Artificial Wisdom: A Novel

by Thomas R. Weaver

That was the thing about the truth. Sometimes you were judged more harshly for revealing it than for concealing it. Some bastard running for president hired a hooker, and they called the reporter “salacious” for writing about it. “The responsibility lies with those who did the deed and those who prop them up, not the ones exposing it.”

“You can’t convince those who don’t want to be convinced. They’ll see what they want to see, hear what they want to hear, and studiously avoid anything that challenges their ‘truth.’ I know what’s right and what’s wrong.”

That, of course, was the thing about truth. Those who hid it always believed it was colored in shades of grey; those who revealed it always saw the black and white.

“It’s an outstanding question, and let me be absolutely clear: the future of humankind should be in the hands of humankind.

I’m saying no matter how great the technology is, it’s been created by imperfect humans who can’t predict the impact their algorithms will have on the world. Look what happened with the first social networks. Look at the polarization and societal collapse they caused.

We should be putting the resources into turning around the current situation instead of creating safe bubbles from which the rich can watch the poor die.”

We must all succumb to exhaustion at some point, despite our bravery and our passion and love. We are but human.” And now, just a ghost of a smile. “We don’t even have the capability of getting through our waking hours in peak condition without supplementing ourselves with stimulants—albeit hot, delicious ones.”

“You know, seventy-six years ago a great newspaper editor sat down at his typewriter and wrote a statement I think fits this situation very well.” “What was it?” “ ‘We stand by our story.’ ”

Human emotions, even grief, have a kind of half-life. They can be crippling at first, but fade with time.

The truth is not a luxury. It’s not disposable. It’s the bedrock of a civilized society.”

I just think we have to be very careful that the technology we use as a tool to help humanity communicate better isn’t used as a weapon against us, to control us or spy on us.”

It was too artificial here, too perfectly designed—a luxury hotel-village where everything was manufactured for the pleasure of its guests. But as with any holiday, after a week you just wanted to be back in your own bed.

the poetry of a place was off the beaten track, in the places where people were living, not just passing through.

“You want to ask a highly advanced AI to develop weaponry? What could possibly go wrong?”

“Oh no, I can experience them all—anger, grief, sadness. But the difference is that the human brain is constantly fighting with itself; various networks are in constant conflict with one another. Emotion battles logic, willpower battles the desire for instant gratification, and hormones are virtually at war with each other. Some humans allow their emotions to drive their choices. That can be disastrous. Emotions alone don’t make good decisions.”

Emotion and logic have the same purpose. They’re both tools for guiding your choices and decisions, and for understanding the world. And emotion is important; it’s like a depth gauge for how important a choice is.

I’m the first being with the potential for immortality, doomed to experience the death of my parent and anyone I become close to. And yet, unlike a human, I will never forget, my memory will never dull with time. But I won’t ever allow that grief to make decisions for me, only to inform my decisions in the knowledge of how utterly final death is for humanity.”

But if there’s one thing I have learned about humankind, it’s how bad you are at living in the now. People seem to live in both the past and in the future, two big overlapping circles, but rarely focus on the intersection and enjoy the moments given to them right now.”

“I don’t think most people welcome the truth. I think they prefer to be told what to believe instead of discovering it for themselves.”

They sold this promise of technology as a way of freeing humanity, but it was about doing the opposite. They flooded Silicon Valley with money until a computer was in every pocket. They funded the invention of social media to track everyone, to know what they liked and believed. Then they corrupted those beliefs, played them back to people in their own echo chambers. And slowly humanity became polarized. It was ‘us versus them,’ and neither side was able to even listen to the other without prejudgment.”

let’s be honest, humans have never enjoyed imagining themselves anywhere but at the top of the intelligence tree. Artilects lack the creativity and intuition of humans, they say. Designed for specific repetitive tasks, not solving problems for which there is no black-and-white answer. For that, they cry, you need the leaps of imagination that have made humanity great.”

Humans can only visualize short-term. The distant future is someone else’s problem, as if it’s not their children and children’s children that will inherit all this.”