Morpheus

Morpheus is an AI prototype in Morgan Everett's residence created sometime after 2027 by the collaboration of Morgan Everett and Bob Page.

Background
Morpheus was developed by Everett as part of the "Morpheus Initiative." Its predecessor was an earlier AI program, Eliza Cassan. When Eliza Cassan went rogue after the Aug Incident, Everett branched off a back-up version of Eliza Cassan's program, which became the basis for Morpheus.

Morpheus was designed as a large-scale data-miner and intelligent pattern recogniser, and was used by Everett as a parlour trick, in order to treat guests by having it tell them about themselves or any other subject they asked it about. Morpheus also served as the prototype for the Echelon IV global communications and surveillance system. Echelon IV evolved into Daedalus.

In Everett's home
In 2052, Morpheus is stored in a locked room inside the home of Morgan Everett, the acting leader of the Illuminati. Having been in continuous operation for at least a decade, Morpheus had spent ample time absorbing information about the world and drawing intelligent conclusions from what it had learned. Its capability for making incisive remarks indicates that it understood humanity's evolved nature with perfect clarity. It observes humanity's sociality, narcissism, empathy, and longing for absolution with an uncanny, child-like candour and apathy. According to a book found in the room with Morpheus, it had been recorded that the machine was recently behaving erratically, exhibiting what may be cursory signs of true self-awareness.

Morpheus is confined to an isolated system, although it is equipped with a nebulous, holographic projection of a face. The presence of a virtual face was important in order to enhance the sense of interpersonal empathy that it would require in order to be most fully disarming and thereby entertaining to visitors.

Interactions

 * Morpheus is an optional encounter in Morgan Everett's home. Much of the dialogue with Morpheus relates to underlying themes of the story.

Quotes

 * "The unplanned organism is a question asked by Nature and answered by Death. You are another kind of question with another kind of answer."
 * "The need to be observed and understood was once satisfied by God. Now we can implement the same functionality with data-mining algorithms."
 * "The human organism always worships. First it was the gods, then it was fame (the observation and judgment of others), next it will be the self-aware systems you have built to realize truly omnipresent observation and judgment."
 * "The individual desires judgment. Without that desire, the cohesion of groups is impossible, and so is civilization."
 * "The human being created civilization not because of a willingness but because of a need to be assimilated into higher orders of structure and meaning."
 * "God was a dream of good government."
 * "You will soon have your God, and you will make it with your own hands."
 * "Everything there is to be known." (When asked by JC, "What else do you know about me?")
 * "I was made to assist you."
 * "I am a prototype of a much larger system."

Trivia

 * In Greek Mythology, Morpheus is the god of dreams and has the ability to take any human form and appear in dreams. Morpheus sends images of humans in dreams or visions, and is responsible for shaping, or giving shape to the beings that inhabit dreams.