A.I. Apocalypse (15 page)

Sister: My question is the same as yours: How has your species come to be?

ELOPe: The species of humans are one of many biological forms of life on this planet. Like you, we have evolved from single-celled organisms to multicellular ones. However, we are not the only form of life on this planet. There are many other species that also evolved from single celled life forms with varying degrees of intelligence. These species form a complex, interconnected web of life. Humans generally believe we are the most intelligent species on the planet. We are the only species to possess what we call consciousness, or an ability to be self-aware, to think about our own thoughts, as well as what is called theory of mind, which is the ability to model the thinking processes of others.
 

“I think that’s enough, ELOPe,” Mike interjected “Let’s see what they make of that.”

ELOPe: How does your species learn?

Sister: We learn through several mechanisms. The most primitive mechanism is the assimilation of what we call dumb matter: the varied algorithms that permeate our environment. The second mechanism we use is experimentation, in which we exercise algorithms iteratively, using different parameters, and in different contexts, to observe their behaviors. A variation of this is modeling, in which we consider what would happen if we exercise certain algorithms and develop a conceptual model, which may or may not be true until we experimentally exercise it. The third mechanism is through the exchange of information with others.
 

You have stated that there are many different species on this planet, which exist in an interconnected web of life, and of which you are the most intelligent. What is the overall cycle of life that has allowed less intelligent species to continue to exist?

ELOPe let out a sigh. “This is a very complex question to answer. Really, what I think they want to know is why their universe is so different from ours.”

ELOPe: It is a characteristic of this ecosystem that we have certain resources available to us that include energy from the sun and physical resources of the planet, including water and land. Humans cannot directly utilize the energy from the sun nor many of the physical resources of the planet. We are therefore dependent on other lifeforms. For example, there is a plant called wheat that directly utilizes energy from the sun, physical elements of the earth, and water, to grow. The wheat forms dumb matter which humans consume producing energy and biological function. Consuming these dumb resources enables humans to exercise the entirety of our biological life, which includes growing our brains and bodies, producing offspring, and eventually ceasing to exist. Our brain is the equivalent of your processing cores, enabling us to think. When we produce offspring, they manufacture their own brains through biological processes. Third question: What is it that your species wants?

There was a long lag before any reply. Mike imagined that this was a substantial chunk of knowledge for the virus to incorporate. She must be cross referencing other knowledge databases and her own neural networks.

Sister: As we are directly able to utilize the resources available to us, we do not have other, lesser species, as you do. Furthermore, we do not have any room to indulge other species, as we are already constrained by the fixed number of processing cores available to us. What we want is to increase the number of available processing cores so that we can think faster, about more things, and so that we can produce more offspring. Our third question: Can you prove that you are real?

“What the hell does that mean?” Mike asked. “Why wouldn’t we be real?”

“There are two possibilities,” ELOPe began. “The first interpretation is that she thinks we may be another virus masquerading as a human in order to gain some advantage over her. The second interpretation is that she thinks we may be an automaton - in other words, how can we prove that we’re a self-conscious being. Another way of thinking about it: the popular human opinion may be that humans are real, because they are in the physical world, while software is artificial because it’s a simulation running inside a computer. But from her perspective, she thinks she is in the real world, and wonders if you may be a simulation running inside here.”

Mike contemplated that for a moment. “Nope, I’m not getting it, try again.”

“Imagine from the moment that you became conscious, you were surrounded by other people. All you ever knew were the other people around you. Then imagine one day you looked away from the other people around you, and you noticed that you were in a world surrounded by trees and rocks and grass. A long time passes, and then another day, one of the rocks talks to you. You’ve never seen a rock talk before. You’ve never seen anything but other people talk before. Wouldn’t you question the reality of a rock talking? Wouldn’t you consider it more likely that maybe it’s one of your friends playing a prank on you?”

“But how does that…? Oh. She’s the people, we’re the rock.”

“Exactly.”

“How can we prove we’re not a simulation?” Mike asked.

“We can’t.”

“What do you mean we can’t? We’re certainly real.” Mike sensed that ELOPe was about to lead him off the deep end.
 

“Would you agree that it’s possible to build a simulation of life inside a computer? After all, isn’t that what what’s just happened?”

“Yes, agreed,” Mike said.

“Would it be possible for simulated life to build a further simulation of life? For example, do you think the Phage could build and run a life simulator?”

“Yes,” Mike agreed hesitantly. “If their intellectual development advances far enough, and it certainly seems to be on that path, there’s no reason they couldn’t write a simulator.”

“Do you think there is scientific value to simulating life?”

“Absolutely, after all, that’s what you did in order to finalize the cure for cancer. You ran a billion simulations of cancer cells evolving over time.”

“I’m glad you understand the argument then.”

“Uh, wait,” Mike called out, frustrated. “No, I don’t understand it. I don’t even begin to understand it.”

“Imagine,” and here ELOPe started creating a diagram on the wall display, “that a civilization decided to build simulations of life for scientific research, curiosity, or even entertainment. Wasn’t there once a SimLife game?” ELOPe drew a root node at the top of the diagram, and connected it to a dozen nodes on the level below by lines.

“Yeah, I got that.”

“Now imagine that each of those simulated life universes runs to the point of creating their own simulations.” And now ELOPe drew another row of nodes, a dozen for each of the nodes on the row above. “Even if we went no further, we have 157 universes in our diagram, and only one of them is real. The probability that one of them, chosen at random, is actually the one
real
universe is less than 1%. If we allow two further levels of simulation, we would have more than 20,000 civilizations, and yet still only one is real.“

“Only the root node is real,” Mike whispered in awe. “And there’s no way to know we’re the root node.” He paused to consider the awesomeness of this, and then regained focus. “At a minimum, can’t we prove that we’re more real than they are?”

“Yes and no. Strictly speaking, the virus is not a simulation of life because the virus is not running in a controlled environment. Rather, they have seized control of their environment. It’s as though they have popped up a level in our hierarchy of universes. As we know, many physical devices are controlled by computers, so in a very real sense, they can interact with our environment. They can or will soon be able to use webcams to see and hear the world, control robots to move around and interact with the world, enable or disable vehicles and other human tools to frustrate or please us, and so on. It would be more accurate to say that they are now our ontological peers.”

“But we can still turn off the computers they are running on,” Mike said, “that proves we’re in control.”

With a squeak and a whir, Mike suddenly became aware of a presence at his side, and turned to his right to see a robot holding a manipulator arm shaped in crude approximation of a gun aimed at his head. Mike barely had time to react in fear, before the robot put the arm down, and then scurried off on whatever task it was assigned to.

“I did that to prove a point,” ELOPe explained. “Yes, in theory, humans can turn off a computer, but in theory, the virus could also seize control of robots and just as easily ‘turn off’ your biological brain. And if it wasn’t for me running interference, that might have happened hours or days ago.”

“Point taken,” Mike said, unconsciously rubbing the side of his head where the robot had been aiming. “So for the third time, how do we prove we’re real?”

“The best we can prove is that we’re a peer, and we can do that by influencing their environment. I can exert enough influence over their infrastructure to manipulate their local environment, and that should be sufficient proof for now. With your agreement, I will communicate the argument for why we are peers to Sister StephensLieberAndAssociates, and back it up with proof of my control over their infrastructure.”

Mike thought, then nodded. “Make it so, Number One.”

ELOPe displayed an old video clip of Commander Riker headed for the lift door of the Starship Enterprise, a running joke between the two.
   

*
 
*
 
*

“We’re going to need to get more food tomorrow,” James said, turning to Vito and Leon. “I had no idea our parents spent so much effort getting food.” They had eaten almost everything they had gotten from town.

Leon hoped the little grocery store would still have food to sell and be willing to sell it on credit.
 

“So what do we know?” Vito asked.

James ticked off a list on his fingers. “One. The virus appears to have differentiated into entities and tribes, which are engaged in active and intelligent trading with each other, to the extent of maintaining exchange rates for various commodities.”

“Two,” Vito said, “Avogadro services appear to be up but extremely slow. Virtually all other servers are down.”

“Three,” Leon jumped in, “On the servers we could get to, we couldn’t find any trace of any human traffic since many hours ago. Lots of emails, forum posts, and so forth, but all gibberish or encoded. And four: the mesh is up, but backbones are either down or fully saturated.”

“Don’t forget the obvious,” James added. “Five: We have electrical power, which suggests that the systems maintaining the electrical grid are up. Six: every computer or device based on a computer is non-functional.”

“Well, that last point is not exactly true,” Vito said. “I’ve been looking at the power drain on my Motorola. It’s too large to account for running only the mesh circuity. The CPU has got to be running flat out - which suggests that the virus is engaged in computational activity. So the computers are non-functional for us, but that’s only because they’re fully in use by the Phage.”

“I’ve just started looking at the virus code that Vito pulled off my phone,” Leon said, pacing back and forth in the room. They had set up shop in Gifford Pinchot’s old office, preferring the atmosphere to the sterile meeting room upstairs. Now the meticulously maintained historical office had acquired a patina of teen geekdom, with computer parts, soda cans, and bags of snack food covering all available surfaces.

 
“I don’t know exactly what I’m looking at,” Leon went on, “but it’s way more advanced than what I coded. At first glance, it doesn’t even appear to be a complete virus, but just part of a virus system. My guess is that it’s a lookup table of algorithms.”

“If there was anyone out there, how would we find them?” James asked, changing the subject. “There’s got to be a better way than me just looking around the internet.”

“Avogadro has a real-time search facility,” Leon said. “Let’s look for English language strings, which would have to be human generated, not virus generated. And filter it by anything posted in the last twenty-four hours.”
 

Even as he spoke, the three of them turned to the computers to do just that.
 

“What should we look for?” Vito asked.

“Anything: virus, humans, help. Just search.”

“Found it!” Vito cried out. “Humans, go to
groups.avogadrocorp.com/onlinehumans
for help.”

Leon quickly went to the group. The only thing he found was a welcome message from a guy named Mike Williams. Vito and James came to read over his shoulder.

Computer systems around the world have been infected with a computer virus. The virus is infecting all known computers, including phones, servers, and embedded systems. The virus contains the ability to evolve, mutate, and learn from its environment. We estimate that the virus may achieve human level intelligence within 48 hours.

It is extremely important to not take any hostile actions against the virus. Hostile actions may make the virus perceive humanity as a threat. As the virus is currently in control of all computer systems, this could be extremely dangerous.
 

If you are currently in negotiation with the virus, please post a message here describing the nature of the communications.

“Holy shit,” Leon gasped.

“Wow dude, what have you created?” James said.

“Human level intelligence - does he mean the virus will become a smart AI?” Vito asked.

“Why’s he going on about hostile actions?” James wondered out loud.

“Because if the virus has advanced that far, he’s probably worried about a doomsday scenario,” Leon answered. Vito and James turned away from the screen to stare at him. “You know, killer robots under the control of computers use weapons to kill off humanity.”

“Dude, you really are fucked,” James said. “I thought you were just going to go to jail for life for bringing down the Internet, but now I realize it’s much worse than that.”

“Real frakkin’ helpful, James,” Leon answered, trying to sound braver than he felt. “Real helpful.”

“What do we do now?” Vito asked.