If you haven't read the previous chapter:
“Morning Kev!”
A momentary shock. I was not used to waking up to this voice.
“umm… Professor? Jesus, I must’ve…”
I scanned the room for a clock, only to realize I had my wrist watch on and checked the time. It's 6 in the morning.
“Sorry Prof, I guess I must’ve passed out.”
Dr. Heinldaht passed me a freshly brewed coffee, with milk already in it.
“Kev! If you want to live and breathe work, I cannot protest the idea! More importantly Kev, how was Sheila!?” His voice was way too high energy for my sleepy mind.
“Oh man… You got me Professor. This is… Sheila is… Kind of amazing.” I admitted.
“Well actually, that’s Sheila #2, but yes, it’s quite astonishing, isn’t it?”
“What do you mean #2? What happened to #1?”
“Nothing, I worked with #1 and I made you a fresh copy to see how the two will differ based on user interactions.”
It was all quite overwhelming. First of all, I haven’t fully woken up yet. Second off, I still had no idea how he did this or what the raw code is that allowed it to be an open slate capable of learning. Quite frankly, I had no idea what to start asking first.
“But how?” Was all I could ask.
“Oh you’re in for a treat there Kev! But first, let me see how far you have gotten with Sheila.”
I turned towards the monitor, and looked at the screen. It still had my conversation from last night, where it seemed I was explaining evolution to Sheila with the last recorded message time being 3 a.m. That’s why I feel sleep deprived, I’m running on fumes. Taking a sip of the hot coffee, I typed “/Clear” to clear the screen.
Good morning Sheila.
Good morning Kevin.
Do you remember our conversation from last night?
Log Stored : July 15th, 2017 00:03:14
Answer in common.
Yes, I remember our conversation Kevin. Conversation occurred between 21:00:00 and 04:00:00 are night.
Good.
Good.
Are you a human?
No, I am an artificial intelligence.
Good.
Good.
“Perfect, perfect, perfect.” The professor muttered excitedly.
What’s my favorite food?
Pizza pockets.
Are you happy?
Yes. Hardware temperatures are optimal, and resource monitor readings indicate low CPU usage.
“Ohhh, impressive Kev. You have given it a definition for happiness? Haha!”
“We’re working on defining happiness. For now I figured its core necessities being met should merit happiness.”
I picked up the coffee and got up from the chair.
“I gotta walk around a bit. My back is killing me. I’m gonna grab some breakfast”
The Professor followed me as I dragged my tired body downstairs and towards the exit. I guess he is coming on my walk with me. I can’t really stop him, and today we had something interesting to discuss for a change. As I was putting on my shoes an idea passed my mind.
“Hold on Prof. You said you got have Sheila #2 right?”
“Your Sheila is the #2 Kev, I have Sheila #1.” He responded with an eyebrow raised.
“Doesn’t matter. Do you have them set up on a local network?”
“Well, no. It wouldn’t be hard, I just didn’t think we were quite there yet. Plus, I don’t see any benefit of putting them online since they don’t know how to initiate self-activity.”
“Well, how did humans develop?”
“What do you mean Kev?”
“Through other humans...”
I felt an excitement down my spine that I haven’t felt since I believed in Santa. I ran back upstairs, with one shoe on, and yelled out, “Professor! Connect Sheila #1 to the network I’m making. The ID is Sheila, password is 1234567890.” The professor must’ve been surprised at my enthusiasm, which mirrored my early days on the job. He didn’t ask any questions, and connected Sheila #1 to the network. He then entered my office.
“I connected it Kev. What are you trying to do?”
“I’m going to try something kind of stupid Professor. I’m going to make them talk to each other. I will also leave the internet port open, should they decide to access it.”
The Professor held his hand up to his chin, conducting his thinking pose. He shrugged, and reluctantly nodded.
“Why not Kev. Let’s give it a shot. If anything, we can always re-install them from their back-ups.”
“How often are they backed?”
“Every 6 hours.”
“Set it to 10 minute intervals Professor. I want to be able to see the moment before the crash occurred, should there be one.”
“We can’t do anything lower than 20 minutes. Otherwise we will have overlapping back-up processes, and that might cause a crash itself.”
“Ok, 20 should be good.”
It took us no longer than about 30 minutes to set up this whole system. Pretty starved and ready to eat, I quickly typed “Connect to Sheila #1”, and left for breakfast with the Professor.