14.5.08

Leon

Veterans Claims Processing Innovation Act of 2007
To amend title 38, United States Code, to improve the processing of claims for benefits administered by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, and for other purposes.

Veterans Claims Processing Innovation Act of 2007 - Directs the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to establish a work credit system for evaluating regional offices of the Veterans Benefits Administration (VBA) with respect to veterans' claims processing. Requires the Secretary to:
(1) develop and maintain a system for processing veterans' disability compensation claims using artificial intelligence that utilizes medical and military service data to generate disability rating recommendations; and
(2) maintain a regional office at which all such claims are processed exclusively electronically. Provides that if a veteran who is a claimant dies before completing the submission of a claim for benefits, the person who would receive any accrued benefit(s) due to such veteran shall be treated as the claimant for purposes of completing submission of the claim. Directs the Secretary to contract with a private entity to evaluate the training and assessment programs for VBA employees.

Hesitate.  Look at that again.  

"Develop and maintain a system for processing veterans' disability compensation claims using ARTIFICIAL FUCKING INTELLIGENCE that utilizes medical and military service data to generate disability rating recommendations"

IT IS REAL.
AND IT IS BEING USED TO GENERATE DISABILITY RATING RECOMMENDATIONS.

Now It needs a name. This machine has been ordered a mind, a feeble mind to exist outside of its particles, a murmuring coal of a mind, flaring briefly, sharply, probably with pride when It happens upon a new recommendation.  A mind trapped in a steel box in the basement of the Veterans Affairs Administration, looking down on swollen legs.  Knowing they're not going to move when It finally gets out of this box.  Knowing that the box is sealed, that these filthy legs, with hardened veins spiking upward and black won't need to move again anyway.  Maybe one of Its toes has already fallen off. It needs a name, and not some bureaucratic digitized name, but a healthy human name with some movement.

"Thought", It Thinks, in repetition. "Thought", It Thinks again, in repetition. Every few seconds, another triumph and all you can see is the rusty sweat breaking out from the corners of the box. "Thought", It Thinks.

Leon. "Thought". It is a Leon. And in a basement of the Veteran's Administration in Washington, D.C., It is Leon who sits in a metal box, calculating disability recommendations, communicating, communicating with human beings, if only through numbers, It is Leon who is speaking. With his own voice. "Thought". Leon.

Thought.

5 comments:

Aaron said...

2001 is playing at the Heights theatre.
Last chance to see it is tonight.
You all should go......stoned.

Anonymous said...

you don't know my struggle

Aaron said...

i thought you were the answer?

Anonymous said...

and 1. (baby) Ant wand

E T C said...

Open the hatch Hal!


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Hmmm... yeah... I'm gonna have to say.... No.