Nothing

by Arnold East

  "I had dreams. I certainly did. See, you don't know everything."

  "We know enough. When I said we knew everything, I meant everything that matters. Your dreams are unimportant to us and we wouldn't waste time learning what they are."

  "Do you have dreams?"

  "No."

  He did.

  "You're missing something. Something greater, something beyond yourself."

  "I don't really care." The dreams of the grand master were all ridiculous and illogical scenarios, often centring on failures regarding his work. They were unpleasant and he wished he never had them.

  "You don't really understand what I think do you?"

  "Yes we do. Things that matter."

  "Well what did I think when I saw the rising sun or this white palace or lightning or fire."

  "What are you talking about?"

  "Beauty and sublimity. The experience of true, true peace; not what you've manufactured. You don't understand"

  "Well I have seen everything that you've mentioned."

  "So?"

  "I've seen it. That's all. It's nothing special."

  "So you've never looked up at the stars at night. Admired it and lost yourself. You've never had the abandon of leaving your busy mind and having your experience completely overcome. Of having all your thoughts and feelings empty, overridden by nothing."

  "Okay, it's nice to look at the stars."

  "Well the others don't get that experience, do they?"

  "What are you getting at?"

  "Well these are just some of the things that are lost in this world. Losing yourself in a dream, or losing yourself in sublimity. Then awaking and feeling changed and being changed."

  "Is it worth it? Losing universal happiness for these intangible feelings? Anyway, the world will always be there for people to see, and if people don't have the same feelings as you when seeing things, well, that's just the way it is."

  "You control them."

  "We don't control their perception of the sublime or whatever you're talking about. Just like your dreams, we don't control that.

  What did you dream exactly anyway?"

  It felt personal, and yet, 541588 was keenly willing to reveal it all. It was the first time it had talked to another person, and despite its hatred of the man, the human connection felt good. It felt good to share its thoughts with another.

  "It was confusing. I dreamt about the Winston, from the book I read, being captured, and I dreamt about K being killed; and me trying to help them but being ignored. I dreamt about my own failures too. Being caught, and having things injected into me."

  The grand master shifted in his seat.

  "Being just like Winston and K, powerless in the face of an evil authority. But the dreams, they weren't defeating, no, they drove me, gave me my motivation; to improve, to never give up and make the same mistakes."

  "The dreams were true in the end though. You are defeated, exposed as an object of my control. Your suns, your palaces, your lightning, your dreams; they will go with you when you die and become nothing. They will just exist, the same as the organised concrete buildings, as the fields, as everything else in the commune, as everything you find ugly."

  "You're a machine! There's nothing inside you, that's why you don't understand it."

  "You can choose to believe that, but your end is coming soon. I will continue in the world I have built."

  "I've made my impact too. And you'll also die. We're all the same in the end."

  "Well I've had a real legacy. I've really changed the world. I've passed through a motion to replace everyone with artificial intelligence."

  "Everyone!"

  "No, just the leaders I mean. That's my legacy, and yours too, though you are just an extension of my work."

  "You're just an extension of the forces that moulded you too."

  The grand master was quieted for some long seconds. When he began again, he seemed to be talking to itself.

  "The future happiness and efficiency will soon be unequivocally secured. The system will be impenetrable. It will be great. There will never be someone like you again, created by mistake or on purpose. There will be no more pain or suffering or errors. It will be the physical manifestation of perfection. A perfect world."

  541588 listened to his words but its mind was somewhere else. A feeling of emptiness washed over it, triggered by the ramblings of the grand master. There was something wrong to all that he said, a fatal flaw at the bottom of his reasoning, the bottom of everything, and 541588 sensed it but could not form it coherently in its mind. The grand master had stopped talking and a dreadful silence enveloped the room as 541588 continued to think. The grand master rummaged his hand in his pockets, before pulling out a small device. Suddenly, 541588 made sense of it all and its previous feelings and thoughts were forgotten, replaced by an absolute and pervasive clarity. It was a rediscovery of an idea it had managed to capture before, and its next question struck deep into the heart of this reawakened understanding.

  "What's the point?"

  The grand master looked up and realising that the conversation had not ended, pocketed the device it had in its hands.

  "Of what?"

  "Of all this. Of this society. Of replacing leaders with artificial intelligence."

  "Efficiency. Happiness. Security. I've told you again and again. What don't you understand?"

  "What's the point of all that?"

  "Well it keeps everyone content and it can last forever. It's intuitively good. That's what tells us what to strive for. It is probably quite intuitive that a world in which people are free of pain and suffering is good, even to you."

  "But what's so good about a world where people are content and free of pain and suffering?"

  "It's self-evident."

  "No it's not. I don't believe in it. If it were truly self-evident, I would instantly agree with you."

  "Yes, but you were specifically engineered to not like the world."

  "You're missing the point. You've said the world is meaningless and that it is impossible to impose meaning, which I now agree with. If it's impossible to attain any meaning, how do you argue that anything should be done?"

  "It's to distract ourselves. If we were to truly contemplate meaninglessness, we would be left in a nihilistic stupor. Only when we are distracted from it, can we act, and decide on things that are good and bad and what we should do."

  "But why? What's the reasoning behind preferring distraction over contemplation and confusion? What's the reasoning behind anything, other than that it is 'intuitively good'?"

  "So you're saying because the world is meaningless, we can only contemplate the absurdity of our situation."

  "No. I'm saying that with total meaninglessness, there's no way to value anything over anything else. So there's no way to decide what to do. Everything is equivalent. What's your response to that?"

  "We can judge a world that is happy to be intuitively good and pursue this world because of it."

  "Well your judgement is still a false construction of meaning, isn't it? You don't have a reason for explaining why you should pursue things that are intuitively good do you?"

  The Grand Master gradually made sense of 541588's argument. It had vocalised the obscure doubt and confusion the Grand Master had always held. This was why he was unhappy. It was nihilism. There was no reasoning that could escape it. 541588 continued staring at the Grand Master and he began his response. It was the only thing he could think that sounded feasible.

  "I do what I do because it's the way of the world. The way it's been constructed. The way I've been constructed. It is. There is no other explanation, nothing else can be said that makes sense. But even knowing the world as meaningless, I cannot help but create arbitrary notions like intuition and goodness, cannot help but to see the world, through my actions, as having meaning, and myself as having free choice. Because it is the way I am. It is the way of the world."

  541588's expression ha
d changed. It had had a fiercely quizzical look about it before, but now its face was against its hand, and its expression was sombre. The grand master's hands wandered into its pockets again, and the device was pulled out quietly. Seeing this, 541588 quickly interrupted his progress.

  "Wait, I have one more question. Why is there a palace in this commune? Isn't everything meant to be about efficiency and utility?"

  It shifted in its bed.

  "I have work to do, but I'll give you one last answer. The commune we are in now is the first commune ever created. It was necessary to have someone who was from the outside be the first leader. It was the first commune after all. It took a long, a worldwide search to find a candidate who was capable enough to be the leader we needed and who was also willing to give up their old outside life. We had to throw in a few perks, like this palace, and the library to convince him. After that, it was more efficient to keep the palace than to destroy and replace it, and of course, it also served as an important structure in your developme-"

  541588 pounced, launching from the bed hands first, knocking the device out of the grand master's hands. This was the way of its world. The device flew into the wall, fell onto the ground and there was a snap as a piece smashed off. The two of them scrambled for the rest of it; the grand master was there first, snatching the device up with one hand and pushing 541588 away with the other. 541588 managed to shove its arm past him and knock it out of his hands again. There was a tussle; their arms locked together and they tried to manoeuvre the other into a submissive position. Eventually, 541588's fatigue caught up with him, and the grand master pulled it onto the ground, placing a knee against its chest and wrapped both its arms wrapped in one of his. The grand master punched its face with his spare hand until it lost consciousness, then wiped his hand on the bed before picking up the device along with the piece that had broken off and sitting back on the chair to inspect the two pieces.

  The damage was superficial. The device still turned on, and the grand master swiftly authenticated his identity and contacted the central command.

  "Yes?"

  "Start it. Start it now."

  "Yes."

  He should've been happy now. His life's work was done. But 541588 had ruined it. He had been working toward implementing artificial intelligence because he had always been working toward artificial intelligence. But what was the reason? Because it was good. Because it thought it was good. Because it had been made to think it was good. Because he existed in a time and place when people were made to think it was good. Because the world had him exist in this time. Because there was no reason to think it was good. Because nothing.

  Because nothing. That was the truth.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  At the central command, the new mainframe was powered on, and after a few moments of loading, a message was displayed on the screen in bold black sans serif. PRESS ENTER TO BEGIN. On a small keyboard under the screen, the specified button was located and pressed. The screen dimmed to black, and a whirring emanated from the machine.

  Back at the palace, the lid of the crate popped off and the sides opened, revealing a boxy, wheeled automation. It rolled along the hallway, into the room where the grand master was sitting and 541588 was laying. It paused in front of the two of them while its front gave way to the barrel of a firearm. The grand master closed its eyes. 541588 had just woken up, and opened its eyes at this source of new noise. The bullets flew out in a flurry of flashes and bangs. They found their way into the heads of each of them. Both died instantly. Felt nothing, became nothing. Gone were their thoughts, memories, feelings. Gone was everything except their lifeless bodies.

  The gun was retracted, and in its place two hooks emerged. These were latched onto their clothes, and the robot wheeled itself out, dragging the bodies behind. It slid down the stairs with its load and exited the palace, accelerating as it made its way outside. It soon arrived at the hospital. A mechanical arm reached out and turned the doorknob, and the robot pushed itself inside with the bodies, depositing them in a small empty room. Once it left, the ground gave way inside the room, and the bodies were incinerated. The only evidence left of their existence was a small pile of ash, the sum total of the Grand Master and 541588, mixed together and indistinguishable. For the rest of the afternoon, the robot continued its trips from the palace to the hospital, each time bringing two bodies, and eventually, 0 and the troops that accompanied the grand master were left as piles of ash as well. There was one more body inside the storage shed to fetch, and the robot proceeded in its direction.

  Go to the shed. I am going to the shed. Go to the shed. I am going to the shed. There are stairs in front of me. Go up the stairs. Initiate go up the stairs sequence. I am going up the stairs. I have reached the top of the stairs. End go up the stairs sequence. Go to the shed. I am going to the shed. There is a door in front of me. Open the door. Initiate open the door sequence. I am opening the door. The door is open. End open the door sequence.

  Battery low. I need battery. Charge battery. Battery medium. I need battery. Charge battery. Battery full. I do not need to charge battery. Go to the shed. I am going to the shed.

  I am at the shed. Initiate body recognition sequence. I am looking for signs of the body. I see an object lying on the floor. Object matches body description. Body found. Hook the body. Initiate hook sequence. The body is hooked. End hook sequence. Go to the hospital. I am going to the hospital. Go to the hospital. I am going to the hospital. There are stairs in front of me. Go down the stairs. Initiate go down the stairs sequence. I am going down the stairs. I have reached the bottom of the stairs. End go down the stairs sequence. Go to the hospital. I am going to the hospital. There is a door in front of me. Open the door. Initiate open the door sequence. I am opening the door. The door is open. End open the door sequence. Go to the hospital. I am in the hospital. Deposit the body. Initiate deposit object sequence. I am depositing the object. The object is deposited. End deposit object sequence. Return to default position. I am returning to the default position. There are stairs in front of me. Go up the stairs. Initiate go up the stairs sequence. I am going up the stairs. I have reached the top of the stairs. End go up the stairs sequence. Go to the shed. I am going to the shed. There is a door in front of me. Open the door. Initiate open the door sequence. I am opening the door. The door is open. End open the door sequence. Mode alert. Mode changed from active to alert. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait. Wait.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  News of the motion passing had reached most of them. When they had been given the afternoon off they all knew what was to come. They returned to their rooms in varying states of emotional distress. Only a small number of them were indifferent; the rest were on a spectrum that ranged from sadness to fear to utter torment. There was certainly no conditioning about the goodness of death for them.

  The politicians also knew that they were soon to die. They had time to consider it for many months, ever since the grand master had first suggested that they could all be replaced by AI, and so they were well-prepared. Not in any practical sense; there was never any matters to settle, but emotionally. Most of them were calm as they awaited their end; they had come to terms with what was to happen to them, and were content in the knowledge that their deaths would secure their perfect world into the future. For the three that had opposed, there was a tinge of regret, a tinge of melancholy. But they too had long accepted their fate. They had lost the war of ideas; this was the consequence.

  It was announced that the AI was turned on over the intercom. There was a hush, a pall across the entire central command. The last remnants of activity were two chemists and two engineers working in a dingy basement in the centre of the facility. The chemists had concocted two different mixtures, sitting them side by side on a long table that rested against the wall. One was a powdery white substance, while the other was a clear liquid. Next to these was a large pot filled three-quarters of the way up with water, and on the other side were four syringe
s, kept in tight sterile packets. In the middle of the room there was a metal pyramid structure with a flattened top. One of the chemists lugged the pot across and rested it on top of this pyramid, while the other adjusted the buttons and knobs on the side. Soon, the water began boiling and as it did, the engineers sprang into action. They had earlier placed four massive fans around the pyramid, and now they fine-tuned these to ensure they directed the steam up into the air ducts. Then the white powder was added and violently mixed by the chemists. The steam thickened into plumes of white smoke that disappeared up out of sight through the grates in the ceiling. The engineers turned on the duct system, and the smoke was carried through to every room.

  The smoke calmed them, left them drowsy and put them to sleep. Normal sleep first, quickly followed by eternal sleep. Most of them barely realised what was happening, even those who had been nervously waiting. Meanwhile, the four in the basement were opening the packeted syringes. Their movements were clumsy, as the smoke began to affect them as well. They all managed to draw some lethal liquid from the second mixture, and three were able to inject themselves. The other, his mind clouded by the smoke, dropped his syringe and fell onto the floor asleep. He was the last one alive. Not for long. Within minutes, a robot had appeared at the door to the basement, and it delivered a lethal shot into his head.

  Everyone in the central command was dead now, and the AI sent robots to pick up the bodies. The transition of power was complete.

  Across the world, a similar event was taking place. In the preceding months, robots in crates had been secretly deposited near every commune. Now they awoke and travelled into the apartments of the ignorant leaders. It was late afternoon and most of them were idling as usual. The robots appeared at their doors; then, the simultaneous ambush of thirteen thousand zeros, all death, all nothing. Their bodies, dumped into a fiery void at their commune's hospital. Then the robots took their place where the 0s used to sit. The change was imperceptible.

  In the following months, normalcy was completely restored. Through the robots, the AI had organised the transferral of grain to 541588's commune and sent extra robots there to secure those who had been damaged by 541588, and integrate them back into commune life.