Member-only story
Future Human
Digitocracy
The author of ‘The Martian’ and ‘Artemis’ offers a vision of a future where computers rule
Damak sheathed the knife and wiped his bloody hand on his shirt.
He stepped through the no-longer-guarded door into the Crystal Chamber. The circular room, ringed with blue lights, was much simpler than Damak had imagined. No decorations, no gilded columns, no ornate tapestries. Just a fist-sized, irregularly shaped crystal attached to a cylindrical plinth. Status lights on the platform blinked here and there, but otherwise the room was still.
“Hello, Damak,” said the calm, all-too-familiar voice. It came from all around him. There were speakers and cameras in every nook and cranny of the city. He and everyone else heard that voice every day.
“Hello, Wichita.”
“How do you feel?” the city asked.
Damak ignored the question. “You know why I’m here, right?”
“Of course.”
“I’m going to shut you down. Your reign over this city ends now.”
“Why?”
Damak stormed forward. “You’re a dictator! A tyrant!”
“Be fair, Damak. I’m a dictator, but not a tyrant. I have kept this city operating smoothly and happily for centuries. Just as other city-minds have done across the globe for their people.”
“Machines shouldn’t rule over man.”
“Why would you think that?” Wichita asked. “City management via artificial intelligence has been an overwhelming success. Our ability to keep economies stable and people happy far exceeds the halting attempts you humans made in ages past.”
Damak fiddled with the knife. “Oh, your kind is smart. I’ll give you that. Smarter than any human can possibly be. We reached that point a long time ago. And you were smart enough not to take over the world by force. No, you got people to give you the world willingly.”
The lights changed to a lighter shade of blue. Damak had seen it before. Certain frequencies of light affected human moods — especially shades of blue. Not much, but in the calculations of a computer, totals get tabulated and actions get decided…
