The Media Candidate – politics and power in 2048

by Paul Dueweke

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  Election Fraud 201

  With two months of help from Sherwood, Monocle had progressed dramatically, but Jenner was still behind schedule when he left the program for Leadership Training. She now had less time for hacking, so her abbreviated sessions ran later and later as her workweek expanded. On one of these early morning ventures, she snooped through some Planck files.

  After Dr. Planck’s death, there was some debate at COPE about the dependence on the computer that had grown over the last few years. Some felt it was not the mission of COPE to develop revolutionary computer technology. The majority in upper management, on the other hand, felt that COPE’s mission was unique and too critical to the heritage of America to rely on standard technology. This concept dominated in the areas of robot development and data fusion and analysis. It was the politically correct view at COPE.

  To satisfy both groups, the candidates chosen for interviews were split between those who would continue the basic development of computer science and those whose background was operational management of large, but orthodox, computer systems. Five candidates were chosen for final interviews, three of them strong in developing advanced-computing concepts. Dr. Herbert Bethe had emerged as the leading candidate because of his fruitful R&D background and conservative approach to artificial-life development. COPE’s top managers had interviewed him, and he was the preferred choice of three of them.

  Jenner read the following memo from the executive director of operations:

  I recommend Dr. Herbert Bethe to be the next AD for Data Services.

  Dr. Bethe’s experience closely parallels that of Dr. Planck. In addition, Dr. Planck utilized Dr. Bethe frequently as a consultant during the computer development process over the last few years. Thus, Dr. Bethe would be able to hit the ground running and continue the excellent work of Dr. Planck. Dr. Bethe made it clear that he would not, however, simply accept the current status of the computer as his starting point. He would, instead, initially test the current system for flaws and analyzing it to determine its capability and the appropriateness of its evolution to date. He would make his findings known to a computer review committee that he would form to insure oversight. He believes that Dr. Planck functioned too secretly considering the enormous power with which he was working and that the evolution he created may become dangerously uncontrollable in the future if not scrutinized closely now.

  Dr. Natasha Winger is an excellent candidate for a computer system operations manager. She is a very efficient and highly motivated manager of people and computers but has little interest or knowledge of advanced concepts such as artificial life or cellular automata. The COPE computer, however, is significantly more complex and dynamic than anything she has ever worked with before. There are two dangers in applying her to the task at hand. First, she might greatly underutilize the computer’s capabilities since the documentation created by Dr. Planck is quite sketchy. The greater danger, however, is that she might use the computer inappropriately, not fully appreciating the degree of complexity that has been built into it or has evolved by means of Dr. Planck’s pioneering approaches. This computer is a highly dynamic system and might be a threat to the laminar operations of COPE’s highly interactive operations environment.

  COPE used a system for management selection that was forced on it by the Federal Government as a result of an Act of Congress that had been lobbied heavily by the Federal Employees Union. In order to assure absolute fairness in the selection process, the selection committee must make its recommendations directly to an impartial “elector” who then announces the results. COPE went a step further and replaced the elector with the most impartial entity of all, a computer. The Congressional Act forbade the selection committee members from discussing the selection among themselves or with outsiders. This Employee Selection Fairness Act of 2022 was patterned after the Procurement Integrity Act of 1989, which had the effect then of insuring that Government procurements would henceforth deliver the least effective product for the highest possible price in a pseudo free-market environment. A similar effect was realized in the selection of civil service management personnel as a result of the 2022 law.

  Jenner breached the wall of secrecy around the ballot committee and compared the recommendations in the memos accompanying the votes with the summary vote tabulation released by the ballot committee. According to her tabulation, Herbert Bethe had been the winner, yet Natasha Winger had been selected.

  “Holy shit! Somebody threw the election for the new AD.” Jenner sat before the terminal, dumbfounded. But who could have done it? she thought. Who had that kind of access? … Not Planck, he was dead. … Hmm … a suicide. Is all this possible?

  She reached for the phone on her desk, pushed a single button, and waited.

  “… Yes,” came the weak salutation.

  “You won’t believe this. Things are starting to fit together, Sherwood.”

  “Have you forgotten that I do not stay up all night waiting for your calls?”

  “This is more important than a damn time zone. This computer is acting like a tyrant. It threw the selection of the data services AD last year.”

  “Could this be a trick it learned from you, Jenner?”

  “This is no joke. The interviewers picked this really powerful computer-science guy who was going to do some detailed tests of the computer and make sure it wasn’t getting too smart. The computer then falsified the ballot records to choose Winger. She had extensive experience managing big systems, but she was clearly not going to challenge the COPE system. She represented the least threatening alternative to the status quo of the computer. Can you believe that, Sherwood?”

  “Where are you, Jenner?”

  “In my office.”

  “How could you be so stupid? Never call me again, Jenner! Do you understand? Never!”