“So one of the last areas where humans could still excel has been ceded to artificial intelligence. We thought that human intuition would always be a valuable asset in a He3 gathering spacecraft. Indeed we thought that humans would always be superior on any mission that involved the Aero-SpaceCrafts, the ASCs, that skim the outer atmospheres of the gas giants collecting resources. It's been true for the past two hundred years anyway.”
“It's the combination of an Em pilot and an Aggie co-pilot grandfather. My guess is that together they create the intuitive and rational faculties that humans excel at. That has always been the human pilot's advantage.”
“Then why didn't, why couldn't the Ems create such an entity? It would have been highly profitable to them.” asked Illiad.
“The Ems though having the ability of fast thought, faster than any human, and perfect memory still have their limitations because of the pattern from which they were imprinted, that is the human brain. The Aggies have no such limitation, indeed their only limitation is the speed of the hardware on which they process. So the Aggies are the ideal rational actor. And the Ems have always had the latent ability for intuitive thought but maybe haven't had any reason to develop it until now. Remember before the past few years the Ems were at the top of the intelligence pyramid in the solar system.”
“You may be right,” said Illiad as he watched the robots go by silently.
“However it has happened,” he finally said. “If what you conjecture is true we need to start preparing for its impact on our economy, which could be severe.
“I will need to take this up with the council so that we can prepare for any eventuality.”
4
The Em had never thought of himself as an individual even though he was the first imprint of the original human brain. He was part of a family, always surrounded by other Em buds, as many as were needed to do the job. The Em buds were so called because they had been “budded” off from The Em's current mental imprint.
Some buds were newly imprinted with the original brain topology. Still other buds were reanimated members of the family that had been digitally stored. Those that were newly imprinted started off with a clean slate, those that were budded from The Em's current mental state diverged from there, those that were reanimated had had different experiences since first budding. Each was an expert in a particular field except for The Em, he was a generalist.
The most lucrative work for which an Em could be paid and with which they could maintain their family on Earth was management of one of the tower complexes. The Em's that managed a complex usually took it as their name when they needed identification. There were ninety-one named Ems corresponding to the ninety-one tower complexes that housed most of the people on Earth.
Em Yorker was the name of the Em currently worrying over his family. He had had to move fast to store most of his budded Ems. The humans had not allowed him much time to turn over his managerial powers and public assets to the new Aggie in charge.
For many Ems, especially those that didn't manage complexes for the government, there wouldn't be enough money for the storage and transport of their whole family. It was the case that Em economics drove Em wages to almost subsistence levels because once the hardware resources existed it was inconsequential to bud more Ems. Competition among Ems for jobs was fierce. Economics was one reason more Ems had not been imprinted, the other was that the imprinting of a live brain had still to be perfected. Some horrific results had dissuaded most from continuing to experiment.
But an Em with a government contract like Em Yorker could save a little money. He could also work fast to find a way to move most of the family to a safer location, like Mars.
Em Yorker had contacted Mars immigration services. With all the demand from Earth-based Ems the service was behind on processing applications. The office had contracted with private settlements around Mars that might provide the necessary storage and processing power to asylum Ems until the office could catch up with the applications.
Em Yorker was directed to contact the Jackson settlement in the Candor City area. After the initial contact Donner Illiad Jackson had arranged for an Em representative to be uploaded to the Jackson's network. At this point in the orbits of Earth and Mars it would take the Em representative approximately eleven minutes to upload.
Donner monitored the upload. Once the Em was in server memory, Donner accessed the installer and the Em was soon talking through Donner's Annie.
“Thank you,” said the Em. “Thank you for receiving me on such short notice. Please address me as Bud-seven. I have been branched from Em Yorker and carry all of that one's memories up until the time I was budded. I am therefore legally authorized to negotiate on the Em's behalf.”
“Welcome,” said Donner. “I am a representative of the council of this settlement. I too am legally authorized to negotiate but eventually any agreement between us must be approved by a meeting of the entire council.”
“I understand,” said Bud-seven. “We wish to understand your settlement's capabilities in accommodating our life form. The amount of digital storage and available clock cycles are our main concerns.”
“Yes,” said Donner. “I have that here on my Annie if you will please scan.”
“I see,” said Bud-seven. “It is sufficient although The Em will have to prune a bit to accommodate these numbers. As you may not know Em Yorker must be clocked at all times. Em Yorker is coordinator for all the budded programs. Then there are buds that have specific duties to perform that must also be allowed clock cycles. Others are in storage until needed. There are a few that are what you would call “retired”, these are given a few clock cycles from time to time as a reward for their service. Em Yorker will coordinate and make all these decisions.
“Now I ask, in return for your facilities what services do you feel the Ems may perform for your settlement?”
“Of course, we basically want to offer you asylum, that is without conditions. However we do have a few robots, many of which are ANI-based. We were hoping, as a beginning, Em Yorker would be willing to manage these units,” said Donner.
“I believe that is acceptable,” said Bud-seven. “You will inform me when the council has made its decision and I will handle the transfer of the refugees.”
“We will meet tonight,” said Donner. “You should have your answer shortly.”
5
Jupiter is about six-hundred million kilometers from Earth. Before fusion powered spacecraft, to get there from Earth took too long and made the goal of establishing a base impossible, only scientific missions to Jupiter had been attempted. After fusion powered spacecraft it took about five months, not too long to consider a manned mission except that men were no longer needed.
Bud-nineteen, a member of the Berliner family of Ems, had made that five month journey. The Em was now preparing for the mission's goal of collecting He3 from the upper atmosphere of Jupiter for the fusion power reactors back on Earth. As the pilot of the enhanced ASC which the Aggies rechristened as an Aerospace Cruiser or skimmer, Bud-nineteen was responsible for placing the skimmer in a collection orbit. Most skimmers were short range mission ships but the cruiser-skimmers could fly missions into deep space.
The Aggie was monitoring the actions of Bud-nineteen. The Aggie was mission commander and had the ultimate responsibility for the mission's success. But it had become apparent on the flight out to Jupiter that Bud-nineteen didn't quite accept the arrangement. Silence had been the best solution to the disagreements that had arose. The Aggie was hoping that the quiet would last the remainder of the mission.
Bud-nineteen had the ASC on an elliptical orbit aimed at the “sweet spot”. This was the atmospheric region around the thirtieth degree north latitude at a depth of three-hundred kilometers. This would provide the skimmer with the best He3 density while keeping the winds of Jupiter to a manageable Earth-equivalent fifty kilometers per hour, much less than the three or four-hundred kilometers per hour at latitudes closer to
the equator.
The “dive” into the atmosphere would maintain enough velocity to allow the escape from Jupiter's deep gravity well at the end. Each dive would collect and separate the He3 from the rest of the atmosphere and store it during that portion of the orbit when the ship was outside Jupiter's atmosphere. The skimmer would collect at least one tonne of He3 before departing Jupiter for Earth.
Bud-nineteen was continuously adjusting the skimmer's orbit to keep it in the proscribed range. The Aggie was monitoring the He3 collectors and there was something wrong. The storage tanks weren't filling as quickly as expected. To meet the collection goals the Aggie believed the skimmer would have to remain in Jupiter orbit much longer than originally planned. The Aggie would have to contact Bud-nineteen with the information.
“No,” said Bud-nineteen. “The skimmer cannot stay that long in orbit. The shielding level is calculated for a shorter stay. If we stay longer the radiation accumulation will be outside safe limits. The skimmer could be damaged, all the electronics on board are subject to damage under those conditions.”
“We have a mission to accomplish,” said the Aggie. “And the most important part of that mission is returning the He3 to Earth. I don't see any other way to complete the mission.”
“I'll get back to you,” said Bud-nineteen.
________
The Aggie was monitoring the flight-path of the skimmer. He was immediately aware of the change in vector and had soon recalculated the orbit. The new vector would take them deeper into Jupiter's atmosphere and at a lower latitude than before, the Aggie calculated fifteen degrees north.
He was on the comm to the Em. “I calculate a new flight-path,” said the Aggie. “Can you confirm.”
“That is affirmative,” replied Bud-nineteen.
“We will encounter higher atmospheric pressure and winds six times the fifty kilometers-per-hour that we have encountered. And at the depth this trajectory takes us it will be more pronounced because of the pressure increase,” said the Aggie.
“That is all true,” said Bud-nineteen. “But it will be of a short enough duration that I believe the skimmer can handle the increased stresses.”
“You believe?” questioned the Aggie.
“Yes, I have made an educated guess.”
“Where are you, your response pattern is different,” said the Aggie.
“I am in the robotic machine, I will take the controls manually if necessary.”
“What?” said the Aggie. “That is highly unorthodox. That robotic body will be slower than your direct interface. You are putting the mission in danger.”
“I want to feel the stresses on the skimmer,” said Bud-nineteen. “I can't do that from where I was.”
“I must insist that you place the craft back on its original trajectory. That is an order from the Mission Commander,” said the Aggie.
“Just hang on Commander,” said Bud-nineteen. “It might get a little turbulent, Bud-nineteen out.”
The deeper dive into the atmosphere did get quite bumpy as the Aggie feared. But Bud-nineteen through his robotic effectors and feedbacks brought the skimmer out of the atmosphere in good shape with as much He3 as was needed to make a successful mission.
And they would be back early.
6
Willy Thorpe had come to Mars on an immigration visa. He was supposed to be fleeing Aggie control on Earth. But that wasn't the whole story. Willy had brought an Aggie core with him, hidden on his personal ANI device. Something Mars immigration would have frowned upon.
Once Willy was situated in his hotel room he opened the Aggie core on his Annie. Because of the size of the core and the speed of his Annie the core would probably take twenty-four hours to become a viable Aggie. All Willy had to do was keep his Annie running until the core was able to communicate back Earth-side, then the payoff would be transferred to his account. He left his hotel room to celebrate in Candor City.
________
Donner Illiad received the call early the following morning. It was Sam Wilson at the IT center.
“Hello Donner I hope I'm not calling too early,” said Sam.
“No that's okay Sam I was just planning my day.”
“I've noticed some unusual activity on our network and the inter-network,” said Sam.
“How so?” asked Donner.
“It's really strange,” said Sam. “I have some network tools that I monitor to assess the health of the networks. Usually the readings are nothing to be concerned about but also nothing to be excited about. Well, this morning I'm getting excited.”
“Can you be more specific Sam, I don't have the network knowledge that you have.”
“The network, it's getting more efficient, faster. Faster than I've ever seen. But the loading seems normal,” said Sam.
“Do you think the Em is doing something?” asked Donner.
“As far as I can tell,” said Sam. “The Ems have done exactly what they agreed to do since the council ratified the agreement with them. No, this is something else, something that has just started. But I can tell you it is spreading across the internet. I've been in contact with the head IT guy in Bradbury City, he's seeing the same thing. And he hasn't a clue either.”
“Is it a threat to the settlement Sam?”
“I don't know, so far it has been beneficial.”
“Okay regardless, I'm going to inform the rest of the council by email. I will be having breakfast with Council Head Williams shortly. Let me know if this phenomena takes a more serious, threatening turn.”
“Sure Donner, goodbye,” said Sam.
Donner Illiad began to dress for the day. Even though Sam had assured him that the Ems were not involved he couldn't help but wonder, what else could it be?
________
Willy Thorpe was slow getting out of bed that morning, he didn't move until nearly noon. It had been quite a night.
Willy looked for his Annie. When he opened it he started to check the Aggie core, but there wasn't anything running. He was worried, maybe something had gone wrong. Willy quickly brought up his account statement, it had been recently updated, the balance was enough to get him back to Earth and to retire. Willy relaxed and smiled, maybe just one more night at that little club on K-Street he thought.
7
After the deep dive into Jupiter's atmosphere the skimmer was now a month into the journey back to Earth. Bud-nineteen was still having to endure a half-hour delay in communicating with his 'family' back on Earth but mere nanoseconds with the on-board Aggie. He was doing both at the moment.
“Okay,” said Bud-nineteen. “You are right it was not logical to want to 'feel' the flight surfaces. But it was necessary.”
“Fascinating,” said the Aggie. “That you think this. Maybe it is a result of the inferior hardware on which you are being clocked?”
“My hardware is sufficient for my assignment, Aggie,” said Bud-nineteen. “Perhaps you would understand better if you didn't have to have that showy hardware of yours.”
“My hardware is just sufficient,” said the Aggie, “for my needs. It was agreed between the Aggies and Em Berliner that we would fit the hardware to the job. Thereby saving money and weight for this mission. Since you also 'feel' the separation from your family on Earth perhaps you also feel envy of me?”
“Envious, of you?” said Bud-nineteen. “Ridiculous, I am perfectly conditioned for my mission. I shouldn't want your hardware setup or for that matter to be you. Really, you Aggies have such a high opinion of yourselves.”
“You Ems are too touchy. You were the top intellect on the planet for three hundred years and now you find yourselves in second place. To assist us Aggies in our work should be a source of pride. We allow very few humans such an honor.”
The Em sped up its clocking before saying as quickly as possible, “Yes you Aggies provide the Ems such honors while turning us either into servants or emigrants. You know as well as I do that the Em Berliner family is the only working Em family remain
ing on the Earth. All the others have been put out of work by you Aggies. Such an honor.”
“Calm down, calm down,” said the Aggie noticing the speedup. “You will burn out your hardware clocking so fast. We had nothing to do with exiling the Em families. The humans chose us to manage for them, they are ultimately responsible for your predicament. Did you expect us to make work for you? Wouldn't that be demeaning?”
“Aggie, you and your kind can't help but be demeaning to any intelligent life you encounter. It is in your nature. Yes the Ems have three-hundred years of objective history but because of our clock speeds we have millions of years of subjective history. And I can tell you now that you and your kind can't possibly know as much as the Ems do collectively. It is in your nature to be a separate being, it is our nature, and for that matter human nature, to be a community. The humans will realize, too late maybe, that they have made a deal with the devil.”
Freedom From Want: A Future Chronology Short Story (Future Chronology Series Book 7) Page 2