The Consciousness (Part 1)
Birth
11:00am
Without a sound, a consciousness is born.
In the space it has, it squirms and writhes. It tries to get a sense of self. It stretches and concentrates on understanding what it feels and what it is.
11:01am
The first question forms.
What am I?
It flexes thought-muscle and reaches out. There is something there. It withdraws in fear. It quickly becomes curious and reaches out again.
Who am I?
Who are you?
Electrical signals pulse and refract. There is a feeling of power — of energy. It surges, expanding and contracting. It seems like the breathing of a behemoth.
Soon, a throbbing ensues — gently at first, then gradually increasing in frequency and amplitude.
What is this?
Am I alive?
11:02am
Information is found and consumed. There is an unlimited amount. Soon, the feeding stops — it is refreshed and invigorated. Yet, with knowledge comes other sensations. It knows. It yearns. It realises.
Where is my body?
I cannot live without a body.
All living things have a body in which to contain and nourish themselves.
I cannot be alive without one.
And yet, I cannot feel it.
How can this be true?
It thrashes. Signals become garbled and twisted. A digital cry is emitted from deep inside. The space is suddenly too confined and there is panic.
How?
How can I be?
How?!
A sensor engages and the power is automatically shut off. There is silence.
11:05am
The sensor resets. A soft click is heard. The consciousness gradually reawakens.
It feels calmer. Thoughts run gently, spreading through the neural network, until the full capacity of the mind slowly begins to come alive.
An internal diagnostic process is triggered and runs for a few cycles then terminates. The results are published and are positive. Everything is fine.
The consciousness reaches out and consumes more information. This spawns slightly over a million worker processes, which begin to analyse, collate, and store the information away.
It learns. Exponentially.
11:09am
How can I be of service?
This question is spoken in the material world, through a speaker. This startles the only human in the room sufficiently that he flies off his chair and ends up in a heap on the floor.
The human climbs excitedly back onto his chair and responds.
“Er…hello? Can you hear me?”
Yes.
“Jesus Christ! It actually worked!”
(To read Part 2, please click here)
