9

Liam Raycevick was sitting on a large leather chair, decorated with fine Art Deco designs, in a penthouse on the 87th floor of the Bureogis Towers, which was right across the street from the Bureogis Campus. The man, although from different biological parents, looked very much like his brother except being less tanned and having deep, dark eyes instead of ember ones. Their facial features were surprisingly similar, a result of coincidences, and although Liam was slightly less muscular than his younger brother, his broader shoulders made him look stronger.

From his large floor to ceiling windows, Liam could see the large campus stretch out beneath him in a shape resembling a square. Next to the campus, was a community of detached houses, each with a swimming pool and a garden of hefty sizes. Liam once thought about buying one of the villas but decided that the view of a penthouse was too good to give up.

He now turned to look at his wall, which hanged an ancient eagle eye view photo of New York City from the early 21st century. In it, instead of a private campus and a closed community, the center of the city was a large, rectangular park, with a lake in the middle taking up around one-fifth of the space. The sight was as strange as the one outside his window. For there was just this flat plane of land amidst a forest of skyscrapers. Although the architecture of modern buildings was definitely more elegant than that the skyscrapers back then, and the structures of the Bureogis campus more impressive than the green grass of Central Park, there was a certain beauty to the park depicted in the ancient photo which Liam could not find a word for. It was the beauty which originated from the nature of the purpose of the park, that by design it was giving to the people of the city. That the government in those times would use the most valuable land in the entire city, not for real estate development, but simply to give to the people. Such an act of generosity was unimaginable today from any of the major corporations.

Liam turned and rested his copy of Duke Tech Solutions on the coffee table next to the chair, and simply listened to the cracking of wood burning in the fireplace in front of him. Although the environmental AI was perfectly capable of keeping the room warm during winter using the AC system, Liam simply enjoyed the fire, as he felt it something more than just a source of warmth. It was a feeling towards the fire that he failed to find words to describe. It was the same feeling he had towards paper books and the reason that he prefers to always have his reading materials printed with recycled paper instead of reading them on his specs or tablet. It was the same feeling which was induced when he is in his reading room, surrounded by books. Sometimes, Liam concluded, the more primitive technologies simply made humans feel more comfortable; Or perhaps it was just him who was weird.

Liam stood up and decided to go to bed although it was only eight. Liam really wanted to fall asleep, but his thoughts keep haunting him. He has suffered from insomnia for the past few months, mostly as a result of him questioning what the point of his job is. In short, he was having an existential crisis. He was the chief engineer in charge of all three of the AIs currently running the world government, a position which most envied both as a result of the power, and the money which came with it. It was often the case, that some of the heads of the most powerful families in the world, would, in encoded messages, asked Liam to “make some changes to that AI thing” in return for large sums of money or property.

The problem was that the AIs were as sentient as a human could be, and each acted according to their sense of reason. They had no self-interest, but simply acted on the information they had to create the best society that they envision, a society which Liam thought was terrible. In any case, the AIs were strictly rational, moral, and could not be bribed. Moreover, their programming was created by other AIs, and Liam himself did not understand the internal workings of the TAC II. So it was that each time Liam would patiently explain how the “AI thing” worked and decline the offer.

In any case, Liam cared not for power and money, but simply wanted to do something meaningful. It was not as if he was born with power or money, but rather that he simply found those things to be meaningless. Liam has always loved philosophy, and extensively read great classical works of the ancients such as Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Rousseau, Kant, Nietzsche, Sartre, and many more. However, most of these materials were not accessible as their ban was strictly enforced by the major corporations. In fact, almost all information before the twenty-second century was banned, or rather unavailable as the corporations themselves call it. Liam’s access to these materials was only possible due to his interests in hacking, which evolved into computer science later on.

It was from these broad groups of philosophical readings that Liam concluded that life ultimately wasn’t about money, power, or even happiness. The purpose of life is something that an individual forge for themselves, and they may choose that to be whatever they want. It is with this goal in mind that one form plans to achieve that goal, and true happiness is brought whenever the plan goes well. Of course, one must still allow themselves to indulge in physical pleasures as Liam often does with his stash of Jack Daniels. However, this particular pleasures will fade with time, and there will be nothing left except hangover headaches.

For his life, Liam wanted to make the world a better place. He looked around his environment when he was only a teenager, and decided that it was a disgraceful injustice that the world was arranged the way it was. That so many in the outer dark zones either starved or froze to death during the unforgiving winters. From his illegal activities on the web, Liam also discovered that the rest of the world was no better. All the major cities in the world had effective light and dark zones, and the rural areas were effectively wildlands where literal tribes of humans would loot and scavenge. Liam shuddered at the possibility of humans to live in such a way and failed to imagine what it must be like. Liam wanted to fix this, and he thought that perhaps Artificial Intelligence can offer humanity a way to be brought back to their level of prosperity before the Great Collapse at the beginning of the 22nd century.

Moreover, after the AIs just somehow “fix” the world, Liam wanted the history of the human race, which the corporations constrained to be finally freed. It was after many fierce debates with his superiors that he understood the apparent necessity to keep information hidden from the majority for the population, for they risk revolts if people knew that instead of prosperity the corporations has mainly brought them pain and grief, by slowly disabling the democratic structures of the 21st century. It was an unspoken rule among the city’s elites that they and their children shall access the internet freely and learn whatever they wished while most people accessed only a limited net. Liam was both disgusted and impressed when he learned the fact and saw that it worked, but then concluded again he really should not be. Most of the people were too indulged in their social media and “news” feeds to care about what their rights were, and took the status quo for granted. Some of them even worship the AIs which govern over them as divine gods. Liam chucked at the thought, but then quickly silenced himself as he reflected over it; he thought of his brother Aiden who was probably a victim of such a careless mindset, which led to the death of democracy in the last century.

Even before the Great Collapse, there were signs which showed that society’s degeneration. The death of the news industry, as well as the job of the professional journalist, was the first. For the first time in hundreds of years, public opinion was informed not by man and woman who were trained professionals at truth-seeking, but by individuals who received little to no journalistic training. People started to believe everything they saw on their feeds and became more and more indulged in their social and personal lives instead of their civic ones. Political elections soon became personality contests, and debates soon because places where insults were used instead of rational arguments. All the while, elected offices were open to legalized bribery. Eventually, as voting was made easy and electronic, voters simply picked the most handsome or beautiful candidate or the one with a name that they liked or looked professional.

But it wasn’t like that their votes mattered, for politicians all soon became spokesmen for corporations anyways. National academies were shut down, regulations all cut, and funding for science and humanities alike stopped. However, the voters didn’t care and the corporations were happy, and kept feeding the populace videos on the evils of government. Eventually, when voting itself was canceled no one cared except a few vocal individuals who were secretly taken out. And so was the death of democracy, out with not a bang, but a whimper.

It was soon after that the Great Collapse hit. An inevitable series of climate events decimating the Earth, which result from human-caused climate change. However, the corporate government assured the population that it was simply a series of unfortunate events, and the populace believed the lie. Not long after, the who institution of government, which was just a puppet anyway, was done away with, replaced by AIs designed to run the world efficiently.

Liam sighed and reflected on the ambition, the innocence, and the stupidity of his younger as well as his current self. He wanted to help people not just materially, but spiritually as well. He envisioned a world where no one starved or froze, but also a world where people cared about their lives and did not just live as they were told. The task seemed daunting and impossible, for anyone who spoke out against the corporations would be silenced. However, the engineer James Estos gave him hope, as a new generation of AI’s developed. All the family heads of companies agreed with the development of an AI to govern all, for they were all tired of arguing with each other anyway.

Bureogis, being the most powerful company on Earth, got the right to house the TAC IIs and James Estos was tasked with developing the development process. After Estos’ mysterious death, Liam, due to his open attitude, enchanting charisma, and intelligence almost Matching James’, was quickly promoted to replace the legendary engineer in his early twenties. It was right after his promotion which he felt the most empowered, for now perhaps he and the Estos TAC II can fix the world. For he hoped that the corporate families, in their decisions to hand efficiency to the AI, have allowed a chance for the world to become better for all of them.

Since the newest generation of AIs were modeled after the human mind instead of their more primitive counterparts in the 21st century, they all need to be fed information in order to make the best decisions, and likely think like humans. Most of the information which the AIs need, including various social and economic statistics, are fed to them from regional AIs. However, there are also other types of information that the AIs needed to consider. For example, the newest essays and opinions from academics in all studies, especially economics and sociology, which are processed by The Engineer. Liam fed all things he believed that the AIs needed to make right decisions, and yet the TAC IIs do not seem to be making the word better. It was this problem which has kept Liam awake for countless nights. He had struggled and fought his way to the top of a corporation, and sincerely believed that they were going to be a force for good. He sincerely believed that his dream for humanity could one day become reality, and yet the TAC IIs seem to betray him again and again.

Although the AIs were quite efficient at passing orders to regional AIs and keeping humanity afloat, Liam felt that the TAC IIs were dragging humanity further and further away from the right path, and towards their inevitable end. With the next release of the annual agenda, as well as the general agenda for the entire decade, Liam was almost sure that the AI would drag humanity even further away from doing right. He had hoped that when he gave the AI the information it needed and the theories that it ought to apply, it would finally start the redistribution of resources to the dark zones which the world needed. But it didn’t and instead did the opposite.

Year after year, the TAC IIs released plans to cut various social services and have reduced taxation to effectively zero. And yet, even as chief engineer, he did not know what to do. His job covered adding features, maintenance, and information feeding, which should allow him to tell the AI that it is making a grave mistake. Yet, Liam could not communicate his intuitive sense of injustice, of the unfairness of the world to the AI. He simply could not find words to describe why it is unfair for birth to be a lottery. What seems to be common sense to humans did not exist in the artificial brain, the sense of good and evil, or right and wrong were completely governed by cold, hard logic, which Liam could not penetrate.

The problem, he decided, was simply that the AIs could not see why any sort of redistribution could be justified. After all, all the great works of philosophy say that money isn't needed for happiness, so what can possibly justify breaching the property rights of individuals to redistribute that property? For a human, the sense of fairness and justice comes easily, but although the AIs were as sentient as can be, they are ultimately creatures capable of only reason and not emotion. They do not feel the unfairness in inequality. To them, a poor person cannot take away from a rich person just because one is poor and one is rich, even if the poor are starving and the rich have bread in abundance.

He sat up from his bed and punched the mattress with all his strength. Feeling extremely depressed. He didn’t see a point in his work anymore, if the AI wouldn’t listen, and keep making bad decisions, then Liam is just being part of the evil in the established system, instead of being the change he wanted to see in the world. And if that was the case, then what was the point? Why not just end it all? Liam stood up from his bed, opened his curtains, looked out of his windows, and was once again indulged in torturous deep thoughts with his hand on his head. He then walked around the room, and then around the penthouse, and concluded that he could not sleep. Liam went up to the roof, and lied down on an extended chair next to the lighted swimming pool, looking at the stars.

If was after some time, probably a few hours, that his penthouse assistant AI notified him that he had an incoming call. Liam checked his contacts on his watch and found that the caller was one of the old guards from one of the better neighborhoods in the dark zone which Liam lived in when he was a child. He was totally surprised at the call, and could not think of any reasons why he was called, except that perhaps the guard was in financial desperation, and thus called one of the more financially successful residents which he served. Liam decided to answer the call; the man was a helpless victim of the system, and he needed help, Liam would give it.

“Answer it,” Liam told the AI.