Reboot
“Every single time, without fail” Manish howled as he banged his fist on the table causing the lukewarm coffee to spill a little.
“Tch- Tch, learn to control your emotions young man” replied Dr. Khare as his OCD kicked into high gear and compelled him to get up from his chair and grab a napkin to clean up the coffee pooling around Manish’s cup.
“But Professor, we’ve gone over the code a million times” said Manish as he stood up and started pacing up and down the tiny lab of theirs. “The model is as realistic and complex as it can be. We’ve literally created a simulation that exactly mimics human society, right from the dawn of man. Every single prediction made by the model based on the exact historical variables introduced matches reality. We’ve predicted the birth of Christianity, the Crusades, even the rise and fall of Hitler right down to the day he committed suicide. Last year we even predicted election outcomes around the world with a 100% success rate. What could we be doing wrong? ”
“Stop the pacing boy. You know it makes me anxious.”
“How can you be so calm professor? This is the last experiment we were allowed to run on Genesis. Our funding and time on the AI is up and after 6 years of hard work, we’ve got nothing to show but a flawed model that keeps rebooting on its own for reasons we’ve not been able to identify”
Manish continued his rant for another 15 odd minutes as he blamed himself, the professor, Genesis, and the world in general for his woes. The professor in the meanwhile had been deep in thought when he suddenly opened his eyes.
“Have I taught you nothing my son?” the professor said softly.
Something in the professor’s tone made Manish come out of his rant and look at the professor who was back on his chair and faced him with a calm that made Manish realise that the professor had most likely identified the error. Hope sprung in his heart as his mind went into overdrive. If they could fix the error quickly, they just might have enough time to run one more simulation and save years of hard work, not to mention, possibly get him his PhD.
“What is it Professor? I know you’ve identified the issue. I can see it in your eyes and hear it in your voice. Tell me, quick! Hurry sir!”
The professor just sat there, looking at Manish with a moroseness that Manish had never seen before. His heart sank as he jumped to the conclusion that the model probably had a huge error which they wouldn’t be able to fix in time. Oh what would he tell his parents? And would Amelia still want to be with him if he turned out to be a failed scientist? No, he could do this! Between him and the Professor they were the smartest humans on the planet. Supported by the awesome computing power of Genesis, the world’s fastest supercomputer and most evolved AI, they were a team that could do no wrong. They would get through this.
Manish sat down on his chair and took a couple of deep breaths to calm his mind down. He then swivelled his chair again towards the Professor.
“Tell me sir. What conclusion have you reached?”
The professor slowly shook his head and refused to utter a word. His eyes were wet now and there was a trail of tears streaming down his cheeks.
Normally, Manish would have stopped his line of questioning and comforted the professor. But time was of the essence here. They needed answers, and they needed them now.
“I am sorry professor, but we need answers. Have you reached a conclusion?”
The professor, crying less now, nodded slowly.
“Then tell me sir!” pleaded Manish. “I can’t stand this anymore, please tell me.”
The professor stayed silent for a while. Then took a deep breath.
“Tell me Manish. What is the one commonality across all the simulation tests that we ran?”
“They all reboot and go right back to the starting point, the dawn of man”
The professor nodded. “And what happens just before that?”
Manish thought about it a while. He opened the computer again and ran some analysis on the data accumulated over the past resets.
“As per this data set, the model is perfectly fine. The last causal action, every time, has been when the simulated personas realise they are just that…..simulations.” Manish said with dawning realization even as the world suddenly went blank.