Blob, Chapter 46 - The Solomon Problem
Washington, DC
Inside the White House’s ultra-secure Situation Room—encased in layered shielding dense enough to scramble every signal, sonic or digital—three men sat around the table:
The President.
The Secretary of Defense.
The founder and CEO of Solomon Orbital, Brandon Dekker.
Brandon was visibly frustrated, waving the first version of the SAFE draft that had just been released. “The United States cannot even think of signing this agreement if it contains this nonsense about ‘No Sovereign AI’ and ‘No Self-Improving AI’ and…” He turned the page. “‘…International Accountability.’” He motioned angrily to the two other men. “We might as well gift-wrap our entire defense infrastructure and send it to Beijing and Moscow.”
The AI-based satellite network that Solomon was designing would scan the entire Earth in real time, detect threats, and predict global environmental crises before they happened. Funded through classified Pentagon contracts and backed by DARPA, the system had been fast-tracked for military use as a strategic advantage against rival nations.
The three men sat for a moment in silence, their wary eyes on the TV monitor. It showed the special hall that had been set up in Geneva, where some members of the SAFE task force were present, consulting with others who were online around the world. Runners trotted up and down the aisles of the huge room carrying papers as they frantically tried to crank out a first draft, like students pulling an all-nighter. There was so much activity on the floor it looked more like the New York Stock Exchange.
Glancing back at Brandon, the President shrugged and said, “If the US signs an agreement like this, it only means that Solomon has to go underground, at least partially. Of course, other large countries will do the same with their AI defense programs.”
Brandon groaned. He had come to Washington yesterday to personally try to talk some sense into the POTUS, but he didn’t seem to be getting anywhere. “Mister President, that opens a whole new can of worms—not just operationally, but geopolitically. It makes everything so much more difficult than it already is.”
“I know that, but—”
“Right now, we’re operating in the open—well, mostly. If we go underground, we lose transparency, we lose accountability, we even lose some of our best minds—they won’t work on classified projects. Not to mention procurement and logistics become a nightmare. Every move has to be routed through secure chains, black budgets, covert facilities. It slows everything to a crawl.”
Brandon paused, letting the words sink in. “And once we all go covert,” he went on, “we’ll have no way of knowing how far the Chinese or Russians have gone with theirs. We’ll all be flying blind—and we’ll assume the worst. That’s how arms races start. Except this time it’s not nukes, it’s autonomous intelligence.”
The President looked evenly at him and said, “We have no intention of signing an agreement with those kinds of limitations, Brandon.”
The Defense Secretary seconded this, shaking his head, his beefy arms crossed over his chest. “Not a snowball’s chance in hell.”
Brandon frowned, confused. “Well, how are you going to get around it?”
He nodded to a laptop on the table that was open to one of Blob’s social media pages, where the alien was live-streaming. “That damn tree-hugger from space isn’t just popular; he’s untouchable. Every time he speaks, people riot, organize, march… He doesn’t need weapons. He’s an expert at using mob rule to his advantage.”
The Defense Secretary glanced at the screen. “He’s a destabilizer. That’s the biggest problem.”
Brandon gestured angrily at the laptop. “Where the hell is he right now, anyway, broadcasting all this anti-AI garbage nonstop? Can’t you find him?”
“We haven’t been able to figure it out, nor do we know how he’s able to insert himself into social media feeds—whatever technology he’s using, it’s centuries ahead of anything we can begin to understand.”
The Defense Secretary gazed at Blob’s screen image and shook his head. “I haven’t bought his ‘I’m here to help’ routine since Day One. He’s here to soften us up. Since he wasn’t able to bring along the technological power to kill our AI development by force, he’s using ‘mob rule,’ as you call it, to ‘divide and conquer.’ Oldest trick in the book.”
The three men just sat there in silence. The President looked particularly troubled.
Brandon leaned forward, his voice quieter now. “If we could track him down—what might be done about him?”
The Secretary of Defense shifted in his seat. “That’s a mighty big if. Every agency we’ve got has been trying nonstop—CIA, NSA, even Space Command. Blob moves without a trace, and the spacecraft—if that’s what it is—isn’t showing up on radar, satellites, heat signatures, nothing.”
“But if we could find him,” Brandon repeated, not wanting to let go of the question, eyes flicking between the two men, “what might we do then? I mean, what are the possibilities?”
“This meeting is over,” the President grunted, glancing at his watch and rising from the table. “I have a lot of other things to worry about right now.”