Conscious

by Vic Grout

  So, where do you nail your colours now?

  *

  “OK, it’s an interesting argument,” agreed Jenny. “But will it convince Stephen?”

  “Who knows?” Bob sighed. “But what else have we got?” He sent the link to Stephen as a message.

  “Please find a few minutes to read this!” was all he could think to say.

  Chapter 15: Persuasion

  “This does not mean I believe you; it means I am prepared to talk to you. You are unlikely to convince me but you may try.”

  It was mid-afternoon; The Desk was in video-conference with Stephen once more. The others waited for him to continue, but they waited in vain: he said nothing else, merely sat in silence. However, they already had something of a strategy – an approach – planned in the hours without contact, in the hope that it might eventually be restored.

  So, as agreed, Jenny tried to expand the discussion.

  “So what’s the current situation, Stephen? Are there any developments? Any patterns emerging with PDN and RFS?"

  “Clearly getting worse,” was his sharp reply. “We are detecting gradually increasing levels of noise on all physical networks. We also think the ratio of meaningful signals on the communications networks is increasing too. And, of course, this is consistent with our observations – everyone’s observations – that RFS is getting steadily more serious as well. Many countries are now advising their citizens not to leave their homes if this can be avoided or to take extreme care if it cannot.

  “Although we do not know the root cause of the problem, we accept that today’s ‘Internet of Everything’ is playing a role. The fact that huge numbers of operable electrical devices are able to be controlled over the Internet is naturally increasing their vulnerability to attack – whatever that attack may be. Most of the damage, accidents, injuries and fatalities are being caused by malfunctioning devices. Our specialist engineers are working hard to address this problem in an effective way. We are currently advising national governments and major supply organisations – those in Europe, of course – of techniques that may make equipment potentially less dangerous. Our experts are helping them to make end systems as safe as possible, putting in extra hardware or software – circuitry or code – to try to ensure that they fail in a controlled manner if they are going to fail at all. Much of this should have already been in place by default but it is disappointing how many of these systems are currently failing … not safe.” He tailed off as his, usually excellent, English deserted him for a moment.

  “It’s really not that surprising,” suggested Jenny, taking advantage of the pause. “Just imagine the billions of devices that are connected to the IoE nowadays. A few years ago, very few failed anyway because there weren’t so many around. When one in ten thousand did, it was barely noticed. But now that they’re all under stress … from whatever it is,” she glanced uncertainly at the others, “there will be a lot going wrong at the same time – you just can’t beat those odds. There are bound to be accidents – lots of them.”

  “Yes, agreed,” Stephen nodded, “which is why we have another approach. Where it is not possible to isolate wired systems or make them safe with confidence, we are now enabling wireless connections wherever possible. Since we know that PDN is absent from these networks, they should be safe.”

  Bob nearly choked on his coffee.

  “I really don’t think that’s a good idea!” he spluttered.

  “Can I ask why?” Stephen asked calmly but with an undertone of impatience.

  “Because, well … look, you just have to play along with our theory for a moment …”

  “As Alan Turing did when he dealt with the ‘theological objection’?” asked Stephen. They all smiled. So, he had read Ruth Jones’s post!

  “Yes, something like that,” Bob continued. “If we’re right that we’re dealing with some sort of primitive sentience here, It will get worse (or, from Its perspective, better) if It figures out how to use wireless!”

  “Explain?”

  Aisha struck in. “It is to do with Its neural size and connection complexity,” she explained. “At the moment, if you take into account the Internet itself and all the devices and things – as you call them in IoE terms – that are connected to It, and all the bits and pieces that are physically connected through the power grids, then you have something that is much, much larger than a human brain in Its basic neural count. However, It is not anything like as densely connected as the human brain: each neuron at the lowest logical level is only connected to a few others.

  “On that basis, It appears to be exhibiting some essential control imperative, but Its behaviour is restricted and primitive. In relation to a human brain, Its greater size is being limited by Its reduced connectivity. Our measurements suggest that, although Its own signals – what we see as PDN – have some of the characteristic patterns of the human brain, these are currently at a much lower level.

  “However, were It to begin using the wireless links, this would have a dramatic effect. Although Its neural size would not increase considerably – because much of the wireless infrastructure is already connected through the power grids, Its connectivity density would increase massively. Certain nodes would potentially be able to communicate with any others in range. Its overall neural complexity would suddenly be huge. It might even be something close to human brain levels when we take both size and connectivity into account.”

  “It would have many of the self-similar, and scale-free characteristics of a human brain too,” added Jenny.

  Stephen nodded his understanding of these terms. “But why should we expect … the wireless links … to become active?” He clearly chose his words in a careful, non-committal manner.

  “Because there’s no real difference between wired and wireless links as far as It’s concerned,” Bob argued. “Both ends are plugged into the mains so It can see both ends: it’s all internal as far as It’s concerned. Between the transmit and receive, there’s just air instead of cable but that’s still a communications medium. And, of course, we’re showing it how to use it all the time with our own data.”

  “It has to be only a matter of time before It figures out how to use wireless,” Jenny agreed forcefully. “Then you’ll have something altogether worse on your hands!”

  *

  Half an hour later and they were in conference again. There was a more desperate edge to Stephen’s voice now.

  “So, ladies and gentlemen, apart from your theory, what do you have by way of evidence to support it?”

  Bob had already attempted to explain the derivation and testing of the ‘S Parameter’ earlier in the day but Stephen had been far from receptive then. Realising that he was giving their explanation a little more consideration now, Aisha quickly reiterated the essential details.

  “OK, we believe that the combined entity – ‘It’ – has acquired a fundamental control imperative. That means that Its individual components, at all levels, have begun acting as neuron comparators in an attempt to assess control of Its environment and to minimise Its assessment of lack of control. This means that the noise we see, what we are calling PDN, will have certain observable characteristics. We have some data as to how these characteristics may appear in the human brain.”

  “The signals in the brain,” continued Jenny with similar urgency, “have recognisable levels of self-similarity, scale-free networks, feedback loops and increased levels of signal to noise ratios. We’ve put all of that together into a single … ‘S’ parameter that we can measure.” She still winced saying it out loud: she certainly was not going to give it its agreed name, but then she had a sudden thought. “That just stands for ‘Sentience Parameter’,” she said quickly, poking her tongue out at the others. “We’ve normalised it to 0.75 for the human brain but anything between 0.5 and 1 could indicate activity of that form: the higher the more brain-like.”

  “And we’ve tested it,” said Bob, maintaining the pace, “as best we can. We’re
getting figures of between 0.5 – never less – and 0.6 depending on where exactly we are in It.”

  “That’s low,” admitted Jenny, “but there are probably two reasons for that. Firstly, we’re still close to the ‘edge’ of It in all of our tests so far – the best result was from the Janet network – so we’re not seeing what you might call an integrated brain because It’s not as massively connected as the human version. Secondly, for the same reason, we’re not getting the full scale-free effect.”

  “But we get a higher figure for connected networks than disconnected ones – even though the actual level of noise remains the same. That has to imply some order, some control, we think.” Bob took his turn. “And, if It does start using the wireless capabilities It doesn’t yet know It’s got, then those figures will go up because It will be much – hugely – more densely connected and there won’t be so much of an edge to worry about!”

  They all paused for breath. Stephen considered for what seemed like an age. Eventually, he spoke slowly, and clearly reluctantly.

  “Here, we have access to parts of the Internet that I think you would consider further from the edge of It as you refer to it. We could arrange for your tests to be carried out at significant central European node centres. If we were to do that, would you predict higher values for your ‘Sentience Parameter’?”

  “Yes!” cried Jenny and Bob in unison. Aisha and Andy nodded.

  “And would you consider your theory vindicated if we were to read such values?”

  “Yes, certainly.” Jenny, Bob and Aisha now. Andy, however, had a suspicious look. Stephen continued.

  “And would you accept your theory disproven by the absence of such an increase?”

  “Mmm, OK,” they replied quietly, with distinctly less enthusiasm.

  *

  “I have discussed this with a single, very trusted colleague,” said Stephen, when they spoke again a short while later. “She now shares my somewhat loose opinion that this is an unlikely theory,” a pause, “… but one that may be worthy of further investigation.” The Desk beamed at one another in satisfaction.

  “So, how quickly can we perform your tests here?” asked Stephen bluntly.

  Jenny and Bob stared at each other in alarm, realising this was not something they had given much consideration.

  “Um, I suppose Hattie and I could be with you in a couple of days,” suggested Bob. “Maybe tomorrow night at a push?” He avoided Jill’s glare as she came in to collect empty cups and glasses.

  “Or, maybe we could send you the code?” asked Jenny, more as an enquiry of Bob than Stephen. Bob looked uncomfortable.

  “That’s going to be difficult,” he admitted. “Hattie’s a thing unto herself now.” He decided to give up with her formal title once and for all. “She’s been adapted and rewritten so many times, the closest thing she has to an operating system isn’t much like anything else. Getting something together in the way of code that might run on whatever you have there could be very hard indeed. I’d have to pull together quite a few threads from different parts. Then I wouldn’t really be able to test it before I sent it … and I’m not sure how we’d validate it … and I’d be surprised if it worked over there, if I’m honest.” He ground to something of a halt.

  “Nevertheless, I think that is our only option at this point, Bob,” said Stephen. “I cannot authorise a visit from you without some justification. My superiors would not allow it: in fact, I suspect they would take me off the case if they knew what we were proposing.”

  *

  So Bob, assisted as best she could by Jenny, tried, over the remainder of the afternoon and evening, to package Hattie’s analysis code together in a form that could be sent electronically to Stephen’s colleague – a young woman, with a harsh tone, who would remain forever officially nameless. This aspect of their collaboration no longer surprised Bob. They held frequent, short conferences – with and without Stephen – in order to establish what the target platform was and what physical testing equipment ‘George’ (as they began to call her offline) had access to. Stephen’s European team now had very sophisticated monitoring equipment that might even surpass Hattie’s accuracy and reach; but it was only modelled on Bob’s description of her operation, not her actual hardware and software. Consequently, the transition was always going to be a difficult one.

  It took Bob and Jenny over an hour to pull the necessary code together, with Bob far from optimistic. They then iterated many attempts with ‘George’. Sure enough, at first, the code would not load for her at all on her platform. When it eventually did, it produced syntax errors when it compiled. George proved herself quickly to be a developer of no small skill as she gradually adapted Bob’s code to her environment. Then she had to debug several run-time errors. Even when running without crashing, the software then would not talk to the monitoring hardware. When it finally did so, it produced meaningless – and obviously wrong – results. Bob and Jenny adjusted and revised and advised. They kept going …

  *

  In the early evening, while Jenny, Bob (and George) continued to work on the analysis code, Aisha and Andy announced they were going out for a coffee. This was met with a slight nod from Bob and a smile from Jenny. Jill, who was passing through the room to check on the house’s climate control (which appeared to be playing up again: RFS undoubtedly), asked with some concern.

  “Do you think it’s OK to go out?”

  “We can’t sit inside for ever,” Andy grumbled. “Whatever’s going on, we have to get on with our lives somehow.”

  “The government advice is that walking is about as safe as anything,” agreed Bob.

  “We are only going to the place we stopped off at yesterday, on our way home,” explained Aisha. “We will be back in less than an hour.”

  “Have fun,” laughed Jenny, as they let themselves out of the front door.

  Jenny and Bob were so engrossed with their work that they failed to notice the hour come and go. Nearly two had passed when Jill came to ask.

  “Are they not back yet?”

  Jenny cast an alarmed look at the clock. “No, they’re not. It’s been a while hasn’t it?”

  “I hope they haven’t hit problems,” Bob said. “That place is only a few hundred yards away, isn’t it?”

  “Just round the corner from the end of the street,” agreed Jill, drawing the curtain to one side to look. “You can see two-thirds of the way from here. But there’s no sign of them.”

  Another half an hour passed. Jenny and Bob continued to work but with frequent anxious glances at the clock. Jill looked out of the window every few minutes. Eventually, she announced.

  “I can see them. That’s them. They’re coming.” Bob blew a silent whistle of relief; Jenny released a deep breath. But Jill continued.

  “Although something looks wrong.”

  The other two rushed to the window.

  “What’s happened?” asked Jenny.

  About two hundred yards away, two figures – one slight and average height, the other a few inches taller and much stockier – were visible in the gloom. Streetlights lit them from random angles as they flashed on and off. The larger figure was being supported by the smaller. Jill and Jenny rushed out to help. Bob made preparations to call for assistance, if required.

  As the three of them re-entered a few minutes later, each trying somewhat ineffectually to support Andy, Bob was relieved to see the familiar wry grin on his face. Perhaps more grimace than grin, it might be said, but Andy was clearly in at least a degree of control of the situation. A hastily tied bandage around his knee, his trouser leg torn away above it, threatened to tell a different story, however.

  “What the hell happened to you?” cried Bob.

  Jill and Jenny relieved Aisha of her share of the burden and helped Andy to the sofa. Aisha regained her breath after her exertions and related the story.

  “An accident. It is really mad out there! On the way to the coffee shop, we saw so many things go
ing wrong. There are police cars and ambulances and fire engines everywhere. Also, there are engineers and people like that working all over the place. I suppose they are trying to fix things like Stephen said.

  “Anyway, the coffee shop was mostly open but things were not running smoothly. The barista said that all the businesses and shops and outlets had been told to try to stay open. People are trying not to let RFS affect them more than it has to. Everyone still thinks it is a terrorist cyber-attack and they are determined not to let them win!

  “So it took a long time for them to make coffee: there was a large queue. Many people it seems are still trying to carry on as normal. Like us!” She looked with concern at Andy. “Eventually, we left to come home.

  “But we had only walked about fifty yards when there was some sort of crash … in the road, I mean. I am not exactly sure what happened but the signals seemed to go wrong and a car and a cyclist collided. The cyclist hit a sign at the side of the road and came off his bike. The bike carried on and hit Andy. It hit him very hard on the leg,” she said with some emotion.

  “It’s really not that bad,” Andy grumbled roughly from the sofa. “The cyclist is in a much worse way. There was an ambulance passing. As Aisha says they’re all over the place. It stopped to check us out; but it was already taking one guy to hospital so they couldn’t fit both of us in. They took the cyclist because he couldn’t stand but they just patched me up and said that was probably the best they could do under the circumstances. They all seem really stretched. It’s really not good out there.”

  *

  Finally, the code ran on George’s platform. She messaged Bob to tell him and The Desk converged around their monitors. George came online; Stephen joined her.