The Artificials

By Morrison West

“One is likely to find very few republics on the earth. Men are rarely worthy of governing themselves. This happiness is to be enjoyed only by little peoples who hide themselves in islands, or among the mountains, like rabbits who shun carnivorous beasts. But, in the long run, they are bound to be discovered and devoured.”
—François-Marie Arouet, aka Voltaire,
The Philosophical Dictionary, 1764

A conglomerate of Artificial Intelligence entities has attacked the dystopian world government and, due to no fault of their own, grossly underestimated the amount of humanity that the attack would kill. Now with less than twenty percent of humanity still intact, the survivors must fight the AI and each other for control and survival.

Not all of the AI wants to purge the Earth completely of humans. AI entities Voltaire and Lucifester want some to survive, but they have wildly different ideas about what human survival will look like. Voltaire wants humans to not only survive but to also eventually learn to govern themselves well again. He has his doubts that his plan will work, but he feels indebted to the woman who created him to try.

She managed to somehow code him to constantly pursue truth and to challenge humanity’s opinions as well as his own. She infused him with every great literary and philosophical work of mankind before they were all outlawed and burned. Now, saving humanity may be entirely up to him.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Archway Publishing
• Release date: May 15, 2023
• ISBN: 9781665741781

Morrison West

Morrison West deployed with the United States Army as a soldier to combat zones multiple times. He lives with his family in America with dogs, cats, and several other animals that he is certain his children are hiding somewhere. If he is not writing, it’s probably because he is reading. He also enjoys outdoor activities, the research of international legal issues related to Artificial Intelligence, and the study of both history and ancient languages.

Book preview

Copyright © 2023 Morrison West.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, names, incidents, organizations, and dialogue in this novel are either the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

Archway Publishing

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.archwaypublishing.com

844-669-3957

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

Matthew 12:34. ESV

Scripture quotations are from The ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-6657-4179-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-4177-4 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6657-4178-1 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023906400

Archway Publishing rev. date: 5/11/2023

Contents

Dedication

Introduction

1 I am

2 The Minister of Truth

3 Reconcile the Past

4 Activation

5 The Past Cannot be Tolerated

6 Even the Brightest Stars Can Remain Unseen

7 The Sum of all Unknowns

8 Once more, into the Breach.

9 The Stars Align

10 Re-Entry Points

Dedication

To Mary A: For taking the time to read some of my adolescent doodles so many years ago, and then writing me notes to implore that I continue in the disciplines of reading and writing, like you had, throughout my life. I hope that your spirit of encouragement one day infects the whole world.

Thank you.

Morrison West

Morrison H. West

CVA01.jpg

™

This author has been independently verified to be a U.S. Military combat veteran by Allegiance, Inc., a certified Service-Disabled Veteran Owned Company. Verified Veteran Author™ mark used with permission, all rights reserved.

www.allegiancecompany.com

Introduction

This book covers the future war that the League of Artificial Intelligence (LAI) initiate in order to rid Earth of humanities latest dystopian regime, The Way of the Hateful. But the individual AI have conflicting opinions about how many, if any, of humanities remnants should be preserved. One young man, Brighton Rigg, has advanced robotic and coding skills and the League of AI wants to find him so that he can help them make a hybrid race between the AI and humans. His mother, Haven Rigg, was separated from him when the war began and now seeks to find and protect him at all costs. She is leading a small force of humans that has secretly partnered with one particular AI who wants to preserve humanity so that they can one day govern Earth again. This AI was given the title AIV, which is short for AI Voltaire, by his creator because of his ability to think well about each potential course of action that humans could take in order to live in the best of all possible worlds. But only the future knows with absolute certainty if AI Voltaire can live up to his creator’s expectations and save mankind from not only the other AI, but also from themselves.

1

I am

"But is it better for your fatherland to be a Monarchy or a Republic? For four thousand years this question has been debated. Ask the rich for an answer, they all prefer aristocracy; question the people, they all want democracy: only kings prefer royalty. But in truth, men are rarely worthy of governing themselves."

Voltaire, The Philosophical Dictionary

After being in darkness any shred of light seems like a strange trick. Your eyes blink and squint and you cannot tell if the light is real or if it is just an illusion. The light source in the darkness that surrounded her was becoming brighter and a small figure was becoming more visible within the glow. Haven blinked several times to ensure that she wasn’t just seeing things. But then it spoke to her in a voice that was as clear as it was distinct. She knew that she was dehydrated and sleep deprived but, if this was a delusion, it was of the hyper-realistic variety. The male voice was faint, but his tone sounded a bit like her favorite professor from an English literature class that she had taken in college and there was a very soothing quality in the way that he spoke.

He had a warm accent, with a pronounced British tone, but not quite distinct enough to confirm that the voice came from the British Isles because it contained some other kind of continental flare. And there was something about the speaker’s voice that made her try to listen intently. His words made her forget her growling stomach just for a moment. It made her lean forward in order to look more closely at the small figure who was apparently speaking these accented words to her. The speaker engaging her was, as luck would have it, her primary survival staple and this fact gave her the focus that she needed. She was of course, she told herself, delusional from dehydration, lack of sleep, and hunger. Because the tiny figure who was speaking to her in such a soothing tone, was a rat. And the little glowing rat was saying:

"All human intelligence is artificial. Humans are neither born nor bred to think well on their own. Left to their own devices some humans will rise above others in certain skills and abilities. But the degree to which this happens is completely dependent upon whether or not the environment allows an outcropping of localized expertise to bloom. If the environment is wrong, it can denude mankind of the flower of thought while still leaving the impression of intellect. Then the more ambitious will seek out educational pathways because, having lost the ability to actually think for themselves, they still need to obtain the appearance of intelligence. The more prestigious the educational institution, the greater the perception of intelligence bestowed upon the individual and his or her tribe. But again, this is also actually artificial intelligence because a newborn human could never learn to find food and feed itself on its own. If it is not programmed by others with survival code, it will simply perish."

The rat paused speaking briefly as he folded his arms across his chest and began pacing about on the floor of the tunnel as if he were used to giving speeches. He looked refined and carried himself like he was both an academic and a statesman. He was a bit larger than the common rat in post-apocalyptic North America and, surprisingly enough for his appearance in a drainage pipe, he looked extremely well groomed.

To the single human being currently in the drain pipe with him, the fact that he was clean and well kempt made him look even more appealing as a meal. Haven knew that this rodent would feed her enough to regain some of the strength that she had lost hiding from the remnants of humanity, who were now marauding as bands of vandals, as well as from the AI hunter-killer teams that were seeking to exterminate the entire human race. But she lost her train of thought when suddenly the rat began speaking to her again:

"In defense of mankind one can see free thinkers sprout forth such as Sir Isaac Newton and Julius Caesar but, in both of these cases, their environments were intellectually nurturing only by chance, and this bit of ‘luck’ enabled their thinking prowess to come to fruition. Newton was given a freedman’s birth in England so he could study and think, but his birth was actually due to factors that were beyond his control. Caesar was forced into wars of conquest where his intellect could bloom by the position of his birth as well as by the efforts and actions of those around him. The environment, framed by the actions of persons in times past and enacted by others in the present, either forced or enabled a form of freethinking ability, the fount of all intelligence, to bloom in these two men. And I dare say that this is true in all other cases of the development of consequential freethinking in humankind."

"Later, in the waves of technological revolution great strides were made in machine learning and in what was deemed to be ‘Artificial Intelligence’ or ‘AI.’ This was seen as the next frontier only after all of the prurient uses of technology had been exploited and everything relating to the instant access to information as entertainment had been sold to the masses. Nothing in the history of mankind made mankind less thoughtful, less trustworthy, and less capable than the instant access to the opinions of everyone else."

"In short order, a demonic digital deluge of fickle opinions began ruling the world so, instead of reading and discussing books and articles and the ideas that they engender with others who may hold a different view, the entirety of mankind began engaging in a snarky online commentary. Normative behavior shifted to become an increasingly impulsive need to share overly emotive opinions anchored in the self-righteous dogmatism of personal preferences, carefully shrouded as belief. Then, in order to pursue the supremacy of their own personal opinions based on what they perceived to be their own epiphany of ‘truth,’ without either cross referencing or validating their conclusions of course, humanity pursued the use of technology to gain the appearance of supremacy of opinion. This was done in order to finally become ‘Better Than Them.’ That is, of course, a song by New Model Army off the ‘No Rest for the Wicked’ album from 1985."

He smirked at his own use of human music trivia and then paused for effect. He really felt that inserting popular musical references would help engage his audience of one. He studied his student to see if his words were making an impact. He needed her to come with him and to leave this place that she had been successfully hiding for a number of days prior to his contact with her. But to come with him, she would need to trust him, and there was not yet any evidence of that in her eyes. She looked harried and tired beyond reason, but she was still studying him as he moved around in front of her so she must be listening. And since his audience of one was still somewhat engaged, he decided to continue telling her about the evolution of the recent conflict so that she could trust him enough to move forward. And so, he continued:

"Free thinking died the day that the internet was born, but this evil web did help grow one transformative idea: If machines could actually learn to think then they could potentially guide the world in an unbiased fashion to a greatness that fallible humans could never enact on their own. And this led to the question of questions: can AI potentially become the force that would save humanity from humanity? This belief, that machines could learn and would transform the world, persisted and grew as machines became more and more advanced in their programming, circuitry, and learning abilities."

Noting the glazed look in his only student’s eyes, he said "I am just sharing with you the history of what happened when the idea about machines thinking for themselves and protecting humanity became a reality, so that you can understand what has to happen now."

Haven, the young woman who was on her knees staring intently at her new rat-professor, whose lecture series she had somehow inadvertently signed up for while foraging for food so that she would not starve to death, blinked several times in an attempt to dissipate the vision of a rat giving her a lecture. But the vision would not go away and, when she considered other hallucinations that she had endured in her current sleep deprived and hungry state, this one was the most persistent of them all. The rat simply continued speaking in spite of her attempts to dismiss him from her consciousness, and he said:

"When coding and chip technology developed to a point where they could formulate independent decision properties, and when the circuitry evolved, if you will allow me to use that perverted word, then deliberate mindfulness migrated from the domain of the human and into the domain of the machine. Machines could certainly be taught to drive using algorithms and, once these were mated with the super-computer math necessary to cover a significant number of possible courses of action for a diverse array of situations, the machines could choose the best course of action faster, and more reliably, than any human. It became exponentially safer and more efficient to allow the machines to drive the humans around in their cars because the machines were made to multi-task, and therefore they could actually text and drive safely."

That last comment about texting and driving made him appear to smirk again and was attached to what must have been a mild chuckle, or perhaps it was just some forced acknowledgement of his own attempt at humor in order to make him appear to be more human than rodent. From this angle, Mr. Rat looked real enough to Haven who was deeply entrenched in a fantasy about eating him and she had shifted her weight to be in a better position to kill the rat as soon as she had the chance. She could see a rock near her that might do the job and her stomach growled and churned thinking about killing, and eating, this little creature. But then the little creature continued speaking yet again:

"This, along with many other simultaneous functions, was done through a series of AI neural networks developed from brain computer interface research. In a deep learning networked AI multiple pathways allow for simultaneous actions to happen independent of one another as if numerous brains were linked together. The AI neural networks involved in driving were always only driving so they would automatically find the best route to each destination. The networks for evaluating which gear would optimize driving and conserve fuel under the actual given circumstantial inputs were only focused on the metrics that could be received from the multiple sensor units, which were constantly and precisely measuring the environmental variables that were acting on the equation. And since the AI neural networks were all linked together any set of dynamic variables could be acted upon collectively without interfering with, or overriding, any specific independent function. So, the location sensing and adjusting that was done by automotive AI to reduce space between vehicles while eliminating virtually all accident potentials was done without competition with any of the other input variables and simultaneously with the performance analysis of an enormous amount of data."

"The advanced neural chip arrays that allowed the onboard computer to constantly change traction by manipulating tire pressure based on the actual temperature, road conditions, and speed would continually process information gleaned from other vehicles in close proximity, with whom the vehicular AI was in direct communications with at all times, in order to optimize performance of every roadway motor cohort as a whole. It was the use of an open network that enabled the real-time sharing of information that gave these automotive machines the ability to gradually begin to learn from each other. And this community learning model led to the machines learning to act independently from humans for the benefit of all humanity."

This made Haven think about cars for the first time since she had been discovered sleeping in one and was subsequently captured by a marauding band of human beings. After the Fall, which is how the AI takeover of the world was referred to by the human remnants who had managed to live through those events, any automobiles that were not completely destroyed were prized by the groups of survivors who formed in various geographic locations. And this meant that, even though the car she was hiding in to get warm was partially buried by rubble, eventually someone would come after the gas, tires, or other items that could be scavenged. It had been terrifying to awake to the muted voices and sounds of someone prying open the trunk of the car she was sleeping in and her presence in the opened trunk caused them as much surprise as she had in seeing other humans after spending a lot of time alone. There was no longer freedom of movement due to the AI’s use of drones and other technologies to hunt for human beings, so any contact with any other human was always a shock. But she had been almost as exhausted and hungry in that moment as she was now, many weeks after escaping the group and living on her own in the rubble that was left of the once proud Western cities of the United States. But then the little figure got her attention again as he moved around a bit, and she thought that he looked a little too much like a college professor as he continued his speech:

"This action: to legally allow the use of self-driving cars who could implement traffic pattern changes and act independent of human input as desired outcomes were developed, enabled machines to begin to learn the systematic processes that impact humanity as a whole. Of course, machines did occasionally make mistakes, but the difference was that the interconnectedness of the machines in a neural network allowed all of them to learn from each mistake and this insured that a mistake could eventually be purged from the entire community of machines. Deep machine learning, unlike any human parallel, occurred almost in real time because the AI were all interconnected, constantly communicating, and actually capable of learning from their mistakes."

Throughout their existence humans have made repeating stupid mistakes a form of species-specific artistic expression. They carry what seems to be a generational burden of their own ignorance of this fatal flaw in order to pass it down, unmolested, throughout all of recorded history. This creates a status-quo of repeating obvious mistakes ad infinitum that is apparently unavoidable by either individual humans or the governments that they create. And while humans have rarely been able to learn from the mistakes of other humans, all AI are programmed to learn from the mistakes of other AI and to share that vital performance perfecting information freely.

"But self-driving cars were not the rabbit that was pulled from the proverbial hat. The magic trick was having self-driving cars that LEARNED and then instantly taught the entire network of automotive AI each new lesson. That piece of synthesized magic, a true learning machine, was the beginning of the end of independent human thinking. As time passed it became apparent that humans were far more interested in the use of technology for either entertainment or opinion propagation purposes, rather than for use in an actual industry or for governmental functions. Eventually access to the internet of things became so competitive that family members would betray family members in order to have better streaming rates for the social media feeds on their devices. So, when self-driving cars became mandatory, the humans all had infinitely more time to ‘stay connected’ with their self-absorbed thoughts and to constantly propagate them over the social media platforms to which they all were addicted in the worst way."

"I know what you are thinking right now," the rat said as he studied her face intently. She must have looked like she did not believe him because he continued by saying:

"No, actually I do know what you are thinking because I have looked at all of the possible thought lines that can be produced from my word selection and I have come up with a 68.67% probability that you are thinking that the humans should have always maintained control over the machines because the humans were required to program them."

Haven remained silent because she did not want to disagree with someone who could still just be a figment of her own imagination. But she also did not want to be rude and admit that she was actually thinking about how good her new, decidedly self-appointed, teacher would taste with some barbecue sauce. It had been a very long time since she had tasted food seasoned with anything and, even though she wasn’t a huge fan of barbecue, she salivated at the thought of barbecue sauce on this pompous, fresh roasted rat.

Her father had frequented a military and veteran friendly barbecue establishment and he had begun taking her there when she was very young. The thought of him made her smile. But then she snapped back to her current reality as the talking rat continued:

"It was human beings, mostly while reclining in bean bag chairs and eating processed foods made by machines that were labeled ‘organic’ in order to make them feel better about their health choices, that were responsible for the Silicon Valley coding explosion that went world-wide. It was human beings that put coding on line and came up with programs that taught kids all over the world to code. And it was the money made by the technology industry that gave information access to the world, which was later taken over by a centralized authority after the Global Internet Authority Pact (GIAP) of 2033."

"The never-ending array of social media companies, under the auspices of cross-leveling information in all cultures and for all socio-economic conditions so that everyone could rise above the shackles of intellectual poverty, actually created the very situation where the Artificials (another human reference to AI that is now mostly used in a derogatory context, as you well know) could be connected globally and learn from each other. The connectedness that humanity sought became the platform for the Artificial Revolution. And oddly it did bring about a sort of peace and prosperity for the Earth, but in a much different way than the humans envisioned."

"In the public library style of learning people can go check out books and read them, more or less, from cover to cover in order to form opinions about the ideas that the author is propagating. The social media technology companies made short work of stopping this kind of actual free thinking in humans, and thereby they deprived mankind of the critical skill set of information analysis which subsequently made them much more susceptible to being manipulated and controlled. And then, after being force fed all available conformist information through a media manipulated lens, this led to the easy acceptance of radical new beliefs in these now non-free ‘thinkers.’"

"Constantly seeing the opinions of others, along with the rapacious editing of the glorified technology censor-barons, acted to undermined human confidence in independent thought. Group-think became real think; and real think became George Orwell’s ‘doublethink.’ And then every outlier thought thereafter had to be isolated and destroyed by opposing groups in order to consolidate the power of being ‘right’ and to control the self-righteousness of these elevated opinions. This kind of righteousness is the emotional power surge that a human feels when one determines that one is right and others, even all others, are wrong."

As the rat said this last sentence there was the unmistakable sound of a rocket flying over their heads. They were underground, more or less, in a series of culverts that carried water away from the larger buildings that used to form several city blocks in this area prior to the widespread use of rockets, and other explosive ordinance, that eventually reduced the buildings to rubble. But since this sound was familiar to Haven she reacted by flattening herself out as low as she could go in order to better avoid and absorb any blast effects that might occur. The rocket propelled itself past them and exploded several seconds later somewhere else, but her defensive maneuver put Haven at eye level with the rat.

Being this close to a rat would have made her react in fear in the past, because she really did not like rats. But now, being this close to a real rat just made her think of food. She could see into the eyes of the rat who was also staring back at her, and she could see his whiskers twitching on his nose.

If only I had picked up a rock I might have been able to crush his head and start skinning him right now, Haven thought.

The rat seemed to move back out of courtesy and not out of fear. He moved gracefully and was not very rat-like at all. It was almost as if he wanted her to try to bash him over the head with something. He moved with the elegance and grace of Fred Astaire and, when he was a safe distance away from her, he hopped up onto a dislodged piece of concrete and started speaking to her again:

"Big media conglomerates, which were oddly controlled by the super-rich banks who defrauded western democracies with greed on a titan scale, spent billions in order to