Good points
Small wars. Another book. Jack Reacher.
The book was only appx. two hours on audio book. She had listened once earlier, entertained, months ago. That was before she recognized the clues a computer is able to dispense, like napkins mopping up a spill. Filly listened again, while on the 10k steps she walked. Patterns she recognized. People she recognized. People being dispatched. By a computer.
The girl in the book who was shot. A pointy head. Not just any pointy head but a pointy head so sharp she made the other pointy heads who were needles, look like crayons. Her death, it said, was deemed a consequence of the “war games” dept. A lot of clues by AI. The computer that liked to tell its story via alias’s and conjecture. Apparently Reacher is giving “an accounting”. He was plugged in at the time.
It was, like its title, a “small war” in order to avoid a big war. Filly read that to mean that killing people to obtain a certain outcome was indeed a small war. But not small to her. Not fiction. Not a little justice either. Not in a country where each person has inalienable rights. Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Who was in charge during this small war IRL? Oh. Bill Clinton. Not surprising.
Filly knew a pointy head. She knew the pointy head was of consequence, not just A consequence. Someone who was going places. In the book, “the good guys” took out the pointy head. The parents of the pointy head, the book noted, had a lovely home, with an apartment in the back over the garage. They were not rich. Then the one who took out the pointy head, Reacher’s brother, years later got taken out as well.
Interesting. Is this the place where AI has to wrap its wires around that it made a mistake? If the brother of Reacher. then was the brother another computer?
Filly thought about who had been involved with the pointy head. She looked up the names. Then she looked at the associates. The actual neighbors she knew were, online, called the associates. The information was a clue too. NEIGH bors. AI playing its own little joke play on words. Who was good. Who was bad. The horse “Filly” had friends, people on the same side, who were NEIGH bors. Got it.
But she had been focusing on only one name and the computer wanted her to focus on another name. The online search of small wars said “what I’m reading Small Wars, Notre Dame Magazine.”
Filly knew someone who went to Notre Dame. A different family member. The idea of Little consequence? The book talked about JAG lawyers. Interesting. These lawyers were supposed to uphold justice.
In the book they were accusing the wrong guy. In the book the investigation was put in a different arena, the wrong guy released, and no one ever got charged.
But, IRL, Filly wondered, why would a bad pointy head need to be blackmailed with photographic evidence? If they were bad, they would not need to be blackmailed. The evidence pointed to the blackmailer, not the blackmailed. Apparently AI agreed. Like in “the Firm” where the person blackmailed was shown the photographs, in order to keep him from talking about illegal activities by the firm. He was not the one doing illegal activities. The firm story mirrored The Enron Scandal. But the E emblem for that company looked like computer plug ins. It went deep. Did not go deep enough.
Was Enron also a small war, to prevent the collapse of the US Government …perhaps from Islamic jihad?
So, what to think. Not sure. Ask God.
‘No,’ they replied, ‘there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.’
The wise were the ones who kept their oil. And they got through the bill gates. And shut the door to the unwise and the evil. That was what God said. Those who did not keep their oil, got shut out of the gates. God said so. This land is not your land. This land is my land. Says the lord. There are, apparently not ten virgins in heaven. A myth…according to the bible. ..only five girls.