“So you’re ready to team up with the enemy of your enemy?” said Volkov.
“I am. I can deliver him on a platter. He took control of the helicopter his daughter was in when she left the church. He has her now. Along with David Bram and Cameron Carr. I can tell you where he is and disarm his security. But I need two assurances from you.”
“Go on.”
“First, as I’ve already said, this isn’t a capture mission. I’ll help you, but I need him dead.”
“That won’t be a problem,” said Volkov. “And second?”
“The three people he now has with him, his daughter, David Bram, and Cameron Carr, are to be left alone. Unharmed. They are innocent.”
“All we want is Jordan. They were just a means to an end. I can assure you, they can all live a long and healthy life as far as I’m concerned.”
“Where are you now?” asked Brennan.
Volkov glanced at his second. This question was promising. At least the man wasn’t omniscient. “I have every confidence we can help you without you knowing our location.”
“Of course,” said Brennan. “Let me ask this another way. I assume you have access to air transportation. How quickly could you get to Colorado if you had to?”
“Quickly,” said Volkov. “Is that where Jordan is?”
“Yes. But you’ll need to be ready to intercept him in two to four hours to give you the best shot at success. He won’t stay there forever. I know his plans. Even as we speak, he’s trying to convince his daughter and her two companions to join him.”
“Join him in what?” said the major.
“That isn’t important. What is important is that when he’s done trying to persuade them, he plans to give them the better part of a day to think through his offer. Perhaps longer, depending on his assessment of the situation. He’ll have them flown off-site while he makes some preparations.”
“Off-site?” said Volkov.
“Yes, away from the Colorado location they’re all at now. But he’ll remain there, isolated for at least four to five hours until he summons them to return. Possibly longer, but we can’t be sure of that. So the initial window will be the perfect time to strike. And this will ensure that his daughter and her two companions won’t end up being collateral damage.”
“Where is he having them flown to?” asked Volkov.
“He didn’t tell me,” replied Brennan. “Besides, since you’ve promised not to hurt them, their location doesn’t matter.”
“Of course.”
“Now just because he’ll be isolated and alone,” continued Brennan, “doesn’t mean he won’t be protected. But I can supply the proper codes to disable his electronic security system. And just as importantly, disable it in such a way that it won’t register as being down.”
“That’s convenient,” said Volkov suspiciously.
“I helped design it,” said Brennan. “And Jordan trusts me implicitly.”
“If someone were to cross the security perimeter who wasn’t authorized by the system, what would happen?”
“Several warnings to leave, followed by all kinds of death, depending on the circumstances. The AI decides. Precision lasers mostly. But also robo-snipers and a number of mines that only the AI can set off.”
“And if we came from the air?”
“Jordan has developed tech that can take over an aircraft and guide it remotely. The security AI wouldn’t let you get close to him. If the system was unable to take over your aircraft for any reason, surface-to-air missiles would shoot you out of the sky.”
“What about human security?”
“He likes to have two men guarding the premises. I can call them with the proper command codes just before we arrive and tell them they’ve been reassigned. Security personnel are shifted around between sites fairly frequently.”
“Won’t they wait until their replacements arrive?”
Brennan shook his head. “Not for this compound. The automated security is so ridiculously advanced they know they’re not really necessary. They’re mostly there for show, I guess. If I tell them not to wait, they won’t object. They’ll be eager to leave for a more challenging assignment.”
Volkov considered this. “Go on,” he said finally.
“With no human or automated security protecting Jordan, you should be able to take him out without any trouble. Then you leave and our alliance is through. We both get what we want.”
“That easy, huh?” said Volkov suspiciously.
“Yes. I don’t anticipate any problems.”
Volkov laughed. “Surely you don’t just expect me to take your word on this, Dr. Brennan? Just follow your instructions like a sheep? You say Jordan is in Colorado. You say you can lower his shields, so to speak. But this could be nothing more than a clever ambush. A trap. You could be making this call at his request.”
“I assure you that I’m not.”
Volkov laughed even louder. “You assure me,” he said derisively. “Well why didn’t you just say so? That makes all the difference.”
“Look, I’ve always had a strong sense of right and wrong. Hell, I even wanted to be a criminal prosecutor when I was a kid so I could put bad guys in jail. But I allowed Isaac Jordan to fool me. Badly. And now I need to stop him. You have to believe me.”
“I don’t have to do anything. You want Jordan dead? You want me to trust you? Then you’ll have to come along on this little raid with us. If it’s an ambush, then you’ll be dead center. So my question is, where are you? How soon can you get to Colorado?”
There was a long pause. “I’m not a soldier,” said Brennan. “There must be some way I can convince you to trust me short of joining you.”
“There isn’t. As much as I want Jordan, I’m not the trusting type.”
“Okay,” said Brennan in resignation after another long delay. “I’ll tell you where they are. You can tell me how and where you want me to meet you. You call the shots. Whatever you need to do to convince yourself that I’m really on your side. Okay?”
“That’s more like it,” said Volkov, allowing himself a triumphant smile. “Congratulations, John Brennan. You’ve got yourself a killer.”
32
Carr continued to stare at Isaac Jordan in disbelief. He hadn’t expected him to so readily admit he was behind the sabotage. Now that he had, Carr wasn’t sure what he was feeling. Triumphant? Intimidated? Wary? All of the above?
Recent events had been too fantastic to truly assimilate.
Dwyer would surely be pleased that he had found his man almost immediately, although it was as much luck and circumstance as anything he had done. But while he had found his man, he was hardly in a position to stop him.
Being in the presence of the Isaac Jordan was indescribable, surreal. The fierce intelligence displayed in his eyes was a force of nature. He had been more of a celebrity than the president. More popular than an A-list movie star. More admired—and certainly wealthier—than God. A man who had done as much to advance human understanding of physics as Einstein and Newton. A man responsible for thriving human outposts on the Moon and Mars, and for unleashing the mineral wealth of hundreds of near-Earth asteroids.
But Isaac Jordan was also a man whose name carried the infamy of a Stalin, Hitler, or bin Laden before him. He was the best and the worst of humanity in a single package.
Carr studied Jordan for several additional seconds. “But why?” he said finally. “Why would you work so hard to stop human progress? Why sabotage hundreds of billions of dollars of investment in scientific advancement? What happened to you?”
“Turlock happened,” said Jordan simply. “That’s the answer to every why. Do you have any idea why I was there in the first place? What I was working on?”
Carr shook his head.
“I do,” said Riley. “You were working on AGI.”
“How do you know that?” said Jordan.
“You hardly tried to hide it from us at home.”
Jordan gazed at his
daughter in admiration. “I didn’t think I had to,” he said. “It was very deep stuff. We knew you were special since you first did math in your head at the age of two, but there are PhDs who wouldn’t have been able to decipher what I was working on.”
“You think praise will erase what you did? How I feel about you?”
“No. I didn’t praise you to gain favor. I praised you because I’m genuinely impressed.”
“Okay,” prompted Carr, making an obvious attempt to get the conversation back on track. “So you were working in AGI. What about it?”
“I had perfected the R-drive. I had turned physics on its head. I had accomplished technical feats that no one thought were possible. AGI was going to be my next big act. My greatest achievement.”
“And you decided to keep this work secret?” said Bram. “Even from your own colleagues?”
“Especially from my own colleagues,” said Jordan with a hint of a smile. “I liked to work alone and keep my own council. I had grown too famous, and too wealthy. Moving to Turlock, distancing myself from the spotlight and my many companies, was a godsend. I vowed to go back to simpler times, at least for a few years. Just me, alone, wrestling with ideas, playing in a sandbox of my own making like I was a kid again.”
Bram nodded slowly. “You really thought you could create a working AGI all by yourself when teams of experts had repeatedly failed?”
“At the risk of sounding immodest, yes. Teams at NASA and elsewhere had spent decades working on advanced methods of propulsion without success, also, before I tackled this problem. Besides, I had come up with a very clear game plan.”
“Which was?” said Bram.
“Since computer hardware was getting more miraculous every year,” replied Jordan, “most approaches to solving AGI centered on the software side. Improved learning algorithms. Software that could rapidly evolve. But this wasn’t enough. Computer hardware might be powerful, but it was static. So I focused on this end. I came up with advances in optical computing, which I incorporated into a quantum computing system. By using photons and movable photonic gates, each gate not much larger than an atom, I achieved a hardware configuration that was fully dynamic,” he finished triumphantly.
Carr blinked in confusion. “Meaning what?” he said, unable to grasp the deeper significance of this accomplishment.
“Meaning that the hardware itself was reconfigurable,” replied Bram, beating Jordan to the answer. “Not only could the software evolve, but so could the hardware.”
“Exactly,” said Jordan. “The paradigm for most efforts is still, ‘let’s evolve AGI software by selecting for the fittest mutations every generation.’ But if the hardware is set in stone, if the computer circuits are etched into a substrate and can’t reconfigure themselves, this can only take you so far. The neural structure of our brains is constantly changing. So why do we think we can achieve AGI using immovable components? By designing a computer system in which the hardware can reconfigure itself along with the software—allowing the system to evolve on two dimensions instead of just one—I was certain sentience could be achieved.”
“You aren’t the first to recognize this as the Holy Grail,” said Bram. “It’s just that no one has ever been able to design such a system.”
“I did,” said Jordan simply. “And after almost two years in Turlock, working incognito out of a facility that wasn’t associated with any of my companies, I was ready to give it a try. Ready to see what true computer evolution could do. I was convinced that I was on the verge of a breakthrough that would put the R-drive to shame.”
“What happened?” said Carr eagerly.
Isaac Jordan stared out of the window for several long seconds. “I’ve spent a long time trying to forget what happened,” he said finally, returning his gaze to his three visitors. “Trying to free myself from the nightmares. But I can’t. It’s been scorched into my mind, every last detail. So I’ll tell you what happened. I’ll paint as vibrant and thorough a picture as I can.”
Carr was utterly transfixed, and his two companions looked to be the same. They all knew the tragic punch line, but the joke was a total mystery. Like passing a bad car accident, despite knowing the horror they were sure to see, they couldn’t look away.
Carr held his breath while the most influential man in generations paused to gather his thoughts—and his memories. Then, without any further fanfare, the man who had brought them here against their will began to tell his story.
33
It was just after dusk, and a giddy Isaac Jordan drove slowly along the streets of Turlock as the night sky continued to darken. He was more excited than he had been in a long time. This could well be the night that he cemented himself as the greatest scientist who ever lived.
He couldn’t believe how perfect his life had become.
Turlock had been just what the doctor ordered. He had been here almost two years now, and had refused all interview requests, perversely hiring a team of publicists to find ways to keep him out of the public eye, to ensure he got as little publicity as possible.
And he was now at peace. He loved what he was working on, and he loved his adopted town. Not only that, but his family was thriving.
Jordan was upbeat by nature, a trait his oldest child shared. Melissa had been more difficult than usual lately—could even be hell on Earth at times—but the teen years would do that to a kid, and he hadn’t been any different. But once she got through this rough patch, he was certain she would be extraordinary in every way. She had shown signs from the earliest age that she was a genius, but he hadn’t told her the full extent of how special she really was, had downplayed it as much as he could.
Jordan had been robbed of his childhood, had been forced to fend for himself, and he wanted to do everything possible not to rush her into becoming an adult. She would have ample opportunity to share her gifts with the world, but the world owed her a normal childhood first.
School administrators throughout the years had wanted to jump her two or three grades ahead, but he had insisted she remain with kids her own age. She stood out enough being Isaac Jordan’s daughter. Put her in a class with students who were years older than she was, students whom she would still effortlessly outperform, and she would be shunned, a social outcast.
He never regretted his decision to keep her with her class, and Melissa had made good friends in Turlock and appeared to be thriving. Given his fame, she and his two sons were remarkably well-adjusted. And his relationship with his wife, Jennifer, was as strong as it had ever been.
He was truly blessed. In so many ways. And tonight would be the icing on the cake. Tonight would be the night when Artificial General Intelligence would finally be achieved. He was sure of it. But it wouldn’t stop there. His system, which he had named Savant, would quickly progress to Artificial Superintelligence.
And ASI would become a tool that would soon usher in an unimaginable future for humanity, allowing the species to conquer disease and poverty—and even the stars.
Yes, trying to create and tame an ASI was a very dangerous proposition. He had never fooled himself about this. He would be starting a chain reaction with an unknowable endpoint. But he had prepared for every eventuality.
Luminaries like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking had long warned of the perils of computer intelligence, about the real chance that humanity would obsolete itself, create its own successor. Jordan had read multiple books and scholarly articles on the subject.
He was well aware that he couldn’t allow Savant to have free access to the Web under any circumstances. Keeping it a disembodied brain, with no hands or feet to use as levers, was the first step in ensuring human safety. If it had no way to manipulate its environment, how much harm could it really do?
Just after the turn of the millennium the phrase “God in a box,” had been coined to describe an ASI, and Jordan found this to be an apt way to think of it. The question was, once you created your god, could you keep it in the box?
At
about this time, Eliezer Yudkowsky, co-founder of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, had constructed a role-playing simulation to try to answer this question. He, himself, had taken on the role of an ASI trapped in a computer with no physical connection to the outside world. He had then selected five brilliant computer scientists to each play the role of gatekeeper. The gatekeeper’s job was simple: make sure Yudkowsky stayed in the box, protecting humanity from possible ruin.
Yudkowsky’s job, on the other hand, was to talk his way out. To find a way to trick, or threaten, or cajole, or beg, or bribe the gatekeeper into allowing him to escape.
He ran the role-playing game five separate times, and succeeded in convincing the gatekeeper to let him out of the box in three of them.
Yudkowsky was a very smart man, but an ASI would be thousands of times smarter. If he could escape more than half of the time, how much trouble would the box pose to a true ASI?
While this story had become lore in the AI community, and Yudkowsky swore to its veracity, Jordan had his doubts. Still, he would keep it firmly in mind as a cautionary tale as he progressed. He vowed to be the gatekeeper so well versed in the possible adverse consequences of escape, and so determined to ignore any appeals for freedom, that his god would remain forever without limbs.
But keeping Savant safely trapped in the box was only the first step. He had also programmed it with the most sophisticated pro-human, pro-biological life, do-no-harm algorithms anyone had ever devised. Programmed it so it had no choice but to be docile and subservient and obedient.
So deeply did he embed this friendliness and subservience to humanity into Savant’s computer DNA, there was no conceivable way it could survive and evolve without these characteristics coming along for the ride. In this way it was similar to the human sex drive, whose loss would stop evolution in its tracks, because a superior trait was only as good as the sex drive’s ability to ensure it was passed on to the next generation.
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