Angela is sitting at the computer, wearing her headset, resting her chin on
the palm of her hand. She’s looking to the side of the computer, bored out
of her mind. The job is not easy, and it doesn’t really have downtime, but
there are lots of little moments where there’s nothing she can do but wait
while the computer runs.
“Ange. Ange!” Marie alerts her through the headset.
“Hmm?”
“The script is done.”
“Did it go okay?”
“You tell me.”
“What am I looking for again, red text?”
“Yes, but there are other errors you need to look out for,” Marie reminds
her.
“It looks good to me.” Angela moves her pointer over to close the window.
“Wait.”
“Wait, what?”
“You’re supposed to do something else before you exit out.”
Angela stares at the screen, and tries to recall what she’s talking about.
“Am I supposed to...instantiate the panda?”
“No,” Marie laughs. “Confirm the bug report, so it ends the log at the last
run. Otherwise, the next report will just start immediately after, and make
it harder to find the one we’re looking for later.”
“Oh. Right, right, right, right, right.” She confirms the report, then
closes the window, and then tries to back over to the library.
“No, what do you do next?”
“I know!” Angela defends. “I just accidentally clicked on the wrong window.”
“Sure.”
Angela switches over to the spreadsheet. “Why do I manually log the number
of bugs every time? Isn’t that what the report is for?”
“The contract supervisor doesn’t want to read through all those reports, and
in fact, isn’t probably capable of understanding them. All she wants is a
productivity log, so she can show the client that we add value to their
company.”
“This is dumb, it’s too much work,” Angela complains. “Can’t the computer
just do this all for us?”
“Angela!” Marie cries. “We’re the ones who write the programs, which
automatically do the things that the employees at our clients’ companies
would be doing themselves! That’s the whole purpose of scriptwriting. It has
to start somewhere.”
“Why can’t it start with an artificial intelligence?” Angela questions.
“Someone has to create the AI in the first place, which they do through
scripts, and other tools. And the kind you remember from the other realities
you’ve been to are far beyond what The Third Rail has achieved thus far.
It’s gonna be another couple of decades before we have a program that can
write new programs.”
“Is that what we’re working on? Are we working towards that?”
“Hm, I guess you could think of it that way. Once we deliver this particular
script to the client, they’ll approve it, and probably ask us to train the
individual or team who will be actually running it regularly. Right now,
that person or people are doing all of it on their own. This will cut down
on the time it takes for them to complete their job, and/or allow their
bosses to give them additional work. Theoretically, we could write another
script that’s designed to run before this one, or after it, which automates
even more of that work. Automate it enough, and you might be able to fire
the humans. You might clear out an entire department, or a company. That’s
not what the client is asking of us right now, but it’s probably headed that
way. That’s part of what drove automation in the main sequence. These people
are just slower. The executives might realize this, and be hoping for it, or
they might have no clue. It’s probably the first one, and what they really
don’t realize...is that a script could one day take their jobs too.”
“It could one day take your job too.”
Marie laughs again. “Yes, but I’ll be the last to go. That’s why I picked
this field. Someone has to write the job-stealing scripts, and until that
true AI shows up, such a job is guaranteed. Basically, if my job isn’t safe,
no one’s is.”
“Sneaky snake.”
“Yep.”
“Oh. I forgot I can refilter the executions, now that the bug tracker is
finished.”
“That’s okay, we were talking.”
“Hey, I’ve been meaning to ask; why do you have an office if you work from
home? And why am I in your office, and you’re still at home?”
“Well, we can’t rightly both be there, and you need experience with my
colleagues.”
“Oh. But I’m not going to be attending any meetings, right? There’s one on
the calendar, but you’ll come in for that, right?”
“No, I need you to fill in for me. It’s best you start now, so you’re aware
of the new inside jokes, and all that stuff.”
“What if there are old inside jokes that I wasn’t around for?”
“I haven’t been staring into empty space while the tasker is locked up,”
Marie begins to explain. “I’ve been drawing up a cheatsheet for you. Though,
sheet is a bit of a misnomer since it’s more like a novelette by now.”
“Argh, there’s so much to this!”
“You don’t...have to...”
“Don’t start again,” Angela warns. “I’m happy to do this for you. It’s just
been a lot. This job is a lot.”
“I know. But it’s why we live where we live, and why Ramses was able to quit
his job without giving it a second thought.”
“Yeah. Did you see this message from them? They’re on their way back.”
“I did. I think we have just enough time for one more test. I don’t like how
the screen flickers about halfway through the process, and it’s still not as
fast as I would like it. I think I know how to fix those issues, though.
Scroll back down to Line 216.”
“Okay, boss.”
Angela and Marie end up running two more tests before they’re ready to call
it quits for the day. By the time Angela gets back home, the rest of the
team is already there. It’s time to come up with a new plan. Rather, they
have to default to an old one. They probably need to move up the time table
too.
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