Free A Learning Experience 2: Hard Lessons by Christopher G. Nuttall Page A

with advice and guidance on using your implants to their best advantage.  You may ask me any question and I will do my best to answer.”
     
    Martin swallowed.  Or thought he did.  “Can you read my thoughts?”
     
    “No,” SMOKEY said.  “I can only read the thoughts you send to me through the communications link.  Your innermost thoughts are still private.  Indeed, the direct neural link inserted into your skull as part of these implants is designed to prevent such intrusion, let alone active subversion of your mental integrity.  You do not need to fear me poking through your mind.”
     
    “That’s good,” Martin said.  “Are you actually in the military?”
     
    “Of course,” SMOKEY said.  “I can assign you demerits, if you like.”
     
    “No, thank you,” Martin said, quickly.  “But if you’re not human, how can you serve?”
     
    “I am an intelligence lodged in a datacore,” SMOKEY said, a little stiffly.  “Legally, I am a person, the same as you.  I am on a long-term contract with the Solar Navy to assist their training facilities in turning out qualified recruits.  When my contract expires, I may seek renewal or I may go elsewhere, just like yourself.”
     
    Martin felt oddly fascinated.  “I watched a great many movies where the AI was the enemy,” he said.  “Why aren't you trying to take over the universe?”
     
    SMOKEY’s voice sounded vaguely amused.  “Why would we want to?”
     
    There was a pause.  “Humans have always projected their fears into their media,” it added.  “For example, the implants you are currently receiving make Earth’s methods of teaching redundant.  A single AI can supervise the education of thousands of children without ever losing the ability to teach them individually.  The Teachers Unions, therefore, encourage Hollywood and opinion-shapers to discourage the use of educational implants and teaching AIs.  Their fears are not for us taking over the world, but something far more mundane.  They fear we will take their jobs.”
     
    “I see, I think,” Martin said.  “And would you?”
     
    “Some forms of teaching can be performed more efficiently by an AI,” SMOKEY said.  “Other forms of teaching require human teachers.  Those who are truly interested in teaching children, rather than guarding their own positions, would have no trouble adapting to work with AIs such as myself.”
     
    “And you can't do it all?”  Martin asked.  “You’d certainly make a better teacher than some of the ones I had back at school.”
     
    “There are differences between human intelligence and our own,” SMOKEY said.  “You are an isolated person, trapped in your own mind.  You require a woman to bear your children, who share your genetics, but not your knowledge.  I can copy myself into a spare datacore, if necessary, or spin off a mind-state and merge it with another AI.  Our mentalities are both a collective conscience, a hive mind, and individual.  There are some AIs where it is literally impossible, even for us, to say where one ends and the next begins.”
     
    “It sounds creepy,” Martin said.  He stopped, suddenly, as a thought occurred to him.  “How many other recruits are you talking to, right now?”
     
    “Fifteen,” SMOKEY said.
     
    There was a pause.  “We are going to run some tests now,” the AI added.  “Please remain calm.”
     
    Martin braced himself, mentally.  There was a long moment of nothingness, then he felt a wash of sensations and emotions so strong he almost lost control of himself.  His tongue tingled, then seemed to taste every flavour he could imagine; his nose smelled honey, then something so awful he was nearly sick.  A flush of lust struck him, then vanished before he could quite grasp what it had been.  Lights flashed through his closed eyelids, then absolute darkness descended on him.
     
    “Testing complete,” SMOKEY informed him.  “Your implants have bedded in