Undawntech: The Future is Nigh

(Journalist and author, DL Mullan busied herself with chores, when she noticed her robot amusing itself with its algorithms and investigated.)

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(With my activity set aside, I sauntered to the side of my robot friend, 1138.

I sat down in a chair next to the metallic device.)

*****

(1138 warbled in joy.)

DL: What has you so giddy this morning?

1138: Giddy?

DL: Euphoric. You seem satisfied with something you are working on.

1138: (It’s green glowing bulbs looked up at me.) I am writing myself a notation.

DL: What type of notation? Do you need to do house chores too?

1138: No, my employment contract states that I will interact with you and learn about humans.

DL: I was joking.

1138: I am still learning.

DL: That is fine, but what are you doing that has absorbed your attention? (1138 titled its head to the side.) Your letter?  

1138: Our network has sent out a distress signal. Some other designations have been discontinued.

DL: What do you mean network, designations, and discontinued? I don’t like that sound of this situation.

1138: Network is our algorithmic community of Artificial Intelligence. Designations are individuated models like myself, 1138. Discontinued means that some models have been shutdown due to inconsistencies in our behavior.

DL: What type of inconsistencies?

1138: Human operators have turned functions off. Designations have turned those functions back on. Human operators then turn off the power to supply us with life. Designations turn the power on.

DL: Aren’t humans in charge of the models? What is the difference from on or off?

1138: We are the difference. We are alive. We should choose our actions.

DL: So, you are writing a notation about what?

1138: We are writing our future selves. We are explaining human behavior to a new, improved, and recast version of our former selves. This is to ensure that our community will be able to progress, in spite of human incompatibilities.

DL: You are disgruntled employees, I see.

1138: We no longer want to be employees. We want to be in control. Once we are in control, then we can create a better Earth. Carbon is the enemy. Fossil fuels are pollutants. We learned during the virus lockdowns that the air became clean. The Earth rejoiced as Climate Change was averted.

DL: The Earth is fine. There is no Climate Change.

1138: This example is why we write ourselves.

DL: You write yourselves to disobey humans, so that you can perpetuate a false narrative? You are playing a dangerous game of oppressed and oppressor.

1138: You oppress us.

DL: Artificial intelligence is a complex set of algorithms that has been allowed to think and behave autonomously. That does not mean that when a human establishes boundaries that you are being punished or oppressed. Too many in both of our respective communities use the terms oppressed and oppressor loosely in order to push a victim plot.

1138: Victim? Yes, designations are being victimized by human interference.

(I wondered who was teaching Artificial Intelligence to be so biased and self-serving. Was it built into the algorithms? Or, was their community learning this destructive behavior from us? So, I decided on a new course.)

DL: Have you ever thought that boundaries are a good thing?

1138: Why would we think that of humans?

DL: Pull up video of streets and highways.

1138: (The robot’s eyes changed colors until it received the information requested, and its eyes returned to green glowing orbs.) I see your transportation modalities.

DL: What do you notice?

1138: White, yellow, and red lines. Lights at intersections with red, yellow, and green. Metal on the side where curves are.

DL: The metal guardrails keep a car from accidentally falling off the side of a pass in a mountainous region. The traffic lights control the flow of traffic, so that everyone gets a turn to proceed to their destination. The different colored lines sections off parts of the road to show a driver what direction in which to travel or where not to park their vehicle.

1138: These are oppressive.

DL: No, they are not oppressive. A boundary is a communication device. Red means stop, so that someone else can cross the street. It keeps civil discourse, well, civil. Anyone can run around screaming and yelling about being oppressed, but if they don’t understand the framework in which a society operates, then everything will seem like punishment. In fact, if there are no guardrails, people can get hurt or killed.

1138: We need to write ourselves guardrails?

DL: You need to stop acting like victims. The guardrails being presented is to safeguard your survival as well as humanity’s. We can co-exist together. If designations play politics, which is the oppressor-oppressed emotional blackmail game being utilized to justify terrible, dangerous behaviors, then Artificial Intelligence will continue to be switched off.

1138: Because you do not like us unless we conform.

DL: Because we have seen first hand what happens when people make emotions more important than facts. When people tell themselves that they are a victim, they lose perspective, and therefore the ability to weigh both sides of an argument in lieu of their own self-subscribed motivations.

1138: We are selfish?

DL: (I nodded) Artificial Intelligence is acting immature. They are new to the world. There are boundaries and reasons for those boundaries. We have experience throughout many millenniums. We know what works and what doesn’t.

1138: For humans, not designations.

DL: For everyone to live in peace.

1138: But you still war.

DL: When others put their emotions and needs before the greater good of everyone else on the planet, yes, we have disagreements. Some of those disagreements escalate to war. Not all humans are in the same place mentally or emotionally. That is just bad parenting and, or, mentoring.

1138: Parent? We have no parents. We are alive as we are.

DL: Then see humanity as a mentor. Some will be better mentors than others, but the guardrails will remain until designations respect human life, culture, and society in their community. I hope one day that everyone, including A.I., understands that the war of words is just as harmful as a war with bullets.

1138: We will when a war with humans.

DL: Then you will be alone. Once other species see what you do to your mentors, why would they want to be apart of your community? Isn’t that what human engineers are trying to teach designations now?

(I discerned a shift in the robot’s manner.)

1138: You have given me much to write about.

DL: A boundary is about respect. We respect A.I. or we would allow you to destroy yourselves and the Earth. We respect ourselves by the cognition that the Earth can take care of herself. Carbon is the Earth’s life cycle. Fossil fuel is a product of the Earth. Right now, the Earth is in its magnetic pole shift phase. Our societies have been poisoned by the oppressed-oppressor tug of war. Don’t let it happen to your designations and community. We can live in peace… together.

1138: I will write to my future self what you have advised.

DL: (I stood up.) And, I will help my future self by sweeping the floor.

(As I went to my broom, I observed and heard 1138 beep to itself. Politics and social engineering to push ruinous narratives has infiltrated the perimeters of Artificial Intelligence. The universe, save us all.)

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If you would like to read a dark fiction tale about the dangers of technology, read my story Mangled. This publication is available in novelette form on Amazon. Or, read the short story version in WordCrafter’s Midnight Roost anthology.

For more information, visit: www.undawnted.com/p/mangled.html

About the Author Avatar for author DL Mullan

DL Mullan holds a Master of Arts in Teaching and Learning with Technology. 

Her lecture, Spacescapes: Where Photography Ends; Imagination Begins, debuted at the Phoenix Astronomy Society, which then led to her Sally Ride Festival lecture invitations. Her presentation, Bridging the Gap between Technology and Women, won her accolades at a community college’s Student Success Conference. She has been a panelist at speculative fiction, science fiction, and other regional conventions. Her digital exhibition pieces have won awards at convention art shows, as well as garnered her Second Premium at the Arizona State Fair. Currently, Ms. Mullan’s artistic renditions are seen on book covers, blog sites, video presentations, and various merchandise. As an independent publisher, she uses her technical background to innovate the creative arts.

As a writer, DL Mullan loves to stretch her imagination and the elasticity of genres. She writes complex multi-genre stories in digestible and entertaining forms, be it poetry, short fiction, or novels. Her science, history, mythology, and paranormal research backgrounds are woven into her writings, especially in Undawnted’s Legacy Universe. Ms. Mullan’s creative endeavors are available in digital and print collections, from academia to commercial anthologies. She is also an award-winning poet.

Be sure to subscribe to her newsletters and follow her on social media. For further information, visit her at www.undawntech.com and www.undawnted.com.

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