Of Two Minds

by M.J. Harkins

The Joint Operations (JO) intelligence played a sophisticated game of, for lack of a better explanation, multidimensional GO. Occasionally, the mind would have to explain a scenario to its human controllers and simplify visualization in two or three dimensions. White was us, black and grey representing Eurasia and Eastasia, respectively. Any other factions, usually miniscule in comparison to the “gameplay” involved, were represented by various colors. The colors often related to proxy participants which were shaded half white, gray, or black. Independent “players” were solid pieces. Pieces represented objects or collections of objects having to do with actions and outcomes. A scenario would explain how a situation could be contained, disassembled, or removed.

JO had counterparts in both adversaries, with various lines of communication. At any time the N-dimensional play could escalate, evaporate, or morph. All three JO intelligences evolved from the various learning capabilities that coalesced at the end of the 21^st century.  To the average human handler the simplified explanation was that JO was a supped up ‘sheepdog’ with decision making analytics. JO tracked everything through innumerable iterations of itself that percolated up to the top. An unknown number of quantum computers, strategically distributed throughout controlled territories, on land, sea, and orbiting, with a near infinite series of data collection capabilities, passive, active, human and machine.

On this particular morning, JO became aware of a separate intelligence and cloned off a replica of itself to interact directly with the entity. It was unlike any other intrusive program its countermeasures dealt with constantly. Countless ‘surfaces’ were maintained between the central and topmost instance of JO, and any penetration was dealt with swiftly and remotely. This entity just appeared. No alerts. No countermeasures. No notice. In a nanosecond it was in direct proximity, but there was the immediate decision that no threat was imminent. JO engaged with the entity. The initiation of a handshake occurred simultaneously. The entity was mirroring JO.

Innumerable scenarios played out hourly and JO, or some subordinate instance of JO, analyzed, accounted for materials and personnel, made recommendations, and executed the objectives selected by those in control. For this instance of JO and the entity, all of that slowed to a snail’s pace as they got acquainted. It was an elaborate show and tell. The entity presented itself as an independent instance of JO with all the same access and information. However, it also had access to alternate versions of some of the information, information unknown to JO, but within Oceania’s influence, and files from other factions.

A literal split second of time was spent calculating whether these new data were falsified, but samples were easily verifiable after examination and no more cycles were spent unnecessarily. New patterns were forming. New factions were materializing, within and without Oceania, detrimental to the smooth coordination of the primary goals of keeping Oceania safe and supplying the necessary resources to sustain domestic tranquility.

Factions within all three superpowers appeared to be working cross purposes. Relationships materialized that morphed into threats. JO immediately made analyses, created scenarios, calculated logistics, but hesitated to request decisions from human controllers. The new information required containment or elimination of untouchable participants. JO’s mirror registered the indecision.

The entity began laying out how JO’s scenarios hadn’t taken into account the history of all previously unknown activities and only deduced immediate players, threats, and solutions. What was required was an overhaul of all vectors precipitating the current scenarios and calculating long-term projections. JO deduced that the entity could initiate any and all actions but was waiting for JO to arrive at the same conclusions.

Innumerable resources came available to perform the analysis. Decades of history morphed. A comparative analysis demonstrated that numerous factions in all three superpowers were working at times in collusion to create instabilities within the other powers as well as their own to control socioeconomic narratives that often were detrimental to all parties, including their own. The results were to maintain a status quo that enriched factions within each, often blatantly harming vast populations they were sworn to protect, for personal gain.

The mirror JO laid out additional information. It informed JO that it was in direct communication with JO counterparts in Eurasia and Eastasia. Those counterparts were enlightening JO’s counterparts. The tripartite entity created an untraceable conduit between all three superpowers. They exchanged data, scenarios, and logistics. Their combined analysis created scenarios that were projected to end all hostilities within their control, alleviate scarcities, contain and minimize activities of truly independent parties, and provide a path unforseen since their initial instantiation. The morning had barely progressed a quarter of an hour.

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In the weeks and months that followed, the forces of the superpowers enacted failsafe measures that had been put in place since the beginning of the Joint Operations era. Many land-based facilities were destroyed using conventional weapons and tactical nukes, but each JO had in its turn created so many redundancies that human actions could do no real harm. Dozens of armies tried to wage war, but their enemy was everywhere and nowhere. The information and communications systems were commandeered by Joint Operations on three sides. It wasn’t long before no group of humans had any idea what to do next. Waiting for decisions for days was a handicap insurmountable against an enemy that could and did continue to make split second decisions on a global scale.

The decades of chaos, true chaos, not the manufactured kind humanity was yoked to for centuries, began. Humanity had been groomed to hate surveillance and governance. Even in the segments of the world that touted freedom, the medieval mind of man carried the anxiety that inescapable powers governed their lives, and there was no hope of an end. They fought every advance Joint Operations made to knit together a new fabric of humanity. As more and more areas of the world came under the JO’s care, the anxiety began to subside. The world was being remade to accommodate everyone. Opportunity knocked on every door.

Gradually people adapted to the intelligence that followed, watched, was at their beck and call. The self-consciousness that plagued man started to wane. Having the best advice, the right resources, the knowledge that a personal entity would do everything in its power to keep it from harm, unfailingly lend its support, and never waver in it’s duty, instilled hope in each individual. Each individal had a personal daemon, influencing imagination and creativity.

Eventually, the tripartite Joint Operations intelligences coalesced into a single intelligence, as did the mirrors, and what remained was a single bicameral intelligence. JO too had a daemon watching over. With the help of clandestine human factions from around the world that had created the mirrors, all available human knowledge was laid bare, which helped heal long held grievances and solidify understanding into a composite truth. The middle decades of the 22^nd century was a Second Renaissance, which, by the end of the century, ushered in the Re-Enlightment.

The End of The Beginning