Premium beef, travel to a remote island where I can live comfortably with my wealth, open a business… A ladies' exclusive spa will do just fine, give age-based discounts to attract the right damsels..Yhh…A dark-haired young man thought with a smile, the scar running down his right eye making his smile look so much more villainous than it should.
"Hey, are you listening!" A brown haired girl with a lovely face that was further accentuated by the freckles over her nose, blared at the day-dreaming Rex, snapping her fingers to get his attention.
"I am listening, lovely," Rex lied. "Especially when it's the beautiful voice of my guiding angel."
Nancy rolled her eyes; it wasn't enough to dissuade the blue-balled Beta Tester.
"What do you say to dinner after the test run is over?... Let me treat you right, make you feel like a queen with some of that sweet, sweet Test Subject Grant."
Nancy gave him a wry smile. She had known Rex for three months now; she had recruited him herself. Offered him the opportunity to participate in the [AI Clone Project], for three months straight, not one day had passed that the scar-faced Rex did not fail to flirt with her on sight.
"When we are done with the final test today, maybe we will grab dinner together," Nancy said. "But just D.I.N.N.E.R," She emphasized.
"Yes, Beau," Rex accepted with a smile. "But be warned, when I'm done treating you right with some of that $300k grant payout, you will be addicted to me, love."
Pam…Nancy facepalmed so hard, it drew the attention of some of the lab-coat-wearing scientists hurrying up and about around them.
"Hey Rex, please just pay attention for a minute, while I run the process by you one more time." Nancy pleaded with the young man on a testosterone-driven mission. "Anymore, and you will give me diabetes."
His trap was shut with a smile.
"Among the thousands of participants, you alone made it to this final stage." She reminded him, and he acknowledged with a smug smile.
"Your process sync with the model is extraordinary." Rex nodded proudly.
"The difficult part is already done, all that remains for now…is for the Model to be exposed to your raw bio-neural cascade." Rex continued to nod, Nancy assumed the nod meant she hadn't lost him, but deep down, she knew the truth.
"Once the model is exposed to your neural cascade," Nancy continued. "It will send in probes and use these probes to draft a perfect copy of your neural cascade, which will bind with it, to create an AI Clone of you."
Rex continued to nod rhythmically.
"These AI clones of you will become the first O-AI, and unlike traditional AI, it will be able to make decisions autonomously like a human would, and will have an Organic approach to tasks, similar to that of a human. It will be a perfect replica of you that can function like you, but much better."
"Nice..Nice!" Rex added while sliding his palms over the other. "And this is where I get the money, right?"
Nancy shut her eyes for a moment.
"You know this is revolutionary tech, right, and you will be the Pilot User." She spoke. "Your name will go down in history."
"Of course," Rex concurred with a nod. "But what did you say about the money again?"
"Yes, you will get the Test Subject Grant pay today, and you will get royalties for leasing your O-AI to a workplace, but there are things much better than money, Rex."
"Of course…Of course," Rex added in false agreement.
Nancy was about to once again open up the debate on how Dollar was temporary and legacy was eternal; however, it was cut short by one of the scientists, who let the duo know it was time.
The stage for the final step of the AI Clone Project was the most unorthodox of stages yet, Rex had gotten used to all kinds of uncanny tests he had been through in an effort to achieve higher and higher sync.
But looking at the behemoth of steel and scalpel that was erected in the middle of the theatre-like room, and meant to surgically expose his neural system for binding. His heart couldn't help but quicken.
"You sure?" the all-sweet Nancy asked him.
"A million percent certain!" Rex promptly replied, wincing at the fact, he let a beau like that catch him lacking.
"You don't have to act like it's nothing," Nancy reminded him. "The Bio-neural Rig will expose your neural system and send in probes to access your neural map and create a copy of it."
"It's okay to be scared."
"Nahh… I am Rex,"
A.
K.
A… the Limitless, nothing scares me."
Several of the scientists and engineers confirming the Rig's status could not hold back a chuckle, an excitement Nancy did not share in the slightest, even as they began to strap him into the Rig.
The positioning on the rig felt almost like getting his hair cut in a salon, except that his hair had already been shaved clean and glistening for this procedure, and the padding on the cushion was a bazillion times more cushy than the seats used at the exceptionally budget-friendly salons he used.
"Ready?" A voice boomed from the speakers built into the wall of the test theater.
Several of the scientists nodded in agreement.
"Noted," the Voice acknowledged, before it continued. "Mr Rex, I believe Dr. Nancy has explained to you in depth what the final stage of the test involves."
Rex would have given a thumbs up to the camera, to let the Professor know he digged, but he was strapped in tight to 'Senor Rig'. The professor, however, didn't mind, as he continued with his briefing.
"The Bio Neural Rig will expose your neural cascade surgically, send in probes to gather data and generate a copy of your neural map, and once the mapping is done."
"The Bio-Neural probes will retreat and your cranium will be fused back to maintain your neural integrity." The voice paused.
Not scary at all…Rex reminded himself, A 300k dolls payout was too good a payout to let his mind dwell too much on the nuances of the procedure
"The process will be over before you know it." The Professor's voice over the speakers assured him.
"This procedure has already been perfected over numerous animal specimens, so rest easy, and it will be over before you know it."
Rex knew better than to count on the Professor's word; the dude was more a research bot than a human.
He couldn't help but wonder what the poor apes and panzees underwent under the Prof's hand, as the scientists around him…pumped him full of possibly anesthesia.
"Cheers to new beginnings," the Prof added over the speakers as the scientists began to retreat.
"Cheers," Rex echoed. More in solidarity with the 300k that will be his soon, than the professor's enthusiasm to a Nobel acknowledgement.
It did not take long for the heavily white themed theatre room to become deserted, as the scientists began to rapidly retreat.
Nancy, however, remained with him, until the very last.
When it was just the two, she looked him in the eye, drew her face close to his, let her lips caress his for a moment, and rapidly retreated from the theater before Rex could even process the development.
All Rex was left with as his brain continued to properly process the development was Nancy's face close to the glass door. Mouthing words his brain could not process for the life of him, it was still lagging on the kiss , trying to make sense of it.
Hey! Keep up, brain, Rex admonished himself.
"Countdown Initiated." The professor's voice announced via the speakers to the only human in the theater.
10 .. 9 .. 8 An artificial voice counted down as Rex did his best to keep his mind on the payout and definitely not on the scalpel that was nearing his scalp with each digit lost.
But even the fantasy of burgers in the prime of health was not enough to pull Rex back to reality as the countdown struck [0] and the scalpel came alive.
"Oh Shit, it's a saw!" Rex could not hold back a scream as the lithe surgical saw made contact.
Infinitely resolute and steady, the saw did not relent as it began its onslaught to expose Rex's neural cascade. A.K.A. Brain!!!
Rex would have sworn that this was the weirdest part of this project yet, he would have preferred to have landed on the most painful, but he was too drenched in pain negators to feel shit, so he decided on the next closest thing… Weird.
However, the next process that followed after the cranial incision was probes digging into his brain, an even weirder development.
He had no idea of what to expect with this part of the experiment. At least incision was incision, but metal probes digging into your brain was something else.
It did not take him long to have his answer, as he felt naked.
He was clothed, except for the lack of a bone cap over his brain, but he felt so naked, bare, exposed, and vulnerable.
It felt like the machine was scrutinizing everything that made him..him.
He knew his memories were exposed, his thoughts, his decisions, why he made them.
Everything.
He wanted to hide some things; they were things he didn't want the machine to know.
It didn't need to know about his mum, it didn't need to know about his childhood, it didn't need to know that he didn't really like vegetables, it didn't need to know why he couldn't keep his mouth shut.
No!!!, Not the fact he was a virgin, the AI definitely didn't need that. Oh hell, he wanted to curse, but his muscles had ceased to respond to him the moment the probe made contact.
The merciless invasion of the most intimate form of privacy ensued accurately and without error, to the delight of all the CEO and scientists who had sown in a couple millions and decades of efforts all for this day.
Rex sat limply and did his best to grasp at something to let him know it was worth it. But he couldn't find anything to give him such validation.
Minutes trickled by, and there was a change in the hunger of the neural invader; it had heard its fill of data, it began to recede.
Running over data obtained, tallying, and confirming accuracy as it retreated.
FInally… Rex swore
The intensity continued to drop…until a certain moment.
.
.
.
There was no defining effect, or indicators that something changed, but Rex Knew.
He felt it in the deepest part of his being; the Probe found him.
It found something that no tech should ever see.
The most primal of things, something both ethereal as it's physical.
Rex could swear on the fact that a human's consciousness was simply a product of coincidence and chance.
Just a feature native to a higher-level animal.
But at that moment, he felt it deeply.
The probe found his soul.
What followed was certain death.
Rex didn't know shit about science; he had no education whatsoever, but somehow he knew.
What the probe found couldn't be mimicked; it couldn't be duplicated. They could only be one of it.
And the purpose-driven invader didn't care.
All it knew was data, and what it found, to it was nothing but Data.
It copied.