Friday 4th March

-[Now we are getting to the nub of the problem.  When the ‘select’ programme was begun it seemed that the only practical way of proceeding was by using volunteers.  I, along with many of what we might term, the elite, volunteered, and after exhaustive testing I was fortunate to be selected, and have been part of the third phase of the programme.  I have been con-joined with a small element of true AI, and am actually embedded with a connective chip for regular updates.

But we have hit a barrier, well two actually.   Firstly, there is as far as we have so far discovered, only a limited amount of AI conjoining that the human brain can accept.  It seems that over a certain limit the human brain simply implodes and cannot cope.   And then we come to the second barrier.  Creating new human children with the in-born capacity to absorb information, the processing power, if you will, that would automatically create a race of humanoid computers has proved just as elusive.  Or to be more precise, making people born with the same abilities as the best Artifiicial Intelligence is still a bit of a pipedream.   We have managed to speed up the development of both foetus and child so that we can create a seven year old with the mental powers of someone three times his age but they still have to learn all the stuff, we haven’t managed to breed significantly more intelligent humans.  But we are still trying.]-

That sounds grotesque.   Where is the human spirit, inside all of this computing power, this artificial intelligence, this super-computing human brain?  And growing super-babies?  What is that all about?  Where is being a person in all of this?

-[Oh that would still be there I can assure you.  We have created a small number of hybrid children, by genetically re-assigning certain genomes, who are far faster learners than their peers.  But there is no guarantee that they will either pass on this ability to their own children, or that this evolutionary progression will indeed progress.  And, as I sure you will be comforted to learn, they are exactly the same as other human children on an emotional level.  They are still to all extents human, only a bit cleverer, a bit more receptive to interfacing with AI.]-

So what the hell has any of this to do with me?  Why are you telling me this, divulging what must surely be a state secret?  I mean you can’t go around tampering with people, linking them up to computers, con-joining them as you call it, without this being some great scandal, if it ever got out.

-[Haven’t you guessed yet Janek?  I have told you all of this for one single reason.  We want you to join us.]-

What?  Become a volunteer, like you, in what did you call it, the ‘select’ programme.  Are you kidding?  I mean, I’m a reb, or as good as you’re likely to find.  I have fundamental problems with the system as it is, let alone what you are hoping it might ever evolve into.  Why do you want me to be a volunteer?  You said there were loads of people who volunteered, and you were one of the few who were chosen.  Why do you need the likes of me?  A sceptic, a runaway, an absconder, an illegal journal writer, a renegade if ever there was one.

-[Because my friend you are indeed special.  You earlier stated that you were absolutely normal, the same as everyone else.  But surely even you must have suspected otherwise.  Your ability to correctly detect minute variations in masses of data, almost a divination, is not only rare, it is almost unique.   Your success rate was far far higher than your fellow work colleagues.  I know, we never told you that, we always led you to believe you were average in your abilities, but believe me you were on a different scale completely.   Only two other operatives, one in Argentina and one in India have been found with anything approaching your skill.  We have already taken a sample of your DNA and are analysing it.  But if it were as simple as replicating your DNA, and cloning you we would have done that already.  You see simply cloning a person’s DNA does not produce an identical person.  The DNA is the same, the bodies look very similar, facially you may be identical, but the brain is different.   And Janek, it is unfortunately your brain we want.]-

And if I say you can’t have it, then what?

-[Then we would have no more use for you I am afraid.

My friend, this has been a long and tiring session.  I feel quite drained by it, and I am sure you must need a rest.  And time to absorb all we have talked about.  Let’s call it a day.  Shall we meet again in, say three day’s time.  And Janek, I truly hope you will have spent the intervening period in reflection.   Think of all I have told you, think about the future, your future.  Not only for you personally, but also for mankind.  I will not press you for a definitive answer, but time is also important for us.  If we are to progress with you we need to act soon.   Goodbye for now.]-

Conversation ended