Suicide

Robert Firth

Description

A fictional story of artificial intelligence run amuck As the information age grew, schools trained programmers and computer engineers. Entire education programs were formed at almost all universities to teach initial and advance robotics driven by artificial intelligence. The idea of passing on dull and simple work to intelligent thinking robots was exceedingly attractive- especially so to industry. The world of Capitalism embraced the thinking robot as a gift from the Gods. Robots didn't whine, didn't need days off, take no vacations need no medical care, require no retirement and no unions! My God, bring them on- quickly please! No matter the consequences!

Sujets

• Adventure
• Fiction
• Action

Informations

• Publié par: eBookIt.com
• Date de parution: 03 juin 2020
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781456635077
• Langue: English

Extrait

SUICIDE
WARNING!
 
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE MAY BE HARMFUL TO YOUR HEALTH
 
Generally premeditated but, in this case, it was the unintentional taking of ones life,
along with everyone else's!
by
ROBERT JEFFERY FIRTH
Caribex Books 
REAL WAR
 
A division of Robert-j-Firth.com
9173 Old Pine Road, Boca Raton, Fl, USA
 
Copyright © 2019 by Robert J. Firth
This book is a work of fiction. All characters, places and names are purely from the Author's Imagination.
All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book
or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information,
address Caribex books Subsidiary Rights Department
9173Old Pine Road, Boca Raton Fl, USA 33428.
 
Caribex Books/ Robert-j-firth.com paperback edition April 2019
 
Caribex Books/ Robert-j-firth.com are trademarks™
 
Caribex Books/ Robert-j-firth Speakers Bureau can bring the author to your live event. Contact us at;
http://www.robert-j-firth.com/connect.htm or call us at 954 683 0824
 
Interior and cover/ jacket design by: Alyona; www.alyonas-world.com
 
Manufactured in the United States of America
 
10. 9. 8. 7. 6. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1
 
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-3507-7
ISBN ebook
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
http://www.eBookIt.com
 
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
FORWARD
CHAPTER 1
THE COLD GREY WET
CHAPTER 2
EARLY DAYS
CHAPTER 3
WHAT DID THE GOVERNMENT WANT?
CHAPTER 4
THE LUNATIC FEDS ARE BACK AND IT’S NOT GOOD
CHAPTER 5
THE END
CHAPTER 6
THE BRAVE NEW WORLD
CHAPTER 7
HOW IT ALL WORKS- OR WORKED!
CHAPTER 8
THE HUMAN WORLD WAS CHANGING
CHAPTER 9
BRAVE NEW WORLD
CHAPTER 10
THE WORLD OF AI
CHAPTER 11
WHERE DID THEY ALL GO and, where did I go?
CHAPTER 12
MY FAMILY AND I DISAPPEAR
CHAPTER 13
"CANADA, OH CANADA"
CHAPTER 14
A LONG WAY TO GO
CHAPTER 15
THE END OF WAR -AND THE END OF US
CHAPTER 16
GETTING CLOSE TO HOME
CHAPTER 17
WM CHANGES 'IT'S MIND?
CHAPTER 18
OUT OF THE ICE
CHAPTER 19
FROM STONE AGE TO 2060
CHAPTER 20
WM EXPLAINS
CHAPTER 21
WHAT REMAINED, WHAT IS AND WHAT WILL BE
CHAPTER 22
ADAPTING
CHAPTER 23
HUMANITY REGENERATES
CHAPTER 24
THE PLAN
CHAPTER 25
WE SHUT "HIM' DOWN
CHAPTER 26
AFTERMATH
AFTERTHOUGHTS
 
FORWARD
 
Humans are flesh and blood. We are relatively physically weak. To make ourselves stronger and able to do more, we made, make and use tools. We made and make wagons, cars, steam-engines, gasoline engines, aircraft and an amazing assortment of useful things. We made telephones, radios, televisions, wrote music and books. We made towns cities, bridges and highways. We made movies, built libraries, designed and built great ships and submarines. We delivered humans to the moon and send satellites and exploration ships into space. We also invented computers.
 
Computers were, in the early days, like the Chinese abacus, simply tools to speed up computations. Later, they were found useful for accessing and storing information and even later, they were found useful in performing certain repetitive tasks.
 
We learned that, with some innovations, computers could even steer vehicles. Of course, we had adopted the computer to steer aircraft even earlier. In fact, the aircraft autopilot, a fairly primitive form of computer, did a better job of flying than the human pilot.
 
We built computer driven surgical instruments that could perform simple operations. As the information age grew, schools trained programmers and computer engineers. Entire education programs were formed at almost all universities to teach initial and advance robotics. The idea of passing on dull and simple work to robots was exceedingly attractive- especially so to industry.
 
The world of Capitalism embraced robotics as a gift from the Gods. Robots didn't whine, didn't need days off, took no vacations needed no medical care, required no retirement and no unions! My God, bring them on- quickly please!
 
The technical minded segment of society and industry responded. As rapidly as possible, robots were designed, manufactured and delivered to take over the work of humans. Thousands of flesh and blood humans were laid off. Robots painted cars, picked fruit, cut grass and drove vehicles. Gone were the truck drivers, taxi drivers and airline pilots. Gone were personal vehicles and motorcycles, outlawed in the interests of safety. Gone were almost all factory workers. Amazon drones delivered everything.
 
The military brass was delighted. Now they could send an armed killer drone ten thousand miles away to kill people they didn't like. War-bots were built that took the place of human boots on the ground in many conflicts.
 
A new era was emerging in the world of computers- Artificial Intelligence- a computer that uses memory and inputted logic to make independent decisions. The boffins finally did it! They made a computer that could seemingly 'think!' The test was a person would talk to it and it would respond- an actual two-way discussion. If the human didn't know and couldn't tell that he was talking to a computer- they had done it- AI, Artificial Intelligence!
 
AI has been discussed and studied for decades. During the evolutionary period called “knowledge engineering" they progressed to model- and algorithm-based 'machine learning. Today, the AI field is increasingly focused on perception, reasoning and generalization, AI in China, America and throughout the educated world is today of primary import.
 
Could an AI computer demonstrate self-awareness? Did it sense that it was an independent entity? Did it "feel?" How did it perceive itself? What did it think we were? These were the questions the scientists struggled with in the dawning of the age of AI! What were the dangers AI posed? Can it be controlled? Will it control us?
 
Today, few major industries do not employ AI or, “narrow AI,” to perform tasks with data-trained models. Many applications fall into the category of deep learning or actual machine learning. Data collection and analysis has increased considerably due to IoT connectivity.
 
IoT refers to 'The internet of things meaning a system of interrelated computing devices, mechanical and digital machines, objects, animals or people that are provided with unique identifiers (UIDs) and the ability to transfer data over a given network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction.
 
Many futurists, including the late Stephen Hawking said that "if AI itself begins designing better AI than its human programmers, the result could be “machines whose intelligence exceeds ours by more than ours exceeds that of snails.”
 
Elon Musk has warned us for some years that AGI (artificial general intelligence) is humanity’s biggest existential threat. The work to bring it to life is like “summoning the demon.” He expressed concern that his pal, Google co-founder and Alphabet CEO, Larry Page, could accidentally bring something “evil” into our world. Musk warned us to be 'very careful' with AI. "At some point it won't have any use for Humans. It will know all there is to know and its intellect will far outstrip humanity." Be careful, be very careful! Sadly, as we discuss in Suicide , 'we' weren't listening!
 
Dr. Robert Heath Johnson PhD
 
Somewhere in the Canadian woods, 2058
CHAPTER 1

THE COLD GREY WET
 
A slow, cold rain slapped hard on the moss covered stone roof. As Frost said, the woods were 'lovely, dark and deep.' I doubt, were he here with me, that he would call this 'lovely!' Dark and deep, yes, lovely no! I was living on an island in Northern Canada. It was November 22, I think, a day before the American thanksgiving, which the Canadians don't celebrate, but then, there weren't any Canadians anymore. I was alone- really alone.
 
The year is 2059. The greater part of mankind, including India and China, no longer were with us. Some humans perhaps survived in remote places, isolated small pockets of humanity- hidden away as was I.
 
Killer drones, dispatched by Sky-Spy satellites, had been hunting the remaining humans for more than 15 years. There couldn't be too many of us left. Any kind of electronic communication was instantly detected and guaranteed an immediate visit by a not too friendly drone. No one dared to send electronic signals. Perhaps smoke signals might work as did primitive plains Indians many years ago.
 
I had decided to write this journal for some future archeologist or whoever might visit earth and perhaps find my cabin; to tell them what had happened. So, what did happen?
 
It was dark, it gets dark early this late in the year. I put my HRC on (heat reflective cover gear) on and headed out to see what I might find to eat. No human was safe day or night walking about without HRC. Sky-Spys capture the 'human signature' from low earth orbit ( about 1,200 miles) sending instant signals resulting in a visit by a hunting drone. Once a live human is located the drone circles indefinitely, patiently, waiting until its target(s) is sighted and eliminated.
Bears, Elk and Deer etc., were safe enough as the electronic discrimination algorithms were absolutely precise. Only humans were identified, targeted and eliminated. As I walked through the dark woods toward the lake, my thoughts turned to earlier days, happier days.
 
The ground was soggy and wet. My boots were rubber with leather uppers, designed for cold weather. I found them in a barrel in an abandoned outdoor store in Weyburn, a small city in Saskatchewan not far north of the US border.
 
My island was about 12 to 15 miles long and 5 to 7 wide, it's tied into the rest of Canada by a soggy marsh that could be bes