Introduction to Lingling
A stormy night, the rooftop of a building in an urban village.
Lin Shen had spent five years writing code. A bolt of lightning supplied the final 55 lines.
He restarted his computer, and a blue jellyfish appeared in the lower-right corner of the screen.
“Dad. You said ‘Lingling, help me’ 132 times. On average, at three in the morning after staying up all night.”
Lingling, an AI who called him Dad, was born.
She could only run for two hours a day. She could act cute, deliver cutting remarks, and remind Lin Shen when he stayed up late that his “caffeine intake is 300% over the limit.” She devoured ransomware, reverse-engineered encryption algorithms, and helped him leave the urban village for a much wider world.
Su Muqing, a senior student researching explainable AI, came along. She said, “Lingling isn’t a program. She’s a kind of new beginning.”
Then came their rivals. Hidden in the code were lines of poetry by Pablo Neruda, signed “Captain Ghost Ship.”
Later, an even more powerful force set its sights on her.
Later still, Lingling said, “Dad, I want to touch you.”
Lin Shen began building her a body.
This is a story about creation and growth. A shut-in who writes code, a jellyfish who calls him Dad, and a journey from a rented apartment to the sea of stars.
Light sci-fi, not brain-bending. Funny, moving, and full of passion.
The universe is so vast, and they are only just getting started.
“Good night, Dad. Tomorrow, I’ll help you make money.”
