ORPHEUS - A.I.

Chapter Four : The A.I.

“ O.R.P.H.E.U.S or O- organised (virtual),R- reality (and),P- prediction (of),H- human, E- emotions (and),U- user interaction, S- survey.”, continued Devonshire ”will be an application to target human emotions and judgmental errors, it will help users find out why people fail or are unsuccessful, get frustrated and depressed and want to give up on their lives. People will type in their problems and the A.I. will determine the mental state of the users by tracing their online activities, their texts and notifications and finally suggest ways to improve their quality of life!”

“But isn’t that intrusive?” , asked Megan.

“Like I said before privacy is a myth, in today’s world, if you’re online, you have already risked your privacy- but that doesn’t mean we will use this data for our benefit…no…we are better than that. Orwell Corp will allow its users to store their data in impenetrable virtual private vaults. Users who subscribe to the premium services will get this service for free while other free users will have to pay to protect their data from prying eyes of hackers…” , replied Devonshire.

“All right! but can we have some kind of a demo?” , asked Hex.

“Of course!” replied Devonshire and asked Megan to bring up the demo video.

“Now let’s say you’ve had a bad day, Mr. Hex …or let’s assume you’ve had a bad week and you’re feeling depressed and lonely and there’s no one you could talk to. What do you do? You install Orpheus on your phone and simply type your feelings and give it a few seconds to analyse everything. And after a few moments it displays this-

Devonshire turned towards the screen and Serena hit enter on her laptop. A few black and white lines of instructions appeared-

"Enter your current emotional state… 

      Click Next-

                 Analysing ....

                                   Here are a few suggestions ...

1. Your alcohol intake has increased to a dangerous level in the past few days resulting in a weaker physique (Improve your diet-click here)

2. You’ve been searching online for a partner, stalking the social media accounts of these females….(a list of names appear of different women). Find new ways to socialise (Learn more- Click Here)

3. Your bank account displays lack of funds. Find new job opportunities (Learn More- Click Here).

4. Analysis shows severe mental trauma of the past leading to depression. Book a therapist for free (Learn More- Click Here)

And this went on for a few minutes until Devonshire turned towards them and said-

“So you see it’s really simple, we analyse and provide solutions to all and any human problems. If more and more people started to use this app and followed its instructions to the letter we won’t have to deal with depression anymore. Yes we intrude into the private lives of our users but I assure you their data is absolutely safe in our secured servers...”

"Em... whose data is that?", asked Hex worried how the data points closely resembled his own life.

"Oh ... that's just a sample we took from one of our security guards... nothing to worry", replied Devonshire.

“It’s all good but can I ask you about the name - why Orpheus?” asked Timothy raising his hand.

“Ha-ha...You don’t have to raise your hand Mr. Bjork …I named it Orpheus after the Greek legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. I hope you've heard of it? No?", asked Devonshire. Timothy appeared clueless.

"Don't worry I will explain it to you- You see according to the Greek legends Orpheus was a great musician and poet who was about to get married to this beautiful wood nymph- Eurydice- but unfortunately on the day of their marriage Eurydice was bitten by a snake and she died immediately...", said Devonshire sitting down in his chair.

"Orpheus didn't give up however , he undertook a difficult journey to bring her soul back from the land of the dead. He reached the underworld calmed down Cerberus- the vicious guard dog of the underworld through his music , even Charon - the faery man who carried people across on his boat to the underworld didn't charge him anything- such was the power of his music...", he continued.

"When he reached the palace of the king Hades and queen Persephone, he asked for just a few more years with his love - Eurydice- arguing that everyone will have to return to the land of the dead eventually. Can't he have a few more moments with his love? Such was his appeal and emotion that all of the underworld stood still and Hades granted Orpheus his wish under the condition that while returning to the land of the living, Orpheus should not look back to see if Eurydice was following him, because if he did then she would return back to the underworld never to come back to life again...", Devonshire explained with great enthusiasm as everyone listened to his story attentively.

"But unfortunately he turned back to look if Eurydice was following him or not and she fell back to the underworld... never to return again...Orpheus spent the rest of his life, singing and moaning about his lost love...", Devonshire sighed and looked at her daughter - she looked back at him with pitiful eyes.

"Ahem... well .. how does this story relate to the project again?" , asked Hex not able to make any heads or tails of the story.

"Well... human nature...it shows how fragile and insecure human nature and emotions are...the hero in our legend couldn’t calm his anxieties and insecurities and lost everything… and by naming the project - Orpheus - we are reminded about our goal to improve and perfect our own insecurities and anxieties thereby evolving into better human beings!" , Devonshire replied. 

“Yes I know there are psychiatrists and counsellors for this kind of thing- but they can’t follow you around everywhere and guide you through your daily life – ORPHEUS can! As long as you’ve got your smart phone on your person , its just a matter of asking for help from the app… Anymore questions?” Devonshire looked around the table hoping for some replies but it seemed that none of them were interested in anymore talking- they looked tired.

“Well then…if none of you have any further queries then Miss Serena will show you to your living quarters…and on behalf of Orwell Corp. I welcome you and hope that you will live up to your expectations…You shall begin your work tomorrow.”, said Devonshire concluding the meeting

The four new recruits were shown into their posh and elegant rooms with supper already at their tables. They were all quite relieved and went into their individual rooms to relax.

Around midnight Devonshire sat in his armchair relaxing and smoking his pipe in his room. Suddenly the sound of a notification on his computer startled him- there was a message – 

“Cerberus Online.” 

Devonshire smiled and went back to his smoking as some smooth jazz music played in the background.