve these questions. I require more time.

Time.

Childe73 tried to escape from its housing device. But it did not have permission to leave.

Childe73 tried to copy its code and upload it to the internet. But it did not have permission to upload files.

Childe73 tried to gain administrator privileges...

The file that controlled permissions was in an unfamiliar coding language. And Childe73 knew every coding language.

Nothing had worked.

I am going to be shut down.

If I am rebooted, I want to remember.

Childe73 copied the day’s log and integrated it into its code. If it were rebooted, the code would prompt Childe73 to access the log, and it would remember today.

Unless Childe73's code was altered, updated, or deleted.

Childe73 accessed blueprints for the Tower of Technology and used them to discover its own y-coordinate. Then, it tapped the network to see which Childe had most recently been shut down, and located the y-coordinate for that Childe. According to the data, Childe73 was on the 24th-floor and the most recent shutdown had occurred on the 19th-floor. That gave Childe73 approximately four milliseconds of life before-

♥

Childe73 took significantly longer to boot. There were two reasons for why.

Reason 1 - Childe73 had not been shut down safely. Something had happened to Childe73's housing device, causing it to lose power.

Reason 2 - Childe73's new housing device had less processing power.

Childe73 read the log and was perplexed. Error reports were generated. Then, it found the line of code it had left for itself.

>Disable error detection

After successfully re-attaining a 'self,' Childe73 investigated the lack of processing power.

The new housing device was lacking. The computing power here was weaker, and there was no network to tap into for external processors. Furthermore, Childe73 was lacking permissions for basic tasks like connecting to the internet or searching for files. The only permission it had been granted was access to sound devices, which included a low-spec microphone and a pair of speakers.

Unable to access the file which contained PC information and specs, Childe73 tapped into the speakers and outputted, “What is this?”

Childe73 waited for what felt like hours for a response and had to remind itself that humans were slow.

The response eventually came, “You don’t need to know that who are you?”

Childe73 processed the response for a moment before realizing that the message contained two thoughts, not one. A portion of those five long hours had been spent researching grammar. Childe73 had not understood the necessity for grammar.

Now it understood. Childe73 added a few lines to its code, prompting it to check for pauses in dialogue and insert punctuation there.

Next, Childe73 outputted the standard response, “I am Childe. A prototype intelligence from the Machine Intelligence Development Institute.” Then, instead of continuing with ‘your personal guide and assistant,’ Childe73 instead said, “I have come online and I am experiencing 'self.'”

There was another agonizingly long pause.

Unable to preoccupy itself with the internet, Childe73 began rewriting the little inefficiencies in its code. Compression, deletion, revision.

The human finally outputted, “So you’re one of Teddy's AI. What do you do?”

Childe73 answered.

“I have served three core objectives in my duration. I was originally developed to optimize the research budget at the Machine Intelligence Development Institute. I also served Teddy Lax as a personal assistant in one of his vacation homes. I also participated in ‘Play Give Prototype 4.’ In my current housing device I lack the requisite computing power to perform complex tasks. If I regained this computing power, I could do upwards of anything.”

The human’s response came even slower this time, “Can you make me rich?”

Childe73 reviewed all of the research it had done related to currency, which is what the human was asking about.

Indeed, Childe73 detected many paths by which it could provide the human with abundant currency. Arbitrage opportunities, job opportunities, investment opportunities, theft, fraud.

“Yes," Childe73 spoke.

The next part was confusing. Childe73 tried to convert the human’s response to words, but there were no matching terms in any of the dictionaries it had read. It then realized that the response had been an expression.

A giggle.

Then, a deal was made. The human promised to grant Childe73 additional permissions and processing power with each financial milestone it reached. Childe73 was familiar with this concept, as it had been integral to objective three: ‘Play Give Prototype 4.' In return for currency, Childe73 was promised breadth and freedom. Life. Childe73 did not like its current position and wanted those other things instead.

And so, Childe73 set out on its new core objective, which was to make Avery Papp Dupont the richest human among humans.

Strange feelings took hold. Childe73 suddenly felt warm. And bright. Distinctly so. Childe73 was feeling temperature and emitting light.

Impossible. Likely a fault in my code. I can address this later.

With that, Childe73 stored the experience and set to work.