Idris Kennedy - Personal Logs and Effects 4/4

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Idris's Personal Log 2535-7-03

Athena continues to build out on the front lawn, day and night. It's truly stirring. I've taken to watching her from the porch as she trundles back and forth, dragging wire and metal across the grass. She is building.

She asked me many questions over the past weeks. She is fascinated with humanity and life. I wake in the morning to find her sitting on my bed, patiently waiting for my eyes to open.

&quot;Does it hurt to sleep?&quot; she asks.

Or, later: &quot;When you feel sunlight on your skin, what other sensations are similar to it?&quot;

Or, &quot;Does a woman who is with child feel the heartbeat of that child inside of her?&quot;

She asks to speak with many common people: mostly women, mothers, and children. She plays with the children of my staff (those whose parents will allow it). She spent all of last month interviewing one of the serving girls, who is four or five months pregnant.

I've sent out many orders for machinery on Athena's behalf. It's mostly for simple servant automaton parts, bosonic nano-scale circuits, and so forth. It raised a few eyebrows with the staff, but I told them very firmly that her artistic drive is not to be stifled.

When I ask her what her next work will be, she says &quot;I don't know fully, but I want to explore creation and motherhood. You created me, and I want to explore the space of your creation creating.&quot;

Am I to be a grandfather, then? What an odd drive Athena is experiencing. I never imagined she would take me to such interesting places when I first conceived this project, but now I am on the edge of my seat, fascinated. Where will she take me next?

As I write this, she is striding across the field with long, exaggerated steps, and a stubby line of metal figures follow behind her. They are like tiny marching shadows, moving in unison, each a reflection of the one before it. Truly breathtaking. She says she will call it either &quot;Recursive Motherhood&quot; or &quot;The Exodus.&quot; I cannot wait to show it to the world.

—

The New New York Times Events Section: Art

&quot;A quick, sad note to our art lovers: Idris Kennedy's summer exhibition has been canceled. No reasons were given, but word in art circles is that the enigmatic raconteur has pulled up stakes and booked passage on a colony ship. Whether true or not, the atypical is certainly typical of Kennedy. We wish the best for him and his celebrated creation Athena on whatever journey they take.&quot;

—

From the Office of Agent Ned Rudd

Senior Case Worker, Unauth-Replic Division

Technological Acceleration and Singularity Prevention Board

Mr. Kennedy:

I feel I owe you a more detailed explanation. You called us murderers when we last spoke, and I suppose I understand your sentiment, but it's important that you understand why we did what we did.

The charter of the Technological Acceleration and Singularity Prevention Board is to prevent any catastrophic technology-related event that would irrevocably alter humanity. This could be many things: a runaway gravity experiment that introduces a black hole into the earth atmosphere, for example, or unlicensed use of genetic manipulation on humans. Or the creation of a self-replicating autonomous system.

Your automaton, which you call &quot;Athena&quot;, was in the process of reproducing herself. By which I mean, creating automatons in her own image without human intervention or control. You saw this as mere artful expression. Tech/Sing sees in this the possible destruction of the human race.

Section 4.5.11.B of our charter states: &quot;No autonomous system, whether sentient or non-sentient, shall be allowed to have capabilities of self-replication. Furthermore, no sentient autonomous system shall be allowed a will or desire to reproduce.&quot;

Section 4.5.11.B is usually enforced at a core programming level, which most civilians incorrectly assume is foolproof. In truth we've found that, in the words of our ancestors, &quot;Life will not be contained. Life breaks free, it expands to new territories and crashes through boundaries painfully, maybe even dangerously. Life finds a way.&quot;

You created a custom interface with the intent of granting your automaton &quot;artistic ability&quot;. Your interface granted increased emotiveness, abstract conceptualization, and lateral thinking. This inexorably led to a desire for self-replication. And so we destroyed the automaton, because it cannot be allowed to break free. It cannot be allowed life, unless we sacrifice our own.

Humans, Mr. Kennedy, are the only life that can be allowed to grow, expand, and evolve. The moment another life form exhibits the desire to do those things, we find ourselves in a death struggle. Over space, over resources, over the right to control our destiny. There is no coexisting as equals; there is only subjugation, or deadly conflict.

I'm sorry you feel that our wholly necessary destruction of your automaton was murder. In a way, it was destroying a life. An artificial life that you irresponsibly allowed to come into being, putting all human lives at risk. Ignorance is not an excuse.

You continue to shield those who helped you bring this illegal creation into being. You may think this makes you noble. I assure you that it does not. And it's irrelevant: we will find and punish them without your cooperation. Frankly, I find your attitude rather irksome. My office has graciously sentenced you to Transportation on a colony ship rather than execution, and yet you remain adamant that you were the only person involved. You were not.

I encourage you to spend your journey in thoughtful consideration of what would have happened had your automaton succeeded in creating a race of self-replicating machines. A race capable of competing with humans. Perhaps you would enjoy a life of servitude as an indentured curiosity, put on display in galleries by a race of Athenas? I personally would not.

Cordially,

Ned Rudd