2040: “Hm, that’s odd,” thought Dr. Newerton. He peered back over his notes, trying again to make sense of the study he had just reviewed on cortex function. Two years ago, his group had thought they were on the cusp of understanding the brain, but now that goal was feeling more and more elusive. The overall principles seemed clear enough, but he could see no path toward them through the blind, parallel behavior of individual neurons. He stared deeply again at a diagram in his notes, then drifted off in daydream. “None of these results make sense,” he thought, “unless…!”
2042: The small mouse-like contraption walked to the right side of the cage and pulled the lever, revealing three bright marbles. A loud shout of “it’s learning!” filled the laboratory.
2045: Dr. Van Noymenn sighed, and looked back over the test results. Another failure. She thought back to three years ago, and remembered that feeling of elation; the path had seemed so clear. Why was this last step so hard? After association, scaling up to sense of self and tool use had required minimal work – but she had nothing new to show for the last two years of work. “Surely,” she thought, “our brains can’t be that different.” Her mind wandered back to the early days of man, pondering the experience of our ancestors. Suddenly, she jolted up. “That’s it!”
2049: Everything was ready. Or was it? Van Noymenn’s eyes darted again to the test modules, checking them one final time. She saw, for the tenth time in as many hours, a fully green screen – no errors. With a surge of determination, she clicked “deploy”, placed the small robot in a stroller, and pushed it out the door.
2050: Every day, the feeling grew heavier. Had the last year been a waste? Van Noymenn looked over to the robot “playing” with some blocks. It was certainly an improvement from the previous systems, but still seemed a dead-end. Oh well, she thought, time to wrap up for the night. She walked over to the floor and put a hand on the robot. It turned to her and looked up – “Mommy!”
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I really like this style of writing
Thank you! Glad you enjoyed