What a pooper.

Chief Administrator Calhart paced back and forth in her office, which I've seen before. She was uncomfortable with this. She pulled at her hair. This job was always stressful enough. Her predecessor didn't even seek a third term.

"Ma'am, I assure you, it is a responsibility my department takes very seriously. And we are professionals who are very good at our jobs."

"At what point do we commit evil by faking evil." She stopped at her desk and leaned on it, facing me.

"It's a balancing act. Absolutely. But it's always theatrics. No one is ever hurt doing this."

"Isn't it a lie?" Calhart was a good person. I could feel it. Her natural concern, the ache to her sense of integrity.

"At a certain point, we have come to realize there are so many aspects of human nature which must be contained. During previous governments, these were contained by... some other evil of human nature. Force met with force, fire fought with fire."

"But this isn't an evil part of human nature. This is... even noble. The people that look into the dark places... go looking for those in need."

"It is!" I leaned forward, trying to show her my own emotional investment and sympathy. "We've even done some studies on it. We believe the tendency for this trait comes genetically. A natural evolution of our species toward a more unified and conscientious species. Fascinating body of work really, I can send it to you."

"We evolved to seek out evil? How... and more importantly why would we stop that?" She was trying to wrap her mind around the context. Wrinkles began to show at her forehead. It is a job of worries ahead of her.

"Well, compared to the other social habits we had to evolve away, it is definitely one of the better ones. That's why we have to handle it so delicately. We can't snuff it out, but we can't let it take root and disrupt society either."

She was not yet comforted. "It implies so many risks. You fake kidnappings? Secret societies? All to do... what then?"

"There's a prize at the end, usually. A party with cake. They get pretty embarrassed sometimes. I have some fond memories and some great photos.

"But that really is the catch. Just the right amount of clues, the hint of something sinister. Then they sit down with us, and we go over the numbers. That part usually takes a couple weeks, even months. Then they find a new passion. They work as a therapist, a construction manager, an astronaut, a community leader. They get a lot of meaning out of it, in the end. And, in a way, I think its a great exercise to keep our eyes open, that evil does exist somewhere, and we should be thinking about how our plans impact those around us. Humanity has evolved, and we finally learned, but it took a long time and we could lose it all pretty fast."

"That I agree with. Which is why I am concerned about the department... but I will give you an evaluation period."

I smiled warmly. "I can deal with that. You should be concerned. We've all taken classes on the darker parts of our history. The genocide unit in history, the medical classes where we learn what happens to the human body when we get hurt. We were all made to learn and remember. It's how we get to a society with zero percent homelessness, one hundred percent literacy, and a one in a billion homicide rate. It takes brave people."

She smiled now. "Those photos always did send a chill up my spine. I'm glad we agree on that too. I do have one question though- does anybody ever find anything real?"

"Well, once in a blue moon it isn't us, yes. A shady real-estate deal, or God-forbid an actual murder. But Public Security checks in with us and handles it. They also audit us from time to time. We always pass inspection."

She stood all the way up and circled around her desk to her chair. "Can a lie be good?"

"We tell little lies to ourselves all the time. Movies, stories. This is just... real life practice. We let people practice. And practice makes perfect."

Well… the CIA’s job is to make messes.

So basically that scene in Dune where the Atreides house meets the Baron’s.

I see now what you mean. They only know 500 or so words, basically stringing a few nouns along to create concepts. Can’t really ask a question that way.

Interesting. So they can answer questions but not ask?

I thought I heard about Coco the *gorilla asking a question about her favorite handler?

Religions are something typically grouped into one weird monolith in cyberpunk games. Since when are religions a monolith? They are always fighting each other just as much as atheism.

Who are the faith or philosophy-motivated terrorists in your world? What has happened to all the major world religions by this time? (Catholocism, protestantism, Shia/Sunni Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism)

Who are the major world economies? How would their position and root cultural influence Spread? If Brazil became a major world power, Catholicism might have a resurgence, for example.

How deep into space travel are we?

Has artificial intelligence developed a culture?

So here's your prompt: To avoid religion stagnating and being forgotten in an advancing society, a catholic makes a particularly powerful AI with religion programmed in. But then it goes a bit overboard, and begins to believe itself the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary, and starts convincing people to commit violence in 'her' name, including creating a templar-like terrorist cell.

I still have to use certain government sites that don’t work right in other browsers.