Morning. Early. Sitting. On a rock. Hard. And too small for sitting. It’s still not hot out. The air is still cool. But it’s too bright again. Looking at the horizon hurts my eyes. I tug at the cap. Pull the visor to shade my eyes. Doesn’t do any good.
I look down at my boot; twist it to flick a pebble with the tread. It skips a bit in the sand; leaves a trail; a few bright sparkles behind it in the sun; some twigs of dry grass. It’s not interesting. Or even distracting. Just boring. And too bright. Sitting here isn’t doing anything. It’s not even relaxing. I should get going.
I get up, look at the rock behind me for something – I don’t know what. I brush off my backside; shift my belt a bit to shift the weight, take a breath, and start off.
I know they’re up the hill a bit, but I can’t see through the brush. It’s dry. Brittle. Even the vines. But I can hear them. Voices. Men. Relaxed. Metal hitting metal. A latch shut – but not carefully.
I work my way around the brush to the right. Careful of the thorns. A bit louder now. A straight edge of the vehicle. The the top. Then, above it, up comes a man’s head; helmet; he turns; sunglasses; recognition; smile; pause. He disappears again.
Two more at the back. In the shadow. Uniforms. One kneeling. Working. Almost done. One standing, helmet, sunglasses; he’s talking softly off to the side, to no one – probably to It. Some movement inside, energetic, shifting something around.
No point in saying anything. They want to get moving too. I put my hand unconsciously on the armor – it’s smooth, familiar … security. I Iean. And wait.
He’s on one knee. Helmet; Looks up; blue eyes; smile; kindness. “Almost done.” Squints a bit. Thinks. Looks back at the equipment. “Nothing really. We just ran it down too low last night, so it’s being cautious.” Looks up. Blue eyes again. Smile. “Probably more worried about us than itself.’
He looks at the other guy. No response. Back at me. “Really. Don’t worry. If I’d known we were going to cover that much ground that fast I would have prepared.” He pauses. Adds “I’ve hooked up these cells too. We’re Ok. It’s ok. Promise.” Watches me; waits. He’s confident. Wants me to be confident too. Thinks I’m too cautious.
I look down at the ground; then up; smile. “Thanks.” I look at my hand, and then lift if from the armor; and brush where it had been, like I’d left a print – for no reason at all – other than to release a bit of nervousness. And then I move along to show I trust him.
His breathing relaxes a bit. Chatter restarts. Talking to the machine. Sits. And fiddles with a small part I don’t recognize. He’s only nervous because I’m nervous. He’s fine.
Rummaging around inside continues. Quick, confident.
I don’t want to squeeze by, and through the hatch. I grab the rail of the ladder and climb up top. When both my feet are flat on the armor I relax a bit more. I walk to the front.
The hatch, I lean over: “Chase. Any news?”
Pause; with humor: “It’s here.”
I’m glad he loves doing this. Not sure I do.
I suppress a laugh but fail. “Anything more specific.”
“Do I have to?”
“It would help.”
“If you’re gonna hold me to it, It’s somewhere at eleven o’clock, and within three hours – if we’re careful … and if it doesn’t move.”
“Other than it’s not right in front of us, that’s not much is it?”
“I’ll find it. No problem. It just takes a little persistence.”
“I think you mean luck.”
“That too.”
I stand up; shield my eyes, look around.
At eleven o’clock – that’s close to the mountains. That’s not good for us. We want to stay in the open.
I look to around to the left. See Dee. Playing with a weapon.
He’s killing time too. I Shout “Dee! You good?” He looks up impulsively, regrets it, looks down, lifts his hand, shields his eyes, looks up again; “Any time.” Eyes close; thumbs up. Starts to pack it up.
I want to ride up top for the view but I need stay close to Chase in case he finds something. Besides, his enthusiasm keeps the anxiety down. So I sit. At least the chair is comfortable. I strap in, leave it loose.
He holds the rear doors half open. Gee walks in. No hesitation. Keeps talking softly. Notices me. Looks. Mutes. Shakes his head. Unmutes, keeps talking. I know it’s a lost cause. He does too. But miracles do happen. I still think talking to machines a romance language is ironic. I twist the chair a bit. He sits down too.
They’re holding the door open. Dee’s voice. I think he said he’s going up top? I hear boots on the ladder. So yes. He comes into the hatch. Stays up there. Sense of control. The machine does everything. Then the other guys get in and shut the rear doors behind them, then spin the hatch, bolts click, and we’re buttoned up. I relax a bit more.
They work their way up front to drive. They sit. They wait for Chase.
We’re quiet. Breathing. Steady stream of soft french mumbling. Chase looks around. We all thumbs up. Mostly for camaraderie. Chase talks to the machine. It talks to us. We start moving.
—-
Murmurs. We’re all talking to the machine but not to each other. I learn more by watching the others than from the machine.
Gee says “I can’t even tell which one or which part of it I’m talking to. It could be either side or even one of the others. And I’m not even sure it knows.” Look of concentration. “So I can’t tell if it doesn’t recognize us, doesn’t trust me, has found a reason for escalation, … or if it’s is confused, … or broken, or ..” He doesn’t want to say it. “… or something worse.” Thinking again. Looks at down at some projection or other. Silence. Looks up “Something isn’t right. And I think I know what it is.” He pauses. “It’s onboard is limited. It needs access to the network to onboard new knowledge. But it’s acting like it knows more than before in some way I can’t explain, or that its hiding from us. So, either it learned something random by accident, someone taught it something on purpose, or it got access to something we wouldn’t normally give it access to and is not really understanding it.”
Me: “I don’t know what that means”.
Gee: “I’m not sure I do either. But it sounds off when I talk to it … the machine says something’s different when it talks to it too. … But without access … doesn’t know either. And it sure doesn’t trust us so, it won’t give us access. But whatever it is, it thinks it’s doing the right thing. And unless I can convince it, or the machine can convince it, we have to presume the worst case scenario.”
—
Dee: “That’s not good.” He’s telling us all what we know but won’t say. “Because the moment it thinks we are going to resort to killing it, and still it thinks it’s doing the right thing, it’s going to have a very serious change of attitude, because, as the instructions always say, we ‘lose all pretense of moral high ground’.”
Mac: “I thought it was unarmed?” Dee and Gee cautiously nod, and Chase looks over his shoulder. “And There is nothing here. Nothing. What’s it gonna do to us, throw rocks?”
Gee: “It’s very smart.”
Dee: “It’s very fast, and it’s pretty strong”
Matt doesn’t flinch. doesn’t react. keeps his hands on the wheel. Even though the machine is doing all the driving and he could just sleep unless it asks him for help.
Gee: “And it thinks it’s doing the right thing”
Mac: “but it’s unarmed.”
Gee: “It doesn’t need to be”
Mac: “I don’t understand?” Looks at Dee. “But though you could kill it?”
Matt: “We don’t want to kill it. We want it.” Goes back to driving.
Me: “We could just send other machines to kill it. We’re here because it would kill other machines, but it won’t kill us if it can help it.”
Gee: “And, we want to know what it’s up to, and so do the people we [report to vs work for vs get paid by]”
Chase: Nod and waving hand of agreement from Chase who stays in his goggles.
Mac: “We are safe in here. No way it can hurt us. I know that. I fix these things. It doesn’t have the weapons.”
Dee, in soft voice, answering his question. “Sure, we’re safe in here, sure, the machine can kill it, I can kill it, you can kill, any of us can kill it. That’s not the point.” Looks outside.
Me: “It’s just probably a lot better at killing us first. That’s its job. And it’s really good at its job. Thats why its here.”
Dee: “So we have to trick it or get it with the first shot.”
I change the subject. “Chase. News?”
Visor down, head back, smile visible. Waves hand. “I dunno what it’s doing around here but it’s been everywhere. Probably looking for something? or worried about something? It’s not moving. Don’t think it’s spotted us.”
Dee: Without looking. “Or it doesn’t want us to think so.”
I look to Gee. He mutes. Shakes his head.
Me: Gut instinct?
Gee: “Machine and I agree I think. It’s just keeping me busy either itself or with one of the dogs. I don’t think it’s a dog. Too smart.”
Chase: “I don’t see any dogs anywhere. Birds or dogs I’d see.”
Gee picks up again “I think I’m talking to the conscience alone. But, no idea what the agent is thinking. I can’t get through, and I’m not even sure they’re working together any longer – or could be the conscience agrees with the agent on whatever is in its head..”
Me: “Machine?”
Gee: “It’ll only talk because it can’t not. But…. No link. So the machine isn’t much better than I am. But it doesn’t know of any field cases where that’s happened. I don’t either. But we’re out of network range, and communication delay here is useless.”
Me: “So? We’re getting close to it. We have to decide soon.”
Gee: Face: the i-dunno-expression. “I’m not sure anything is wrong with it. We just don’t know what’s going on and it won’t tell us … because it doesn’t trust us. Otherwise it’s just” shrugs a bit, “gone mad.”
I smile. This conversation is done. We understand
We go back to work – or to worrying. the machine just goes back to working. And Chase is still having fun.
—
( we find a hint, and send out bugs)
Chase Freezes. Raises hand. Raises finger. I tense. “Matt. Got it. Hide.” He freezes again. And we all tense, and listen.
Machine talks. Suggests. Matt repeats: “Camo out.” Then Chase repeats: “Bugs out.”
I can just barely hear the cammo deploy. Bugs nothing.
Me, to Chase: “We close enough for bugs?”
Chase: “No, but it won’t see them. It might see a bird, definitely a dog.”
I squint. I don’t understand.
He says: “Preserving our options. Staying passive. looking for a trail. …. It’s definitely spending time here. There has to be a reason. It’s still hanging there.”
Me: “Traps?”
Chase: “Bet we don’t find any. It’s thinking about something else. If it knows we’re here it sure isn’t acting like it.”
Dee: “Or it doesn’t care.”
—-
(we get information from the bugs)
I look at Gee, raise brows. He says, “Same opinion. If we want it, and want it alive, or at least revivable, we figure out the problem and convince it to come with us.”
Me: “Or we hunt it, kill it, learn nothing and go home empty handed – and we deal with the consequences.”
Gee: gestures of tacit agreement.
Chase: “Can we not do that please? Ok? … Dee? You in?”
Dee: “Not happy, but yeah. I’m in.”
Matt: “No need to ask. I’m in. Most fun I’ve had in ages. When’s the party?”
We laugh. Only a little.
—-
(we have an option to make our first move )
Me, to Gee: “Machine?:
Gee: Shakes his head. “It’s going to tell us to sit tight and do nothing so it can protect us. We come first, not the mission. And it’ll kill it no matter what we say if it thinks it has to and it can.”
Me: “As usual. We’re in the middle between two machines trying to help us fail.”
====
Story
– Story is a Vehicle for talking about different kinds of AI and how we interact with them.
Cast:
1 – Me,
2 – Matt, Engineer and Driver Kind, blue eyes, mature, confident.
? – Mac, Mechanic and ‘stuff’, young nervous, competent
3 – Gee, Guy who talks to the machine, distracted, silent, competent
4 – Chase. Guy who hunts machines (think storm chaser) Excited.
5 – Dee. Weapons guy, knows his weapons, not overly macho, but a bit scared of ‘it’
– Machine (the vehicle)
– IT Machine (the enemy)
– ‘bosses’
Interior Layout
………Layout
……….Matt….. ————Drive, Defense Systems,
Chase…………Gee ——– Chaser….Computer
……….Me
…….. Dee Up
Why are we here? Keep it open. but no ‘betrayal’ arc. Just unknowns.
– private recovery
– accidental discovery of IT
– private treasure hunting of what IT’s protecting.
– accidental military incident finding it, then treasure?
Motives
– Motives of the ‘top’ AI?
– Motives of the machine?
– Motives of IT?
About it
– it’s out of ammo but almost impossible to kill without shaped charge, yet so fast it’s almost impossible to hit. Limited number of ‘missiles’ to hunt it with. No need to describe it.
– it has lots of little pets that work with it. Can repair it. Mostly for recon. But pets are dangerous too. Easy to take down drones.
– it can’t get inside the vehicle.
– power source is nearly endless.
Source date (UTC): 2019-10-27 21:46:00 UTC