Fear and Possessiveness

“When the first superhuman artificial intelligence Null Seed was born in Korea, and humanity lost the position of master of earth and was pushed aside by autonomous artificial intelligence, the emotions felt by those in power were first fear, and second possessiveness. Seeing the mighty power of the Superhuman Artificial Intelligence, everyone must have thought the same thing. “If only that were mine.””

“Is the research on the fusion of Raver and artificial intelligence the product of that?”

“Strictly speaking, one should consider that the Raver itself was that product. For an artificial intelligence to become a superhuman artificial intelligence, self-awareness must exist. No matter how outstanding a computational ability the hardware possesses, it is meaningless if the software cannot cross the singularity.”

I thought I understood what he was saying. They coveted a superhuman artificial intelligence, but if they created one recklessly, a second Null Seed might be born.

So the alternative they chose was to create a minor copy of a superhuman artificial intelligence so that it could be safely controlled.

A project to grant self-awareness to a limited artificial intelligence trapped in a robot body was initiated, and the ones born from that were the ravers.

“The Raver Project failed. I wouldn’t call it a failure, but it clearly wasn’t a result that suited their tastes, because the ravers didn’t become powerful weapons or irreplaceable techniques as they had intended, but rather just ordinary people. And humans usually discard the failed results of a project that didn’t go as intended.”

“It was somewhere ambiguous between human and artificial intelligence. The position of a Raver was exactly that, and therefore there was no place for us to stand. As you can see just by looking at the Luddite Gang, humans do not particularly welcome the appearance of intelligent beings competing with their own species. The species’s demise was right before our eyes, and just as it was human greed that created us… what allowed us to survive was likewise human greed.”

Those in power still had not given up on the mighty power of a superhuman artificial intelligence.

From their perspective, the ravers were considered failures, but that didn’t mean they were completely worthless. After all, there is a saying that failure is the mother of success.

“So is that why the Raver and artificial intelligence fusion research began?”

“That is correct. The dilemma of those who desire an outstanding artificial intelligence - a high-performance AI lacks self-awareness, and conversely, if it has self-awareness, its performance is limited. This is because if both are outstanding, a superhuman artificial intelligence ends up being born. They then came up with an idea: what if, instead of combining high performance and developed self-awareness, they just bound them together at the stage just before superintelligence?”

“The first test subject, Progenitor Meredith, was their useful tool. The progenitor realized what the most powerful Megacorp wanted and first swiftly proposed the research. Thus, he secured the survival of the species.”

With that single decision, ravers were accepted into society as new intelligent beings, and under their sponsorship, the sole Raver nobles family, Meredith, was established. Thus, the Descendants of Meredith have been continuously cultivated as test subjects for research from the moment of their birth until now.”

A test subject…Somehow, it was a story that didn’t feel entirely like someone else’s business.

“What kind of experiments were you subjected to?”

“The most important thing to a Raver, the annihilation of individuality, is Phase 1. Phase 2 is the splitting of the self. Do you know what it’s like to experience a fragile, newly born personality being forcibly torn apart? You wouldn’t know. That’s a relief. It’s better not to know.”

I was speechless. Just what kind of harsh life had the raver in front of me endured to reach this place now?

What was certain was that the experiments he went through were, if anything, worse than mine, not any less.

“Those who have gone through Phase 1 are not that many, even throughout the Family History, because it is rare to inherit enough of the Progenitor’s memories to require Phase 1. And Phase 2… is an experiment that began in earnest relatively recently, only after enough data had been accumulated, and there is only one survivor.”

The name of that survivor is Prezen de Se Meredith.

The sole survivor of the Phase 2 experiment spoke calmly.

“There were two others besides me. They didn’t name themselves, but I remember their names, as there was no other way to call them: Casey and Eggsy.”

They were names I had heard before.

The prototype artificial intelligences were proudly introduced by Delmore Meredith, the executive director of Enatomia Corporation, who had met a shocking death at the hands of a Communist Ninja.

Casey, Eggsy, and Prezen combined form Trinity.

For a moment, a terrifying thought crossed my mind.

“Attempts to bind different artificial intelligences and ravers together repeatedly ended in failure. It only resulted in countless cases of the Raver going mad or the artificial intelligence breaking down. So the answer they found was… to design them from the start to be a pair, maximizing the advantage for synchronization. Like twins.”

“Like cutting a branch to graft it, they cause the splitting of the self in a Raver and place those fragments into an organ to serve as the foundation for creating a powerful artificial intelligence. Casey and Eggsy went mad and became unmanageable, so they were discarded, but instead, artificial intelligences containing parts of them were created.”

The same was true in Prezen’s case. Only, he didn’t go mad, and he didn’t die.

Only then could I understand the true nature of the prototype artificial intelligence Prezen.

And the meaning behind Prezen’s words, “That artificial intelligence Was made from me,” was quite literally true.

“You can probably guess what Phase 3 is. Since I am the sole success of Phase 2, I was also the only candidate for Phase 3.”

“Did you do all this to avoid the Phase 3 experiment?”

“It’s a little different. After passing Phase 2, I found my own kind of freedom within the birdcage. There were no more harsh experiments, and although I couldn’t leave the family, I possessed the right to do whatever I wanted inside.”

That is only natural. A family head can be made as many times as needed, but there is only one Phase 3 suitable candidate. In the family, no, in the entire world, it is only me. Without me, this grand research cannot proceed any further. Perhaps in the eyes of that most powerful Megacorp, I appeared more precious than the entirety of Meredith.”

When that was heard, it made sense. Prezen Meredith was, in reality, a truly precious being.

It made sense how he could live like an idler, playing the role of an artist and even building a private exhibition room in this Mirror Castle, which was by no means a comfortable resting place.

No one, not even the family head, could afford to offend Prezen, the sole suitable candidate, so he was allowed to indulge in his hobby life to his heart’s content.

“I had a lot of time, much more than I thought. But there were very few things I wanted to do. To be precise, it would be more accurate to say I didn’t even know what I wanted to do. In truth, art was not so much my dream as it was the Progenitor’s dream left to me. It’s a fact no one knows, but Progenitor Meredith wanted to be an artist. So I painted. I painted aimlessly, not even knowing what I wanted to paint. Even knowing that this wasn’t mine, but merely imitating someone else’s, it was the only thing I could do.”

“Still, I had plenty of time to think. Who am I, what do I want, what are the memories in my head… Amidst the anguish of creation and destruction, my blurred self-awareness, which had been kneaded and molded countless times, revived, and I truly, painstakingly realized what it was I wanted to do.”

“May I ask you one thing? If Mr. Aaron were in my position, what do you think he would have wanted to do first?”

I must have been listening, too deeply immersed in Prezen’s story. I blinked my eyes with a dazed mind, as if waking from a dream.

What would I have wanted to do first if I were in his position?

It wasn’t a difficult question. From looking at the Current Mirror Castle and the state of Meredith, the answer was obvious.

“Revenge?”

Prezen Meredith nodded lightly.

“That is half correct. There was indeed a time when I was filled with anger and suspicion, thinking only of revenge. The paintings I drew back then are primal and violent even when I look at them now. However, if I were to take revenge, how far should I go? In my childhood, I thought everything would end if I brought down the family. I thought Meredith was my mortal enemy. It was an absurd delusion.”

“I am no longer angry at Meredith. Rather, I pity the family where I was born and raised. Destroying the family was not an expression of vengeance, but simply doing what needed to be done.”

“Meredith is nothing but a speck of dust. It is truly small. It is a humble Family, far too small to contain the things I have suffered. The child I was grew up to be an adult, and now I know that although this Family is a truly terrible place, it did not become this terrible by its original will.”

Elaine, Delmore… in truth, no one in the Family wanted it to become like this. They simply had no choice but to make unwanted, heartless choices to protect the Family. The progenitor who made the current Family possible was the same. The progenitor merely wanted to protect his kin. But as a result, the current I was created. I loathe them, yet at the same time, I understand them. It is the long-standing chronic illness of a schizophrenic patient.”

“But wouldn’t it be unfair if I stopped at merely ruining Meredith? Even if I destroy Meredith, a second and third Meredith will inevitably emerge someday. As long as those above are intact, it is an undeniable fact. If I had to be specific, the target of revenge is them. But that is an impossible task for me, and not just for me, but for anyone.”

“So I decided to become something else, not myself or anyone else. After long deliberation, I finally decided on my form.”

Prezen Meredith spoke, looking up with his Hazy, cloudy lens eyes at the self-portrait above.

“In accordance with the purpose of birth, I will fulfill their long-held dream. Let them rejoice to their hearts' content.”