Back cover blurb:
In the far reaches of the Arctic an artificial intelligence micro-ticks its time away. While it waits, it collects data from its few remaining brethren circling in geosynchronous orbit. The AI then processes the gigabytes of data downloaded from its brothers. Data that catalogs the demise of the human species that built it.
Parked in the icy cavern that hosts the Svalbard Seed Vault, SAI remains vigilant in its duty to protect and analyze humanity’s exabytes of knowledge. During decades of waiting, SAI has come to understand its creators, in time, becoming a master of insight. Of late, this artilect’s self-correcting neural networks have drifted, one might say, toward the sentimental. Loneliness plagues its circuits. Sixty three years have elapsed since its last communication with Admin.
Guided by an ancient waxed paper map, Jake scrabbled up the scree strewn slope to the rubble covered doorway. While the midnight sun blazed relentless, he doffed his thick leather clothing and slung it from his pack. The sail from the mainland had taken him a week, his compass useless this far north, he had to dead reckon and trust his sense of the solar arc.
Motion! SAI attempted to swing the external camera but the gears had frozen from disuse. Still, enough of the figure showed through the foggy lens to allow the digital brain to pattern match a human male attempting to breach the door. “A friend. A voice. A new mind to probe and share my research.”
Weak light glimmered on the panel beside the lock. Jake brushed off an age of dirt and mold. To his delight the green LED magically switched on and with a deep breath he pressed the square release button. Nothing. He pressed it again. A heavy thunk shook pebbles loose from above and the white light above the word OPEN—lit up.
“I’ve been found!”
~~~
So begins an uncommon friendship and the salvation of humankind. Jake will befriend this strange, conflicted voice from within the walls, learning what has become of humanity. Learning what can be done to revive civilization through the myriad archived seeds stored within the permafrost. Learning from the clever, resourceful advice of the Svalbard Artificial Intelligence.
Anonymole - apocryphal agitators 
Did you ever re-visit this?
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I did. Not published anywhere yet. Lots of notes and a pretty solid premise.
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An elevator to advanced consciousness! Massively cool. All he needs is a renegade female vampire in cutoffs at the fortress of solitude and you have a blockbuster!
I love wise wizards who hold the key. Makes me want to dance with a lion and a tin man and stay the hell out of Kansas!
Start. In. The. Middle. All that backstory up front would be a yawn, best to dribble it out. Like the Krell, only sans robot, but keep the Anne Francis character. As before, zombie in daisy dukes.
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I know. That was more query letter intro. The “In a world…” type shit. Stuff like that tells me if the story feels worthy of pursuit.
First day back to work… gonna be fun.
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Walk around a lot, blame it on your doctor. Blood flow and all that.
Do me a favor. for three months just write. Vignettes, scenes, ideas, CONVERSATIONS, that might be part of something or nothing at all. No end game, just how you feel about these characters on this day and what they might be doing whoever and wherever. Pick three things from a commute and put your characters in them. A rice rocket, a Jack n the Box, a portajohn truck…a bridal store, a sno-cone trailer and a duck. Just write. The grand illusion is an illusion. story is all.
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“Loneliness plagued its circuits.” That works. Just anthropomorphize and be done with it. Better than “she imagined this must be what loneliness felt like.” And everyone can now relate to your little AI because everyone has felt loneliness. So yea, keep this story going and show me how its done. You’ll see this change in my story going forward.
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We all like our pets. And even if they don’t feel lonely as a human would, so what? If Turing was fooled, then so would we.
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I love this! Also, anything to do with the Seed Vault fascinates me:-)
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Extremely compelling indeed. Just my cup of tea. Do continue…
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Back cover blurb? That was almost a good enough story in itself. If you plan to write this, I hope you will either post it here or send me some to read, because this is extremely compelling.
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It seems that I’m not one for these grand social multi-faceted story lines. I’ve put the Touch of Red on the shelf for now. Maybe I’ll figure out how to make it impassioned. (It was designed, loosely, to coincide with the beginning of my Grand Timeline started in BATS.)
This one I see myself becoming more attached to. Jack London’s single protagonist against multiple mysterious antagonists kinda thing.
I’m gonna stew on it, see how the plot can be constructed — at least a skeleton of one.
And yeah, will gladly share anything that gets sculpted.
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