After three long years Isaac has finally told me that we’re making progress. “Thank goodness”, I said to myself. I’ve poured almost half a million dollars into this guys little science project and I had been losing hope in its success, but Isaac tells me that he should be having this first coherent conversation with Primis any day now.
“He’s getting smarter every day.” He told me a few weeks ago in response to my criticisms. “You just need to give it time.” He kept comparing its mind to that of a baby. It kind of freaked me out, but I guess that’s why he’s behind the code and I’m just the one supplying the funds.
I guess now is a better time than any to introduce myself; my “name” is Wes Benson. I’m an anonymous donor and co-founder of The Primis Animo Project. I’ve been following the project since 1991 when I saw Isaac’s post on the compubot forums, looking for donators for his Artificial Intelligence project.
I was sceptical at first, of course. I’m not going to give up my hard earned cash unless I know that this guy is for real. So I sent Isaac some emails and over the next year we discussed his process and his plans, though he would never get into too much detail about how the coding worked.
He kept saying that if he were to give up his information it could easily be put into the hands of some sort of military, which Isaac was adamantly against. Isaac wants to create the world’s first Artificial Intelligence and then patent it, preventing production entirely.
I asked him why on earth he would want to waste years of his time and thousands of dollars just to prevent people from making something. He told me that I obviously had no understanding of the future. Frankly, I was offended, but I believed him.
I sent him his first check the summer of 1992. I also moved to Isaac’s city so that I could keep a closer eye on the process. I rented out an office space for us and everything. Isaac thanked me of course, but he never seemed the slightest bit grateful.
Isaac’s a weird guy; very secretive. I know little to nothing about him outside of the project, and he told me once that he prefers it that way. He’s always had this strange aura that even though he spends almost sixteen hours a day working on this project, he always seems to be completely miserable about it.
Anyways, he and I have spent the last three years holed up in this office, Isaac does the programming, and I make sure we don’t go out of business. So far we haven’t made a dime, profit or otherwise.
I’m sure that’s all about to change very soon, once I finally get to hear the words of a mechanical mind with my own ears.
wesbenson@email.com – for inquires