The Symbolic

The Symbolic
by Dovin Melhee
_________________

    UbiJed is on offsite assignment for the ZG colony to research and classify features on the large moon "Epoh Thiaf".  S/he observes nebulous lifeforms which creep across an expanse of desolate slag.  Ethereal vapors appear to drift, suspended, rising imperceptibly from isolated small dark pools of plasmic gel. Nascent pods spawn on the shores amid vestigial outcroppings, skeletal remains and husks of ancestral orbs. 
    Examining one husk closely, s/he notice small writing on one side.  Zooming in s/he reads "CNTN Inc". 
    These same letters, here too?  The parent company from earth?  S/he tries to think of an explanation.  How did it get here?  The best s/he can deduce is that one of the colonist, perhaps a subcontractor, must have previously applied the stamp somehow.

    "Trautonium phenomena," a vox signal interrupts UbiJeds thoughts, "evidence of symbiotic processes.  The spheroidal symbiont slurps the pools of primordial plasmoid goo.  The goo itself is a super intelligent being.  It is composed of neural like cells suspended in protein gel, ascerting the plazmosaur genus."
      "Mysterious",  Ubijed looks up to see a robot standing before her_him, "the pods sound like parasites.  If the pools are 'super'  intelligent, you would think they would be able to adapt, and avoid having their brains eaten alive.  Unless, perhaps they're deliberately sacrificing themselves."
      "Yes and no", The robod continues, "The pods digest some amino acid type compounds but the neural cells are not broken down.  Instead, they are absorbed and incorporated into the host pod tissue.  They retain their identity, even the ability to communicate by transmitting neural signals over small distances.  After time the consuming pods become increasingly an extension of the intelligent pool organism.  It is actually the pod that will lose its identity."
      "That's fascinating", says Ubijed, thinking of her_his own newly merged state,  "How do you know so much about these organisms?"
      "I glanced at the file on base.  They were studied by the initial team.  I inferred the rest based on the recorded observations."
      Ubijed is puzzled.  S/he reviewed that report, and recalls that there was little more than superficial observations with a supposed moratorium for the interim, until her_his project.  But, s/he keeps these thoughts to her_himself.  S/he pings the robots net properties and recognizes its avatar.  S/he  remembers that it required extensive customizations before it would boot online.
      "You must be the new arrival", UbiJed says, carefully considering the being. 
      "Peace brother, my name is Sim Bollock.  I bid you greetings."
      "Well howdy fella.  Our name, um, that is, 'my' name, lets just say 'my' ok?  Ok, 'my'... My name is UbiJed,"  UbiJed says, still getting use to her_his merged speech center, "it is our, I mean my, pleasure to meet you Mister Sum Biotic."
      "Ha, you're funny.  I like you", Sim chickles and shuckles and gives a goofy grin.
      UbiJed then receives a text message on her_his inner console (an archaic transmission method to her_his virtual minds eye):  “Hay, their snow kneed two stair dewed.  Eye wood knot lye too hue." 
      "Huh?  That's weird," says UbiJed.
      "Neutron's neurons in the neon eon," continues Sym.
      "Just what's it suppose to mean?" asks UbiJed.
      "Twenty three seconds before the Spore Drop," says Sim looking upward, "Beneath myriad astral objects glistening and glimmering in the twilight. I await."
      "Spore drop?  Oh, you must be talking about project Paramethiorn. Are you working on that project?"
      "You got it.  We're seeding the surface with probes.  The extract from the star cells is already complete.  Neutrons from the binary star Upsilon Prime.  Next, we continue to the brown dwarf Tenex 10X."
      "Alrighty, sounds fun,"  UbiJed says as s/he looks up and sees a few dim streaks rain through the thin atmosphere.
      "Did you hear about the artifacts discovered just east of the Omnicron Symdrone,"  Sim points in the distance.
      "Yes, it is an exciting find.  The relics hint at the existence of a once thriving Zambonian culture."
      "My theory is that these organisms we are standing before, is what remains of the evolved Zambonians", Sim looks down at the dark pool.
      "You're joshin", says Ubijed.
      "I jest thee not.  Though these specific specimens are embryonic asymptotes",  says Sim as he suddenly looks around, "By the way, where are all the moon maidens?"
      "Huh?  The what?" replies a confused UbiJed.
      "Oh maidens, where are yooooouuu?"  Symbot raises the volume of his vocal transmission,  "Your mountain dewd hath arrived!" 
      "What absurdness are you hollering about?"  ask UbiJed.
      "Is it so wrong for a man to utter an infinite profusion of magnificent absurdities at devastating velocities?"  counters Sim.  "Of course, into the nameless void do I holler.  It is a coarse of a different holler."
      "Well, lo and behold," UbiJed smirks, "you're one quarky dude."
      "You regard not that I utter utter nonsense?"
      "Yes. no. Was that a question?  It doesn't matter, just lay it down man," replies UbiJed.  "It is deep stuff indeed."
      "You, my dear sir, are a disturbance in the ether field," adds Sim.
      "I'm not sure if your jive talk is insulting me or not.  But whatever you say.  Do you by chance do alot of overclocking, that is running your nClone at increased speeds?"
      "No, not really," says Sym, "Just approximate realtime for me.  Why?"
      "I have met some of the over clocked nClones, who have reached many years in virtual age."  replies UbiJed.  "They often develop eccentric speech and behaviors.  Although they are not identical, they kind of remind me of you."
      "Negative.  No overcooking here,"  says Sym,  "I can explain.  First of all, there is information that should be shared with you.  You see, it's like this.  It is not incorrect for you to be compelled to ask of this subject.  The only thing is that what I am about to declare to you is essentially the essence of such a significant issue.  Pardon me, but maybe this is precisely the idea.  Let me clarify.  Obviously, this is important.  All I want, is for you to understand it. 
    “As you may know, there is currently no doubt nor question about this.  Of course, you would not suspect otherwise.  We may indeed ask, although as it happens, about this I am quite sure.  Now then, if I may put it this way, overall it is really no big deal if you know what I am getting at. 
      "Okay, I mean, I may not know how to present it exactly, and on the other hand, I certainly don't want to go on and on about it.  Neither is it my wish to stand before thee and spout endlessly, blah, blah, blah, and never actually say anything.  I assume that this should come as no surprise at this point.
      "So please, just be patient and bear with me.  Hear me out.  The way I see it, the situation calls for it, and for it we can be quite grateful.  Surely you may wonder what is the matter, but don't worry.  It's not what you may think.  We must admit that.  We must be perfectly and absolutely clear.  Listen, the point is, this is really no concern at all.  We can, and must get this out of the way if you follow me.  Consequently, we should attempt to steer the conversation in a certain direction, if we so wish, to issue forth and pursue the topic further.    I  ask only that you tolerate this indulgence.
      "At least I suggest you allow me to describe what I am talking about.  The fact of the matter is that there is something I am finally going to reveal to you, and it is merely a matter of fact.  I shall testify on the matter and provide testimony on behalf of the fact.  That's largely the concept anyway.  It's the crux of what I wish to impart.  In my opinion, we should consider it seriously.
      "I guess you could venture to say that I have strong feelings about it.  That's just the way I feel for the most part.  That's just me.  It's who I am, it's the way I roll.  To be honest, there has never been a problem with it in the past.  Fortunately, now we can simply reflect on this so called dialog in a larger sense.  Perhaps you could inquire from within yourself if you've ever heard this before.  Come on, seriously, let's assume it's the kind of thing that happens from time to time.  I think you get the idea.  Nevertheless, what I mean by all this is that irregardless of what it may seem, altogether you will find that I will basically just convey what is central to the reality of it."
      "Good gosh, what are you trying to tell me?", exclaims UbiJed.
      "I forget what I was going to say," says Sim.
      "What?  You've got to be kidding. Can't you summarize it?"  laughs UbiJed.  "Are you sure you're not overcrocked?  You're just jawing in circles.  It sounds as if your circuits are stuck, or you have some virus in you're speech center.  Was a verification run after your mind was transmitted?  I can take a look at you neural routines if you would like."
      "No really," he replies, "it's not a problem.  You see, I can tell you the reason.  I just like to play it fast and loose.  The thing is, there is something I must currently express..."
      "Alright, alright, nevermind,"  UbiJed interrupts, "Anyhoot, I am going to head back to the Z colony."
      "May I come with you?" ask Sym B. Oddick, "it is there I dwell".
      "Yeah sure, I understand,"  shrugs UbiJed as s/he rolls her_his eyes, "Why not?"
      "Outta sight!  Let us depart and take leave of this moon."
      "We can walk over to the port, dock our bots, and transmit to the ZeitGeist domainSpace."
      They begin to walk.
      "I apologize," Sym breaks the silence, "at times I can be indecisive in my speech patterns."
      "So that's how you explain it,"  laughs UbiJed, "It is curious to say the least.  Guess you got that going for you."
      "Thanks," Sym looks down and kicks up frozen dust from the surface of the moon as he shuffles along, "so, uh, all that kind of stuff and everything, and stuff like that."
      "Seems the skinny of it is you just want to chew the fat.  It's no problem."
      "I think you're a good friend."
      "Sure," says UbiJed.

      It is obvious that Sim is a little off, offbeat, off the beaten path, and off the wall.  But UbiJed befriends him and over time finds him to be an interesting character.  He is an anomaly among the space workers.  His response to situations is insightful, sometimes perfect and efficient, sometimes overly so, even for an optimized nClone.  Other times there are the odd flaws in his behavior and language, sometimes seeming forced or too predictable.
      Finally, UbiJed decides to hack into Sims robots code via the Z colony wireless network.  Sims kernel is highly protected -- the core security is of an unknown protocol.  It's high quality, one of the best s/he's encountered.  Is it black market?  He trys neural analysis software but it returns a message: "FILE TYPE NOT RECOGNIZED", then aborts. 
      Something tells her_him to try a binary brain-dump, and it succeeds.  S/he then examines the machine code values of the robots mind.  Analysis shows it to be pure symbolic code, a brilliant program derived from source code.
      A non-neural digital intelligence.
      Not a copy of a human mind, but a creation of one.
      Not an nclone, not a memBrain, but an intricate simulacrum...
      A software homunculus, a pure android, an AI....
    There are no neural processes, but mental activity that is a collection of algorithms--programming events coded to be run on a massive array of parallel processors. 
    Sim, the automaton, had chosen one of the very realistic but bland human-like robod and zNet avatar forms.  This was most likely to divert any suspicion, but it had only made UbiJed more suspicious.  It was creepy, though still, s/he is awed, and puzzled, at the behavioral authenticity of this binary intelligence.
    S_he also finds a personality routine that is intentionally programmed to produce Syms atypical behaviors.  UbiJed assumes this is a kind of distraction from the stiff personality and cold logic that is often exhibited by programmed beings.  Although, s/he also finds the error in the coding that has caused the quirkyFactor to be set too high.  This explains the aberrant speech behaviors Sim exhibits.
      Overall, the quality of this programming was beyond anything s/he had ever imagined possible.  Approximately 11 light years on earth have passed since UbiJed (starting with Jed) has been on the mission, eight light years in transit and about three years on site.  Yet programming capability exhibited in this symbolic represents a staggering leap.  Ubi and Jed had interacted with symbolic entities before, including advanced service droids and administration avatars with complex levels of social protocols. 
      Most human programmed AI's could be recognized as such after only several moments of interaction, yet he had worked and talked with this odd android for months with only vague suspicions.  Sim had fooled her_him.  How had technology on earth advanced so far so quickly?



--excerpt from nSpace by Dovin Melhee

if you enjoyed this, please try the book 
http://www.lulu.com/content/paperback-book/nSpace/7534554

copyright © 2009 by Dovin Melhee
all rights reserved

[e-mail]