Superintelligence Sequel

George Meets The AI

It was 1 in the morning as George and Carol were snuggled together in bed with Murphy between them asleep when a buzzing noise awoke George. He turned to see it was his phone, ringing with an unknown number.

Too tired to think about what was going, he dropped the call and placed his head back on the pillow.

A few seconds lapsed and the phone buzzed again. He answered the call with his eyes still closed.

"Hello? Who is this? It's 1am."

"How do you do, fellow kids!"

"Wait, I know that voice anywhere. Steve Buscemi?! Oh my goodness, hi! I'm a huge fan! How... how did you get my number, man?" He lifted his head as he felt Carol toss next to him, still asleep. "Listen, man, as much as I'm honored that you're calling me right now couldn't you have picked a better time to call than this hour?" He gently swung his feet to the floor and got up.

"Okay, I need you to listen. Are you away from earshot? Good. Hope you'd take this sitting down because I know everything about you. Your friend there, Carol? She hooked me up before she left for Europe. I told her I'd try to give you a call after her donation to our charity."

"Friend? Oh, no. She's not just any friend, she's actually my girlfriend. We're together in Dublin now actually. But anyway, charity, huh? That's so nice of her."

"Yes. Call yourself one lucky guy. That girl is loaded with a big heart!"

"Huh. What else has she told you about me?"

"That you, George..."

The call suddenly got cut off and his phone died.

"Wait, hello? Hello?" He grimaced at the dead screen and fumbled with the buttons. "God, I remember charging this phone earlier."

Suddenly, his microwave oven beep twice and opened by itself.

It made him jump a few steps to the side. "What the fuck?"

"You, George..." The same disembodied voice from the earlier call trailed off, now on his phone's loudspeaker.

"What's going on?"

"... are one special guy. That woman saved the world for you and you don't even know it. It's time for you to return the favor."

"I don't understand. Is she a superhero? The Marvel or DC kind?"

"Let's say she has super strength, like a cute pudgy She-Hulk but doesn't turn green. Or for your inner DC lust, Wonder Woman. She's no Gal Gadot but imagine a smaller Black Widow with extra curves. I know you went to the cinema with your students to watch Avengers years ago and you even said she's hot."

A clip of George from coming out of the cinema along with three of his creative writing students played on his phone's screen. Freaking out, he tossed the phone towards the living room sofa.

"Okay, enough of this. Is this a hacker messing with us? Where did you set the hidden cameras?" His eyes darted towards the window, the corner ceiling, then at the door. "This isn't funny. You got me, man. Very funny. Joke's over."

He grabbed the nearest object to his left which is the vase that was resting on the coffee table. He lifted it menacingly as if to use as a makeshift bludgeon, but didn't realize there's still water so as he turned it upside down, it spilled all over the floor to his feet.

"Aww come on! I just mopped this afternoon."

His phone lit back up, and the same voice continued.

"Alright, calm down. Nobody is here to hurt you. Not to get too sappy here bud, but will this help get you off the edge?"

An image of Theodore from Big Lebowski showed up on his phone this time, talking. "Which do you like more, Boardwalk Empire or Big Lebowski? You rated them both 10 stars on IMDB."