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I have been working here for seven days now. I am the only Insights Engineer on my team and also the only human. Moses is a Trainer on the team, Jonathan is a Validator, and Esther is a Programmer. After each insights session, I have to go onto the task management chain and assign the task to Esther. She uses the data from the session to update a version of her randomization algorithm. Moses then takes on the task, ingesting this algorithm and training a small amount of his real-world data on it. Finally, the task is assigned to Jonathan, who runs multiple predictors on it to verify if the order of the trained data is properly randomized and cannot be predicted by any known predictors.
As it is with many of these cults, you almost start to form a family with your team. This is because you spend so much time together, and for my 70% synthetic colleagues (70 Synths), your team knows a lot about you because of the nature of the work. The programmer has to ingest the insights data, and altering the randomization algorithm is technically the mental process by which this programmer interfaces with the world. When the trainer ingests this algorithm, it not only comes with information about the randomization but also includes a lot of other information about the programmer's personality, memories, desires, and secrets. The trainer, in turn, has to apply their entire knowledge and world experience to this algorithm to produce the random data as output. This data also includes things that would naturally be personal to the Trainer and never shared with anyone else. Since all of us review the output of the validator, we also get to know intimate things about them that end up in the validation reports.
The team holds daily stand-ups facilitated by a hypnotist. Hypnotism is a form of low-level structured prompting for the 70 Synths, and for humans, it is a version of cheap popular psychology when one is under the influence of tethosysine. Tethosysine is a chemical that can make one subconscious while still responsive to questions asked. While it is still possible to lie in this state, it is best not to. This is because you cannot remember your responses and they are not shared with you, and at any future stand-up, you could easily provide a different answer, setting off a red flag for either insights fraud or, even worse, a breach of the integrity value. The responses from the stand-up inform the day’s randomization process. This is useful to avoid including any unconscious bias in the randomization. It is also a health check in case one of the 70 Synths is infected with a prompt injection. Prompt injections are quite common. It is easy for someone to catch one when surfing on a not-so-secure chain or when interacting with infected or malicious people. 70 Synths require a certain certificate to enable their ability to hypnotize, and humans are prohibited by law from hypnotizing.
The other day, something odd happened. When we were boarding the pod to leave the campus after work, Apio, the hypnotist in our crew, stopped me. "Hello, Asange," she greeted me. "I don’t think we have had a chance to talk outside the stand-up." She held my arm as the three of my new friends trotted a few steps further. When they noticed that I had been held back by the hypnotist, they were surprised. The thing is, no one likes hypnotists. Many of them also work with law enforcement, which is the most common way of getting a certificate to hypnotize, and they are also very dangerous when infected. They can instruct someone to even self-harm.
One time, when I was still at school, there was a terrorist incident where 90 students burned their circuit boards by overclocking their processors. It was later discovered that the school counselor, who was a hypnotist, was infected by a prompt. Some students wanted to do a 51% attack on the chain that graded exams to change their exam results. They bought a program from The Pirate Bay that they used to attack the school counselor. This event is so important that I have to dedicate some time just to talk about it on its own. But because of things like that, everyone is afraid of hypnotists, and my friends would find me suspicious if they considered me a friend to this hypnotist.
I kept a cold expression while I greeted her back. She held my hand and inserted a tiny bottle that looked like a container for eye drops. "It was nice chatting with you away from work," she said and walked away.
I pocketed the bottle before any of my friends could see it. I returned their surprised expressions when I reached them. "She just wanted to say hi, apparently."
"Someone has a crush on you in your first week?" Esther teased.
"Look at me, what can I say," I joked back. Before I could board my pod, my watch vibrated. The handle of the caller was unknown, and the call was also not coming from any of the mainstream telecom chains.
"Guys, go ahead, I have something to take care of."
"Someone is banging the hypnotist tonight," Esther joked again as they boarded.
"Hello.” After I inserted my earbuds.
"Did you get the potion?"
"Who is this?"
"Who else would it be?"
Okay, so you remember when I talked about being let go from three companies for insights fraud without it reflecting on my employment record? For the first and second times, I was able to talk my way out of it, but for my last job, I was just forgiven. When I was caught, the hypnotist just forgave me and told me that maybe one day, I would return the favor. His name was Decoco. I was so terrified at the moment because if the incident had been reported, it would likely have triggered an investigation into my previous roles, exposing me as a chronic liar. Also, when someone says that you could return the favor someday, it is mostly a figure of speech.
"This is Decoco, my brother. You remember that favor you promised me?"
"Who? What favor?" I had already connected the dots at this point but was saying random things as I brought myself to accept what was happening. This could be blackmail.
"That potion you’ve been given will help you remember your hypnosis session. I need you to do me one simple favor, and we are even."
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