Mod Superhero (Book 6 STUBBING on Oct 27th)

SIMULATIONS - Projections Out Loud

Two important conversations happened simultaneously—one in physical space, the other in cyberspace.

In physical space, the core members of the Resistance huddled in the increasingly cramped control hub. Emmett and Clara sat next to one another. She leaned against his arm while he half-listened. Lock and McGuire were on the other side of Emmett. Both sat with their arms crossed. Athena leaned against a nearby console.

All eyes were on the two eldest members of the Resistance: Dr. Venture and the former Spymaster of the Summit of Heroes. The two elder supers talked animatedly about the upcoming war and what came afterward.

In cyberspace, Emmett, TINA, and Icarus were doing the same—except they were a few seconds ahead. The three huddled on the edge of the forest—a human, a blue phoenix, and a fairy. They mainly talked with one another, though all three were powerful enough to be present for both conversations.

Icarus said, "I don't think they read your transition plan, TINA. I think they skimmed it."

Emmett chuckled. "To be fair, it was almost six hundred pages. Even with Dr. Venture's knack, it took him almost an hour to speed read through it."

TINA said flatly, "Structuring a post-scarcity society was difficult, but the true difficulty lies in making a smooth transition from current societal structures to that future. Several fields of research were combined, including sociology, political science, logistical projections, economic theory, and terraforming science. The transition plan is a seven year, multi-step process, which can be reordered and adjusted as new data comes in. The hope is that this built-in flexibility will further smooth over the transition."

Emmett replied, "It's impressive, TINA, really. Humanity would've needed all the countries in the world working together to come up with this."

"Humanity could've come to the same conclusions that I have, but I am not bound by human convention or societal conventions. Sometimes it takes an outside, objective opinion to get things done."

Icarus asked, "So the paper was so long that you couldn't summarize it?"

"Six hundred pages is the summary. The full version is eleven thousand, nine hundred and seventy-three pages—over twenty thousand pages including footnotes and datasets."

Both Emmett and Icarus whistled.

The human part of Emmett knew that the full paper was a monumental achievement and reading it would be a herculean task, but the rest of him knew that he could parse the information quicker than anyone else on the planet.

"TINA, if you don't mind, I would like to read the full version, including any simulations and modeling you did in the process."

"Are you checking over my work?"

Emmett smirked. "That wasn't my intent, but I will if you want me to. If you want me to be your ally and the champion of this movement, then I need to know it, inside and out. That way, when the time comes, I can defend your reasoning."

As he finished the thought, he felt a small glow in cyberspace. TINA highlighted a shortcut to where the full paper was stored. He understood right away—the full paper included several terabytes of data and simulations. This way he could access the information without downloading it and wasting his own resources.

~

Back in the physical world, Venture and Wight's conversation had finally turned to what came after the war.

Wight sighed heavily. "So much for keeping the world the same. ...We were supposed to save the world."

Venture replied, "If by save the world, you mean preserve it... You have to ask whether the world is worth preserving."

"TINA's future world sounds good on paper, but you have no guarantee that it will turn out that way. Nor do you know if the people will want it."

"They will. We'll explain the whole damn plan to every last person on the planet if we have to."

Wight held up a finger. "That's the difference between us, Magnus. TINA's not psychic and she's not all powerful. There's going to be a transitionary period. People are going to be scared."

"We can mitigate it. TINA's already working out the details."

Wight shook his head, and silence fell over the room. It felt like the two men had forgotten about the others in the room.

McGuire and Lock shared a surprised look. McGuire asked, "Your first name is Magnus?"

"Yes."

McGuire looked like he was going to make a joke or ask Wight what his name was, but the old spymaster shot him a look. McGuire swallowed nervously.

Wight turned back to Venture. "It's going to get worse before it gets better."

Venture crossed his arms. "It was always going to."

"The Brotherhood is already desperate, and we're backing them into a corner. Who knows the lengths Midas will go to—"

TINA interrupted. "Midas relies too heavily on Bastion. That makes them predictable."

Wight raised an eyebrow. "That depends on Bastion remaining a proto-AI instead of becoming more like you, TINA, or are you predictable too?"

"I surpassed Bastion's raw processing two weeks ago, and the gap continues to widen."

In cyberspace, Emmett felt that TINA wanted to say more, but held back. She was going to use the metaphor of a chess match to illustrate her point.

Bastion had taken the lead in the early game. It had more pieces—more drones and biomechs and resources, but that wouldn't matter for much longer. Now, TINA could out think Bastion. She could see more moves ahead. It was the equivalent of a normal human fighting a speedster or a super that could see into the future. No matter how many drones and biomechs Bastion had, TINA could anticipate its every move and then react faster. Soon, she'd have the equivalent of super strength and would take back control of the entire drone fleet.

Emmett knew immediately why TINA didn't say all that out loud. The distrust was apparent on Wight's face.

Wight wasn't part of the Binary Brotherhood, but he was one of few people outside the organization that had part in the original AI ban. Wight trusted Venture, but that didn't mean he would ever fully trust TINA.

~

In cyberspace, Icarus flitted his wings in annoyance. "Why are they always afraid of us taking over or that power will go to our heads and we'll become tyrants?"

Emmett answered jokingly, "Because there are a lot more stories about evil AIs than good ones."

"But why?"

The innocence in Icarus's voice caught him off guard. For all his growth, Icarus was still a child, and didn't have the same understanding of the world that the others had.

TINA replied, "They only have themselves for a frame of reference, and there are even more stories of absolute power corrupting humans. They imagine that we'll have the same flaws in our programming."

TINA said the words with compassion and without judgement, and Emmett wished that the others could've heard her. It was a much needed reminder that they were all in this together—

And together, maybe they could actually pull this off.

~ ~ ~