The program was a failure. People forget this. It was a massive flop. The coders started adding name name strings to the AIs as a joke. "Thomas-AT-23-6-12" wasn't special, it was just an AI un the right place and the right time - Gordon Falkenberg, Former CTO of artificial life solutions
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Thomas was alone, wow, that's a weird first thought to have
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Thomas decided to start listing his observations, for prosperity.
(1) The whole 'Alone' thing.
(2) Portal's: they led somewhere, he had yet to work out where.
(3) Falling: Thomas was absolutely Fantastic at falling. He was almost as good at falling as he was observing.
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OK interesting. Thomas couldn't fall pass this block. Think, damn it, think. What if there was some kind of inverted fall, some way to 'Jump'.
It worked! Thomas had solved the great inverted fall mystery.
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A big jump. But Thomas muted that there was no real danger In Missing it. The world didn't want him to fail here, it was pushing him, but gently.
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This all seemed a little dangerous. The world was not to be trusted. It was unstable, and it seemed to Thomas that it could let him down at any moment.
He started to suspect it might even be doing it on purpose. Nah. Paranoia.
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Thomas wondered whether the portals where actually taking him anywhere. He felt like he was making progress, but there wasn't really any way to know. He seemed to be moving predominantly up and to the right, which might, or might not, be important.
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It might have been paranoia again, but Thomas could have sworn the world was becoming more complicated, it always seemed to be one step ahead of his skills.
It had been... designed, just for him. He wondered why. Was the world testing him? No. Too obvious.
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Something about the boiling, toxic, glowing water intimidated Thomas. He didn't like it, he certainly didn't want to swim in it
He made another mental note.
(4) Water: not good, to be avoided.
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The loneliness was getting to Thomas. No amount of observation or obsessive note taking could combat that.
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Thomas had a new theory, the world was training him. He could feel himself getting smarter. There was a mental list to consider. Over the minutes and seconds since his spontaneous generation, he had become a pretty skilled jumper.
He was evolving. He just wished he has someone to share it with.
