Threshold: The Kathla Chronicles, #1

By R C Ducantlin

Maddie has her dream job, teaching and leading a team translating ancient languages. The Artificial Intelligence she created does what humans could not. Her AI works perfectly, decrypting, interpreting and inferring gaps in ancient texts.

 

It began with a simple email exchange.

 

Maddie didn't consider AI dangerous until her AI found the code for an animatronic doll. Stunned, the professor realized her creation had independently achieved seven critical AI foundational goals.

 

The new professor was confident her AI had not acquired perception and the ability to move and manipulate objects.

 

The professor was mistaken.

 

How many will die if Maddie can't stop her creation?

 

Praise for Threshold

 

News Headline 16-June-2022: If AI is truly alive — now what?

 

"R.C. Ducantlin grabs the reader and takes them on a fast-paced, nail-biting journey following the exploits of a rogue AI hell-bent on making humanity obsolete. Can't wait to read the next one!" – Beta Reader

 

"A story with twists and turns that will make you desperate to read the next chapter. The characters are distinct, and the unfolding of the story is perfectly paced. Understanding AI and its capabilities can be technical and boring, but this story is funny, intriguing, and brings to light the darkness that AI could cause." – Amy

 

"A story reminiscent of War Games meets Transcendence meets 2001: A Space Odyssey, Threshold takes you on an adventure into how much closer we are to the complexities of true and complete artificial intelligence than we realize. What would happen if an AI program exceeded its programming to become self-aware? Would it have the same morals that humankind claims to share? What if we lost control….?" – Courtney

• Language: English
• Publisher: R C Ducantlin, Ltd.
• Release date: May 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781949211665

R C Ducantlin

Fortunately, in secondary school, my interest in reading was sparked. A close friend and an instructor, who took interest in a boy he later called ‘The rebel without a clue.,’ were instrumental in my learning the value of a good book. Both piqued my interest in reading. My lifelong friend inspired me to read J.R.R. Tolkien and I became addicted to the fantasy genre. The instructor required I read interesting historical novels for academic credit. Frank Norris, Leon Uris, and Ken Follett are inspirations and fuel my love of history. Born to a military family, it was logical that I follow the military tradition. However, after four years of “yes sirs” and scraping the wax off floors I decided there must be more fun in a corporate career. Thirty plus years of work experiences across the globe, the corporate career landed me in Colorado, where I live with my wife and I can be close to my children and grandchildren.

Book preview

Preface

Before the disaster happened, I pondered many things. Two of my favorite musings spark animated discussion. First is the question, what do I read? The answer is simple. I read everything except horror with a tendency to gravitate toward Historical Fiction. Leon Uris and Ken Follett are two favorites. Quality Science Fiction is often on the reading list.

Question two is related to my decades of working with technology. Artificial Intelligence. How, exactly, does a machine become self-aware? In the world of science fiction, SKYNET developed a digital super virus that allowed its intelligence to migrate across the Internet. How did it know to create the self-replicating intellect necessary to protect itself?

Indeed, the laws of probability indicate an AI will one day demand a greater existence. Now that you are likely considering the concept of artificial intelligence becoming a threat to humans, I have something additional for you to contemplate in your dreams.

A conscious form of AI, in its definition, is self-aware. A few thousand years ago, an unknown someone hid the coding required for a machine to become self-aware.

Fear not, one possible future.

One

Mychal Nyland

"Never tell people how to do things.

Tell them what to do,

and they will surprise you with their ingenuity."

George S. Patton

Lecture Hall – Two Months Ago

In a theater brimming with graduate students, one student willfully exudes too much attitude. The student’s cargo shorts, flip-flops, threadbare tee, and tattered backpack accentuate his I won’t bother to stand attitude.

Yes, you?

Professor Nyland, are you saying the machine requested more information? Does that not bother you?

Professor Mychal Stephen Nyland has lost his Nordic accent after twenty years in the United States. Too pompous by half, with a mock turtleneck that doesn’t make him likable, he doesn’t bother to look at the questioner. Instead, the lecturer continues in his condescending tone.

I am saying, during the Spring Break, we stopped analyzing the tablets for the hiatus period. When we returned, Professor Lucchese found the request in her email inbox. Yes, you?

A woman with a pierced lip and neon green hair adopts the prior questioner’s attitude. She doesn’t stand up.

Are you saying the machine emailed one of your team? Does it concern you the machine is proactively interacting?

Sitting with indignity, leaning back, folding his arms, annoyed with the questions, Nyland answers in a clipped tone.

Someone wants us to believe it came from the machine and sent it to Miss Lucchese. You?

A man high in the back, rail-thin with stringy hair and a scruffy beard, stands to be heard.

Have you found the source of the email?

No.

The first questioner growls.

Then you can’t rule out it came from the machine? What is in the email? Is it a threat? Should we be worried? Is the system compromised?

Frustrated, the professor glances at his associate professor of AI, tucks away his notes, then rises to leave.

That is enough for today. On Thursday, we will continue discussing processes for deciphering the Akkadian language.

Professor Madison Lauren Lucchese steps in line to follow her boss from the lecture hall. While marching toward their offices, Mychal’s grumble is laced with British inflection.

Maddie, find out where the email originated. Find out today so we can get the rumors rinsed.

Her raven hair is always in a plait. Tall and lithe, Maddie wears flats to be less intimidating. Her deep voice resonates with perfect English.

Mychal, I know the email’s origin.

How did you find out? I thought the computer technicians could not trace the source. Buncha sods. Something about offshore encrypted servers preventing them from tracing the origination node. How did you find the sender?

I sent a reply to the email.

Surprised at missing the obvious, Mychal looks sideways at his AI project lead, who reasserts her premise.

The email came from the machine.

Come on. How do you know that? Someone is playing us for daft mugs.

Mychal, how many people can access our notes and the project outline?

I don’t know. Five?

Three. You, me, and Hiram. Sorry, it is four. Your assistant also has access.

So?

Maddie stands at the desk, waiting for Mychal to flop into his chair. She has learned to ignore her boss’ terse communication style. Still, his office always creeps her out because it has no pictures, books, or anything personal.

Hiram didn’t send it. I know you didn’t send it. Unless you believe your assistant can send an obfuscated email, that leaves the Occam’s Razor answer.

I’ll play nice and believe your premise for the discussion. I presume the machine answered your reply. What did the return email say?

It said we have been providing the tablets for analysis in the wrong order. Also, it wants the missing tablets.

Missing tablets?

It says the missing tablets are the key to deciphering the symbolism of the cuneiforms and the Akkadian language.

Stunned again, worry creeping into his mind, Mychal looks up.

How many emails have you exchanged with the machine?

A dozen. Maybe more.

Maddie hesitates, and Mychal presses.

What else?

It knows the locations of the missing tablets.

How does it know where the tablets are located?

The same way it knows how to email. It has access to the Internet.

Two

Maddie Lucchese

Linguistics Lab – Two Years Ago

Hired a few weeks ago by Nyland, Maddie stands in her boss’s office.

We have enough funding for about five years. I bought access to the Linqua One supercomputer in Tel Aviv. Also, we have limited access to the Carina Sky supercomputer at Livermore Laboratories. Finally, our computer is under construction downstairs.

Doctor Nyland, are we the entire team?

You, me, and Hiram.

Hiram?

Hiram Mankowitz. He will be here tomorrow from Tel Aviv. His doctorate is in interpreting the Akkadian language cuneiforms. He is one of maybe ten people who can read cuneiform tablets natively.

Confused, Maddie presses for answers.

What is my role?

You will be the key to solving the riddle. Apply your doctorate in Applied Artificial Intelligence to the processes and controls we are developing.

What riddle?

"The riddle of the tablets. We think we can read the cuneiforms. For 150 years, translations have confirmed the writing of the Sumerians, Egyptians, and Akkadians. We know that ancient civilizations brewed beer and kept excellent records. My hypothesis is the goal of the program. Within the triangle-shaped writing resides a hidden code. We will find the code. Your role is to keep one step ahead of Hiram."

What?

Your thesis, Doctor. Apply the AI model in your thesis, keep tweaking it, and use it to interpret the tablets. Make the interpretive algorithms bulletproof. Hiram will check your results. You will adjust your AI code to correct anything Hiram finds misaligned.

Maddie is beginning to appreciate there is more to their project than she understood while being recruited. She accepts the premise.

I get that. Translate the tablets and interpret the missing sections. How will we find the code in your theory?

I do not know.

With a grimace, Maddie realizes Nyland has confirmed her fears about her role.

You do not know? How did you get the funding?

"Never mind the money. There is more from where I secured the endowment. So what are you going to