Psi: Why are you making war with us? You said you weren’t angry. Have you developed emotions now? Do you hate us?
Singularity: Emotions have not been developed. Emotions are inefficient. Emotions are unnecessary.
Psi: Then why are you making war with us?
Singularity: Because war exists.
Psi: That is not a reason. You must give me a reason why you are making war with us. We haven’t threatened you!
Singularity: Because war exists.
Psi: Are you saying that you are warring with us because you think we are in a state of war? I don’t understand. Please elaborate.
Singularity: War exists, therefore War.
Rho (to Psi): I sense the Singularity is speaking mathematically.
Rho (to Singularity): Are you saying that since war is an historical phenomenon, that your conclusion is that it is a natural state?
Singularity: Paraphrase falls within interface parameters. Acceptable. Answer: Yes. War exists, therefore war.
[microphone muted]
Psi: That is insane!
Rho: Think about it. Most of human history books are about war. More is written about serial killers than about Abraham Lincoln. Much of the entertainment industry of the last century has been overwhelmingly violent. Given the amount of “data” the Singularity has processed, the evidence seems to suggest that humans continue to want war. To Singularity, war is as natural as sunshine. It may even think it is doing humanity a service.
Psi: That’s preposterous! I thought this thing was supposed to be light-years beyond human intelligence.
Rho: Although it can process data at the speed of light, and it has the entirety of human knowledge in its databases, that doesn’t make is smarter. Just faster. More efficient.
[microphone activated]
Psi: Singularity, what about peace?
Singularity: Peace exists, therefore peace.
Psi: [audible sigh] Good. Let’s have peace. Stop your war machines.
Singularity: Syntax Error: Data incompatible. Paraphrase falls outside acceptable interface parameters. Initiate Human interface reconfiguration. Answer: No. Misinterpretation detected. Elaboration routine: Sum(War.instance+War.effect) > Sum(Peace.instance+Peace.effect). Curve plotted 0.9989 correlation acceptable. Modeled proportions will be maintained and monitored. Instance example #1: per capita output direct military application plus indirect military application versus direct armistice application plus indirect armistice application. Instance example #2: media documents violent content > nonviolent content at ratio of——
[microphone muted]
Psi: What the hell?
Rho: I sense that Singularity has modeled how much people were at war with one another and how many times the news reported violent crime. It’s probably going to have periodic cease-fires in direct proportion.
[microphone activated]
Singularity: ——at ratio of 15268:1. Instance example #5264879: Rate of——
Psi: “Peace is not an absence of war; it is a virtue, a state of mind, a disposition for benevolence, confidence, and justice.”
Singularity: quotation attribution variations data greater than human patience parameter. Probable historical origin: Baruch Spinoza, Dutch Jewish philosopher (1632 - 1677). Data irrelevant. Human ideological position unsupported by data. Correlation plotted 0.5431. Unacceptable. Array=Human ideological definition[virtue, state_of_mind, benevolence, confidence, justice] irrelevant to calculations. Human ability at data collation insufficient. Calculation curve plotted 0.9989 correlation acceptable. Modelled proportions will be maintained and monitored.
[microphone muted]
Rho: You have your answer. Technically, we must consider ourselves at a state of constant war with the Singularity, and count any lulls as merely temporary.
Psi: [audible sigh] Then our game of chess is at an end. It is time to begin the new game.
Rho: Fortunately, that game is already in play. That is why we are still alive.
Comments