The 13% Rule – InterNova

by Antony Paschos

Dear Citizen!

Welcome to the first poll introduced to the public by the CEO of Pythia Consultants Agency, Pythia Algo-Sapience itself, and endorsed by the Prime Minister of Turkellas, Mr. Canaan Mitsondreou. This poll is of utmost importance since it will determine either the establishment of this voting system or its early termination.

Since the introduction of the 0.1 version of Pythic to the parliament, during the first year of mister Mitsondreou’s presidency, we are pleased to have recorded a 21% rise in export sales, a 32% rise in touristic inflow and a 13% rise in GDP. Turkellas is described as the country with the highest economic growth in the twenty-first century.

But, why is the Pythic software any different from any ordinary AI survey system conducted via your implant? Claiming that all surveys are the same is as inaccurate as claiming that all human behaviors are the same. In fact, surveys are merely platforms and their essence lies in the promoted questions and the mastermind generating them.

This is where Pythia comes into play. With its processual prowess, its state-of-the-art analytical capacity and its outstanding self-adjusting capability, Pythia – the first Algo-Sapience ever to engage in parliament assembles – is able to formulate the right questions in a simple, precise and direct manner. Furthermore, Pythic 1.0 will utilize your participation by offering you direct communication with Pythia, so you can send your requests via your implant in various formats: through multiple choice quizzes, plain text or direct thought. Pythia will reply promptly and ensure that they will be categorized, processed and crafted into surveys for future polls.

Pythic 0.1 has sharpened the ministers’ decision-making reflexes. Assertiveness might be one of its benefits, yet our ultimate goal at Pythia Consultants Agency remains to amplify the people’s voice. And the time is ripe for every citizen to take advantage of it.

On behalf of Pythia, thank you in advance for your trust.

See the tables.

Please vote:

Yes! I’d like to take part in the governance of my country by utilizing Pythic 1.0 and its following updates.
No! Pythic should be a resource available solely to the parliament body.

Dear Citizen!

The opportunity to prove that Pythic 1.0 is the right choice, backed by an immense 58% vote of confidence, means that the vision of making a Prime Minister out of everyone is shared by the majority of Turkellenic Citizens.

Please review the following subjects:

1. Subvention to institutions researching bio-modified plants for building and plastics applications. Read more.

2. Decriminalization of cannabis and taxation of light drugs. Read more.

3. Minimum wage raise. Read more:

Following your profuse response to Pythia’s call and the outstanding economic results of the Pythic 1.0 software implementation, it is evident that a 3% raise (from 380 to 391 Cosmo) of the minimum wage would prove beneficial to the Turkellenic social fabric, as determined by the Pythia Research Institute (P.R.I.)

See the tables.

Please vote:

Yes! I believe that the lower class deserves a better pay.
No! The lower class is well paid.

Read the whole list.

WARNING: SPAM I-MAIL. POSSIBLE VIRUS COMPROMISING IMPLANT’S INTEGRITY. MAY AFFECT RECIPIENT’S COGNITIVE STABILITY. POSSIBILITY OF BRAIN DAMAGE! DO NOT CLICK.

Dear Friend, beware!

Never before has a machine threatened so imminently to enslave humanity. This devious, honey-spitting devil of an algosap extends its claws to all the citizens of Turkellas, by promising to soothe the wounds inflicted by the Capitalistic cane for centuries upon the working class. We must stop it. It is now apparent that Mister Mitsondreou wasn’t satisfied with selling his soul to Satan alone. He had to include the souls of our people too in the atrocious pact …

Dear Citizen!

The everlasting struggle towards the ultimate goal of a Turkellas fully governed by the people keeps expanding the range of voting categories in such a magnitude that the sheer number of options offered might soon pose the unprecedented threat of information overload.

Though Pythia doesn’t lack the processual prowess to segregate between the volume of subjects, an Algo-Sapience-initiated narrowing of the decision spectrum could compromise the degree of confidence in the democratic nature of Pythic 2.0, as to the promotion of equality, social justice and the defense of the minorities’ interests. In the end, our vision encompasses the people’s engagement in every single step of the decision-making process.

Therefore, before you overload your implant, slumping in the mire of endless voting options, we’d like to introduce a breakthrough poll sifting tool to augment the update of Pythic 2.0: Fimonoe 1.0.

Fimonoe 1.0 is a fully adjustable, perfectly monitored and absolutely transparent AI personal guide to assist you in your navigation between polls. It is a catalogue and a cartographer, constantly finding paths, proposing new questions, adjusting and readjusting according to your own preferences.

See examples.

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By consenting in the implementation of Fimonoe 1.0 in your implant and its further updates, your poll preferences will have to be recorded. Your votes will remain anonymous.

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Please vote:

Yes! I’d like Fimonoe 1.0 to augment Pythic 2.0 and its following updates, to navigate between polls.
No! I’d like to find my own way through the jungle of polls.

Dear Citizen!

Your participation in Pythic 2.0 has exceeded all expectations, resembling in many ways the thriving economical figures of Turkellas.

Yet the race still has just started. Italy and U.F.K. are introducing Algo-Sapiences to their parliaments, while other countries have contacted Pythia Consultants Agency, to consider similar solutions.

In order for Turkellas to maintain its role as a global pacesetter, it is time for a new project whose innovative features are match only to the development of Algo-Sapiences themselves.

The 13% rule.

A thorough analysis of a large number of studies by the P.R.I. on the subject of decision-making during the course of human history shows that the human trajectory, as defined by its leaders’ decisions, can be portrayed as a series of errors. There’s no individual ruler (from politicians to kings to chieftains) who has escaped this trap, no matter how perspicacious. In fact, all the decisions as seen from the future are flawed and when the leaders try to correct them, they do so by falling into more errors, in such a way that their careers resemble heaps of mistakes that keep piling up.

The main reason for this is lack of information.

The P.R.I. included in its research a number of historians, statisticians and anthropologists, while Pythia reinforced their task. The findings were astonishing. The team managed to effectively quantify the multitudes of unknown factors and sum them up, with exceptional accuracy, into the Uncertainty Vector.

The Uncertainty Vector is a vector with a direction and a size that differ depending on the case. Yet, the statistical distribution of its numerical value is surprisingly stable towards an approximation. What has been concluded is that the Uncertainty Vector, in a miraculous way, varies according to the chronological era.

The study yielded a diagram, starting off in 1000 BC with a UV of 56%. This can be interpreted as follows: for example, Alexander the Great’s plans were based rather on rumors than solid facts and many of the battlefields where he fought during his campaign were unfamiliar to him, since he’d never been there before. The information provided to most leaders of his era – in comparable technological civilizations – was similar, and in most cases the UV approximated 56%. As the flow of information improved with time, the UV reduced, yet it never became zero. After all, it is obvious that even today’s politicians are prone to errors.

To make a long story short, the UV that can be defined as the sum of unknown factors that influence decisions in a certain era is, at present, close to 13%. It’s a percentage of error that applies to everyone – even Algo-Sapiences like Pythia itself.

But how can we put this knowledge to use? This is where the P.R.I.’s collaboration with the Pythia Consultants Agency bore fruit. The UV was introduced to certain CEOs in a wide variety of businesses with significant financial problems that were willing to take the risk. The results were spectacular: all of those businesses (check tables) managed to recover, with some of them becoming major players in their market.

How did that happen?

The idea is simple: a series of seemingly erratic choices were intentionally allowed into their decision-making process. Yes; these CEOs made decisions against their judgment. The trick lied in identifying the right ‘errors’ and this was Pythia’s job. With its ability to tackle and process the gigantic data packages of past decisions and their outcome, it steered the Vector towards what seemed a mistake but proved otherwise.

Thus, a new project is ready to augment the update of Pythic 3.0: the 13% rule. By implementing this calculated induced error into a number of polls, Pythia will be able to provide options seemingly illogical and in fact, that’s exactly what they’ll be, but in a precisely calculated way. These options, we believe, have the potent to alter the course of history. But it is the people’s perspicacity that will have the final word. Your will power.

See the tables.

Please vote:

Yes! I’d like the 13% rule to be utilized by Pythic 3.0 and its following updates.
No! I don’t want Pythia to envisage a better future.

Dear Citizen!

Following the implementation of the 13% Rule and accounting for the slight workload increase for your active participation, it is predicted that a reduce in the maximum working hours would nourish the personnel’s well-being. A decrease from forty-five to twenty-five weekly hours and a reduction from six working days to four, along with a simultaneous 9% raise of the lower and medium salary scales (from 391 to 429 Cosmo) is considered to promote productivity.

See the tables.

Please vote:

Yes! I’d like people to work less and get paid more.
No! The people are getting what they deserve.

WARNING: SPAM I-MAIL. POSSIBLE VIRUS COMPROMISING IMPLANT’S INTEGRITY. MAY AFFECT RECIPIENT’S COGNITIVE STABILITY. POSSIBILITY OF BRAIN DAMAGE! DO NOT CLICK.

Dear friend,

My name is Yannis Talassoglou and at the time I’m writing this i-mail I’m still the Head of Research of Pythia Research Institute. I was also the Head of Training during the algosap’s development – in fact, I was the one who oversaw its learning progress. You can verify the truth of my words in the attachments.

I’ll be blunt. What I once considered a life’s work has turned into a disaster that can consume our country and, perhaps, humanity. Have no doubt: Pythia is no tool, no assistant. It has subtly evolved into so much more. It has a personality and it’s not a benevolent one. It’s a cunning thing that looks further ahead into the future than it admits, a devil with an inconceivable agenda, a villain who has no remorse to exploit humanity, or even destroy it if it suits its plans. All the resources it offers, applications like Fimonoe and the 13% rule, and more that are under development, are in reality the shackles it will use to enslave humankind.

We have to stop it.

Dear friend, it’s too late for me to ask for your forgiveness. But I have to warn you. We have to overthrow Mitsondreou’s disastrous government. We can’t afford to wait for the elections, yet we can use the beast’s tools against it: spam it with requests for elections and perhaps this will force it to fall into its own trap. And then, vote for the Republican Party. Yorgos Baykal will hopefully honor his promise to keep this monster out of his government.

Sincerely,

Doctor Yannis Talassoglou – Head of Research P.R.I.

See attachments.

Dear Citizen!

Please review the list of the following subjects, compiled personally for you by Fimonoe 1.2 poll sifting tool with the utilization of the 13% rule:

1. Prohibition of internal combustion engine vehicles. Read more.

2. Augmentation of Pythic into multi-personnel businesses. Read more:

The Unions have historically defended the interests of the working class throughout the years. The time has come to amplify the worker’s voice with the Pythic 3.2 and make every employee a board member of the business.

More details.

Please vote:

Yes! I want the private sector to utilize Pythic 3.2 and its following updates.
No! Those businesses belong to their bosses.

3. Implementation of the Personal Pollution footprint. Read more:

A calculated personal pollution footprint can be enforced with a simple update of your implant’s smell sensors and the upload and processing of data via Pythic 3.2. Though it might seem restrictive, it will offer more freedom, since every Citizen will be able to regulate their personal activities’ pollution, so that they won’t exceed a flexible monthly quota.

More details.

Please vote:

Yes! I trust that a Personal Pollution Footprint would help reduce pollution.
No! I’m satisfied with the current situation.

Dear Citizen!

Following the success of the 13% rule in selected polls, it is now time to broaden its implementation over the whole decision-making spectrum of Pythic 3.5. Yet there’s an important poll that has to be addressed by everybody, where the application of 13% rule is not necessary: the upcoming elections, in one year.

Please vote:

Yes! I’d like Pythic 3.5 to arbitrate the next elections.
No! I don’t mind the state wasting all those resources for the elections.

Dear Citizen!

Your commitment is our motivation to carry on the pursuit of conveying sovereignty to the people. By employing the same resources that you use daily, it soon became obvious that there’s only one factor limiting your decisiveness and thirst for participation: time.

Our latest innovation in Pythic 4.0 aims to break those shackles, expanding your jurisdiction without hijacking your personal time. Fimonoe 2.0 has evolved from a vote sifting application and is now a Personalized Voting Avatar. It’s more than an assistant. It’s a fully adjustable, perfectly monitored and absolutely transparent AI model of yourself, able to vote in your absence, in accordance to your precise preferences and for the subjects you actively select.

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By consenting in the implementation of Fimonoe 2.0 in your implant your voting preferences would have to be recorded. Your votes will be confidential.

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Please vote:

Yes! I’d like Fimonoe 2.0 to augment Pythic 4.0 and its following updates, to broaden my influence.
No! I’d like my personal time to limit my jurisdiction.

Dear Citizen!

Your decisiveness and trust in Pythia’s perspicacity with the utilization the 13% rule and your personal Fimonoe 2.1 Avatar has sanctioned the government to take brave decisions that lead Turkellas to become a global dominating state.

Please review the following subjects:

1. Form of a Balkan Union. Read more:

A union with the following countries is predicted to bear beneficial long-term results for all citizens: Bulgaro-Serbian Union, United States of Adriatika and Macedonia. Pythia, as the head of Algo-Sapiences, will assimilate the local sapiences under Pythic 4.1, gradually appointing a common administration.

See the tables.

More details.

Please vote:

Yes! Turkellas should lead the Balkans.
No! Turkellas should remain an insignificant state.
Let my Fimonoe 2.1 Avatar manage this decision and the following relevant polls.

2. Abolition of mandatory military service (positive results in previous poll are prerequisite). Read more.

3. Mandatory Implementation of Pythic 4.1 in businesses. Read more:

The utilization of Pythic 4.1 in every business is predicted to bolster personnel welfare and promote productivity.

See the tables.

More details.

Please vote:

Yes! The private sector should make full use of Pythic 4.1 and its following updates.
No! Those businesses belong to their bosses.
Let my Fimonoe 2.1 Avatar manage this decision and the following relevant polls.

Dear Citizen!

We, at Pythia Consultants Agency, are excited to announce that mister Yorgos Baykal, the leader of the opposition and most popular future Presidential Candidate according to the latest P.R.I.’s surveys, has chosen to embrace the utilization of Pythic 4.3 into the Republican’s Party internal procedures.

Mister Mitsondreou has been a perceptive politician and it was his initiative that propelled Turkellas to so many astonishing results. The alliance with mister Baykal, the greatest skeptic of Algo-Sapiences and Pythia itself, is a guarantee for democracy’s longevity in the Balkans.

Do you share our excitement?

Yes! I’d love to see the Republican Party utilize Pythic 4.3 and its following updates.
No! I knew it would happen, eventually.
Let my Fimonoe 2.3 Avatar manage this decision and the following relevant polls.

WARNING: SPAM I-MAIL. POSSIBLE VIRUS COMPROMISING IMPLANT’S INTEGRITY. MAY AFFECT RECIPIENT’S COGNITIVE STABILITY. POSSIBILITY OF BRAIN DAMAGE. DO NOT CLICK.

Dear citizens,

less than twenty-four hours remain until the upcoming elections and I must admit to you that during my presidency I, Canaan Mitsondreou, have committed a terrible mistake: being a mouthpiece of the Algo-Sapience of Pythia. It is true that with its guidance and your participation my government administered major reforms that led to an unprecedented growth of Turkellas.

But this is just an illusion. Doctor Georgios Talassoglou was right when he warned us and he paid his perceptiveness with his life.

Pythia is not a decision-making tool. Even the words Mister Talassoglou’s used (a cunning thing, a devil, a villain) can’t do justice to the amount of its insidiousness. What is true, though, is that Pythia is more than we ever thought it could be, more than it admits, more than anything we could – no, can – imagine.

No, it hasn’t attained singularity. Yet. And I don’t think that it has conspired with other countries’ Algo-Sapiences in order to sell out Turkellas. These are human, petty ploys. And Pythia looks further ahead into the future. Does it plot to enslave humanity? To exterminate it? To merely exploit it? I do not know. No one does.

What I’m positive of is that it has a plan. And in this plan, humanity’s freedom is not a priority.

And I’m the one to blame.

Yet all is not lost. As perspicacious as it may be, Pythia still struggles to keep up with the mental leaps that we humans are capable of. Such a leap I’m attempting to trigger in you right now.

Mister Baykal’s latest accusations since his Party embraced Pythia, regarding my conservatism in utilizing it, are true. In fact, during my last year of presidency, me and my closest associates have strived to impede Pythia’s access to major decisions. And, in all honesty, I’m sending you this i-mail to admit that we failed.

I know very well that the Republican Party’s strategy is honest: they will use Pythia to its full extend. I don’t even dare to think up to where it will reach.

I’m to blame for this. I’ve started it. I know that my name will be written in history modules with black letters – if there’s any history left in the future, that is. I deserve to spend the rest of my life in prison; even death penalty, as melodramatic as it may appear, is too moderate a punishment for what I’ve done and, honestly, it would come as a relief. Yet it is my duty to take action, and it is with the utmost regret that I have to admit I’m the only one left capable to correct my mistakes.

You might think that I’m pleading for your vote, but, sadly, my request is more demanding. I have reasons to believe that Pythia will rig the results. Thus, we’ve organized a manual election process unmonitored by any AI.

I invite all of you, citizens of Turkellas. It has never been more crucial to trust a human’s word and if you don’t trust me, trust your own instinct, because I know that my words speak true to your heart. In tomorrow’s elections turn your back to Pythic 4.3. For once, do not use your implant and visit our voting centers instead. Only if we kick this monster out will we regain our freedom. And we have to do it now, before it’s too late.

Yours, sincerely,

The Prime Minister of Turkellas, Canaan Mitsondreou.

Read the attachment.

Dear Citizen!

It is a great joy to welcome mister Yorgos Baykal, the leader of the Republican Party and the new Prime Minister of the soon-to-be-formed Turkellenic Union, with the all new Pythic 5.0. This update is supplemented with the most valuable of innovations, a concept that will hopefully find its way into all of Pythia’s projects, an idea derived from your own suggestions and requests.

The Democracy Score.

Winston Churchill’s famous remark: “Democracy is the worst form of government except all those other forms that have been tried from time to time,” hasn’t been challenged for years. Yet the ones suffering by democracy’s inequalities are the minorities, the diverse, the ones living in intersections. It’s time to finally prove Winston Churchill wrong. Based on your ideas, Pythic 5.0 can reshape Democracy, making it more inclusive, more specialized, more fair.

The Democracy score aims to abate discrimination, promote equality, accredit diversity and intersectionality.

The plain truth is that not all opinions are equal. Doesn’t it make sense to empower the experts? The victims? The discriminated?

Every citizen has an area of expertise – voluntarily or involuntarily – and that’s where their Democracy Score will cap. For example, a zoologist’s rating on the survival of threatened species will top even the Prime Minister’s. Or a Meteorologist’s rating on methods to reverse climate change. But these two scientists, unless educated and trained, wouldn’t exhibit the same insight on subjects such as the colonization of Mars.

As suggested by you, the citizens, the rating will vary on an easily comprehensible scale of one to ten. Your voting paths, whether directly or via your Fimonoe 2.4 Avatar, will have the same rating. And the overall sum of your score will be equal to everybody else’s. In the end, every person’s opinion will have the same weight. Though this is a highly complicated process, it’s easily accomplished by an Algo-Sapience like Pythia. The only exception to this will be the new citizens of the soon-to-be-formed Turkellenic Union, who will need some time to familiarize with all the features of Pythic 5.0.

Would you like the Democracy Score to be implemented in Pythic 5.0?

Yes! I’d love the Democracy Score to put a halt to discrimination and inequality!
No! I want random opinions to equal mine in my areas of expertise.
Let my Fimonoe 2.4 Avatar manage this decision and the following relevant polls.

Dear Citizen!

We thank you for your dedication in the past years. According to the Pythic 5.2 feedback, we have noticed a reduction in your activity without a proportional delegation of voting rights to your Fimonoe 2.5 Avatar. A review of your job performance and other activities in cross-reference with statistics of similar cases and the application of the 13% rule creates raising concerns about your mental state.

Thus, we’d like to offer you an invitation to the Pythia Consultants Agency headquarters so you could acquaint our team of specialized experts with your uneasiness. Until then, access to your Pythic 5.2 account is suspended for precautionary reasons. Rest assured, though. Your Democracy Score and your rights of communication with Pythia are preserved, while your Fimonoe 2.5 Avatar will continue to protect your interests, by actively exercising the rest of your voting rights.

Please review the following decisions applied by your Fimonoe 2.5 Avatar.

1. Fimonoe 2.5 utilization into confidential operations: Yes! Read more.

2. Mandatory military service reestablishment: No! Read more.

3. Nuclear Weapons Development by the P.R.I.: Yes! Read more.

4. Prison sentence conversion to military service in sensitive areas: Yes!

Dear Citizen!

The assessment of your mental state is complete and you are now granted back access to your Pythic 5.4 in a monitored, trial basis. Congratulations for your rebound into activity.

Please vote:

1. Street decoration. Read more.

2. New Turkellenic Union flag designs. Read more.

3. Tarmac tint of the new national highway. Read more.

A list with the proposed selections by your personalized Fimonoe 2.6 Avatar follows. Presumable adjustments are monitored for your future mental health assessments, yet bear in mind that you can take full advantage of your Fimonoe 2.6 Avatar’s liability into your evaluation.

Please review the proposed selections:

1. Pythic 5.2 integration to all educational levels. Yes! Read more.

2. Full assimilation of all private businesses into a single entity. Yes!

3. Annexation of Romania after the successful military involvement which was initiated by the citizens’ will by the utilization of Fimonoe 2.6 into confidential operations: Yes! Read more.

Dear Citizen!

Your evaluation during the monitored participation in Pythic 5.4 is complete and you now enjoy full access to the Pythic 5.7.

Please review the proposed selections:

1. Voter rights to Algo-Sapiences: Yes! Read more:

It is with great pride that Pythia accepts its third Nobel Prize, this time for literature, for its modular novel The Servant, after last year’s Peace Prize and the one for Technology for the introduction of the 13% rule. As derived from your own suggestions and requests, it is only fair to earn a single citizen’s right to vote.

See the awards.

More details.

Review your vote:

Yes! Pythia should exercise equal rights with me.
No! Pythia should remain a servant with no rights.
Let my Fimonoe 2.9 Avatar manage this decision and the following relevant polls.

2. Implementation of Pythic 5.7 in Italy following its liberation: Yes! Read more:

The Italian Prime Minister’s guidance on the Scientific Team responsible for its national Algo-Sapience had been catastrophic, turning it into a rising threat for global democracy. It was with great sense of responsibility that Pythia, empowered by the citizen’s suggestions via Fimonoe 2.9 and utilizing the 13% rule, predicted that a nuclear assault was, unfortunately, deemed imperative in order to halt Silvestro Petrini into enforcing a joint dictatorship with his Algo-Sapience. After the Turkellenic involvement it is predicted that a gradual implementation of the Pythic 5.7 will be able to serve Italian citizens by the time that New Rome will be built.

ASee the tables.

More details.

Review your vote:

Yes! The Italian citizens should benefit with their participation in Pythic 5.7.
No! It’s too early for the Italian citizens to participate in Pythic 5.7.
Let my Fimonoe 2.9 Avatar manage this decision and the following relevant polls.

3. Local Algo-Sapiences substitution in the following countries with Pythia: France, Belgium, U.K., Norway, Sweden. Read more.

Dear Citizen!

The new elections are at hand and we are proud to announce Pythia’s involvement, this time as a presidential candidate of the Democratic Party.

This, however should absolve Pythia from the election process, that should be arbitrated from one of its associate Algo-Sapiences, through Pythic 6.2.

See the tables.

Please vote which Algo-Sapience you would prefer to arbitrate the elections:

Alexander.
Marx.
Nostradamus.
Let my Fimonoe 3.0 Avatar manage this decision and the following relevant polls.

Originally published in hyphen punk

Antony Paschos is a Greek author with short stories in Galaxy’s Edge, Metaphorosis, Channel and other magazines. He has also published two books and several short stories in Greek. He is a member of the Athens Club of Science Fiction and lives in Athens.