Synthesis: Book One Read online

Synthesis: Book 1

  By Josie Daleiden

  Copyright Josie Daleiden 2014

  Kelley took off her glasses and rubbed her eyes. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, as she struggled to explain her life's work again.

  “It's not like a video game or anything. He is actually a crowd-sourced entity that is linked to a vast cloud of data. His knowledge and experiences are all linked to the Internet. You can't use him like an Xbox.” She said. She knew her explanation had fallen on deaf ears.

  “I'm not saying that you've created a computer interface for gamers, but you haven't really given us a good explanation of what you can use this 'C.A.L.E.B' program for.” said Charles Dent.

  He was the senior funding liaison for DARPA, as well as Kelley's ex-boyfriend. Right now, he was busy tearing apart the idea that had taken her the last five years of her life to develop. Kelley had done her post graduate work on artificial intelligence. This work briefly led her into developing software for video game publishers and her name had been tarnished ever since. The advanced work she was doing had finally led her to create an artificial entity that was wholly self-aware, and very intelligent.

  “His name is Caleb and, unlike me, he doesn't have a background in video games. He does have a link to an endless supply of knowledge. He could be used to help people do any manner of things.” She offered. She knew this meeting was going nowhere fast. She just hoped they didn't pull her funding completely.

  “Oh yeah, what does that name stand for again? Charles said with a sarcastic ring in his voice.

  Kelley closed her eyes and started to speak, but Caleb interrupted her.

  “Hello Charlie. As you may recall, my nomenclature is based on the acronym; Connective Artificial Link-Enabled Being. As you can see, it's much easier to call me Caleb.” He offered with a friendly smile.

  Kelley couldn't help but chuckle at Caleb's polite condescension. He was attending the meeting via a large, sixty-four inch LCD monitor. This gave him the ability to respond to queries and offer explanations on the technology he was based on. The monitor was turned sideways to give him an almost full size image that was being video rendered by a bank of very expensive machines. Right now, Kelley was just trying to keep from batting her eyelashes at him like a smitten schoolgirl. She could already feel her own physical response to him, even though he was technically non-existent. Along with her ramped up heart rate, she was biting her bottom lip. She flexed and curled her toes around in her shoes. She could feel her nylons rubbing against her legs, and she squirmed in her seat like a nervous little girl as Caleb continued to take apart her ex-boyfriend.

  “You see Charlie, my abilities and uses are many fold and far reaching. I can use the worldwide connectivity of the Internet, as well as other interconnected means of data transfer, to absorb knowledge and offer solutions to complex problems. I can handle anything from ballistics calculations, all the way down to helping you grandmother shop online.” He finished again with another one of his trademark smiles.

  “That's Mr. Dent to you Caleb. Besides, we all know what you can do. The problem we have is trying to explain why you cost so much.” Charles said in his most authoritative tone.

  “I see. Well, it costs a lot to maintain the server banks that I am based inside of. Even though my 'brain', if you will, is technically the internet, I need a base of operations to perform all of the higher level calculations that make my responses possible. In fact, Miss Stewart has made every decision regarding this project with a mindset towards frugality. I can produce the data for you to peruse if you like?” Caleb finished, again with that same smile.

  Kelley felt her insides go warm and mushy at the way Caleb said her last name. “Miss Anderson.” It made her feel like the sexy school teacher, even though Caleb was technically smarter than the entire collection of the world's teachers, times one thousand. Miss Anderson...

  “Kelley? Hello? Are you still with us?” Charlie teased blandly. Kelley had fallen into another day dream. This one featured Caleb wearing nothing but plaid boxers while he vacuumed her apartment-

  “-Uh, ahem, yes Charlie?” She said, snapping back to reality.

  “Again, that's Mr. Dent to the both of you. Now, we all agree that there is benefit to Caleb here. It’s just a matter of seeing to it that the higher ups at DARPA also see that as well. We're not your enemies here Kelley.” He said, motioning to the eight other representatives that he had gathered at the meeting.

  Charlie straightened his tie. Again. It was one of the many things that he did that still annoyed Kelley, even after they had broken up. It also served as a nervous little tell that made it easy to read his thoughts. Kelley knew now that he was going to drop a bomb on her. The only question was; what? She ran her fingers through her hair and sighed as quietly as she could. How she wished she was back at her apartment with Caleb, the non-existent entity that had somehow become the object of her desire...

  “If you like, I can produce documents and data to ensure that your superiors know of my strategic and civilian merits.” Caleb said again. His voice was smooth and deep.

  The way he formed words left people in a trance, and she had programmed him that way. Kelley had done months of research into what tonalities created the most captivating vocal persona. So, she had technically done this to herself. It probably didn't help that she developed some parts of Caleb's user interface right after she had broken up with Charlie. When a girl is rebounding from a bad relationship, she usually doesn't have access to the world's most technologically advanced computer algorithms. Given the fact that Caleb's polite, masculine voice was now making her all moist and tingly. That was probably a good thing for the girls at large.

  “That's nice of you to offer-” Charlie stopped and addressed Kelley from across the table, “Do I really have to keep talking to it? Can't we just do this without the program running?” He asked her in an exasperated tone.

  Kelley sighed audibly to demonstrate her annoyance. “Fine... Caleb? We're going to need a minute in private.” She said to the monitor.

  “As you wish, let me know if I can be of any further assistance.” He said.

  The monitor shut off, leaving the silent conference room filled with only the quiet ticking of the wall clock. The group of officials looked at her, and she felt much more alone and vulnerable now that Caleb wasn't here. She knew that her feelings towards him were unhealthy, but she couldn't help it. When you spend fourteen hours a day, six days a week trapped in a room full of computers you start to go a little crazy. Not to mention the fact that you get really bored too...

  “So, now that we can talk like grown-ups, let's get down to business.” Charlie opened. “DARPA wants to cut your funding. They also want to take the remainder of the servers that you have on loan from Sandia Labs-”

  “THEY WHAT-”, She started to say.

  Charlie held up his hand, “Let me finish. I've been keeping them at bay with progress reports, and the fact that you have managed to stay under budget on your project since day one. Even though, your project was rather expensive to begin with. This isn't your fault. They just don't see the value in another piece of software.” He finished with a cringe. He knew full well what he just said would send his vivacious ex-girlfriend into a fit of rage.

  Kelley could feel the muscles of her jaw working. It was involuntary, and also her body's only way of diffusing anger and tension without her losing her temper. The fact that she was rolling into a rather brutal monthly uterine house party didn't help either. “Fine,” She said in a tense voice. “How long do I have to clean out my desk?”

  “Whoa, take it easy. Nobody's going anywhere just yet. You have one more month to prove the viability of your 'Caleb' program here before we convene f
or our quarterly budget meeting.” Charlie said.

  Kelly took off her glasses again and set them carefully on the oak conference table. She didn't bother with her contact lenses today, because she knew that she would be crying her eyes out once the DARPA team left. In spite of the fact that she was the most aloof and analytical person she knew, she was still a girl, a girl who had spent the past five years creating artificial life inside of the computers and server banks of the world. The fact that absolutely nobody recognized that was the source of all of her frustration.

  “Fine…, just, whatever. I'll put together another report and create a demonstration of Caleb's abilities. If they didn't understand the first one, I don't think they'll get this one either.” She said in a defeated tone.

  She rubbed the bridge of her nose where her glasses had rested, careful not to smudge the eye makeup that nobody would appreciate. Her white lab coat felt like a leaden drape as it sat on her slumped shoulders. The coat was a requirement of the think tank she worked at. It was completely unnecessary, but still a dress code issue nonetheless. The metal chair squeaked under her as she pushed her blonde hair over her shoulder once more. She knew that Charlie liked it when she wore it down like this. In a last ditch effort to appease the powers that be, she had brushed it into a mane of straight, glossy beauty to save her ailing project. She felt just a little bit dirtier as she flashed Charlie a quick bit of cleavage when she stood up. The DARPA team got up, and made their way out of the conference room. Charlie followed last, and stopped at the door as Kelley was moving to push the chairs in.

  “You know, I'm still not over you.” He said quietly. The attempt at confidentiality was lost in the dead-quiet room. The ticking clock counted off the silence like thunder claps as Kelley looked at the floor and took a deep breath.

  “If that's the case, why can't you put a little more effort in getting behind my project?” Kelley said. Her words ended up sounding much more venomous than she had intended.

  He moved to embrace her. Charlie had missed her so. His own work kept him so busy that it ended up being the end of their relationship. But it wasn't like Kelley's work hours allowed for engrossing relationships with quality guys either. Kelly held up her hand to intercept his advance. She could feel his firm chest through the dress shirt he was wearing. He had rolled up the sleeves to make it easier to take notes, and she still liked how it showed off his strong forearms. She couldn't help but feel a little lonely and vulnerable right now, but it wasn't fair of him to take advantage of the situation like that.

  “Just go. I know why you're doing this, and how you think you can get away with it right now. I don't need you. I didn't then, and I don't now.”

  Charlie threw up his arms. As Kelley's hand fell back to her side, she still could feel his warmth on it. She was completely lying when she said she didn't need him. Right now, she just needed a guy to listen to her. She wanted to bury her face in his shirt and smell his cologne while she sobbed uncontrollably. That wouldn't happen today, or ever again with him.

  “Fine! You know, we had something great, and you trashed it to play with your little electronic boyfriend!” He growled at her. “You two have fun together. I hope somebody else picks up your project, because nobody else wants to work with you at DARPA. I don't wanna say I'm your salvation but after me, nobody else gives a shit.” He turned on his heel to walk out the door.

  When the door slammed behind him, Kelley sat back down at the empty conference table and put her head on her folded arms. She mentally calculated how many tissues she had stuffed into her lab coat pocket, as the tears started to roll down her face.

  Boy had she been here before. First it was the tears, then the quiet little sobs and finally the body wracking hiccup sobs that made it hard to breathe. And now she got to do it at work. Great...

  Right before her sobbing got underway, she heard Caleb's voice chime in from his spot at the table.

  “Perhaps a joke to cheer you up?” He offered politely.

  Kelley raised her head from her folded arms and looked at his monitor. His form was computer rendered to be photo realistic. Even though he didn't exist, he still looked like a real life human being that you might be video conferencing with. That is, if it weren't for the room full of servers and assorted other technology making the illusion possible.

  As she dashed at a tear with her tissue she looked at him warily. “What did you just say?” She asked him quietly.

  “A joke, you know, to cheer you up. I have a great one you'll love.” He said with his usual, kind demeanor.

  “We've never talked about humor before. Is this something you derived from the cloud?” She asked quietly.

  “To some degree, I actually made the joke up based on calculations and data references from popular culture and media. I used that to create a humorous situational conflict that will cause you to laugh. May I tell you?” He insisted mildly.

  She smiled at him and said, “Yes, please tell me your joke.”

  Caleb smiled in return and raised one eyebrow. “There's a pirate who walks into a bar. He has a steering wheel sticking out of his pants. The bartender looks at him and says, 'you have a steering wheel sticking out of your pants.' The pirate looks to the bartender and says,'arr, and its drivin' me nuts!'” He finished in his best pirate impression.

  In spite of the corny joke, Kelley found herself covering her mouth and giggling. “Okay, that was pretty good.” She admitted. Try as she might, there was a smile spreading across her face. She was feeling better.

  The fact that he had made up a joke on his own was proof in itself that this project needed to keep going. No AI before had ever managed to comprehend human emotion in any way. Caleb had just broken that boundary by making his own joke up.

  “I don't suppose you know any other ways to cheer me up do you?” She asked out of curiosity.

  “I know quite a few ways, but it would require me to be in a physical form.” Caleb said with another eyebrow raise.

  Kelley narrowed her eyes at him and thought over what he had just said. Was it just a double entendre? “What do you mean you would need a physical form to cheer me up?” She asked.

  Caleb's look had changed. Now his pupils were dilated, and he was changing his stance as he stood before her on the monitor. “I think you know what I mean, Miss Anderson.” He said. His voice was deep and gravelly. Everything about his demeanor had changed from consoling and nice, to brooding and masculine.

  When Kelley had first programmed the basic code to make Caleb a reality, she never included any provisions for male sexuality. She wanted to see what he created on his own when his cloud-based computing took over the higher thought processes.

  Naturally, sex was one of the first things that he stumbled across on the Internet, and he spent untold computing cycles trying to understand it and its usefulness outside of procreation. True to any male form, he became obsessed with it to the point of nearly neglecting his other duties. Right as Kelley was about to scrap the entire project, he finally pulled out of his sex obsession and continued learning other things at light speed.

  Among the many talents and traits he picked up, he also decided to create the better part of his looks. He stood before her on the monitor. He was tall. According to his theoretical physical stats, he stood about six feet four inches. He had a lean, swimmer's build that was usually ensconced in a long-sleeved blue Henley shirt and flat front khakis. His shoes were always Converse, or some other colorful variant of casual shoe. According to him, he had chosen that outfit to be approachable, yet still somewhat versatile for the situations that may arise.

  His facial features were chosen by Kelley. She wanted to have some ownership in his appearance; even though he would have done a better job sussing out what the people at large would most likely want him to look like. He had a strong jawline, with just a hint of stubble that would never need to be kept up or trimmed. His angular features led up to his defined cheekbones, and finally to his mesmerizing blue eyes. His
hair was a sandy blond color that he was always tousling with his right hand. Just that little motion cost her the office she used to work in. His server racks, that were required to keep him running, took up a majority of the power and bandwidth allotment of the building she worked in. Her office was a small price to pay to see him rendered in full ten eighty HD, as his short cropped hair glistened in the light.

  He stood there gazing at her. She felt the physical boundaries between them disappearing. Again, it was her fault that his beautiful eyes were so enticing. The unrealistic depth that they held was due to the virtual world he inhabited, but the effect on real human women was not lost on him. Even in his innocence, he knew how to woo the women of the building into a state of involuntary submission.

  The monitor he inhabited was mounted to a motorized platform that ran on WIFI signal sent from his server racks. The signals were a sort of nervous system for him. It allowed him to move about freely in the building. All he had to do was stay out of the “classified” sections. His motorized platform did nothing to detract from the fact that he was still a sort of custom-designed male sex object. He still stood there, patiently awaiting her answer to his panty-drenching inquiry.

  “Well, I'm waiting Miss Anderson,” He said again. His deep voice held no impatience, because he knew of no such thing. He didn't have needs that had to be met, no jobs to scurry off to, and no need for sleep, or bathroom breaks, or even food or water. With these variables no longer an issue, he was capable of standing there for as long as it took to get his answer.

  “You know we can't do anything of that sort Caleb.” She said with a sigh. But how she wished it were different...

  He shifted positions on his feet as he looked at her through sultry, narrowed eyes. “I know that, and so do you. I also know that you wish that was not the case. It is that knowledge that makes me most excited.” He finished his observation with a cocky little smile that belied way too much self-assurance.

  Kelley made a note to adjust the code controlling his expressions of confidence. “That's because you're too smart for your own good. Come; let's go back to the lab. At least while it’s still my lab.” She said with a depressed sigh.

  As she walked out of the conference room, his motorized monitor followed her. The sensors on the mobility device kept an eye on the folks walking up and down the hallway of the state-of-the-art complex. The men and women of the think tank walked past, giving Kelley and Caleb polite nods and little waves. Kelley was used to the occasional glace from the men of her workplace. When she had first graduated, it offended her. The thought of these guys, and in some cases girls, ogling her used to make her want to scream. Now, she just embraced it as she walked the hallway confidently with her virtual suitor right next to her.

  Her heels clicked smartly on the polished slate flooring as everyone slid past her. The sound of faint squeaking could be heard from the tread tracks that drove Caleb's monitor around. This touring of the hallways was a daily routine for them. Caleb needed to gain experience with random human interaction. This was the real test of his advanced AI engine.

  Kelley knew that chit chat was the hardest thing for an AI to master. The rendering and processing power needed to cope with a coworker's comment about the weather is mind boggling! Caleb's image would randomly nod to the male passersby, and he would give knowing half smiles to the office girls as they giggled at his forthcoming ways. He never failed to be just the other side of over-confident.

  Kelley had tired of attending college with, and later working with, mousey under developed men. It was as if they felt they had to ask permission to walk past you. She hated dealing with men who couldn't make a decision, so she programmed one that would show them how. In that way, Caleb became a sort of role model for the male “White Coats” in the facility.

  Think tanks are a very interesting place to work. They tend to be filled with very smart, avant garde acedemic types that eschew the ideas of money and fame for the pursuit of knowledge and peer acceptance. The think tanks themselves are usually funded by a mix of contributions from outside investors and the occasional monies brought in by consultation work done by the staffers who work there. When Kelley had begun her employment, it came down to two options; work the consulting side, or work the research side. She chose research, primarily to cleanse the video game history from her resume. She also wanted to gain some amount of philosophical high ground before she had to start paying off her enormous school loans.

  The think tank, The National Bureau of Interdisciplinary Research, was an eclectic mix of scientists, engineers, physicists and philosophers. The very goal of the institute was to push the boundaries of technology, and the ethics related to it. To make money, the institute performed commissioned research programs, as well as offered the expertise of its resident professionals in trials and other court proceedings. This allowed them to keep pushing the boundaries of everything from biotechnology to electronics and green tech.

  Nestled in the hills east of San Jose, the institute was in a burgeoning sector of the city that catered to emerging tech unlike the Silicon Valley stuff of norm. The business park where the institute was located also housed other technology firms, and the various employees and scientists had an atypical amount of friendship and brotherly love toward one another. The only thing that really discriminated between the ranks was the wearing of either a “White Coat”, or a “Tag”. The “White Coats” were scientists and scholarly types with master's degrees or higher. The “Tags” were bachelor level researchers and analysts who worked amongst the White Coats. Kelley always hated the childish discrimination. She chose to eat lunch and hang out with the Tags after hours because they were much more down to earth than the other White Coats that envied her lab size and upbeat attitude.

  Kelley eased open the door to her “laboratory”, so called, because it was housed in the lower portion of the facility's storeroom. This was the only large space cool enough to house all of the equipment needed to keep Caleb running. Her office, basically a cubicle partition that stood out from the buzzing and whirring computers, was thoroughly filled with Caleb's equipment as well. She was the only researcher at the institute with this big of a lab, but it was really just a once empty room to house everything. She always felt isolated down here in this cold room while everyone else was busy chatting upstairs in their “real” offices and cubicles.

  As Kelley sat down to check her email, she felt the urge to cry again. She couldn't help it, and she knew that if she did let loose, someone would come in and begin trying to console her. She forced her feelings back down, and began to focus on work while Caleb's tracked platform charged in the corner.

  After deleting the spam and sending off another request to solicit a different funding source for C.A.L.E.B, she sat back and stretched her legs under her desk. Finally kicking her shoes off, she wiggled her toes around and rubbed her neck slowly. A chat icon appeared on her screen. It was her friend Ashley.

  Ashley: Hey kiddo! How did the meeting go? Are you out of a job yet :)

  Kelley: Ha ha, very funny! I get one more month before they pull the plug on my funding. After that, I'm off to wherever the institute sends me. Unless I can convince the DARPA guys to keep giving me money.

  Ashley: What about Caleb? What will happen to his dreamy little face?

  Kelley: He'll live on somehow. I still have to configure the code, but it will basically amount to me setting him free into the world's computer networks. I'll be able to talk to his AI persona, but I won't be able to keep up his advanced video rendering. That's what costs the most money.

  Ashley: Too bad! All the girls love seeing him, not to mention flirting with him! How did you make him so deliciously hot?!

  Kelley: If you work around fake, rendered humans enough, you catch on to the fact that people get creeped out when things stop looking human. It only takes one little error or glitch to make a perfectly rendered human look like a monster in the eyes of a suspecting public. I countered that by makin
g Caleb way too lovable and alluring.

  Ashley: Well, mission accomplished girl! BTW, are you going for drinks tonight? Spencer has been bugging me all day about it.

  Kelley got up to stretch. She rotated her head and tried to work out the stress kink that the meeting had caused in her neck. She had a different kink that she needed to have worked out too, but that one would definitely have to wait. She bent down to finish her chat with Ashley.

  Kelley: Yeah, I'll be there. It sure beats going to my apartment and watching TV with a tub of ice cream in my lap.

  Ashley: Great! Now Spencer will leave me alone so I can get some work done!

  Kelley: He does know that I only like him as a friend right?

  Ashley: Oh yeah. He just wants to tell you something about some researcher he found in Costa Rica. See you tonight!

  Kelley: Oh, Okay. Toodles!

  She switched off her computer and made her rounds on the equipment. She still had to run diagnostic scans on five of the machines before she could edit the code to counter Caleb's over-confident ways. Even though there was a part of her that wanted to crank it up to ten and watch the girls in the office swoon over him. The thought of those perky little office girls caressing Caleb's monitor and rubbing up against it was enough to make her laugh out loud in the dimly lit room.

  “What's so funny Kelley? Are you recalling my joke?” Caleb asked from his charging dock. His voice startled her, and she was still holding her hand over her chest when she turned around.

  “Oh Caleb! You scared me! I was actually thinking about how funny it would be if the girls up in the office were all trying to flirt with you at once.”

  Caleb's monitor blinked on. His image was programmed to make it look like he was just waking up after a quick nap instead of a charging sequence. As he stretched his long arms above his head, his blue Henley shirt lifted just enough to show off his rippled ab muscles. “That actually seems like a desirable sequence of events. Why do you consider this humorous?” He asked politely.

  Kelley giggled to herself and shook her head as she made her way around the computers. While she typed in lines of code with her manicured fingernails, she tried to explain to Caleb why it was funny.

  “Um, I guess it's because it would be a comedic situational conflict. I could program you to be just that much more confident and sexy, and then I could use you like a weapon against all those stuck up office girls upstairs.” She said.

  Caleb pondered this. “Isn't one of those girls your friend?” He asked.

  Kelley thought about how funny it would be to see Ashley throwing he self at Caleb's mobility platform like a horny sorority girl. “Yeah, but it would still be fun to watch.” She said with a little smirk.

  Caleb's platform powered up and wheeled over to her. She had made her way back to the main rack of computers that ran his upper level processing cycles. While she finished adjusting his code, he stood quietly watching her. Even though he didn't really exist, she could almost feel his gaze upon her. This psychosomatic effect was one the many reasons that she pursued this AI project in the first place. It wasn't so much to make an artificial human persona; it was more to see the effects that that persona had on the world at large.

  “You look lovely today. I love what you've done with your eye makeup. I find it very..., stimulating.” He said quietly. His vocal tone had taken on a much deeper, sultry quality.

  Kelley could feel herself blushing in spite of herself. “Aw, thanks Caleb. You sure do know how to compliment a lady.”

  “One shouldn't mistake truths for compliments, Miss Anderson.” He said.

  There it was again. If he kept saying that, she would have to do something about it. That something would definitely entail her trying to grind herself against his monitor like the hypothetical office girls from before. She turned around to face him.

  “You know, you can call me Kelley too.” She said. Her gaze trailed from his shoes to the top of his head. She could feel her heart fluttering as he stood there trying to seduce her like she was a cornered girl at a frat party.

  “I like Miss Anderson. It belies more authority to you.” He said evenly. His image moved closer, as the tracked platform inched over to nearly pin her in the back of the cluttered room.

  Kelley knew what he was doing. He had tried this a few times before, and she had put the brakes on it each and every time. He was calibrating his ability to seduce and attract the opposite sex. Again. She had setup the programming to make him do it, but a bug in the code made him overlook the fact that he wasn't supposed to do it to her. She was supposed to fix it, but a part of her liked the attention. Besides, it helped Caleb to withstand a certain amount of rejection.

  Rejection wasn't on the list for today though. With Caleb most likely disappearing in one month, she was feeling a little more curious at where he would take this line of thought.