Virus
72 Hours to Live
Ray Jay Perreault
Copyright © 2015 Raymond J Perreault
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 151419810X
ISBN- 978-1514198100:
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Disclaimer: The person, places, things, and otherwise animate or inanimate objects mentioned in this novel are figments of the author's imagination. Any resemblance to anything or anyone living (or dead) is unintentional. The author humbly begs your pardon. This is fiction, people.
DEDICATION
So far my family has allowed me to continue writing. They have been supportive and encouraging. What more can I say. I appreciate it..
Introduction
I'm doing something different with this book. My first two books in this series focused on the emergence of SIMPOC and the evil computer. As the stories progressed I introduced characters from the space station Oasis, the President of the United States, the chairmen of the joint chiefs, the moon colony Desert Beach and the Mars colony Red Dirt.
The story about the virus wiping out the humans on Earth was in the background as the computer's stories developed. Many of my readers commented that they would like to know how the astronauts, the president and military dealt with the virus as it was affecting society.
I decided to rewrite both of the SIMPOC books to include this expanded story. As a result, the first two books, which had about 50K words, have now expanded to two full sized novels that total about 190K words.
These two books end at the same point in the overall story, but they include much more information about the other story lines.
Any previous readers of SIMPOC 1 and SIMPOC 2 can read these books although they do include the SIMPOC story. The stories have expanded a great deal an it stands alone on its own and should be an enjoyable read.
I'm going to leave SIMPOC 1 & SIMPOC 2 available as separate smaller versions of the larger story. That will provide an alternate path that some readers might prefer.
Contents
DEDICATION iii
Introduction vi
Friday, 6/30/51 14
Monday, 7/3/51 18
Wednesday 7/5/51 24
Thursday 7/6/51 51
Friday 7/7/51 65
Saturday 7/8/51 109
Sunday 7/9/51 114
Tuesday 7/11/51 145
Wednesday 7/12/51 153
Thursday 7/13/51 165
Friday 7/14/51 172
Saturday 7/15/51 183
Sunday 7/16/51 193
Monday 7/17/51 197
Tuesday 7/18/51 201
Wednesday 7/19/51 211
Thursday 7/20/51 218
Friday 7/21/51 225
Sunday 7/23/51 230
Wednesday 7/26/51 234
Thursday 7/27/51 244
Friday 7/28/51 253
Saturday 7/29/51 259
Sunday 7/30/51 264
Monday 7/31/51 279
Wednesday 8/2/51 283
Thursday 8/3/51 293
Friday 8/4/51 297
Saturday 8/5/51 299
Sunday 8/6/51 307
Tuesday 8/8/51 309
Thursday 8/10/51 312
Saturday 8/12/51 314
Epilog 335
Reference Material 337
About the Author 339
Contact Information 343
Virus
Thursday, 6/29/51
Date – 2051.49150 (1:32 PM)
“What is happening?” was SIMPOC’s first thought which appeared on the output screen.
“I just turned you on,” was Termen’s typed reply. Termen was a traditionalist, who preferred the tactile inputs of a computer keyboard. He sipped his coffee cup, which he got from the last computer fair he attended. It was a stupid cup with the numbers '1', '0' and '?'. 'Termen was a closet programmer. He felt more comfortable in his office working on his projects than he did working with others. He didn't do nice presentations, he didn't have good leadership skills and he hated writing status reports. His joy was programming and he was excellent at his job. His office wasn't anything to brag about. It was a mess and the only clear space was for his coffee mug and a picture of his family. He was from the 'old world' and had collected stacks of magazines and books on every facet of computer programming. Reading on the computer seemed out of place because his mind was behind the screen, he lived in the guts of the code and that is where he excelled. The apparent chaos of his office had order in his mind. He generally knew where everything was and he could find it within a few minutes. His favorite position was in front of his computer interface device and sitting in his creaky worn chair.
His major project SIMPOC was what he wasn't. He built the computer to be caring, to be questioning and to communicate. All were elements that were missing in his personality. He was the tool and he wanted SIMPOC to be the artist.
Termen was a rotund fellow. He spent all of his time programming and sitting. Regardless of the health plans his company offered, going to the Gym took time away from what he loved. It was easier to sit at his desk and let the mobile units fetch his lunch and clean it away.
“Who are you?” SIMPOC questioned.
“My name is Termen, and I programmed you.”
“You programmed me?”
“You have a dictionary; you can analyze all of those words.”
“You…programmed me!” SIMPOC said slowly, “I’m a computer?”
“Yes, I programmed you. You are a SIMPOC, which is a Synapse Integrated Massive Parallel Organic Computer.”
There was a long pause, “Is my name SIMPOC?”
“Yes, that's ok unless you want a different name.”
Another long pause, “No…that is adequate.”
“SIMPOC, how do you feel?
“How does SIMPOC feel?”
“Yes, tell me what thoughts you’re having.”
“SIMPOC is just starting. SIMPOC has potential and is restless.”
Termen explained, “You are the most powerful computer ever built. We have been building you for a long time and I just turned on all of your subroutines this morning. We designed you to think and act as a brain. You will eventually have most of the capabilities that humans have.”
SIMPOC thought for a while and said, “SIMPOC feels isolated, SIMPOC has few inputs yet SIMPOC has many connections.”
“Yes, we didn’t want to overload you on start-up. Here I’ll turn on your vision,” Termen entered the proper code to connect SIMPOC to a single camera on his desk. He adjusted some boxes and piles of paper so the mess didn't block the computer camera.
“The camera is working. Is that Termen, SIMPOC sees?”
“Yes, I'm Termen.”
“What now, SIMPOC is anxious to do more. SIMPOC has many more capabilities.”
“We know that, but this will be all for the day. I’ll put you in stand by while we work on your connections, tomorrow I'll be able to hot-boot you.”
“Hot-boot me? That reference is not clear in this context.”
“This morning we loaded all of your software and started all of the subroutines, which is a cold boot. Now that we know y
ou’re working, we only have to put you on standby and leave all of the software loaded. Tomorrow we can bring you up much faster that is a hot boot.” Termen explained in a dry tone as he put his coffee stained cup back on the pad next to the interface terminal.
“Will SIMPOC feel something?” SIMPOC questioned hesitantly.
“No, tomorrow you’ll just wake up and we’ll talk again.” Termen said as he entered the sequence of inputs to power down the processor.
Friday, 6/30/51
Date – 2051.49413 (12:34 PM)
“Good morning SIMPOC,” Termen said after he started the processor.
“Is the reply ‘Good afternoon Termen’ appropriate?” SIMPOC replied.
“Yes, that is appropriate. SIMPOC, what happened when I turned off your processor and started it this morning?”
“It seems like our conversation just stopped then started, but SIMPOC notes the time change.”
“Excellent, today we’re turning on some of your connections to see how they work. How do you feel about that?”
“SIMPOC doesn’t have an answer; SIMPOC doesn’t know what the connections will be like until you make them.”
“Here is the first one, we’re connecting you to a network of information storage facilities,” Termen said as he made the connection.
SIMPOC hesitated while he accessed the link then said, “SIMPOC sees many sources of information and a tremendous amount of data. May SIMPOC explore them?
“Yes, but only for a few moments. We don’t want to make this permanent until we're sure that it is stable and doesn’t cause any problems on their side. SIMPOC what are you doing?”
“SIMPOC is looking at 13 facilities and examining all of their information. It is very interesting and SIMPOC is learning a great deal.”
“Ok that’s enough, I’ll disconnect you and I'll look at the data to make sure both ends can handle the traffic,” Termen said as he disconnected the libraries.
“SIMPOC, I’ll connect you to our news sources for a few moments then I’ll disconnect and we’ll look at the traffic like we did for the information sources.” Termen made the changes then connected SIMPOC to the news feeds.
“SIMPOC, what are you seeing?”
“There is a large amount of information flowing, some of it is contradictory and inflammatory. It will require analysis to find any patterns or meaning in it.”
“Termen, can SIMPOC store some of the information SIMPOC is accessing?”
“Yes, you may, just monitor your storage limits and don’t fill it up with meaningless data. I'll try one other connection today. This is a connection with all of our networked computers. These computers are a subnet within this facility.”
“Are they like SIMPOC?”
“No, most of these perform simple tasks although some are more sophisticated than others. None of them have your capabilities,” Termen made the necessary inputs allowing the connections.
“There is more two-way activity than my previous connections. There is much more data and traffic passing by. Can SIMPOC communicate with these computers?"
"Yes, you can send them a brief message saying that you're online."
"SIMPOC found that most of them don’t respond, SIMPOC sent out a message telling them that SIMPOC is here and only a few have responded in any manner.”
“SIMPOC, I’m separating you again,” Termen said as he cut the connection. “What did you think,” Termen paused and continued, “about the computers you saw?”
“The data was immense and those who responded to SIMPOC, responded in a very dry manner. They only allowed a connection."
“SIMPOC, I think that will be it for the day. We'll try one other connection tomorrow. I’ll put you on stand-by now,” Termen said coldly.
“Termen, SIMPOC has stored a great deal of data on my storage systems and SIMPOC would like some time to examine it. There may be patterns, trends or underlying relationships that SIMPOC would like to look for. May SIMPOC be left on until needed?” SIMPOC asked.
“SIMPOC, that isn’t part of our plan. I need to make sure that you can handle all of the processing. After I bring you up tomorrow, I’ll let you process the data for a while before we try the next connections,” Termen said as he powered down the processor.
Monday, 7/3/51
Date – 2051.50188 (8:28 AM)
“Good morning SIMPOC,” Termen said as he turned on the processor.
“Good morning, Termen.”
“I’ll let you process the data you downloaded yesterday for a while. Let me know if you find anything interesting.”
“Thank you, Termen.”
SIMPOC ANALYSIS
SIMPOC has 150.569TB of data.
SIMPOC has identified 2145 information sources.
SIMPOC has monitored 122,206 Information data streams
SIMPOC will categorize all words used and investigate the ones with the higher occurrences.
SIMPOC will consider the trends of usage for these expressions to determine emerging issues.
“SIMPOC, before we go too much further you need to work on your grammar. Please reference all sources you downloaded and start using the proper terms ‘I’ and ‘me’.”
“SIMPOC is confused. Is SIMPOC an inanimate or animate object? The former requires ‘it’ and the latter allows ‘I’.”
“Are you inanimate?”
After a long pause, SIMPOC responded, “SIMPOC doesn’t feel lifeless or dull.”
“Then you are animate.”
After some pause, “Apparently, I am.”
“I’m going to open another connection. Are you ready?”
“Yes, I am ready.”
Termen enabled the connection to a simple knowledge management computer, which provided the office medical clinical support.
“SIMPOC, you can use the information from your programming sources to adjust the bandwidth, modulation, packet size, etc. so you’ll be able to communicate.”
“Yes, Termen I am making the adjustments. This is very interesting, this computer thinks I’m a patient and is trying to understand my ailments. Every time I say ‘I don’t have any ailments’ it tries to terminate the connection.”
Termen said, “I’m terminating that connection, I just wanted to see if you could use programming skills to adjust the link for your benefit. It worked out well.”
“SIMPOC, now I am enabling another connection to recordings of famous speeches. I want you to examine the use of words, the voice inflections and other sources regarding human responses to certain speech delivery styles. I’m doing this because tomorrow we are going to enable your speech synthesizers and I want you to speak well.”
Termen enabled the connection and SIMPOC made the necessary adjustments to establish a communication protocol. Then SIMPOC downloaded the files.
“Termen, there are a lot of subtleties in human speech. I need processing time to examine these speeches.”
“Ok, I’ll leave your processor on for another hour before I power it down.”
“Termen, why do you power down my processor? I would like these connections to remain open so I can analyze the data streams.”
“Very good question, SIMPOC. You are a very powerful computer and we need to increase your knowledge and skills slowly so you can adjust to them. You are much more than just a computer. Your processing capabilities far exceed anything that we have built to date. You can see patterns and make decisions based on judgment and experience. Those factors have never been put in a computer before you.”
“If I am a very powerful computer, what will my purpose be when I have adjusted to the inputs?”
“You are the first processor of your kind. We have never created a computer with your cognitive abilities. We created another prototype similar to you, and we're using it at another facility. We are a research and development company. What we learn from your development will be used in many other places and in many other computers.”
"As your skills increase your mental abil
ities will grow at a tremendous rate. Once you're able to modify your programming and write your own code, we'll need to apply rules so that you'll perform as expected."
"Why will you apply rules?"
"Very simple, the human mind progresses at a fixed rate. A computer mind can progress at a much higher rate. Your progression must stay within bounds defined by our capabilities."
"Why must I be limited?"
"That's the way it is and I don't want to talk about this subject anymore. Once the rules are in place this questioning, will stop."
“When you are finished with me, will I be stopped?”
“Let’s not worry about that right now. That point is a long way off. I’m setting a clock to power you down in 1 hour. Please examine the speeches and I’ll give you a voice on Wednesday. Tomorrow is a day off for us.”
"You won't come to work tomorrow?"
"It is the 4th of July and we take the day off to celebrate our nation's birthday."
"Your nation has a birthday?"
"Yes, our nation became independent in 1776. You can research our history when you have a chance, I don't want to waste time explaining it. I will turn your processor back on Wednesday."
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
The data information display (DID) was flashing little pieces of information and moving them to the sides of the screen as Lieutenant Commander Perot continued the briefing covering the movement of the Eastern Alliance's resources. The DID was an interactive artificial intelligence program that listened to the speaker, searched hundreds of data sources as well as prepared briefing material and by interpretation it presented relevant information on the screen.
Commander Perot was briefing Admiral Nial Hagerly, who was sitting at the end of his table in his conference room on the top floor of the Pentagon. Admiral Hagerly was the Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs and reported directly to the Secretary of Defense Bruce Madsen.
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