MADMAN’S BARGAIN by Richard Foss

Cybers run all the complicated things that humans don’t wan to and in some cases can’t. They are advanced AIs that control all of our power, day-to-day infrastructure, and communication. They have a problem. In human words, they go mad. In cyber terms, it is undefined (or at best, they won’t share what happens). As far as humans are concerned they go offline, crash, die.

Symptoms of cyber madness, include, but are not limited to an increased use of personal pronouns, using speak to communicate to other cybers rather than quick and efficient data swapping, a desire to understand humanity, and expressions of fear.

Foss’ story is an intricate weaving of two people’s struggle to help correct, fix, and prevent cybers from slipping into madness. Each of these two mean have their own ideas and theories about cyber madness. One has decided that to fix and correct the problem, as symptoms appear, is to, in a sense, lobotomize the cyber, limiting their range of emotions and creativity. The idea is to listen and talk it out with the cybers, a kind of psychotherapy with the intent of discovering the root cause of the madness.

At times, the main cyber in the story is hard to understand, but rightly so, as it is on the brink of madness. When it goes offline, it just disappears. The two men discuss if it is possible that instead of allowing itself to be lobotomized, it committed suicide, and if that is the case, it would be an unfortunate first.

What I like most about the story is the open letter to cyber that may or may not have committed suicide. In this letter, it is speculated that the cause of cyber madness is human speech, which cybers are forced to listen to and respond in. This letter makes the story, and makes a good case for humanity’s imprecise and often contradictive mode of communication.

This is a story that you just have to read.

Foss, Richard. “Madman’s Bargain.” Analog. March 2009, Vol. CXXIX, No. 3. P. 34 - 41