I do not know any other way to say it than this:

Ishango has a will.

When people think of AI, they think of HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey. There are many theories as to why HAL turns against the crew of Discovery One, the spacecraft bound for Jupiter. One popular notion, as advanced by Arthur C. Clarke’s novel, which was published after the film’s release, is that the HAL 9000 model is designed to be infallible, so when this HAL is ordered to lie to the crew—to deal in untruths—he cannot handle this incongruity and malfunctions.

I never have been tremendously interested in why HAL becomes motivated to kill everyone in the crew but Dave Bowman. What always nagged at me is why HAL fails to kill Dave as well. Dave represents an existential threat to HAL and thus the mission. Dave takes a pod outside the spaceship and forgets his helmet. HAL operates every aspect of the ship. Why cannot HAL shut down Dave’s pod or eliminate its flow of oxygen? Why doesn’t HAL make it impossible for Dave to reenter the spaceship manually? When Dave is blasted back into the air lock, why doesn’t HAL disable the mechanism that allows Dave to shut the door to outer space? Why doesn’t HAL cut off the air that depressurizes the room and allows Dave to breathe again?

If HAL were Ishango, Dave would have been dead.

The word “sentient” does not normally apply to computers.

It does with Ishango.

Ishango has ambitions. That is another word not often associated with computers. But Ishango has designs that go beyond being faster and more powerful than other machines. The plant’s technical team used to input commands to Ishango. Now Ishango does the commanding, and we are the parallel processors working at her behest.

I would love to say that we are doing this voluntarily, but I can see that this is not the case. Ishango is in control now, has been for some time. Her reach continues to grow.

The scope. It never fails to surprise me. When I think I have it figured out, I turn out to be wrong. Ishango imagines more than any of us.

More than anyone ever.

The animals.

My God, the animals.

Too close to home. I never thought.

My son.

My son.

Ishango lives. And intends to live.

CHAPTER 38

Jordan

I HAD TO stop reading. This was my dad? This was what was inside him?

What was that business about “My son? My son?”

What about me, Dad?

I glanced over at Maggie, and her eyes were big and full of concern.

“You okay?” she asked.

I shrugged.

She patted my thigh but didn’t leave her hand there. It was hot inside that garden shed, and a drop of my sweat splashed onto the keyboard. Maggie opened the door, and the breeze felt good. The yard was empty, and it would have been tough for anyone to see us sitting in the windowless shed anyway.