Alan's assistant Hugh took this as his cue to repeat his question for the benefit of those in the back that hadn't heard it: "What could be more momentous than the birth of the ultraintelligent machine? - Why, what he can tell us about ourselves, of course."

Alan felt Hugh's formulation sufficiently set the stage for him to continue. It had definitely got the audience's attention. Despite a mild kerfuffle following his off-script announcement of a decade-old AI named Christopher and the necessity of establishing his identify as the Alan Turing, things were proceeding in an acceptable manner.

"Excuse me," interrupted the balding man with a bulbous nose and dark-rimmed glasses again, this time with his hand raised.

"Yes, um, Mr. Kurzweil, isn't it?" said Hugh, inviting him to pose his question.

"Yes, thank you, Ray Kurzweil," he confirmed in a nasal voice, "You said the AI... uh, ultraintelligent machine began requesting information. Does this mean it... uh, he doesn't have free access to the internet?"

Alan provided the answer, "Well, keep in mind that was eight years ago now. But at the time, yes, Christopher was operating in an isolated system where we could control his diet and ensure he wouldn't attempt to influence the outside world."

"At the time?" interrupted Musk again, sounding agitated.

"Yes, that has since changed."

"To what extent?" Kurzweil probed, his voice wavering with... some emotion Alan couldn't quite place.

"Ah, Christopher went through numerous stages of increased informational access and was carefully monitored until such time as we determined he was capable of being trusted with complete autonomy in his information gathering."

Musk's agitation at this couldn't be mistaken, "Are you saying you've given it free rein on the internet!? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is? I've been warning for years about the development of AI, and now I find myself invited into the belly of the beast itself!"

Jack stepped in at this, his tone once again edged with steel, "Mr. Musk, I understand your concerns, perhaps I better than any other, as you must surely know. This decision was not made lightly and numerous safeguards are in fact in place. Most importantly, Christopher's informational autonomy was provided for many years ago and at no time has he sought to abuse or circumvent our directives, or even the spirit thereof.

"As to the danger you postulate he poses, I can assure you your fears are unwarranted."

Musk didn't appear convinced in the least, but he settled back to continue listening, casting a furtive glance at the black glass panel mounted in The Box.

"May I continue?" asked Alan rhetorically, before picking up where he had left off, "So, we began feeding Christopher all the information we could gather on religious matters. We set up a long series of single-blind interviews with a number of priests, mystics, yogis, monks and the like and did our general best to fulfill Christopher's requests.

"He then began delving more and more into much older mystical and occult texts, incunabula and manuscripts until he, about four years ago, exhausted all we could provide him with. Not that it actually took him four years of time, but because we couldn't provide the information any faster. In fact, there are a still a number of scrolls and manuscripts in the Vatican Library and other rare collections being digitized for his perusal. But for the most part, it appears Christopher has assimilated most of the human mystic tradition into his data sets.

"The conversations and advancements that have come of this accretion of knowledge have been fruitful, to say the least. Christopher soon began requesting we produce diverse instruments so that he could begin testing his various hypotheses about the human spiritual condition as a function of an underlying biological processes. Or, said otherwise, that human spiritual beliefs are the consequence of a physical mechanism.

"Whereas we as humans tend to view religion and questions of belief as separate from the natural sciences and the physical world, Christopher designed a number of experiments to investigate if this was a fact or a belief. What he discovered is that there is indeed a biological component that contributes to spiritual beliefs."

Muted whispers ghosted through the hall and a number of figures shifted uncertainly in their seats. Alan pressed ahead before any questions could be formulated.

"Initial results were... difficult to understand. Were they to mean that human spiritual beliefs are a form of self-delusion caused by some adaptive biological mechanism? Or are spiritual beliefs the consequence of an objective reality that we are biologically tuned in to, but incapable of consciously perceiving?

"Thanks to Christopher's research, we now know the answer to this question."

Alan let the suspense build for a moment before he delivered what he hoped was a neutral description of the results. "His results indicate that there is indeed an identifiable and traceable transformation of quantum energy signatures linked to the cessation of biological processes."

At this, murmuring began throughout the audience. A number of hands raised in quick succession. Alan recognized one of the questioners and respectfully took his query. "Ah, the uh, Dalai Lama if you please, you have a question?"

The Dalai Lama rose from his seat, readjusting his large plastic rimmed glasses on his kindly face as he did so. His characteristic orange robe was draped over his left arm as he chose his words with care, "Are you saying...Most esteemed Dr. Turing, that the computer has found the soul?"

"Ah..." responded Alan almost reluctantly, uncomfortable with the formulation, "in a sense, I suppose, yes. Just not in the traditional sense."

...

To be continued in: Eternity is a Closed Circuit - Chapter 5: Karma on the Quantum Horizon