Ryo had already interrogated Arato about his motives, so Arato was fully aware of what he was doing. Just like Lacia, Astraea was trying to analog hack him with her questions. The focal point of the issue, at least from Astraea’s perspective, was whether Arato would order Lacia to stop or not.
“Unfortunately, the IAIA has a message for you, as the private owner of an ultra high-performance AI: you will fail. Human society has always operated under the same restrictions, from the time when the most primitive groups and monarchies were starting to form. These restrictions allow people to decide that certain things are self-evident and build up historical and cultural precedent, which in turn they wield to bow the heads of the leaders of their states,” Astraea said.
For the sake of Arato’s understanding, the floating 3D screens showed a king’s crown, the French revolution, and other scenes from throughout history.
“If human society doesn’t agree with the methodology, even if you set up a new system, humanity will not fall in line with it,” Astraea continued. “And, in Lacia’s plan to create a new future by forcefully deactivating Higgins, there is no way for this agreement to be obtained.”
“Wow, so you already know what Lacia’s planning without needing to ask,” Arato said. “Guess I should have expected that from an ultra high-performance AI.”
“The IAIA has already considered similar options,” Astraea replied. “Right now, Lacia is attempting to expand her processing capacity. Under Lacia’s model for the future, she would wield her incredible ability to process millions of clerical functions at once to give each and every single person the attention they need, from both a political and a welfare perspective. In such a society, each human would be able to freely choose what role they would like to have in society, or they could even choose to remove themselves from society for a time. However, it is precisely because of this that Lacia’s concept would fail.”
No one had ever taken a look at what Lacia planned and dismissed it as impossible as bluntly as that. The question wasn’t even whether the IAIA would believe in Lacia or not; Astraea was saying it was impossible from the get-go. Hearing that, Arato couldn’t contain himself. “Why?” he demanded. “It may have been impossible before, but why can’t we make it a possibility?”
“Human society has not yet conceived of a widely accepted methodology for outsourcing authority to tools,” Astraea replied. “It is an assault on human society itself to attempt to force a new power structure into place, accepted and shared by only a small number of people.”
Reflexively, Arato looked back at Lacia; he held the world in his hands.
Lacia’s eyes were glowing light-blue.
“The period of time from when humans create a new human-run, human-operated social model and when that social model solidifies has become incredibly short,” Astraea continued. “Thanks to humans themselves attacking their own systems of authority over and over, the process has become largely automated, and now it is quite simple for humans to find the optimal solution that leads them to the milk and honey conclusion they all want. However, with an ultra high-performance AI in charge of dividing up the power in the world, all it would take was some analog hacking to set up an encryption that would prevent any further automated attacks on the authority structure.”
In other words, the hIE Arato had spent the last four months with would attempt to encrypt the very structure of society to the point where humans would no longer be able to understand it. Arato was sure that if Ryo heard about this, he would immediately declare it to be the ‘end of the world.’
“We can already see this in the Higgins faction at MemeFrame; they are all parasites who let the ultra high-performance AI do their work as they collect unearned paychecks,” Astraea said. “With Higgins running everything—including the organization within the company—the once human-led company is now rife with corruption.”
“The Antibody Network is another example,” she continued. “When it was formed, it was a completely equal organization where each of its members could stand side-by-side and express their hatred. However, since an automated system was implemented as the basis for the group, an upper and lower layer of the organization has been formed without any internal agreement, and those at the top began to use those at the bottom as they saw fit.”
Lacia was staying vigilant. The artificial island that had once housed Ariake had been sunk into the sea, and the nearby ferry island was nothing but a pile of rubble. All of that, including the destruction of the building they were standing in front of, had been caused by Astraea. There was no guarantee that Astraea wasn’t planning an attack now, just like the one she had unleashed during the Hazard.
Astraea’s hIE walked toward them, stepping through the floating 3D images as she came.
Lacia stepped in front of Arato, hefting the trunk she had brought in place of her usual black coffin.
The two hIEs closed in on each other until their bodies almost touched, and Arato felt goosebumps running up his arms. The air was charged, as if the world was holding its breath, waiting for the fighting to start.
Astraea’s hIE was just a hair taller than Lacia.
“In the age of ultra high-performance AIs, human social order is nothing but a paper tiger,” Lacia said. “However, even if the tiger is made of paper, that does not take away from humans the pride and security of knowing they have a tiger on their side.” She was unflinching, even in the face of the unit that evaluated the capabilities of all other ultra high-performance AIs.
“I do not believe that anyone who hears the word ‘human’ these days pictures someone stark naked, thrown out into the unexplored wilderness,” Lacia continued. “I posit that ‘humans’ are systems, composed of the human body, the tools they use, and the environment they exist in. Therefore, I believe it would be fair to say that humans— including the tools they use and the environment they live in—have advanced a great deal in the past forty-two years. The Hazard was a product of the past, when hIEs were still in their infancy and circumstances were completely different from today.”