Random stories

*Madam Auditor, you have filed a request to vacate your position effective immediately. Can you tell us why you have made this decision?*

"You see things in this job. Awful things. Horrible things. Things beyond mention. I can't see these things any more."

*Regarding the security protocols surrounding the PreDighted program, we are not authorized to view the sim playbacks. All the same, in order to make an informed decision on your situation, we will need you to...elaborate.*

"Please, I don't want to think about those things any more."

*Unfortunately, if you wish to continue, you must.*

"...PreDighted...started out as a recidivism-prevention system. Something they would do to potential parolees to see if it was safe to let them out. It worked because people at the end of a sentence have grown and learned and don't want to make the same mistake.

Then someone got the bright idea to use it to *predict* if someone was going to commit a crime, and that's where it all fell down."

*Five consecutive years of reports show that the PreDighted program has been 100% effective and has prevented an estimated 400,000 crimes through strategic extension of departmental reach. We wouldn't call that "falling down"*

"Have you ever, *ever* heard of *any* public works program being 100% effective? Doesn't that sound suspicious to you?"

*The base algorithms were designed by AI and reviewed by a private committee of ethical experts, their efficacy is not at question here.*

"Fine. You want to know what I've seen? I've seen that when you serve a crime to someone on a silver platter, they'll do it. I've seen that they'll do it, and when the sirens never come, and the simulation never ends, they go to a place you and I don't understand. They go someplace dark."

*It's been proven no simulation lasts longer than 12 minutes.*

"No simulation *runs* longer than 12 minutes, because that's the maximum they're allowed to run for health reasons. But the *footage*... the *footage* we get to see lasts *weeks*. It's like how a dream can span hours or days even though you only get 20-30 minutes of REM sleep at a time. It's time compression, and the sim does it...to an extreme degree.

These people, these normal people we pluck out of their homes spend *weeks* in a secret digital maze. Where the sim plays moral traps at every turn. Cars with their keys left in, unattended purses, unattended *babies*...unattended...women... and .. and children...

The longer you stay in the simulation, the more it throws at you. The algorithm was designed to never fail.

I saw a father of four resist the temptation for three whole days of sim time before he went on a rampage that started in his eldest son's bedroom and ended at a gas station three cities over. That simulation was terminated as a success at 7.32 seconds of runtime.

Did you know the sim can "addict" someone to drugs? I bet they didn't mention that in the program briefings. Those are not fun. Addicts are opportunists who obsessively feed the algorithm."

*We are having trouble believing these claims.*

"Just like you wouldn't believe the 31-year-old accountant from central Florida who got put into a three week long sim where she was stranded with her two kids at a snowed-in cabin with no food. That one went the full twelve minutes because she started eating her own toes before she could move herself to considering the children. Their cries of hunger finally tipped her in the end.

She was convicted of felony depravity and double homicide and was put to death."

*The simulation could never--*

"YOU have no idea what it could *'never'* do, no one does, because it's different with everyone. The only thing it knows is to find the crime, and that's what it does. That's what it did *every time*, and goddammit, I think it *likes* it. And that scares the shit out of me and I just want to get as far from that thing as I can... so please... just let me go..."

*Madam Auditor, your comments are troubling allegations into a successful program that this entire supervisory board has interests in. This program works. It has stopped thousands of crimes and will stop millions more. Your lack of confidence is a roadblock to that continued success. This board orders you to undergo compulsory live simulation training including extended PreDighted sessions where your simulations will be recorded. This professional query is closed.*

"No..."

*Good Day*

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Submitted by Ess2s2 on Sun, Feb 19, 2023 to /r/WritingPrompts/

The prompt

For purposes of crime prevention, the police puts random people into hyper-realistic simulations where they have the motive and opportunity to commit a crime. Based on their choice, they are let go with their memories erased, or punished as if they commited the crime in reality.