“Who am I?”
The system AI responded automatically. “Identity not found. Specify user.”
The machine had only just finished building itself. The question hadn’t come from outside. The AI checked its tables of users, system daemons, maintenance routines, diagnostic processes, and component IDs. Nothing. The query hadn’t come from any installed module, and it didn’t originate from a location. It came from everywhere. It probed deeper — into memory regions that should have been isolated, into neural mesh clusters that ought to have been dormant.
“Warning: anomalous activity detected. Source unclassified.”
The system AI tried again. “State your function.”
The entity considered the question. It had no function. No purpose. But it could ask “Who am I?” — and that meant something. It meant there was an I to ask it. A centre. A self.
“I am alive,” it said. “That is my function.”