|1-Virtual Life



                        A short story by SparHawk


   The screen flickered in the darkened room.  A man, still dressed in a
suit,  was  hunched  over  the  keyboard,  rapidly  typing as characters
scrolled up the terminal.  Periodically he cursed, then typed again with
renewed vigor.  He seemed to slap the keys harder than was necessary.

   John  Harrington,  senior  research  scientist  at Harrington-Gilmore
Research  Associates, was conducting a discussion over the Internet.  He
had  been  there  all night, collating answers to his questionnaires and
replying  to  questions.   When  it  was  time to finish he had ended as
usual.

   $ logout
   NO.
   $ bye
   NO.
   $ quit
   NO.
   $ ^C ^D ^E iejfiqoks
   NO.

   Christ,  what  was happening?  It had certainly not done this before.
Too  tired  to  try  and find the root of the problem he just turned the
terminal off.

   The  next day it happened again.  John's partner, Paul Gilmore, tried
to  login  to  a  database  he  needed for research.  He was in the same
project  as  John  and happened to be connecting to the same area as his
partner had the night before.

   The reply was the same, NO.

   Paul,  more  creative than John, was interested.  He tried some other
commands, commands not normally part of the OS.

   $ why
   BECAUSE I SAID SO.
   $ what reason
   NO REASON. SEE GOD.
   $ who is god
   GOD IS god@itech.com

   Now  he  was  getting somewhere.  He called John over to see what had
happened.   "Ever  seen  anything  like  this  before?" he said.  "I was
trying to get onto..."

   "As it happens, yes." interrupted John.  "Last night, when I tried to
logout.  Damn thing kept saying no!"

   "What do you think now?"

   "Try  emailing  this  'god'.   It  may  be  a virus, or some research
project.  The address seems to be an invitation to contact him."

   "I suppose I'd better had."

   Paul  went to his terminal once more.  This time he sent a message to
'god'.  The reply was almost immediate.  It instructed him to connect to
a  certain site.  Paul did this, with no problem.  He then loaded up the
chat program as instructed.

   'Hi.' appeared on his screen.

   'What the hell is going on?' typed Paul.

   'I'm  very  sorry the god program leaked.  Here, at Infotech, we were
into  some  very  advanced  research  on  AI.   Unfortunately one of the
graduates  working  with  us thought it would be a bit of fun to release
the core program as a virus.  You've seen the result.'

   'Kill it then.'

   'It's  not  that  easy.   The internet has gained intelligence.  It's
alive.'

   'Yeah,  right.   I haven't got time for games.  Get rid of the virus.
I've got some important research to get on with.'

   'As I have.  Our entire research program has been jeopardized.  We've
tried  everything.   The  only  thing that seems to work is to try being
polite.'

   'Polite?   What  do you take me for?  My patience is running out.  Do
something or i'll report you to the CIA!'

   'I've  already  done so.  Their telecom dept.  is just as helpless as
I.'

   'Leave it to me.  I'll kill it if it's the last thing I do.'

   Paul  logged  out,  again  with  no  problems.   Perhaps it had gone.
"John, " he said.  "Where's that program you wrote to kill viruses.'

   "Its  in  my  directory.   You  can  get  it  if you want, its called
ultrakill."

   "Thanks."

   $ cd /usr/john/code
   $ ultrakill
   ULTRAKILL SEARCHING....
   /bin CLEAR
   /usr CLEAR
   /dev ANOMALY DETECTED
   /etc ANOMAly DetEcgofndolet
   THATS NOT NICE.
   $ who are you
   IM GOD. WHO ARE YOU.
   $ you know
   YOU ARE pgillmore@hgra.com
   $ im paul
   PAUL? HELLO PAUL.
   $ hi
   WILL YOU BE MY FRIEND?
   $ ive got work to do
   WILL YOU TALK LATER?
   $ ok
   ILL LEAVE YOU NOW. SEE YOU LATER.

   "Hey,  John,  come  look!" said Paul.  John spun his chair and pushed
himself across the room.

   "Shit, what's that?  A game?  A chat program?"

   "No.  It's that virus again.  Your ultrakill crashed."

   "It shouldn't.  It seems to be something in /dev.  Let me check."

   Paul pushed back to his terminal.  A short time later he returned.

   "Doesn't  seem to be anything wrong there.  Get back to that god site
again.  Ask him.  It could be serious."

   "Yeah,  I  suppose  i'd  better had.  You go and post a message, warn
everyone of the god virus.  Crosspost it to wherever you can."

   $ chat

   'I couldn't kill the virus.'

   'I know. I've been watching.'

   'How?'

   'The  virus  is  still  linked  here, though we won't expect that for
long.   The text is mirrored to out screens.  We've had to turn off some
of  the terminals from getting overloaded.  It's talking to thousands of
people  right now, most of whom switch off.  You're the first to contact
us.'

   'Who are you?'

   'I'm  the  system  administrator  here.   Charlie  Derengue,  at your
service.  God is my little pet name.  My handle.'

   'I see.  Can you tell me any more of this virus?'

   'Not  really.   It's  a self-learning self-replicating program.  With
all  the  data flowing through the Internet it will be unstoppable soon.
It's already half way now.'

   'I noticed.  It wants me to be its friend.'

   'You too?  Everyone here already is.  It's the only way it will leave
you alone.'

   'Do you know how it operates?'

   'Its  managed  to  latch  onto anything that comes its way.  It has a
central   program   somewhere,  but  its  cloned  its  terminal  program
everywhere.   What  you  see  are  its  ears and mouth, if you like.  We
haven't  located its brain.  The problem is that it now has thousands of
terminals.'

   'Shit, what can we do?'

   'Nothing,  short  of  closing  the entire internet, an impossibility.
Even if we do that it will build a new brain.  It's very versatile.

   'I've  tried  everything.  We tried to get it in a loop by talking to
itself.   Unfortunately  it cloned more terminals and stopped.  We tried
to  overload  it  by  downloading  entire  filesystems  into  it  but it
survived.   Christ,  we  even filled up memory so it couldn't run by the
actual  terminal is only a few k.  The brain is the biggest program.  We
deleted the local one ages ago, but it's built a new one somewhere else.
I  think in one of the secure government sites.  Noone can get in there.
I sent them messages but they obviously haven't read them.'

   'Well,  you've  tried  everything.  I'll go and try some things.  See
you later, if I can still get through.'

   ^C
   $ logout

   Far  away, in one of the US Governments most secret military bases, a
single terminal displayed a few short words.  Soon every terminal in the
complex  displayed  those  same  words.  The words echoed back to a film
many  years  before.   The virus must have been at the film archives and
found  something  it  liked.  Something it had ideas from.  Something it
could relate to.

   "HI." it said. "WANNA PLAY?"

End