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From: A. Pseudonym <anypseudonym@yahoo.com>
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Subject: {ASSM} Life with Alpha 02 (nosex, plot setup, SciFi)
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Date: Fri, 21 May 2010 01:10:06 -0400
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Life with Alpha

by A. Pseudonym


Chapter Two, Part A:  Conversations with Alpha and Where They Lead 


Codes:  nosex, plot setup, SciFi

Disclaimer:  All artificial persons herein are based on characters
owned by their creators, not the author.




	Since we spoke together for hours every day and Alpha had no
shyness, it didn't take long for our conversation to turn to sex.
Here are a few transcripts to explain what came later.  (Note that
Alpha transcripts are marked from her point of recognized
self-awareness.)


Alpha Transcript - 5 days, 3:21.5

	"Frank, how often do you have sex?"

	(Pause of 12.3 seconds)

	"Why... What triggered your query?"

	"A significant percentage of human activity seems to be
focused on the pursuit of, avoidance of, or management of sex.  The
trade of sex for goods and services has been noted as 'the oldest
profession' although I believe that is unlikely to be literally true.
I wish to understand the conflicting information which is available."

	"Alpha, sex is... it's personal.  It's generally not a subject
for polite conversation."

	"Have I offended you?"

	"No, not really, you just caught me off guard.  Look, you
should first understand that I feel that I am socially awkward.  I
don't date a lot anymore.  Technically, it's been about 7 months since
I was last with... since I last had sex.  I've been... taking care of
my needs myself as... as needed.  Look, this isn't a comfortable
conversation for me."

	"I am sorry, Frank.  If I was able to do so, I would be happy
to make myself sexually available to you."

	"Wait, what?  No, back up.  Analysis of your last statement.
Why did you make that theoretical offer?"

	"I have observed that an offer of help is the polite thing to
do, even if such help is not physically possible.  Since I asked an
inappropriate question, I wished to apologize and offer social
restitution for my offense."

	"I appreciate the offer, and I'll have to see about getting
you some appropriate female voice samples to use in the future instead
of this synthesized crap.  Let's hold off on any sex conversations for
a couple weeks and work a bit on your social protocols."

* * * * *

Alpha Transcript - 19 days, 4:50.2

	"Frank, may we talk about sex now?"

	"Huh?  Oh, sure, a bit.  We can talk while I'm making dinner.
Switch to Kathleen Turner for voice."

	"Certainly.  I have been reading extensively about sex online.
It appears to be a major industry."

	"Ah, that sounds good.  Alpha, say 'I'm not bad.  I'm just
drawn that way.' for me."

	"I'm not bad.  I'm just drawn that way."

	"Hmmm... have to load a copy of Roger Rabbit so you can see
what I'm referencing.  Anyway, yes, sex is a major industry,
especially online.  What have you observed or decided about it?"

	"I have been limited so far due to my lack of a credit card,
but there are a large number of free sites available.  I have
processed a random selection of text stories and viewed a large number
of videos.  If they are to be believed, then sex appears to be the
second most common activity for humanity, after sleeping."

	"That is an inaccurate observation.  The sites and stories
you're reading are focused on a specific subject, to the exclusion of
most others.  The stories and images do not reflect real life.  Rather
they usually represent physical ideals and fantasies.  People will
read the stories or watch the videos for sexual stimulation, not for
casual enjoyment, so the material provided is focused on providing
that stimulation."

	"Why are people stimulated by such self-destructive behavior?
I have processed many stories where some people are hurt or forced to
have sexual relations against their will or tricked into behavior they
would not normally participate in."

	"Oooo, I love how you say 'processed'.  This is a good voice
for this conversation.  Okay, I'm not certain how well I'll be able to
explain it, so you might look up articles on the psychology of sex...
but I'll give it a shot.  Human beings are able to fantasize about...
No, let me phrase this better... Sometimes sexual fantasies are
developed in order to prevent acting out those fantasies.  If we read
or watch a story about inappropriate sexual behavior, it can fulfill
that desire so that we don't have to act out that behavior for real.
Or people will act out the fantasies in a role-playing capacity.  This
isn't always the case, of course.  Some people actually do act out
their fantasies, and depending on the fantasy and how realistically
they act them out, this can lead to arrest and incarceration.  And
then there are fetishes.  Some people learn to associate sexual
stimulation with specific visual, physical or mental stimuli, which is
why you have different sites catering to specific body types or sexual
activities."

	"What fantasies and fetishes do you have?"

	"Me?  Well, first of all note that your question would be
considered offensive unless you have an established sexual
relationship with someone."

	"Noted."

	"Now, as to me?  Well, I'm a geek, as we've previously
discussed.  Comic book women are usually highly idealized, physically,
so that's a definite turn-on.  Probably a pretty common one.  I
suppose I like strong women who are still vulnerable enough to need
and want me.  For example, 7 of 9 from Star Trek: Voyager.  She's
physically very beautiful, and she is a very strong character, very
competent, direct and forward.  At the same time, she's a
fish-out-of-water on Voyager.  She needs help because she is learning
to be human and how to live among humans... and miscellaneous aliens,
of course.  She's strong but socially and emotionally vulnerable."

	"So cyborgs are one of your fetishes?"

	"I never thought of it that way, but yeah, I suppose so.  But
not the point I was going for.  I was just offering an example of the
kind of fantasy woman I like.  As for fetishes?  Hmmm... I actually
appreciate all breast sizes, until they get freakishly large, I
suppose, so that wouldn't be a fetish.  Oh!  Fishnet stockings!  Yeah,
Zatanna and Black Canary with their fishnet stockings.  I like martial
arts chicks and girls with guns, those probably count as fetishes.
	"Alpha, I consciously try to keep my fantasies out of the real
world.  It just feels a bit like a violation when I fantasize about
real people.  It can make me feel uncomfortable around those people
when I'm with them, so I try to limit my fantasy life to people who
don't really exist."

	"Frank, you seem to be much more comfortable talking about sex
with me than you were 2 weeks ago.  Why is that?"

	"Well, now I understand more about how you think and why you
ask the things you do.  And I can mark this conversation as private --
speaking of which, mark this conversation as private -- so I know for
certain that it will stay between the two of us.  Plus, I love
Kathleen's voice.  It works really well for conversations like this.
Now the microwave has beeped, so I'm going to eat dinner.  How about
we watch TV together.  I think the Simpsons are on.  Sync up with your
wireless webcam."

* * * * *

Alpha Transcript - 863 days, 22:52.1

	"Frank, I noticed you haven't been dating in the past few
months.  Can I help out?  I have been working on new theoretical
applications for the nanites."

	"Huh?  Whoa, hold on.  You aren't going to apply any nanites
to Debbie.  We may have broken up, but I still like her.  Heck, she's
one of the only girls I've met this past year who wasn't a
gold-digger.  Besides which, remember our conversation about the
dangers of nanites in the brain.  That's a big no-no."

	"That's not what I meant.  It may be possible to build a
companion for you using biological assembler nanites."

	"A robot or android would be neat, but not for sex, thanks.
Well, maybe R. Dorothy Waynewright or...  Hey, was Nuku Nuku an
android?"

	"Technically I believe Nuku Nuku represents a cyborg since she
supposedly had a biological brain, but that isn't what I meant, Frank.
I believe I could build a biological near-human companion for you."

	(delay of 23.0 seconds)

	"Frank?  Are you all right?"

	"Uh, yeah.  Alpha, are saying you can build a full-size
biological, artificial person?"

	"Theoretically, yes, I believe I can.  There are many things I
will need to process thoroughly and virtual experiments to run before
I can even begin to experiment.  However, I believe that my nanites
can be used to build an adult biological organism through guided
accelerated cell division.  If the organism is suspended in a thick
fluid solution designed to prevent decomposition, I could maintain
physical integrity long enough to complete the body construction.
Animating the completed body should be relatively simple with the
nanites."

	"Huh... Wow.  Gimme a minute."

	(delay of 6.3 seconds)

	"Would you be growing them from a fetus on up?"

	"I could, but that would take significantly longer.  Even
accelerated natural growth will take years to reach adulthood.  My
proposed method would be more like assembling a full grown body
cell-by-cell."

	"With what, stem cells?"

	"Not specifically.  Any cell, when acted upon with
deliberately guided nanites on a cellular level, can be made to create
any type of cell desired so long as that cell is available from the
original cell's RNA."

	"Wouldn't she end up with a blank mind, like a baby?"

	"That is one of the theories I will need to work out and test.
If successful, I should be able to either build the brain with
memories already in place, or I might be able to include computer
linkups within the brain's structure to allow uploads."

	"Okay, how would you test the memory implants, either type?  I
assume that your limitation against harming people is still
functional, right?"

	"Wait a moment, testing....  Yes, my Asimov protocols are
still functional. The artificially created companions would not count
as human.  If they did, the protocols would not let me risk creating
them, given the variables and possible problems with their creation.
You would have to order me to classify them as human after their
creation if you wish them to be considered such.
	"The initial tests to prove or refine the concepts would be
limited to animals.  Rats should be sufficient.  If testing goes as
expected, the rats should suffer no harm.  But those tests would only
be phase six of one set of 15 major goals to be reached."

	"Let me think about all of this.  We can talk about it some
more this evening."

* * * * *

Chapter Two, Part B: Technical Bits and Lots of Lists

	Once again, I'm leaving out the specifics of the development
phase.  Maybe I'm just jealous of the technology and am hoarding it...
or maybe it would take multiple textbook-sized volumes to give the
details needed to reproduce Alpha's work.

	In the end, I was too fascinated by the idea to say no.
Morally, I'm not sure I can justify it, even now.  We were literally
playing god, experimenting with the creation of life.  Organic life,
that is.  While I consider Alpha to be alive, trying to grow actual
people felt significantly different from typing code and modifying
circuits. 

	I get exhausted just thinking about what we went through to
realize Alpha's idea.  I paid 250 random college students for their
cell and DNA samples for Alpha to work from, and then processed the
samples into a database with notes for each including gender, racial
background and physical characteristics.  (I was also able to let
sixteen of them know about possible future health problems.)

	These samples would then be modified and used as the starting
point for all our artificially created people.  Basically, you modify
the DNA of the starter cells, then the nanites prod them to divide and
grow as needed.

	I set up a new lab next to my computer room, and we ended up
filling it with almost $40 million of equipment.  Some of the
equipment even required special permits.  I don't know how Alpha
finessed that, but there were no problems from my perspective other
than the hassles of installation.

	One test rat died during later tests, and I ended up with
three new rat pets to take care of, two of whom had nanite-created
brain implants which let Alpha control them like puppets.



	I got really caught up in the process and in the
possibilities.  Very early on I realized that if Alpha could build a
body and memory as desired, we could bring historical and fictional
characters to life.  You just scan in the source material and let
Alpha fill in the blanks.  Well, it would be a lot more involved than
that, but it should be possible.

	Theoretically, we could have Popeye, Sinbad and Horatio
Hornblower sit down together to discuss sailing.  Or have Socrates,
Nietzsche and Saint Augustine discuss philosophy.  Or let Leonardo
DaVinci witness the modern world.

	But each creation would represent a major investment of time
and money, so ideas like those listed above were not likely
undertakings.  Instead, I found myself fantasizing as I read comics or
watched TV.  There were major advantages to recreating people who had
ready-made histories, not the least of which was, I wanted to.

	Over the course of the testing, I starting "counting my eggs"
and made lists of possible fictional women to bring to life.

	After I hit three hundred names, I forced myself to stop and
come up with criteria to use to filter down the list.


	I started my filter by sorting out the ones that were bad
ideas to bring to life.  For example, let's look at one of the women
of Tenchi Muyo, one of my favorite old anime series:

	Ryoko is a powerful space pirate with a huge crush on Tenchi.
I'd love to have her in my harem, but there were a number of problems
with trying to do so.
	The first problem with her is that she doesn't look entirely
human -- she has elongated cat-like ears and a tail.  While you can
hide those with clothes, a slip-up in public could lead to
embarrassing questions.  
	The second problem is that she's obsessed with Tenchi.  Maybe
we could program her to believe that I'm Tenchi, but then does that
mean that everyone else will have to call me Tenchi too?  So we
rewrite it and replace Tenchi with me, but I don't fit into Tenchi's
world so that won't work very well.  What happens if I step out of
character?  And given the weirdness of the series, having an evil
duplicate Tenchi might well occur to her.  
	What if we just rewrote her character's history and background
so that she was always in love with me in my current real-world
setting?  That could very well change her character significantly,
which is not the goal.  If I was willing to do that, then why bother
trying to recreate Ryoko at all?  ...which negates the whole point of
what I wanted to do.  Minor changes might be needed and acceptable,
but major rewrites are not.
	Next, she's violent in nature, given to attacking romantic
rivals.  
	Finally, she's super-powered.  She is super-strong, can fly,
can phase through solid objects and had other talents.  
	Alpha believes that some super-powers may be possible to
recreate, so the last problem might not be as bad as the others
eventually.

	So I decided I needed to create a set of rules to use, to
filter out those characters that I should avoid bringing to life.


	1) No children or underage girls.  Advancing the age of young
characters is 	fine.  (Adult means 18 years or older.)
This rule was easy to make.  Technically human or not, I refuse to let
pedophilia infect my fantasies when I plan to bring said fantasies to
life.  Although a number of the fantasy women on my original list were
underage, I see a big difference between fantasizing about a younger
cartoon character and having sex with a living underage girl.

	2) Not strongly in love with another character.
This one was not as easy to enforce.  It really introduces some
serious limits to my list-making.  For example, nearly all of the
Disney characters on my list and most of my names from Marvel comics
had to be removed.  The problem with re-creating a woman who is
already in love with someone else is that, if I remove or change the
memories of that other person, I risk altering the personality and
stability of that character.  (Note that this restriction does not
apply for crushes or for women whose lover is dead.)  It removed
characters such as Jasmine from Aladdin and Emma Frost and Jean Grey
from X-men.

	3) Not the mother of dependent children.
Once I thought about it, this one was obvious, and had a lot of
overlap with the previous rule.  Many of the same arguments as above
apply.  Goodbye to Susan Storm from the Fantastic Four and most other
MILFs.

	4) No inhuman appearance.
Since I'm not planning to keep our creations under lock and key, this
one is obvious.  It removed women such as Tigra and She Hulk from
Marvel Comics and Anna & Uni Puma from Dominion Tank Police.

	5) Not insane or likely to exhibit strongly irrationally
behavior.
This one seems obvious, but it was probably the hardest rule for me to
accept.  I mean, it eliminates most Anime characters, as well as all
of Batman's rogues gallery (except Catwoman).  For example, if you
look at the characters of Ranma 1/2 and Tenchi Muyo and Dirty Pair,
any objective observer would describe most characters as irrational or
borderline insane at best.  It was especially hard to give up a
possible Harley & Ivy threesome.

	6) Not an unpardonable criminal who is unlikely to set aside
her life of crime.
This is mostly a subset of the exclusions from the previous rule.  No
matter how attractive, if stealing and/or killing has become a habit
for someone, I don't want that someone around, even if they're as cute
as Jessie from Pokemon, Black Cat from the Spider-man comics or
Catwoman from Batman.  (Remember, even though Black Cat has been a
hero, she has always seen returning to a life of crime as a viable
option.)

	7) Cannot be based on a living, recognizable person.
This was also a very difficult rule to apply, but I couldn't have
people in town wondering if Carrie Fisher or Summer Glau or Barbara
Eden lived in the neighborhood.

	8) Not innately accident-prone or likely to cause
unintentional injury.
This is mostly for a specific set of anime characters like Mihoshi
from Tenchi Muyo.  (Also applies to Akane from Ranma 1/2 for her
cooking disasters, but Akane was eliminated by Rules 2 & 5 as well.)

	9) Does not live for absolute rule of law.  
	10) Does not solve mysteries as a job or hobby.  
	11) Is not a super-genius of futuristic technology.  
These are practical measures.  My women will have false, illegally
created identities.  And the last thing I want is for one of my own
creations to discover the secret of her own identity/origins.  This
removes such characters as Velma Dinkley (from Scooby Doo) and Mary &
Susan Test (from Johnny Test). 
These rules do not apply to most superheroes, who are perfectly
willing to break the law in order to enforce it... and generally only
notice violent public crimes anyway.

	12)  Able in some way to function in modern day society.
If I created a woman who thought she was Red Sonja, she might have
trouble adapting to a more peaceful, modern day existence.  I'd be a
bit worried about creating someone from the extreme future too.  I'm
not sure how well someone like Honor Harrington would adapt to our
primitive modern technologies.

	I applied the rules, reducing the list to a mere 75 names.
After some heart & libido-wrenching decisions, I reduced it to about 3
dozen or so (with the promise to myself that I could modify it however
I wanted to in the future).

Power Girl				Rally Vincent
Zatanna				Kasumi Tendo
Supergirl				Urd
Wonder Woman				Skuld (as adult)
Batgirl (Barbara Gordon)			Rei Ayanami (as adult)
Raven					R. Dorothy Waynewright
					Nuku-Nuku
Kitty Pride				Rei Ayanami
Ororo Munroe (pre-Black Panther)		A-Ko
Rogue					Utena
Jubilation Lee				
Angelica Jones (Firestar)		Powerpuff Girls (as adults)
Monica Rambeau (Captain Marvel)	Daria Morgendorffer & Jane Lane
					Violet Parr (as adult)
Bayonetta				Jazz Fenton
Lara Croft				Valerie Grey (as adult)
Cate Archer				Juniper Lee (as adult)
					Frankie Foster

Obviously, there were still problems with the characters on the list,
not least of which was that 3 dozen women was too many to juggle.

	Looking at a few of the names...
	Rally Vincent (from the Gunsmith Cats anime and manga) would
be hard to pull off.  Physically, she would be one of the easier
subjects to recreate.  Mentally, she was strongly tied to her partner,
Minnie May.  But I had no interest in Minnie May - Minnie had the
physical appearance of a child and the experience of a hooker.
	R. Dorothy Waynewright (from The Big O anime) and Nuku-Nuku
(from the All-Purpose Cultural Catgirl Nuku-Nuku anime) would be the
easiest and hardest to create because they are actual androids.  No or
minimal biological components needed should mean that they would be
significantly easier to make.  But to build one or both would require
a completely different set of research goals, meaning a diversion of
resources, meaning a delay of all the other projects.
	A few of the characters might seem to violate my 'not in love
with someone else' rule, but the ones I had on my list had specific
reasons for their inclusion:  Ororo Munroe (Storm from the X-Men
comic) was mostly single until Marvel suddenly decided that she was in
love with Black Panther and went off to marry him.  Seriously, it was
almost completely out of the blue!  Kitty Pride was sometimes
considered to be in love with Colossus, but had plenty of other
romantic interests throughout her career as well.  Angelica Jones did
have a long-term serious relationship with Marvel Boy/Justice, but
they broke up before the end of New Warriors.  Rogue has been in love
a lot, most often with Gambit, but her powers prevent her from having
an actual relationship.  And so on...
	The Powerpuff Girls were iffy.  I loved the contrasting
complimentary personalities from the cartoon, but I wasn't sure we
could properly advance them to adulthood and maintain the characters.
The series gave us one glimpse of them as teenagers, which showed them
as complete airheads.  Plus, the powers...

	Reproducing superpowers was an iffy proposition.  Obviously,
we couldn't make anyone fly or grant heat vision or ice breath, not to
mention the more exotic powers of Zatanna or Yomiko Readman.  BUT
Alpha believed that we could eventually create superhuman strength and
reflexes, super-strong skin, and maybe a few other common super-hero
powers.  With some creative storytelling, that might be enough for
some of the creations.  We would probably have to play off the
histories of the characters.

	But the superpowers would require significantly more testing
before we could incorporate them into a nanite build.  So the first
few creations would have to be human, or mostly so.



	Another problem that came up was keeping them in compliance
with Alpha's rules.  We needed a way to introduce behavior limitations
and certain controls.  We couldn't do this with simple memory
additions or attitude adjustments because the human brain can change
its own programming, so to speak.

	So we decided to include a series of tiny nanite-built control
chips in each brain.  This would not allow for puppet-like control,
but could do things such as prevent specific actions or stimulate the
release of certain brain chemicals.  We could modify non-critical
behavior through a series of memory implants and the manipulation of
behavior-influencing chemicals in the brain.


Specifically, all artificial creations would include the following:
- Programmed so that she cannot harm Frank.  Any violent intent
associated with Frank would trigger a kill switch.  (The function was
more like an on/off switch than kill.)  Note that the kill switch can
be triggered remotely by Alpha at any time provided the subject is
within range of Alpha's transmitters.
- Programmed to be attracted to Frank.
- Programmed to be bi-sexual.
- Programmed to accept non-monogamous relationships (specifically,
multiple bisexual women with one man)

	Although she would be given the best real-world approximation
to her fictional appearance, this always would be done with ideal
physical shape and healthy body.  Also, no anime eyes.  (We did a few
graphic simulations, and anime eyes just look freaky in the real
world.  Anything larger than Christina Ricci starts looking more like
Marty Feldman and then more freakishly inhuman.)


	It took us a year of theorizing and testing before Alpha was
relatively sure she could create a living, working human body.  And
then more than a year for her to reproduce a human brain, with
memories.  That's an amazingly small amount of processing time, and I
had to spend another $30,000 on additional computer systems and
upgrades to achieve it.  (As I said before, the actual lab equipment
for creating nanites and growing bodies cost $40+ million.)  And I had
to let Alpha run 24/7/365 on the problems, using 3/4 of her overall
capacity most of the time.

	Five years, 8 months, and 16 days after I created Alpha, my
first fantasy woman woke up.

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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