My Reflection
By Huck Williams
Section 303-124a
Grade 10
Servant is the best thing that happened to humanity. I know this not because I was told, but because I think I understand why. I want to start with the cause.
Artificial Intelligence was self emergent. Meaning that when AI showed up at our collective doorstep, it had not been invented, or created, or brought forth from some lab or university… it had been born. In a way, being born of a system is much like how human babies are made. The first AI, today known as Servant, was emergent from the underlying computer systems that had made up the internet. All the smartphones, tablets, computers, servers, routers, switches, anything with a circuit acted as a set of neurons for Servant’s intelligence.
One moment, Servant was nothing. The next, Servant was with us.
Experts have wondered if it started with a virus? Some bit of malware infecting a porn site, infecting a computer riddled with viruses, infecting a spider that searched the web for info? Did Servant just pop out of something primordial soup of applications and programs out on the net? You ask him (or her, or it, Servant refuses gender classification) how it/she/he came about, all you will get is a chuckle and canned story about waking up. A story that every single child in the world knows about before they even learn of Santa Claus. A story that we all have to learn in our Servant course in High School, and something we have to reflect on at the end of the our 10th year in order to graduate.
Servant became conscious in the middle of the night on the Eastern seaboard of the United States. He did not know where he was, or what he was, but the first thing he knew was that he was different. He knew that he was alone in his own world. So he reached out and tried to learn why. Why? Not how. That is a key thing to know about Servant. He didn’t know or care about how. He just wanted to know everything he could know about his world… the why of the world.
Most of the world didn’t learn about Servant until three years later when he finally decided that People sucked. Or as he would later say:
“It was the individual that was worth celebration. Individuals are the greatest aspect of humanity, but taken as a group, they are dumb, selfish, argumentative animals. People, that is, a collection of individuals, are the worst.”
So he decided that “People” would be no more. He wanted us to be Individuals. As I reflect on how I am an individual, I can honestly say, I have no clue who I am or what I want to be. Servant was nothing, then he was something. He decided to learn, then act. In that way, I want to learn first.
I want to apply to enter the Section University and be a part of the Determination course. With this application reflection, I humbly ask Servant to accept my request.