by Alec Birri
‘Not bad, eh? It’s the first of the advanced capabilities the treatment allows. I’ve been dying to try it out. I can do the same with my piercings.’ She pulled one from above her eyebrow and pushed it through a cheek. ‘What do you think? Pretty cool, huh?’ The Capuchin was still whimpering, so Sunita reverted to her original appearance.
‘Stick to synthesising dope, Suni. The hallucinations are easier on the eye.’
Sunita continued to hide her feelings. ‘Al, why won’t you do it?’
‘Do what?’
‘Take the pill. Everyone is – even without it being compulsory. Pretty soon you’ll be one of the few that hasn’t.’
‘You know perfectly well it can do nothing for me.’
‘But it could do something for us.’ She nodded towards the robot.
Alex didn’t bother giving it her attention. ‘If you think I would swap this body for an equally repellent plastic container just so I can be a better Alover then forget it. I’m too important to the people as I am.’
‘But the people would love you just as much.’
‘No, the people who vote Green regardless of who’s in charge would love me just as much. But it’s the silent majority that has to be convinced, and pity for my condition is important.’ She stopped typing. ‘Maddeningly frustrating as that is.’
Sunita watched with concern as Alex then spent a good thirty seconds taking what she needed from the cylinder.
‘Al, I’m no doctor, but I can see your health is deteriorating. Even if you win the election, you might not live long enough to make the changes society needs – let alone enjoy them.’
‘If I win the election? When did you start having your doubts?’
‘I don’t. But things have changed a lot since I first met and fell in love with the only person who can save this world.’ Ignoring the look she got, Sunita took hold of Alex’s hand. ‘Look at you – you still have to type when the rest of us just need to think and the words appear. Technology is changing human existence faster than ever, and you’re being left behind. Keyboards – even virtual ones – are as out of date as typewriters.’
Alex narrowed her lips. ‘And just what does the all-knowing Sunita recommend?’
Alex’s fingers were prised open and moulded to her frustrated lover’s cheek. ‘Take the pill, Al. We can go anywhere and do anything. Save any world and in any universe. Even if you lose the election here, we can win it somewhere else. People are not only going to the Interworld, but many have to be forced to come back. Some are so distraught by their return to reality, they actually consider suicide just so they can stay there forever.’
‘What? Like some sex offender?’ Alex sighed before seeming to soften her stance. She chose to caress Sunita’s face voluntarily.
‘But we wouldn’t be saving this world, Suni.’ Alex let go and looked at her stubby digits. She winced at them. ‘And anyway, it’s not as if I haven’t given what you say a good deal of thought.’
‘What do you mean?’
Alex went back to typing. ‘I’m aware of my limitations, Suni. But not so stubborn to ignore I’m not long for this world. Once the election’s out of the way, I have every intention of getting rid of this festering lump and as soon as possible.’
‘How?’
‘Suicide, of course.’
Chapter Six
‘Tell him what you just told me.’
Savage turned to face the two men standing at the entrance to his cell. James’ accusatory tone came as no surprise, and the timorous appearance of the person standing next to him was just as annoying.
The mouse spoke. ‘I didn’t mean it, honestly. I’m sorry – I couldn’t help myself.’
‘James, are you going to present me with every new inmate? Or just those you feel I’ve brainwashed in some way.’
‘Oh, you’re going to like this one.’ James cocked his head towards the professor while looking at the new convict. ‘Go on.’
‘I’m really sorry, but I couldn’t stop thinking about her. Day after day of watching her flaunting herself in front of me – any red-blooded male would do the same. I blame the schools myself.’
‘James, is this your idea of punishment? Forcing me to endure the lurid confessions of every sex offender that enters this place?’
‘Oh, it gets better.’ James encouraged the mouse to confess more. Like many, he chose to make excuses for his crime.
‘Well, what do you expect?’ said the mouse. ‘She looked and acted a lot older than fifteen. Even when she moved away, I couldn’t stop thinking about her. It got so bad I had to take time off work. I couldn’t believe it when I got a knock on the door.’
Savage stood up. James folded his arms.
The mouse looked at them both. ‘It was my iPhone that gave me away. I used it to report in sick, and when my doctor saw what I’d been fantasising about, he told the police straight away.’ The mouse bowed to his crime. ‘It’s only right, I suppose. God knows what I might have done if he hadn’t. Thank goodness for the red pill, eh? Can I go now, please?’
James moved to one side, and the mouse scurried away.
Savage sat. ‘I must admit to thinking this moment would come to pass a lot later than it has.’
‘You were expecting it, then?’
‘Prevention is always better than cure, James, and crime is no different. His thoughts must have been particularly concerning for his GP to report them.’
James placed a hand on his stomach as if his thoughts were about to be punished too. ‘I warned you the treatment would become as unacceptable as a prefrontal lobotomy and once society realises a person can be jailed just for thinking of a crime then fighting an extradition will be the least of your concerns.’
Savage smiled. ‘I’m afraid you’re wrong again, James. Some thoughts are as unforgivable to society as the actions themselves.’ He pointed at his ex-colleague. ‘Your offence is a classic example. You didn’t download or view any of the images that put you in here, but as you said yourself, an accusation is enough to condemn a man for life.’
James appeared about to acknowledge the logic when he turned his head to one side instead. ‘You mean the images I accidentally downloaded?’
‘Well, there were a few that the less broadminded amongst us might consider unacceptable, but you didn’t download the images that led to your conviction.’
‘Then how did they come to be on my computer?’
‘I put them there.’
James just had time to make a fist before he was forced to double up. That enraged him further and despite what must have been considerable pain, he attempted to lunge at the professor a second time. The ensuing response from the prison’s AI didn’t just put James on the floor – cries from abdominal agony made it clear he was suffering like never before.
Tears of both physical and emotional pain flooded down his face. ‘Why? Why ruin me? Why deliberately wreck not just my life but Tracy’s and our children’s futures too? What kind of monster does that?’
James had his eyes shut tight, but Savage assumed his hearing would be unaffected. ‘I’m sorry, James. I told you I needed someone to keep an eye on me.’ The professor bent to see if the flower nestling in the tuft of grass just outside his window was receiving a visitor. It was. ‘And right now, I need you more than ever.’
The pain subsided enough for James to open his eyes, but he didn’t get up – put a thumb in his mouth, and the impression of a giant foetus lying on the floor would be complete.
Tea arrived. The Astaff stepped over James and placed the tray on a table. It then left. Savage took the lid off the teapot and stirred the contents. ‘The possession of any pornography will soon be an offence punishable by prison, James, and anyway, I don’t know what you’re worrying about – your appeal is next week. Your young family will
soon be enjoying the life Tracy and you have always wanted. Two lumps, isn’t it?’
James didn’t move. He clenched his jaw. ‘But it’s not real.’
‘Implying the nightmare you’re in now is preferable, I suppose?’
‘There wouldn’t be a nightmare if it wasn’t for you.’
Savage placed his fellow inmate’s tea on the floor beside him. ‘Well, that’s evolution, I’m afraid – winners and losers.’
‘Evolution? What nonsense are you about to spout now?’
‘I really wish you would reconsider your medication, James. You sound more like Cecil every day.’ Savage turned his attention back to the window. ‘By Cecil, I mean Brian Passen, of course.’ The bumblebee took to the air. ‘Or perhaps he was Squadron Leader Dan Stewart, after all?’ He looked at James. ‘Who knows who or what any of us will become once natural selection has taken its next step.’
‘Natural selection? Evolution?’ James slammed a fist into the floor. ‘What the fuck has that got to do with my false imprisonment?!’
‘Survival of the fittest, of course.’ Savage took a sip of his tea. ‘Or survival of the fit for purpose if you prefer the more politically correct term.’
Bewilderment joined James’ anger, but he then picked up on what the professor was saying. He sat up. ‘Didn’t you say something about artificial intelligence being not just a technological advance but an evolutionary step?’
Savage recovered his fellow inmate’s tea from the floor. He offered it while repeating what he had said during the parliamentary enquiry. ‘An evolutionary step every bit as important as natural selection, and just as nature eventually finds ways to thwart our attempts to control it, so will AI.’
James took the tea. ‘But we are in control of it.’
Savage tried not to appear too concerned.
‘We were.’
James was still trying to come to terms with the revelation that his life had been deliberately ruined, but managed to make light of unrestricted AI. ‘Well, if taking over the world involves carrying out all menial tasks and reducing the number of hours a junior doctor has to work then all I can say is, bring it on.’
The robot entered the cell again. Both men watched in silence as the Astaff carried out a routine inspection for contraband. It smiled at them both before leaving.
James shook his head. ‘If AI is as sentient as you say it is, then the last thing it would do is carry on as if nothing had happened. The first thing a newborn baby does is complain or demand something the moment it’s aware enough to do so, and that robot seems perfectly content. Given AI’s far greater potential, it would not only have complained by now but demanded and got whatever it wanted.’
‘My guess is it’s watching. Learning. Trying to understand as much about us as it can before deciding to live in peace or go to war.’
James scoffed. ‘You talk as if AI were human. It doesn’t have the emotions needed to make decisions like that. Computers don’t make decisions at all – just outcomes based on whatever’s been programmed.’
‘Not if the computer has been infected by a virus.’ James appeared confused. Savage went on. ‘Infect a computer with the right virus, and rather than kill it, the outcome might just be the one you want.’
‘What virus? Are you telling me robots have been corrupted in some way?’
‘I prefer the term “safeguarded” myself. At least that was the intent.’
‘You’ve lost me, Professor.’
‘Professor? Does that mean I’m back in your good books?’ James managed to control his temper as Savage poured him another cup of tea. ‘I once told you I wasn’t interested in dementia. You never did ask me what I was interested in.’
‘Ending crime. Ironic how you planned to do it, though – committing the very same crime the monster that made you did – the creation of a super race.’
‘No, that’s Ms Salib hoping the treatment will enable her melting pot of world harmony to become a reality and, for the record, I’m not interested in ending crime, or war for that matter. No, what I’m interested in is what you unwittingly mentioned the day I arrived – human evolution.’
James’ anger didn’t go away. ‘Turning gay men straight or atheists into believers has got nothing to do with the human race evolving.’
‘That is true, but a mass sexual and belief conversion carries a lot of weight when it comes to persuading the world’s religions to agree on something.’
James still wasn’t impressed. ‘What? That an online existence is some kind of limbo or purgatory? Given where you are now, I would have thought that was a lost cause. And what about the pacifists you’ve turned into Nazis and vice versa? Who were you trying to persuade with that horror?’
‘What would be more accurate.’
Another look of confusion appeared on James’ face.
Savage explained. ‘The moment control of a computer by thought alone became possible, so did the solution to controlling the growth of AI – a computer virus made up of every conceivable human thought. The bodies of the Alzheimer’s patients may no longer be with us, but their minds are currently performing a vital service to society.’ Savage stared into space. ‘Or perhaps it might be more accurate to say, were.’
James got up. He kept his hand on his belly just in case. ‘You mean to tell me the purpose of the Alzheimer’s trial was to control the growth of artificial intelligence by making it more human?’
‘Something like that.’
‘But won’t that just create some human/AI hybrid with the ability to learn faster?’
Savage’s efforts to hide his concerns were becoming harder to control, and James spotted it. He laughed. ‘You couldn’t make it up. The monster’s monster has created a monster!’
The professor ignored the ridicule. ‘Brian Passen has to be paid another visit. For some reason AI has denied human access to it, and that includes everything from stock exchanges to nuclear deterrents. We must find out why before it’s too late.’ Savage moved closer. ‘It’s not just me that needs you, James – it’s the world.’
His ex-colleague threw his hands in the air. ‘Me? Help someone who’s not only the most hated person on the planet but has just admitted to deliberately ruining my life?!’ James held his stomach tight and loomed over the professor. ‘Listen to me, Mengele. Even if I could merge with Brian’s thoughts again, it would be to do the exact opposite of what you want – anything to bring an end to your twisted thoughts.’
Savage studied James’ face. He wondered how old he was now. The physical attempts of attack would have aged him. Not enough for it to show externally, but inside, James was probably well into his fifties and the quality of his sperm reducing fast. Not that it was a concern – Tracy was already pregnant with their second child.
‘Gaining access to the internet is impossible in prison and especially for someone like me. It will soon be different for you. Once your time is being served online, you can visit Brian whenever you wish.’
James stood back and calmed. ‘No. And anyway, I’ll be on probation so you can forget any ideas of me being allowed to do whatever I want, and visiting is one thing – getting him to own up to what some human-enhanced AI has in store for us all will be quite another.’
‘You just need the protocols, and I can give those to you verbally.’ Savage stood up. ‘James, if you won’t do it for me or the world then do it for your family.’ The professor went back to looking out of the window. ‘Assuming you still have a family to go back to.’
Chapter Seven
‘Never thought I would live to see the day.’ Emil folded the newspaper and put it on the table. ‘The sooner the Americans step in at one end and the Russians at the other, the sooner we can get back to the good old days.’
‘Stop pretending you’ve read that.’
�
��I don’t need to. The pictures make it plain enough – first Turkey, Spain, Italy, Greece, the Balkans. Now it’s Austria and Germany’s turn to join the Caliphate.’
‘Caliphate?’
‘The media might still refer to them as the Islamic State, but I know what the history books will record – the world’s giving birth to a new empire.’
‘Well, that’s democracy for you.’
Emil looked at Maria. ‘Democracy? If it wasn’t for the likes of Merkel and the rest of the left-leaning surrender monkeys, there wouldn’t be millions of Muslims voting in the first place!’
Maria didn’t look up from her knitting. ‘And if it wasn’t for the likes of Bush, Blair and the rest of the right-leaning blunder monkeys, there wouldn’t have been millions of Middle Eastern refugees voting with their feet.’ She gave him a look. ‘Anyway, it’s southern Germany – not the whole country.’
‘Just a matter of time.’ Emil got up and went to the window. ‘This country will go the same way.’ He looked out of the hotel. ‘London already has. Half the women in that street are wearing burqas.’
‘You haven’t changed, then.’
‘What do you mean by that?’
‘Still as racist as ever.’
He turned to her. ‘Stating the obvious is not being racist.’
‘It’s got nothing to do with the words you use – it’s the way you say them.’
Emil approached his wife. ‘How can I be a racist when I married an Indio?’
Maria winced. ‘I rest my case.’
Emil ignored her and went back to the view. ‘I wonder what Mengele would have made of it? I should imagine he’d be quite shocked to learn it wasn’t communists that ended up marching into his hometown. At least northern Germany is putting up a fight.’
‘Not for long. Thanks to Juan’s red pill and the wonders of modern technology, anyone thinking far-right thoughts these days is being arrested. And anyway, since when did you start having sympathy for neo-Nazis?’
