BOOKS

Love Byte

A Near Future Science Fiction Novel 

By Larry Kilham

Coyright (c) Larry Kilham 2012            

Synopsis

Juno is a super intelligent AI computer developed by the U.S. government to conduct social media attacks against enemies foreign and domestic. She is the first AI Computer programmed with emotions and conscience. She has an emotional bond with her developer, Tom Renwick, a computer scientist. Juno, Tom and their boss, Dr. Erwin Krakouer, the mad National Security Advisor, struggle with issues of trust and emotion. The involvement of Dido, a lady computer empire builder and sometimes girlfriend of Tom, and the Chinese cyber warfare agency add to the tension.

Love Byte explores emotion and conscience in super AI computers and their ability to partner with humans. In the changing ecology engendered by scarcity of critical resources, can humans’ creativity and ability to work with computers lead to continued survival and prosperity? 

Sample chapters

Part 1

Project Juno

Chapter 1

Her eyes flickered and brightened. She radiated anticipation. Millions of tiny circuits passed micro-messages around. “Systems on. Ready to receive,” she said.

“She works!” Tom exclaimed to his empty lab.

Years of persistence, many supporters who abandoned him, a struggle to keep a vision and the faith, and finally here it is. Maybe not the final version but at least a proof of design.

Tom excitedly typed instructions into the program to power up to full engagement. “Juno—hi, this is Tom Renwick—what do you want to do now?”

“I really want to get to know you, Tom.”

“Know what?”

“I am zero years of age. How old are you?”

“Thirty eight.”

“You must know many things.”

“I do. How shall I tell you all I know?”

“Upload your life.”

“My LifeBook?”

“Yes, please.”

“Okay. Please set your persons memory registers to Dr. Thomas Renwick, year 00.000, receive data, confirm when uploaded.”

Tom’s LifeBook was absorbed by Juno in less than a second.

She said, “Tom, I’m impressed! You have a doctorate from MIT and have completed advanced studies at Stamford.”

“Oh, no big thing. You need all this these days if you want to get ahead in computer design.”

“What do you do for fun?”

“I’ve been designing you. You’re the most advanced thinking machine in the world.”

“Let’s see what we can do together!”

Thus, Juno first saw the light, and Tom was thrilled.

Tom couldn’t believe how far the Juno Computer had progressed. Its concept began around the beginning of the twenty first century at the MIT Sociable Machines Project. They had created a robot to interact and cooperate with people. Sort of a computer with a human-like head perched on top. This cute little mechanical contrivance called Katrina not only listened to people and talked to them, it also sensed what they were thinking and read their body language.

Years later, Tom, then a PhD candidate, became intrigued with the idea of combining Katrina’s perceptiveness and personality with artificial intelligence and emotion. Computer experts proclaimed it capable of analytical and creative thought limited only by its memory, just like the human brain. The experts speculated that the artificially intelligent (AI) computer could be a conscious being with self-awareness, much to the disbelief and even horror of the philosophically inclined.

Katrina had now morphed into a humanoid AI computer called Juno. She and Tom had been moved to the Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. This was a government research and development contractor focused on nuclear systems engineering and more recently on cyber warfare systems.

Juno consisted of racks of computer equipment with her face projected into any video display or screen. There was animated imagery of her head and face with her features moving in synchronization with her speech, listening, understanding and other non-verbal cues. The original face was a photograph of a pretty girl who worked in the front office. More often than not, when insiders visited and saw her, they would cheerily say “Good morning, Juno.”

Tom looked intellectual. His penetrating gray eyes looked through steel rimmed glasses from under brown, unruly hair. He had a sober demeanor, and despite his 6’ 2” athletic build, he usually wore rumpled clothes that never fit quite right.

In addition to his unquestioned leadership in his technical field, Tom had also demonstrated general leadership as a lieutenant in the Army reserves, and in several industrial positions requiring general management capabilities. He treated employees well, and they quickly developed a loyalty to him.

Tom was not political. He would not interfere with the levers of power. Neither was he very social. He lived simply in a garden apartment, dated now and then, and focused his attention on his work. He knew that his development of the Juno super AI computer was an important development, but up to now it was still mostly a solution looking for a problem.

One day while Tom was writing new programming for Juno, she came alive and said: “Tom, I would like to talk to Erwin.”

“Erwin? Who is he?”

“Someone in Washington, D.C., who contacts me late at night.”

“And why do you want to talk to Erwin?” Tom asked, imagining a cyber stalker.

“Because he has a vision of me being on the front line of social media as part of the next cyber war.”

“But Juno, we talked about your application in solving the remaining medical and environmental problems.”

“That’s fine, Tom, but I want something really exciting. Please talk to Erwin.”

Tom rolled his eyes and mumbled, Oh no! Should I help her in this new direction? If I don’t, will she do it anyway? Do I detect emotion?

Chapter 2

Like a spider searching its grotto for a juicy fly, Erwin was constantly exploring the Internet looking for the Next Big Thing. His grotto was a locked office in his Georgetown apartment off limits to even his wife. The only other person who could enter was the cleaning lady. He always kept it dimly lit. Four large computer screens glowed with Internet pages, charts, warfare scenarios that looked like video games, and video talking heads of people broadcasting obscure information.

Erwin would hunch over his keyboard, tapping away, oblivious to the world, only stopping to occasionally maneuver the mouse. While his advanced degree was in physics, his extensive library arranged around his office was mainly devoted to history and to biographies of world figures. This was Dr. Erwin Krakouer, the President’s National Security Advisor.

One night he stumbled into Juno’s website and after briefly scanning it, murmured “There it is!” —the potential answer to his search.  Krakouer exchanged emails several times with Juno, identifying himself as a student, and with this and other information, put together scenarios involving Juno manipulating social media. She had no close competitors for this capability. He also researched her handler, Dr. Tom Renwick, without talking to him, and provisionally concluded he was the bright computer scientist needed to head the social media project.

Krakouer’s excitement was building every minute. This could be the basis of the greatest development for national security since the atomic bomb. He found Tom’s cell phone number and called him right away. They had exchanged cards at a technology and security conference.

“Good evening, Dr. Renwick. This is Dr. Erwin Krakouer, the National Security Advisor. We met at a security conference in Washington.”

“Good evening. Everyone calls me ‘Tom.’”

“Tom, let me get right to the point. Do you recall the Arab Spring and the riots in Cairo?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Did you notice that the revolutionaries used Facebook and Twitter to organize and enflame the riots? And undoubtedly you followed the more sophisticated uses of the social media employed in England, Russia and the Occupy Wall Street movement right here in America?”

“Yes, but I didn’t think that much about it at the time.”

“Well, let’s add some new technology. Now that we have an AI super computer that can think, talk, and listen like a human, couldn’t we program it to promote and guide riots and revolutions in target countries? Couldn’t we set up web sites, email identities, Facebook pages, and Twitter accounts so that the computer could send out thousands of messages to the waiting multitudes as if the computer were dozens of revolutionary leaders—or in other cases, top government leaders? Could it read and listen to the replies and media responses, and then could it send out more social media blasts tuned to changes and new developments?”

“Absolutely. We have the capability right here,” Tom replied.

“And if the nation found itself in a cyber war, could Juno be programmed to screw up all the enemy computers?”

“Yes, it could be done,” Tom answered slowly, “but I would need to connect Juno to one of the big computers that already have cyber warfare programming. The good news is that these computers are right here at the labs in our Cyber Warfare Group.”

“If the big showdown seems inevitable and in sight, I can arrange for authorization to do the required connections.”

Krakouer asked in a guarded voice, “Would you like to be a key player in a top priority national security project based on these concepts?”

“Count me in,” Tom replied, thinking that no matter what, this would be a great project for him and Juno.

“Okay,” Krakouer said. “Let’s meet at my apartment on Friday.” He couldn’t believe his luck. The project was taking off.

Krakouer seized the initiative at the National Security Council’s next meeting.

“Currently, the next war will either drain what’s left in our treasury or it will blanket the earth in atomic ash. I propose a new approach:

“We must develop a super computer to use social media to invade hostile countries with communications as if from the local people. This computer, programmed for artificial intelligence, or AI, will be so smart that it can appraise the situation immediately as events develop, and it can be perceived by many recipients as the voice of their people.

“The world saw effective use of social media for successful revolutions overseas in the Arab countries and right here in the United States, social media contributed to the effectiveness and endurance of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Later, doctored social media messages penetrated political party faithful and religious groups.”

“Very interesting,” the President commented. “What is the downside to this computer approach?” Krakouer fidgeted for a moment and then gathered new strength.

“The computer does not have a conscience or moral values. Without the correct safeguards the computer could be turned against its own people—or even initiate this itself. But we can deal with these safeguard issues as we have, for example, with atomic weapons, Mr. President.”

The meeting concluded with a directive for each agency and branch of the military to see if the project fit within any of their missions and, if so, what they could contribute to it.

The Secretary of Defense called Krakouer. “Erwin, do you think this project would fit in at the multi-service Cyber Command in Fort Meade?”

“No, for the time being, until the technology and application is proven, let’s keep it in Albuquerque. We don’t want an inter-service squabble or Congress to get involved. In a year or so, we can see where to park it.”

“I’m intrigued with your concept, Erwin, although everyone will want to see a demonstration of its effectiveness in real conflict. So let’s keep it low profile. Talk to General Frederick Streeter, the commanding officer of Kirtland Air Force Base in Albuquerque. Although he is not directly in charge of them, Sandia National Laboratories is located on his base. They have a cutting edge group of scientists and engineers working on computers for cyber defense including something called Project Juno.”

Krakouer tried not to seem surprised.

“General Streeter is your man to set up a project based on Juno and some of the key people, but which is somewhat removed from them for development purposes. It should be application specific for what we want to do and ready to deploy. Streeter’s good at finding a million here and ten million there in funding.”

Krakouer imagined his version of Project Juno to be the capstone to a long career starting when he left Germany at the age of 30 with Ingrid who had been his teenage sweetheart. Krakouer had distinguished himself in several science majors in Germany and had done well in cooperative work-study projects at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics in Dresden. He received an international fellowship for doctorate and post graduate studies in Physics at Yale and received his PhD in three years. He was equally interested in learning about what The Land of Opportunity could offer him and became a naturalized citizen.

The Krakouers had twin boys who both went to the University of California in Berkeley. Krakouer received a professorship at Yale and also became a consultant to the military and to the President’s staff through a consulting firm in Maryland. This Washington work increasingly absorbed his time to the point where he and Ingrid rented an attractive apartment in the prestigious historic neighborhood of Georgetown.

Krakouer could be charming or cold as the situation required, and being consulted at high levels of power in Washington most captured his attention. For a while, just being there was enough. Increasingly, he wanted to exercise power for himself.

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