by Rabia Rahou
But the genius of ONC is that they are the first and the only corporation that, instead of selling the system to the interested nations, charged a membership. The membership fee was based on a country’s national income and more importantly, on the nation’s alignment to us. We knew that ONC’s system was a breakthrough, so we made special legislation for it as a top strategic weapon. The user must be our servant to be allowed to protect himself and use the system; otherwise, no. The second wealthiest man in the world was the Second Citizen, the owner of ONC, and as much the First Citizen is wealthy and powerful, he couldn’t start a world war, but the second citizen could.
The two old empires, the Rotanios and the Bamos, almost missed the AI revolution. It took them a decade after the creation of Consoft, and a vast technological spying campaign, constantly stealing research and discoveries from our corporations to finally create companies through oligarchs close to the state. Despite being constantly fed with stolen research and the latest developments in the AI field from us, and despite all the efforts and the money spent, only two mega-corporations emerged from both empires. Neither of these has succeeded in standing up alone against ours, but they did compete somehow in the AI landscape, only as the small birds that clean up the crocodiles' teeth, nothing more.
Should I mention them? Maybe for the sake of their scientists, I should.
The Rotanios created the Rotanios Artificial Minds, known as RAM. It was a second-class corporation compared to Consoft. Despite all the propaganda, the efforts, the wasted time, and all the invested resources, RAM seemed to be in constant decay and had to be saved by the state at least once a year from bankruptcy. It is a miniature model of the ever-falling Rotanios Empire that never touches the ground. It was managed by powerful people that had nothing much to do with the AI field except for being close to the state. The top management positions were appointed straight from the emperor and his trusted circle and were, of course, based on the political alignment and personal trust of the appointed. That influenced everything down the chain – all the departments, all the engineers, all the designers, all the micro-managers, even the cleaning agents. Everyone in RAM knew what was going on and didn't care much. Working there was just a boring job that provided full healthcare and a good retirement plan.
But from time to time, “rarely” would be a better word here, rarely some engineers, pushed by desperation in a kind of search for recognition, managed somehow to stumble on discoveries. But the rest of the time, they just tried to mimic Consoft to supply the same lines of products to the Empire’s population and some allies. The mimicking was lame, of course, but the top management justified it by saying, “Better to be number two than nothing.”
For the Bamos, their AI corporation, in terms of the workforce, is the biggest in the world, as they tried to make only one super-AI corporation that manages to create all the AI products and logistics. A desperate and a problematic all-in-one, state corporation concept. The state’s vision, from the start, to make it the biggest corporation in the world was simply wrong and against any healthy economic model. The Bamos, of course, knew all of this but still took the risk. It was already too late since we already had three huge corporations in different fields. Their traditional enemy, the Rotanios, had already created RAM, so they had to move fast and big, no matter what. They probably thought, It's now or never. We will create it for the pride of the empire, then we will figure out later how to manage it. Let’s put all our resources into it, for the pride of the Supreme.
Thats how General Signals (GS) was created. GS ended up to be a group of multiple companies, a desperate move by the top economist in the empire to correct the model. The model was only halfway corrected as GS groups are all under the control of one top manager. This one manager receives his targets from the ministry of planning, a cover for the president, or, like they call him, the “Supreme,” to appear democratic as everything that goes out from that ministry are direct orders.
Every year the state releases the targets based on rivals from other empires. They are mainly security targets. As GS groups are military-oriented, the rest of the groups benefit from the military research while they try to cover the civilian market. When a new AI transportation system comes to the market, chances are that system is already implemented in a military program. GS, in terms of structure, was much better than RAM, even if it was primarily a military-oriented group. The management was more transparent. But next to ONC, they had no chance, defeated by a large score in creativity, vision, freedom, and most of all, the ingenuity of the Second Citizen.
Any product in the global market is created with the help of the AI, and the conglomerates became extremely wealthy. For the old empires, as they controlled their national market and their allies' markets too, they accumulated immense wealth that unfortunately gave the illusion of healthy systems of governance. Even if the populations didn't benefit as much as the oligarchs and the party politicians, no one questioned the leadership because of the state’s propaganda. From the outside, any economist and think-tanker will tell you that those two empires are flourishing. However, our latest AI predictions say something completely different. They are, in fact, withering. That's why the First Citizens want to action their plan now.
They think they may have a historical shot that must not be missed.
Chapter 4
Mastery
“Sir, if you think that everything around you is mediocre and uninspiring, because as you said, you prefer to be served by a warm being like you, then there is a strong probability that you, sir, are also mediocre and uninspiring, as one cannot detach himself from his environment and judge it egoistically.”
~ The Fast Food’s humbot.
I asked my personal assistant and driver Dismar to pull over to the parking of my favorite shawarma restaurant. It was just past midnight, and the third shift had started already. Rent is expensive, so the business must run full time. Of course, it's the third shift of the humbots. The first two are not at home with their happy families enjoying a warm supper. They are hidden in small closets somewhere in the restaurant, charging their batteries for their next shift. They are humbots too, as no human is working in this place anymore. Consoft made the place run full time, but that didn't make the owners rich. The corporation takes a fat share directly from the income of any business running with their devices or their software. The humbots were not for sale, and I am sure that the top commercial director at Consoft at the meeting to determine the price range for humbots. shocked everyone when he probably said, “They are not for sale.” From there, Consoft became crazy wealthy, not by selling their products but by cutting out a share from everyone who uses them. This made them partners in everything. Of course, they don’t share any losses as you must cope with that alone, and if you think that is not fair, then good luck with doing business the old-school way. Without the humbots, the competition will eat you alive.
“Excellence” and “mastery” are not strong enough words to describe the amazing quality of the cuisine here. Even a simple restaurant like this in any random neighborhood can deliver a five-star dish that costs almost nothing. The place was spotless and feels and smells like home. The cherry on the top is the humbots. They can engage in a conversation with a customer to the point that you feel they have a soul inside that fiber-carbon shell. They’ll remember your stories, and they could even ask you about your family and relatives if you mentioned them before. Everything seems to be wonderful here, but the reality is no one is comfortable or happily enjoying their meals.
The customers all try to just finish their snacks and leave as fast as possible; no one feels safe. This feeling was magnified by a million after a hacker, and a partisan of ManFirst, hacked into a humbot in a shopping mall. The machine decapitated more than a dozen people. This massacre was captured on every camera as, in the end, the humbot was trying to fix his “mistake” by collecting and matching all the severed heads with the blood-drenched bodies. It was a horror, and it is
still one of the most-viewed videos out there. That happened only once, but it was enough to inspire the psychos and instill the feeling of insecurity, as suddenly, the fear of a predator came back to haunt us after thousands of years.
Everyone inside that restaurant was watching over their shoulder. I can see Dismar's hand inside his vest, even if he pretends that’s just a comfortable position – but I know that his finger is on the trigger of his .45 caliber right now. We are all afraid that some humbot will snap and start a rampage, again.
In a survey, people said that they always felt watched, observed, and spied upon by their machines. They feared the humbots were recording everything, and even their small devices or pet robots were recording their daily lives. And to be honest, they are, because the First Citizens constantly monitor the population, and the Cabinet cannot do a thing about it.
Everything is stored in the main server of Consoft, as it is all used as historical data for the AI predictions. Without that data, Consoft and every other AI corporation would be worth nothing. Although, in my opinion, they are worth nothing because they are thieves, stealing from people the only thing that can give them some pride – a mastery in their field. That mastery, when achieved by us, is observed, copied, and stored by the AI without any reward to the master. His lifetime achievement is stolen from him in broad daylight.
Anyway, I ordered a wrap with truffles. Dismar got a small salad, and we both ordered cannabis drinks with low THC. All this was prepared and served by a humbot with a charming, sophisticated voice that made you feel like royalty. I felt happy for a short period of time; they are an amazing invention, after all. They made me feel like a king being served and loved by a nice, gentle, and sophisticated servant. That nice feeling faded away with every tender bite of that unique wrap. A pang of immense guilt followed as well as a sense of culpability, which made me feel sad, even angry, as I suspected the real chef who created this recipe was probably out somewhere right now desperately looking for a job.
The feeling of royalty that Dismar and I are experiencing now was never believed to have existed in our days in the Sunshine Orphanages. And If the society could be measured by units, with a maximum of 100 units for the kings, queens, and the First Citizens, 90 to 80 units for the religious leaders who were close to the ruling power or the state, 70 units for the oligarchs and all the wealthy businessmen, 60 for all the media stars and all the sports players, 50 for the politicians, 40 to 30 for the rich people depending on their wealth, 20 for the top scientists, the best writers, and thinkers, 10 for the normal civilian, and a 0 for the soldier since he doesn’t own his own life. If those were the units of measurement for society, then orphans would be minus 10 units ”less than nothing.” That is the exact term for them as no one in the Empire cares about them at all.
No one in the Empire cares for them – except the army. And their interest is not because of love or compassion for a young human being sadly in need of attention, guidance, and empathy, but as easy prey for the army’s Special Forces recruiters.
Dismar was taken out of the orphanage at an early age, did the Army Youth Academy, graduated, and then went straight to the Special Forces. At 17, he was already part of special missions abroad, and at 25, he was a highly decorated sergeant first class. From there, as a platoon leader in different battles and pre battles. At the age of 32, he was sentenced to prison for 20 years for reckless disobedience, second-degree murder, and high treason for losing nine of the 17 commandos in his platoon in a secret mission. I freed him after four years.
I stumbled on his file when I was looking for a personal assistant; for me changing the world begin with a good driver. The perfect candidate would have to possess two criteria. First, he must be from the Sunshine Orphanages. Luckily soldiers with this criterion are abundant in the army. The second criterion, which is mastery, unfortunately, was rare.
Being a person without mastery, or even without the will of pursuing the mastery of a useful skill, is the sign of an average person or less. No matter how smart, experienced, creative, funny, handsome, or even lucky you are, unfortunately, a person without mastery is a two-dimensional character. A person without depth is as flat as anyone can be. In other words, a normal, average, everyday person. Did I raise the bar too high? I don't think so. Mastery is easy to achieve. Any average person can become a master in any desired field. The real question is, does the average person want to become a master? The answer to that is the same for the reality we are living in now. It is an average and a mediocre one filled with disguised incompetence and superficial knowledge that added little to nothing to our life. This is as opposed to the master who is filled with natural excellence, the unnoticed finest, the universal virtues genuinely employed, at least in his respected field. That is the result of his mindset.
Thanks to the master’s mindset developed the first time he decided to break out from the crowd to raise himself up, he became a person aware of his existence as an individual. He was awakened. Notice how the crowd mentality kills any chance of awakening. It discourages any sort of creativity, and a sense of adventure is almost forbidden as any discovery outside the main dogma could divide the group. Therefore, it is safer to stagnate. Added to that, as a human, the herd mentality and behavior is embedded in our DNA. Because of that, we can deduce that being a normal person inside the crowd is the most logical way of being. There is nothing wrong with that as nature itself has programmed us to follow that path. It is the safest way to be and to exist. Therefore, creativity must be sacrificed to conformity for the crowd’s survival and happiness. After all, to survive and be happy are the ultimate goals for every living being.
But knowing that is problematic, knowing that nature already built you to follow a crowd is paradoxical. That knowledge could lead you to question your existence inside the crowd, since you already know that you are manipulated and packaged to be a herd animal from the start. So, you begin to question your state, at least secretly.
Why did nature reveal what was behind the curtain? Why couldn’t it stop the enhancement, as we were already happy like puppies? The problem and question it raises can be stated as follows: If nature deeply embedded in us a herd mentality and behavior and the feeling of safety in the large group, why did it then enlighten us by revealing to us a different way, the way of solitude and mastery? The answer for this problem is grasped but not fully understood because nature itself is not fully understood. We don’t know if our enhancement is random or guided, as we don’t know if nature is a higher being or just random events. But we know one thing for sure, our brain, through time, didn’t stop being enhanced. Now our mind’s processing power can, without a doubt, qualify us to choose our existence, as the choice itself is a result of the astronomical amount of data and scenarios that our brain can’t stop producing.
You are no longer slave to your instincts. You can guide your existence at will, and that choice is the final masterpiece of nature, whether it is random or intentional. The result is here – it’s us. The future master, with his new mindset, will overcome his instincts that urge him to stay inside the herd. He will choose also to go beyond his animalistic instincts and behave better than a baboon.
In other words, the future master will choose to reach a higher existence.
Mastery in our open society is easily achievable. Knowing that, a question comes to my mind about other societies, the stagnated ones that cornered themselves in true mediocrity. Could they produce masters? Could they inspire the average person to look up, knowing that he has few or even no masters to be inspired by? I came to the obvious conclusion of answering this question with a big Yes!, because the masters are not the product of the society but the products of themselves.
Their paths tend to be more challenging in stubborn societies. They need to face more obstacles as their herds are powerful. But if they overcome these hurdles, they will become the best masters, sometimes even legends. Their way is more challenging, hard, and complicated as they could face mocker
y on a daily basis. Hatred and jealousy will be inflicted on these inspiring masters from their close friends and even their own families. Trying new things will build up discomfort in their close relatives that could escalate to violence. This may discourage the future masters, but it will never make them go back to the old way of being, as they already discovered a new way of existence.
The sad thing in this story is not the oppressed masters, but the average persons’ misjudgment of those stagnated and self-closed societies. They may describe those seekers as inept, claim they didn’t achieve any advancements, discoveries, or even self-discipline. With their amateurish analysis, the average crowd will conclude that in those societies, masters do not exist. They deduce that some societies are sterile. Later, some of them go further and qualify those societies as inferior, and some even could go to the extreme and classify the people from those societies as an inferior race. They are close relatives to humans but not really humans.
We should remember that the average person is average, therefore his judgement is mostly average. Usually his conclusions are not based on logical thinking because his thoughts and opinions are acquired from another average person based on similarities, coincidences, and sometimes a need for adopting the crowd’s dogma as an integration mechanism. Therefore, the average person’s opinion is mostly the crowd’s opinion. It is the safest one that will not create divisions, not necessarily the correct one. One can argue that the crowd's wisdom is usually correct, and I agree when it comes to guessing the weight of a cow at the market. But when it comes to philosophical thoughts, which should be based on logical assumptions, but could deny the precious harmony of the crowd, of course, they are wrong.
