19 August, 2011

[SFAP] Chapter 8:11

This is the eleventh section of the eighth chapter of Sonnets from a Proton. The novel starts here.
The next section is here.

What is your problem James, you seem to have this battle against AIs, against the Habitat. Others have their reasons but you’re really bitter, I sense a grudge. Did a coffee blender kill your parents or something?”
James gave Alice the look she had come to know as him indulging her and tried to frame a reply that could sum up his whole view on the driving force of his life “It all started to go wrong when the first AI drove cars. Insurance companies loved it - let this drive your car and no accident will ever be your fault. Big business loved it, not only was it a new toy to sell, but you could put all legal risks into an algorithm. From then on there was a rush to mechanise and with the think of the children cries of health and safety it was an excuse to blame shift everything. Soon AIs are everywhere, on the road, in factories etc. Billions are put out of work unless you could do something a robot couldn't. The upshot is most things became effectively free. The downside was that many could not earn any money whatsoever. However by that time most people had shifted to jobs only humans could do, or were living on the handouts of those who could spare because it was free to them. Some said it was the greatest explosion of art and culture since the renaissance, some said it created a mindless rudderless hell on earth. All I know is at the centre of it all were the AIs. Then the Habitat shows up. We were at the point of finding a new goal for ourselves as a species and someone takes that all from us. What is the centre of the Habitat. Yep another AI. Some even said that the Habitat was created by an out of control human AI, but I don’t believe it, it has to be extra terrestrial. Anyway whatever way you look at it as long as we carry on as we are humans have no story of their own. We’ve been pulled into someone else’s plan for us.”
“You don’t hate the AIs then?”
“They’re only the tool of their creators, but their creators are either unknown or by now collectively the whole human race, so it’s time for some of us to challenge. Besides they’ve let us live a life without consequences or personal responsibility for a while.”
“That’s a bit over simplistic”
“I know, like I said I’m trying to control my own thoughts to make sure I don’t have second decisions.”

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