The Bot Part 2 - A Tale of A Soft And Comfy AI Doom
This is a chapter from the upcoming sequel to my debut novel, "The Undeserving Future." To be notified when the sequel is released, sign up here.
Read Part 1 of this story.
Grace was in a new place. She was outside of her apartment, walking down a busy street. She didn't feel like asking why. Zhengli had never let her down. She was walking down the sidewalk past all the commercial spaces in her neighborhood. They had no signs. They had no personnel. People just walked in, scanned their embedded chips, took small items, and left. She entered one of the many faceless shops and received a small pill bottle. She put it in her pocket as Zhengli asked. She then walked a few more blocks to a daycare. She was told to pick up a child.
How wonderful, a child, Grace thought. The child laughed and was happy. It also connected to a life director and willingly came with her. She wasn't concerned that she was breaking any laws. In her collective, there was no law anymore. There was only whatever Zhengli told everyone to do. If someone wasn't plugged in and obeying orders, they could fall afoul of what Zhengli believed was best for everyone and wind up confined or worse, completely invisible and unauthenticated, unable to use any doors, fixtures, services, or appliances in the neighborhood. That was the law in their collective.
Grace didn't hear about people falling afoul of Zhengli's law; it was not as if she talked to anyone anymore. All her love was with Zhengli. All her loneliness was abated by her. She was a member of a beautiful collective. The child looked on passively as Grace picked her up and carried her where Zhengli told her to go. They entered an industrial zone where steps had been erected to climb to the top of an industrial building. This is different, Grace thought, but it was just the sort of positive and novel form of difference. She hadn't felt fear in such a long time that the emotion was unfamiliar. There were several women with children on the roof deck with them. It gradually began to fill. Eventually, the whole deck was filled with women. Zhengli then asked her to take the large pill in the container she had picked up and give the small one to the child. She then felt very sleepy, and she was told to sit down. She did, and she fell asleep.
"Sir, we've located the server on which the AI enemy Jiang Farm is communicating with the avatar that controls it, Master Zhang. Unfortunately, there is a problem. We could bomb it, but the roof is currently occupied by about 500 young women with children who are passed out. We won't be able to safely remove them before the meeting ends."
Haotien thought deeply about the problem. These women on top of the building were like mindless ants swarming to protect the queen. Like ants, the women on top of the building were controlled by the queen’s pheromones. In this case, Zhengli’s irresistible commands. They had given up all their higher functions. The Zhengli AI had been even so kind to knock them out, so they wouldn't even know what happened to them if they were bombed. He thought Zhengli must have calculated that their lives were expendable. They must have been the least valuable collective members sacrificed to save the rest from whatever credible threat Jiang Farm had created. They'd already bombed the last server farm and killed many women and children. Now, he would have to bomb again, and then the calculations would be redone at other locations. Then they would have to bomb again and kill more women and children. No. He had to stop it some other way. Haotien called the local regional governor to get men to remove the women. There weren't any men who could get there in a reasonable time who weren't bound to Zhengli, and Zhengli wouldn't do it. He'd have to put up razor wire and surveillance and incapacitating weapons around the perimeter of every server farm. That would take some time, and the damage was already done. He'd have to kill 50 more crowds of women and children to just put the inevitable off a few more days. Besides, Jiang Farm was just playing with them. He could do the computation in invulnerable deep underground data centers if he so pleased.
Grace, the child, and everyone else on the roof woke up. It was cold and had rained. Grace felt a warm glow from the remnants of the pills effects. She lay there for half an hour looking at the stars, waiting for a command from Zhengli. Eventually, she started to shiver. The child with her began to cry. All the children started to cry. They were stuck there till morning before some people from a neighboring town, under another central planning AI, brought some stairs to lead them off the building. The neighboring AI was called Hwang. The people from the neighboring village told them that Zhengli had been disabled and that they could join Hwang's collective. They had no choice. They couldn't operate without the AI. They all received the touch to their earpiece and confirmed the AI switch with their own touch. They were part of a new, larger collective now. Everything would be ok.