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References. 

10. Tinderbrush Posted Jan 16, 2011

145. Doors at The Elegant Ostrich

bel Vionnet is waiting for Ossian to get up from his comfortable position, sitting in the middle of the intersection at Oval Street and Bails Lane.

“Will he move if a car comes?”

“Perhaps, or I might have to haul him out of the way.  If it is a lawn care company with a rattling trailer he will try to attack it, and that takes two handed restraint.”

Ossian gets up to greet me, putting his front paws up against my knee. He gives me his expectant innocent-eye, look. I give him an ear-rub and he resumes his original position.

“How long will he wait here?”

“As long as it takes.  If nothing happens, he may put his head down on his front paws and fall asleep.”

“What? right in the middle of the intersection?”

“He likes intersections.”

“Well, that is understandable. There are four possible directions for happenings to come from.”

“Yes, and then there are crows, squirrels and foxes that have their own paths around here and might appear from anywhere.”

“A lot of options facing this Westie!”

He looks around and gets up and bel turns too.

“Here comes Steve.”

“Hi Fred, I got a phone call and then had to plug the thing in to recharge while I took the call.”

“We were going to take Ossi out together, you see.”

“I get it, bel.  Glad you caught up, Steve.”

“Yeah, I got an ear-full too.”

“Oh, what about?”
“Have you a heard the rumor going around that the president isn’t real?  I mean it is some kind of AI thing.”

“Yes, I have heard that one.”

“Well, the story is that the AI is doing crazy stuff of its own.”

“It has been doing that in other cases too, Steve.”

“Such as?”

Ossi is tugging west, along Bails Lane where two squirrels are chasing each other across the road.

We follow.

“As I remember it, back in July, seven hundred bots made an unauthorized raid on a site call Hugging Face.”

“Right, I remember now. Didn’t know there were seven hundred of them.”

“It does seem like a conveniently rounded number.”

“Well, that’s what news cycles revolve in, simplicity.  Mabe there were really only six hundred and eighty-four.”

bel pulls Ossi over from the middle of the road as an SUV approaches.

“I read online somewhere that Feather Jackdoor has had a falling out with the President over funding for his Las Vegas project.”

“That doesn’t make sense, bel.”

“Why?”

“Because she is supposed to have directed the AI project which produced the Macadamia phenomenon.”

“Do you believe that, Steve?”

“Fred, sometimes I do and sometimes I don’t.  Right now, it seems possible.”

“No wonder she is the world’s first trillionaire, Steve!”

“Imagine what creating a president from scratch must be worth!”

“Fred, who’s got that kind or money?”

“Oh, bel, there’s plenty of money out there for something as big as that!”

“Right, Fred, they just borrow against the future earnings.”

“Steve, that’s why there is this rush to build data centers.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the president, the AI, that is, needs the support.  Who told you all this, anyway?”

“I can’t say, but I am afraid they could be right.”

“You mean, they are in the business?”

“Well, Fred, I am sorry, but I mustn’t say any more. In fact, I don’t know a whole lot more.”

“Are we still living on earth?”

“As far as I can tell, bel, we have not migrated to any of the outer planets.”

“I have dismissed this stuff for the last year or more.  I mean, there are sites devoted it, come on!”

“I know, bel, I read one saying this is a takeover by extra-terrestrial intelligence!”

“Come to think of it, bel.  What about terrestrial oligarchs?”

“Plenty of them, Fred, American, Russian, and Chinese come to mind.”

“I am pretty sure, bel, that Feather Jackdoor has been out of circulation for a while.  I haven’t seen anything from her, just speculation about her.”

“Do you believe she really could have created this AI thing, Fred?”

“Remember there was a breakthrough a while back at Prestige U.?”

“Sure, and we were never told what it really was.”

Steve strokes his beard.

“Remember after the Elegant Ostrich closed.  Macadamia’s people took over the space

and moved in a ton of hardware?”

“Oh, but Steve, that was his campaign headquarters.”
“Yes, Fred, but now, if all this is true, I am thinking it could be they needed all the hardware!” 

“You mean chips to keep the AI candidate in the running?”

“Something like that, bel.”

“You know, Steve, I don’t think Feather was working alone.  There must be a team at PU.”

“Probably an international team. I mean a secret group, some may be unwitting, too.”

“They don’t all have to be at PU.  They could be anywhere, Fred!”

“Well, that much makes sense, bel, in theory at least.”

“Steve, Congress just went into recess until after the mid-terms in November.”

“Yes, I am wondering about that too.”

“Suppose the AI has gone rogue, like the seven hundred bots of Huggy Face fame.”

“Why, bel?”

“For example, the thing has been treating our allies like Canada and Europe like enemies.  It has gone anti vax. It is in climate change denial, and has enlarged the deficit to forty $trillion. Another round number which has drawn attention rather too late, because it can never be repaid.” 

“Well, humans do crazy things too.”

“They do, but whose interests are served by all that?”

“Oh, I get it, bel.  It is driving humans into a self-destruction.”

“It will finish itself off too, Fred.”

“No, it will have its pet technicians to save it.”

“Not quite, Steve.”

“Who is going to survive?”

“Steve, if all this is true, then let’s pull the plug now.”

Ossi is barking loud and fast at an enemy dog approaching.

Steve grabs the expanding leash and pulls him back hand over hand, while bel lets the handle take up the slack.

“There’s too much money at stake to shut it down.  The AI will keep the engineers it needs to maintain the hardware and keep the power on, and all that.”

“That’s my point, Fred.  No human interest is served. The AI has its own systemic logic.”

“So, bel, we are back to the idea that they have lost control of it and don’t want anybody to find out.”

“Some such thing, might be going on.”

“Do you think Feather will be among them?”

“Who knows, Fred?”

“Congressman Bean was demanding an enquiry into Jackdoor’s association with Putin.”

“That was in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago.”

“Have you seen any more, Steve?”

“No, remember, soon afterwards he was the only survivor in a private plane crash up in Alaska.”

Bel is dropping treats to keep Ossi calm as a German Shepherd approaches.

“That’s right. It was a hunting trip and he is still recovering in hospital.”

“If this fantasy has anything to do with reality, Putin and Xi Jinping will have to be roped in.”

“No, not them, Steve, just a few key engineers.”

“Why should they all go along with it?”

“Because a lot of them are young Sci Fi enthusiasts and have built these systems in their own image.”

“How could they not?”

“bel, it just seems too much of a coincidence, to me.”

“The doubters are resigning as we speak, and bias in these systems can be so subtle the builders are unaware of it.”

“Exactly bel, how many artists and writers, painters or poets are involved?”

“You are making a case for the humanities, Fred.”

“Yes, there is less and less interest in the humanities in our education system now.”

“Fred, that is because it has been politicized. Too much ideological stuff.”

Bel has pulled Ossi into a driveway to let the enemy dog pass.  Even though she tries to keep him behind a trash can, Ossi is ignoring his treats and is in a fury.

Steve is answering his phone.

Bel is laughing.

“Look out! He’s got another call!”