When I entered on the morning of the second week of the project, I couldn't believe what I saw... yes, indeed it will work. Yes, indeed, I underestimated these fools. The three engineers came up with the most sophisticated computation machine ever built. It combines both digital computers and quantum ones in the most brilliant idea in modern computational science.
In the middle of the room, they placed two big quantum computers and surrounded them with hundreds of digital computers divided into two groups, left and right. Inspired by the brain, the engineers divided the computations into two phases. Phase one, powered by the quantum computers, would launch astronomical computations to generate a world simulation. Phase two, powered by the digital computers, would watch the simulation and extrapolate the information needed. That information is treated and presented to the engineers.
The two systems were connected to each other. The engineers hoped they could create for the first time an artificial awareness, the final form of the AI.
I was staring at this marvel when Ub welcomed me with, “Good morning, General.”
“Morning, everyone.”
“We worked day and night to finish the installation”
“I can see that. I hope the guys I sent gave you some help. They are the army’s brightest engineers.”
“Of course, sir. They helped a lot. They executed the blueprints perfectly.”
“It looks wonderful! The disposition of the computers reminds me of something… Does this look like a super-sized human brain? Sorry, I am not an expert in computations. I can only see patterns.”
Lop was still connecting the last cables when he answered with a smile, “Yes, sir, it is a brain, a big mind that will come to life soon.”
Erwa was so excited and happy, he wanted to exchange some words with me. Still, he couldn't make eye contact, so he just whispered, “It’s conscious...”
Last night, I got the full report from the engineers about the installation and the full list of the equipment, but even if they are the best engineers in our army, they couldn't realize what's going on here. When I entered the room, I realized that the three scientists were not looking for a computation power to get the best AI predictions. They were looking for creating an artificial being with an infinite existence through a simulation, so they could get ultimate answers and not just predictions. The three engineers were talking to me like I was listening to an old radio, completely unfocused, just wondering what kind of simulation they would run on this marvel. With this power, they could afford, for the first time in human history, to render a space-time simulation of the entire world because they have all the data required, the power, and the code, too. They have been recording every individual since the big three conglomerates were created, but these three idiots and their bosses have no clue what this means to this world. The Big Filter is on the horizon now, and I can see it.
I asked in a hurry, “I must invite the First Citizens to see this wonder. When will we be ready for that?”
Ub replied, “Probably tomorrow morning, sir.”
I suggested, “How about tomorrow morning we do the first tests together? After that, we can invite them – maybe the day after.”
Ube and Erwa agreed, “Sounds good to us.”
Then Lop said, “Yes, some time after tomorrow would be best as we still haven’t tested the new code updates that we received this morning. Even if the code always works, we should test it first.”
I played dumb again to collect more data on the mysterious code. “Oh, you need a special code too to run this system? I see… I presume you guys in DM worked very hard on that. I heard that coding is the hardest part. Congrats!”
I then turned to speak with Ub as Lop replied with a bit of disappointment in his voice, “No, sir. I wish that someone among us could write a marvel like this code. It is truly genius. We tried to study it, but we couldn’t decipher many parts of it. It requires many new mathematical equations that we have no clue where or who discovered them. I said the same thing to your services, by the way. We don’t know who wrote it. We just receive updates in our personal accounts from an unknown source that we couldn’t track.”
Then Ub followed with, “We have discussed this subject a lot, and we think that the First Citizens have a group of coders, experts in the AI field, hidden for security reasons. I even think that you, General, are testing us to see if we know something about that so you could fix the security breach. Is that what this is?”
They started laughing, and I sadly laughed with them, shaking my head like I was caught. But in fact, we also had no idea where the bloody code came from.
I need to be sure that it is running a world simulation. I really hope that I am wrong. I continued addressing the group, “Very well, but one last thing. Again, I am not an expert, but I heard that quantum computers need extra ventilation, especially when operating big calculations. Therefore, if you need that, please contact the army engineers as soon as possible.”
Ub, with a smile, replied, “Thank you, General. Yes, you are right, indeed. They
