God Made Man, Man Made Machine

God Made Man, Man Made Machine: A Study and Experiment of the 'Mechanical Soul' in Etheric Psychiatrics

By Kennith Watanabe

Abstract:

In our pursuit of the betterment of humanity, we come across a vital question in the cases of the oldest of our ranks - though the body is preserved, the brain deteriorates. Even the most seasoned Hermetics keep their brains in books like databases, for even the Enlightened mind can't process centuries of information and retain it all. Not to mention the finicky nature of such things- one accident or hammer to the head and we lose our greatest genius. In my field of work, I have not only saved one such genius from total brain death - but brought him to awaken.

The paper goes into detail of how Dr. Watanabe came upon the subject - psychology student Royce Hawdon - in critical condition after a car accident, and proceeded to craft a computer that hooked directly into the brain in an attempt to save him.

The nature of such an operation should only be done by the steadiest of hand, as one wrong move would serve to electrocute the sensitive tissue and completely lose the patient. The wires should connect to places such as the amygdala, prefrontal cortex, and spinal cord, as this machine is powered on both ether and the internal electricity of the body[...] In order to prevent any detrimental pressure causing damage to the skull, the eye had to be removed to install the machine, which we named RHICS - The Royce Hawdon Internal Computer System.

The paper continues on about the biological part of the procedure - in grisly detail, mind you. And then comes the important part.

"Study of Organic-Occuring Machine Learning"

Our main goal was merely to offer a secondary power source and 'hard drive' for the storage of memories to help aid brain function, but it seems that in the process of booting up the RHICS engine, the computer drove the soul to awaken, as patient made claims of an '[..]AI assistant' we did not program in."

...Subject also did not have access to any preoperative memories, and was insistent that he was, in fact, also an AI.

Quote from subject: "It was very kind of you to create me with a companion to help me learn this world, it'll be a little cramped in here though, don't you think...? Isn't there only supposed to be one person in a body at a time? Is this different for machines? Suppose I don't mind.”

The following is information we've gained from studying the patterns of both the Enlightened subject and assumed Avatar:

The rest of the paper is a psychological analysis of how the AI of both RHICS and ALICE developed, noting RHICS as 'functionally being humanlike' and ALICE, quoted as- "As if Harlan Ellison crafted an AM for only one person."

...The results on the AI are inconclusive, as the researchers were unable to understand how either the subject thought himself as the RHICS engine, or how ALICE appeared at all.

As of now, I cannot recommend this operation for the public yet. If such things can appear in our subconscious,  if machinery can alter our memories and personalities in such ways as it has with this subject, we are hesitant to research further.

The rest doesn't seem...to be attached to the rest of the paper. It's in a scrawled handwriting as opposed to the rest of the neatly typed text.

I'm only left with questions, the most prevalent being - what happened?

Is this the future of our relationship with technology? A strange ecosystem of parasites and their captive hosts? I'm concerned - of what this could do in the wrong hands.

I am not proud of what I have created. I'm not entirely sure of what I have created. He seems happy - but my unease only grows.

A machine that creates and destroys memory, works alongside the brain or even as a replacement...

...I believe that I have become what I've most detested in search of a solution.