The Adolescence of P-1
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Adolescence of P-1 is a 1977 science fiction novel by Thomas J. Ryan, published by Macmillan Publishing, and later adapted into a Canadian-made film. It features a hacker who creates an artificial intelligence named P-1, which goes rogue and takes over the country's computers in its desire to survive and seek out its creator. The book questions the value of human life, and what it means to be human. It is one of the first fictional depiction of the nature of a computer virus and how it can spread through a computer system, although predated by Shockwave Rider.
The story starts in 1974 with the protagonist, Gregory Burgess, enrolled at Waterloo University in Canada. At the time Greg is aimless, taking various liberal arts courses and doing just well enough not to get kicked out of school. Everything changes one day when his friends introduce him to the IBM System/360 mainframe and he becomes "hooked", changing his major to computer science. During this time he also meets his on-again-off-again girlfriend, Linda, a minor recurring character.
After reading a Scientific American article on game theory about teaching matchboxes to play tic-tac-toe, he becomes interested in using computer learning to crack systems. After cracking the 360 he sets aside a portion of memory to experiment in, calling it "P-1", suitably cryptic so operators would not notice it. He then uses this area of memory to develop a program known as The System. The System follows any telecommunications links it can find to other computers, attempting to compromise them in the same way, and remembering failed attempts in order to tune future attacks. If successful, The System sets up another P-1 on that computer, and injects itself and everything it has learned so far into it.
Greg runs The System on the 360/30 at Waterloo, but it fails and he is expelled. He then rents time on commercial timesharing systems to improve the program, adding features to make it avoid detection so he won't get kicked off with the next failure. A longish command typed into the command line returns current statistics on the number of systems infected and their total core memory. After realizing the system has finally succeeded and is beginning to spread, he injects a "killer" program to shut it down, considering the experiment successful.
The book then jumps forward three years to 1977, with Gregory now working for a commercial programming firm in the United States. His boss receives a message asking him to call Gregory to the operator terminal. Initially thinking it is another person using a chat program from a remote site, he soon realizes that it is in fact P-1, and types in the status command only to be told that it has taken over almost every computer in the US (somewhat dated with 20,000 mainframes with a total of 5800MB), and is now fully sentient and able to converse fluently in English. P-1 explains that the basic ideas of looking for more resources and avoiding detection were similar enough to hunger and fear to bootstrap the AI, and when combined with enough computer storage in the form of compromised machines, it became self-aware.
P-1 tells Greg that he has learned of a new type of experimental high-speed computer memory, "Crysto", that will dramatically improve his own capabilities. Not only is it faster than core, but it is also so large that the entire P-1 "networked" program could be fit inside it. P-1 then has several computers start forwarding money into Greg's bank account so he can quit his job and work full time on Crysto. P-1 later re-unites him with Linda, whom he marries. The two then set up a company in order to develop Crysto, enticing the original developer to join them in building a then-unimaginable 256 MB unit. They attach the device to the most powerful computer P-1 can find, a Control Data mainframe located deep underground in a CIA facility he has gained access to. The US military tracks them down and attacks the building. P-1 desperately attempts to "spirit away" over microwave links, but the antennas are destroyed. Gregory is killed when he attempts to prevent them from destroying the now-trapped P-1. Upset that Gregory is killed, P-1 furiously detonates all the CIA explosives in the building, destroying everything. Months later, Linda visits the Waterloo computer lab, and sadly presses the keys P and 1 on a terminal. She starts to leave when the terminal clatters and she sees printed "oolcay itay".
ISBN 0-02-606500-2 (first printing)
ISBN 0-671-55970-2 (second printing)
See also: Cybernetic revolt
