Artificial Consciousness

Originally published in Tales from the Canyons of the Damned #9 Maybe we have to die to experience this life. Walter Cartright is an obsessed man. His only obsession comes in the form of paper that are converted to ones and zeros on a bank statement. Walter has always been very good at gathering Ones, and Zeros. His son Eric comes to see him one day to ask Walter if he might part from some of his ones and zeros, and they have a long overdue conversation. A conversation that will make them both see that what they think of as reality is merely an exercise in perception. There is so much we ...

James Halloway and Ranjeet Srinivasa are the founders of Aethereum Enterprises, the world’s leading technology firm. Jim and Ranjeet have spent their careers designing, building, and selling novel machine cores and upgraded neural learning programming suites, creating smart software to improve or supplant human capabilities, and inventing innovative analytical solutions. But these businesses are but means to this end. What they really want is to create a computer that can produce novel insights and understanding, a machine capable of generating new thoughts. And not just any thoughts, but...