Error Code 314

It was midday when Evelyn stepped out of the elevator and into the artificial night of her apartment hallway. As the uneven fluorescent lights flickered to life, she made a mental review of the morning. There had been a call-out placed on an unassuming house in the middle of the suburbs, one of many nestled in a picturesque cul-de-sac. According to the case file that had been emailed to her last night, Amazon’s predicative analytics had shown that at approximately 10am this morning, the man who lived in this house would place an order for an excessive amount of Tylenol.

It had been over thirty years since the new technology had been rolled out across the globe, delivering goods to customers 24 hours before they even placed an order on the site. New speakers would appear a day before the old ones began to malfunction. Groceries were delivered without the need for a list and would be tailored to that person’s needs and tastes. Evelyn had never been able to wrap her head around how exactly the system worked, in the same way she couldn’t explain how the lightbulbs above her knew to come on when they sensed motion. Only that Amazon’s research and development team had managed to create an AI powerful enough to analyse the purchase history of every individual on the globe and predict with a 99.99% accuracy what orders would be placed in the next twenty-four hours.

Evelyn unlocked the door to her small city apartment and spared a glance at the clock. She had an hour or so to write up her report and gulp down some lunch before she needed to leave again. No time to prepare anything fancy, which is why, she supposed, a courier had dropped off a pre-made sandwich yesterday. With a sigh, Evelyn grabbed the sandwich from the fridge and pulled her laptop onto the kitchen counter.

Amazon Suicide Prevention Program, Call-out Conclusion Form:

Name: John Wilson, he/him

Age: 52

Suspicious Order: 4 family-sized packets of extra-strength Tylenol

Validity of Call-out: Call-out was valid. Subject received a stage 4 cancer diagnosis at approximately 9:30am. His family does not have stable enough finances to fund the necessary chemotherapy without jeopardising their children’s college funds. The subject has two children aged 17 and 19. He suspects he would have kept his diagnosis secret from his wife and children and attempted to take his own life later that night.

Result of Call-out: Early intervention was successful. His wife has been made aware of the situation and enough support was in place that I was able to leave approximately half an hour after the subject received his diagnosis.

Do you believe this patient a significant threat to themselves or others? I left the subject in a stable mental condition and believe that no further action is necessary on the part of the company.

The initial roll out of the predicative AI had led to a veritable melee of problems, some small like shoppers able to buyer’s remorse before they’d purchased a product. Some, however were bigger, like the 60% increase in suicide rates within the first year of the new technology. There’s a reason that experts classify a gun in a bedside drawer as more deadly to a suicidal person than a bridge five miles away. Both, of course, will result in an equally fatal outcome but only one allows the person enough time for a moment of utter despondency to pass. Enough time to remember the unintentional consequences their actions might have on the loved ones around them. Enough time to find a reason to live.

The AI’s ability to project when a person may be seized by the impulse to take their own life, and then to provide them the means to do so in advance – it was catastrophic. The government threatened immediate legislative intervention if Amazon couldn’t find a timely solution and after only a year of their prescient parcel deliveries, the program was altered so that a person had to physically add an item to their cart and check out before they could receive it. The predicative AI was still in use, the company used it to ensure that all orders were fulfilled in less than twenty-four hours. You could buy a cartoon of century eggs from a retailer in China at five and they would be at your doorstep in time to make dinner. Amazon’s AI would have put in the initial request months before the whim to make a Cantonese style congee even entered your head.

But there were more benefits than mere convenience to this updated system. It also birthed, with the help of government funding, the Terrorism and Suicide Prevention Program that could identify when people were likely to make potentially dangerous programs and allow the relevant authorities to take proactive rather than reactive actions to keep the public safe. It was members of this program alone that still received orders twenty-four hours before their purchase was placed, since they wouldn’t necessarily know what they might need going into a call-out. Yesterday, for example, Evelyn had received a package with multiple booklets that detailed how to apply for medical funding from the government, which she had then been able to pass onto John.

Evelyn had been living off a patchwork of savings, benefits and the occasional freelance opportunity for three years before her mother had called her attention to a notable headline: Amazon seeking certified mental health professionals to help tackle suicide crisis caused by speculative technology. It was grim and isolating work, talking people down from the figurative ledge five days a week but it was a stable, well-paying job. At least well-paying enough that Evelyn could move back out from her parents’ house and start paying back the debt she had accumulated from three years of making the minimum payments of her exorbitant student loans. Although it would be dishonest to pretend the money was the only reason she had taken the job. There was a cleansing aspect to each successful visit that lightened her otherwise leaden soul and gave her a reason to wake each morning.

And she was successful, one of the most successful evaluators Amazon had ever hired with a perfect record under her belt. When the ghosts of her past kept her up at night, Evelyn used the faces of the people she’d helped that day to lull her into sleep. An errant glance jolted Evelyn back to the present and she realised she’d been starring absently at the monitor for the last twenty minutes. Without time for proofreading, she simply submitted the form and pulled up the file of her next subject: Cecilia Miller.

Name: Cecilia Miller, she/her

Age: 26

Background: Subject is a young woman of Caucasian background. Widowed after her husband was killed in combat in March. Subject recently gave birth to their only child in June. The infant is a three-month old daughter.

Suspicious Order: 3 litre tank of propane gas.

Reason for Suspicion: Subject has no parents and is estranged from her husband’s parents following a former dispute. They are assessed to have little support and may be suffering from post-partum depression. Subject does not own a barbecue nor do they have a history of ordering large amounts of propane gas.

Evelyn slammed the laptop shut and grabbed her bag, practically spilling into the elevator. A quick check of her wristwatch reminded her that she would need to speed walk to the station if she wanted to catch the right train. As her high-heeled footstep pummelled the pavement, her swirling mind began to take on the repetitive rhythm. I want…to die. I want…to die. The intrusive thoughts had grown worse in the past days, so much so that now they were almost as bad as they were immediately after – Shut…up. Shut…up. Her conscious mind began to join in, layering over the traitorous words and creating a dissonant harmony of rabid thoughts.

It was only when she was seated on the train, breath still shallow from her slight jog, that Evelyn actively took a grip of her mind and forced everything to a standstill. In, 1, 2, 3. Out, 1, 2, 3. In, 1, 2, 3. Counting her breaths was the sole way Evelyn was able to calm herself once the panic began to set in. She let the waves of alarm wash over her, felt her body tense in preparation to fight or flee and then relax as the wave retreated. She had no clue as to why everything had started to worse again, the intrusive thoughts, the sudden assaults of panic, her ability to sleep at night. It had taken years of work for her to reclaim some sense of normalcy after –

This time Evelyn didn’t have the foresight to catch her and in a flash, she was tumbling backwards into the past.

A young girl sat in front of her, nervously fidgeting with the edge of her dress. She couldn’t have been much older than fourteen. The bones of her wrist bulged beneath the skin, unnaturally prominent. ‘I’m fine, I think,’ her voice is distorted, high and willowy and sounding like it is being spoken around a mouthful of marbles. It doesn’t matter that her words are almost indiscernable though, Evelyn knows them off by heart. ‘I just have…thoughts, sometimes. About how easy it would be to stop the pain. Sometimes I just don’t- I don’t know how to -‘

Her words are broken off and the scene shifts, suddenly it is an older woman with the same piercing green eyes in front of her. Evelyn can hear herself dimly say: ‘I understand your concerns, Ms. Johnson, and I think you are right to be worried about the diary you found,’ there is a long delay, as there always is, before the next words fall out from her mouth and into the air between them, hovering ever so slightly then dissipating into the air, ‘but there’s a difference, you see, between what we call active suicidal tendencies and passive suicidal ideation. I would, of course, be happy to keep working with Delilah in the new year but she shouldn’t pose a threat to herself and others, so you would be safe taking her away for the Christmas break.’

But…

But…

But…

The woman’s face morphs, and she is no longer quietly concerned but enraged. The anger radiates out from her in visible bursts of green mist. ‘You! You! You! You!’ Evelyn opens her mouth, but no words come out, no matter how hard she tries to force out the apology. I didn’t know she wants to scream and the declaration echoes in her ears, slowing transforming into a sedate murmur. The train slid to a halt, jolting Evelyn in her seat and the murmur resolves itself into an announcement that the express line has reached it’s final stop and all passengers need to depart from the carriage.

Although she can feel the heat in her face and her pounding heart, Evelyn walked past the other travellers as if she hadn’t just experienced a thirty-minute panic attack, ignoring the few anxious eyes turned her way. Somewhere in the back of her mind, a part of her itches for a hit of valium, but it’s relatively easy to ignore. She’d been off the medication for eight years now and was determined to keep clean no matter how bad things got. There would be time to think about everything once she’d finished her last evaluation of the day and got safely back to her apartment. Evelyn held onto that image, of her comfortably snuggled into couch, as she walked the extra mile or so to the small condominium building and pressed the buzzer for apartment 22a.

‘Hello, Cecilia speaking,’ came a disembodied voice through the intercom.

‘Hello Cecilia, my name is Evelyn and I’m an evaluator for the Amazon Suicide Prevention Program. Our records show that you are about to make a purchase of three liters of propane gas at approximately nine a.m. tomorrow morning. I’m here to verify why you will be making that purchase and whether you are a significant threat to yourself or others.’

‘Oh, you’d better come up then.’

’Thank you,’ Evelyn replied as the door to the building swung open on its automated hinges.

The visit was not a particularly long or arduous one. Evelyn was on guard at first because Cecilia seemed unruffled by the fact that a suicide evaluator had shown up on her doorstep. Most people are completely unaware that there future selves will become victim to suicidal impulses and are repelled by the very idea. Almost everyone is at least a little unsettled when Evelyn explains the purpose of her visit. But Cecilia simply put the kettle on to boil and offered Evelyn some cookies that had come fresh from the oven. She was grateful for a snack after her lacklustre lunch but watched the apparently carefree woman bustle around her kitchen with a degree of wariness. There were only two types of people who didn’t mind a visit from the ATSPP, and that were the oblivious - people who had no intention of committing either an act of terror or suicide and those who were clearer headed than most about their upcoming actions.

Despite the radically different motives of these two categories, it was difficult in practise to tell one type from another. A long-term suicidal person who has finally committed to their intention will often appear carefree and content, overjoyed by their sense of resolution. In the end there were two factors that made up Evelyn’s mind, or at least that’s what she told herself. The first was the fact that self-immolation was not, understandably, a very common method of suicide. The second was the fact that Cecilia had a very reasonable explanation as to why she would likely put in the order. She was planning to go to a community cook-out at the park to celebrate the upcoming Forth of July holiday and suspected that someone would likely ring and ask her to bring along some fuel for the barbecue. Ever since her husband passed away, she explained patiently, her neighbours had been extremely attentive and made sure she felt at home with their own young families.

And the third reason? The third reason was that halfway through their conservation, a piercing wail split the air. Cecilia jumped into action, hurrying into a nearby room and bringing out a little bundle of squawking blankets. ‘Just when I thought I’d gotten her to sleep,’ Cecilia muttered, rocking the baby gently, ‘would you like to say hello?’ It took Evelyn a minute to realise that the woman was talking to her and not the child, since Cecilia didn’t look up from her charge.

Without waiting for an answer, Cecilia plopped the baby onto Evelyn’s lap and suddenly there were two piercing green eyes starring into her soul. Frozen in place, Evelyn didn’t reach down and support the infant’s head quickly enough and Cecilia had to snatch her back before she fell. Evelyn murmured something mildly cohesive about not being a baby-person over Cecilia’s profuse apologies and decided that she had more than enough information to file her report.

The train ride home was a blur as was the report that she wrote while snacking on a tasteless microwaved dinner. All Evelyn remembered was typing in the words ’subject is not considered a significant risk to herself or others’ before curling into her bed and crying herself to sleep.

***

The next morning, Evelyn rubbed her red, puffy eyes and dragged herself out of bed in time for a belated breakfast. It was a Saturday, which didn’t mean much apart from the fact that she didn’t have any call outs to make. She was stacking the dishwasher when a shrill ring brought her attention to the door. Evaluators didn’t have the same rules as everybody else, so it was possible there was something she would need later today. But she didn’t have any plans to go out and her pantry was well stocked, so Evelyn was even more intrigued when she opened the door to find two Amazon packages, both with return labels tapped onto the top. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen a return label on a package, certainly not since the predicative AI was introduced.

Puzzled, Evelyn carried the parcels inside. One was much bigger and heavier than the other and she decided to open up the smaller parcel first. It didn’t take long before the familiar bottle was in her hands and there were dozens of containers of valium unpacked on the table. Why on earth would she need such a large supply of the drug? There was a foreboding feeling in the pit of her stomach as Evelyn reached for the larger package.

Her shaking hands revealed a build-your-own crib, and her entire body was wracked with a wave of nausea. As if it had been waiting for her to make the morbid discovery, it was at that moment that her cellphone began to ring.