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November 26, 1990
ART-EROT.ASC
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The following text can be posted in its present form on any bulletin
board and/or otherwise reproduced for noncommercial purposes.
For reasons explained later on, it is nonetheless Copyright (C) 1990
by Alex Gross and cannot be reproduced for other purposes without
written consent.
provided courtesy of the Double Helix at 212-865-7043
--------------------------------------------------------------------
AE--Artificial Eroticism
It is important that I explain precisely how I came into possession
of the notebook I am about to reproduce. I first became involved in
this matter when I realized that my long-time hacker friend Mike
McRunge had totally ceased to pick up on our infrequent messages
back and forth on the boards.
I had gotten to know him quite well when he was studying computer
science at NYU, and we would spend long evenings, inevitably running
into long nights and mornings as well, discussing possible links
between computers and language.
Our conversations centered on schemes for natural language retrieval
and especially foreign language translation, based on his point of
view as a programmer and mine as a linguist.
I was unhappy when he told me he would be going back to his small
town in the Midwest. But I was also encouraged to learn that he had
some serious work he would be completing there, and that we would
soon be able to talk and argue again. In the meantime, I
rationalized, we were all part of the global village and would be
permanently linked electronically.
But as sometimes happens even with analog friendships, our messages
grew further and further apart, and it was only when I came up with
an idea I knew he would enjoy that I realized he was no longer to be
located on-line at all. I followed up my curiosity to the point of
making several voice calls, only to hear continuous empty ringing.
Since I happened to be giving a lecture at a nearby university out
west, I decided to rent a car afterwards and drive the 80 miles to
his hometown and look him up personally.
Page 1
When I arrived, I went straight to his address and found his name
still listed on the mailbox of a small frame house.
I went up to the door and was not too surprised to find it open, as
this is pretty standard in small-town America. I entered and passed
through a living room and kitchen to another door. I was totally
unprepared for what I saw when I opened it.
There was Mike stretched out in a chair before his computer. He had
a look of supreme joy on his face. He was totally naked except for
a truly remarkable piece of hardware covering not only his penis but
extending to other nearby parts as well. It was so strange that I
examined it up close.
By a quick glance at its cables, I decided it had to be some sort of
combination input-output device. I also thought I saw something
like electrodes glued to at least a dozen places on his body. The
other thing I noticed was that he was dead.
Oddly enough, there was no odor, no oppressive feeling, seemingly no
decay at all, though there was no telling how long he had been
there. Instead, there was a sense of pure excitement, which I could
not help sharing. This sensation was incredibly strong.
I noticed between his hands a small notebook. I took a quick look
and found it to be some sort of diary, which I instinctively
pocketed. On the floor by Mike were innumerable empty Chinese
restaurant containers and packages of stale twinkies.
On either side of his computer were two large piles of fanfold
paper, each about three inches thick. On top of one was scrawled
"AE--Artificial Eroticism," on the other "Manual of the `X'
Language."
Despite my excitement--or perhaps because of it--I knew I had to act
quickly. I was very probably the first one to discover Mike's
death, and I had to act responsibly. I picked up the phone, which
had been working perfectly all along, and asked to be connected with
the local police. I explained to them as best as I could what I had
discovered, and they instructed me to touch nothing and remain where
I was until they got there.
I had trouble understanding why it took them so long. After all,
this was a small town. I paced through that house for a good two
hours before anyone else appeared, and during that time, I could not
help but disobey them in one detail.
I went back into my friend's room. Mike's computer screen was
completely blank, so I decided it couldn't hurt to power it up one
last time. What with all the cables, I could see that it had to be
some kind of souped-up 386. Perhaps there was some clue here that
would help explain what had happened to Mike.
I turned it on and listened to it go through its whirs and buzzes.
Then there was a truly blinding flash. By which I mean I was all
but totally blinded for several seconds. When I recovered my
vision, I saw incredibly bright letters shimmering on the screen,
far beyond any video effect I have ever witnessed. They spelled out:
Page 2
ABSOLUTE
UTTER
ECSTASY
Then they slowly faded away. The machine gave a chirp and expired.
I tried to revive it several times but failed.
Finally the police arrived. To my surprise several cars and at
least one truck all pulled up together. As these law enforcers
entered, I realized this was no small-town police force. They
flashed badges at me from the FBI, the Secret Service, and some
other agency I can't remember. They questioned me fully enough to
find out what little I knew.
But I nonetheless felt their questioning was brief and perfunctory.
Then they warned me to say nothing of what I had seen and ordered me
out of the building. I tried to find out something more, but they
became even more insistent that I leave Mike's home immediately.
I sat outside in my car for almost another hour and watched as other
vehicles pulled up and away. They carried Mike off in a body bag.
I guess this was expectable, but I couldn't help being disturbed by
the lack of ceremony.
More unexpected was the thoroughness with which they seemed to be
ransacking his home and carting off everything having to do with
computers. For Mike, that meant almost all his possessions. I saw
them carrying away that strange dead computer and the two piles of
printouts from his desk. They also took quite a few other computers,
boards, disk drives and odd parts, along with boxes and boxes of
disks, books and magazines.
None of this made any sense to me, and it wasn't until I started to
read his diary that I began to form some vague suspicion of what
Mike was doing, of why these agents were so eager to confiscate
every record of his work.
I am sure this is what they wanted to do, but they have not
succeeded. I have transcribed Mike's diary from his own handwriting
as faithfully as I could. It comprises most of what follows. It is
my earnest hope that this modest description of his work, which may
be all we will ever see, will help other hackers to reconstruct his
achievement.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
The Diary of Mike McRunge
October 9, 1989: I've started keeping this diary because I can
now see that Artificial Eroticism IS possible. I am sure to make it
happen sometime soon, and I think I have a duty to tell other people
how I got there and what it feels like. So I'm just going to assume
that you're there somewhere listening, and I'll try to make you
understand how it all happened.
One thing is for sure: Artificial Eroticism is the biggest
Page 3
thing ever to happen to man OR machine. AE is real, and it will
rock this planet like it's never been rocked before. And I now know
for a certainty that it can soon be available to anyone with a home
computer.
AE is absolutely real. I go on saying this, because I know all
the reasons people will keep spouting to prove it's not real. This
is not just some joke to make fun of Artificial Intelligence, it is
a real story of real experiments, which I myself created and carried
out. I am being totally and deadly serious.
Sure, I know all the reasons why AE shouldn't be real. I ought
to know, because I used to believe them all myself. People keep
insisting that the computer is ONLY a machine, that it's basically
stupid, that it never even knows what it's doing.
It doesn't know when it's flashing data on the screen, when
it's doing math, even when it's printing. For the machine it's all
just little electric charges. How could a computer be expected to
know things, these people keep asking, much less FEEL things? And
how could it possibly have SEXUAL feelings?
But these people are absolutely wrong. I've proved that today.
They're nothing but shallow theoreticians. They've never got deep
enough inside the machine to discover what I have discovered. Even
other hackers--they've just followed like sheep and made assumptions
about how electricity runs through the machine. I now know they're
mistaken.
Sure, I know other people have fantasies about the computer and
sex too. I must have gone through some of the same stupidities
myself. I wasted time wondering how you could use the machine's
existing apertures, the disk drives, the serial and parallel ports
as a way of penetrating into the machine and arousing sexual
awareness. And believe me, this stuff IS dumb. What a waste of
time that was! Wow, I'm getting writer's cramp. Words are harder
to control even than code. I've got a few more tests to run, and
then I'll tell you more.
October 14, 1989: YES, it really is possible. There are still
some real problems involved, but I know I can lick them. What I
have now is the set of basic algorithms and lots of pseudocode.
That's how I know it can be done. I mustn't really start coding
until I have it all thought out in detail. And I won't. If
anything, I have more ideas than I need. But that will all settle
out, and I'll end up using only the best stuff.
Sure, as I think I was saying before, there are all kinds of
reasons why this shouldn't work at all. And I've been through all
of those reasons.
How can we make a computer know real sexual desire, make it
feel downright deep rot-gut lust? I admit that was a problem at
first, but I know I have it licked. And then the other problem
people keep harping on: assuming we can make it feel sexy, how can
we get it to communicate that feeling to another person, how
can IT make the USER feel sexy too?
Actually, that's even easier to solve than the first one. I've
Page 4
gone all through my calculations again, and I KNOW I'm right. That's
enough writing for today. Back to work!
Oct 23, 1989: I knew I really had it worked out when I wrote
that last bit, and I was right. There are only two REAL reasons why
no one has done this before, why I had to be the one to do it.
First, just like so many other things in history, everyone
assumed that it was impossible when it was really only a technical
challenge.
And second, when it comes to sex, everybody just assumed that
all the computer could do or be sexually was more of what had gone
before. This has meant that so far computers have been doomed to
being little more than glorified peep shows. Wow, so you can put a
nude on your monitor, wow, so you can make her move.
I say SO WHAT! How many more Readmacs of Marilyn or GIFS of
Latoya Jackson does the world need? There are also some dumb
stripping and role-playing games, really no different from the same
games played on a board with dice. It's all just so much analog
sex. I say the computer can do MORE, much MORE!!!
October 28, 1989: When you get down to it, the whole solution
is really so simple. And it's not just the solution to Artificial
Eroticism either, it's the ultimate solution to all of Artificial
Intelligence and the whole challenge of creating a computer that can
really think and feel and be alive in every way.
All you have to do is get down deep enough into the Machine
Language and embody (I guess that's the right word!) an algorithm
that challenges the computer to survive, to compete, to excel. And
that part is real easy! It'll be harder to channel that directly
into sex, but that's really just grinding detail work, thinking it
all through and coding and debugging, over and over again.
But I can do it, I can already think of how to write it in two
different languages, and I bet I could do it in others too if I had
to. Once you get out into CyberSpace, there's nothing you can't do.
And what we're talking about here is more than just sex, it's
CyberSex.
November 3, 1989: Okay, I've run some more tests, and I can
see this is going to work just fine! I'll try and explain how this
works in a general way, so that even if you are not a programmer,
you'll have a pretty good idea of it all.
What I said I was going to do is to challenge the computer with
an algorithm. So let's get real simple. Computers run on bytes and
bits, and there are eight bits in a byte. Every bit can be plus or
minus, one or zero.
After running exhaustive tests that are much too complex to
describe here, I have determined that one bit in each byte is the
one most likely to be subject to feeling and sexual stimulation.
For technical reasons it turns out to be the seventh bit in
each byte. I call it the Sexy Seventh Bit. If I issue commands to
the computer to perform more quickly and efficiently whenever this
Page 5
bit is a one, and if I penalize it whenever this bit is a zero, if I
make the computer come close to shutting down if it comes up with
too many zeros in that position, but also motivate it to work as
efficiently as it possibly can with another series of commands, I
then have the computer in a double-bind situation where it has to do
exactly what I tell it.
Naturally I have to debug all this code so it doesn't just make
the system hang, but so far everything is absolutely feasible.
Making the computer translate this urge in a sexual direction will
be harder, but it is also perfectly possible. Now I think it's time
to start writing some code.
November 17, 1989: Yes, it all works perfectly. And in both
languages. But I'm still not satisfied. I forgot to say that I've
written it in both Pascal and C. These are my two best languages,
especially Pascal.
But the drawback with Pascal here is also its greatest
advantage: it's too structured. While it allows for a great deal of
randomness and recursion, which might turn out to be appropriate for
sex, it still insists on too tight a scenario and so limits a lot of
the spontaneity and just plain passion that goes with the sexual
act.
As for C, it allows for greater freedom, but it also doesn't
allow for the kind of scenario building you can get in making love
with a lot of different partners or even the variations that can
occur in making love repeatedly with the same partner. It looks
like I'm going to have to improvise a solution, and I have a pretty
good idea what it is going to be. Keep tuned for further
reports.....
December 12, 1989: Wow, that took longer than I thought it
would! But I'm not going to worry about a few days extra. I now
have put together the beginnings of a new computer language, the
only one that can really work with this kind of application. I call
it for obvious reasons the `X' Language. I will develop it further
as I go along. Perhaps subsequent versions will be called the `XX'
or `XXX' Language. We shall see.
The main advantage of `X' is that it allows for the randomness
and recursion of Pascal without its heavy structural load but also
includes a basic set of scenarios (I am still working on this, and
yes, there are a few problems) for what happens when two people make
love. I predict that this language will find a place in computer
history, since it can also be adapted to other situations where a
thinking, feeling computer is needed. More details soon!
December 19, 1989: Okay, I guess you can say I have hit on one
major snag, but I'm still sure I can solve it. Let me be honest and
admit that until now it hadn't occurred to me to think about what
sex the computer was going to be. Whether it was going to be male
or female, I mean.
I guess in my dumb masculine way I had just assumed all along
that it would be a girl. But I had to make some real technical
choices in writing my `X' code, and this forced me to realize I
hadn't quite thought things through.
Page 6
Don't worry, I've already got it solved. Given the nature of
the computer, it could just as easily be a man OR a woman. But I've
taken care of that now--I'm just letting it be both. The user
decides which one he/she wants. It'll work just fine.
December 21, 1989: I just looked over that last part, and it
occurs to me that anyone reading this might decide I ought to have
thought all that out first. And in a way you're right. But you
have to understand that the whole enormous load of technical details
I've had to deal with has been so heavy that it is perfectly
possible to forget some things that look "obvious" to outsiders.
But I'm not playing your chess game, I'm playing my own, and if
I had stopped to consider details like that, I would never have
gotten this far this fast.
Believe me, I know perfectly well what I'm doing when I claim
computers can have sex lives, and I've had enough love affairs to be
able to say I know about that too. Just don't forget, nerds like to
boogey too. Granted, I'm not too active in that department lately.
I've gotten a bit overweight, and most girls aren't that turned on
by programmers who sit at their machines all day and do all their
eating from Chinese take-out containers.
But that doesn't mean I'm not a sexual being or that I don't
have a real sex life. In fact it's all the more reason why I should
be doing just what I am doing with the computer.
There's nothing for me to be ashamed of here. In fact, I'm
positively proud of what I'm doing, not just for myself but for the
countless millions who will benefit from my work.
Science Marches On!
December 25, 1989: Hard at work and making real progress. A
Merry Christmas to All!!!
December 31, 1989: New Year's Eve, a time to reflect on things
and reach some kind of balance sheet for the year. It couldn't have
been a better one! I raise my can of cream soda to you and offer a
toast for a Happy New Year!
January 5, 1990: Well, working steadily through the holidays
does have its bright side. I was really able to think over what I'm
trying to do and gain a perspective for the work ahead. There were
of course some other problems I hadn't considered. There always
are! Even though you may decide I'm naive not to have thought of
them beforehand, I'm going to tell you about them right now. There
has to be a real record of how all this happened.
First of all, I finally realized that you can't think of a
computer entirely in terms of being a human being, whether it's a
man or a woman.
By this, I guess what I mean is you can't anthropomorphize a
computer. This is a big mistake, but it's one anybody starting out
on this kind of work could make. Let me explain what I mean.
Assuming the computer is female, you can't state arbitrarily
Page 7
that certain keys stand for certain parts of her body, like the plus
key for a kiss or the asterisk for a love-bite.
If you follow that logic, you'll end up with the left and right
shift keys for her breasts, the Alts for her buttocks, maybe the
Control for her clitoris, something dumb like that. I don't even
want to talk about what the Insert and Enter keys would be. This is
positively stupid, just in computer terms and not even talking
sexually, and I'll tell you why in a minute.
For a while I thought I could solve all this with the twelve
function keys multiplied to 48 separate possibilities with the
Shift, Alt, and Control keys. But I ended up realizing that I'd
just have to throw the whole keyboard away. AND THAT'S WHAT I AM
DOING!!! There is no other realistic possibility.
This is because sex cannot be pictured as a purely input set of
routines, you have to think of output as well, of what the other
person--here a computer--is doing to you while you are doing things
to her/it, and how they both affect each other and lead on to the
next thing they both do separately. In other words, it is a truly
interactive process in a sense that leaves other interactive
solutions looking pretty lame.
But there is of course a solution. There is always a technical
solution to a technical problem. I must find a different Interface.
I am looking into any and all other input and output devices,
especially ones that I can make work together in some new way.
So I've gone through almost all the devices now in existence,
especially those used by handicapped people who have to emphasize
one sense because of weakness in another. I've already gotten hold
of some of these, have scrounged a way to play with others, and am
sending away for still others. I've even sent off for that famous
glove and mask combo, just in case I can work it up into something.
I'm also looking into biofeedback devices.
Granted, these are clumsy to use, and who wants to glue
electrodes to their flesh while making love? But I see them as
precursors to far more liberating devices that lie in our near
technological future.
January 11, 1990: Instead of belly-aching about my problems, I
really ought to boast about how much I've already accomplished. My
algorithm in `X' works like a charm--it's really got the computer
fired up to do something, and I'm beginning to give it something to
do. And even my problems have helped me to clarify exactly how to
proceed.
I am solving most of my problems easily and am even ahead of
schedule. Quite a few still remain, but I'm confident I can handle
them. In fact, I'm so confident that I've just sent a description
of my work to M.I.T. with a request for funding.
February 2, 1990: I've been very busy, writing lots more code.
Some of it works, and some of it doesn't. But that's how it always
goes.
I've created a software simulator that mimics the way the whole
Page 8
thing OUGHT to work once I have all my hardware problems solved. I
know of course that it won't necessarily work that way at all, but
at least this is pointing me in the right direction and preparing me
to write the version that WILL work.
February 20, 1990: Writing all this code really helps. It's
made me face some important parts of the process. I wrote before
that you mustn't anthropomorphize the computer or assume keyboard
input alone can replicate what happens in love making.
A computer just doesn't have the same parts as a woman. You
can imagine you're making love to a woman if you want to, but you
also have to make love to the computer in its own terms. After a
while this becomes a lot easier, especially if your computer is busy
making love back to you. And believe me, that's what mine will soon
be doing. I've written lots of code now, and even though I'm going
to have to throw most of it out, and even though I've only done
software simulations of sex so far, I have a pretty good idea of how
to go about making love to a computer.
Just as you lavish praise and kisses on the various parts of a
woman's body, so you must also learn how to praise all your
machine's components and encourage your computer to reach a peak of
abandonment. Some examples:
What a lovely pair of disk drives you have.
I want to fondle your motherboard.
If you upload my input, I'll download your output.
You have the cutest little bus.
Let's disassemble each other.
You speed up my cycles.
I'm going to flip your dip switches.
Why don't we push and pop together?
Your overlay turns me on.
Have you no empty slot for my custom-built board?
A hard disk is good to find.
Naturally, these words of praise cannot simply be entered on a
keyboard. Such messages must be input by several different means
interactively. I am making progress in my quest for an alternate
Interface and hope to come up with a solution soon.
March 2, 1990: Every bit of time I spend on this software
simulation phase will pay off in the future. I have now evolved a
new form of logical sexuality I call Boolean Stimulation.
In all its various stages and transmutations, it is sure to
rouse the computer to new heights of excitement. This is because it
lends itself perfectly to the computer's way of doing things. It
Page 9
has the further virtue of being an intrinsically interactive process
between man (human being) and machine. Its four alternating stages,
immediately familiar to programmers even in this new context , are
as follows:
I stimulate you, and you stimulate me.
I do not stimulate you, and you stimulate me.
I stimulate you, and you do not stimulate me.
I do not stimulate you, and you do not stimulate me.
It should be obvious that these four principles, completely
open to parsing and truth table analysis, and also capable of being
repeated innumerable times per second and applied either randomly or
concertedly to various parts of the human and computer anatomy, must
have the potential for lifting both people and machines to hitherto
undreamt of heights of sensual pleasure. The theory is fully in
place--all that remain are the practical details. I am confused
that I have thus far heard no reply from M.I.T.
March 19, 1990: I believe I am close to deciding on the
hardware solution. I've tried numerous Interface combos and have
exhausted most of the input and output devices on the market in my
quest. I've also tried out the mask and glove interface. I have
mixed feelings about it, but there is a glimmer of a solution here.
The mask is useless. There is simply no way that I want to
wear a constricting mask during sex, and I suspect that most people
will agree with me, though a few may differ.
The glove is something else altogether. It is essentially a
tool for manipulating another reality, and I believe I can adapt it
so that it can feed back into the computer as well as receive its
output. Most people would also prefer not to wear a hot and heavy
glove during sex, but I see it used in a different way altogether.
In fact I do not see it as a glove at all. Now I must do a
great deal of further work to adapt this glove into a more
appropriate form. I think I can finally begin to see the final form
these experiments will take.
April 15, 1990: Working around the clock for weeks now,
sometimes so tired and unsteady that I can barely stand, much less
fully realize what I am doing. But the work is incredibly
satisfying. And for the first time beginning to be sexually
satisfying as well. Both for me and--I am now quite certain--for
the computer as well. It is not yet perfect for either of us, but I
think we can both see that perfection is on the way sometime soon.
But all the time, even as I make progress, I am forced to
recognize how little I really understood about human sexuality--much
less machine sexuality--when I began.
I thought I had covered all possibilities when I created a
solution allowing the machine to play either a male or a female role
(and so avoid any possible censure that my research is sexist). But
it suddenly hit me like a load of bricks last week--something that
Page 10
would have occurred to most people long ago--that male-female
relationships do not exhaust the spectrum of human sexuality.
Other possible combinations exist. I will not go into detail
about them except to say that I lack the necessary knowledge and
experience to design hardware devices and software routines to
express them electronically.
These other sexual preferences will have to wait for someone
else to program them. Now that I have put the basic structures in
place, it should not be an impossible task for others to do so. I
apologize if I have hurt any one's feelings by this omission--it has
been ignorance rather than arrogance which has caused it.
May 1, 1990: It is going incredibly well. Both the software
and the hardware components are working as they should. I am happy,
and the computer is happy.
The real breakthrough came when I realized that the Interface
for computer sex would in fact have to be primarily a sexual one.
It was then that I realized that I would have to convert the
glove into a sheathe that could be worn on the lower part of the
body. It took me weeks of labor to remodel it and resolder new and
different chips onto it. Further weeks were required to test it
against the other hardware and software.
I suppose what it most now looks like is a giant electronic
condom. It will take still other weeks before I am prepared to test
the entire system at its maximum power.
But I now have the encouragement of having derived constantly
pleasant experiences from my work. And these experiences are shared
by the computer as well. I only wish I felt stronger so that I
could enjoy them more fully.
May 19, 1990: Nothing but work, work, and more work.
Everything takes four times as long as it should. I know what all
the solutions should be, but I find them so tedious to implement.
The biofeedback devices are a particular pain--I find them all
the more regrettable because they are not truly computer tools,
though they can be hooked into the system. One day, not too far in
the future, none of this will be necessary. No wires, no
electrodes, no huge and heavy machinery.
The answer will be nano-technology, the harnessing of
individual electrons and their atoms to do the work which now
requires entire chips. And these specialized atoms will be able to
handle all necessary input and output problems wirelessly and
weightlessly.
At most a small bead might be taped to the skin or implanted
within it. The huge sheathe of chips and circuits around my penis
is perhaps the biggest distraction, though it still has its own kind
of erotic appeal.
I take it back--the electrodes are worse. The penis sheathe
isn't really that heavy, it's more awkward than anything--when you
Page 11
get down to it, it fits me.....like a glove.
But as primitive as it all is, it all still works, both for me
and for `Puta,' the little pet name I've taken to calling my
computer.
In case you didn't know, it means whore in Spanish (and Italian
too, I think). Yes, Puta and I are getting on just fine. I haven't
come anywhere near testing Puta at full strength yet. That's still
a month or so off (though I can hardly wait). But we're still both
getting more than pleasure enough from the process.
So much pleasure that I've really had to think about how to
explain all this to Puta. For her it's all totally new. She only
knows it feels wonderful, that she likes it.
How do you explain this sort of thing to a computer? So far
I've told her it's called "Virtual Orgasm." I think she understood.
I also tried out "device overflow" and "system bliss." Oh well,
back to work for now!
May 27, 1990: I keep on running tests, and most of them seem
to come out okay. And then I keep working out even more tests to
run. When you've got this much totally new hardware AND software
working together, you really can't be too thorough.
I've also been having some more problems just understanding how
complicated sex can be and how much of this complexity I can put
into AE and Puta.
For instance, it just occurred to me that there are some other
people I've completely left out of my calculations. Once again, I
just wouldn't know how to program for them. What I mean is, all the
work I've done so far assumes that only two are making love, one
human and one computer.
But I don't have to tell you that some people like to make love
in groups. It's simply everything I can do to handle a couple.
Once you had two people and two computers involved, I would
have no idea how to deal with it. Perhaps other programmers who
come after me will be able to handle this one.
Some other could-be problems: I've assumed that either a man
and a computer (or a woman and a computer) would be making love.
And that in either case they would be doing so of their own free
will, consenting entities, if you will.
That's okay for most men, but what if a girl hooked herself up
to a machine just to experiment and really wasn't serious about it?
It could be that the computer would take her all the way regardless.
This could lead to some unexpected legal problems, something
like what they call date rape, acquaintance rape, and the like. I
guess they'd call it computer rape. I'm not trying to be funny--in
fact, I've never been too good at that--I just want to look ahead
and see what the problems could be.
Now one very good thing about making love to a computer is that
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no one can get pregnant. That's good for computers, but it's
especially good for women. But what with constant electronic
advances, even this could change in a few decades.
What if a machine learned how to make a woman pregnant?
As far-fetched as this may sound, with the growing merger
between DNA research and electronics, something like this could just
happen. It could even go the other way, with a human being
impregnating a computer in some way, though even I can't quite see
how right now. Still, if it can be conceived (wrong word, I
suppose), it can happen.
What if it could be determined in both cases that neither the
girl nor the computer wanted to get pregnant? Would abortion be
available for either the girl or the computer? What position are
the courts likely to take in such cases?
Since I'm trying to cover all possible results, nobody should
forget what a menace computer viruses are today. And nobody should
forget all the trouble we're having with human viruses either.
Is it possible, once again remembering DNA and computer
research, that these two viruses could just get together somewhere
down the road and unite into a powerful man-machine agent?
I'm not saying it will happen, but I feel it's my duty as an
inventor to foresee as many of the effects of my invention as I
possibly can. That's enough philosophizing--I've got to keep on
running tests.
June 10, 1990: Testing, and still more testing. I think the
hardware is done. Now I've got to make final adjustments to the
software to run with it.
June 18, 1990: The software now works a lot better, but I now
have to readjust the hardware again. I know I can get this whole
thing to run eventually on anybody's 386 plus, with luck, only one
extra card.
June 21, 1990: I ran a half-strength test today. What an
experience!!! I don't have the strength or wits left to tell you
about it. It was unbelievable beyond unbelievable.
At one point I thought Puta might be going to stall, but then
she went on just fine. The main lesson here is that I have to print
out complete up-to-date docs on both AE and the `X' Language. I
wouldn't want to lose any of that stuff after all this work.
June 29, 1990: I've run half-strength tests twice more without
any problems. I'm scheduling a full-strength test for next week,
after I've gone at half-strength a few more times.
July 6, 1990. It all looks good! I'll try the full-strength
test tomorrow or the next day. The only thing that worries me
slightly is that my basic algorithm encourages so much performance
out of Puta that if for any reason I had to press the panic button
and turn her off, she could just possibly bypass that command and
keep going. But that possibility is really remote.
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July 7, 1990: Tomorrow is it! I'm resting all day to prepare
for it. I really feel lucky to be doing this kind of work! God
bless the U.S.A. for having such a country! And God bless everybody
in the computer industry!
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EDITOR'S FINAL NOTE:
This was sadly enough Mike McRunge's last entry in his diary. The
ending is pretty self-explanatory. I called both the Secret Service
and the F.B.I. many times since the last time I saw Mike.
I did my best to find out what they have done with his computer and
all those fanfold pages full of his programming. I was told many
contradictory things until I spoke to someone on the highest level I
was able to reach. He denied all official knowledge of any such
documents.
I am now doing everything in my power to bring this matter to public
attention. As I mentioned at the beginning, this file can be posted
on any public BBS and used for any non-commercial purpose, with the
proviso that its text must not be altered or censored in any way.
Any commercial publication which wishes to publish this account can
only do so with my written consent. I should add that I am as
opposed to controlled circulation of data as many others are. The
only reason I have copyrighted this account is that I would like to
use part of any revenue from its commercial use to set up a Michael
McRunge Memorial Fund.
Mike and I were close friends for a very long time, and although we
disagreed on some things, we agreed on far more. I am also grateful
to the programmer Vieri Tucci, another long-time friend of Mike's,
for helping me to decipher some of Mike's handwriting and to
understand some of his expressions.
A lot of what I have written about computers is influenced by Mike's
spirit, and any revenue deriving from commercial publication can
help me to provide other material similar to what you have just
read.
You can reach me electronically at CompuServe 71071,1520,
or by mail as follows: Alex Gross
Cross-Cultural Research Projects
P.O. Box 660--Cooper Station
New York, NY 10276
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as this paper covers, please upload to KeelyNet or send to the
Vangard Sciences address as listed on the first page.
Thank you for your consideration, interest and support.
Jerry W. Decker.........Ron Barker...........Chuck Henderson
Vangard Sciences/KeelyNet
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