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Authors: Jude Fawley
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with surprising accuracy. It seemed somewhat strange to Matthew, even after ten years, but at the same time it supplied him with a certain sense of confidence, similar to the presence of his bodyguards. They protected his physical body with their expertise, and the computer program protected the ephemeral world of right and wrong with its complex algorithms and predictive power.
Ten years. A moment that Matthew personally found hilarious had occurred at year eight of the computer’s reign—a national debate had surfaced, whether the computer had ‘served its term', and someone else should have been elected to succeed it, or another program designed, in the spirit of democracy as defined by centuries of precedence. But since all such matters were ultimately decided by the computer, it had naturally decided that it shouldn’t be displaced, nor modified in any way. Its decision turned out to be final.
That computer program was called Karma, supposedly since it possessed the power to determine the best present actions to bring about the most harmonious future, a concept its designers found similar enough to the spiritual karma to warrant the same name. That same Karma had decided that it was best to use lethal force against entire countries, and now Matthew lived in the harmonious future of those actions, benefiting from their karma.
It was fairly simple—Karma took as an input the current condition of the world, as represented by the countless data floating around in the internet and extra data provided to it by the people that worked for it, and it made clear political and economic decisions as an output, a governmental black box that served all of the same purposes that a body of elected officials might have done.
For those reasons, it nearly didn’t matter to Matthew why he was being sent to Japan and what would happen after he did his job. Its merits had been assessed, decided to be in the best interest of America, and he had been deemed capable and sent off to perform. With that sense of confidence, after a five hour ride he disembarked from the maglev train and into the deep underground station of Tokyo, for the first and last time.
The company in question was a large medical research facility that wore the guise of a nameless building in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo. Although it was loosely affiliated with the Japanese government, it was a private business that sold its technologies to other industries, once they were sufficiently developed. Many of the projects under research were strictly kept secret until their great reveal, but Matthew had a list of all projects known by the American government, which was assumed to be nearly complete. Karma had made the list itself, using information from obscure corners of the informational world that Matthew couldn’t fathom. There was one project in particular that he had been sent to oversee, which went by the title of Kaishin. To avoid suspicion, and for simplicity, he had been instructed to simply take over the entire company, but it was only Kaishin that mattered.
He felt very conspicuous, surrounded by fourteen people in business attire, all extremely Caucasian. He could see the Evaporation Pens in the breast pockets of his bodyguards, and wondered to himself if the significance of that device had reached the world consciousness yet. He told them all to wait where they were, at the base of the building, while he went to a cafe across the street, at the corner of a busy intersection.
The cafe had a very Western feel to it. Very modern, full of metallic glint and polished wood and sharp lines, track lighting and the heavy aroma of coffee. Several college-age people sat at the tables, shoulder bags placed underneath their seats. He stood in line, and when it was his turn, ordered a regular coffee.
He hadn’t spoken Japanese in over a year, and he could feel that his fluency had atrophied. He had to search for each word individually as he spoke. “May I have a
Ten years. A moment that Matthew personally found hilarious had occurred at year eight of the computer’s reign—a national debate had surfaced, whether the computer had ‘served its term', and someone else should have been elected to succeed it, or another program designed, in the spirit of democracy as defined by centuries of precedence. But since all such matters were ultimately decided by the computer, it had naturally decided that it shouldn’t be displaced, nor modified in any way. Its decision turned out to be final.
That computer program was called Karma, supposedly since it possessed the power to determine the best present actions to bring about the most harmonious future, a concept its designers found similar enough to the spiritual karma to warrant the same name. That same Karma had decided that it was best to use lethal force against entire countries, and now Matthew lived in the harmonious future of those actions, benefiting from their karma.
It was fairly simple—Karma took as an input the current condition of the world, as represented by the countless data floating around in the internet and extra data provided to it by the people that worked for it, and it made clear political and economic decisions as an output, a governmental black box that served all of the same purposes that a body of elected officials might have done.
For those reasons, it nearly didn’t matter to Matthew why he was being sent to Japan and what would happen after he did his job. Its merits had been assessed, decided to be in the best interest of America, and he had been deemed capable and sent off to perform. With that sense of confidence, after a five hour ride he disembarked from the maglev train and into the deep underground station of Tokyo, for the first and last time.
The company in question was a large medical research facility that wore the guise of a nameless building in the Shinjuku ward of Tokyo. Although it was loosely affiliated with the Japanese government, it was a private business that sold its technologies to other industries, once they were sufficiently developed. Many of the projects under research were strictly kept secret until their great reveal, but Matthew had a list of all projects known by the American government, which was assumed to be nearly complete. Karma had made the list itself, using information from obscure corners of the informational world that Matthew couldn’t fathom. There was one project in particular that he had been sent to oversee, which went by the title of Kaishin. To avoid suspicion, and for simplicity, he had been instructed to simply take over the entire company, but it was only Kaishin that mattered.
He felt very conspicuous, surrounded by fourteen people in business attire, all extremely Caucasian. He could see the Evaporation Pens in the breast pockets of his bodyguards, and wondered to himself if the significance of that device had reached the world consciousness yet. He told them all to wait where they were, at the base of the building, while he went to a cafe across the street, at the corner of a busy intersection.
The cafe had a very Western feel to it. Very modern, full of metallic glint and polished wood and sharp lines, track lighting and the heavy aroma of coffee. Several college-age people sat at the tables, shoulder bags placed underneath their seats. He stood in line, and when it was his turn, ordered a regular coffee.
He hadn’t spoken Japanese in over a year, and he could feel that his fluency had atrophied. He had to search for each word individually as he spoke. “May I have a
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