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01.2-short-stories lang fix #378

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34 changes: 17 additions & 17 deletions manuscript/01.2-short-stories.Rmd
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Expand Up @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ If you are in a hurry, you can skip the stories.
If you want to be entertained and (de-)motivated, read on!

The format is inspired by Jack Clark's Tech Tales in his [Import AI Newsletter](https://jack-clark.net/).
If you like this kind of stories or if you are interested in AI, I recommend that you sign up.
If you like these kinds of stories or if you are interested in AI, I recommend that you sign up.

### Lightning Never Strikes Twice {-}
**2030: A medical lab in Switzerland**
Expand All @@ -19,14 +19,14 @@ knitr::include_graphics("images/hospital.png")
```


"It's definitely not the worst way to die!" Tom summarised, trying to find something positive in the tragedy.
"It's definitely not the worst way to die!" Tom surmised, trying to find something positive in the tragedy.
He removed the pump from the intravenous pole.
"He just died for the wrong reasons," Lena added.
"And certainly with the wrong morphine pump!
Just creating more work for us!" Tom complained while unscrewing the back plate of the pump.
After removing all the screws, he lifted the plate and put it aside.
He plugged a cable into the diagnostic port.
"You didn't just complain about having a job, did you?" Lena gave him a mocking smile.
"You didn't just complain about having a job, did you?" quipped Lena with a mocking smile.
"Of course not. Never!" he exclaimed with a sarcastic undertone.

He booted the pump's computer.
Expand All @@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ Lena plugged the other end of the cable into her tablet.
That high concentration of this morphine stuff.
Man. I mean ... that's a first, right?
Normally a broken pump gives off too little of the sweet stuff or nothing at all.
But never, you know, like that crazy shot," Tom explained.
But never, you know, like that crazy shot," Tom remarked.
"I know. You don't have to convince me ... Hey, look at that." Lena held up her tablet.
"Do you see this peak here? That's the potency of the painkillers mix.
Look! This line shows the reference level.
Expand All @@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ Injected by our pump here.
And here ..." she swiped, "here you can see the moment of the patient's demise."
"So, any idea what happened, boss?" Tom asked his supervisor.
"Hm ... The sensors seem to be fine.
Heart rate, oxygen levels, glucose, ... The data were collected as expected.
Heart rate, oxygen levels, glucose, ... The data was collected as expected.
Some missing values in the blood oxygen data, but that's not unusual.
Look here.
The sensors have also detected the patient's slowing heart rate and extremely low cortisol levels caused by the morphine derivate and other pain blocking agents."
Expand All @@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ It was his first investigation of a real device failure.
"Ok, here is our first piece of the puzzle.
The system failed to send a warning to the hospital's communication channel.
The warning was triggered, but rejected at protocol level.
It could be our fault, but it could also be the fault of the hospital.
It could be our fault, but it could also be the hospital's fault.
Please send the logs over to the IT team," Lena told Tom.
Tom nodded with his eyes still fixed on the screen.
Lena continued:
Expand All @@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ That must be a bug.
Something the quality team missed.
Something really bad.
Maybe it's related to the protocol issue."
"So, the emergency system of the pump somehow broke down, but why did the pump go full bananas and inject so much painkiller into John Doe?" Tom wondered.
"So, the emergency system of the pump somehow broke down, but why did the pump go bananas and inject so much painkiller into John Doe?" Tom wondered.
"Good question.
You are right.
Protocol emergency failure aside, the pump shouldn't have administered that amount of medication at all.
Expand All @@ -87,14 +87,14 @@ That is why we have to dig deeper and find out what happened here," Lena explain
Lena nodded while she read the analysis report.
Tom got up and went to the window.
He looked outside, his eyes fixed on a point in the distance.
"Maybe the machine did him a favor, you know, in freeing him from the pain.
"Maybe the machine did him a favor, you know, freeing him from the pain.
No more suffering.
Maybe it just did the right thing.
Like a lightning, but, you know, a good one.
Like a lightning bolt, but, you know, a good one.
I mean like the lottery, but not random.
But for a reason.
If I were the pump, I would have done the same."
She finally lifted her head and looked at him.
She finally lifted her head and looked up at him.
He kept looking at something outside.
Both were silent for a few moments.
Lena lowered her head again and continued the analysis.
Expand All @@ -109,14 +109,14 @@ knitr::include_graphics("images/access-denied.jpg")
```

She rushed to the Bishan subway station.
With her thoughts she was already at work.
The tests for the new neural architecture should be completed by now.
Within her thoughts she was already at work.
The tests for the new neural architecture should have been completed by now.
She led the redesign of the government's "Tax Affinity Prediction System for Individual Entities", which predicts whether a person will hide money from the tax office.
Her team has come up with an elegant piece of engineering.
Her team did some elegant engineering to get it done.
If successful, the system would not only serve the tax office, but also feed into other systems such as the counter-terrorism alarm system and the commercial registry.
One day, the government could even integrate the predictions into the Civic Trust Score.
The Civic Trust Score estimates how trustworthy a person is.
The estimate affects every part of your daily life, such as getting a loan or how long you have to wait for a new passport.
The estimate affects every part of daily life, such as getting a loan or how long one has to wait for a new passport.
As she descended the escalator, she imagined how an integration of her team's system into the Civic Trust Score System might look like.

She routinely wiped her hand over the RFID reader without reducing her walking speed.
Expand All @@ -141,7 +141,7 @@ She looked at her smartwatch to check the account balance.
"Login denied. Please contact your Citizens Advice Bureau!" her watch informed her.

A feeling of nausea hit her like a fist to the stomach.
She suspected what had happened.
She thought she knew what had happened.
To confirm her theory, she started the mobile game "Sniper Guild", an ego shooter.
The app was directly closed again automatically, which confirmed her theory.
She became dizzy and sat down on the floor again.
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -177,7 +177,7 @@ Nobody dared to question the system.
It was too integrated into the government, into society itself, to be questioned.
In the few remaining democratic countries it was forbidden to form anti-democratic movements, not because they where inherently malicious, but because they would destabilize the current system.
The same logic applied to the now more common algocraties.
Critique in the algorithms was forbidden because of the danger to the status quo.
Critiquing the algorithms was forbidden because of the danger it posed to the status quo.

Algorithmic trust was the fabric of the social order.
For the common good, rare false trust scorings were tacitly accepted.
Expand All @@ -186,7 +186,7 @@ She felt like a big dark hole was opening in and under her.
With horror she looked into the void.

Her tax affinity system was eventually integrated into the Civic Trust Score System, but she never got to know it.

<!-- Maybe this is better? This is more of a stylistic choice: She never found out that her tax affinity system was eventually integrated into the Civic Trust Score System. -->


### Fermi's Paperclips {-}
Expand Down