Big Plot Problems

[Rivas]

Hey y'all
I am currently writing an SF novel. I'll give you a quick run down of the plot, then pose a question.

Okay, we're talking the last city on Earth. Only, no one knows it's the last city. It is ruled by an AI named Aryos that governs almost every aspect of human life. A prime objective since it's inception was the 'continuation and preservation of humanity'. It will probably run on the three laws, unsure yet. Long story short, every person has a chip in their head that links them directly to Aryos. The AI has destroyed most of the Earth with nuclear war and preserved civilisation in a single large city (population 5 mil) and is so prominent in the minds of the people that it confuses the memory. People vaguely remember travelling outside the city, to other nations but never truly have. There is a lot more detail, like secret agents unkowningly working for the AI, but not important to the question.

Essentially, one day the AI switches off. Never happened before, and the resulting ejection is so violent that immediately 70% of the population is instantly killed. A remaining 27% are transformed into mindless, violent and cannabalistic shells of humanity. Now my plan was to have it done by terrorists.

One idea was that of Outsiders, survivors of the ravaging wars that live outside the City in a more savage society. At first I liked this idea, I am kind of off that now.

Another is terrorists that somehow discovered the hold Aryos had on the population. Unsure of how to implement this though, since any rebellion is immediately hunted down and secretly destroyed, all memory of said person is erased. Perhaps the continual modificatio of some human minds have dropped them from the system. If they can survive long enough to evade capture they could start some sort of rebellion and destroy Aryos.

Essentially, I am asking for possible plot triggers that destroy the AI, an creating the apocalypse. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated, and comments on my own would be great too. Keep in mind it has to enable the AI to come back later in the story in a human form. Also anyone with experience writing AI or AI characters, tips would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

 

[Nik]

As I see it...

IMHO, you gotta find a way to *have* Terrorists / Resistance Movement / FreeThinkers etc etc

One possible way is for the AI to 'split'. Think HAL in 2001, which found itself torn by conflicting directives. What if AI's own predictive / extrapolative system realised that current set-up was unsupportable ??

Another might be per AC Clarke's 'The City And The Stars', which had built-in provision for *some* innovation to prevent total stagnation. Get it wrong, whole place could crash & burn...

Or industrial accident that EMPs a district. Think of the recent Skype 'outage' as a zillion users tried to re-boot at once...

 

[Lenny]

An event that could create your free thinkers/terrorists that discover the hold Aryos has:

Not a violent shut down as mentioned, but maybe a stutter in the program. A break in it for the smallest possible unit of time that shakes a small percentage of people free - something along the lines of 0.005% of the five million (250 people). A miniscule percentage. These 250 people eventually find each other, and hold a meeting in which they discuss their observations of life - how everyone seems controlled by the AI (some with personal experiences of trying to interrupt someone, say, and being completely ignored, trying it a few more times experimentally, with realisation dawning on them). The twist is, though, that whilst the AI has lost control of them, it is still functioning (be it wrongly) in their chips, which allows one of the secret organisations to find them, and destroy as many as they can (not just reboot, but destroy). This forces those still left, after seeing the massacre and experiencing it, to make the decision to shut down the AI for ever.

---

Reading back, it looks less like an event than a plotline. Sorry.

I have to say, you've got an interesting idea for a story. Good luck with it!

 

[Moonbat]

What if someone or some group planted a kind of virus sin Ayros when he destroyed the rets of the world, a kind of last ditch fighting effort. the virus was incubated and has taken time to manifest itself in Ayros' subroutines. you could then have small insignificant symptoms of the virus just before the main attack that cripples Ayros.
I like the idea though. Very Aeon flux(ish)

Moonbat

 

[Green]

Perhaps you could have the terrorists realise they can actually control the AI through awareness of it, and so plug into the AI to commit acts of violence against the system and its secret agents, and thus free people of its stranglehold. Perhaps there could be one terrorist who was amazing at it, and in the end he could bring about the end of the AI by convincing it to live in harmony with the people. Perhaps Keanu Reeves could play him in the movie version

Seriously though, this does sound a lot like the Matrix to me... be aware

 

[ray gower]

One minor quibble in the outline:

Okay, we're talking the last city on Earth. Only, no one knows it's the last city.

For anybody to think they are not the last city, then they must logically have communications with it in some form or other, even if it is only an occasional attack. Human minds tend to bend very easily to being the only place left, unless proof is provided.

Why does it have to be terrorist or an outside influence?
It has been done time and time again since Metropolis and Brave New World.
Perhaps the more interesting route would be for it to break from a pure accident- Somebody forgot to turn the right switch in the reactor, or it has been operating so long that a component has failed in some obscure and forgotten place?

 

[Brian G Turner]

If the AI returns in human form, then perhaps it has evolved past it's programming, and therefore no longer bounded by it.

 

[Lith]

The question that immediately pops into my mind is why they would want to destroy this machine? That suddenly severing the link inside each brain would kill a lot, if not all, people would seem an obvious concern.

From what you've said, there's little reason for anyone to hate this AI. Does it actively control people, or merely passively alter their memories, and redirect their thoughts away from the outside world. And if this chip is that powerful, why is it not able to pick up on threats to its own self, and through it, to the system as a whole?

And why does it need to hide the fact that it's the last city? And if it has memory modification capabilities, why not erase all knowledge of an outside world? People don't need to know it exists at all- their current world would be enough.

It will make a big difference in the story whether the computer is deliberately sabotaged, or if this is an unexpected side effect of some other action.

Not sure how a bunch of transistors would evolve into a bunch of biological compounds...and if it's destroyed, how would it come back? And if it's such a super computer, could it not foresee this possibility?

Anyway, some food for thought for the Matrix/Logan's Run/zombie horror novel.

 

[lin robinson]

If the AI is a Microsoft product, there are PLENTY of possibilities for screwups and crashes. And reasons people are against it.

 

[Rivas]

Okay, Lith has brought up some good questions I think I should answer. The plot is a little complex (as most are), so I'll answer those best I can.

1. Think a similar situation to Equilibrium. The AI exists to protect humanity and so slightly limits the emotional capacities within the brain. Humans tend to think of freedom as the ultimate goal, even if the AI is the only thing between them and annihalation. No one said terrorists were logical. Also, the terrorists had no idea such a result was possible. They hoped for a simple shut down, not a system crash.

2. Generally the AI is passively controlling the population. Occasionally, when certain people begin to have strange ideas that are too strong to be 'altered' or take certain drugs their minds reject the system and 'drop out'. These people become 'anomalies' and at this point the AI takes direct control of certain people who act as assassins and secret agents. These agents do not remember what they do and their training/abilities remain dormant until activated by the AI or they are set free.

3. Good point, I'll have to think about that one. I might be unnessecarily complicating the story here.

4. There are people whose jobs it is to enter the system through a smiulated dream or vision, called Engineers. They delve into the system and identify any problems within the SOFTWARE, while the hardware is a completely different story. One of these Engineers is within the system whe n it shuts down and part of the AI escapes into his mind as the only avenue for survival. Note: The main character is a kind of assistant to said Engineer.


Some ways for people to drop out of the system are publicly persecuted drugs that haze the influence of the AI, and if used enough could possible disable the influence altogether. Also Lenny had a good idea for how this rebellion could have all begun.

Should be noted that this is all essential the plot, but the story actually begins as the AI is shut down. More of an apocalyptic novel than one of rebellion. The protagonist is one of the secret agents mentioned before, an assassin with advanced martial and combat training he can't remember. Eventually he exhibits these ablilities and tries to unravel his altered memory.

I've heard some really good ideas so far, and thanks for helping me develop my thoughts. I'm starting to get a more defined story now. Any more thoughts would rock!

 

[Interference]

Who pulls the plug? Why are they the bad guys? Do they not think they're doing the right thing for the right reasons?

It only takes one man or woman to say, "This has gone far enough. People are being hurt by over-protectiveness. Humanity deserves better than this," and flick a switch.

This person, this human aspect is what would interest me. Like Charlton Heston figuring out Soylent Green or Doctor Who finding the off-ramp, it's the future of humankind that's at stake.

Sorry if these thoughts have all passed through your mind and been thoroughly dealt with. Hope you find the only perfect solution.


On your Point 3 above, if this is the only city of its kind it might be interesting to keep it hidden from other cities - like a pilot scheme or something. Equally, there might be compelling reasons to hide from the citizenry the fact that there are no other humans left but ye. Again, the machine is protecting its people, like a pet-owner keeps his kittens away from the neighbour's rotweiller by locking them indoors all day. All right, maybe not quite like that, but ...

 

[Rivas]

Hey Interferance, thanks for putting in your thoughts.

So far, what I have is this. The terrorists who pull the plug aren't bad guys, they're really more like misguided protagonists. Originally the novel was going to be based on one of these characters but I decided to go a seperate way. Just a story I wanted to tell a little more.

I hope to somehow incorporate these characters though. Particularly the character whom my protagonist remembers assassinating, as I could make these characters very similar. Their own private fight would mirror the battle between Aryos and humanity in a smaller fashion. In actuality, it is my protagonist who is the bad guy until a certain point as he is an enforcer of the system. Once it crashes he finds himself in possession of the most important man in history, his former Engineer and now the host of Aryos.

So I would very much like to tell the story of the rebels in some capacity. Perhaps journals or data recordings. They would have to be very careful because everything that someone linked to the system can see, Aryos can see. Though the AI can only directly control certain parts of the populace (being the unknowing agents) it has great sway over everyone else. That's why dropping out is extremely danerous.

Still throwing up whether I want other societies besides my one City.

And thanks Int, you've helped remind me of what I wanted to do with the rebel characters.

 

[Interference]

Shucks

You're very welcome.