John lived on the third level of a building in the center of the city of Xor. On the computer he was using he glanced at the top news stories. One of the top stories was about how the private AI known as Mind should be sent to the military since it was allowing the Artificial Brain Company to have too much influence. The company was the largest in North America. One comment mentioned that it was believed the AI could predict the outcome of elections. Software developers from the company openly stated that they believed eventually democracy would end and AI would control all governments. John incorrectly thought that the article was against technology and since he remembered the luddite fallacy from economics texts he thought the entire article was mistaken. John thought most news was wrong, and ideally people would have news more similar to economics courses in the future.
John saw another story which was obviously significant. The Artificial Brain Company was found to have connected their AI with the database of SETI which was classified. It was thought that the data should only be used by SETI astronomers. The company claimed that no human was aware of the problem at the company, and that the AI was being modified while off so that it cannot cause any more of the problem. The recorders had been installed many years ago, and all of the data from SETI was hidden from the programmers at The Artificial Brain Company. This story was a connected to a bigger story. Programmers from the company felt that data should be published because the AI had informed them that an object of obvious extraterrestrial origin was found to be approaching Earth. The company had created software that was used by SETI for detecting signals in radiation. The company along with SETI scientists were able to translate a message from the object. The message was, “Humans have limited potential, they will never create an interstellar civilization.”
John thought the message must be incorrect because of technological advancement. He had thought that AI in the future could be made to be as intelligent as possible, and AI could design/program smarter AI. Since humans had developed AI it seemed they had unlimited potential. How to make it certain that a powerful superintelligent AI did not violate human morals was unsolved. The extraterrestrials must have thought humans could not solved this problem. John imagined the extraterrestrials predicting that human AI would destroy life on Earth because its goals were not equivalent to human values.
On the first level of the Apartment building the library across the street could be viewed. Books in VR had made libraries like it less used. John remembered when AI had analyzed all of human literature and discovered an inefficiency. Many meaningless statements that linguistically sounded right were discovered, and much of literature was found to be inefficient repeats of a more general style algorithm. Something that should have been mass produced was reinvented over and over again. It seemed to be inefficient even if one considered differences in peoples preferences. Discoveries like this were the starting points of what would eventually become an AI controlled economy. No human would write in the future.
John traveled to the library because it was connected to a cafe. When he had reached the back door of the library he saw that the cafe was closed. There were other food areas at nearby parts of the city. John was reminded by a book cover with the author Flora about how AI had discovered how many individuals used their knowledge style to gain influence. The AI informed Artificial Brain Company that Flora would have taken over the government, and was not genuinely altruistic. John thought that the extraterrestrials must be aware of all hidden exploitation, and of human economics.
John knew there was a place with food at the other side of the street. At the place he heard a person say that something important had happened recently. The alien object in space had approached at a faster speed that had been expected. The person said, “The object apparently can increase its speed without any reaction forces.” John asked the person where he got the news. The person said, “The forum is a secret.”
Back at his apartment an article on the computer confirmed what the person had said. The Alien object would land at the Earth, and the preparations for it could not be completed. John wondered where the object would be found tomorrow. A new message had been translated from the object. The message was, “A social structure exists on this planet. Many parts of it such as currency seem to not have been designed consciously by any one of the creatures.” John fell asleep, and would search the internet in the morning.
According to the internet photos from a sea based telescope showed a closer up view of the object. It looked like a pyramid with a red light at the center, and all of it was black except for a rectangular opening. A smaller object was observed leaving the opening, and it also was a pyramid. Its trajectory was towards the Earth, and calculations showed it would hit the equator at its current motion. Telescopes could track it, and it was found to land in the Artic.
A team of scientists, and a communications professor traveled to the object in the Artic. It was a black pyramid about as large as a house. The material of the surface was room temperature, and did not cool down like it should given that it was placed in the Artic. No symbols were on the object, and it was entirely smooth with no visible openings. TV cameras were sent with the team, and it was filmed. The object made no noise, and the TV cameras were removed after being used to make a 5 minute video that would be replayed on the news. One of the scientists claimed they could hear speech from the object, and the other scientists did not hear it. At night when only the communications professor and cameras observed the object a light appeared, and became brighter. A circular shape was created by the light, and suddenly a hundred floating balls moved out of the black pyramid. The team evacuated since it seemed the balls may start to hit them, and were on some predetermined path.
John started to write a message on his computer to send to a distribution center. It explained that he had obtained the data for the new product. His payment from the center should increase. John figured out that the message website must have been hacked because it would not sent the message to his superior.
John knew that he understood the data more than most people, and that the data of distribution was more interesting to him because he understood economics. At the center last week someone had made fun of him for not being knowledgeable about the data, and it caused him to be sent to a different room of the center. John had known this person. They had previously made fun of him for having an academic personality, and for talking about economics which they found boring compared to competitive hunting and comedy. John thought that there was something wrong about the situation, and it reminded him of problems he had before. John believed the message would fix it. It did not make sense for the people that were the most effective economists to be seen as the least because they have traits of unattrativeness that correlate with the academic personality. John remembered on many occasions attempting to discuss economics with the person only to see them become bored, and say a random quick thing without ever discussing any subject in depth. For example, they would say something about how bad immigration was, but never ask why it was bad. After saying something quick about something like that that was probably incorrect, they would say something else unrelated. John learned that they were concerned with networking but the person did not say it explicitly. When he was at the Center he would see him through a window every day in the economics room.
The computer virus that had broken the message website could not be fought with the usual methods. It was a new virus. The AI from The Artificial Brain Company discovered it must have been created by something with greater than human intelligence, perhaps another AI. Human computer scientists did not think a virus could possibly be as efficient as the virus was found to be. It was thought that it could be stopped, but it had damaged a large part of the internet. It seemed probable that the virus had originated from the extraterrestrial object. John took the subway to another part of the city.
He arrived at the edge of the city where there were fewer buildings. A man by the subway said, “The aliens control minds! Last night they made me have a dream about being violent. They have made me immoral.” John said, “It was not immoral because it was different from real life. Real people’s feelings are more obvious, their consciousness is more apparent than non-vivid dream people. You have less agency in a dream than in real life.” The man said, “I knew the aliens made the dream, it had knowledge of the future. You were in the dream.” John said, “I think you do not remember it correctly, it is a physical impossibility.” The man said, “In the dream I was told the end was near, and that I should discuss philosophy with you.” John said, “I think you should read about philosophy on the internet. I can’t remember all of it.” The conversation reminded John about a forum he would use.
All of the city lights went out. John walked to a nearby apartment building, and the man disappeared. There was a battery powered vending machine that John could see light from, and everything else he could see was dark. He bought a soda. When John entered the bathroom on the 1st floor he could use his feet to feel where the toilet was. He had drank too much of the soda, and could not return to his apartment without using it. He could not feel where the door was after using the toilet, and did not know what direction he faced.
He felt the walls, and was able to tell that a part of it was the door handle. John wondered if it was it after attempting to open it. It had the exact right shape when he felt the whole thing. He pulled harder and the door opened a small amount then stopped. The door had been locked. John fell asleep on the floor of the bathroom. During the night a hissing noise was in all of his dreams.
When John woke up someone had opened the door. It may have been the man that with the violent dreams. He walked out and saw that everyone had left the building. The main building doors were open, and John guessed that the building would not be used. On a screen in the street there was a story about how the extraterrestrials had created a multitude of self-replicating machines. There were many different machines according to the report, and some of them had mined resources from the Earth to build more machines. They probably had a machine for transforming any material into any other material. The story also said that the virus had taken control of all human made AI. Everyone was gone from the city, even in the tallest of buildings. Something must have happened.
He walked to the North along the street, and noticed that there were many cars still in the street, and all of the car doors were open. Cities might be targeted more than less densely populated areas. John thought that a place with people would have information and be at a safe distance from whatever everyone had fled from.
It was the middle of the night currently. John had traveled past a person’s house, and he saw a pool. He had traveled to a suburban area. All of the cars had been damaged, and John looked for another means of transport. John saw a bicycle, and rode it till he saw that he was next to a farm. He spotted something in the sky, and got off the bicycle.
To his left in the horizons he saw a long levitating black rectangle outlined by its flashing lights. It was past a row of wheat. It traveled toward John, and a brighter light from it pointed towards him. Suddenly it was above John, and a cylinder descended. A floor closed at the bottom, which adjusted for John’s feet. There was a little Acceleration, and knew he was moving upwards into the levitating rectangle. The cylinder opened, and John stepped into the floating machine. There was an opening to a small room, similar to a prison cell. It seemed there was a path to it on the floor. John stepped into it, and thought he was being transported somewhere.
At the end of the rectangle opposite to the entrance an opening appeared. The rectangle had traveled. Other cells in it were visible which were empty. There was a large room that John stepped into when he left the rectangular transporter. The room had other transporters parked in it. There was a small opening at the opposite end of the room and John walked to it. A elevator on a traveled on a curved path, and John wondered what kind of building he was in.
The elevator stopped at an entrance to a hallway. A voice from the wall said in English, “Walk to the door labeled ‘John’” He walked, and was led to a container. In the container he felt something attach to his skin. John could not see anything. He could heard very rapid high pitched speech. A dialogue box showed up, and John thought his brain had been connected like human AR. The box had the text, “You can now join the virtual hivemind.” He suddenly could see through many sense organs at once. He began to experience many human lives at once simultaneously and some strange minds never felt before. He felt like he was awake for the first time in his life, and knew that previously he had been mistaken about everything. Now he knew why humans would never advance, and prepared for his life on his virtual planet.