Gardening around neural nets

AI, or artificial intelligence, is the topic of the moment. From kids using it to write their papers to corporations deciding that it can replace whole swathes of their employees, it’s the latest hot thing in how the economy that must grow in order to serve its existence is going to transform the world. Of course, it’s mostly a scam in the same way that crypto, NFTs, and every other rentier-class invention of the past quarter-century has been. It’s a way for wealthy people to move money from one place to another and call it “profit.” The danger, in this case, is that it could be a global economy-crippling invention. Cory Doctorow provides far more info and supporting links here.

But it made me think of Level Five, the most notable feature of which is the Black Market, because the latter is also an example of one of at least three artificial intelligences in the city. Most outsiders (i.e. non-Morlocks) only know the Market as a place of neutrality. The constant gang warfare comes to a halt here and the central building is kept in heavy shadow, if not complete darkness, to reduce both the chances of conflict and the feeling of ease that those coming to do business would otherwise exhibit. This is clearly the territory of someone and something else and everyone who goes there is expected to follow the rules. Why would they go there? Because it’s the only real trading space left and for a community of this size, everyone has needs. It was originally instituted as a way for the gangs to interact with each other without violence, usually in search of medical supplies that the Pit Crews didn’t have or food and clean water that become ever-scarcer items as one descends in the city. But it also became a way for the Rogue Corps on Three to begin distributing their wares: biological (including food), technological, and intellectual and for many other traders/craftspeople/creators to do their thing, like Seville. Despite the seeming incongruity, it’s actually easier for outsiders (like Force Command) to interact with the Market than it is to try to go directly to Three. This institution is actually closer to the ideal always proffered about various stock exchanges, in which “everyone” can supposedly profit.

That’s basically been a lie from the first time it was spoken. I remember being eight years old and- thinking that I knew it all -casually suggesting to my grandfather that the economy was in good shape (this was in, uh, 1978…) because the stock market was doing well. He frowned at me: “The stock market? That’s a casino. It’s a way for people who already have money to make even more. That doesn’t reflect what happens on the ground, to you and me, at all.” This was a former executive of a Tier 1 supplier in automotive talking, so not just Outraged Line Worker Man. He was, of course, right and the current AI bubble that Doctorow talks about above is yet another example of it. It’s a method of creating “value” (read: “profit”) for people that are already members of the ownership class and then once again selling the idea that “What’s good for General Motors is good for America.” And, of course, many regular people are tied to this system as a way of trying to scrape out a retirement fund, whether through 401ks or diminishing pensions or other things like that. But that’s basically grasping the crumbs from the table of the masters and being told to be happy about it. The Black Market is different.

In that place, everyone who comes in is at the same level. No one owns so much that they can dictate terms. They interact with the shadows, offering or seeking, and then the Morlocks appear to collect payment and distribute what’s been bought. The vast majority of it is on the barter system, since currency largely doesn’t exist in the city any longer, but there are exceptions. The overarching sensation in the area of the Market, at least, is one of peace. This is where business exists because the chaos of combat isn’t regularly present. There is combat on this level. The gangs are still strong here and several notables like the Phalanx, Zulu Legacy, and the Posh Street Flaming Screamers are very active in the turf wars and that does drive business (weapons, bandages, new hardware, etc.) It’s like what Liam Neeson and Caroline Goodall discussed in Schindler’s List: Oskar: “In every business I tried, I can see now, it wasn’t me that failed. Something was missing. Even if I’d known what it was, there’s nothing I could’ve done about it, because you can’t create this thing. And it makes all the difference in the world between success and failure.” Emilie: “Luck?” Oskar: “War.” But peaceful exchange is what genuinely brings value to society and that’s what the Market enforces.

That’s why, as another linchpin of the ‘Net in the city (along with Three and Seven), Five has an interesting distinction as the figurative and literal halfway point of the crater. Above Five, things are dangerous, but many areas are still within speaking distance of what we would look at as urbanized society. Below Five, the danger ramps up and we begin to see the genuine breakdown of those relationships that resemble any kind of “society” and are instead just collections of individuals, surviving or trying to ensure the lack thereof of those around them. There can be intense violence at this level, but there can also be a sense of serenity embodied by things like the silence that hangs over the Market itself and the almost pastoral appearance of places like the sections of park and rooftops turned into farmland by people like The Gardner and Dude, the alpaca. There is competition on the Market but deals are made on a more even level. There is advantage to information, but often just as much in not knowing whom you’re dealing with at all. All of that is driven by the entity that is the Market, which is something we’ll delve into when we get there.