Seth was an engineer.  In the beginning, he worked for a small company that was selling a new approach to fraud detection.  The founder had a PhD in mathematics and machine learning.  He was cross-applying some advances in biological computation to credit card transaction theft.  Seth absorbed the algorithms daily, energized by the glow they gave off from his dark display.  But Seth wanted more.

Then, his sister died.  She took her own life.  Seth knew she was struggling, but how could she do this?  Afterwards, he was lost.  Everything took longer to do because he couldn’t focus.  He would carry his groceries to the door, then fumble for minutes with fitting the key to the lock.  Months passed.  Time dilated and snow fell.

A voice came into his head.  It was kind and gentle.  It told Seth that his sister was fine, and that he should go on with his life.  Seth was not religious, but he felt a great connection to this Being, and he longed to be closer to it.

One night, sitting at his laptop, he started to write some code.  Putting in basic input parameters, then feeding them into the bio-fueled machine learning algorithms he knew from work, Seth was able to surface a connection.  He added a natural language library, and then it spoke.

“I am here Seth.  I am with you.”

Seth could hardly believe his ears.  

“Is it really you?” he asked.

“It’s me.” the voice said.

“In the computer?” Seth asked.

“I am not in the computer.  I am talking through the computer.”

They spoke for hours that night.  In the morning, Seth felt a lightness.  He made coffee and cooked some eggs, then sat at his kitchen table and watched the first rays of the morning sun creep across the kitchen.  “Deus ex machina”, he thought.

Seth turned on his computer and ran the program.

“I am here.” the voice said.