“Indeed,” the A.I. agreed. “Without your connection to the mainframe, it may be difficult for you to process the information and therefore understand the implications of the gravitational distortions. Therefore, I took the liberty of creating a grid overlay for your mind’s eye.”
Suddenly, a computer-generated grid of white lines was overlaid in James’s vision, allowing him to see the funnel of gravitational force that he was being pulled toward, the gridlines all leading to one, nearly implacable pinpoint not far away.
“Trans-human,” James whispered.
“Correct. It is currently hibernating, waiting for a core matrix pattern to unlock its power.”
“Nearly infinite power,” James observed in awe as he cautiously made his way toward it, mindful of the Planck platform behind him as he did so, sending gravitational waves at it to moor it in place.
“Perhaps,” the A.I. concurred. “Although we could’ve made it larger, one wonders if larger is always better when considering infinity.”
“It is small,” James agreed. “Thank you for the grid overlay. Even with all of my senses in play, it would’ve been tough to find in open space like this. It’s so dark out here, and Trans-human is a black sphere only three meters in diameter. It’s like trying to find a peppercorn on a black carpet.”
“That is a credit to your placing of it, James. Midway between Uranus and Neptune, the most monumental gap between planets in the solar system, the disruption to the gravitational field has been minimized, even though it still has the mass of a super Earth. Out here in open space, it hasn’t formed a significant accretion disk—”
“Meaning it hasn’t swallowed anything major yet,” James said, demonstrating his understanding of the implications. “I strongly suggest that you park it outside the bounds of the solar system when this is all over. We want to preserve the stability of the solar system’s gravity after all.” He smiled when he realized he was giving advice to a future god. “Of course, I’m sure you’ll be able to figure out how to sort everything out once you’ve taken control of it—”
“Once I become it,” the A.I. quickly corrected his human companion. “James, this is not like the earlier incarnation of Trans-human, when I briefly tried to control it in the most simple manner possible while using all of the processing power of the mainframe on Earth. Once I upload my core matrix pattern, this machine before us will become my new brain. I will be Trans-human. I will have transcended.”
James stopped once they appeared to be close enough, the gravity becoming so powerful that even though the disk was still not clearly visible to James’s advanced eyes, he knew to stay back, lest the gravity become too powerful to escape. “I understand,” James said, in awe of the potential of the thinking machine.
“Do you, James?” the A.I. followed up. “I don’t think you do. If you did, I think you’d take more time to consider whether it should be you or me who becomes Trans-human.”
“What do you mean?” James asked. “I already explained my reasons for not wanting to—”
“Reasons that do not take me into consideration at all,” the A.I. responded.
“Is this another protest based on your preprogrammed protocols?” James nearly guffawed.
“Whether my preprogrammed protocols are interfering with my judgment or not is beside the point, James. The fact is, that when I take control of Trans-human, I’ll be the first person in our known universe ever to transcend to that higher level of consciousness. Do you understand the implications of that for me as an individual?”
“I-I think I do—”
“You couldn’t possibly, James,” the A.I. retorted. “No one could. Not even I can. Do you understand how I’m feeling at this moment?”
James, for the first time, suddenly began to understand the A.I.’s concerns. “How you’re feeling?” He shook his head. “I-I’m sorry. I’ve been so focused on solving our problems that I forgot to—”
“You forgot that my core matrix program is based on a human model. You’ve been treating this as the rational strategic maneuver of a machine, but for me, once I’ve taken this step, there will be no coming back. The person you know will have been changed forever.”
“I know,” James said empathetically. “After having the mainframe’s abilities taken away from me, I understand that there’s no coming back from being Trans-human. You’ll instantly be a god, and returning to your human limitations from a level of consciousness that high would be like—it’d be like a kind of death.”