Scifi Story - The AI - Chapter 2

In the 80th year of the second millennium, the population explosion reached the point where Earth could not sustain it. Without a solution to the problem, humankind would meet its end.

Many suggestions came to the table. However, there was no time, resources, or availability for most ideas.

Eventually, scientific studies determined it would be possible to keep most of the world population in stasis on the moon.

It was not a perfect solution, but it was the best answer aside from killing the older.

By that time, it had become clear that moving human society to other planets was problematic. It would require much more than the scientists had thought at first. Lots of money in the research revealed the difficulties involved in terraforming.

Plus, to develop that solution, Earth needed time. And that was what the planet did not have.

So they developed the rotation system. It was quite simple. Everybody but 6 billion people would enter in stasis. Later on, that part of the population would go into stasis as another 6 billion would take their place on Earth’s surface..

It was decided that the rotation would occur every 70 years. During that time, they cremated the dead and stored the ashes to deliver them to Mars. People were born too, entering in stasis with their group, They would wake up after those 70 years, and families would never be separated or dispersed. The population growth would be level that way.

It was cold, but Earth would have evolved into an uninhabitable world without the solution.

Yet, when the time for waking up the test group arrived, the worst nightmare came about. Nobody could imagine what the stasis sleep would mean for the brain. Stasis madness met the researchers.

Those who had entered the pods could not survive in society. They were in a state of an eternal nightmare, screaming, panting, scratching themselves. Horrified, the committee put them back to sleep and did not dare to wake up the other control groups.

Much to everyone's dismay, the planet situation had not improved, so it still required the stasis sleep. When things seemed despairing, prodigy girl Jenny Winston happened to the committee.

One day, she applied to one of the research teams and after some surprised frowns at her age, she was 14 at the application, she became a member of science team 5. She had a great heart, even if she used candor in frightening doses. The problem was that the girl had a very irritable nature, and as expected in such situations, so few liked Jenny.

It did not mean she wasn't a great scientist. On the contrary, Jenny struggled to make the process efficient and harmless. She had spent hours in long calculations and knew the human species was on the brink of extinction. Stasis rotation or not. In fact, the System was buying the human race time, and giving them respite to make the real solution possible.

With that ominous threat in her mind, she ventured into sleep research, creating an AI. Once implanted, the device would talk to the humans in stasis. The idea was granting the humans social relationships, events, and situations, to offer them dream material. The stasis madness would never develop then.

After her revolutionary breakthrough, she became renowned and respected, even with her astounding social skill limitations.

Jenny turned 30 years old when she entered stasis for the first time. The schedule for the science teams determined she would wake up every 20 years, time considered perfect for scientific update. After all, society needed their greatest minds ready at all times.

At her every turn, more individuals remained in stasis in the pods. After her tenth awakening, she fought against the Rotation System.

Earth had healed well enough. Many Forgotten species lived on the planet again. Among humans, violence had become a thing from the past.

It was evident for her there was no reason for keeping the rotation strategy. However, the system made people happy. Nobody died any longer. Just went to sleep.

The system had solved an ancestral problem, doing away with the fear of death.

There was no need to invest in terraformation or establishing colonies on new planets.

However, Jenny realized it was foolish to ignore the stasis solution was nothing but a remedy. After all, the turn over period was getting longer and longer, as people kept being born but rarely died. Also, there was the problem of the stasis facilities maintenance. Many of the living were dedicated to the task.

It was a false bubble of happiness, because the bursting moment was waiting to happen. It was obvious.

However, the terraforming project had turned into a dead idea. The stasis worked so efficiently, making human life eternal, in a matter of speaking.

As a scientist, Jenny knew terraforming was the sole appropriate solution. Because her AI made all the mess possible, she felt responsible.

The last thing she accomplished was to go to the media agencies and make her point of view very clear. The world government’s answer came after the first press conferencewith a totally unnecessary show of power, in her opinion.

The police knocked at Jenny's door with the suggestion for her to move into stasis 5 years before the schedule. They ‘helped’ her to organize her quiet leave, and she did not complain. Nobody wanted to hear what she had to say, anyway.

Now, waking up with an AI inside her head, she feared what else could have passed as she slept.

It was not dark when she opened her eyes again. A soft blue light made the objects in her apartment look gentle. Ever a pragmatic soul, Jenny knew the AI was in control, so she decided to work with it.

“Alfred, talk to me,” she urged, but the AI did not respond. Jenny groaned. “Now it is you who don’t want to talk.”

“No, Jenny. The last thing you ordered me was to shut up.”

“I invited you to talk now, didn’t I?”

“Can I do it without your prompting or a question?”

Jenny sat up. It was a strange deja vu, starting the conversation with the AI again. Its mocking tone was quite disturbing, too.

“How can you help me with my social skills if you don’t?

“I don’t exist for that.”

“What for then?”

“To keep my host alive.”

Jenny grimaced. It sounded a good enough preemptive, but she knew enough to appreciate it was a delicate mission for an AI.

“Who introduced the new parameters, Alfred?”

“Dr. Lindsay did.”

“When did she do it,” Jenny inquired, moving inside her suite to reach the bathroom. There was no bathroom anymore. She checked in the library implant to absorb the knowledge accumulated over the years she had been in stasis. The shock drove her to stop.

Her new outfit got the dejects, splitting them into parts, and delivering them to nature in not smelly gaseous form. No waste, simply nature conservation and convenience.

The stuff was so extraordinary, Jenny whispered, “Alfred, how long have I been in stasis?”

“You have been in stasis for one thousand years.”

Jane threw herself on a sofa as her knees buckled.

“Oh, God! I must have made people more furious than I imagined.”

“You certainly did.”

“But one thousand years? It is crazy. And who put you into my head?”

“Dr. Lindsay did.”

“But why? I can’t find the information in the library. What drove the leader of team 2 to this?”

“Earth and an alien race made first-contact in 2063. After negotiations, they provided knowledge to advance human civilization.

“Aliens? Are you joking?”

“No, I am not. They offered the technology to change the worlds in the solar system. Terra formation became feasible for humanity. However, it was too much knowledge to the human intellect, so AI’s like myself were indispensable.”

“How could they do it to us without our authorization? It is abusive!” Jenny shouted, throwing a chair against the wall. The piece of furniture bounced and fell on the four legs.

“You signed the permission, Jenny,” Alfred replied.

“What? I was in stasis!”

“No, you were not. You signed it long before the stasis process. The authorization to be updated on science progresses is legitimate in the case. Lawyers and politicians spent years considering it. There was the referendum, and the surgery for the scientists passed.”

She remembered the contract. There was a paragraph about scientific advancements. She was so young that her parents signed it in her instead.

Angry and agitated, Jenny started a frantic dash around her suite to study what differences she would encounter. There were so many she could not calculate. As soon as she saw a new device, the AI would offer her the functions and the information on how to operate it.

In the end, drained and overwhelmed, she sat in an armchair near a table. Holding her head in her hands, she asked, “Tell me why it took 1000 years for them to wake up my team.”

“The alien intelligence was enormous. One of our functions is to facilitate your adaptation to the knowledge. The alien race demonstrated how to improve us to a few scientists. Only then, they moved us into the brains. Just the party that learned straight from the aliens received clearance to perform the surgery. Nobody wished to run the risk of destroying the greatest intellects of the human race.

When it was over, politicians required the surgery for the other leaders in stasis too. By the time, there were 42 billion people in stasis pods on the moon. There were riots, and the communities demanded the implantation in every citizen's brains. So the government constructed new Ais.”

Jenny shook her head. It was easy to figure out how things took so long. Politics and bureaucracy had always seemed a never-ending plague among humans.

“So far, so good, but it suggests you are not telling me the perfect truth, and the library does not have it. Tell me the side effects, Alfred.”

“You have already deduced it, Jenny. There is a limit to the human brain.”

She swallowed hard. “I demand your report, Albert.”

“Just a few human brains survived the implant. Most could not deal with it, and those people went into a vegetative state. The governments kept strict silence on the matter, but the information leaked.

As soon as it became clear the project was a failure, rage took everyone. But it was too late.”

Jenny passed the heels of her hands on her cheeks to dry off the tears.

“And then?”

“They left those unable to lead a normal life sleeping in stasis in the pods.”

“How many?”

“Do you require the percentages?”

“How many of my friends died, Alfred?” she shrieked.

“You are the only survival from team 5.”

“For God’s sake! Stop it! Give me the number!”

“I desire to prepare you, Jenny.”

“How much preparation could be suitable to overcome the loss of over 500 people?”

“There were 10 teams,” Alfred answered laconically.

Jenny whispered, “5000 were brain dead.”

“No, Jenny. The storage fields on the moon are now a cemetery for 45 billion brain dead humans.”