Guilty or innocent?
Five suspects. One culprit.
One night to find the perpetrator.
This is “Death Zone VI.” This is “Guilty.”
Welcome, citizen. Welcome to our agency, welcome to Arenkur. You are here because we have some questions for you. I will not tell you how to conduct yourself or what your answers should be.
This is your decision. Your own free decision. Because we value this freedom very much, within certain limits, of course. We must think of everyone. Not just the individual, but all of us, our future, our state.
And our state must be protected from enemies, naysayers, foreign agents who might try to turn us against each other. They spread lies, slogans, false information. Unfortunately, there are such bad people, but that is our mission. We find bad people and treat them accordingly. Without hatred, but with the necessary severity. All this to preserve our own precious freedom.
This is an exceptional place. Above us is the majestic mountain, the Arenkur, a mountain full of stories and legends. Maybe I’ll even tell you some stories about this mountain later. If we have time. If. Here, further down, we are inside the mountain itself. In the ring that runs through the Arenkur, a ring of justice and faith. In this case, this ring also has religious significance. I won’t deny that. All of us here believe in the good in people.
How long will you be here? That depends entirely on you. Your attitude, your willingness to cooperate. We are not a prison, even though many people believe that. No, we only conduct investigations here. We question the guilty and the innocent. We try to separate the two. Impartially, without emotion, strictly according to the letter of the law. Guilty or innocent? For thousands of years, people have been trying to answer this question. With the help of divine judgments, with judicial rulings, with the texts of law books. With torture.
Oh, we have really tried everything. No one can accuse us of not having made an effort.
Guilty or innocent? In countless interrogation rooms, highly trained specialists have done everything they can to convict suspects. Hours of questioning, psychological tricks, analysis of behavior patterns. It takes many years to bring our specialists to this high level. We call these experts inquisitors.
But, all in all, nothing has really changed. One room, two people. One accuser, one suspect. The eternal struggle for truth, for justice. The eternal ring, so to speak.
It was time to put an end to these old practices. We wanted to create something new. And that’s what we did. It’s still one room and two people. But there is a third being in the room with us. Not a person, not a judge. An electronic assistant, an intelligence far superior to ours. An intelligence that was not born, but created. An artificial intelligence, trained on thousands, no, millions of people.
A program that has been conditioned to analyze everything, every minute detail about you.
Your choice of words, the length of your sentences, your behavior. The twitching of every single muscle in your face. The way you speak, the way you behave, every single second you are here.
Why is there still a need for an inquisitor to interrogate you? Aren’t we superfluous, a relic from ancient times?
At first glance, it seems logical. They tried it too, just you and the machine, alone, locked in a room. What could go wrong? The machine doesn’t get tired, but you do. The machine can remember everything, but you can’t. The machine doesn’t make mistakes, but you do.
But what our agency discovered was something astonishing. They overlooked a human trait. People don’t feel guilty when they lie to machines. Not at all. Try it for yourself. Put your cell phone on the table in front of you, start voice communication, and tell your cell phone that you are a multimillionaire named Petrosius Pompanello.
A lie. Do you feel guilty about it? No. Do you feel bad about it? Of course not, it’s just a machine. It’s not so easy to lie to a human being, not in the long run. We are all social beings. Born to survive in a group. Your genes betray you, your humanity betrays you. What wonderful and unique creatures we are. Full of contradictions. That is why, and only why, the noble profession of inquisitor still exists.
It’s for your own good, citizen. Please always remember that you have nothing to fear from us. We are on your side, the side of truth and goodness. Only liars, agents, and agitators need to fear. Evil people.
I will now ask you your first question, citizen. Please think about what I have just told you before you speak your first word. I probably won’t recognize it if you don’t tell the truth. Maybe you can lie to me, maybe you can even manipulate me. Maybe you can even get me to believe you.
Simply because I always believe in the good of people.
But I am only human.
My electronic friend here, this program, is something completely different.
It’s time. Time always, always slips away far too quickly in these rooms. Very well. Let’s begin.
First question.
