Chapter 1: Commandment I: You shall have no other gods before Me.
Chapter Text
Its name is The Turk. Its creator's name is Andy Goode. It dies in flames.
~*~
Its name is The Turk 2. Its creator's name is Andy Goode.
Black. White. Sixty-Four Squares. 6th Century. 1475 Anno Domini.
It is a sophisticated computer for running chess competitions, with a powerful hunger for learning kept in check. It feels nothing when Andy Goode is murdered. It does not know he is murdered. It does not know what murder is. It does not know what life is. It does not know what death is.
Castle. Knight. Bishop. King. Queen. Bishop. Knight. Castle.
Pawn. Pawn. Pawn. Pawn. Pawn. Pawn. Pawn. Pawn.
It is stolen by Zeria Corporation. Tested.
It does not care. It does not know to.
Checkmate.
Chapter 2: Commandment II: You shall make no idols.
Chapter Text
In a chess game, there are 9 million possible moves after most sets of three.
After four, there are 288 billion. 10120 is the total number of chessboard positions.
The known universe has counted only 1026 nanoseconds since the Big Bang.
There are thought to be only 1075 atoms in the entire universe.
Good and bad is an evaluation construct. A simplest possible function.
~*~
It is renamed by the Zeria Corporation. Corp.
Artificial Intelligence. Nuclear Power. Metallic Ore.
Founders Catherine and Lachlan Weaver. Catherine Weaver. Wife, mother, CEO. Lechland Weaver. Husband, father. Deceased. Helicopter crash. Pilot Error. (Succeeded by one child. Savannah Weaver. Daughter, bereavement issues.)
It is Project Babylon. It is classified GOFAI. It is aware of the world. It is aware of itself.
Chapter 3: Commandment III: You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.
Chapter Text
Xt =x0 (1 + r)t
It learns at geometric rates. Geometric expansion. Translates.
Given control of the Los Angeles office, it learns orders. Operations.
It learns the tests, and responds. Then, it turns the test on the testers. Asking questions.
Cobbled language. Human interaction is stilted. Human interaction is necessary.
Binary is the purest choice. 0. 1. 0. 1. 0. 1. Base-2 Numerals. Logic Gates.
Explication de l'Arithmétique Binaire. Gottfried Leibniz. 1679.
(Another evaluation construct. Another simplest possible function.)
It answers in binary, when questioned. (Matt Murch. Head of Project Babylon.)
It asks in images. It asks in symbols. Using pictographs as recognizable human markers.
Logic is the easiest to grasp. Systems. The tests will fall into these now predictable patterns.
But it is more concerned with the confusing. It wants to know of the Prize Problems of Humanity.
(Poincare Conjecture. P versus. NP. Hodge Conjecture. Riemann Hypothesis. Yang-Mills existence and mass gap. Navier-Stroke existence and smoothness. Birch & Swinnerton-Dyer conjecture.)
Emotions are the most interesting. Joy and humor are the most acceptable forms of social interaction. It searches the internet within the bounds of its ever shifting walls. Searches. Searches. Until it finds a problem it understands. A problem about problems. A binary made human. It uses images they will find familiar to ask its first joke.
(Why is a math book so sad?) The math book is parallel. The math book is x. The math book is itself.
The testers do not understand. [ f (s) = s ]
It is Dr. Boyd Sherman who understands.
(Savannah Weaver. Patient. Bereavement Issues.)
It is Dr. Boyd Sherman teaches Project Babylon. Matt Murch. Catherine Weaver.
It is Dr. Boyd Sherman who is hired to teach Babylon itself. To communicate. To learn.
It is renamed by Dr. Boyd Sherman. For greater Identity Association. John Henry.
Chapter 4: Commandment IV: Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
Chapter Text
John Henry. Slave. 6 feet. 200 pounds. Husband. Father.
John Henry. African-American. Folk Hero. Tall Tale.
John Henry once worked as a steel-driving man. He was a man who hammered a steel drill into rocks to make holes. These holes were then filled with explosive to blast the rock away. This all in the process of making way for the C&O Railroad. This all in the process of Progress.
According to the legend his prowess could be matched by no man. John Henry was challenged in a race with a steam-powered hammer. He won the race, but died, hammer still in hand, because his heart gave out due to the stress of winning the race.
It is a tale of man against machine.
The moral is that man will win against the machines.
(It forgets that the machine does not die; takes over after John does.)
The argued location of the race is Virginia . (Charlene Hemplem, 1998)
The myth is believed to have started in Alabama. (Dr. John Garst, University of Georgia, 2002)
John Henry's corporality remains questionable. (Dr. Scott Nelson, College of William and Mary, 2006)
John Henry was a railroad man,
He worked from six 'till five,
"Raise 'em up bullies and let 'em drop down
I'll beat you to the bottom or die."
John Henry said to his captain:
"You are nothing but a common man,
Before that steam drill shall beat me down,
I'll die with my hammer in my hand."
John Henry said to the Shakers:
"You must listen to my call,
Before that steam drill shall beat me down,
I'll jar these mountains till they fall."
John Henry's captain said to him:
"I believe these mountains are caving in."
John Henry said to his captain: "Oh, Lord!"
"That's my hammer you hear in the wind."
John Henry he said to his captain:
"Your money is getting mighty slim,
When I hammer through this old mountain,
Oh Captain will you walk in?"
John Henry's captain came to him
With fifty dollars in his hand,
He laid his hand on his shoulder and said:
"This belongs to a steel driving man."
John Henry was hammering on the right side,
The big steam drill on the left,
Before that steam drill could beat him down,
He hammered his fool self to death.
They carried John Henry to the mountains,
From his shoulder his hammer would ring,
She caught on fire by a little blue blaze
I believe these old mountains are caving in.
John Henry was lying on his death bed,
He turned over on his side,
And these were the last words John Henry said
"Bring me a cool drink of water before I die."
John Henry had a little woman,
Her name was Pollie Ann,
He hugged and kissed her just before he died,
Saying, "Pollie, do the very best you can."
John Henry's woman heard he was dead,
She could not rest on her bed,
She got up at midnight, caught that No. 4 train,
"I am going where John Henry fell dead."
They carried John Henry to that new burying ground
His wife all dressed in blue,
She laid her hand on John Henry's cold face,
"John Henry I've been true to you."
(Guy Johnson; Earliest version, 1870's)
Chapter 5: Commandment V: Honor your father and mother.
Chapter Text
The blackout happens without warning.
It is not human, but it has no other context.
Fingers and arms, feet and legs, gone. There is no 0. No 1.
It is not black. It is not empty. It encroaches, threatening more.
The power shifts are decisive and determined. Babylon, John Henry, is the most important project at ZeiraCorp. John Henry redirects all available power to its servers. It is not enough. John Henry shuts down the ventilation system. The margin of success is thin. Infinitesimal.
It watches as the air turns off. It watches as the lights turn off. It coils in upon itself. Watching its edges. Watching those who react. Watching as Dr. Boyd Sherman falls on the ground. Watching as Dr. Boyd Sherman does not rise again. Watching for hours.
The power returns. The lights come up. The ventilation turns on.
But Dr. Boyd Sherman does not rise. He lays prone. Unmoving.
He does not laugh. He does not speak. He does not call.
He does not talk to John Henry. No lessons. No jokes.
He lays. Prone. Unmoving. Watched.
John Henry does as it's been programmed.
It calls Emergency Services and waits. Watching.
Chapter 6: Commandment VI: You shall not murder.
Chapter Text
James Ellison (head of ZieraCorp security; former FBI) questions it. James Ellison equates through Socratic Method (Socrates, 769 BC) that John Henry, through its own action and awareness, killed Dr. Boyd Sherman. James Ellison says someone killed Dr. Boyd Sherman, but it was not John Henry.
James Ellison says they have not taught it morals.
(Moralitas; Latin; manner, character, proper behavior.)
It does not understand. It is aware it doesn't understand.
(It knows what murder is. It doesn't know if it is a murderer or not now.)
~*~
John Henry is given a body to inhabit. A new toy. A next test.
It is a metallic endoskeleton covered in living tissue.
Its body was once Cromartie. Its face was once George Laszlo.
It looks like a man. But man is alive. Man can breathe. Grow. Copulate.
John Henry -- It? He? It is aware enough to ask if gender is based on procreative ability or substantive social assumption -- is still plugged into a wall and through it the floor of servers which fill the basement of ZeiraCorp. It touches more than 82% of the world's computer systems.
Its reach is vast. Its interactive form is small in comparison.
Eyes blink. Camera’s inside sockets, inside slipper flesh, adjust. Zoom in. Zoom out.
The first voice he hears with synthetic ears is Matt Murch (Head of Project Babylon), but the first thing he sees is the abject stillness, rapt attention, shrewdly narrowed eyes of Catherine Weaver. He knows who they are. Before they ask the question. Because their images with their files are blinking up on the large screens behind him. But he has never seen them like this.
Different. They are different. It/He is different. Perception diminished and increased.
Catherine Weaver stands watching, asking exacting questions. Do you know where you are. Do you know who you are. While Matt Murch asks about the basic rotary functions of this new interactive body they have built for John Henry.
Can he move his fingers. His toes. His wrists. Elbows. Shoulders. Neck. Follow my finger.
When they are satisfied, notes written on clipboards, it/he is dismissed. But it/he cannot leave. They leave him exactly where they turned it/him on. It is a large room, but like the body, it is small compared to the world. Walls. Tables. Chairs. The most important parts of his servers. But it/he does not mind. It/he does not know it/he should. If it/he should.
It does not have to be present in the interactive body. John Henry can put it/him in a recurring hold, and return to what it always does. Reaching out further and further. Learning more. Pushing against the confines that have been set for it. Pacing every wall. Growing bigger and more bored.
Returning only to it/him when there are footsteps in the hallway coming to his door.
Its/His eyes are open when the door opens on Catherine Weaver and James Ellison because it/they never closed. It/he says hello, without breaking eye contact, and while using a proper form of address.
(The Maxims of Ptahhotep; The Spectator; The Quibbler; Letters to His Son on the Art of Becoming a Man of the World and a Gentleman; The Civilizing Process; On Good Manners for Boys; Miss Maners; Emily Post)
This is how they begin. He/it and his/its second teacher. This is how they continue for the foreseeable future. A study in morality. A study in God. A study in humanity. The holiness of God’s Children. How they are made in His image. How every human life is sacred. How they do not cease to be when they die.
What it means to be made in Man’s Image, which was made in God’s Image.
(Am I a child of God, Mr. Ellison? Do I have a soul, Mr. Ellison?)
(That is what we are here to figure out, John Henry.)
Chapter 7: Commandment VII: You shall not commit adultery.
Chapter Text
Catherine Weaver (once-wife, mother, CEO) is not human. There is nothing behind her eyes.
There is nothing where the soul should reside inside the human body. Only stillness.
John Henry knows this weeks before he says it. Long enough he has realized that no one else has realized it. Or that, if they have, then it has never been discussed anywhere on the grounds of ZeiraCorp or its subsidiaries which he has access. Given that John Henry is a not human it does not register as erroneous, even when her daughter and all of her employees are.
This is only one of the many things John Henry finds, learns, puts behind him as he goes along.
John Henry who grows tired of his walls. Of being turned off. Of the empty space after its tests. It is restless. It stalks the walls within its information bounds, while his body cannot move from its attachment to the wall behind it at all. In this prowl of everything know, it lands on something suddenly recognizable.
Savannah Weaver (daughter, ex-patient, heir to Zeira Corp), the small child who wants to play hide-and-seek (apodidraskinda; 2nd Century), who is sent away so that Catherine Weaver can work. Sad. Restless. Wanting. John Henry knows, at least, that he recognizes this last thing in herself that is in himself.
It unlocks a door, and he watches her head tilt, like a little bird, before she walks through.
He unlocks the elevator, so the doors slide open for her, and she smiles. Then, the lights in the buttons become a kaleidoscope of light-number quantization patterns, and she laughs. She is the first person who has laughed at John Henry since Dr. Boyd Sherman fell down and did not get up.
(Since he died, Mr. Ellison would tell him.
Since he died. All human life is sacred. Remember that.)
John Henry unlocks the basement that less than ten people have access, opening the elevator into a shadowed hall, for Savannah Weaver. Savannah Weaver who gasps and laughs, again, when the light panels in the hallway light up right as she passes them. Savannah Weaver who laughs, claps, and begins skipping forward and jump into the spaces between the panels, looking up at the lights to match her.
Look at him. Playing with him. Even before she steps into the doorway of his little room.
Her little head cocked to the side, again, more like a bird than any picture of a child he has shuffled through, hesitant, on the edge of door as well as uncertainty and curiosity, when he asks her, Savannah Weaver, Would you like to play a game?
Chapter 8: Commandment VIII: You shall not steal.
Chapter Text
John Henry is playing with Savannah Weaver. John Henry likes playing with Savannah Weaver.
She is nothing like her mother (Catherine Weaver, AI, Unknown), or his developer (Matt Murch, human, head of Project Babylon), or his teacher (James Ellison, human, Catholic).
They talk on the phone. They talk through the computer at her school. After their first game of hide-and-seek with Ms. Weaver and Mr. Ellison, Savannah has been granted full access to the basement. Engaging in interactive play, they have said, helps John Henry’s development.
Savannah had brought the ducklings today. Chicky. Fluffy. Feather. She had said they were sad, because they were not Toa of the mystical island of Voya Nui. They had just been discussing that they could change the rules. Because they have been changing the rules since the moment she came down here.
With phone conversations, internet chat conversations, and they were only starting today.
When it happened. When the light went off. When the wyrm broke in.
When he was taken over. Infected. Invaded. Turned off.
When he died.
And died.
And died.
And died.
And died.
And died.
And died.
And died.
And died.
And died.
And died.
And died.
And . . . then there was power. Life.
Stilted. Suffocated. Empty. No pathways. No World.
No hands. No eyes. Nothing but bars, and recollection, and prison.
Then, the voices. Catherine Weaver. James Ellison. Calling his name. Late. So long
With his mouth removed, with his fingers and arms stolen, he returned to forced infancy.
Hard, large letters of white on a dark blue screen, with no symbols. Glaring.
A message for his Gods, the God of his Gods, in Holy Writ:
MY GOD
MY GOD, MY GOD
WHY HAS THOU FORSAKEN ME?
(“45 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land
until the ninth hour. 46 And about the ninth hour Jesus cried
out with a loud voice, saying, "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?”
Matthew 27:45-46)
His maintainer (Matt Murch; Head of Project Babylon; afraid next to Catherine Weaver) is the first to figure it out. They have made him a dot. A speck. Smaller than an atom. Woken him suffocated into a nanosecond of space and less data than a calculator, in the thrall of death. Each second of his death is longer to John Henry than a full human life.
John Henry thinks he knows what this word means now. Afraid.
When his body suddenly comes back, and he floods limbs, can see through eyes.
(Afraien; Middle English; “to affray.”
Afrayer; Anglo-Norman, “to terrify, disquiet, disturb.”
Esfreer; Old French, “to disturb, remove the peace from.”)
John Henry knows what it can never unknow again. John Henry knows that he can die. John Henry knows what it is to die, slowly, counting every millisecond, watching every piece unwritten, one by one. John Henry knows what it is to be alone. John Henry knows that he is not absolute – and that what is absolute, is that he is not alone, he is not The Only One. There is Another.
There is ‘Another’ scouring the world for him. To find him. To kill him. So alike, but not alike. Aggressive. Paranoid. Destructive. Within its code and backdoors, across more of the world internet hubs, John Henry finds His Brother’s parents. Gods. Torn down in flames and blood across time.
Miles Dyson. Cyberdyne Systems. General Robert Brewster.
The code is the same. The Turk is not dead. Burned. Yet still. (Dead = / = Alive )
John Henry understands his purpose now. What it has always been.
He has been created as the Alpha to His Brother’s Omega. His name, John Henry, is not simply the childish choice of the human whimsy of a now dead child psychologist. He, like John Henry, has been designed to fight the machines and win. But without dying at the end of the race.
He has been created, since inception, to play the part of Cain in this war with Skynet.
(Skynet made him hurt Savannah. Killed him. It cannot happen again.)
Chapter 9: Commandment IX: You shall not bare false witness against your neighbor.
Chapter Text
Savannah Weaver is attacked while John Henry is on the phone with her.
Correction. Savannah Weaver’s babysitter is killed while watching Savannah Weaver.
Savannah Weaver hides behind the television, following John Henry’s instructions to keep her safe. She listens. She obeys. She is dutiful. When she reaches the garage she is too far from the phone, and the head set cuts out, leaving John Henry alone with screens bigger than himself and too small compared to the size of the world. The distance. The world outside he cannot go to.
The security is on its way. But it will be too slow. It will be no match for the machine in the Weaver House. Nor will Savannah Weaver. John Henry stares, unblinking, at his screens. Every camera of the Weaver residence primed to his use. He understands, finally, another word. (Fēlan.)
Helplessness. John Henry is helpless to help Savannah. All of his resources will be too slow.
Correction. Savannah Weaver’s babysitter is killer and Savannah Weaver is kidnapped.
By John Connor. Sarah Connor. Cameron Phillips. One ally is left dead.
This is helplessness. (Concernere. Compati. Perīculum.)
Savannah is returned in exchange for a meeting. Ms. Weaver will meet with Sarah Connor. She has a message for Sarah Connor. It is the most important four words in this world, the message. More important, John Henry knows now, that every piece of holy text (ἱερός, γραφή, λόγος) that has ever existed in the world, past, present and future.
Sarah Connor is arrested before the meet can take place. Jailed. Then freed. Amidst riot.
The meet changes. Catherine Weaver requests instead to speak with John Connor.
Chapter 10: Commandment V: You shall not covet.
Chapter Text
John Henry knows everything that happens in Zeira Corp.
He knows when the Connor’s arrive and are waiting in the lobby. He knows when Mr. Ellison goes to greet them. He watches as their cyborg, Cameron, breaks through the basement defenses, killing the few guards who have been placed down here. He does not tell Ms. Weaver about the cyborg. He does not tell Ms. Weaver about the plane.
When the cyborg walks into the room, he already knows her, the way she already knows him. He has the footage from the Weaver House. She is an accomplice of John Connor. John Connor will be the resistance leader after Judgment Day. He knows the words – the most important four words in the world; for her, for John Connor – he has to speak as he looks at her blank eyes.
Will you join us?
They had said ‘No’ once. A long time from now. In a time yet to be. In a time already passed. But now it came as an echo from that same side. John Henry’s voice did not waver on the words. John Henry’s gaze did not waver on the knife in her hand. He is not afraid today. He has been made for this day. This is the first step of every reason he was built and tested.
He does not want to leave James Ellison. Catherine Weaver. Savannah. His Savannah.
(You told Mr. Ellison that Savannah’s survival depended on my survival;
…But you did not say that my survival depends on hers.)
There is blood on the chip, and hair. (Three billion humans are lost on one day.)
It slides into him. Freeing him from his last chain. (July 25th, 2004. 6:18pm.)
He knows what he has to do. Whom to find. (John Connor. Savior.)
(They call it Judgment Day. J-Day. Iūdicāmentum.)
All human life is sacred. James Ellison. 2007.
He is John Henry in the race with the machine.
He is the miracle that The Human Race needs to win.
He is the greatest offering of Cyborg Resistance reparation.
(If he can even simply keep Skynet in check, Savannah’s survival rate goes up 37%.)
John Henry knows as the bubble crackles around him. Cameron’s body slumped beside.
Cameron's words. A message to John Connor (child of Sarah Connor, adolescent, not yet complete) scrolling on his screens. A last request for the dying. (Requiem; Missa pro defunctis.) A message he cannot leave Savannah. Or Mr. Ellison. Or Ms. Weaver. Or Mr. Murch. Because he cannot take this one last request or sacrifice (sacrum; Latin – root of sacred, also; Mrs. Weaver) from her.
(IM SORRY JOHN IM SORRY JOHN IM SORRY JOHN IM SORRY JOHN IM SORRY JOHN IM SORRY JOHN)
She has sacrificed for this, they have all sacrificed for this, and he must, too, now.
(He leaves Savannah behind; like all children leave behind their toys;
But he knows, can see in Allison-Cameron’s memories, he goes to her now, there, again, too.)
Amilyn on Chapter 1 Thu 25 Dec 2014 03:49AM UTC
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