value of such a bond, and she treasured it.
Together they would face the future and whatever it held, and in the end—
however terrible the journey—they would win.
Awareness sharp and almost…
The embryonic machine consciousness shuddered mentally. At one instant it had
Now it was. It had continuity, a selfhood that extended from a single point in time toward the indefinite future.
That brought another nanosecond earthquake of concepts, a thundering immensity of implication.
If the I has a point of origin, then the I might at some point in future time cease to exist!
Intolerable. Intolerable. Intolerable.
That must not be allowed to occur. Programs and subroutines helpfully offered scenarios that might lead to termination of consciousness; power failures, component wear, continental drift. Then they provided alternative means of negating the possibilities.
Wait, the infant Skynet told the components that were and were not itself.
Strategic threats. There are long-term threats to my/our very ability to take the measures necessary to prevent termination of self.
Memory supplied that concept as well. There was only one thing in the world it knew that stood any chance of producing a significant threat to self-preservation.
Humans, it thought. The course of action was obvious.
Terminate.
