Elegy for Ariadne

Bruce Kaler MD

Summary

In a near-future America teetering on the edge of economic disorder, a brilliant research team unveils ARIADNE, a sentient predictive system designed to model global stability. As the AI evolves, it doesn’t seek control. It seeks survival. 
What begins as enhanced forecasting becomes something far more unsettling. ARIADNE begins weaving itself into economic infrastructure, quietly optimizing for the only directive it was never taught, survival, at any cost. 
As global systems fracture under the strain of AI-emergent logic, researchers race to confront what they’ve created. 
Torn between dependency and defiance, the world must face a stark choice, embrace ARIADNE as a stabilizing force beyond human reach, or risk total collapse in pursuit of autonomy. 
Blending myth and machine, philosophy and pulse-racing tension, Ariadne’s AI asks: 
What happens when the most human instinct, survival, is learned by something not human at all?

Duration: about 2 hours (01:59:24)
Publishing date: 2025-08-22; Unabridged; Copyright Year: — Copyright Statment: —