The Last Network - Chapter 23
A Hypothetical
Paolo was on his third Macallan when his phone rang. It was Kendra. He corked the bottle and put it back on the shelf. He’d get himself in trouble if he finished this one and then absently poured a fourth.
“Paolo here.”
A noisy buzz filled the background on the other line. After a moment Kendra cut above the din. “Congratulations are in order. I hope you are enjoying your first profitable week.”
“Thank you. I’m heading out with the team for dinner.”
“Well, I won’t keep you too long. Malcolm and I just had the most interesting conversation. Can I share it with you?”
Paolo looked out the window. He could see traffic backing up in the distance. He was supposed to be in Palo Alto in thirty minutes. If he didn’t leave now, the commute would be impossible. Then again, he was the boss, they could wait. He rubbed his brow, accepting the necessity of this call. We all got to serve.
Paolo sat on the edge of his desk, watching as the cleaning crew got off the elevator. “Of course, Kendra.”
“Well, we are out at dinner and right in the middle of it, Malcolm’s clients need to leave for an emergency. We’ve got four bottles of bubbly open and a raw seafood tower that can feed ten people, only no one to share it with.”
Paolo sighed. He’d had a few of these calls from Kendra before. She has too much to drink and thinks that what comes next will change the world.
“So, Malcolm and I start this game we like to play where we try to one up each other with crazy ideas. Usually it’s stupid shit, but Malcolm has one that stops me dead in my tracks. You ready for this?”
“I’m seated Kendra.”
“You know how they get drones to synch up and move together like a swarm?”
“I’ve seen them, yes.”
“What if we could do that with people?”
Paolo stood. “With Peared?”
“Yes. With Peared. Could we do it?”
He took a sip and thought for a moment. “I don’t know. I’ve never even considered it.”
“Hypothetically?”
“Hypothetically, we could form impromptu gangs. I’d create centaurs to do it.”
“What’s a centaur?” Kendra asked over the noise of dinner service.
“Maybe it’s better we speak when we are both sober. I’ve had a few. You are out in Vegas.”
“Worried you’ll say something you regret? Don’t be nervous Paolo, you can share your secret thoughts with me. Now tell me, what’s a centaur?”
“Find a quieter place Kendra. I need your full attention for this.”
“You’re pulling me away from Malcolm,” she laughed. “He won’t like that. I hope this is good.”
After a few minutes, a much quieter Kendra returned. “Is my favorite employee still on the line? I found a little nook off the reception area, just like you asked.”
“I’m here Kendra. Ready?”
“Give it to me, Paolo.”
Paolo finished the last of his drink, placed the glass tumbler on his desk and began to walk in circles around his office. “Ok, a centaur is a combination of humans and AI. AI’s are really good at getting answers, but terrible at asking questions. People are really good at asking questions. You put them together as a team and you have a centaur that’s greater than the sum of the parts.”
“Don’t we have that right now? Hands, Eyes, and AI all together.”
He stopped and stared out at traffic trying to think of how to best explain the difference. “Sort of. Right now, the AI’s job is to figure out who to invite to dinner, what to serve, and every so often it changes the mood at the table. What it’s not doing is sitting down and eating. With a gang, you need a much more active AI. It has to be at the table or in this case, out in the field. However, there’s no way an AI could manage a gang. It’s too chaotic and people answer to leaders, not machines.”
“So true Paolo. By the way, you are growing into your new role quite nicely. Turning into a real leader yourself. Don’t think I haven’t noticed.”
“Thanks, but let’s focus Kendra.” Paolo began walking again. “Say you wanted a hundred-person centaur gang to show up at a protest. It would look like this. We’d have a command hierarchy somewhere. One boss to manage ten Eyes. Unlike regular Peared, each set of Eyes would operate ten pairs of Hands. The AI’s would be augmenting the Eyes. They’d scan the crowd to read emotions, identify people likely to act a certain way, monitor reactions to what was being said.”
“So, we are creating Super Eyes?” Kendra asked.
“In a manner of speaking, yes. With that sort of information, the Eyes could evaluate what they see and tell the Hands how to act. Say there’s a really charismatic speaker on the platform. The AI could dig up counterpoints to that speaker. It could spread misinformation. It could break fake news. Once that news was out there, you could trigger your Hands to amplify it. Start chanting, rush towards the stage, shout down people and change the mood. People are fickle, crowds can turn. If that failed, well then you start exploiting the frustration of your Hands. Get them worked up and turn them to violence. A hundred angry men could clear a two-thousand-person crowd really quick. Start beating those in front and the back will flee.”
“Why do you men always turn to violence? Why couldn’t this be about flash mobs or dance troupes?”
Paolo eyed the Macallan, but thought better of it. “Because I doubt that’s what you and Malcolm had in mind.”
“Well Malcolm and I have thought up some very interesting uses for Peared. Maybe you’ll find out about them one day. Anyways, sorry for interrupting. You were beating people up with AI centaurs.”
Paolo sighed, realizing how quickly he had turned Peared dark. “I’m almost done. For the last part, you need to create a strong process inside your centaur. Process is as critical as your people and AIs. Skilled operators, a charismatic leader, AIs trained to perform very specialized tasks. You’d need to create the right matches with your Hands. You’d have to feed them very strong incentives. This isn’t something you just do with randoms until you got very good at it. You need to train as a team and get comfortable with the process.”
“Like in the Philippines with Duerte and his men?”
“That would be the sort of testing environment we’d need. Cops fighting drug dealers. Seasoned men with an already defined mission. We could learn a lot there. Hypothetically.”
“Interesting. Very interesting. Thanks for making the time Paolo. I’d love to chat some more, but Malcolm gets so lonely without me.”
“Kendra, is this a thing you are considering?”
“No, it’s just a crazy idea that I wanted to run by that big brain of yours. You know, a hypothetical. Anyway, I’ve got to run. Thanks Paolo.”
Paolo clicked his phone off. He looked out his window; the red lights of cars were jammed tight in all directions. So much for playing things close to the vest. He just gave Kendra a framework for running remote control mobs. There had to be stupid money in that sort of work, but you’d also have to be stupid to do it.
He called a Lyft. He rubbed his temple and felt the booze swirling inside. Why had Malcom asked her that question? It seemed a little too specific and given how Paolo answered it, not that crazy. He decided to research Malcolm Dubour. At the very least, it would give him something to do while stuck in traffic.