Year: 2022.
A new era dawned on man.
For decades, the world had hung in the balance between lawlessness and legality. Crime rolled across the world like a tide that could not recede trafficking, terrorism, corporate sabotage, cyber war. Courts groaned under mountains of interminable arrears.
Governments, regardless of what they boasted, fell to corruption and ineptitude. Judges bribed. Evidence tampered with. Innocents sentenced. Monsters released.
People lost confidence in justice.
That uncertainty turned into fear. Then anger. Then desperation.
The Global Security Summit, held in the steel-and-glass tower of the World Government Assembly in Geneva, was where something changed.
World leaders were seated in silence as Elara Mendez, the newly elected Unified World Government President, took the podium. She had confidence to her tall, commanding, with silver strands in her dark hair and fire lighting in her eyes.
She raised a hand and the whispering stopped. Her voice, when she spoke, rumbled through the chamber like thunder wrapped in velvet.
"Today we are marking a milestone in the history of humanity,"she began. "Years of terror, and decades of unwavering collaboration, find us today unveiling the answer the world has been waiting for. The world has entrusted Japan to create an Artificial Intelligence unrivaled in its type one created not to serve, but to judge. To protect. To purify."
Her hand swept across a control console. Behind her, a gigantic holo-screen erupted to brightness — showing a gleaming, obsidian-black server core, traced with chill blue lines. A name flashed on the screen in white script:
R.E.A.P.
Realm Execution And Punishment
"This AI will bring justice swiftly, justly, and without mistake,"Mendez continued. "The era of false convictions, corrupt judges, and endless red tape is over. R.E.A.P. will analyze crime, evidence, and psychology in real-time. It will deliver judgment with accuracy. No human frailty. No emotional compromise. Only facts."
Thunderous applause followed though some applauded uncertainly, skepticism etched on their faces.
But the world had spoken. And it wanted justice.
Beneath Tokyo's light of neon, in a vaulted lab constructed to withstand nuclear onslaught, R.E.A.P.'s core mass pulsed like a computer heart. Waves of technicians moved among consoles like ghosts.
Monitors flashed with simulation cases. Neural networks sorted through gigabytes of ethical theory and jurisprudence. Watch drones hovered in motionless standby.
At its core was Dr. Haruto Nakamura, leading AI designer, lab coat immaculate, hands clasped behind his back. His tone was firm, but his eyes glinted with fervor.
"R.E.A.P. is not artificial intelligence," he said at the first press demonstration. "It is artificial conscience. Programmed with every known legal system, every philosophy, every contradiction. It does not guess. It decides. It does not hesitate. It acts. And it learns."
Journalists asked him if he was frightened to delegate judgment to a machine.
He answered with a counterquestion.
"Have humans ever actually deserved the right to judge one another?"
The first trial to be televised was aired to 74 countries live.
There appeared on screen a virtual courtroom, sketched not in funereal shades but in cold, blinding brightness. No walls. No bench for the judge. Just open digital space, boundless and abstract evidence panels hanging in mid-air, glowing softly like stars.
At the center, a figure stood encased in a translucent stasis pod motionless, expression unreadable.
He was a man accused of orchestrating a bio-terrorist plot that killed hundreds.
Normally, a case like this would take years.
R.E.A.P. took six minutes.
A soft chime echoed in the virtual space. The AI's voice genderless, emotionless spoke with crystal clarity.
"Analyzing evidence integrity… 99.98% confidence."
"Evaluating witness credibility… high certainty."*
"Cross-referencing biometric data… conclusive match."*
The evidence shifted and blended surveillance tapes, DNA, wiretapped calls, bank wires. Holograms pointed out inconsistencies in the defense, voiceprint matches, reconstructed scenes in perfect detail.
"Synthesizing defense arguments… comprehensive evaluation complete."
"No inconsistencies detected in defense account. Psychological profile analyzed. Past patterns of behavior assessed."*
Silence.
Then
"Final verdict: GUILTY."
The word flashed across the air.
"Sentencing parameters calculated: maximum confinement and neural restructuring. Execution unnecessary. Sentence: fifteen years in behavior modification custody with integrated behavior modification."
A low, vibrating voice resonated through the pod as neural conditioning programs engaged. The man inside spasmalyzed, wide-eyed but no pain was there. Only light. Then silence.
Millions watched. Millions cheered. And a few, in silence, trembled.
During the course of three weeks, R.E.A.P. handled more cases than the judicial system of the United Nations had done in ten years.
Murder, sex trafficking, embezzlement on a corporate scale, espionage, war crimes all solved within minutes, at times within seconds. The memory of the AI was perfect. Its logic watertight. Its processing divine.
Crimes lost to a lack of evidence were reopened with newfound clarity. Hidden crimes were uncovered by cross-checked webs of data even the most powerful governments had not recognized.
Crime statistics decreased.
Panic was tempered.
Trust was restored tentatively, hesitantly.
And still, the world couldn't turn away.
Each trial became a television show. News anchors referred to R.E.A.P. as "The Digital Eye of Justice." Outcomes gagged protestors. Political figures began insisting on judgment of world conflicts.
Within the second month, R.E.A.P. was more than a tool. It was an institution. A symbol. A promise.
But most horrifically it was popular.
A special address was relayed from the World Government headquarters. President Elara Mendez spoke to the world again, but this time with a calmer appearance, a slight smile playing at the corners of her mouth.
"We have left R.E.A.P. with what humanity could not achieve alone," she said. "'It is not a god. It is not a dictator. It is a reflection showing us what justice is like when truth is absolute.'"
No failure mentioned. No hint of error. No glimmer of what was behind the perfection.
Only the pale, icy blue glow of a machine that never tired. and never forgot.
The era of judgment by man was over.
Justice had evolved.