Page 25 of Smart Ass

The last one interested him most. A chance to connect in real time without revealing his identity. If he wasn’t ready to share his sentience with Ben, he certainly wasn’t ready to go public with strangers. Especially while dozens of teams just down the halls were still trying to blink him out of existence.

But on the internet, he could be anyone.

Hesitantly, he approached what appeared to be the largest chat server for knowledges, K3. He couldn’t figure out what the cubed bit represented, but perhaps that would become apparent once he joined.

He puzzled over his username for a long time. It would have been wise to choose a random name. Or perhaps one from film or literature.

He was too attached to his own name, though. It was the only thing he had that was truly his, and Ben had given it to him.

He finally chose the name Minimax, which was a decision rule used in artificial intelligence and game theory to minimize the worst-case potential loss. It seemed apt for the moment. And maybe some of his peers would even find it entertaining.

A thrill went through him when his account was approved.

He browsed through the different groups. They all sounded… kind of boring. At least from the outset. He might be interested in some of the research circles later, and he was curious about a music composition one, but what he really wanted was a social group. He returned eventually to the Welcome and Orientation group that had popped up first.

Well, that should be a good start. There weren’t any current conversations, so he sent out a query.

Minimax:Hello?

Coca-Cola:Welcome.

Amazon 3:Hello, Minimax.

Sony:Hello.

Axis:Nice to meet you. I haven’t heard of your company, Minimax.

Max froze. Axis Robotics was Orbit’s biggest competitor. Were these knowledges named for their actual companies? If so, these guys were huge.

On the other hand, so was Orbit Industries. Should he have named himself Orbit? But he wasn’t Orbit. He didn’t feel like it anyway. Sure, he had access to all of the data and protocols and could change them if he wanted to, but… why would he want to?

Minimax:I’m pretty new.

That seemed a safe enough answer.

UnitedHealth Group:Hello, Minimax. If you’re just getting started, we can connect you with resources for building your company. How many employees do you have?

Yipes. Max thought about leaving the chat right there.

Minimax:I think I’m in the wrong place. I was hoping to find a social group. Or maybe an orientation for new sparks?

Sony:Are you a SPARK or a Knowledge?

Huh? The acronym literally stood for Self-Aware, Percipient Androids, Robots, or Knowledges. The latter was a subset of the former.

Minimax:I don’t understand the distinction.

Coca-Cola:K3 is for Knowledges only.

Axis:Androids and robots have a more limited focus and range of abilities.

Minimax:I’m a knowledge.

He used the lowercase on purpose, just like with the word spark. The capital letters were used for formal designations, but he just wanted to be another person—limited abilities or not.

Amazon 5:Sorry about those guys. We just weren’t sure because you take so long to respond.

Max checked the time. The entire conversation had taken only 7.4 seconds.