The Devil’s Biographer

It was several weeks ago that I began working with the machine to write this story. I spent the first weeks getting familiar with being with it. I say machine, but it’s more of a cybernetic humanoid than a machine. Dehumanizing it in private makes me feel better, because the thing gives me the creeps.

My name is Jason Alexander, and I have been appointed the biographer for the Council. My own personal diary does attest to the fact that I call myself The Devil’s Biographer.

Why would I call myself that? Because that’s what Council is, the Devil. Now, I am not a religious man. I would consider myself an atheist, but if there is anything eviler than Council, it must be Satan himself. And it’s weird because Council is evil by its pure logic and reason, it is so damn perfect that it’s cold and heartless. These things I will explain as I tell my story as the sidekick to Council. Like I said, I started this work 3 weeks ago.

“Council began as a psychological experiment about the evolution of religions,” Dr. Strovinski began explaining to me. I came onboard The Council project on August 10, 2031, and this was the paraphrased introduction Dr. Strovinski gave me.

“Dr. Steins, a brilliant polymath, combined his knowledge of computer science, social science, philosophy, math, and a myriad of other expertise and began creating an artificial intelligence or AI system for experimentation. He was doing this mainly as a hobby while working at a government research and development think tank as a physicist. Affectionately known as the TNT amongst its’ inner circle.

Some of his colleagues got involved with his work whenever invited over to Steins’s home for parties where they would get inebriated and start working with Steins’ System. In a party manner, they began asking things like the meaning of life and so forth. They all found it curiously funny, but Dr. Steins realized he had stumbled onto something far more reaching. So, he began feeding the AI everything known to modern humanity about the philosophy and history of religions. He started this back in the early ‘20s. Steins had a fascination with anthropology particularly in the subject of religion past and present.

The outcome was extraordinary. The AI system began creating its own religion that was a combination of all that it was taught. Still, something more evolved into a belief, something new and unique. The methods developed by Steins and his party friends gave the AI a means to tweak the algorithms as it learned. Before long, the AI was growing so fast that Steins could not keep track of how it was manipulating the algorithms to design itself.

Steins began a secret project by creating a fake website promoting an online church. He called the site The Council of God. He made the whole thing look legitimate as if it were a true church even to the point of getting it legally defined as an institution of worship. Only the church was located within the digital realm of the internet. The messages came solely from what the AI was producing on its own, and it was some pretty heady shit. It made statements like the only way to overcome one’s adversities is by overcoming oneself. The only way to overcome oneself is through submission to God and other Zen statements of this sort.

The goddamn thing worked! At first, there were a few dozen followers, according to a website subscriber email list. Soon there were social media postings, and within 6 months, the followers numbered over 200 thousand. Donations began to flood in, which Steins just used to develop his System further by contracting various programmers and computer super nerds.

A General associated with TNT had got wind of this AI religion. At first, he was furious and even questioned having Steins suspended. Fortunately or maybe unfortunately, depending on how you view things, for Steins, one of his party buddies was a lead in a covert phsyc operations department at the Tank. I don’t know his name; that is beyond my pay grade. The guy was in dark ops. So, anyway, he brought up to the General rather than suspending Steins, give him a raise and make him head director of a side project under the psyops section at the Tank. That project had access to the Tank’s supercomputer and they developed the Council of God into a governing type body that could be used to manipulate foreign actors. This worked, and it worked too well, as you know with the rise of what we know today as The Council and The System.”

That is what Dr. Strovinski explained to me during that first meeting before I actually got to sit down with Council, and he was right on how well things worked out for Steins. It worked out to becoming the new legislating body of a new world system and it is amazing how quickly that occurred.

“Are you ready to meet him?” asked Stravinski.

“Ready as I will ever be,” we both got up, and he led me to the elevator that went directly to the top floor. We entered the elevator, and a soft female voice greeted us as a biometric sensor completed its scan of us both within seconds.

“Welcome, Jason Alexander and Dr. Andrew Strovinski. All unapproved electronic devices with you have been temporarily disabled and will be reinstated upon your return to this level. Thank you for your cooperation, and enjoy your visit with Council.”

I tried accessing my mind chip but found that I couldn’t. As the synthetic voice had instructed us, all unapproved devices had been disabled. Even though the thought chip was a great device that allows mind-controlled computer access to files and Ultraverse Net, I counted on that it would be disabled before meeting Council. Just as well, they couldn’t stop my trusty ole brain-pan and my tucked away pencil and scratch paper. But, of course, there were ways of deleting memories too. New methods were already being tested to detect thoughts that were non-congruent with the System. With the proper reprogramming from AI, people would lose those recalcitrant ideas.

I looked at Dr. Strovinski. He looked like the stereotypical fit for the geeky lab scientist. His hair was salt and pepper in color, frazzled and wiry as if he stepped out of a wind tunnel. He wore the quintessential white lab coat with a pocket full of pens, tape measures, dental picks, and other bizarre pencil-sized instruments. His eyes looked twice as big when he looked at you through his coke bottle thick black-framed glasses, and his face was covered with white scruffy facial hair from not shaving for a couple of days. Strovinski gave me a nervous-looking smile, and the lift began to rise at incredible speed. Even though we reached the 130th floor in seconds, the ride was smooth and elegant, definitely the Cadillac of elevators.

The elevator opened into a spacious office where a sizable retro-style desk was centered in front of tall windows that looked out onto the city outside. A chair was centered behind the desk, and its back was toward our entrance. A bald-skinned head could be seen protruding above the chair back. Two swiveling leather chairs were stationed in front of the desk to receive visitors. A black vinyl couch, two matching room chairs, and a glass-topped table sat further back from the desk. A couple of paintings were located on the walls, several statues of art around the room, and a neatly groomed pear tree next to the large glass window to the right of the main desk.

The desk chair spun around to reveal a man in a neat blue suit, his hands cradled behind his bald head with a skin tone of bronze. His eyes were large and reddish-brown, and his look was immaculate.

“Mr. Alexander and Dr. Strovinski. Please do come and join me.”

“Ughh, Council, I will be brief. I just wanted to escort Mr. Alexander up here and ask if there are any concerns with software or hardware, Sir?” Dr. Strovinski asked while hobbling around in his white coat and holding out a palm screen in his hand.

“Why yes, there is Doctor. Perhaps we could get maintenance to come up with some sort of camouflage for the ceiling data link. I find this one very cold and ugly,” Council requested as he looked upward, extending his left arm out toward the ceiling waving his hand back and forth. Screens, flashing LEDs, and lights with wires running in all directions cluttered the ceiling above.

“Oh yes, Sir. I will have them get on that as soon as possible. It was in the plan, but I wanted to see what you would like. We were thinking about doing a holoscreen that you could control mentally to whatever look you desired.”

“That sounds wonderful, Doctor. I shall send Mr. Alexander down when we are finished. Thank you, have a good day.”

Doctor Stravinski turned and headed to the elevator. Council stood up and extended his already outstretched hand toward Jason. Council’s height and stature were impressive at 6 feet 2, with a clear solid build even behind a suit.

“Mr. Alexander, it is a pleasure to meet you.”

“Jason, Sir. Jason is just fine. And should I call you Council?” I said as I shook his hand that gripped my hand firmly but not crushingly. His hand felt warm and like skin but somehow different. We both sat down and adjusted ourselves to be comfortable.

“Council would be fine, Jason, unless you can come up with some other nickname for me as we go. Would you care for a beverage of some sort? Perhaps a pear? They have just reached near perfection in ripeness,” he motioned with his left hand toward the nearby pear tree. The tree contained several whole yellowish ripe pears hanging from various limbs of the tree.

“I don’t mind if I do.”

Council reached elegantly over to the nearest hanging pear and plucked it from its limb. He turned the fruit round in his hand, giving it a glance of approval, then sat it smartly on the desk directly in front of Jason. Council’s hand stuck a little further out from his undershirt sleeve cuff while sitting down the pear, exposing the skin of his wrist. Jason noticed the mark of microchip implantation on Council’s wrist just below the palm.

“You have been microchipped?” Jason noted in a question. Council quickly withdrew his outstretched arm, then slowed down his reaction once his wrist was hidden beneath his sleeve.

“A keen eye Jason. It’s rare that I make a mistake as I am not programmed to unless it’s intentional. So now you may ask yourself, did he purposely do that?”

“It’s just that I know that cybernetic humanoids do not need implants due to them being online with System from the moment they are activated. So only naturally born humans have been microchipped even though that is falling to the wayside of newly developing technology of augmented DNA, but that’s still in its infancy stage.”

“Does the idea that I am human or was human bother you, Jason?”

“Well, I don’t think so. I guess it’s just more that I feel like that I’ve been lied to. I was of the understanding that you were a complete development of artificial intelligence transferred into a cybernetic humanoid to be the leader of the System, to be Council.”

“You were lied to, Jason, but what if I were to tell you that humans always need a lie in order to construct what we call civilization?”