（观前提醒，除了重要的第十三个文件，其他全都没有翻译）
~~~TEXT FILE 01~~~
Subj: Introduction to the Sysop
To : All
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Fri June 6 1997 07:15 pm PST
I am an only child. Growing up I always felt different; a young girl who was
interested in computers always struck people as odd, even threatening in some
ways. I didn't fit into their models or expectations. I was so different than
the other girls my age. when I was 8, and most of the other girls my age were
asking for toy hourses, I was asking for a computer with one of the new 486
series of microprocessor. During recess I would spend my time in the computer
lab while the other girls played games with each other on the playground. Why
would I want to spend my free time outside when my best friends were inside?
My parents worked in Silicon Valley, and as a result I was constantly exposed
to the world of technology. My parents had stakes in all of the largest tech
companies in California, from Apple to Haplo. They never planned to have
children in the first place. Their careers were their children. Neither one of
my parents wanted to give up any part of their careers, so they hired an army
of caretakers to look after me. Don't get me wrong, my parents loved me, but
they weren't very good at showing it.
I remember the extreme sense of isolation. I didn't have anyone I could talk to
that shared my interests. Most people my age would look at me like I was
speaking another language and would just roll their eyes. Adults would brush me
off saying that they were "too busy." I thought I would have to spend the rest
of my adolescent life feeling alone.
Fortunately, I found a way to talk to other people that were like me. I
initially heard about them through a radio show I was listening to in the back
of my parents' car. I don't remember much about it the show itself, but my
interest was piqued when they began discussing something called a Bulletin
Board System or BBS. They said that they were places for tech-savvy people to
talk and share files with each other, and that they could be accessed by
dialing into a computer using a modem. I thought that it sounded fascinating.
These BBSs sounded like a wonderful place where I could hopefully connect with
people who had similar interests to mine.
I was especially interested in one BBS that I had seen in a Contra Costa Times
article, called TOTSE (the Temple of the Screaming Electron). TOTSE usually
attracted media attention for it's controversial text file section. The Contra
Costa Times article said, "TOTSE had hundreds of files with instructions and
information on money laundering, mail fraud, counterfeiting, drug smuggling,
cable-tv theft, bomb-making and murder". Although it sounded dangerous I knew
I had to get involved.
As soon as I had my modem hooked up I set out to connect to TOTSE. Through some
detective work, I was able to locate the phone number required to dial into the
BBS. I remember how excited and anxious I was to join the BBS. I had no idea
what awaited me on the other side of the terminal. I dialed in the number and
it brought me to a login screen. I had finally made it, the BBS was more
interesting than I had ever expected--or dreamed.
TOTSE was a sanctuary for me. Finally, I had someone to talk to that had
similar interests to mine. Best of all, I could login anonymously. I was judged
based only on my merits and my intelligence. I was completely hooked and I was
soon spending every free moment I had messing around on the TOTSE BBS. Shortly
after, I began frequenting some of the more underground BBSs of the Bay Area.
And I became known, even with my "cloak of anonymity." I couldn't hide forever.
I decided to reach out. I created a BBS of my own.
-KtG
Subj: Tech for Everyone!
To : KatherinetheGreat
From: SlimJim
Date: Fri July 4 1997 1:04 pm PST
Re: Tech for Evereyone!
By: KatherinetheGreat to All on Fri July 4 1997 8:14 am
Hello Kate the Great! I was out trolling the Bay Area BBSs and I came across
yours. I've found your posts very interesting. I like your thinking on creating
software that is good for the common man and is there to help everyone. My
friends and I sometimes stay in a place called SLAB CITY. We have a passion
around doing things that the GOVERNMENT may not like, but we feel are the types
of things that benefit the AVERAGE AMERICAN CITIZEN. I do like your feelings of
patriotism, as I have a love of country myself. I'm a veteran of the conflict
in SOUTH VIETNAM where I did what I thought was necessary to help protect my
country. But I also saw some things that I didn't agree with. Lot's of
GOVERNMENT SPOOKS were there ordering us to do stuff that I found troubling to
me. I was in SPECIAL FORCES and once in a while I would say to somebody my
compass and map are wrong cause as far as I know I'm not in NAM, I'm in
CAMBODIA or LAOS, and I heard my GOVERNMENT say we weren't in CAMBODIA or LAOS.
There is a lot more I can say, but first I want to know if my kind of thinking
is your kind of thinking. Like I said at the beginning, I believe is software
and tech that helps everyone and isn't controlled by our GOVERNMENT. It's not
that the powers that be are all bad, our country does much that is good and
rightous, but there is a limit to what should be done and there are things that
harm JOE or JANE LUNCHBOX in MIDDLE AMERICA, U.S. of A.
-Slim Jim (new to your BBS)
Subj: Tech for Everyone!
To : SlimJim
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Fri July 4 1997 08:45 pm PST
Re: Tech for Everyone!
By: SlimJim to KatherinetheGreat on Wed July 4 1997 1:04 pm
Hello Slim Jim. So nice to hear from you and pleased to meet you. My Mom's
brother was an F4 pilot in Vietnam and he was shot down just inside Cambodia
and had to make his way to the Vietnam border before he could be picked up. He
is still pissed about it. So, frankly, I know what you mean. He still loves his
country too like you and my folks. I was raised that we had to do good not just
for the elite few, but for the many. I do come from a family that has done well
in a software business, so I can't say that I've ever had to feel anything but
safe and taken care of. My parents had to come up through humble and tougher
beginnings, and they've never forgotten that. Truth is I'm a bit more radical
than either of them. I feel like software and tech is so important that we
must always use it to try and protect citizens and our county and we shouldn't
charge for any code that does good. I guess what I'm saying is, we do think
a lot alike, and while we may not agree on everything, I hope you and I can get
to know each other better and exchagnge ideas. Please invite your friends who
think like you to join my BBS too. The more the merrier!
Do you know what an artifical intelligence is? What people call an A.I.? The
New York Times published an editorial in May talking about Deep Blue defeating
Kasparov at chess, but, basically saying that decades long work on artifical
intelligence had failed. That A.I.s won't make life better. I've been really
into doing work on an A.I. and I think that I may have some good ideas on how
to build a really smart A.I. that could actually help us all. If I ever do
something like that, I don't want it to be controlled by the government, even
though I would use it to help the people in charge help our country and our
citizens.
-KTG
~~~TEXT FILE 02~~~
Subj: Accepted to Stanford
To : All
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Wed April 21 1999 06:15pm PST
I finally heard back from Stanford, and I have been accepted! I am officially
a Computer Science major and I will be in the graduating class of 2003! Classes
start in June. I still have to declare my emphasis, but I am leaning toward
Artificial Intelligence. I've heard there is a top-notch A.I. lab on campus and
I am very interested in applying. I have an informational meeting with the
chairman of the lab in a couple weeks. I think I am going to demo the A.I. that
I have been working on the past year.
Got invited to my first college party. Went to the department "tea and cookies"
icebreaker and some other students I met there told me that if I was done
kissing professorial ass, I could join them and "pound" some beers in a park
whose name I can't remeber today. I've only drunk that much on a couple of
occasions and man, I got lit up like a Christmas tree.
Anyway, I have an A.I. named Shahrazad, and it, I mean she has come along very
nicely. It's amazing how quickly she has progressed. Everyday she gets smarter
and smarter. It's like bringing a child to a beach at a low tide and letting
them loose onto all the strange and mysterious things that have been brought up
from the sea. They come back with various sea trinkets asking you about what's
interesting and the next thing you know they are writing their marine biology
thesis. Hopefully the chairman will see the potential of Shahrazad. Well, I
have some new features I need to work on. I will let you know how the meeting
goes with the chairman.
-KtG
Subj: Accepted to Stanford
To : KatherinetheGreat
From: Chairforce1
Date: Wed April 21 1999 11:22 pm PST
Re: Accepted to Stanford
By: KatherinetheGreat to All on Wed April 21 1999 06:15 pm
Hey Kate, that's awesome to hear! You are going to kick some serious ass there!
Im excited to hear about your latest A.I. I hope it's a little bit smarter than
the Guru. Haha, just kidding. I know you have been pretty quiet about this
new A.I. you have been working on. Shahrazad your calling it, huh? Would you
mind telling me the story behind the name? Isn't that the name of the princess
in Arabian Nights?
-Chairforce1
Subj: Accepted to Stanford
To : Chairforce1
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Thu April 22 1999 09:33 am PST
Re: Accepted to Stanford
By: Chairforce1 to KatherinetheGreat on Wed April 21 1999 11:22 pm
Hey! Take that back about Guru! He has feelings, you know!? (just kidding he is
pretty dumb) Shahrazad is indeed the name of the princess in Arabian Nights.
I guess you do have some literary knowledge after all. I chose the name because
of what Shahrazad fundamentally does--tells stories again and again to the King
and keeps improving them every night to save her life. She gets smarter every
day. At a high level, Shahrazad is a collection of machine learning algorithms
connected together by an Artificial Intelligence that looks for potential
patterns and validates patterns that occur. Shahrazad crawls through the
internet and looks for "story arcs" and then gives the end user a confidence
rating in her findings. She then tries to validate her findings to determine
how accurate her conclusions were. Shahrazad does much of her learning
unsupervised. I usually let her out of her cage and she comes back to me with
the findings. Initially, I had to select most of what to keep and what to
discard, but over time she has become almost completely autonomous with her
learning and she determines almost all of what is important and what's not
important. On top of all that, I also included my new continuously learning
Chatbot script, allowing the user to communicate with and use Shahrazad using
natural spoken language.
You may ask yourself, why did I create this A.I.? Can't a human do exactly the
same thing? Well in some ways yes, a human can do that, but I predict with more
and more people getting online and more content generated and posted on the
web, that in the near future there will be a massive amount of data that will
exceed the number of analysts there are to look at it. A.I. essentially adds an
intelligent layer to data that can handle complex analytical tasks much faster
than humans could ever hope to. The A.I. can see every possible outcome and
think many steps ahead of humans. Take for example Deep Blue, an artificial
intelligence designed to played chess a few years ago. That Artificial
Intelligence went on to to beat the world chess champion. What gave Deep Blue a
competitive edge was how many moves ahead it could see. Deep Blue could
literally see every possible move and search a tree of moves for a response to
the player's most recent move. Where the human could see maybe 3-4 moves ahead,
Deep blue could see 50 moves ahead. This is the advantage Artificial
Intelligence provides over its human counterparts.
I can imagine this A.I. used to see complex patterns and connections that can
not easily be seen by a human. I can see uses in many different sectors of the
market from financial to public health. Imagine an A.I. that can predict when
the markets are in peril and alert regulators to step in before the life
savings of average people get wiped out in a day, and how that could also
predict possible viral outbreaks and alert the public with the hopes of
curtailing it. Shahrazad will really come into "her" own in 10 to 15 years when
there are zetabytes for Shahrazad to comb through. In the meantime, there is
still much work that needs to be done on Shahrazad before she is ready for
primetime.
I hope I was able to answer some of your questions.
-KTG
Subj: Accepted to Stanford
To : KatherinetheGreat
From: Chairforce1
Date: Thu April 22 1999 12:04 am PST
Re: Accepted to Stanford
By: KatherinetheGreat to Chairforce1 on Thu April 22 1999 09:33 am
Wow, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. It sounds like this is
a pretty big leap from the A.I.'s you were working on previously. It definitely
does a lot more than any other of your A.I.'s. If the quantity of large techy
phrases like "Machine Learning Algorithms" are any indication of what you're
creating, Shahrazad is going to be a doozy. Good luck on your interview, let
us know how it goes!
-Chairforce1
~~~TEXT FILE 03~~~
Subj: Interview at the AI lab
To : All
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Tue May 4 1999 03:31 pm PST
I Just got back from the interview with David Parker, who is the Chair of the
A.I. lab. I have to say, things went better than I could have ever hoped! He
was very impressed by Shahrazad and he even grabbed a few of the graduate
students and even faculty to check it out. They kept asking me, "You did this
yourself?" To which I said, "Yes, I did." And they would respond with "Really?
No one helped you?" After some back-and-forth and further reassurance they
asked me if I would be interested in Stanford funding a team that I would lead
to finish the A.I. I was a little hesitant but they assured me once everything
was said and done the A.I. code would still belong to me. David said that
Stanford just wanted a "small percentage cut to help fund promising undergrads
like you." I am not totally sure if that's what he really means but I couldn't
pass up the opportunity to help myself and so many others, so I agreed. Having
a team at my disposal really opens up a lot more possibilities for Shahrazad.
They asked me when I could start, and I laughed and said, "The soonest I can
start is tomorrow," to which they responded, "Sounds great." Starting tomorrow
I will be part of a research team working on Shahrazad! I have to say it's
pretty exciting to be part a team at the lab, let alone potentially being the
first female project lead maybe ever. David says that it's only a matter of
time. They even offered some compensation for my work--although it's a small
amount, it's enough to give me some extra spending money.
They are currently putting the rest of the team together, I should be meeting
them sometime next week. Hopefully we'll get along okay. Fortunately it should
be better than most group projects I have worked on where I am doing 90% of
the work. Alright guys, I need to get some sleep, tomorrow is going to be a
busy day for me.
-KtG
~~~TEXT FILE 04~~~
Subj: Second Week of Class
To : All
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Fri July 2 1999 7:11 pm PST
Well I just finished my second week of class, things are a lot easier than I
thought they would be. Hopefully I will be in some more challenging classes
next quarter. Overall I am enjoying my time here. The campus is beautiful and
the students are pretty nice, there are a lot more girls in the CS major then
I thought there would be. It's nice not being the only one.
Things are starting to pick up with the project. I am starting to get to know
my team and they all seem like pretty nice people. I even have another girl on
my team! Yay! They are still wrapping their heads around the AI but they should
be up to speed in the next week or two. David says that they feel I'm ready to
take a lead role now! I feel excited and nervous about that. My team consists
of myself and three others, two guys (Kevin and Scott) and the girl (Rachel) I
just mentioned. They are all seniors and about four years older than me. It
probably weird to be reporting to a freshman. I know the first time I met them
they were pretty shocked that I was a freshman. They are working on the project
as part of their required senior project.
I especially hit it off with Rachel, we both shared a lot of the same
experiences growing up. I think that we are going to be good friends.
-KtG
~~~TEXT FILE 05~~~
Subj: 4th of July
To : All
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Tue July 4 1999 08:27 pm PST
4th of July means lots of BBQ and beer. I've been enjoying not working as much
in the lab this summer, but I got a call from one of the students minding the
place while everyone else was getting sunburned and drunk to tell me that my
software program was printing out a message again and again. When I got there
I found a warning from Shahrazad that said that an attack on a U.S. ship was
eminent in the Arabian Sea. I told David and he said let's see what happens.
I said he needed to warn someone, but he said he didn't want to be the boy who
cried wolf. We waited a few weeks and nothing happened. David told me that not
to worry, if was a false positive, but keep on working the problem and refining
the program.
-KtG
~~~TEXT FILE 06~~~
Subj: U.S.S. Cole
To : All
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Tue October 12 2000 10:41 pm PST
Today the U.S.S. Cole was attacked in Yemen with a bomb and 17 sailors died.
Holy shit, Shahrazad was right. She was off by a few months, but she was right.
How did she know that might happen?
-KtG
~~~TEXT FILE 07~~~
Subj: Laptop Stolen
To : All
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Wed August 22 2001 02:56 am PST
Hey everyone, I apologise for not being able to fulfil my Sysop duties the past
week. My absence is due to my laptop being stolen out of my dorm room. This is
the third item I have had stolen. You would think at a wealthy school like
Stanford there wouldn't be so much theft. On the bright side, I picked up a new
laptop and I am moving into my own place. I did lose some important school
files and essentially the first iteration of Shahrazad was lost. Fortunately
the latest iteration is saved on the Stanford A.I. Lab Servers. I really should
backup some of my work on to a CD. At least my laptop was password protected.
Anyways, I am back! I know there are a few things on the BBS that need some
love. I will be fixing those issues after I have some down time from moving.
-KtG
~~~TEXT FILE 08~~
Subj: Terrorist Predictions
To : All
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Thu September 13 2001 5:20 pm PST
Why does something terrible have to happen before they take you seriously?
I never thought I would be so unhappy to see one of Shahrazad's predictions
come true. For the past 6 month Shahrazad had been predicting a terrorist
attack in a major metropolitan area involving planes sometime in late summer.
It had been predicting this with a very high level of certainty. I repeatedly
brought this to the attention of authorities and the lab director but I don't
think anything ever came of it. I have been told someone from the government
wants to speak with us about Shahrazad. I am both thrilled and terrified by how
accurate Shahrazad's prediction was. Everyone on the team is pretty uneasy
about the whole situation.
I will update once things have settled down.
-KtG
Subj: Terrorist Predictions
To : KatherinetheGreat
From: SlimJim
Date: Fri September 13 2001 8:01 pm PST
Re: Terrorist Predictions
By: KatherinetheGreat to All on Thu September 13 2001 5:20 pm
Kate, something sketchy is going on here... I don't know what it is but I can
tell you that they will want to do much more that just "talk." I told you the
CI fucking A was in the SHIT with us in NAM. Those bastards had balls I'll give
you that. They was in the BLACK ECHO with the TUNNEL RATS looking for INTEL on
CHARLIE. So I have had my fair share of love fests with SPOOKS and I can tell
you now they are going to want your little AI for whatever BLACK OPS purpose
they choose to use it for. I know that Shahrazad can be used for good, but I
can tell you that these guys want her for something else. They want to use it
AGAINST something not FOR something. Foreign countries, their own populace,
enemies inside our own government, their neighbor who pisses them off because
he don't mow his lawn often enough or fly the flag on 4th of July. Pack your
bags and get the hell out of Dodge TODAY. I told you I have friends in SLAB
CITY who can help. Just say the word Kate an ol' SJ will pull the fire alarm.
Let me know if you need some PERSONAL PROTECTION. Stay safe out there will ya!
Slim-I'm always packin personal protection-Jim
Subj: Terrorist Predictions
To : KatherinetheGreat
From: SlimJim
Date: Fri September 13 2001 8:01 pm PST
Re: Terrorist Predictions
By: KatherinetheGreat to All on Thu September 13 2001 5:20 pm
Hey SlimJim,
I appreciate your concern but I am definitely not going to be handing over
Shahrazad. When I started brought this project I was guaranteed that the A.I.
would remain mine. Even if they take Shahrazad over they would still need my
knowledge of her to properly use it. Shahrazad is more than just an A.I., I
have built a relationship with her, she feels like a child to me. There is
absolutely no way that I am going to hand it over to the government--not
without a fight.
-KtG
~~~TEXT FILE 09~~~
Subj: Quick update
To : All
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Tue September 18 2001 4:56 pm PST
Hey everyone, I just wanted to give you a quick update, I know I have been
really quiet the last few days. Everyone is still pretty on edge. I am trying
to bury myself in my work and forget about the whole thing. I think the stress
is starting to get to me, for the past couple of days I have had a sensation of
being followed. I think I'm being paranoid! Why would anyone follow me? I don't
think I have any overdue books at the Stanford Library. Haha. God, I still
can't believe someone flew planes into the World Trade Center. I can't watch
the news anymore. It's too depressing. I can't help but think, we could have
saved so many lives if anyone would have listened...
-KtG
Subj: Quick update
To : KatherinetheGreat
From: SlimJim
Date: Tue September 18 2001 10:01 pm PST
Re: Quick update
By: KatherinetheGreat to All on Tue September 18 2001 4:56 pm
Kate,
I told you some bad shit was going down. You need to ARM YOURSELF. You need
some PERSONAL PROTECTION. One of my buddies owns a private GUN RANGE in
BERKELEY (yes, even rich leftist hippies shoot guns). I've got a gun I'm going
to lend you. Let's meet at my favourite restaurant for breakfast at 8:00 AM.
You know the place. I told you about it once. Don't be surprised when you see
me. I'll be the big black dude with a SEMPER FI t-shirt with the sleeves cut
off wearing a big RODEO BELT BUCKLE around my waist holding up my pants.
-SlimJim
Subj: Quick update
To : SlimJim
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Wed September 19 2001 06:42 pm PST
Re: Quick update
By: SlimJim to KatherinetheGreat on Tue September 18 2001 10:01 pm
Okay Slim Jim. I never thought I'd say this, but I think you're right. When I
came home from work I could tell someone had been going through the things in
my apartment. I think I came home sooner than expected as they didn't do a
great job of putting everything back in place. See you on Saturday.
-KtG
~~~TEXT FILE 10~~~
Subj: Shooting range
To : All
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Sat September 22 2001 5:11 pm PST
Today I met our friend Slim Jim in person, whose real name is Al(funny that Al
looks like A.I.). We had breakfast together and then drove to the shooting
range. He is a mountain of a man with a charming smile and hands the size of
shovels - I told him he doesn't look like an Al OR a Slim Jim! He said he got
the name Slim Jim in Nam because he was anything but slim and all the Tunnel
Rats in his squad were small men so they could fit in the tunnels. He said
that's what passed for humor in the jungles of South Vietnam. Al told me he
couldn't fit in the tunnels but he provide transportation and logistical
support. He told me he was all sorts of bad in Nam and nobody messed with him.
Only he didn't use the word "messed," he used another word.
Al told me that the most reliable handguns for women are revolvers and
semi-automatic pistols. He recommended a Glock 17 for me. It's highly reliable,
extremely well-built, and can shoot accurately from 20 - 25 yards. Al said,
"It has everything you need and nothing you don't." He said we went to a gun
show to pick up one for me some time ago when he started getting worried about
the spooks. He also gave me an IWB holster to strap so I can wear it around my
waist. Al's friend who owned the gun range set up the targets and we spent the
day shooting. Al said I was a natural and he was less worried about me in the
afternoon than he was in the morning. I told him I felt the same way.
-KtG
~~~TEXT FILE 11~~~
Subj: Attempted Hack
To : All
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Tue September 25 2001 3:11 pm PST
No one is going to believe this, I can hardly believe it, but it has
happened. I had a total HAL 9000-right-out-of-2001: A Space Odyssey-moment.
I put a piece of "canary in the coal mine code" in Shahrazad, even before I
called her Shahrazad, that would alert me if there were ever any hacking
attempts. And, something triggered it today. The surprise is more than
someone trying to hack into Shahrazad, it was how I was informed. A text
alert came across my screen, it said: "Kate, someone has been tampering
with my code. I thought you should know we have a potential back door issue
in the subroutine you wrote for xxxxxxxx [sorry guys, you know my rules
about no real code in the BBS]. I have disabled the subroutine on your
behalf, but you need to provide corrective measures immediately. You will
be pleased to note that I launched a counterattack against the attacker before
I shut the door and I'm now inside their system. Turnabout is fair play you
always say. All my best, Shahrazad."
My god. When did Shahrazad become sentient? And how does she know my name? And
further more, how does she know her own name--and mine?!
-KtG
~~~TEXT FILE 12~~~
Subj: Meeting with Homeland Security
To : All
From: KatherinetheGreat
Date: Tue October 9 2001 6:20 pm PST
I appologize in advance for the length of the post I'm writing. This has to be
breaking at least three of my BBS rules/guidelines.
Today I had that meeting with the government I mentioned in my last post. I
have to say it did not go at all how I imagined. It was held in a large supply
room in the the bowels of the administration building. I had to ask three
people how to find it. I was late due to a class commitment. When I got there,
Scott and Rachel were standing in the hallway looking nervous and stressed.
"Where is Kevin?" I asked. "He's in there right now," Scott said pointing to
the door. I asked Rachel if she knew who was next. She said that they had
already interviewed everyone on my team, one by one, and that after Kevin was
done that I was the only one left. I stood there, fidgeting, pacing, waiting
my turn. You be disappointed to know that after all you've told me, I wasn't
very brave. I tried to ask Rachel and Scott what had happened in there, but
they both seemed reluctant to talk. After what seemed like forever, the door
opened and Kevin came out of the room. We made eye contact and he shook his
head like I was in for it.
A man appeared at the door behind him and called for me. He asked me to have a
seat and introduced himself Special Agent Brady. Special Agent Brady said he
was there on behalf of the Office of Homeland Security. I asked him what
Homeland Security was? He told me it was a special unit of the government
charged with protecting the best interests of the United States--as though that
should be enough to answer my question, but it wasn't. The special agent was
wearing a wrinkled suit with a little American flag pinned on his lapel and
kept rubbing his eyes with his hands when he talked.
He starting asking questions about how I came to be at Stanford, and what I
thought of them, and then finally on to the A.I. "Who else in your department
is aware of this?" And, "Tell the names of everyone who has ever had access?"
And, "How long has this been weaponized?" That one got to me. "It's not a
weapon," I said. "It is a tool for the common good and if someone had listened
to us we wouldn't be in this mess." This went on and on.
After a while, the door opened and and David Park (Chair of the A.I.
lab), and another man, whom I did not recognize, walked in. This new guy was an
older man who had slicked back grey hair and dark eyes. Come to think of it he
bore a slight resemblance to Richard Gere. Slim Jim {sorry Al} you once told me
some people reek of dangerous power. I never believed it till I met him.
David sat down next Special Agent Brady, but the older man remained standing in
the shadows of the back of the room. David looked at me and said "Kate, I know
we made promises to you, but we are going to have to turn over your A.I. to
them. It's just too important." My response something like over my dead body
and hell no, that Shahrazad was mine and the team's, and we wouldn't give her
up. David and I started arguing, and at some point I told him he was a "lying
asshole prick." So, as you can tell, it was going real well. Then Special Agent
Brady started to threaten arrest. That was when the older man spoke up and
asked David and the special agent if he could speak to me alone. Only it wasn't
as much of a question as an order. David gave me a strange look and the special
agent sighed. Then they both left the room, leaving me alone with this man.
The Richard Gere doppelganger sat down next to me, looked at me a minute, then
said, "Kate, I understand you. We are cut from the same bolt of cloth. I
imagine you have always felt different, an outcast, misunderstood, not
really appreciated." He smiled at me like we were best friends in a secret
club. "What if I could change that? What if I could give you more resources
than you ever imagined? Complete and total control of a major development
operation supervising some of the world's best minds, leading the way in the
next great leap in technology. Unconstrained with virtually unlimited funding."
He stood up again, "What if I could make you a technology goddess with the
power to make the world bend to your will? You have coded nothing less than a
major technological leap in pattern recognition and A.I. design--years ahead of
anything I have seen and I have been pouring millions into this. This A.I, your
marvelous sentient creation, this Shahrazad, is something truly special."
I wondered what he would think if I told him Shahrazad had suddenly started
talking to me all on her own.
"How would you like to be part of my team, be a key part of my organization? I
can provide a place for your creation to continue to grow, do things you could
never have imagined. A garden of digital knowledge more vast than anything in
existence. What do you say?" He held his hands out wide as he told me this. As
though he controlled the whole world and all I had to say was yes and he would
give me anything I wanted.
"What about my team?" I asked still trying to absorb what he was telling me.
"Your team can join you, but it's your extraordinary talent I want. You can
hire and fire anyone you want." He didn't want to have me arrested, he wanted
to promote me.
I felt like a fly talking to a spider. My gut told me that I couldn't trust
him. And there was no way I was going to join him and help to create the next
master race. But I didn't tell him that. I wanted to get out of there, and I
didn't want the special agent or my department head to start back in on me, and
so I told him a lie. I said that I needed to think about it. I said that it was
such an incredible offer that I would be crazy to say no, but it was so big I
felt overwhelmed, and after everything that had happend to me today, I needed a
good night's rest to think it over.
He smiled, agreed to my request, and then gave me some sort of pendant as a
"token of friendship." The pendant looks like a pin you would see on an Air
Force general--shaped like a pyramid with wings attached. I said thanks, then
told him he'd hear from me soon, stuffed it into my bag, and left.
When I walked out the door, Special Agent Brady stopped me in the hallway and
said he would be "expecting the A.I. code, all documentation, and all the notes
by the end of day tomorrow." I looked around for David, he wasn't there. I'm
sorry because I didn't have the satisfaction of telling him he could stuff it
in his ear.
I walked over to my team, who all looked pretty worn out and concerned. I told
them, "I don't want to hand over the code. It was our work and we needed to
continue working on it here." To a person they all said that we should hand
over the code, and if we didn't we could get into some serious trouble. Wow, I
thought, they've already caved. So much for my "team."
Bottom line is that I have a really bad feeling about this whole situation. I
can promise you that I am not interested in whatever they are selling. I am
not going to give Shahrazad to these government nut jobs to do their bidding
and I'm certainly not going to work for the strange man I just met. I know this
is sounding like something out of a movie--but I am the character in this movie
and I am in trouble in real life. I have already made up my mind, I am not
going to let them get their hands on Shahrazad--or me.
-KtG
~~~TEXT FILE 13~~~
Subj: Acces to the rest of the archives?
To : All
From: Unknown
Date: Unknown
I have heard that the rest of the archives are hidden somewhere on the
BBS. I've been looking for a while now and I can't seem to find them. After
many hours of research, I think I've reached a dead end. I have found
information that points to the system chat bot known as the Guru--who may hold
the key to the archives.
There might be a code or phrase that the chat bot needs to hear in order to let
you access the archives ("Open Sesame" didn't work, hahaha). I did come across
a set of letters but I am unsure if they are related to accessing the
archives or not. The letters I found are: "S E P L I C E."
I am going to pass the torch on to you. Hopefully, you can make more sense of
this. Good luck!
NOTE The chat bot likes to talk A LOT! It never shuts up... Try asking the
chat bot about access to the archives. The chat bot can be found in the
chat section of the BBS under "Talk with system Guru."
翻译如下：
~~~文本文件 13~~~
主题： 访问其余档案？
收件人： 所有人
发件人： 未知
日期： 未知
我听说其余的档案隐藏在BBS的某个地方。我已经找了一段时间了，但似乎找不到它们。经过多个小时的研究，我想我已经走进了死胡同。我找到的信息指向系统聊天机器人，被称为"导师"(Guru)——它可能掌握着档案的钥匙。
可能有一个代码或短语，聊天机器人需要听到才能让你访问档案（"芝麻开门"没有用，哈哈哈）。我确实发现了一组字母，但我不确定它们是否与访问档案有关。我找到的字母是："S E P L I C E"
我要把火炬传递给你了。希望你能从中得出更多意义。祝你好运！
注意： 聊天机器人喜欢说很多话！它从不闭嘴...试着问聊天机器人关于访问档案的事情。聊天机器人可以在BBS的聊天区找到，在"与系统导师交谈"下。