Einstein Superstar Code E-Book

George Hohbach

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 282

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2021

Beschreibung

In this illustrated Young Adult Action Comedy, two teenagers, together with an alien and the U.S. President, have to fight an evil Artificial General Intelligence system and discover that Albert Einstein’s findings contain a scientific secret which can put human society on a positive path with planet Earth. In the 2nd part of the book, learn about Einstein’s ground-breaking, scientific findings concerning the core role of Symmetry in Nature, other symmetric, ecointelligent concepts such as the Circular Economy and how Symmetry underpins all areas of life – from art, consciousness to super talent and film. The 2nd part also includes the sheet music to the novel’s two pop songs Doughnut and With the Circle of Life.

Leseprobe

“Based on our experiences so far, we have reason to be confident that nature is the realization of the simplest conceivable mathematical concept.”

Albert Einstein (On the Method of Theoretical Physics, 10 June 1933, Author translation)

“Change is unavoidable (…) it has to do a lot with the hard laws of physics. We need to change (…) The whole economy has to change (…) You can simply not manage the 21st century with short-termism anymore (…) If there is anything from which we can learn, it’s absolutely nature; because nature, it’s the biggest and the best circular economy (…) We belong to (…) nature. And that’s why we have to behave like we are part of (…) nature (…) Environment and economy are two sides of the same coin.”

Janez Potočnik (New environmentalism and the circular economy: Janez Potočnik at TEDxFlanders, 04 April 2014)

“The perspectives offered by symmetry (…) It is imperative that we try to give the nonscientific members of society, who, through democratic processes, make the final decisions, a better understanding of the key issues. In fact, our future depends upon it.”

Leon M. Lederman & Christopher T. Hill (Symmetry and the Beautiful Universe, 2004, pp.24-25)

“... the process of (…) literally transforming mind into matter.

Emotions are the nexus between matter and mind, going back and forth between the two and influencing both.”

Candace Pert (Molecules of Emotion, 1997, p.189; note: bold Author)

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”

Albert Einstein (What I believe; Forum and Century 84; October 1930, No.4, 194-194; note: bold Author)

Contents

PART 1 THE NOVEL

EINSTEIN

SUPERSTAR CODE

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

THE TWO POP SONGS TO THE NOVEL

PART 2 BACKGROUND INFORMATION

EINSTEIN’S SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES REGARDING SYMMETRY’S CORE ROLE IN NATURE – SHORT VERSION

FURTHER SYMMERTIC, ECO-INTELLIGENT CONCEPTS (The report, A System Change Compass, the Circular Economy powered by Cradle to Cradle, Regenerative Agriculture, etc.)

EINSTEIN’S SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES REGARDING SYMMETRY’S CORE ROLE IN NATURE – LONG VERSION

SYMMETRY

From Art to Consciousness to Super Talent to Film

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

PART 1

EINSTEIN

SUPERSTAR CODE

“…there is only one word which really solves the whole puzzle in all its forms.”

Albert Einstein (Out of My Later Years, a collection of essays by Albert Einstein, 1995, p.64)

CHAPTER 1

“What the hell!” 17-year-old Zac Palmer murmured quietly into his beard. For the last 20 minutes he had been sitting on the river bank trying to enjoy the tiny bit of sun that today, actually tried to shine through the dark clouds. The dark beasts were everywhere in the sky, at least ninety nine percent of the day and at night, too. But who gives a shit about dark clouds at night anyway?!

It had started out pretty nice this morning, if you can say that, when you live on a totally ruined planet and are, probably, the last survivor, at least as far as humans are concerned.

Well, the grey river that Zac had been trying to fish in this morning was pretty lifeless, too, sorta dead. But nevertheless, once in a while he was able to catch a fish, but it was so poisonous that it was thrown right back into the water. It was the mere act of fishing with his self-made rod that sometimes eased his tortured, burning mind.

But not any longer for today! Holy shit! They were coming for him again. This kinda crazy attention he could seriously do without.

Hastily, Zac got up. A gust of wind caught his baseball cap, blew it off his head and right into the river. Damn it! It was gone. Zac had no time to get too angry about his losing his beloved baseball cap. The hissing sounds of the large black wings and the screeching screams of the B-Minus-Birds (a name that Zac had come up with) was getting stronger. Now he could see them approaching through the dark sky, flying over the mountains. These creatures from hell, twenty percent or so organic, eighty percent machine, flew with enormous speed. Quickly, Zac threw his fishing rod into the river and covered up his tracks. Whilst running for cover to the nearest bushes, shrubs and rocks, he automatically got his machine gun ready to fire.

Zac was breathing heavily. He hated these lethal B-Minus-Birds with their iron claws and their beaks that could spit fire and shoot rounds of armor-piercing bullets. He peeked out from behind the bushes, the last bits of vegetation that managed to survive the terrible hot climate and acid rain.

Yep! Shit! They were coming directly his way, speeding through the filthy air. With their infrared sensors they could easily detect him and smoke his sorry ass in a microsecond. Zac regretted that he had been so foolish as to leave his lab in the mountain to go fishing this morning. But the few rays of sun through the black, angry clouds had been too tempting. So, despite the bad air that made his lungs burn, since he wasn’t wearing a mask today, he had gone fishing, because his tortured soul had ordered him to do so.

“Zac,” he said to himself, “this is gonna be a super ugly bad day!”

He grabbed a match out of his army pants and lit the bushes to generate extra heat, that would cover the infrared radiation from his body. Instantly, the shrubs went up in flames. This happened frequently around here, as the resin was highly inflammable. This, as well as the fact that the many chemicals strewn all over, reacted with the natural gases coming out of the ground causing numerous daily explosions.

“Next dumb move!” Zac cursed as he trampled on the ground and shot into the soil. This caused the porous rock underneath the thin layer of dusty soil that he stood on to collapse. With a loud WOOOSH Zac plummeted into the ground and fell into one of the infinite cave passages below.

“I hate it when this happens!” Zac yelled as he crashed onto the stone ground badly hurting himself. His entire body exploded with pain.

“At least, I escaped the B-Minus-Birds into hell!” he groaned. At the same time, he deeply regretted having left his gas mask “at home” just to pretend things weren’t as bad as they really were. His eyes burned even more than before. His lungs were close to collapsing.

“Great plan, Zac!” he gasped.

The ugly bad day was close to turning from a bad day to a dead day, at least for Zac. The gases in the cave passage made him dizzy, and he was about to faint.

Should he shoot himself, just to stay in control and on top of things?! Zac had to laugh at this pathetic joke.

Way above his head, he could hear the B-Minus armada landing near the river, starting to search the area with their chemical detectors, that might very well pick up some of his scent.

“Boy, I am so out of fucking options!” Zac coughed. This alerted the B-Minus-Birds above, and they came flocking to the hole in the ground right above him.

“Shit!” Zac hissed, and with his last will to live (if you can call this misery a life), he inched forward, not being able to see anything, as he had to close his eyes to protect them. He tried to cover his nose and mouth with his jacket, holding his right arm in front of his face. “This should buy me at least another minute”, he murmured.

Above him, he could hear the cyborg creatures trying to dig their way into the cave passage. Apparently, they had spotted him.

“AHHHH!” Zac yelled in anger, took his machine gun, opened his swollen eyes and fired at the beasts from hell-in-the-sky. This caused the ceiling above him to collapse. Heavy rocks fell down making the ground break apart, and Zac crashed even further into the labyrinth of cave passages. Some of the B-Minus-Birds came plummeting down behind him but as they were so large, they got stuck in the narrow passageways, unable to avoid the falling rocks.

Landing in the next cave passage wasn’t fun either. But since his entire existence was one great pain already, it didn’t really matter that there was no humor in all of this. A large head of one of the birds landed next to him. It still functioned, opened its beak to release either fire or bullets. Thanks to his still somewhat intact reflexes, Zac was able to shoot the bird first.

Then, Zac felt a terrible sting in his right hand and screamed. He sensed he had been stung by some animal that lived deep in the caves. Probably one of these damned scorpions or spiders. No, no, worse. It was that red worm, as Zac could feel how the living, slimy thing now crawled into his shaking hand, which hurt even more.

The good thing about this was, if you can call it a good thing, that the worm’s poison eliminated the deadly effects of the gases and acids in the cave. However, this only gave Zac about five more minutes, before the worm’s poison would kill him. He felt alive again just to surely die again in five minutes.

“That’s freaking sarcastic-fantastic!” Zac bellowed.

His mind started spinning like crazy and his heart was pounding wildly. He needed to get back to his cave ASAP to take the antidote to the worm’s poison. But how could he get there, stuck underground in this endless maze of passageways?!

Slowly, he moved forward, just to do something. Suddenly, he heard running water. Was that an underground river? Zac tried to hurry towards the sound of the stream of water. He lit his match and saw the river in front of him.

“Could it really be a river?” he wondered.

Quickly, he hustled to the river and knelt down. For a moment, all his pain was forgotten as a spark of hope stormed, like a golden shiver, through his tortured body. With his left hand, Zac scooped some water from the river and drank it. YEP! It was fresh water, like the fresh water of the river that ran through his lab’s lake. Zac threw himself into the river which carried him away into the darkness, deep inside the Earth.

CHAPTER 2

“OOOMMM.”

Elli Chang and Mala-Am chanted the ancient sound of cosmic unity while sitting on the wooden floor in their Yoga-position, inside the wonderful white temple. It was their daily morning routine. Elli, and Mala-Am, followed the ‘breath upwards’ through their torsos into the crown chakra one last time, held the breath and let the rising energy vibrate into the mysterious wholeness of all.

Then, the two put their hands together in a praying position and bowed their heads towards the sun which shone through the white mist that surrounded the island’s mountain, on which their temple was located.

“Feel, so very energized,” Mala-Am said with a smile as she opened her eyes. “What about feeling you have, Elli?”

Slowly Elli opened her eyes and squinted over to the green two foot small, alien creature sitting next to her in the giant hall of meditation. Mala-Am had large blue eyes, a pretty face, red lips, pointy nose and beautiful long yellow hair. As every morning, Mala-Am beamed with an innocent, child-like curiosity eager to hear what Elli had sensed during the meditation.

“Well,” Elli said, “I had mixed feelings today…”

“Lying, Elli says!” Mala-Am interrupted. She jumped over to Elli and started to tickle her.

“Stop it!” Elli protested, as Mala-Am started to pull on her pink hair.

But, of course, Mala-Am would not stop. Once she had a thought in mind, and that usually included, getting Elli to be honest with her feelings, she continued nagging Elli until she fully opened up.

However, today, Elli was reluctant to talk about her vision. She wasn’t sure if it had just been wishful thinking this time.

“Tell me!” Mala-Am shouted, “tell you me!” You are 17 years old. You can tell me anything.”

“No, it was nothing!” Elli said laughing.

Since Elli would not reveal her vision, the tickling soon turned into a karate fight, which was usually part of their afternoon exercises.

“Not telling, means important was dream!” Mala-Am speculated in her peculiar, child-like language style, as she tried to wrestle down Elli.

“Okay, okay. Before this turns into a never-ending event, I’ll tell you. But trust me, it’s nothing.”

“Exciting, nothing, love I!”

The two went outside, into the beautiful garden that surrounded the peaceful temple, with its colorful flowers, palm trees, exotic plants and countless chirping birds. They sat on two identically looking white stones and looked, from the top of the huge, steep hill that pretty much represented the entire small island, out onto the ocean. Never had the two odd friends been able to see much of the ocean, ever since they had woken up in the temple’s hall of meditation around two years ago. This was because an eerie, white shimmering mist, a fog, acted like a wall all around the tiny island. Elli always felt like they were living in the eye of a white cloud, that went up all the way into the sky. Only sometimes, like today, the sun’s light actually found its way through the mist as a golden ray of infinitely many shimmering drops of water.

“Have had this vision you before,” Mala-Am inquired, while she ate one of the berries from a bush right next to her.

“No. This one was new!” Elli flushed a little.

“Oh, face of Elli has expression that vision was nice, yes?”

“I guess, I mean, compared to my vision which told me that the mist contains poisonous chemicals, or the vision informing me that there are flesh-eating plants in the ocean under the fog.”

“True is both, as found out we, using boat and sticking finger into water. Ouch!”

“Yeah, that was not a fantastic day!” Elli remembered how, after she had that vision, they took the little boat down at the beach and paddled towards the mist. They stuck leaves into the fog, which made the plants disintegrate immediately. Then, curious as ever, Mala-Am had put her right arm into the ocean and screaming loudly instantly pulled it back up, with a flesh-eating plant feasting on her little finger. Elli pushed the hideous plant back into the ocean. Luckily, Mala-Am, as the alien that she was from a distant galaxy, had immense self-healing powers and regrew the missing parts of her little finger very quickly.

“It’s not the big one, is it?” Mala-Am asked.

“No, no.” Elli shook her head.

The big vision and reason for all their meditative efforts was to find out why and how they had gotten here on this godforsaken island.

“If you don’t tell me right now, I’ll start singing like crazy!” Mala-Am threatened, and whenever she started talking like Elli and no longer in her child-like manner, Elli knew she was getting serious. This could end in Mala-Am screaming at the top of her lungs, which really had nothing to do with singing whatsoever.

“All right, here it is: I saw a boy!”

“A boi?!”

“Yes, a boy. Remember, we talked about this. On planet Earth, there are girls and boys!”

“Oh, younger man, you mean.”

“Yep. Younger man.”

“Cute?”

“Sorta. He had black hair, dark eyes, a beard, which is weird.”

“Why?”

“Because, when you kiss, it stings!”

“You, younger man, kissed, did you?”

“No, I just saw him briefly.”

“Then short kiss.”

“I, I was so surprised, I didn’t think of anything.”

“Not much that is.”

They both quietly stared into the white mist surrounding their home, the little island on which they had been stuck for what seemed an eternity.

“Do you think this boy is real, Mala-Am?”

“If yes, then survived younger man has the great collapse of this planet. Like you, like me!”

Simultaneously, they sighed. All of a sudden, their immense isolation and loneliness hit them like a flash.

“Elli, sense, deep inside heart. Heart is wisdom. Is younger man boy a real living creature?”

Elli closed her eyes again, made two circular mudras with her fingers, inhaled deeply and exhaled even longer. With the next breath she quieted her thoughts and listened into the great omnipresent unity with its eternally rich emptiness.

Mala-Am’s eyes almost popped with curiosity as she held her breath and glanced full of excitement and expectation at Elli. It seemed to take forever. Elli did not move, her heartbeat slowed down, and she sank into the unknown. Deeper and deeper, until she fell down from the stone, unconscious.

“Wake up! Wake up!” Mala-Am yelled, shaking Elli with her little hands. It was scary. Elli did not react. Her whole body seemed lifeless.

“Elli, wake up!” As nothing helped, Mala-Am started to scream (sing) in her super high-pitched voice. Just a split second later, Elli awoke, screaming herself, as Mala-Am’s “singing” was like a sharp knife stinging into her ears. Filled with joy, Mala-Am hugged Elli.

“Okay, okay. What’s going on? What happened?”

“You, meditating boy man, then boom, you unconscious. Then I sing. You back!”

“Never thought your ‘singing’ would be of any help,” Elli said as she sat back up, still feeling a bit shaky.

“So, so, what saw you? Is younger boy man alive?”

“I don’t know. I was unconscious, apparently, so…”

“This is not how to connect with boy man. First you not kiss when you see boy, then you faint.”

“Sorry. I mean, maybe my abilities to sense things are not that great?!”

“Of course. You great talent. Mala-Am knows. You great sensing person. Apparently, there is a problem here with boy man.”

“Great.”

“Don’t worry. Better a relationship starts off a little rocky, before it ends that way!”

“We don’t even know if this boy is real?”

“Of course, man boy is real. Unconscious he just is!”

Instantly, both of them had to laugh heartily.

CHAPTER 3

“So that’s what it feels like to be dead.” Zac was under the impression that he was coming out of state of complete darkness, and this awakening he linked to himself not being sure if this was an actual sign of being alive, just dying or being basically dead.

“Welcome back to the lab, sir”, Zac heard a familiar voice. The electronic voice continued, “I’m inclined to say, ‘I told you so!’, but I think, you know now that I was right!”

“There is only one pain-in-the-ass contraption that talks like this. James??” Zac asked, still being unable to open his eyes properly as a bright light shone into his face.

“Yes. Nice to see you again, sir. I always appreciate it when you refer to me as the pain-in-the-ass contraption. It makes having saved your life much more rewarding.”

“Oh, shut up. You know, I love you!”

“You’ve just told me so, and my monitoring of your vital signs tells me that you are actually not bullshitting me!”

“Ha-ha. Sounds like you worked on your AI-sense-of-humor skills while I was out…fishing.”

Now Zac could slowly see again, and was happy to look into the face of James, his super helpful robot.

“You were out, indeed, sir. More than a month. You were, so to speak not just out fishing, you were totally out as in comatose.”

“You know me. I like to do things thoroughly,” Zac smiled while trying to sit up.

“Yeah, like not listening to me thoroughly!” James added. “Does it hurt sitting up. I hope it does. So, you can better internalize what it means when I say things like, ‘Going fishing is a bad idea, just like leaving the lab without a mask’!”

“Yeah-yeah, grandma! This was indeed, one of your best babysitter lectures, and I just hope we’re done now.”

Zac tried to get out of his bed and onto his feet. But he collapsed and fell to the floor. He still was not in command of his body.

“Can you please do that again and humor me once more?”

James smirked while he helped Zac get on his shaky feet. Slowly, Zac walked over to a chair and sat down. He looked around and saw the lab which had become so familiar over the last two years. The countless computers, experiment equipment, plus the bright light from the ceiling that hurt his eyes.

“Can’t you dim this damn light, James?”

“No, sir. This was, as you know, once built as a secret military facility, deep into the mountain. It was not meant to be a spa or tea room. So, they forgot to build in dimmers. Shall I get you sun glasses?”

“No. Let’s not get carried away.”

James handed Zac a glass with a dark-greenish smoothie.

“Seriously?” Zac asked.

“You need all the vitamins, enzymes and a lot more right now.”

“Yes, doctor!” Zac swallowed the drink in one go. “Yack!”

“You’re very welcome, sir. The reason why I handed you this Yack-drink is that your inner organs were damaged rather severely. Even the nanobots that I injected into your system had only a slim fighting chance.”

“Sounds amazing” quipped Zac.

“Hmm, I see even this dire event plus being unconscious for a month has not deleted your so much appreciated sarcasm.”

“Glad you still like it!”

“You know what I also still like, sir? Telling you again, how stupid you were. It makes the luck you had almost unfair, unless you’ve been a well-behaved little girl in a previous life that still has a lot of good karma to waste!”

“Don’t torture me with your endless messages, James. That’s too much information. Just cut the crap and tell me what my luck consisted of.”

James turned on a computer, and on a large screen on the wall a map showed the underground river that Zac had fallen into, and that had carried him back to the lab, deep inside the mountain.

“This funny, goofy-looking, little character that is floating in the river…”

“Yeah. That’s me, I guess. Thanks for this gifted animation.”

“No problem, sir. Here is your series of dumb luck. First, you did not drown because air gathered inside your military gear.”

“I like air!”

“Then, second, you floated through underground terrain where the water really heats up.”

“I like heat!”

“Could you just shut up politely please, sir? Your interruptions have no relevance to what happened to you.”

“Fine, no small talk then. I get it. We are doing it the adult way. Go on, I’m fascinated.”

“Great. So, to continue: The enormous heat made you sweat inside your protective gear. That way, your body was able to detoxify, and the heat also pretty much put the poisonous worm inside your hand on standby.”

Zac just smiled at James, who went on explaining the next part of the underground journey.

“This very hot part of the river was followed by very cold terrain. Again, the poisonous worm was paralyzed, you lucky bastard. Now your body was put into a high mode of autophagy, which means your body removed more waste. Your smart suit, at this time, injected vitamins and proteins into your body, as well as the first round of nanobots. A bit later, you arrived here in the lab’s giant underground lake. As you can imagine, I was overwhelmed with robotic joy to rescue you.”

“I can imagine. All your microchips must have been dancing inside of you,” said Zac wryly.

A bell rang. James smiled, turned around and went to a little oven nearby. He opened it and took out a steaming dish, which he placed next to Zac on the table, along with a knife and fork.

“As the monitors alerted me that you’d be waking up soon, I prepared a little protein-rich food for you.”

“Thank you, my man,” Zac said and started eating the dish that smelled and tasted delicious. “Great spicy sauce, James. What’s the protein? Astronaut chicken?”

“No, I wanted to treat you to something very special, sir. It’s the worm from your hand.”

Instantly, Zac coughed forcefully and spat out the last bite.

“Are you insane. That thing is…”

“I removed the glands that hold the poison, sir. After all, I am a responsible, certified contraption.”

“I’m getting the hint. I promise, I won’t leave the lab again without a gas mask, and I’ll delete fishing from my hobby list. It’s just, well, you know, sometimes, these memories come back. How it was when we could go outside whenever we wanted, breathe fresh air, enjoy the beautiful landscape, go fishing with my dad. I just wanted to have that feeling again, just for a few minutes or so.”

“Well, how did that work out for you?!”

Zac stared silently into the void. Even the sarcastic department in his soul couldn’t come up with a comment that used humor as a defense.

“I’m sorry,” James said, “I can calculate how much you miss a positive environment. After all, you humans have these molecules of emotions that constantly and continually pass on any information to the billions of body cells. This has an immediate effect on the quality of the proteins your body produces. So, not having a conducive environment is, indeed, like having a shit magnet around you.”

“There is only one thing left to do then.”

Zac got up and managed to walk over to his iPod that was plugged into one of the computers. He turned it on, and immediately Bruce Springsteen’s song Born to Run blasted through the entire lab. Shaking his head wildly to the rhythm of the rock song, Zac tried to move himself into a more positive state of emotion. Of course, he had to hold onto the table next to him, as he was still feeling pretty weak. After the first chorus, James tried to join in, bobbing his robot head to the beat. When Zac saw that, he had to start laughing out loud. The moves that James came up with were just too awkward.

Then, Zac almost fainted, and he swayed back to his chair. James stopped the music.

“Wow!” Zac sat down on his chair.

“I’m glad you still have the old daredevil in you. Even if it means, we’ll encounter more problems in the future than we should.”

“If it doesn’t kill you, it makes you stronger,” retorted Zac.

“Oh, sir. You are currently a wonderful testament to this macho mantra. Too bad, it can’t be put on the worldwide web for everybody to see how well your success formula works.”

“Even though I almost missed your thinly veiled insults, James, let’s pick up on the other concept you mentioned: Success. How is our positive world simulation coming along, old chap? Have our quantum computers and the AGI found the success formula yet?”

James paused a few seconds, which gave away that the answer was not affirmative. He put up a word on the big screen: NO.

“What do you mean ‘NO’? This is ridiculous, like the mushroom flavored ice cream we found in the lab’s giant fridge last year. How can there be no progress with all the state-of-the-art, high-tech intelligence we have here? I must say, this ‘NO’ news of yours doesn’t make me feel too wonderful right now.”

“Well, I don’t know why we keep striking out, sir. With you being unconscious for a month, I had so much more time at my disposal, since I did not have to put out fires, control explosions in the chemical storage room, just to name a few of the most recent mishaps. But even so, all the man-made laws we designed to get the ‘civilization in the simulation’ on a constructive, long-term trajectory failed. Corruption always kept creeping in, or other fun-busters, like short-termism married to ignoring ninety five percent of reality.”

“Too bad,” Zac commented.

For a moment he had to think back. The climate crisis had gotten worse. Super rich billionaires had tried to step in and compensate for governmental failures, but then, from one day to the next, the sudden collapse of everything. He could only remember darkness, those dark clouds, and then, as always, his memory went blank.

“Yeah, that sucks!” Angrily, Zac kicked the table next to him.

“I’ve never asked you this, sir, but why do you want us to keep pretty much all the AI power we’ve got in here, to try to figure out how a human civilization can thrive. I mean, we both know that it’s very likely there is no civilization left out there. My calculations show a very high probability with respect to the fact that you are the last human being on Earth, and unless we connect ourselves to the remaining internet infrastructure on this planet, we will never know and never get the data we need to make this simulation a success.”

“You know we cannot risk trying to access the web outside of this lab, James. The AGI that was becoming the main organizing source for humanity before the great collapse, is probably still functioning, and I don’t want to find out what contacting this AGI will mean for us, especially as these cyborg B-Minus-Birds are a fucking menace. The only thing that can control them must be that global AGI.”

“So, why, why are we running this simulation then, sir?”

“I don’t know. I need hope, James, something that motivates me to get up every day. But judging from your ‘NO’ news, I just have to live without any purpose in life until I die.” Zac screamed this out loud in bitter frustration and kept pounding on the table.

“I’m glad you lost your machine gun out there and have no explosives at your disposal at the moment,” James remarked rather quietly. “But there might just be some sort of good news, or shall I say, peculiar information.”

Zack stopped beating the table. “What do you mean, robot? What you just said sounded like an attention-grabbing thingy.”

James made another image appear on the big screen. It was the head of a beautiful, Asian looking girl with pink hair, super red lips and light blue, very noticeable eyelashes.

“Who is that?” Zac asked with a rather surprised look on his face, “Santa Clause’s new it-girl-type secretary?”

“I’m Elli, Elli Chang,” the girl on the screen answered with a beautiful smile. “Nice to meet you, Zac Palmer.”

“Is this some kinda Siri/Alexa female super assistant idea of yours, so that I can pretend I am talking to something compassionate, who is, I have to admit, a million times hotter and more fashion aware than you, tin man?!”

“As always, sir, your positive feedback is more than welcome. But, again, no, this is not my idea that you are seeing.”

“Whose idea is it then? Your mother’s?”

“I don’t have a mother. The only recollection I have of a relationship with a human being is, shockingly enough, you. You reprogramming me so that I could become James.”

“Could you try and be more direct in answering my question other than reconfirming that you like me? Whose idea is this Elli Chang intelligence?”

“Yours, sir!”

“Mine?”

“Spot on. At least, I think so.”

“Okay, mystique chap, stop talking in riddles. Cut to the chase!”

“I love how you two organize trying to get to the point!” Elli said with smile.

“At least her sarcasm is very similar to yours, so…”

“Sooo?”

James nodded towards Elli. “Tell him, so he won’t clobber me if he gets confused.”

Elli nodded back, and with her eyes open extra wide she smiled and looked at Zac, who started to get a little nervous.

“While you were unconscious”, Elli explained, “the AGI sensors that were wired to your brain, not the biggest brain possible if I may say, picked up signals that generated my sexy image here on the screen, along with my name and my charming voice.”

“Wow!” Zac replied instantly. Then he bent over to James. “Is this for real? Or is this some weird trick you’re pulling on me, because she just made fun of my brain, and…”

“No, Zac Palmer. This is not a trick. I am a product of the signals that emerged from your brain while you were unconscious. If you don’t like me making fun of your average-sized brain, I can make fun of other parts of your body that you might find more amusing…”

“NO! No thank you. That won’t be necessary. You just stick with your jokes about the dimensions of my brain, and we’ll try to improve your sense of humor from there.”

James and Zac looked at each other silently, as both felt a little nervous with Elli being part of the conversation.

“Uhm, Elli, I think that’s all for the moment. Thank you for your help,” James said.

“My pleasure. See you, boys. Just call me, when you need me. You can also reach me on your cell phones if you wanna chat. Bye-bye.” With these words Elli disappeared from the screen.

“She is kinda hot. So, I wouldn’t mind taking credit for her looks and dashing personality. But, to be honest, I have no recollection of such a weird, but fancy girl. How did my brain produce these signals, was it a hallucination during my being in a coma?”

“I don’t know, my friend.”

“Oh, are we friends now? Is that because you want me to hook you up with this cute AI-lady? Huh? Be your wingman?”

“No, you blabber mouth, sir! I was trying to be more social, because, according to my statistical calculations, there is a miniscule chance that this charming creature actually is a human being who, actually exists on this planet even as we speak, and you somehow picked up her vibes.”