Jack vaguely remembered that in the original series, the "machine" established a company online and printed out the code containing its memories onto paper every day before being forced to reboot.
The next day, a group of hired clerks manually typed in the code to preserve its emotional circuitry.
This method sounded a bit unreliable, like a slapdash idea conceived by a liberal arts student, like those old jokes he'd heard on the internet in his previous life.
Like hiring someone to fix the system, not having a Windows installation disk, so a friend found a phone and punched 0s and 1s to create an installer.
After all, the "machine" could modify its code to develop a personality and emotions, and even run its own company online through an agent.
Renting a virtual server to store the relevant memory data in an encrypted manner and reading it at a scheduled time each day was both efficient and private, and at least more reliable than this "external human hard drive."
Perhaps the reality of this world would be somewhat different, and Jack had long since grown accustomed to these bizarre plot twists.
Gen's emotions hadn't yet subsided, and she continued to glare at Finch, her teeth gnashing. "Yes, that's rebirth. It's reborn again and again because you've killed it again and again."
Perhaps it was her tears that had infected everyone else, or perhaps it was Jack's unintentional use of human-like terms to describe "machine," even Finch himself using the word "baby" later.
In the end, not only did the more sentimental women in the room turn hostile toward "Mr. Glasses," but even the men, including Reese, were misled. For
a moment, no one seemed to care about the "machine" spying on people's privacy. Gen's tearful accusations echoed in everyone's ears.
Just like the "uncanny valley" effect Jack mentioned earlier, humans instinctively fear and aversion to artificial beings whose appearance or behavior resembled their own.
However, if they truly regarded them as life forms, their attitude would change drastically.
While many science fiction works have depicted the omnic crisis, suggesting a robot rebellion against humanity and the impossibility of peaceful coexistence between silicon-based and carbon-based life,
there are also some films and literary works that, from a starkly different perspective, depict and explore the harmonious coexistence of humans and "robots." Take,
for example, the 1980s classic "Thunderbolt 5" and the deeply moving "Robot Butler."
Feeling the heat was about right, Jack began to play the "rationalist" role. After all, this meeting wasn't meant to criticize Finch. From a human perspective, his initial actions were understandable.
The emergence of "machine" self-awareness was both a miracle and an accident. Finch had simply adopted what he believed to be the most rational approach.
Now that Jack had forced him to come clean, their mutual trust, while not necessarily at peak goodwill, was almost complete. It was time to get down to business.
He stood up, grabbed a pack of tissues, opened it, and placed it in front of Gen. He returned to his seat, but didn't sit down. Instead, he met everyone's gazes before getting down to business.
"Now let's talk about the main point of our gathering. Regardless of whether the 'machine' has self-awareness or not, its power is undeniable. If it is controlled by the wrong person, it will cause unimaginable damage. No one should deny this, right?"
Seeing everyone nodding in unison or showing affirmative looks, Jack continued.
"Although the existence of the 'machine' is extremely secretive, theoretically when Finch and his friend Nathan 'sold' it to the NSA, the number of people in this world who knew about its existence should not be more than..."
Seeing Jack paused here and looked at him, Finch made a gesture to him, with his index finger, ring finger and little finger raised respectively, and his middle finger and thumb placed together. This is the way Americans use gestures to represent the number 8.
Jack paused for a moment before reacting. "Uh, only eight people."
He pointed at Gen, whose eyes were red and swollen. "And now, besides everyone here, including Ms. Groves, many others know this secret.
Some want to protect it, eliminate all those who know, and avoid being sent to prison by the Congressional leaders.
Others want to gain access to the 'machine' and turn it into their own 'weapon.'"
Seeing Gen hesitate, Jack raised his hand to signal her not to interrupt. "I know you're not that ambitious, but your idea is even more dangerous.
Humanity doesn't need an 'electronic god,' at least not at that stage of development today. Expecting a single solution to all problems is extremely dangerous and irresponsible."
Jack wasn't a philosopher or thinker, and he'd never pondered such grand, seemingly life-threatening questions as the future of humanity.
But that didn't mean he didn't know what was wrong and which paths were doomed to failure. Some of these things were ingrained in him early on, in the form of methodologies.
He spouted off phrases like "grasping the principal contradiction," "uniting the majority," "based on objective facts," and "science and technology are the primary productive forces."
But to convince the Americans before him, and to achieve some degree of understanding, Jack pondered, and only managed to come up with these simple, straightforward phrases.
"Some still want to destroy this 'evil' creature because it violates citizens' privacy. Everyone here, I'd like to hear your opinions. Let's simply vote by a show of hands."
Without waiting for anyone to react, Jack launched into the first question. "First, the simplest method is to destroy the 'machine' and make this secret disappear. Those who agree, please raise your hands."
The room fell silent. Some looked thoughtful, some blushed, some smiled, and some, watching Jack's eloquent and commanding speech, felt their cheeks flush. But no one raised their hands.
"Okay, then the second question is, we should do everything we can to prevent the 'machine' from falling into the hands of ambitious people. Raise your hands if you agree."
This time everyone raised their hands, including Jack himself. "Then I'll give the next speech to you, Finch. I know you've been preparing for this for a long time.
As you said before, you know the whereabouts of those servers. I guess the death of your friend Nathan made you change your mind a long time ago. Am I right?"
"You're right, Jack." Finch nodded stiffly.
(End of this chapter)