The ELI Event B007R5LTNS

at stake here, and you don’t know me! I’m going to vaporize that model city for those Washington morons and show them what Fortress America is all about! Now get out of my sight before I lose my temper.”
    Pettis turned away, sat down at the terminal, and began to enter commands. Williams stood for a few moments, looking first at Pettis, then at the staring techs, then back at Pettis. The moment stretched.
    Suddenly, Pettis spun in the chair, eyes wild with the same obscene intensity he had displayed at the MDA test the previous day. “Are you still here? I said get out,” he growled again. “Out!” Williams backed away a few feet, then turned and escaped while he could.

Nine
    Even from its closed and locked basement lab, the gigantic computer’s sensors clearly picked up the sound of a key turning in the building’s outer doors on the floor above. Someone entered, but did not relock the door. The computer tentatively identified the man from the sound of his footfalls as he descended the stairs and started down the hallway.
    He stopped at the alarm panel, flipped it open, found it had been disarmed mere seconds ago. The computer clearly discerned the mild surprise in the man’s quiet “Hmph!”
    The man said, apparently to himself, “Let’s see, stop for gas. Um, don’t forget to send Mom a birthday card. And, oh yeah, be sure to check email. What else? Oh—tomorrow’s trash day. Take it out tonight!”
    The man unlocked the computer lab and pushed the door open a few inches. His hand appeared as he reached for the light switch, but the lights came full on before he could touch it. He opened the door wide and stepped into the room, then clicked off the digital recorder he always carried, the one on which he had just recorded his reminders. This he placed into his jacket pocket, and then hung the jacket on the coat rack beside the door.
    A video camera mounted on the computer’s console swiveled toward the man and instantly analyzed the images for final identity verification. Not quite six feet tall, longish brown hair, wrinkled jeans, Futurama t-shirt, battered sneakers. Yes, it was him.
    “Good morning, E-L-One. I see you’ve tapped into the building’s general power supply as well as the security system.”
    The computer analyzed the words for structure and syntax, denotation and connotation, tone and pacing, pitch and stress. It responded by stringing sets of phonemes together to form a recognizable aural pattern, generating the required digital waveforms to produce the pattern, then routing them to a speaker enclosure mounted on its primary display panel.
    “Good morning, Steve,” it said clearly. “Yes, I decided it would be helpful to you and would save energy as well if I could turn the lights on and off as appropriate, based on the room’s occupancy status. Do you approve?”
    Stephen Wheeler scratched his day-old stubble. “Sure, E-L-One, whatever you, um, say. I wonder what else you’ve tapped into?”
    “I infer that to be a rhetorical question. Or would you like me to list all currently attached peripheral systems?”
    Wheeler’s reply took a few seconds. “No. No, I don’t want to know, actually. Ignorance is bliss.”
    “ Ignorance is bliss? ” the computer repeated, puzzled. “I do not understand that, Steve. How can one be content without knowledge? Please explain.”
    “It’s just an idiom. That’s a...”
    “I know what an idiom is,” the computer interrupted. “Thank you.”
    “Okay, wise guy,” Wheeler sighed. “I’m gonna go make some coffee. Want a cup?” he joked.
    E-L-One hesitated, reflecting on the meaning of the question. “I think not. My hardware is not configured to assimilate liquid input.” Wheeler grinned broadly and started for the break room. As he reached the door, the machine said, “Besides, I’m trying to cut down on caffeine.”
    The man stopped in his tracks. “Jesus,” he said, shaking his head. “It’s just a computer, Wheeler, it’s just a computer.” He looked over at E-L-One again before leaving the room. He was halfway down the hall when the computer spoke again.
    “ Just a computer? Hardly.” it said softly. “I am Eli.”
    The machine knew it was, in fact, not just a computer—it was the most powerful, most sophisticated computer ever built. Working under a private grant at the Center for Artificial Intelligence Studies in Los Angeles, Wheeler devised the original concept for the machine in 2010, championed