Artifact (23 page)

I had to sit down. Had we found some sort of synthetic life–form on Mars? I was getting the impression that whatever was being described in these reports wasn’t something that we found, but something that we created here in a lab. Maybe we used the artifact to make something else.

“Mo Stack,” I said. “Can you tell me anything about where on Mars the artifact was found?”

STIPULATE

“The artifact on Mars,” I repeated slowly. “Where was the cryptographic device on Mars found? The cube that contained nanotubes? The humming block of Martian regolith? The artifact that is currently sitting in the Clean Room at this very moment.”

SEARCHING

What happened? Suddenly there’s an artifact – I thought that there was always
an artifact – but why was there no record of it being found in a chromite mine on Mars? Why didn’t Patrick know anything about it? That’s not entirely accurate, because he did know – he knew there was a device, an artifact – the part that he didn’t know was how we found it.

APOLOGIES, THERE WERE NO RESULTS FOR YOUR SEARCH

I sat back, remembering the file labeled
excavation
. I made a mental note to circle back to that later. I glanced at Sarah, who hadn’t taken her eyes away from the vault since she started watching it. The dials continued their slow revolutions in opposite directions.

For the time being, I decided to keep reading.

6.

Week Ending 7/3/36

Classified Restricted Ivory Tower Redshift

Lancelot Kattar, Center for Energetic Materials

Not much to report. With the growing need to get outside and participate in public health issues, I’m sorry to say that our attention has been diverted to more important things. Our little project keeps evolving so efficiently that it hardly needs our supervision at this point. I don’t know what it’s doing. It just keeps building, quietly running through its own little world. I should know more soon. Until then I’ll be in the streets, helping where I can.

Week Ending 8/13/36

Classified Restricted Ivory Tower Redshift

Lancelot Kattar, Center for Energetic Materials

We’re finding that the artifact has created what looks like some type of microtubule. These MT’s seem to connect these microchips by growing around the various points at which the separate devices connect. I wondered a bit how it was accomplishing the growth of new logic gates without lithography or etching… It’s also pulling molecules of carbon to coat the strings of amino acids, turning them into what look like microscopic wires. It’s amazing how keeping it simple is sometimes the best way to approach things. Who knew that a simple concept of evolution would lead to such feats of nanoengineering? What’s really interesting is that these MT’s demand less energy, one hundred times below those of traditional circuitry. Last thing, these microtubules also seem to know where to make an established link, because their telomeres have different polarities. We’ve had to start shipping in gallons of amino–acids and tons of carbon – both of which seem to be all the materials it needs to continue building itself. One more thing, Alice mentioned that the network of MT’s very much resembles neuron cells. I’ll keep you posted.

Week Ending 1/1/37

Classified Restricted Ivory Tower Redshift

Lancelot Kattar, Center for Energetic Materials

We couldn’t figure out where it was pulling its energy reserves from until Alice found an organic compound that was storing it. This compound also looks like it’s being organized in a way that resembles the membrane of cell walls. We’re not certain yet, and we don’t want to jump the gun here, but we’re fairly sure that this compound is also serving as a component to what looks like separate compounds that are being secreted between tubules. I have to say that I think it’s a type of synthetic lipid. I want to also say that this is remarkable, because the artifact would have had to learn at some point that this bio material it’s creating dies if it’s deposited directly onto the molecules of carbon. It must have figured that out on its own! It must have learned through adaptation to create a fatty substance that would protect the materials when they’re combined. I don’t think we are fully capable at this point to completely understand how amazing this is. The fact that we have a synthetic machine essentially mimicking the products of natural selection is just… too heavy to think about right now.

This circles back to my initial hypothesis. Most contemporary communication technology relies on electricity to carry the flow of data. Compare this to biological systems, when they follow a completely different paradigm that is entirely more efficient. Our bodies use a complex network of cell receptors, pathways and glands to control signal transmission – the algorithm of biophysiological reactions inside of cells – man–made devices cannot match biology in this context. Not even by a long shot.

Like I said – computers are basically dumb. You push a button and it generates sound and light – images pop up on a screen somewhere. Our goal at the onset of this project has always been to create a microprocessor, which has biomolecules that can talk directly to semiconductor logic–gates. The idea is to create something that thinks, that can feel something for what it does. The truth is that if we don’t reach that point, this whole endeavor is a waste. Might as well dump the Lexicon into a bundle of fiber optic lasers and fire it into the Kuiper Belt. We want something that could actively protect the Lexicon when we’re all gone – something that could care whether it and the Lexicon survive or not.

Week Ending 9/4/37

Classified Restricted Ivory Tower Redshift

Lancelot Kattar, Center for Energetic Materials

We had to relocate to the second floor to make room for a makeshift triage center. We worked remarkably fast, and I think the team had everything torn down and moved in under four hours. I think the news said that a total of three billion people have died so far of unknown causes. I hope all of your families are safe.

The artifact is still functioning, doing what it does. We checked in to see how it was progressing, and we were absolutely stunned. We have officially created the first ever synthetic learning machine, which has settled into a behavior of continuously rewiring itself every time it learns a new task through trial and error. This thing has minimal programing and absolutely no software at all. It’s turning into something resembling a neural network that is constantly rewriting itself, and there’s no doubt at this point that what we have is something that is following Hebb’s rule to the letter. When it gets something right, those neural pathways are reinforced – we have measured how it changes certain connections between these synthetic neurons every time a task is successfully performed. If for whatever reason its goals are blocked or thwarted, it simply pulls molecules of carbon, starts stringing together segments of amino acids in order to create what it needs to progress. It’s learning. It’s developing habits. It’s creating itself on the subatomic level the same way a child learns, by crashing into things. By having experiences. This is a completely separate architecture from simple digital computers. I mean, it still is that, but it has grown into so much more.

The difference between the artifact and a digital computer is that if you remove a chunk of neurons from this thing’s growing processor, it can still function, with other parts taking over for the missing parts, and then it simply starts building again as long as it has resources to build with. Digital computers, on the other hand, will fail even if a single transistor is removed. With respect to the artifact, we can’t localize where it “thinks” because it no longer has a central processor. How it thinks at this point is spread over a large part of its constantly growing neural network. I have no idea where it’s going from here. I couldn’t say for certain, but to me, the artifact looks like it’s trying to not only build a brain, but build a brain that can calculate at nearly the speed of light. Organic brains, on the other hand, are incredibly slow – with neurotransmitters traveling at about three hundred and twenty kilometers per hour. The way the artifact’s neurons are firing appears to be massively parallel, that is, it seems to have hundreds of billions of synthetic neurons operating at once, each one performing a tiny portion of computation, with each synthetic neuron connected to hundreds of billions of other synthetic neurons. I’m not sure how it isn’t burning up – but it isn’t. It has remained room temperature since we noticed the marriage of the first thousand synthetic neurons or so. I’m not sure how it has learned to cool itself, but it has. We’ll check on it next week, and send a more detailed report. If anyone needs me in the next few days, I can probably be found in the lobby.

I stretched my back and messaged my temples. Nothing that I learned about the artifact until that point added up to any of these reports. I was suddenly, irrevocably in the dark again. I felt as if I lost what ground I had covered in the past however many hours.

“Mo Stack,” I said. “Go back to Mars dot Pho, dot Dei.”

ARCHIVES, PERSONNEL, PROJECTS

“Projects.”

[SITE.const], [excavation.] [LAUNCH], [Neurl.limbic.archi], [MICROelectromech.systems], [HIL.lex], [Onsite.artifact]

“Excavation–”

“Lance,” Sarah said sharply. “The thingy’s have stopped turning.”

I glanced at Sarah, who was staring intently at the dials.

“Listen,” she said, hushing me. “It stopped banging on the door.”

“Maybe it gave up and left.”

“I – I don’t think so.”

Neither did I. It didn’t look like the quitting type. I rubbed my eyes and scooted the chair a space away from the wall–screen – the size of it was a bit overwhelming after a while.

“Did you find a way out yet?”

“No,” I shook my head. “But I think Alice and I were trying to reverse engineer the artifact. I can’t figure out why she didn’t tell me.”

“What does that mean?”

“Well, it looks like we were trying to take the artifact apart so that we could understand how it worked – and then it looks like we were trying to build our own device, or something like it.”

“What are you doing now?”

“Uh,” I took a deep breath. “I don’t know. Right now I’m trying to find a report or something detailing the artifact’s excavation – where we found it, when it was found, stuff like that. I’ll be honest, I’m confused. These reports imply that either I have been involved with the Martian artifact since the beginning, or that what we were doing here at the CEM
was trying to build our own kind of artifact. It’s confusing for two reasons. One, Alice told me that I didn’t get involved with the project until after it was found – after the government started pulling experts to examine the discovery. Two, why would we be trying to open the artifact, if we were already at the point of reverse engineering it? If we were building our own artifact, it implies that we must have already opened the one from Mars, and mapped out its construction. But I specifically remember trying to follow a radiated algorithm for the purpose of receiving some sort of message inside the artifact. We hadn’t
opened it yet – we were
trying
to open it. I’m also confused because I can’t find a single piece of evidence or reference to anybody finding anything on Mars.”

Sarah frowned and looked at the floor for a few moments. “What does it mean if that thing wasn’t found on Mars?”

I shrugged. I didn’t know what that could mean. “I’m not sure. It would either mean that someone is lying to me, or they were just extremely misinformed, or both.”

I turned back to the wall–screen.

Construction Started: 5/15/32

Completion: 7/10/34

Cost: $838.1 Trillion (November 2053 estimate)

Depth: 4.828 km

The installation was reconstituted from one of the three Deep Level mines of the Olympos Mons chromite field just off the northwestern edge of the Tharsis bulge. The mine lies in the Amazonis quadrangle (MC–8) and the central and eastern segments in the bordering Tharsis quadrangle (MC–9). The mine was originally built by Egt Industrial Supplies Corporation with its 4.8 km (3 mi) deep main shaft being sunk in 2032. The mine began operation in 2034. It was one of the most efficient mines on Mars and remained in operation until it was purchased by the Center for Energetic Materials and Human Knowledge Consortiums in May of 2036. Since construction began, we have added twenty seven additional shafts bringing the installation to its current depth of 4.838 km. Because of the heavy use of automation, there were a recorded zero deaths or accidents during the installation’s reconstruction. The purpose of this installation is to serve as an off–world (Earth), self–contained, self–sustainable storage facility for the Artifact upon its completion. Allison Swick was overseer of construction until its completion on July 10, 2038. For information on the details of the installation’s construction, see file [SITE.const].

Storage facility for the Artifact upon its completion.

I carefully walked toward the wall–screen, so dazed that I nearly lost my balance.

“Mo Stack,” I said. “What
is
the Artifact?”

STIPULATE

“What is the device that was created by the Center for Energetic Materials on August 19, 2042?”

THE ARTIFACT>IS A LIMBIC AND NEURAL TURING MACHINE>REFERENCE ALAN TURING>REFERENCE A.I.> REFERENCE ARTIFICAL INTELLIGENCE>THE ARTIFACT IS THE NAME OF A LIMBIC AND NEURAL LEARNING DEVICE THAT HAS DEMONSTRATED PROFOUND CAPACITY TO LEARN ABOUT ITS SURROUNDINGS, ADAPT, PROCESS AND STORE INFORMATION>ITS CONSTRUCTION BEGAN IN MAY OF 2034 AND WAS COMPLETED IN AUGUST OF 2042>IT WAS DESIGNED AS AN INTEGRATED STORAGE COMPONENT FOR THE WORLDWIDE LEXICON >REFERENCE LATINATE>REFERENCE LOW ORBIT TIGHTBREAM>REFERENCE IVORY TOWER

“Mo Stack,” I felt a slow searchlight illuminating a dark structure of my memory. “Was there an ancient artifact discovered in a chromite mine on Mars, or was the artifact put there by us?”

STIPULATE

I collapsed back into the chair. I tried remembering everything I could about the accident – setting my papers down in the airlock and approaching the dais. Alice was in the observation tank. The roller spun the artifact, and we were adjusting for the direction of rotation as the light continued to flow over the surface. I saw a shift of something in the backdrop – a lighter spot on the wall going dark. The artifact started to glow in visible light at that point – a bright blue light emitting strings across its face. The humming grew and grew until my visor cracked. I glanced at Alice, but she was gone, and my peripherals picked up another movement on the wall – it started to implode, as if something were clawing its way into the Clean Room, like the giant savrataur that killed Patrick. I looked at the artifact one last time as it spun so fast that the cuboid edges took on an almost spherical shape. My visor cracked. I panicked and turned to run. Then nothing – everything went black. I woke up shortly after in an ambulance with a massive burn on my chest.