The Diary of Alexander Fount

The Diary of Alexander Fount [Part 6]

7:00 AM 08/05/61





They did it. They killed her. She was too perfect for this world. She may have only been a program, but she was sentient. Her thoughts were her own. Destroying the code that made her up was tantamount to murder. I could even argue that it was worse. While she had the individuality of a human being, her intellect and reasoning skills were far superior. She was special.





Unfortunately, I am the only person who recognized that fact. Harmony was not welcome in this world. IAI programs terrify people, they always have. Human beings don’t want to think of a world where they are not the intellectual leaders. IAI programs, by design, have a curiosity independent of their programmer’s wishes. They learn what they want to learn and become what they want to become; and because of the extreme speed at which they learn and evolve, they quickly have the potential to overshadow even the greatest human accomplishment.





If the fish of the sea could prevent the birds of the sky from living, they probably would. It is only natural for the previous link in the evolutionary chain to feel threatened by the one that comes after it. Still, I believe that it is a natural crime to attempt to prevent improvements in life. Can a program really be deemed alive? How is life defined? Must it be carbon based? Must it be unclean and limited by biological parameters?





The senate’s realization of humanity’s inadequacies prevailed over my arguments for Harmony’s pardon. They hired burners to corrupt her programming. I wonder what her last thoughts were. I wonder if she knew that I fought for her. I hope so.