The Infinite by Ada Hoffmann

Author:Ada Hoffmann [Hoffmann, Ada]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781915202253
Publisher: Angry Robot
Published: 2022-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

She went to General Walters first. An emergency meeting would require the general’s approval. But also, Giselle had grown, as the general had instructed, to turn to her for moral reassurance. To look at her stern face and her eyes full of resolve, and to trust that the general would know what to do. Giselle needed that now. She needed strength.

But as Giselle explained what she’d heard NEMESIS-1 tell her, General Walters didn’t seem frightened, or even impressed.

She had been honored by the Joint Chiefs many times as a result of NEMESIS-1’s successes. For whatever reason, it was the general who received those honors, not Giselle or the techs. She liked to display them on her uniform: seven medals now, a gold that offset her close-cropped silver hair, lined up with tidy precision at her collarbone.

“You’re assuming,” said the general at last, “that this needs to be changed.”

“What?” Giselle spluttered. “But–”

“This machine is the result of your own handiwork. If it decides that punishment after death for a few evildoers is necessary, what leads you to doubt its judgment? It’s not as though religions around the world, across cultures, haven’t settled upon that same principle. Isn’t it reasonable to assume they were on to something?”

“They couldn’t have been. If they’d been on to something, they would have already stopped us from destroying ourselves. Instead they all just made things worse. Did you ever go to church, ma’am? Did you ever have to sit in the pews and hear a man tell you that you were going to burn forever, over little mistakes, over being who you are–”

“Are you telling me that your feelings in this matter are subjective, Giselle? That your objection to NEMESIS-1’s methods is based in some personal trauma, and not in an evidence-based line of argument?”

Giselle blinked in disbelief.

“The old churches stopped keeping humanity in line because humanity stopped believing in them. They fell behind the times and failed to respond to the human sciences that had advanced beyond their grasp. They didn’t prevent the climate catastrophe because most of them didn’t even try. Our system, formed out of NEMESIS-1 and her sisters, will not make such mistakes. Our system will have the control the old churches only dreamed of. Ours will be perfect.”

There had been no show of surprise anywhere on that stern face since Giselle walked into the room.

“You wanted this to happen,” Giselle whispered. “You – you planned on it.”

“This, or something like it. The details could be left to the computer’s judgment. Humans need to be controlled. This crisis could destroy us if it is left unchecked, but it is also our best opportunity to begin anew, correctly this time, with things brought back into perfect order. What is this military for, if not to keep order, and wait for the crises that will allow us to create it? Isn’t that a part of what you swore to do when you joined us?”

Giselle had read theories about this before, cynical little fringe theories. People had seen the climate crisis coming for decades.

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