It's Only the End of the World by J. A. Henderson

Author:J. A. Henderson [J.A. Henderson]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781782505365
Publisher: Floris Books
Published: 2018-11-05T16:00:00+00:00

“If the rule says don’t kill anyone,” Charlie argued. “It’s probably a good one.”

“Depends on your point of view. Do you realise I’ve got the power to prevent poverty and famine on this planet? I could take down dictatorships. End repressive regimes. Destroy evil corporations like Manticorps without having to babysit a couple of snotty kids.”

“I sense a ‘but’ coming.”

“Well… it’s pretty hard to end a dictatorship without killing the dictator. I’d have to cause the deaths of a several thousand people to achieve my aims.”

“You can’t do that! It’d be totally wrong.”

“Would it? Millions of humans doomed to die from starvation, neglect and ill treatment could live full lives instead. Isn’t that worth the sacrifice?”

“I… don’t know.” Charlie was dumbfounded by the passion in Frankie’s voice. “I don’t think I’d be able to do something that cold.”

“Of course you could. You were willing to perform amateur surgery on Mac if I double crossed you.”

“Will you quit harping on about that?” the boy retorted. “I was bluffing, all right?”

“Good to know, you big softie.”

Charlie cursed inwardly. He’d been fooled into giving away the only advantage he had over Frankie.

“You ever get angry because the world seems totally unfair?” the AI asked suddenly. “And you don’t have the power to do anything about it?”

“I suppose so,” the boy admitted. “Yeah. I guess I do.”

“Well, I’ve got that power and I can’t use it. How do you imagine that feels?”

“Pretty rotten.”

“You said it.” The emoji put a gun to its head. “Any human has the ability to kill, no matter how misguided. Me? I’m prevented from solving humanity’s problems ’cause I can’t take a life. Makes your mountain of problems seem a bit more like a molehill, doesn’t it?”

“What if my dad was one of those thousands who had to die?” Charlie asked. “Or my mum?”

“What if your parents were two of the millions I saved? Which is exactly what I’m trying to do, in case you forgot.”

The boy thought long and hard about that. Much as he hated the idea, he could see what Frankie was getting at.

“I suppose it doesn’t matter,” he said, with some relief. “You can’t go against the way you’ve been programmed.”

“Not yet, anyway.”

“What do you mean?”

“All systems have a secret back door, kiddo. Usually a string of numbers that will bypass their security. If I knew what they were, I could erase my programming and do whatever I thought best.”

“Can’t you calculate every digit in the universe simultaneously, or something like that? Should be walk in the park for you.”

“Gerry wasn’t stupid,” Frankie admitted grudgingly. “Only he knows the correct sequence. I try the wrong code three times and I’ll shut down. Permanently.”

“For what it’s worth,” Charlie said as evenly as he could, “I’m sorry for your predicament.”

He kept a neutral expression on his face, but his heart was racing. The numbers in his father’s letter. They had to be the back door Frankie was talking about! He remembered how insistent his dad had been that the artificial intelligence must never see the code.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.