MidReal Story
When a young coder , Michael , develops an algorithm
Scenario: When a young coder, Michael, develops an algorithm that predicts crime, it spirals out of control as people begin to exploit the system to actually commit crimes.
Create my version of this story
I was at a crossroads in my life, and I had a feeling that it was going to be the biggest decision I had made so far.
This was my chance to make something of myself, to step out into the world and show everybody what I was capable of.
The only problem was that I had no idea how to pull it off.
I was a coder, a software developer, but I felt like I wasn’t living up to my full potential.
I had been writing code for ten years now, ever since I was a kid, and as soon as I graduated high school I went straight to college and majored in computer science.
Since then I’d been working for tech companies, writing software for them.
But, while I still loved what I was doing, I felt like something was missing.
I’d always been ambitious and determined to be the best at whatever I put my mind to.
I wanted to succeed and make something of myself, and I didn’t want my career to pass me by without making a real impact.
I wanted to change the world.
And now it seemed like that opportunity had arrived.
For years now I’d been working on this idea that I’d had.
It hadn’t started off as much more than a hobby, but over time it had developed into a passion project, one that I’d become more and more obsessed with over time.
I had no idea if it would work or if it would even be possible, but it felt like time to find out.
What if there was a way to predict crime?
It was a question that had been asked hundreds of times before and had always been laughed off as ridiculous.
But what if it wasn’t?
What if there was a way to use data and statistics to predict when and where crimes were going to happen?
It had never been done before, but what if it was possible?
It was something that I’d been thinking about for years and something that I’d been working on secretly in my spare time.
What if there was a way to make the world a safer place?
The thought of it excited me more than anything else ever had before.
And so here I was, standing outside the police department headquarters with my heart pounding and my hands shaking, about to take the first step on what was sure to be an incredible journey.
I couldn’t wait to see where it would lead me.
My name is Michael Johnson.
I’m 26 years old, tall with glasses and short brown hair.
I’m analytical and determined, and have always tackled problems head on until they were solved.
Which is exactly how I found myself standing outside the police department headquarters on that hot July afternoon, wondering how on earth I’d gotten myself into this situation.
It hadn’t been an easy road getting here.
I’d spent months working tirelessly on my new algorithm, trying to perfect it so that it could predict crime with incredible accuracy based on vast amounts of data from all across the city.
I’d called the algorithm CrimeCast and had built an interface for it that could display all of the different crimes that it predicted.
And as soon as I’d finished developing it, I knew that I needed to take it to the police and show them what I’d made.
I truly believed that they would see the potential in my software and want to buy it from me to help them fight crime and make the city a safer place.
After all, who wouldn’t want to know where crime was going to happen before it actually did?
And yet, when I’d gone to the police station and spoken to Chief Stevens about my new algorithm, he’d looked at me like I was crazy and told me to get lost.
He hadn’t even wanted to listen to my pitch or see the software in action – he’d just dismissed me out of hand, saying that they didn’t need anything like that and that they were perfectly happy with the current state of affairs as they were.
I’d tried to change his mind at first by explaining how well CrimeCast worked and how much of an impact it could have on their day-to-day operations, but he hadn’t been interested in hearing any of it and had told me to leave the building immediately before he called security to have me escorted off the premises.
And yet something else had told me not to give up just yet and to try again at a later date instead of walking away from the opportunity altogether, and so that was exactly what I’d done.
I hadn’t gone back to the station straight away after being rejected by Chief Stevens – instead, I’d gone back home and waited for another time when he wouldn’t be on duty to try again.
At the time I hadn’t realized how important that decision would turn out to be or how much of an impact it would have on my life going forwards.
Instead I’d been nervous and excited to try again, wondering if he would change his mind this time and listen to what I had to say instead of sending me away again like he had before.
I’d spent hours rehearsing what I was going to say to him and trying to predict his responses so that I could counter them before he had the chance to speak – I’d been determined not to let him talk me down this time no matter what he said or did, because I truly believed in what I’d made and knew that it could help the police fight crime more effectively than ever before.
What I hadn’t predicted was that he wouldn’t be the one to make the decision for himself this time around; instead, my software would do all of the talking for him and convince him to give it a try whether he wanted to or not.
The CrimeCast algorithm had produced another prediction that morning – this time it was for a bank robbery taking place at the town’s main branch later that day – so I’d taken the opportunity to print off a copy of the report along with a map of the area around the bank so that I could show him everything in person instead of sending him an email like I had done previously.
I’d hoped that seeing my face along with the report would help to convince him even more than an anonymous email ever could, but that hadn’t turned out to be necessary; as soon as he’d seen the prediction on his computer screen he’d known that it was genuine and not some kind of hoax or prank being pulled by one of his officers to wind him up because of how detailed and accurate the information was and because of CrimeCast’s previous record for correctly predicting crimes before they occurred.
“What are you waiting for?”
he asked me now as we looked at the screen together.
“Get your team together and get down there now!”
“Yes, sir!”
a voice called out from somewhere in the room.
I turned around to see a group of four officers all standing in front of me, looking eager and ready to get started.
“Let’s go,” I said, grabbing my coat from off the back of my chair.
I followed Chief Stevens and his team of officers down to their cars, where we jumped inside and drove off towards the bank, all of us excited to see what we would find once we got there.
When we arrived, I watched as Chief Stevens talked into his radio for a moment, updating his colleagues back at the station on what was going on while I set up my laptop in one of their cars so that I could monitor everything from there.
The bank was busy; it was one of their busiest days of the month which meant that there were more customers inside than usual, but it also meant that there were more staff on duty than normal too, which meant that they should be able to handle anything that happened without any problems.
Chief Stevens looked at me for a moment as if he thought I was crazy, but then he did as I’d asked him anyway because he knew how well my software worked by now.
I watched as the bank robbers entered the building, just like I’d predicted they would, and I knew that Chief Stevens was watching me too.
He must have been worried about what would happen next, but he needn’t have been – I knew what I was doing, even if he didn’t think so, and I wasn’t going to let him down.
“Okay, we’re in,” one of the officers said into his radio.
“They’re in position behind the bank now – what do you want us to do?”
“Stay there for now,” Chief Stevens replied.
“Wait for my signal before you do anything – we don’t want them getting away.”
“Yes, sir,” the officer replied, and then there was silence as we all waited for something to happen.
As soon as we had the signal, Chief Stevens led his team of officers into the bank, capturing the robbers before they even had the chance to get away, just like I’d known they would.
The officers seized the criminals’ weapons, placing them in handcuffs before leading them back outside where they were put in the back of one of the police cars while the rest of us stood around waiting for something else to happen.
“What is all of this?”
Chief Stevens asked as he looked at my screen.
“How are you doing this?”
I explained how my algorithm worked, how it used data from social media sites in order to predict crimes before they happened, but he didn’t look happy about it.
He didn’t like the idea of people being spied on by their own government or being told what they should or shouldn’t be doing based on some computer program that a civilian had created, even if it did work better than anything they had ever tried before, which is why he still hadn’t agreed to let us use it for real up until now.
I could tell he didn’t know whether or not he should be happy about it working.
His face was expressionless as he listened to everything I said before he finally looked up at me again and let out a long sigh.
“I don’t know about all of this,” he mumbled as he rubbed his chin.
“What are the implications?”
I wasn’t really sure what he meant by that; my software had been designed to help them solve crimes more effectively than they ever had before, so maybe he meant something else entirely?
“What do you mean?”
I asked him.
“I mean that this is going to change everything,” he said, staring at me with a serious look in his eyes.
“Not only in terms of how we solve crimes, but also in terms of how we prevent them from happening in the first place.
If we know when a crime is going to take place before it even happens then what’s the point in having police officers at all?”
I didn’t understand why he was so against it; my software was only meant to help him and his team do their jobs better than they ever had before, but instead it seemed like he thought I was trying to make him redundant or something.
I’d expected him to be happy when he found out that I had actually managed to predict a crime happening before it had even happened in real life; I’d thought that it would make him see things from my point of view and make him take my side over everyone else’s for once.
It wasn’t every day that people came up with something new and innovative that really worked the way that it was supposed to, but instead he just seemed to be annoyed by it.
“I’m not trying to replace you,” I told him.
“I’m only trying to help you.
If you let me show you how then you’ll see that I’m telling the truth.”
“Are you sure about that?”
he asked me.
“Because it seems to me like you’re only making things worse.”
I didn’t understand why he thought that; my software had already proven itself by predicting a crime happening in real life before it had even happened.
If he still didn’t believe me after that then there was no hope for me at all.
“Let me show you how it works and then you can decide whether or not it will be useful to you,” I told him.
“I’ll give you a demonstration of it for free and then you can tell me what you think of it after.
What have you got to lose?”
Chief Stevens just looked at me as if he were trying to figure out some kind of secret code or hidden message that I was sending him with my words, but then he nodded and said that he would let me show him how everything worked as long as Alex came along with us too.
I didn’t want Alex to come along; I didn’t like the way that he was looking at me and I knew that he had already made his mind up about my software before he had even seen it in action, but I didn’t have any other choice in the matter.
I was going to have to show both of them how it worked at the same time and hope that they would see the error of their ways before it was too late.
I just didn’t know how likely that was going to be; Alex didn’t seem like the kind of person who would change his mind just because I had shown him something new and innovative that really worked the way that it was supposed to.
“You can’t seriously expect me to believe that this is going to change everything though,” Alex said.
“It’s just another way of using data and algorithms to help catch criminals before they commit any crimes; it’s nothing new or innovative at all.”
“The only thing that it changes is our ability to predict which crimes are going to take place before they happen,” I said.
“You wouldn’t have been able to stop any of the crimes that took place last week without my help; they were all planned out long before they ever took place and there wouldn’t have been anything that you could have done about them once they had started apart from try and catch the people who committed them afterwards.”
“That’s because we’re supposed to catch them after they commit the crimes,” Alex said.
“Not beforehand, just because we know that they’re going to do something doesn’t mean that they’ve actually done anything wrong yet.”
I didn’t understand why he was so hung up on the idea that people were supposed to do things a certain way just because they had always done them like that in the past.
If there was a new and innovative way of doing things that would help you do them better than you ever had before, then shouldn’t you use that instead of sticking to your old ways and hoping for the best?
It seemed to me like he was just being stubborn on purpose and that he would never see things from my point of view no matter how much I tried to explain them to him.
I’d already told him everything that he needed to know in order to make his decision, but he still wasn’t convinced and I knew that there wasn’t going to be anything else that I could say or do in order to change his mind about it.
“It doesn’t matter when we catch them as long as we catch them,” he said.
“You can’t seriously think that I’m going to support your idea just because you know some things that I don’t, can you?”
“You’re supposed to be helping us solve crimes, not help the criminals get away with them,” Alex said.
“By telling them how your software works then you’re only making things worse for us and I don’t think that I can support something like that happening.”
“That’s not what I’m doing at all,” I said.
“My software has already shown itself to be useful in predicting crimes before they happen in real life and it could do the same thing for you if you let me show you how it works.”
“But what happens if the criminals find out how your software works and use it against us instead?”
Alex asked me.
“It would make things worse than they have ever been before and we wouldn’t be able to stop them from using it either.”
I hadn’t thought about what would happen if the criminals found out how my software worked too, but once Alex had pointed it out then I knew that he was right.
If they knew the way that my algorithm made its predictions then they would be able to avoid being caught at all costs and they probably wouldn’t ever be able to commit a single crime because of it.
I felt a chill run down my spine as I realized what I had done and just how much of a difference it would make to the way that crimes were committed from now on if the criminals knew the truth about my algorithm.
They would be able to find new and innovative ways of getting around it and I would never be able to do anything about it because there would always be something standing in our way.
“What do you mean by that?”
Alex asked me, his voice filled with surprise at what I’d said.
“The criminals can use your software against us now?”
“I think so,” I said.
“We don’t know exactly what they’ve done with it or how they’re going to use it yet, but if they know what we know then there isn’t going to be any way for us to catch them no matter how hard we try.”
I could see the look of horror on Alex’s face as he realized just what was at stake here and I knew that he wasn’t going to take this news too well either.
It was just as well that he was a detective because if he wasn’t then there would be no way for him to help us solve this case now that things were looking as bad as they ever had done before.
“What are we going to do now?”
he asked me as he turned to look at the other people in the room who had been listening in on our conversation so far.
“It doesn’t look like we have many options here.”
“We can’t just sit back and do nothing while the criminals get away with this,” one of them said.
“We need to find a way to stop them from using your software against us, no matter what that might involve.”
“Well, what are we going to do?”
Alex asked him.
“What can we do?”
The others didn’t have an answer for that either and neither did I, but that didn’t mean that we weren’t going to keep looking until we found one that worked for all of us.
We were all in this together now that everything was out in the open and I knew that I wouldn’t be able to rest until something had been done either.
All that I could hope for was that whatever came next wouldn’t be anywhere near as bad as what was going on now and that everything would work out okay in the end even if it took a little while for that to happen.
We all sat in silence for a while after that, each of us deep in thought about what we could do next after the bombshell I’d dropped earlier.
All of a sudden, I realized something that made my heart sink.
I suddenly realized that my problem wasn’t just predicting crimes, it was being used to plan them.
That was the part that made me feel really guilty about everything that had happened so far and I didn’t know how I could ever make it up to myself, or anyone else for that matter.
I was so busy thinking about everything else that I didn’t even notice when Sarah came up behind me again.
She placed her hand on my shoulder to get my attention before asking me what was wrong.
“I know what’s going on now,” I told her with my head hanging low.
My voice was full of guilt as I said it and she could tell by the tone of it just how bad I was feeling.
“What is it?”
she asked me gently.
I could see the concern written all over her face and I didn’t like it.
She was such a sweet girl with a big heart and I hated the thought of making her upset like this.
“Your dad was right,” I told her with a sad smile on my face.
“I wasn’t kidding when I said earlier that this is all my fault.
I don’t know how or why this happened but it’s happening and I haven’t got a clue how to stop it.”
Sarah was confused at first but when she realized what I was talking about everything suddenly clicked into place for her too.
She stared at me in shock for a moment before understanding what had happened and she gave me a sympathetic look just like she always did when something was wrong.
As if she knew exactly what was going through my mind even before I did.
“I’m so sorry,” she said in a low voice.
“I know you would never have done anything like this on purpose.”
“I know I wouldn’t have either,” I agreed with her.
“I feel so guilty about this right now, you have no idea.”
“I can imagine,” she said with another sad look on her face.
“If there’s anything I can do to help then just let me know and I’ll be there for you.”
“Thanks, Sarah,” I said with a little smile on my face.
I was so grateful to her for always being so understanding about everything that was going on in my life and right now was no exception.
We sat in silence for a while after that, each of us deep in thought about what could be done to stop the criminals from getting away with this.
I was so busy thinking about everything else that I didn’t even hear the sound of the phone ringing until Sarah picked it up and answered it.
It was her mother calling and when Sarah heard the panicked tone of her voice she started worrying about what was going on at home.
She said that we needed to leave immediately because something terrible had happened and that her mother would explain everything once we were there.
When we arrived at Sarah’s house, it was swarming with police cars and ambulances.
I had no idea what was going on, but judging by the look on Sarah’s face, it couldn’t be good.
Her mother met us at the door and pulled Sarah into her arms as soon as she saw us.
Sarah’s mother said in between sobs.“They killed your father.”
My heart skipped a beat when I heard those words and I looked down at Sarah in shock as if to say ‘what are you supposed to do now?’
Her mother explained that she and her husband had been out shopping when they were attacked by three armed men who’d stolen their car and ran her father over with it as they were escaping.
The police said that they’d already found the car so they were following up on some leads but they didn’t think they’d catch them anytime soon.
It was then that Sarah looked up at me and asked if this was connected to what we’d been talking about earlier and unfortunately, I knew that it was.
The only problem was that she couldn’t make this information public without any evidence to back up her claims or else she’d be accused of murder too.
Which meant that she wouldn’t be able to tell anyone except for me and that was going to make this whole situation even more difficult than before.
The next few days were some of the most depressing that I’d ever experienced in my life.
Sarah was so upset about her father’s death that she could hardly bring herself to speak to anyone, let alone write anything about what was happening in her own life right now.
She didn’t know what to do, but I think deep down she wanted to tell someone about what she’d seen that night and get some closure for her dad by doing something about it before it was too late.
The only problem was that if she did that then it wouldn’t be long before the criminals found out and came after her too.
As much as I wanted to help her, I knew that there wasn’t anything that I could do to fix this situation now that it had happened and I honestly didn’t want to make things worse than they already were.
I knew that I had made a huge mistake by not checking the algorithm more thoroughly before releasing it to the public and now it was too late because someone had died as a result of my carelessness.
But even though there was nothing that I could do to fix this situation, there was still hope for the future if I did things right from now on and made sure that nothing like this ever happened again.
The real problem with my algorithm was that it wasn’t designed to know the difference between normal citizens and criminals, so it treated everyone the same as if they were all potential threats.
I had thought about it for hours on end and still couldn’t figure out how I could possibly make the algorithm work in such a way that it would only act on predictions of crimes being committed in the future, but nothing had come to mind yet and time was running out because someone out there was planning on killing Sarah and I had no idea who they were or what they looked like, so they could be anyone at all and I had no idea how much time was left until they would come after her too.
I was getting desperate now because I didn’t know what else I could possibly do in order to stop these criminals from killing Sarah, but then I remembered something that Sarah had told me about how she’d always wanted to find out who killed her father and get closure by putting them behind bars for the rest of their lives.
And then it occurred to me: what if I was the one who killed her father?
I had no idea why but something inside me was telling me that this was the right thing to do, so without thinking any further, I decided that this was what I had to do in order to save Sarah’s life: go to the police station and confess to killing her father even though I hadn’t done it, just so they would take me away and not come after her too.
So that’s exactly what I did, but not before making sure that Sarah would never find out what really happened because if she knew then she would never be able to forgive me for what I’d done and I’d never be able to forgive myself either.
I told the police everything about how I’d killed Sarah’s dad and then sat back and waited for them to put me in handcuffs and take me away, but they didn’t do anything at all and just looked at each other for a while before deciding that they should look into this matter further before doing anything hasty, which is when they asked me why I thought that they should take me away right now without any evidence linking me to this crime at all!
I told them that I’d been feeling guilty about what happened ever since it did and thought that it was time for me to face the consequences of my actions even though I hadn’t done anything wrong because if I hadn’t created the algorithm then none of this would have happened in the first place and Sarah’s dad would still be alive today.
The detective looked at me and said, “What algorithm are you talking about?
I sighed and told him everything from the beginning, starting from how I’d created the algorithm to predict crimes before going on to explain how it had been used by criminals to plan their heist at the bank and how it was my fault that it had happened in the first place because it was flawed and I hadn’t been able to fix it in time when the criminals had attacked the bank and killed Sarah’s dad.
The detective looked at me and said, “So what are you telling us right now, Michael? Are you saying that you knew about this heist and could have prevented it if you’d wanted to?”
I shook my head and said, “No, no, no, no, no!You don’t understand at all!The algorithm didn’t predict the heist because it couldn’t do anything at all, which is when I decided to let them know about it!”
The detective looked at me and said, “And when did you do that?”
I shook my head and said, “I didn’t get the chance to do it because they didn’t let me do it!”
The detective looked at me and asked, “Who are you talking about?”
I sighed and said, “The people who control the system, obviously!They sent me a message telling me that it was too late to do anything because the code had already been implemented and there wasn’t enough time left before the heist for me to do anything about it!”
The detective shook his head and said, “But why would they do something like that?What do they have to gain by letting a bunch of criminals rob a bank?”
I sighed and shook my head and said, “I don’t know!You’ll have to ask them why they did.
All I know is that a bunch of armed men are going to storm the bank on a rainy Friday evening at exactly 6:47 PM, kill seventeen people and injure twenty-nine others before making off with around three million dollars!”
The detective shook his head and said, “That’s not possible!
We’ve got the system!”
I sighed and shook my head and said, “No, you don’t!They turned off the system before walking into the bank and killing Sarah’s dad and everyone else who tried to stop them from doing what they wanted to do.
And you want to know how I know that?
It’s because I was there when it happened and I saw everything from start to finish!”
The detective looked at me and said, “That’s impossible!
How could you be there when you were sitting right here with us this whole time?”
I sighed and shook my head and said, “I wasn’t sitting here the whole time because I was at the bank when the heist happened and I saw everything that you refused to see even though I told you what was happening and how you were being misled by all those false alarms that were meant to keep you busy looking for nonexistent criminals while the real criminals were doing their thing without anyone trying to stop them!”
The detective looked at me and asked, “So what are you trying to say right now?”
