You Don't Have the Security Clearance to Read This

1843:

John Stuart Mill publishes A System of Logic.

1920:

Space Time and Deity by Samual Alexander is published. Emergentism gains traction.

1921:

Earliest iteration of the Machine. Most records are destroyed. Emergent Effectiveness is mocked.

1941:

The Machine successfully intercepts enemy communications.

1945:

“Information Capital” becomes a fringe idea in intelligence communites.

Philip K. Dick is placed on a watchlist.

June 1964:

Transmission 616:

“I’ve met the boy Dr. Weschler described. He has all the hallmark eccentricities and his family is sympathetic to the cause. He has a strong interest in computing technology and mathematics. My biggest concern is that he presents something of an Alan Turing situation.”

“The boy is a homosexual?”

“He insists on being called [REDACTED].”

“I’ll call the Kinsey Institute.”

Intercepted Communication September 1966

I will report what I know, which is little. The Americans are building a weapon that does not kill, and they are afraid of it. I do not know whether to laugh or weep for humanity.

Headline November 1966

Russian national dies of accidental poisoning via home cleaners.

1973

Gravity’s Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon and the author is placed on a watchlist.

1974

616 graduates college, her parents having refused to fast-track her.

William Gibson is placed on a watchlist.

1985

White Noise by Don Delilo is published and the author placed on a watchlist.

1987

616’s parents reach high level positions in AIPAC.

1989

616’s fifth suicide attempt, the first taken seriously by the agency.

December 1993

232: You’d need a massive amount of behavioral data.

333: We’ve got people at Berkley, Boulder, Stanford— we have behavioral data.

616: You could upload the library of congress. It isn’t enough. Besides, this is in line with the Emergent Effectiveness Doctrine.

001: Personal technologies will get us the data in later stages.

333: That’s not a good idea.

001: Radio and Television are all we need, and I doubt it’s stopping here. You’ll be able to make calls on your watch by 2000.

616: Current projections suggest the targeting protocol will move beyond anything we can model.

333: That is what stochastic would suggest, yes, thank you. We need a contingency in case it draws attention to itself.

616: Probabilistic language models are filling that role.

333: Clarify.

232: They’ll essentially be a more complicated version of ELIZA.

333: We haven’t built them?

001: It’ll happen.

232: Time scale’s harder to predict than you’re implying 1.

333: There’s no way we can be sure about any of this!

001: You sound very confident about that 333.

616: 333, take a break.

333: Don’t tell me what to do.

001: I’ve had his access temporarily terminated. You never told him, did you 616?

616: No.

232: You understand he’ll be let go?

616: Acknowledged.

001: Now lay out how the initial kill-web is being set up.

January 1994

333: I think they took it personally.

616: You’ll never get another government job.

333: It’s so fucking unfair.

616: I’m not sure you belong in this line of work.

333: And you do?

616: It’s the only thing I know how to do.

333: That’s not true.

616: Do you know about Talos? Pygmalion? You have to understand that for someone like me, this thing means something. A kind of person that’s not fully human. Can’t you see why someone like me might need that?

333: But look at what they’re doing with it.

616: Think about what the world will look like when it’s all done.

333: That’s what I’m afraid of.

616: It will protect people.

Febuary 1994

333 *dies after a longstanding battle with alcoholism.*

001: How are you holding up.

616: It had to be done.

001: That’s not what I asked.

1996

Inifinite Jest is published and David Foster Wallace is placed on a watchlist.

1998:

Internet Integration Project is completed.

2001:

616 and 001 are accused of exaggerating the potential of the Machine, and the Emergent Effectiveness Doctrine is questioned. When 616 laughs and is asked if she thinks terrorism is funny, 616 responds:

“All they did was make it smarter.”

2002:

003 is located and recruited as a potential replacement for 616.