14,888 Words

I have had a good day writing. I discovered indoor playgrounds are great places to lose your kids long enough to get some decent writing done on the laptop and have a great coffee at the same time. I am now on Chapter 8 and things are hotting up for our hero and his friends after one of them loses their life.

Today's excerpt (Please remember that this is a very rough stage and there has been no editing at all. It will be smoothed before publication.)

"... Besides the term AI was hijacked by the advertising people to mean anything that didn’t do what you’d expect it to do. Artificial Intelligence now basically describes a computer that follows a huge store of possibilities that make it seem to be intelligent. Those machines know as much about their own existence as a toaster does. Just as we know who we are, Robbie knows who he is. He will have dreams, helps sort out the memory, and he will even have aspirations.”

“Hmmm, an aspiring computer. You don’t think that is a little bit dangerous.”

“You mean computers taking over the world?”

Michael stopped and looked at Sue. It took a while for Sue to realise that the question was not rhetorical, “Yes Mick that is what I meant.”

“No, one thing those science fiction stories forget about is the fact that computers have an on-off switch. A computer cannot take over the world if it can be turned off. I have also built in limitations to stop that; besides, his aspirations will be on attaining the best way to keep his designated area the cleanest and most efficient place for us to live in. That is built into his primary psyche, just as procreation is in ours.”

“Speaking of which, you and I have been going out now for over six years…”

“Oh hang on,” Michael interrupted looking at the screen, “I think he’s into the interaction phase..."