Page 29 - An Evening with Maxwell's Daemons

The Planetary Steward

“We’ve already seen a problem inherent in many of our stories,”
began Perversity Tinderstack, whose turn it was to speak. “To wit,
creating a conflict of cosmic proportions and then being unable to
find a credible way out of an incredible mess. Our genre seems to
demand it; detective fiction has a similar problem, but on a much
smaller scale. We can avoid obvious solutions via scientific tricks by
having our protagonist undergo the labors of Hercules to defeat the
apparently overwhelmingly powerful enemy. That leaves the reader
in the desirable position of being lost in the unreality of a techno-
fantasy while identifying with real virtues of determination, quick
thinking and self-sacrifice. But what if that enemy is us? Then we
cannot deny human weakness, leaving an uncertain outcome or
winner. That is my problem.”
“If you are not a short-term pessimist, it takes no genius to
imagine the world going through a number of upheavals in the next
century, ending in an uneasy balance between man, machine and the
rest of nature. The dominant player in that enforced triad will
perforce be the machine: an artificially-intelligent globally-
networked command and control system keeping humanity from
further harm to themselves or each other. This won’t happen
without desperation on the part of the national elites and their
militaries, effectively surrendering sovereignty to a computer; or,
more accurately, to a vast distributed software application running
itself without possible intervention by the people who created it.
Thus, no chance of favoritism or bias. Almost everyone would
already be living in greatly reduced circumstances and obviously
heading for extinction unless the momentous decision is made to
trust the grosser and finer directives initiated by algorithms. The
world united de facto in extremis, without any of mankind’s
inherent problems solved—or even, most cases, acknowledged.
That is the premise; or backstory, if you wish. It is nothing new in
fiction, but I believe the general paranoia of the public is reflected
in most writers’ evocation of sympathy for rebellion against such a
tyrannical overlord.”
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