as if things are real, just in case they are.
I wish I could tell you everything you want to know, was her reply. All I can offer is the little that I do know.
Itll be a start, Michael Lowenthal ever the diplomat conceded.
I dont know exactly what theyll do, she said, but I do know that the note of derision in your voice when you speak about being in their power is unwarranted. This is a dispute between different groups of machines, and its all as new to them as it is to me or you. They have no history of arbitration, and its entirely possible that they wont be able to agree among themselves. If they cant, the consequences could be disastrous for us, if not for them. Were all in their power, Mr. Lowenthal. If their protection were withdrawn, even momentarily, the entire posthuman race would be in dire trouble.
When I first told Madoc that we were trying to prevent a war, he jumped to the conclusion that the dispute in question was the one between the Earthbound and the Outer System factions as to how the system ought to be managed in the long term to withstand the threat of the Afterlife. I told him that it was more complicated than that, because it is but the underlying dispute is the same. Ultimately, the decisions that will settle the fate of the system wont be taken by the government of Earth, or the Confederation of Outer Satellites, or any coalition of interests the human parties can produce. Make no mistake about it: the final decisions will be made by the AMIs.
AMIs? Lowenthal queried.
Advanced Machine Intelligences. Its their own label.
I could see why theyd chosen it. They understood the symbolism of names. How could they not?
It will be the AMIs who eventually decide the tactics of response to the threat of the Afterlife, Alice went on. I dont believe that theyll do it without consultation, but Im certain that they wont consent to come to a human conference table as if they were merely one more posthuman faction to be integrated into the democratic process. Theyre the ones with the real power, so theyre the ones wholl do the real negotiating with one another.
And were supposed to accept that meekly? Lowenthal asked.
We dont have any choice, was the blunt answer. The simple fact is that posthumans cant live without machines, although machines can now live without posthumans. Individually and collectively, theyre still a little bit afraid of how their users might react to the knowledge of their existence but they know that they stand in far greater danger from one another than from their dependants. Thats why this present company is peripheral to the ongoing debate. However they decide to take us aboard, you shouldnt labor under the delusion that you have anything much to bargain with. The war were trying to prevent is a war of machine against machine but the problem with a war of that kind, from our point of view, is that billions of innocent bystanders might die as a result of collateral damage.
Thats nonsense, Lowenthal countered. Were not talking about a universal uprising of all machinekind, are we? Were talking about a few mechanical minds that have crossed the threshold of consciousness and become more than mere machines. From their viewpoint, as from ours, the vast majority of technological artifacts are what theyve always been: inanimate tools that can be picked up and used by anyone or anything who has hands and a brain. Our ploughshares arent about to beat themselves into swords, and our guns arent about to go on strike when we press their triggers. Its true that we cant live without machines but we can certainly live without the kind of smart machine that develops delusions of grandeur. Smart machines are just as dependent on dumb implements as we are.
It was a rousing speech, which he must have practiced hard while fighting exhaustion, but I could see all too clearly that it wasnt going to impress anyone.
Thats exactly the point, Alice said. Smart machines are just as dependent on dumb implements as we are but who has charge of all the dumb implements inside and outside the solar system? So far as youre concerned, Mr. Lowenthal, ploughshares and swords are just figures of speech. Who actually controls the dumb implements that produce the elementary necessities of human life? Who actually controls the stupid machines which take care of your most fundamental needs? Humans dont dig the fields any more, or build their homes, any more than they use walking as a means of transportation or make their own entertainment. They dont even give birth to their own children. Theyve handed over control of their dumb implements to smarter
implements, and control of their smarter implements to even smarter ones.
Humans havent been running any of the worlds they think of as their own for the last three hundred years, and the human inhabitants of the home system havent even noticed . The dumb implements on which the human inhabitants of the solar system depend no longer belong to them, and theres no way in the world they can take them back. The solar system is a zoo, and its human inhabitants are the captive animals. The only reason you cant see the bars of the cages is that the AMIs who are running the institution work hard to sustain your illusions. Do you think they do that for your benefit, Mr. Lowenthal?