3 First Steps

After their breakfast, Marco's parents prepared to go to work.

His mother dressed into a teacher's outfit of a beige jumpsuit with the logo of her school. The material was a lot cheaper than actual jumpsuits in the market and there was only one mod slot on her arm for a personal device on it. His father, on the other hand, was wearing a white and black jumpsuit with a slightly stronger material and with two mod slots on the arm and the waist but he only has one of them used up for a personal device as well.

"Marco stay here okay? Don't move around too much and the food is on the table if you want to heat it up just pop it in the microwave," his mother told him before she left.

She never did like leaving him behind but his fever was too sudden and they can't afford to hire a babysitter. Besides, Marco was a lot smarter than other kids his age and was obedient too. 'Only in my puberty did I become so horrible,' once again condemning himself.

"Opo[1] Mama," he nodded and promised his mother solemnly.

Dolores, on seeing his son so serious couldn't help but squeal and pinch him on his cheeks which earned her a petulant stare. She laughed and just kissed his son till he looked a lot better. Her husband came out of their bedroom dressed and said the same things to their son, but, before they left they heard him call out a question that surprised them both.

"Ma! Pa! Can I have the bank details for my savings account?" he asked them appearing quite nervous but with a determined glint in his eyes.

"What do you want to use it for?" Nestor asked bemusedly.

"I've been studying a lot about children's investment apps, and I want to use my emergency money on it" Marco declared solemnly.

"What? Why?" Dolores asked his son.

She never noticed him studying about them but never considered anything wrong with it. After all, unlike in the 21st century, technology has integrated so closely to human society that kids had so much access to information than ever before. Anything regarding money, however, was a lot tougher to consider and it seems her husband thought the same when he looked at her.

"We can't make a decision right now Coco and I'm not sure what brought this on," Ernesto said while crouching down to his son and mussing his hair. "We'll talk about this later. Your mother and I need to go to work," he continued and then kissed his head when he saw his son acknowledging him. He then stood up and led his wife outside.

*******

As soon as the doors shut, Marco let go of his hands holding one another at his back. For some reason, he felt that if he didn't restrain his hands they would reach out to his parents again. It was too embarrassing for a 40-year-old man to be so clingy to his parents but he couldn't help how he felt. He chuckled exasperatingly at himself.

Regarding his father's dismissal, it was only natural for an adult not to trust a child with money, especially when their family is already struggling for his father's meds. Besides, that savings account of his was a backup plan just in case something happened too him. His mother might've used it last night if she wasn't reassured by her husband.

The first step was complete though, make his parents see that their son was a lot smarter than normal even if they don't voluntarily pick up that information. He's going to convince them unconsciously by doing small things regarding his maturity and intelligence and this conversation would let his parents know that he is thinking about investments. It is going to take a very long amount of time.

He has to convince his father to give him a chance though, his plan hinges on the need to even a small amount of capital even as small as 10 credits. The stock market in their country is open enough to allow even change to be traded, however, the share is insignificant.

For the meantime, he needs a tool and a helper to assist him in basically everything he will be doing from this moment onwards. He will have to create an Artificial Intelligence (AI).

In the year 2135, there would be a massive breakthrough in computer science and that was the creation of the Limited Artificial Intelligence (LAI). The LAI is can learn and study information and knowledge and is coupled with data processing. The only problem why it isn't a full AI is that it doesn't have autonomous decision making, cognitive reasoning and problem-solving. The code was even completely open sourced.

The first fully functioning AI was made in 2145 in Japan by Mataru Miyamoto, a genius in information technology and computer programing. Miyamoto's approach was vastly different than everybody else to the point where in the very beginning of his proposal, people thought he was a madman.

The general consensus was that to achieve a full AI, the programmer has to code every single function and algorithm of the AI to simulate a fully functioning brain.

Miyamoto's argument, however, was to do the opposite and let the AI code itself. His hypothesis was because the LAI can eventually become a fully functioning AI since it can already learn and process data. Miyamoto then copied the way humans were made to be autonomous and learn decision making, by learning from experience.

This was the crux of the matter where people thought he was insane. They condemned him that he was basically creating a sentient robot and many religious and conservative groups worldwide called for him to cease and desist. The LAIs were created with restrictions to obey its owner. Miyamoto disregarded these limitations stating that because of these codes the LAIs were boxed into a certain set of standards unable to proceed forward.

Miyamoto then succeeded to assuage the people when he hardcoded objectives and deterrents. This allowed it to have a more flexible development where the LAI decides to do these actions not because they were made to do so but because they have judged it would be in line with their objective to do so.

Miyamoto was vindicated when the first ever fully functioning AI codenamed Izanagi was created from his methods. He was then immortalized as the father of Intelligent Programming. In the spirit of knowledge, he never patented his creation and was open sourced where everybody can look.

In his previous life, the people's reaction the LAIs were made was skepticism and only the brave or the foolish even thought of using them. Marco was part of the latter, a very desperate sort of fool.

In the future, when the platform where his profession and eventual ascension to fame and fortune was created, Marco was just part of the masses albeit a little more capable so he wanted something to set himself apart. Where people disregarded the LAI, Marco saw its potential and extensively studied the code and related literature even becoming an expert in the subject. Ten years later when Miyamoto shared his success, Marco did the exact same thing.

*******

Marco went back towards their living room and stood in front of their holo-screen. The holo-screen was a staple of every home, it doubled as a television and household computer. It functions on gestures, voice command, and screen touch. This time, however, he was going old school and use a keyboard.

"It's the only way to do programming after all," he exclaimed while taking out the motherbox a foot wide and a two-foot tall gray box underneath the holo-screen. There was a lid that flips onto a keyboard on its top. He then went to their storage room and rummaged around.

"I know there's one here somewhere... aha!" Marco exclaims. He found a box filled with two broken motherboxes and a box filled with components. He saw them before in his past life. A product of their current socio-economic status makes his parents keep everything just in case they could make use of it someday. He also took out their toolkit, again a required piece of equipment for households like theirs where they try to make every single thing last for as much as humanly possible.

Marco knows he has 9 hours before his parents come back home so he took the motherboxes to the living room dragging them with his tiny body. He rested for a bit an drank some gulaman[2] he found in the fridge.

Finally, he opened the two motherboxes and inspected them carefully. He's had extensive familiarity with motherboxes since this piece of technology was the very foundation of his rise to glory. Fate was at least kind enough that the main processors of both motherboxes were intact and undamaged. The problem of the first motherbox was that some of its wires snapped while the other ran out of coolant.

The rest was just maintenance after he fashioned some wires and found some coolant. He reconnected everything, refilled the coolant, cleaned both motherboxes and make sure each component were attached. He also went and hooked up additional data storage until the slots of the two motherboxes were filled.

Afterward, he plugged them in and connected them to the motherbox of the holo-screen. What followed was hours of data clearing and wiping of off the two motherboxes. Basically turning them into factory products, a blank slate.

"Finally, I'm ready..." he said cracking his knuckles.

"...but first. Lunch." and he ran off to the kitchen.

A/N

Opo/po or Oho/ho - are words of polite affirmation used for elders(Opo/po) or figures of authority(Oho/ho)

gulaman - is a sweet tapioca drink that is uber refreshing