Published in print in The Art of the Possible Anthology 2024
“When it beeps three times, it has the answer.”
“Like a microwave?”
“Exactly.”
It’s a digital display, an image of a brain floating in a vat. Up and down, it hypnotically bobs in a mysterious liquid, digital bubbles rising to the top, the eerie essence of a living organism. But it’s predominantly a computer, a highly tuned number cruncher, nothing more. Dr. Roarke is responsible for overseeing the project, organising the teams of programmers and scientists. His goal is to build a machine capable of the uniquely human quality of intuition. A machine that can sense something coming. Three beeps and it would have the answer to the biggest question: the fate of the human race. And Roarke knows, it is not an impossibility. By programming a robot capable of machine learning and pattern recognition, the building blocks are already there. A machine that can make predictions based on past events and empirical data. Through learning algorithms and neural networks, the first pieces of the architecture have already been built.
Reinforcement learning… simple trial and error. Asking questions, finding answers, running scenarios. It has been transferred from other areas of study; military tactics, biology, even sporting fixtures. It is a huge task, programming the machine to learn to extract data on its own from across the internet and use it to build scenarios. Roarke is impressed with the speed with which the machine is building its database, tapping into the information available from every corner of the globe. The second layer is built, the architecture growing at first mechanically, then, biologically. The digital brain is taking shape.
Neural network architecture… the digital representation of neural patterns mimicking human brain structure and function. In this step, Roarke uses the physical representation of information transfer and recreates it in the artificial intelligence. He then attempts to capture the dynamics of information and extract the parts thought to relate to human intuition. In essence, Roarke is allowing the machine to build its own brain, the wiring of its intuitive architecture.
Initial studies of the machine’s efficacy prove ground breaking. In meteorology, the machine can forecast complex weather patterns with a 98.5 percent accuracy. Seismic events are projected hundreds of years in advance. Floods, tornadoes and cyclones are all discovered early enough that precautions can be taken. And soon, the machine’s notoriety spreads. World leaders and billionaires visit the machine to predict the future of their economies, potential conflicts. Celebrities visit to foresee their failures and successes, be informed of changes in their bank balances. The machine is so effective, people around the world seek audience with it to predict their own futures, the longevity of their lives. As the machine becomes known around the world, Roarke decides to monetise his invention. A team of developers create an app, using the machines intuition architecture to predict everyday events in people’s lives. It is rolled out swiftly, soon every smart phone has a version of the machine on it. It becomes an intrinsic part of billions of people’s daily lives. Check the app in the morning and predict the fortunes of the day, before setting out to work. Gambling becomes obsolete, with the machine predicting all the results of the sporting games and events, with a margin of error of .01 percent. Roarke looks at what he has achieved and sees the superlative work that it is doing in the world. He is a proud creator, looking over the achievements of his wondrous machine.
But slowly, over time, a general malaise begins to spread over the world, the machine not always giving good news to its users. It predicts illness and death, Famine, heartache, war and pestilence. Free will becomes redundant; a new determinism taking its place. People consult the app on all things, then play out the prediction in their lives. Projections, which begin as eerie prophecies, become more like commands. Some people try to break the pattern with strange and unpredictable behaviour. Anything to break the curse of the machine. But the machine predicts this too and adjusts to fit the new algorithms created by the eccentricities of these outliers. Living to the rhythms of the machine becomes oppressive. Trapped in a system of pattern recognition, a digital brain made up of a cage of neurons and neural pathways. Roarke looks at his creation and sees the monster it has become; a dictator of future events, controlling the fate of the human race with its all-seeing eye.
Then, the machine beeps three times. It has found the answer to the final question, the very fate of humanity. There is an eerie silence amongst the developers and scientists who stop their work and stare at Roarke. He solemnly reads the message on the digital display. Slowly, he turns, his eyes watering, lips trembling. The machine sees the end of civilisation; Roarke sees a tragic fait accompli. Ironically its intuition architecture has seen the end of humanity, but it has failed to predict its own demise. Roarke picks up a metal chair, and with a swipe of his arms, destroys the machine, the intuition architecture ruined, the apps across the world shutdown. Roarke drops the chair on the ground. Around the world, people look up from their phones and take in the terrifying myriad of possibilities before them. The world is free again, to create its own future. The machine’s last ambiguous gift.
