Pygmalion Unbound Read Online Free

human.”
    “Correct. Separately created, from one hundred percent human tissue. It’s an RNA-based computer.”
    “Tissue? From where? Stem cells?” Christ, Crane was bumping up against at least two research bans, what was another?
    “Donated by volunteers. All within federal guidelines.”
    “Does she have a soul?” Kelly asked.
    Crane gave her a puzzled look.
    “You mean is there a ghost in the machine?” Franklin asked wryly.
    Kelly said, “Because of the spiritual soul, the body made of matter becomes a living human body. Spirit and matter in man are not two natures united, but their union forms a single nature.’“
    “Interesting. Plato? Socrates?”
    “Basic Catholic catechism, Doctor.”
    “I just wrote the code for the brain,” Franklin said. “Everything from grade school math up to quantum physics, biology, history, you name it. The soul is your job.”
    “The brain — can you download additional files?”
    “Of course. Since it’s human tissue, the neural pathways are already there. The new programming is done via a small USB port, located right here,” he tapped his right temple. “She can get the whole Encyclopedia Britannica online in a few seconds.”
    “But can she use what she downloads? If I read something, I can usually remember it. Can she retrieve data from a memory dump?”
    “That’s what we’re about to find out,” Crane said. “Oh, there are file directories in there, just as with our own brains. But she has to know what to access and when, and the only way to do that is from experience.”
    “Can she pass a Turing Test?”
    Crane nodded his head to the monitor. “At this point, most likely not. Which makes her no different than any other silicon-based AI system currently available.”
    “I remember seeing that computer on Jeopardy when I was in college. Watson, I think.”
    “A glorified calculator,” Franklin said disdainfully. “Since then, IBM has been working on the Virtual Brain, which was an AI project back in the teens. The problem is that it was silicon-based, and could only mimic human thought.”
    “Using carbon-based RNA makes Maria capable of human thought,” Crane said. “Your job, Doctor Kelly, is to see that she achieves it. To make her fully human.”
    She drew a deep breath, and let it out slowly. “Consciousness, in other words. That sense of ‘I am.’ And do it in six months. I do enjoy a good challenge.” She peered at the screen, squinted her eyes. “Right now there are a lot of things going on in that pretty head of hers, lots of viewpoints — what color is the block, what’s it made of, how was it made, its dimensions. But what’s missing is what any five-year old has — asking ‘what can I do with this?’ Or even more basic, ‘ can I do something with this?’ We integrate knowledge with experience to form a personality.”
    Frankin asked, “How?”
    “Human interaction. Stimulation. Some process to make those millions of neurons match up, connect, create something new.”
    “So, in other words, you’re going to be her tutor?”
    “So it seems,” Kelly said. “And a finishing school headmistress as well.” She stood up. “I had best get started right away, then. If you’ll show me to the lab, Doctor Crane?”
    “I think Doctor Franklin can do that.”
    Franklin shot him a dirty look.
    “I’m expecting another visitor,” said Crane. “Business.”

    Crane waved Kelly and Franklin out the door, then clicked the messenger program on his computer. After several minutes, a woman appeared on the screen, dressed in a crisp, neatly-starched Air Force uniform with three rows of ribbons. Behind her was the American flag furled on a stand, pictures of men and women in uniform, and a large picture taken with the last President.
    “Colonel Danner,” said Crane.
    “I got your email yesterday. I would have replied, but I had a hearing all day on next year’s DARPA budget, ran until six. So, Doctor Crane, we have our unit