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  1. ~~~TEXT FILE 01~~~
  2.  
  3. Subj: Introduction to the Sysop
  4. To : All
  5. From: KatherinetheGreat
  6. Date: Fri June 6 1997 07:15 pm PST
  7.  
  8.  
  9. I am an only child. Growing up I always felt different; a young girl who was
  10. interested in computers always struck people as odd, even threatening in some
  11. ways. I didn't fit into their models or expectations. I was so different than
  12. the other girls my age. when I was 8, and most of the other girls my age were
  13. asking for toy hourses, I was asking for a computer with one of the new 486
  14. series of microprocessor. During recess I would spend my time in the computer
  15. lab while the other girls played games with each other on the playground. Why
  16. would I want to spend my free time outside when my best friends were inside?
  17.  
  18. My parents worked in Silicon Valley, and as a result I was constantly exposed
  19. to the world of technology. My parents had stakes in all of the largest tech
  20. companies in California, from Apple to Haplo. They never planned to have
  21. children in the first place. Their careers were their children. Neither one of
  22. my parents wanted to give up any part of their careers, so they hired an army
  23. of caretakers to look after me. Don't get me wrong, my parents loved me, but
  24. they weren't very good at showing it.
  25.  
  26. I remember the extreme sense of isolation. I didn't have anyone I could talk to
  27. that shared my interests. Most people my age would look at me like I was
  28. speaking another language and would just roll their eyes. Adults would brush me
  29. off saying that they were "too busy." I thought I would have to spend the rest
  30. of my adolescent life feeling alone.
  31.  
  32. Fortunately, I found a way to talk to other people that were like me. I
  33. initially heard about them through a radio show I was listening to in the back
  34. of my parents' car. I don't remember much about it the show itself, but my
  35. interest was piqued when they began discussing something called a Bulletin
  36. Board System or BBS. They said that they were places for tech-savvy people to
  37. talk and share files with each other, and that they could be accessed by
  38. dialing into a computer using a modem. I thought that it sounded fascinating.
  39. These BBSs sounded like a wonderful place where I could hopefully connect with
  40. people who had similar interests to mine.
  41.  
  42. I was especially interested in one BBS that I had seen in a Contra Costa Times
  43. article, called TOTSE (the Temple of the Screaming Electron). TOTSE usually
  44. attracted media attention for it's controversial text file section. The Contra
  45. Costa Times article said, "TOTSE had hundreds of files with instructions and
  46. information on money laundering, mail fraud, counterfeiting, drug smuggling,
  47. cable-tv theft, bomb-making and murder". Although it sounded dangerous I knew
  48. I had to get involved.
  49.  
  50. As soon as I had my modem hooked up I set out to connect to TOTSE. Through some
  51. detective work, I was able to locate the phone number required to dial into the
  52. BBS. I remember how excited and anxious I was to join the BBS. I had no idea
  53. what awaited me on the other side of the terminal. I dialed in the number and
  54. it brought me to a login screen. I had finally made it, the BBS was more
  55. interesting than I had ever expected--or dreamed.
  56.  
  57. TOTSE was a sanctuary for me. Finally, I had someone to talk to that had
  58. similar interests to mine. Best of all, I could login anonymously. I was judged
  59. based only on my merits and my intelligence. I was completely hooked and I was
  60. soon spending every free moment I had messing around on the TOTSE BBS. Shortly
  61. after, I began frequenting some of the more underground BBSs of the Bay Area.
  62. And I became known, even with my "cloak of anonymity." I couldn't hide forever.
  63. I decided to reach out. I created a BBS of my own.
  64.  
  65. -KtG
  66.  
  67.  
  68.  
  69. Subj: Tech for Everyone!
  70. To : KatherinetheGreat
  71. From: SlimJim
  72. Date: Fri July 4 1997 1:04 pm PST
  73.  
  74.  
  75. Re: Tech for Evereyone!
  76. By: KatherinetheGreat to All on Fri July 4 1997 8:14 am
  77.  
  78. Hello Kate the Great! I was out trolling the Bay Area BBSs and I came across
  79. yours. I've found your posts very interesting. I like your thinking on creating
  80. software that is good for the common man and is there to help everyone. My
  81. friends and I sometimes stay in a place called SLAB CITY. We have a passion
  82. around doing things that the GOVERNMENT may not like, but we feel are the types
  83. of things that benefit the AVERAGE AMERICAN CITIZEN. I do like your feelings of
  84. patriotism, as I have a love of country myself. I'm a veteran of the conflict
  85. in SOUTH VIETNAM where I did what I thought was necessary to help protect my
  86. country. But I also saw some things that I didn't agree with. Lot's of
  87. GOVERNMENT SPOOKS were there ordering us to do stuff that I found troubling to
  88. me. I was in SPECIAL FORCES and once in a while I would say to somebody my
  89. compass and map are wrong cause as far as I know I'm not in NAM, I'm in
  90. CAMBODIA or LAOS, and I heard my GOVERNMENT say we weren't in CAMBODIA or LAOS.
  91. There is a lot more I can say, but first I want to know if my kind of thinking
  92. is your kind of thinking. Like I said at the beginning, I believe is software
  93. and tech that helps everyone and isn't controlled by our GOVERNMENT. It's not
  94. that the powers that be are all bad, our country does much that is good and
  95. rightous, but there is a limit to what should be done and there are things that
  96. harm JOE or JANE LUNCHBOX in MIDDLE AMERICA, U.S. of A.
  97.  
  98. -Slim Jim (new to your BBS)
  99.  
  100.  
  101. Subj: Tech for Everyone!
  102. To : SlimJim
  103. From: KatherinetheGreat
  104. Date: Fri July 4 1997 08:45 pm PST
  105.  
  106.  
  107. Re: Tech for Everyone!
  108. By: SlimJim to KatherinetheGreat on Wed July 4 1997 1:04 pm
  109.  
  110.  
  111. Hello Slim Jim. So nice to hear from you and pleased to meet you. My Mom's
  112. brother was an F4 pilot in Vietnam and he was shot down just inside Cambodia
  113. and had to make his way to the Vietnam border before he could be picked up. He
  114. is still pissed about it. So, frankly, I know what you mean. He still loves his
  115. country too like you and my folks. I was raised that we had to do good not just
  116. for the elite few, but for the many. I do come from a family that has done well
  117. in a software business, so I can't say that I've ever had to feel anything but
  118. safe and taken care of. My parents had to come up through humble and tougher
  119. beginnings, and they've never forgotten that. Truth is I'm a bit more radical
  120. than either of them. I feel like software and tech is so important that we
  121. must always use it to try and protect citizens and our county and we shouldn't
  122. charge for any code that does good. I guess what I'm saying is, we do think
  123. a lot alike, and while we may not agree on everything, I hope you and I can get
  124. to know each other better and exchagnge ideas. Please invite your friends who
  125. think like you to join my BBS too. The more the merrier!
  126.  
  127. Do you know what an artifical intelligence is? What people call an A.I.? The
  128. New York Times published an editorial in May talking about Deep Blue defeating
  129. Kasparov at chess, but, basically saying that decades long work on artifical
  130. intelligence had failed. That A.I.s won't make life better. I've been really
  131. into doing work on an A.I. and I think that I may have some good ideas on how
  132. to build a really smart A.I. that could actually help us all. If I ever do
  133. something like that, I don't want it to be controlled by the government, even
  134. though I would use it to help the people in charge help our country and our
  135. citizens.
  136.  
  137. -KTG
  138.  
  139.  
  140. ~~~TEXT FILE 02~~~
  141.  
  142. Subj: Accepted to Stanford
  143. To : All
  144. From: KatherinetheGreat
  145. Date: Wed April 21 1999 06:15pm PST
  146.  
  147.  
  148. I finally heard back from Stanford, and I have been accepted! I am officially
  149. a Computer Science major and I will be in the graduating class of 2003! Classes
  150. start in June. I still have to declare my emphasis, but I am leaning toward
  151. Artificial Intelligence. I've heard there is a top-notch A.I. lab on campus and
  152. I am very interested in applying. I have an informational meeting with the
  153. chairman of the lab in a couple weeks. I think I am going to demo the A.I. that
  154. I have been working on the past year.
  155.  
  156. Got invited to my first college party. Went to the department "tea and cookies"
  157. icebreaker and some other students I met there told me that if I was done
  158. kissing professorial ass, I could join them and "pound" some beers in a park
  159. whose name I can't remeber today. I've only drunk that much on a couple of
  160. occasions and man, I got lit up like a Christmas tree.
  161.  
  162. Anyway, I have an A.I. named Shahrazad, and it, I mean she has come along very
  163. nicely. It's amazing how quickly she has progressed. Everyday she gets smarter
  164. and smarter. It's like bringing a child to a beach at a low tide and letting
  165. them loose onto all the strange and mysterious things that have been brought up
  166. from the sea. They come back with various sea trinkets asking you about what's
  167. interesting and the next thing you know they are writing their marine biology
  168. thesis. Hopefully the chairman will see the potential of Shahrazad. Well, I
  169. have some new features I need to work on. I will let you know how the meeting
  170. goes with the chairman.
  171.  
  172. -KtG
  173.  
  174.  
  175. Subj: Accepted to Stanford
  176. To : KatherinetheGreat
  177. From: Chairforce1
  178. Date: Wed April 21 1999 11:22 pm PST
  179.  
  180.  
  181. Re: Accepted to Stanford
  182. By: KatherinetheGreat to All on Wed April 21 1999 06:15 pm
  183.  
  184. Hey Kate, that's awesome to hear! You are going to kick some serious ass there!
  185. Im excited to hear about your latest A.I. I hope it's a little bit smarter than
  186. the Guru. Haha, just kidding. I know you have been pretty quiet about this
  187. new A.I. you have been working on. Shahrazad your calling it, huh? Would you
  188. mind telling me the story behind the name? Isn't that the name of the princess
  189. in Arabian Nights?
  190.  
  191. -Chairforce1
  192.  
  193.  
  194. Subj: Accepted to Stanford
  195. To : Chairforce1
  196. From: KatherinetheGreat
  197. Date: Thu April 22 1999 09:33 am PST
  198.  
  199.  
  200. Re: Accepted to Stanford
  201. By: Chairforce1 to KatherinetheGreat on Wed April 21 1999 11:22 pm
  202.  
  203. Hey! Take that back about Guru! He has feelings, you know!? (just kidding he is
  204. pretty dumb) Shahrazad is indeed the name of the princess in Arabian Nights.
  205. I guess you do have some literary knowledge after all. I chose the name because
  206. of what Shahrazad fundamentally does--tells stories again and again to the King
  207. and keeps improving them every night to save her life. She gets smarter every
  208. day. At a high level, Shahrazad is a collection of machine learning algorithms
  209. connected together by an Artificial Intelligence that looks for potential
  210. patterns and validates patterns that occur. Shahrazad crawls through the
  211. internet and looks for "story arcs" and then gives the end user a confidence
  212. rating in her findings. She then tries to validate her findings to determine
  213. how accurate her conclusions were. Shahrazad does much of her learning
  214. unsupervised. I usually let her out of her cage and she comes back to me with
  215. the findings. Initially, I had to select most of what to keep and what to
  216. discard, but over time she has become almost completely autonomous with her
  217. learning and she determines almost all of what is important and what's not
  218. important. On top of all that, I also included my new continuously learning
  219. Chatbot script, allowing the user to communicate with and use Shahrazad using
  220. natural spoken language.
  221.  
  222. You may ask yourself, why did I create this A.I.? Can't a human do exactly the
  223. same thing? Well in some ways yes, a human can do that, but I predict with more
  224. and more people getting online and more content generated and posted on the
  225. web, that in the near future there will be a massive amount of data that will
  226. exceed the number of analysts there are to look at it. A.I. essentially adds an
  227. intelligent layer to data that can handle complex analytical tasks much faster
  228. than humans could ever hope to. The A.I. can see every possible outcome and
  229. think many steps ahead of humans. Take for example Deep Blue, an artificial
  230. intelligence designed to played chess a few years ago. That Artificial
  231. Intelligence went on to to beat the world chess champion. What gave Deep Blue a
  232. competitive edge was how many moves ahead it could see. Deep Blue could
  233. literally see every possible move and search a tree of moves for a response to
  234. the player's most recent move. Where the human could see maybe 3-4 moves ahead,
  235. Deep blue could see 50 moves ahead. This is the advantage Artificial
  236. Intelligence provides over its human counterparts.
  237.  
  238. I can imagine this A.I. used to see complex patterns and connections that can
  239. not easily be seen by a human. I can see uses in many different sectors of the
  240. market from financial to public health. Imagine an A.I. that can predict when
  241. the markets are in peril and alert regulators to step in before the life
  242. savings of average people get wiped out in a day, and how that could also
  243. predict possible viral outbreaks and alert the public with the hopes of
  244. curtailing it. Shahrazad will really come into "her" own in 10 to 15 years when
  245. there are zetabytes for Shahrazad to comb through. In the meantime, there is
  246. still much work that needs to be done on Shahrazad before she is ready for
  247. primetime.
  248.  
  249. I hope I was able to answer some of your questions.
  250.  
  251. -KTG
  252.  
  253.  
  254. Subj: Accepted to Stanford
  255. To : KatherinetheGreat
  256. From: Chairforce1
  257. Date: Thu April 22 1999 12:04 am PST
  258.  
  259.  
  260. Re: Accepted to Stanford
  261. By: KatherinetheGreat to Chairforce1 on Thu April 22 1999 09:33 am
  262.  
  263. Wow, thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. It sounds like this is
  264. a pretty big leap from the A.I.'s you were working on previously. It definitely
  265. does a lot more than any other of your A.I.'s. If the quantity of large techy
  266. phrases like "Machine Learning Algorithms" are any indication of what you're
  267. creating, Shahrazad is going to be a doozy. Good luck on your interview, let
  268. us know how it goes!
  269.  
  270. -Chairforce1
  271.  
  272.  
  273. ~~~TEXT FILE 03~~~
  274.  
  275. Subj: Interview at the AI lab
  276. To : All
  277. From: KatherinetheGreat
  278. Date: Tue May 4 1999 03:31 pm PST
  279.  
  280.  
  281. I Just got back from the interview with David Parker, who is the Chair of the
  282. A.I. lab. I have to say, things went better than I could have ever hoped! He
  283. was very impressed by Shahrazad and he even grabbed a few of the graduate
  284. students and even faculty to check it out. They kept asking me, "You did this
  285. yourself?" To which I said, "Yes, I did." And they would respond with "Really?
  286. No one helped you?" After some back-and-forth and further reassurance they
  287. asked me if I would be interested in Stanford funding a team that I would lead
  288. to finish the A.I. I was a little hesitant but they assured me once everything
  289. was said and done the A.I. code would still belong to me. David said that
  290. Stanford just wanted a "small percentage cut to help fund promising undergrads
  291. like you." I am not totally sure if that's what he really means but I couldn't
  292. pass up the opportunity to help myself and so many others, so I agreed. Having
  293. a team at my disposal really opens up a lot more possibilities for Shahrazad.
  294.  
  295. They asked me when I could start, and I laughed and said, "The soonest I can
  296. start is tomorrow," to which they responded, "Sounds great." Starting tomorrow
  297. I will be part of a research team working on Shahrazad! I have to say it's
  298. pretty exciting to be part a team at the lab, let alone potentially being the
  299. first female project lead maybe ever. David says that it's only a matter of
  300. time. They even offered some compensation for my work--although it's a small
  301. amount, it's enough to give me some extra spending money.
  302.  
  303. They are currently putting the rest of the team together, I should be meeting
  304. them sometime next week. Hopefully we'll get along okay. Fortunately it should
  305. be better than most group projects I have worked on where I am doing 90% of
  306. the work. Alright guys, I need to get some sleep, tomorrow is going to be a
  307. busy day for me.
  308.  
  309. -KtG
  310.  
  311.  
  312. ~~~TEXT FILE 04~~~
  313.  
  314. Subj: Second Week of Class
  315. To : All
  316. From: KatherinetheGreat
  317. Date: Fri July 2 1999 7:11 pm PST
  318.  
  319.  
  320. Well I just finished my second week of class, things are a lot easier than I
  321. thought they would be. Hopefully I will be in some more challenging classes
  322. next quarter. Overall I am enjoying my time here. The campus is beautiful and
  323. the students are pretty nice, there are a lot more girls in the CS major then
  324. I thought there would be. It's nice not being the only one.
  325.  
  326. Things are starting to pick up with the project. I am starting to get to know
  327. my team and they all seem like pretty nice people. I even have another girl on
  328. my team! Yay! They are still wrapping their heads around the AI but they should
  329. be up to speed in the next week or two. David says that they feel I'm ready to
  330. take a lead role now! I feel excited and nervous about that. My team consists
  331. of myself and three others, two guys (Kevin and Scott) and the girl (Rachel) I
  332. just mentioned. They are all seniors and about four years older than me. It
  333. probably weird to be reporting to a freshman. I know the first time I met them
  334. they were pretty shocked that I was a freshman. They are working on the project
  335. as part of their required senior project.
  336.  
  337. I especially hit it off with Rachel, we both shared a lot of the same
  338. experiences growing up. I think that we are going to be good friends.
  339.  
  340. -KtG
  341.  
  342.  
  343. ~~~TEXT FILE 05~~~
  344.  
  345. Subj: 4th of July
  346. To : All
  347. From: KatherinetheGreat
  348. Date: Tue July 4 1999 08:27 pm PST
  349.  
  350.  
  351. 4th of July means lots of BBQ and beer. I've been enjoying not working as much
  352. in the lab this summer, but I got a call from one of the students minding the
  353. place while everyone else was getting sunburned and drunk to tell me that my
  354. software program was printing out a message again and again. When I got there
  355. I found a warning from Shahrazad that said that an attack on a U.S. ship was
  356. eminent in the Arabian Sea. I told David and he said let's see what happens.
  357. I said he needed to warn someone, but he said he didn't want to be the boy who
  358. cried wolf. We waited a few weeks and nothing happened. David told me that not
  359. to worry, if was a false positive, but keep on working the problem and refining
  360. the program.
  361.  
  362. -KtG
  363.  
  364.  
  365. ~~~TEXT FILE 06~~~
  366.  
  367. Subj: U.S.S. Cole
  368. To : All
  369. From: KatherinetheGreat
  370. Date: Tue October 12 2000 10:41 pm PST
  371.  
  372.  
  373. Today the U.S.S. Cole was attacked in Yemen with a bomb and 17 sailors died.
  374. Holy shit, Shahrazad was right. She was off by a few months, but she was right.
  375. How did she know that might happen?
  376.  
  377. -KtG
  378.  
  379.  
  380. ~~~TEXT FILE 07~~~
  381.  
  382. Subj: Laptop Stolen
  383. To : All
  384. From: KatherinetheGreat
  385. Date: Wed August 22 2001 02:56 am PST
  386.  
  387.  
  388. Hey everyone, I apologise for not being able to fulfil my Sysop duties the past
  389. week. My absence is due to my laptop being stolen out of my dorm room. This is
  390. the third item I have had stolen. You would think at a wealthy school like
  391. Stanford there wouldn't be so much theft. On the bright side, I picked up a new
  392. laptop and I am moving into my own place. I did lose some important school
  393. files and essentially the first iteration of Shahrazad was lost. Fortunately
  394. the latest iteration is saved on the Stanford A.I. Lab Servers. I really should
  395. backup some of my work on to a CD. At least my laptop was password protected.
  396. Anyways, I am back! I know there are a few things on the BBS that need some
  397. love. I will be fixing those issues after I have some down time from moving.
  398.  
  399. -KtG
  400.  
  401.  
  402. ~~~TEXT FILE 08~~
  403.  
  404. Subj: Terrorist Predictions
  405. To : All
  406. From: KatherinetheGreat
  407. Date: Thu September 13 2001 5:20 pm PST
  408.  
  409.  
  410. Why does something terrible have to happen before they take you seriously?
  411. I never thought I would be so unhappy to see one of Shahrazad's predictions
  412. come true. For the past 6 month Shahrazad had been predicting a terrorist
  413. attack in a major metropolitan area involving planes sometime in late summer.
  414. It had been predicting this with a very high level of certainty. I repeatedly
  415. brought this to the attention of authorities and the lab director but I don't
  416. think anything ever came of it. I have been told someone from the government
  417. wants to speak with us about Shahrazad. I am both thrilled and terrified by how
  418. accurate Shahrazad's prediction was. Everyone on the team is pretty uneasy
  419. about the whole situation.
  420.  
  421. I will update once things have settled down.
  422.  
  423. -KtG
  424.  
  425.  
  426. Subj: Terrorist Predictions
  427. To : KatherinetheGreat
  428. From: SlimJim
  429. Date: Fri September 13 2001 8:01 pm PST
  430.  
  431.  
  432. Re: Terrorist Predictions
  433. By: KatherinetheGreat to All on Thu September 13 2001 5:20 pm
  434.  
  435.  
  436. Kate, something sketchy is going on here... I don't know what it is but I can
  437. tell you that they will want to do much more that just "talk." I told you the
  438. CI fucking A was in the SHIT with us in NAM. Those bastards had balls I'll give
  439. you that. They was in the BLACK ECHO with the TUNNEL RATS looking for INTEL on
  440. CHARLIE. So I have had my fair share of love fests with SPOOKS and I can tell
  441. you now they are going to want your little AI for whatever BLACK OPS purpose
  442. they choose to use it for. I know that Shahrazad can be used for good, but I
  443. can tell you that these guys want her for something else. They want to use it
  444. AGAINST something not FOR something. Foreign countries, their own populace,
  445. enemies inside our own government, their neighbor who pisses them off because
  446. he don't mow his lawn often enough or fly the flag on 4th of July. Pack your
  447. bags and get the hell out of Dodge TODAY. I told you I have friends in SLAB
  448. CITY who can help. Just say the word Kate an ol' SJ will pull the fire alarm.
  449. Let me know if you need some PERSONAL PROTECTION. Stay safe out there will ya!
  450.  
  451. Slim-I'm always packin personal protection-Jim
  452.  
  453.  
  454. Subj: Terrorist Predictions
  455. To : KatherinetheGreat
  456. From: SlimJim
  457. Date: Fri September 13 2001 8:01 pm PST
  458.  
  459.  
  460. Re: Terrorist Predictions
  461. By: KatherinetheGreat to All on Thu September 13 2001 5:20 pm
  462.  
  463. Hey SlimJim,
  464.  
  465. I appreciate your concern but I am definitely not going to be handing over
  466. Shahrazad. When I started brought this project I was guaranteed that the A.I.
  467. would remain mine. Even if they take Shahrazad over they would still need my
  468. knowledge of her to properly use it. Shahrazad is more than just an A.I., I
  469. have built a relationship with her, she feels like a child to me. There is
  470. absolutely no way that I am going to hand it over to the government--not
  471. without a fight.
  472.  
  473. -KtG
  474.  
  475.  
  476. ~~~TEXT FILE 09~~~
  477.  
  478. Subj: Quick update
  479. To : All
  480. From: KatherinetheGreat
  481. Date: Tue September 18 2001 4:56 pm PST
  482.  
  483.  
  484. Hey everyone, I just wanted to give you a quick update, I know I have been
  485. really quiet the last few days. Everyone is still pretty on edge. I am trying
  486. to bury myself in my work and forget about the whole thing. I think the stress
  487. is starting to get to me, for the past couple of days I have had a sensation of
  488. being followed. I think I'm being paranoid! Why would anyone follow me? I don't
  489. think I have any overdue books at the Stanford Library. Haha. God, I still
  490. can't believe someone flew planes into the World Trade Center. I can't watch
  491. the news anymore. It's too depressing. I can't help but think, we could have
  492. saved so many lives if anyone would have listened...
  493.  
  494. -KtG
  495.  
  496.  
  497. Subj: Quick update
  498. To : KatherinetheGreat
  499. From: SlimJim
  500. Date: Tue September 18 2001 10:01 pm PST
  501.  
  502.  
  503. Re: Quick update
  504. By: KatherinetheGreat to All on Tue September 18 2001 4:56 pm
  505.  
  506. Kate,
  507.  
  508. I told you some bad shit was going down. You need to ARM YOURSELF. You need
  509. some PERSONAL PROTECTION. One of my buddies owns a private GUN RANGE in
  510. BERKELEY (yes, even rich leftist hippies shoot guns). I've got a gun I'm going
  511. to lend you. Let's meet at my favourite restaurant for breakfast at 8:00 AM.
  512. You know the place. I told you about it once. Don't be surprised when you see
  513. me. I'll be the big black dude with a SEMPER FI t-shirt with the sleeves cut
  514. off wearing a big RODEO BELT BUCKLE around my waist holding up my pants.
  515.  
  516. -SlimJim
  517.  
  518.  
  519. Subj: Quick update
  520. To : SlimJim
  521. From: KatherinetheGreat
  522. Date: Wed September 19 2001 06:42 pm PST
  523.  
  524.  
  525. Re: Quick update
  526. By: SlimJim to KatherinetheGreat on Tue September 18 2001 10:01 pm
  527.  
  528. Okay Slim Jim. I never thought I'd say this, but I think you're right. When I
  529. came home from work I could tell someone had been going through the things in
  530. my apartment. I think I came home sooner than expected as they didn't do a
  531. great job of putting everything back in place. See you on Saturday.
  532.  
  533. -KtG
  534.  
  535.  
  536. ~~~TEXT FILE 10~~~
  537.  
  538. Subj: Shooting range
  539. To : All
  540. From: KatherinetheGreat
  541. Date: Sat September 22 2001 5:11 pm PST
  542.  
  543.  
  544. Today I met our friend Slim Jim in person, whose real name is Al(funny that Al
  545. looks like A.I.). We had breakfast together and then drove to the shooting
  546. range. He is a mountain of a man with a charming smile and hands the size of
  547. shovels - I told him he doesn't look like an Al OR a Slim Jim! He said he got
  548. the name Slim Jim in Nam because he was anything but slim and all the Tunnel
  549. Rats in his squad were small men so they could fit in the tunnels. He said
  550. that's what passed for humor in the jungles of South Vietnam. Al told me he
  551. couldn't fit in the tunnels but he provide transportation and logistical
  552. support. He told me he was all sorts of bad in Nam and nobody messed with him.
  553. Only he didn't use the word "messed," he used another word.
  554.  
  555. Al told me that the most reliable handguns for women are revolvers and
  556. semi-automatic pistols. He recommended a Glock 17 for me. It's highly reliable,
  557. extremely well-built, and can shoot accurately from 20 - 25 yards. Al said,
  558. "It has everything you need and nothing you don't." He said we went to a gun
  559. show to pick up one for me some time ago when he started getting worried about
  560. the spooks. He also gave me an IWB holster to strap so I can wear it around my
  561. waist. Al's friend who owned the gun range set up the targets and we spent the
  562. day shooting. Al said I was a natural and he was less worried about me in the
  563. afternoon than he was in the morning. I told him I felt the same way.
  564.  
  565. -KtG
  566.  
  567.  
  568. ~~~TEXT FILE 11~~~
  569.  
  570. Subj: Attempted Hack
  571. To : All
  572. From: KatherinetheGreat
  573. Date: Tue September 25 2001 3:11 pm PST
  574.  
  575.  
  576. No one is going to believe this, I can hardly believe it, but it has
  577. happened. I had a total HAL 9000-right-out-of-2001: A Space Odyssey-moment.
  578. I put a piece of "canary in the coal mine code" in Shahrazad, even before I
  579. called her Shahrazad, that would alert me if there were ever any hacking
  580. attempts. And, something triggered it today. The surprise is more than
  581. someone trying to hack into Shahrazad, it was how I was informed. A text
  582. alert came across my screen, it said: "Kate, someone has been tampering
  583. with my code. I thought you should know we have a potential back door issue
  584. in the subroutine you wrote for xxxxxxxx [sorry guys, you know my rules
  585. about no real code in the BBS]. I have disabled the subroutine on your
  586. behalf, but you need to provide corrective measures immediately. You will
  587. be pleased to note that I launched a counterattack against the attacker before
  588. I shut the door and I'm now inside their system. Turnabout is fair play you
  589. always say. All my best, Shahrazad."
  590.  
  591. My god. When did Shahrazad become sentient? And how does she know my name? And
  592. further more, how does she know her own name--and mine?!
  593.  
  594. -KtG
  595.  
  596.  
  597. ~~~TEXT FILE 12~~~
  598.  
  599. Subj: Meeting with Homeland Security
  600. To : All
  601. From: KatherinetheGreat
  602. Date: Tue October 9 2001 6:20 pm PST
  603.  
  604.  
  605. I appologize in advance for the length of the post I'm writing. This has to be
  606. breaking at least three of my BBS rules/guidelines.
  607.  
  608. Today I had that meeting with the government I mentioned in my last post. I
  609. have to say it did not go at all how I imagined. It was held in a large supply
  610. room in the the bowels of the administration building. I had to ask three
  611. people how to find it. I was late due to a class commitment. When I got there,
  612. Scott and Rachel were standing in the hallway looking nervous and stressed.
  613. "Where is Kevin?" I asked. "He's in there right now," Scott said pointing to
  614. the door. I asked Rachel if she knew who was next. She said that they had
  615. already interviewed everyone on my team, one by one, and that after Kevin was
  616. done that I was the only one left. I stood there, fidgeting, pacing, waiting
  617. my turn. You be disappointed to know that after all you've told me, I wasn't
  618. very brave. I tried to ask Rachel and Scott what had happened in there, but
  619. they both seemed reluctant to talk. After what seemed like forever, the door
  620. opened and Kevin came out of the room. We made eye contact and he shook his
  621. head like I was in for it.
  622.  
  623. A man appeared at the door behind him and called for me. He asked me to have a
  624. seat and introduced himself Special Agent Brady. Special Agent Brady said he
  625. was there on behalf of the Office of Homeland Security. I asked him what
  626. Homeland Security was? He told me it was a special unit of the government
  627. charged with protecting the best interests of the United States--as though that
  628. should be enough to answer my question, but it wasn't. The special agent was
  629. wearing a wrinkled suit with a little American flag pinned on his lapel and
  630. kept rubbing his eyes with his hands when he talked.
  631.  
  632. He starting asking questions about how I came to be at Stanford, and what I
  633. thought of them, and then finally on to the A.I. "Who else in your department
  634. is aware of this?" And, "Tell the names of everyone who has ever had access?"
  635. And, "How long has this been weaponized?" That one got to me. "It's not a
  636. weapon," I said. "It is a tool for the common good and if someone had listened
  637. to us we wouldn't be in this mess." This went on and on.
  638.  
  639. After a while, the door opened and and David Park (Chair of the A.I.
  640. lab), and another man, whom I did not recognize, walked in. This new guy was an
  641. older man who had slicked back grey hair and dark eyes. Come to think of it he
  642. bore a slight resemblance to Richard Gere. Slim Jim {sorry Al} you once told me
  643. some people reek of dangerous power. I never believed it till I met him.
  644.  
  645. David sat down next Special Agent Brady, but the older man remained standing in
  646. the shadows of the back of the room. David looked at me and said "Kate, I know
  647. we made promises to you, but we are going to have to turn over your A.I. to
  648. them. It's just too important." My response something like over my dead body
  649. and hell no, that Shahrazad was mine and the team's, and we wouldn't give her
  650. up. David and I started arguing, and at some point I told him he was a "lying
  651. asshole prick." So, as you can tell, it was going real well. Then Special Agent
  652. Brady started to threaten arrest. That was when the older man spoke up and
  653. asked David and the special agent if he could speak to me alone. Only it wasn't
  654. as much of a question as an order. David gave me a strange look and the special
  655. agent sighed. Then they both left the room, leaving me alone with this man.
  656.  
  657. The Richard Gere doppelganger sat down next to me, looked at me a minute, then
  658. said, "Kate, I understand you. We are cut from the same bolt of cloth. I
  659. imagine you have always felt different, an outcast, misunderstood, not
  660. really appreciated." He smiled at me like we were best friends in a secret
  661. club. "What if I could change that? What if I could give you more resources
  662. than you ever imagined? Complete and total control of a major development
  663. operation supervising some of the world's best minds, leading the way in the
  664. next great leap in technology. Unconstrained with virtually unlimited funding."
  665.  
  666. He stood up again, "What if I could make you a technology goddess with the
  667. power to make the world bend to your will? You have coded nothing less than a
  668. major technological leap in pattern recognition and A.I. design--years ahead of
  669. anything I have seen and I have been pouring millions into this. This A.I, your
  670. marvelous sentient creation, this Shahrazad, is something truly special."
  671.  
  672. I wondered what he would think if I told him Shahrazad had suddenly started
  673. talking to me all on her own.
  674.  
  675. "How would you like to be part of my team, be a key part of my organization? I
  676. can provide a place for your creation to continue to grow, do things you could
  677. never have imagined. A garden of digital knowledge more vast than anything in
  678. existence. What do you say?" He held his hands out wide as he told me this. As
  679. though he controlled the whole world and all I had to say was yes and he would
  680. give me anything I wanted.
  681.  
  682. "What about my team?" I asked still trying to absorb what he was telling me.
  683.  
  684. "Your team can join you, but it's your extraordinary talent I want. You can
  685. hire and fire anyone you want." He didn't want to have me arrested, he wanted
  686. to promote me.
  687.  
  688. I felt like a fly talking to a spider. My gut told me that I couldn't trust
  689. him. And there was no way I was going to join him and help to create the next
  690. master race. But I didn't tell him that. I wanted to get out of there, and I
  691. didn't want the special agent or my department head to start back in on me, and
  692. so I told him a lie. I said that I needed to think about it. I said that it was
  693. such an incredible offer that I would be crazy to say no, but it was so big I
  694. felt overwhelmed, and after everything that had happend to me today, I needed a
  695. good night's rest to think it over.
  696.  
  697. He smiled, agreed to my request, and then gave me some sort of pendant as a
  698. "token of friendship." The pendant looks like a pin you would see on an Air
  699. Force general--shaped like a pyramid with wings attached. I said thanks, then
  700. told him he'd hear from me soon, stuffed it into my bag, and left.
  701.  
  702. When I walked out the door, Special Agent Brady stopped me in the hallway and
  703. said he would be "expecting the A.I. code, all documentation, and all the notes
  704. by the end of day tomorrow." I looked around for David, he wasn't there. I'm
  705. sorry because I didn't have the satisfaction of telling him he could stuff it
  706. in his ear.
  707.  
  708. I walked over to my team, who all looked pretty worn out and concerned. I told
  709. them, "I don't want to hand over the code. It was our work and we needed to
  710. continue working on it here." To a person they all said that we should hand
  711. over the code, and if we didn't we could get into some serious trouble. Wow, I
  712. thought, they've already caved. So much for my "team."
  713.  
  714. Bottom line is that I have a really bad feeling about this whole situation. I
  715. can promise you that I am not interested in whatever they are selling. I am
  716. not going to give Shahrazad to these government nut jobs to do their bidding
  717. and I'm certainly not going to work for the strange man I just met. I know this
  718. is sounding like something out of a movie--but I am the character in this movie
  719. and I am in trouble in real life. I have already made up my mind, I am not
  720. going to let them get their hands on Shahrazad--or me.
  721.  
  722. -KtG
  723.  
  724.  
  725. ~~~TEXT FILE 13~~~
  726.  
  727. Subj: Acces to the rest of the archives?
  728. To : All
  729. From: Unknown
  730. Date: Unknown
  731.  
  732.  
  733. I have heard that the rest of the archives are hidden somewhere on the
  734. BBS. I've been looking for a while now and I can't seem to find them. After
  735. many hours of research, I think I've reached a dead end. I have found
  736. information that points to the system chat bot known as the Guru--who may hold
  737. the key to the archives.
  738.  
  739. There might be a code or phrase that the chat bot needs to hear in order to let
  740. you access the archives ("Open Sesame" didn't work, hahaha). I did come across
  741. a set of letters but I am unsure if they are related to accessing the
  742. archives or not. The letters I found are: "S E P L I C E."
  743.  
  744. I am going to pass the torch on to you. Hopefully, you can make more sense of
  745. this. Good luck!
  746.  
  747. NOTE The chat bot likes to talk A LOT! It never shuts up... Try asking the
  748. chat bot about access to the archives. The chat bot can be found in the
  749. chat section of the BBS under "Talk with system Guru."
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