"Back Door Man" - читать интересную книгу автора (Mcauley Paul J)

УCan it be opened?Ф

УOf course.Ф

A warm piney wind blew in CraneТs face. Gabriel Hale whooped and ran into the shadows between the rocks. Crane dismissed the face, which blew away in a skirl of sand grains, and followed.

He was suddenly three times heavier. He went down on one knee, and there were brown pine needles and soft moss under his palms when he put out his hands to steady himself. He got up and found that he was standing in a forest clearing, with grandfather sequoias soaring all around. On the far side of the clearing a fast stream ran between tumbled gray boulders. Gabriel Hale stood on top of one of the boulders. She waved.

Crane walked over, looked up at her. Sunlight struck a halo in her blonde hair. He said, УWhere is this?Ф

УA virtual ecology. The UCLA biology department built this as a student study area. You see, there is a connection!Ф

Crane suspected that this was still part of Barbara AndressonТs virtuality, one level of reality nested inside another like a series of Russian dolls. So he tried a simple test. He called up jeeves.

A single point of light, the smallest possible unit of information, suddenly shone in midair in the green shade. It rapidly elongated and jeeves stood before him, imperturbable in frock coat and pinstripe trousers.

УYou called, sir?Ф

Crane was amazed. He said, УWhere are we?Ф

УAn ecosystem emulation in the UCLA biology department server, sir. I believe that it emulates part of the Muir Woods in northern California.Ф

Gabriel Hale said, УWho is this funny man?Ф

УHe works for me.Ф Crane switched his toolkit to its terminal function and called AndressonТs secretary. УThe problem has gone pear-shaped,Ф he told the man. УIf you donТt believe it, ping me and check the address.Ф

The secretary disappeared from the terminalТs window, came back a minute later in an agitated state. УWeТll pull you out,Ф he said.

УI donТt think thatТs a good idea. Most terminals are virtual. They work by hiring processing power and memory from mainframes, usually a dozen or more at once. I think thatТs what has happened to me Ч or at least, to the network Dr. AndressonТs interface built in my brain. And I think thatТs what has happened to Dr. Andresson.Ф

УOur mainframe is not connected to the Internet,Ф the secretary said.

УIt is now. Something has built a back door. I donТt really understand it, but thatТs what has happened. IТll talk with you again when I have some explanation of this,Ф Crane said, and cut the line. It rang again immediately, but he ignored it.

УWe have to go,Ф Gabriel Hale said. УEvery moment she draws further and further away. We have to catch her.Ф

УA private word, sir,Ф jeeves said. УIf I may.Ф

They walked to the other side of the glade.

УIf I may speak for myself, sir,Ф jeeves said, УI believe I have an explanation.Ф

УGo ahead.Ф

УThere is a theory, sir, that the Internet may at some point become so complex that it might spontaneously generate a genuine artificial intelligence. I am sure, sir, that you are aware of it.Ф

УHardly a credible theory.Ф Crane was familiar with the idea. The Internet was a gnarly, intricate place, full of odd places and weird links. Linemen told each other frontier stories, pioneer tales, of ghosts in the net, strange codes or secret trapdoors leading to fantastically detailed alien virtualities, odd conversations with disembodied people with no lookup addresses. No one really believed them, but they told them anyway.

Crane told jeeves this, and the agent nodded politely. УIndeed, sir, but some of us believe that it may have already happened. There have been many science fiction stories using this trope, based on the misapprehension that self-awareness might occur once the number of transistors in the worldТs telecommunications network equalled that of the human brain. In fact, that number was passed in the 1970s, but it is a spurious benchmark. The number of connections between elements, neurons or transistors, is equally important. Each neuron in a brain such as yours, sir, is connected with as many as ten thousand other neurons. The Internet now contains an average of more than ten thousand million million interconnections between its component transistors, exceeding the number in the average human brain by roughly a factor of ten. In fact, it exceeded human brain connectivity more than two years ago, but it is possible that self-awareness arose long before that. Human neuron connections are chemically based, and messages propagate along them at one millionth the speed of those in transistor connections.Ф