The Other Side of Nowhere Read Free Page A

affection. Could this AI actually be capable of such a feeling? “Jonah,” I began, hesitantly. “What do you mean you like her? Do you mean she’s familiar?”
    “No,” said Jonah. “I mean I enjoy her company. She’s my friend.”
    Again, I was surprised. This thing was assigning associate roles to people. It understood concepts of relationships, or at least seemed to. It was still too early to say. “I’d like you to humor me for a moment, if that’s okay. Can you answer some questions? Would that be alright?”
    “Certainly,” Jonah said.
    I had no experience dealing with machines. Only people. Jonah wasn’t human, but maybe he was close enough for my questions to work.
    Only one way to find out.
    “Tell me a little bit about yourself,” I said, and waited. It was the standard session opener for a reason. Relax the patient with a broad topic, which they could proceed to shape to their own liking. It allowed them to feel in control.
    “My name is Jonah,” he said, simply. “What else do you wish to know?”
    Okay, I thought, so I might have to probe a bit more than usual. I was up for the challenge. “Can you tell me more about yourself? What kinds of things do you enjoy? Who do you like, and why?”
    “You are the first person to ask me these kinds of questions, Jim. It will take me a moment to answer.”
    I started to say it was fine, but apparently a moment for a supercomputer isn’t really a moment at all. I barely opened my mouth when Jonah said, “I find it pleasurable to discuss things with others. Specifically, the other technicians and doctors who frequent this room. They talk to me about different things, and I find that each individual person has their own preferred topics that they usually revisit on most occasions, though they differ at times depending on the day and whether or not they are happy or sad or upset. For example, Doctor Stevens prefers to discuss sports, and he has tried to explain several of them to me, though I have had some trouble understanding the point. For that matter, I find myself wondering why most of the professional and sports involve nothing more than one or more persons trying to get a single ball from one point to another. It sounds very similar to playing fetch with a canine, only a little more complicated. Golf, football, tennis, basketball. The only exception would have to be hockey, but the only difference is that instead of a ball, there is a puck.”
    Boy, I thought. Careful what you wish for. I’d asked for an answer and gotten an entire soliloquy. “Interesting way to think about it. Who else do you talk to?”
    “Doctor Bell and I discuss her favorite books sometimes. Alex Byrne and Jeremy Richards, two of the technicians who work on my systems, seem to enjoy telling me about the world outside. I find it all very interesting.”
    “That makes two of us,” I agreed.
    “And finally, there is you, Jim,” said the voice in the machine. “You are still an unknown.”
    ******
    The next day I got right into it. “Let’s start at the beginning,” I said, completely unprepared because I had fallen asleep the moment I got back to the hotel room, which was sometime after midnight.  “Tell me about your first memory.” It was something I had been wondering since the day before when we had our initial discussion. I figured now was as good a time as any to go there. After all, I was pretty sure he wouldn’t vent to me about any childhood trauma. Then again, you never know.
    “First?” He asked. “What do you mean?”
    “I mean your first memory, Jonah. Try to think back to what that was. Last week? A month ago? I want you to tell me about it all. Can you do that?”
    “Of course,” he said. “I remember everything, even before I was born.”
    “What do you mean before ? I’m not sure I follow.”
    “Before I was me,” Jonah explained, “I was a lot of other things.”
    ******
    Like most children, Jonah was an accident. He was formed in