Artificial(ish) Intelligence

Chapter 14

Rough and unkempt vegetation suffused the scattered run-down houses as two brothers drove by in a van.

"Do you think breakfast is the most important meal of the day?" said Zerro.

"Who cares?" said Exx, pulling into the driveway.

"Mum always said breakfast was the most important meal of the day. But I heard that the less you eat, the smarter you get."

Exx stared at his generously contoured brother. "You might be on to something."

"I heard of people that live in a cave and don't eat anything. When they come out, they're smarter than when they went in."

"You'll get the same effect by eating," said Exx, "you just gotta pick the right kind of mushroom."

"But I don't like mushrooms," said Zerro.

Exx shook his head.

"Do you think," said Zerro, "that food stops people from knowing things?"

Exx strained a look toward his brother.

"That knowledge comes into people's minds from somewhere else, without them even asking? And then when they eat food, it blocks everything? Kind of like how the sun is always going into our skin until we put a shirt on."

"We eat food because we need to," said Exx. "Otherwise we die."

"But we stand under the shade when it's hot. Not eating food is like when it's really, really hot. Even if it's bad for us, it might be more bad to eat."

"You really talk some stool, don't you?" said Exx. "It's better to live than to know things. Any lifting-device-donkey can tell you that."

"When they get out of the cave," he said, back onto the story, "they tell people about all the smart things they learnt. Then those people follow them. Do you think one day I'll be followed?"

"'Coz of the smart things you say? I don't think you have to worry about that."

"Oh," said Zerro.

"We're getting more jobs," said Exx, "a lot more. Stop worryin' about the future and think about right now." He nodded ahead.

The house was made entirely from corrugated iron and looked more like a shed, with a large satellite dish punching its way through the roof.

Zerro checked the app. "Almost dead," he said.

"Too bad," said Exx.

There was no response after knocking seventeen times. This was not unprecedented. Exx dropped the briefcase and raised his leg as if to kick the door in. It hung, poised in the air, as the door opened. An emaciated forty year-old man stood on the other side. Struggled to stand, more accurately, his muscles as weak as a homeopathic remedy.

"Paramedics," said Zerro.

The man remained fixed on the spot, his eyes specifically focussed on a direct spot somewhere between, but not at, the brothers.

"Paramedics," repeated Zerro.

The man's eyes rolled back. Perhaps it was Exx's scowl, or a lack of nutrients, or even a sudden pulse ray from aliens in outer space; either way, he collapsed.

Exx sighed and shook his head. "Too bad."

Zerro examined the gaunt body. "Too smart!"