Post #4358572

The Victorian scientists crowded into the conference hall. In the center of the stage, a pigeon-sized green bird with a yellow beak perched on a tall stand, calmy and intelligently surveying the assembled gentlemen (women were not permitted). After the hubbub had settled, Sir Cuthbert Flummox took the stage and stood proudly next to the exotic bird. "The answer is an emphatic yes," he said. "AI---Animal Intelligence---is real. My research zoologists have scoured the world and we have found an animal amenable to trained for higher-order thinking." He paused to let the magnitude of the discovery sink in. "The shortage of engineers and colonial administrators will be a thing of the past." He held out his hand, and the bird carefully stepped onto his wrist. All eyes were locked onto the strange bird. Flummox held up the bird and asked in a loud voice, "What is your name?" "Pretty Polly" squawked the parrot. An audible gasp swept around the auditorium, followed by an excited murmur. "Where are we?" demanded Flummox. The bird hopped onto one leg and, after a pause, screeched "London!" Journalists were rushing out of the hall to stop the presses. "What,"thundered Flummox, "five plus seven?" The bird was startled by the commotion in the hall and the overbearing inventor. It briefly hid its head under its wing, and when the hall subsided, it straightened up and said proudly, "Ten!" Flummox smiled and turned to the audience. "Yes every new technology has its growing pains, but the intelligence and potential of this bird is self-evident. All that is required is more training. I am offering the prescient invsors of the city the opportunity to sieze the new frontier of AI with me!" #microfiction #ai