Nothing

  The grand master paused as the noise rose in the room. They'd known about this motion for ages, and had ample time to learn as much about it as possible. But the video, it was new, more information to process. Eventually the chatter died down and the grand master began again with a new intensity.

  "In the past, we have struggled with these disastrous instances of human failure. They have torn at the fabric of our utopian society, risking its very existence. Today, we finally have a solution. We have run the simulations, tested myriad scenarios, and they have all shown that artificial intelligence is infallible. Our world was built on a promise of stability, efficiency and happiness. We have seen that humans leading the world cannot fulfil this promise. Until now, we have had no choice but to rely on a flawed system. Today, we will vote on whether to leave this flawed system and approach perfection with artificial intelligence. Today we will vote on ensuring the future security and prosperity of our world. I trust that you will all make the right call."

  There was applause as the grand master finished and made his way to the only empty seat in the room. There was a brief break in the proceedings, before a member of the opposition made his way to the podium for the reply.

  "While we have all been busy jumping onto the wagon of technological change we have failed to consider our humanity. Yes, artificially intelligent machines and programs may be more efficient and more secure at running the world than ourselves. But what the grand master has neglected to mention is the fact that their implementation will precipitate our end. It's all in the motion. Next to them we're all useless, a wasteful drain on resources. We would have to die. But that's not the point. If it were truly beneficial, I would be the first to sacrifice my life. However, the implementation of artificial intelligence does not make logical sense. Our society was founded on utilitarian principles, but we have to recognise the extent to which we should take it. Under the reasoning that forms the basis of motion 433, we might as well replace all humans with machines. Why leave it at leaders, when efficiency and security can replace all forms of life? In light of our undeniable humanity, we have placed that possibility out of the question since the beginning. Why should we accept a proposition that is grounded in the same logic as a position we have all agreed to be untenable? We should not accept artificial intelligence. That is all."

  Most of the audience had made up their minds long before today's meeting. The implementation of AI was the conventional and popular choice, and few did not regard the latter speaker as too conservative and extreme. Many who were on the fence swung towards support upon viewing the video. When it came to the first vote, the numbers were two hundred and ninety-seven in support and three against. The motion had needed a unanimous decision for it to pass, and though this would seem to be an impassable impediment, after another round of speeches the second vote gave the grand master the desired three hundred to nil and ensured the passage of the motion. The three who had opposed had not changed their mind, but they did not wish to impede the will of the majority. Their opinions were void now that the motion had passed. For the grand master, there was only the small matter of subduing 541588 left before the implementation of AI. He excused himself from the celebrations in order to complete this task.

  Chapter Fourteen

  What had I been thinking last night? In a moment of weakness, I had lost my mind and forgotten everything. Or had I? I remembered having an epiphany. Seeing the bare world, without my motivations or impositions. I pushed into my memory, trying to recapture the feelings, the thinking that had occurred. Nothing. it was emptiness. It was a different state of mind. I tried to recreate the experience again, but I couldn't do that either, and it now felt alien. Maybe I had just been tired and weakened. Maybe it was nonsense brought on by sleep and energy deprivation. I had been crazy. That was all it was. But even now, I could intellectualise the experience that had overcome me. I could consider the emptiness even though I couldn't feel it. I was trapped in two minds about my mission. One where it made sense, where I should continue, the other where it was unintelligible, equivalent to doing anything else or nothing. It was depressing. I was stuck in this contradiction while precious time was passing by.

  Precious time.

  Why did I call it precious?

  There was no process. I had just made an intuitive choice there; it was precious because I thought it was precious. Yes, that was it. I could choose what I think. That was the solution. It was a matter of choice, everything was a matter of choice and I could choose to continue my mission. To want to continue my mission. But again, why would I choose to do it? It was at that moment I remembered my promise to myself and the passion that had erupted in me after reading that evil pamphlet. The person who wrote it was so sure of itself, why couldn't I be the same? My mission was worth it. My mission was worth it. My mission was worth it. And in my mind, it became so.

  Chapter Fifteen

  The men were legitimate professionals; trained and conditioned from an early age for subduing this insurrection. They were not going to fail like the previous group. They were not set up to fail like the previous group. The Grand Master had talked his way into journeying with them. He had explained that he would be able to observe any inefficiencies in their handling of the situation to help improve any future interventions. Like it would matter. Anyhow, it was enough to convince the organisers of the trip to let him on and to change the plans to suit his needs. As the plane was readied, he retreated to his study and watched more videos of 541588.

  It was less than an hour before they took off. On the plane, the Grand Master introduced the soldiers to two crates that had been loaded onto the plane. He instructed them to open one of them, and they found their weapons that they needed for the operation. About the other crate, he told them only that they were to protect it with their lives. The contents he kept unrevealed. The men armed themselves, before taking their seats. The Grand Master sat down as well, and found himself next to one of the men, who looked at him quizzically.

  "You're the Grand Master, right?"

  "Yes."

  "Well, so you would've been there, you would've voted. Motion four three three?"

  "Yes, I was the one who proposed it and we had the vote, around three hours ago."

  "And it won? The vote passed?"

  "Yes, it was quite the popular motion if I do say so myself."

  "Then, would you know? Well, you would know what's going to happen to us, right?"

  "Not everything has been finalised. Of course, you will be the first to know it about it if there's something in it that affects you."

  "Well, there's rumours going around that we're all going to be killed."

  "So what?"

  "Okay, I get it, I get it. Well, I just wanted to tell you that I don't fear it. I'm fine with it. Just wanted to tell you that.

  "That's good to hear."

  The soldier was silent for the rest of the trip, and the Grand Master found himself thinking of his work. The application of artificial intelligence had been considered since the beginnings of the new world, but the technology was not there then. It was the previous Grand Master who had spent his time accelerating research and pouring resources in its direction, and by the time he had died the scientists had perfected it. There was no question what the current Grand Master's role was when he took over. He was bound by a duty to catch the politics up and bring the vision of artificial intelligence into fruition. And now he had succeeded with the motion being passed. But the Grand Master was not happy yet and he wasn't sure why. He felt there was something wrong. Maybe it had something to do with his immense curiosity about 541588, but he couldn't see the connection. It was something obscure, something couldn't quite grasp. Eventually, as the plane began circling the same airport visited by the other group, he decided that he would be happy when artificial intelligence was actually implemented.

  The pilot found a runway that was less damaged this time, and the landing was relatively smooth. The men unloaded
the crates, and waited as a helicopter came to meet them, saving them the burden of hiking through the treacherous forest.

  Chapter Sixteen

  541588 saw the helicopter from outside its window. The beast it had feared. The beast it still feared. But there was no time for fear now. If it wanted to succeed, it would get up and face it. And it did want to succeed. Its legs were heavy and ached, it had not gotten enough sleep but it still managed its way off its bed. It called its troops, and they gathered outside with their weapons. The helicopter seemed to be hovering in the direction of the palace. It led them towards it.

  Soon, they were on the main road that led to the palace, and the helicopter was almost directly overhead. One of its doors opened, and behind it a man was preparing a large gun. 541588 and its troop continued running beneath the helicopter, tired, scared and ignorant of this new danger. The helicopter slowed, and the man leant out, taking aim. 541588 felt it before it saw it. Felt the air change, the sound change and knew the helicopter had slowed. It had looked up, and seen the man a moment before the trigger was pulled. A moment before there was a whizz then a thud and someone near it recoiled and fell to the ground. It all happened too quickly and there was another whizz, another thud, another person down before 541588 yelled at the others to disperse and turned and sprinted toward the closest building itself. Even as it was running, it heard more of them being hit and more of them yelping in pain. It was a familiar sound. 541588 went inside the building, the hospital and found its way to the nearest window. The others were running, slowly, back towards the apartment, and the helicopter was circling around, the man inside picking them off one by one. 541588 watched in absolute terror as this process continued. It had feared the helicopter, the mere physicality of the thing. But now, it had seen what they were really capable of. The helicopter was just a vessel, a vessel for that all powerful machine inside that could destroy someone just by being pointed at them. It had known that the central commune would be hard to defeat. It had not known that it was impossible. They were untouchable in their beast. And they were now destroying everything. 541588 stayed in the hospital, peeking out the window as the helicopter buzzed away, chasing after the others as they spread out around the commune. It waited until the helicopter was out of sight before leaving the building. It was bound to end up back in there sooner or later once they caught it, but for now, it could still survive. It crouched down despite the burn in its legs, and crept from building to building, towards its apartment. The shock and pain of its new situation layered on top of the energy drain it had suffered yesterday. It had nothing left once it arrived in the apartments. It clambered up the stairs, staggered across the hallway and collapsed into its room, before sliding under the bed and into the dark.

  Chapter Seventeen

  As the helicopter approached the commune, they saw the damage. The fields, disfigured and spoiled, indubitably by 541588, enraged them.

  "Look at what it's done."

  "That's horrible."

  "Why would someone do that?"

  "I want to destroy it."

  The Grand Master heard their conversations and spoke up, "Remember your orders."

  And the orders were explicit. None were to be harmed. Including 541588. Their weapons were loaded with tranquiliser darts. The extent of any physical force would be nil. The helicopter approached the palace. They had also been ordered to drop the Grand Master off at the palace before engaging with the enemy and subduing 541588, but when they saw their targets cavorting below, it was too good of an opportunity to miss. They asked the Grand Master if he had any objections to them beginning their work. He only had one.

  "Don't hit 541588, I want it to be awake when I speak to it."

  They didn't question him, despite the statement being ludicrous. Why would the Grand Master need to speak with the enemy? But authority was authority, and they began their work with his words in mind.

  One of them opened the door, while another operated the gun. Below, their targets were jogging together in the same direction as the helicopter. There were seventy-three of them; all identical. Without the tracking device they had injected inside 541588 a few months ago, it would have been almost impossible to identify it in the group. But even with the device, the GPS co-ordinates were not precise enough to isolate it. They needed to be dispersed before they could figure out which one was 541588. The gunman motioned to the pilot to slow down before looking down the sight and taking aim at one straggling a few metres behind the main group that they were certain was not the leader. His finger twitched and it fell to the ground as the syringe slammed into its chest and began to pump the toxins through its system. There was no instant reaction in the group however, so he shot again, hit one next to the first target and then they began to move. One made a beeline for a building, and they soon knew from their tracking device that this was 541588. The others turned around and ran in the opposite direction. Now that they had separated them, they could subdue the others freely before apprehending 541588. The helicopter swung around to follow the others, and the gunman stretched his fingers.

  Chapter Eighteen

  541588's hand brushed over something hard and it remembered the bones. It rolled out from under the bed and slammed down on top, curling up tight and wounding the ripped blankets around itself. Its head was swirling. It wanted it to end, everything to finish now, or to wind back time, to before, when it followed the rules and everything was simple. Just thinking about it hurt, all its former dreams and aspirations, now delusions. They must have known, known the whole time, noted its litany of transgressions; and then instead of acting, had dutifully watched and waited. Waited until 541588 was at the peak of its confidence, then struck, struck them all down. The memory of the man in the helicopter with the gun, briefly surfaced in its mind, and its hand clenched like a claw onto its hair. They were going to find 541588 here. It was just a matter of time. 541588 would soon be due for extreme pain or death just like Winston and K. But it did not fear death nor torture. The thing that hurt, the thing that pained it the most was that they were so wrong about everything and so powerful that they could enforce their wrongness on everything. They abused their absolute power with their absolute ignorance, destroying all that was good while perpetuating a vacuous, sad and hopeless world. After some time drowning in this pessimism, 541588 resurfaced and decided it had to do something. Anything. Whatever effect it had, it would at least ease the anguish of contemplating its current reality and serve as a distraction from the soul-crushing desolation it felt. It had critiqued both K and Winston for giving up so easily, and thought that it had learnt from their failures. Now was its chance to show that it was true to its own beliefs. Its body was weakened, wrecked, its head was not on completely, but it had to continue. But to do what? The others were all lost and it was alone now, and it wanted to do something audacious. It wanted some final action before its end that would etch it into the fabric of the world and change it forever. What could it do in the short time before it was caught? Numerous possibilities flashed through its mind: taking a weapon and smashing anything it could get its hands on, tackling the enemies in the helicopter head on. These were all dismissed as unfeasible. Eventually however, the answer revealed itself with stunning clarity. Those locked rooms in the palace. The leader. It had to be there. Now was the time to find it and ensure that it paid for the suffering it had caused, paid for 541588's fallen supporters, paid for inviting the helicopter to destroy its plans for freedom. 541588 had considered this before, but dismissed it because it was not conducive to its plans for freedom. But now the cause of freedom was already lost. It wasn't freedom anymore, it was personal, a mission to quell its own angst. It was going to die soon, but it couldn't die as nothing, forgotten, never existing. This was its chance to be, even when it was long dead. The helicopter had gone and it was quiet now. Presumably it had landed somewhere in the distance. 541588 was safe from the gunman. It left its apartment to retrieve a shovel with which it would perfo
rm this act.

  Chapter Nineteen

  It was in front of him, thin, sickly thin and its movements were swollen in fear and confusion. It was less an enemy than an object of pity, a mistreated slave, a painful frame of a normal commune citizen. He looked down his sight and saw it more closely. Its face was blank, its shoulders drooped. It was a lost, desolate figure. He took the shot and its face contorted and its body sagged. It had been a perfect hit, straight in the thigh, and the anaesthetic would soon do its work. Another job done well, the first step in its liberation from 541588's impositions completed. He stepped back into the helicopter, and someone announced: "That was the last of them."

  "So now we find 541588?"

  "It's left its room now, it looks like it's heading towards the storage sheds."

  The grand master chimed in. "No. Let's go to 0 and sort it out first. I'll have time to evaluate 541588 afterwards. Do we all know the plan for 0?"

  Nods from everyone and the helicopter fired up and headed toward the palace.

  The end was near. The professionalism of this group was evident. They had subdued each of those that 541588 had turned with ease, and they were soon to capture 541588 itself. From then on, things could return to normal again and this disordered and stressful experience could come to a rest. But there was a question that kept nagging 0. Why did the central command send that first group of incompetent forces? From whichever angle that 0 approached this question the answer seemed nonsensical. As it could now see, the central command was powerful and assured. How then, could they have considered unarmed and weak people as appropriate for retaking the commune from 541588? There was something suspicious going on. But then again, they were actively fixing the commune now, and the peace would soon return. 0 could either forget about the past and start anew or continue to dwell in discontent at these small details.