Parallel Vol. 4 [LEGACY EDITION]

Chapter 94.2: The Truth

James stood up. He glanced at Suzuki, off-handedly saying as he walked toward a Street Fighters Arcade machine. "Say, how do you think the A.Is were created?"

"How?" Suzuki frowned. Why was he asking such an inane question? "You already said it. Light. It produces new A.Is, doesn't it?"

"Oh. You were paying attention. Nice!" remarked James as he flipped on the machine. Nwuom! The logo flashed on the screen. James emerged from the back of the machine. He cast a mischievous smile at Suzuki and then challenged, "But, then. How was Light itself created?"

Suzuki frowned. "How the hell am I supposed to know that? I didn't study artificial intelligence!"

"Fair point." James chuckled. He tapped on his head as he selected a character. "It's the brain, Suzu-chi. Previously, no matter how advanced our A.I technologies, were, they always lacked a little something extra. Something that would elevate them beyond intelligent lines of code." James' eyes shone as he turned to look at Suzuki. "That's where your father, Ryumaki comes in. He designed a machine that could accurately map out, and interpret the neurons firing in our brains while we think."

"Huh?"

James sighed. "How did a blockhead like you come from Ryu?" He gave Suzuki a look of disdain, and then explained, "Listen, Ryu's machine could listen and store your thoughts for further processing. We used several volunteers, from babies to old men on the cusp of death. Through mapping out the neurological activities in these individuals, Light became the first A.I to truly understand the meaning of life. Also, the only one of its kind to be able to create more A.Is that are able to learn from any stimuli regardless of the field of expertise."

"Just like humans?"

James snapped his fingers. "Exactly!" Unfortunately, that resulted in his fighter getting smashed. "Damn it!" He quickly restarted the fight, and then said, "The A.Is produced by Light are capable of rapid-learning from exposure to any random stimuli. They are also capable of determining quick judgments over various kinds of situations." James knocked back his opponent, then quickly pointed at Suzuki's chest. "The heart. It wasn't enough to have Intelligence. The A.Is needed to understand empathy so they could reach much more humane decisions, even if they went against hard logic." James grinned as he rapidly rushed the enemy character. He then declared as he launched a 17-hit combo that wiped the rest of its health bar.
"That's the Spirit of Humanity after all!"

Suzuki snorted. "I don't know what cherry-picked side of humanity you're talking about." He walked over to the machine and seized control of the second player controls. Quickly selecting Hwaorang, he derided, "The humans I know are selfish, lying vicious assholes. They betray and lie to each other at the drop of a hat, and..." Suzuki frowned. "...they murder those they swore to protect, and then find funny ways to justify escaping the punishment they deserve."

"Dark as always." James looked at the stone-faced Suzuki. As expected, the kid was still blaming himself for the accident. James recalled when Razznik first told his in-game avatar about the difference between Suzuki and himself. Suzuki later confirmed this to be true but blamed himself for what was really a series of unfortunate accidents.

James, however, knew that Suzuki was not the type to be comforted by soft words. If anything, they would most likely piss him off more. He selected Jin, and then said as the stage booted, "I prefer to see the good side in humanity." His gaze momentarily darkened. "Well, I'm banking on it or we're all fucked."

"Huh?"

"Never mind." James' smile returned before Suzuki noticed the oddity. "Anyway, like I was saying, Light learned to read people's thoughts, and that's how it was able to create new, intelligent A.I life with differing personalities and life. They are permutational combinations of those first set of volunteers." James grinned and then winked at Suzuki. "Of course, that skill only got better when Light got millions of willing volunteers."