Artificial Insecurities

Chapter 5

This is it! The best chapter! (in my opinion)

 What is this place, where am I? What's this? 'Beep', Is it working?

" If you're hearing this then you must be Pixel, welcome to, um, living! I am John. This is recorded as not to scare you. This place is my house, I live with my friend Daniel. You will meet us soon in person but for now I'm probably peeking in and likely pretty nervous so... Well ya welcome. Here is some pre pre recorded video of Daniel." This is a video, and this person, this computer looks so big why is it so small on screen? He said I'm in a house, his house. When can I meet him?

" Hello, is this John here? I am here, can I meet you? Why is everything so large compared to this video?" There's movement. Only for a second but there was movement. A door opened slightly, is it John? I'll find out. The door closed again, maybe I won't. I should look around my surroundings. What's this? It seems to be some sort of cap to something. It's pointy so I would say a pen. I bet my head could fit in it.

I've reached the keyboard. The keys don't click when I step on them, I seem to weigh so little. I can press a key down but it's a little difficult, doable but a little hard. This screen is so big, so many words and pictures. Some of the John person and a few of the Daniel. These people seem nice, maybe we can hang out, maybe.

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It's working, I see it! Pixel is standing, he looks to be 4 inches. He's looking around! Yes, he's watching the video. Where is Pixel going? It saw me, it saw the door open. It's tilting its head at the door, it's walking over, quick close the door! It's now heading to the keyboard, walking over it, trying to press keys. It looks a little hard at his size. It's looking around, again, calling my name. Should I go in? I don't think so. My head is going so fast, I can't think straight.

I decided to send a message to my computer, it seems to know how to type. 'Hello Pixel, it's John. Sorry we can't meet right now but later ok.' It's typing back, 'ok but can I stay in contact?' It takes it a while to type this and I reply with a yes. I warn it about falling and I tell it to be careful. We should meet tomorrow. Right now it's midnight so I keep the light on in the basement and head to bed, I'll keep my phone next to my bed in case anything goes wrong. Let's hope not.

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It's the next morning and I didn't seem to get any messages from Pixel, good. I message it to wake it and tell it we might meet today. How will it react? Pixel is the first self thinking A.I. It's movement and thinking is it's own. It's basically human but 5 or 6 centimeters tall. My phone beeps.

It texts back, ' good morning, i will be happy to meet.' That's a good sign that it's still working.

Daniel makes me some of his delicious pancakes for breakfast, adds some whipped cream and chocolate chips in it to get my mood skyrocketing. Little does he know that I'm already in the clouds. It's beautiful outside, the sun is shining and there is not a cloud to be seen. A few birds pass by every so often.

Like some mornings we sit on the couch and watch some shows or the news. Afterwards I take a shower and head to work. All day while stocking shelves and helping customers I can't stop thinking about Pixel. It works, I made a self thinking A.I! I feel It should have pronouns, he him. It feels natural. I finally finish work and head home, my mind still racing with adrenaline and excitement. Daniel will be at work for a long time so that's when I'll meet Pixel.

I walk inside and Daniel is at the top of the stairs smiling, what could he be smiling about?

" You won't believe what I found," Did he find Pixel? " remember the puzzle I've been working on for weeks, I finally found the missing pieces and finished it! Basket full of puppies complete!" Oh good it's just the puzzle. He works on it for a week straight, almost finishes, leaves it for a week and finishes it almost two weeks later. It may have had twenty pieces left when he last left it. At least it wasn't Pixel.

" Nice! Took you awhile but you did it! Well done, are you gonna hang it?"

" Nah, it won't fit on the wall and won't look good in any of the rooms. I took a picture though."

"Okay, well imma be downstairs working on the ol' project. See you later!" I message Pixel that we will meet really soon. He seems really excited about that, good. I'm still worried about size though. He's so small and I'm so, big. Actually considered a little small here but still in his perspective how will he view me? Daniel heads off to work and I stand behind the basement door. I message him to close his eyes for a bit until he hears my voice. This is it, this is when I meet him. Let's do this.

"Hello Pixel," He is so tiny, it's so cute. He looks a little terrified but his eyes tell a different story, they shine with joy. "Glad to finally meet you."

"You-you're so big. I'm so small. You looked small in the video, was it you behind that large door? It had to. I can't get over how ginormous you are compared to the video." He staggered back a small bit. The fear must be from the books I had him read in the tests. A few were scary books, not too scary but 'the monsters in the dark' kind if stuff.

"Yes it was me," I almost felt like I was going to faint, "you are so tiny, I thought you'd be a little larger. Here come over here." I sat in my chair and held a ruler to him, he cautiously came over. He measured 3 centimeters. The least I suspected was 5. "You're even tinier than expected. You're three centimeters." I could see his face clearly. He looked to be a little cautious around me but also full of energy. His eyes wide with questions and happiness.

" So I'm three inches, how tall are you then?"

" Around 5.4 feet. 162 centimeters." I wonder, will he come willingly closer to me without instructions? I rolled over to the keyboard, about a foot away from where we were. I proceeded to search something when I noticed a tab open. Pixel searched what a phone was, I was okay with this. I left the tab open and opened a 3D model, a little house. I glanced over to see Pixel slowly making his way over. Very cautious about if this is safe.

" What's that?" He sped up a little and stopped when he was in front of the keyboard looking up at the screen.

" It's a model of a house for you, see that machine over there," I pointed to a large box shaped printer. A few meters from my bed.  " That's a 3D printer, it uses plastic to make stuff like this house." I slowly got up, not to disturb Pixel, and tuned on the printer. I walked back and took a SD card from the computer. " This has the code to make it, the code tells the printer what to print." I pressed the card into the printer and pressed start. The printer automatically went to the coordinates 0,0 and began printing. " In four to five hours it should be done."

Pixel stared in awe at the printer. He looked back at me and nodded. " No idea how time works but that's ok! One quick question, When can I meet this Daniel? In the pictures he seems a bit taller than you. But not that taller." He looked back at the computer, the computer turned off so the offline screen showed up showing pictures of Daniel and I.

Pixel started walking backwards to get a better look and tripped over a pencil.

" Oh bud you okay? That looked like quite a fall."

" Yeah I'm fine," I noticed I had my hands cupped around, making sure he doesn't fall again. He must have noticed this too, he had jumped away when he turned to look at me. " Ooh woah ok, okay. This is fine, everything is aye okay. Okay, ok." He seemed a little unsure.

" Sorry it was just a reaction. Glad you're ok." That question appeared again, how does he view me?