Shadow Tyrants

SIXTY

As soon as Mallik got word the next day that the Colossus ships had sunk in the Suez Canal, he invited Torkan to the dining room of his yacht, the Paara, for a celebratory lunch. With the frigates Maurya and Kalinga circling twenty miles out, he felt confident and secure in staying on his opulent custom-built yacht, which was tied up to the satellite launch command ship. Not that he was expecting any interference with his plans now. Not with Carlton dead and Colossus destroyed.

Rain pounded against the windows, otherwise Mallik would have taken the meal on the deck outside. The servants laid out a sumptuous feast for the two of them. Torkan, a devout Muslim, didn’t drink, so no alcohol was served. Instead, they toasted with Darjeeling tea.

“To our allies against Carlton, whoever they may be,” Mallik said, lifting his cup.

Torkan followed suit and took a sip, but he didn’t look happy. “I would like to know how it happened.”

“Is that important now?”

“I suppose not. But, it still bothers me about running into the same men at your party and on the dock by the Colossus 5.”

“Stop worrying. You came out victorious, as you always do. Your brother would be proud of you. Our vision is about to be realized once this irritating storm has passed.”

The monsoon had lingered over the launch site longer than they’d expected. They could move the launch platform and command ship, but that would take more time than simply waiting it out.

“Do you think Colossus really would have become a thinking artificial intelligence?” Torkan asked.

“I know it would have, otherwise I wouldn’t have invested billions of rupees of my own money in Vajra.”

“It’s hard to believe the Nine came so close to achieving it.”

“It was millennia in the making,” Mallik said. “They really thought it was their destiny.”

Torkan swirled his teacup. “And you think someone will try again.”

“I have no doubt about that as well. Artificial intelligence has already permeated our daily lives to a degree that we can’t appreciate. It’s everywhere, from credit card fraud detection and help line language processing to facial recognition and self-guided cars. It’s only becoming more insidious, and soon we will be in real danger of being replaced. A thinking AI would simply be the final step. Then that machine would someday understand that not only are we of no use to it but that we are a very real threat to it.”

“People are weak. They need everything done for them. I look forward to a time when we can think for ourselves again.”

Mallik smiled. He was glad to hear how much Torkan had come around to his way of thinking.

“When the people realize how I have freed them from the tyranny of computers, they will hail me as a liberator. Think about how many jobs in this world have been killed by computerization, robotics, and automation. People will have purpose again.”

“How long do you think we’ll have to ride out the chaos on board the Paara?”

Mallik shrugged. “It depends on how fast world governments compensate for the demise of the systems that have made them dependent on computers. Of course, I’ve prepared India for the coming change, and we are still a very agricultural society. Many of our vehicles will work just fine because they have no computer chips in them, and our farms will still produce all the food we need.”

“There will be turmoil, though,” Torkan said. “It will be ugly for a while.”

“Especially in technologically advanced societies. China, Europe, and the United States will suffer the most. Planes will fall from the sky, nuclear plants will melt down, the millions of people in megacities will begin to starve. But the governments will go on. We had civilization for thousands of years before computers and we will continue to have it for many more centuries now that I’m about to wipe out the specter of extinction by AI.”

“How long do you think it will take?”

Mallik thought for a moment, then said, “Five years. Ten years at most. After that, I don’t think the world will look much different than it did in the 1950s. Without computers, we developed cars, jet planes, hydroelectric dams, nuclear power, and buildings that have stood for thousands of years. The only things we’ll lose in the process are the ills that computers and the internet have visited on us: loss of privacy, universal surveillance, vast government databases of our most intimate information, and people burying themselves in the screens they’re holding instead of talking face-to-face like we are now.”

Torkan gave him a rare smile. “You’re practicing your political speech, aren’t you?”

Mallik laughed. “You know me well. India is going to emerge as the world’s greatest superpower when the dust settles. Who better to lead it?”

“Don’t forget Iran. With our numbers, and Israel’s technological advantage wiped out, we should become the dominant force in the Middle East.”

Mallik raised his cup again. “To a new world.”

“A new world.” After another drink, Torkan frowned. “Is there any way the Vajra satellites can be taken down once they are operating together?”

Mallik shook his head. “For the precision needed to knock down a satellite, you would need a computer guidance system, which obviously won’t work once Vajra is operational globally. I’ve also prevented any chance that my files will provide a clue for how to neutralize the satellites even by a government with a computer hidden in a bunker far underground and linked to a satellite dish. The hack into my laptop was a wake-up call for me. This morning, I went into my corporate computers and deleted all files related to the development of Vajra and verified that all critical paper records were destroyed.”

Torkan raised an eyebrow at that. “What if this satellite launch fails?”

“It won’t. But if it does, I downloaded the only copies left onto my computer on board the yacht. When we have verification that Vajra is operational, I’ll toss it in the ocean.”

“Cautious, but smart.”

“I’ve been planning this for years. I’ve thought of everything.”

“I hope you’ve thought about what would happen if you got blamed for the catastrophe that’s coming.”

“I think for the first couple of years, people will be more focused on survival than finding someone to blame.”

“And how many do you think will die in that time?”

Mallik leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling before saying matter-of-factly, “Based on loss of transportation infrastructure, farm failures from disabled machinery, and resulting starvation rates, I wouldn’t be surprised if we lose more than two billion people.”