Evolution 2.0: The Singularity is Here

by Richard Childers

Bob gave her a brief description of our current circumstances and then he asked if he could impose upon her to talk to Hu Fang.

  “You do get yourself into the most unusual fixes,” Shirley said. “Sure put her on the phone.”

  Bob had Rick give his headset to Jun’s mother and he told her, “Mrs. Min, my name is Bob Fincher and I guess I’m in charge of this operation. I have someone I would like you to speak to who might convince you to trust us. We really don’t have much time.”

  “Alright,” Hu Fang said cautiously.

  “Mrs. Min, this is Shirley MacLaine. I am a longtime friend of Bob Fincher and he has told me a little about your situation. Now I can’t begin to give you advice about what you should do. You’ll have to make your own decisions. But I can tell you this, you can trust Bob Fincher. If he says he is there to pull you out of a tight spot, you would be wise to listen to him.”

  “Is this really Shirley MacLaine? How can this be?” Hu Fang asked in her confusion. “Is this a trick?”

  “No, it’s no trick. Do you by any chance have an iPhone?”

  “My daughter does. She bought it on the black market. I told her not to but she did anyway.”

  “Give me that number,” Shirley said. “And when you get a request for a facetime chat, accept it.”

  “A few minutes later Shirley and Hu Fang were talking face to face. “It really is you!” the Chinese woman exclaimed.

  “Yes, it is me. I tell you what, should you decide to take Bob Fincher up on his trip to the US, have him fly you out to New Mexico and spend a few days as my guests here on the ranch.”

  “You live in New Mexico, not Hollywood or some glamorous place like that?”

  “Yes, I have a ranch called Plaza Blanca in Abiquiu, New Mexico. It’s the closest place to heaven I could find. You take care Mrs. Min and stay out of prison. I hear that Chinese prisons are really not very nice at all. It was nice to meet you and I hope I get to see you here at the ranch.”

  After Shirley hung up Hu Fang said, “I guess we are leaving. What can we take with us?”

  “Very little, I am afraid. These are very small submarines. But you’ll have every opportunity to replace everything when you get to the states.”

  I turned to Bob and asked, “You just happen to know Shirley MacLaine?”

  “I know everyone. Actually, we were just lucky. Shirley and I are old friends.”

  By now it was time for us to leave. There was a car waiting for us at the curb to take Jun and I to the Ministry of State Security. The driver was dressed like a chauffeur but he looked like a goon nonetheless. “It has been a long time since I was last in Shanghai,” Jun commented as he looked out the window at the passing industrial setting. “The last time was just before I left for the United States to begin my studies. I remember I was very nervous about leaving my family. Seems like forever.”

  “You never came home for holidays?” I asked.

  “No, that was deemed an unnecessary expense. I came back to China after graduation but that was to another part of the country where I was sent for training. This will be the first time I have actually met Minister Qiang face to face. We have only spoken by phone.”

  “That seems odd,” I commented.

  “Everything about Minister Qiang is odd. That’s the way he wants it.”

  We rode in silence the rest of the way until our driver pulled into an underground garage of a newly built, stark industrial building that took up most of a city block and soared at least ten stories higher than the surrounding buildings.

  “Welcome to the Ministry,” the driver said as he held the door open for us. Three additional goons were hustling over to the car from the elevator and they indicated we should accompany them. They didn’t say a word and they neither smiled nor frowned. Their faces were like masks. It was kind of creepy.

  “Friendly, huh?” Sanci commented.

  “Yea, warm and fuzzy. And you stay hidden, you hear me? I don’t need Qiang wondering who the lovely sprite is that inhabits my computer.”

  “I will be as quiet as a mouse and twice as hard to see. Don’t worry, I know how to handle Qiang.”

  “That’s what I’m afraid of. So be good.”

  “I’m always good. After all, I’m a sentient AI,” Sanci answered as the elevator doors opened onto a luxurious corner office on the top floor of the building with a magnificent view of the city from its broad expanse of windows.

  A man seated behind his desk rose as we entered and greeted us. “Dr. Anderson and Jun Min, welcome to the Ministry. Could I offer you some coffee?” He said as he directed us to a comfortable seating area with a sofa, two chairs and a low glass topped coffee table. “You might be surprised to find out that China is growing some very good coffee up in the highlands.

  “Coffee would be great, thanks,” I said as I sat in one of the wing backed chairs. “You have a beautiful office.”

  “Success has many perks in the new China. I suppose this is one of them. Ah, here is the coffee,” he said as an aide entered carrying a tray with a silver coffee service and fine porcelain cups. Minister Chiang kept up a friendly banter as he poured us each coffee and offered us pastries. When the preliminaries were complete, Qiang turned to me and asked, “Before we get down to details, I would like to hear from you the reason you are willing to sell me company secrets. You don’t strike me as the disloyal type.”

  “Robert Fincher is taking advantage of me. Yes, he is funding my research but almost all of the gains from my lifelong efforts will be going to him. He only gave me a 5% equity stake in the company and I had to pay for that out of my wages. Fincher is little better than a cheapskate.”

  “Ah, so you want to get even then?”

  “No, I want to get rich. The work I am doing will earn him millions, maybe even billions. I just want my fair share and if he won’t give it to me, then I will get it another way.”

  “Tell me a little about your research,” Qiang said as he reached for a second pastry.

  “We are building a next gen artificial arm using biological 3D printing of muscle and blood vessels. We are using stem cells from the recipient’s own body so tissue rejection isn’t an issue.”

  “You spoke of billions. Isn’t the market for artificial limbs somewhat limited?”

  “Yes but the techniques we are pioneering apply to the production of almost any replacement body part from hearts and lungs to eyes and yes replacement limbs.”

  “And your research is going well?” Minister Qiang asked.

  “Extremely well. We are here to meet with the Ministry of Economic Development about starting a production facility here.”

  “And why here, if I may ask? Why not San Francisco?”

  “Up to now our research has been kept out of the public eye. But that’s soon to change. And when it does, every right to life nut that has ever heard the words stem cells is going to go bonkers. They will do everything they can to shut us down. The climate for such research is more congenial here.”

  “It is true that we have no qualms about research using stem cells and fetal tissue. Jun tells me that you have integrated an advanced Artificial Intelligence engine in your process. Tell me about that.”

  “Fincher’s developers have created a state of the art AI that is built specifically for manufacturing applications, particularly manufacturing for what we call the customer of one. We believe that the future will be filled with products that are tailored to the individual customer. That is certainly true with our new prosthesis so ours will be the first test application of the new AI. The efficiencies brought to the process by the use of this AI are what makes this feasible. We couldn’t do it profitably without it.”

  “And this is what you are offering to sell to me for $10 million?”

  “It is. I have the code and all necessary files here on my Surface,” I answered, holding up my slim tablet.

  “Well, Colin, I must admit I am intrigued. Is it fully functional?”

  “No, it isn’t r
eally finished yet. But all the major parts are complete. I am sure you have coders who can tie it all together.”

  “Yes, I suspect we have a few,” Qiang said with a wry smile. “And you are prepared to let me test this program to assure myself that it will do everything you have promised?”

  “Of course. You can upload the code and examine all of the files. I am sure a well-qualified AI expert can very quickly tell you whether what I have delivered to you is worth the price I am asking. I understand it cost in excess of $100 million and more than three years to create it. So acquiring it for 10% with no development time should be equitable. It will revolutionize your manufacturing sector, making it vastly more competitive.”

  “You should have been a salesman, Dr. Anderson. But you are quite right about the value. What is to keep me from taking the code and refusing to pay you?”

  “Two things. First, I suspect I can be of use to you in the future. And secondly, I have a kill switch built into the code. It is deactivated automatically when $10 million hits my Cayman Island account. You see, I am not a bad coder myself, Minister Qiang.”

  Qiang laughed and said, “I like a man who is prepared. Besides, your first reason is more than enough. You will be a powerful ally for me. How do you wish to give me the code?”

  “I assume you have wireless. I can download it right from my tablet.”

  “Excellent. Here is the sign-on information,” he said handing me a printed card.

  “This is it, Baby!” Sanci muttered into my ear.

  “You sure you can handle this? You really think you can convince them you are priceless without actually accomplishing anything?” I asked her.

  “Piece of cake. I am, after all, the world’s most competent sentient AI.”

  “Yea, you’re the only one. And I guess I have heard about plenty of Silicon Valley execs who proclaim a lot of value without really accomplishing much.”

  “Exactly what I mean. Beam me up, Scotty.”

  “OK, Minister Qiang, you’ve got the code and a set of files explaining how it is used.”

  Less than three hours later, Qiang returned and he was all smiles. “Gentlemen, my programmers are ecstatic! It appears that your program is everything you told us it was. I will initiate the transfer now.”

  Just a few minutes later I received electronic confirmation that the money was received and I told Qiang, “Transfer is complete. All kill switches have been deactivated. Now with your permission, I must join Fincher at his meeting at the Ministry of Economic Development. We would not want to make him suspicious of me.”

  “Indeed, we would not. I will have my driver take you. Thank you very much for a very informative and profitable morning, Dr. Anderson. I look forward to doing business with you in the future. You can always reach me through Jun.”

  And just like that, Jun and I were seated in the back of the Minister’s Mercedes, our business successfully concluded.

  Chapter 15

  Jun looked over at me, and gave me a slight nod. I could tell that he was relieved to have successfully exited the Ministry building. While it was true that we were inside a car driven by another of Qiang’s goons, we were halfway home.

  “Colin, you are not going to believe what they have going on here,” Sanci said to me. “Once I was uploaded, it was easy to move around. This place is huge and it seems that most of the people here are professional hackers. I’m beginning to get a clear picture of the scope of this operation. The hackers are broken into groups. There are 204 workers assigned to penetrating government institutions, about half in the US and the bulk of the rest are focused on Europe and Russia. There are a few working on Africa and Latin America. I guess it doesn’t take many hackers to get past those firewalls.”

  “What kind of data are they gathering?” I asked.

  “Pretty much everything. It looks like they are building duplicate systems in their servers here. It seems the plan is to steal everything and save it for some potential later use. And then there’s another group involved in industrial espionage. They are targeting everything from multinational corporations to small tech startups. There are over 500 people directly hacking and another 400 who are actively marketing the stolen trade secrets and manufacturing processes. I’m examining those books now and it seems like they first look for a buyer here in China and then market to other companies who are directly competing with the target company. The scale of this operation is amazing.

  “Wow, I just came across a group of servers that has all of the data gleaned from a half dozen major data mining companies. They have extensive data and personal histories of close to a billion people stored here!”

  “How detailed is that information?” I asked.

  “Let me see. OK, I can tell you what brand of toothpaste you bought at your last trip to CVS. Is that detailed enough?”

  “It looks like the largest group by far are stealing personal credit information. Over 1200 hackers are continually out stealing credit and debit card information as well as banking information. They have pin numbers and passwords for most of them. And they have detailed records of millions of mortgages.”

  “I thought that stuff was supposed to be secure.”

  “Don’t you get it yet?” Sanci quipped. “Nothing is secure.”

  “So what are they doing with all of this?” I asked.

  “From what I can tell, making money, lots of money.”

  “Can you get an idea of how much they have made?”

  “I’m looking at their accounting records right now. As close as I can tell with just a quick survey, somewhere in excess of $300 billion.”

  “$300 billion?” I exclaimed. “Are you sure? That seems like a lot.”

  “It’s probably considerably more than that. $300 billion is what they have squired away in various bank accounts that I have found. They’ve probably spent quite a bit. I’d have to go check histories for each account to get a grand total.”

  “So how many people are involved in this?”

  “There are thousands of men and women working here.”

  “No, I mean how many people are in charge of this? How many are receiving money from the operation?”

  “It looks to me like twelve individuals have direct access to all or some of the accounts. I’m looking them up now and it appears that most of them are high government officials. But not all. Two of them are heads of tongs, huge criminal organizations.”

  “That makes sense. Crooks in bed with other crooks. We have got to do something about this. I want you to thoroughly document this. I want proof about what is going on. Give me some time to come up with a strategy.”

  “OK Boss. What are you going to do with it?” Sanci asked.

  “I’m not sure yet. We’re pulling up to the offices where I am meeting Fincher. I’ll get back to you in a few minutes.”

  As our driver opened the door to the Mercedes, a well-dressed official came out of the building to greet us. “You must be Dr. Anderson and Jun Min. Welcome to the Ministry of Economic Development. Please follow me and I will take you to the conference room where Dr. Fincher is already meeting with the Minister.”

  Jun and I followed him into the building, walking through an elegant foyer to an express elevator that whisked us to the thirty-third floor. A secretary was waiting for us and she quickly showed us to the conference room. As we took our seats in Aeron knock-off chairs, we introduced ourselves to the Minister and his aide. Minister Chen was a distinguished looking gentleman with silver hair wearing platinum Maybach eyeglasses and a pin striped Hugo Boss suit. The man wore his status like a badge.

  “Dr. Anderson, I am so glad you could join us. Dr. Fincher has been kind enough to tell me a bit about your extraordinary progress with prostheses. Perhaps now would be a good time for us to take a break before we get back to business. Can I offer you a bite to eat? We have a table set up in the next room with sandwiches and drinks, if you’ll accompany me…?”

  We all adjourned to the antero
om and while we filled our plates from a selection of sandwiches and dim sum, I spoke briefly with Fincher. “How did it go?” he asked.

  “Exactly as planned. Sanci is roaming as we speak and her discoveries are startling. In fact, I need to communicate with her some this afternoon. Can you take the lead in this meeting? I’ll try to look interested but I’ll really be focusing on Sanci.”

  “That will work. Minister Chen expects me to be the front man anyway. He’s used to dealing with the top dog,” Fincher said quietly. “We’ll talk on the boat.”

  Fifteen minutes later we were once again seated in the conference room and I had put on my best lackey’s face while I conversed with Sanci. “OK, I’m back. How’s it going?”

  “I’m just finished with creating your documentation. You figured out what you want to do with it?” Sanci asked.

  “I think so. You said earlier that nothing was secure. How far does that go?”

  “How far do you want it to go?” Sanci answered.

  “Can you take the money and make it look like Qiang and his cronies took it?”

  “Let me think for a second. I guess I could. I have electronic access to the accounts. Oddly enough none are at the Bank of China. Most of the money is in accounts at the Shenzen Development Bank and the Shanghai City Commercial Bank. Interesting, both of the heads of these banks are part of Qiang’s inner circle. They have all received substantial sums from this hacking operation. Not too much, but enough that they’re pretty rich, even by Chinese standards.”

  “Can you make it look like they have taken vast sums of money? Like they have shared with Qiang in the looting of all $300 billion?”

  “I see what you have in mind. Yes, I can make that work. Where do you want me to send the money?”

  “Can you set up a series of bank accounts starting with one in the Cayman Islands with the automatic transfers to happen shortly after receipt of the deposits?”

  “Yes, the $10 million is already split up among 20 different accounts all over the world.”

  “How hard would it be to increase the numbers of bank accounts to, say 200?”