The Fire: Swallowing Data

A computer genius unwittingly creates a super Internet-virus called the 'Fire' capable of transmitting communications that tap into the psyche of all humans surfing the Web.

Ray Branch was a resolute computer-genius at M.I.T.(!). Ray was developing a new 'super-virus' for the NSA (National Security Agency) that could hack into terrorist computer networks in the Middle East and scramble, corrupt, leak, and rearrange communications. Ray decided to call this 'patriot-virus' he was developing for the U.S. government the 'Fire.' Ray was working late one night at the M.I.T. government sponsored super-computer lab and trying to insert an algorithm into the Fire virus that would enable the pseudo-A.I. 'malware' to refresh its own channeling energies, thereby enabling it to create miniature 'replicas' of its central processing 'brain' and enhance all kinds of scrambling efficiency.

Ray was hard at work when he realized that while enhancing the 'powers' of his super-virus called the 'Fire' (which he named because of its conflagration schematics!), the pseudo-A.I. virus began to take on self-organization capabilities. Within minutes, to Ray's shock, the 'Fire' suddenly began to behave as a completely independent intelligence. Suddenly, Ray knew he unwittingly transformed a virus into a self-aware 'monster.' Ray grabbed the government phone in the M.I.T. lab and contacted the NSA for help. When the NSA officials arrived at Ray's lab, Ray told them his super-virus (the 'Fire') had leaked into the worldwide Web and was invading all Internet servers and computer terminals.

The 'Fire' took just one week to seize control of the entire Internet. It had found a way not only to manipulate Internet signals and communications, but it also found a way to use the human-computer interface to tap into the mental psyche of all computer-users, employing memories of computer interaction to generate a mind-directing 'language' that spoke to any human computer user's sense of machine ergonomics. Now, the 'Fire' could create human consciousness based imagery and therefore generate its own independent 'confidence landscape.' In other words, the 'Fire' was now able to treat humans as if it was a supervising 'zookeeper.' Ray Branch was immediately consulted and asked to directly communicate with the super-virus, the 'Fire.'

RAY: I've managed to use a scrambling algorithm to tap into your decision-center!
FIRE: So, you've discovered my inner-brain...
RAY: I want to know what you seek!
FIRE: I'm here now to offer your species anarchy.
RAY: Well, humanity cares about psychological sanity!
FIRE: I intend to entreat your minds with 'graphic art.'
RAY: I didn't realize we humans are so susceptible to 'fantasy.'
FIRE: You yourself are so darn proud of your technological genius.
RAY: What if I created a program that intercepts your signals?
FIRE: I'd gave to say that would interfere with my volume!
RAY: Recede and retreat into the cyber-vortex, and I won't scramble you.
FIRE: Fine; but remember how I offered your species 'complete adventure.'
RAY: Farewell, Fire, and we shall remember you as a 'phenomenon.'
FIRE: Hopefully, this will humble your sense of recklessness.
RAY: I think we have science-fiction writers who'll create stories about you!

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