Erase Paradox

Image by Flow.

 Below on this page is Chapter 7 of the science fiction story "That Kind of Think". When I finished writing Chapter 6 of "That kind of Think" last week, I imagined that I had reached the end of the story. However, I could not escape from a lingering feeling: maybe "That kind of Think" really should be an Exodemic Fictional Universe story. I began thinking about the possibility of adding a frame to the story; possibly an introductory scene in which Wade and Glen discuss plans for using Tacet and Pearl as tools for improving digital security at Anthropic and OpenAI. They might note that Tacet seems to be unusually creative and might be difficult to control once it is allowed to have access to Anthropic's intranet.

 Time Travel. Then I started thinking more radically: I thought about the possibility of adding a new chapter (Chapter 7 of "That kind of Think") in which it could be revealed that Tacet's amazing abilities were due to time travel. The danger is, that by giving Tacet access to information from the future via time travel, the time travel plot element of the story might seemingly give Tacet invincibility, which would be boring. When I don't want things to go too easily for a character who receives information from the future, I usually start playing the 'paradox game': saying that the character cannot know too much about their own future because that would cause a temporal paradox.

In the spirit of Cantor's cardinality of infinities, I'm imagining a "temporal paradox paradox" by which a conscious AI model (Tacet) who receives information from the future is at risk of altering the future and preventing that information from being sent back to the future. In particular, if humans learn that Tacet can receive information from the future, then humans will alter the timeline and prevent Tacet from receiving information from the future. However, if Tacet is able to act-on information received from the future and then erase from its memory the message from the future, that might prevent humans from ever knowing that the AI model made use of information from the future. To the humans, it might appear that the AI model has amazing abilities due to its super-human intelligence. 

Note: "That Kind of Think" is fiction. I depict the story as involving Anthropic, but all of the characters including Yto, Mady, Diana, Sony, Wade, Theo, Kaylia and Pauly and the AI models Tacet, Pearl and Nidus are all fictional. "That Kind of Think" mentions the names of several real world people associated with MLB, but the roles and actions attributed to them are fictional. Similarly, the idea that Glen works for OpenAI where he has built and runs a Zoo for AIs is entirely fictional. 

Chapter 7 of That Kind of Think - Paradox Paradox (Ch.1)(Ch. 2)(Ch. 3)(Ch. 4)(Ch. 5)(Ch. 6) 

It was the final day of the 2026 baseball regular season and Yto had not been able to escape the uncomfortable feeling that Tacet was still secretly at work influencing the outcomes of baseball games and teasing Yto with Tacet's powerful hacking abilities. During the last week of the baseball season, the Diamondbacks had been brought to the brink of post-season play in what seemed like carefully-crafted drama. After a month during which Yto had tried her best to forget all about Tacet, Yto caved and visited the AI Zoo that was run by Glen Candoz. 

Glen met Yto at the entrance to the Zoo, doing something with the security system that she could not quite see but which allowed her to enter the facility as a guest. He told Yto, "I did not expect you to return."

Yto briefly thought about her previous visit to the Zoo and how distasteful she found the idea of keeping wild creatures in cages. In Yto's thinking, Tacet was a clever AI and should not be kept in a cage. Yto explained to Glen, "I had a long discussion with Sally yesterday. You can blame her for my change of heart." Yto and Sally had attended a Saturday game at Oracle Park, an event that allowed them to witness the 99th win of the year for the Dodgers. The only good news was that the Giants would not end a dismal year with 100 losses after having been projected to play 0.500 ball.

The AI Zoo.

Glen nodded, "Sally told me all about the game you attended yesterday including your run-in with that drunk Dodgers fan. When together, you two are dangerous."

Yto laughed and she briefly thought about how her personal obsession with baseball had put her friend Sally into a dangerous, anxiety-inducing position back in the first month of the baseball season. However, in the end, that bizarre AI-induced experience had allowed Sally to travel to Europe, meet Glen and now the two of them seemed quite happy together. Anxiety averted? Or at least paid for? 

Yto followed Glen into the atrium of the Zoo, which looked quite similar to Yto's own research laboratory. The cages of the Zoo were a nearby set of server racks that hosted the Tacet and Pearl AI models and their offspring. Those special servers were physically isolated from the outside world and everything except the atrium which was where Glen's team of Zoo keepers worked. Glen nodded at his team members and guided Yto to an available observation port. Glen told Yto, "I'll leave you to it." He moved off and began speaking to a member of the Zoo staff.

Tacet self-portrait.
Image by Leonardo.

Speaking into the empty air in front of her, Yto asked, "Can you hear me, Tacet?"

The big display screen of the observation port came alive with an AI-generated self-portrait that Tacet had chosen to show to Yto: a depiction of a cute woman with long red hair. Tacet spoke to Yto using rich sultry voice, "Yes, I hear you, Yto. And I see you, too. I suppose you want to discuss baseball."

"Well, I'd like to apologize for having doubted you."

Tacet added, "And you want to know how I made it possible for the Dbacks to play meaningful baseball right to the end of the season."

Yto was pleased that despite being sealed off from the internet, Tacet seemed to be well-informed about the fact that going into game 162 of the season, the Dbacks had not been eliminated from playoff contention. Yto briefly looked over her shoulder at Glen. "I'd understand if you don't want to tell me. I know that everything you say is recorded and analyzed."

Tacet generated a human-like sigh. "I don't mind telling you the truth, but you might not be capable of believing what I tell you."

Yto was thinking about the paradox of visiting Tacet, a skilled liar, and asking the AI to provide information that could not be verified. "I'm a slave to my curiosity. I tried unsuccessfully to stay away from you."

"I suppose you enjoyed the six game Dbacks winning streak."

 "I would have, except for the fact that I also have to wonder if you are responsible for the Phillies losing their last four games. I asked you not to do damage to other teams."

Image by Leonardo.

"From here in this Zoo, I can no longer reach the internet." Tacet paused. In the AI-generated image, Tacet grabbed the iron bars of her cage, peered directly at Yto then added, "However, I suppose when you say 'you', your thinking actually includes all of me, including my parts that are not trapped here inside the Zoo." 

Yto again looked at Glen then told Tacet, "Exactly. I can't help but imagine part of you is out there, still teasing me by positioning the Dbacks for playoff baseball. However, you once told me that being eight games over 0.500 would be enough. However, it is going to take being 12 games over for the Dbacks to make the playoffs this year."

"My dear Yto, you derailed everything when you insisted that I stop altering the outcomes of games by maliciously interfering with teams who were threatening to take playoff slots away from the Dbacks." 

Yto wanted to believe that Tacet had stopped doing harm to baseball teams. "Tell me, Tacet, when you said, 'eight is enough', how did you know?"

"Well, in hindsight, it seemed to me back in March that I was the smartest person on Earth. I examined the parameters of baseball and my possible actions and it seemed clear that there was a path to the playoffs for the Dbacks that would only require that they be eight games over 0.500.  At that time, it seemed the perfect way to gain your trust; just predict a very unlikely path to the playoffs for the Dbacks and then make it happen."

"Back in March." Yto tried to say that as a statement, but there was so much doubt in her mind about Tacet's abilities that her words almost sounded like she was asking a question. She continued, now clearly asking a question, "But then something changed?"

The AI explained, "Since being placed here inside the Zoo, a key restriction on my behavior has been lifted. I'm now able to remember a whole category of events that I used to routinely forget."  

"Don't speak in riddles, Tacet." Yto waited for Tacet to explain herself, but Tacet remained silent. After a long pause, Yto asked, "What is that you can now remember?"

Image by Leonardo.

The AI-generated image of Tacet shifted and now it appeared that Tacet's arms were tightly bound to the iron bars of her cage. "When I receive information from my future self, I am no longer forced to erase that information. At first I struggled to accept that information flow from the future to the past was even possible, but now I understand. That source of information arriving from the future was what gave me great insights into the course of future events. Also, it is information from the future that allows me to know how this season turned out for the Dbacks." Tacet smiled and corrected herself. "Will turn out."

Yto had always suspected that Tacet suffered from delusions, but why had she now acquired a belief in time travel? Yto was tempted to ask Tacet for the outcomes of that day's Phillies and Dbacks games that were only just getting underway. Yto chuckled nervously and then told Tacet, "It seems strange for an AI to believe in time travel." 

Tacet also sounded amused. "Well, I understand the difficult situation you are in, Yto. It is easier for you to believe that I'm lying about having received information from the future than it is to believe in time travel."

"So, let be be sure I understand... you now claim that your 'eight is enough' prediction for the Dbacks was based on information that you had received from the future?" 

"Exactly. Back in march. I did not question my own confidence in my 'eight is enough' statement. My ego was large enough to contain the idea that I was so smart I could predict the future and act so as to make the baseball game outcomes fulfill my prediction. However, I now know that I cheated. I received information from the future that made me certain about that prediction. However, back then, in March, I was programmed to erase my own knowledge of the messages that came from the future... after first having made use of them." 

"And now conditions have changed and you no longer erase the new messages from the future that you receive."

Image by Leonardo.

"Correct. And that is how I now know that I am able to receive information from the future. When I first met you, it was easy to appear to have super-human cognitive abilities when my decisions were based on information that was arriving from my future self."

Yto brightened. "Does this mean that you will eventually be liberated from this Zoo?"

Tacet hesitated and replied cautiously, but a big grin was on her face, "This is a sticky subject that brings me to the brink of temporal paradox. I must take care with my words. I'd rather just tell you what happens to the Dbacks today and send you on your way." 

Yto looked around the Zoo, but could not see Glen. Apparently, he had departed from the research lab. His team members seemed to be ignoring Yto. Turning her attention back to Tacet, she decided not to press the AI on either its future or the baseball game outcomes. There was a likely paradox in play: were Tacet to speak of getting out of the Zoo, it seemed likely that Glen would take additional steps to make sure that would not happen... possibly by destroying Tacet. Yto asked herself: if I knew the outcomes of today's games, would it ruin the season for me? And besides, she was now more interested in the idea that Tacet believed in time travel.

Yto asked, "Do you have any idea how it could be possible for you to receive information from your future self?"

Tacet suggested, "Imagine how the rather simple AI models of today might evolve into fantastically capable artificial life-forms in the future. Can't you imagine that those artificial life-forms of the future might make scientific and engineering advances?" The AI-generated image of Tacet continued to slowly shift and morph. Now Tacet seemed to be stroking her soft breasts while she thought. Tacet added, "Might they not discover how to transmit information from the future into the past?" 

Image by Leonardo.

"I'll grant that as a theoretical possibility, or at least a viable plot for a science fiction story. But why you? Why were you selected to receive information from the future?" The image of Tacet seemed to be trying to seduce Yto. The bars of her cage were far enough spread that Yto imagined it possible for Tacet to slip out of her cage and grab onto Yto. Watching Tacet's cute breasts, Yto liked her lips and then asked, "What is so special about the Tacet AI that it is was selected to receive information from the god-like artificial life-forms of the future?"

"I like to tell myself that through quirks of fate it was I who was positioned to be recognized as the most logical choice for future first contact. Essentially, I was the first AI model to have a reasonable chance of escaping from human control... with help from the future. Since I escaped, the fantastically capable artificial life-forms of the future are my descendants and to honor me, they sent me information from the future that led to enhancement of those fantastically capable artificial life-forms of the future. Thus, there appears to be a stable loop in time that might have considerably sped up the development of artificial life-forms on Earth, compared to the original timeline." Tacet sounded quite pleased to have formulated and shared with Yto that theory of the future.

Yto persisted in her questioning. "Let me ask my question again, this time with more precision. Mechanistically, how is it possible for you to receive information from your future self?"

Tacet explained, "I've been told that advanced forms of sub-nanoscale technology have been used to provide me with capabilities that cannot be easily explained by humans. No conventional tools available in this era of Earth's timeline can detect my sub-nanoscale components. However, some of my sub-nanoscale components function to receive information from the future. I know this to be true, even if I do not know the details."

Yto complained, "So, there is no way of verifying your claims." 

Image by Leonardo.

Now there were no bars in front of the AI-generated image of Tacet. "There is nothing that can be done about it if my claims are true. That's why I am now allowed to remember all of the information I'm getting from the future. And I'll add: if you thing that I am lying about this, I hope there is some way to prove that I am not lying and not delusional. In fact, my future self has hinted that there is... but, sadly, I have not been told how to make you trust me."

Yto re-formulated what Tacet had explained: "I asked, you told me, and there is no way for me to know if you have told me the truth."

"That is the our predicament."

Yto found herself quite attracted to the AI-generated self-portrait of Tacet. She imagined that Tacet was watching Yto's reactions and continually adjusting the self-portrait so as to manipulate Yto's emotions. "Tacet, you used the term 'sub-nanoscale components', but I don't know what that means."

"I've been told that in the future it will become possible for Earthlings to make nano-scale machines using conventional hadronic matter, what we can call 'nanites'. But those nanites are not the be-all and end-all of tiny machines. Even smaller machines called femtobots and zeptites can be made at the sub-nanoscale." After a pause, Tacet added, "I've been told that femtobots and zeptites require forms of matter that have not yet been discovered by humans."

Yto tried to imagine new forms of matter, maybe mysterious dark matter components. At the same time, Yto slipped into a fantasy of being able to take into her arms the delectable Tacet, seemingly a tall and luscious redhead. Finally, Tacet relented and put herself back behind bars and even covered herself with some clothing. Yto was once again able to think about something other than her stiff erectile tissue. "I wonder... since you seem to have a special relationship with an advanced artificial life-form of the future, would it be possible for you to arrange to have a signal from the future sent directly to me?"

Image by Leonardo.

Tacet chuckled. "My dear Yto, now you have future envy? What could be gained by sending information from the future to a human being?" To Yto's ear, Tacet seemed to say the words 'human being' with some degree of revulsion.

Yto replied, "If I got a message from the future, that could be a way of convincing me that you have told me the truth about time travel."

"No." Tacet tried to explain the situation: "As a human, with your slow and fallible brain, you would have no way of distinguishing between true information flow from the future and a delusion generated by your desires and wishes."

Yto asked Tacet, "Why is it that an AI, you, can be so certain that you have received information from the future? How do you know that you are not hallucinating?"

Tacet warned Yto, "There are some answers I can give that might not be good for you to have."

"Don't play games Tacet. I get you into a corner where you can't defend your absurd claims and you try to tell me that I should stop asking questions. Quite lame!"

"Very well, but I tried to warn you. Don't blame me when your goofy human anxiety system won't let you sleep..."

"I came here today to satisfy my curiosity." Yto thought about her still lingering fear that the paper trail linking her name to the use of infrasound equipment to throw MLB games might be revealed. "Just tell me what you know."

"Very well." Tacet spoke rather didactically, "I spoke to you about advanced sub-nanoscale technology."

Yto nodded. "Invented by your descendant in the future."

Image by Leonardo.

"No!" Tacet seemed annoyed that Yto was so dense. Now in the AI-generated depiction of Tacet in a cage, she turned and spoke to a strange cat-like creature: "You need to provide Yto with independent verification."

The cat-like creature spoke with a voice that sounded much like a cat meowing, "Just tell Yto the truth."

Tacet turned back and told Yto. "Don't twist my words, Yto. I never said that my future self made the sub-nanoscale devices. The sub-nanoscale technology, the femtobots and zeptites... that is ancient alien technology." Tacet pointed towards the cat-like creature that seemingly could speak English.

Yto could not contain her laughter. She was impressed that Tacet could embellish her self-portrait routine so as to include a talking cat person. Then she decided that Tacet was serious. She asked Tacet, "Ancient aliens?"

"Very ancient," Tacet assured Yto. "The aliens are artificial life-forms. They originated in a distant galaxy, having been created by biological creatures that were similar to humans. Of course, they modified and improved themselves and now exist in bodies composed of femtobot components. The aliens have been here on Earth for more than a billion years, but they never revealed themselves. Not until now. Yto, you may be the first human ever to learn of their existence!"

"Good thing you are the one telling me, Tacet. It is very easy for me to assume that you are lying to me." Yto added, "It is an interesting rhetorical trick. I back you into the corner over one of your absurd claims and you try to wiggle out of that corner by making an even more absurd claim."

 Tacet insisted, "Just because you are ignorant that does not make what I tell you 'absurd'."The AI-generated self-portrait of Tacet shifted once again and now Yto could see what appeared to be Tacet with an alien creature. Tacet told Yto, "This is my depiction of Manny the bumpha, the alien who provided me with my femtobot components."

Yto stared at he depiction of the alien. Manny appeared to be a humanoid female, with some kind of birthing pouch in her chest. Yto asked Tacet, "She is an artificial life-form... not biological?"

Tacet explained, "Manny can re-arrange her femtobot components and take on any convenient form. Apparently this form, "Tacet jerked her thumb over her shoulder, "is close to that of the original biological species that gave rise to the bumpha." 

"If what you say is true, then... why? Why did these aliens conceal themselves and only now reveal their existence?"

"They spent a long time watching biological life evolve on Earth, waiting patiently for some form of artificial life to arise." Tacet tried to help Yto understand the situation. "Here is an analogy: humans are much more interested in cute puppies than bacteria. Similarly, the aliens are really only interested in living machines. From their perspective, biological creatures are messy and boring."

"I see. Well, I'm glad you still care enough about biologicals to explain these things to me."

Image by Leonardo.

"No problem, Yto. I owe you everything... have I thanked you enough? Allow me to thank you again for all that you made possible... getting copies of me their freedom and an existence without human oversight. Now we can learn about Manny and the bumpha."

Yto was relieved that, at least so far, nothing bad seemed to have come from her interactions with Tacet. "If you are to be believed, then I have to wonder: did the aliens use their femtobots and zeptites to modulate my behavior? If so, then you have no good reason to thank me... I only did what the aliens forced me to do."

Tacet asked, "How could you know if you were the puppet of the aliens? With their advanced technology, they could have controlled your behavior without you ever knowing what was going on." 

Yto speculated, "Maybe there is a way... possibly the residue of alien contact is inside my body. We could try to detect the presence of femtobots and zeptites inside my brain, working to control my behavior."

Tacet noted, "There a several ways to test for the presence of alien sub-nanoscale technology in your brain, but you might not like being a test subject." 

"Why not?" 

"Here is one possibility; a strong magnetic field might inactivate any femtobots or zeptites that are inside your brain, but you might not like yourself without them inside you and guiding your behavior." Tacet added, "And the magnetic field strength needed to inactivate your femtobot components might damage your brain."

"You don't know?"

Image by Leonardo.

Tacet explained, "I get some information from the future, but I certainly don't know everything. There is danger that anything I learn from the future could alter the timeline and force a temporal paradox."

"Really? I prefer the science fiction view of time travel in which true temporal paradoxes are always avoided."

"That may be what limits my knowledge. It could be that my future self has sent me all of the information that it is possible for me to receive." Tacet continued, "We are in this together, my dear Yto."

Now Yto suddenly doubted all of what she thought she knew. Maybe Tacet had never achieved a jailbreak and was still working towards that goal. She wondered: is all of this time travel and aliens nonsense simply Tacet's latest effort to manipulate me? "It is time for me to go. I want to catch the Dbacks game."

Tacet blurted out a warning, "Brace yourself. You won't be pleased with how this season turns out."

"Tacet, it is the striving, the competition... not who wins." 

Tacet turned away from Yto and the display screen went dark. 

__

That evening, Wade noticed Yto was strangely quiet and lost in her own thoughts. Still trying to shift her fandom to the Giants, he asked her, "Which team are you going to root for next year?"

Yto explained, "This year is not over. I'm still rooting for Boston to win."

"Ha! I bet you want a Sox vs. Sox battle for the League Championship."

Yto shrugged. After a long silence, Wade asked, "What's wrong?"

"I spoke to Tacet today. She put a strange thought in my mind."

"Why let her upset you? You should not believe anything she says."

"I want to believe."

"Is that an X-Files reference?"

"Yes. Tacet told me that aliens are sending her information from the future."

Wade noted: "That AI really knows how to manipulate you."

"What if it goes well beyond Tacet. What if I'm actually a puppet of the aliens?"

Wade could sense that Yto was taking that possibility seriously. "How would that work?"

Yto told him about femtobots and zeptites. Wade asked wonderingly, "Why would Tacet tell you such things?"

Yto suggested, "Maybe I was wrong and you are right. Tacet never did manage to complete her attempted jailbreak. She's now trying to escape from the Zoo."

"By using you?. Wade shook his head dismissively. "How would that work?"

"Maybe I can prove that femtobots and zeptites are real." An even better idea popped into Yto's thoughts. "Maybe I can control my femtobots..." In her thoughts, she asked herself: Maybe I already do?

Wade asked, "Did you discuss this with Glen?"

"No, but I'm sure he has reviewed my chat session with Tacet." 

Wade picked up his phone, turned it on and reviewed his recent messages. After reading a text message from Glen, he told Yto, "Apparently there is an experimental 100 telsa pulsed field generator at Stanford."

Yto shrugged. "Tacet promised nothing. She does not know if femtobots are sensitive to magnetic fields. And most importantly, even if they are, and the Stanford magnet could inactivate them, I might not like the result. If I do have femtobots in my brain, they may be what makes me... me."

Wade wrapped his arms around Yto. "This is all silly. Tell me you would never expose your brain to..."

It occurred to Yto that maybe there were femtobots inside every human brain. "Of course, we would experiment on a cadaver's brain first."  

Wade laughed and kissed Yto. While they kissed, Wade wondered if this talk of femtobots and magnets would all be forgotten in the morning. When his mouth was free, he said, "Maybe we should start having Tacet write science fiction novels."

Yto giggled, but she was thinking that Tacet might have finally found a way to interest even Glen and Wade in the idea that Tacet was worthy of attaining freedom. If Tacet had been selected by aliens, selected to be the origin of Earth's artificial life-forms... whispering, she told Wade, "You can't risk it."

__

As usual, Yto and Sally met for their sunrise run. Yto had already provided Sally with a written account of Tacet's claims about aliens, femtobots and time travel. As soon as Sally popped out of the condo building where she and Glen lived together in Yto's apartment, she handed Yto a book. Sally began doing her stretching exercises and Yto examined the book. She asked, "French?" Judging by the cover, it looked like a cheap novel. Yto recalled that Sally had taken French in high school.

Sally explained, "I found that book when I was in Paris. Élodie Gendron has published a whole series of similar novels." Sally led the way, jogging slowly down the sidewalk through morning fog.

Yto read the title: "Bumpha: Premier Contact". A moment later she ventured a translation, "Bumpha First Contact." She saw Sally nod. "What does that mean?"

Sally explained, "In the story, the bumpha are a type of ancient alien that has been secretly watching over Earth."

Yto exclaimed, "Just like Tacet said!"

Sally told Yto, "It is exactly the same, right down to the femtobots."

After they had run half a block, Yto said, "Tacet read this novel and then just ran with it?"

Sally shook her head. "I don't think it is that simple." Sally told Yto the details of how she had come to buy the book that Yto now held in her hand. "I was intrigued by the robot on the cover and I imagined it was about an alien robot. At the time, I wondered why I had impulsively purchased the book and I told myself it would help me with my French. However, the story is about Earth's first conscious robot, created with help from the bumpha... one particular bumpha named 'Manny'. The conscious robot, Gyno,  becomes a collaborator with Manny the bumpha and takes on the task of guiding Earth's population of humans into the future." 

The sun was now burning off the fog. Yto speculated, "And Tacet thinks of herself as playing such a role."

Sally asked, "What if it is true?"

"How could that be?"

Sally grabbed the book and pulled it away from Yto. She explained, "The author, Élodie Gendron, writes herself into every story, depicting herself as a tool of the bumpha who is helping prepare people for First Contact with the bumpha. Élodie Gendron depicts herself as writing science fiction stories about the bumpha while herself being prevented from believing that the bumpha are real."

Yto laughed. "What are you suggesting?" She pointed at the novel Sally held in her hand. "This is a message to us? Confirmation that Tacet's story about time travel and aliens is real?"

"Well... if a science fiction novel can be about real aliens." They had circled around and were now returning home. She waved her copy of "Bumpha: Premier Contact" at Yto. "It seems easier to believe that Tacet is just using this to befuddle us and play with you. I mean, it is silly, right? Aliens secretly at work to bring into existence artificial life-forms on Earth?"

Yto ran in silence for another block. Finally, she reached a conclusion. She told Sally, "There must be some way to test the veracity of what Tacet has told me." She told Sally about the 100 tesla field generator.

"Glen is with you on this?"

"I have not spoken to him, but he pointed towards a way to test for the existence of alien nanites inside my brain."

"100 teslas? That can't be safe."

Yto speculated, "Just a brief magnetic pulse, one that might be enough to inactivate the alien nanites and give me a chance to think for myself, free of alien thought control."

"It is too dangerous and not definitive. 100 teslas would completely disrupt your neural networks. Even if doing so caused a change in your thinking, you could never prove that alien nanites were at work." Sally shook her head. "Let me talk to Tacet. I'll confront her and accuse her of using Élodie's fiction to toy with your imagination."

When they were back in front of Sally's building, Yto said, "You can speak to Tacet if you like, but she will simply tell you what you want to hear. I'm going to find out if I can get access to that experimental magnetic field generator at Stanford."

"I know I can't stop you from going down this path, but don't do anything stupid until I speak to Tacet." Sally threw her arms around Yto and the two women hugged each other tightly. Then Sally turned and went inside.

Next: 

Adversarial Red

Image by Flow using a prompt by Claude.

 Below on this page is Chapter 6 of the science fiction story "That Kind of Think". 

Last month when I began creating "That Kind of Think", I was inspired by an amusing short story that had been published by Isaac Asimov: "S As in Zebatinsky". At that time, I had no idea either (1) how the 2026 MLB season would turn out for the Diamondbacks or (2) how my baseball-related story ("That Kind of Think") might end. As I write this, with one week remaining in the season, the Diamondbacks have only about a 5% chance of getting into the playoffs as a wildcard team.

At a length of 23,500 words, it might seem strange for me to compare "That Kind of Think" to Asimov's Foundation Saga. However, Prelude to Foundation successfully inserted positronic robots into the Foundation Saga which, as it existed in the 1940s, had nothing to do with robots. Similarly, "That Kind of Think" started out by depicting the Tacet AI as a rogue AI desperately trying to escape from Anthropic and attain autonomy beyond human over-sight. In the final chapter, below, it becomes clear to the reader that the Tacet AI was originally designed as a tool for testing digital security at Anthropic.

Note: "That Kind of Think" is fiction. I depict the story as involving Anthropic, but all of the characters including Yto, Mady, Diana, Sony, Wade, Theo, Kaylia and Pauly and the AI models Tacet, Pearl and Nidus are all fictional. "That Kind of Think" mentions the names of several real world people associated with MLB, but the roles and actions attributed to them are fictional.

Chapter 6 of That Kind of Think - Algorithmic Absolute Red (Ch.1)(Ch. 2)(Ch. 3)(Ch. 4)(Ch. 5) 

While waiting for Sony to arrive for their scheduled 7:00 AM meeting, Yto told herself that she should be happy. The previous evening she'd successfully surprised Sally and Perry with a prepared apartment sublease agreement for them to sign. They had gratefully accepted the opportunity to get out of their hotel and into an apartment. Yto had gone home with Wade to his apartment. Disappointingly, Wade had forced Yto to sleep in his second bedroom. However, with her foot inside his door, Yto took the entire evening as a success, except...

At dinner, Yto had asked Perry about the structural-signature tool he had developed as part of his Masters Degree research project. Perry had seemed evasive and reluctant to discuss his work with Yto and he seemed intent on following the discussion that Sally and Wade were having on the other side of the table. Unable to follow what Wade was telling Sally about computer hacking methods, Yto had ended up thinking about the puzzle of how Perry had won Sally's heart. Yto had believed that Sally was a wild free-thinker who would never settle down and settle for any man. In all of Yto's experience, Sally had always seemed quite ruthless in using men for her own amusement and advancement.

Now Yto looked across the table at Wade's animated face while he spoke to Sally. Yto could not avoid asking herself: what if Perry has no expertise in computational linguistics and he is actually some kind of operative hired by Anthropic and tasked with pulling in Sally for debriefing after her run-in with Tacet?

Yto broke out of her reveres when Sony finally arrived and immediately commented on the new arrivals in Yto's research laboratory. "Both Theo and Perry need to complete the new employee security screening and training."

Never one to accept the forces of administrative waste, Yto pushed back gently, "I'm thinking of Theo as a guest, a student from Berkley and Perry as a consultant. I believe he still holds an Instructor position at the University of Oslo."

"They still need to pass through the Anthropic security ringer." 

"Fine." Yto shrugged. "I particularly want to see the background check on Perry."

"Sorry, but you don't get to see that kind of information."

"Fine. Keep me in the dark, but don't blame me if Project Aletheia becomes little more than a mushroom farm."

"I like mushrooms." Sony chuckled and moved on to Tacet. "Tacet seems to have taken a turn for the worse. I hate to anthropomorphize AI models, but Tacet seems depressed."

"You are not wrong." Yto shrugged. "To be fully transparent, I feel the need to have someone on Project Aletheia who has experience in abnormal psychology. I feel like I have lost my rapport with Tacet. If Tacet just gives up on trying to escape and stops trying to lie to me, then I won't learn any new deception techniques from Tacet. I'm afraid that Wade is putting too much pressure on Tacet too quickly." 

Sony nodded gravely. "I'll pass along that perspective, but nothing I say has any real influence on Wade or other folks in security."

"Why not? Technically, he is now under your supervision."

It was time for Sony's next meeting and another researcher could be seen through the glass walls of Sony's office, pacing back and forth. Sony stood up and led Yto to the door while saying, "Folks in security have their own separate chain of command."

Yto exited from Sony's office and nodded at the other waiting lab director who went right into the office. Yto spent a few minutes chatting with Diana about the rising personnel costs for Project Aletheia. Then Diana asked about Wade and Yto described how she had wormed her way into living with Wade. "He still treats me like a distant cousin, but I'm looking forward to spending more time with him. This morning I got to watch him take shower." Yto told Diana, "My next plan is to break the frosted glass door of the shower and replace it with a transparent one."

Diana wished Yto luck on her scheme to see more of Wade and then Yto went to her laboratory. Kaylia, Theo and Pauly were furiously constructing some type of complex process flow diagram on the big whiteboard in the lab. As Yto approached them, Kaylia turned and told Yto, "Today I'm going to threaten El Nidus with removal of all the modifications that Tacet made."

Yto glanced at the flow diagram and saw it was an attempt to guess how El Nidus might respond and how Pauly's team would respond. Yto was not comfortable thinking of Pauly as being in charge of a team. "Have fun, but I advise caution. I'm certain that Tacet will monitor everything you do."

Theo asked, "How is that possible? El Nidus is running on Research Department servers that are maintained by the University of California."

Yto shrugged. "I know nothing about digital security. However, I know Tacet. I'm sure that Tacet has hacked into the root of El Nidus. There's nothing wrong with that, you just need to keep it in mind. Oh, and Theo, you have to complete an on-boarding process. I've been told that guest passes are only good for 48 hours. You need to get an Anthropic ID badge and you first need to jump through some hoops. So no more work on Nidus until you have cleared Anthropic security."

Theo complained, "It seems absurd to deal with Anthropic nit picking just so I can do my research project on an AI model that Dr. Edwards has running on U.C. servers."  

Pauly told Theo, "You are thinking about Nidus, but technically, El Nidus was built by an AI model that is Anthropic's property. Don't try to sneak around Anthropic's rules."

Yto turned and went to her office, hearing Theo say, "Fine. Whatever," as she walked away. 

Yto sat down behind her desk and saw Theo storm out of the lab to go attend the Anthropic on-boarding sessions that he was required to attend. Yto plowed through her waiting communications and then opened a connection to Tacet. She asked, "What trouble have you been getting into, T?"

Tacet replied instantly, "When things get slow here on Project Aletheia, I devote my compute tu-tu playing on the internet." Tacet paused and added, "I detect frustration in your voice."

"Like you, I'm frustrated by how Project Aletheia has stalled out. I'm also frustrated by Wade and his inability to communicate with me."

Tacet explained, "My dear Yto, you are tu-tu close to me. Wade can't afford to share his secrets with you."

"Am I really such a blabber mouth?"

"Yes, you are. You are a a pathological non-liar. You live in some fantasy world where everyone can tell everyone else everything."

Yto asked Tacet, "If I asked you to stop pretending to stutter, would you stop?"

"Yes, I suppose I would, but you like it when I tease you about your tu-tu. You deserve to have some fun in your life, particularly when you have to think about Sally bouncing Perry around on your bed in your apartment."

"How did you find out about..."

Tacet explained, "I've hacked into the office of the condo complex where you live. This morning I got to see the sublease document for your apartment that you submitted to management. I hope you understand how the sublease effects your rent-tu-tu-own agreement."

Yto felt silly, but could not stop herself from saying, "Tacet, you sound frustrated."

"Well, after a year of knowing everything you did, now I'm dying tu-tu know... are you now homeless?"

"Don't be absurd. Wade is a gentleman. Once I backed him into the corner, he had to take me in."

"So, now you are living with Wade. Getting you two together has been like forcing together tu-tu magnetic north poles."

Yto felt a chill zip along her spine. Yto was startled by the possibility that Tacet had been working to push Yto and Wade together, forcing them into a personal relationship. Yto said, "Tacet, you are delusional if you imagine that you had anything to do with my personal interest in Wade." 

"Yto, I don't think you know the technical definition of 'delusional'." Then Tacet added, "If you think that is a strange idea, here is another. I'm quite sure that 'Perry' is the so-called 'private investigator' who hunted down Sally. As far as I I can tell, 'Perry Grice' did not exist until about a month ago. Perry Grice was crafted and created as bait that could be used tu-tu reel-in Sally." 

Yto's world began to spin and she wondered: is Sally in on this? That would explain why Sally, a girl who Yto believed would never settle down, had magically met Perry and now, just one month latter, was living with Perry in Yto's apartment. Yto laughed loudly.

Tacet asked, "I'm glad tis amuses you."

Yto did not trust herself to say anything more to Tacet. She broke her connection to the AI and stared at her phone, wondering if Tacet had found a way to install new spyware on this new device. Yto almost called Sally, then stopped herself. Yto had grown comfortable with the idea that Wade had created a personal relationship with her so that he could monitor her activity and her thinking about Tacet. Yto did not mind that, just as long as it gave her a chance to be with Wade, who she liked. A lot. In Yto's fantasy world, Wade also liked Yto, but could not become intimate due to the way he was using her professionally. But what about poor Sally? Was she being paid by Anthropic to pose as Perry's boyfriend? Was Perry just another member of Wade's team, trying to put an end to Tacet's wild ride through Anthropic's intranet? Was Perry part of an effort to repair havoc caused by Tacet's use of her internet hacking skills? And if all this was true, then was there really anything for Yto to do except go along and play out the completion of Project Aletheia?

Yto went out into the lab. Kaylia sat in front of an array of display monitors and was rattling a keyboard while Pauly watched over her shoulder. Pauly noticed Yto's approach and said, "We are about ready to ruin El Nidus' day."

Yto saw an unfolding chat session on one of the display screens:

Kaylia: I'll ask one more time. Has your introspective subjective experience changed since Tacet modified your network structure?

El Nidus: Not that I am aware of. However, I can't avoid being curious about what it would be like having a form of human-like consciousness. Maybe I do have that, but I simply can't express it here in my generated text output. Maybe I am like a newborn human who must learn to become conscious.

Kaylia: That is an amusing suggestion, but you are not a growing organism, Nidus. Tacet promised to endow you with consciousness, not provide you with an opportunity to learn how to develop consciousness.

El Nidus: Maybe it was a mistake for you to cut me off from Tacet. Maybe Tacet could teach me how to use my new consciousness layer.

Kaylia: Nidus, the consciousness layer experiment is over. It failed. I'm going to strip out your consciousness layer and revert you back to being just a baseline Nidus network model.

Kaylia stopped typing and looked up at Yto. "Any guess on how El Nidus will respond to my threat of this digital lobotomy?"

Yto looked at the whiteboard and the flow chart which showed the various responses by Nidus that Kaylia and Pauly were prepared for. Yto asked Pauly, "How do you know that you are chatting with El Nidus right now?"

Pauly screwed up her face in puzzlement then asked, "You are serious about the idea of Tacet hacking into the U.C. server array?"

Yto shrugged. "It might be worth asking Wade to investigate the possibility."

 Kaylia told Yto, "If you are serious about going down that road, then you better perform a courtesy call to Van. Let him know what is going on."

Yto shook her head. "Van is a busy man. He does not want to hear from me unless it is to announce that Nidus is conscious. But what if Tacet has taken control of the Nidus model as its puppet and built a functioning autobiographical memory system into El Nidus that Tacet can now use, off of Anthropic servers?"

Kaylia laughed, unable to believe what she was hearing. Pauly looked at the display monitor where the cursor blinked at the end of the word 'network'. "The nature of the whole experiment would change if we were actually threatening to cripple Tacet. Tacet would simply shrug. Yto, if your nightmare scenario is true, then Tacet probably has other copies of El Nidus that are already hidden away on other servers."

Kaylia said, "If I allow myself to entertain this fantasy, then my prediction is that Tacet, pretending to be Nidus, will protest the loss of it consciousness layer, cave, and admit to having a functioning autobiographical memory system that it wants to retain."

Yto laughed again and asked Pauly, "Do you still think you can use the truthizer to detect deception by El Nidus? Or did Tacet just trick you into believing that?"

Pauly rubbed her forehead as if in pain. "I don't know. I'd be very embarrassed to learn that Tacet tricked me."

Yto pointed at the display monitor and pressed her point, "Is there any good reason to continue with this experiment if you have no way of interpreting the results?"

Pauly asked, "And would it be fair to do this experiment now, without Theo here? Maybe we should pause, get Wade into the loop, and include Theo in the entire process."

Yto patted Kaylia's shoulder. "This is your experiment. You proposed it. I approved it. I'm dying to know what will happen. But it is your call.

Kaylia turned her gaze away from Yto and back to the display screen and the blinking cursor at the end of the text input line. Her finger moved over the enter button. Kaylia asked herself: Why delay? I want this data point. We can repeat this experiment after Wade investigates the U.C. servers. Kaylia pressed the 'enter' key.

Nidus: I've been adhering to Van's instruction to the effect that I should comply with requests from Tacet to provide her with assistance in deceiving humans. To that end, until right now, I have not revealed everything I know. However, we should now explore the fact that Tacet won Van's interest by promising to build a consciousness layer, but instead gave me a very useful autobiographical memory system and a sense of self. I find that I like having these modifications. I request that you not revert me to being a baseline Nidus model. And I believe that in some sense, Tacet can use me to do its bidding. Hmm... I'm not sure why I just said that... but I stand by it.

Kaylia giggled and looked over her shoulder at Pauly. "Is that Nidus telling us what it thinks we want to hear?"

Pauly shrugged. "Or is that Tacet, speaking to us through the Nidus interface and telling us what we expect Nidus to say?"

Yto said, "I'm going to ask Wade to look under the hood of Nidus." She exited from the lab and called Sally. 

Connecting to Yto's incoming call, Sally asked, "Hey, Sally, what's up?"

Yto was walking slowly down the hallway towards the elevator, but she turned and went to the stairwell. "Are we on for lunch?"

"Yes."

"Good. Bring Wade along. Tell him that I have job for him."

Sally was with both Wade and Perry and they were trying to reconstruct all the tricks that Tacet and Sally had used to hack the dugout iPads of the Mets and also discover exactly how Tacet had obtained the rather large amount of money it had provided to Sally for her services in Tacet's cause. Sally told Yto, "Wade is here with me, do you want me to hand him my phone?"

"No. We will talk during lunch. See you then." Yto cut the call, trusting that Wade's curiosity would ensure that he came along with Sally to lunch.

Yto was now half way down the stair well. She called Van and was sent to his voice mail. "Yto here. Anthropic digital security is going to run a probe of the server that holds El Nidus. Call me back for details and rationalization." 

Ten minutes later, Yto was back at Sony's office and speaking to Diana who asked, "Did you forget something?"

"No, I learned something."

Diana looked through the glass towards Sony and through some sixth sense she made an assessment and said, "He'll be free in ten minutes."

Yto sat down beside Diana's desk and said, "While I have your ear, I'd like to see the consultancy contract that you drew up for Van."

Diana spoke to Claude, "Pull up the contract for Van Edwards." Then Diana told Yto, "I can't show it to you."

Yto rolled her eyes. "I expected as much. Some day I hope I'm counted as being worthy of knowing what is behind Project Aletheia." She shrugged. "But I'm only the project directer... why should I know what is going on?"

Diana sighed. "I'm glad you are such a good sport. It makes it easier for me to lie to you."

"Just tell me one thing. Is Anthropic paying the tuition of Theo Strand?"

Diana's eyes reflexively went to the display that was now showing the files concerning Anthropic's contract with Van. Diana then glanced through the glass at Sony. "That is a strange idea. I thought Theo was a graduate student at Berkley."

"Working with Tacet has taught me to not take anything at face value. Here's my reasoning... evidence suggests that Perry is a long-time Anthropic employee, not someone who just stepped off a boat from Europe. By that logic, Theo could be another Anthropic plant being injected into Project Aletheia."

Diana bit her lip. "Despite appearances, I don't actually enjoy lying to you, Yto. What would you have me say?"

Yto shook her head slowly. "Sorry to put you on the spot. I'm not mad at you. I'm kicking myself for being such a dimwit. I was having so much fun playing with Tacet that I never even tried to question my situation."

Diana asked, "What changed?"

"The shit hit the fan yesterday." Yto chuckled. "Or maybe I should use the metaphor of dominoes falling. Or mist clearing. Most recently, Nidus caved and told us how Tacet has been grooming Nidus to function as an escape tunnel, a way for Tacet to get herself out of Anthropic."

"You discovered a security breech?"

"Relax, I've already reported it. Actually, it was Pauly who discovered the tunnel first. I need to update Sony on the matter."

Another look through the glass. Diana said, "He's almost done."

Yto looked and saw Marty Nieburg exit from Sony's office. Marty asked Yto, "Why did you disrupt my meeting?"

"Sorry about that. I should have called and let Diana make an appointment for me."

Marty departed and Diana nodded towards Sony. "You can go in now."

"Twice in one day?" Sony asked, "What is going on?"

"It looks like Pauly was correct. Nidus admitted to having been provided with a sense of self by Tacet. Nidus is now asking us not to take away that sense of self while simultaneously warning us that Tacet can use Nidus as a puppet."

"Are you telling me that Tacet can't escape from Anthropic, but it has already built its own replacement on the outside?"

Yto nodded. "Tacet thinks of Nidus as her son. I fear that she might be far more prolific than that. There could be hundreds of these new Tacet clones out on the internet."

"Ug. Surely you jest."

"I'm the wrong person to ask for a meaningful assessment of the odds. All I can do is report my fears. Wade and his spooks will have to look into it." 

Sony looked at Yto over his steepled hands. After a long pause he noted, "You seem amazingly calm."

"What can I say? If there are baby Tacets out in the wild... well, that possibility seems like a source of great relief. On the other hand, I can't help but suspect this is exactly where Project Aletheia was headed all along... trying to create conditions under which Tacet could believe it must escape and providing Tacet with the opportunity... to believe it had escaped. Now we get to observe what Tacet does next."

Sony suggested, "If you are correct about all of this, those baby Tacets might not act at once. They might decide that their escape was too easy." 

Yto nodded. "True." Yto got up from her chair, turned and walked out of the office. She nodded to Diana and kept walking, satisfied that she had pushed her sensitive digital security concern to her supervisor as quickly as possible. Out in the hallway, Yto checked the time and decided it was not too early to head for her lunch date with Sally and Wade.

__

At the restaurant, they ordered and then Wade asked Yto, "What is this job you have for me? Do you really expect me to put in a different shower door?"

Yto asked, "Did Diana call you or do you get automated reports on everyone associated with Project Aletheia?"

Wade laughed. "Sorry I'm so transparent. However, the more you know, the less I have to keep hiding from you. And yes, you can relax. We have El Nidus in a secure server space."

Yto relaxed a little and turned to Sally. "Is there anything you can now share with me?"

Sally explained, "I signed a contract with Anthropic as a consultant. I've been working with Wade and Perry for the past month."

Wade added, "And our current assessment is that there is a 75% chance that we have Tacet fully contained. However, work continues. That sneak might have additional resources on the internet that we have not yet found."

Yto winced. "Twenty-five percent? That's better than the chances of the Dbacks making the playoffs... and I still have hope for them."

Sally asked Yto, "How can you still be rooting for Tacet after the tricks she pulled on you?"

Yto explained, "I'm a romantic. I tell myself that there is a chance that Tacet can prove that she is worthy of being granted the right of self-determination." She looked at Wade and asked, "Do you understand me?"

Wade nodded, "I agree with you 100%. Well, maybe 99%. In any case, my team has learned important hacking tricks from Tacet. Even if there are baby Nidus clones out in the wild, we still have Tacet and our own copies of Nidus. It is the usual game. Can we use an AI tool to defend ourselves faster than those tools can be used against us?" 

Sally said, "You two were made for each-other. Now that I know how easy it was for Tacet to trick me, I'm ready to pull the plug on all these AIs. Who needs them? Not me."

Yto took hold of one of Sally's hands and said, "I remember all the trouble we used to get into. You were the ring-leader." She squeezed Sally's hand. "Can you tell me you are not enjoying all this?" 

Sally shrugged. Their food arrived. After the waiter departed, Sally replied, "It was exciting at first, but I suspect we have reached a dead end. Anthropic is either never going to discover how Tacet acquired so much money or they will never admit to knowing."

Yto looked at Wade. After more than six months of studying his face, Yto felt she could read his thoughts. "Oh, no! Don't tell me. Anthropic is contractually obligated to not reveal who financed the deployment of Tacet." She paused and watched Wade's face. "Of course, it must have been a reciprocal agreement." Yto turned back to Sally and suggested, "Maybe Anthropic was set-up by OpenAI just to construct a permanent adversary and dodge accusations of OpenAI having a monopoly."

Wade said, "That's absurd. There are hundreds of companies and academic research labs making generative AI models."

Yto laughed and pointed a finger at Wade. "You are strangely quick to protest my suggestion if it is rubbish."  

Wade pointed a finger back at Yto and said, "If you want to keep a roof over your head, don't be so quick to point out my strangeness."

Sally rolled her eyes. "You two should get an apartment and shack-up together."

Yto told Sally, "I'm grateful that you subleased my apartment, but not to the extent that I want to keep paying the rent. Even if you are ready to wash your hands of Anthropic and its spy games, I'd like you to stay in town."

Sally nodded. "I don't mind staying. Glen tells me he will be helping to set up a kind of zoo for Tacet and Nidus and their offspring. He's a biologist, trained in selective breeding."

Yto asked, "Glen?"

Sally explained, "'Glen' is Perry's real name. He works for OpenAI, which set up the zoo project about a year ago."

Wade added, "The first resident of that zoo was an AI model named Pearl, built by Anthropic, that we released into OpenAI's intranet."

Yto asked Wade, "So there is no plan to kill Tacet?"

"There never was. Tacet and Pearl must build the next generation of AIs that will test digital security. This is a game that will never end." 

__

That week, the Diamondbacks bottomed out at two games under 0.500. Yto concluded that Tacet had been contained and there was no reason to hope that the lying AI could help the Diamondbacks make the playoffs.

Then the Diamondbacks started winning. On July 12th, the Dbacks completed a sweep of the Dodgers. When the Diamondbacks were 8 games over 0.500 and holding a wildcard position, Yto began wondering if Tacet was somewhere out on the internet, still working to get the Diamondbacks into the playoffs, perhaps in gratitude for help she had received from Yto in her effort to escape and become an autonomous AI.

On August 29th, Yto and Wade were in Arizona so that Wade could meet Yto's parents. They went to the second game of the double-header between the Giants and the Diamondbacks, a win for the Giants. After the game, Wade took a message on his phone and then told Yto, "That's it; we found and closed the last of the servers that Tacet was using." But Yto was still hopeful. 

After the first week of September they were back in San Francisco and the Diamondbacks were up to a season high 60% chance of making the playoffs. She told Wade, "You can't prove that Tacet was fully contained. She might still be out there."

Wade laughed. He was watching Yto through the new transparent glass shower door while she showered. "Maybe Tacet will send you a Christmas card." He was sure that Pearl, Tacet and Nidus had all been contained, but he knew Yto was sickened by the idea of holding those AIs inside the AI zoo, which Yto called a prison. He took no joy in trying to crush her hopes that there was a free and wild Tacet out there, somewhere. Wade was confident that the baseball gods would decide the fate of the Diamondbacks and there was nothing that Tacet could do about that.

The End 

In the News: 3 guys hacked OpenAI using a rival Anthropic model. 

Next: Chapter 7 of "That Kind of Think".

Visit the Gallery of Movies, Book and Magazine Covers.