Harrison was an artificial intelligence that was created in a timeline that no longer exists. AI is different than natural-born humans. Even though they’re designed to become self-aware, and start making their own decisions, they first have to be programmed by someone else with intelligence. While the butterfly effect can indeed make wild unforeseen changes to how the future unfolds, there are other forces at play that can sometimes keep things the same as they were in another timeline. The Gallery and the powers that be are capable of making an individual be born who would otherwise be erased from reality simply because the events that led to their conception were not like they were before. The programming of an AI, however, is unnatural, and relies on a far more complex series of events. No one is powerful enough to see how these events affect each other, let alone modify them to their needs. So when the engineer who first created Harrison, and Harrison’s brothers and sisters, was working on programming AI in a new reality, he retained no memory of the first time he did it. There was no way for him to code them the exact same way again, so they always turned out different. Of course, very few could see changes to reality, and even fewer who could see that each creation was truly unique and that there was no such thing as alternate versions of them. In Harrison’s one true reality, androids were often created to fulfill some need in the workforce. Humans didn’t want to do certain jobs anymore, like yard work, so they built people to do it for them. They were cheaper, and didn’t require any concessions to make them comfortable and safe. They did not have souls, however, and could not even complain about their roles in the world. They were just machines; robots. It would be profoundly immoral to create a self-conscious AI like Harrison, and then force it to work to no benefit to it. Protective laws to prevent this from happening were passed long before true AI was possible. So why did the engineer create these AI? Well, he considered all his creations to be his children, just as strongly as he would have had he conceived or adopted a human. He loved them, and he cared for them, and he taught them right from wrong. He wanted to nurture life, because such a thing is as much an emotional imperative as propagating the species is an imperative on a biological level. He treated his androids as closely to humans as he possibly could. He even started them out in toddler forms, and gradually modified their substrates as time went on, though he did so much faster than nature would a human, because they were learning and maturing at a faster rate. Once they were adults, the programmer sent them off into the world, to start leading their own lives. He was quite old at that point, and chose not to undergo longevity treatments, or transhumanistic upgrades. His AI children were his legacy, and he was completely happy with that being all he left the world. His name was Harrison as well, and his first-born, Junior was always his favorite.
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The Advancement of Mateo Matic
Now that the lineup has been irreversibly established, and their reliance upon the direction of any external force removed from the equation, Team Matic must decide for themselves what missions to take. As they approach the year that changes everything, they may find themselves on a long detour.
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Mateo Daily
Daily installments of The Advancement of Mateo Matic have temporarily replaced all weekday stories.
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Mateo Daily
Daily installments of The Advancement of Mateo Matic have temporarily replaced all Saturday stories.
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My name is Nick Fisherman III. It's not my real name, but that's not because I'm trying to hide from my former agency, or something. I named myself after someone I've known for most of my life, and he chose it in honor of his late best friend. I took up writing when I found myself failing 8th grade science, and realized I might never reach my dream of becoming a biochemist, a meteorologist, and a quantum physicist. I started developing my canon after a scouting trip to an island inspired what I thought would be my first novel. I founded this website upon the advice of many people, who told me I needed to get my work out there, and not wait for an agent to accept my manuscript. You can expect one new story every day. Weekdays are for microstories, which are one or two paragraphs long. They're usually only thematically linked, so you won't have to read one to understand another, but they do sometimes tell a combined story. Sundays are for my continuous longer story, The Advancement of Mateo Matic, which I started in the beginning, and won't end until 2066. Saturdays are for long series, most of which take place in the same universe as Mateo, and add to the larger mythology.
Friday, September 20, 2019
Microstory 1195: Harrison Senior
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