A Visitor to the Future - 6 - Monitoring, Privacy, and Auditing
Sarkona gestured to me to follow them, and we began to walk back to my room - following the arrows, we'd have to go the long way around the ring. Not that I minded, with the view through all the windows, as we passed.
Despite everything I'd learned today, new questions were still coming to mind.
"Sarkona, the lecture I watched earlier - it mentioned AI rights. I'm guessing that refers to artificial intelligences?" I asked.
They turned to me to respond - they'd been matching my pace perfectly. "Yes. I am not the best person to speak to on that subject though. You should speak with Tungsten - he's the colleague I mentioned who is on this ship. Much more his area of study."
"I'd like that - is he another Biodev?"
"That's one of his skills! He's a very versatile individual, studies a number of fields - AI and cybernetics being some of his favourites. I think he'd consider Biodev adjacent to his actual interests, though. Would you like to meet him tomorrow?"
"I think I would," I said, "Oh - does he speak English? That's something I'll have to remember to ask now."
They nodded. "Yes, he does - I practice a lot with him, he's super better at it than I am. He'll probably even be able to talk to you in your own mannerisms - mine probably better reflect English as it was just before the mass adoption of Human. I'm working on it!"
"Are there any other languages in common use - or just Human?"
"I'd have to look it up to be sure, but I think something like 99% of the Consortium's citizens speak Human. Then the other more common languages are English, Mandarin, Verrin and Militalk - in no real order. I've only recently picked up English properly, so I'm not an expert - you could probably speak to a linguist on Earth about it."
We walked in silence for a time. I was surprised at just how quiet the ship was. Were it not for the view outside I could easily forget where I was. I hadn't even noticed the very gentle rising curve of the floor until Sarkona had pointed out that we were inside a ring. Eventually we arrived back at my room.
"So, now that we're back here, I'd like to talk to you about monitoring. First - my monitoring."
My face must have clearly showed my puzzlement, as Sarkona held up a hand and explained.
"You currently have on your person a series of medical implants, which are designed to allow me and other Biodevs to check how your body is doing in real time. This was how I knew you were feeling nauseous when you stood up earlier - and how I fixed it. This is standard practice across the Consortium, and especially needed for newly awakened cryocontained - I needed to be sure that you would not faint at all the new things you've learned today."
"You mean to tell me," I said in shock and slight horror, "You were reading my mind?"
"Oh, no!" said Sarkona, scrambling to reassure me, "Not at all! Reading a living mind in real time, that isn't done - I'm not even sure if it can be done. If we want to, Biodevs can extract memories, but that is a very limited, invasive, and destructive procedure, only done with the person's consent. That's called deep reading, by the way, and it isn't something you need to worry about. No, I've been reading your chemicals - that's far easier and less ethically troublesome. If you become stressed, your body produces stress hormones. That's why I've been able to show you - and talk you - through so much today, otherwise I'd have taken things much slower."
"But, isn't that an invasion of privacy?"
They sat once again on the stool from earlier, brought their elbows in and steepled their fingers once more. "As I understand it, the definition of privacy has changed a lot since your time. I'm attempting to think how to describe this to you - I realise now I didn't bring this up super well. First, to address your first concern - your medical implants are your implants, and over the next week I'll talk you through how they work - or even remove them if you want."
They crossed their steepled fingers into a ball and placed them on their lap. "Second, and I think this is quite key - nobody really cares what you are doing on a daily basis, as long as you're not causing you or anyone else any harm. You have the right to do whatever you want, and no-one should interfere with that. Got it?"
"With you so far..." I said.
"Right. Third - another important one. The Consortium is the least corrupt government that has ever existed in Sol. It is extremely difficult for corruption to exist - both from a cultural and practical perspective. The Consortium itself won't permit it - as it listens to all citizens equally, there are no positions of power to abuse in the first place. As I've pointed out before as well - the Consortium itself is not alive - it has no desire to use its own power - in fact, it has no desires at all beyond what are agreed by the citizens of Sol."
A pause for breath - I could tell Sarkona was taking this subject very seriously - perhaps more seriously than anything else they'd talked about today.
"Four - I'm not just saying that the Consortium is the least corrupt form of government to ever exist in Sol, either. It's proven, due to the principles of transparency and the right of auditability. To get to the point of what I'm saying, the compressed version is that the Consortium itself monitors us, constantly. Why? Because it wants to make sure no-one is violating your rights - including your right to self-determination."
"And what does it do with all that information from monitoring?" I couldn't imagine just how much data was involved in such a process.
"Well, it scans it to make sure there's no potential issues currently ongoing. For example, if you were to fall over and go unconscious, the Consortium would know almost instantly. It'd dispatch a rescue drone or notify appropriate personnel - like a Biodev - to go help. It also would detect anyone trying to violate your rights - though there hasn't been a recorded instance of that for nearly three decades in Sol. Then it puts that information into long-term storage for reference later, if needed. Which is great if you're trying to remember where you were on a particular day fifty years ago."
"And everyone is just fine with this?"
Sarkona cocked their head, thinking the question over for a moment, "Well, yes, but no. It's important to remember that the Consortium has earned our trust over the hundreds of years it has been in existence. The no part is what I was talking about earlier - the right of auditability. Every single citizen of the Consortium has the ability to go and inspect any working of the system that they want to inspect - if you don't trust something you can go and check it for yourself. There are people that do it all the time! They're called Auditors. If I said to the Consortium that I wanted to inspect what it did with citizen recordings from Eru Ilúvatar, it'd direct me to a vessel, take me there, walk me through step by step and even help me write up a report of what I saw while I was there. Then that report would be published for the whole system to see. In fact, I'd bet that a lot of people would love to hear some reports from you."
"But could someone, I don't know, look at a recording of me picking my nose or something?"
They laughed, despite themselves, "Why would anyone want to? Nobody cares what you do in your own time! But no - citizens can't just trawl through private life records without good cause. Only the Consortium itself will look through those. Even your medical feeds are being sent to the Consortium and then to me - as it deems appropriate - I don't have direct access."
I thought for a moment about it but decided this was the sort of thing that warranted sleeping on. I'd never heard of a system that couldn't be exploited or beaten, but given what I'd heard so far - maybe, just maybe, it was possible.
One more question came to mind. "Why do you think people would love to hear some reports from me?"
Sarkona jumped up. "You're an outside perspective on our system! Think about it! You grew up outside our education system - our very society! Think about the insights you might have about the way the Consortium organizes things! Many former cryocontained have written fascinating reports on our systems and processes once they awoke - each with a super different angle of approach."
I laughed - what a strange society this was turning out to be - but strange in a good way.
"But anyway, I think you are overdue some more bed rest - ugh. Not sure how you put up with that thing! When you wake up, just speak into the air that you're awake and want to see me and I'll come right through. I'll also set up that meeting you wanted with Tungsten!"
I sat on the edge of the bed - now that I thought about it, I was feeling tired, despite the excitement of it all.
"Sarkona," I said, as they headed to the door. "Thank you."
They smiled, gave a curt nod, and left as the lights turned out behind them. I drifted off to sleep, wondering what tomorrow would bring.