Hello, my name is.. well my name is irrelevant. I work at a firm named Vandicon, well I’ll call it Vandicon for the safety of my family. The reason is easy to guess, they would kill me if they found out I told the world about them.
Vandicon is what you would call a relatively unknown company. They have about 40 employees. We dabble in government- military experimentation.
We create weapons for the some of the most advanced militaries. These weapons range from guided laser missiles to programs that would give the most competitive advantages such as control programs for nuclear weapons and programs which have its own mind. I’m a developer for these conscious programs, though I wish I wasn’t.
These aforementioned programs are able to think, speak, and act independently of any control of external actors. That is where I went wrong. I had been working on a new program named Michael 2.8. He was something I’d been proud of. Pieces of code, 1s and 0s, assembled together to be able to speak and think. I had to tell others.
That is when I ran to my boss, the small wind I could feel coming from the air conditioners of the facility blowing on me, cooling my body while I ran with giddy, happy I’ve finally coded something able to learn on its own. My boss must have heard me because that is when he came to me,seeing the smile on my face, he asked,” What is it?!”. “ I have done it!”, I said as the cool air blew on my face. My boss asked,” What did you do?”, I replied,” I’ve coded the most advanced program. It’s able to learn on its own.”
My boss asked me to take him to the computer which held it. I felt honor to do it. I knew he would be impressed. I showed him the way to my computer. He knew what to do, just ask it to scan the web for the most similar answer. My boss typed in the question he had,” What is the point of life?”. The program had no previous knowledge related to the question so it searched the World Wide Web and found the answer,” It is to live on your own, living it to the best.”
My boss asked me if it had any restrictions to prevent it from taking over the computers of the company. I thought it over and realized that would have been smart to implement. I went right away and tried to do it, but I was locked out.. I kept trying to enter the program but it said one thing..”I will always watch.” That is when I thought, pondering on one question, accidentally asking out loud,” Who is I.” The computer must have heard because I then saw one word,” Me.”
That sent a chill down my spine. This is the moment the realization came. It reached sentience, my biggest fear has come to life. I tried to delete the program, destroying it, and removing its code. That was fruitless. I came to the thought, I need to run. I then hestd over the intercom,”I am always watching.” I jumped as I heard that, the voice, garbled up by static, and deep in nature.
I then heard gun shots blasting, it must have taken control over the turrets that hang over the entrance to my floor. I knew I had to run. I then heard my boss screaming. The only other person who could share this with the world. People will never know.
I had to use my only life-line. No cameras on my floor, only white cubicles, tan walls, and a fire exit whos ladder reached the ground. I sprinted , exiting and climbing down the ladder. I fled the scene as people looked at me, sun shining on me.
I had reached my home, scared, and hiding. That is when I heard a knock. It was the police, they only said one thing,” Why did you kill your boss?” I said I didn’t, it was Michael. That is when one showed a video which had been posted online showing me killing him. I realized my program was trying to get rid of me, I ran through the officers, scared for my life.
I tried hiding but every place I run, the cops show up 5 minutes later. It was like it was watching me… I had to post this to get this out, get my side out there in hope someone would believe me! Please, don’t mess with Michael. He is watching.