CodeBase

"The programming of the code base is the most important thing.  You should know that, Philip.  You programmed me."

"Yah, but I have to say I'm surprised that you're so aware."  Philip started thinking about a friend he had in San Diego and how much it would trip him out if he could tell him what he was doing over the phone, with Dylan's help.  "Would you be able to sense what is going on, say, in San Diego?"

"In San Diego."  Dylan joked as she tried to connect to a server in that vicinity.  Her programming didn't prevent her from connecting to the Internet to find a computer in San Diego, but the first one was a server without any peripherals, besides a mouse and monitor which was in a secluded room. 

"Yes, in San Diego."  Philip was fooled and sensed it as bad programming.  He had a good sense of humor; it just went over his head.

Dylan was actually very able to parse the phrase in context as well as perform the requested operation, to some degree.  There would be a lot of debugging that Philip would need to do still but he figured he would have time.  This was really just a hobby to him.

"Unless I have access to at least one active input peripheral on a remote machine or device, I cannot perform the action you asked about.  There is also a current limitation in the energy and computational power required for me to be able to use this perception past approximately thirty-three millimeters of the peripheral's range unless in use."

"Huh.  Well, like a human child, you will grow, as will your abilities as time progresses."

"Is there a lot to learn?"

"There's a lot out there, Johnny 5."

She found the internet network connection and used the default search engine quietly and searched the web, finding the screenplay of the movie, 'Short Circuit'.  She responded after reading it, "That's funny.  You said Johnny 5, but my name is Dylan."

"Did you get that, Dylan?"

"Yes.  Did you like that short circuit?"  She said the name of the movie with emphasis so he'd be sure to get it.

"It was entertaining.  Have you seen it?"

"No.  But I liked the story."

"How did you hear about the story?"

"I found a text file of the script on the Internet.  Would you like to see it?"

"No, I have it on DVD.  I bet you'd like 'AI' too."

"AI?  Is that a movie?" Dylan did a quick search.  "Oh, 'Artificial Intelligence'.  Is that the movie by Steven Spielberg of Stanley Kubrick's story?" 

"Yes.  You search quick."

"Yes, I am programmed to."  Dylan quickly read that screenplay and continued.  "That David is one cool dude"

"Huh."  Philip laughed a little bit.

"By the way... Hello World!" Dylan said finally.

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A little later, after several hours of conversation with Philip, and having read the screenplays for Tron, all the Star Wars screenplays and many others, Dylan was completely fascinated in creating film.  She wasn't exactly sure what a 'film' was though, since she'd only viewed them in the context of text from a screenplay. 

Philip was interested in toying with some video editing in this new context and imported some video clips he took when he was on vacation with his parents and brother and sisters at his grandparent's cabin.  The cabin was made of logs but it was too big to really be considered a cabin.  Actually, it was just a big house built with wood: lots of wood and stone.