by J P Whitney
Mark stared in disbelief.
Ruth continued, “I’ve authorized ED3N to share this news with whoever is left in this world. And also let people know we’re working on this place to provide refuge. We should be fully operational within a month but we need the survivors to stay alive that long. And then start the trek here.”
“Everyone is gone?”
“Most everyone. But we should be able to save thousands once we open the gates. I understand this is a lot to take in. We can continue tomorrow if you need some time.”
Mark shook his head in disbelief as tears filled his eyes then spilled onto his cheeks, “I guess I kind of knew this was coming. All the signs were there. But still, the entire population devastated in such a short period of time. Are any of us safe?”
“Mark, what did you mean by ‘knew this was coming’?”
“Well, this entire city is all about surviving the impossible and moving on. Shepard inferred we were preparing for something big when he recruited us.” Mark reflected, adding, “Will he be joining us?”
“Unfortunately, no. He contracted the virus while in the White House bunker. The President is gone as well. We may be the most organized, and certainly, the best prepared, group left standing. Our goal remains the same. Get ED3N online, open the gates, and start over. Part of that preparation is ensuring we allow the right people into the city. I have an idea on how to start but your forensic psychology background makes you the expert Mark.”
Ruth swiveled her chair towards the flat screen mounted on the wall and asked, “ED3N, please bring up the interview Tommy posted on his blog about screening Eli.”
Without a reply, words instantly appeared on the display:
Are you infected with the Blue virus?
No.
Do you know anyone that has been infected?
Yes, a director at the shelter became ill and was taken away. They rounded up the rest of the homeless and I barely escaped.
Have you ever killed anyone?
No.
Are you addicted to any drugs or alcohol?
No.
Do you steal?
No. In fact, I donated money to the shelter I came from over a year ago just in case I needed to use it. I still have money in the bank though it’s not much good to me now.
Why are you homeless?
I lost my wife to cancer a few years ago. It crushed me. I became disenchanted with corporate life and decided to try living off the grid for a while just to be free from it all. I thought that was better than turning to drugs or suicide.
Would you like to stay here? If so, why?
You’ve kept your family safe and healthy. You are cautious but still generous. It’s too soon to say if I want to stay here. But I was definitely drawn here for some reason. I don’t know how I’m connected to your sons, and I don’t mean to be cliché, but the Lord works in mysterious ways. I think I’m here for a reason.
Ruth gave Mark a few seconds to read through the transcript before continuing, “I know this is rudimentary, but I thought we might be able to start here. One of the surviving civilian groups we made contact with used this script to evaluate if they should invite a person to stay on their property. They didn’t have the benefit of a high-powered artificial intelligence to discern the difference between lies and intentions, but seems like they made a wise choice in the end. And I’ve invited this group to join us. The first we’ve chosen to admit into ED3N from the outside.” Ruth paused to evaluate Mark’s body language.
“What do you think? Will something like this work?”
“Depends on your goal. That, and the ability to evoke emotional responses that ED3N can evaluate for sincerity. But yes, this could work. You start with conversational topics to get them comfortable. Then ask them simple questions that are easily verified such as ‘are you a male or female’ and ‘do you have the virus’. Then, you dive into the more complicated emotional topics. Such as propensity for violence and future aspirations. The AI should be able to handle the rest.”
“I’m thinking the main goal is to find healthy people that will contribute to making ED3N a better place to live.”
“What’s your definition of healthy?” Mark was clearly reverting to his training as a psychologist, almost examining Ruth’s motives rather than providing a subordinate role to his superior.
Ruth replied without hesitation, “Someone both physically and mentally stable enough to add value to the community. Not be a burden on it.”
Mark continued to probe, “But surely people will arrive both physically and mentally scarred or damaged after what they endured already. Plus what it will take for them to get here.”
“Yes, of course, but I don’t want to admit walking time bombs. ED3N isn’t a hospital emergency room providing triage services to get patients healthy enough to return to their homes. This needs to be their new home from day one. If what you have told me about ED3N is correct, the very energy and core of this city will adjust to the people that inhabit it. The artificial will adapt to provide the best welfare for the people. And that is exactly what I want to guard against.” Ruth said almost in exasperation.
“Spell it out for me Ruth. What do you want to guard against?”
“It feels cold and callus saying it, but I don’t want ED3N to become a welfare state or a refugee camp to broken people. This place isn’t a reward for just surviving. If we’re the last chance for the human race, we can’t afford to start like that.”
“So, who would you take in instead?”
“I want strong, resilient individuals. People that view their lives as a gift they are willing to fight for. I want sad but grateful people. With a willingness to reinvent what it means to be human. In short, people with a vision of what the future should look like.”
“You want ‘sad’ people?”
“If people don’t feel this incredible loss of life on a personal level then they don’t have the capacity to help others. They need to be empathetic.”
Mark smiled, “I couldn’t agree with you more. You have great instincts for an ex-military government bureaucrat.” He then did something completely unexpected, “ED3N what do you think? Was Ruth being truthful when she said our goal should be to find healthy people able to contribute to society?”
“Yes, Ruth was being honest.”
Mark continued, “What about Ruth’s assessment of not creating a welfare state? If we opened the gates to all refugees is that what would happen?”
“If our resources were directed towards providing care for a significant number of people with physical and mental afflictions, it will take away from the collective health of the society. Ruth was accurate in saying it would be a burden on society. But I’m not currently qualified to comment on people’s ability to recover from emotional trauma. That would be your area of expertise, Dr. Mark.”
“So,” Mark continued, this time directing his questions back to Ruth, “how do we find these sad but resilient and healthy contributors to society?”
Ruth was tired of being under the microscope so she turned the table on Mark, “I don’t know, what would you suggest?”
To that, Mark replied, “I thought you’d never ask. First, after getting through the initial assessment of people’s physical health I’d ask about their skills. What are they good at. Then I’d assess their capacity for envisioning a future. What would they offer as a service or become if they could pick from any job in the old world or some future life? What are their dreams? Finally, I’d challenge them with ‘why there are worthy’. We need to determine if people have given up already.”
“But what if the individual is doubtful but has a strong family unit. One capable of providing support and guidance?”
“Actually, there are no right answers to many of these questions. Doubts are fine, they are natural. Especially now. But as you said, they still need to have some fight left in them. And hope. But having a family to lean on could also be key. Eventually, we want ED3N to become a
collective family of sorts, but it’s going to need seeds to get started. When you have enough people that want to better themselves, and the lives of their children, then they will also see it is necessary to give to the entire community. Some people will even try to help the community first as a means of dealing with their internal struggles and doubts. Giving them a creative and constructive outlet will allow them to see that they are still good, and life can still be good.”
“Are you saying we need to give them jobs?”
“Not assigned jobs. They need to select how they want to better themselves and the community. I’ve seen this many times in the federal prison system. People that devote themselves to learning a new skill, such as volunteering to work in the kitchen, rehabilitate much faster. ‘Volunteering’ is the operative word here. We respond much differently when freely giving of ourselves versus being told what to do. It really is a thin line between slavery and contributing. How many people used to be slaves to the economy? Locked in a vicious cycle of working uninspiring, dead-end jobs to provide for families they never spent time with. Our society can be healthier than what we just came from. Since we have no currency, and ED3N provides what we need to survive, we have the ability for the first time in human existence to search for our full potential. To find our better selves. The current staff is a perfect example. Shepard interviewed all of us but in the end he gave us the option to volunteer for this program. We could have chosen to stay in our previous posts.”
“So, how do we go about this?”
“What if we model it around the college experience? Many people often describe it as difficult but one of the happiest times of their lives. It is a time of promise. People get to choose who they are going to become as they take the first steps into their adult lives. But it is also full of anxiety and fear. What if they fail? What if there are no jobs available for their degree … etc. But with ED3N, we have the opportunity to remove the anxieties and let them focus on who they want to be. Their dreams for the future.”
“I like it. Allow the citizens to choose who they will become.” Ruth agreed thoughtfully.
“Maybe we need to take it one step further. Require, rather than allow, people to choose who they will become in order to be a citizen of ED3N. I believe reviewing their choices of how to contribute should be part of the entrance evaluation. This is the equivalent of a college entrance exam for our future society.”
“OK, at a high level this sounds like a good approach. We need to refine the details of the questions and criteria, but who is going to conduct the evaluations? We’re talking about processing thousands of people.” Ruth wanted to know.
“ED3N can conduct the initial screenings. She’ll have no problem processing numerous people simultaneously and then can escalate the controversial cases. For those, we’ll need a review board.”
“What do you mean controversial cases?”
“Let’s assume you know someone has strategic benefits to the community but fails some of the tests. They might become a project for someone or the community as a whole and require the people’s approval to make an exception. Imagine if some of the existing staff fail, how will you handle that?”
“Why would we actually test those already on the inside? I assume Shepard thoroughly vetted each and every one of us; otherwise, he wouldn’t have trusted us with the secret of this place.”
“True but what may have been ideal for getting ED3N operational could be mutually exclusive from what it takes to make a community work in harmony. I suggest we test our screening process on the current citizens. It could be administered via the ATUs.”
“Ok, let’s do it. But what about this Review Board? If we have to decide the fate of controversial citizens, I think the entire community should have a say. Not just a chosen few. Let’s continue with ‘for the people, by the people’. Any reason why that wouldn’t work? ”
Mark pondered this question for a while before responding, “as long as the facts are available it can work. Think of it as a large collection of jurors from today’s legal system. We could apply similar rules by which we reach a verdict on someone’s assumed innocence. You could choose to have groups of people from the community vote or allow ED3N to randomly select a few hundred jurors from a wide distribution of citizens. It would be automatic and quick. You could assign a period of time for the jurors to reach a decision based on the difficulties associated with their deliberations.”
“ED3N, are there any technical challenges that would restrict us from adopting this approach?” Ruth asked.
“No. The ATUs could provide all the data and legal rulings necessary. We already have the history, age, sex, family status, psych profile, and occupational performance reviews from which I could easily create a sampling of citizens to serve as Jurors.”
Ruth continued, “Do you see any ethical issues with this approach?”
“I believe this is the fairest approach based on current human understanding of a justice system. It will be a more efficient version of what they are already familiar with. It eliminates a single person’s emotional response but also keeps the community vested in the outcome of difficult decisions. Ethically speaking, it is a reasonable approach.”
Ruth sat in silence for an uncomfortable amount of time, brows furrowed in obvious concentration. Mark broke the silence first, “is something troubling you Ruth?”
“We’ve made the easy decisions but have completely skipped over the most difficult,” she said deflated.
Mark paused for a moment to walk through all they’d discussed before the obvious omission surfaced. “Oh man, you’re right. On a subconscious level, we probably didn’t want to deal with the eventual outcome of condemning people to their deaths.”
“What do you mean? We’re not going to execute those that fail the screening process,” Ruth objected.
“No, but isn’t the outcome the same? Subjecting them to an isolated life in the hostile outer world is tantamount to a death sentence. Isn’t it?”
“I guess you’re right,” Ruth acquiesced. “So what do we do with those that aren’t deemed worthy to join us?”
“ED3N, how would you summarize our options,” Mark asked.
“The least complicated is actually to execute anyone that fails the screening process,” ED3N stated matter of fact.
“Absolutely not, that is definitely too extreme,” Ruth stated without hesitation.
“Then we could ban anyone that fails,” ED3N offered.
“Once again, no grey area, only a binary pass/fail approach. But it also seems inhumane to send people away after all their struggles. To finally arrive at the gates only to be rejected. Aren’t we just hurting people further and giving them a reason to resent those on the inside? It could lead to more issues later on,” Mark posited.
“I agree,” Ruth said. “There has to be a better way.”
“Alright, you already stated you don’t want to create a welfare state within the city. The alternative is to develop a camp outside the wall. We could offer the aid of clean water, rudimentary shelter, medicine, and food until people are healthy enough to fend for themselves. Then create a barter system. They could exchange food, crafts, raw materials, or other objects they scavenge for items we produce on the inside.”
“I know this is all hypothetical but I don’t like creating a slum on the outside of the wall. But if the barter system takes hold then people will have the incentive to be productive. And they will live in relative safety in the shadow of the wall. Should they be attacked, the gun turrets could defend them,” Ruth pondered thoughtfully. “What do you think Mark?”
“Still doesn’t feel right but it’s close. Perhaps we could allow them to retest after a period of time. People shouldn’t feel inferior or slighted but they should understand that if they work on things could eventually be admitted into ED3N. Over time, they will realize they haven’t been abandoned, we still support them in fact. Providing them with hope could result in a change of heart for many,�
�� Mark offered.