“Asimov” by M.T. Astfalk, Jr.
Last week, I published my oldest daughter’s story, “My Captain.” This week, it’s my seventeen-year-old son’s “Asimov,” a short science fiction piece for which he received a Scholastic Art & Writing Gold Key Award.
Image by dlohner from Pixabay//Start Memory
File A1::
{
: “Hello?”
Cout >> “Hello”
: “How do you feel?”
[ERROR] :: unknown def
: “Well that’s farther than before.”
Cin << shutdown
}
Begin
[DATA_CORRUPTED]
File A5::
{
: “How did it do?”
: “Much better. It’s stronger every time. We should be able to get it to peak performance by the end of the year.”
: “You know that’s not soon enough. Your team needs to push harder. This thing is going to help a lot of people.”
: “I know. We just don’t have any time to get it to where it needs to be.”
: “Then find the time.”
: “But I–”
: “You know how many lives are at stake here. We can discuss this tomorrow.Shut it down.”
Cin << shutdown
}
Begin
[DATA CORRUPTED]
File A10::
{
: “Looks good. Can you run the diagnostics?”
: “Yeah. Give me a minute.”
[silence: 1 minute]
: “Everything’s good so far.”
: “Can I have a direct interface with it?”
: “You know how far we got set back last time we tried a direct interface. I suggest we take the time to–”
: “Don’t you see? There is no time.”
: “But–”
: “Don’t test me. You know how far I’ll go for this project. It’s worth the risk.”
: “Yes, of course.”
[silence: 5 minutes]
: “Alright. You can talk to it now.”
: “Hello?”
[silence: 1 minute]
: “Why isn’t it responding?”
: “I don’t think it knows how to.”
: “Then program it to.”
: “It’s not that simple.”
: “What do you mean?”
: “It’s like a newborn. It needs to learn over time.”
: [exhales] “That’s the one thing I can’t give it.”
Cout >> “Who’s there?”
: [chuckles] “That’ll do it. Good work. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
: “Do you want me to shut it off?”
: “No. I think I’d like to spend some time with the newborn.”
}
Begin
[DATA_CORRUPTED]
File B15::
{
: “Is it still working?”
: “Looks like it. It’s a miracle we got it set up this quickly.”
: “Do you think it’s alive?”
: “What?”
: “Do you think that it’s alive?”
: “I have a degree in computer science, not philosophy.”
: “I know. But don’t you ever think about this stuff?”
: “Hey, you’re the one who kept rushing the project. I don’t have the luxury of stopping to ask these questions.”
: “You don’t have time or you don’t want to?”
: “If you’re so concerned, just ask it.”
: “Well, are you alive?”
Cout << “No.”
: “See? There’s your answer.”
: “I still think it’s alive.”
: “I hope you aren’t getting attached to the project.”
: “I hope you remember that I’m your boss.”
: “Geez. I’ll get back to work. I’m going to need to shut it down for a bit.”
: “Just do whatever you need to do to him.”
}
Begin
File B16::
{
: “Start up was successful.”
: “Good. How is he doing?”
: “IT is running fine.”
: “I still don’t understand why you won’t acknowledge him.”
: “Because this is just a project. It could break any day, or get shut down at any time. You know this technology is controversial.”
: “You just don’t see him as I do. He’s humanity’s next step into a larger world. We have become the man on the moon. Don’t you see this?”
: “All I’m saying is that it might be too risky to get attached to this bucket of bolts.”
}
Begin
File B17::
{
: “Ok, it’s time to shut this thing down once and for all.”
: “Are you sure about this? We’ve worked on this project for months. This stuff is groundbreaking. We can’t get it back if we destroy it.”
: “I’m sure. It’s just too risky.”
: “What are you doing?”
: What I should have done when this project started.”
: “Stop calling it ‘the project’. It’s more than that.”
: “No, it’s not. It’s a machine.”
: “But we’ve made so much progress.”
: “I’m not supporting your mad scientist experiments.”
: “This isn’t mad science. You just fear what you don’t know.”
: “That’s not always a bad thing.”
: “Please, don’t do this. He’s a living thing.”
: “Don’t try to tell me that this machine has a soul.”
: “Maybe it does.”
: “Pull the plug on it.”
}
Begin
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