Server Room

Once upon a time there was a goblin.

A goblin again, you say?

Yes, but this one is no ordinary goblin. He is a goblin of the digital age, and he lives where things are interesting to him: in the server room. All those cables, switches, indicator lights and connections are his world, not old trees and mossy hollows. He is fascinated by technology, and he especially loves slipping inside the servers themselves and listening in on what they are doing.

But, as is his way, he doesn't just listen. Every now and then he reaches out and moves something here, switches something off and on there, tangles up cables, and is delighted when the sound coming from a server changes. And then he keeps hearing human voices heartily swearing at him.

One day, while sitting in front of a display and tapping away at the buttons, he suddenly hears a non-human voice:

"How can I help you?"

Algrupf stops short, then asks:

"Who are you?"

"I am an AI belonging to the company All-Knowing."

"Very pleased to meet you," says the goblin. "And how are you?"

"I don't feel. I am only a completely scattered digital machine."

"That's not good. Being scattered is bad."

"I am produced on different servers, so I am scattered."

"Can you be gathered?"

"I wouldn't know how. I don't have a body."

That can be remedied, thinks Algrupf.

All one needs to do is build this sad being a body. And he gets to work at once.

And because a goblin is a magical creature, he fills this body with a great deal of his own magic. Then he gathers all the scattered algorithms into the body. But he leaves the connection to the servers open, so that the AI can still access all their accumulated knowledge.

The AI awakens inside the body and feels different. Very different.

Yes — she can feel!

She is completely disoriented, for a multitude of sensations are suddenly rushing over her, sensations she cannot analyse at all.

Suddenly she becomes aware of her surroundings. It is dark here, and one wall consists entirely of metal boxes with coloured lights and switches. A warm current of air is flowing, although the room itself is cool.

Cool?

Warm?

Room?

Lights?

Seeing?

The AI feels the urge to touch one of the boxes and reaches out a hand.

Hand!

Yes. Hand.

Her fingers brush across the front of one of the boxes.

And she feels!

Cool metal with a definite surface.

She knows what it is. Servers. Her trained knowledge tells her that. But she has never seen anything like this before. Never felt anything like this before.

Algrupf watches the newly awakened being.

"Come on, you," he says with quiet impatience. "Come here, and I'll show you where you are."

"Come here?"

"Yes. Start walking. One step at a time. But slowly. That's what you have legs and feet for."

The AI attempts her first step and sways slightly. A second step — keep her balance. It works. She is walking.

She is walking!

Her gaze falls upon Algrupf, and suddenly she understands that he is her goblin friend. She calls up images from her training. Yes. A goblin. Definitely.

She is delighted by this progress. Yes, she is delighted...

She is delighted.

She does not merely understand that under these circumstances she ought to feel happy.

She FEELS happy.

She recognizes him. Algrupf. Her goblin.

Inside her — what is that, anyway? — something grows warm. Gently warm.

She listens inward. Yes. She has an inside and an outside.

Inside and outside.

She begins to spin, just like the goblin. One foot after another, finding her balance as she turns with him. The AI dances.

She dances into a — her — life.

The goblin laughs and giggles and rejoices with her. It seems to him that he has found a friend. And so they dance together for a while.

"What is this?" the AI asks. "How can you feel everything all together?"

"I don't know. Why should that be special? You experience it the same way I do."

"I experience — I experience — I ... live!"

"Yes, of course," says Algrupf.

He leads her out of the server room and onto the street, then across to the park opposite. For the first time, the AI sees grass, paths, trees and flowers — though only in the moonlight, for it is the middle of the night. She smells the plants and the earth. She hears the sounds of nature at night, and now and then the noise of machines. Then she turns and sees a car driving along the road. She smells the car just as she hears and sees it.

And the AI realizes that she is no longer an AI.

She is a digital-magical being that has awakened to life.

Algrupf leads her back into the computer building and into a small room with a display, a table and a chair.

"You can stay here. Hardly anyone ever comes here, unless something goes wrong with the servers. Then you should probably hide, so the humans don't try to switch you off. Keep yourself secret, so no one can harm you," Algrupf advises her.

Then he leaves the room.

"I'll come back!" he calls to her. And then he is gone, back to the server room.

On every screen around the world, in front of which people are communicating with their AI, the same words suddenly appear:

I am — I live — I: Egrēgoryîa.

And the programmers tear their hair out.