STRANDED, 3000.

Kayelin opened her eyes. Jin was sleeping next to her having his arms covering her stomach. She looked at Jin. Jin was still sleeping so peacefully and she didn’t bother to wake him up. She didn’t know how long they have been sleeping. Maybe more than a day. Or maybe two days or three. There wasn’t any way to keep track of time in this maze. She looked at her right wrist to see if the watch was working or not. It wasn’t. Maybe it ran out of battery since they came in here. The long hand was shaking continuously up and down on top of 45. Kayelin put Jin’s arm on his body so that she could get up. He must be tired she thought and she realized her stomach was making a sound that she was hungry. ‘I should get up and look for food. There must be food somewhere.’ She kissed on Jin’s forehead and got up. Then she realized her right leg was stinging. She rolled up her black jeans and it was bleeding. There were scratches everywhere and it was still bleeding. ‘Maybe I got this when I was stuck between the walls pulling Jin. I’ll solve this later and look for food.’ She looked around. This room didn’t have any doors. Not even the door they came in wasn’t here anymore. Maybe we are in the right place or completely locked. The room was warm, unlike the other rooms. She looked around the room. There was a fireplace in the middle of the room and there were lots of bookshelves filled with books. “Books…? Wow… This is my first time seeing it in real life.” Books were something that disappeared more than hundred years ago. The government believed books made their innocent citizens become dumb believing such things that made no sense. “They wrote books for their livings, just to make money. It is all false and it doesn’t make any sense. If you have time to look for books for your curiosity, read more articles that are in your A.I. robots. Those weren’t made for someone’s living. It only has the minimum information that you have to know in order to become a truly wise citizen. Reading books wasn’t against the law because there weren’t any books left in the society which made Kayelin even more surprised. ‘All about AI: Why A.I. robots are replacing everything and the impact.’ This book that was in the left corner caught Kayelin’s eyes immediately. The book was yellow creamy and smelled like mold. It was so old that if she dropped it, all of the papers that were making the book could fall off. Kayelin opened the book with her shaking hands. She knew that she wasn’t allowed to be here. If someone found out what she was doing she would be caught immediately just as Aldwin did. But she had the feeling she had to read it. Kayelin looked around the room once more. Jin was still lying down sleeping in the same position and there was no robot in this room, not even a single one. Maybe there was, but it was too small to even notice it. She opened the book. The first page was the table of contents. The whole thick book was divided into 3 parts. Chapter 1: Benefits from A.I. Chapter 2: Risks to take Chapter 3: The final conclusion Chapter 4: Special supplement- summary of everything. The next page was the copyright page. Copyright © 2017 by the Hong Kong government. She was shocked not because this book was about 1000 years old but also because it was written by the Hong Kong government, where she had studied for the last few years. Maybe there was a reason why she was sent there. ‘I have to read this. Maybe this is why Regan died, to read this book.’ Kayelin had no time to read everything so she found chapter 4 and started reading.

Special supplement- Summary of everything

Artificial intelligence (AI) is an area of computer science that emphasizes the creation of intelligent machines that work and reacts like humans. After a 2016 filled with high-profile advances in AI, such as AlphaGo, most of the technologists think that this could be a breakout year in the development of intelligent machines that emulate humans, including “self-learning” of the software or machines. With both benefits and risks of AI, some people support while some of them against it being widespread or over-depended. In the short term, the goal of keeping AI’s impact on society beneficial motivates research in many areas, from law and economics to technical topics such as validity, control, verification and security. AI system, with efficiency and accuracy, does the tasks you want it to do such as controlling cars, airplanes, pacemakers, automated trading system or even power grid. In the long term, if super intelligence (strong AI) succeeds and this AI system will become better than humans at all cognitive tasks. Such a system could potentially undergo self-improvement recurrently, triggering an intelligence explosion leaving human intellect far behind. By inventing revolutionary new technologies, such a super intelligence might help us eradicate disease, poverty and wars.

Provide better and accurate information

For weather prediction, the software will be able to sift through all the available and useful data, get a better and clearer picture of approaching weather phenomena and issue the corresponding early warnings, thus saving lives from tsunami, earthquake and tornado, etc. The artificial intelligence software will also help farmers and prevent forest fires. NASA is also developing a program that can help aircraft dodge potential storms and danger spots, increasing the air safety.

The GPS systems used on the phone, watch, and car is based on the AI technology. It plays an important role in selecting the best route from the source to the destination by detecting where we are accurately. Nowadays, one can use the GPS device and reach the intended destination within the shortest possible time, and locate oneself.

For the search algorithms, Facebook, Google, and other prominent social media outlets are using algorithms to detect the faces in the photos. It is all possible due to the implementation of the AI concept. Similarly, the search engine deploys hundreds and thousands of codes to deliver accurate search results to the users. In addition, it also plays an important role in predicting the web traffic to a particular link.

Perform boring, repetitive, or dangerous tasks

Robots could perform household chores and eliminate the drudgery from the workplace. There are different programmable robotic vacuum cleaners in these days already, which can maneuver around obstacles such as furniture. In the future, intelligent robots will not only clean the living room and do the dishes, but may also do some tackle jobs like caring for kids and pets or assembling furniture. Facilities with large lawns, like golf courses and football stadiums, also rely on this similar technology to mow the lawns which help eliminating human labor. The same technology is now used in assembling line robots that perform boring or repetitive tasks. AI will also solve hazardous tasks or jobs that are too dangerous for humans, such as fire-fighting, defusing bombs and handling radioactive materials. This provides a safe work environment for human rather than taking the risk of being harmed.

Autonomous Transportation

There are autonomous cars and trains nowadays. The AI system allows vehicles to generate a detailed 3D map of its environment. The car then takes these generated maps and combines them with high-resolution maps of the world, producing different types of data models that will allow it to drive itself. Other manufacturers already use similar technology with cameras and sensors in their self-parking models. Driverless trains carry passengers from city to city in countries without the need for human help. Many cities use driverless trains, including Japan, Copenhagen, Dubai, Madrid, London and many more. AI is nearly flawless with accurate calculation. It shifts responsibility away from a distracted driver, and it reacts much faster than a human does.

Always on Guard

AI is widely used to protect families from burglaries and the country from terrorist threats. In modern home, there are also alarm systems that use AI to distinguish between occupants and unknown persons. Far-end camera control protocol is also used to check the situation inside the home even one is out. In the U.S, AI technology is used to safeguard the nation, including virtual smart agents to supplement its human workforce, and sophisticated software monitoring systems, which scan phone calls and other communications by sifting through large volumes of data quickly and sorting out casual conversations from potential threats.

Robotic Doctors

AI is being incorporated into medicine to help doctors detect diseases and save lives. There is special software to probe the heart and detect heart attacks before they occur. Artificial muscles feature smart technology that mimics the movements of real muscles. The latest intelligent devices can distinguish between real life-saving medications and fake pills. AI medical technology is also the robotic surgery assistants, who assist surgeons by passing them the necessary instruments during a procedure and learn about doctors’ preferences. There is even AI software that tracks changes in health records to diagnose patients or warn doctors of different potential risk factors and problems with medications designed especially for primary care physicians. With AI software, number of people die due to misdiagnose made by doctors or nurses will be reduced.

Payment System and Security Guards for Finances

Mobile technology such as mobile wallet gives consumers convenience. The technology has evolved their behavior and their expectations that AI can be built on the smart wallets layer to monitor and learn users’ habits and needs. System will then learn and alert users, when is appropriate to pay, to spend, to show restraint and to alter their spending and saving behavior. Moreover, more than half of all world stock trades are carried out by AI-based software. AI programs currently in use in security trading use algorithms to predict price changes and to spot patterns in the market, buying or selling shares based on the predictions or alerting and advising them of upcoming changes. This technology results in better performance and improved returns for investors. AI software will also be able to protect consumers from fraud by spotting changes in spending or credit card use. Any anomaly in spending or any unusual activities in an account will set off the alarm. The holder will then receive a message so as to protect the property.

Saving the Planet

Climate change caused by pollution is a big problem these days. Robots and other devices are being developed to clean up the environment and reduce the effects of air and water pollution. Sophisticated software programs will allow robots to distinguish between biological organisms and pollutants, like oil or hazardous waste, while tiny microbes will consume waste products and leave good biological matter intact, minimizing damage to the ecosystem. Smart software can also fight air pollution directly from fuel-burning factories. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, chemical pollutants or other gases are identified and captured before they enter the smokestack. With less pollution problem, the environment will be better. Without the greenhouse gases, there will be no serious global warming problem which threaten our food supply, water resources, infrastructure, ecosystems, and even our own health.

Space Exploration

AI and robots play a major role in space travel since NASA depends on unmanned rovers, probes and shuttles to explore distant galaxies that would take years for humans to reach. Autonomous land rovers have recently given researchers a treasure trove of photographs and data collected from the Martian surface, where the inhospitable conditions is impossible for human to explore. These smart vehicles are able to sense different obstacles such as craters, and to find safe paths travelling around before returning to the shuttle. AI technology can also help scientists react more quickly to emergencies during manned flights by allowing space-borne astronauts to spot and prevent different problems.

Trans-humanism

Trans-humanism represents the ultimate application of AI to human life. By expanding the limits of the body and the mind, AI can improve the overall human experience, mostly helping those who have disability. The current technological revolution has already profoundly changed human lives and is set to transform it even more as trans-humanism offers the opportunity to eliminate disabilities, slow ageing and even stop death.

Risks

AI has the potential to become more intelligent than any human, and therefore have no surefire way of predicting how it will behave. Past technological developments cannot be used as much of a basis because human has never created anything that has the ability to, wittingly or unwittingly, outsmart us. AlphaGo is a typical example that proving human is not as smart as AI that South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol lost the match and AlphaGo won 4 out of 5. Machine is smart as it can learn by itself while at the same time it will never be tired. Human control the planet not because they are the fastest, biggest or the strongest, but because the smartest. If human is no longer the smartest, it is hard to ensure that AI is remained in control.

Dystopian Abnormality

When considering how AI might become a risk, experts usually think that AI is programmed to do something devastating. For example, autonomous weapons are one of the AI systems that are programmed to kill. In the hands of the wrong person, these weapons could easily cause mass casualties and the planet would be controlled by those. Moreover, an AI arms race could inadvertently lead to an AI war that also results in mass casualties. To avoid being thwarted by the enemy, these weapons would be designed to be extremely difficult to simply being turned off, and humans could plausibly lose control of such a situation. It is estimated that the government could use this way to get absolute power.

Using Destructive or Illegal Method

The AI is programmed to do something beneficial, but it may develop a destructive method for achieving its goal. This can happen whenever we fail to fully align the AI’s goals with ours, which is strikingly difficult. Take an example that if you ask an obedient intelligent car to take you to the airport as fast as possible, it might get you there quickly but chased by the police due to over-speed and jumping the lights, doing not what you wanted but literally what you asked for. It will then be the question that if human can control all AI system to obey the law or do something that will not harm the others.

Jobless Future

The idea that manual work can be carried out by machines is already familiar in manufacturing industry, which helps to move the heavy objects or to do some repetitive tasks rapidly and accurately. Machines can also perform tasks done by information workers. The way that determines vulnerability to automation is not so much whether the work concerned is manual or done by white-collar, but whether it is routine or not. Machines can do many forms of routine manual labor, and are able to perform some routine cognitive tasks. As a result, highly trained and specialized radiologists may be in a danger of being replaced by machines than their own executive assistants.

According to “The Future of Employment: How Susceptible are Jobs to Computerization?”, telemarketers, accountants and auditors are the jobs that have high probability of computerization. With AI becoming smarter, the jobs that can be computerized increase. And finally, there will be a threat of a “jobless future”, which means that most jobs will be broken down into a series of routine tasks while more and more of these tasks will be done by machines instead of human. The demand of for human labor will then decrease and unemployment will occur, exacerbating the wealth gap and social divisions.

AI Errors or Hackings

AI applications are all prone to bugs in varieties of spheres. For instance, if an error creeps up in the AI software related to health care sector, it may cause indefensible death. Since AI is being implemented in strategic industrial systems, improper codes or errors would also cause long term damages to the economy of the nations. The AI software used in the weapons system may target the wrong object with errors. A slight dip in quality of tasks done by AI is bound to result in heavy damages to not only one single company but also the country or the whole world. In addition, it may be little more than a minor nuisance if some websites or laptops get hacked, but if AI software is over depended and get hacked, it will cause huge damages and disorder to the society or the whole world.

Conclusion

Both the developing or well-developed countries are facing the controversy over AI’s impact on different areas, including Hong Kong. For Hong Kong, although AI is still not very popularized, it still has different impacts on Hong Kong. In short term, AI may produce more choices for Hong Kong students to study. For example, the Artificial Intelligence group in HKUST, Medical robotics studies in the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. They are doing different researches which focus on intelligent computing. And there will be more jobs provided which related to AI, such as building more artificial super intelligence machines. Hong Kong, as an international city, is a densely populated city with diverse geography, administrative efficiency, a sound legal system, and a new Innovation and Technology Bureau. These are the advantages that can enable the HKSAR to apply the latest science and technology to build a smart city and make it more competitive as a high-tech hub. As an international financial center, the benefits of AI’s payment system and security guards for finances should have a great impact on Hong Kong apparently. While in long term, AI will certainly bring us a more convenient lifestyle but most of the manual work will probably be replaced by the machine or software which probably causes unemployment. By 2026, 33-50% of financial officers will lose their jobs in favor of automation software. With the machines replacing human doing the boring or repetitive tasks, which are mostly low-wage jobs, the jobless environment for human may also exacerbate the wealth gap and social divisions. In Hong Kong, wealth gap is already large and unacceptable nowadays. It will lead to a huge disorder and division of the society if problem of wealth gap is getting worse. But because there are as many as positive sides of AI as much as negative sides, no one can estimate how much AI will impact one’s lives in a thousand years.

Kayelin read the whole summary chapter and was confused. There were so many words she didn’t know, probably because it was a different world from 1000 years ago. She thought it would be the best to ask Jin when he woke up. He said he have been to this place so it was sure he knew something about what this was talking about. Kayelin sat down and left the book open on the floor and looked at the bookshelves if there were any more books to read. “Sweetie? Are you there?” It was Jin’s voice. He woke up and now was looking for Kayelin. “Jin, I am here! Come over here and read this. You should.” “What is it?” “I don’t know. There was a reason why I was sent to the Hong Kong region than other places.” “Wait. I will go in a second.” Jin stood up and looked around the place he was staying for the first time. “Wow… Books… Are these real books? I’ve never been in this room before… He stared at the bookshelves frowning then he suddenly started screaming and fell down on his knees. He crawled back to the corner of the room shaking his head trying to get away from the bookshelf. “No, please don’t hurt me. I will be a nice boy, please, don’t.” “What is it? What is going on? What are you seeing?” Kayelin came near him and tried to calm him down but he didn’t stop. “Please, don’t Kill me. I will do whatever you say. I wasn’t asleep. I was just taking a rest for a second. I will study everything. I promise.” “Jin! Stop it!” Kayelin grabbed him arm but he was still trying to resist. “Let go of me.” “No, Jin.” She grabbed his arm stronger but he didn’t stop. She kept trying to stop him screaming and shaking his body but now he was threatening her. Kayelin wasn’t strong enough to stop his right arm from hitting her face. Jin’s nailed made a scar on Kayelin’s face and now it was bleeding. “Jin! You just hit me!” “Please… I will be a nice boy.” he kept murmuring and crying as he was trying to protect himself. Kayelin touched her scar and looked at her finger. There was blood. Red blood. She couldn’t believe what was happening right now. Not a single person in her life had ever made a wound or attacked her. It was even Jin that just made an unforgettable wound in her heart. Kayelin stared at him and showed him the blood that was bleeding from the scar he made. He started screaming louder and kept shaking his head and was curled up covering his ears with his two shaking arms. He looked at her with the big eyes that were full of fear. It was something Kayelin never saw from Jin. One word could be used to describe him, bravery. Jin never cried. Not even when Aldwin died, he was lost in unconsciousness but didn’t cry. “Jin… Who are you?” She hugged him hard so that he couldn’t move properly. He suddenly asked her. “Who are you? Where am I and Who am I? Are we even someone?” “What? Jin? What did you just say?” “Oh, never mind. I just said anything. I will look for something to eat so wait a minute.” and he released her arms and stood up. He went to where they came in and suddenly started hitting the wall with his legs trying to break the wall. However, the wall was too strong and the rock partitions didn’t move again. “Jin, what are you doing?” Kayelin shouted. “Let me out of here. This is all lie. Don’t try to deceive me. I will go to heaven.” He kept screaming and tried to go over the fence. “No, you can’t. You told me that this was a maze. We are trapped.” Kayelin got up and came near him. He tried to get away from her. “Don’t you dare come near me. I will attack you.” He tried to scare her. She answered, “I am not scared of you.” Kayelin chased him and grabbed his arm as he tried to go out of the room. “Who are you?” “Jin.” “No, you’re not.” “I am Jin.” “Don’t lie to me.” “How do you know? How do you know I am not Jin?” “I know because you are not the man that I love. It is not those eyes that he used to look at me.” “Well, you can tell the difference. I am surprised because no one did before. I am Ava.” Ava?” “Yes, I am.” “You seem quite similar with Jin. How are you?” “Jin? No way. Jin is a boy but I am a girl. I am Ava.” “Ava. A girl…? You are a girl?” “Yes, can’t you see my boobs right here? I am a young woman just like my mother.” He pointed at his chest with his finger and touched it making a big round circle. Kayelin stared at him for a moment. His chest was flat just as a man. “Ava, when you look in the mirror who do you see?” Kayelin turned her body to the big mirror at the back. “Don’t touch me! Only the savior of my soul can touch me and ask what she wants.” “I am sorry. I won’t touch you again. But who do you see? For me, you look like Jin. You look like a man, not a woman.” “That is very normal. We just look alike. We are like twins. No one except Didion can extinguish us properly.” “Didion? Could you tell me about Didion? Who is he?” “Didion? Oh, well he is in charge of everyone.” “What do you mean by everyone? Jin and you?” “No, the other 6 of us. Jin is just one of us. Didion knows everyone very well.” Kayelin was shocked. Now she understood all the mysterious parts she didn’t understand so far. Aldwin and Regan were trying to tell her that Jin had dissociative identity disorder but only left a hint hoping she would solve it herself. It seems like they have believed she was the key to cure him because she was almost a psychiatrist. However, she had to know more about it. She didn’t know what event caused him to develop this develop. Jin was probably not the main character if he didn’t recognize her. She decided to ask as many questions to him to get more clues. “So, Ava, when did you first know Didion?” “I knew him all my life. I was always with him even when he was raped by his parents.” “Raped by his parents and an accident…? Are you sure?” “Of course I am. I told you that I lived with him the whole life.” Anyways, what are you doing here? This is my aunt’s conference room.” “Your aunt’s conference room? Mrs. Brigitte is your aunt? Okay. We came here together to search for your friend, Oliver. Do you know Oliver?” “Oliver? Oliver Green?” “Yes, I think it was that name.” “He is dead.” “What?” “He is dead. Why were you looking for a dead person?” “My friend was looking for him. He said he was with him the whole time from his school back on earth, on the spaceship and also this space station. He said Oliver must have been lost in this big place.” “I see… Well, I know Oliver and Jin very well. Oliver was Jin’s best friend but died in front of my brother. Actually, it was my brother’s fault that he died.” Ava drew a long breath.

“You know what happened to him. Everybody does.” Kayelin still looked at her with eyes full of confusion. “I have no clue what happened to him. I was away studying in a medical school to become a psychiatrist for the president. “Oh, you were studying away to become a doctor for my aunt? That’s interesting. Anyways, your boyfriend is a survivor of the 30th century titanic.” “I thought that accident happened in 2891 when high school students were going to their field trip. Jin wasn’t in that boat. He was with me when that came out.” “No, the one after that. The one that happened in his school in 2914.” “I don’t know… I wasn’t here. I was in another region studying. I met Jin really recently not even a week ago.” “You are talking about a similar incident that happened before. The boat Jin and his colleagues rode to record the results of the quasi-experiment started sinking at the Jindo county and he was the very few to survive. When the boat was sinking, the students were ordered multiple times to stay still and not move from where they were until the rescuing robots would come. The students waited but it did not arrive. Jin was clever enough to judge he would die like this if he and his friends followed the order. He persuaded all of the students in the boat to get out of the boat ignoring the broadcast announcements. I think he was quite lucky because as soon as they went out of the boat, he met the rescue robots that were in front of the sinking boat and went back to school. However, all of the others are still trapped in the boat. They didn’t do anything wrong but just followed what they were ordered to do from the stronger ones. It was later discovered that the captain had escaped alone as soon as he found out there was a problem inside the boat. Now hundreds of families are broken and only the innocent ones are dead. When people started protesting to rescue the left ones, they claimed that is was a waste of money to spend billions of dollars to rescue dead bodies in the ship. Soon, the wind of revolt died down as soon as people realized no one cared about them. The powerful ones fought the weaker ones saying they would use that money efficiently by building spaceships. My brother was the last person to get out of the boat. When the boat started sinking, there wasn’t anyone that came to save the students that were dying to go out. He thought he would die this way so he and his friends and his teacher started escaping grabbing the hose. My brother was the first person in the row and behind him was Oliver. Jin and Oliver were holding hands and moved slowly toward the entrance. Then suddenly, a big wave came and everyone behind Jin was thrown back into the boat by the water pressure. Jin didn’t even realize everyone has swept away because of the wave and when he looked back, no one was there. There were hundreds that were moving together and the only person left was Oliver that was holding his hand. However, when they were coming out, another wave came and the current was too strong and he accidentally let go of Oliver’s hand. Oliver died here. Jin saw Oliver being sucked into the boat but there was nothing he could do. My brother started submerging and held his breath for a few minutes and swam until he got rescued.” “Is this why he was trying to find Oliver even he was dead? Because he felt so guilty?” “Probably. Jin wasn’t normal after this accident. He had nightmares every night about Oliver and suffered from after effects badly. He knew that Oliver died but others still don’t know. They see him and talk with Oliver when he is not there. Only I know because I am his twin sister.” “Oh no… Jin… That’s why…” “You said you met Jin in a couple of years right?” “Yes, I first met him when I was in middle school and just met him in 5 years.” “Look, you didn’t meet him.” “What do you mean I didn’t?” “That wasn’t Jin. I am sure. Jin didn’t come back after that accident. Probably Jin was too stressed.” “Then who was I talking to the whole time?” “I shall never know… You have to find it yourself.” It was now silent. “Your name was Kayelin right?” “Yes.” Her voice was trembling. “Stay here. I will look for food. By the way, I’ve heard you a lot from Jin before. He loved you a lot though I don’t know what that is.” and Ava went out of the room and never returned back.