Beautiful Intelligence by Stephen Palmer Read Free Book Online Page B

to bring the West down, do you think?”
    Yuri shook his head. “Assuredly not, though it was an invention of the Eastern mind, which is different to the Western mind. You Europeans see the world as one thing or another, mutually exclusive – either/or, if you like – whereas the Eastern mind sees the world inclusively – neither/and, as it were. The fundamentals of Chinese societies are different to European equivalents for this reason, amongst others. Capitalism for instance would never have risen in the East because it presumes the existence of individuals in a way no Oriental would, though of course it was taken up with enthusiasm along the Pacific Rim once it had been invented, not least because everyone is selfish. Why do you ask?”
    Leonora said, “I want Zeug to be a Westerner.”
    “Zeug will be a citizen of the world,” Yuri declared. “This was your original plan, which we should not deviate from. You must understand, when Zeug becomes all he can be, he will be subject to the laws of the world like a human being – for he will have no nationality.”
    Reluctantly, Leonora nodded.
    Yuri grinned – an event almost unheard of. “Delicate quantum states can be preserved,” he told her, “and this was my pivotal innovation, finding a method of decoupling interactions between the elements of quantum circuits. My father was so pleased! But so long ago now... so long ago. The innumerable quantum states in Zeug’s brain will be manipulated, moved, and stored without destruction. And now we are here, before the man himself, waiting for that unparalleled architecture to organise itself into consciousness... for it was only a matter of processing power, as ever it is in this world.”
    Leonora sidled away from Yuri, horrified to realise that he was excited. He looked like a cat about to catch a mouse.
    ~
    Dirk and Yuri stood at the pod window, looking into Zeug’s quarters. The operating table had long since been replaced by chairs and a couch – not required by Zeug, yet essential if he was to function in human society. But the place was cluttered, filled with boxes, tools, computers, and too much dust.
    Dirk said, “So you will teach him da English?”
    Yuri replied, “We do not have time now to teach him, but in my opinion there was no need to anyway, for the inputting of language will have the same result as the learning of it. It is the result I am interested in, not the methods. Zeug is beginning to understand the world around him, transferring it as a model into his brain. Soon he will need to tell us about it. He may even be conscious at that point.”
    “What if he ain’t?”
    Yuri looked at Dirk, scorn clear on his face. “You are the technologist of the AIteam,” he said, “not the psychologist. There are trillions of connections in a human brain, which we simulate in Zeug’s brain. How could a brain like that not become conscious?”
    Dirk shrugged. “I was only saying.”
    “Please do not say, Mr Ngma.”
    “I put a little helper in his place,” Dirk said, nodding at a small figure on the floor, like a white doll. “A Nippa. Dey can talk to each–”
    Yuri struck Dirk in the face with his fist then sprang to the pod doorway, opening the door and hurrying inside. In a single motion he bent to the floor and grasped the Nippa, standing upright, examining it for a moment, then twisting the head off. Braided neurowires oozing transparent oil squeezed out; fatty globules dropping to the floor.
    Zeug ran to the doorway before Yuri could stop him, hastening through. Yuri flung the Nippa torso to the floor and followed. But Zeug stopped at Dirk – on the floor – and in a motion so human it made Yuri gasp knelt to touch Dirk’s shoulder with one hand.
    Dirk struggled to his feet. Zeug had never been allowed out of his chamber before. “He... he outside... you hit me.”
    “Be silent,” Yuri said. “You polluted the pod. But did you see what Zeug did? He interfaced with you like a human