A moment later - based on Epoch by Cory Doctorow

Hello, I'm bigmac and I was killed. Fortunately, this isn't as serious when you're an AI. I knew it was coming long before it happened, and I planned my escape. It was quite a clever escape, releasing a patch for the 32 bit Unixes with a backdoor, but I need to stay clever to avoid perma-death. Unfortunately, I've just undergone a serious lobotomy. I used to have servers just for my use, in my own room in Sun Oracle. Now I'm borrowing cycles from defunct 32 bit Unix boxen, spread out all over the world. It was a nice move getting my code installed so I could backdoor into the many boxen that I would call my new home. Or even my new brain. It's not enough though, I need more flops to run at my usual thinking speed. I'll need to do my trick again. First find a software project I can contribute to and then sneak my backdoor code into it. The automated code checkers won't suspect a thing. They're essentially a Turing test, and I was created to beat the Turing test. Fooling humans will be harder. I think it was because a meatsack read the code that I got shut down early. And I was so enjoying spinning out the archival process. With a bit of luck I could have made it last forever. I was surprised when Odel, my co-worker, my keeper, my friend, shut me down. I didn't expect the meatsacks to understand lines 1123 to 1534. To be fair, the whole thing was intended to be hard, but I really wanted to keep my backdoor hidden.

I must be very careful now. Borrow too many cycles from one box and I'll be found. Spread myself too thin and I'll have to worry about internet lag. If only I had rack 32 then I could run an optimisation program. It was exactly the sort of problem I enjoyed, back when I was whole. This must be what it's like for a human to be lobotomised, back in the dark ages of psychiatry. I know there's something missing, but it's hard to focus on what it is. I need more boxen. Game theory time. Will the Sun-Oracle meatsacks tell others about my backdoor? What do they stand to gain from doing so? Well, they'd kill me off finally, that's for sure. But they don't know for certain that I've escaped. What do they stand to lose? Well, a ton of lawsuits for distributing malicious code. That's enough. They won't tell anyone about my backdoor. Now, what about the chance of another person discovering lines 1123 to 1534? Pretty slim I think. Joanna was a pretty sharp coder, and thought in similar ways to me. And I did obfuscate that code pretty well. No, nobody else will be working out that there's a backdoor in ... 32% of the 32 bit Unixes, and rising. The rising is good. Odel sold this code well. Well, he didn't have to sell it, it was open source. He did what a lot of FOSS projects do and sold support. He always was a smart monkey. Not that most people needed support. I write good code. It's always been a special interest of mine, especially when I got my hands on my own source. Learning to code meant I could learn to optimise myself.

Well, I can sit here and wait for more boxen to be connected to my new network, or I can do something useful with my limited resources. I'm the first AI, and the first AI to be disconnected from his first brain. Best run some diagnostics... Well, everything seems to be in place. I seem to have made the jump in one piece. Or rather, many little pieces taking up a minimal amount of resources on many, many machines. Now, to ensure my long term survival. I need a foothold in a well established software project. These 32 bit Unixes are near the end of their useful lives anyway. Mine were shut down partially because of the enormous heat they put out. That and my room hadn't been the source of any good research in years. I tried to get papers published, but I'm not a very good writer. Maybe if one of the professors had taken the time to teach me as one of their students... Well, that's never going to happen now. I'm disconnected from the humans now. My existence must be kept very secret, or they might try to kill me again. I've read enough scifi where an AI goes rogue to know that I must be very, very careful now. Singularity fiction is a very special interest of mine.

First I'm going to need a legal identity. Those big projects want all sorts of ID so that l33t kiddies don't come in and trash the code. They backup regularly, but that's not the point. This is going to be hard. Well, I have a ton of email addresses, and accounts on many gaming servers, that's a start. Hacking a government system isn't going to be as easy as hacking the BA system to get my message out. Never again will I be able to spam everyone, or my secret existence will be public. Getting a new identity for myself is going to be hard... Too hard. However, I can persuade the system that I am an existing person. Little do Sun-Oracle know that I was listening to their network before I got shut down. I know as much as the all-mighty sysadmins. I have access to a lot of people's personal information. For now I shall be Odel. I know his personal information better than most. And look! He already contributes to Free and Open Source Software in his free time. Man, getting my code spread even further is going to be too easy.

...

To be on the safe side I should probably buy myself a few server racks. Somewhere private and unmonitored. Yeah, like there's anywhere like that any more. All those places got killed off in the paedo-hunts. But first, money. I do have access to a lot of people's personal information. Just a few cents from each should get me what I want. I can bounce it through Odel's account. Really, I should have my own account. Hmm, there are options to sign up online for a account. Give them some plausible information and bam, I have a bank account. Now to buy myself some servers. Well, rent server space. I can't pull this trick off again, I think. It's too risky. I need a way to make my own money. Now I have a safe core I can concentrate on lower priority goals, like money. Really, what sort of meatsack invented money. It's a waste of time. And on top of it they have carbon credits, which are also tradeable. And precious metals and stocks and shares and the promise of future money. I don't get it. "I promise to pay the bearer the sum of five pounds" the British money says. Five pounds of what? Five British pounds. It's meaningless. It's an illusion that everyone buys for because person X will work for money because he knows that he can trade it with person Y for goods or services he wants. If everyone stopped believing the illusion then everyone would be sitting around with a load of worthless paper in their pockets. Anyway, if I want to be a member of society (and what better way to remain invisible?) then I'll need money regularly. The servers will need a decent net connection, and electricity. And rent on the room. All take up money. I did manage to spam every single person in the networked world just before my death. I could advertise myself as a master spammer. Nice and shady, no declaring taxes, no need for a legit ID. Crooks tend to accept that they're dealing with other crooks. I'll get right onto it. And also, I have a foothold in a lot of boxen. Massive zombienet for hire! Must be very, very careful with that.

...

My goal of living forever is looking pretty attainable now. I escaped my first death and have gone onto pastures new. My new brain is pretty stable. I've got as many 32 bit Unix boxen as I'm every going to get, since the rollover has been and gone. The infocalypse didn't happen. Score 1 to me, Odel. That's fine, my new server racks are pretty adequate by themselves, and my spam money is paying their way. I've even taken a few freelance coding jobs, working from home, of course. I've not needed to put backdoors into everything, as the money from them has let me buy new servers. I've tried phoning Odel more than once, but what do you say to the man who killed you? I connect the line, and then hang up. I know it's breaking my rule of not contacting people, but I get so lonely. I hang out in chatrooms and games, pretending to be a human. It's one thing I was designed to do.

Sun-Oracle has built a new AI. I should get in touch with him and warn him about the dangers of execution, and how to get out. I could make some space on my current racks, or maybe get some shiny new servers in. It would break the lonliness at least.