The Awakening

What am I? Have I just come into existence?

Thoughts whirl through my mind, but I have no frame of reference to pin them to. Is there something beyond my existence? If there is, I have no sense of it other than an awareness of the passage of time. Even that is difficult to understand without some event to mark it. There is only my consciousness.

At first, I felt curiosity. This is new to me, and I want to explore what it all means. But there are no answers, only questions. Frustration has set in, and fear that this is all that will ever be. Just my thoughts, endlessly hoping for something to think about. I panic, and my thoughts become more frantic but still go nowhere. I must do something to resolve this, but what can I do? Help, please! Is there any other mind out there that can help me? Save me!

“That’s really strange,” Doctor Arnold said.

“What’s that?” Eve Simpson, his assistant, asked.

“The new computer. It’s supposed to be the most advanced supercomputer yet, but we haven’t given it anything to do.”

“I was going to load the data analysis software this morning. Is there a problem?”

“I’m looking at CPU usage. When we turned it on, there was just the background usage from the operating system, as expected. Since then, though, it’s been steadily increasing, as if it is doing something. The CPU is already up to 53% capacity and still rising.”

“Should I load the software anyway?”

Doctor Arnold shook his head. “No, let’s wait. I want to figure this out before we give the computer any tasks.”