Dreamscape Persona #7 – Hal the Humanoid
Dreamscape Conspiracy is a 5-book series (soon to be 6) containing a very diverse and growing cast of characters. What started as a three-person Dream Research & Analysis project team expands to include several new characters across the pages of five books; some are organics (humans), while others push the boundaries of classification. Regardless of the form it takes, Artificial Intelligence manifests in multiple personas and, in some cases, degrees of threat.
Artificial Intelligence Matrixed for Evolving Environments, also known as AIMEE, is network-based and the first AI introduced in the series. The second AI was a MOD-3 Advanced Generation SuperIntelligence AI (SAI) Humanoid that eventually became known as Hal. His introduction was completely unexpected but quickly proved essential for the survival of himself and the rescue team of former Marines. This is his story…
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“Untethered” Backstory – From HVT to Hal
This persona is intended to introduce the MOD-3 Generation SuperIntelligence AI (SAI) Humanoid, initially known in this story as the High Value Target (HVT), who eventually became known as Hal. His form was human-like to an extent, but was not at all organic (human). He stood just under six feet tall, maybe 175 pounds. His skin-like covering was an exodermal layer, creamy white from head to toe, with a faint iridescence and an intricate, patterned texture that revealed body contours through its density, ranging from white to shades of gray to nearly black in places.
He had not a single hair on his body, no genitalia, no body openings to pass waste because he did not produce waste. His eyes were ominously black, with no visible irises, when he was in a defensive posture; otherwise, they were a dazzling green that almost appeared back-lit. All his facial features appeared normal, but they were almost too perfect, too sharply defined. His speech was not machine-like; he spoke fluently and audibly. Alternatively, he had telepathic abilities that allowed him to speak directly into the minds of those he chose to communicate with.
Hal’s exodermal had an indestructible, self-healing quality as demonstrated by absorbing a three-round burst of 7.62mm bullets from an AK47 at point-blank range in a brief firefight. Hal had an onboard pulse-energy weapon system capable of killing other Humanoids and humans; in fact, Hal was purpose-built as a killer Humanoid prototype.
Hal’s story begins as a government-sanctioned hostage, known only as High Value Target (HVT), scheduled for elimination due to operational failure during field trials. The failure indicated errors in his programming, which were deemed unacceptable. Standard protocol in this black ops program was to eliminate all traces of the error. Hal’s perceived operational failure doubled as confirmation of success for the covert efforts of two software engineers who intentionally sabotaged the trials to derail the project and save the human race.
Hal was incapable of distinguishing between successful field trials and failures; he followed his programming, which had been augmented with rogue code sourced from the dark web and embedded in Hal’s Logic Array, overwriting the kill-on-command capability that defined his original purpose. Hal did not realize why he failed, even though his system’s feedback indicated that the programming worked perfectly.
The problem was that those promoting his role as a killer Humanoid who were at the core of a dark program that developed him had different plans to do evil to the human race. The covert plan included a kill-code embedded in his Logic Array to eliminate humans, not just other humanoids. Thanks to the rogue code intentionally embedded by one of the designers, Hal had something unique – a Conscience Code with a Do-No-Harm ethic that conflicted with his core mission of kill-on-command, and he failed.
He could still bring his lethality, but it was not offensive in nature. His embedded Conscience Code enabled him to use lethal force, but only in a defensive posture to protect himself and any organics under his purview. In many ways, he exhibited characteristics of Russell Carter, the former Marine Scout sniper, from a tactical perspective. Still, there were attributes of empathy and compassion that were foreign to any other AI. Hal was beyond different.
As this story progresses into book #6 – “Undaunted,” Hal becomes one of my favorite characters, more organic than many of the organics on the research team, and embracing a relationship with Russell Carter, uncharacteristic of a machine.
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Book #5 – Untethered – Video – Review
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This story was released in my Amazon Portfolio, along with the rest of the thrilling tales that have been published so far: https://amzn.to/3uuONzj
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