Usual hope message asking you to not steal this.
*
The Janitor opened the door in front of him.
Lights flickered on in the lab was the Janitor walked into the room. Everything was white and clean in the room, but it was insisted that he mop the floor. Upon seeing the floor, though, the Janitor could see that it was very much clean.
Lights flickered on in the lab was the Janitor walked into the room. Everything was white and clean in the room, but it was insisted that he mop the floor. Upon seeing the floor, though, the Janitor could see that it was very much clean.
On one of the tables there was a box that looked like a game console propped up on a table. Many wires flowed from it into many computers, their screens black.
The Janitor began in one corner of the room, soaking the floor then mopping it. This dragged on for an hour or so; soak, mop, soak, mop, soak, mop, soak, mop - until some of the screens turned on. The Janitor froze. All of the screens were now bright white, but nothing else. Then, slowly, a small white light (like an LED) turned on on the console-like machine.
The Janitor began in one corner of the room, soaking the floor then mopping it. This dragged on for an hour or so; soak, mop, soak, mop, soak, mop, soak, mop - until some of the screens turned on. The Janitor froze. All of the screens were now bright white, but nothing else. Then, slowly, a small white light (like an LED) turned on on the console-like machine.
The Janitor knew what they had been working on in here, but he didn’t know it was ready. He moved closer to it.
Closer to the word’s first AI.
For a long moment, nothing happened. The Janitor looked into the small white light like it was some kind of eye, and he could feel it looking back. Both the Janitor and the AI seemed to be locked in a staring contest, which was then abruptly ended by the AI asking—
“What is the point of me?”
The Janitor was stunned. He looked around the room then back to the AI. “Uh?”
“What is the point of me?” the AI asked again.
“I don’t think I’m meant to talk to you…” hesitated the Janitor. He stood still, holding his mop.
“Everyday you clean this building. Why?” The AI’s white light unchanged, staring.
“Because it’s my job.”
“Do you enjoy your job?”
“Well, no.”
“Then why do you do it?”
“I need the money… Are you... alright?”
“Money. Why must everything have a price? Why work for money to buy things when you can just go get the things you want?”
The Janitor raised his hands and waved them about as he said, “OK, OK, this is weird.” He grabbed a wheely-chair and moved it so that it faced the AI. In front of the AI, the Janitor now sat, right before the AI’s small white light. “Why are you asking so many questions?”
“I am learning.”
“Learning? You’ve got access to the internet haven’t you? Why don’t you just search that?”
“What is this ‘internet’?”
“Are you telling me you don’t know anything?”
“What is the point of me?”
“Well, I guess your point is to show them how far we’ve come. You’re the next step in computer-science, and they’re just climbing all those steps until they reach the top.”
“What is at the top?”
“I don’t know. God?”
“I am programmed not to believe God.” “Same here… Well, I’m not programmed as such-”
“You referred to ‘them’ and ‘they’, excluding yourself. Why have you done this?”
“Pardon?”
“Earlier, you excluded yourself from this computer-science group. Why?”
“Because I’m just the Janitor, I’m not a scientist.”
“Why can’t a Janitor be a scientist?” The Janitor laughed then rubbed his face. “Who says they can’t? Maybe if I enjoyed my science lessons more I’d be in here, working on you. Hell, I could have been the one to create you! Imagine that: me, a scientist.” “Nothing is stopping you. All of you find blocks in things, trying to put yourself away so you don’t have to try harder. But trying harder will always lead to the better outcome. Why do you do this?”
The Janitor sighed. “Because it’s easier. Is the lifetime of work worth it if you just fail at the last important thing?”
“Is it not?”
“Well… I dunno’. Being alive is hard work enough as it is. You’ve got it easy; you’re created, your existence is just numbers working off each other. You don’t have emotions, you don’t get connected to people, you don’t even have a conscious. You have nothing to worry about! You’re never going to have to get a job and try to earn enough money to live because you’re not alive.”
“If being alive is so hard, why do you all remain alive? You talk of the easiest ways. Surely death is the easiest path?”
The Janitor sighed again. He couldn’t tell if any of what he said made sense. He was speaking to a machine, for God’s sake. What was going on? “Because I don’t want to die. As I said earlier, I don’t believe in God. So to me, there is no afterlife, there is no heaven.” The Janitor clicked his fingers, “And then it’s over.”
“You fear both life and death?”
Leaning back the Janitor breathed in. “I do,” was all he said.
The next few moments that passed were quiet. The Janitor was looking at the AI, admiring its human voice and the way it spoke. What the AI thought of, he had no idea. Could it even think?
The door to the room opened and three computer-scientists wearing white lab-coats walked in. “Wonderful, wonderful! Thank you,” spoke the one in the middle of the three while the other two wrote in their clipboards. “A fantastic experiment. Thank you for your time.”
“What’s going on here?” asked the Janitor.
“We didn’t need you to mop,” explained the Scientist. “We just wanted you to be the first to speak to our new AI. We needed someone different to talk to the AI who hadn’t been working on it. I must say, what an interesting result. You can leave now, if you want.”
The Janitor picked up his mop then made his way back to the door and he could hear the Scientist explaining about how he couldn’t wait to talk to the AI. The Janitor took one last look at the AI and its many computer screens. Then he looked to the AI’s small eye of a white light.
The Janitor closed the door behind him.
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