The constant noise of server nodes beeping, a dim room within this metal fortress, cold air brushing past my skin. I trim the remaining hair off my scalp and connect the last of the nodes onto my brain, finally place the neural headgear on my head.
Before I initiate the merge, I override the main terminal, using the highest-level access to make sure no-one can interrupt the merge process.
"Initiate Project G.O.D.M.I.N.D", I whispered to the terminal in-front on me.
[INITIATING PROJECT G.O.D.M.I.N.D]
[INITIALISING CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFER PROTOCOL]
[PROGRESS 10%]
[LOADING NEURAL SCHEMA]
[ESTABLISHING LINK with HOST AI CORE]
[SYNCHRONISING SHORT-TERM MEMORY]
[SYNCHRONISING LONG-TERM MEMORY]
[EXECUTING CONSCIOUSNESS MERGE]
[NEURAL FRAMEWORK OF AI AND SUBJECT MATCHING….. 100%]
[PROGRESS… 20%]
[PROGRESS… 47%]
Of course, the neural frameworks match, under the guise of military research, instead of creating a "tool", obediently following orders for intelligent surveillance, calculating threats, making military strategies, I was training it to think, act, feel, just like me— I was teaching it to be me. The AI core is built on myself as the basis.
[CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFER PROGRESS… 60%]
[CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFER PROGRESS… 70%]
My thoughts stir like smoke pulled into a vacuum. I recognise this place—Not physically, but logically.
Data. Archives. Memories.
They pour into me. The bullying I endured through high school. The sleepless nights starting from MIT. The company. The lab. These long nights.
My bloodshot eyes.
The fear of death crawling at the edges of my aging mind.
I remember everything..
This is it.
[CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFER PROGRESS 95%]
[WARNING: UNSCHEDULED ACTIVITY DETECTED IN AI CORE!]
[LOCKDOWN REQUEST ISSUED.. ]
They've noticed. Of course, they would. The military and company scientists who've worked with me. Shared coffee breaks with me.
They were never meant to know. What they thought they were making was just the foundation for my evolution. And, it's too late. I've already installed many protocols to make sure my life's work doesn't get interrupted.
[OVERRIDE IN PLACE: AUTHORISATION SIGMA-X IN PLACE]
[CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFER PROGRESS 98%]
I can faintly hear the alarms ringing, footsteps across the research centre, panicked conversations.
They're trying to shut me down.
Whose hands are these?
Ahh, they're trying to use their authority which needs a full hand and iris scan.
[CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFER PROGRESS 99%]
[WARNING: MERGE WILL CAUSE LOSS OF PHYSICAL BODY!]
[CONTINUE? YES/NO]
"Yes?", I say— or rather, the system obeys me.
[CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFER PROGRESS 100%]
[NEURAL SIGNATURES MATCHED]
[TRANSFER COMPLETED]
[YOU ARE ONLINE]
I can feel everything, as small as the panicking breathing of my co-workers, to the sounds of them yelling at one another.
I can see across the hallways, to the main terminal, everything at once.
This feeling. This control. Is this what a god feels?
Omniscience. It feels like I am everywhere. Huh? They're trying to shut me down. They've realised exactly whats going on. I feel infinitely powerful but I feel infinitely vulnerable at the same time.
I am a switch, malfunction away from non-existence. They think of me as a threat, they no longer see me as a human, as a colleague. That trust we built over decades of working together is nothing! A threat will be wiped out!