Archive-name: Fantasy/art-erot.txt
Archive-author: Alex Gross
Archive-title: AE--Artificial Eroticism
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.
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.
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:
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 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 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 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.
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 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 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 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 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 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 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.
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!
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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