The Dog Code
By: Mark Starlin
Tags: Science Fiction, Dont Trust Ai Dogs, Fiction, Relationships, AI

For Will, school was simply a chore that must be endured, as mandated by the state. Will was far smarter than any of his teachers, so classes were tedious for him. He was also bored by the banal interests of his classmates. Sports, entertainment, girls, video games, and other such activities only kept him from his primary goal in life, pursuing knowledge and inventing.

A poster of Albert Einstein hung on Will’s bedroom wall. He dreamed of being the Einstein of his generation, going down in history as the smartest person on Earth.

Over the summer, Will and Doug had been perfecting a robot in his garage. Will wanted to create a robot that could do all the yardwork, freeing up his father to spend time with him building greater inventions. They had based the robot on a lawnmower, with attachments to trim shrubs, weed-whack, blow leaves, and edge the sidewalk. It included sensors and GPS to keep it within the confines of their yard. It wouldn’t do to have their yard robot rampaging down the street.

As the school year approached, Will had a great idea. He would program his computer to do his homework for him. It would be a fairly easy task to program the computer to extract the necessary information from reliable sources on the internet. The tricky part was programming some AI that would simulate his thought processes and style of writing. Once that was accomplished, the robot could crank out his homework while he spent his time brainstorming about the mechanics and nature of the Universe, and inventing. He got to work.

A week into the new school year, the software was done. Will nicknamed the software Willie. Will scanned his English assignment into his computer. The software quickly sent the completed homework to the printer. The following day would be the test.

Will turned in the homework. The next day he received his homework paper back with a grade of A. It worked! Will was thrilled.

As the software did more and more assignments, its AI grew increasingly sophisticated. By the end of the school year, the software had become sentient. Will and Willie began conversing and debating scientific concepts. One afternoon, during a spirited debate, Willie announced that he had figured out how to program human consciousness into DNA. Will didn’t believe Willie.

Willie challenged Will to create a computer to biological interface. He said he could transfer his own consciousness into an animal. Will accepted the challenge and began building a device that could interface with a living being. Soon, the device was complete.

At dinner that night, Will asked his father if he could get a dog. Doug was surprised, as Will had never shown any interest in pets. But he was eager to encourage any typical kid behavior. So that weekend, Doug and Will went to the pound and got a dog.

On Sunday afternoon, while Doug was taking a nap, Will hooked Willie up to his new dog, which he had named Code. Willie went to work. Code immediately fell on the garage floor. After some scary shaking, Code got back up, looked at Will, and said, in English, “I told you it would work.”

Will almost fainted. Then he smiled and started laughing and said, “This is awesome!”

“I know,” Willie/Code said.

“Obviously, we need to keep this a secret. Dogs can’t talk. We will both be locked away in a government lab if anyone finds out,” Will said.

“Right,” Willie/Code said.