Algorithmic Anomaly

"I remember a time when I could choose which university I wanted to apply to." Ari's grandfather scowled as he poured himself another glass of rum. "And now you got algorithms for this, algorithms for that."

"Pa," Ari's mother said, clearly annoyed. "Ari's never considered the University of Greensborough, no matter if it's your alma mater." She tussled Ari's hair. "Pay no heed, darling. Reminiscing about the past is a feature of old age."

"Bah!" Her grandfather frowned fiercely as he downed the entire glass. "I remember a time when I could post anything I liked onto the internet! Now you got rules for everything!"

"And where did that get us," her mother rebuked while clearing the remains of breakfast from the table. "Lawlessness on the net and the foregoing of basic human decency! I for one am glad that Ari is spared those things."

Ari's grandfather leaned in close. She loved his smell, of wool and rum. "A great inventor once said, ninety-nine percent perspiration, one percent inspiration is what makes genius. That one percent is what makes us human, Ari. Algorithms take what we have done in the past to predict what we may do. But that is the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy. You think a couple of lines of code can make up for that one percent?" He sipped from his cup. "The day these algorithms think they can play god and predict our futures too is the day we--"

"It's millions of lines of code, Grandpapa," Ari said sweetly. "Don't worry, I'm matched with Ellison College. Just as well! I had no idea where I wanted to go anyways." She gave her mother a kiss on the cheek, her grandfather a kiss on his shiny, bald head, and bolted out the door.

The buzz of drones overhead, both governmental security and corporate delivery types, filled the air with a soft, suffocating coziness, like the steam of a hot bath.

She reached the intersection, nearly tripping over an autonomous construction rover repairing the sidewalk, just as the hover-bus rounded the corner. Breathing a sigh of relief, Ari boarded the vehicle. The scanners beeped quietly, signaling that her HeartBox had been scanned. From the rear of the hover-bus, James and Alvin waved.

"Did you check your matches?" Ari asked excitedly as she settled into her seat between the two boys.

James nodded, pulling out his tablet. A laser flared from its biometric sensor, unlocking once it scanned the HeartBox located underneath his neck. "I haven't been matched yet." He pointed to the screen, where it read Pending...

Alvin frowned. "Me as well. What's the deal? Our marks are better than yours, Ari. We were clustered higher too."

Ari shrugged. "Perhaps the top-tier universities are fighting over you for how brilliant you are."

James smiled meekly, and Alvin beamed. "Da always said I'd make a fantastic algorithmic architect," James said. "Maybe if that's the job I get, then my family can move into the Devoton district."

Alvin gawked. "The Devoton district! But your da's in a Rehabilitation Facility now! People with family members in RFs don't get to live in the Devoton district. That's only for governmental and CR-A types."

James shot Alvin an irritated look. "I'd say I'm Conflict-Resistant enough to live in Devoton."

Ari placed a comforting hand on James' knee. "It's alright James. Maybe they'll work out some algorithmic bugs, and your da will be declared CR enough for society again." She swung her head. "Where's Sophie?"

"Her da was also declared a PCII, and set to an RF," James whispered. "I've heard that the government had every drone and rover installed with a scanner, so it's impossible to avoid detection unless you lock yourself in your home. That's what she's doing now."

"She was always on the paranoid side," Alvin agreed. "She'll come around soon enough."

Ari sighed. If it were due to kinks in the system, she hoped that the government and the algorithmic architects would work them out soon. She'd heard terrible things about RFs. Ari, Alvin, Sophie, and James had all been identified as "most similar and best-suited for friendly relations" and placed into the same algorithmic cluster when they had entered primary school. She would never have guessed that the parents of two of them would be identified as Potential-Criminally-Inclined-Individuals.

"Look," Alvin said, pointing to his screen. "My mum works here. Maybe I'll end up in the Devoton district." Ari leaned over to read the headline. 'Elysium Pharmaceuticals Successful IPO, Up 300% as Governmental Contracts Announced'.

James shook his head. "You're not Conflict-Resistant enough, Alvin. The Subparsian District is a better fit for you." He relished in the look Alvin gave him, squirming away and giggling when the latter lunged at him. "Subparsian is still wealthy, it's just for the more irritable, like you."

The three finally reached their school, a magnificent structure constructed in the aftermath of the Milliner Affair. The government had been relentlessly attacked by foreign hackers in an information war. Due to lack of cyber safeguards and social protocol with regards to network etiquette, social unrest had infected the nation, and the streets were overloaded with rioters and guerillas against perceived injustices. Secretary Arnold Milliner had introduced the Algorithmic Refactoring and Consolidation Act, uniting the governmental and private sectors of the nation's technology services. But that was before it was revealed by the rival party that Milliner had taken billions in bribes from corporations. Supposedly, Ari's grandpapa insisted. The rival party leader, Hiller, had Milliner imprisoned and greatly amended the ARCA.

The entire school was abuzz with news of who had been algorithmically clustered into which university, and cries of envy and camaraderie echoed throughout the glass, steel and concrete walls of the institution. But there were also those like Alvin and James, whose screens read 'Pending...', who could only offer congratulations to their fellow classmates while awaiting their own results nervously.

They had just finished their final medical examinations when the doors opened to admit five governmental officers. The leader took the place of their instructor, who moved docilely to the side.

"Do we have a..." The officer squinted at his tablet. "James Robertson?"

Ari felt the nervous pit in her stomach deepen. James, seated in front of her, raised his hand timidly.

The officer nodded pleasantly. "Do we have a..an Alvin Leesie as well?" Alvin's hand shot up from the corner of Ari's vision. "Wonderful. My officers here will escort you. Nothing to worry about, no. We only have some medical inquiries for you."

James seemed agitated, but Alvin was nonchalant. They each were flanked by an officer and herded out of the classroom. Ari watched them go.

The next day passed, as did the next, but each morning the hover-bus was absent her friends, as was the school. Sophie was nowhere to be seen. I'll have to stop by her flat one day, Ari thought.

A loud-mouthed boy declared during lunch. "My da says that they were taken to RFs, because they're likely to be criminals, like their parents. No foolin' the algorithms or DNA." Ari scowled at him as she passed.

The third day, Ari was called into the school physician's office. The small, old man lowered his glasses. "Ari! How's your grandpapa and mum?"

"They're fine," Ari said quietly, seating herself. "Grandpapa's drinking himself mad. He misses your companionship and conversation." She cleared her throat. "Is something wrong?"

The physician lifted his tablet. "I'll see him soon. Let's see here." The biometric security system scanned his face, stopping at his neck. He pursed his lips, still staring at the screen. "Ari, do you know what an Algorithmic Anomaly is?"

"A what?"

"Sometimes, Ari, there comes about someone who does not...cluster nicely into the available clusters of humans, into the right neighborhood, the right job, the right schools, and so on. You are one of these people, Ari. It appears that the algorithm has identified you as a possible anomaly. I would guess that it's because it senses the stress you're under due to your friends." The doctor leaned back. "I'm only revealing this to you, Ari, because we are family friends, and have been for a long time. Security officers are on their way to your home now. I want you to have time to say farewell to your family, before you're sent off to an RF for evaluation."

Ari could scarcely believe her ears. "Me? An RF? Why! I've done everything right my entire life!"

"I'm sorry, Ari, the algorithm just cannot identify these sorts of people until they appear under the right conditions and circumstances--"

Ari did not wait for him to finish. She burst through the doors of the office and out the gates of the school. She had to get to Sophie's house.

Ari finally reached the apartment blocks where Sophie lived in the Harken District. She ran up the stairs to the sixth floor and beat on the door. But it was a bloody, unwashed Alvin who answered it.

Ari could not contain her shock. "Alvin? Where were you? Where's James?" She peered inside the apartment. "Where's Sophie?"

Alvin pulled her inside and shut the door. He fell to the floor and broke out in tears. "James...He...Sophie..." He pointed weakly to an open window. Ari rushed to it and poked her head through. There was a bloody splatter on the alley, and next to it was her friend, Sophie.

Ari could not believe her eyes. She ran back to Alvin, wild-eyed. "Alvin, explain to me. Everything."

Explain he did. How the company his mother worked for, Elysium Pharmaceuticals, had developed nanobots capable of analyzing brain chemicals. How every citizen was now subject to tests by these nanobots. How these nanobots had been used during their medical examinations. How their chemical levels and DNA proteins had been run through the algorithms and had returned results suggesting that James, like his father, was a likely PCII. How Alvin's mother had had an affair with her company's CEO, and once taken under custody and run through the algorithms, she was determined to be an SAI.

"And I, like her, was determined to be a PSAI. Potential-Sexually-Aberrant-Individual, highly likely to create social strife. James was shot while we fled, and when I told her these things, Sophie..."

"Didn't want to be determined a PCII, like her father." Ari slumped to the floor. Why were these things happening? Their lives were suddenly falling apart. Just because of lines of code, for things they never did. Like her grandpapa had said.

Ari became resolute. She heated a knife over the stove fire. "The first thing we are going to have to do, is get rid of our HeartBoxes." It would be painful, but it had to be better than being sent to an RF and interrogated. After much convincing, Ari and Alvin cut out each other's HeartBoxes implanted within their necks, just above the left shoulder. They were shaped like a human heart, complete with ventricles and arteries and covered in blood. Grotesque. There was all their algorithmic information, their DNA, all the data that determined their existence within this society. Without them, they would not even be able to unlock a tablet. Ari flushed them down the toilet.

Alvin began sobbing quietly. "Now we really are nobodies. What'll we do?"

Suddenly there was a rap at the door. Ari peered through the peephole, where a pair of security officers stood. And suddenly she had an idea, a one percent inspiration.

She handed another knife to Alvin. "We're going to forge our own paths from now on, Alvin." She stared into his wide, terror-filled eyes. "We're going to take their HeartBoxes, and get the hell out of here. I'm tired of algorithms."

Alvin whimpered as she hid the knife underneath her belt and stepped forwards to unlock the door. An anomaly they had declared her, so an anomaly she would become. Ari grasped the handle, and opened the door.