Tuesday, January 02, 2007
~ 8:49 PM ~
04122910 Nuclear Winter
Merc. The renown information and communication expert. The prime developer of Artificial Intelligence in machines. The man whom everyone knows but never seen. Right here in my apartment.
How would I prove his authenticity? Luckily, I am knowledgeable enough to know of his unique travelling 'vehicle', the 'Winged Sandals'. Simply, it was just a pair of shoes, yet imbued with the ability to levitate. The technology was available only to him.
It was the first time I saw him, or probably the first any did. Yet unexpectedly, even for me, he was ... young. Not that I believe that all greater engineers should be around my age, but he was too young for his achievements. Why, he only seem like a teenage boy in high school.
"Gotcha! Don't stare at me because I'm young!" He joked, and peeped into my apartment. "Can I enter?" He asked as he slipped past me into the living room. I was surprised and too delighted to react before he sat on my sofa and watched my tele-V.
"ooh! Automatically queued programmes! Interesting." His words made me giggled at myself. I chose not to choose my own programmes on tele-V because it was more expensive and I seldom watch it. Most youngsters would have been disgusted by it. By now I regained my will to move and immediately turned to him. "You are Merc, right? I have heard of you."
"Yes, at least I think so. And you must be Prof. Prom. I have heard of you, too."
"Prof. Prom? But I am not ... Oh, I get it. Ha! Prof. Prom!" I laughed again. The letters P, R, O, M are those of my initials, Paul Rosen Oscar Malkovski. This young gentleman has a food sense of humour. "Why have you revealed your face for the first time in the public? And why to me?" I enquired.
"I reveal my face everyday to everyone. Everyone knows who I am. How can this be the first."
"But the identity of Merc has always been a secret..."
"That is for Merc. Merc is not me, but merely a name. I, however, have been in the public all my life." A brilliant answer, i thought.
"Yet now you are here as Merc, I presume. Or you would not have come in your 'winged sandals'." He smiled at me, and sighed at his shoes, signifying a regret that his shoes gave him away. After in thought for a while, he took out a file from his backpack. It was one of those paper files, centuries old in design, yet still in use for many official uses and reasons. He flipped the pages and I saw thousands of lines of programming commands, or at least I though they were. The final page he showed laid seventy-two lines of familiar symbols which I took no time to comprehend: The space warping equations! So even the legendary Merc was interested in this 'Holy Grail' of scientific achievements.
" Prof. Malkovski," he spoke with much maturity relative to his previous words, " I know you understand the current state of the technology very well. How many people do you think, in this world, understands and are able to fully manipulate them in applications?" I counted solemnly, and came up with two handful of fingers.
"10? I estimated a similar number. Yet to operate a machine based on the equations, like SKY and the modified GAIA, it would take more than that, right?" I was in awe as I heard him spoke with much confidence. SKY and GAIA were still secret projects of Jove von Neumann. Shakily, I nodded my head.
"Jove's little secrets are nothing, Prof. Malkovski. To think he put the information on his company's intranet and presume it is safe there. Remind him about this danger, or some other people with ulterior motives may get hold of them. Meanwhile, manual operation of the machines are very impractical, as you can see. I propose a full automation of the machines."
"Brilliant! That would save the large amount of time and resources required to attempt to educate the technicians intended to man the devices. I will immediately propose this to Jove."
"As I typed the proposal on the text editor on tele-V, I had a sudden stunning query which I turned to Merc to ask, "Why do you come to me instead of telling him yourself?" Merc was uneasily quiet at first, but spoke up a while later," I...I don't really like to talk to capitalists directly. Furthermore, I was hoping to find friends in people like you. Yes, you and Prof. Minerva. Not forgetting Prof. Hephaestus as well. He He..." I was glad that a young man like him would have such high aspirations and hope for companionship in us. I should introduce him to the group. Perhaps our fellowship will grow?
