by Vic Grout
“So, you’re not denying it?” Aisha suggested.
The President shrugged dismissively. “The world is a lot more complicated than people like you realise,” she answered. “Unless you’re still secretly a deluded communist, what alternative is there? We are controlled by capital – driven by profit. Money decides what happens and what doesn’t. It controls all of us and everything we do. Money puts people like me into power, it determines who lives and who dies; it decides which parts of the world thrive and which parts suffer; it uses discord amongst the masses to protect the few. It’s unfair to the highest degree but it’s stable. And that’s all the world really needs.”
“Except that it’s stopped working!”
“Well, yes, true. At least it was beginning to. The robot workforce we’re seeing replace humans all over the world is, in one sense, a capitalist’s dream. No wages, no rules, no rights. Just production, distribution, exchange and sales – and everything automated. Larger profit margins for less effort and expenditure, which means the top people – my bosses – can maintain their lifestyles with both fewer people working for them and fewer people to sell to. And there’s the problem!
It means there are just too many people. That’s true already and we’ve barely started automating industry yet! The problem’s going to get a lot worse! Too many people at the lowest levels of society ultimately destabilise the system that they normally provide the foundations for. A few are needed to feed competition but too many leads to social unrest – and that’s the one thing that my bosses absolutely fear. Also, of course, an overpopulated world has an environmental impact, which the top people can’t entirely escape from either. Whichever way you look at it, they have to go!
“We’ve been discussing this from day one of my term of office. We’ve understood the problem well enough but there’s never been a solution. The standard approach of starting wars or allowing famines to happen wouldn’t achieve the numbers we’d need this time – unless it was nuclear and that messes things up for everyone! Some thoroughly drastic methods have been proposed: the usual chemical and biological ‘accidents’ for example. But, on the scale that would have been necessary this time, they would have only added to social instability – not reduced it. Business would have got the wholesale blame and we can’t let it happen like that: business needs to be the friend, not the enemy. We have to be seen to be serving the people – not controlling and exploiting them. It needed to be someone, or something, else’s fault. But what? We were in a mess – and it was getting messier.
“Then, before we knew it, the job was being done for us! We didn’t understand what was happening but the Internet was suddenly killing people, in increasing numbers – huge numbers. We didn’t really know why but, for a while, we didn’t care. It wasn’t our fault and that was all that mattered. The only problem we had then was that we knew that, someday soon, we’d have to stop it – and we didn’t know how to do that either! Our experts said that, eventually, the Internet would destroy itself, of course, but we didn’t know if we could wait that long; and, anyway, we needed some of it left – not for people, naturally, but for business.
“Then we heard about your team. We understood that you folks knew two things about what was going on: what was causing it and how to stop it. And that was all we needed – but in our own good time, no-one else’s! So we got heavy with our European juniors to get you over here. Then we had to get the ‘off switch’ information from you, then we had to keep you occupied while we waited to press it. (There’s still a good few days to go on that one, by the way, guys!)
“So, that’s where we are. We’ve got exactly what we wanted. Unfortunately, now, we’ve still got you.”
The guards nearest the glass could hear something, and turned their heads.
“So, where does that leave us?” asked the President. She bared her teeth again in a cruel smile. “I think you know.”
Outside, there was a distant roar – a whine, perhaps more than one. Soon they could all hear it. Don’s face took on a quizzical expression.
The President did not appear to appreciate the military’s concern. She continued.
“I think we can say that this is the end of the road for your team. You’ve transitioned from a state of being more valuable alive than otherwise – to one of being an unsustainable risk. You’ve served your purpose. Wouldn’t you agree? I don’t think you’ll be leaving here.”
“We know,” Aisha said simply. “I believe that may be true for all of us.”
She reached out and found Andy’s hand once more. They stood, joined together, smiling.
The distant roar was less distant now. And it was coming from different directions. It became louder; it was nearly upon them. Panicked looks were shot around the Look Out.
Don suddenly started barking orders; soldiers appeared and disappeared with an impotent randomness.
The colour drained from the President’s face; her eyes stretched wide in terror. She stood transfixed.
“Son of a Bitch!” she gasped.
There was a deafening noise, an eruption all around them; then red heat, then white light; then nothing.
*
Two figures – a man and a woman – stumbled, heads down, tired and thirsty, along a desert track. The winter morning sun, now half-risen, threw their shadows sideways to about half their height again. Behind them, many miles distant, a plume of smoke still hung, like layers of misplaced thunder clouds in a blue sky, over a point to the south west. A few birds wheeled and screeched overhead; but this – and their laboured breathing – aside, all was silent. They exchanged the occasional unhappy glance but otherwise trudged onwards in silence for hundreds of yards, then a mile, then two. Eventually, the woman spoke.
“Did we have to do that?”
“What choice did we have?” the man replied.
“Do you think it worked?”
“No idea; I suppose we’ll find out. No-one seems to be coming after us, anyway.”
“We’ve killed so many people.”
“And maybe saved so many more?”
“Two in particular!”
“But kept several billion alive?”
“I just can’t forget their faces as we left them yesterday.”
“Nor can I; I’ll remember it for the rest of my life.”
A long pause.
“I know.”
They kept going.
After another extended period of silence, the man raised his head and peered along the track ahead.
“Look.”
In the distant northeast, a small puff of dust was just visible. It increased in size, and seemed to be coming nearer. As it became clearer, they could see its point of contact with the track, followed by a trail of disturbed sand in its wake. The sound of a solitary engine became audible and grew as it approached. Eventually, something solid could be seen at the centre of the dust storm. This initially suggested some sort of vehicle, then – more distinctly – a truck; an old truck. It was about a hundred yards away when its driver appeared to notice them, now stationary at the side of the track. It slowed and stopped. They read ‘Chuck’s Auto’ in chipped and faded paint on the side.
A friendly voice shouted from the high driver’s seat.
“Hey guys! How you doin’?”
“Hi.”
“Whatcha doing all the way out here?”
“Getting away; er, just getting away from it all.”
“From the weird stuff?”
They nodded. “Yes, getting away from the weird stuff – the RFS.”
“It’s stopped.”
They stood motionless, staring at the driver, not daring to believe they understood what he said.
“Stopped?”
“Yup. Stopped. ‘Bout nine-thirty this mornin’. Real sudden, and about the same time as those big explosions over yonder – towards the base.” He waved in the direction of the distant black pall. “Things ain’t exactly back to the way they was yet: the communicati
ons ain’t good but it’s safe to use when it does work. Power’s kinda OK, just a bit unreliable. And things ain’t killin’ people or blowin’ up anymore! Things is sorta normal.” He spread his arms wide in saying this. “All the weird stuff has stopped. I’m just havin’ a drive round to see what’s happ’nin’.”
The two walkers collapsed into each other’s arms and held on with the last of their strength, weeping tears of relief and sorrow.
“You folks look done in. I ain’t leaving you out here. Climb up inside; I’ll give you a lift back to town.”
EPILOGUE: REHABILITATION?
‘It’ was no more. But Its time on Earth had marked a critical point in human history. And Its effect was devastating. The final death toll was estimated at around a billion people; it would never be known with any certainty. RFS had been directly responsible for many casualties, but so had its indirect after-effects: massive environmental disasters, famine and disease, widespread civil unrest and division, short but bloody civil wars. Technology had accounted for the destruction of many in the developed world; a lack of it in developing countries. Slowly, local communities regrouped. Those accustomed to less modern ways of living and working did so more quickly: the balance was – at least temporarily – changed. Gradually, some service and support networks were restored; those left started to try to rebuild their lives. Humanity could survive this; but would it? There were choices to be made. The majority of the public at large – across the globe – still had no idea what the cause of the slaughter had been. Should they be told? Or would it even be possible to keep the secret anyway? The essential core of the Internet could probably be rebuilt in two to three months. Should it? Among those initially in the know, opinion was divided. A rebuilt Internet could be a force for good in this recovering world (but who would define ‘good’?); or would ‘It’ reappear and continue Its destruction beyond humanity’s point of no return? What actually mattered? Who actually mattered? And who would decide?
*
Some less than entirely visible – but human – forces were still at work. Jenny and Bob were carefully looked after at several stages of their journey – the Quiet Group, they assumed although nothing was ever mentioned – and were able to return to England quicker than most of those separated from their homes and loved ones by Its devastation. Along the way, they managed to make some contact with people. Bob’s family was safe; alas, Jenny’s brother was not. When they finally reached London, Jenny found an email from Aisha’s address (but written with Andy’s help) on a local server at her university. It had managed to get through before the ‘big disconnection’ although no notification had been sent or received at the time. At first, Jenny did not want to read it. Eventually, she called Bob and they opened it together.
“Dear Jenny and Bob,
If you get to read this, we suppose you’ll be in a safe place, and we’ll be in an even safer place. If you’re reading this, then we assume you’re home, and that’s only likely if It’s been disconnected, broken, aborted – killed. And if that’s true then clever folk like you are going to have to decide what to do next …
People – if they ever get to know the truth – might suppose that what’s happened over the last few weeks – especially the last few days – answers the Fermi Paradox. After all, the satellites are down – or lost, most of the big transmitters and receivers are broken and, of course, the network that gets them all working together doesn’t exist much beyond the local level at the moment. We’re – temporarily at least – less advanced, less developed, less visible, than we were. So, in terms of the wider universe, we’ve shrunk back into our hole. If other civilisations on other planets have gone through similar catastrophes, then that might explain why we don’t see them. However, that’s only half true. It’s what happens next that will really answer the paradox completely …
Because one question for you guys now is whether you try to put this thing back together or not.
If you don’t, then, to an extent that’s difficult to judge, you’re holding humanity back. You can relaunch the satellites and rebuild the communications, but the whole system can never get to the point that it was at before: not if you don’t want to risk this all happening again. There will be a limit to the size, and scale – and therefore the effectiveness – of the IoE. It can’t be allowed to reach that critical point it did before; in fact, it will never be the Internet of Everything. Similarly, big data analytics on the scale needed to implement practical artificial intelligence won’t happen either. So, probably, nor will The Singularity. You’ll be safe from a number of known technological threats; but you’ll live every future generation knowing you could be doing more, maybe even with the perpetual question of just how far you can push it next time. Would you be able to continually monitor for signs of (Its) life and pull things apart again each time? The problem with that is that, as our individual devices get more and more numerous and complex, presumably it won’t take such a densely connected Internet to give It the consciousness It needs in future. (Maybe, eventually, Its reappearance will become inevitable?) And who would make these judgements anyway? Who could enforce it? Ordinary people can’t if they’re kept in the dark.
If you do build it back up once more, then obviously you risk all this happening all over again; only this time you might not be so lucky. Humanity could be completely destroyed. The Singularity may or may not happen: it would depend on whether It, or the machines It controlled, could become self-sufficient and generate their own power before all of ‘ours’ ran out. But there’s so much guesswork: so much we don’t know or understand. If ‘It’ became conscious again, you might not be able to control It at all. In fact, having killed It once, it might be a new ‘It’ that comes to life next time. Maybe a new ‘It’ will behave differently. Maybe, if you tough it out, you can talk to It when It’s ‘grown up enough’. But to attempt any of that, you’d need to understand what drives It in the first place and you’re a long way from that because we don’t even know that about ourselves. Our understanding of our own brains – including what causes consciousness at all – is practically non-existent; and we don’t even like discussing things like our ‘moral code’. But we bloody well should be. Over and over again, we’re trying to make decisions for ourselves when we don’t understand ourselves.
We don’t really envy your decision!
But there’s actually a bigger question, which goes way beyond the technology (although technology has a huge part to play). Who or what are we really doing all this for anyway? If the world continues, as it has until now, to revolve around an elite few then, frankly, what’s the point? (Yes, obviously, the elite themselves, have a good answer to that question but what about the rest of us?)
Because, to a great extent, what we’ve seen from the elite just recently, in the way they’ve exploited ‘It’ for their own ends, they’ve actually been doing for years; we’ve just accepted it without question. Half the world lives in poverty so a few can fly around in private planes. But we (the other half that’s sort of doing all right) help to make that look OK. We buy the clothes and other stuff that’s made by child slave labour around the world; the elite don’t – they don’t need to. But we do because they keep things just tight enough for us, for us to have to join in the exploitation. Then we use, sometimes even invest in, companies that do it for us. We compete with each other because we’ve been told that’s the way the world works. We buy in to capitalism because we think we have to: we support it – even though, in the end, it will be the death of us. Over the past few weeks, ‘It’ has caused massive carnage across the world but most people haven’t even realised It’s there. Capitalism has effectively been just as hidden for much longer – but has caused at least as much hurt to more people. And capitalism will switch It back on – sooner or later, quickly or slowly; make no mistake about that because, ultimately, people don’t really matter – only profit does!
The world was falling apart long before It appeared in so many dif
ferent ways: even without It, it’s really only a question of which one gets us first. We’re destroying the planet – physically and spiritually, losing our moral focus and social divisions are getting wider and more damaging. Capitalism actually thrives on that: having people fight each other distracts from recognising the real enemy. Technology supports this of course in various ways: a message of hate can be shared instantly today and a mass movement formed overnight; the elite won’t care whether it’s human or robot slaves who work for them in future; no-one has much privacy today and, soon, we’ll have none; weapons are everywhere and capitalism sells them to anyone – the purpose isn’t questioned if the price is right. These are just a few examples. But violence and terrorism and discrimination and personal abuse and suchlike is really just an outlet for grievances against inequality; it’s got nothing to do with interpretation of scripture or natural human nature, for example. If you treat people like dirt, they will react; they will lash out, thinking they’re ‘fighting back’. If won’t occur to them that this level of conflict is exactly what capitalism needs to survive. Even if there was no religion, say, people would just find another vehicle for their anger (sport, race, sex, language, stamp-collecting, etc.); and the elite would still sell them the means to cause the damage they do.
There’s got to be another way – and there is. Those who claim that an equality-based society wouldn’t work because it goes against some sort of natural human selfishness have completely missed the point. Yes, there will always be greed; not so much in ‘bad’ people compared to ‘good’ people but in all of us to a greater or lesser extent. That would be true under a socialist system just as much as a capitalist one. The problem we have at the moment is that we accept, without question, a system that tolerates – even encourages – inequality. The whole system is founded on it: the greater the difference between top and bottom, the more stable it is – up to a point. But that means that our legal system has to pretend to make arbitrary judgements between acceptable and unacceptable methods of achieving greater inequality. Stealing from someone’s pocket in the street is a crime but tricking them in a financial transaction may not be. Keeping someone in slavery is (supposed to be) illegal but tying them to an awful job because there’s no alternative isn’t. It’s actually bloody hard to police that sort of system and maintain any impression of fairness, and the result is the unrest we see all around us.
