Kyle Kirkland - Sandbagging

“I’m not sure.” Grange paused. “But maybe it was genuinely concerned about civilization—we’re facing a lot of problems, you know—and perhaps it wanted to encourage a reduction in population the old-fashioned way. Set up a situation in which people would fight it out. Red in tooth and claw.”

“Maybe,” said Quinton. “But I have another idea. Maybe DCC learned only too well from its human programmers.”

“What do you mean?”

“Holding back—sandbagging. It didn’t reveal its true plan. It held back—on those who usually do the same.”

“With the goal…?”

Quinton shrugged. “Maybe it thought the best way to deal with overpopulation was to get rid of the people with the least tendency to cooperate. People who try to gain an edge by withholding important information. If it could fool them, somehow get them to eliminate each other—”

“Interesting theory,” said Grange, “but far too complicated for a machine. How would such a plan work? I think the simplest theory is the best, and that’s the theory of evolution. That’s what must have guided DCC. It believed that the strong would kill the weak, increasing society’s fitness…”

But Quinton wasn’t listening. He’d seen a couple of postdocs struggling to move a crate and stopped to lend them a hand.