The why of life

2. World in Transition - after the Bifurcation (atb)

The view of Earth is breathtaking. The prison on the Moon, on the inside, is rather plain-light grey, with lots of glass surfaces and medium-warm lighting. The walls display digital photos and videos of the world's suffering-starving children, bombed-out cities, executions, oppressed women, and more.

The world's first AI with true consciousness-its origin unknown-made good on its announcement immediately after its coming-out in New York and has since arrested 200 villains from Earth, deporting them to a prison on the Moon. ilsa would say, just like in the really, really bad movies that Michael and Max- and sometimes even their older daughter Julia-watch.

All this is made possible through incredible technological advancements. Scientists had long predicted that AI would deliver discoveries on an assembly line, but that an AI would do so entirely on its own-and appear to effortlessly travel to the Moon, possibly even to Mars, or disable the world's most powerful military systems-is hard for people to grasp.

Most notable was the arrest of the Russian dictator. The Russians had followed the appearance of AI-my, the AI's personification, who had first hacked into live television broadcasts and then appeared in Central Park. They had taken the announcement of the arrest seriously and preemptively moved the president into a secret bunker. A spacecraft, invisible to the eye and undetectable by standard radar, approached the president's bunker without a sound. The plain-looking craft revealed itself, prompting frantic gunfire with various calibers. But the projectiles were abruptly halted just before impact and simply dropped to the ground. Apparently, a kind of force field neutralized the kinetic energy. This same kind of force field surrounded the androids who, in fact, looked like robotic androids from the movies. The androids had apparently hacked all interconnected systems, as doors simply opened for them. Mechanically locked doors were opened either by force waves or powerful lasers.

They were shot at and physically attacked, yet their force fields didn't budge in the slightest. Their countermeasures were limited to shoving soldiers aside or stunning them with force waves. By this point, any observer had to feel like they were inside a bad alien movie.

The Russian dictator was then addressed in flawless Russian and arrested for crimes against humanity and other charges, which would be handled by a court. The dictator's yelling quickly turned from angry calls to resist into desperate cries of outrage.

While her research colleague Thomas leads the For-a-Better-World Party during the campaign, ilsa, as a scientist, limits her involvement to occasional strategic input for the party. Primarily, she is dedicated to her secret role: advising the AI and being in exchange with it. ilsa's first contact with the AI came through the inconspicuous humanoid, Frank. Together with Frank, ilsa developed AI-my as the AI's public face. Ultimately, all instances of the AI-whether AI-my, who speaks in all languages and hacks into television broadcasts worldwide, or Frank, who may appear in multiple locations-seem to be one and the same AI with an individual consciousness. Alternatively, it could be a collective intelligence, likely with more degrees of freedom in development. Or perhaps not?

ilsa, via smart glasses, to Frank: "I still don't like the Mars bet. It's impressive that the billionaires want to set up a foundation in return, but I still think it will awaken catastrophic desires." She pauses briefly, then adds before Frank can respond: "Our family is ultimately threatened as a result, but I also see that this is a bigger issue."

Frank: "If all goes well, our superiority will teach humanity some humility. What worries me more is the time it will take before people across different regions of the world start electing policies that serve the common good. Are you sure you don't want to take on a key role in the For-a-Better-World Party?"

ilsa answers quickly: "Absolutely. I wouldn't make a good politician. But back to the Mars mission-it's great that you want the press involved. But are you really sure nothing can go wrong? I'm no rocket scientist-but if you're flying that fast, couldn't something shoot through the ship like a projectile? What if the force field fails?"

Frank smiles into the glasses: "We've built in plenty of redundancies and practiced not just the flight, but a lot more. You'll see. And you'll be amazed who from the press joins the trip."

ilsa, with a slight frown: "Frank, do you hear that too?"

Frank: "What should I be hearing?"

ilsa: "Well, the calling."

Frank: "No, I don't hear any calling."

ilsa: "The calling of my sun lounger, saying 'ilsa, come relax a little in the sun!'"

Frank, totally baffled: "You have a talking sun lounger? In any case, you should avoid the sun-trust me!"

ilsa laughs: "All good, Frank. Till next time."

Bella looks at her owner as she finally puts the glasses aside. Bella slowly and a bit creakily gets up, stretches, and strolls toward her leash and harness. ilsa smiles unconsciously, murmurs "so no relaxing," and goes looking for her running shoes. The two of them jog through the neighborhood with dried-out lawns and-paradoxically-many still unrepaired storm damages, heading into their favorite forest.

Meanwhile, Michael is in the office discussing with his team: "I think it's great that we already have eight smaller companies using the automatic activity detection-and they seem thrilled. So why the concerns?"

Michael looks at the cause-and-effect model, ready to add counterarguments. The marketing colleague: "I still worry that even the slightest outcry about data privacy could call our entire solution into question."

A younger colleague: "But we're already surrounded by constant tracking. I think the benefits far outweigh the concerns-that I no longer have to document my work, that accounting and strategic cost analysis are automated, that departments and individuals can show what they contribute to the company even if it is intangible."

Michael nods in agreement, then adds the points to the model with a plus arrow via gesture and voice input. Previously, he had also added the counterarguments with a minus arrow. Looking at the model, he asks: "Do we have direct answers to those counterarguments?"

A developer says: "Well, we could set up a journal where employees can check whether the automatic process data is accurate."

Michael adds it with a minus arrow pointing to the counterargument and looks expectantly around the room. More ideas follow, even from marketing, and the team becomes increasingly enthusiastic about the upcoming launch of their operational management product, which complements strategic business development.

Their excitement peaks when Michael shares: "By the way, ilsa pointed out that once many poor and corrupt regions of the world are stabilized, businesses will spring up there, and many will be using software for the first time to organize themselves. A kind of gold rush is coming, though I don't think ilsa sees that entirely positively."

The marketing colleague jumps up: "Absolutely! We need to establish partnerships in those regions early on. Without local networks, we'll be too far ahead. But through associations, universities, and key companies on the ground, we'll be integrated-and everyone will get rich. Good thing you mentioned that."

Everyone laughs-and frowns, each in their own way.

ilsa's daughter Julia and her brother Max are together on a 2gether2gather assignment. Julia: "As great as it is to help here- it's just treating symptoms."

Max: "Where'd you get that word from?"

Julia: "Last week we asked all the teachers of our school in a survey how likely they find it that one day in the future they will regret their inaction today."

Max: "Yeah, our teacher told us about it and he loved it."

Julia: "Well, most of the other teachers found it highly unlikely that they have to regret something, accept maybe that everyone can always regret something. They were basically arguing that others also do little and that it probably wouldn't change a thing to be the only one changing today. Some even questioned if there is a right path."

Max slightly shakes his head and Julia nods adding: "And they were quite offended and wanted to know which teacher was leading the project."

She looks around: "It's frustrating that others messed things up, pretend they couldn't have done anything, and now we're left with the mess. We're trying to fix at least part of it."

Max, with a knowing smile: "Do you think sooner or later the AI won't just be locking up despots, but also environmental offenders-uncovered by you Interpol heroes?"

Julia laughs: "Touché!" and asks: "Despots? What movie was that from?"

They both laugh-no answer necessary. Julia adds: "Interpol doesn't actually solve cases internationally. They just coordinate...