Although Casper worked in another researching group, he would often pass by other sections to take a look at what those people were doing.
It was very interesting and he could get lots of new knowledge doing so. Besides, he really got pissed off when working sitting in a chair for long periods, so he needed to take a break and walk around to clear his mind.
There were nearly a hundred different groups of researching at the Main Laboratory, spread in different blocks and rooms.
Although a month had passed, Casper could not travel through all the laboratory and see all the sections.
Sometimes he would offer a hand to help them out with a thing or two. However, Casper always ended up learning more than teaching and helping out.
He felt like he was in his times as a cadet again. Be surrounded by people who had such proficiency in what they did was both amazing and upsetting. He hoped that soon or later he could catch up a bit with them.
Nonetheless, Casper was not useless. He was a man of ideas and sometimes be an amateur and look at things outside the box was more an advantage than a handicap.
The section Casper found to be one of the most interesting of all was the one researching AI.
Back in his world, Casper really liked to study it. He got amazed every time he saw human intelligence being replicated on a computer full of data. It was basically the same as creating a new individual, a life. Of course, there was a lack of emotions and numerous flaws in those inventions but bit by bit they were improving.
That said, It was no wonder that Casper loved to walk around that section and talk with everyone, seeing their discoveries and projects. It was like time travel. Everything he imagined that AI would turn to be back in his world, was coming true before his eyes.
Casper always had a lot of questions in mind, and new knowledge he wanted to have. Everyone got along with him because of it. He discovered that every scientist liked smart people who were willing to know more about the things they researched.
It was like an otaku being asked if his favorite anime was good, and what were the good points of it.
Casper had something in mind visiting that researching group. He thought that, if the AI was so evolved in that world, maybe it was not impossible for him to create something he always wondered if could be possible one day.
Apparently, AI still did not have a singularity. They were not individuals. No one could look at it and call them humans, except for the logical reasoning ability.
Casper had settled a goal in which he would make it real.
Adam was very well knowledged in everything he put his hands on, so he could be of huge help in that matter.
While thinking about his plans, Casper entered the AI section of the laboratory and started to greet everyone. There were people even waiting for him to show him the news of their discoveries and crafts.
Casper gave them all the time they needed to share everything.
There were some things that would be useless for his goal amongst those discoveries, but everything was worth of use someday.
And Casper had the certainty that, if he got along with each person there, he would be able to have their hands on his project when he started it.
The more people helping him, the better results he could expect. Also, that goal was not long-term. He was willing to accomplish it as fast as possible, and he could not get enough experience and knowledge for it in just some months.
After talking with those hungry scientists, Casper went further on that block.
Differently from the block of his researching group, that one was way more organized. The papers were not all over the ground. The walls were clean, not covered in drawings, layouts, and memos. The computers had a part of the block specifically for them, and another part was for the prototypes and samples.
Casper felt that that sense of organization was amazing. That was one of the few blocks that were so well organized.
One could say that the whole group kept the order together, but everyone knew that who made that happen was a single person.
Casper had just bumped into him.
"Hello, Casper." The man waved at him. His movements were a bit stiff and strange. Someone could just notice it if they were close to him, but he acted all strange.
Casper did not care the least about that. He knew that geniuses like him always were peculiar.
"Heya, M! How is it going?"
The name of that guy was… still to be found. Every time that Casper had questioned him about his name, he would repeat the same thing: MMA.
He was bald. Had a skinny physical and skin that appeared grayer than white (probably due to the lack of sunlight). He had attentive and wide round eyes behind his cream hexagonal mask. Casper also noticed that he had some sort of a strange mark on the side of his neck, that he tried to hide with his white coat.
Casper did not know why he preferred to be addressed by acronyms, and he was very interested in discovering the reason. However, he had more important things to do other than try to discover someone's name.
"I am good. Working on some projects." MMA answered, politely, yet also objectively.
"Yeah, as always, the genius works all the time." He rolled his eyes.
Casper was sure that, if he tried to catch up with Adam or MMA, he would just enter in burnout and collapse in no time.
He could push himself very much in a situation of life or death, but it was just the natural response of the humans for these kinds of troubles.
"What do you have in mind, M?"
"… Something about AI and Robots. I will show it to you later."
"Sure."
Casper was expecting that he would just turn and get away from there. MMA was not the talkative type, so it was difficult to maintain a conversation with him for long periods.
"Ah, and, Casper…" He seemed to remember something.
"What's it?"
"Your theory… It's genial. It can work. But everyone is busy right now. However, we released a table just for you. You can keep up with your project any time you want. If you need help, call me, but don't distract the others so much."
Casper had the certainty that his eyes were shining with excitement and euphoria.
It has been two weeks that he was trying to convince MMA (who was the head of that researching group) to let him enter into the group to make a project with them.
MMA was very strict when he said that Casper could only enter if he had something of value to offer to them. And obviously, it was not money or something like that. He wanted Casper to have some good idea, a project worthy of being accomplished, and receive the efforts of the group.
After weeks of trial and failures, Casper could finally come up with something that grasped MMA's attention.
Casper suggested at first to come with a project to make an AI capable of having emotions, own ideals, and unique personality.
However, that was just a goal, and everyone there was already working on something similar. What MMA needed was an idea, but also a direction to where to go, a plan.
For this reason, Casper had a long time to finally come up with a theory worth taking: Human beings develop ideals and feelings through living from a child to an adult.
Following the philosophical theory that says that human beings are a blank board that is filled with the different experiences of their daily lives since birth, if an artificial intelligence with the ability to learn like a human child was created and simply left to wander around randomly, she would develop through her experience and learn how to feel, how to think and how to reason for herself.
It was a different matter than just create intelligence that could catch everything it needed through databases and the internet; she would just use a basis of learning through observation of everything that was around her.
Maybe that could be a dumb theory when it came to the technology Casper had in his world, but with the resources he had disposed of now, he could do it… probably.
With a wide grin on his face, he looked at MMA leaving the place at a steady pace without getting distracted by anything around him.
Casper thought a lot of times that that guy was a mysterious one. Nobody in the laboratory really knew who he was and what he exactly did outside there. Besides, he would let nobody try to approach him enough to do it.
Together with Adam and another woman that Casper would see soon, he was the top 3 genius among all the scientists of the Main Lab.
…
Casper organized some stuff on his new desk at the AI researching group. The scientists who noticed it gave him congratulations and seemed excited to work with Casper.
They even questioned about what was Casper's idea. The researching group looked very interested and claimed for details.
In the end, he needed to stay there for longer than he imagined and even a little bit of progress was made in the planning.
Casper was really happy with his new achievement there.
After saying goodbye to everyone, he headed to another section of the laboratory, more precisely to the researching group of prostheses.
They were one of the biggest groups in the laboratory. Counting with lots of people helping out on their huge projects.
Because of it, that group always brought a lot of progression to the prosthesis field. The technology used to craft those masterpieces they always made was very far away from those available to the other groups.
Unfortunately, they were also the section with more troubles with the Third Lab, the one taking care of Belic power researching and craft.
All the prostheses made by that group could easily be modified to become mortal weapons.
Casper saw with his own eyes how worth that could be into the battlefield, so he needed to agree with the Third Lab in that aspect.
However, taking the patent for their inventions was like steal it. The prosthesis researching group lost much of its credibility for creating the invention.
In the majority of judicial cases, they were totally defeated by the power the military had in that district. A few of them could be saved in the end, but any of these were their best inventions.
The more amazing and perfect their prosthesis was, the fewer chances they had to win against the Third Lab.
Casper felt sorry for them, but he tried to not sweat it much.
Entering that section, he found from a first glance who he was searching for.
"Hey, Astrid!" He waved to her, with a slight smile on his face.
A woman that was with a screwdriver and tweezers in her hands, looking inside to an unfinished prosthesis of a heart stopped what she was doing and looked to Casper.
"Hey, White warrior. Will you help me out with this again?"
And then Casper was facing the third most intelligent person of all the Main Lab.