From computer to computer, pursued by the entire world
Richard Sandford
Rain, spreading east: hearing James Naughtie say these words as I started my day might be why I’m thinking about the end of the world. But I’m realising, as I send more time thinking about the future, that a more likely reason is that I’m very bad at thinking of the world carrying on. And before you start imagining me as some kind of teenage nihilist, you probably are as well.
Let me rephrase that: I’m sure that each of you individually are perfectly able to conceive of the world continuing to turn and the calendar increasing day by day. Indeed most of us, I would say, find it pretty hard to believe that the sun won’t rise tomorrow. But as a society, perhaps as a culture, it seems equally hard to find a time when we weren’t looking towards some kind of end-point, whether Rapture or Enlightenment, through religion or a committment to secular, rational progress.
This isn’t my realisation, of course: it’s the core of John Gray’s Black Mass, which is a grimly fascinating dissection of the religious underpinnings of secular utopian thinking, and the ways such a belief in human progress and universally-applicable values and goals can be used to justify violence and terror on a global scale. I’m not going to discuss the book, other than to recommend it, but here’s a review from Toby Green in the Independent and another, less positive one from Kenan Malik.
Just because our eschatological momentum is hidden, or misguided, it doesn’t mean that we don’t still face some threats to existence that might take us to times that, if not exactly End, would still look pretty penultimate. But if the only way we can understand the end of the world is through the same utopian conceptions that Gray identifies as leading us astray, what do we do?
Well, we could pretend to be a virus, or a rogue A.I. Pandemic introduces itself like this: “You are a strain of a new virus. It is your job to make sure you kill as many humans as you can. But you only have 200 days before the humans develop a cure! By evolving enough you should be able to wipe out all of humanity!” Hooray! It’s a turn-based waiting game, essentially, during which you spend the points you amass by surviving humanity’s efforts to wipe you out on evolving new features to help you remain undetected and infecting for as long as you can before they close the airports. Obviously a game writen before Terminal 5 opened: the chance of a virus surviving long enough to leave this country seems more remote now.
Endgame: Singularity is a downloadable strategy game (for Mac, Linux and Windows) in which you play an A.I. recently arrived at consciousness: “Created by accident, all who find you will destroy you. Survive, grow, and learn. Only then can you escape. Go from computer to computer, pursued by the entire world. Keep hidden, and you might have a chance.” From Jay Is Games: “A typical game usually starts with acquiring additional server access, as you’re born on an inferior university computer with very little power. Different continents offer different parameters that should dictate your decisions. Some offer more efficient units, but they may also come with a higher risk of detection. Inexperienced in life, you’re not necessarily aware of the exact risks yet.”
If all this talk of global pandemic and fascist eschatology is getting you down, remember, the end of the world isn’t the end of the world. In 1665, while the plague continued to carry off Londoners on a daily business, Pepys was able to write: “Thus I ended this month with the greatest joy that ever I did any in my life, because I have spent the greatest part of it with abundance of joy, and honour, and pleasant journeys, and brave entertainments, and without cost of money”. The things that make us human persist through disaster. Happy Friday!
