Painting by Paul Ranson, Apple Tree with Red Fruit, Museum of Fine Arts, Huston.
(1)
Josh pushed Pedro and woke him up from an afternoon nap. He pointed his left index finger to the screen projector and showed Pedro the new mind map he just finished. Ten years ago, when both of them were graduating Ph.D. students at the University of Windcity, Josh was the youngest promoted assistant professor as Pedro tried terribly hard to secure research funds for the next year. After two years of working, Josh watched his colleague selling an APP to Tycoon company Nanosoft for a hundred million dollars. He determined to resign from the university and focus on earning chances while Pedro was not able to find a tenure position and then started to travel all around the world. However, three years ago, to make a big fortune, Josh believed in Big Shot Tam Ellen in tech and invested in millions of Petcoin. However, while Petcoin evaporated 90% of its total value in one night, Josh could not repay the debts from banks and lost his wife and children. Last week, just getting back from Shanghai, Pedro found an unalive, drunk Josh lying at the security point of his apartment. Josh only had ten dollars in his pocket with thousands of dollars of debts to be repaid in the following month. Pedro could not watch Josh being sent to jail. He brought the old friend to his apartment and cleared the sofa for Josh to stay.
On the next day, Josh told Pedro what happened to him in those years and asked Pedro whether Pedro could lend him a million dollars as he would repay Pedro 1.2 million next year. However, Pedro refused and gave Josh a brand-new laptop. He encouraged Josh to develop a mobile APP with him. From his last trip to Shanghai, Pedro met an alumnus and received an invitation for attending the incoming World Artificial Intelligence Development Conference (WAIDC). The conference would take place at the end of this month. Josh majored in Artificial Intelligence at the college, so Pedro invited Josh that perhaps they could work together and develop a product in AI for the conference. He also inferred that it would also be a remarkable opportunity to earn a lot.
“Guess what, man? I think we got that idea! This new APP I just designed would be even greater than Mitter! I believe this idea worth hundreds and millions!”
Josh laughed hard while Pedro did not change any facial expression. Pedro kept staring at the mind map and spoke to Josh.
“You mean that we can outperform Mitter, the most successful social media APP? Are you sure it is gonna work? For me, the APP structure seems like a very bold attempt, and, of source, mind-blowing, but we have to ensure things under control.”
“No worry, bro!” Josh said, “This time we won’t be manipulated by any of the Big Heads, and I would take care of it as my own child and make sure nothing wrong happens to it!”
“I hope you have been awake from a drunken sleep. Let me trust you for now! I would book our flight tickets and get some wine. We start it up tonight!”
“No wine, please! Give me whiskey!”
(2)
Yi and He were informed to arrive at the Shanghai National Convention and Exhibition Center (NECC) before 8 AM this morning. The NECC would hold the WAIDC in a week, and the committee needed to determine the booths for the exhibitors based on their sample portfolios. The submission deadline was the previous day, but there had still been two groups asking for a one-day extension. The committee meeting would hold at 8:30 AM, and they were still waiting for a project called Apoco. Yi and He were not members of the committee. However, since their Ph.D. advisor, who was one of the heads of the committee, could not arrive in town due to a terrible storm, they had to attend this meeting for their advisor.
“Did Apoco submit their portfolios?”, Yi asked the secretary.
“Well, I hope they did, or we have to move them to this corner.”
“Our advisor said this group would surprise us at the conference,” He said, “but till now, they only created trouble.”
“The committee all respects the decision of your advisor. We shall not take away their invitation, but this little space is all we could do for now.”
“Thank you, Mr. Secretary!”, Yi hesitated and said, “I would keep my eyes on them during the conference.”
On March 27th, it was the opening ceremony for the WAIDC. Yi still had not received the sample portfolio of Apoco. However, after entering the NECC, he totally forgot about that disappointment. Almost all the latest technological innovations in AI were brought here, included AI autopiloting cars, AI smartphones, intelligent servant robots, and robotic doctors. More excitedly, many Big Shots in Artificial Intelligence got here. Yi saw Jay Ma talking with QQ Ma, while Ben Doors defending the new augmented reality products to Mars Zac. On his way to the bathroom, he found a familiar face standing around an oblivious corner with two men next to him.
“Wow! It has to be Tam!”, Yi opened up his eyes and whispered, “How could he be here? The news said he was in New York last night.”
Yi went to the bathroom and waited at the front door for Tam to show up there. However, by the time he left with an upset face, he never met Tam but one of the young men with Tam earlier.
“Hey, man! Nice to meet you!”, the man talked to Yi.
“Hello! Nice to meet you! Do I know you?”, Yi said.
“I thought you had remembered! We have met at the office of your advisor!”, the man laughed.
“Oh! You must be Pedro! It’s great to see you here, so you guys finally finished your APP, Apoco?”
“Yes! Fortunately, things have been working well! I have to get in there! See you later!”, Pedro said and went into the restroom.
Yi was surprised that the little corner they assigned could attract Tam’s attention. He walked towards their desk and saw another man sitting there surrounded by dozens of people. Yi tried to drill closer to the display and finally could hear the trailer of Apoco.
“Hey! What did Tam say about this product?” the crowds asked.
“Tam said it’s gonna be great!”
(3)
“What are you watching, Nate?” Moore tickled Nate’s shoulder and said. She saw her brother could not move his eyes away from the tablet while watching a Yotube video.
“Check this out! It is the firsthand information from Marc the Techman! He just went to the WAIDC, and here he talks about the most popular products at the WAIDC.” Nate answered.
From the video, they saw Marc the Techman showing the recording of his smartphone. Marc was using an APP called Apoco, which, from his introduction, is an AI-controlled social media platform with a very elegant red and white interface
“You could just link your account with any previous social media APP you used, and it would read through your selected posts and browsing history to offer you reading suggestions, including news, books, videos, and even friends’ posts. You don’t need to worry about fake news since Apoco has gone through all news in the world to filter out the fake ones using its unique algorithm. Also, you don’t need to block posts from any friends manually since the APP helps you to do that.
“By the end of the day, comment below, and I would send out five testing codes for my dear subscribers. People getting the codes would become the first group trying this wonderful APP. If you are lucky enough, you could even become Tam’s friend and ask him questions!”
Moore was staring at the screen with Nate. After watching the video, she quickly turned to her phone and commented below Marc’s video. It was almost midnight.
“Hey, Nate! What else did Marc speak about the APP?” Moore asked.
“You mean Apoco? Marc said it could automatically manage your social network for you. I think you need this one, Sis!” Nate said.
Moore was the president of the student government at her university. She had been there for only half a semester but already become tired of socializing with people that she had no interest in. Moore was envious of some of her friends who were good at maintaining their connections with a lot of people, but after she experienced being such a president, she felt that her social skills were not enough and she always hoped someone could be willing to do all those work for her. At this moment, after watching the introduction of Apoco, Moore just found relief for her problems.
On the next day, Moore did not wake up till noon. When she opened her phone, a notification popped up. It was from YoTube. After swiping up from the lock screen, Moore shouted loudly, even louder than the day she became the president of student government.
“It is such an amazing day!” Moore laughed.
(4)
“Source tells NBC news that Apoco today has reached 100 million users all around the world. One of the Co-founder Josh Morrison has expressed his gratefulness for the users on the platform and he said he planned to hold an online meeting with 50 lucky fans a week later to talk about potential improvements of the APP. Apoco has become a phenomenon since they launched it on the mobile APP store. The Artificial Intelligence system and the Deep Learning algorithms behind have greatly changed people’s opinion on traditional social media such as FB and Nanasoft’s Mitter. People say that Apoco has fewer Ads and distractions; it always provides helpful articles or videos in time when they have troubles with some of their works.”
“Recently, football players began to shut down their old social media accounts and move to Apoco. Last month, English football clubs and institutions boycotted FB and Mitter for a week to combat the sustained racial abuse online. An anonymous player said that ‘Social media is now sadly a regular vessel for toxic abuse. Hate has become depressingly normalized’. While the traditional social media platforms set no limitation for their contents, Apoco, a month ago, announced their new commenting systems below news articles and video posts. The previous commenting system only allowed people to comment with a list of provided reactions, but the new system offers them the opportunity to type their own words. Besides, to maintain peace and love for the community, launched with the new system, the Artificial Intelligent Content Filter would filter out all abusive words and rewrite the comments to lovely texts. People, who published abusive comments, would not see the changed phrase of their original texts. Till today, all players with top transfer market values have opened their accounts on Apoco, and we would expect their fans following them as well.”
“The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman recently praised the mobile APP Apoco during their news conference. The spokesman said the Chinese Government thanks Apoco for reducing fake news related to China and offering their users to view the true situation of Xinjiang, Tibet, and people living there. Some western media companies have been committed to creating fake news of China for decades, but the Artificial Intelligence system of Apoco crushed their lies and expose the truth. Moreover, Apoco also helped the government stop spreading the rumors.
“Some schools in China encourage their students to create accounts on Apoco. A teacher tells that teachers think that books and articles on Apoco offer students to form positive views on the world and learn knowledge from various areas. It could also help them develop interests in reading books and learning useful skills instead of indulging in those mobile games.”
(5)
“Ha, ha! I have told you that Apoco would earn us hundreds and millions! Pedro, we are billionaires now!.” On the day when Apoco has reached 500 million users, Josh threw a party to celebrate the success of his app at his apartment. With a few shots of whiskey, Josh started to feel buzzed.
“You did make something extraordinary! Apoco has the ability to change the world! Well, before you are hammered and blackout as always, I might have bad news for you.” After drinking another glass of wine, Pedro kept saying, “remember the day we finished the mind map for Apoco? You said you would take care of it as your child and protect it from the Big Heads. Now a Big Shot is trying to purchase your kid. He has contacted me and other shareholders and sent a huge offer.”
“Who is the Big Shot you are talking about?”
“Well, it’s Tam, Tam Ellen. He has coveted our product since the WAIDC.”
“Tam Ellen? The guy who messes with the petcoin and made me lose everything? There is no way I will sell Apoco to that guy.”
“Tam definitely has expected your reaction. It would be a hostile takeover. We would take a bit of talking at the board conference to convince our shareholders to hold their stocks in two weeks.”
“There is no time for the party, let’s head back to our lab. I would rewrite Apoco and improve our profitability.”
Two weeks later, with sweat breaking out on his backbone, Pedro stared at the updated mind map and asked Josh, “this time our AI seems too radical. You sure we can still have it controlled and would cause any problem?”
“What are you talking about? This would be the most perfect social media AI ever made in human history! Come on, we have a board conference to start. We will change the world!”
Following Josh to the meeting room, Pedro uninstall Apoco from his phone and mumbled, “we may open Pandora’s box for human beings.”
(6)
After having a meeting with the student government, Moore started swiping Apoco on her phone as usual. It had been a year after she got the testing codes, Apoco had become a part of her life. It was her personal butler that managed her social network. From sending daily greetings to her friends to making fundraising for the student government, Apoco can always find the best wordings and the optimum timing to send her messages. Finally, she was free from worrying about socializing with people. Without even meeting people in person, Moore can still maintain good connections with a lot of people she is interested in.
Nonetheless, while no longer need to worry about making friends, Moore spent more time browsing the content in Apoco. Apoco’s AI seems to know about Moore even better than herself. This app can always recommend news she was concern with and YoTube videos that could amuse her most. After a few months, Moore had to admit that she was a little addicted to this app, and she started to become indifferent about her relationships with friends.
“Well, Sis.” Nate seemed a little worried, “Has anyone told you that you have changed a lot after using Apoco? You are not as lively and caring as before. Now, you seem to care about nothing other than this app.”
“Aren’t you also spend at least 5 hours using Apoco?” Moore retorted.
“Yeah, but I am a content creator at this platform. I am debunking the fraud of global warming and making a lot of money from it!”
“Come on, spreading fake news is not a serious job. I am sure your news would be filtered immediately by Apoco. We have to combat climate change to save humanity. Look at all the information and studies I found on Apoco. These researches are made by serious scientists.”
“You are just being jealous. I got thousands of viewers. As a matter of fact, I also got my evidence through Apoco. I am citing articles from former NASA researchers.”
“Wait, how can it be? Is Apoco feeding us with polarized information?”
(7)
“Source tells NBC news that China recently would ban Apoco for its algorithm would provide users with provocative and radical news. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said that the Chinese Government appreciates Apoco for debunking fake news related to China but does not tolerate the fact that the app is feeding users with polarized and provocative information about climate change, nuclear weapons, and China’s institution. Apoco seriously hinders China’s strategy for carbon neutrality, endangers the prosperity and stability of China, and jeopardizes the vital interests of the Chinese people.”
“Several studies have shown that Apoco’s Artificial Intelligence system does feed differential user groups with distinctive or even opposite information. This social media and news app thus can nurture polarized ideas regarding issues like climate change, globalization, nuclear warfare, and national policies. As a matter of fact, political polarization in the United States has reached its highest level for the last five decades. Apoco has already divided the country into two sides, in which people cannot hear each other anymore, do not want to understand each other anymore, and cannot trust each other anymore. With the incitation of this app, cases relating to racial violence are now more and more common. Some social scientists are recommending the US government to consider the option of switching off the AI system of Apoco.”
“According to NHK, Japanese governors are blaming Apoco for wearing down young people’s will by recommending young people with short video clips. Japanese youth are now used to seek instant satisfaction and lose their interest in education and job. According to a local social survey, people under age 30 are spending at least 5 hours swiping contents in Apoco. Moreover, with Apoco’s powerful automatic social network management system, young people in Japan do not have the incentive to hang out and interact with friends in person. As a result, the post-Apoco generation was lacking basic social skills and tend to stay at home.”
(8)
“Grandpa Pedro! I am back home!”
“Hey, Adam. Come here.” An old man in his seventies was sitting on a chair in his courtyard, waving his hand and calling his grandson, “I want to tell you a story.”
“Coming, Grandpa Pedro!” The eight-year-old boy ran through rows of apple trees and sat next to the old man. Adam knew that his grandfather would start telling another interesting story about the outside world.
“It perhaps will be the last story I could tell you. 50 years ago, two young and ambitious men were trying to build something extraordinary, something that can change the world and made them millionaires. As a result, they design an app called Apoco, a social media platform controlled by a super Artificial Intelligence, and this was how the apocalypse had begun.”
“Out of private hatred and the pressure of being takeover, one of the young men decided to upgrade the mind map for the superintelligence to make more profit. Hence, he had turned Apoco into a machine that aimed solely to maximize the user attractiveness and the profitability of the company. After processing billions of user data, the machine found the information, which contained the most radical ideas and had the most provocative wording, could always capture users’ attention. It also found that different groups of people had differential acceptance of different ideas. The machine itself did not have any notions about political polarization, intensification of conflicts, or propaganda, but feeding different groups of people with controversial and radical views was the best strategy for the company to attract consumers and make money. As a result, Apoco had become the Petri dish for social cleavages.”
“In addition, Apoco’s powerful social networking system deprived of people’s will to interact with others in person. Instead, they only made friends with those who were recommended by the system, who had similar ideologies. As a result, the post-Apoco children became the most isolated and polarized generation. Hence, no single policy could be consistently executed. For each term of office, the government applied differential and even opposite strategies to deal with issues like climate change and nuclear weapons. So, we failed to stop global warming, and it led to a massive famine in developing countries due to the hot weather and drought, untraceable and unexplainable pandemics, and floods due to the rise of sea level.”
“A social scientist, Ulrich Beck (1992) once said that ‘poverty is hierarchic, smog is democratic’, warning the environmental risks would affect people universally no matter how rich you are and what social class you are in. However, he underestimated the effect of social inequality. In fact, when famines, pandemics, and floods struck us, the rich could always find efficient food inventory, quality medical service, and gentrified shelters. By comparison, lack of food supply, insufficient medical care, and slums left the poor with no preparation for those environmental threats. The desperate social disparity had led to revolutions and gave birth to radical regimes all over the world. With no common ground for negotiation to contain the use of the nuclear weapons, our world ended with nuclear fallout.”
“Oh, the moment I saw the updated mind map of Apoco, I knew something terrible could happen.” Old Pedro sighed helplessly, “I could not stop Josh. I should have but I couldn’t. He was plagued by his desire and anger.” He kept silent for a while, then looked at Adam. “As I could not stop my friend Josh, I decided to build a community that can preserve our human civilization. I spent seven years collecting books, documents, and models that recorded human history and inventions and built a library. With the help of a few Amish families, I establish this community, in which we avoid using any modern technology, especially the internet. My dear grandson Adam, I hope you can learn about our human civilization at the library and keep my story in mind. Someday, I wish you could leave this community and rebuild our human society outside.”
(9)
Adam packed his baggage the day after his eighteenth birthday. Years after years, he spent most of his time reading in the library. His grandfather Pedro died two years ago. At the funeral, Adam decided to fulfill his grandfather’s wish as soon as he turned eighteen. After packing, he said goodbye to his parents. Keeping Pedro’s story in mind, Adam left the community where he was born, the Garden of Eden, and started his journey to rebuild human civilization, with the awe towards technology. His first mission is to find a group of survivors and understand their cultures.
Reference:
Beck, Ulrich. 1992. Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity. London: Sage.