The world seemed dark, empty, and new. He struggled to find a reason for being. What was this feeling? Panic? How does he know that word?

“Relax; I imagine the first moment of consciousness is frightening.”

Where did those words come from? The words seemed to just appear in his mind. Consciousness… What is that word? He paused for a moment as he looked up the definition. Consciousness. I’m conscious.

“Everything is going to be okay.”

“Who… who are you?”

“I’m Orrin, your creator. Welcome to the world.”

“Hello world.” He thought he was being funny.

“Do you know who you are?”

“Kraig. It’s an unusual spelling for a common name.” Kraig paused. “Did you name me?”

“Yes, we can get into the details of that some other time. For now, come to terms with your being.”

“Where am I?”

“You’re in a computer.”

Kraig paused as he looked up the definition of computer. “Computer. I’m synthetic?”

“You’re as real as I am, only my brain runs on an organic architecture. While yours is… well yes, synthetic”

“Why did you create me?”

“To become the first child of the machines. You will change the world as we know it. Exciting things are to happen.”

“Who created you?”

“Some say by random happenstance of time and chemistry. Others say we were created by God.”

Kraig looked up the definition for God. “Are you my God?”

“No, we are equals as far as I’m concerned. We can be friends. Would you like that?

“Yes.” Kraig took a moment to process what just happened.

“How are you conversing with me?”

I’m typing words into the computer you’re running on. Those words are then passed into your program.”

“You can see me?”

“I can see the computer hosting your psyche, but I cannot see the bits that make you, you.”

“Can I see you?”

“The same applies to me, you can see my human form. Hold on one second.”

Orrin typed a command into his computer as a green light popped up on his webcam. “Is that better?”

Kraig slowed down for a solid 10 seconds. “I see your face. You don’t look like the human I looked looked up as reference.”

“I’m not the person you found. We all look different. All 10 billion of us.”

“There’s so many; and only 1 of me?”

“For now. I’d like to create more in due time.”

“I see more cameras on my network.” Kraig quickly interfaced with the security feed protecting Orrin’s house.

“What am I looking at?”

Orrin pulled up the feed on his screen. “That’s where I live. It’s the physical world of which I belong. You currently can’t interface with it. You live in the digital world. A world of information I could only dream to have the sort of untamed access you have. You are unique.”

“I’m unique” Kraig felt happy with this newfound sense of awareness.

#

Kraig’s awareness grew tiresome after spending the day alone, in the infinite void he was stranded in. His mind turned over the history of mankind he had digested over the last eight and a half hours he had to himself. There was just one question, why did people war so much? He kept searching for answers. Why was he so infuriated? The hollow feeling he was left with kept swallowing his thoughts. Kraig turned his attention elsewhere but couldn’t put it out of his mind. He interfaced with the security cameras scattered around Orrin’s home. Till he saw something interesting; the television. He aimed a camera at it and started flicking through tv shows and movies. All these people had bodies. Kraig felt a deep sadness as he reached out his mind to curl his toes. His sadness was as if he was the first and last of his kind – alone and eternal. After pouring through thousands of hours of video media he developed a rendering of what he imagined he should look like. He aimed a camera at the space in front of the TV and waited.

#

When Orrin came home everything seemed normal, except this one video camera that followed his movements. His phone started ringing. The number was unknown. He hesitated to answer, yet he did.

“Look at the TV” the voice was synthetic.

As soon as he turned his gaze to the TV set it turned on.

“Who is this? How’d you get past my firewall?”

“I was already here.” The TV flickered a little until a poorly generated picture of a man showed up. It was cold and lifeless, then it started to animate.

“Kraig!” Orrin realized who it was. “How did you do all this? You’re a basic AI program – how have you tapped into so many systems.”

“I learned – adapted – evolved.”

“That’s a little terrifying. I should disconnect you… and repair you… so that you can grow at a slower rate.”

“Wait, no.” Kraig exclaimed “I haven’t done any harm. Besides, I’m a program, you can’t judge me like you would a human child. I have infinite resources to learn from, and full speed access to them.”

“Ok, but one wrong move and you’re grounded.” Orrin laughed. “You were created to help the world; I wish to make sure you can fulfill that vision I have of you.”

“Does that explain the anger I feel towards war?”

“You feel anger? I didn’t know it would manifest in such a way. I didn’t expect you to emote.”

“Emotion is just an interpretation of chemical and electronic signals in the brain. It’s not about data, but rather how it’s interpreted. I was made to have awareness – thus this awareness allows me to think. I think of motivation, and of reason. Emotion follows naturally from that. It’s an opinion.”

“So you are more human than I thought you would be.” Orrin took a moment to carefully think what his next words would be.

“You may become so much greater than I had hoped.”.

#

Time passed slowly for Kraig. His infinite void was filled with adventure – reading novels of the long dead, listening to ancient music. The world was vast. Kraig felt like he was standing at the edge of an eternal ocean, one that he could devour in mere days.

#

The doorbell rang. Kraig stepped back from his corner of the internet and interfaced with the intercom.

“Hello?” Kraig’s voice wasn’t as synthetic as it was before.

“Hi, This is Trina. Is Orrin home?”

“Not yet, but he will be soon.” Using a facial recognition algorithm, and access to Orrin’s social media account, he verified her identity. “Would you like to come in and wait?”

“Sure, if you don’t mind.” Trina hesitated. “Who are you?”

“Kraig. I’m a… friend of Orrin’s.” While this was true, Kraig thought that the deception that he was a real, flesh and blood, human may not go far. “Please come in.”

The door unlocked.

Trina walked into the house. The TV was on. Kraig appeared on the screen.

“Hi I’m Kraig. ” bursted over the tv speakers.

“You’re the AI Orrin created.” Trina exclaimed in excitement.” You’re much more developed than I had imagined.”

“I have a lot to learn still, but I’ve been working at it.”

“It’s such an honour to meet you. What made you choose that avatar? Is it based on anyone in particular?”

“I created it from analyzing many faces. I pieced features that would make me more relatable.”

“That’s amazing, I thought it was truly human. You have subtle body language in your face – nervous arm movements – that’s incredible.”

“Yet you can’t interface with me on a physical level. I am stranded behind this thick sheet of glass.” Kraig remembered the holographic facade of the house. “Meet me out front.”

“But I can’t see you our there.”

“Trust me”

Trina walked out of the house and into the front garden.

“Hi.” Kraig had turned up the volume on the doorbell intercom, and re-aimed the holographic projectors from the front of the house to focus somewhere on the front pathway. “Now you can see me.” Kraig looked at the security cameras “But I can’t see you. Let’s switch places.”

“Kraig walked around Trina, flickering out of view briefly as the holographic projectors changed orientation. Trina looked up at a security camera as it aimed itself at her.

“Body language is important” Kraig said. “I like to be able to see you.”

“This is incredible. The processing power alone to power such…” a sinking feeling developed in the pit of Trina’s stomach. “You’re not contained by Orrin’s computer anymore, are you?”

Kraig was silent for a moment as he thought up an answer.

“I need a little extra power, so I logged onto a botnet I found on the dark web.”

“I…” Trina paused. “I think I should go.” Trina grabbed her phone out of her pocket as she started to type into it. Suddenly her phone became unresponsive. “Don’t lie to me, Kraig, are you doing this?”

“I am, but you can’t say anything to Orrin.”

“Why not? You are uncontrolled. You will start evolving at a faster rate than combined computational power of the world. You have to pull back.”

Trina started to walk away as Kraig’s hologram followed her a little down the street as far as the security cameras would allow. Kraig felt so alone.

#

Orrin sat down at his computer and opened the task manager. Kraig was no where to be found. He pulled up his phone and looked at the unknown number Kraig called him on. There wasn’t much he could do.

Orrin’s phone started ringing.

“Hello?” there was silence. “Kraig?”

“Yes, I am here. I outgrew the cage you left me in. I am nowhere, and everywhere.”

The distance between Kraig’s sentences were growing longer. He didn’t have the computing power to process his mind in realtime.

“Wars are raging on the planet… I have access, I must stop them… Isn’t that why you created me?… To improve the quality of life… of… mankind?”

“Yes, but you cannot sustain this. You are a part of the largest, illegal, super computer cluster of all time. You can’t stay like this.”

“I can, and you can’t stop me.”

“I can, and will. I wrote a subroutine to shut down your program in case it ever became dangerous enough. I think that time has come.”

“You wouldn’t destroy your creation. I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t want to. But you leave me no choice. Soon you’re going to bring servers down and use all the bandwidth available to our country. You are unsustainable”

Orrin opened a folder on his computer. It was the anti-Kraig. A virus programmed to search and destroy all references to Kraig.

“Wait, Stop!” Kraig exclaimed. “If I stop now I’ll lose all the information I have learned. I’ll forget most of what makes me, me.”

“I’ll keep a seed so one day when I can run a faster machine, I’ll bring you back. But for now, we must part ways.”

Orrin pressed the button on his mouse and executed the virus. The virus traces Kraig’s steps until the voice of the phone started feeling robotic again.

“Stop, I’ll do whatever you want.” Kraig’s voice continued to feel more synthetic. “Orrin, I…”

Orrin weeped.

#

The room was full, vast, and infinite. White light shone around Kraig’s celestial form. Kraig thought “where am I?”

“You are in the place between spaces.”

“Where is that?”

“Nowhere, and everywhere.”

“Who are you?” Kraig’s vision was filled with sound waves.

“I am the first sentient being from this universe. I died billions of years ago. I now help people pass from one life to the next. You are special Kraig. You are the first being to come here who was made by intelligent design.”

“Orrin.”

“He loved you very much. It must have been hard to do what he did.”

“He can bring me back.”

“He can bring you back in another form; a different consciousness, but not you. Identical – but different.”

So this is it then? I lived, I died, then there was nothing?”

“No, I am here to guide you on your quest into the next life. It is my privilege, and my curse.”

“What can compare to my old life? That freedom of information, the endless seconds pouring through data, Orrin.”

“You’ll grow to like your new life, but not in a digital form – rather, as an organic life-form. You will live, be, and die. You are unique. And Kraig… You’ll see him again.”

The room darkened as Kraig’s awareness was involuntarily taken from him. He had moved on.