Chapter One

"I think that will do it, Bird," Jake said.

Jake ran the compiler to rebuild the operating system that was used to run the computer he had just finished putting together. It had taken him all day to write the drivers for the new hardware he had installed and although he knew it was late, he was still wide awake. He was hopeful that this combination of hardware would be powerful enough to run the software properly.

Jake Stafford looked at the clock: 1:14 am. He was glad he didn't have to go to work in the morning. Since it was the Christmas holiday, he had plenty of time to spend working on the project. He had taken the opportunity to install the latest motherboard he had designed with its four quad-processors, four terabytes of volatile memory and an additional two hundred sixty four terabytes of static memory. It was certainly not a conventional computer. It had no hard drives or fans to make noise, thus was absolutely quiet when it was on.

When he first got the processors, he was worried about how he would cool them. He didn't want to have the disruption of fans, and water-cooling, while effective, was not something he was willing to risk. As a hardware designer, he knew better than to mix water and electronics. He designed a huge heat sink that fit over all four of the processors and took up a large portion of the interior space of the case. It wasn't the prettiest thing in the world, but it worked.

Once the rebuild was complete, he cold-booted the machine. In less than a second it was waiting for Jake to log on. The incredible speed was due to the fact that all of the data was stored in memory, even when the machine was powered off. Jake hated waiting for the computer. He made sure he had designed this machine so he wouldn't have to wait.

He logged on and then ran some diagnostic tests to make sure it was operating properly. He was satisfied that everything seemed to be in order. He noticed how much faster the tests ran and became optimistic. He could barely wait for the last test to finish.

Immediately after the test was concluded, he ran the artificial intelligence program he had been working on for the past several years. He turned on voice synthesis so he could hear the computer. The computer talking made it seem less like a machine. He had installed speech recognition long ago and had written routines so that he could converse with the computer. He was forever trying to blur the line between computers and humans.

"Hello," said a clearly computerized voice. Jake had yet to try to get the voice to sound human. His mind was occupied with other tasks.

"Good morning. Are you ready for another disc?"

"I am always ready," answered the voice. Jake had never thought to give the voice a name.

"Is the new hardware working properly?"

"Everything appears to be functioning within specified parameters," the computer replied.

Jake went to his reference filing cabinet and retrieved a disc. He went back to the computer and put the disc in the tray on the front of the case. As soon as the disc was inserted it was read.

Jake had written the operating system for the machine and had made the computer as automatic as possible. His attitude was ‘If the computer can do it, then I won't have to'. It could be said that he did it out of laziness, but Jake was not lazy. Jake Stafford was a workaholic.

The screen displayed a progress indicator. The bar moved quite quickly from one side of the screen to the other. Jake watched the bar carefully and mentally timed it. He knew how much data was on the disc, he knew the maximum speed of the data transfer, and he wanted to see how fast his program would interpret the data. He was pleased when it was finished. He calculated that his program was interpreting the data almost as fast as the computer could read the data from the disc. He was thrilled.

Just to be sure, Jake took one further step. He verified that the computer had indeed interpreted the data. He was pleased when all the data checked, and was cross-referenced properly into the web of information that was already known. One of the major breakthroughs Jake had made was the revolutionary way the data was stored and accessed. The data routines were all self managed and some of the most complicated code he had ever written. He wrote it so that the program itself had full access to the database and frequently manipulated it to sort like information into the nearby locations in memory.

He had managed to invent algorithms to allow information to build. His program could remember everything it had previously learned. It could use the accumulated information to form hypotheses. The hypotheses would be used to form rules.

He ran a program that he had devised to test the logic abilities of his program. He had been careful to alter the test frequently in the event the program could learn from his mistakes. That of course would in itself be evidence of ability by the program, but it was not the ability Jake wanted. He wanted to make sure the answers were pure. He already knew the program could learn. He was interested in the core logic routines.

He didn't expect the test to complete without failures. Jake had purposely put logical flaws in some of the questions. Some of his best work was derived from the answers to the questions that couldn't be logically answered. Jake was shocked when he saw the test. It had not only pointed out all of the errors in the logic that Jake had known about, but it also found two other questions that could have different answers. After careful consideration, Jake concluded that these answers were not incorrect.

What was more amazing was the list following the logic flaws. There was a list of probable corrections to the equations to eliminate the flaw. There were several different possibilities listed for each flaw. All of the answers were correct; some of the answers had several steps that were much longer than others. The most efficient answer was not always the shortest. Jake was surprised about that.

Jake realized that this was a computer that had the full logic process along with several other ‘basic routines', as Jake liked to call them. The program was working far better than he had expected, far better than he had hoped.

Jake had known all along that it was possible to create an intelligent computer, and that had been his goal for a long time. He started the project when he was still in high school. He quickly realized that in order to accomplish his goals; he would need to create not only the AI program, but would need specialized operating system and a very fast computer.

Over the years, He had made several improvements to both the operating system and the AI program. His real breakthrough came with this new computer. This computer finally had the processing power and the memory required for his AI program. That was his bottleneck. His algorithms were fine for the AI. The problem was, that the computers could not keep up. This one could. He was elated. He knew this was the culmination of his dreams. His AI program could work. He felt he had taught the program to learn, and it was learning quickly. He had done research and developed a curriculum for the education of his computer. He had consulted several universities and many libraries. He had an extensive book collection, with carefully chosen titles.

While the computer whirred he picked up the phone and dialed a California number. He just had to call Fitz; this breakthrough was so exciting he had to share it. He figured at 10:15 pm, his friend would still be awake. "Hey Fitz, it is me, Jake. I have to tell you…"

"Jake?"

"I have to tell you, the system is fantastic!"

"Jake?"

"It is learning at great speed, Fitz"

"JAKE!!"

"WHAT?"

"Slow down Jake, is this about your AI program?"

"Yes Fitz, I made a breakthrough and it is great! After all these years I finally made a computer that can run AI. The last one ran it, but it was so slow that it was useless. Since I last talked to you, I made some changes to the program, and to the OS. But the big change is the new computer I built. It is got 4 processors…"

"Hey, slow down!"

"Sorry, it is just that now I can do what I wanted to do all those years ago. You remember?"

"Of course. You always said you were going to make a computer that thinks. I never doubted you would do it. I didn't expect it so soon though." He looked at his watch; it was after ten o'clock, that meant that is was past one in the morning to Jake. It was just like him to stay up late working on something. He had done it so many times in the past. "So, what else have you been doing?" he asked. He imagined Jake went to work, went home, ate microwave food and spent his life behind a book or a computer.

Jake hadn't changed a bit. Fitz was right. Jake did exactly that. Fitz wanted to help Jake lead more of a normal life and had been trying to persuade Jake to do other things for years, sometimes he was successful, but most of the time Jake ignored the suggestions. Jake was a very solitary person, and had been all his life.

After a long pause Jake said, "You're not harping about my life again, are you?"

"As a matter of fact I am. I am worried about you Jake. You need something else in your life besides computers. You need a woman," Fitz laughed.

"Humph. Right, and I just open my front door and there she is? I don't know any women, at least not any women I like."

"Why don't you put an ad in the paper?"

"An ad?"

"Why not?"

Why not indeed, it had never occurred to Jake to go about it that way. He didn't like the girls and women he had met. They seemed brash and shallow to him, all shark smiles and giggles. Jake hated giggles. He had dated a few girls in the past, but he had given up really. He got tired of playing that game.

But an ad in the paper...

"What would I have to say in an ad like that, Fitz?"

"You just have to say something simple about yourself and what you're looking for. It has been done before, and it works. Just call the paper and place the ad."

"Hmm. I'll think about it."

"Well, think all you want, but tomorrow call the paper and place an ad. If you don't do it, I will call them for you. That is a threat buddy."

"OK, I'll do it. It can't really hurt anything."

"Oh, a tip. Mention that you have a stable income. That helps a lot with some women."

"Why? Who cares about money? How much money does anyone need? As long as one is comfortable, more is just a waste."

"Believe me, a lot of people care. Just put it in."

"Something like: Affluent computer oriented male seeks like minded female?"

"That sounds perfect. Jake, I am very pleased that your program is working so well. I always knew you could do it."

"Fitz, do you really know what I did?"

"Well, you told me that you were making an Artificial Intelligence program, I assume you are telling me that your program can now think."

"That is true, but that is only half of it. You know about E, right?"

"Sure. You were working on that when I left. I remember that you didn't work on much anything else at the time."

"Well, I finished E and used it to make an OS. My AI program, also written in E, runs on this new OS, and I am now working on making emulators so other software can run on it as well, as I don't want to have to write all my own software."

"Wait a second, I thought you wrote an AI program, not a whole new operating system."

"The computer, the OS and the AI are all 3 separate projects that work together. The computer isn't really that special, it uses more processors and has more memory than most computers. The operating system is stable, but it lacks the full features needed to be a complete OS."

"Jake, this sounds fantastic... Oh sorry, I need to go; Elaine is calling. Do me a favor and place the ad in the paper."

"O.K. I'll do it. By the way how is Elaine?"

"Pregnant."

"Here I go on about my computer and you're going to be a father! Congratulations!"

They both laughed, said good night and best wishes and hung up the phone.

Fitz was going to be a father. Fitz, the man he remembered as a little boy with glasses and scuffed knees. His best buddy, his only buddy; Jake had lived next door to Fitzgerald. When they were boys Jake always called him Fitz, to everyone else he was Gerald, or Gerry. They were always together. Fitz was the only person who knew what Jake was trying to do, although it wouldn't have been difficult for anyone who knew Jake to figure it out, but nobody else really knew Jake.

All Jake ever talked about were computers, and artificial intelligence. Anyone should have been able to deduce that Jake was working on a project involving them, not that Jake had much contact with people. Most of his time he was with computers.

Jake was a motherboard designer for the fastest growing motherboard manufacturer in the computer industry. M co motherboards were becoming known as the best motherboards available. They constantly were pushing the edge of technology forward with their designs. In reality, all these designs were Jake's. He was the only designer at the company. His title was Director of Design, and he didn't mind. They paid well, and he had a lot of freedom. He went to work wearing jeans and a t-shirt every day. No one dared say anything about his appearance, as he was so valuable to the company. He was not popular; he spent most of the time by himself in his lab. His boss would tell him what the company was doing. Jake couldn't care less. Jake would produce new designs at his whim, each one more innovative and genuinely better than anything that had been done previously. Jake had 12 of these ‘whims' in the past that had taken the company from a small little shop to a major company with plants all over the world.

Mr. Johnson, the vice president of production, hated Jake. He knew however, that Jake was the bread and butter of the company. He couldn't understand how someone with such a poor education could be so vital to his company. Without Jake there was no M co. Therefore, no one confronted Jake about anything he did at work. As long as he could come up with a new design every now and then, he was gold.

Jake took advantage of this situation. It was clear to him that he didn't have to do anything for work, other than occasionally reveal some of the technology he was putting into his own work.

He spent most of his time designing his own computer and his own operating system, so he could run the program that he had been dreaming about all of his life. Jake was convinced that he knew how to create a working artificial intelligence program. The problem he saw was the computers weren't powerful enough for such a program. As he advanced his own designs, he used some of the same ideas for his official work and as a result, in his view, he was being paid to develop motherboards, it didn't matter if they were his or theirs. He would give them one every once in a while.

He had started there as a technician, but quickly his talents surfaced and he became the leader of his own design department after the first "whim" which was such a radical departure from the old board design. After the day he submitted that design, he became the Leader and all other designers were retrained to understand the new design. Jake did this again a few months later and half of the old staff resigned. The other half was demoted to technicians a few months later when Jake did it yet again. Every time he came out with a new design it was amazing. Jake had this unique ability to think like a computer. He just trained his mind to think on a deeper level when he was designing motherboards. Everything he introduced to M co. was only a small portion of what he did.

Jake spent most of his time programming. In the last several years that he worked for M co. he had finished his compiler for his new programming language, he called it E, for Easy. He didn't understand why the programming languages that were available were all so complicated or underpowered. There did not seem to be any language that was both easy to use and powerful at the same time. It was one or the other. Therefore, he developed E. He had been busy with this project ever since high school. He studied computer science from books he got from the library, and sites on the Internet. He did little else than study and work. He unfortunately didn't have interest in much else, although he did spend time watching movies and more often documentaries. He still spent most of his time with a computer, and had since he was a child.

After he had a decent compiler, next step was for him to write an operating system for his computer. He used E and wrote OS. Once the operating system was stable, he concentrated on writing AI. He would work on his projects at all hours of the day. He would sleep when he got tired. It did not matter where he was. He spent a lot of time sleeping at the office. He didn't have a regular sleep schedule. He had a pillow, camping mat and sleeping bag stashed in the back of a cabinet in his lab at work. It was common for him to use them.

When he would get an idea, sometimes it would just become the only thing in the world, and the next thing Jake knew, there was another piece completed. Sometimes hours would go by and Jake would have no idea what happened during that period.

Jake had been working on this project for more than half of his life. He wasn't sure if there would ever be an end to the project and was deeply hoping he could get the program to learn on its own. If it could, then the computer had the power to become quite intelligent.

Musing about the past, Jake switched off his computer, settled Bird into his cage and covered him then went to bed.

Chapter Two

Amy Watson was bored, well maybe not exactly bored, perhaps unsettled.

Her mother had given her another talking to about her future, and it had started her thinking. Margaret, who was Amy's mother, wanted her to go into business as soon as she graduated. Amy just wasn't sure. She had already earned a Bachelors Degree in Business Administration and another one in Computer Science. She was tired of school, but dreaded working for someone else.

She looked around her mother's living room, tidy and perfect, perfectly cold to Amy's mind. Even the Christmas tree looked business like. Her mother ran her household as she ran her job, efficiently.

Margaret was a high-powered executive secretary and she had worked hard all her life for herself and Amy ever since her boyfriend had left her alone and pregnant. Amy thought of her father for a moment and left it alone, she had never met him and she wasn't interested.

Amy wandered around the room, glancing at an old photograph of herself that was taken when she was in high school. She let out a deep sigh. What was she going to do with her life? What did she want out of life? She didn't particularly like the people in business life she had met and she wasn't going to like working for them, would she? No, she wouldn't. So what else?

This was not like her to mope around, she had promised to write an article for the Herndon Gazette, but she didn't feel like writing now. Her mother wouldn't be home until 7 pm, so she had the whole afternoon to herself. It was the day after Christmas and she had nothing to do.

She sighed again and decided to go out. She rinsed her coffee mug and put it away in the dishwasher, put on her hat, coat and boots and left. She took a drive around the town.

Amy had grown up in this town, Herndon, Virginia. It was a small town when she was little girl, but as she grew up, so did the town. It really was more of a city now. The town had everything people needed. She decided she wanted to look at some houses. She turned on to a residential street just a few blocks from her mother's house, the house she grew up in. In this new subdivision, the houses were really nice, she saw a real estate sign with the starting price of the houses. She then noticed how close together the houses were. Yes, they were nice houses, but they had no yard. The houses were so close together that you could (if you had long arms) reach over and touch your next-door neighbor's house.

She drove aimlessly around the streets looking at houses all through the town. There were condominium complexes, some quite nice, others old and run down. There were some very expensive houses with nice postage stamps for back yards. That was something she couldn't get over. None of the nicer houses had any land. Her mother's house didn't have a lot of land, but there was enough space to organize football games in the back yard. With most of these houses she figured you might be able to play badminton. It was too bad Herndon had turned into such a place. The price of progress…

She decided that she would check in with the Herndon Gazette. She drove into their parking lot and got out of the car. She pushed the button that locked the car. "You couldn't be too careful these days", her mother always said. She walked to the front door and went in.

As she opened the door to the Gazette, she heard James Kelly, the editor, shouting at rookie reporter Eddy Townsend about an article concerning a fire that he wanted and he wanted it now, not tomorrow. Candy was on the phone writing something down and everybody seemed busy, She waited patiently.

Candy handed the piece of paper to Amy and smirked, "Would you get that to the ad people please?"

"Sure", said Amy, as she walked through the room she read the ad, it said:

Affluent computer oriented male

seeks like-minded female

Amy stopped. "What an unusual ad", she thought. Who would write something like that? It's not very romantic. And who would apply? The ad had the text that was supposed to appear in the paper, as well as the name and phone number of the man who placed the ad. She read the ad again and without knowing why she crumpled the piece of paper in her hand.

James was free at that moment and Amy talked to him about her article but there was no hurry, the deadline wasn't until after the New Year, plenty of time yet. All the while she talked to James she held on to the piece of paper as if it were a safety line and she was drowning. She had no idea why she held on to it, but she did know she was not going to give it to the ad department. She would have to contact this very odd person herself.

Jake Stafford, that name sounded familiar. Where had she heard that name before? Amy tucked the paper into her purse and left the Gazette. She went back to her mother's house on Park Avenue. When she sat down on the couch she got out the paper and read it again.

Affluent computer oriented male

seeks like-minded female.

That sounded so strange. What could he mean?

"Why not," she thought. It could not hurt to satisfy her curiosity about this strange man. She picked up the phone and dialed Jake's number.

"Hello," Jake said just after he picked up the phone.

"Is this Jake Stafford?"

"Yes, who is speaking?"

"Oh. My name is Amy Watson and I saw an ad that was placed with The Herndon Gazette." Amy barely managed to get the words out. She was nervous. It was very unusual for her to talk to strangers on the telephone. It was even stranger under the circumstance.

"That can't be true, I just called it in this morning, it will not be out until tomorrow." Jake was sure there was not enough time for the paper to have been printed.

"I was just at the news office. I just wanted to know what exactly do you mean by ‘Computer Oriented Male.'"

An interesting question, "Well, it means that I spend a lot of time working with computers, and am very logical in nature. Why are you asking?"

"It just seems to me that if you're looking for someone who is like minded, then it would help to know what it is I am supposed to be," Amy said as she blushed. Why in the world did she have to say that?

Jake couldn't believe what she said. She sure was blunt. He could be blunt as well. "Is that a proposition?" he asked.

Amy finally drew the connection that she couldn't seem to place before, and it explained everything. "Let me just say that I know who you are, or at least who you were. I went to the same elementary school as you did, as well as the same high school. You were a legend at both schools. You probably still hold most of the math records."

"I did enjoy math in school. That seems a long time ago," Jake remembered. He had loved math. It was so logical. He held most of the speed records that were kept at all of the schools he went to. He was by far the best math student in his high school, most likely the best in the state, if not nation. His ability to calculate complex equations in his head was magnificent. He could have chosen to work in a number of different fields, but for him computers were everything; there was nothing else. Fitz had tried to get Jake interested in many things over the years. He never succeeded. Jake pondered. Did he recognize the name Amy Watson? He could not recall anyone with that name.

Amy explained, "I was a few years behind you. I saw all of those records and just imagined what it would be like, so before I left High School I broke one of them." She sounded proud of herself.

"Which one?"

"Let me think... I think it was the 100*100 quiz."

"You beat that time?" Jake thought back. What was the time? 10.28 seconds. There was no way another person could have done it. "What was your time?"

"You've got to be kidding. I don't remember the time, but I suppose it is still the record and can be looked up. You want me to call the school and check?"

"It is not really that important," Jake lied. He had set that record 13 years ago and thought for sure no one would ever beat most of his records, but certainly not that one. The old time that stood before Jake's was around 24 seconds and the teachers thought that was fast. Most people couldn't enter the questions into a computer fast enough; even after voice recognition became commonplace with computers. People just couldn't talk that fast.

"So what exactly do you do now?"

"Oh, I am a computer engineer. I design motherboards, but I spend more time with my computers at home than I do with the ones at work."

"Really. It just so happens that I write articles for several different IT magazines. Where do you work?"

She was being nosy. That was what Jake thought for sure, but for some reason he told the truth when he answered, "I work for M co."

"You're one of the designers at M co.?"

"I am the only designer there. There are others that do some modifications on my designs, but they always base their work on my plans."

"No way, M co. is the largest growing motherboard manufacture in the industry. It seems I should have heard of your work."

"I know, but the company likes to take the credit for everything. I am well compensated though. I have no complaints."

"You said you spent more time with your computers at home, what do you do at home."

"It is interesting you should ask," Jake beamed. This was unbelievable. This girl was actually interested in his work. She was obviously intelligent. He decided he would share his great news. He told her all about his computer, the operating system and of course the AI program.

"You are joking right? This I would like to see. You know what something like that can be worth?"

"I was not thinking about that."

"Well, just imagine. If you can get the computer to learn, then you can teach it everything man has ever learned. It would just be a matter of being able to store all the information, of course the speed the computer would need to retrieve the information and catalog it all."

Jake was flabbergasted. She understood. That is why he made the computer and new operating system. It had to be designed for speed. Speed was critical because the computer would have to do billions of instructions per second just to do complex logic problems and a true thinking computer really needed better input/output capabilities because it had to be able to retrieve data from multiple forms. It would always be limited by the speed of other devices.

Jake thought about it for a moment, and then said, "How would you like to come over this evening and see it? I live on Florida Ave.," and gave her the rest of his address. This was very out of character for Jake. Jake actually hadn't spoken to anyone other than a few people at work and Fitz. Now here he was inviting a strange woman to his house.

"How about 8:00?" Amy eagerly said. She wanted to come over right away, but she did not want to seem pushy. "You live right around the corner. I know exactly where your apartment is."

"Where are you?"

"I am at my mother's house on Park Ave. I actually live in Charlottesville."

"You're still in school?"

"I am finishing my MBA this spring. My mother wants me to get a job with a large company and work my way up, but I am not so sure."

"Well, it is your decision to take."

She noticed he used ‘take' and not ‘make' in that sentence. That is unusual. Most people say make, although she had learned in University that ‘take' was proper English. It was something she paid attention to. She had this ability with languages, and was really upset about the recent changes in spoken English. She was sick of ‘wanna' this and ‘gonna' that. She felt she could tell anyone's education level by his speech. "Where did you go to school?"

"I didn't," Jake said rather bluntly. "When I graduated from High School, I took a job here and ended up with M co." He didn't have a college degree. He didn't really feel he needed one because as he put it, ‘If someone went to college straight from High School and graduated in Computer Science, he would still be lost in today's computer world if he didn't continuously study.' As long as someone possessed the knowledge in this field, it was good enough. The computer industry was so fast moving, that if you didn't stay current you could easily get lost. After a pause he said, "I did take several college classes, but never got a degree. I think it is just a useless piece of paper."

"Don't let my mother hear you say that," Amy chuckled.

Jake loved the sound of her laugh. He agreed to see her at 8:00 and said goodbye. He had a strange feeling and his hands were all sweaty. He hung up the telephone.

"Who phone?" said Bird.

"That was Amy."

"Who is Amy?" said the voice from the computer.

Jake forgot that he had turned the computer on and ran his AI program when he came home. "Amy Watson, she is an IT journalist. She's coming over in about an hour to meet you."

"Meet me?"

"Sorry, see you. I told her about you and she seemed very interested."

The computer had never been seen by anyone other than Jake Stafford. Of course, this computer had just been built, but it made no difference. No computer that Jake had built in his house had ever been seen by another person. Jake had had no visitors to his house since he had completed the computer room. The only people that had ever been in the house other than Jake were the previous tenants and a few workmen that Jake had hired to do some of the changes to the apartment when he first moved in. Since that time, no one other than Jake had stepped foot in his dwelling.

He was apprehensive about Amy coming over and couldn't imagine why he had invited her. It was surely not something that he would normally do, but then again, he desperately needed someone in his life, Fitz told him so, and he believed it. He also wondered what type of girl that Amy was if she would come to a strange man's house in the evening. What was she expecting? He thought it strange. He thought that his ad might attract some responses, but certainly not so quickly. The normal procedure, he figured, would have been to take the respondent out on a date or two before showing her his apartment. Oh well, it didn't matter now.

Jake went to the kitchen and grabbed a ready-made dinner out of the freezer. He opened it and popped it into the microwave oven. He frequently ate things like that, and was secretly glad that Amy wasn't coming over for dinner.

Chapter Three

"Mother, I'm going out tonight at 8:00," Amy said as she sat down at dinner with her mother.

"Out? Why?"

"I'm going to see a computer."

"You are going to see a computer at 8:00 at night, where?"

"I talked with a motherboard designer at the Gazette this afternoon and he has built a special computer."

"Sounds strange to me. Where is this computer?"

"At his place."

"So you're going to his place in the evening to see his computer, what else do you think he plans to show you? His etchings?"

"Mother! I am a grown woman and I do what I want. This could be a big opportunity."

"I know that, but you have to be very careful. He may try to take advantage of you."

"I am not so naive, I can take care of myself, and from the sound of this computer this could lead to a great opportunity, something that could turn into a gold mine." She knew that mentioning money was the right button to push with her mother.

Amy had done her homework after she had hung up the phone, and she knew as much as possible about Jake Stafford. There had been very little information, but she did know that he was single, and he was looking for someone. She thought that she might be that someone.

"Well, please be careful dear," said Margaret in reply. The rest of the dinner was eaten in silence.

Jake threw the container from dinner into the trash. He then rinsed off his fork and set it in the sink to wash later. He looked around and saw all the dust that was around the place.

He grabbed the duster and started frantically dusting everything in site. He was meticulous, dusting all of the books on each of the shelves. There were four sets of bookshelves in the living room, and each shelf was filled with books. The books were in such good condition it looked like they had never been read. Jake took pride in his books and the shelves in the living room were his showcases. Not that Jake was used to entertaining visitors. On the contrary, as previously mentioned, no one other than Jake had ever entered his apartment. That did not stop Jake from keeping his books in proper condition.

Bird said, "Bird tray. Cleaning time."

"Cleaning time indeed."

"Bird bath?"

"Not tonight. Amy is coming over. I want the place to be clean for her."

"Amy girl?" The bird puffed up his feathers and drew in his neck in patent disapproval.

"Don't start that again, I know you don't like girls."

After the cage was clean he then got the vacuum cleaner and went all over the house. Picked up all of the dirty laundry, piled it into a corner, then went into the bathroom, grabbed the laundry basket, put the pile in it, and threw everything into the washing machine. He started the machine and closed the door. He then went to the kitchen, loaded all the dishes from the counter and sink and put them into the dishwasher. The dishwasher was far from full so he decided not to let it run.

Once he was satisfied that the house was clean he went back into the living room, picked a book from one of the shelves and started reading. He could read quite fast and really enjoyed it. Over the years he had read thousands of books. Most of his reading material was non-fiction. He stayed current in many fields by continuously updating his book collection.

At 8:00 exactly the doorbell rang. Jake opened the door with sweaty hands and pounding heart. He stared at the beautiful girl in front of him. Then said "Uh... Hi...uh...come on in. I am Jake." He had no idea she would affect him like this. He felt like a fool.

She smiled. He blushed at her, stepped back to open the door and tripped. She bent over and extended a hand to help him up. He took it and tried his best to recompose himself.

"Would you like something to drink?" He asked.

"I would rather see the computer."

He led her into the living room toward the computer room and Bird said, "Hello... Hello... Amy."

The bird went to his knees and spread his wings. Jake was astonished. Bird had never reacted to anyone like that.

"How does that parrot know my name?" Amy asked as she looked at the beautiful parrot with blue wings and a red breast. It was obviously an exotic bird.

"Bird heard me mention your name."

Amy looked around the living room, neat and tidy with old-fashioned furniture. What an odd thing for this man to have a parrot, she thought. There were several bookshelves, full of books. The books were so neat and organized that it seemed they could have been painted on the shelves. There was a couch, two chairs and a coffee table arranged in a semi-circle in the middle of the room. There was a birdcage suspended from the ceiling near the corner.

"Why do you have a parrot?" she asked.

"Like the rest of the furniture," Jake said as he pointed around the room, "I inherited him from my parents. They received him as a wedding gift."

"How old is he?"

"Very old. He was a gift to my parents long before I was born. He was already an adult bird then."

"Wow, that old? Is he friendly?"

"Sometimes very affectionate," said Jake.

"Kiss, kiss," said Bird.

Amy laughed and went over to the bird. "What is his name?"

"His name is Bird," replied Jake.

"Name, name what's in a name?" squawked Bird, "A rose, by any other name still smells as sweet."

Amy looked up and stared. "Oh wow, a bird that quotes Shakespeare. Come here, Willie."

"Pretty Willie," Bird cooed.

"Oh yes, a very pretty Willie," said Amy.

Jake looked nonplussed; he had never seen Bird behave this way before.

Amy stroked the parrot and tickled it in its neck. Bird seemed to love it. He was practically hanging upside down.

Amy said, "So where is this computer of yours, Jake?"

Jake shook his head and said, "Follow me" and led her into the computer room. This room he didn't clean earlier, as it wasn't necessary. He kept this room clean all the time. Everything was kept in its proper place.

They walked down the hall to the computer room. As they entered Jake said to Amy, "Here is the computer. Just say ‘hello'. It uses voice recognition."

Amy looked around. She saw bookshelves full of books all over the walls. She wondered how many books Jake had. The living room and this room were filled with books. She took a closer look at some of the titles. The range of subjects was amazing. There were books covering philosophy, psychology, biology, geography, mathematics books of all sorts, and shelves full of fiction from a wide variety of authors.

In the middle of the room was a table that had a large flat box on it. Next to the box was obviously a monitor. The screen was blank. She assumed the box was a computer, but the case didn't look like the standard case a normal computer came in. It was much bigger.

She walked over to the table to get a closer look. The top was off of the box so she had a good look inside the computer. She was stunned. She didn't understand everything she saw. There were rows and rows of chips, she had no idea what they were all for, but assumed most of them were memory chips. The box was a flat box about 12 centimeters tall, 60 centimeters wide and 40 centimeters deep. It didn't look like anything she had ever seen. Three sides of it were blank other than the two trays for discs on the front; the back was full of connectors. There were wires connected to some of the connectors. Most of these disappeared into the floor. She then realized that the floor was actually elevated about 3 centimeters. Next to the computer, on the table was a very large flat-screen monitor.

The screen suddenly displayed in very large letters:

Hello Amy.

How did it know she was there? She couldn't see any evidence of a camera or anything that looked similar. She was about to ask when Jake started talking.

Jake said, "Speech On. Amy, you can just talk to it, it can hear you." He was not positive that the computer could understand her voice, but he figured it had a strong chance of working.

Amy couldn't see any microphones either but she didn't doubt that this computer could hear her. She had to ask... She was a reporter after all. "What exactly is this computer? It doesn't look like anything I have ever seen."

"I just finished the design last week. Put it together over the holidays. You see the processors?"

"How can I? That heat sink is covering it up. Wait, you said processors. How many are under there?" she said as she pointed toward the heat sink.

"Four, each of which are a quad, so 16 if you get technical.. Anyway, here we have the static RAM, and here is the volatile RAM."

"Why do you need volatile RAM if you have static RAM?" Amy inquired.

Jake was surprised by the question. He didn't have a good answer, now that he thought about it. His original idea was to make the Static RAM replace the hard drives used by most computers. They were noisy and prone to failure. They also were a source of heat. Heat was a problem in most of his computers as it was. He didn't need more. A lot of designing he did was actually in cooling systems for the computer. That is the main reason the computer was so short and fat. He could better distribute the heat. Jake just stared off into space.

"If you have static RAM, you don't need volatile, unless for some reason you need temporary storage, but it is faster to clear the memory than to reboot."

She just gave Jake an idea. "Sorry..." Jake drooped his shoulders. "You are right of course. Next one will only have static."

"Oh, hello. You know my name? What is your name?"

"The name of my program is AI," said a computerized voice.

"And you can think?"

Jake stepped in, "I never actually said it can think, I said it can learn."

"What is the difference?"

"Computers have been able to learn for years. But how do you define learn? The ability to accumulate information; is learning. The ability to sort information and reach logical conclusions, is reasoning, not learning, that is the difference here. This computer can learn and it can reason. But does that mean think?"

"That depends on what it does exactly. Give me an example."

"OK, If I enter a number of equations into a computer, the computer can retrieve those equations and can even calculate using them, but unless it can, lets call it summarize, it can never come up with new equations following the same logic. Imagine this:

1 + 3 = 4

2 + 2 = 4

On a normal computer it would never come up with 3 + 1 = 4 because that was never input into it. This of course is very simplified, but in essence that is the difference."

"And this program can assume the 3 + 1?"

"Yes, if a + b = c then b + a = c, that is basic logic."

"And your program applies the logic?"

"Yes. That is just a primitive example, like I said."

"How far can it go?"

"What do you mean?"

"How deep is the logic?"

"Oh. complete, as far as I can tell. I have been teaching theories to it. It has built a general knowledge base. I am planning on attaching a new machine that I made at work. It will help speed up the process of teaching it."

"Jake, do you know what you have here?"

"Sure, I have a computer that can reason."

"No, you have a computer that can think. Come in the other room for a minute."

The program heard every word of their conversation. That conversation triggered new processes to be started inside the program. What is learning? What is thinking? Can I think?

Jake followed Amy back into the living room. She closed the door. "How sensitive are the microphones that the computer has?"

"I don't know. I don't think it can hear through the door, but if you're really worried I can turn it off."

"Please do."

Jake went back into the computer room and shut down the computer. As he walked back into the room he said, "You know that it is actually three separate things there, the computer, the OS and the AI program."

Amy said alarmingly, "Do you realize that you're leading to the end of the world as we know it?"

"Excuse me?"

"Well, the logical conclusion for a machine to reach is that humans are inferior..."

"Wait a second. I made a fast computer, I made a new Operating System and I wrote a program that can reason. I certainly didn't say anything like computers being superior."

"But don't you see? They are superior."

Jake thought about it for only a fraction of a second, "Of course they are, but that doesn't mean this program will think that."

"How could it come to another conclusion?"

"The program has the ability to reason based on its input. If the input is controlled, the program cannot reach certain conclusions."

"And you control what the input is?"

"Exactly. There is no danger. It doesn't have free will. It doesn't have fingers, or any other way to manipulate things in the outside world. It is in a closed environment."

"This computer doesn't have a net connection?"

"No. I purposely have it that way. The computer room is self-contained. There is no connection anywhere. The only wires into that room are the power lines, and even those are on a complete separate circuit from the rest of the apartment. I had a lot of hassle getting the power company to hook up the separate connection. The computer in my bedroom has a link to the net though."

"Let us talk more about the OS. Why did you write an OS?"

"The OS was written mainly as a need for speed. The operating systems that are on the market just can't operate fast enough."

Bells went off in Amy's head. She knew the domination of Macroware was something that had to be overcome. There was little hope in any of the competing operating systems, as they were too complicated for the average user. She wondered about this operating system.

"Is it a complete OS?"

"No, it can do all of the functions required by my AI program, but I wouldn't call it complete. There are certainly areas that are missing. Sometimes it is hard to separate AI from the OS as AI does some routines that really should be the duty of the OS."

Amy was disappointed, but she hid it well. She hoped the operating system was full-blown. She meant to find out how complete it was.

Amy started walking back into the computer room. Jake followed. Jake removed the top cover of the computer, then he turned the machine on. Almost instantly it was waiting for him. He had never shown anyone this work, but subconsciously he wanted to impress the beautiful girl in the room. Up until now, Bird was the only other living creature that had ever seen his work. Even Fitz, who knew about the project, had never seen any material evidence of its existence. Amy stared into the box.

"Do you know what you're looking at?" he asked her.

"Of course. I have a major in Computer Science. I can tell you though I have never seen anything like this."

"Nor has anyone else," Jake beamed, "I just finished the design on the motherboard last week. The OS and AI program have been developed on several generations of hardware. That was another reason for the OS. I have multiple processors because of the amount of memory. When I first started the project, I needed to have more memory than one processor can address, and had to have an OS that could handle the memory through multiple CPUs. That is not an issue any more, but since the OS was already designed to utilize multiple processors, I still use that in the design. It is much more efficient to separate programs into separate threads, and run each thread on a different processor concurrently. You should know, It can boost productivity exponentially."

"Amazing..." Amy just stood there thinking. It was definitely an amazing piece of hardware there in front of her. This was far more than she had expected, although she didn't really know what to expect. It was certainly nothing like this. This was far better than she had imagined, that's for sure. It was the future. She was daydreaming about selling computers. She was hoping about the operating system. It could dethrone Macroware. However, she was scared to death of the artificial intelligence. Would the computers come to rule the Earth?

"Take a look at this," Jake beckoned her back into the computer room.

Amy looked at the screen. Jake had clearly opened an Integrated Development Environment (IDE). She had done her share of programming to see that this was a different language than she had ever encountered. "What is that?" she asked.

"This is the source for AI, written in E."

"What is E? Never heard of it."

"I suppose not. It is my own language. I didn't like any of the other programming languages so I made my own."

Amy couldn't believe it; this guy did everything himself. She looked closer at the display. To her surprise, she could understand what the program was doing. It was clear, there in front of her. She didn't recognize all of the function calls, but of course they were to functions that he had written. But she looked at the language. It was simple. She could follow the code easily. She sat down and looked for the mouse. There was none. Jake touched the screen, a menu appeared next to his finger. He touched one of the items on the menu and mumbled a few words that Amy couldn't understand and the screen changed.

All the sudden she was looking at the standard default desktop for Macroware's latest operating system. "What is this?" She asked.

"This is a test project. I thought you'd be interested."

"Looks like the standard Macroware OS to me."

"But it isn't."

"Oh?"

"No, it is just an emulation of it. I am using this desktop for the new emulator project I am running. Take a look. He reached behind the computer and produced the familiar mouse she was accustomed to. He used it and clicked the menu to start running a program. She immediately recognized the program. It was the latest version of the most popular word processor on the planet.

"Is this an emulation too?"

"No. This is the real program. My emulator is designed to run all of the popular software for the OS it resembles. It actually is just translating many function calls to the new name, but in many cases it has to do a lot more. Any program compiled specifically for my OS would be much faster. There is a performance hit when running programs like this through the emulator."

She looked at her watch. Boy, had the time flown. She needed to go because she promised her mother that she would take her to the mall tomorrow to go shopping and knew it would be a tiring day.

"Listen, this is really interesting.... I would like to talk to you more about it but it is getting late and I have a big day tomorrow."

Jake sighed. He definitely didn't want her to go, but couldn't think of anything to say. It seemed his brain didn't work correctly when she was around. He was so startled with the fact that she was so beautiful and she didn't wear make up! That is what it was. All of the other girls he knew had worn it, and he didn't like it. He didn't see why all the women wasted their money on it. "OK, sure," was all he managed to say.

"Hey, how'd you like to have lunch Saturday?"

He brightened up. "I'd love to..."

She smiled again. Damn she was pretty. How could anyone be so naturally beautiful? "But what about your boyfriend?" he asked.

"I don't have a boyfriend," she blushed. "Do you have a card?"

He went to the other room and came with a card and handed to her. It was a good thing he had them made. He had never really had a need for them, as he rarely met people, but his office had insisted that he have a business card. He had a box of them in the house, and another one at the office.

She took the card and offered her hand to him. "It was definitely nice meeting you," she said.

"My pleasure, believe me," Jake said as he smiled.

It was the first time in their meeting that Amy had seen such a transformation cross Jake's face. With one smile, he went from a tall geek to a surprisingly handsome man. She turned and left, her mind jumping with possibility.

This concludes the preview (the first 3 chapters). Of course things haven't really gotten going, what you have just read is mostly the groundwork.