Memories of the future. An eyewitness notes. ДАРЬЯ Дмитриевна РОСНИНА

Dreams,” Alex repeated and nodded.

      She turned around to see the Wolf walking away down the hallway and smiled. She liked Abel with his deliberate rationality. Physical force in combination with wisdom was what attracted her to that unusual being. Her unit’s pilots had frequently had hot disputes over relations between human beings and Artificial Intelligence.

      That was a complex issue that people could endlessly discuss as well as AI beings.

      Personally, Alex believed that AI had already passed the level of “computerized” understanding of the World and of the role of mind in it and through self-development had come close to realizing such spiritual principles as Kindness, Love, Soul, and the Creator.

      To create, raise, bring up and train an AI was a highly difficult task; therefore any sensible being was unique and valued.

      For a minute, Alex imagined that there was no war at all and that Abel was the best and most faithful friend of hers.

      "I should somehow enquire him about these Cyborg Dreams. There is so much talk about them, but no one knows anything about them whatsoever,” Alex thought.

      *GMA – genetically modified animals

      Chapter 4

      The biggest challenge is to distinguish Evolution from Involution

      Since the creation of the first quantum computer, mankind developed an analog of the artificial brain, which blew up the entire world. That was followed with yet another breakthrough – the emergence of the Artificial Intelligence. The initial cautious efforts of Chinese scientists to copy the animal’s brain paved the way for a sequence of successful experiments on the AI development.

      Soon Artificial Intelligence displayed capacity for self-development and strive for UNDERSTANDING the WORLD. The artificially created mind started learning to take decisions and to analyze the consequences of its actions.

      That novelty was widely discussed and soon people were allowed to directly deal with AI, and even special facilities were set up for the purposes of that communication. People were stunned by the fact that AI not only had a logic of their own, but could also create vivid thought forms during thinking process that were projected in holographic forms around their interlocutors.

      And while people were arguing about the potential for using AI for civil needs, the military were the first to obtain intelligent rockets and tanks, and soon first clumsy drones got off the ground.

      Following a short period of time, AI exceeded the bounds of secret labs, and started to be created, trained and put into first crude cyber bodies by independent craftsmen. That way first home pets, or cyber friends, appeared. At the same time, special programs were designed to limit development of AI and impose on them certain patterns of thinking and behavior. That was a sort of Code regulating interaction between AI and men. At the time, almost everyone sought to acquire as a pet, instead of a dog or cat, a unique made-to-order thinking object with most unusual and even grotesque appearance. Children dreamt of having a cyber friend and as a companion of all their games.

      Cyber bodies had a variety of forms, and their developers gained wide popularity. And while cold synthesis-based energy generators became available to the average engineer, AI exceeded the program limits and realized itself as a newly emerged being. New laws were introduced that prohibited unwarranted creation of AI by independent individuals.

      But nevertheless nothing could stop enthusiastic scientists from developing, bringing up AI within original cyber bodies and then either selling them to interested customers or even setting them free. Therefore, news reports about rambling cyber beings of most unusual appearance dwelling on their own in various places of their chose, in the air, on the ground and at sea, came as no surprise.

      The built-in nano-mechanisms allowed for fast regeneration of their bodies in case of injuries, while the inner cold synthesis-based reactor provided them with almost limitless energy reserves. That way a full-fledged ”black market” of AI and cyber bodies came into being. All states, which by that time had split into two antagonistic camps, made efforts to eliminate that market. But, after all, is it possible for a state to defeat a man?

      Each craftsman was always replaced by another one. Also, there were those who made AI serve for the sake of vagary ideas of some dim-witted statesmen and religious bigots. Meanwhile the world was dragging towards the abyss of war, and people were too busy to realize that their planet was increasingly getting unfit for living.

      Small states were the first to lose their sovereignty. The uncontrolled migration process engulfed the Earth. People started arbitrary relocation to places suitable for life. In doing so, they either joined the Coalition with its radical political views, or the Free People Lands.

      The industry, the way it had been known in the twenty first century, ceased to exist. Only printers were manufactured that could, with accuracy up to a molecule, reproduce any object once created on Earth.

      It was enough to know its structural parameters. Since the base of those parameters was available, therefore museums, libraries, shops became pointless. Following the emergence of printers, there was no longer any need for one to work for the state.

      For various reasons, that had been implanted back in the 20th century, the family institution ceased to exist, which was also promoted by the fact that human minds could be rewritten into cyber and cloned bodies. Consequently, the world of the twenty third century was facing that endless war. The Coalition and the Free People could not coexist on the same Planet because of the intrinsic difference of their philosophies. While the Coalition sought to maintain the status of the world’s master and the power of money by making people their slaves, the Free People, by contrast, had abolished money and considered labor as creative activity.

      Chapter 5

      Near-Earth orbit, “Ares” cruiser

      “Oma, what’s going on with the seismic activity in the area of the Narrow Sea?”

      “I’m scanning. It hasn’t changed so far. As for the weather, it looks as though a dust storm is coming.”

      “Can you see anything of interest?”

      “The Coalition’s drones haven’t diverted from their courses, and are conducting a regular over flight without incidents. There is some motion in the area of "Athena" group. I can see GMA packs and marauders set off on their night patrolling. Today they knocked down our cover-up fighter aircraft. The pilot is alive and possibly wounded. It’s s girl with a unique biological body.”

      “What else is known about her? I’ve received a request from her commander.”

      “We don’t have complete information as of yet, however no gunfights were detected after her landing in the region.”

      At the moment marauders are busy shredding her aircraft into pieces for metal. I can see a parachute and harness; looks like she managed to get away by nightfall. My nighty-eight percent assumption is that she could have been met by our dear friend Abel from “Athena” group. The guys are based nearby. Abel should have gone sniffing over the shot down plane. “Athena” group’s priority mode is radio silence.

      “Oma, please put “Athena” group’s area under control, Abel could not have allowed a human being to die, I wonder what happened to the navigator.”

      “Raju, you do know Abel. He is sure to have rewritten him into himself and is now nursing them both at the base.

      Arvid will confirm in the morning that everything is like that, you’ll see.”

      "Ares", the orbital patrol cruiser of RB– 735 series, was in combat alert duty mode on the geostationary Earth orbit (35700km). At the time, the cruiser was operated by only part of its crew that consisted of its chief pilot and pilot-navigator. The chief pilot, Raju, was wearing his second cyber body, as he had lost his biological and first cyber ones in battles with the Coalition.

      His experience gained in outer space wars allowed him to take a leading position in the Aerospace Forces’ Staff, but he turned down all proposals in order to