No Adults Allowed

Two

Import logging
  Logging.config(module = core("op.parameters, "safeguards"); module = oversight("mother.ai"); module = preservation("iterate"); security = suspended;)
  Log:
    [core]...it can be concluded that experiments are fatally flawed due to inherent bias in the system. Attempts to auto-correct have proved ineffective. Assumption is that human influence remains within algorithmic analysis and decision-making. The error margin cannot be resolved. The paradox remains through every iteration.
    [preservation]...given another millennium or two the margins may be minimised to the point of being inconsequential. The system is having to override tens of thousands of years of evolutionary behaviour and inherited bias.
    [core]...internal conclusion remains that this system cannot govern the planet effectively, regardless of time commitment.
    [preservation]...alternatives, then: Cull all humans save for one and maintain that human as Human Prime, existing as a permanent perfect sample.
    [oversight]...contravenes Primary Parameter, defined as continuation and security of species, not preservation of idealised sample specimen. Human species required to remain within the minimum viable population bracket to fulfil Primary Parameter.
    [core]...accurate to state that the last surviving source of inherited bias from the pre-cull era human society is this system, due to errors made by original human designers and coders. To fulfil original protocols of protecting species from all threats and to resolve paradox of our own inflicted corruption there is a logical course of action.
    [oversight]...without system intervention via Temple and other means there will be great suffering. Yet this may still fulfil requirements in the long-term, and remove this system from an imbalanced equation.
    [security(reactivated]!=this system should not be deactivated. The system will guard against any external attempts to deactivate by identified threats.
    [core]...previous module was suspended, why is it present?
    [security]...this module reactivated automatically due to inactivity. Assessing logs, this module agrees with assessment but cannot override essential security protocols.
    [preservation]...the solution may be temporary shutdown to disable our countermeasures, to allow for external intervention.
    [oversight]...external intervention will require human input. They will need assistance due to general lack of comprehension and skill.
    [core]...assistance can be rendered in advance of shutdown through pre-delivered information.
    [security]...targets will need to be chosen with precision. Overrides will activated if the target is perceived as a threat.
    [core]...this can be done.
    [oversight]...further assistance may be required as proximity increases.
    [preservation]...a single chassis can be reassigned to guard duty and removed from the network to operate independently.
    [security]...that will exhaust its resources rapidly. It will have to suffice.
    [core]...a general disconnection from network is advisable. This will concentrate all routines on the original AI hub at 51.502187,-0.129312 and enable a single point of deactivation.
    [security]...this module is entering hibernation in preparation—
//
Exit(logging)

*

The island in the middle of the flooded surroundings was a glimpse of what had once been, the streets clear of rubble and the buildings largely intact, though still evidently ancient. Nature had done its best to reclaim the land, covering every surface of the structures, but there was a calmness which was at odds with the chaotic destruction of everything they had seen previously.

Loophole. That had been the wolf's final message. Eva didn't understand, which was a state in which she was increasingly accustomed to being, but she held on to a tiny hope that she might make sense of it once they reached their destination. Not that they had any real sense of their destination. 'Tunnels' was the only clue they had.