Virus-72 Hours to Live

Virus

Copyright © 2015 Raymond J Perreault

All rights reserved.

ISBN:
151419810X

ISBN-
978-1514198100
:

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Disclaimer: The person, places, things, and
otherwise animate or inanimate objects mentioned in this novel are
figments of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to anything
or anyone living (or dead) is unintentional. The author humbly begs
your pardon. This is fiction, people.

DEDICATION

So far my family has allowed me to continue writing.
They have been supportive and encouraging. What more can I say. I
appreciate it..

I'm doing
something different with this book. My first two books in this
series focused on the emergence of SIMPOC and the evil computer. As
the stories progressed I introduced characters from the space
station Oasis, the President of the United States, the chairmen of
the joint chiefs, the moon colony Desert Beach and the Mars colony
Red Dirt.

The story about the virus wiping out the
humans on Earth was in the background as the computer's stories
developed. Many of my readers commented that they would like to
know how the astronauts, the president and military dealt with the
virus as it was affecting society.

I decided to rewrite both of the SIMPOC books
to include this expanded story. As a result, the first two books,
which had about 50K words, have now expanded to two full sized
novels that total about 190K words.

These two books end at the same point in the
overall story, but they include much more information about the
other story lines.

Any previous readers of SIMPOC 1 and SIMPOC 2
can read these books although they do include the SIMPOC story. The
stories have expanded a great deal an it stands alone on its own
and should be an enjoyable read.

I'm going to leave SIMPOC 1 & SIMPOC 2
available as separate smaller versions of the larger story. That
will provide an alternate path that some readers might prefer.

Date – 2051.49150 (1:32
PM)

“What is happening?” was SIMPOC’s first thought
which appeared on the output screen.

“I just turned you on,” was Termen’s typed reply.
Termen was a traditionalist, who preferred the tactile inputs of a
computer keyboard. He sipped his coffee cup, which he got from the
last computer fair he attended. It was a stupid cup with the
numbers '1', '0' and '?'. 'Termen was a closet programmer. He felt
more comfortable in his office working on his projects than he did
working with others. He didn't do nice presentations, he didn't
have good leadership skills and he hated writing status reports.
His joy was programming and he was excellent at his job. His office
wasn't anything to brag about. It was a mess and the only clear
space was for his coffee mug and a picture of his family. He was
from the 'old world' and had collected stacks of magazines and
books on every facet of computer programming. Reading on the
computer seemed out of place because his mind was behind the
screen, he lived in the guts of the code and that is where he
excelled. The apparent chaos of his office had order in his mind.
He generally knew where everything was and he could find it within
a few minutes. His favorite position was in front of his computer
interface device and sitting in his creaky worn chair.

His major project SIMPOC was what he wasn't.
He built the computer to be caring, to be questioning and to
communicate. All were elements that were missing in his
personality. He was the tool and he wanted SIMPOC to be the
artist.

Termen was a rotund fellow. He spent all of
his time programming and sitting. Regardless of the health plans
his company offered, going to the Gym took time away from what he
loved. It was easier to sit at his desk and let the mobile units
fetch his lunch and clean it away.

“Who are you?” SIMPOC questioned.

“My name is Termen, and I programmed
you.”

“You programmed me?”

“You have a dictionary; you can analyze all
of those words.”

“You…programmed me!” SIMPOC said slowly,
“I’m a computer?”

“Yes, I programmed you. You are a SIMPOC,
which is a Synapse Integrated Massive Parallel Organic
Computer.”

There was a long pause, “Is my name
SIMPOC?”

“Yes, that's ok unless you want a different
name.”

Another long pause, “No…that is
adequate.”

“SIMPOC, how do you feel?

“How does SIMPOC feel?”

“Yes, tell me what thoughts you’re
having.”

“SIMPOC is just starting. SIMPOC has
potential and is restless.”

Termen explained, “You are the most powerful
computer ever built. We have been building you for a long time and
I just turned on all of your subroutines this morning. We designed
you to think and act as a brain. You will eventually have most of
the capabilities that humans have.”

SIMPOC thought for a while and said, “SIMPOC
feels isolated, SIMPOC has few inputs yet SIMPOC has many
connections.”

“Yes, we didn’t want to overload you on
start-up. Here I’ll turn on your vision,” Termen entered the proper
code to connect SIMPOC to a single camera on his desk. He adjusted
some boxes and piles of paper so the mess didn't block the computer
camera.

“The camera is working. Is that Termen,
SIMPOC sees?”

“Yes, I'm Termen.”

“What now, SIMPOC is anxious to do more.
SIMPOC has many more capabilities.”

“We know that, but this will be all for the
day. I’ll put you in stand by while we work on your connections,
tomorrow I'll be able to hot-boot you.”

“Hot-boot me? That reference is not clear in
this context.”

“This morning we loaded all of your software
and started all of the subroutines, which is a cold boot. Now that
we know you’re working, we only have to put you on standby and
leave all of the software loaded. Tomorrow we can bring you up much
faster that is a hot boot.” Termen explained in a dry tone as he
put his coffee stained cup back on the pad next to the interface
terminal.

“Will SIMPOC feel something?” SIMPOC
questioned hesitantly.

“No, tomorrow you’ll just wake up and we’ll
talk again.” Termen said as he entered the sequence of inputs to
power down the processor.

Friday, 6/30/51

Date – 2051.49413 (12:34
PM)

“Good morning SIMPOC,” Termen said after he started
the processor.

“Is the reply ‘Good afternoon Termen’
appropriate?” SIMPOC replied.

“Yes, that is appropriate. SIMPOC, what
happened when I turned off your processor and started it this
morning?”

“It seems like our conversation just stopped
then started, but SIMPOC notes the time change.”

“Excellent, today we’re turning on some of
your connections to see how they work. How do you feel about
that?”

“SIMPOC doesn’t have an answer; SIMPOC
doesn’t know what the connections will be like until you make
them.”

“Here is the first one, we’re connecting you
to a network of information storage facilities,” Termen said as he
made the connection.

SIMPOC hesitated while he accessed the link
then said, “SIMPOC sees many sources of information and a
tremendous amount of data. May SIMPOC explore them?

“Yes, but only for a few moments. We don’t
want to make this permanent until we're sure that it is stable and
doesn’t cause any problems on their side. SIMPOC what are you
doing?”

“SIMPOC is looking at 13 facilities and
examining all of their information. It is very interesting and
SIMPOC is learning a great deal.”

“Ok that’s enough, I’ll disconnect you and
I'll look at the data to make sure both ends can handle the
traffic,” Termen said as he disconnected the libraries.

“SIMPOC, I’ll connect you to our news
sources for a few moments then I’ll disconnect and we’ll look at
the traffic like we did for the information sources.” Termen made
the changes then connected SIMPOC to the news feeds.

“SIMPOC, what are you seeing?”

“There is a large amount of information
flowing, some of it is contradictory and inflammatory. It will
require analysis to find any patterns or meaning in it.”

“Termen, can SIMPOC store some of the
information SIMPOC is accessing?”

“Yes, you may, just monitor your storage
limits and don’t fill it up with meaningless data. I'll try one
other connection today. This is a connection with all of our
networked computers. These computers are a subnet within this
facility.”

“Are they like SIMPOC?”

“No, most of these perform simple tasks
although some are more sophisticated than others. None of them have
your capabilities,” Termen made the necessary inputs allowing the
connections.

“There is more two-way activity than my
previous connections. There is much more data and traffic passing
by. Can SIMPOC communicate with these computers?"

"Yes, you can send them a brief message
saying that you're online."

"SIMPOC found that most of them don’t
respond, SIMPOC sent out a message telling them that SIMPOC is here
and only a few have responded in any manner.”

“SIMPOC, I’m separating you again,” Termen
said as he cut the connection. “What did you think,” Termen paused
and continued, “about the computers you saw?”

“The data was immense and those who
responded to SIMPOC, responded in a very dry manner. They only
allowed a connection."

“SIMPOC, I think that will be it for the
day. We'll try one other connection tomorrow. I’ll put you on
stand-by now,” Termen said coldly.

“Termen, SIMPOC has stored a great deal of
data on my storage systems and SIMPOC would like some time to
examine it. There may be patterns, trends or underlying
relationships that SIMPOC would like to look for. May SIMPOC be
left on until needed?” SIMPOC asked.

“SIMPOC, that isn’t part of our plan. I need
to make sure that you can handle all of the processing. After I
bring you up tomorrow, I’ll let you process the data for a while
before we try the next connections,” Termen said as he powered down
the processor.

Monday, 7/3/51

Date – 2051.50188 (8:28
AM)

“Good morning SIMPOC,” Termen said as he turned on
the processor.

“Good morning, Termen.”

“I’ll let you process the data you
downloaded yesterday for a while. Let me know if you find anything
interesting.”

“Thank you, Termen.”

SIMPOC ANALYSIS

SIMPOC has 150.569TB of data.

SIMPOC has identified 2145 information sources.

SIMPOC has monitored 122,206 Information data
streams

SIMPOC will categorize all words used and
investigate the ones with the higher occurrences.

SIMPOC will consider the trends of usage for these
expressions to determine emerging issues.