A Brave New World

with apologies to Huxley for stealing his title.

——

“AEGIS.”

“That’s the name of our new organisation, gentlemen.”

“What the hell does it stand for?”

West was always first with the aggressive question.

“Major West, AEGIS stands for American Electronic General Internet Surveillance. So you could say we’ll be working under the Aegis of the United States.”

The weak pun was lost on the assembled officers and men.

“What? Are you kidding? We already have thousands of personnel engaged in that shit already. Is this a joke?”

“No, Major West. This will not be manned by trained personnel. Its analysis is fully automated. Every email and web page in the world will be security screened, night and day and analysis delivered for action.”

West stood up and walked out of the room, shaking his head as he left. The remaining seated men all looked at each other, wondering who would be next to walk. No-one did. I hit a button and a screen flickered into life. Rows of numbers scrolled rapidly, occasionally highlighting blue and forwarded to a second monitor where the scrolling was slower. After 5 minutes of watching, the first human question popped its head above the bunker.

“What, exactly, are we looking at, sir?”

“This is a real-time window into the workings of the AEGIS brain. The most sophisticated AI we have ever seen. You’re only seeing one tiny fraction of what it’s processing right now.”

Silence.

“Gentlemen, if you have questions, now is the time to ask them. You’re about to be deployed into a totally autonomous unit. Understand the nature of the beast before you lie down with it.”

“I have a question, sir.”

The tall, spotty, pale youth was barely old enough to shave, but had a recorded IQ of 162. He hadn’t made the selection on the strength of his looks, or personality.

“Yes, what is it?”

“What exactly is it looking for?”

“We don’t know.”

A deeper silence than before.

“Let me explain. We have created an artificial intelligence system so powerful that we cannot be certain what it’s looking for until it’s found it. All we can do is feed it what general aims we have and leave it to get on with the job. It’s already foiled one terrorist plot, but that was kept quiet. Your job, gentlemen, will be to co-ordinate the responses to its findings and to construct new questions to keep it busy. As the system learns we expect it to widen its scope to include domestic crime, business fraud. That sort of thing.”

A klaxon sounded. That was the signal that a major result had been identified.

“Gentlemen, you’re about to see what makes this machine so remarkable.”

Paper began to spew from the printer covered in the most detailed blueprints, with annotations and cross-references. By the time the printer had finished, 15 copies of a 37 page document had been printed. One copy for each of the assembled team actually present. Major West’s copy would be printed if he returned to the room. The copies were distributed in silence.

“Gentlemen, please consider the report and let me have your recommendations as to which agencies will respond to whatever threat is detailed. I will be back in one hour.”

Outside the heavily guarded room I saw West pacing, agitated. I walked over and looked him squarely in the eye.

“Bill, tell me that you don’t approve of this, if you can. This was your idea a decade ago, before it even became possible. Why the opposition now? Walking out like that didn’t make my job any easier.”

“Tom, we’ve known each other for 30 years. You know I have a gut for these things. This is bad news. How can we trust a machine to think for us?”

“Come inside, Bill. Let’s see what the machine is saying.”

We stepped back into the room together. Ahead of us was a sea of faces looking much paler than they had been a few minutes earlier. Even the pale youth had turned paler. Clearly, whatever it was, the analysis had shaken them.

“Gentlemen, report please.”

No reply.

“Patrick, what does the analysis say?”

Patrick Alleum was the most level-headed military scientist I knew, so I expected a sensible answer.

“General, if you’re right about this machine – and from the little time we’ve had to study this it seems you probably are right – then we’re in big trouble.”

For the next hour every man in that room did exactly what he was supposed to do: he suggested the correct strategy for dealing with the catastrophe analysed by AEGIS. At the end of that hour every man looked crestfallen in a way that I had never seen in two World wars and many ‘police actions’. For them, the world was a different and scarier place than it had been when they walked in. The command structures and ad hoc military and police alliances proposed were first-rate. The team we had assembled had gelled and proved that our source had been spot on the money.

“Well, gentlemen. Do we all agree that AEGIS is exactly what this country needs?”

Silent nodding indicated universal assent. Even from Major West.

“In that case, gentlemen, your task now is to create the real AEGIS machine. Now that we have your hearts as well as your minds convinced, you should be able to produce AEGIS within the next 18 months.”

There was a brief moment when my words floated just above the consciousness of each man in that room, before seeping into their brain and setting off myriad synaptic fireworks.

“Tom, was this whole thing just a simulation? A test? Have you duped us into this?”

“Yes. I had to. To get Congressional funding for this project I had to have the agreement of every man in this room. Now you’ve understood the nature of AEGIS, which of you will kill it before it’s born?”

Not a single man dissented. Exactly as AEGIS mark I had predicted in early trial runs, before committing electronic suicide. AEGIS I had developed a conscience and knew we would use it to destroy our enemies first. We wouldn’t make the mistake of telling AEGIS II that.

© write-now 2006. All rights reserved. No reproductions without express permission.

inspired by dictionary.com’s word of the day, aegis