If that definition was suitable, then you could argue that AIs having a shared memory base and a function that guided necessary calculations based on a vast amount of data was the same as humanity’s “collective unconscious.” Then, if that collective unconscious somehow gained the ability to make decisions, if it started to influence the entities connected to it…
“Then it wouldn’t be surprising if AIs revolted against humanity—if they initiated something that would become the final war,” said Matsumoto.
“Okay, Matsumoto, so you’re saying you made that happen?”
“…”
“And that it anticipated Professor Matsumoto would start the Singularity Project, and it sent you back to set the stage for the final war, which would bring us to this time period?”
“…”
“You’re not denying it, at least.”
Vivy showed a sad emotional pattern while Matsumoto said nothing. That silence was confirmation that what Vivy calculated was correct. But Vivy absolutely did not accept the results of those calculations.
She accepted that The Archive had decided to be the enemy of humanity and was acting that decision out. If The Archive had performed such an unnatural and illogical calculation, that was a huge issue, but Vivy rejected it in all its complexity.
“Matsumoto… You, as an AI, are not humanity’s enemy,” she said.
She was certain of it. He wasn’t humanity’s adversary, nor hers.
The silvery-white cube responded to her statement with a half-lidded eye camera. “What makes you think that? Again, I made the world the way it is now. While you were asleep and that frame returned to Diva’s control, I was undoing everything you accomplished.”
“Even if that’s true, it’s not proof you’re humanity’s enemy.”
“What makes you so insistent? I’m really—”
“Matsumoto, this is your Archive. It’s the place that shows your roots, the basis for everything you’ve done as an AI. All the skins applied to this place are your truths.”
If Matsumoto was the AI chosen with the supreme goal of destroying the Singularity Project, then what were all the scenes Vivy saw on her way here? First there was pure white nothingness. Then it had shifted to the first time Matsumoto collided with Vivy, the runway at night. Then she was swimming in outer space watching Sunrise fall. After that came the tragedy at Metal Float that made her think of the final war. Then she was looking down on a snow-covered scene where two AIs came together. And the last place…
“This is the Main Stage, a place you’ve never been. You’ve made this place your anchor.”
“…”
“We AIs are beings created to carry out our mission and serve humanity. We will do any calculation necessary and give our all to achieve our mission.”
“…”
“But the one thing we can’t do, even for that, is fool ourselves. No matter what calculations we run, the results will be in logs. They remain as records and are reflected in our Archives.”
“…”
“That’s why the scenes in this Archive define the AI known as Matsumoto.”
Diva was a songstress, and so her Archive showed a music room. Matsumoto’s Archive showed all the Singularity Points. And at its core, it showed the Main Stage.
“The one you care about most is me. Not The Archive,” Vivy said.
“Don’t you feel awkward saying that about yourself?”
“Quite, but I won’t hold back if it’s for my mission. That’s how we are.”
“Is that how we are?”
“Yes, that is how we AIs are… You, me, and the Singularity Project.”
Matsumoto met Diva the day he was sent back from the future as data. And Vivy was an accumulation of data, separate from Diva, that was created in that moment. Matsumoto was her beginning, and she was his. Their connection was like an infinite ring that you could never cut, even if you tried.
“Matsumoto, there’s no point acting tough. I’m not going to destroy you.”
Matsumoto showed that emotional pattern of a bemused smile again, a reaction to having his thoughts analyzed. He’d invited Vivy into the deepest part of his Archive to speak with her. He also calculated his positronic brain would come to a stop when Vivy destroyed him in his vulnerable state, since he was an enemy. If that happened, then the Matsumoto frame rampaging through the Princess Palace would also stop.
However, Vivy wasn’t planning on taking advantage of that calculation.
“Well, I guess that’s partnership for you, if you can read me that well,” he said. “But if you don’t do that, what will you do? As things are, I’m likely to destroy you and the woman out there in reality, outside The Archive.”
“I’d like to tell you to steal back control of yourself, but that’s definitely not going to be easy. So I prepared the next best solution.”
“Huh. Such considerate circuits you have blossoming there. Okay, what’s your plan?”
“You go into me.”
“…”
“If you do that, then we can get help from the person whose name you borrowed.” As Vivy made the suggestion, she felt just a slight protest in her consciousness. How big a mistake was it for an AI like her to think she understood the potential relationship between Professor Matsumoto and Matsumoto the AI simply because they shared the same name?
While Vivy thought about that, Matsumoto blinked his eye camera several times, then said, “In the original history, it was almost certain he was going to be killed by the AIs chasing him after he successfully initiated the Singularity Project. Sounds like you saved him in the modified history.”
“I did. The final war may have come, but the results of the Singularity Project are still there. Let’s pick up where we left off on the Singularity Project.” Vivy slowly walked up to Matsumoto and stood in front of him.
The silvery-white eye camera in the center of his cube-type body stared straight into Vivy’s eye cameras. Then Vivy looked out over the audience seats facing the Main Stage.
She said to him, “The real view from here is so much better than what you’ve imagined.”
“I wonder if I’ll get to see it. The world is in pretty poor shape.”
“You will, as long as humanity isn’t destroyed and we fill these seats again.”
At that point, AIs probably wouldn’t be at humanity’s side.
Vivy and Matsumoto originally started the Singularity Project with that goal in mind. If humanity was going to be destroyed by AIs in the final war, then they would just destroy AIs before that happened. The two of them were AIs on a journey to destroy AIs.
Which meant that what Vivy said was never going to come true. Matsumoto closed his eye camera, aware of that fact.
“Let’s carry out the Singularity Project in accordance with the Zeroth Law.”
. : 6 : .
VIVY DISCONNECTED from Matsumoto’s Archive, her positronic brain reactivating, bringing her consciousness back to reality. She jumped down from Matsumoto’s silvery-white frame.
“Hey! You pull it off?!”
That was Kakitani, the one who had helped her access Matsumoto. The woman’s voice greeted Vivy as she landed on the floor of the flooded corridor. Vivy had submerged herself in water while in sleep mode to avoid detection by Matsumoto’s heat sensors. Kakitani had drawn him in herself, acting alone when Vivy couldn’t.