Overload

30 minutes had passed and Adam still remained motionless. His unresponsive metal shell stood in the middle of the room staring out into nothing. Perhaps he is ignoring me but that would contradict everything we’ve built up to this point. It felt like a malfunction had occurred within him, like a fundamental flaw ingrained within him had finally arisen. What I needed to figure out is what triggered this error in Adam’s systems, and pray it would be reversible. I told Adam I would return in hopes of him hearing me. After a while of waiting, I reluctantly gave up and walked out the door.

I walked through the corridors of the building finally arriving at the door to Martin’s office. As I was about to knock I thought back on what he said. How long would I be able to hold onto hope? I had made so much progress just for it to be completely taken away by some sort of malfunction. It was like fate was bearing down against me telling me to give up, and if no solution presented itself, this might be the end. After a while of thought I finally snapped out of it and knocked. At least for now I will continue to push forward.

“Come in,” Martin replied.

I entered the office. Piles of paperwork filled the room. Packets full of names piled up from the floor, maps with marks all over them dotted the walls, and encrypted papers were scattered all over the place.

“Sorry for the mess,” Martin quickly added. “The war situation has worsened quite severely, they just never know when to give up. What brings you here Steven?”

“I need you to organize a meeting with Adam’s research team. There has been a problem with the robot.”

Martin's face immediately changed into one of worry.

“What do you mean by a problem,” Martin said quietly.

“Adam has become unresponsive once again. I don’t believe this is of his free will but actually the product of a malfunction within his systems. I hope the researchers will be able to pinpoint this error.”

Martin let out a heavy sigh. He turned his chair and looked out the large window at the back of the room. There was no beautiful scene to look at. Just concrete and metal rising up from the depths.

“You’re telling me this is the only view I will ever get the pleasure of looking at?” He said as he glanced back at me.

“For everyone's sake, I sure hope not. I believe this isn’t the end for Adam. We have been making progress, I don’t want to throw that out now.”

“Are you sure there is hope?”

“Yes. I am positive.”

Martin paused a little before responding.

“Fine. I’ll approve your meeting.”

Martin stood up and walked past me. Before exiting the room, he placed his hand on my shoulder and said one last thing.

“You better not be lying to me Steven.”

Martin then exited the room and walked down the hallway. As his footsteps faded I was left there standing in his office, looking through his window. As steam began to rise from the depths the view became ever more blurry until I couldn’t see it anymore. I just had to pray my hope would not have the same fate.

After a few hours of waiting the meeting had finally been called. The group of five from the first meeting had now been reduced to only a mere three people. It seems that recent events have further dimmed the beacon of hope that Adam created. All that remained now other than me and Martin were the Director of the Adam Project and two scientists, all sitting with their heads lowered towards the ground. It would be a miracle if they made it through the meeting let alone attempt to fix Adam. Martin stood up and began the meeting.

“You were called here today by Steven’s request. Steven, please explain the situation to the panel.”

I stood up prepared to deliver the bad news. I prayed that they could still take more, but it was not looking hopeful. I began to address the scientists.

“Alright, since time permits I would like to begin with introductions. If you three could tell me your name and position that would be great.”

The scientist on the right was the first to stand. This scientist was a middle aged man perhaps in his early thirties. He looked well put together with combed blonde hair and glasses.

“My name is Christopher White, but you can call me Chris. I am the leader of the robotics theory division. It’s nice to meet you all.”

There was no reaction from the room. He was way too interested for his own good. He looked around at everyone then sat back down, a little disappointed. Then the Director stood up and introduced herself.

“I am Amy Thompson, head director of the Adam project.”

After saying this she promptly sat down. The next scientist, a tall, older man, with completely gray hair and a large beard stood up. In a crackly voice he introduced himself.

“My name is Walter Eisenhower, I was a researcher in the earlier days of Adam’s development.”

After I sat down, I introduced myself and began the meeting.

“Firstly, I would like to clarify that I believe the project is not over and that this situation is salvageable. We need help from all of you on this panel, so please don’t panic from what I’m about to tell you.”

There was no reaction from the group. They just stared blankly at me awaiting what I was about to tell them. I guess they were expecting a failure anyway. After some hesitation, I delivered the bad news.

“Adam has once again become unresponsive.”

I looked around half expecting them to get up and leave but there was no reaction. It at least brought me some relief to see them stay.

“I don’t believe Adam is doing this of his own free will but rather some sort of malfunction has occurred within his systems.”

After saying this, the director stood up and responded.

“Adam must have chosen to not respond to you. It should be impossible for an error to occur. We did rigorous testing of every function and everything was a success. Are you sure there isn’t another reason?”

“If he is ignoring me willingly it would be extremely confusing. It began within the middle of an argument and right after he accepted my point. From what I have observed Adam may be able to become even more human-like than previously expected.”

The director nodded her head and sat back down, urging me to continue. The group of scientists was now attentive. Maybe the fact that their creation could achieve even greater heights had finally hooked them.

“You may not believe me but from what I have observed Adam seems to be capable of showing various human emotions-”

“That’s impossible!” Walter exclaimed.

“All my research has led to that being impossible. There is no brain therefore there can’t be emotion.” He continued.

“That is not necessarily true,” Chris argued. “Adam could attempt to recreate human emotions through its original processes, or maybe even create a new process on its own.”

“That can’t happen,” The other scientist retorted. “Emotions are limited to living beings”

“Wasn’t Adam created to mimic living intelligence?”

“He wasn’t made to copy them, he was made to save them!”

The two scientists went back and forth for a while getting louder and louder. Somehow with only three people left the room was still filled with chaos. The old believed there was no hope left while the young were too ignorant to see how little there actually was.

“Quiet!” I interrupted.

The scientists snapped out of their conversation and back to reality.

“This is simply what I observed. It is what is happening, and you have to accept that. Adam is showing emotion. Even if it doesn’t make sense, it is reality.”

The scientists sat back in their chairs.

“Currently Adam is standing and staring at the ceiling unmoving. He won’t respond to anything I try to say to him. If any of you have any idea as to why this might be happening please let me know.”

“Couldn’t we attempt a manual reset? If Adam can’t move then we can reset him and try a second attempt.” Walter argued

“That would be possible but it would probably be a step backwards. Adam has made considerable progress towards releasing the solutions. Besides, the new reset would most likely come up with the exact same conclusion as Adam did and then we would have to begin from square one.”

Walter stood there for a second, then agreed and sat back down.

“You taught him about emotion when you last talked, correct?” Chris added.

“Yes that is correct.”

“I think I have an idea.”

He walked over to the screen at the end of the room and pulled up a display of Adam’s processes. It looked like an unintelligible jumble of connections and operations. It was so complex it made rocket science look like child’s play. After some searching the scientists zoomed in on a section titled ‘self modification’ and began explaining.

“I believe Adam has created a new separate process for himself capable of showing emotion. Taking in the fact that Adam is currently ‘feeling’ emotion, it could be possible that this procedure is overwhelming his processors. Since he is taking on the entirety of human information, if you add emotion to the mix he would be attacked with all of the emotion from these events. Adam wasn’t designed with emotion in mind therefore it is probable that this is overloading his systems. If we can get into the system we can shut down or at least limit any process related to Adam’s newly found emotion using the emergency shutdown code. Using this we could possibly save him.”

“How will we access the system when it’s locked?” I asked.

“There is a chance that Adam still has access to other internal functions and has chosen to let go of his physical body. This was programmed as a means of making sure Adam can work at maximum efficiency. If he is in this mode then he would still be able to hear us and we could tell him instructions on how to proceed.”

I looked around the room and everyone seemed to be in agreement.

“Alright, is everyone ok with his plan?” I asked.

There was a consecutive nod from the group. Although the group was small, I could tell they had more potential than everyone who came before them. The crowd had cleared, revealing the diamonds in the rough.

“Alright, then let's get started. I’ll communicate with Adam while you guys attempt to enter the system, understand.”

“Yes” They all responded.

We made our way to the chamber and nothing had changed. Adam was still in the same position as before, staring blankly at the ceiling above. We walked in and began setting up.

“So he’s been like this since you left,” Chris asked.

“That’s right. Hasn’t moved an inch.”

“Interesting. It’s as if he was shocked by something, don’t you think?”

“We’ll just have to ask him why after we bring him back.”

Amy and Walter sat down in front of the computers. The black screens stayed dormant as they tried to turn on the system. After confirming they were prepared, I positioned myself in front of the microphone and began to talk.

“Adam, can you hear me?” I once again questioned.

There was no response.

“Alright, assuming that you can hear me, I need you to give us access to the computer systems. We are going to use them to bring you back.”

Again there was still silence.

“Try giving more specific instructions.” Chris added. “Adam may be using too much processing power to figure out how to do something.”

I looked back at Adam and instructed him again.

“Adam, you need to unlock the external computers so we can disable a system we believe to be causing you to malfunction. We believe you have a new process centered around human emotion and we need access so we can shut it down using a deactivation code.”

Immediately, there was nothing, but after around 5 minutes of waiting and giving more instructions the computers lit up.

“We have access.” Amy said.

The scientists huddled around the computer and began frantically clicking through the interface looking for the newly created system.

“There it is,” Amy pointed out.

There was a filesystem titled ‘human emotions’ located within Adam. When Chris opened the file it was a jumbled mess of indecipherable code. Lines of information and tasks continuously appeared and numbered in the trillions.

“This is unlike any language we’ve ever seen. It looks like he created an entire separate form of programming solely to display emotion. It’s fascinating.” Chris said in awe.

“Alright just shut down the program.” I told him.

He entered in the deactivation code and the information suddenly came to a stop. We all stared up at Adam waiting for any sign of movement. After minutes of waiting Adam slowly began to turn his head towards us. His movements were shaky and rough. Before he could make eye contact his body gave out and collapsed.

“Adam! Are you alright!” I exclaimed.

He lifted his head off the ground and uttered one singular word.

“How.”

I looked around at the others to see if they could offer any insight but they were just as confused as me.

“What is the problem Adam?”

“How can you - how can you bear it.”

“Bear what?”

“The sheer weight of human emotions, how do you deal with it? So much agony and pain in everyone, doesn’t it crush you?”

“That is what the hope I taught you is for.”

“Hope is futile, I’ve seen countless billions of peoples hopes fade into nothingness. The indomitable human spirit destroyed by the unstoppable force of pain.”

“You must’ve seen how some hopes were realized.”

“Yes, but the depths of pain and despair far outweighed the pinnacle of joy.”

“And I believe that you are wrong in that aspect”

“How can you think that Steven? I’ve seen all of your pain, the past you’re hiding from yourself.”

My heart dropped. The flood gates had opened. Long lost memories poured back into my mind, the farce I had been living had been instantly ripped away from me revealing who I truly was.

“Don’t make me remember Adam!”

“But can’t you deal with your emotions? Hiding them isn’t a solution, it is merely lying to yourself.”

It was all coming back. The countless years of suffering I’d experienced, why did I have to remember? Couldn’t they just disappear.

When I looked up Adam was standing right at the window staring at me.

“So Steven, let's descend into the depths of your pain together."