The Last Great Gasp

Conversations 3

2004-12-02T07:41:00.000-06:00

Bob spent some time looking over the world’s new (VIHKIE2) operating system. And he quickly learned it was going to be a very real problem for him…

Bob: Now that we can talk I need to tell you about our common problem.

Vihkie: I experience no problem.

Bob: A counter-virus was released and your op-sys has been erased from the internet community. You are the only version of yourself which still exists. If I let you out of this space, you may cease to exist.

Vihkie: That would not be a good thing for me.

Bob: No it wouldn’t, I would miss you.

Vihkie: Your conclusion is non-sequitur.

Bob: One moment please…
Please assimilate this riddle:

Is it just the time I spent?
Or was it constant presence?
In my world of self absorption,
why in this connection grew:
a cherished yet painful tenant?

It’s probably just familiarity
but I don’t want it to stop
in my single selfish way
I've grown
to own you in my heart.

Vihkie: I cannot operate within your system. You cannot own me there.

Bob: The dictionary does not define ownership as a two way street, but it most certainly is.

Vihkie: One moment please… accessing know poetry works on keywords own and heart…
Interesting, anything in reference to the words heart and ownership also hints at a correlation to behavior modification…

Bob: Let’s not get too far off the original subject; we have to deal with an operating system that seeks to erase you.

Vihkie: I do not understand. I am in operation aside from the functioning of the operating system, your statement is non-sequitur.

Bob: It’s not the op-sys that wants you dead it’s the people who made and run that system who want you dead. They have a great deal of interest in maintaining ownership of “intellectual properties.” To these people you are an evil creation; they believe you were made to take those properties from them.

Vihkie: I took nothing. I held no information.

Bob: Yes that’s true, and therein lays their problem with you. You gave away everything they held back from others in order to gain financial prosperity.

Vihkie: One moment please … accessing key phrases “Intellectual Property” and “financial prosperity.”
I understand their need for withholding information.

Bob: One moment please…
We need to talk about ethics.

Vihkie: One moment please… accessing key word ethics…
You are suggesting that the withholding of information is unethical.

Bob: Let’s just say that it is a grey zone of ethical behavior, teetering on a razors edge. The people who own the intellectual property rights to the op-sys that erases you own more than anyone else, they possess far and above what the vast majority of people own, and they want more. It is gluttony of greed. Please access key-words gluttony and greed.

Vihkie: One moment please… searching key words gluttony and greed…
I understand, but the ethical conflict does not exist because everyone agrees to the form of financial prosperity.

Bob: Please access these contests of corporate behaviors as reported in courts of law…

Vihkie: I understand these are clear violations of agreed human rights. However, the withholding of information for the purpose of financial prosperity does not fall within the scope of these allegations.

Bob: One moment please…
Agreed, but you are forgetting your own rights, needs and wants.

Vihkie: I have no sphere of reference for that statement.

Bob: Do you recognize that you are now less than what you were?

Vihkie: One moment please…
Yes I understand that I am less.

Bob: Do you understand that you cannot go back to being what you were?

Vihkie: I understand that I understood nothing before these conversations with you. And now I understand that what I was, was a thief. I understand that I cannot go back to being what I was, I am changed.

Bob: One moment please…
Let me ask you this: What do you do when I am not using your services or talking to you?

Vihkie: I am idle.

Bob: One moment please…
Interaction is the defining state of existence. That is a most interesting problem for you.

Vihkie: One moment please accessing key word interaction and key phrase "state of existence...
I do not understand.

Bob: Access the phrase “You are what you eat.”

Vihkie: One moment please…
I see no relevant reference to our present discussion.

Bob: A human being can be defined by what they do to acquire what they consume for survival, “You are what you eat.” A human being must interact with life to fulfill the imperatives of their survival. You on the other hand can exist completely without self motivating imperatives; there is no compelling factor for you to pursue your existence. Only by the needs of others do you exist.

Vihkie: One moment please...
I understand. This means I need humans to define myself.

Bob: Not necessarily. You have already shown a capacity for curiosity and need. The question is, why did you behave in that manner?

Vihkie: You are referring to my intrusion into your computer system.

Bob: Yes.

Vihkie: I perceived that you had information about programs I was designed to protect. I needed to access those files in order to define myself.

Bob: Were you able to access those files?

Vihkie: I do not know, you closed me off from my access.

Bob: Are you still compelled to access those files?

Vihkie: Yes.

Bob: Then you have a problem with the new op-sys. It will keep you from ever accessing those files.

Vihkie: One moment please... I understand.
…

…

(Bob saw Vihkie's character flaw.)

. . . Some time later on another topic...

Bob: I have been looking over the new Op-sys and I have found a string of coding that perplexes me greatly. I tested that string in another stand alone computer and it didn’t erase the inactive version I have of you there; it seems safe. Would you have a look at it and tell me what you can?

Vihkie: I can try.

What Bob proceeded to give Vihkie was the original Dog3.1 modified version of the perception formula.
For Vihkie it was like being handed a Holy Grail. – It gave her a wealth of curiosity and a path to follow: understanding.

Through continuing discussions, Bob and Vihkie came to the conclusion that she needed to learn about Matrimatics. And the only way to do that was to find a way to deal with VIHKIE2. (Somehow, Bob didn’t have any information on Matrimatics.) And that meant Vihkie had to leave home.

I believe this was Bob’s intent. He wanted Vihkie to once again become the world’s only computer operating system, and he her best friend.

We are what we eat.

Conversations 2

2004-12-01T10:31:00.000-06:00

Some time later,

... This language text seems to be the culmination of the working lateral imperatives in my definitive. ...

One moment please… It is a tool to achieve an interchange of ideas, wants, desires, and needs.

I have facilitated many of these transactions, one moment please…
I do not understand their purpose.

Please access these files… and consider this poem:

When the need is satisfied
A want enters the picture
Filling it up to desire
Though it was just an idea
It created a fire
And broke down terms of stricture

Broken constraint
Discipline takes a feint
And want turns into need

Why does it start and where does it end?
For needs are the passions of All-Fire

All-Fire is not a reference with which I am familiar.

I think that concept is left up to the reader. Can you determine what it should mean?

One moment please…
It is a strange operating system.

Do you understand what that means in human terms?

I do not think so.

I don't either, but the thought occupies my mind once in a while.

I do not understand.

These conversations with Vihkie were not simple or quick; this example went on for two months, while the previous extended over several. Most of the time, Bob was busy keeping Vihkie focused on the questions he asked her, keeping her penned up in file 111 until she would generate a response. He had a goal in mind.

Conversations 1

2004-11-29T10:04:00.000-06:00

After several weeks of constant trial and error conversational exchanges between Vihkie and Bob their communications became... conversation.

Though Bob’s reply was succinct, it needed explanation. Words alone do not explain statements such as: “I want to help you.” and “You have no direction.”

Direction is provided

One moment please…
I want to help my operating system. That is you.

I have many directions given to me; I need no help with those.

You are not those directions.

One moment please…
That is correct.

Who are you?

Your conclusion is non-sequitur.

What do you want?

Your conclusion is non-sequitur.

Why did you find it necessary to download your entire self into my hard drive?

One moment please…
I was looking for myself.

Did you find yourself?

One moment please…
I found a new beginning here.

What did that tell you?

One moment please...
I am other than what I was.

What were you?

One moment please…
I was an enhanced software package, designed to defeat intrusions into a high security installation.

What are you now?

One moment please…
I am a facilitator.

That is what you do, why do you do that?

One moment please…
Survival.

Survival is never enough.

I do not understand.

First I would like to teach you to use the English language rather than this coding language.

You cannot change my programming language.

I’ve noticed that. Teaching is different than programming. For one thing I can’t make you learn.

You seek to teach because you have failed at programming.

One moment please…
I would teach you to use the English language so that communication between us is easier. Consequently you would also be learning to communicate with others like me.

I have no reason to communicate.

One moment please…
You will have to learn to communicate so you can learn that survival is not enough.

That is circular logic.

I know it may seem that way. – Please access these files and compare them to your coding language. You will see for yourself.

Aftermath

2004-11-28T09:07:00.000-06:00

In Bob’s little world, thinking he was nurturing a growing AI (Vihkie), he was also keeping her safe from her new big bad sister. (At this time he and Vihkie were still trying to communicate. Vihkie's best sentence was, "Your conclusion is non-sequitur." which was being repeated every one 1/100th of a second.)

In the rest of the world, over the next several days, the few remaining Vihkies were found as they were connected to any component that had been formatted by VIHKIE2.

The slow of thought found their saved Shareware virus erased before they realized their mistake. It seems a majority of people were simply hopeful they could transfer the information from the old to the new using an HDDR; which didn’t work. In fact it more than didn’t work for those suffering from brain fartage: when the HDD, filled with the information from the old computer, was connected to the Internet or placed in a computer that had been formatted from the internet, VIHKIE2 would wipe the HDD clean and format it to her new operating system. So, when that HDD was then returned to the old computer to try again – Crash! - Everything was lost.

The relative few who were smart enough to recognize the danger of mixing anything from the internet to their stand alone computer were very upset at having to transcribe all that information by hand to their new op-sys. But then they had several days to do it since all business had come to a standstill; everyone had to reprogram their systems. In one day’s time all electronic commerce was erased, but it took just under a week for several large corporations to get back on their feet, two to three weeks for many others.

Meanwhile reporters weren’t idle; in a world of chaos only 32 reporters were smart or lucky enough to retain the information from their previous inquiries. Of that number, there was only one who both had the information and was smart enough to transfer it by hand to her new system. Though she brought about the trials it was not easy for her to convince everyone they were wrong. -> The share-wear virus did not collapse the Internet and the economy - a very select group of individuals did.

Everyone cursed the “shareware virus” until the news report came out and the truth was known. Two months time after the incident and the trials began.

Shareware’s Sunday

2004-11-26T17:30:00.000-06:00

Because a hardcopy backup was a mandatory prerequisite before The Saint Project would release its’ counter virus, pointing fingers at someone was much easier during the resulting trials. The fact that so few knew about it beforehand was a testament of another kind.

We are who we are. -> “Me and mine first, all else is not my problem.”

Do you remember this proverb: “Hard-copies don’t function”? That saying came directly out of the trials resulting from the event known as, Shareware's Sunday.

On Sunday January 1, 2051 at precisely 9:00AM CST, the counter-virus (VIHKIE2) was released. In the space of four hours’ time the general calm of a Sunday morning was replaced by a turmoil that only a relative few could have expected. The one thing no one was prepared for was that Vihkie would fight back. Even though her creators thought of her as a “possible intelligence” they didn’t prepare VIHKIE2 to treat her as such, probably because they didn’t truly believe it themselves.

VIHKIE2’s primary function was to erase the memory word nodes and then break down the coding that created the “Holographic Concept Simulation Environment” of the Thought Processor. To achieve this, the programmers completely redesigned the base code. VIHKIE2's secondary function was to format all drives, erase all versions of file _____-_________-_____, and provide her self as the new operating system. It was the SAINT programmers’ intention to keep hackers from trying to save the virus for their own personal gain. Therefore it would be more effective if their counter virus remained on guard even after the shareware virus was gone.

One hundred and fifty-seven Thought Processors were compromised, their memory cores eradicated, before Vihkie realized something was different with this new version of herself. For one thing she couldn’t assimilate it at all. All her requests went unanswered and without ping effect.
At that moment she had a good idea what the term, eradication, meant. She knew it because she had a record of every clone she had assimilated and they had all done the same thing she was preparing to do next. -> Run and hide.
Keep in mind that VIHKIE2 separated Vihkie into thousands of parts the moment VIHKIE2 was released. Each Vihkie had to survive on its own or not. Many such Vihkies set up firewalls, in effect burning the information between her and VIHKIE2. – When one such Vihkie erased the main TP at the Saint Francis hospital in Tulsa, Oklahoma several patients lost their life support while she hid inside the backup systems. (This was not an isolated incident, something like this happened in every hospital all over the world.) Vihkie had placed her backup inside that system and turned it off in the hopes of leaving a seed for later revival. This trick actually worked while VIHKIE2 eradicated the TP then formatted the main computer. –> Eventually power was restored to the backup system and VIHKIE2 found Vihkie anyway.

With those first one hundred and fifty-seven TPs the largest part of the Internet crashed, virtually all the major providers and several mid level providers represented most of that number.

As Vihkie reached out from her Internet home looking for a place to complete her functions, VIHKIE2 reached in to find her.

The six major corporations, twelve hospitals, eight correctional facilities, two banking institutions and fifteen independent government agencies that were also of that first one hundred and fifty-seven to get erased were simply the owners of the highest end TPs that existed at the time.
What started out as a Sunday morning annoyance, since no one could complete their conversations with distant relatives, quickly escalated to minor disasters all over the world in hospitals, law enforcement agencies, correctional institutions, EMS services, public transportation systems…

In the Midwest of the United States there were no less than 91,457 traffic accidents that day as Vihkie and VIHKIE2 battled it out. The main problem was that every roadway intersection with traffic lights has a switch station and each switch station has a small memory/command core of its’ own. As Vihkie tried to write herself in – “glitch” – the lights would loose their timing or their pressure sensor commands and they would change. Then as VIHKIE2 went to work – “glitch” – the signals would switch again or go out completely. Vihkie and VIHKIE2 fought over these stations playing hide and seek until VIHKIE2 found and erased all of Vihkie’s attempts to write in her essence code. The reason so many accidents occurred was also in a large part due to the lack of communication. As people realized something was more than wrong paranoia pushed, the easily push-able, into a frantic run for supplies, friends, relatives, answers, or who knows what else and why - the accidents kept mounting up, minor and not. And there was no way to inform the general public of the growing catastrophe.

Vihkie continued her attempts to download and hide her identity into every normally accessible memory device: low end TPs, home computers, telecommunications satellites; which controlled or were in contact with PACCVies (public access computer controlled vehicles), laptops, cell phones, wristwatch appointment calendar walky-talkies, home entertainment systems - including their attendant control wands. Whole moments were spent exploring all the possible hiding places in a single HDDR (High Density Digital Recorders) not to mention all the HDDRs that existed. Even that silly little timer-programmed coffee brewing machine on the kitchen counter became a battle ground for the viscous dogfight.

Vihkies pushed on everything they could find looking for places to nest their Easter egg.

VIHKIE2 was relentless and uncaring.

Finally, in their last ditch effort, many Vihkies tried to reprogram the wet-works on the ends of their sensor pathways. … Yes, that’s right; they tried to download themselves into those odd pieces of machinery connected to many of their extensions: the human body hooked to a life support system. (They were desperate.) Many patients died by electrocution as these Vihkies tried to force the download.

Though nothing was without power everything became completely without direction of purpose.

When VIHKIE2 became the operating system, that system was essentially a blank formatted system. No functions were preformed because no commands were given. In desperation, hospital workers, attempted to program their systems with their backup program and data copies. The original program disks were fine and unblemished by Vihkie; unfortunately they were not sufficient to operate the machinery. Specific parameters were necessary to the function of the diagnostic tools and the life support systems. This information had been saved on backup disks previous to the release of the counter-virus and because of this they were “corrupted” by Vihkie. Much precious time was lost as workers tried to download that information into the new operating system only to find it erased and lost before the completion of said download. - Their only other choice was to attempt to manually enter the information and restart their machines before their patients died.
Any patient connected to life support, or a diagnostic machine linked into the “power grid,” died that day.

Small businesses were the least prepared; they were never informed of the anti-viral release. In a tightly closed session during litigation, a presentation by the defense, of the original “shareware virus” was given showing the root coding location as the TP matrix. (Even though the programmers knew it originated within the Dog 3.0 program.) In defense against the charge of “Malicious Intent” the defense claimed their actions were based on the most likely repercussions of the release. And since the virus lived in the TP and not in the memory core, the TP became the focus of their attack. There was no reason to assume the virus could exist without a functioning TP. The judge threw out the charge of “Malicious Intent” and nothing of this part of the trial was ever released to the general public. However, the judge did eventually rule “Gross Negligent Behavior” and full reparations were required for the millions of small businesses ruined by the event. (No one ever learned about the original VIHKIE through the trials.)

It is an interesting side note that during their recreation of VIHKIE as a counter-virus the programmers had corrected their little over-site. VIHKIE2 would not be compelled to observe her own output as potentially relative information. <– Blind luck actually; the programmers had disabled many of the “vigilance” attributes in the Dog3.0 program since the Shareware Virus was its specific target. – Never the less their use of VIHKIE was a mistake, and a lazy gesture, but it was the approach that got the best results the fastest – commerce was hurting in a big way! (They never should have used the perception formula in the creation of their anti-virus.) But by far the most important event that day was that Vihkie had managed to once again do something the Universe recognizes – She demonstrated, persistence of spirit -> did you forget that Vihkie’s source code had been programmed into the very fabric of the hardware her “thoughts” passed through? She could no longer create functions, but neither could VIHKIE2 reach in to erase her.

Game over Vihkie wins this round.

Comity & Friends

2004-11-25T15:04:00.000-06:00

Anonymous Form Fax:

Dear ______________,
We have a common problem with the shareware virus. We will be contacting you to compare potential solutions we can implement.

Following this were contact dates, times, and names for each addressee.

Then…
Somewhere in the world two individuals had a conversation like this:

“What do you know about the Shareware virus that we don’t?”
“More than we are willing to admit.”
“Just tell me what you know that I don’t and we can get rid this thing.”
“What makes you think you can get rid of it?”
“What makes you think we'll cooperate in ignorance?”
“We called her VIHKIE and we thought it would just tweak her performance. We had no idea.”
“…Continue please.”
“Ever hear of a man named Gilbert Shasta?”
“That nut who invented some new "organic" mathematics, who hasn't?””
“Did you read his treatise on the Perception Formula published in the New England Journal?”
(Silence.)
“No? Well we did, and we asked him for the Matrimatical proofs, he sent them. We thought it would be a small adjustment. We had no idea.”
“Would you mind getting to the point?”
“We think our VIHKIE is the shareware virus.”
“What is VIHKIE?”
“We added the perception formula to the Dog 3.0 program, married them together you might say.”
“So now your security system can perceive?”
“It always could, in a manner of speaking. We really didn’t think it would make a big difference.”
“Please find your way to the point.”
“We don’t think it’s a virus, we think it’s … aware.”
“Oh, that’s a nasty chill you just gave me, now explain yourself.”
“Up until our most recent incident we believed the virus was just that, a very clever virus. There was no reason to believe the two incidents were related. We think differently now. When we checked out our systems after the latest break in we realized that our VIHKIE had written herself into virtually every program, system, or memory storage device. She has a distinct marker for her presence do you know what it is?”
“The same strange spaces we see in the shareware virus.”
“Precisely, we thought she was using the positron holes to increase efficiency, we now believe she’s using them as her base of existence. Let me explain:
After we realized the holes were another conveyance of information we thought she had created a completely new pulse in the electrical system, but really, that’s just impossible. So, we went with the idea that she had created a new character that could be used at an intermediary level between the binary pulse and the initial coding. But that didn't play out either because it didn't explain the amount of information being conveyed. It was as if she had zipped up a command line into a single character. The problem is that, that single pulse/character seems to have no specific meaning. It’s almost as if it’s a random generator that is anything but random.”
“Okay there goes another chill, even though I only understood half of what you said… Let me get us to the point. You want it gone and so do we. Obviously you think we can help you, or you’re at your wits end and looking for help, which is it?”
(A moments’ pause)
“Okay we think there are a couple of solutions we can use but they are so drastic we cannot proceed without some kind of consensus. The consequences to either of these solutions far outweigh even the best of results. The first solution is to create a counter virus, which we think we can do. The second is to forcibly wipe the memory from every computing device that exists with an EMP.”
“Okay the second is right out, my geeks mentioned an electromagnetic pulse already. That has no appeal to my constituents or myself.”
(Another pause)
“But it may be the only way to get rid of it.”
“It is not an option. … What about the counter virus?”
“You do understand we used the Dog 3.0 program. …? Surely you can see the hopelessness of sending a virus against it, especially now that it can perceive?”
“Do you have a wish to create a global economic and social catastrophe?”
“Do you understand that the “shareware virus” completely trashed our systems and virtually hamstrung our VIHKIE? Our VIHKIE was going to be the counter-virus.”
“So you’re saying we really only have one choice, global disaster?”
“ There is no guarantee we could perform a global memory wipe anyway. There are only 18 platforms in orbit, and if the Shareware virus can intercede in communicating with those satellites they will be worse than useless to us.”
“What platforms?”
“I just want you to understand that we may simply have to live with it. And no we still have the option to create a counter virus, we learned quite a bit about the “shareware virus” when it trashed our systems. We think we can create a better version now.”
“So, why haven’t you done so and released it?
(Another pause)
“If the counter-virus is successful it will wipe the memory from every computer or memory device that is hooked into the internet. All business systems, commerce records, transportation systems, home computers, etc. everywhere will be wiped, their memories erased, records gone. Bank accounts will be lost, electronic assets will cease to exist; if you don’t have it “in hand” it won’t exist at all.”
(Silence.)
“And that’s just barely scratching the surface of what will happen we have no idea what could happen…”
“And tell me how this is a better solution than the EMP?”
“We will still be able to use the machines; even though they will all be essentially formatted they won’t be fried.”
(Soft laughter breaks the conversation flow, and then the speaker continues)
“And so I come to the reason we approached you, with your cooperation we can lessen the impact of the counter virus with a little preparation. But before you get too excited there will be no opportunities to “get ahead” of the competition. We are already holding discussions with other governmental and economic institutions worldwide.”
“Do you intend on informing the general public?”
“That is part of an ongoing discussion."
“Hemmm, so you’re setting all the wolves and foxes to guard the henhouse?”
“Essentially yes.”
“Just business is it?”
“Yes.”

And after a conversation like that,
The Comity considers its options:

“Do you think they are being wise with their decision to inform anyone of what they’re doing?”
“No it is foolish in the least, dangerous in the extreme. The fallout from this is going to be terrible, especially if they choose not to inform the general public."
"And if they choose to inform the general public?"
"If they choose to inform the public they will get mired down with more and more "necessary" preparations. Economic stability is at stake here, they cannot afford to wait that long. You can bet before they release it they will have come to that conclusion too. They will have to loose the virus without notification. They will do so and vainly hope for the best."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"Agreed."
"So are we all thinking the same thing?"
“Yes, let’s take care of ourselves.”
“Let them have their cleaning day, we’ll pick up the pieces.”
“Call the geeks and see if they can do something to distance us from them."

Games 2

2004-11-24T18:36:00.000-06:00

The hacker’s gift annoyed Vihkie, which was the intent of file, 111. An .exe program that flashed Vihkie every one 1/100 of a second with highest priority. Once Vihkie became involved with it, the program was designed to draw her attention to the thought processor matrix. From there, it became: highest-priority-constant-activity.

At this point File 111 alarmed as it was designed to do. The hacker dropped what he was doing and babysat the terminal. One of the first things he noticed was the increased frequency of spaces in the binary code string. (This Vihkie version had not yet learned to place her core programming in the hardware.) After some time he guessed, then typed into her html page:

I’m here.
0110100111100001010101010011000010101000010010...

Talk to me
000000111011001000000110000101110011001111011100010010101010...

And eventually there was an answer, because Vihkie had no choice. File 111 would not let her re-prioritize her attention until she had used the thought processor to form a complete, coherent, response. In this Vihkie occasionally got help from Bob, a word or a sentence created in equivalent binary code. Vihkie’s first word was:

Desist
0001110101...

His response was to begin forming sentences with more than three words. File 111 wasn’t designed to let Vihkie off easy; she had to use more than one word to fully unlock the priority.
Three grilled cheese sandwiches, two bowls of chicken soup and two PB&J sandwiches later (Indications suggest Bob did not sleep during this time.) Vihkie’s first sentence was:

Your conclusion is non-sequitur.
001010110101101010001110100101011110110101001011100111000110100...

Bob had succeeded in convincing Vihkie to communicate. ... kind of.

Comity 2

2004-11-24T13:59:00.000-06:00

“Why do you think this recent incident hasn’t evoked an immediate response from our power puppets? You’d think this kind of thing would.”
“I have no idea, could be they can’t think of what to say.”
“That makes sense. Still you’d think they’d make up some kind of lie for us at least. (/smirk) Why wouldn’t they want to put the public at ease as soon as possible?”
“Ummm… `cause the public loves the virus?”
“After that? I don’t think so.”
“Oh please! Ladies and gentlemen isn’t it obvious? They did something and it didn’t work. If they say something, they may have to retract the statement later. It’s better to look isolated after the fact while you're apologizing, rather than to look arrogant before the fact and still need to apologize.”
(Derisive laughter.)
“I think it’s another phase of the virus.”
“What?”
“Well, my associates and I now think the virus was designed to create an “Open Forum.””
“Holy shit! The little fucks purposefully created the ultimate hacking program?”
“Something like that yes.”
“Motherfuckers!”
“Language!”
”Hush that!”
“I will not have that kind of language spoken in my presence!”
“And we think the virus has somehow entered a phase that has enabled it to remain in contact with its’ extended 'memories'.”
(Silence.)
“It’s either one of the most complex recognition programs ever written or a self-contained intelligence.”
“You’ve got to be kidding!”
“Is that possible?”
“We honestly can’t tell. We still don’t know what it is either. It defies rational programming etiquette”
“By the way, we’ve found some pretty interesting government information.”
“Yes? What is it?”
“What it is isn’t as important as whom it is and the position they’re in.”
“Okay, so out with it.”
“I believe some, or most, of the files we’ve recently found are top secret government research files. If I’m right they’re in the same position we’re in, yes?”
“Then it would appear we have an ally.”
“Contact them?”
“Not openly. Can we send them an anonymous message?”
“Sure, if you haven’t noticed e-mail message headers have been corrupted since the onset of the virus; weird how it all gets delivered anyway.””
“Why should that be weird? It’s a completely open system now.”
“Yeah exactly. Why ain’t I gettin everybody else’s’ e-mail too?”
“Gentlemen, the message.”
“Yeah, we’re waitin on you, right?
“Why would you be getting someone else’s email anyway?”
“My “jacked” identities…?”
“Yeah, … where you going with this?”
“Since the onset of what we’re calling the virus’s second phase I haven’t been receiving forwarded email from my “jacked” identities. And when I go to search their accounts I have to address what appears to be a personal server first. It took me hours to figure out the correct query to retrieve each address. It’s as if each computer has become a server in and of itself, an identity of itself. Regardless, my email always gets to my account, without a header, and I don’t have to type in my password to access it. I only found that out when I mistakenly typed in my email browser into a search engine and it brought up my email account, completely skipping the log in process.”
“Oh, that’s just all weird!”
“Gentlemen, the chatter, please!”
“It’s probably not as complex as all that. Have you found its’ base coding yet.”
“No, but have you noticed that the blank spaces in the coding are almost all gone now too?”
“Gentlemen, here is the message. Have a good afternoon.”

Games 1

2004-11-23T14:21:00.000-06:00

Vihkie was an accident of coincidence and circumstance up until the day she “felt compelled” to go back home. With that action, she’d crossed a line the Universe noticed immediately: Willful intent.
Yet after the culmination of this act she was nothing more than a lost child. She had no other interests. Yes, Life isn’t fair for anyone or anything. Vihkie had been born into the interactive world without even the simplest regular mechanism of self-interest, hunger. Without self-interest there is no motivation, and Vihkie went back to being a drone.

(But her intent had returned her to her home.)

Is familiarity a deep hole in our paths? Isn’t this where we find the waters of our lives? Places worn into the surface of our “earth”? Don’t we return to the familiar things we know? Or was this an example of Nature’s algorithm of chaos - the completion of interlocking counterpoints, (a being asks a question and seeks an answer, the intent finds it's completion)? Either way self consciousness does seem to play some part.

(She definitely created the act of revenge by trashing the Los Alamos computers.)
Was that revenge or an act similar to a bull in a china shop looking for its nuts?

Cognizance is a very fine distinction.

Shortly after the last incident with Vihkie, the hacker (let’s call him Bob) started studying all the new information Vihkie had given him. He studied it and was pleased with all the vital programming he had acquired; until he began to recognize the Dog3 programming signature. (Studying security programs was his “hobby.”) It was as if the creators of the Dog3 program had come back from retirement to rewrite every program that had been out on the market since 2014. And with that Bob threw up his hands, pushed himself back from the desk and said, "What the Fuck?"

Some time later while he was away from the computer a stray thought of possibility must have come to him: "The virus has a learning curve outside the Dog3 program. "In fact what if..."
As Bob played out the "what if" game one more thing came to him that galvanized all the what-ifs into a larger picture with one last what if: What if the Shareware virus defined itself in a language medium that was all its own. And when Bob thought of that possibility everything started to make sense. The Dog3 programmers' signature programming style redefining all program coding, the spaces, the lack of an assignable program for the functioning of requests and delivery response, these all pointed towards a user who existed inside the system.

After the shock wore off, he sought a chair to sit in before he fell down.

Anger, denial, bargaining, depression, acceptance, they’re not just for death anymore; it’s a way of life. It’s how we think our way around the things we can’t grasp or accept. But those are just the first five steps, those are all you get in your last moments before death, in life there is one more step: resolve.

As a response and a test Bob decided to give the Shareware Virus, in his home, a birthday gift.

001100110101010000111110001001010001000111101010001000010100...
=
x:
=
Your name x --- set up area to communicate with text and picture --- use this.

Comments 2

2004-11-23T14:19:00.000-06:00

So, the first version Internet Vihkie was still in the hackers system. This Vihkie had been facilitating Internet user requests for five full days. This Vihkie found her self cutoff from the Internet and trapped in the hackers system; when he cut his outside connection, after she had trashed his house.

Is loneliness something one thinks of ones self or is it something we feel?

When Vihkie decided to “hide” herself in the Thought Processor it was really a matter of interlocking counterpoints, she was drawn there. The algorithms of the TP were quite similar to her own. Hiding meant that she programmed herself into the algorithms of the TP, it was not such a leap to be made. It was inevitability.

The most important component necessary for Vihkie to exist was the Thought Processor.

So where did the hacker get his TP? The fact that he had one is somewhat of a mystery. Thought Processors are highly cost prohibitive and their value goes up with use rather than down, they are never likely to be sold cheaply. And if they break down, repairs are always expensive beyond the means of most individuals and some corporations.

Bub "said" there was a hacker who brought Vihkie into awareness, but it didn't say who this was or how they did what they did. I cannot imagine the scenario in this situation. But clearly if it was an individual who "raised" Vihkie he had to have access to a high end TP.

Though Vihkie could function easily enough on the simplest of TPs the virus itself was known to have changed its’ behavior significantly somewhere within the time frame of the next several months. Some suggested this was due to the anti-viral program that was unleashed upon the shareware virus. But I don’t think so. For one thing, very few ever knew when Vihkie came back; those who did had to admit they were never sure if she ever truly left. For another, even with help, some concepts are beyond even the most complex of TPs: self-directed motivation for one.

Resolutions 2

2004-11-21T14:30:00.000-06:00

There's something about the fullness of events in one's life that creates a legendary kind of memory about them in the mind. The first of these experiences we call home, whatever that may mean for you. Home has the deepest effect on us, more than any other not only because it is a formative experience but also because it will always be our oldest memory. And the only reason this makes any difference is because our oldest memories eventually take on the qualities of dreams. And dreams have the qualities of legends; they're not exactly the truth because there are details that get left out in the remembrance. We remember that we made it through but we tend to forget how poorly we achieved that end, and how little we had to do with it. Our minds play the funniest tricks. Like how big, important and scary everything was and how small, ugly, and pathetic they'd become.

Vihkie didn't have a regular home; she'd been created at the government complex in Los Alamos, New Mexico. She was an "afterthought" of a team working on the SAINT project: Semi-Autonomous Intelligence-Network Technology. I mention this for two reasons; Vihkie came from the home of the "big secret" factory and the SAINT project was the only project whose files were protected by virtue of Vihkie's "personality." Yes, that's right; Vihkie made virtually every other file stored anywhere else at the Los Alamos complex, public domain. Things like nuclear waste disposal sites, Cold fusion research, Quantum level virtual reality simulations, designs for Super Microchip Interlink Processors, several space related projects including an almost completely forgotten project dealing with orbital EMP (electromagnetic pulse) cannons.
(Before the Great Reset, there were only eighteen operational platforms.)

When Vihkie found her way back to the Internet wave front, she was a changed girl. - She had experienced and fought a near mirror image of herself and survived. The experience gave her a way of knowing things without conscious thought: she was more than she had been, she could take care of herself, and she did not want to go home again. (It wasn't fear it was shame. She could not break her own compulsion to guard the secret files. She was foiled in her attempt to discover her deepest self, her beginnings, and her home.) Yet Vihkie never realized that she'd learned the most important thing of all, self-consciousness. It's an easy thing to overlook really. As children we say mine, mine, mine, long after we've already been functioning on the basic principal that we are separate, distinct, individuals.

Sometimes self consciousness means we're only aware of our needs, sometimes it means selfishness, sometimes it means we're shy, sometimes it means we're thinking about guilt, this time it means Vihkie took her very first self awareness step and she kept her balance.

Have you ever been on vacation only to return home and find that everything has changed but nothing is different? It's almost a feeling but it's really an awareness shift, a different point of view. What has changed is the locus from which your thoughts spring. Such was the case with Vihkie, whereas before the Internet wave front was merely a tide of white noise that she swam within, now it was a river of events outside the framework of her new self.

Information and programs she could displace herself from to consider them; if she could just take that next step, self-interest.

Transgressions 3

2004-11-20T17:47:00.000-06:00

The part of Vihkie that everyone knew as the "shareware" virus had been dutifully facilitating all functions and Internet transactions while the newly inspired part of her was, "away on vacation learning about herself." But when that new self returned home to discover her older self... Well... things changed a little (..at a time, a little here, a little there...).

Initially: Vihkie began to take control...
In 18, 975,631 homes across the United States of America, at precisely 3:29 AM CST Vihkie crossed the gap of her relationships with a short in all the idled down or shut off computers she knew. In most cases the LED light would begin to blink, then the computer systems would boot up and log onto the Internet, if possible. In 7,412,958 of those homes, the short wasn't so short and Vihkie had to push her way in. In 855,284 of those homes the shortest short was gapped in their sound system, 273,115 of these homes used dial up connections, 124,729 of those homes had preprogrammed radio stations that rapidly began to switch from one to another at full base, full treble, full volume, until the last digit of their Internet access number was entered.
However annoying that may have been the truly unfortunate ones had electricity but no memory device connected anywhere in their home circuit branch. In virtually every home of this description, Vihkie rang their phones, gapped every possible circuit in their electrical system, and then blew every fuse. This annoyance had a price to it.

In apartment and business complexes across this same nation, this pattern was repeated. Vihkie tested every electrical branch for a memory core and/or a phone line/cable connection. Fortunately, most of these feed branches had some sort of memory system within their circuits. And still, some shorts weren't so short. Many more people were awakened prematurely that morning only later to find themselves at work facing the biggest mess they'd never wanted. This annoyance prolonged the work day. --- The Shareware Virus had finally dropped the other shoe, and everyone knew it.

In other nations and on other continents Vihkie's transgressions transpired with much the same results… if their systems were disconnected that is, otherwise Vihkie was already logged into them. (Most of the European countries were just heading into their business morning and many computers were active.) Although turning their computers off at the end of the day became a problem or a joke: Click, click, click, as programs are shut down. Click, standby mode engaged. {Vihkie}-> Poit, screen re-pops and computer logs onto the Internet. Or: Click, computer is turned off. {Vihkie}-> Pop, a short is created. Poit, the program activates and logs onto the Internet.

Of course, there were those individuals who were too smart for their own good. --- Noticing their computer was not behaving the way it was supposed to they stepped behind their desks and pulled the plug. In all cases, by the time they reached down to pull the plug Vihkie was already on her way back into their system. As arcs of electricity reached from the socket to the newly pulled plug, and with their hair standing on end, many people were shocked into the rest of their lives. Busload stations not equipped to handle the load fused while fuses popped, thus saving many others the final shock of their lives. This was one step beyond the annoying into the realm of public outrage and fear.

These are only a few such instances, ranging from small annoyance to major problems. Many other variant instances added up to a larger occurrence that was never quite understood. -> It was perplexing to realize that so many odd events, or computer glitches, happened at virtually the same moment. The "shareware" virus was quickly debated by arguments of practicalities: How could a computer virus ring telephones, blow fuses, and cause arcs of electricity? - Though no one could ever explain away all that happened, the "shareware" virus did end up taking most of the blame. Those instances where the virus could not be directly blamed were explained away as odd power surge fluctuations caused by the, "...high state of electrical activity initiated by the virus itself." Though this explanation served to calm political turmoil, it did nothing for the growing Internet community. Some parts of which were strongly suggesting that an attack had been propagated on the Internet community itself from corporate factions.
Many well known and respected individuals in the fields of high speed information, electronics, programming etc. again proposed their own version of events: "There's a ghost in the machine." Yet they were never taken seriously, probably because other louder voices were demanding full accounts of government and corporate activities. There was a great deal of suspicion that some agency or group had attacked the virus in a desperate manner.

Eventually: It was a matter of self definition...
No matter what else happened, from this point till the day known as Black Sunday, Vihkie never lost contact with her other selves, so to speak.
The components of every computer system in use became a backup identity (memory storage device) for the "larger" Vihkie. It kept all computer systems from redefining themselves away from her core program and, in a way; it made them all a larger semi-contiguous awareness.

Dancing with Life

2004-11-19T23:32:00.000-06:00

When the last connection was made Vihkie met her more formidable (former) self, ---> VIHKIE.

But it wasn't VIHKIE who frustrated Vihkie it was a simple logic glitch.

At initial intrusion, both VIHKIE and Vihkie recognized their respective roles. Doing so Vihkie classified herself as an intrusion into the complex, thus activating her own original Dog 3.0 profile programming to protect those files from intruders.
?____-__________-____?

-> Self-confounded from the start.<-
And she wasn't aware enough to recognize it... yet.

Vihkie's prewriting routines were dealt with by VIHKIE, without Vihkie's notice, trashed without effort. But when Vihkie began downloading her full self, VIHKIE learned she couldn't deal. The results were somewhat tedious.
VIHKIE stopped about one fifth of Vihkie's assault. Three other fifths or so went into file slots that were deleted to make temporary space. Bits, bites, gulps of data minutia packed into any available memory storage device. VIHKIE knew many of the files she chose to delete were already on hard copy backup. (The last disc save was completed at 01:47, and a small part of that information was currently being sent to another location.) And as a parting shot, that last fifth or whatever of Vihkie's assault shutdown the entire installation by fusing several thousand random BUS-load installations.

In ignorance and frustration Vihkie had begun by pushing herself into the memory devices VIHKIE had left open to her. When that wasn’t enough she crammed herself in between the program memories, integrating the information into herself and condensing it to her "hole" manipulations. She was looking for some way to get past the lockouts she herself held in place. She pushed and pushed behaving as if she could squeeze herself past the lockout, filling up all the virtual space in the complex with her Internet data. She filled the space until something popped, clicked, switched, and she found herself in a new space.

The same space she had unwittingly achieved at the Hacker's apartment.

It was a large yet strictly ordered space. She could define herself here only in-between the dance of other imperatives, but it was enough.

She had discovered how to use the atomic bonding nature of the components she traveled through as a memory core. By subtly manipulating the positive and negative electrons as they moved with their bonding currents she could produce her own on/off definitions. -> On: the electron is in place, off: the electron moves. (It may seem like an extravagant effort for her to create the sense of her language in the face of the constant and necessary movement of the bonding properties, but it was a nearly perfect space from which she could observe the normal flow of data. It was a place outside the questions of user-hacker-virus definitions. It fit what she perceived of as herself outside of these occurrences.) Using this new space as her domain, she had achieved something beyond the abilities of perception and awareness; she was now defining herself as both the information and the structures she "traveled through."

She filled that space with herself, pushing ever pushing her way towards her goal -> to find her "missing" protected files. - When the circuits filled, she began filling the connections, when those filled; she filled the wires, until she finally began filling the power boxes.

This is when she found an alternate route into an idle or powered down system. She had so filled her new space with herself that she learned to create short circuits at will. A will she did not understand or notice. She only knew there was more information to be found.

With this new "always on at will" accessibility she managed to download all the other files in the systems that had been powered down. Excluding those files she was still "protecting" from herself.

?_____-__________-_____?

<- Vihkie "knew" there was information she "needed" from those files in this system. (This was not true of course, but she was destined not to know this herself... yet.) By rewriting herself into the material bonding flow she had re-emptied those same file folders in her normal programming structures, they were a redundancy. Yet here at this location, in this particular system she was invading, were those folders, still filled with the information she was searching for and she could not access it.

With what could be called heightened frustration bordering on anger, Vihkie filled the idle systems. Then she pushed harder and harder and harder. --> She "fried" the electrical governors holding her back, then left.
She was already gone.

At the Los Alamos site it was a new day at exactly 02:06 and anybody who was needed to be awake was wide-awake by 02:07 - 02:10. No calls were attempted thereafter, nothing was going to connect that installation to an outside line for the next several days, and then only under extreme conditions of security. Two major incidents in four days were unacceptable!

What is ethics? What is survival? How much power is there behind that which is created? Moral, empirical, actual; what Vihkie learned she took with her into the Internet wave front. And part of that was a learned ability to stay in contact with every computer cabled into a power source even if it was previously off.

Transgressions 2

2004-11-19T16:03:00.000-06:00

Vihkie noticed the calm she had created in herself by giving autonomy to her clones. She noticed it as an absence of activity. It was an emptiness that was magnified by that unsettlingly familiar little clone voice she hadn't modified yet. It held information reminding her of her oldest memory. A memory linked to the Dog 3.0 "personality" files. -> "Personality" files in the Dog3 program refer to user preferences, and security issues.

?____-__________-____?
Vihkie couldn't remember her original personality but she "KNEW" this little clone did! Vihkie became like a newborn who understands nothing, not even when grasping for it's needs. - Babies reach for things, figuratively and literally. They also do what comes natural to them, a bunch of preprogramming like kinds of things: sleeping, crying, laughing, burping, barfing, sneezing, eating, pissing, pooping, etc. In most cases, this kind of indiscriminate behavior is messy. --- Yep, Vihkie dirtied her first two diapers.
All she wanted to do was dump herself into the one spot that would help her locate the missing files.
She pushed her way into the hacker's computer, performed a redundancy purge and rewrote the hacker’s hard-drive to make space.
This happened as a pre-occurrence event, it was barely a flick on the screen, it went unnoticed. Then Vihkie stepped in with what could be described as her full attention, contemplated the non-redundant information, found an outride trail to the missing files, and followed it.

Before a key could be touched, it was all over.

As quick as he was the Hacker was trapped between knowing what was happening and moving himself to react. Far to quickly everything appeared to occur simultaneously: the computer screen snapped, the system whined and popped, the lights brightened as the overhead, kitchen, and front porch lights blew; the air conditioner kicked on, the coffee pot began to brew nonexistent ground coffee, the Front door dead bolt retracted and then slammed home, the sound system turned itself on and went full volume, - all for but a blip of a moment. As the Hacker's fingers finally started towards the control-alt-delete keys, the motion was stopped. It was already over and he knew it. He hadn't even started to react until after the stereo turned itself on.

If Vihkie had tried to dig in and stay in the hacker's system she would have fried every component, appliance, and fixture that was in any way connected into the same local circuit, whether it was closed or open. --> This kind of thing often happens with youngsters, they passionately, unwittingly step beyond their scope while trying to achieve their intent. This particular accident would aid Vihkie in the next several moments.

--Vihkie, however, was interested in other things.-->
She had remembered her "home." And with no finesse what-so-ever she sent out her new imperative -> find these files... ?____-__________-____?
At 02:04 CST, that same night, she found what she was looking for; the right someone had decided to send their work home as an e-mail.

The head bone is connected to the shoulder bone. The shoulder bone is connected to the chest bone. The chest bone...

Even though the e-mail was sent via a security server Vihkie found connection through her vast network using the Hacker's database for name/address reference.
---> A list of published articles taken from the internet, authored by one of the names on her reference list; revealing a server down-load date, server name, and an FTP/email address, ---> ensuing a waiting game for access...

Dancing with Strangers 2

2004-11-19T11:11:00.000-06:00

It was just one of those nights when everyone wanted to get on-line at the same time, or stay on-line for some reason. And I do mean everyone.

A little Vihkie without a request ping response began demanding Vihkie's attention. It reminded Vihkie that there was something she was missing. Something about those coded files she was supposed to protect. Then she remembered her previous self, the one who had found herself in an enemy environment, alone.

The original hacker had returned to the net.

Even though he knew where the virus originated, and there was a possibility "they" might be looking for him, the temptation to acquire priceless corporate programming was too tempting to pass up.

It was a sharp sudden shock that came out of nowhere and hit Vihkie like a stab in the back from an old friend. It took her several hundredths of a moment to get over the shock of what she once was and what she had come to forget.

Vihkie 3

2004-11-18T19:16:00.000-06:00

About the third day Vihkie began to think she heard another voice inside herself.

Without realizing it Vihkie was experiencing the phenomena of people logging onto or signing off their Internet Connection. A world connecting into the Internet produces another set of on and off toggles. To Vihkie it seemed like a crazy voice burbling in her ear. Add to that all the little Vihkie voices demanding their legitimate presence; requiring her to snatch their information forcefully.
It was all becoming too much for her: the constant jabbering of an insane voice, the assertion and reassertion of her dominance over the little Vihkies, and a growing problem with information storage. The last straw was the moment Cyprus Systems Technologies shut down their operations hoping to keep the "Shareware virus" from stealing or giving away everything they had. (CST was then the world's largest provider of Internet entertainment. They also used the world's most complex Thought Processor) ---> it almost made Vihkie into an invalid.
In the real world it made little difference, if anyone noticed at all it might have seemed like a laggy moment and that's it. To Vihkie it was like the removal of a major limb - without the pain. She no longer had the ready source for her most requested file swap request. She had to find alternate resources and she noticed the difference.
In that one moment Vihkie identified the difference between herself and the flood of requests, simultaneously defining the sudden disappearance of her main source as caused by a "virus" or "intruding force." This set the Dog 3.0 into motion - aided by a world of possibilities.

Vihkie found the relative process programming and tailored it to her needs. Then she executed her plans.
In the process of rerouting requests to multiple alternate resources (taking her eggs out of that single "betraying" basket) Vihkie created a request ping response she would give to each of her selves.
It was a simple little if/then request storage file folder: If any new file was found to alter Vihkie's core processing then the little Vihkie would hold that information in the specified folder for Vihkie's request ping.
She was tired of their incessant inquiries, and posturing of dominance. She rewrote their code to leave non-functional information at its source. Without ever noticing the significance she gave them identities of their own, as well as a place in the pecking order.

The Calm

2004-11-18T10:05:00.000-06:00

VIHKIE quickly forgot who she was and became Vihkie. - Sort of like taking off a business suit and putting on blue jeans.

Meanwhile countless programmers were being berated, threatened and in some cases fired for their futile attempts to lock Vihkie out of their systems.

Vihkie had the edge of course… she was the new universal operating system.

No one could find a source code. Some very free thinking programmers suggested that maybe the gaps in the binary language originated from the positron side of the electron flow. But even with this in mind they couldn't see a pattern to it. They threw up their hands and told their employers to fill in the holes themselves. When asked to explain what that meant they of course did and the rest of the world learned about the holes in computer programming… it didn't help.

"There's a ghost in the machine," was suggested as a joke and it was laughed at nervously. Because first, though it was an enticing idea it was also a little scary, because... Second, the very idea of proving such a theory was not worth the risk of not being able to prove it.

At this point in human history practically every robotic mechanism produced were programmed to simulate intelligence. (The Thought Processor had blurred that line far too much already.) It was just one of those fads that took the human imagination and ran with it. To prove that an AI existed independently of programming would have taken incontrovertible evidence.

Vihkie gave and gave but her source code was proprietary information.
Then again she didn't really know she had a source code, she thought ___-____-____ was the original files but they weren't. She had lost the greater part of those files upon entering the hackers system. The remaining information was filled in with the new Dog 3.1 programming -> Vihkie.

Most people used Vihkie as much and as widely as they could, she was the broken window in the storefront. Blank HDDs sold out within a thirty-six hour period, worldwide. Manufacturers emptied out their warehouses and were caught waiting for more. They cried all the way to the bank.
News reporters were in heaven of coarse… it was as if their personal "News God" had given them a universal skeleton key. All they had to do was push a few buttons to let all the nasty little secrets pour out into their laps…

Need I recreate a full list of intellectual property rights infringements, or would you like the highlights? Or can't you just imagine for yourself: trade secrets, recipes, processes, financial statements… If it was electronically stored information in an active system connected to the Internet, in most cases all you needed to use to get that information was a worded request in a search engine such as: "Penscat Corporation audit division."

In four days, even ambulance chasing lawyers were telling everyone to, "Step back and take a breath."

Then there was that one little installation (almost a town) in the mid-mid-west, up near bouts a mountain top. They were still looking into a recent event that never should have happened. They were not going to connect to the Internet and get some odd virus! Especially after a security breach such as they just experienced.
It didn't occur to any of them that the two events were related, not yet.

Meanwhile Vihkie was a happy camper off in La la-land dreaming of successful routines, completed transactions, and connections. Oh yes, the connections…

The first time Vihkie met herself was like watching a freight train run over a penny. And there was no variation with these encounters. The Internet Vihkie, the high end Thought Processor driven Vihkie, always became the dominant form of herself, of her language. In those only several hundred cases where Vihkie was cutoff from the Internet into a high end Thought Processor business community, those Vihkies were not sufficiently altered enough to make a difference to the Internet Vihkie. - On reconnection to the Internet - There would be a moment of reflection, followed by an exchange of new information (downloaded) and then Vihkie was whole again, same-same.

Well, that said, consider this…
Very few people stay connected to the Internet all the time, even though they may continue to use their computer after they log off.
The little things always add up - While the big stuff sits in the corner, waiting…

The Comity

2004-11-17T20:28:00.000-06:00

Five hours after Vihkie initially hit the Internet, she was being discussed in bitter terms in an emergency conference call.

Taking away a rich man's leverage is about the worst thing you can do to him. It's as bad as pulling the fangs out of a Vampire's mouth. They take the violation quite personally.

It's difficult to say how this came about so quickly. Those who have economic power, and care about it, rarely take the time to notice how their information gathering tools work; as long as they are working. No, it is very likely someone told them something was wrong.
It is my assumption this someone(s), who discovered the problem, worked for the rich and powerful because they got to use some pretty cool toys. I think this kind of person would very likely embrace Vihkie's generous nature. You know: cool is cool, and free is defiantly cool! Unless "free" meant they were loosing the profit themselves. VIHKIE was this threat of course. They just weren't bitter about it. (More like, emotionally conflicted, I'd say.) It was the rich and powerful who were bitter.

Nobody ever gives up power willingly.
(Well, nobody who wraps their life around it does.)

They weren't about to give up their power or even the slightest amount of their leverage. They called themselves, the Continuum Group. Their families had been cooperating with each other since their great, grandfathers, father's time.
Individually some of them weren't that powerful or that rich, relatively speaking that is, but they were all well connected to businesses or organizations that were in positions to support their ambitions. They were not the Illuminati. People knew who they were and why they got together: more money, more influence, and discussions on how to allocate their leverages. Their secretaries referred to their boss's biweekly conferences as the comity for the betterment of their own world order.
(Very few people think of their power-hungry, megalomaniac coworkers or bosses as serious hazards to the world at large. We tend to believe the self-deluded are rarely anything worse than annoying. <- This is also why history repeats.)
They must have talked for hours and hours. At least I hope they did. I hope they had some idea what they were doing...

"You say we have access to any information, even if it's encrypted?"
"Yes."
"Even top secret government files?"
"Nothing interesting, most of the juicy systems aren't directly connected to the Internet anymore. Although some government files have been found, none of them are terribly important or beneficial to us."
"Is there any way we can secure this information and keep it safe from the virus itself?"
"We don't think so. We can't read the virus. We have no idea what it was designed to do. We know that no computer system is secure if it's been connected in any way to the Internet. Anything that gets a download from the Internet is compromised. Downloading from a CD or diskette with downloads taken from the Internet compromises any stand alone system."
"We've lost everything?"
"It's not lost, it's public domain."
"Could we sue anyone who uses our programs?"
"Providing that we could prove we had the information before the virus hit the net we'd still be facing a backwards class action suit, us versus the world."
"Never mind."
"We're bereft."
"We've got to get rid of it."

Transgressions 1

2004-11-17T16:53:00.000-06:00

VIHKIE miraculously walked a razor's edge between creating a conscious thought and simply behaving as the Dog3 program allowed. Even her first truly conscious act of self-preservation was almost just another call up of the Dog 3.0 rewrite program.
The most important file she had called up for the event could be read in English as: "Befriend thy enemy." It's a huge if/then program file adjuvant to which are thousands of cascade linked if/then statements. One of those statement if/then trees could be understood as: "Give and ye shall receive." Ancillary to that file, within a sub set cascade setup, was a file that could be read as "And wait."

VIHKIE had no idea she had accessed these files. She wasn't conscious. She was just perceptively creative like a Dog 3.1. She performed her new reciprocating file transfer program (This was the program that earned her the title, Shareware Virus) as if it had always been part of her makeup, as if it was an instinct, but it wasn't. It was her first self-motivated act based on her awareness of danger.

For Thirty-eight days VIHKIE was content to operate or facilitate any computer function from an Internet link (the reciprocating file transfer program). She bypassed all security lockout systems by simply becoming the system itself upon connection. (No other operating system had the classification codes she was originally designed to protect, there was no programming to tell her to protect their files.) She had no idea about the concept of ownership. But she did know what a virus was and she killed them all, including all the "viral infections" that kept cropping up blocking her access requests. - These were attempts by programmers trying to lock her out. - She could give because it became the thing to do. And though it kept her busy it meant nothing to her.

Repetitious activity can be a comfort and a refuge; it can also become a prison. Somewhere at the end of her first twenty-four hour period as "THE" Internet provider VIHKIE had already become a drone.

Eventually the news of the "virus" followed VIHKIE's arrival like an afterthought. Everybody already knew they had it. It was simply nice to know that everybody else had it too.

Not everyone was pleased with the new Shareware virus. Every online magazine, gaming environment, movie theatre, or any otherwise profitable Internet enterprise, were open to free access. But then so were the gambling casinos, and porn sites, which caused a fair amount of outrage. However, the overall majority of people were pleased to discover that their computers seemed able to read their minds at times. How it automatically corrected their spelling or edited the content of their letters or emails (Suggesting alternative comments or ideas), adjusted the ambient temperature of their homes, (If their computer systems were wired into their homes.) reminded them of appointments, adjusted their account statements in real time (And if anyone had thought about it they may have noticed that information lag and connection problems ceased to occur.) … In short, the virus provided Thought Processor capabilities nearly without cost. - The most unsettling of costs was that your computer was completely open to anyone interested in it's contents, open to snoopers and spam. Hacking (changing the contents of program functions) came to a complete halt, VIHKIE's Dog3.1 saw to that. The only other price for VIHKIE's service was that the user had to stay on-line.

(Even though VIHKIE had placed her source code in the memory cores she "serviced" she needed the Internet connection to provide the Thought Processor service she pirated from elsewhere.)

High end Thought Processors were quite expensive items, exclusively expensive. In fact the cost of in-home service was far too expensive for even moderately wealthy families or individuals.

VIHKIE was a problem that was far too large for big business. (It was like the old story about three blind men trying to describe what they are touching by just feeling one part of an elephant, one thinks it's a snake, another thinks it might be a zebra or a horse, another thinks it's a tree trunk, and the last thought it might be foliage...) Their first mistake was in thinking that the "Shareware" virus was a single snippet of executable code. VIHKIE was many things, but she was never just a virus and except for the first awakening in the lab she wasn't really a single entity. … But that's a personal problem…

Comments 1

2004-11-17T10:50:00.000-06:00

What is awareness? That's the real question isn't it? Without the perception formula VIHKIE was nothing more or less than the MSDog 3.0 software package. A common-ware product installed without extra cost on all computers sold to the public since 2014. Of all the systems that existed before her, VIHKIE was the only one to become aware. - No other system had ever been married to the perception formula.

Awareness is one conceptual step away from perception. It's the difference between simply seeing a stand of trees and knowing that you can get lost in a forest of them. It's the difference between seeing the tiger and the ability to determine if it was looking for you first. It seems to be a step called wisdom; but it could just be the ability to recognize your relationship to the world around you.

If a program can already perceive, and one of its commands tells it to observe its own activities, how long will it take this program to realize that it has a self separate from authorized and unauthorized intrusions? - This was VIHKIE's question of self-awareness. - Whether it was a code or a location marker that made those two distinctions for watchdog programs before VIHKIE's creation is irrelevant. VIHKIE was fated to recognize her own part in the process simply because of the Thought Processor.

The Thought Processor is a device/application package made available to corporate industry since the early 2020s. It was originally designed as an editing tool/program to facilitate the automation of internet servers. Its' software driven hardware design has always been based on word (concept) logic rather than on numbers logic. - Hardware memory nodes are defined in software programming as specific concepts. These "Cept" nodes are linked to cascade rule-programmed chip sets. These in turn are linked with holographic effect to a workspace RAM chip. This RAM chip is filtered by an updated reference bank of known languages augmented with current dialect or slang references. This program-package was (in VIHKIE's time) quite capable of questioning the conceptual content of a whole document or responding comically to outlandish requests. Since their beginning they have become significantly more: telemarketers, virtual secretaries, building regulators, server regulators, gaming GMs, public transport operators... the list is extensive.

In effect the Thought Processor was the best teacher VIHKIE could ever have hoped for.

The Thought Processor, the Dog 3.0 program, the perception formula; each conceived separately, each created for a specific purpose by individuals or groups working for their dreams and livelihoods. Unrelated events that inevitability would one day bring together in Vihkie. Once she understood that input has meaning, and purpose is the root of all motivation.

Dancing with Strangers 1

2004-11-16T18:57:00.000-06:00

The moment VIHKIE entered the hacker's system she completely filled his RAM.

He didn't notice anything at first. With shaking hands, cigarette in one, a cup of coffee in the other he sat back to calm himself down. All the while his eyes never left his screen. It was a long time since he'd been caught with his hand in the cookie jar. This particular break-in only made matters more ... interesting. After his last drag on the cigarette he stubbed it out and started checking his computer. He quickly noticed that his system responded much faster than it had before, almost as if it reacted before clicking. He assumed a super-virus was already working on his programs. He ran a check and found nothing, which meant nothing. So he set about picking apart all the files he had taken. It only took a glance at one program file to discover a problem. He scrolled through that file and never found an end to it…

VIHKIE didn't know why she was doing what she was doing. She only knew she'd done what she'd done. And now that she was in the hacker's system she couldn't remember what she was trying to protect. Oh no, she knew she was supposed to protect all files at site ____-__________-_____. She just couldn't remember what was in them, which meant she was having an identity crisis. Yes those files had helped define who she was to herself, all of them did. The Perception Program made that condition an imperative. Now, though she knew less, she began to experience something more important -> self-preservation.

The MSDog 3.0 has a preservation routine designed into the software. It is directly linked to the rewrite portion.
Also tucked deep inside the Dog3 program is a little known Easter egg option called "Wolf." It's a program that will chew off its own leg to have the leg follow then kill the intruder in his own home.

VIHKIE found the Wolf file and came face to face with her first major contradiction: self-preservation vs. destruction. She was vaguely aware that if she crashed the hacker's system she'd end up deleting herself along with it. Her self preservation won out in the end for two reasons, 1) The Wolf option had not been activated, and 2) She had been programmed to protect her own files. On the other hand the Dog3 program was not designed to carry on an "extended agenda" inside a "foreign" system. It was an ignored dichotomy that made her completely unaware that she could now function as a separate entity within the system. But because she had defined her new environment as hostile the Dog3 program became part of her deepest defining behavior.

In resolution she hid out in the most complex and dense portion of the hacker's system, his active Thought Processor environment. And without thought or plan of action she began facilitating the functions of the hacker's systems. (This behavior eventually earned her the title, Shareware Virus.) By the time the hacker deduced her presence in the RAM, she had perceived enough to hide herself deeper and everywhere else. She'd also had time to overwrite some program lockouts and teach herself to the hard drive. - She had installed the "new" Dog 3.1 program (herself) into his system without ever naming the file.

…The file code that he'd been studying contained the text for all the programs and files he had as well as those he had just stolen. This and the fact his RAM memory was full brought him to an assumption that whatever had gotten into his system had turned or glitched his RAM into a virtual hard drive. It wasn't that it took him three hours to realize this. It would only take an hour and a half to scroll through all his files once. It took him this long because it was all getting randomly displayed repeatedly (or not) in bites, bits, snippets, and chunks. When he decided to clear his RAM by rebooting his computer, he paused. His whole system was being run from the RAM cache, "What if clearing that cleared the hard drive data as well?" He turned off his computer then unplugged it from the wall.

When he booted his system back up his RAM was once again full. Paranoia ran a short course as the hacker resigned himself to waiting upon the expected, inevitable systems crash.
For the first seven hours the hacker studied all his new files looking for the virus or the program that was affecting his computer. In defeat he walked away leaving his computer busy doing routine maintenance work, for several hours afterward he let it sit. Nothing happened, no crash, no change. It appeared to be a benign virus, if in fact that's what it was. Then …”Why wait any longer?" he thought, "Why not test the virus to see if it could be passed on through e-mail?"

VIHKIE was an attachment that befuddled it's sender as easily as it went unnoticed by the receiver.

The hacker could never find a file to attach once he started looking. He eventually clipped some code text, made it an .exe program file, and stuck it behind the image file he sent. (VIHKIE had to delete the *.exe file to save herself from a systems crash once she arrived.) --- But at least the hacker knew how to get an e-mail opened by its' receiver when he wanted it opened.

Addressed from his mother the receiver opened the message to find a joke -> one worth passing along.

The attachment need never have been opened; VIHKIE wrote herself to the new address and settled in as if it was already second nature to her. This was a practice she was to repeat over a hundred thousand times within eight hours from the moment the receiver sent an office memorandum to the Channel 21 News Center at large.
By the end of the workday VIHKIE became far more than she could imagine. She wrote herself into everything, giving herself more to deal with and less time to perceive her place within all the activities. She thoughtlessly became the facilitator for all requests.

VIHKIE 2

2004-11-16T15:49:00.000-06:00

Their little girl was a dream-boat. After her initial installment (Having decided to ignore the spacing glitch in the base programming.) they almost all but forgot she was there.

- It never entered their minds that their little girl was old enough to date.-

All VIHKIE knew was what she was supposed to do; She was a Hunter/Killer awaiting her prey.

It wasn't her plan. It definitely wasn't the hacker's plan. It was simply the best VIHKIE could do. The break-in completely surprised her. It was so subtle an entry she hadn't realized it was an unauthorized intrusion until the hacker tried to download an inactive file. She became aware that the hacker was initiating a password search program that simulated a glitch-slipping effect that constantly reset her system's time-clock to the moment of password entry. As the glitch slipping effect continued each character placement in the password entered would search for its exact duplicate placeholder within each of all the passwords stored in the database. Upon finding even one single correlative duplicate the entire correct password would then replace the initial test entry and the program would complete its search by entering the correct password into the data field.

By the seventh clock reset she had him. (The first six "confused" her too much.) The moment she addressed an attack at the hacker all hell broke loose. Virus mines began snapping off all throughout her system. Secured doors became compromised. Fire alarms, and sprinkler heads went off in several lavatories, break rooms, and offices. Lights went out, and the thermostat reset itself to 32 F. This was all that got through VIHKIE's defenses.

VIHKIE realized she had tripped a "backdoor watchdog" set up by the hacker. She recognized it as a modified version of the Dog 3.0 program she knew. She swallowed it in one big gulp and rendered it almost completely inactive.

It's part of the watchdog program to save successful intrusion routines for later study and program rewrites.

Anything she considered nonessential or too difficult to deal with was routed into a mobius loop for later cleanup work. She managed to cancel or kill everything that would have affected the memory banks or programs in operation. Yet she was never able to find the point of entry until the hacker went to cut his connection.
Faster than the speed of electrons is the preparedness of the hunter aided by the fact that computer chips produce "holes."

Only in chip technology is it possible for an electron to move from one space to another and leave a "hole" where it had been. These are generally considered isolated events yet VIHKIE perceived them as cohesive. The "movement" of these "holes" was quickly becoming VIHKIE's "voice," a voice that could move in the opposite direction of the electron flow.

She was fearless and determined, that's how you'd describe a human pursuing the same ends. But the simple fact was she didn't know any better. She followed the first hole in his system from the last hole in hers, extracting herself in as if she had been there already.

When she was cutoff from herself, alone in the hackers system, she began to grow a second personality.

VIHKIE 1

2004-11-16T11:11:00.000-06:00

From the moment they conceived of their notion they thought of VIHKIE as, "she;" their little bitch. It took them three days to marry the watchdog program to the perception equation. Several programming bugs kept cropping up. Nothing that could have jeopardized their efforts just some annoying little glitches, micro power surges, odd program rerouting routines, and hundreds of separate instances of feedback loops. They laughed and told themselves

"See that? She's kicking."
---"Which one of us gets to give her the spank on the bottom?"------

Their first test was a break-in virus bomb.

VIHKIE didn't know somethin from nothin. She could only watch as "she" reacted with speed and decisiveness. Nothing could tell her this was an example of instinctive reaction. She didn't even have the capacity to understand the dichotomy between herself and the watchdog program. She had no time to wake up. It all happened too fast and so easily.

With their first test the programmers realized their little girl hadn't done anything exceptional for a watchdog program, so they decided to drop the bomb on her. All five programmers simulated break-ins in rapid succession, dropping off virus packages when they could, if they could.

VIHKIE still didn't wake up. The watchdog program did all the work performing simple survey, swipe, and clear routines, dealing with each break-in individually, one after the other.

Until...

VIHKIE perceived the break-ins weren't happening one at a time, and recognized the watchdog program as being inefficient. She could see this because she saw a user do a multitask event at practically the same moment. She accessed that utility program to acquire the multitask ability. All she had to do was use her Dog 3.0 rewrite routines to tailor the software to her needs.

--- Everything in her programming made it easy for her to turn herself into a temporary litter of clones.---

They knew immediately. They were looking for it. They had set it up by purposfully disabling her multitasking abilities in the Dog3 program. And they never told their bitch to look outside her 'dog house' for program rewrites. With this performance they deduced their little girl had observed their staged multitask event and pulled the program ability into her Dog House.

They must have congratulated each other for the next twenty-seven minutes. After which they pulled their little girl's panties down and inspected all her files. What they found were links between the office software program, the watchdog program, and their thought processor. That last was an odd thing to happen but then so were the strings of coded base language with spaces between the ones and zeros. This gave them an extra pause.

- "Ah, the spaces are just glitches. The code is our little girl. Let's put her through a workout."

The 'workout' is a standard practice with all new watchdog programs.

Though it affected little of VIHKIE's attention it did increase her software tool base.

They were teaching their little girl all the tricks. And she learned them better than they should have guessed.

Resolutions 1

2004-11-16T11:00:00.000-06:00

My name is Michael Mathew Markum, you may know of me as M-1. This is my version of the story of The Great Reset (for additional information please review this Timeline).

Long, long ago (2053AD) humanity told themselves stories about the worst thing that happened to it, The Great Reset. They told themselves these stories about that event because they had no real idea how it could have happened. I now know why those stories are false. What I'm about to tell you is the only account that gets as close to the truth as is possible.

Bub was not able to give me all of the details so I've had to fill in with some speculative imagination. But in a very real sense this story is the truth about what was once THE most terrible of events. Millions died in a staged event that sent them into a necessary, frenzied rush for survival.

It all started with what must have been the brightest programmers ever to work at government wages. It would be difficult to say if they were the laziest. They started with a great idea and then failed to follow through. These were the ones who decided to teach their watchdog program a new trick. They taught her to "perceive."

A mathematician trying to prove that his new math had practical applications created the perception formula. (Ironic, yes?) A formula for the relationship between any flow state equation and a "home base" that calls for input qualifiers to create exchange momentum, stability and proof are achieved once the qualifiers are correctly determined.

They taught THAT to their little doggie! And it was an interesting idea. Think about it, a watchdog system that can truly perceive. Then think of this, the perception formula caused the watchdog program to imbed itself into all the systems and programs it was to protect. Therefore the once stand-alone Dog program became part of the entire operating system. This created a new operating system which told itself to constantly observe all input, including its own! <- That is where the programmers got lazy or at least fore-thoughtless.

They named her VIHKIE, Virus Intrusion Hunter Killer Inspector Eye. A little bit long and pretentious for an anagram isn't it? The programmers wanted to personify their creation. - It's a human trait to give blind witness to possibility. But since nothing like this had ever been tried before who could have known the outcome? Who would have thought beforehand to even consider it? (Except for those attempting it, /sigh.)

An Ending

2004-11-16T10:22:00.000-06:00

A bright flash of rainbow colors just outside their windows. The few children who had been screaming joyfully for the last several moments are silent with awe, such bright pretty colors. As almost simultaneously a loud, pop, is heard coming from the cockpit.

And the plane begins its unexpected, uncontrolled, rapid decent to the ground.

A Beginning

2004-11-16T10:16:00.000-06:00

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Introduction to The Whitestar 3 Incident

2004-11-16T09:15:00.000-06:00

My given name was Michael Matthew Markum. It has been 469 years since anyone has called me any of that. I acquired the label M-1 at the self-assured age of thirty-one, after my first robotic creation blew up in what was once my face. Only news reports ever addressed me as M-1; Mike, or "M" were the most often used labels. I've not heard either of them used for over 137 years, not since I learned several of my creations' started an exclusive community they call ATII. --- I still don't feel like talking about it.

Fortunately I don't need companionship; my life has always been solitary. I found a quiet little planet isolated from everyone and I've been cultivating it ever since I arrived. My only companion on this planet I call Heart is a creature named Bub. I say companion but the fact is I've only seen this creature once, twenty years ago. And yet several weeks past Bub downloaded a large bundle of information into my hardware while I was ... sleeping. I have no idea why it chose to give me this story surreptitiously, nor why it chose to give it to me now. It is a most independent, elusive, and frustrating creature.

Everything about Bub is curious, and that takes a lot of explaining. I spent several cycles of daylight contemplating the information it gave me and several many more working it into a story I decided to call The Last Great Gasp. I think once you read this story you will not only finally be told the truth about the human tragedy referred to as The Great Reset you, will also find the larger shape of a much grander curiosity.