The Singularity Race by Mark de Castrique Read Free Book Online Page B

Mullins was living up to his reputation. “How much of the ‘secret’ in Secret Service defined your career?”
    â€œEverything that wasn’t illegal. I’ve no interest in spreading confidential information, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
    â€œI have your word?”
    â€œUnder the condition I just stated.”
    Brentwood checked the driver to make sure the man’s eyes were on the road and not reading lips through the rearview mirror.
    â€œDo you read science fiction, Mr. Mullins?”
    â€œNot really. Some as a kid. Mostly the ones that were shoot-’em-up Westerns, except in space.”
    Brentwood pulled a latch on the back of the driver’s seat and a shelf dropped into place just above his knees. Mullins saw a glowing keyboard with a milk-glass screen mounted perpendicular to it. A three-dimensional image of cumulus clouds and blue sky materialized and seemed to hover on the screen.
    â€œWhen I was a kid, all I read was science fiction. Maybe I was trying to escape my surroundings, maybe I had a hyperactive imagination, maybe both. That’s for a shrink to decide. But science fiction is the reason we’re in this limousine, the reason there’s Blanton’s in the bar and a jet at BWI. Because I had my head in the clouds, I anticipated the Cloud before it had a name.” He gestured to the clouds in front of him. “And I built my company based on its evolution and now the accelerating revolution. Even I’m shocked at the speed with which mankind’s knowledge is being captured in cyberspace. But that’s mere storage and data archiving. The real power is accessing, connecting, and applying that knowledge in ways never before imagined.”
    â€œSuper computers?” Mullins ventured.
    â€œNo. That’s limiting development to hardware. You know what the arms race of the twenty-first century is, Mr. Mullins?”
    Mullins shook his head, not even bothering to guess.
    â€œThe quest for artificial intelligence. A race where there might be no second place.”
    â€œWhy’s that? In the Cold War, mutually assured destruction kept the Soviet Union and us from using nuclear weapons.”
    â€œBecause we’re not talking physical destruction.” Brentwood leaned forward, his face flush with a sudden burst of energy. “Have you heard of the singularity?”
    â€œSomething to do with black holes?”
    â€œIn cosmic theory, yes. The center of a black hole where matter is crushed to infinite density and the laws of physics break down. But I’m talking about the field of computer science. The singularity is a point in time when artificial intelligence becomes super intelligence, the technical achievement of cognitive abilities beyond human capacity. Then its intelligence will increase exponentially, leaving us poor mortals far behind. Uncharted waters, my friend, because we will no longer be able to control or protect the outcomes of our thinking machine.”
    Brentwood clicked a few keys and the clouds turned into a night sky of stars and then swirling galaxies. “People like me see infinite benefits, especially for human problems like disease and even death. Yet there is a dark, dark side. What if our computer servants develop self-awareness that becomes self-preservation? A goal that finds humanity expendable?”
    Mullins flashed back to his childhood, not to the sci-fi novels but to the bad sci-fi movies he loved to watch on Saturday mornings. “An army of robots?”
    â€œNo.” Brentwood swept a hand through the air between them as if to cast the very concept from the car. “An infiltration by the first super intelligent entity into every network, every software program, every smartphone, laptop, mainframe, or even the world’s weapon systems. A hacking of unprecedented speed and power. There will be no second place super intelligence because the first to reach the