The suicide vest

I wrote this technological-political fable to satirize the paths that lead to forced suicide, like the one that occurred in Brasília this week.

Thirteen years after ChatGPT was introduced to the world, winning the hearts and minds of Internet users and quickly attracting impressive amounts of investment, a whole new economic ecosystem emerged. Computer farms sprouted from the ground like mushrooms, expanding and modernizing the microchip and computer industry.

Not even the bursting of the financial bubble created around ChatGPT and its competitors was able to abort or stop the fourth industrial revolution. Artificial Intelligences are here to stay. They invaded all branches of human activity, creating a virtuous cycle in the robotics and prosthetics industry. The technology empowered exoskeletons that increased the strength and productivity of workers and increased the efficiency and security of Justice Systems in the most developed countries.

However, not far from the technologically exciting world that was being created, a hell began to emerge. Gambling and the porn industry were quick to reinvent themselves based on new technology, and autonomous weapons powered by AI became a nightmare for rich countries as they became cheaper, more miniaturized, and more lethal. Espionage was no longer an exception and was within the reach of state agencies, private corporations, and organized crime. The exploitation of vulnerable population groups became a sad reality in US and Europe.

It was in this context that the suicide vest was invented and patented. The first version of the product was based on industrial prosthetics and exoskeletons and operated with rudimentary AI. Placed on a previously sedated victim, when the suicide vest was turned on, it automatically brought the hand with the firearm to the victim's temple and pressed the trigger. The suicide scene was then abandoned after the vest was removed by the secret agent.

This product was created to solve, during the Second Cold War, one of the biggest problems that existed during the First Cold War. In the USSR, dissidents could be and were shot with Makarov by KGB agents. But in the US, unwanted people, especially diplomats, military personnel, politicians, famous artists and security agents, could not be simply murdered without arousing suspicion and leading to uncontrollable police investigations that could point out those responsible. This was the reason why the CIA opted for overdoses, which became more common due to the popularization of drug use. However, if the victim was not a drug user, this forced suicide technique could not be used. Putting a gun in a person's hand and firing it to stage a suicide was not an easy task if the person was awake and it became impossible if the victim was sedated. But that was a thing of the past.

The fourth industrial revolution naturally led to the development of the suicide vest, an efficient piece of equipment whose development was made possible by the lawful use of robotics, algorithms and machine learning. More modern versions of the product quickly emerged, were trained and put into use. One of them, very popular in the US and England, was able to make the victim write a short suicide note before he was killed with the help of the equipment. The agent simply had to show something handwritten by the victim to the camera attached to the suicide vest and position the person sitting in front of a table with paper and pen. Not even the most experienced forensic scientist using modern technology could say with absolute certainty that a forced suicide could not have been committed voluntarily by the victim. And that was enough to guarantee the safety of the secret agents in charge of eliminating enemies of the state and people considered dangerous.

At first, lists of these people were carefully compiled and targets were chosen after meticulous investigation. But over time, even this was automated. An AI would sift through the ocean of data, hack into personal computers and phones, and after a probabilistic calculation, spit out the list of people who were to be killed according to an order. The agents only had to study the best opportunity to catch the victim alone in order to put on the suicide vest, and voilà...

But then something unpredictable happened. A hacker discovered by chance that audio, video, and geolocation data secretly generated by the suicide vests were being collected, transmitted over the Internet, and secretly stored on the server of the company that manufactured the product and supplied it to state security and espionage agencies. This last-ditch security device was created in case the State had to deal with the rebellion of an agent who decided to use the suicide vest in an unauthorized manner or to silence and compromise the agents themselves if they began to try to obtain undue advantages or leak information about operations carried out.

The suicide vest scandal was immense. Nothing like it had happened since Edward Snowden revealed the NSA's conspiracy to spy on everyone all the time, everywhere. The hacker became a celebrity after his campaign in favor of abolishing the use of this product was successful. But his life was tragically cut short by an overdose.

The company that manufactured and sold the product in the US was shut down. Banned and destroyed, suicide vests have become an urban legend. It is said that some of them are still being used illegally, but no one can confirm or deny this information.

In Brazil, more or less forced suicides began to occur ten years ago, when a certain ineligible, loud-mouthed captain became the leader of an esoteric far-right political cult applauded or tolerated by the press and fiercely spread on the internet with the help of bots. They say that in November 2024 a member of his cult, an introverted guy with low self-esteem, cognitive problems and borderline, was forced to blow up his car near the Supreme Court. Maybe that's a lie, I don't know. In fact, Brazilian history doesn't interest me. The only thing I've learned about that Asian country is that it borders Iran and China. But it seems obvious to me that that poor guy was also forced to wear a virtual suicide vest similar to the one that was fortunately banned in the US recently.