‘Do you understand why you are here?’
‘No.’
‘You are here because you have been charged and sentenced under Social Code section 92, subsection 3, paragraph 12. Do you know what that is?’
‘No.’
The two women sat across from each other, a small metal table between them, in a small, sterile, white room lit by cold, white bulbs recessed in the ceiling. The table was anchored to the floor. Jane wore orange coveralls, white shoes, and her brown hair was tied back in a pony tail. She was hunched over, her hands chained to the table. She was looking down at her hands, not quite believing what she was seeing.
Across from her sat Michelle, wearing a pressed navy blue shirt and pants. Her name was embroidered into her shirt with bronze thread that matched the shirt’s buttons. She was slender, had short brown hair, and sat perched at the front of her chair, her back perfectly straight.
Michelle looked down at the folder in front of her and said, ‘I quote, ‘No one may issue forth any word, utterance, or sound, or display any symbol, that may cause any feeling of sadness, depression, fear, dejection, melancholy, unease, etc. upon the reasonable citizenry in any public place within the city limits’. Do you understand what that means?’
‘No.’
‘OK, let me simplify it for you: You laughed. In public. With others around.’
‘What’s wrong with that?’, Jane asked.
Michelle’s left eye twitched slightly at Jane’s question. ‘While I understand that you are in the city on vacation, you should be well aware of our laws, as you were provided with a booklet summarizing behavioral expectations at the time you boarded the train you arrived on. Did you read the booklet? On page 42, it very clearly explains the laws on public laughter. Did you read it? If you had any questions, did you talk to the city’s ambassador on the train, or take advantage of the customer service desk at Union Station?’
Jane looked up at Michelle and said, ‘We scanned the booklet. I don’t remember seeing anything about not laughing.’
Michelle sighed. ‘Everyone coming into the city by train or plane is given the booklet. It explains the very successful project we have been expanding across the city the last 3 years. It explains how we have been enabling our AI systems to monitor our citizens to encourage best behavior. If you had read the booklet you would know what is expected of you as a visitor.’
Jane said, ‘I want to talk to my husband.’
‘That will not be possible,’ Karen said, ‘He has been found guilty and sentenced to 1 year incarceration.
‘What!’, Jane said. ‘You just arrested us…’, she looked at the white analog clock on the wall, ‘…about 3 hours ago. Who gets sentenced in 3 hours?’
Michelle smiled proudly, ‘It is impressive, isn’t it? We are at the last step before the AI is given complete control of behavioral monitoring, arrest, and sentencing. The only reason we are talking now is because the AI reviewed your situation from the video and audio captured by the street monitoring devices and recommended confirmation on whether you had been coerced into laughing or if you did it voluntarily. The AI’s preliminary evaluation indicated your behavior was voluntarily.
‘In the case of your husband, it was obvious he was the instigator of this crime and no follow up was required, so he was immediately sentenced to 1 year at Living Best Psychiatric Hospital.’ Michelle leant forward slightly as if confiding something beneficial to Jane. ‘I should note, though, that no one has had to stay that long at LBPH since the AI has started recommending personalized treatments to the doctors. No one has been there more than 7 months before being completely rehabilitated and then released. The AI has exceeded all of our expectations. I expect the same for your husband.’
Jane stared at Michelle for a moment, unable to think of anything to say. She felt like she was talking to someone from another planet, or a penguin, or some kind of mutant zombie from California.
Michelle resumed her straight-back position and continued, ‘If you had read the booklet, you would know that since starting this project 3 years ago, crime is down 93%, car accidents have declined 75%, and people have reported a 68% improvement in general wellbeing. In another 2 months, given how all goals have been exceeded, we expect the AI will take over completely, with no human intervention or confirmation required.’
Jane said, ‘I want a lawyer.’
‘That will not be possible’, Michelle said, ‘Lawyers are no longer available for these situations. We are just here to confirm the facts that have been recorded in both audio and video. Lawyers are now only brought in if the situation has not been completely recorded. And even then, it is likely lawyers won’t be needed at all once the AI assumes full control. The AI has been accurate 99% of the time, as confirmed by the prisoners themselves upon interrogation.
‘As such, is there anything you would like to say to clarify what occurred? Were you coerced in any way such that you felt you had to laugh, but you didn’t really want to?’
Jane said, exasperated, ‘No I wasn’t coerced. We were having fun. Sam was talking about something funny that had happened at my birthday party before we left home. We were just having some fun talking about that.’
‘Then you confirm,’ said Michelle, ‘that you voluntarily laughed in public, that you voluntarily excluded others from the cause of your laughter, and that you thereby committed the crime of assaulting others with your laughter.’
Jane tried to stand up, but the chains latched to the table prevented that. ‘Assaulted others! What are you talking about? We were laughing!’
Michelle sighed, ‘By laughing in public, as you did, and not informing others of the cause of your laughter, you left others to assume that you may have been laughing at them. In fact, we have had 2 complaints related to this offence, one of which was from a woman who recently became sick, and has had to use a walker. She assumed you were laughing at her in her fragile condition. She is quite distraught, and has suffered as a result of your behavior. She is currently under a doctor’s care.’
‘We would never laugh at someone like that’, said Jane.
‘It doesn’t matter. The facts are the facts. You didn’t read the booklet to understand our rules. You were laughing in a public place, and caused others’ distress. You show no remorse for your actions. Is there anything else you would like to say in your own defense?’
Jane looked Michelle in the eye and said, ‘You are insane’.
Michelle responded, ‘That is not helpful to your situation, and shows how little regard you have for the feelings of others.’
Michelle rose from her chair and opened the door to the room. A guard was standing in the hall by the door. Michelle said to him, ‘Please take the prisoner to her cell. She is guilty as charged.’
The guard came into the room, unlocked Jane’s handcuffs from the table, and escorted her from the room and down the hall.
Michelle looked down the hall the other way, and said to another guard standing at a door about 30 feet away, ‘Next!’
The End.
Note: With the recent encyclical letter by Pope Leo X1V, Magnifica Humanitas, and related discussion on it, I thought I’d write a little story about where I think AI could take us.
Peace be with you.
Steve.
Peace Be With You 