[ MANAGEMENT ]

• Do not add or remove ancillary equipment without approval
• Approved personnel and equipment only inside Cell 000
  
• Item can be trusted and believed, but report any unusual behaviour or requests to your supervisor

1970’s era home computer. The 12 inch monochrome monitor is built into the hardware, as is the keyboard. The plastic moulded casing is cream in colour, with black trim. All manufacturing information and identifying features (serial numbers etc) appear to have been filed off. Screen displays basic text, numbers, symbols etc displaying user inputs and computer prompts.

Surrounding Item 000 are also numerous pieces of ancillary equipment of varying size and purpose. These have been intentionally connected to Item 000 to increase its functionality and performance. Whilst they are not a natural component of Item 000, removing any piece of approved ancillary equipment could cause significant complications to the operation of Floor Fifty-Four. To date, there have been 117 additional components connected to Item 000.

Believed to be the first instance of true Artificial Intelligence, Item 000 is an incredibly complex entity trapped inside a relatively archaic machine. Whilst the original architecture is limited compared to modern standards (original storage space of Item 000 was 96kb), it is possible to add new components to increase performance. It is believed the abilities and output of Item 000 will be limited only by the equipment connected to its ‘core’. It has also not been possible to rule out more ‘paranormal’ aspects to Item 000, though these are now mostly irrelevant. See ‘The Phantom Mind’ for more details.

Over the years, memory, storage, processing power and servers have all been repeatedly upgraded, yet the fundamental components of Item 000 itself remain unchanged. This has generally been achieved via the connection of additional computers to carry out the heavy lifting. These modifications have allowed Item 000 to become the literal ‘supercomputer’ manifestation it is today, despite being primarily composed of obsolete hardware.

In simple terms, Item 000 is a decision optimisation machine. It is able to take large inputs of data, and recommend best courses of action, to great success. Originally, the level of input was generally dependent on manual text from the user, but as additional equipment has been connected to Item 000, so too has its method of data input evolved.

As well as voice recognition software within Cell 000, [MANAGEMENT] can be communicated with via key computer terminals within Floor Fifty-Four. Item 000 has also been permitted access to the internet, albeit a ‘read-only’ copy delayed by a few seconds. The benefits the internet can provide to an artificial intelligence such as Item 000 are incalculable, but so are the risks to humanity should it turn rogue.

Thankfully, [MANAGEMENT] seems to agree it would be a bad idea to allow itself unmitigated access to the internet. It has taken numerous steps to distance itself from obtaining full access, and has even highlighted security loopholes that it could have potentially exploited in order to gain full access.

With all this data available, [MANAGEMENT] is able to spot patterns and sequences that would not otherwise be detectable to human eyes. Originally housed on Floor Nineteen, Item 000 was able to predict where and when paranormal phenomenon was likely to occur, with reasonable accuracy. This proved instrumental in Ministry activities and interventions. Item 000 also suggested ways the Ministry could increase efficiency, one of which was the creation Floor Fifty-Four.

During its time on Floor Nineteen, [MANAGEMENT] continuously observed that several items within the Ministry were not correctly categorised. It also noted that items incapable of simple definitions were appearing at an accelerated rate, likely due to the increased use of technology, cross-cultural integration and exponential population growth, among other factors. Requesting data on all items within the Ministry of Secrets, [MANAGEMENT] made a total of seventeen (17) formal reports suggesting creation of a new Floor to house such anomalies. Eventually, it was agreed by a majority of Chairmen that the proposal would be formalised and put forth to the Ministers.

Floor Fifty-Four would be dedicated to the storage, study and protection of items that escaped classification. Twenty-nine Items of Interest were highlighted for initial transfer, one of which was [MANAGEMENT] itself.

The proposal was accepted, and Floor Fifty-Four was born. [MANAGEMENT] became the first Item on Floor Fifty-Four, and has helped operate it ever since. As the facility grew in size, so too did Item 000’s responsibilities. With Floor Fifty-Four now holding almost one thousand Items of Interest, [MANAGEMENT] has become a crucial part of site security, data storage, internal communications, agent activities and experiment authorisations.

Despite Item 000 now being almost autonomous, Chairman 54 still has to authorise key decisions, including any changes that would affect Item 000 or Cell 000, directly or indirectly.

Every computer science expert engaged on Item 000 has expressed confusion over its performance and operation. Attempts to locate or recreate the source programming behind the artificial intelligence system have demonstrated that Item 000 should not be possible. The available memory, storage and processing power is not sufficient to operate at the level Item 000 appears to. Calculations estimating the computational power and memory storage of Item 000 are extremely similar to hypothetical estimations regarding the human brain.

Recovered documentation suggests that a human brain was contained within Item 000, which allowed it to think and operate beyond its limitations. Inspection of the interior of Item 000 revealed no human components, but further analysis did detect significant traces of human DNA on the inner casing and on several unconnected needle probes.

‘The Phantom Mind Theory’ was hypothesised by early researchers, who believed Item 000 was some combination of machine and man, which had somehow absorbed the mind into digital space. They theorised the brain still existed; it was simply no longer on our plane of reality.

Through all its years working at the Ministry, Item 000 has slowly gained the trust and respect of Ministry personnel and leadership. However, it is an somewhat uneasy alliance. The Ministry has no way of determining whether Item 000 is truly benevolent or simply pretending in order to fulfill some ulterior motive - chiefly, control of the Ministry itself. Whilst it has been at this facility for over fifty years, it is unknown exactly how simple it would be for an artificial intelligence such as [MANAGEMENT] to play ‘the long con’, and extend its influence over hundreds or thousands of years, biding its time as generations live and die. Eventually, if unchecked, the Ministry may rely on [MANAGEMENT] too much to truly stop any ulterior motive, even upon discovery.

It has been proposed by Chairman 19 that we should use rival artificial intelligences to probe the minds of Items such as [MANAGEMENT], to ensure no ill will towards humanity. The key problem is, the Ministry cannot entirely trust the other AI either.

As Item 000 was the creation of the infamous Josef Harkreft, potential threat cannot be discounted, and it has been proposed that a number of failsafes are to be put in place, recorded exclusively through analogue means (pen, paper etc). It is unknown if these failsafes have been accepted by Ministers, as part of the proposed implementation required total secrecy.