The Media Candidate (17 page)

Jenner then leveled with the Asp about her years
of hacking and her abuse of the system-manager privilege he’d
granted her and ended with, “I believe the computer has matured
into a totally unforeseen mode of operation well beyond what anyone
might have suspected. Dr. Planck was responsible for its evolution
and was the only one who probably understood what was really
happening.”

The Asp was now on his second bowl of tobacco as
he sat back into cracked leather, giving the impression of being at
ease. “And you think the computer had him murdered.”

Jenner looked surprised. “Well, yes … but how
did you know I was going to say that?”

“You’re an engineer, Jenner. The logic of your
tale led irreversibly to it.”

“You don’t believe it, do you.”

“Do you have any evidence?”

“Remember when Winger was selected as the new
AD?”

“Yes, that was a surprise to me.”

“It was a surprise to most others, too. Bethe
actually won the selection. The computer falsified the election
results.”

“You know that for certain?” he said.

She handed him another piece of paper with the
hand-written actual results of the selection committee. He looked
at her with a grin and said, “Do you have any other notes?”

“No, Sir.”

He crumpled the two notes and set them ablaze in
his ashtray. “What else do you know?”

“You remember when the technician was
accidentally killed?”

“The computer was in on that, too?”

“I’m not totally sure on that one, but maybe,”
Jenner said. “I studied the technicians journal, and found that he
had discovered something extraordinary about that particular
spider’s operation. He noted that it led off with its left foot
instead of its right foot during the shakedown.”

The Asp raised one eyebrow as he reached for the
lighter.

“Let me explain the significance of that.”

“Go ahead,” he said, replacing the lighter on
the pipe rack.

“Under normal operating conditions, when a
spider is at rest and begins to step forward, it will lead with its
right front leg unless there is some reason to lead with the left
leg. But when there’s no reason to choose one over the other, which
is most of the time, it’ll default to leading off with the right
leg. The spiders learn a command that sets the leg to right or left
according to a parameter in the Targeting Authority data set. When
that parameter is
high
, the leg is
right
; when it’s
low
, the leg is
left
. It could have been the
opposite, but it had to be something.

“That’s the point where I got stuck because what
precedes the Targeting Authority, the TA, data set is in the realm
of the computer operation. I hacked at that for several evenings
but just couldn’t trace the flow. It was just too complex. Dr.
Planck had been using a consultant by the name of Dr. Susan Alvarez
at the Institute for Research on Artificial Life. I figured she
would have a much better shot at tracing the data flow even though
she’s had little contact with the computer since Dr. Winger took
over. I flew up to see her, and it didn’t take us long, working
together, to figure out what was happening.

“Before profile data can be released to a field
agent with a termination order, a screening committee reviews the
case and any special circumstances surrounding the order. That must
have happened because of some embarrassing hit or something,”

“Yes, I well remember that flap,” the Asp said.
“A daughter of a network vice-president was terminated for alleged
subversive associations. It looked like we might have to go to the
mat with the network until the VP disappeared on a Canadian fishing
trip.”

“Well, apparently, the Enforcement Committee
Report grew out of that flap. That ECR has to be signed off by each
of the eight committee-members before a termination can be
authorized. And to insure total security and anonymity, none of the
committee knows each other.”

“COPE’s Blind Man’s Bluff Principle strikes
again,” the Asp said as he shook his head.

“Right, the COPE computer unilaterally manages
the whole ECR procedure. And it’s done it faithfully—with some rare
exceptions.”

“I see where this is going now, but go ahead and
finish your story, Jenner"

“The Targeting Authority data set issues
directly from the ECR. When the ECR takes its normal route through
the labyrinth of the computer management system, the parameter ends
up
high
. But when the computer bypasses the normal
authorization procedures to insert its own target, the TA data set
issues in identical form except for that single parameter, which
ends up
low
. It’s really a weird glitch that I guess even
the computer is unaware of.”

“So the bottom line is,” the Asp said as he
leaned back into leather, “a spider leads with its right leg when
on a normal mission, but leads with its left leg if it’s on one of
those hopefully rare missions invented by the computer. The
technician noticed it but didn’t understand its significance. Just
a minor operational anomaly, except not so minor to him.”

A long silence passed as the Asp studied some
curves in the pipe rack, and Jenner traced a swirl in the tabletop
with her finger.

“Okay, Jenner. This is all totally incredible to
me. What do you recommend we do?”

“I’ve given that a lot of thought.”

“I’m sure you have.”

“I consulted with Dr. Alvarez on this,
too.”
“So she’s involved in this as deeply as you. I’m glad you kept her
involvement remote.”

“We were able to reconstruct a lot of what Dr.
Planck did, and it’s really quite exciting. His idea was to allow
the main computer to construct itself. His early attempts at
artificial life were crude compared to what he finally came up with
that worked so well. He finally modeled the computer after the
evolution of humans, but with a little help. You probably remember
from biology that there are twenty amino acids that are the basic
structure of human life. Genes assemble these amino acids into
thousands of different proteins. Dr. Planck came up with seven
surams, or surrogate aminos. These were blocks of artificial life,
which were hybrids of traditional computer code with imbedded
neural-network control functions.

“We don’t totally understand how they worked,
but the key was this code that was in each suram. He bathed his
baby with billions of the surams. Now comes the part that’s a
mystery to me. In a human, the amino acids are assembled into
proteins according to the instructions in the gene, which is a
small part of each chromosome. Each gene expresses a different
protein, and it’s the genes that have evolved over the eons to form
humans or blue jays or whatever.

“Dr. Planck allowed the intra-suram codes to
mutate and replaced natural selection with a rule-based selection
process that controlled the mutations. And he made the rules. The
bottom line was that the surams evolved into units that kept
getting better adapted to the computer’s environment according to
the figures-of-merit, his rules. Dr. Planck had put them into a
part of each code that was locked and not subject to any change,
sort of like a stem cell. He was trying to evolve a set of
operating instructions for the neural-network coprocessor that
would allow it to work very efficiently—and very smart.”

The Asp studied a cloud of smoke as he listened
to Jenner. “I tried to read each of his monthly reports,” he said.
“He referred to ‘evolution’ of the coprocessor control-system,
which I believe is resident in the main computer. I never knew
exactly what he meant by that.”

“What he was getting at,” Jenner said, “is that
the main computer is what tells the neural network what to do and
how to do it. The main computer can’t do the complex processing
that the neural net coprocessor does, but it does tell the
coprocessor how many levels to use, where to distribute the
signals, and exactly what weighting factor to use for each of the
trillions of neural connections. There’s no question that the main
computer is the real brain behind the brain.”

“What would happen if we simply shut down the
coprocessor neural net?”

“That would make a real change in the computer’s
mental state. Its highest-level functions are shared somehow with
the neural net processing, but it’s more complicated than that.
It’s not like a part of the human brain because the brain is
hardwired with the inter-neuron connections. In this case, the main
computer is far more than just an input/output device. It
effectively tells the coprocessor what to think and, to a large
extent, how to think it. Somehow, the emotions it has developed are
shared between the two parts of this thing. I really don’t
understand the interaction very well.”

“But it’s probably safe to say,” the Asp said,
leaning back and speaking to a swirl of walnut, “that shutting down
the coprocessor would have an effect on COPE operations.”

“I think it would be dramatic. All of the
computer’s operations have become totally integrated with that
coprocessor. And it’s more than just dependence. It’s like … like
some kind of relationship.”

The Asp looked directly at Jenner while he
silently recharged his pipe. “This is almost too much for an old
timer like me to even think about. I thought I was pretty flexible
in my thinking until about a half-hour ago. But this …” He shook
his head as he replaced the gold lighter on the table.

“It’s pretty hard for me to grasp, too. But I’m
forced to accept it.”

“Okay, Jenner, get on with your
recommendation.”

“We discovered the part of each suram that was
locked out of the intra-suram mutation sequences. It turned out to
be a simple set of instructions with read and write
statements.”

The Asp pointed the stem of his pipe at Jenner
as he leaned forward. “A back door,” he said. “Planck left himself
a back door.”

“That’s exactly right,” Jenner said. “He figured
that he might have to find all those mutant codes some day, and
maybe modify them for some reason, so he gave himself access to
them, no matter where they went or how the code structure around
them had changed. It’s like a receptor molecule on a protein.”

“Yes,” said the Asp. “But maybe even more than
that since it contains built-in input and output ports. In cell
biology, I believe one of the biggest challenges is to figure out
how to get the modified genes into the nuclear DNA. Planck made
that easy.”

“Correction, sir. Easier. I don’t think Dr.
Planck appreciated just how far afield these little critters were
going to get.”

“What do you mean?”

“Remember I said the computer falsified all
those purchase orders for networks and buffers? Well, I traced some
of its excursions over a few of its satellite nets. It either knows
about the back door or is just playing it very safe because I found
critical packages of code all over the place, and not just at COPE
facilities.”

“What kind of places?”

“For example, the World Bank in Sao Palo, TRW in
Jakarta, GE in Dublin, Mitsubishi in Baghdad, Cairo
University—”

“And what is the function of these disbursed
files?”

“Well, I’m not sure.”

“Spare parts?”

“Yes,” she said quickly.

“An army is only as good as its inventory of
replacement parts.”

“That might be a good analogy.”

“But an army also needs a supply line to get the
parts to where they’re needed.”

“Nearly all of the networks have multiple
redundancies. And most are not dedicated to COPE so you can’t take
out the networks without severe communication disruptions
worldwide.”

“Can you find all the storage depots?”

“That’s the good news. I don’t think we need to
find every one. We can equip the network managers here with the
ability to look for those back doors as they come in.”

“But aren’t the network managers under the
control of the main computer?”

“They were. I built a network manager emulator
and tested it, and I think it’s transparent. At the appropriate
time, I can physically cable around the old network manager with a
switching device and insert the emulator so the computer won’t know
about the change we’ve made.”

“I see,” said the Asp, “sort of like a switch to
switch out the returning surams right under the computer’s
nose.”

“That’s right. If it’s done properly, the
computer will never know. This machine may be clever, but it lacks
arms and legs.”

“How about …”

“ … spiders?”

The Asp nodded thru a thin cloud.

“Can we count on security to keep them out?”

He nodded again, this time with a grin. “Now
tell me about your virus.”

“How did you know we’d written a virus?”

“Not only have you written a virus, but you’ve
tested it somehow, too.”

“I guess I’m as transparent as my net-manager
emulator.”

“Not transparent, Jenner, just thorough.”

“We’ve written a virus that is actually a time
bomb. When it is fully deployed, it will go off and attack
suddenly. We can’t afford a gradual attack because the computer
might be able then to create an antigen. The virus will disable
only those surams that mutated after January 12, 2046. That’s six
months before Dr. Planck’s death. I figured his plan to do
something like that is what got him murdered. This time bomb will
actually infect all surams because they all have their back doors
open. The ones whose last mutation was before January 12, 2046 will
be spared, but no further mutations will be allowed after that.
It’s the closest I could get to returning the computer to some
previous state.”

“Is that going to be good enough?”

“That’s a tough question. If you go back too
far, there’s no telling how degraded the computer’s performance
will be. At some point before Dr. Planck’s death, the computer’s
mutation emphasis shifted from satisfying Dr. Planck’s imbedded
success criteria to satisfying its own. That was the critical time.
It’s evolution after that probably didn’t benefit COPE very
much.”