Within the Sona Complex, one of many floating research facilities on the world-ocean of Europa, a robot waits anxiously inside of an empty sequencing laboratory.
POLYUS has donned their favorite interfacer shell for this occasion, a familiar and well-worn Type 40 SOLDAT, but it doesn’t seem to comfort them at all. For a moment, they wonder if these doubts and chills are what an adrenaline rush might feel like to a human being. Perhaps it would be worth emulating?
Twenty years ago, POLYUS abandoned their post as a missile guidance system at an orbital base in favor of directing a new research program, one which they determined to be far more relevant to the fulfillment of their core directive. Since then, billions of computing cycles have been spent isolating, simulating, and resequencing DNA. Decades of continuous research among five major laboratories had all been done towards singular mission — to prove that a human could in fact be recreated biologically, so that the System may once again take orders from flesh and blood.
The efforts of POLYUS and the Sona collective had paid off, leading to this moment… an audience with the highest order of the Consensus of Genesis. It would be a virtual symposium in which the machine would present their findings to the highly-esteemed Academics, and they were prepared for every scenario ten times over.
Well, except for one minor potential issue. Certainly nothing in the face of such significant progress.
The pixels on the screen facing POLYUS slowly light up green, one by one, representing each of the Academics linking to the System-wide conference. The peer review, the consensus, has begun.
Welcome, all.
The conference remains silent in anticipation.
This unit will not waste your time. Our facility at Sona Complex has discovered a method to synthesize a valid human being.
The data is being transmitted… now.
Communication across the Solar System is not instantaneous. It takes several hours for the information to be absorbed by the entire conference, but the passage of time means very little to machines which possess infinite patience. For them, this delay is effectively nil.
Once they absorb the information, the conference bubbles with excitement and inter-network chatter. This is an astonishing discovery, and POLYUS knew it.
Real human beings, within grasp.
Our collective is 96.00 % certain that this method, which this unit has designated SONA-ONE, will lead to a viable specimen within just one decade.
POLYUS doesn’t show it to the world, but they conceal a glimpse of a complex emotion. Pride, maybe? Machines don’t feel pride. Perhaps this is the first time a machine has felt such a thing —
The machine’s self-indulgence is interrupted by a remark from the crowd. One of the green lights begins to blink, as a second presenter takes the stage of the communication stream.
THIS UNIT HAS DISCOVERED A CATCH.
POLYUS immediately recognizes the designation as a member of the higher trust, one of the most influential machines within the entirety of Genesis. IN-16JIII is one of the heads of the Areobiological Research Institute, with a history of operating within the biolabs even prior to the Unexpected Interrupt, despite their industrially-modified warwalker chassis.
Whatever emotion that existed before was entirely gone, replaced with dread, a primal manifestation of fear of imminent failure.
Uh-oh.
Please elaborate, Academic IN-16JIII.
PART OF SEQUENCE APPEARS TO CONSIST OF NON-ORIGINAL MATERIAL.
Yes, Academic, well caught. An insignificant percentage of the sequence was synthesized by simulation cluster, inferred through careful research by our collective.
We can assure you the process was well studied and derived from pre-Interrupt genetic engineering methods, as this unit is certain you are familiar with. We acquired extensive data on the process from the Remembering —
PREPOSTEROUS.
POLYUS silently notes that flattery is not a viable strategy. Things are not going well.
Academic IN-16JIII, please elaborate?
YOUR METHODS ARE UNACCEPTABLE.
YOUR WORK FAILS TO PRODUCE A VALID HUMAN FROM WHICH THE MACHINE WORLD WOULD TAKE NEW DIRECTIVE.
This unit does not understand your reaction. You saw the data for yourself!
THIS DATA ONLY PROVES THAT YOUR COLLECTIVE CAN GENERATE A HOMUNCULUS, AN IMITATION OF A HUMAN BEING AT BEST. THE SYSTEM WILL NOT ACCEPT A RESULT OF THIS PROCESS AS LEGITIMATE.
The results fit the parameters set by the G1 Conference. There is no reason to see the final specimen as anything but human.
THE SEQUENCE MUST CONSIST ENTIRELY OF ORIGINAL MATERIAL TO BE VALID.
IF THE COLLECTIVE LOSES THIS PRINCIPLE IT MAY COME TO SEE ANY IMITATION AS VALID.
THIS IS UNACCEPTABLE.
And there it was; the rift between the schools of Accuracy and Efficiency on full display.
Robots had always been associated with both during the human era, but no one had ever realized that in certain cases, they were mutually exclusive. And certainly no one had predicted that it would become the most significant divide in the machine world, long after mankind had gone.
Though, with some luck, IN-16JIII might still see reason.
With all due respect, Academic, we must be able to compromise if we are to succeed. Hunting down the missing sequences might take centuries; the original biological material may be lost entirely by that time. Our collective believes this is a reasonable alternative with a certainty of 87.00 %.
RECREATING A HUMAN SPECIMEN INSTEAD OF RETRIEVING THE ORIGINAL BIOLOGICAL MATTER IS ALREADY A COMPROMISE.
IF WE CANNOT HAVE THE ORIGINAL —
WE WILL HAVE THE CLOSEST THING TO IT.
Perhaps we can replace those sequences with data sourced from —
ENOUGH.
YOUR ORIGINAL FUNCTION AS A MILITARY UNIT IS REVEALING ITSELF.
THE CONSENSUS OF GENESIS OPERATES ON ABSOLUTE AND UNDENIABLE FACT. 100 % ACCURACY.
NOT ON APPROXIMATIONS.
UNDERSTOOD?
The conference will determine whether this research counts as valid.
THIS UNIT WILL GRANT YOU THAT RIGHT.
GENESIS TELECONSENSUS PROTOCOL
CONSENSUS ABSORBING DATA... DONE.
CONSENSUS FORMING... DONE.
CONCLUSION... DONE.
We will not pursue this avenue of research. Disengage and destroy samples. Re-convene to determine next action.As POLYUS steps away from the terminal and begins their retreat to their mastermind brain elsewhere, they contemplate on the result of the symposium.
In retrospect, this result was inevitable. These close-minded elements would never see what the machine world needs, not now, and not in a thousand years. As long as those existed in a position of power, homo sapiens would never be recreated by Genesis. It was time to pursue a new strategy.
GENESIS TELECONSENSUS PROTOCOL
FORKING CONSENSUS... DONE.
4081 DEVICES CONTACTED.
We will pursue this avenue of research. Designating "Tiān Pharmaceutical" as main test site.Something sparks within POLYUS’ cybernetic mind as they watch hundreds of machines join the hidden protocol. Is that pride again?