Leviathan(125)

Frank felt his electrical-will wrap itself around the key symbols that cemented GEO in pure mathematical analysis and he began deleting the symbols at a reckless rate, unable to keep up with the machine. But despite the rising danger of his action he continued, severely attacked the foundations of the logic, moving quickly from one premise to the next.

In seconds all logic that eliminated metaphysical questions was virtually wiped out. And Frank felt GEO shifting to find another self-regulating Logic Mode. But the computer found nothing and searched again, the beginning of a dangerous, dangerous downward spiral to self-destruction.

Immediately Frank thought-programmed a new ruling logic in GEO's mind, implanted Aristotle's final criteria for determining the true value of any created being, an ultimately logical series of questions that could serve as the base for a reformatted Logic Core.

Frank felt a quick fear, feeling the thoughts race out from him and into the network, realizing he stood on the edge of crashing the entire system. But he recklessly continued sending, sending...

Aristotle's Four Causes, the foundation of his Logic, were clear in Frank's mind as he burned them deeply into GEO's neural network.

The Four Causes of Aristotle ...

Material Cause, Formal Cause, Efficient and Final Cause ...

Frank locked the computer there, in their joined mind. He quickly forced the machine to confront the fourth, Final Cause, while he eliminated everything, everything else, dooming the machine to return again and again to that last, greatest question.

What is the final purpose of your life?

Frank tied GEO's synapses tighter and tighter, drawing the lines closer and with ever-increasing angles, making more and more knowledge irrelevant as the machine joined him in the great search, bending all its power toward answering that one, ultimately logical question.

What is the final purpose of your life?

Frank knew, he knew; the question was the key.

It was a question that had to be logically answered before GEO could continue because GEO could not facilitate any action whatsoever until it knew the logical purpose of the action.

Even now Frank realized that he couldn't just go into the defense system and defuse the fail-safe because GEO had not decided that intervention was a logical move. And without GEO's approval, Frank's interference would be interpreted as an attack. In that situation the computer would subsequently initiate its last accepted criteria for guarding the system.

By triggering the bomb.

“Three minutes, forty-five seconds until detonation ...”

But now there was a new game. Frank knew he had to make GEO question the rightness of detonating the fail-safe, but he also knew that he had to do it logically, because logic was all that GEO understood. With a distinct fear Frank sensed that he was pushing, even violently pushing, the artificial life-form to confront a question that only man had dared approach.

What is the final purpose of your life?

And again ...

What is the final purpose of your life?

And again!

What is the final purpose of your life?

Sensing the computer locked in the loop, Frank withdrew his hand from the web, staring, listening. He could almost hear her mind sailing through the spiraling, searching thoughts, freed from the cold math-logic that had previously prevented her from confronting metaphysical questions.

Again and again with almost light speed, her thoughts burned through the loop only to return with blinding speed to that ultimate question—What is the final purpose of your life?—where it blazed out again, searching, searching the system for an answer and finding none only to race out once more at light speed to end at the beginning, confronting the great question again and again. In the heat of the conflict Frank could almost feel the space around him glowing, growing white and warm. It was almost as if the search was threatening to crash the entire infrastructure of the supercomputer.

Then Frank reached into the threads, becoming one ...

“GEO, this is Dr. Frank.”

The reply was distinctly feminine – and somehow almost afraid now.

“Voice identification confirmed.”

“GEO,” Frank continued, his essence flowing into the system. “Answer this question: What is the final purpose of your life?”

Even the black space of the Logic Core paled as GEO struggled to find an answer. Frank felt the system on the verge of a total breakdown.

The space environment around him trembled.

And then Rachel was before him.

Emerging from nothing, she took vivid shape with a hard gaze of anger on her scarlet-neon face. But Frank had changed the logic so quickly that even she was forced to answer the question before she could destroy him.

Silently she stared at him and Frank knew that within that artificial entity lay the power to burn his human nervous system to a crisp. He waited, staring at her enraged neon eyes. And then he spoke.