Zima Blue 齐马蓝 23

"By yourself?" 

"Eventually, yes. That was when I had autonomy; legal independence. But I had to reach a certain level of intelligence before I was allowed that freedom. Before that, I was a simpler machine... like an heirloom or a pet. I was passed from one owner to the next, between generations. They added things to me. They made me cleverer." 

"How did you begin?" 

"As a project," he said. 

Zima led me back to the swimming pool. Equatorial night had arrived quickly, and the pool was bathed now in artificial light from the many floods arrayed above the viewing stands. Since we had last seen the pool the robot had finished cleaning the last of the tiles in place. 

"It's ready now," Zima said. "Tomorrow it will be sealed, and the day after it will be flooded with water. I’ll cycle the water until it attains the necessary clarity." 

"And then?" 

"I prepare myself for my performance."

On the way to the swimming pool he had told me as much as he knew about his origin. Zima had begun his existence on Earth, before I was even born. He had been assembled by a hobbyist, a talented young man with an interest in practical robotics. In those days, the man had been one of many groups and individuals groping toward the hard problem of artificial intelligence. 

“自己增强自己？”  

“后来是这样的。那是我具备了自主意识和法律独立性之后的事。不过要想获得自由，我也必须具备一定的智力。在这之前，我只是一台单纯的机器……类似于传家宝或者宠物。我被我的主人代代相传。他们不断给我增加新的东西，让我变得越来越聪明。”  

“那你究竟是怎么开始的？”  

“开始于一个项目。”他回答。

齐玛带着我回到了游泳池。靠近赤道地区的夜晚来得很快，游泳池被看台上方的一排排人工灯光照得光彩夺目。刚才我们看见的机器人已经把最后一块地方的瓷砖都帖好了。

“游泳池已经准备好了。”齐玛说。“明天它就会被封闭起来，后天它就会注满水。我会一直循环里面的水，直到游泳池足够清澈。”  

“然后呢？”  

“我会准备好我的表演。”  

在回游泳池的路上，齐玛已经把他的起源告诉了我，只要是他知道的，都完完整整地说了出来。在我出生之前，齐玛就已经存在于地球上了。他是一个业余的机器人爱好者组装起来的。这个很有才能的年轻人对实用机器人技术特别感兴趣。在那些科技并不发达的岁月里，有很多的团队或者个人在黑暗中摸索人工智能的世纪难题。这个年轻人就是其中的一个。