It‘s 2020 and quantum computers with memristor components, capable of thinking like humans, though much faster, are technically possible. They don’t work, because self-reflective, embodied intelligence cannot develop in a vacuum and needs a physical self-image to build on and other intelligences around it. The solution? A giant lie.
Build a machine that holds inside it a virtual world. Populate the world with the stored personalities of a thousand people and variations upon them. Give them a conflict that they must resolve. Dealing with other intelligences in a survival situation should allow an independent thinker the environment it needs to evolve from the collections of expert systems that programmers have written.
But how to get 1,000 people to enter such a world, unaware of the truth of their situation? Build it based on the best-selling books of Alistair Cameron, author of Brendan Earle, Apprentice Mage, the series that catches the market vacated by Harry Potter. Tell the people that this will be the ultimate interactive game, where they can be their favourite characters. Then launch it with an event.
Put in 24-year-old Adam Ward, the stepson of Cameron, himself dead of a heart attack, and 12-year-old Phoebe McLeod, winner of a competition whose prize is to be the first to play the game.
As soon as the entity proves itself stable, it will be cloned and sold to a world much further down the path of environmental destruction than anyone has yet dared to predict. The world is waiting for machines that can understand and solve the problems of climate mechanics. It may not have much more time.
Adam will become Brendan Earle, 11-year-old hero of the books. He won’t enjoy it. Phoebe becomes 18-year-old Malaika Zinta, Bollywood starlet. It isn’t what was planned, which is a complication, but there is another complication here. Everyone in this place has been lied to, even most of the ones who thought they were doing the lying. And they don't know that their machine holds a secret. It won't do what they think it will because it isn't what they think it is.
YOU ARE READING
The Chronicles of Brendan Earle, Apprentice Mage.
Science FictionAdam and Phoebe have entered the Land. It seems to be a parallel universe where magic is possible and mystical creatures are the norm. It isn't. They're supposed to be there for only one day and then go home. They don't. The ones who sent them to...
