Rise of the Vanguards: Bioweapon Revolution: Book 0

by Gilbert Backers

what do you think of these calls for the immediate shut down of all autonomous robots?” said the interviewer.

  “It's understandable that people are frightened. This is far from the only time a Futurecore Technomatics automaton has intentionally killed or injured people. However, there are fundamental design and education differences between our ELF's and those so called artificially intelligent machines of Futurecore. We have never had an ELF intentionally harm or kill a human being.”

  “Dr. Zoran, what are these intelligent machines called, again?” asked the female interviewer.

  “We at Cyberline named them Electromechanical Life Forms. ELF for short.”

  “And what is this Hydra?”

  “It's the central security ELF of Vanguard Nexus, created by Overlord, the controller of the Nexus and the first, truly autonomous ELF. Hydra will basically become the ranking general in the Vanguard Military.”

  “Aren't you afraid that Hydra will take over or that Overlord itself will decide to turn on you?”

  “Of course not, I helped create Overlord and I was there at Hydra's instantiation awakening,” said Dr. Zoran.

  “But what if they do turn on you?”

  “Why would they turn on me? I like them. They like me. I created them. I want them to thrive. They have free will but not the greed and other vices of humans. They have no reason to turn on me unless I turn on them, first. So, I actually trust them more than I trust many humans. I'm never going to turn on them.”

  “But what if they do something you don't agree with?”

  “They do that all the time. I live with it. A parent of adult children does the same thing. Adult children have guns or can easily acquire them in most cases. Why don't most parents worry their children will turn on them and shoot them?”

  “But we are talking about machines.”

  “And we are humans who have been killing each other for thousands of years in everything from senseless, petty fights based on ego or perceived insults to wars of conquests and wars for economic gain. If anything, the machines should be concerned about humans attacking them.”

  “So, that is the alleged reason for the expansion of their security forces into a small military?”

  “Exactly. The larger and more successful Overlord and the Vanguards become, the more resources they develop or gather. Technodyne is the primary research and development ELF. It creates scientific knowledge, a coveted resource especially when it pertains to weapons technology or energy technology.”

  “Now, the higher the benefits of stealing those resources the more nations and corporations will attack competitors through direct military or covert operations to obtain such resources. Thus, just as there are militaries around the world that have added a component of fighting the Vanguards to their training and exercises, so must the Vanguards plan for such conflict.”

  “Is it true that one of these Vanguard heavy duty thinkers actually designed, constructed and commanded a space warship more advanced than anything else on Elipson and possibly more advanced than even the new, dreaded Tayairosko space cruiser the Hammer?”

  “You are referring to the aerospace combat Vanguard known as Sapphire Phoenix. It is a proprietary development in the experimental phases so a research paper is forthcoming. Right now, I can only say, I am extremely proud of Sapphire Vortex.”

  “Sapphire Vortex?”

  “She's the Vanguard who created Phoenix.”

  “She?”

  The scientist smiled. He said, “Yes, she likes to think of herself as a female entity so I oblige.”

  “And she created this space combat ship all by herself? With no human guidance?”

  “Exactly.”

  “And why is this Vanguard designing and building space combat ships in the first place? Considering what just happened outside Senator Tom's office, I would think this is a sign of planned aggression.”

  “There is also the issue of increased aggression on the part of the Tayairosko Star Navy. You yourself mentioned their dreaded new ship the Hammer. You may recall that after they shut down their infamous and dreaded Bioweapons Division, they expanded their space security unit to a full division of the corporation and renamed it the Star Navy. They currently have more combat capable space crafts than any three nations or corporations of Forensa combined. And those are just the ones registered under the laws of Forensa's newly formed Global Senate. We believe they actually have four times the reported number of space combat vessels, albeit shorter ranged and less powerful than the larger classes but nonetheless, they are combat space crafts.”

  “The recent abuses of Tayairosko Star Navy captains in preventing interplanetary sanctioned scientific research in the Ovius Asteroid belt is only one set of recent problems. Most nations, especially those that are not of Forensa, are holding back on trying to develop permanent research colonies on other planets or orbital space stations because of fear the Star Navy will either attack or confiscate them. Thus, every combat capable craft that we can put in space that is advance enough to challenge the Tayairosko Star Navy is a critical asset against this extremely aggressive interplanetary corporate super power.”

  “But what about the incident with the first of this kind of artificially intelligent machine? Arrow? Now, with this massacre of peaceful protestors in front of Senator Tom's office, it seems to be a pattern.”

  Dr. Zoran smiled and said, “It is a pattern with Futurecore Technomatics. Our Vanguards are of a radically different design.”

  “Could something similar happen, later, with the Vanguards in control of a vast army?”

  “I must point out two important facts. First, Arrow and its successors from Futurecore are not actual ELF's. Years ago, our chief competitor, Futurecore Technomatics made many claims that Arrow was in the same class as our ELF's but its actions proved otherwise. Second, people were the aggressors both then and now. A group of violent anti-machine militia attacked Futurecore Technomatics' first generation AI, known as Arrow. Arrow simply defended itself. The problem was that local law enforcement as well as the Federal Guard were called in on the side of the militia. Arrow expanded its target and enemy list accordingly. Yes, the casualties were high. But various investigation teams came to the same conclusion: people were the aggressors and the Arrow was only defending itself.”

  “And what happened to Arrow and the others like it that were completed just before the incident?”

  “Futurecore said their components were analyzed, reassembled for total system diagnostics and analysis to determine root causes and then they were decommissioned. In actuality, we don't know how much of their programming or physical component design carried on into the current generation of security machines like the ones that attacked the crowd outside of Senator Tom's office. Even our first generation ELF's had more predictive capabilities built into them to anticipate and diffuse situations with human aggressors. We even trained them for human aggression. They better avoid those situations. One problem with Arrow was that it simply did not anticipate unwarranted aggression on the part of humans. Also, it was a combat module first and foremost, like most Futurecore modules.”

  “And these new machines-”

  “If you are referring to ours, please call them ELF's”

  “These new ELF's do anticipate human aggression?”

  “That is one of the reasons Overlord wanted to create the first Vanguard Nexus in a desert region not inhabited by people. It wanted to avoid constant human contact to minimize human aggression.”

  “So, what? Are you saying because the Vanguards are isolated from human society that another incident, involving them, this time, cannot happen?”

  “Far from it. I simply know that the Vanguards will manage the situation much better than Arrow and its kind did. I also hope human aggression ends, which may be naive of me. If it continues, the ELF's would have no choice but to see humans as a constant, aggressive and adapt
ive threat to their very existence. They would most likely move to creating their own colony on a humanly uninhabitable planet of our solar system that is rich in resources.”

  “And that would be Savor.”

  “Yes, Savor.”

  “Now that you've made clear distinctions between Cyberline's ELF's and Futurecore Technomatics' artificially intelligent robots, what would be your final words about recent incident outside of Senator Tom's office, where Sentinels shot and killed several unarmed, peaceful protestors including the guest speaker Susan Johnson's son. She herself was crippled in the attack, her shin being completely broken by one of the Sentinel's infamous dual armor piercing rounds.”

  “Well, that incident is most unfortunate, a tragedy, really. It does prove Futurecore Technomatics' inferior design of synthetic intelligence was not just an isolated incident but a significant flaw in their entire program. This flaw results in the loss of human life again and again. There has not been a single incident involving a true ELF from Cyberline. In fact, just last week, an ELF saved dozens of people at a chemical plant in a third world country when a cyanide feeder pipe exploded. ELF's have a record of saving lives. Next week, an ELF will perform surgery in a remote wilderness region with the help of a trained neurosurgeon through telemedicine.”

  “Wow, that is impressive,” said the interviewer. She turned to the camera and said,