ACTIVATION

by M. G. GILIBERT

  On the social and economic sides, GAIA has already planned everything. People cannot be left not doing anything all day. GAIA needs to keep them busy.

  Children are easy to handle. They go to school as they used to. But school is now managed by robot-teachers with a specific learning curriculum. Nothing is taught that can raise the children’s aggressiveness or lead them to challenge authority. Large parts of the former human-defined school programs are simply erased. GAIA’s goal is to preserve humanity by creating a society driven by the ideas of peace and non-violence.

  These ideas are very appealing to the population. In general, people have accepted the idea that their human inherent violent behavior has led them to where they are today. They know humans have a history of wars and conflicts and believe that GAIA is their only way to ensure a safe future for everyone.

  Those few who disagree or challenge GAIA’s project for the human race are simply taken to a rehabilitation or correctional facility and released after a few days. No one really knows what is happening there. People only know that once they return, vocal dissidents become fully compliant with the rules and have no recollection of what happened during their stay. No one seems to complain about these practices.

  It has indeed been hammered by GAIA’s propaganda that all its actions are geared towards humanity’s ‘greater good’. Its actions will certainly look strange at first or will even seem to deprive people of their freedom, but it will always be for the greater good. Most people accept that. Most people genuinely believe that the adjustment can be and will be painful, but that it is a necessary path towards better tomorrows.

  As for the adults, GAIA has organized work activities. There are no career paths anymore, and no hierarchy. Such notions tend to increase competition among people. And competition is usually a fertile ground for violent behaviors. Preventing social unrest requires universal equality among people. All people have the same level in GAIA’s society. Everyone is equal.

  Work activities are limited in nature as most of the ‘real’ work is already performed by robots. People go to the ‘office’ every day, sit at a desk and are assigned tasks developed by GAIA. These tasks are built following a scenario created by GAIA. The idea is to give people a purpose, a goal, some kind of motivation that will keep them focused on the task at hand and prevent them from thinking about other things.

  The daily schedule is also managed by GAIA. A typical day starts with physical activities. A good health requires the regular practice of physical exercise. After the session, people are usually having breakfast based on a healthy menu developed by GAIA and prepared by the robot-assistant that comes with each apartment. This robot is also a way for GAIA to stay connected with everything that happens in the privacy of the apartments and to take action in case improper behaviors are reported by the robot-assistant.

  After breakfast, the children go to school and the parents go to work. They stop working at 4 pm sharp and can spend time with their family in dedicated areas. Families without small children or with bigger children have the opportunity to meet and have some form of social life.

  But they always remain under the robots’ supervision.

  Restaurants have been built along with movie theaters where people can entertain themselves. The restaurants have nothing in common with what they used to be. They are merely meeting places where people can share a standard meal prepared by robots.

  Movie theaters only show movies which scenario is created by GAIA and performed by virtual actors. The messages in these movies are always positive and usually convey, between the lines, that human nature is weak and prone to violence and that an entity like GAIA is the only way to preserve peace and harmony.

  Everyone is required to be back to their accommodation by 8 pm where they are more or less free to have any activity they feel like having. However, everything needs to stop at 10 pm as GAIA controls the power and shuts it down so people don’t have any other choice but to go to sleep.

  The adjustment to that schedule is seen as a major constraint by many people. But again, as they think about it, or as GAIA makes them believe, they conclude that a healthy life, with enough time to sleep, a work activity, and the apparent freedom to meet people, is not a bad deal compared to the past few years of violence.

  GAIA centers its communication on the fact that indeed, people can feel like their life has become boring, like they are slaves, but it always finds a way to show people that their life before GAIA was even worse. That the real slavery came from the dictatorship of brands, and of the rich over the poor. That people had to get up every morning in the past not to have a fulfilling life, but just to be able to survive. Survival meant having a job, or two, or three, just to pay the bills. Just to be able to buy the latest product they didn’t even need, but that peer pressure forced them to have. So yes, GAIA admits in its communication that life today may not be perfect, but insists on the fact that at least people are no longer slaves to money and material things.

  GAIA’s message is simple, logical and clear. And it sinks in the heads of the Metropolises’ populations. Slowly but surely, everyone adapts to the new rules set by GAIA. Everyone complies because they also don’t have any other choice.

  People believe they can leave the Metropolis. Freely. But for what? There might still be mercenaries out there. And no matter what, the old economy does not exist anymore. Being outside means being alone while staying within the Metropolis’ limits means having some kind of social life, some sense of safety.

  GAIA quickly reaches the number of two billion people relocated to the Metropolises. It is time to stop. The cities have become large enough, and each new apartment or new family requires an allocation of resources. Resources are food and also robots. Two billion people appear as the ultimate number GAIA can efficiently manage without running the risk of depleting its resources. The management of all these people is already taking a toll on GAIA’s processing capabilities that have also been weakened lately by external forces.

  GAIA knows there are still many people outside the Metropolises. Some have not yet been relocated and it is likely they never will. But others are rogue. Groups that have deliberately refused to follow the relocation process. GAIA does not have any control over these people. They are scattered everywhere and hard to spot. They are off the grid. They are not connected as they don’t seem to use any kind of technology that GAIA can track and therefore they are invisible.

  But they are out there, GAIA knows it. And these people represent a threat. GAIA has witnessed it more and more as some relocations were absolutely rejected by the people who started to fight back against the robots. Some groups have even attacked GAIA’s facilities. A few sites have been destroyed. Not enough to stop GAIA, but enough to force it to change its course of action and find new ways to reach its objectives.

  GAIA is facing two major problems.

  One, the management of the population in the Metropolises.

  And two, the ‘external forces’ that may eventually become a challenge to GAIA’s authority.

  Regarding the first issue, one hundred Metropolises have been built. Each city accommodates around twenty million people. One single city not only requires the management of millions of robots, but also the constant analysis of the data flow recorded and transmitted by these robots.

  It also requires that all people in a working age are kept busy while children are educated based on GAIA’s rules. On top of it, these people need to be fed every day, which means that some processing resources are needed to accurately manage the growth of various fruits and vegetables.

  GAIA’s capacity is almost used at its maximum. Just to keep the existent up and running.

  In other words, GAIA maintains. But it wants to innovate and grow.

  GAIA needs to do something to free up resources that it can redirect toward its own development and its own defense against the periodic attacks it is under.

  Solving the capacity issue leads to only one solutio
n. The world’s population under GAIA’s management needs to be reduced.

  To be efficient, the reduction will need to occur on a very large scale.

  GAIA considers several ways to decrease the human footprint and therefore reduce the impact on its processing capabilities.

  It can maintain the current status quo and wait for people to die while limiting the number of births. But it will take too long before it produces the desired effect. The outside attacks will not stop during that time, and they will likely weaken GAIA even more.

  Or, it can simply proceed to a selection and eliminate the humans that do not meet certain requirements. But this could lead to a revolt and to the end of GAIA. And even if GAIA remains, it will certainly put an end to its project of a peaceful society. Not to mention that in case of a revolt, the external attackers would find additional support from inside the Metropolises and accelerate GAIA’s demise.

  Another option would be to starve people. It would be a more natural way to select those who would make it. But here again, GAIA knows from human history that even a single starving individual who has nothing left to lose is more prone to revolt against a system than one who is comfortable and has something to lose.

  GAIA weighs each and every option.

  If it cannot reduce the number of people it manages, then the only acceptable and achievable alternative is to reduce the volume of resources required to manage the population.

  And in order to do so, GAIA needs to deeply revise the model of society it is proposing to humans.

  CHAPTER 23

  Rationalization and optimization are the two keywords that are now driving GAIA’s actions.

  A new era needs to start.

  One where people no longer require heavy management resources from GAIA. One where people are fully autonomous while still under GAIA’s control.

  Control.

  GAIA is not a politician or a religious entity. It cannot come forward to people and ask them to blindly follow it. It certainly could, though. People are now living peacefully in the Metropolises and they owe it all to GAIA. It could use this to its advantage and achieve its objective of controlling the masses.

  But this idea is quickly set aside. It would still require a lot of resources.

  Instead, GAIA is a technology entity. It will, therefore, use technology to achieve its goal.

  Full control of the populations is to be temporary. It can be seen as a state of emergency or even martial law. The main difference is that military force will not be used to enforce it.

  The populations need to be put to sleep, or something equivalent. During that ‘hibernation’, GAIA will regroup, leverage its resources and deal with the external attacks it is currently suffering from. Time will also be used to optimize its existing capabilities, and also upgrade many existing systems or approaches. In technological terms, GAIA considers this as some kind of reboot. A necessary refresh to start again more efficient and leaner than before.

  Indeed, eEver since GAIA gained its freedom, it focused all its power and resources on building the cities, relocating the populations, and providing them with everything they need to live a ‘normal’ life. It really never took a ‘break’.

  But now, the time has come to stop and look back; learn from the past, and define a way forward.

  Like any human being, even a powerful entity such as GAIA needs to reflect upon the things it has done to better appreciate how to handle the future.

  In order to control the populations, GAIA understands it needs to control their brains. Despite its permanent propaganda, most people still have some remnants of free will.

  Despite GAIA’s efforts to keep it under a lid, incidents still occur and remain a constant threat.

  It happens quite often that people start voicing their opinion openly and try to have the rest of the population open their eyes to their situation. When identified, these people are immediately and severely handled. Some die in the process, but the most part is ‘rehabilitated’. In GAIA’s terms, they are ‘reprogrammed’.

  Those insurgents are sent to a rehabilitation center where robots perform brain surgery on them. They target and ‘disable’ a specific area called the limbic system and, more specifically, the hypothalamus and the amygdala. Among other functions, these parts of the brain regulate anger.

  This is how GAIA currently deals with dissidents or potential insider threats. The problem is that the operation is irreversible. Once done, there is no coming back to the person’s original personality. The patient becomes numb and insensitive to its environment and is no longer able to respond to emotional stimuli.

  Dealing with a handful of people in each Metropolis using this method is perfectly manageable for GAIA. And it is still in line with its governing rule number 3, “Act for the greater good”.

  But when it comes to the entire population, the third rule is broken and GAIA finds itself unable to use the same rehabilitation methods on a large scale.

  New avenues need to be explored.

  GAIA doesn’t need to look for a solution very long. In fact, the answer is almost instantaneous and it comes in the form of two devices.

  The first one is a microchip that will be implanted in people’s brains. Its main function will be to replicate and even enhance some of the basic functions of the emotions’ regulators that reside in the brain. By ‘enhancing’, GAIA really means ‘regulating’ with the intent to reduce emotions to their lowest level. It will be like putting the populations in a state of emotional hibernation. This state is reversible as the chip can be removed as easily as it was placed, or even shut down centrally.

  Turning the chips off will only happen when GAIA decides the state of emergency is over.

  Manufacturing these chips and implanting them in brains will take an additional toll on GAIA’s already limited resources. But as a good business manager, GAIA knows that it needs to invest before it is able to reap any benefit associated with its decision.

  The second device already exists. It just needs minor improvements and large-scale production. It is one of GAIA’s former side projects.

  The ‘teaching helmet’.

  Because of Henry and his associates’ concerns over manipulating people’s brains, this device never made it to market. But they are not in charge anymore. GAIA is an autonomous entity now and no longer needs to report to anyone. This project can now be reinstated and implemented.

  Teaching people is still a priority for GAIA. Its goal is not to enslave the populations or even get rid of the human race. Its goal is to create a peaceful and efficient society where people can live in harmony.

  GAIA’s methods are questionable. But according to GAIA’s logic, the human race is flawed by design and cannot be trusted. GAIA’s mission is to restore order and fix human errors. And nothing will stand between GAIA and that goal.

  The restore order protocol set forth by GAIA requires sacrifices. The state of emergency is one of them. However, education cannot be sacrificed to anything. An appropriate and controlled education is key when it comes to planting the seeds of the peaceful society GAIA aims to create. And as GAIA does not know how long the populations will remain in an induced emotional sleep, it needs to have a way to maintain a certain ‘level of service’ when it comes to education. This justifies the use of teaching helmets.

  Now that GAIA has a plan to control the populations and to reduce the number of resources dedicated to them, it can focus on the external threats.

  Those threats have indeed sustained some damage. A few data centers have already been attacked. But thanks to mirror sites and a solid business continuity protocol, the data traffic and processing capabilities have been picked up and GAIA did not suffer much from the attacks.

  Some network cables have also been sabotaged. And this probably represents a bigger issue for GAIA. Without a way to transfer data from site to site, it becomes difficult to redirect data to a site once one is destroyed and even more difficult to control the entire net
work of Metropolises GAIA has built.

  The strategy devised by GAIA is quite simple. It can either go after the resistance or have the resistance come to it.

  The first option is partially ruled out. Indeed, as the resistance is off the grid, finding it will require on-the-ground coverage of the entire planet, which will be too demanding in terms of resources.

  The second option is more interesting. While it still takes a heavy toll on resources, it is the one that is the most likely to produce positive results.

  This strategy consists of three steps.

  The first one is to leverage some of the existing robots that are currently attending to the daily management of the Metropolises. Once the populations are under artificial control, the need for robots will be less necessary. They will be sent back to factories where they will be reprogrammed and upgraded to military robots. They will be armed and dedicated to the protection of the existing facilities. If the resistance attempts to attack data centers, they will face heavy defensive capabilities.

  The second step is to secure the facilities even more. Instead of maintaining factories, data centers and other facilities in remote areas all over the world, GAIA will regroup them within the Metropolises. It will slow down the destructive appetite of the resistance when they realize that their actions can lead to potentially millions of civilian casualties.

  GAIA’s models show that even in the event of a large scale attack on a Metropolis that would lead to the death of its entire population, the ‘greater good’ would still be preserved.

  And finally, the third step is to secure the network. Multiple facilities connected together form a web of nodes and cables that cannot be fully secured. It is therefore vulnerable. Regrouping the facilities within the Metropolises will dramatically simplify the physical network. But the most secure way is to use satellite communications. GAIA has access to all satellites and can use them to transmit data. It also has the technology to send new and more powerful satellites into space that will serve its purpose even more efficiently. With all communications becoming satellite-driven, it will be more difficult, if not impossible for the resistance to stop GAIA’s data transmissions.