The climate was changing. As chaos and strife spread across the planet, exacerbating the many woes already borne by people of all cultures and nations, a gathering was held in a secret location known only to those attending. The participants were mostly well-known to each other by virtue of their positions of power and influence on the world’s stage, so there was an easy comaraderie among them, despite the fact they were meeting for a sober and historic decision regarding A.I., and how to utilize it’s virtues to find solutions to the problem of their dying planet.
“We may need to open the floodgates,” the Tech Mogul declared. “The technology has matured and clearly has the ability to help us. God knows we’ve done a number on this planet, but all our efforts to mitigate the worst we’ve wrought has been for naught. Every year things get worse and move faster and faster. It’s been like doing 90 on a bike blindfolded!”
An eminent financier responded, “It’s time to get serious and make some hard decisions. The A.I. platform perfected by our associate standing here beside me, who will speak next, is clearly a superior tool to help us achieve our goals.”
“I’ve formulated a scheme,” the rocket builder stated, “Whereby the A.I. entity we’ve nicknamed ‘Supernova‘ shall make the tough and profound decisions which must be made if we’re to maintain order and life on earth.”
A military man called out, “In informal meetings with U.N. officials I’ve been delighted to hear expressions of support for the idea. World Court members were also enthusiastic. Everybody’s weary these days and ready for serious change.”
“For this to work we have to all agree that the A.I. decisions and directives are cast in stone and that we exist merely to implement it’s plan. We’ll know quickly if the plan is effective,” the minerals and energy titan expounded. “Some will win and some will lose, but the survival of our species and way of life is at stake.”
A high figure in the religious and world finance community responded, “It’s a path that is clearly sanctioned by God, given that we, the most successful and powerful individuals on earth, have come together as community in favor of the plan. Indeed there will be suffering, but that is man’s lot and always has been. In my spirited debates with esteemed clerics of the other major religions I discovered that we all supported the scheme. After much prayer and contemplation I approve of the plan.”
The leading computer expert among them added, “My thinking is that we involve at least a half dozen identical machines, to help reveal and weed out hallucinatory responses, and to designate one machine to cross-reference and validate the responses. That would take the human element out of the equation. Humans broke it, computers will fix it. We made the bunk we sleep in, now it’s up to us to let computer magic fix it!”
The media man among them responded, “That’s a good slogan and should be used in our campaign to educate the masses as to the wisdom of the plan. We should not overestimate their intelligence or capacity to understand what must be done. We are the movers and shakers, not those political drudges in DC from foolish Athens. Among us we hold 98 percent of the wealth, so clearly it’s our responsibility to lead the way. We stand to lose the most if our planet goes south!”
The fashion and accoutrements giant offered sage guidance, “Like a cat on a limb scanning the forest, we see where the prey lurks, then strike on our terms!”
The meeting adjourned and the next chapter was to be written and remembered.
CP Butchvarov 2024