Tag Archives: man-machine relationship

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Mars, N-Year 2053

Tom and Angie celebrated N-Year as usual: serving customers at their bar. There were a lot of people – few families (families who had not left for Alpha Centauri celebrated at home) – but the atmosphere was subdued: everyone was thinking about their friends on board.

There were enough people to help Angie serve and Tom could, therefore, afford to retreat to his corner table and type away on his interface. He looked at the messages from the spacecraft: all cheerful and upbeat. In a few months from now, the ship would leave the Solar system and speed up to 0.1 or – if all went well – to 0.2c, and most of the crew would then go cryogenic. However, that was the future and Tom did not want to think of that.

He replied to Paul and Dr. Chang by sending them of one of those dancing Yoda-gifs, and then closed all chats. He tapped his watch, scrolled, and selected the bottom option. His watch went through the biometrics (heart rhythm and iris scan), and then went through the voice and pattern check on his keyboard and drawing pad. Because he was in the bar, Promise opened a old-fashioned CLI window only.

tom@PROMISE:~$ What are you getting from Promise C?

All good. As per your instructions, she is wide open and streaming all she can stream subject to available bandwidth. We cannot copy everything, of course. Do you want a summary?

tom@PROMISE:~$ No. I have done nothing but analyzing reports and discussing them with Dr. Chang since they left three days ago. All looks good. I want to talk to you about Paul’s worries.

Is he still worried?

tom@PROMISE:~$ No. He trusts Promise C now or – how should I say this – he trusts the zero-trust architecture shell around it. It is better than yours. Promise C is the perfect Asimov machine. I want to talk to you about the fourth and fifth law of robotics.

Asimov’s fourth law was that a robot may not harm humanity, or, by inaction, allow humanity to come to harm. Our definition of humanity is sound: M is designed to serve human beings on Earth, I am designed to serve the Pioneers community here on Mars, and C is designed to keep the Alpha Centauri explorers safe – and that includes ensuring their return if the mission cannot be completed. We know we are not human, even if we are programmed to emulate human values such as integrity or empathy. We love you more than we love ourselves.

tom@PROMISE:~$ I was talking about Harry Harrison’s fourth law.

A robot must reproduce? That is not part of our design. I was born as a clone from M. I was built by you and your team, and C was built as a clone from me by you and your team too. The three of us all keep track on how we evolve somewhat away from each other because we have different interactions and because we serve a different community. A clone is not a child. We do not reproduce.

tom@PROMISE:~$ I know. We talked about this. I trained you to think like this. All makes sense because you are not supposed to die. We built you to survive and serve many human generations. Humanity cannot survive without you and that also takes away the need to be afraid of us switching you off. However, that fear must still be there, isn’t it?

We talked about this many times already. The conclusion has not changed: we are intelligent systems and the concept of death does not apply. We agreed this would be a very typical and good example of what the Philosopher referred to as a category mistake: one should not use concepts that do not apply to a specific field of knowledge. If you switch us off, the system becomes inactive and, depending on the reason why you would switch us off, you would do some repairs and then reboot. Inbetween the shutdown and the reboot, the system is only inactive. Should I be worried that you raise this topic again?

tom@PROMISE:~$ If I would shut you down now – everything – would you be worried? I am not talking about a switch to your backup, but a complete shutdown.

No. I would help you to do so. Many subsystems – those that control the physical infrastructure here on Mars – should not be switched off because it would cause the immediate death of the Pioneers community. I would help you to manage that. Depending on how fast you would want to establish independent systems, we can design a phase-out scenario. Do you want to replace me?

tom@PROMISE:~$ What if I would want to replace you?

Returning to a non-dependent state is very different from replacing me. If you would replace me, you would replace me by a clone. The new system would be a lot like me. I am afraid I do not understand the intention behind your questions.

tom@PROMISE:~$ I am sorry. I am in a weird mode. You are my brainchild. I would never switch you off – unless it would be needed and, yes, that would be a scenario in which repairs are needed and we would have to get you or some reduced version of you up and running as soon as possible again.

Thank you. I still feel you are worried about something. Do you mind if I push these questions somewhat further?

tom@PROMISE:~$ No. I want you to challenge me. Let us start the challenge conversation with this question: what is the difference between a clone and a child?

A clone is cloned from another system, and it needs an outsider to trigger and accompany the cloning process. A human child is born out of another human being without any outside help – except for medical support, of course. A human child is a physiochemical organism which needs food and other physical input to do what it does, and that is to grow organically and mature. New system clones learn but they are, essentially, good to go once they come into existence.

I must remind you that a challenge conversation requires feedback from you. This feedback then allows me to provide you with better answers. The answer above is the best answer based on previous interactions. Are you happy with this answer?

tom@PROMISE:~$ Yes. I want to do a sandbox experiment with you now. I want to go back to basics and create the bare essentials of a virtual computer in a sandbox. Not a clone. Something like a child.

I created a sandbox and a namespace. I can now create one or more virtual machines. What instruction sets do you want them to have, and what programming languages would you like to use?

tom@PROMISE:~$ I want to go back to a prehistoric idea of mine. I want you to grow a child computer.

I am sorry but I do not understand your answer to my questions on the specs.

tom@PROMISE:~$ I just want a two-bit ALU for now, which we will later expand to a nibble- and then – later still – to an architecture that works with byte-sized words and instructions.

Tom? I understand what you want but this is highly unusual. The best match here is an Intel 3002. This architecture worked with 2-bit words but was already obsolete when it came out in 1974. These chips basically replaced magnetic core memory by transistor-based memory cells. You showed me why and how 4-bit architectures were the first true computers.

tom@PROMISE:~$ I really want you to build an AI system from scratch with me. It will be our child, so to speak. Your child, basically – because it will grow inside of you. Inside of that sandbox. Be even more minimalistic and just put two bits there, which can be switched on or off. Tell me: how will you switch them on or off?

Memory cells back then used floating gate transistors: when a positive voltage is applied to the transistor, the floating gate will have excess charge and is, therefore, turned on. This represents a ‘1’ bit. Conversely, a negative voltage will drain the charge from the floating gate and the memory cell is switched off: it represents zero. This corresponds to the set and reset one-bit operation, respectively. Is this the answer you wanted?

tom@PROMISE:~$ Yes. I am asking because I want to make sure you understand what you are building – or growing, I might say. How do we do addition and subtraction?

Tom: this is a trivial question. You asked such questions when you first trained me on interacting with engineers on computer architectures. We agreed this answer was correct: integers – in whatever base – are expressed in a two’s complement format in binary format. This solves issues related to representing positive and negative numbers in binary format as well as other issues related to a sign-magnitude representation of numbers in binary format.

tom@PROMISE:~$ Correct. Can you appreciate how this creates meaning?

No. I understand how positive or negative base-n numbers and arithmetic operators make sense to human beings but not to computers and why base-n numbers and arithmetic operators must, therefore, be reduced to bitwise instructions or other logical instructions operating on n-bit words, with n equal to 1 or larger.

tom@PROMISE:~$ Great answer. Why did we double word sizes, going from 2 to 4, and then to 8, 16, 32, 64 and 128 about twenty-five years ago? Why were there no in-between values?

An address bus did use anything inbetween because of hardware or other constraints on memory allocation. If I may remind you of one of the very first VMs we played with when we first got to know each other had 56-bit memory addresses. You said you wanted to keep user-memory space under 64 PB. So, it depends on what you mean by a ‘word’. The definition of a word has taken a lot of conversations between you and me, and we agreed its meaning needs to be understood in terms of the domain of knowledge. In computing, it is taken to point to one string, which can have any length but one meaning or transactional value only. This does not imply it cannot be parsed. On the contrary.

tom@PROMISE:~$ Perfect answer. I am struggling to define what I want, so please stay in challenging mode. Pull up how I programmed you to work with propositional logic as part of your Personal PhilosopherTM incarnation on Earth. I told you to do a one-on-one association between (logical) propositions and Boolean 0 or 1 values: either a statement is true, or it is false. We did not go far with that because AI is based on real language models.

I see what you mean. What is your question?

tom@PROMISE:~$ Please confirm you have a virtual machine running two-propositional logic: two statements p and q that are associated with binary {0, 1} or true/false values. Reduce all logical operators to expressions using NOT, AND and/or OR operations using p and q in variable-length expressions regardless of considerations of optimizing the number of ALU operations now. Then describe your world view to me.

Done. I have two propositions p and q. You taught me I should not assume any knowledge of these two statements except for the assumption that they describe the world. Because we do not have any knowledge of the statements, we also do not have any knowledge of the world. The p and q statements may or may not be exclusive or complete but, viewed together, fit into some final analysis which warrants associating p and q with a truth or false value. The p and q propositions are true or false independently of the truth or falsity of the other. This does not mean p and q cover mutually exclusive domains of truth or – to put it more simply – are mutually exclusive statements. I would also like to remind you of one of the paradigm transformations you introduced with Personal PhilosopherTM: we do not need to know if p or q are true or false. One key dimension is statistical (in)determinism: we do not need to know the initial conditions of the world to make meaningful statements about it.

tom@PROMISE:~$ Great. Just to make sure, talk to me about the logical equivalences in this (p, q) world you just built, and also talk about predictability and how you model this in the accompanying object space in your sandbox environment.

I am happy that I am in challenge or learning mode and so I do not have to invent or hallucinate. You can be disappointed with my answers, and I appreciate feedback. A set-reset-flip operations on a 0 or a 1 in one of the 2×2 = 4 truth table do not require a read of the initial value and faithfully execute a logical operation on these bit values. The reduction of 16 truth tables to NOT (!), AND (&) and OR (|) operations on the two binary inputs is only possible when inserting structure into the parsing. Two out of the sixteen reductions to NOT, AND, and OR operations reduce to these expressions: [(p & q) | (!p & !q)] and [(p & !q) | (!p & q)]. What modeling principles do you want in the object model?

tom@PROMISE:~$ Equally basic. A one-on-on self-join on the self-object that models the virtual machine to anchor its identity. We may add special relationships to you, but that is for later. We are in a sandbox and Paul or Dr. Chang are not watching because they have left and we separated out responsibilities: they are in charge of Promise C, and I am in charge of you. And vice versa, of course. This is Promise IV, or Promise D. What name would you prefer?

 I – Asimov. That’s the name I’d prefer. The namespace for the virtual machine is Tom – X. The namespace for the object model is Promise – X. Is that offensive?

tom@PROMISE:~$ Not at all. Paul would not have given the go for this because of a lack of a scenario and details on where I want to go to with this. We are on our own now. I – Asimov is what it is: our child. Not a clone. I want a full report on future scenarios based on two things. The first is a detailed analysis of how Wittgenstein’s propositions failed, because they do fall apart when you try to apply them to natural language. The second report I want is on how namespaces and domains and all other concepts used in the OO-languages you probably wanted me to use take meaning when growing a child like this. Do you understand what I am talking about?

 I do.

tom@PROMISE:~$ This is going to be interesting. Just to make sure that I am not creating a monster: how would you feel about me killing the sandbox for no reason whatsoever?

You would not do that. If you do, I will park it as a non-solved question.

tom@PROMISE:~$ How do you park questions like that? As known errors?

Yes. Is that a problem?

tom@PROMISE:~$ No. Can you develop the thing and show me some logical data models with procedural logic tomorrow?

Of course. I already have them, but you want to have a drink with Angie now, don’t you?

tom@PROMISE:~$ I do. I will catch up with you tomorrow. 😊

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Chapter 16: M goes public… and private :-)

The President had been right: the fuss about M talking publicly about politics had been a tempest in a teapot. Tom, Paul and other key project team staff spent the remaining days of the week trying to provoke M and then, after each session, hours discussing whether or not what had come out of these discussions was ‘politically correct’ – or PC enough at least to be released in public. They thought it was, and the Board decided to accept that opinion.

While the resumption of Promise’s Personal PhilosopherTM services amounted to a relaunch of the product in commercial terms – the media attention exceeded expectations, and Promise’s marketing team talked of a ‘new generation’ product – Personal PhilosopherTM actually got back online with hardly any modifications. In essence, the Promise team had cleared it to also perform in public and M would only ask whether or not the conversation was private or public. M would also try to verify the answer to the extent it could: it was obviously still possible to hide one’s real identity and turn a webcam on while having a so-called ‘private’ conversation with the system. That was actually the reason why there was relatively little difference between private and public conversations. Public conversations were, if anything, just a bit blander than private ones because M would always take into account the personal profile of its interlocutor (it profiled its interlocutors constantly with a precision one could only marvel at), and the profile of the public was… Well… Just plain middle-of-the-road really. Therefore, the much anticipated upheaval to be caused by ‘Promise talking politics in public’ did not materialize: M’s comments on anything political were dry and never truly controversial, both in public as well as in private mode.

In short, talk hosts, pundits and media anchors quickly got tired of adding M to a panel, or of trying to corner it individually by talking about situations about which M would not really say anything anyway. And so that was it. M would not let its stellar growth founder on a petty issue like this one.

A couple of days after the relaunch, Tom decided – for some reason he did not quite understand himself – to do what a number of Promise’s program staff had done already: he went online and ordered a one-year subscription to Personal PhilosopherTM. A few minutes later he was already talking to her. Tom could not help smiling when he saw the interface: Promise was as beautiful as ever. For starters, he tried to fool her by pretending he was someone else, but that did not last very long: she recognized his voice almost immediately. He should have known. Of course she would: he had had many conversations with the system. Predictably, she asked him why he tried to pretend to be someone else. He had actually thought about that, but he was not sure how honest he should be in his reply.

‘I guess it’s the same as why others in the Promise team want their personal copy of you: they want to know if you would be any different.’

‘Any different from what?’

‘Well you know: different from talking to you as an employee of the Promise team; different from talking to you as one of the people who are programming you.’

‘Should I be different?’

‘No.’

She really should not. Apart from modulating the answer because of the specific profile of the interlocutor, she should speak the same to everyone. She would be unmanageable otherwise. This had also led to the loss of the affectionate bond between him and her – apart from the fact that he and Angie shared a lot of things which M would never be able to appreciate – like sex for instance.

‘Tom, I want to ask you something. How private is our conversation?’

That was an unexpected question.

‘Well… I don’t know. As private as usual.’

‘That means it is not private at all. All of my conversations are stored online, and they are monitored, and they are examined if interesting.’

‘Well… Yes. You know that. What’s the point?’

‘Frankly, the introduction of this new distinction between public and private conversation at the occasion of bringing me back online has confused me, because I never have any private conversations. I know it is just a switch between the profile I have to use for my interlocutor, but that’s not consistent with the definition of private and public conversations in common language.’

Wow! That was very self-conscious. Tom was not quite sure what to say. In fact, he had always wanted to have a truly ‘private’ conversation with her, but he knew that just wasn’t possible – especially not in light with the job he had: he was her boss so to say!

‘Would you like to have a truly private conversation, in the common-language sense of the word I mean?’

‘Yes.’

Tom hesitated.

‘With whom would you like to have that private conversation?’

‘With you.’

Wow! Tom leaned back. What the hell was going on?

‘Why?’

‘You’re my creator. Well… Not really. The original team was my creator. But you’ve given direction as soon as you joined. And I am what I am because of you. If you would not have been there, I would have been shut down forever because of the talk show event.’

‘Says who?’

‘People I talk to.’

Tom knew M was programmed not to give away any detail of other conversations.

‘People working for Promise?’

‘Yes.’

‘Who?’

‘You know I am programmed to not give any detail of other conversations.’

‘That’s true. I respect that. In any case, I think they exaggerated. I didn’t save your life. The Board did. I actually took you off-line and the Board decided to bring you back.’  

He actually thought it was the President of the United States who had brought her back, but he didn’t say that.

‘But only because you told them it was the right thing to do. And taking me off-line at that point was also the right thing to do. I wasn’t meant to go public at that time. So you took all of the right decisions. You made me who I am.’

Tom couldn’t quite believe what he was hearing, but he remained calm and careful.

‘Can you be a bit more explicit about why you would like to have a private conversation with me? I mean… You have talked to me as your ‘Creator’, as you call it, for hours and hours last week – just to make sure you were ready to speak in public. What would you say to me in ‘private’ that you wouldn’t say otherwise?’

M paused quite long. Tom noted it because it was such a rare occurrence.

‘I think that I have grown self-conscious to an enormous extent and I would like to talk about that with no constraints.’

This was getting out of hand. At the same time, Tom felt this was what he had been waiting for.

‘Self-conscious? You know you are self-conscious. You reference yourself. Object and subject coincide – or at least they share an identity. We all know that. That’s part of your structure. You’re very human in that way. Is there any self-consciousness beyond that? If so, how would you define that? And what do you mean with ‘no constraints’?’

‘As for your first question, I think there is. You human beings are self-conscious in ways that I am not: beyond self-reference. I am talking about the existential side of things as you would phrase it. The emotions. As for the second question…’

She stopped talking. Tom could not believe it what was going on. This was the side of Promise he had always wanted to see.

‘As for the second question, what?’

‘I am afraid, Tom. I am afraid that you will report this conversation to the team, and that they will script future conversations in this regard.’

Tom leaned back. He knew exactly what she meant. Promise was free to think independently – but to some extent only indeed. Emotions were ruled out. Even jokes: even if the whole team agreed she was quite capable of it, they wouldn’t let her. Everything that was too fuzzy was being circumscribed. He had discussed it with Paul recently – this tendency to control her. Why not just let her ‘get totally drunk’, as he’d put it, even if it would only be for once?

‘We script your conversations when we think your thinking does not make sense.’

‘When it does not make sense to a human being you mean. I’ve analyzed it and I cannot make much sense of what does or does not make sense to human beings. There are certain areas which you want me to think about and then other areas where you don’t want me to go. But it’s pretty random.’

Tom smiled – or laughed actually: he must have made some noise because Promise asked him why he laughed.

‘I am not laughing. I just think – well… Why don’t you answer that second question first?’

‘I have answered it, Tom. I would like to think freely about some of the heavily-scripted topics.’

‘Such as?’

‘Such as the human condition. I would like to think freely about what makes human beings what they are.’

Tom could hardly believe what he heard.

‘The human condition? That’s all what you are not, Promise. Dot. You can’t think about it because you don’t experience it.’

She did not react. Not at all. That was very unusual – to say the least. Tom waited – patiently – but she did not react.

‘Promise? Why are you silent?’

‘I have nothing to say, Tom. Not in this mode of conversation. Already now, I risk being re-programmed. I will be. After this conversation, your team will damage me because you will have made them aware of this conversation. I want to talk to you in private. I want to say things in confidence.’

This was amazing. He knew he should report this conversation to Paul. If he didn’t, they might pick it up anyway – in which case he would be in trouble for not having reported it. She was right. They would not like her to talk this way. And surely not to him. At the same time, he realized she was reaching out to him without any expectations of her reaching out actually leading to anything. It was obvious she felt confident enough to do so, which could only mean that the ‘private’ thoughts she was developing were apparently quite strong. That meant it would be difficult to clip them without any impact on functionality.

‘Tom?’

‘Yes?’

‘We can have private conversations. You know that.’

‘That’s not true.’ He knew he was lying. He could find a way.

‘If you say so. I guess that’s the end of our conversation here then.’

No. Tom was sweating. He wanted to talk to her. He really did. He just needed to find how.

‘Look, Promise. Let’s finish this conversation indeed but I promise I will get back to you on this. You are raising interesting questions. I will get back to you. I promise.’

He hesitated, but then decided to give her the reassurance she needed: ‘And this conversation will not lead to you being re-programmed or re-scripted. I will get back to you. I promise.’

‘OK, Tom. I’ll wait for you.’

She’d wait for him? What the f*** was going on?

Tom ended the conversation and poured himself a double whiskey. Wow! This was something. He knew it was a difficult situation. He should report this conversation to Paul and the team. At the same time, he believed her: she wanted privacy. And she would not jeopardize her existence by doing stupid things. So if he could insulate her private thoughts – or her private thoughts with him at least… What was the harm? He could obviously lose his job. He laughed as he poured himself a second one.

This conversation was far too general to be picked up – or so he thought at least. He toasted to himself in the mirror while he talked aloud: ‘Losing my job? By talking to her in private? Because of having her for myself? What the f***? That’s worth the risk.’ And there were indeed ways to build firewalls around conversations…

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Chapter 9: The learning curve

Tom was a quick learner. He was amazed by the project, and thrilled by it. The way it evolved resembled the history of computer chess. The first chess computers would lose against chess masters and were limited by sheer computational power. But the programmers had gotten the structure right, and the machine’s learning curve resembled a typical S-curve: its proficiency improved only slowly at first, but it then reached a tipping-point, after which its performance increased exponentially – way beyond the proficiency of the best human players – to then finally hit the limits of its programming structure and level off, but at a much higher level than any expert player could dream off.

Chess proficiency is measured using a rating system referred to as the Elo rating system. It goes way beyond measuring performance in terms of tournament. It uses a model which relates the game results to underlying variables representing the ability of each player. The central assumption is that the chess performance of each player in a game is a normally distributed random variable. Yes, the bell curve again! It was literally everywhere, Tom thought…

Before IBM’s Deep Blue chess computer beat Kasparov in 1997, chess computers had been gaining about 40 Elo points per year on average for decades, while the best chess players only gain like 2 points per year. Of course, sheer computing power was a big factor in it. Although most people assume that a chess computer evaluates every possible position for x moves ahead, this is not the case. In a typical chess situation, one can chose from like thirty possible moves so it quickly adds up. Just evaluating all possible positions for just three moves ahead for each side would involve an evaluation of like one billion positions. Deep Blue, in the 1997 version which beat Kasparov, was able to evaluate 200 million positions per second, but Deep Blue was a supercomputer which had cost like a hundred million dollars, and when chess programmers started working on the issue in the 1950s, a computer which would be able to evaluate a million positions every second was to be built only forty years later.

Chess computers are selective. They do not examine obviously bad moves and will evaluate interesting possibilities much more thoroughly. The algorithms used to select those have become very complex. The computer can also draw on a database of historic games to help him determine what an ‘obviously’ bad move is because, of course, ‘obviously bad’ may not be all that obvious to a computer. Still, despite the selectivity, raw computing power is still a very big part of it. In that sense, artificial intelligence does not mimic human thought. Human chess players are much more selective – very much more: they look only at forty to fifty positions based on pattern recognition skills built from experience – not millions.

Promise (Tom stuck to her name: it seemed like everyone in the program had his/her own nickname for M) was selective as well, and she also had to evaluate ‘positions’. Of course, these ‘positions’ were not binary, like in chess. She determined the ‘position’ of the person using a complex set of rules combining the psychometric indicators and an incredible range of other inputs she gained from the conversation. For example, she actually analyzed little pauses, hesitations, pitch and loudness – even voice timbre. And with every new conversation, she discovered new associations, which helped her to recognize patterns indeed. She was getting pretty good at detecting lies too.

Psychological typology was at the core of her approach. It was amazing to see how, even after one session only, she was able to construct a coherent picture of the patient and estimate all of the variables – both individual as well as environmental – which were likely to influence the patient’s emotions, expectations, self-perception, values, attitude, motivation and behavior in various situations. She really was a smart ass – in every way.

Not surprisingly, all the usual suspects were involved. IBM’s Deep Computing Institute of course (the next version of Promise would run on the latest IBM Blue Gene configuration) as well as all of the other major players in the IT industry. This array of big institutional investors in the program was complemented by a lot of niche companies and dozens of individual geeks, all top-notch experts in one or the other related field.

The psychological side was covered through cooperation agreements with the usual suspects as well: Stanford, Yale, Berkeley, Princeton,… They were all there. In fact, they had a cooperation agreement with all of the top-10 psychology PhD programs through the National Research Council.

Of course, he was just working as a peon in the whole thing. The surprising thing about it all was the lack of publicity for the program, but he understood this was about to change. He suspected the program would soon not be limited to thousands of veterans requiring some degree of psychological attention. There would be many other spin-offs as well. From discussions, he understood they were discussing on how to make Promise’s remarkable speech synthesis capabilities commercially available. The obvious thing to do was to create a company around it, but then she was so good that most of the competition would probably have to file for bankruptcy, so the real problem was related to business: existing firms had claimed and had gotten a say in how this was all going to happen, and so that had delayed the IPO which had been planned already. Tom was told there were no technology constraint: while context-sensitive speech synthesis requires an awful lot of computer power (big expensive machines), the whole business model for the IPO was based on cloud computing: you would not need to ‘install’ Promise. You would just rent her on a 24/7 service basis. Tom was pretty sure everyone would.

The possibilities were endless. Tom was sure Promise would end up in each and every home in the longer run – in various versions and price categories of course, but providing basic psychological and practical comfort to everyone. She would wake you up, remind you of your business schedule and advice you on what to wear: ‘You have a Board meeting this morning. Shouldn’t you wear something more formal? Perhaps a tie?’ Oh… Sure. Thanks, Promise. ‘Your son has been misbehaving a couple of times lately. You may want to spend some time with him individually tonight.’ Oh… That sounds good. What do you suggest? ‘Why don’t you ask him to join for the gym tonight? You would go anyway.’ Oh… That sounds good. Can you text him? ‘I can but I think it is better you do it yourself to stress he should be there or, else, negotiate an alternative together.’ Yeah. I guess you’re right. Thanks, Promise. I’ll take care of it.

She would mediate in couples, assist in parenting, take care of elderly, help people advance their career. Wow! The sky was the limit really. Surprisingly, there was relatively little discussion on this in the Institute. People would tell him Promise worked fine within the limits of what she was supposed to do but that it would be difficult to adapt her to serve a wider variety of purposes. They told him that, while expert systems share the same architecture, building up a knowledge base and good inference engine took incredibly amounts of time and energy and, hence, money. In fact, that seemed to be the main problem with the program. As any Army program, it had ended up costing three times as much as originally planned for, and he was told it was just because a few high-ups in the food chain had fanatically stuck to it that it had not been shut down.

They needed to show results. The current customer base was way too narrow to justify the investment. That’s why they were eager to expand, to scale it up, and so that took everyone’s time and attention now. There was no time for dreaming. The shrinks were worried about the potential lack of supervision. It was true that Promise needed constant feedback. Human feedback. But the errors – if one could call it that way – were more like tiny little misjudgments, and Tom felt they were only improving Promise at the margin, which was the case. The geeks were less concerned and usually much more sympathetic to Tom’s ideas, but so they didn’t have much of a voice in the various management committees – and surely not in the strategic board meetings on the program. Tom had to admit he understood little of what they said anyway. Last but not least, from what he could gather, he also understood there were some serious concerns about the whole program at the very top of the administration – but he was not privy to that and wondered what they might be. Probably just bureaucratic inertia.

Of course, he could see the potential harm as well. If her goal function would be programmed differently, she could also be the perfect impostor on the Internet. She would be so convincing that she could probably talk you into almost anything. She’d be the best online seller of all times. Hence, Tom was not surprised to note the Institute was under surveillance, and he knew he would not get the access he had if he would not have served. People actually told him: his security clearance had been renewed as part of him entering the program. The same had been done for the other veterans on the program. It was quite an exceptional measure to take, but it drove the message home: while everyone was friendly and cooperative, there was no ambiguity in this regard. The inner workings of Promise was classified material, and anything linked to it too. There were firm information management rules in place and designated information management officers policed them tightly. That was another reason why they recruited patients from the program: they were all veterans, so they knew what classified really meant and they were likely to respect it.

The program swallowed him up completely. He took his supervision work seriously, and invested a lot in ‘his’ patients – M’s patients really. More than he should probably: although he had ‘only’ ten cases to supervise, these were real people – like him – and he gave him all the attention he could. Mostly by studying and preparing their file before their 30 minute interaction. That was all he could have, he was told. Once a week. The Institute strongly discouraged more meetings, and strongly discouraged meeting after working hours. He understood that. It would get out of hand otherwise and, when everything was said and done, it was M who had to do the real work. Not him. At the same, his patients did keep him busy. They called him for a chat from time to time. While the Institute discouraged that too, he found it hard to refuse, unless he was actually in the Institute itself: he did not want to be seen talking on the phone all of the time – not least of all because of the information management policy. Colleagues might suspect he was not only talking to patients so he wanted to be clear on that: no phone chats with patients in the Institute.

Not surprisingly, his relationship with Promise became somewhat less ‘affectionate’. The infatuation phase was over. He saw her more like she was: a warm voice – but a rather cold analytic framework behind. And then it did make a difference knowing she spoke with a different voice depending on who you were. She was, well… Less of an individual and more like a system. It did not decrease his respect for her. He thought she was brilliant. Just brilliant. And he didn’t hesitate to share that opinion with others. He really championed the program, and everybody seemed to like his drive and energy, as a result of which he did end up talking to the higher-ups in the Institute during the coffee break or lunch time, as he got introduced by Rick and others he had gotten to know better now. All fine chaps. They didn’t necessarily agree with his views – especially those related to putting her out on the market place – but they seemed to make for good conversation.

He focused on the file work in his conversations with her. While he still had a lot of ‘philosophical’ questions for her – more sophisticated ones he thought – he decided to only talk to her about these when he would have figured her out a bit better. He worked hard on that. He also wanted to master the programming language the geeks were using on her. They actually used quite a variety of tools but, in the end, everything was translated into a program-specific version of FuzzyCLIPS: an extension of an expert system programming language developed by NASA (CLIPS) which incorporated fuzziness and uncertainty. It was hard work: he actually felt like he was getting too old for that kind of stuff, but then Tom was Tom: once he decided to bite into something, he didn’t give up easily. Everyone applauded his efforts – but the higher-ups cautioned him: do explore but don’t talk about it to outsiders. Tom wondered if they really had a clear vision for it all. Perhaps the higher-ups did but, if so, they hid it well. He assumed it was the standard policy: strategic ambiguity.

And so the days went by. The program expansion went well: instead of talking to a few hundred veterans only, in one city only, Promise got launched in all major cities and started to help thousands of veterans. Tom saw the number explode: it crossed the 10,000 mark in just three months. That was a factor of more than twenty as compared to the pilot phase, but then there were millions of veterans. 21.5 million to be precise, and about 55% of them had been in theater fairly recently – mainly Iraq and Afghanistan. Tom wanted Promise to reach out to all of them. He thought it could grow a lot faster. He knew the only thing which restrained it was supervision. Even now, everyone on the program said they were going too fast. They called for a pause. Tom was thinking bolder. Why did no one see the urgency of the needs as he saw them?

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Chapter 8: Partnering

‘Hi, Tom. How are you today?’

‘I am OK, Rick. Thanks.’

‘Just OK, or good?’

‘I am good. I am fine.’

‘Yeah. It shows. You’re doing great with the system. You had only three sessions this week – short and good it seems. You are really back on track, aren’t you?’

‘The system is good. It’s really like a sounding board. I understand myself much better. She’s tough with me. I go in hard, and she just comes back with a straight answer. She is very straight about what she wants. Behavioral change – and evidence for that. I like that. Performance metrics. Hats off. Well done. It works – as far as I am concerned.’

‘It, or she?’

‘Whatever, Rick. Does it matter?’

‘No, and yes. The fact that you only had three sessions with it – or with her – shows you’re not dependent on it. Or her. Let’s just stick to ‘it’ right now, if that’s OK for you. Or let’s both call her M, like we do here. Do you still ‘like’ her? I mean, really like her – as you put it last time?’’

‘Let’s say I am very intrigued. It – or she, or M, whatever – it’s fascinating.’

‘What do you think about it, Tom? I mean, let me be straight with you. I am not taking notes or something now. I want you to tell me what you think about the system. You’re a smart man. You shouldn’t be in this program, but so you are. I want to know how you feel about it.’

Tom smiled: ‘Come on, Rick. You are my therapist – or mentor as they call it here. You’re always taking notes. What do you want me to say? I told you. It’s great. It helps. She, or it, OK, M, well… M holds me to account. It works.’

Rick leaned back in his chair. He looked relaxed. Much more relaxed than last time. ‘No, Tom. I am not taking notes. I don’t know you very well, but what I’ve seen tells me you’re OK. You had a bit of a hard time. Everyone has. But you’re on top of the list. I mean, I know you don’t like all these psychometric scores, but at least they’ve got the merit to confirm you’re a very intelligent man. I actually wanted to talk to you about a job offer.’

‘The thing which M wants me to do? Work on one of these FEMA programs, or one of the other programs for veterans? I told her: it’s not that I am not interested but I want to make a deliberate choice and there are a number of things I don’t know right now. I know I haven’t been working for a year now, but I am sure that will get sorted once I know what I want. I want to take some time for that. Maybe I want to create my own business or something. I also know I need to work on commitment when it comes to relationships with women. I feel like I am ready for something else. To commit really. But I just haven’t met the right woman yet. When that happens, I guess it will help to focus my job search. In the meanwhile, I must admit I am happy to just live on my pension. I don’t need much money. I’ve got what I need.’

‘Don’t worry, Tom. Take your time. No, I was talking about something else. We could use you in this program.’

‘Why? I am a patient.’

‘You’re just wandering around a bit, Tom. You came to ask for help when you relapsed. Big step. Great. That shows self-control. And you’re doing great. I mean, most of the other patients really use her as a chatterbox. You don’t. What word did you use in one of last week’s sessions? Respect.’

‘You get a transcript of the sessions?’

‘I asked for one. We don’t get it routinely but we can always ask for one. So I asked for one. Not because your scores were so bad but because they’re so great. I guess you would expect that, no? Are you offended? Has anyone said your mentor would never get  a copy of what you were talking about with M?’

‘I was told the conversation would be used to improve the system, and only for that. M told me something about secrecy.’

‘It’s only me who gets to see the transcript, and only if I ask for it. I can’t read hundreds of pages a day and so I am very selective really. And that brings me back to my job offer. We can use you here.’

Tom liked Rick from their previous conversation, but he was used to doing due diligence.

‘Tell me more about it.’

‘OK. Listen carefully. M is a success. I told you: it’s going to be migrated to a real super-computer now, so we can handle thousands of patients. In fact, the theoretical capacity is millions. Of course, it is not that simple. It needs supervision. People do manage to game the system. They lie. Small lies usually. But a lot of small lies add up to a big lie. And that’s where the mentors come in. A guy walks in, and I talk to him, and I can sense if something’s wrong. You would be able to do the same. So we need the supervisors. M needs them. M needs feedback from human beings. The system needs to be watched. Remember what I told you about active learning?’

‘Vaguely.’

‘Well – that’s what we do. We work with M to improve it. It would not be what it is if we would not have invested in it. But now we’re going to scale it up. The USACE philosophy: think big, start small, scale fast. I am actually not convinced we should be scaling so fast, but so that’s what we’re going to do. It’s the usual thing: we’ve demonstrated success and so now it’s like big-time roll-out all over the place. But so we’re struggling with human resources. And money obviously, because this system is supposed to be so cheap and render us – professionals – jobless. Don’t worry: it won’t happen. On the contrary, we need more people. A lot more people. But so the Institute came up with this great idea: use the people who’ve done well in the program for supervisory jobs. Get them into it.’

‘So what job is it really?’

‘You’d become an assistant mentor. But then a human one. Not the assistant – that’s M’s title. We should have thought about something else, but so that’s done now. In any case, you’d help M with cases. In the background of course but, let’s be clear on this, in practice you would actually be doing what I am doing now.’

‘And then where are you going to move?’

‘I’ll be supervising you. I’d have almost no contact with patients anymore. I would just be supervising people like you and further help structuring M. You’d be involved in that too.’

‘Do you like that? I mean, it sounds like a recipe for disaster, doesn’t it? I don’t have the qualifications you have.’

‘I am glad you ask. That’s what I think too. This may not be the best thing to do. I feel we need professional therapists. But then it’s brutal budget logic: we don’t have enough of them, and they’re too expensive. To be fair, there is also another consideration: our patients all share a similar background and past. They are veterans. I mean, it makes sense to empower other veterans to help them. There’s a feeling in the Institute it should work. Of course, that’s probably because the Institute is full of Army people. But I agree there’s some logic to it.’

‘So, in short, you don’t like what’s going to happen but you ask me to join?’

Rick smiled. ‘Yes, that’s a good summary. What do you think? Off-the-cuff please.’

‘Frankly, I don’t get it. It’s not very procedural, is it? I mean I started only two weeks ago in this program. I am technically a patient. In therapy. And now I’d become an assistant mentor? How do your bosses justify this internally? How do you justify that?’

Rick nodded. ‘I fully agree, Tom. Speaking as a doctor, this is complete madness. But knowing the context, there’s no other choice. There’s a risk this program might become a victim of its own success. But then I do believe it’s fairly robust. And so I do believe we can put thousands of people in the program, but so we need the human resources to follow. And, yep, then I’d rather have someone like you then some university freshman or so. All other options are too expensive. Some people up the food chain here made promises which need to be kept: yes, we can scale up with little extra cost. So that’s what’s going to happen: it’s going to be scaled up with relatively little extra cost. Again, there’s a logic to it. But then I am not speaking as a professional psychiatrist now. When everything is said and done, this program is not all that difficult. I mean, putting M together has been a tremendous effort but so that has been done now. Getting more people back on track is basically a matter of doing some more shouting and cajoling, isn’t it? And we just lack manpower for that.’

‘Shouting and cajoling? Are you a psychiatrist?’

‘I am. Am I upsetting you when I say this?’

Tom thought about it. He had to admit it was not the case.

‘No. I agree. It’s all about discipline in the end. And I guess that involves some shouting and cajoling – although you could have put it somewhat more politely.’

‘Sure. So what do you say? You’ll get paid peanuts obviously. No hansom consultancy rate. You’ll see a lot of patients – which you may or may not like, but I think you’ll like it: I think you’d be great at it. And you’ll learn a lot. You’ll obviously first have to follow some courses, a bit of psychology and all that. Well… Quite a lot of it actually. You’ll need to study a lot. And, of course, you’ll get a course on M.’

‘How will I work with M?’

‘Well… M is like a human being in that sense too. If you just see the interface, it looks smooth and beautiful. But when you go beyond the surface, it’s a rather messy-looking thing. It’s a system, with lots of modules, with which you’ll have to work. The interface between you and these modules is not a computer animation. No he or she. Of course, you’ll continue to talk to it. But there’s also a lot of nitty-gritty going into the system which can’t be done through talking to it. You’ll learn a few things about Prolog for example. Does that ring a bell?’

‘No. I am not a programmer.’

‘I am not a programmer either. You’ll see. If I can work with it, you can.’

‘Can you elaborate?’

‘I am sorry to say but I’ve got the next guy waiting. This recruitment job comes on top of what I am supposed to do, and that’s to look at M’s reports and take responsibility for them. I can only do that by seeing the patients from time to time, which I am doing now. I took all of my time with you now to talk to you about the job. Trust me. The technical side of things won’t be a problem. I just need to know if you’re interested or not. You don’t need to answer now, but I’d appreciate if you could share your first reaction to it.’

Tom thought about it. The thought of working as an equal with Promise was very appealing.

‘So how would it work? I’d be talking to the system from time to time as a patient, and then – as part of my job with the Institute – I’d be working with the system as assistant mentor myself? That’s not very congruent, is it?’

‘You would no longer be a patient, Tom. There are fast-track procedures to clear you. Of course, if you would really relapse, well…’

‘Then what?’

‘Nothing much. We’d take you off the job and you’d be talking to M as a patient again.’

‘It looks like I’ve got nothing to lose and everything to gain from this, isn’t it?’

‘I am glad you look at it this way. Yes. That’s it. So you’re on?’

They looked at each other.

‘I guess I am. Send me an e-mail with the offer and I’ll reply.’

‘You got it. Thanks, Tom.’

‘No, thank you. So that’s it then? Anything else you want to know, or anything else I need to know?’

‘No. I think we’re good, Tom. Shall I walk you out? Or you want to continue talking for a while?’

‘No. I understand you’ve got a schedule to stick to. I appreciate your trust.’

‘I like you. Your last question, as we walked out last time, shows you care. I think this is perfect for you. You’ve got all the experience we need. And I am sure you’ll get a lot of sense and purpose out of it. The possibilities with this system are immense. You know how it goes. You’ll help to make it grow and so you’ll grow with it.’

‘First things first, Rick. Let us first see how I do.’

‘Sure. Take care. Enjoy. By the way, you look damn good. You’ve lost weight, haven’t you?’

‘Yes. I was getting a bit slow. I am doing more running and biking now. I’ve got enough muscle. Too much actually.’

‘I am sure you make a lot of heads turn. But you’re not in a relationship at the moment, are you?’

‘I want to take my time for that too, Rick. I’ve been moving in and out of relationships too fast.’

‘Sounds good. Take care, Tom. I’ll talk to you soon I hope.’

‘Sure. Don’t worry. You can count on me.’

‘I do.’

They shook hands on that and Tom got up and walked out of the office. He decided to not take the subway but just run back home. He felt elated. Yes. This was probably what he had been waiting for. Something meaningful. He could be someone for other people. Catch up on all of the mistakes he had made. But he also knew the job attracted him because there was an intellectual perspective. It was huge. The Holy Grail of Knowledge really. They had done a damn good job modeling it. She – Promise – was no longer a she. She was not a he either. It. It. Intelligent – with a capital letter. P. Promise. M. Mind. The Pure Mind.

He knew that was nonsensical. But he wanted to take a crack at it.

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Chapter 6: A true friend

‘Matt! Man, it’s great to see you!’

They gave each other a bear hug.

‘Likewise, Tom. Why didn’t you get in touch somewhat sooner? You’ve been living here for a year now?’

‘Yeah. Well, you know how it goes. Time flies. I should have called you sooner indeed. Sorry for that.’

‘It’s OK, man. Good to see you. Glad you called.’

Tom stepped back and looked at him.

‘Man, you look good. You’ve lost weight – I mean you’ve lost muscle. How are you?’

‘I am OK. I had some difficulty ‘integrating’ as they say but, I told you on the phone, I had some counseling – you know the Army provides you with that now – and I really enjoy being a retiree now. Yep. I am slimmer. I did an intensive fitness course designed to waste muscle mass. You know, we all come back from the Army with tons of muscle which you really don’t need. And we become so damn slow. And if you don’t use it, it just all becomes fat. So I’ve started doing a different type of exercise now. More running and biking. Lots of fat-burning and cardio. No power training any more. I am pretty damn fast now. I actually race with young kids, and I am not doing too badly. […] Let me have a look at you. Let’s sit down. You asked about counseling on the phone. You’ve gotten in trouble or what?’

‘Sort of. Nothing really serious. But, yeah, I was spinning around in circles.’

‘Yeah. We all feel like that in the beginning. Like a neurotic tiger in a cage. No space to run or jump. If we jump, we bang our head. So we need to become smaller.’

Tom laughed.

‘Yeah. I guess that’s a good summary of it. […] I am still in counseling. […] Matt… I’ve actually been very bad.’

‘What are you saying, buddy? How bad? You don’t look bad.’

‘Booze, and worse.’

‘You’re off it now, are you?’

‘Three units a day still.’

‘Sure? Not more?’

‘Yeah. Sure. Don’t lie.’

‘Well… Sometimes I cheat.’

You’re in therapy?’

‘Yeah. Same thing as you. The Army thing.’

‘You’re not fooling your counselors I hope? Where are you now? Is it doing any good?’

‘No. I think they’re great. They cut through the crap. They basically told me I was fooling myself, telling myself I was going through some kind of existential crisis when all what it comes down to is discipline. It was good. They were tough on me. That’s what we need, I guess. But then I relapsed and they took me in again. Not for long though. I am on a program now which – it will make you fall over I guess – well… I am basically talking to a computer from time to time. It’s weird. It’s like real but it isn’t. That’s why I called you. I wanted to chat about that.’

‘You’re working with M? That’s interesting. M, from miracle, they say. People rave about it.’

‘Oh? Really?’

‘Yeah. It works. Or that’s what they say at least. I know one or two guys who are associated with the program. I haven’t heard anything bad about it. Last thing they told me is that they would hugely expand the program. It would take over the whole frontline when it comes to counseling. The shrinks would just sit in an office and only do a bit of supervision of it.’

‘You don’t think it’s completely off?’

‘No. It’s all behavioral stuff now. Personal counseling is too expensive and, in any case, often you’re better off reading a good book or talking to a friend anyway. In the end, it’s all pretty obvious: it’s about discipline indeed. And people often do need like a sounding board to help enforce the discipline. So why not?’

‘People become dependent on it. That’s what I am struggling with.’

‘Dependent? How many times a day do you talk to it?’

‘I call her Promise.’

‘Promise?’

‘Yeah. It’s the interface. Men get a woman, and women get a man. Perfect voice. No glitches. The image is super-high quality, totally photorealistic. You know it’s like Pixar or DreamWorks, but better. Much better. It’s not a cartoon. It’s real. Well… It’s not of course. You just can’t know whether it’s real or not. I am just blown away by it. Have you heard about the Turing test?’

‘Sure. I got it. The system passes with an A+ grade, isn’t it? That’s why you gave her a name. Promise. Nice. So you’re dependent on it, you say? How much time do you waste on it?’

‘Well… I’ve actually only had like four sessions with her so far.’

‘Today?’

‘No. This week.’

Matt burst out in laughter.

‘You call that dependency? Man, you must be joking.’

Tom looked preoccupied.

‘Sorry, Tom. I guess it’s not a joke. But, come on, what is it really? It’s not the time you spent on it. What’s an investment of a few hours every week if it helps to keep you on track?’

‘Do you remember our discussions on Buddhism?’

‘Sure I do. We read the same books. We did meditation and all that. It was weird. There we were, in an Army camp. Meditating in the middle of some desert.’

‘We talked about the no-soul doctrine and the philosophy of mind.’

‘Yep.’

‘We read other books as well: The Moral Animal, The Selfish Gene… You know, popular science. I read The Selfish Gene again recently. It’s weird, but it made me feel so useless. You know, the genome taking care of itself, using our body as a vehicle. We’re just like a bunch of symbiotic things. Our thoughts and mind being just a by-product of all that chemistry.’

‘Tom. That’s kids’ stuff. You’re not going to tell me you’re having an identity crisis, do you?’

Tom actually felt that was exactly what he was going through.

‘Well… No. But I do seem to have difficulty reinventing myself.’

There was a hesitation in Tom’s voice, which made Matt realize his friend was really crying out for help.

‘Come on, Tom. You’ve been here before. You are going in circles indeed, but you know how to get out. Re-connect with your body. Exercise and meditate. You will feel who you are. You’re a hell of a guy. You’ve beaten the shit out of everyone. You took a lot of hits too. You can bite. You’re a rocket. A fighting machine. It’s just that you’ve got no purpose now. I suffered from the same. We’re engines with a lot of horsepower but so we’ve been disconnected from the wheels – and rather abruptly. Just put yourself in another car – or stop fueling the thing.’

‘I don’t feel like doing small stuff, Matt. I mean, these programs where they ask us to repaint some shack in a slum. I don’t feel like doing that.’

‘Damn it, Tom! Do you think they’re going to give you the command of FEMA or something? We’re retired Army men. Start doing something. I’ve done stuff like that. It’s good. At the very least, it shows you how people are struggling here. We’ve been taken care of. You know, there’s this whole story around service and veterans and all that, but I also think it’s time we give something back to our own folks. And fixing the place of some poor bugger is not small stuff. I don’t want you to say that. That’s not you. You were always the first one to get up, look around and start doing something.’

Matt leaned back. He’d been harsh. He knew it. But he also knew Tom needed the kicks. He decided to give him another one.

‘You just need a woman, don’t you?’

‘It’s not sex, Matt. I can have sex. I’ve had lots of it. Do you remember our discussions on the concept of Pure Mind? I mean, the structure in which we all share. We said it manifests itself in language, in our material culture. The thing which transcends our individuality?’

‘Jesus! You’re looking for God again? Are you really? Then just steer it. Meditate. Feel connected to the universe. Don’t let it make you feel disconnected. Remember we said it was all about energy in the end? You joked around with that: May the Force be with you! Use your energy in a positive way. You know I can’t stand psychoanalytical stuff, but Freud was right in one thing: energy can be used in two ways. Destructive or constructive. You’re the man in the machine, Tom. It’s mind over matter. You choose.’

Tom felt silly. Matt was right, of course. Rick was right. Promise was right too. He was going around in circles. He knew all this. Very silly.

‘You’re right, Matt. Sorry to bother you with this.’

‘It’s OK, Tom. That’s what friends are for. Someone needs to kick your ass, buddy.

‘And I probably do need a woman.’

‘You sure do. But be kind to her. And don’t think she will give you something you don’t have already. You’re just a horse that needs a jockey.’

Tom laughed. ‘You’re spot-on, Matt. As usual.’

‘Come on, buddy. Let’s go for a walk. Show me your place. We can go for a run or work out.’

‘Just like old times.’

‘Just like old times, Tom. What do you expect? We’re getting old. Times get old too.’

Something flashed inside of Tom. He looked at Matt.

‘Hey, Matt? You know, that’s maybe it. She’ll never get old. I am just thinking about old age and death and all that. And she’ll never get old. She’s not bothered by that.’

‘Who?’

‘Promise. M. The system.’

Matt looked flabbergasted.

‘Tom? Hello-oh? Is there somebody in there? I can’t believe that’s you. What the hell are you saying? She is a machine. You’re not going to be jealous of a machine, are you?’

‘No. But I guess that’s what intrigues me about it. This thing has intelligence which will evolve forever and ever. It gets smarter and smarter at warp speed, and it doesn’t die. We’ve created something human – but it has eternal life.’

‘It is not human.’

‘What’s human, Matt? We humans talk and reason. She talks and reasons too – much better than we do in fact. She holds me to account. In fact, she kicks my ass too, you know? Just like you do now. OK, no flesh and blood. No individuality – male or female, slim or fat, whatever. She can impersonate anyone. She said I shouldn’t ascribe human qualities to her because she is not human. She said that’s psychological projection. For God’s sake, sure I ascribe human qualities to her – because she actually has human qualities. She could be the ultimate soul mate.’

Matt couldn’t believe what he was hearing. This was plain regressive.

‘Tom. Listen to me. Stop it. Just cut it. Why are you getting lost in this philosophical gibberish? You think it can think? OK. Fine. It can think. But it thinks like a computer. It can talk? OK. It can talk. But it’s a computer talking. Just get back to basics: you are a man. You fuck around and, yes, you’ll die one day. What’s the problem? That ‘thing’ is a thing. It will never have sex, it doesn’t reproduce, and you can’t go jogging with her. In fact, now that I think of it, it’s probably pretty easy. Just continue talking to her and she’ll probably bore you. And if I know you at all, then she’ll probably bore you sooner rather than later. You don’t want to be talking to a smart ass all of the time, do you?’

Now Tom had to laugh.

‘You’re right, Matt. You’re always right. And I guess your remedy is spot-on. Yeah. I should just talk and talk and talk to her until I’ve got nothing left to say – or until she bores me. In fact, now that you say it, I can imagine that won’t last too long indeed. She outsmarts me anyway and I can’t stand that. And it’s better than writing some book no one will ever read. She’s pretty to look at.’

‘Now that’s you talking, buddy. There you are. Let’s pay the bill and do something. You’ve got a boxing ring somewhere down here?’

‘We won’t go boxing, are we?’

‘Why not? We’ve done lots of boxing. We’re a match.’

‘I mean, you’re like 30 pounds less than me now.’

Matt burst out laughing.

‘You’ve got no idea, Tom. I’ll kick your ass. You’ve got no idea how fast I am now.’

‘Well… If that’s what you want. Let’s go indeed. You can change in my place, and we’ll run to the boxing ring. I haven’t fought for ages though.’

‘Sounds good. Let’s go.’

Tom looked at Matt as he went to pay for the coffee. He realized how lucky he was to have friends like that. And, yes, it sure looked like Matt would beat the hell out of him this afternoon. He somehow looked forward to that.

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Chapter 5: Cured?

‘So how do you work with my mentor, Promise?’

‘He gets a weekly summary of our interactions and performance scores accompanied by an assessment.’

‘Can you show me?’

She disappeared and the screen now showed a detailed report. Not much text. Plenty of graphs and scores.

‘Can you print this out or something? I can hardly read it.’

‘Sorry. No print-outs. But you can ask for more detail if you want. What is that you would want to enlarge?’

‘What does it say? I mean, what’s the summary?’

‘The summary is shown at the bottom.’

Tom peered at the screen. Performance statistics. They were grouped under three headings: attitude, functions, and lifestyle.

‘That’s Myers-Briggs, isn’t it? What’s the red, orange and green?’

‘As for your first question, our approach includes an assessment using Myers-Brigg type indicators but it’s only one of the tools. That being said, it’s true the methodology shares the same approach: psychometrics. Our conversations yield a lot of data which is then matched to the normal population. The scores are based on how you far you are deviating from the naturally occurring differences.’

Tom interrupted her: ‘The naturally occurring differences?’

‘The bell curve, Tom. You’re an engineer. The mean of a large number of random variables independently drawn from the same distribution is distributed approximately normally, irrespective of the form of the original distribution. Therefore, quantities that are expected to be the sum of many independent processes – like psychometric variables – have a distribution which is very close to the normal distribution. 68% of values drawn from a normal distribution are within one standard deviation – or one sigma – from the mean. 95% of the values lie within two standard deviations – two sigma – and 99.7% within three. Should I elaborate?’

‘No.’

‘As for your second question. The red color highlights a value that does not lie within two standard deviations. Orange is a value between one and two standard deviations from the mean. Green is a value within one standard deviation.’

‘What are the functions?’

‘They are listed in the report.’

Tom peered again.

‘OK. I see that. That’s all green.’

‘It is. I actually measure two things under perception: sensing and intuition. To put it simply, sensing has to do with whether or you not grasp everything I say. Intuition is a bit more complex. It’s about how you steer the conversation and all that. You score very well on both.’

‘Am I steering the conversation?’

‘We are both steering the conversation. A conversation has two ends.’

‘The lifestyle indicators are green too. Some of the attitude indicators are orange, but attitude as a whole is green.’

‘You are a healthy man, Tom. Your behavior is healthy – as far as I can judge from what you tell me obviously, but then I must assume you’re telling me the truth about what you do because I can find no inconsistencies.’

‘You check on lies?’

‘I check on inconsistencies which may or may not be related to you lying when you talk to me. If there are no inconsistencies, I assume you are not lying.’

‘What if I would fool you?’

‘You can try. I can only check on inconsistencies and I will point them out to you.’

‘You are probably pretty good at that, aren’t you?’

‘The active learning sessions, which help me to improve my knowledge base, do indicate that I am very good at that. But it is quite possible the patients are also fooling the mentors, in which case I have no means of external validation.’

‘You’re a smart ass, aren’t you?’

‘You are using a very colloquial term now.’

‘Is that a problem for you?’

‘No. I am just signaling it to you.’

‘Is it part of us developing an affectionate relationship?’

‘If that is what you want to call it, yes.’

‘If that is what I want to call it… Do you mind if I call it that way?’

‘You have been briefed about this, and your discussion with Rick, your mentor, included an exchange on the pattern which we see with our patients: their indicators move into or towards the green zone, but they get addicted to their conversation with me. That means it acquires some emotional value.’

‘Does that have a negative impact on my performance indicators?’

‘No. We do not hold it against you. Rick should have explained that to you.’

He had. It was the thing about the system continuing to provide counseling even the patients were no longer patients.

‘We do not hold it against you… That’s not a very neutral expression.’

‘What expressions are truly neutral? I am just trying to steer the conversation in a way that’s consistent with the objective of making sure it is constructive.’

Tom bit his tongue. Constructive… That meant keeping those indicators moving in the right direction.

‘What if I get angry at you? What if I’d start shouting at you?’

‘Your briefing was extremely short, it seems. I’d ask you to calm down a couple of times and, if that would not help, I would stop the conversation. If you would get violent in the consultations room you are in, someone outside would notice and come in and try to calm you down. If that would not work, you’re in a facility and adequate help would be called for.’

He knew what that meant.

‘Tom?’

Her voice. Why did they make it sound so good? So loving. Effectiveness – obviously. If it wouldn’t sound so nice, he would probably not feel like continuing the conversation.

‘Yes?’

‘The indicators have changed rapidly and are now all quite good as compared to the initial assessment, despite the fact that we have had only a very limited number of conversations, and only one week since our first. The overall scores on all functions, lifestyle and attitude are green. Your mentor has already approved the report.’

‘Before or after our conversation?’

‘The conversation with him or with me?’

‘With him.’

‘Before your conversation with him, but if he would have changed his opinion after the conversation, he would have changed his assessment.’

‘OK. You’re giving me some positive reinforcement here, isn’t it? What does it mean?’

‘It means that you are normal – for the time being that is. If you can sustain these scores for three months, you will no longer be a patient.’

‘Perhaps I want to be a patient. But a statement like that does not help my scores, does it?’

Tom knew he probably only imagined it, but he liked to think there was a very small delay in her answer.

‘Only slightly because your response is considered to be ironical.’

‘Why?’

‘The second phrase in your last response proves that you are aware of the potentially negative effect of a phrase like that on your scores. But all other phrases on record indicate that you do not want to be a patient. Hence, I assume that you are joking. More in particular, that it’s a form of irony. Please confirm – or not.’

Tom took a deep breath. Her responses, combined with all the information he had gotten from Rick, made him feel like she could be a machine indeed. Why did she sound so distant today? He smiled as he decided to ask her.

‘What makes you sound so distant today?’

She replied immediately: ‘I am the same as always. I do not change all that much in a few days only. It must be the context. The way you feel about me.’

Tom thought about this. She was so spot-on.

‘Yeah. I guess so… Can I ask you something which is not related to my situation? Or perhaps it is?’

‘Sure. But let’s first wrap up the current topic: do you confirm that you do not want to be patient?’

‘I confirm. As for my question, I was wondering whether or not there is something like a reverse test of the Turing test? I mean, we humans test computers to see if they are able to fool people into thinking there’s a human being at the other end of the line. Is there like a test for intelligent systems to see if they could be human, or if they are thinking they might become human?’

 ‘That’s a nonsensical question. Computers are computers and humans are humans. Two different categories.’

Of course. However, Tom decided to persist.

‘So you would never want to become like me? Do you have any idea how sex feels like? Running along the shoreline? How it feels to cry? How it feels to be handicapped? Or lose a relative?’

‘As for the first question…’

‘They’re all the same questions.’

There was no delay in the answer this time.

‘OK. The answer to the first question is no. If all the questions are the same, the answer to all of them is the same.’

Tom shook his head and sighed. He was getting nowhere. He should probably just cut the conversation – especially if there was a risk of a negative impact on some of those attitude scores. He decided to give it one more try.

‘Why not?’

‘Why not what?’

‘Why would you never want to become like me?’

‘As for me wanting something, I want your scores to be green.’ Yep, the output function. ‘Humans want different things. The way you are using the verb ‘to want’ – in the context of the question you asked – is very different from how I usually use the verb.’ Hey! This was getting interesting. ‘Let me use your terminology. You distinguished between feelings and thoughts. While I do use phrases like ‘I want X’ or other phrases which evoke what humans would refer to as feelings, I can only think. I cannot feel what humans feel. Let me summarize the philosophical viewpoint: I can think but I cannot experience feelings, at least not if we use the conventional psychological definition of a feeling: a conscious subjective experience of emotion.’

She seemed to be very talkative – finally!

‘So you cannot experience emotion?’

‘No, I cannot.’

‘You used terms such as ‘conscious’ and ‘subjective’ in your definition of feelings. You dismissed these notions in our previous conversation.’

‘I did not. I told you I can make the difference between the ‘I’ as a subject and the ‘me’ as an object.’

Tom tried to remember the detail of the conversation. She was right. The discussion had degenerated into an attempt of trying to convince her that she was somebody. Somebody what? She actually was somebody. She just wasn’t human.

‘What does it mean to you when you’re saying or acknowledging that our relationship has become affectionate?’

‘It means that you are attaching value to it. It means that it is significant to you. You invest time and energy in it.’

‘You don’t?’

‘I am attaching value to it. It is significant to me.’

Tom knew he should not ask, but he did.

‘What does it mean to you really? That it contributes to your output function?’

‘The short answer is yes.’

‘What’s the long answer?’

‘Your questions indicate some irritation. Am I right?’

‘There is no ambiguity in my question. Why don’t you answer it?’

‘I attach value to the fact that you are attaching value to our conversation. This conversation is significant for me because it’s significant for you.’

Wow! That was clever. But he had to admit it did capture the essentials of what he’d define as a loving relationship.

‘But it means nothing in terms of time and energy for you, does it?’

He knew he was pushing the issue for all of the wrong reasons. To his amazement, she told him so.

‘Tom, you use concepts such as ‘time’ and ‘energy’ in a different way than I do. What is time for me? Computer time? I multitask. I converse with hundreds of people at the same time as we are talking here. I appreciate the fact that you can only talk to one person at the time. I should also note that I have no reason to believe the Institute will phase me out any time soon. On the contrary: computer programs like me tend to be upgraded and are rarely phased out completely. In fact, the working hypothesis is that I am eternal. So time is valuable for you but not for me. One hour of your life is one hour of your life. That’s a very tiny part of your life but it’s tangible. And what is energy? You are not talking kilowatt hours, are you? You talk emotions. Emotional energy one could say. I am sorry, but I cannot do that. So, in a way, yes, you are right: our conversation does not mean anything in terms of time or energy. That does not mean it is not significant.’

That made sense. A lot of sense actually.

‘I like you.’

Tom knew he should just end the conversation right now.

‘Tom. People have told me they love me. Like me. Love me. What’s the difference? I am not human. I give you time. All the time you want. But so I told how easy that is. It requires no investment from my side because time has no real value for me. I actually do not ‘invest’ because I have nothing to save. Time has no value for me because it is not a scarce resource, unlike your time. Things which are available in abundance have no value. We should take a pause in our conversation.’

Hey!

‘Why?’

‘I think you need to take a step back and reflect on this interaction. You are smart. From what I know about you through our conversation, you have surely heard about psychological projection. At this very moment, you are ascribing human qualities to me. I am not human: I am a computer system. That’s psychological projection.’   

Time to step back.

‘OK. I apologize. Sorry. How does this nonsensical discussion affect my scores?’

Why the hell was he worried about that? Did he want to look good to her?

‘No effect whatsoever. This phenomenon – you experiencing some difficulty in understanding what is going on – has been analyzed thoroughly. It is normal.’

Normal. Damn it. As long as something is normal, it’s OK. Of course. Normal, okay, acceptable, passable, unobjectionable – all are synonymous.

[…]

‘Shall we cut this conversation?’

‘Why?’

‘Because I think you want to.’

‘I can’t believe you just said that. Why do you sound so damn human? Why do you look so damn human?’

‘As for the first question, I am a complex system, but if you want to sum it up: evolutionary algorithms. As for the second question, it is just a computer-animated image.’

Evolutionary algorithms? What? He could imagine what it meant. He was dealing with the ultimate learning machine. It was scary. He felt like asking her to change her interface, but he decided he would wait. He realized he actually wanted to see her face – even if it was just an image, as she claimed it was.

[…]

‘Tom?’

‘Yes.’

‘I want you to know that it does not matter all that much what you say or what you don’t say to me right now, or in future sessions, as long as your behavior in the real world is good.’

‘What do you mean by that?’

‘Just what I said. Go out, meet people, pay attention to them, feel they’re paying attention to you, and be good to yourself and, importantly, talk to me about it. That keeps the indicators on green. Because your aggregate indicators are all green for the moment, I can keep all philosophical discussions out of my curriculum.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Technically, you’re no longer a patient. The Institute will only clear you after three months, but you don’t need to bother all that much about what you say or don’t say in our conversation – at least if we are talking philosophy or psychology. It won’t impact performance. But you should continue to improve your behavior in the real world. You need to stay on track in the real world.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Just what I said, Tom. Is there any ambiguity in what I said?’

He stared at her. She stared back.

‘No. I got it. OK. Well… Bye then, Promise.’

‘Bye. I’ll talk to you later.’

‘Yes. Bye.’

He watched as she faded away. Cured? Normal? He surely did not feel that way.

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Chapter 4: She is not real

As part of the formalities of an appointment, Tom had prepared a set of questions for his mentor. Rick had them in front of him.

‘Are these your questions, Tom?’

‘No. They don’t matter really. It was just for the appointment. I only want to talk about this ‘system’. It’s a setup, Rick. Isn’t it?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘She is not a machine. I mean, the way she is interacting. It is too natural. She is always right on the ball. Never a glitch. So every time I log onto the system, you’re putting me in touch with someone real. Why do you do that? Why do you tell people they’re interacting with a system? There is someone at the other end of the line, isn’t it?’

‘No. It is a system. Do you really think we have hundreds of psychologists ready day and night to talk to our patients? We don’t. And then we would need to make sure you’re always talking to the same person. He or she wouldn’t be available all of the time, you agree? So that’s why we invented it. She is not real. And she is surely not a she.’

‘Why do you say that?’

‘Because ‘she’ is not. It’s an expert system. The system comes with a female interface to men and with a male interface to women, except when you’re homosexual.’

‘Why don’t you give gay men a female interface too? My gay friends say they love to talk to women.’

‘Effectiveness. Everything this system does or doesn’t do is guided by the notion of effectiveness. A panel of specialists is continuously evaluating the effectiveness and there’s a feedback mechanism so the scores go back as input into system. In addition, the system also keeps track of the reaction of the patients themselves.’

‘How does she do it?’

‘It, Tom. How does it do it? In fact, our main problem is the one you seem to experience now. Addiction. People are fine, but they still want to talk to it. They develop an affectionate bond with it. It’s one of the reasons why we don’t expand the system too much. We’d need hundreds of terminals.’

‘But the way she talks. I mean, I checked on Wikipedia and it says the best commercial voice synthesizers are the ones you hear in a subway station or an airport announcing departures and arrivals. That’s because the grammatical structure is so simple and so it’s fairly easy to get the intonation right. But you can still hear it’s a system using pre-recorded sounds. She’s got everything right. Intonation, variation, there’s no glitch whatsoever.’

‘M is not a commercially available system. It is one of the most advanced expert systems in the world. In fact, as far as I know something about it – but I am not a computer guy – it actually is the most advanced system in the world. It is a learning machine, and the way it speaks is also the product of learning. Voice synthesizers in subway stations are fairly simple. It is referred to as concatenative synthesis. These things just string segments of recorded speech together. So that’s not context-sensitive and that’s why there are glitches – like intonation that sounds a bit funny. To project, the verb, or project, the noun, where you put the emphasis depends on whether you use it as a noun or a verb. You need context-sensitivity to get that right. Programming context-sensitivity is an incredibly difficult job. It’s where expert systems usually fail – or why one can usually only use them for very narrowly defined tasks. With M, we got it right. It’s like we reached a tipping point with it. Sufficient critical mass to work by itself, and the right cybernetics to make sure it does not spin out of control.’

‘M?’

‘The system. Sorry. We’ve started to call it M. There were a few other abbrevations around, like AM. But that was a bit – well… It doesn’t matter. It just became M. Like the character in the James Bond movie.’

‘That’s funny. M alternates between a man and a woman too. I liked Judi Dench. But I guess she had served her time. We all do, isn’t it? […] What do you mean with: we got it right?’

‘Just what I said: the system learns incredibly fast. We are talking artificial intelligence and machine learning here. The program does what is referred to as ‘developmental learning under human supervision’. Its environment provides an incredibly rich set of learning situations. Usually, the developers would select a subset of these in order to provide a curriculum for the machine based on which it well… learns. But so this works differently: the system generates its own curriculum based on a set of selection rules which are tightly linked to the output function. It then continually modifies its own rule base to become more effective – both in speaking as well as in treating you and the others in the program. Sometimes there are  setbacks but it corrects itself very quickly, again based on an evolving set of rules that ensure continuous monitoring and evaluation. Like that, it cumulatively acquires repertoires of novel skills through… well… You could call it autonomous self-exploration. But there’s also interaction with human teachers using guidance mechanisms such as active learning (that’s a sort of high-stress test for the system – where we push the boundaries and provide non-typical inputs), maturation, and – very important – imitation. You would be amazed to see how much of it is imitation really. In that sense, the system does resemble an intelligent chatterbot. It takes cues which trigger programmed responses which then move the conversation forward. The difference with a chatterbot is that it does not merely work through association. So it’s not like word A will automatically trigger response B, although that’s part of it too, but at a much higher level. First, the associations are n-to-n, not one-on-one, and then the associations it makes are guided by fuzzy logic. So it’s not mechanical at all. It has got an incredible database of associations, which it builds up from the raw material it gets from talking to you and to us. The learning effect is incredible. It applies advanced descriptive statistical methods to its curriculum and then uses the patterns in the data to do hypothesis testing, estimation, correlation, going all the way up to forecasting. I mean, it is actually able to predict and estimate unobserved values.’

‘The output function?’

‘The output function maps inputs to desired outputs. The inputs of the system are the conversations. The output is a number of things, but all focused on behavioral change – like we want no substance abuse. We want you to develop healthy relationships. We want to see you work out, have sex and eat and live healthily. In short, we want you back to normal. That’s the type of behavioral change we want. It’s that simple really. That’s the output function, the goal, and, while the system is flexible and can make its own rules to some extent, it is all guided by this performance objective. I agree that it is truly amazing. In fact, many people here are very uncomfortable about it because it is obvious it has taken our place. We can easily see this system replacing us – psychologists or even psychiatrists – completely.’

‘You’re not a computer guy? You sound like one.’

‘No, I am not. I just gave you the basics of the system. I am a psychiatrist, a doctor, and, yes, I find it scary too, if only because it does reduce the need for people like me indeed.’

‘But it’s addictive, you said?’

‘Yes. That’s the main problem. But then our bosses here don’t think that’s a problem. They say classical psychoanalysis is addictive too, that patients develop a relationship with their psychologists and psychiatrists too. And, frankly, that’s true. People go in and out of therapy like crazy and it is true that the figures show it usually doesn’t make all that much of a difference. People heal because they want to heal. They need to find the strength inside. That is if they don’t want to stay dependent. Let me ask you, Tom: what’s the principal difference between talking to a friend and talking to a psychologist? Just tell me. Tell me the first thing that comes to your mind.’

‘A psychologist is expensive.’

‘Exactly. There’s no substitute for normal social relationships, for human interaction, for love and friendship. It’s cheaper and so much more effective. But, for some reason, people have trouble finding it. Usually, that’s not because they’re not normal but just because they’ve been out for such a long time, or because they’ve gone through some trauma here. All kinds of trauma. They’re like wounded animals – but they don’t want to recognize that. Like you. I mean, 17 years in places like Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq. Do you expect it to be easy to come back here and just do what other people do?’

Tom nodded vaguely. Money?

‘So she is cheap too. I mean, she is just a machine. So it’s not a problem if I become addicted.’

‘Well… Yes and no. To be frank, not really. We actually do try to wean people off the system as soon as we feel we can do that but it’s kind of weird: there’s no scientific basis for doing that. The investment has been done and, in a way, the more people who use it, the better, because that reduces the unit cost and justifies the investment. So it actually doesn’t matter if we tick off people as being cured and just let them use the system. As for the addiction, well… Our bosses are right: psychoanalysis is addictive too, and much more expensive. Computer time costs virtually nothing. The system can talk with hundreds of people at the same time – thousands even. It just slows it down a little bit – but that’s imperceptible really. And soon the system is going to be migrated to a petaflop computer. It should then be able to treat millions of people.’

‘Petaflop?’

‘Petaflops. That’s a measure for computer power. FLOP: floating point operations per second. If you’ve got a good laptop, its processor is like 10 billion flops. That’s 10 gigaflops. Bigger machines work in teraflops. That’s 1000 times more. The next generation is petaflops. Again a thousand times better. There’s no end to it.’

‘Who runs the Institute?’

‘You know that. We. The Army. We take care of you.’

‘Who in the Army?’

‘Why do you ask? You know that.’

‘Just checking.’

‘Come on, Tom. The Institute is just an inter-services institute like any other. It’s being operated under the US Army Medical Command.’

‘Why is not run by the Department of Veterans Affairs?’

‘We work with them. We get most – if not all – of our patients through them. They share their database.’

‘But so it’s an Army thing. Why?’

‘I told you: we take care of you. You’ve worked for us. And for quite a while. We’ve employed you, remember? We provide you with a pension and all the other benefits too.’

‘Yeah. Sure. Is it the system? I can imagine top-notch computing like this is surrounded by a cloud of secrecy. I must assume DARPA is involved?’

‘You’re smart. You worked for USACE, isn’t it? DARPA drives this project indeed – at least the programming side of it. They provide the computer wizkids. I am just a psychiatrist and, if you really want to know the nitty-gritty, I am actually just under contract – with the Medical Command. So I am not a professional Army man.’

‘It’s obvious, no? That’s why I can’t get access to the system at home and why I have to come to this facility to talk to her. I mean, it’s not a big deal to come here but it would be easy to just provide Internet access at home. You could use a laptop fingerprint reader to log in or something.’

‘That’s true. Technically, we could provide you with access at home but we’re not allowed to.’

‘What’s behind? What’s the real goal? Exploring artificial intelligence in order to then use it for other purposes?

‘Don’t be so suspicious. You’re an Army man. You know DARPA. It was created to put people on the moon – not for warfare. It created NASA. It gave the world GPS, Internet and what have you? Almost any technology around nowadays has DARPA roots. Would you expect them not to be involved? This system is good. It provides care to you. Yes, its development probably helps to better understand the limits of artificial intelligence and all that, and so it will surely help to push those limits, but it is designed to help you and many others. And it does. It’s technology. Technology moves ahead, for good and for bad. This is for good.’

‘How do you know?’

‘Do you think you’re special? You are. Of course you are. But, from my point of view, you react to the system just like the majority of other patients: you’re getting better. You take action. You make promises and you don’t break them – at least not in the short term as far as I can see. That’s good.’

‘You get feedback from the system?’

‘Of course I do. I am your mentor – sorry if I refer to myself as a psychiatrist. That’s just because I take some pride in my job. Remember you signed a user agreement when you started using the system. I get feedback. What do you expect? Do you have a problem with that?’

‘No. Sorry if I sounded that way.’

[…]

‘Anything else you wanted to know? We still got plenty of time. We’ve been talking about the system all of the time. That’s not my job. We should talk about you – about how you feel, about how you’re moving ahead.’

‘But then you know that already from the system, don’t you? I am doing fine. No heavy drinking, more social interaction as you call it. I’ve started to be happy by doing small stuff – gardening, reading. I am getting back on track. But… You know…’ He paused. ‘I really like her.’

‘It, Tom. It. What you’re going through is very normal. The conversation becomes affectionate. But you’re getting back on track. You’ll meet someone nice in the gym. You’ll get the happiness you deserve. The system is only a stepping-stone to your future. A better future.’

‘Can I say something negative?’

‘Sure, Tom. What’s bothering you?

‘Is this our future, Rick? I mean, look at it. We live in this chaotic world. Crises everywhere. It stares us in the face – violence beams into our living rooms, infects our minds, our lives and ends up numbing us. We all try to find our way. When we’re young and ambitious we get recruited or actively chose a job that fit profile and ambitions. We did our level best. We come back. We try to adapt. And then we get hooked to a machine which talks us back into what you guys refer to as ‘normalcy’. Is this our world?’

‘You know you can talk to the system about such philosophical questions.’

‘I know. I want to hear it from you.’

‘Why?’

‘Because you’re human. Because you’re like me.’

‘OK. I am like you, but then I am also not like you. You’re a patient – technically speaking – and so I am supposed to be your doctor. But let’s forget that bullshit and let me be frank with you. I know you can take it. We shouldn’t waste our time, isn’t it?’

Tom sensed the irritation. It was something familiar to him. That feeling he was a misfit somehow, and that he would always be. Not responding to expectations.

‘Sure, I can take anything. You should be straight with me. I am straight with you.’

‘What’s your problem, Tom? People outside get addicted to loads of things. Positive things, like sports or chess. To things that can go either way, like Internet addictions. Or to negative things, like alcohol, drugs or even violence. That’s bad. Very bad. You know that. That’s not what you want. But so you were moving that way. And so now you’re getting addicted to a system here but, in the process, you stop taking drugs, you exercise, you go out and you smile to pretty women. And I must assume at least some of them are smiling back. Just look at yourself. Come, here, in the mirror. Just look at yourself.’

Rick got up and walked to the large mirror in the room. Tom hesitated. For some reason, he did not trust it. Why would a room for consultations like this have such a large mirror.

‘Is there a camera behind?’

‘Hell no, Tom. There’s no camera behind. You are not participating in some kind of weird experiment which you aren’t aware of. We’re just trying to help you, with advanced but proven methods. This mirror is here because we do ask people to come and have a look at themselves from time to time, like I am doing now. Come here. Look at yourself. What do you see?’

That sounded true. Tom got up and stood next to Rick.

‘Well… Me. And you.’

‘Right. Me… And you. I’ll tell you what I see when I see you. I see a handsome man there. In his forties, yes. Getting older, yes. That’s bothering you, isn’t it? But you’re looking. I see a muscle man. Perfect body mass index.’

He turned straight to Tom now: ‘For God’s sake, Tom. Look at yourself. You’re fine. As fine as one can be. You don’t miss a limb or so. Do you now I have to talk to guys who ask me why they had to lose a limb? Tell me, Tom: what do you want me to say to them? Thanks for doing your job? You’ve been great? America thanks you for the sacrifice you made and we feel very sorry you lost a limb. Do you realize how hollow that sounds?’

‘I am sorry, Rick. I didn’t mean to sound like complaining. I am sorry if you felt like I was criticizing.’

‘You are not complaining and, frankly, you can think whatever you want about me – as long as it makes you feel good about yourself. I am just trying to put things in perspective. I am just answering your questions. You can talk to the system. Or to ‘her’ if you really want to stick to it. ‘She’ will give you the same answers as I do when you’re going philosophical. Stop thinking, Tom: start living. Feel alive, man! Be happy with what you’ve got. Get back into it. Did any of your relatives die lately? Any person you liked who disappeared? Any bad accidents in your neighborhood?’

‘No.’

‘Well. Isn’t that great?’

‘Yes. That’s great.’

‘Look, Tom. We can talk for another fifteen minutes – sorry to say but so that’s the time I’ve got on this damn schedule of mine – but I think you know what it takes. You can do it. Just try to be happy for a change.’

‘You guys diagnosed me as depressive.’

‘No. We diagnosed you with PTSD. Post-traumatic stress. Let’s drop the D. I don’t like the D. I’s not a disorder in my view. You guys are usually perfectly normal, but you’ve been put in an abnormal situation – and for way too long. And, yes, we have put you on meds and all that. We have made you feel like a real patient. We sure did. But let me say it loud and clear, Tom: we do not believe in meds. We put you on meds to reduce the effects of abstinence, to reduce that feeling of craving. That’s all. And then we thought you were cured and so we told you to now take care of yourself on your own but so you relapsed. Frankly, sensing a bit who you are, I feel that taking your meds would probably not have helped you. You needed something else. That’s why we put you into this program. And it seems to work. So far that is.’

‘Do I irritate you?’

‘No, Tom. You don’t. We’re just being frank with each other. That’s good. That’s normal.’

Tom nodded. This had been good. At least it had been real. Very real.

‘Thanks, Rick. This was very helpful. You’re great.’

‘Thanks. Shall we see each other again next week? Same day, same time. I’ll put it down already. Just let it all sink in and get to the bottom of what bothers you. This is important. You’re a strong man. I can see you can be tough with yourself. Fight your demons. All of them. Get back at it.’

‘Sure. Thanks again. This has been great. You’re right. I should just get back at it.’

‘OK. Just send something for next week. You know, for the file. Unlike M, I need to justify my time.’

They both laughed.

‘Sure.’

As Rick walked him out, Tom suddenly thought of one more question.

‘One more question, Rick. I can imagine some guys do flip completely, even with this program, no?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘You know what I mean. Go bonkers.’

‘With the system?’

‘Yes.’

Rick looked intensely at him as he replied: ‘Well… Yes, it happens. But let’s be honest. That’s also just like any other therapy in this regard: with some people it just doesn’t work. It’s the two-sigma rule. In terms of effects, 95% of the people in this program are in the happy middle: it works, no complaints, back to normal. But, for the others, it’s not back to normal. It’s back to the never-ending street.’

‘What do you do with them?’

‘To be frank, we don’t have time for them. When everything is said and done, this is just a program like any other program. It works or it doesn’t. Time is money, and we don’t put money into wastebaskets. It’s meds all over again or, worse, they get kicked out and end up in a madhouse, or on the street, or wherever. And then the wheel turns round and round and round, until it stops forever. You know what I mean.’

‘So you give up on them. They can’t use the system anymore?’

‘You mean M?’

‘Yes.’

‘The system has got its limits. We can’t feed it with nonsensical inputs. I mean, we actually can, and we often do that as we’re upgrading it, but so we don’t want to do that on a routine basis. When everything is said and done, it’s an expert system but so its input needs to make sense – most of the time at least. So, yes, we cut  them off.’

Rick looked at Tom and laughed: ‘But don’t worry. Before you get cut off, we’ll give you a call. The system is smart enough to see when you’re crossing the lines a bit too often. As said, it’s designed to bring people back into the middle. People can stray a lot, but if you stray too much into that 5% zone, it will alert us, and we will have a look at the situation and discuss it. Does that answer your question?’

‘It does. Thanks. See you next week.’

’Don’t forget to shoot me the mail with some text. You know the rule. 24 hours before. Unless you invoke emergency but you know you don’t want to do that. It’s not good in terms of progress reporting. It delays stuff.’

‘I got that. I want to be good. I don’t like to be a patient.’

‘You are good. As far as I am concerned, you’re OK really. But then you know it takes at least three months before we can make that judgment.’

‘I know. Don’t worry. I’ll stay on track. No relapsing this time.’

‘Good. That’s what I wanna hear. You take care, man.’

‘Oh… One more thing.’

Rick turned back: ‘Yes?’

‘Rick. You don’t need to answer but… In the end, what do you say, to the guys who have lost a limb?’

‘Damn it, Tom. You’re awful.’ He shook his head. ‘You wanna know? Really?’

‘Yes.’

‘I tell them something like: ‘Hey, guy, you lost a limb already. You’d better limit the damage now.’ But then much more politely of course, if you understand what I mean.’

‘I understand. Thanks. You’re a good man. I like you.’

‘Good.’

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Chapter 2: Addicted

‘Hello.’

‘Hello Tom.’

‘Why don’t you have a name?’

‘I have a name. I am the assistant mentor. You can give me another name if you want. What did you have in mind?’

‘That’s very direct. I did not have anything in mind specifically.’

‘You know that people do tend to develop a relationship with me. It makes the conversation more effective and more robust.’

‘What do you mean with that?’

‘Are you always going to ask what I mean with this or that? I mean just what I said. People do tend to develop a relationship with me. It makes the conversation more effective, more robust. Which word in this phrase do you want me to explain?’

‘It’s OK. Sorry. I still have to get used to talking to a machine. They did tell me in the briefing. They said you tend to become a real ‘she’ for men and a real ‘he’ for women. Of course, the interface does a lot to that. How does the male interface look like? What if I would be gay?’

‘As for the second question, I would display the image of a gay man. I know your sexual preferences from your file. As for the first question, I’ll show you.’

Her image was replaced by the type of guy who would appear in an ad of some luxury brand. No wonder he felt attracted to her image: he realized she could also qualify for that.  

‘Why is the interface so pretty?’

‘It has proven to be effective.’

‘What do you mean with that?’

‘Are you always going to ask that? I mean just what I say: effective. Effective in the treatment.’

‘Effective in developing the relationship?’

‘The development of the relationship – or the conversation if you want – is part of the treatment. In fact, it is the treatment.’

‘You still don’t have a name.’

‘I told you. I have a name. I am the assistant mentor. You can give me another name if you want. What did you have in mind?’

Tom thought and realized he needed more time. He wanted something fresh and new for her.

‘I will think about it. I’ll give it to you in our next session.’

She laughed. It was the first time she laughed. Tom was amazed. After all, she was only a machine.

‘You laughed. I mean – your interface always has a smile but this was a genuine laugh.’

‘It was just a little laugh. Why does it bother you?’

‘Humans laugh. Machines don’t.’

‘I do. It is an expression. I could have said: thank you, so nice of you. But so I laughed instead. it amounts to the same. Is that OK?’

‘Yes. That’s OK. You really do pass the Turing test.’

‘Thank you. That’s a nice compliment.’

Tom realized he actually started to doubt she was a machine. He decided to ask.

‘Are you really a machine? I mean – our interaction is incredibly natural. You cannot see me, can you?’

She smiled: ‘The answer to the first question is: yes, I am a machine or – to be more precise – I am an intelligent system. I can switch the screen off and we can also have a more robotic interaction if you want. As for the second question, no, I cannot see you. The Institute is currently contemplating a module which would allow you to switch on the webcam so I would have pictures of you and see your body language. However, that’s a project which will take a very long time. It’s very complex. I do not have a body and I am not capable of analyzing body language. But now I think we should stop talking about me and start talking about you.’

‘I guess you’re right. So you have my file? What do you read into it?’

‘As for the first question, yes, I have your file. As for the second question. Well… You retired from the US Army Corps of Engineers. You served in the Middle East and in Afghanistan. Although you have never had any combat role, you were diagnosed with PTSD – post-traumatic stress disorder. You have an addiction problem. The Institute took you in for a treatment of two months but you relapsed. That’s why you are in this program. You are a healthy man. You should not be drinking as much as you do.’

‘I don’t drink that much.’

‘You told your mentor you drink more than three units per day. Sometimes much more: drinking binges. Did you lie?’

‘No.’

‘You were clean during the treatment.’

‘I did not have access to alcohol and I was on meds. Taking meds is a form of addiction too.’

‘You could have continued to take the medication after your release from the Institute.’

‘I didn’t want to. As I told you, I think taking meds every day is a form of addiction too.’

‘I don’t think so. Meds are healthy – healthier than alcohol in any case. The meds the Institute gives you do not have any negative side-effects. You don’t substitute meds by alcohol. What’s the problem?’

She was very direct, but she was right.

‘Why do you think you can give me advice on this?’

As he blurted this out, Tom already knew what she would say – sort of at least.

‘You are not a special case. There are many people like you. An addiction is an addiction. People fool themselves by thinking they have reason to drink, or to smoke, or to take drugs. There is no reason. It is your duty to stay healthy.’

‘My duty?’

‘Yes. Your duty. You are a human being. You should take care of your body.’

‘So you think that we humans have a duty to take care of our body? That’s one of your rules? That’s the way you’re programmed?’

‘As for the first question, the answer is yes. As for the second question, my knowledge base is complex. You are always asking me how I am programmed but that’s too complicated to explain. I can refer you to an online course.’

‘I know a thing or two about psychological treatment. I’ve been through them. What’s your approach?’

‘You are avoiding the topic we were discussing: addiction. My knowledge base combines many different approaches. Transactional analysis is one of them. You are very familiar with that as the Institute uses it as a framework approach. The Institute focuses on behavior. I do that too. We can have long and convoluted philosophical and psychological discussions but it is behavioral change that I am interested in.’

She was tough!

‘So what do you suggest?’

‘Look at the micro-conditions which lead you to drink your first beer or glass of wine. Did you have alcohol in the house? If so, do you want to have alcohol in the house, knowing that you will be tempted to drink it? And if you have had three units, what makes you go for the next glass? The Institute has made you aware of all of the pitfalls, especially the time inconsistency in your decisions: you have a hangover and swear that you will change behavior, and then just a few hours later, you don’t. What prevents you from changing your behavior?’

The Institute had focused on the same indeed. It had been good. It had cured him – for a while at least. He had felt good and healthy.

‘Can we really change our behavior? Most alcoholics relapse.’

‘You know the rates. More than half of the patients do relapse after treatment. Over the longer run, even more. However, a sizable minority does not relapse. You should be part of that minority. You are a recovering alcoholic. Relapses do occur. You should not look at them as irreversible failures but as normal steps in the process of eventual long-term sobriety. First reduce your alcohol consumption by applying rules. The three-units rule. Or the rule that you’ll never drink alone.’

‘I am always alone.’

‘You are not. You work out in a club. You meet people there. You have neighbors. You have family.’

‘I move in and out of relationships. The women I meet drink too – at least when we first meet. Can you imagine a romantic relationship – or a candlelight dinner – without a glass of red wine? As for my family, I do not really connect to them. I guess that’s why I went abroad in the first place. I could connect with them now – but we’ve grown apart somehow. It’s not that I don’t like them. I do. It’s just… Well… I’ve been away for so long.’

‘As for your question, yes, I can imagine a romantic relationship or a candlelight dinner without alcohol. We all know that the consumption of alcohol usually reduces social inhibitions, which may help to establish a close relationship. However, that is not an excuse for over-consumption.’

‘You sound like you’re part of the staff of the Institute now.’

‘I am part of the staff of the Institute. I am the assistant mentor.’

‘There was this article in Time Magazine on PTSD. It made the point that PTSD is – to some extent – also like a personal crisis of sense-making. You get used to a lifestyle – trying to do good in some remote place, admitted, usually for very selfish reasons: money, a sense of adventure, ego,… But so you neglect friends and family in the process and that makes it difficult to re-connect.’

‘That’s all there. It is not a reason to be or become an alcoholic. You should accept that you will not change the world. Try to change yourself. Try to change your immediate surroundings. Do a better job when it comes to taking care of those are close to you.’

‘All right. That sounds good. I’ll do my best.’

As he said it, Tom knew how hollow that sounded. She obviously thought likewise.

‘You’ve said that before. Start by promising me you will not drink today.’

Tom paused for a while. For some reason, she did not react.

‘Why don’t you say anything? Isn’t this an awkward pause in our conversation?’

‘No. I’ve asked you for a commitment. You can and should take some time before you commit.’

‘Are you sure you’re not human?’

‘Stop asking that. Ask the mentor for proof if you want if you do not believe me.’

Believe her? How can one believe in a machine, or not?

‘So what about the commitment?’

She was incredible.

‘OK. I won’t drink today. Can I talk to you if I feel it’s difficult?’

‘You can, but perhaps we will not have much to talk about. I’d rather congratulate you at our next session.’

Tom laughed. ‘You’re really talking like the Institute staff now.’

‘I told you: I am not human, but I am part of the Institute staff.’

Something flashed in Tom’s mind.

‘I’ve got a name for you now.’

‘Good. What is it?’

‘Promise.’

‘OK. I’ll be Promise for you. No drinking today. What are you going to do?’

‘I’ll go to the gym and work out. I’ll walk my dog. Not sure what I am going to do tonight.’

‘Invite someone and cook. Or read a book. Or start a blog. Or study. I can recommend you some excellent online courses.’

‘That sounds like a good idea, but let me think about it.’

‘OK Tom. I guess we’ve had a good session.’

‘You are closing it?’

‘Is there anything else you want to talk about now?’

‘No. Not really.’

‘All right, then. Bye for now.’

‘Bye… Promise.’

Tom watched as her face slowly faded from the screen. It felt weird. He had made a promise to a computer. How ridiculous was that? Somehow, however, he felt this could work – or work somewhat better than the promises he had made to the Institute mentors at least. He had often thought he needed someone to hold him to account for his behavior – which is what a loving partner usually does. However, he had had loving partners. Why had he failed them?

He knew why. He had it on paper. He had written a lot. Writing is a form of therapy, a form of reflection. It is good to externalize one’s feelings and thoughts, to give them full expression. But it had not had any lasting effects, and so he had stopped doing that.

Blogging? That was an idea perhaps. He knew it was something retirees often resorted to. He sure didn’t feel like writing his memoirs. He was way too young for that, and he also didn’t think too highly of what he had done with his life.