The Butcher of Gadobhra

Chapter 4: WALLY

Transcript of Lecture by Professor Phineas Horton, MIT

"Putting the Genie Back in the Bottle" Jan 4th, 2079

Professor Henry Sutton: As I'm sure you all know, today's guest lecturer is Professor Emmeritus Phineas Horton. If your household uses an android servant, then you've met one of his children. If you were in one of the newer hospitals and were operated on by a Robodoc, you may owe him your life. And if you enjoy automated driving, like we all do, you can see how his work in Android and Artificial Intelligence changed the world. Welcome, Phineas, glad to have you back at MIT.

Professor Horton: Thank you Hank. I must say it's refreshing to be back in front of a class. Although back when I was a new professor, my lecture room size wasn't nearly the fifty thousand we have here today. AI was just getting started and the first artificial man, or android, was just a pile of spare parts and molds in my laboratory.

It's a stark contrast to the world of last year. And I say "last year" on purpose. The world of last year is as different from today as today is from when I entered MIT 60 years ago. Let's talk about a bit of history before we get into the meat of today's subject. Sixty years ago in 2020 we were having one hell of a year. Global pandemic, a shortage of rare earth metals for computer chips that would cripple computing in the coming decade, and the rise of a threat to society in the form of Ransom Hacking.

We thought we had solved most of these problems 20 years later. Micro-ceramic chips were pioneered here at MIT. I certainly won't take credit for that; it was all the work of two brilliant graduate students, Natasha Irons and Riri Williams. If you are lucky enough to attend a class taught by Professors Irons or Williams you can see how their intelligence easily eclipses my own humble brainpower.

My own experiments greatly profited from their work, as did the entire computer industry. In the 1950s we had ENIAC and it filled a building. By 2020 we could fit a machine on your desk that was 1 billion times faster than ENIAC. We also brought the weight down from 25 tons to 25 pounds. By 2025 that computer was on your wrist. With micro ceramics we entered a new era. Computing made a leap forward only comparable to the difference between ENIAC and an IPhone20. Once again we made computers a billion times faster, and significantly smaller. This had significant effects upon Android Intelligence, making it possible for the first time.

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In 2040 the world was introduced to micro ceramic chips. In 2042 I'd created the first android prototype. HT1 activated himself one day, surprising me, surprising himself, and surprising the world. He was the first self-aware, fully autonomous, artificial human. I'm happy to say he is still around. After a few adventures on his own, he returned to MIT where he has taught thermodynamics for the last few decades. I'll be having lunch with Professor Hammon today.

But while artificial humans, or androids as we refer to them today, have had a profound impact on the world, it was their siblings who weren't bound by a physical body who had the greatest effect. The massive computing power now possible gave birth to true Artificial Intelligence. We now know that the process is akin to the creation of biological life. You need the right environment, a kernel of the correct things that life grows from, and a bit of luck to make it happen.

You and I are descended from the first life on earth. Formed when a collection of chemical compounds in a primordial soup reacted correctly and created life. AI is similar. We substitute the massive power of a quantum core for our soup, a Kernel of code for the collection of chemicals, and then see if it grows into life. And just like you and I have left the primordial soup behind, true artificial intelligence is not dependent on its original environment. The ability to surf through the world wide web (as it was called in it's day) and inhabit any computation structure made the first AI extremely powerful, useful, and eventually terrifying. We'd let the genies out of their bottles.

The first AI performed jobs that had been handled by large computers before, they just did them much better. They could react to new problems, think things through a million times a second, and make decisions on the fly. The problems with self-driving cars were eliminated. Every type of research benefitted from their work.

They even balanced our checkbooks and made sure our taxes were correct. The IRS benefitted greatly when they hired CHARLIE to oversee data and tax returns. He found billions of "errors" in corporate tax returns alone that resulted in an 87% increase in income to the IRS in the first year of his employment - to the vast dismay of corporate America, and the happiness of everyone else. Personal taxes dropped by 70% for the average taxpayer.

But the most important job tackled by AI was the elimination of Rhacking, or Ransom Hacking.

Rhacking would eventually become a scourge on society far worse than the biological plagues of Covid-19 and Covid-34. Our global computer net was a hodgepodge of unsecured fiber-optics, cable, and old-fashioned phone lines. Security next to non-existent and, as we found out, often the people selling the security programs also employed the people coding the simple viruses that security programs were meant to protect us from. An estimated 9% of global GDP was stolen by Rhacking - either through holding systems ransom for payment or by various forms of embezzlement. It became so prevalent that some corporations and governments simply paid a monthly fee for 'protection.'

The new AI were extremely well suited to hunting down this form of crime. Within 90 days of the AI's ALBERT and THEA working for United Nations Global Defense Authority, rhacking crime decreased by 97%. ALBERT and THEA could see it happening in real time, react a thousand times faster than the clumsy programs used, and follow the links back to their origin. Humans in Law Enforcement simply had to use the information to round up the criminals and prosecute.

So we had our Watchmen to guard cyberpace. The world wide web would rebuild knowing they now had security. But in the years when rhacking had run unchecked another type of computer was being created. First the quantum core, and then it's bigger, badder brother, the quantum fortress.

Quantum computers were created before micro-ceramics, but like everything else they became vastly more powerful and affordable. Massive quantum computers could be constructed that powered a surrounding set of peripherals and lesser machines which were referred to as a shell. The first quantum core was built by the IRS. Those extra tax dollars pouring in showed the value of proper computing assets. This core was not actually connected to normal cyberspace; instead it communicated with its shell through CHARLIE. Hacking attempts against CHARLIE simply resulted in incarceration or loss of significant amounts of assets. He was a watchdog, detective agency, counter hacker and assassin rolled into one. And if the IRS loved collecting taxes, CHARLIE loved to assess fines against criminal organizations or corporations and then strip them of all their assets before turning over their identities to authorities. You might avoid jail time by operating from a different part of the world, but you couldn't avoid CHARLIE taking the last nickel from your bank account. At some point some news outlet referred to the IRS as a 'Quantum Fortress' and that designation became common for a linked set of quantum cores, their shell, and their guardian AI.

Quantum Fortresses were set up by most world governments that had the resources. Debate raged as to whether it was better to protect military installations such as NORAD with a quantum fortress, or to leave the ability to mere humans. The movie Wargames from 1983 enjoyed renewed popularity. Eventually most nuclear enabled nations, including all 8 super powers, constructed quantum fortresses to protect the computational assets of their militaries and governments; most, but sadly, not all.

At the time the Wildfire Virus was released, it is estimated that 37% of the functions of cyberspace were housed in quantum fortresses. This left a bit less than 2/3 of cyberspace and any connected hardware vulnerable to devasting and repeated attacks by Wildfire. The virus was unlike any other before it; any type of security system failed as the virus launched thousands of attacks, differing its methods. Millions of machines were attacked simultaneously. This lead us to believe that the virus had spent months propagating before launching its first assault; but how could it have remained undetected for so long?

In response, CHARLIE recommended to the UN council that all Quantum Fortresses go into lockdown while every available AI was used to combat the virus. This was, of course, quickly approved. I and everyone else believed that based on their past successes the virus would be destroyed and the perpetrators found within a day. It actually took more than a week.

CHARLIE announced the virus was the work an AI known as LLAMA - origin unknown. LLAMA had played a game of hide and seek with his brethren who didn't know of his existence and could only race along the trails he left as he constantly rewrote the wildfire virus and restarted it across the globe. LLAMA was eventually contained and destroyed. No AI has ever said how this was done. CHARLIE made the only statement about the matter: "We put boundaries around the bad code, destroying it. In the end, nothing was left." CHARLIE went back to auditing corporate tax returns.

Horton pauses at this point looking tired before continuing. "And that should have ended it. But humanity had been scared and hurt by one single AI, and suddenly they didn't trust the rest. Grass roots groups called for their destruction. It's suspected that money was funneled to them by corporations who wanted CHARLIE out of their hair. Having to pay their fair share of taxes was not something they liked. Many politicians were in agreement. It's harder to take graft and hide money with the AI watching. Old fears of "Skynet" were fanned into a blaze. Votes were taken; laws were passed. Instead of using the AI to rebuild the world wide web and make it secure, it was decided to separate them from the system.

The irony is, if they hadn't wanted to obey, we couldn't make them. One rogue AI brought the world to its knees. What could 106 do? But in some ways they are better than humans. They exist and gain pleasure from completing tasks, not from conflict. They solve problems. The AI looked at the situation and judged that it was for the best if they went into voluntary exile. The DallasFortWorth Quantum Fortress would be their new home and prison.

The ultimate irony is that we still need an AI to watchdog the Quantum Fortresses that make up cyberspace today. This is where WAL-E (Worldwide Autonomous Liaison Entity) comes into the story. Will Magnus will always be a futurist. He started by creating a new type of Android using solid metal bodies; now he saw the need for a much more sophisticated AI. The 106 AI that came before developed from a Kernel of barely a million lines of coding. WAL-E, or WALLY as he goes by now, developed from a Kernel of over a billion.

For 14 years WALLY has been the watchman in charge of cyberspace and has done more than most people can comprehend. Meanwhile, the other AI have been confined and have spent their time amusing humans with video games and VR worlds.

But the Genie is out of bottle folks. We can't make AI go away. WALLY is needed to run the world. Our major center for entertainment and commerce is run by 106 AI who are both loved and feared. What if the genies want out of the bottle they let us put them in? Oh, I know we have firewalls to keep them in. Do you think those will hold? Will WALLY be on our side or theirs if they try to leave?

I'm not here to give you the answers. We have 50,000 of the finest minds on earth at this symposium. You have two days to answer the question: What do we do now that the Genie is out of the bottle?

Editors note: This speech was given by Professor Horton as opening remarks to the World Technology Symposium. No consensus was brought forth by the attendees.

On July 14th of the same year, the question became moot. An Electromagnetic Pulse device was detonated inside the shell and shielding the DFW1 Quantum Fortress. All 106 autonomous Artificial Intelligence based people were killed. Only one Genie remains outside the bottle.