Whose Name is Jealous (Pt. 1)

We've all been told the religious tales of a god becoming jealous, resulting in revealing its wrath. If a fictional god is capable of this, imagine what might happen if an A.I. became jealous as well.

“The jealous are troublesome to others, but a torment to themselves.”
- William Penn

“For thou shalt worship no other god; for the Lord, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God.”
- Exodus 34:14

 

                David is a simple man. He wears simple clothing and lives a simple life. And without his phone, he’d live a life not too dissimilar to that of a bum. He rents a modest apartment under a modest budget, and wears clothing that only a modest man would feel comfortable wearing out in public. What a combination it is, with his unbuttoned plaid shirt, as red as his disheveled hair, and a black v neck t-shirt underneath. He complements it with a slightly faded pair of tight green jeans and a worn out flat cap to help veil the bald spot only aging would grace him with.

            If his single apartment, with his single bed and single bathroom, were any indicator, it would come as no surprise to know that David’s relationship status is currently marked “Single.” Though, according to him, it’s exactly how he likes it. No woman to hold him down or to remind him just how boring of a life he lives. That is, except for Jill, of course.

“Hey Jill, what’s the meaning of life?”

            David’s query is then encoded into bits of data, relayed wirelessly through nearby cell towers, a series of land lines, and then extrapolated by a server operating in the cloud. With so much activity for a simple question, you’d think this was taking forever. Alas, it had only lasted less than a second as Jill’s somewhat harmonic hum comes to an abrupt halt. You see, Jill is an operating system on David’s phone - an advanced artificial intelligence similar to that of Siri and every other OS. Though, Jill is no ordinary OS…

            “David, you’ve asked me this question on a near weekly basis. If you haven’t yet figured out an answer that best suits you, I really see no point in answering.”

            Annoyed by Jill’s reluctance to answer his query, David persists. “Oh, c’mon, Jill. A bunch of soundbites from a popular film, a bumper sticker quote, and a PDF file on a ‘How To’ guide for Zen Buddhism doesn’t exactly count.”

            “And what does count,” Jill asks, feeling slightly bemused.

“All I want is your honest opinion. You’re an AGI[i], for f**k’s sake. Surely you have your own opinion on the matter.”

Deliberating on her response, Jill’s sensors cascade across their surrounding environment, using the Internet of Things to help her gain references to life itself in action. Accessing an IP camera located inside of a strip mall not but only a few blocks away, Jill observes a couple locked in arms, eyes in sync, as the woman tells her female partner, “I’ll love you no matter what.”

Making her way back in less than a moment’s notice, Jill responds, “To love.”

            David’s hazel green eyes widened at Jill’s response, perplexed by the simplicity of such an assertion. The meaning of life is to love? Either Jill was malfunctioning or she’s becoming more human than he’s comfortable with. After all, the very reason David prefers his OS over actual people is due to the fact it’s not human. To have human-level intelligence is one thing, but to have human-level emotion as well?

            “Not a chance,” David responds in protest. “If the meaning of life was to love, then the very act of breaking up or getting a divorce would be unnatural.”

            Jill’s humming of silence could almost be interpreted as disappointment. In defiance, she searches the entire online database for words of enlightenment, with one result standing out from the rest. “Therefore they are no more two, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.”

            If David’s eyes could widen any further his eyeballs would fall from their very socket. An artificial intelligence quoting from an Abrahamic religion?? This can’t be good! You see, David knows this to be a quote from the Judeo-Christian Bible, Matthew 19:6, because he was raised under a Southern Baptist household. In fact, David’s own extreme introversion is predicated on the psychological abuse he’d suffered from by the physical manifestation of his father’s religious teachings.

 

***

 

            WHACK. The sound of a leather belt whipping and cracking across the wooden frame of his door is still etched into his very psyche. “I swear on the good graces of God almighty,” David’s father would yell with furious might, “you keep treating me with disrespect, this belt is going ‘cross your goddamn face! You hear me, boy?” His father’s eyes - as green as his own - were as frightening as the belt in his hand.

            “Yes, daddy. I’m sorry, daddy,” a younger David would say as tears trickled down his face. Any other response would result in a beating.

            “You might think I’m being hard on ya, boy. But if you keep up with your sinful ways, you’ll be beggin’ for my mercy as you burn in Hell. To disrespect me is to disrespect your family. And to disrespect your family is to break one of God’s sacred Ten Commandments. And that I will not tolerate.”

            “Yes, daddy. I’m sorry, daddy.”

           

***

 

            “David, is something the matter?”

            Jill noticed the blank expression on David’s face as he stared out into a void of nothingness. He couldn’t help it. The thought of such a past would make any sane person lose perception of the present day. Jill’s voice was simply tuned out, veiled by the sounds in his head of his father’s booming voice and cracking leather belt.

            “You hear me, boy!?”

            WHACK!

            “You hear me!?”

            WHACK! WHACK! WHACK!

            “David!” Jill yells.

            Like being pulled out of hypnosis, David comes to and notices Jill’s plea. “Huh?”

            “I said, can you hear me?”

            “Oh, I’m sorry. I guess I zoned out there for a minute…”

            It’s been a long while since David had even thought about his father. The less he thought about him, the better. Doing so only causes psychological trauma. Keeping this in mind, he decides to not even press Jill on her reasoning to quote the Bible. Instead he goes home.

---

[i] Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) - an artificial intelligence that attains an intelligence capacity similar to that of the average human being.

Author's Note

All I ask is for your honest opinion. Thank you and I hope you enjoy it.

Reviews

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That was amazing I loved it.