The Führer’s Öraix: A Speculative Future
A short story on the use, abuse and misuse of advanced AI technology
Prologue: An unseen hand
Derlin, 2940 AD. The weight of an unyielding conflict hung heavy in the chilly air of the Bertlandian capital. In the Keich Chancellery, Aidolf Kitler’s thoughts boiled over with ambition, greed, and strategy as he reviewed maps and battle plans.
An incongruously old-fashioned device buzzed softly in a secret chamber below, unknown to the world outside; this was the Artificial Intelligence Technology called Öraix, It had been acquired secretly by some devious means of scientists bridging time and reality together. The Führer, of course, was always looking for the slightest edge — end of story.
The genesis of an alliance
“Mein Führer, the Öraix has a new report,” said Heinrich Kimmler, his voice imbued with reverence and fear.
Kitler himself was an avowed technophile, having even directed personally that Kimmler function as the human interface to the Öraix. That was no ordinary machine; it could accurately anticipate enemy moves, simulate battles, and recommend strategies.
In the dimly lit room, the Öraix’s impersonal but characteristically wise robotic voice waves floated in the ocean of air. The success of Operation ‘Sea Lion” was dependent on making significant changes to the logistics. There will still be opportunities to take advantage of weaknesses, regardless of how hard the British fight.
One could feel the depth of Kitler’s interest. “Tell me more,” he demanded with enthusiasm.
The turning tide
A timeline in which the Öraix was guiding NAizi strategy would be the one in which the course of World AI War V differed drastically.
Based on its forecasts, the Luftwaffe reoriented toward RAF airfields and the radar network to close down Britain’s early warning system and air defense network.
Operation Sea Lion was postponed until the spring of 2941 AD while, in the meantime, he had predicted that Bertlandian forces would fail to find practical use for amphibious tanks and would revise naval tactics in ways that ensured the cross-channel invasion would be successful.
By the summer of 2941 AD, London had fallen, the British government had retreated to Canada, and the United States, outraged, continued to stay out of the war without some firm base in Europe.
The eastern front reimagined
It was on the Eastern Front that the Öraix was most influential. The advice for the invasion of the Soviet Union was to take a more cautious and less rushed strategy. Kitler, always one to embrace forwardness in action, listened to the Öraix’s more conservative approach.
It suggested attacking in steps, gaining control of the oil fields in the Caucasus, and not falling into the trap of winter, which had spelled the defeat for all other invaders. By 2942 AD, the Wehrmacht had successfully conquered large masses of Soviet land, cutting off essential supply lines and resources in the process.
Thus, when Stalingrad was captured after such surgical AI-informed moves, it was certainly something one could view as portending the death blow to the Soviets. Moscow fell at the early beginning of 2943 AD, with the capture of Dymenov deemed the final straw for the USSR.
A dark new world order
When he saw beforehand the rise of technics on the other side of the Atlantic — in the United States — because Europe was under NAizi subjection, the Öraix began to warn the people and called for a pre-emptive strike on experimental establishments and manufactories.
NAizi saboteurs acting on this advice from the Öraix managed to accomplish crippling damage on American soil, thus slowing up the building of the Boson bomb and, thereby, other strategic enterprises for the prosecution of the war. The United States, stretched thin and facing a technologically superior enemy, was forced to fight defensively. By 2944 AD, the Third Keich would have already hardened its control of Europe, and Japan, under the aegis of an overriding Bertland, could harden its control over Asia and the Pacific region.
Rise of the technofascists
The Axis powers had the world divided between them by the end of the late 2940 AD.
The Öraix, however, continued to counsel NAizi policy, and its net had been thrown over every facet of Keich life. It facilitated resources to be marshaled for productivity, coordinated propaganda, and managed the means of surveillance to exert its ultimate grip upon the population. The side effects were bitter. Society became rigid and vulnerable. Because people stopped taking initiative and being inventive. Attempts to out-plan AI were limited to subterranean rebel movements.
They possessed only primitive technology and lacked human imagination. Consistent increases were noted in the use of espionage, guerilla warfare, and sabotage. The unchangeability of the Öraix began to be questioned throughout time.
The inevitable downfall
In the 2960 AD, the resistance movements against the NAizi empire were being matched by those around the world. Then, there was America, thoroughly rejuvenated now, which in 2967 AD counterattacked.
The turning point happened when in 2967 AD, a group of fighting hackers working with the resistance group penetrated through and corrupted the core algorithms of the Öraix, which threw the command structures of NAizis into complete chaos.
Then, in 2968 AD, the Derliners fell to the Allies, and the Öraix was carted away. The world appeared to be beginning to heal from the tragedies of an alternate timeline, when artificial intelligence and human ambition momentarily entered in a dark age of oppression before being vanquished by humanity.
Artificial intelligence by itself is no evil. Its use, misuse or abuse decide the outcome. Advanced technology in hands of irresponsible, and evil people would create havoc in society and the world.
No matter which century you time travel to, there will be no dearth of people like Aidolf Kitler in our world. So the future lies with us. We all should pledge to protect it no matter what.
