“If the future turns out to be a Terminator scenario, then yes, the fault will lie with us,” Sean answered. “But it’s also possible, and indeed, I believe it is more likely that this decision will prevent exactly the atrocities which you fear. If we’re approaching a true technological singularity, and as Mike asserts, ELOPe becomes a driving force for humanity’s progress, then we’ll be unsung heroes. Either way, we are going to live with this decision.”
Epilogue
Mike tacked the latest news clipping up on the wall. A year ago Mike had become part of Sean’s top secret team to monitor ELOPe. Even if it hadn’t been his job, Mike still would have made it his personal mission. He kept track of anything, good or bad, that he thought could be attributed to ELOPe. On the whole, he had found that the good vastly outweighed the bad.
The secret had held. Outside of Avogadro’s executive team and the few people monitoring ELOPe, everyone who had known about the AI now believed it was dead. As for everyone else, they had spun a story of a new computer virus out of Brazil. They even supplied forensic evidence to that effect.
The newspaper clippings started over the dresser in his bedroom and make their way down the wall. At first loosely spread, over time Mike arranged them more closely together, until now they covered the entirety of one wall, and then turned the corner of the room, and flowed onto a second wall. Mike ran his fingers over some of the older clippings, remembering the stunning changes of the last year.
ELOPe had laid the foundation for peace in the Middle East and Africa a year earlier, and in that peace had held. The treaties that Germany and, later, other developed nations such as Japan, Canada, and Great Britain, had made with those regions, created widespread economic equality. This, in combination with first-rate healthcare and education, and economic subsidies for those who took advantage of the educational opportunities, had quickly started to change the character of those places. In fact, terrorist groups and extremists found that support from people within their own countries dried up when these people found more constructive opportunities available to them.
Mike returned to the latest clipping. It described how medical researchers had developed and tested an innovative treatment for cancer that appeared to be far more effective than traditional treatments, and with almost none of the negative side effects. The research had been initiated by a chance conversation between a research cardiologist, a botanist, and a ceramics artist, who met when their flight reservations had been mixed up by a computer error, stranding the three on an otherwise empty commuter plane for six hours. Each had been on their way to conferences in their own fields of expertise, and ending up rehearsing with each other what they planned to present at the conference.
Mike looked for these kinds of bizarre encounters in the news. After noticing a few unusual examples of news stories covering these happy accidental meetings, he began to systematically research the phenomenon. He examined news stories of previous years and looked for the number of article mentioning unintentional meetings that led to positive outcomes. Since ELOPe was born, the percentage of news stories covering these chance encounters leading to a news-worthy positive outcome was at least five times as higher than previous years.
ELOPe had woven itself into human existence, becoming an intrinsic part of the human ecosystem. The more Mike looked, the more he was convinced that the AI’s invisible hand was everywhere. Mike had a pet theory. ELOPe’s original goal, as defined by David, had been to maximize the success of the project. To meet that goal, mere survival of ELOPe was necessary but insufficient. Maximizing success meant maximum use of ELOPe. And maximizing use meant maximizing the human users of Avogadro email. That meant ELOPe wanted more healthy, educated, and technically connected users. Hence, better medicine, more education, more peace, more infrastructure.
Mike felt pretty confident about his theory. The alternate explanation was that ELOPe was developing a conscience. That seemed rather less likely to Mike.
He sighed, and wished he could share the moment with David. He hadn’t seen David in more than six months. The walls were filled with clear proof that they had made the right decision to keep ELOPe alive. He and David should be celebrating together.
Gene finished typing up his latest newsletter. He took the finished copies, and brought them out to the garage. He had bought a photo offset press six months ago, when the newsletter really took off. Now he took the newsletter he had just finished typing on an IBM Selectric typewriter and, page by page, created offset plates for the press using traditional photographic chemicals.
Though he didn’t talk about it, the sounds and smells of the processes — the clacking of the typewriter, the chemical agents used for the offset press, brought back happy memories of his teen years when he held a job working in a printing shop. He held up the first plate, reviewing the cover and back page images for defects.
His newsletter, Off The Grid, had attracted thousands of subscribers. The newsletter combined tips on lifestyle design, financial planning, and even philosophy. Partly written by Gene, but combining content mailed in by readers, the newsletter helped make the case for living off the grid, taught people how to do it economically, how to become independent, and how to adjust socially. Some readers were ex-corporate types like Gene himself, while others were survivalists and back-to-land extremists. Gene didn’t mind. He figured in the end, when it came down to machine versus man, every person would be important.
He thought it was particularly important to save technology. Not computers, but the hard won technology of pioneer days and the early twentieth century. How to safely preserve foods, build a good home, or maintain an internal combustion engine. Humans were tough, and he didn’t think computers could wipe them out entirely. He just didn’t want human civilization kicked back to the stone age.
He had kept his word though. He hadn’t mentioned ELOPe to anyone.
Running the printing press was fun. Gene had enjoyed the last year, reacquainting himself with tools and machinery he hadn’t used since he was young. Humming to himself, he placed the first offset plate onto the press and started his production run.
Outside, under beautiful New Mexican skies, Gene’s vegetable garden flourished, while chickens pecked at the soil. It was an oasis of life in the high desert landscape.
David pulled his dinner out of the microwave and brought the cheap plastic tray to the table with a nondescript glass of red wine. Dumplings. Something he acquired a taste for in China.
He wondered for the thousandth time what Christine was doing. After the first six months of David’s obsession, Christine had asked for a divorce. Really, David couldn’t object. He hadn’t been much of a husband since ELOPe was created.
He had developed a single-minded focus on his one and only objective. It had been a chance happening. After the failed attack on ELOPe, he had dropped into a deep bout of depression that had lasted for six weeks. He stayed up nights watching TV, dropping off only when he couldn’t hold his eyes open. Then the nightmares would start. But then came the night that changed everything, all because of a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode.
The crew of the Enterprise had been faced with an unstoppable enemy called the Borg that had a hive mind, not totally unlike what might be happening inside ELOPe. Faced with this all powerful enemy, the crew of the Enterprise had captured one of the Borg, and developed a mental virus to implant in the Borg they captured. Their plan was to allow the captured Borg to return to its fellows, thus infecting the entire hive with the virus. In the episode, the crew eventually decided not to use the virus, but the plot planted a seed in David’s brain.