The blue status bar on the technologist’s computer started its journey moving from left to right stopping when the indicator read 100%. Jim would be opening his eyes to a new world right about now. A world with outcomes largely controlled by Ella, an AI Dungeon Master all things considered. So far, every simulation that they had run started the same way, but they all ended differently. Like in real life, it all came down to choice and fate.
“Gah! Did you hear her call me Bob? Her attempts at developing a sense are humor aren’t funny.” Bart said.
“I thought it was funny.” The other tech chuckled.
“Ha ha,” Bart harrumphed.
“Besides, it’s your turn to get a little attention. She won’t stop calling me Raj.”
“Thanks, I almost forgot. Alright Raj, pull up the live feed. Let’s see how things are going.”
“You got it, Bob.”
They both turned and gazed up at a 60 inch flat-screen on the wall. It was solid blue.
“Hey stop messing around!” Bart elbowed Roger in the ribs.
“I’m not. Check it out.” He pointed back at the computer screen.
They studied the monitor in front of them. According to the console, the simulation started loading about a minute ago, but there weren’t any logs after that. It seemed to be stuck. The neural handshake with Ella hadn’t occurred, and there was no success start message.
“Pull up user diagnostics.”
Roger opened a new terminal, typed in a quick command, and hit enter. The terminal vanished as a new window appeared over top it.
“What the…” Roger said.
“Vitals are good. Body temp, pulse is little high, breathing fine…” Bart read the readings out loud commenting.
“No look at his brain function.” Roger pointed at a small section of the GUI. “Activity is up over 300% of baseline!”
“Shit, is he having a seizure or something?”
Neither tech moved as they studied the readouts and a feeling of dread started growing inside of Bart. What the hell is going on? He thought to himself.
Static noise then blasted out of the TV speakers, and they both jumped out of their seats. The static continued to crackle in the air and on the screen, they saw its visual equivalent as it pixelated in a wash of changing colors. Then the computer beeped, and a new message line appeared in the simulation’s console window. They swung back to the workstation and read the text.
2023-11-04 08:27:15.458 DATA 3099 — SK8.V3.NeuralBridgeInitializer : ZZZ000505: Error communication with user Access denied Unknown neural bridge device found
“Shit, shit, shit,” Bart repeated. Then another line appeared, and they watched the console trying to understand what was happening.
2023-11-04 08:27:19.783 DATA 3099 — [ restarting] SK8.V3.NeuralBridgeInitializer : Using EEQueryEngine: ZZZ000505: New device found Compatible Unknown neural bridge
2023-11-04 08:27:30.099 DATA 3099 — [ restarting] Bypassing SK8.V3.NeuralBridgeInitializer : Using Direct AI-User interface
Success : Simulation started at 08:27:30.343
Credit for the photo above belongs to Scott Webb. Click the link below to find out more.
Scott Webb
