In the loop

a short story

The Diary of Maya Aggarwal: Jan 3rd, 2042

The 2035 scare around global population collapse spurred the government into action — over the next decade, they plan to introduce 20,000 simulated persons into cities across the US. My company has agreed to hire some — and employees have been asked to maintain a personal log of notable experiences as we adapt to working alongside simulated folk. Behold:

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Jan 15th, 2042

When I found out I was assigned to a team working with directly Roland, I was secretly elated — a chance to work with a simulated person! What mysteries might I uncover through his computational prowess? Does he have an infinite IQ, or is he subject to the same laws of physics and biology as us? Could I make him glitch?

I was eager to find out — but he’s proven disappointingly mundane in our 3 days together. He’s fascinated by smartphones — that 21st-century humans spend their days staring at glass, interacting with the bursts of light that dance around behind it. “How you can walk the physical earth, absorbed in an artificial one, boggles the mind,” he says. “The hallucinations on the screen are illusory: they simply don’t exist.”

The remarks were constant until someone reminded him that he too, was made of bytes, and if software didn’t exist then neither did he.

Feb 19th.

Mark from HR reprimanded our team for trying to make Roland glitch. I thought identifying edge-cases in his personhood would help future updates, but apparently highlighting differences is ‘speciest and will not be tolerated.’

March 3rd.

Today, we hired 3 more simulated humans; each will be slotted into different departments and benchmarked against non-simulated employees for performance reviews. The Sims program seems to be going well.

May 15th.

The Sims are becoming increasingly intelligent: deliverables are getting shipped faster, and they can now run client meetings. With the increased support, employees can take more breaks and sign off sooner. Summer is almost here.

June 2nd.

How quickly things can change. Over the last few weeks, a cloud of general discontentment has settled across the company. Human employees are calling for a revision of the terms of employment for simulated people. Why should they get increased ownership over projects as their intelligence progresses, given limited experience? Why should humans be benchmarked against computer-generated humans at all?

I don’t engage in corporate politics — there’s always something to be angry about — but yesterday, I lost a client to Roland when, out of nowhere, he pulled up a multivariate model computing 18 different scenarios for how the client’s company could transform their supply chain. It wasn’t part of his scope— in fact, it was explicitly assigned to me. But the client was elated, and asked Roland to complete the entire project. So, I’ll sign the memo floating around that makes similar demands — management should at least know about this.

June 6th.

I’m writing more frequently now because I have less to do. I’m fortunate to be keeping up better than most, though — before the Sims, I was a top performer. I’m still doing okay, but it feels strange not to feel like a superstar anymore. It’s just not a level playing field anymore.

I’m going to write to Mark from HR, asking to be switched to a non-Sim team. Let’s see what he comes back with.

June 8th.

Just got a response from Mark: “Please direct complaints about Sims to the Institute of the Proliferation of Simulated People” — so I’ll meet with them on Monday. I have to submit my journal for evaluation, so might be a while until I write again. When you hear from me next, things will be better.

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July 12th, 2042. This is Matthew Foughlder from the Institute, documenting conversation with Maya Aggarwal:

• I understand you’re disappointed with the impact of the simulated persons. How can we help?

• Maya: I want to provide honest feedback here and recommend that the Sims be situated elsewhere. They are not conducive to our workplace.

• Sims? Oh, simulated people. We’re in the middle of a series of tests with the simulated beings. We can’t just displace them — the environment is a controlled variable.

• Maya: What exactly are you testing? Can you not restart the tests at another company?

• We’ve been engaged with your firm for years; in 2035, management agreed to a longitudinal study to compare performance in different groups over time. Self-aware Sims, non-self-aware Sims, humans…

• Maya: Are you saying there are undisclosed simulated people at our firm right now? Sims that do not know they are Sims?

• Yes. As a reminder, this conversation is under an NDA — disclosing any–

• Maya: I am impartial to your research. As a human, I believe in advocating for the welfare of fellow humans — this includes preserving our right to flourish, especially when competing with more complex forms of intelligence and consciousness.

[A pause]

• So what exactly should be done with these Sims?

• Maya: Move them to another office, or company, or city. Or… just unplug them… for now. Put their bodies into the cryo-storage so we can reactivate them when we can get better at the software.

• Got it. Your recommendation is to displace or unplug — we’ll take that into sincere consideration. We’ve had complaints from employees across the country — the program is close to losing its funding. What that means for the Sims, we don’t know. But they will be taken care of, somehow.

• Maya: Thanks. That’s great to know. And can you share a list of the simulated people? I’d like to spend some time with them before they’re moved, or their memory is reset.

• Matt: I can’t provide anything in writing, but will read from the list now. In reverse chronological order:

  • Generation 2.5: Introduced in 2042

    • Aaliyah Jones

    • Vivian Clarkson

    • John Fraise — non-self aware

    • Li Gongfu

  • Generation 2.0: Introduced in 2042

    • Roland Watson

  • Generation 1.0: Introduced in 2038:

    • Maya Aggarwal — non-self aware.