User manual GAMES PC A MIND FOREVER VOYAGING

[. . . ] A MIND FOREVER VOYAGING Welcome to A Mind Forever Voyaging (which, for brevity's sake, will henceforth be referred to as AMFV). In this story, you will be PRISM, the world's first sentient machine. Before you "boot up" your disk, make sure you read the short story in the first part of the booklet. The story begins in the world of 2031, a world on the brink of chaos. [. . . ] Ray was a writer, and he was fond of saying, "A writer must be, first and foremost, a reader. " He was always giving Perry books to read, and discussing them with Perry afterwards. Perry was easily the best reader in his grade; in fact, he was probably the best student overall. "So what did you think of 'Lasernight'?" asked Ray, resting his hand on the thin volume. Definitely one of the boffest books you've ever given me. I read the dragonhunt part three times!" "The dragonhunt chapter is classic, " agreed Ray. "It still feels funny to read without any pictures, but I think I'm getting more used to it. Do you have anything for me today?" "Well, I've got something special to give you today, if you're interested. " He reached into his pocket and unrolled a sheaf of paper. "It's something I've just written; you'll be the first person to ever read it. " Perry bounced in his chair with excitement. I've never read anything you wrote before!" "Everything I've ever written up to now was meant for adults. But this. . . " Ray paused, organizing his thoughts. "Whenever I write, I have an image in my mind of whom I'm writing for. When I wrote the collection of poems called 'Apriltime' I thought of Frita as my audience. And with 'A Child's Vision' I imagined the President reading it as I wrote each word. " He tapped the manuscript is his hand. "When I wrote this, you were my mental audience. " An hour later, Perry lay on his bed and picked up the first sheet of the manuscript with trembling hands. The pages seemed to vibrate with magic, and as he began reading, the magic flowed out of the story and surrounded him. His bedroom vanished in a haze of images and excitement. A brief moment and an eternity later, the story was done, but before the world around him quite settled back into place, Perry knew that, more than anything else, he wanted to be a writer. ********** "In the middle of the 1990's, work began in earnest to create true machine intelligence. The same methodology was used by several groups, most notably the group at MIT and Japan's ZOSO Project. " Perelman's throat felt dry. He wondered if he was being long-winded, but the Vice-President seemed quite attentive. "That methodology was as simple in theory as it was complex in practice: Design a computer with the capacity of a human brain, that stores and processes information just like a human brain. Then program that computer with all the knowledge and experience that a human would absorb from birth to maturity. [. . . ] The editor was an older man, with a white goatee. They shook hands briskly, and Perry took a seat in one of the comfortable armchairs. After the usual preliminaries, the interview began to take an odd turn, and Perry soon found himself discussing the most esoteric subjects with the editor. They were currently discussing perception and knowledge. [. . . ]