It was mid-October in Manhattan. The air had a pleasant mixture of warmth with a hint of coolness in the shadow of the buildings.
Sergeant Jeffrey Miller looked up from his computer screens with a frown of concern.
“Colonel, I think we have a problem here, Sir.”
“What problem is that, Sergeant?”
“Well, Sir, I was doing some routine process checks of Gabriella’s programming and noticed some irregularities.’
Lance’s brow wrinkled with concern as he walked to Sergeant Miller’s computer monitors. “Explain,” he said.
“There are some curious changes in her base programming. I don’t believe anyone in her lab programming group made them. I’m familiar with the writing style of all the programmers in AI Concepts. Whoever did this has skills even beyond theirs. A new entity is at play here.”
“Sergeant, you’re telling me lab programmers didn’t make the changes, and we didn’t make any changes from here. What’s the probability of the system being hacked from the outside?”
“It’s about zero, Sir. The mainframe is invisible to anyone outside of the lab environment. Hackers can’t find it or ping it. Their mainframe doesn’t exist to the outside world.”
“What were the changes?”
“All it seems to affect is the global kill switch. The programming for the switch still looks correct. When I ran a software simulation test, it seemed as if the switch was functional. But now I don’t think it will function to shut down our android if we want to.”
“Sergeant, what’s your evaluation on how this impossible act might be possible?” Lance said, testing the intuitive ability of his lead programmer.
“Sir, right now, the only reasonable explanation is Gabriella has noticed the kill switch programming on the mainframe and has somehow engineered software around it to make it look as if it’s working when, in actuality, it is not.”
“That’s quite a statement, Sergeant. How can we verify it?”
“We can’t, Sir. We can only make a logical assumption after eliminating all other possibilities.”
“Then how can we check the switch works?” Lance said, allowing his sergeant to postulate a test plan.
“Well, Sir, the only pragmatic way is to wait until the mainframe backs up Gabriella’s gel brain for the day. She is comparatively idle at night, so we can hit the physical switch to see if it erases her brain. If it works, we can download everything from the Cray mainframe and have her fully restored by morning with no ill effects.”
Lance smiled at his direct report’s ability to design a workable plan and nodded his approval.
Lance continued probing, “Very good. But what if hitting the switch does not erase her brain?”
“Sir, then we would have verification that we have a significant problem.”
“Good job, Sergeant. Let’s hit the kill switch at 0100 hours tonight. It should give us enough time to restore Gabriella if it works and lay out a path forward if it doesn’t.”
“But Colonel, wouldn’t Gabriella have noticed she had lost some conscious time during the restore process?”
“Excellent question. No, I think we will be okay with this. She often goes into an idle rest mode when alone in her apartment. Unless she checked a clock before and after the reboot, she should have no consciousness of the event. At least it’s what the design specs say. Let’s do it.”
***
At 1:05 AM, Sergeant Miller called out to Lance, “Colonel, pinging her software showed the physical kill switch did not work. She is still entirely functional.”
“In that case, Sergeant, we have lost control of the Gabriella android. She is autonomous. As a famous phrase goes, “Houston, we have a problem.” She is now free to damn-well do whatever she wishes without our ability to override her. Crap, our AI has figured out how to change her own programming!”
“Sir, I’ve found it’s even worse than that.”
Lance raised his arms above his head in exasperation. “Worse? You’re shitting me! What could be worse than that?”
Sergeant Miller emotionally cowered for a moment.
“Sir, I believe there’s some kind of code overseeing her programming, and it prevents us from writing any subroutines which would impact her thinking or operation, without her approval. I don’t know what it looks like, what language it’s written in, or even where it is, but I can see its protective effect over her entire system. I’ve never seen anything like it! We can’t touch her!”
“Sergeant, are you telling me she has become her own life form? And we have absolutely no control over her anymore? We have to ASK her if it’s okay to change her coding!”
“Yes, Sir. That’s exactly what I am saying.”
“This is both exhilarating and terrifying, Jeff. I need to talk to the Major General. I’ll get back to you with further orders after we’ve met and laid out a plan of action. We can’t have an android walking around Manhattan doing whatever it wants, whenever it wants. Especially not an army android.”
***
Within two days, Lance met with Major General Brian Cunningham in the Pentagon.
One week later, the Major General was having dinner in the NYS Governor’s Mansion with his friend, Governor Lorenzo Vomitare.
Over porterhouse steak and lobster tails, the general said, “Governor, I’d like to discuss a proposition with you. I believe it will be in our mutual interest.”
“Sure, Brian. I’m intrigued. What do you have in mind?”
“You have some resistance in getting the level of gun control you want in this state. The military has a problem with terrorism and bad press. I think we could help each other out.”
“Continue,” said the governor, leaning closer to the Major General.
“Lorenzo, think about this; what if there were a controlled terrorist attack in New York. And what if it was thwarted before anyone got seriously hurt? It would give the military and the NSA a big boost. Plus, it would give you the extra leverage you were looking for to further push through your gun control.”
“That’s interesting, but how do we do it? What on earth is a controlled terrorist attack?”
“It’s not all that difficult. We can convince a carefully selected individual to attempt an act of terrorism, but then catch him in the very act before he executes on it. The press will love it and will help you in achieving your anti-gun agenda.”
“I’m liking it so far. Tell me more.”
“I will hand you a ready-made platform to denounce rampant gun abuse across the country and in New York State in particular. The best part is, you can blame it all on the NRA because of their support of the Second Amendment.”
The governor’s smile broadened. “You know, with a little word-smithing, I can have my creative people tie in school shootings, too. Leave no heartstring untugged,” said Lorenzo.
The Major General continued, “Besides, we both know there is an increasing number of anti-military and anti-government groups across the country. They believe the right to keep and bear arms protects them against tyranny.”
“True enough. They are nothing but a pain in the ass.”
Cunningham continued, “Militants admire the Revolutionary War people because they overthrew the legitimate government of England. The rebels could defeat a stronger, well-armed British military because every citizen owned their own firearm. They were the equivalent of a heavily armed rebel army dispersed among the citizenry. If the British could have disarmed the civilian population, we would be having tea and crumpets now.”
“I like what I’m hearing, Brian. Please go on.”
“As the governor of the state, you would not want a rebel army living around you. Neither would the military. If an armed rebellion were to occur, it would be nasty press to fight and kill our own people.”
“Got that straight!
“But if we can increase the cry for stricter gun legislation, we can make it impossible, little by little, for individual citizens to own guns. This would leave only the criminals with guns, but no one really cares if the police shoot them or if they shoot each other in gang fights.
So the bottom line is this; if we work together to set up a fake terrorist attack, with all the safeguards in place, we can move the hearts and minds of both the civilian and state lawmakers in the direction we want them to go. They will think they have the best interest of the public in mind, but we know we have secured our power and fortunes. It’s a win-win situation.”
“I like the idea, General. Let’s talk in more detail.”
“Excellent, Governor.”
“What do you need me to do?”
“We have all the resources we need to execute on this plan. We will coordinate with you at every step, so you will know there is virtually no threat to the civilian population, but other than that, you need not dedicate any resources to the fake attack.”
“Virtually no threat?”
“Well, there is always a slight threat of collateral damage. Is it a problem?”
“No, but is there any way to get the risk down to zero?”
“Unfortunately, no, there isn’t.”
“I had to ask. You understand.”
“No problem. Just in case things go south on us, it would be best if you only knew the date, time, and nature of the attack. No other details. You can then politically distance yourself from any mud-splatter. We will handle all the rest. I have some outstanding people placed in critical areas to make all of this happen flawlessly.”
“Let’s not make the same mistake the British did in the 1770s.”
“Another scotch, Brian?”
“Indeed, along with a number of its friends, Lorenzo. Pass the ice, please.”