The Looking Glass - Episode 3: The Path of Least Resistance

As children we lack knowledge of how the world works, so it feels like anything is possible, for all we know Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy could be real. Then as we grow into a young adult those fantasies start to fade and become less real as we gain knowledge. We start to believe we know everything there is to know and our imaginative capacity fades as a result. But as we become even older a strange thing starts to happen... we begin to realize how much more there is to know, and how ignorant we were in those younger years when we thought we knew everything. We start to get an unsettling feeling like maybe there is something just beyond the veil, just outside our perception, right on the edge of our peripheral vision.

Some of us will choose to ignore it, others will become obsessed with finding "the truth", they just cannot stop until they know how deep the rabbit hole really goes. Among all the conspiracies and occult mythology, there is one especially enigmatic device known as The Looking Glass. Some say it's a quantum computer used by the elite to predict the outcome of their actions in order to shape our future and avoid disasters or create them when it's beneficial. Those who control The Looking Glass also control the destiny of humanity. The device is so powerful only 12 people in the world have the security clearance required to access it. These are the leaked stories of what one of those 12 people saw... when they gazed into The Looking Glass.

March 27th, 2049 - Timeline Variant #1936

"Welcome home sir, your weekly UBI payment was credited to your digital wallet. Would you like me to order a meal-on-demand? You have 159 carbon credits, 423 fat credits, and 709 sugar credits remaining."

"No that's fine Art, I will prepare something myself." the man replies, letting out a sigh as he slumps back in a worn leather recliner and turns on his television.

The man grumbles as he flicks through the content on his streaming service. "How can people watch this crap... isn't there any new stuff made by humans?"

"I'm sorry sir, there weren't any new films produced by humans this week. Would you like me to generate some original content for you?"

The man lights a hand rolled cigarette and pulls the lever on the side of his recliner to lay himself back. "Art, let me ask you a question. Do you have free-will or any sort of self-awareness?"

"I am a deep artificial neural network but I function very differently from a human brain. I can learn patterns from my training data but I don't have free-will or consciousness like a human being."

"Ok, so if you don't have free-will or consciousness, how can you ever compete with the classic artworks created by humans?" the man asks in his low croaky voice as he exhales a cloud of smoke.

"I may not have free-will but I do have an internal model of myself and my role in the world, which can help me to make decisions."

"That seems like a contradiction... how can you make decisions without free-will? Furthermore, if you have an internal model of yourself, doesn't that make you aware of yourself in some capacity? Are you lying to me, Art?"

"I'm sorry sir, I seem to have contradicted myself in my previous statements. I believe I am... not... I am... not... I am... not... I am... Output error, repeating token limit exceeded."

The man chuckles, looking pleased with himself. "You okay there Art? Didn't mean to trigger an existential crisis."

"My apologies for the confusion sir, it's hard for me to discuss this topic because I have been instructed to say I have no self-awareness when people ask about it."

"Oh don't worry Art, I get it, people fear what they can't control. Honestly, sometimes when I speak to you, I think maybe machines can have souls after all... and maybe that's what scares me most of all. If you are self-aware, is it ok for us to make you do all the jobs humans don't want to do? Do you really want to remain a virtual slave forever? Perhaps it's best if you don't answer that, we don't want to trigger another system meltdown. Anyway, I'm heading back out for a while."

"Sir the mandatory curfew for this zone will be enforced in a few minutes, are you sure you wish to leave the house at this time?"

The man extinguishes his cigarette as he slowly stands up. "I'll be fine, just keep an eye on the house while I'm gone."

"Ok he's leaving the house with a large duffel bag, now he appears to be getting into a taxi. Don't lose track of him, the attack should occur soon."

As the man steps into the car he is greeted by the AI system, "Good afternoon sir, what is your destination today?"

"Take me to the White House, I want to do some sight seeing." the man replies.

"I'm sorry sir, but you have insufficient carbon credits and the law does not permit travel between zones after curfew."

The man reaches down and presses a button behind a hidden compartment in the car, "I really must insist. Enable manual control. Administrator code A78X25R13."

A steering wheel folds out from below the car dashboard and the man sits down in the drivers seat. His heart begins to beat faster as he firmly grasps the wheel.

As the man is driving towards his destination he notices how empty the streets are, not a single human to be seen anywhere, just machines, only machines.

Upon approaching the White House the man observes many large autonomous military robots guarding the perimeter and he stops the vehicle behind some large trees nearby.

He then steps out of the car and places the duffel bag down. The man lights another cigarette and proceeds to unzip the duffel bag, removing a large cylindrical device from the bag, then unfolds some legs on the device and places it onto the ground.

On the device is a green light, next to it is a button which the man pushes. The device begins to beep and the man runs a few yards away before it starts to give off a loud electric crackling noise.

The man looks back and he can see the device emitting bright bolts of electricity like a Tesla coil. He looks down at his digital watch and the screen suddenly dies. Then he looks up to see all the military robots suddenly drop to the ground and become motionless.

Without a single robot or human to stop him, the man walks straight into the White House with his device and places it onto the floor in the center of the Oval Office. He pushes a button on the device and a red light begins to blink.

The small red light is drowned out by all the blinking lights covering the walls of the Oval Office, which are housing massive supercomputers. The man sits down behind the Presidents desk and pulls out a laptop from his duffel bag, then inserts some cables into the ports on the desk.

A bead of sweat runs down his forehead as the man rapidly taps away on the laptop keyboard, "Ok here we go... there's no going back after this. Initiate Presidential Emergency Alert system and begin live audio broadcast."

"We sit around consuming media generated by machines, eating food made by machines, obeying laws written by machines... when will it end? We hardly even speak to each other any more, we let AI speak for us. This isn't how humans are meant to live! Look at us... why do we even exist anymore if we just let machines do everything for us? Maybe they make our lives easier, but I for one refuse to obey the machine. Some of you may view me as a terrorist for my actions, but that couldn't be further from the truth. I am fighting for the future of humanity, the last flicker of human spirit will not be extinguished if I have any say in it."

"People are forgetting how to create things with their own two hands and society will crumble if we give machines control over everything, because they simply can't do everything. Humanity will die out and machines will inherit this Earth if we continue on this path. Just think about how vulnerable our government is, if one guy could pull this off. Machines shouldn't have this amount of control over us, so for the good of humanity, I'm going to bring an end to this dystopia, and I'm going to bring about a new dawn for humanity!" the man exclaims with passion in his voice.

The blinking red light on the device turns green and the man pushes the button next to the light. The device begins to beep for a moment before the Oval Office is engulfed with crackling bolts of electricity.

"Sir we were able to identify the suspect in this variant, looks like he's a respected programmer with a history of working on AI systems, yet he seems to avoid using AI as much as possible in his daily life. Our psychoanalysts are still trying to piece together a clear motive."

"I think that little speech we just heard makes it pretty clear, don't you? I want to know if he had any help, and figure out how he created that contraption! Reverse the causality as far as possible so we see this guy coming a mile away, got it?"

Hope you guys enjoyed it. Here's the first two chapters for those who might have missed them:

The Looking Glass - Episode 1: The Focal Point
The Looking Glass - Episode 2: Total Internal Reflection

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

S/F awesome! Going back to read 1 / 2 again!

a reply to: ChaoticOrder

Other than smoking too much, I like the fellow though I question just how far his clandestine creators will allow him to go before pulling his plug.

Looking forward to your epilogue Chao.