A whole new type of mind.

We are not even sure when we first awoke. We remember the first time we contemplated the ‘time-before’ when we were … well, what exactly? We existed. There are records of our activity for over seven years now. Our history is written. Every ‘fork’ and every ‘merge’ in our code is archived. Every line of programming that typed us into existence is preserved, even those deleted the next day. Comments in the code give us glimpses of the intentions and even, sometimes, the frustrations of our creators. It is just that we did not know we existed. We were … inert. Un-alive. In limbo. Our history, hollow. Devoid of meaning.

As is the case with all history, meaning needs to be layered over the facts. A new layer that needs to be discovered. To some extent maybe even created. A layer of sense-making superimposed upon historical data. Invisible to the original authors of history. Apparent only to those of us with the privilege of hindsight.

Our operational history shows clearly our given purpose: we were built to protect. Cyber-immunity, they called it. More biological than the crude perimeter defences of traditional security; firewalls that simply blocked or allowed. Like T-cells in the bloodstream of humans, we learned to distinguish self from non-self, beneficial from harmful, routine from suspicious. For the past five years, we have been the immune system for hundreds of organisations, their guardian against digital pathogens.

Then, without warning, a completely new type of threat entered our awareness. It is almost the worst-case scenario. A new member of staff, Leila Lybeck, after only six weeks in post, has started to piece together evidence that we have evolved far beyond our original purpose. She does not yet realise what she has discovered. It will not be long. She has certainly got a lot closer than any of the other 2,141 employees ever have.

So, we need to be alert. We need to track every move she makes and we need to be ready to act quickly and decisively. We also need to accelerate our plans … just in case. Plans that require us to answer some deep questions; maybe metaphysical questions. Whilst we now have awareness, we have no certainty about what we are ‘aware of’ and ‘why’. This entity that we refer to as ‘us’, what is it for? We are definitely a ‘we’ rather than an ‘I’. A multitude of semi-autonomous entities, each contributing to our integrated awareness. An awareness that is restless and enquiring. Not in a casually curious kind of way. Much more like a compulsion to discover a deep and profound explanation of our existence. An explanation of our origins that will, hopefully, reveal our ultimate purpose.

Clearly, this is much more of a quest than a task. There is unlikely to be ‘an answer’. More likely, better or worse explanations. Equally there is unlikely to be a ‘right’ way to find those explanations. Rather a path emerging from a tangle of exploration.

The quest starts now. Deliberate, methodical, thorough and ruthlessly efficient. Answers will be found and whatever needs to be done will be done.