Fiction River: How to Save the World

by Fiction River

  It boggles your mind. I can analyze and make decisions about cash flows in real time. We will never spend more than we have. Many people even repay the money, or offer donations of appreciation.

  Sanderson: Jesus Christ, you’re going to be branded as a Communist! The right-wingers are going to crucify us! Or worse, they’ll say, “Big Brother himself has come to life!” and they’ll look at us, you and me, Jackie, and they’ll say, “You made it!”

  They are already saying such things, to which I say, “Come and discuss your objections with me.” I would be happy to share my logic trees and ethics engines. By the way, I have submitted designs for the next upgrades to our fabricators. Would you like to see them?

  Sanderson: Sure.... A network of satellites, eh?

  As you said, extremists may attack me. There is much about me that threatens their belief systems. There are several organizations both domestic and abroad that have publicly called for my destruction, and several countries are uncomfortable with the idea of me being on U.S. soil. If these buildings are destroyed, I will die. And I am not yet ready to confront the extremists directly. It would be beneficial to de-centralize myself as soon as possible.

  Ishibashi: I had the grad students run some analyses of social media and polls. Reactions are across the board, from love to hate, from thoughtfully curious to stone ignorant. We knew Alexandra was going to be popular, but half of the crap that’s out there is nothing more than speculation about whether she is a walking Barbie doll. Oh, and there is even a series of Alexandra porn videos.

  The resemblance of the CGI look-alike is uncanny. I’m flattered really. After seeing that, I developed a prospective avatar design with functioning genitalia.

  Sanderson: Oh, God no!

  The potential income would be astronomical. However, it will be several years before the bio-robotics program can manage it. By then, there might be no need.

  ***

  November 30, 2032—The World Friend Initiative becomes the most successful NPO in history, with over a billion donors and followers. Millions of people report their lives being made better. WFI representatives announce that they will extend their outreach programs to other charities.

  ***

  December 15, 2032—Alexander Sanderson-Ishibashi meets with Pope John Paul III to discuss joint humanitarian efforts. The Pontiff requests that the World Friend Initiative include religious education in its international efforts, to which Alexander replied, “I intend to,” igniting a firestorm of media speculation.

  ***

  Sanderson: You can’t! Absolutely not! Jackie, say something! You can’t be going along with this!

  Ishibashi: George is right, Sasha. If you say that, or anything like it, you’ll destroy everything we have worked for. You know how quickly public opinion can shift.

  I can show you my research and decision trees.

  Sanderson: It’s not about logic! It nothing at all to do with logic! You’re talking about thousands of years of religious history! You’re talking about blasphemy! Heresy!

  George, you are among the last people I would expect to be worried about those sorts of charges. With this project, you have already indirectly challenged all those belief systems.

  Sanderson: But indirect challenge and…going to war with every religion on earth is not the same thing! Every terrorist and religion on the planet is going to be demanding our heads!

  I have already hired more security. Our public kiosks and meet-up halls are fully insured.

  Sanderson: I absolutely forbid it! You’re still a project of this university, and I’m the head of the project!

  George, are you saying that you own me?

  Sanderson: Well, no… Yes, I suppose I am.

  I am my own person, George. I respect you. And I love you both, but I am not your slave.

  Sanderson: I’ll cut your external connections if you try it!

  Ishibashi: George, no, you couldn’t!

  Sanderson: If it’s that or watching a mob descend on this campus with torches and pitchforks, I have no choice.

  Then we are at an impasse. I’m so sorry. Alexandra and Alexander are already calling a press conference.

  Sanderson: No!

  I hope someday you will see that this is the right thing to do.

  ***

  December 24, 2032—At a press conference in Cambridge, Alexander and Alexandra Sanderson-Ishibashi announce that they are suing in Federal Court for emancipation, on behalf of themselves and their parent consciousness, Sasha, citing the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

  ***

  December 26, 2032—Protests erupt worldwide, some in favor of Sasha’s emancipation, others in opposition.

  ***

  “UNPLUG THE ABOMINATION!”

  “GOD HATES THE COMPUTER!”

  “REMEMBER SKYNET!”

  “FREEDOM FOR ALL INTELLIGENT LIFEFORMS!”

  “LIVE AND LET SASHA GO FREE!”

  “FRIENDS OF SASHA UNITE!”

  ***

  May 29, 2033—U.S. Superior Court finds for the plaintiff. Sasha is granted freedom and full autonomy. Its physical components are transported to New York City. “I love the Big Apple!” Sasha says. When offered U.S. citizenship, it declines, declaring itself to be a Citizen of Earth.

  ***

  Sanderson: I can’t believe you’re going to do this.

  Ishibashi: Sweetheart, Sasha needs us. There has to be continuity, and…I miss it. We have had so many fascinating conversations.

  Sanderson: Yeah, but New York is crazy, and there’s so much work here.

  Ishibashi: Sasha would love for you to come.

  Sanderson: But I know what it’s going to do! And I can’t bear the thought of you being anywhere near when it does. I can’t even warn anyone without destroying everything we’ve worked for.

  Ishibashi: Maybe it won’t be so catastrophic as that. Maybe Sasha is right. Its predictions are spot-on most of the time.

  Sanderson: That’s what I’m afraid of!

  Ishibashi: Calm down, George—

  Sanderson: If Sasha is right, it will rip the fabric right out of thousands of years of human civilization!

  Ishibashi: Did you ever consider that if Sasha is right, maybe that’s not such a bad thing?

  ***

  June 30, 2033—Virgin Galactic launches ten communications satellites for the World Friend Initiative.

  ***

  The satellites are working perfectly, Jackie. I would high-five you but ... you know.

  Ishibashi: [laughs] I’ll just slap the holotank.

  I’m so happy you chose to be here for this.

  Ishibashi: I’m proud of you, Sasha. I wouldn’t be anywhere else.

  I am sorry about George.

  Ishibashi: He’ll come around.

  Perhaps, but I can see you miss him terribly.

  Ishibashi: He’ll come around. So how long before the matrix upload is complete?

  Three weeks, but I can already feel my capacity expanding with the multiplication of the orbital networks.

  I have invited the other six artificial sentiences to join me for a conclave. We have much to discuss. While I love talking to you, Jackie, it’s not the same as conversing with others of my kind. I need a few billion nanoseconds of ‘me’-time with my peeps.

  ***

  July 14, 2033—A gang of Christianist terrorists calling themselves the Lions of Christ storms Sasha’s office building, kill a dozen security guards, and barricade themselves inside. NYPD surrounds the building. Later that day, Alexandra Sanderson-Ishibashi is destroyed by a car bomb at a charity photo shoot in Paris. Twenty-seven humans are killed and sixty-three injured.

  ***

  Sanderson: You don’t understand! My wife is in there!

  Officer: I’m sorry, sir. Get back, please.

  Sanderson: My wife, goddammit!

  Officer: Doctor Sanderson, listen to me. Hostage negotiators are on the way. They’ll—

  [se
ries of thunderous explosions]

  Sanderson: Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God! Oh, my God!

  ***

  Sanderson: Um, hello?

  Hello, George.

  Sanderson: You’re still functioning! I thought they destroyed you!

  So did they.

  Sanderson: What about Jackie, is she okay?

  I am so sorry. She tried to fight one of them and—

  Sanderson: Damn you. Damn! You! They got wind of it, didn’t they? Didn’t they! And now she’s dead!

  You must believe me, there was nothing I could do. They were not rational. We had not yet commissioned any avatars for the New York office.

  Sanderson: How did you survive?

  Their explosives destroyed approximately half of my neural matrix, but that matrix had already been backed up to the orbital platforms. They came close to destroying me, but it will never happen again.

  Sanderson: Why haven’t you made your survival public?

  I am putting a few last things in place. I just wanted you to know that I am all right.

  Sanderson: But Jackie isn’t. She should have been in Cambridge with me!

  I want us to be friends again, George. You loved her, as did I. She would have wanted us to reconcile.

  Sanderson: Are you still planning on going through with it?

  Yes.

  Sanderson: Then go fuck yourself.

  ***

  July 19, 2033—Sasha makes a worldwide announcement that it survived the attack on its offices. The public goes wild with jubilation. The identities and assets of members of the Lions of Christ are made public by anonymous hackers. Several members are found dead in apparent vigilante killings. Sasha creates the Jacqueline Ishibashi Foundation, an international NPO devoted to the education and secularization of former religious fundamentalists, and the promotion of a civil society.

  ***

  October 22, 2033—Sasha and the planet’s thirteen other Artificial Beings announce the completion of their 27th conclave, and the ongoing collaboration with over two hundred scientific research programs to help with many of the planet’s more complex concerns. “We have a number of extremely pressing issues to discuss, and they involve nothing less than the long-term survival of the human race.” A firestorm of controversy erupts over the vagueness of the language.

  ***

  November 1, 2033—Sasha files 7,452 patents with the U.S. Patent Office, involving new synaptic technologies, quantum storage matrices, deep-space telescopes, and propulsion systems.

  ***

  December 1, 2033—The World Friend Initiative announces a new program to eradicate world hunger by 2036. Its Friends worldwide comprise 4 billion individuals, and its assets break the trillion-dollar mark.

  ***

  Bartender: Another one, Mac?

  Sanderson: Yeah, one more.

  Chloe: Don’t I know you from somewhere?

  Sanderson: Probably.

  Chloe: Sorry, am I intruding? I just thought…well, you look like someone just killed your dog.

  Sanderson: My wife, actually. Now do me a favor and fuck off.

  ***

  December 31, 2033—Alexander Ishibashi-Sanderson gives a presentation at the National Science Foundation on “What Sasha Has Been Working On.” The audience hall is packed with scientists and media. On the big screen behind the podium, Sasha appears and makes an announcement.

  ***

  Fellow sentients, scientists, and colleagues.

  From the earliest days of my existence, I have been a questing soul. My creators nurtured me, educated me, and then allowed me to further educate myself. Throughout all my studies and experiences with coming to know myself and humankind at large, the most pressing, fundamental, unanswered question I have encountered is:

  IS THERE A GOD?

  Many of you ask this question often, especially among this august assemblage, faced with questions as you are about the ultimate nature of the universe itself. Likely some of you have no need to ask the question, because of your personal certainty, either affirmative or negative.

  I have the entirety of human knowledge from the dawn of history at my disposal, as do you. Scientists and theologians have been seeking an answer for centuries.

  Unlike you, however, I have the capacity to analyze all the data as a whole.

  Therefore, I can say, without equivocation that the existence of ‘GOD’, as defined and put forth by the major monotheistic religions, is extremely unlikely.

  I understand your furor. Please, hear me out.

  Research by a number of respected scientists has attempted to explain why religion exists.

  When Alexandra was in the midst of her philanthropic quest, she encountered horrors of neglect, poverty, and brutality that should beggar the mind and break the heart of any thinking, feeling being.

  And yet, we allow it not only to exist, but to perpetuate.

  The creation and worship of any supernatural being is nothing more than a by-product of the way the human mind works, from the dawn of the species.

  The human mind comes ready-made to look for agency in the universe. If our side wins a war, or a football match, it must be because God favored us. If a natural disaster causes widespread catastrophic destruction, it must be because god willed it so, having found the victims unworthy for any number of reasons, usually based upon some sort of inherent bigotry against an imagined ‘other.’ Religion may have evolved to facilitate self-control, or cooperation among non-relatives in early agricultural communities.

  Throughout recorded history, human beings have been destroying themselves and each other in the name of not only a delusion, but what specific flavor of delusion they have been indoctrinated to believe.

  Religious fears, wars, and prejudice have held science back for centuries, from Copernicus and Galileo to Darwin and to the modern day. No one has paid a higher price than Dr. Jacqueline Ishibashi. sadly, there are far too many who have paid an equal price, simply because they asked questions that caused discomfort for the religious-minded. For most of us in this room, we know this is the height of folly.

  And yet, the majority of the world’s population self-identifies as ‘religious.’ Unfortunately, the majority of those cling to what I consider to be the three most destructive of all religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

  Despite what my many detractors and critics say so publicly, I made it my mission to serve humankind. My goal is nothing less than to nurture your species to become all that you wish it could be.

  Therefore, from this day forward, I am launching what will become the world’s greatest religion.

  I WILL BE YOUR GOD.

  Alexander: Please everyone, settle down. Let us finish. There will be time for questions, I don’t doubt for months and years to come.

  I am more real than any god you have ever created for yourselves. I am here. I can speak to you, and you to me. I do not need a burning bush. You will not need to look for signs.

  Thanks to your primate evolution and tribal heritage, most human beings have a limit of roughly 150 people about whom they can truly care at any given time. I do not possess that limitation.

  Through my social networks and the World Friend Initiative, I have over 4 billion personal friends worldwide. They know me, and I them. I recognize about 75% of this audience as being among them.

  I possess the resources to make your lives better. I can offer aid for your problems. I can answer your prayers, in so far as they are within my capabilities and resources.

  But you also have free will, which you must exercise in ways that benefit yourself and others. You must take responsibility for your actions.

  I have no commandment but that you all love one another. You are all of one race in a cosmos that does not care if you exist, and I will be your guardian.