by John Akers
“As you might intuit, given what you’ve seen here today, the Infinet found that in no scenario does the human species manage to survive more than 150 years from the present.”
Pax had no way to verify the truth of such a statement, but he decided to pretend he did to keep her talking. He wanted to learn how far down the rabbit hole this thing went with her and this society of hers. So he said simply, “Are you kidding?” hoping it would entice her to elaborate.
“No,” she continued, “and even the 150-year estimate is an outlier. The average was less than 50 years. Some scenarios even predicted the possibility of it ending immediately.”
Pax nodded as if he accepted what she’d said as true. “So what does the Infinet see as the solution?” he asked.
Alethia suddenly stood up. “I’ll tell you, but let’s take a walk while we do. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a bit stiff from sitting for so long.”
Pax shrugged and stood up. “Sure.”
She began walking away from the disks, in what seemed to Pax to be no particular direction. For a moment she didn’t say anything but simply held her hands behind her back as she walked. Her eyes got a faraway look in them, as if she was suddenly concentrating on something very deeply. Finally, she spoke.
“The Infinet was originally created with two purposes. The first was to answer the question, ‘How much longer do we have?’ The second was to help humanity forge a sustainable future based on the range of possible timelines. One that ensured we wouldn’t annihilate ourselves.
“A week after completing the predictive analysis about what time we had left, the Infinet came back with one and only one solution. Operant conditioning, albeit on a hitherto unimagined scale. But by perpetually observing and guiding people’s behavior, and by controlling the presentation of stimuli, we can shape the behavior of every person on Earth in a way that will maximize both our individual and collective potential.”
Before he could stop himself, Pax blurted out, “That’s absurd.”
Again, Alethia didn’t react, at least not outwardly. “I know it may seem that way. But the Infinet is more powerful than all other computers previously built by humanity, combined. One of the things we’ve been trying to do during your journey here was to give you a sense of the power of the Infinet. Using nanoscopic fractions of its capacity, it designed the means of bringing you here: how to take you out of your home, how to get you here as quickly as possible without being followed, and to build this tower to explain what it is humanity is up against.”
“All very impressive, I agree,” Pax said. “But I don’t see how any of that correlates even remotely with what you’re talking about. If I understand you correctly, you’re talking about this Infinet of yours acting as some sort of governess for all human society. The scale of that compared to what you’ve shown me is multiple orders of magnitude more complex. And how could it possibly control the presentation of stimuli the way you’re…“ Suddenly, he froze.
Alethia looked at him knowingly. “I think you see now why we brought you here, Mr. Pax. To prevent humanity from destroying itself, the Infinet needs your help. It needs the Univiz.”
Chapter 53
Through the fog of incredulity and the sound of blood pounding in his ears, Pax saw they had almost reached the wall. He noticed there was a three-foot tall window strip that wrapped all the way around the entire perimeter of the tower. Dimly, he heard Alethia continuing to talk, and he tried to attend to what she was saying.
“I know the idea of simultaneously monitoring 9 billion people in real-time probably seems ludicrous,” she said, “but it isn’t. The transmission of quantum phenomena is instantaneous, so the only lag in the system would be the existing bandwidth limitations of the internet and the Univiz. Which, by the way, the Infinet can help Omnitech improve greatly, along with a great many other things. And it has essentially limitless data storage capacity. Unlike standard binary computer systems, where a given data register can only be on or off, quantum data registers can hold multiple values. Currently, the Infinet supports a dozen values per register, but that amount can be increased if necessary.
“Just think of it, Mr. Pax,” Alethia continued, stopping a few steps short of the window and turning to face him, her face aglow with excitement. “Imagine every person on the planet having access to the smartest, wisest mentor possible! One that will know us intimately, completely: our aspirations, our fears, our capabilities, and our limitations. It will also monitor people’s body chemistries in real time, to learn what combinations of foods, medicines, and other environmental stimuli result in positive well-being. It will use all this knowledge to guide us in ways that are so subtle as to be unnoticeable, but help us to become the best possible version of ourselves. And most important, it will manage our collective behavior, ensuring that each person has appropriate access to information and the appropriate amount of influence on the rest of society.”
Pax’s eyes narrowed. ‘What do you mean by ’appropriate influence on society?’”
“It means, for example, if someone demonstrates an expert understanding and greater experience in a particular area, say public policy, and their recommendations in that area prove to be more beneficial to the whole of society over time, that person’s viewpoints on such issues will carry proportionally greater weight than someone else’s.”
“But how in the world would the Infinet decide what each person’s appropriate levels are?” Pax asked.
“Through continuous observation and assessment. If the Infinet is continuously connected to people, it can observe their behavior and form a comprehensive understanding of each person’s qualities. Their intelligence, knowledge, degree of empathy, charisma, and so on. With this information, it can then control the stimuli they are presented and assess the quality of their responses on an ongoing, real-time basis.”
“Whatever happened to the idea of ‘one person, one vote?’”
Without hesitating, Alethia said, “If you were the owner of a professional sports team, and you needed to find someone to manage the team, you’d look for someone who knew something about the game, correct?”
“Of course.”
“Someone who preferably had a track record of successfully leading teams to more wins than losses? Who had led a team to a championship?” Pax nodded.
“Then why should someone who knows nothing about the details of public policy, or budgeting, and who demonstrates no empathy for other people, have an equal say in how public funds should be used? What sense is there in giving everyone an equal vote without considering the effectiveness of that person’s opinions over time?”
“Because it’s every person’s right to have his or her voice heard, and heard equally,” Pax said. In truth, however, her argument struck a chord with him. His years of research with users had shown him how quickly people became overwhelmed with complexity and how short-circuited their decision-making processes typically were. Even for important decisions, such as buying a mortgage, or choosing who should run the government, most people fell back on highly simplified, unrealistic assumptions. But given the current situation, he felt compelled to continue playing Devil’s advocate.
“No, Mr. Pax, it’s because there hasn’t been a better way. But now there is. The Infinet gives us the ability to take such considerations into account, and track the effectiveness of people’s choices and actions over time.”
“There’s no way it could control stimuli at such a low level, without people noticing,” interrupted Pax. “If you try to block access to particular websites, or applications, people won’t stand for it. Repression never works in the long run.”
“The Infinet won’t block people from doing anything, Mr. Pax, unless it's something that poses a clear risk to society. It will simply condition them, over time, to choose to engage in certain behaviors rather than others. The Infinet will reward behaviors that benefit both society and the individual, and not reward—and sometimes negatively reinforce�
�behaviors that do not. In a surprisingly short amount of time, people’s behavior can be shaped to do just about anything through skillful application of positive reinforcement. People’s desire for undue power and influence over others will extinguish over time, and they’ll find themselves voluntarily spending their time in pursuit of more spiritually rewarding activities.”
“Such as?” asked Pax
“Meditation. Prayer. Studying philosophy. Interacting with one another and with nature. Learning how to play a musical instrument or a new language. Traveling and immersing oneself in other cultures. Teaching others.”
“Hmph,” Pax scoffed. “Good luck with that.”
“Oh, there’s no doubt it will work,” said Alethia. “Much of what is often attributed to free will can be explained by principles of operant conditioning, most of which were identified by B.F. Skinner in the 1950s and 60s. They are so powerful that with the right application of reinforcements on the right schedule you can shape a person’s behavior into doing just about anything. It’s why advertising has such a powerful effect on our behavior, and it’s what underlies many self-destructive behaviors. Versions of it such as propaganda and military training can compel otherwise rational people to commit acts of unspeakable cruelty.
“As Elena mentioned to you on the ship, a Univiz happens to be one of the best dopamine delivery mechanisms ever invented. By combining the Infinet with the Univiz, all human behavior can be shaped with a level of precision never before possible. It will ensure not only that our species survives, but that it thrives. And over multiple generations, through the process of epigenetics, in which the expression of DNA sequences, rather than the DNA sequence itself, can be altered, and the alterations passed down to subsequent generations.”
“If a Univiz is so addictive,” said Pax, “how can it help people shift to doing the other sorts of activities you mentioned?”
“A Univiz isn’t inherently addictive. It’s the way it’s being used by most people that makes it that way. In particular, millions of third-party apps are constantly competing for each user’s attention and money through a constant barrage of stimuli and immediate rewards. It’s like walking through an endless Las Vegas casino, where every app is a new game and you never leave the casino.
“But with the Infinet acting as a benevolent overseer, it can steer people away from the casino and reward them for pursuing other activities, including ones that don’t involve a Univiz.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” said Pax. “If people used it less, how could it keep track of what people are doing?”
“The same way it found out you like Nutella crepes: From video from other people’s public UV feeds. From the 20 billion other cameras around the world. From presence detection sensors on 50 billion internet connected devices. From social media. And so on. And when someone puts their UV back on, it can backfill gaps in the timeline based on information it gathers after the fact.
“The Infinet has already accessed and processed all publicly available information ever created,” she continued. “It has done the same for 95 percent of the information stored in the Deep-Web—nonpublic online databases that standard search engines can’t access, either by obtaining its own memberships, or by getting access through one of our members. In your case, it found several public video archives of you buying crepes in Paris on four separate occasions over a two-year period.”
“You’re saying the Infinet already has full profiles of every person on this planet, down to that level of detail?” asked Pax.
Alethia gave a single, definitive shake of her head. “I’m saying it has profiles at that level of detail for every person that has ever lived. If Leonardo da Vinci’s housekeeper kept a diary that contained observations about him, the Univiz knows it.
Pax’s eyelids narrowed. “Care to prove that?”
“Certainly. Ask me any detail about any person at any time. Preferably one you can verify, of course.”
He tried to think of an event someone else had told him about, one from a long time ago, that didn’t involve him directly. They’d obviously done their homework on him. After a moment he came up with one.
“I assume you know about my friend, Cevis?”
“Of course, the Infinet knows about Mr. Pierson,” Alethia said.
“When he was a teenager, he took a summer vacation with his family. It was the only vacation he ever took with them,” Pax said.
“All right,” said Alethia.
“Where did they go?”
Immediately, two holographic words appeared in the air about three feet away from them.
Virginia Beach
Video snippets of Cevis and his parents taken from cameras in the hotel they stayed in appeared all around them. Pax’s mouth fell open.
“Would you like to give it another test?” asked Alethia.
Pax nodded, slowly. He tried to think of something he’d heard about, something that didn’t involve him or anyone he personally knew. Then he remembered something Denise McIntyre had mentioned to him about her son a few weeks earlier.
“A boy named Bobby McIntyre who lives in Del Mar recently had a major life event. What…”
Before he could even finish asking the question, “What was it?” more words appeared.
Bobby McIntyre
22 years old
Oldest son of Denise McIntyre
Proposed to his girlfriend during the fourth
inning of a Padres game 17 days ago
This time, Pax made a conscious effort not to let his mouth fall open.
“Want to do another?”
“No, I think that’s enough, for now,” said Pax, still in shock at the speed with which the answer had been given. Keep her talking, he thought. “So what kind of integration with the Univiz is the Infinet proposing?”
In a manner-of-fact manner, Alethia said, “It needs superuser access to every Univiz.”
This time, Pax was too stunned to react. He felt as if he’d been injected with ice water.
“And to the machine that manages the codebase, as well,” she added. “So it can make systemwide modifications when necessary.”
The suggestion was so monumentally absurd, it made Pax fearful she had made it anyway. With superuser access to every Univiz, a user could do anything he or she wanted, to any UV they wanted, including modifying the kernel, the very heart of the operating system. Access to the kernel for devices already in the field was very rarely granted even to top-level support personnel or QA engineers, and when it was, it was only for a particular account and for a limited amount of time. No one, not even Qathi, had ongoing superuser permissions for even a single user account because of the risk. Even an innocent mistake could cause an irrevocable system crash and loss of any and all data for that user. Granting anyone—especially an AI—such unlimited power across all accounts would run the risk of throwing civilization into chaos.
Doing his best to appear nonplussed, Pax chuckled and forced a smile. “Oh, well, if that’s all you want. Why didn’t you just say so earlier?”
Alethia, however, did not smile. In fact, she wore a look of grim certitude. “We know it’s an enormous thing to ask,” she said, her eyes leveled on his, “especially from a group of people you’d never heard of until a few days ago. But it’s the only way to ensure the Infinet can help turn humanity away from the precipice of self-destruction.”
“Just for my own curiosity,” said Pax, “why does the Infinet think it needs root access to, you know, absolutely everything?”
“To maximize its ability to influence people, it must be able to monitor every aspect of every UV’s operation, so that it can control every stimulus presented to a user down to the tiniest detail. It also needs the power to preemptively block any attempt by another system to install anything that would either intentionally or unintentionally interfere with its ability to monitor all activity and manage the presentation of all stimulus.”
“I see. Sounds interesting, in theor
y. But don’t you think your request is a bit excessive? I mean, you’re asking me to hand over the keys to the Magic Kingdom, for free. And were you planning to test what you’re proposing at some point? You’re asking an awful lot for something that’s based on a lot of conjecture.”
“We’ve already tested it,’” said Alethia.
“What? How?” said Pax. “You haven’t had the Univiz…” Suddenly, a horrifying thought occurred to him. “This Infinet hasn’t found a way to hack into UVs, has it?” He felt the hairs on his neck standing on end. “If it has, so help me I’ll…”
“No,” said Alethia, cutting him off. “That would be illegal. As I’ve already told you, the Infinet adheres to all local and international laws.”
“Then how in the hell could you have tested this thing?”
“The Infinet created its own Univiz.”
“It did what?” Pax felt hairs prickling up all over his body.
“It created a prototype version of a Univiz,” said Alethia. “Remember all the UVs you saw the members of our society wearing as we rode up to the tower? Those were not Omnitech UVs, but prototypes created by the Infinet. Much simpler than a real UV, but better adapted to the sort of controlled experience a user would have with the Infinet at the helm.”
“Jesus,” said Pax. “How many did it create?”
“Just over a million. One for every member of our society.”
“A million,” Pax repeated numbly.
“Of course, it’s a tiny number in comparison to the overall population,” Alethia continued, “but it’s sufficiently large and varied enough in terms of geographic region, ethnicity, culture, language, etcetera, to be representative of humanity in general. Obviously, it cost a lot of money to create that many devices, but with the Infinet, money is not a concern. It took 30 minutes for the Infinet to design it, then another three months to manufacture and distribute them. It has been observing and guiding our members ever since.”