by Ken Kroes
He explained there being a few reasons behind selective genetic pairing, the first is an attempt to increase cognitive mental abilities or paranormal powers. The second would allow for dominant traits to excel within the species. He told them that without this, and having only random breeding like today, human DNA would degrade over time as negative mutations are allowed to propagate without constraint.
“As to what kind of dominate traits to pick, I leave that to you. Strength, agility, or artistic ability, I really don’t care. You’re responsible for choosing the people from your village possessing the strongest preferred traits. I would suggest some kind of village-wide games or competition as a test, but that’s your decision.”
He then pointed to the odd looking machine in one corner of the room. “It’s called a GDP, and it’ll calculate the specific egg, sperm, and date combination after you’ve entered your data. It’s made of very simple electronics, and there are enough spare parts in the warehouse to last at least a thousand years. The data you’ll enter will comprise of the target population goal for the village: births and deaths, marriages, and, of course, the specific people of the population who exhibit the chosen strengths. You’re also required to make entries for traits that you want to see eradicated, such as inheritable diseases.
“The GDP will do its best to apply randomization and follow specific rules around inbreeding, marriages, and your personal feedback, both positive and negative. And while it’s more likely that a child from a marriage would be from both of the partners’ DNA, that’s not a guarantee.”
He looked at the group. “Any burning questions on this subject? All the finer details are given in some of the books in the library along with the village manual, and all of you will receive training on how to use the GDP.”
One of the elders spoke up. “What did you mean about us now having random breeding?”
“We’re currently on the top of the food chain.” he said, “We have no predators and enough medical knowledge to prevent diseases from culling our population. Everyone gets enough food and selects their mate based on emotion versus any kind of survival trait—it’s essentially random.”
Another elder raised his hand. “Don’t take this question the wrong way and it is not related to the genetic pairing, but why can’t we have computers?”
“There actually are a few reasons. For one thing, they wouldn’t last very long—twenty, maybe thirty years tops. The GDP is more like a calculator than a computer so we can build it to last longer. To setup the tools required to build new computer parts would be a big effort and can wait until there are more villages built to share the burden. Also, we want to get the population away from instant answers that computers and the Internet now offer. People will need to better appreciate communications, relearn how to think independently, something I believe is lost in today’s expectations for instantaneous answers and solutions.”
“Won’t it be easy to detect us when we use the radio to communicate with other villages?”
He answered with a description of the radio-base stations for each village and emphasized that they contained special circuitry, with messages encrypted on select frequencies. If any normal shortwave receiver picked up the signal, it would sound like static.
Another member asked, “How about our first year’s food?”
“Taken care of. Each of the cold rooms under the occupied clan huts will be fully stocked. You could get away with growing no food for two years if you stretched it.”
“How bad is this virus?”
Richard frowned, admitting that it was lethal, but not extremely contagious since its transmission occurred only through direct contact. He said there should be no issues as long as everyone was vaccinated. “I wish there were another way to handle your defense, but this is the best that I could come up with for a short-term solution. For the long-term, say a few hundred years from now, I am hoping that the cognitive powers we are trying to enhance will be able to be used for protection, but that is just a theory of mine.”
“A few more guns would help in the short-term,” an elder quipped.
Everyone laughed nervously, waiting for Richard’s reply. “It would help with protection,” he admitted, “but would destroy the experiment. Suppose a great collapse happens and the village is threatened by some group. You’d build your weapons to at least match their strength. Then they’d increase their capabilities, and you would then have to increase your weapons, and so on. Roughly twenty percent of our budget in this country today is for defense. An enormous waste of people’s time and natural resources.”
A general sense of agreement was shared around the table.
“I’m sure there will be plenty of issues for you as a group to work through,” he said. “I’ve given you guidelines and a few rules, but I’m sure there’ll be challenges. At the same time, there are some problems in today’s society that you shouldn’t have to worry about. With few personal possessions and no currency, there can’t be many economic problems. Limits on size of the villages should alleviate the depletion of natural resources. It will also allow the environment a status similar to that of people, which should take care of most pollution issues. The one thing that hasn’t been taken care of yet is the building of a strong society. If we don’t accomplish that, the villages will collapse, just like the Mayans and other ancient civilizations.”
He gave his thoughts on why societies decay and the fact that the most brilliant social anthropologists have yet to arrive at a unified theory. He presented some common threads, the first being the family as a basic unit of society and his reasoning for the insistence on clan huts rather than families living as independent groups. He stressed the importance of support and the need for mutual respect, both principles he placed at the foundation of strong societies.
One of the women asked the last question. “What’s so secretive in this library that we don’t want the residents to know anything about it?”
“It’s not so much secrets but more about timing,” he replied. “Much of the information deals with advanced technologies that will be useful when there are more villages. I think it would be best if the next several generations concentrated on developing and running this village well first.”
The elders thanked him for speaking so straightforwardly and making clear his ideas for the future. His confidence and faith in their capabilities left them hopeful and more assured that his plans could well be their means to survival. He exited the town hall feeling pleased. He wouldn’t have to worry about this hand-picked group and hoped that future elders would preserve the same beliefs, values, and common sense.
12 - Meetings
The GPS said that she had arrived but Sue was sure that it was malfunctioning. She drove a bit further on the narrow two lane road to get to the top of a hill and got out. There was no traffic and to her dismay no significant buildings could be seen in any direction. There was a small building beside the road just ahead of her and she decided to drive there to turn around.
As she reached the building, she turned into its entrance and was surprised to see that it led to a paved lane that went away from the road she had been on and towards a distant grove of trees. A burly man with a security uniform come out of the building and approached her car.
“Need some help ma’am?”
“I’m lost; I was supposed to have a meeting with head of the Pleasant Belief Foundation but obviously got the wrong directions.”
“Ah, your name is Sue, isn’t it? We’ve been expecting you. Just head down this lane till you get to those trees, there is a place there to park your car and someone will be out to meet you.”
She thanked the man and then slowly drove on. She had not gotten very far when she noticed that a drone was flying alongside her car. She kept going and sure enough, as she approached the trees, she saw a small parking lot where an equally big man was waiting for her. This one was armed and efficiently inspected her belongings for weapons and scanned her with
a small wand. He then led her along a walking path through the trees that ended at a door carved into a hill. She noticed a helicopter on a helipad beside the hill.
The guard opened the door and motioned for her to go in. Once inside, Sue could not tell that she was underground as her surrounding looked like a typical home. Another person appeared and asked her to go through a device that looked very similar to an airport security scanner. After a moment of looking at the results she was led into a study. She waited at least ten minutes before Richard arrived.
“I’m sorry for keeping you waiting…Miss?” Richard said as he came into the drawing-room.
“Sue is fine. This is quiet the unusual place you have here.”
“I like it. Just consider it to be a typical home but it’s buried in the ground making it both environmentally friendly and much easier to keep secure than an above ground home. I don’t usually conduct business meetings here, but my secretary said you were very persuasive about the urgency of the matter. How can I help you?”
She stood, feeling more at ease on her feet as she spoke. “One of our agents has gone missing. More specifically, my partner. He was doing some investigating at your West Coast colony when he disappeared.”
“Why are you asking me about this? I don’t mean to sound unsympathetic, but how am I supposed to help you with your missing agent?”
“I’m not here to play games!” she said, “Do you know anything about this?”
He studied her for a moment and then made a decision. “Yes, I know about Spencer. That’s his name, isn’t it? My question for you is why was he spying on my foundation? I run a legitimate organization.” At the mention of Spencer’s name, he noticed visible relief on her face.
She had felt anxious since Spencer had been missing and wished she had gone herself instead of sending a rookie. Her composure returned quickly. “Where is he? I’ll get a swat team here if you don’t release him right now.”
“That will hardly be necessary. I’ll see that he’s released, but he’s presently at my headquarters, and you still haven’t answered my question.”
“We were trying to find out more about the colonies. There isn’t much information out there,” she said.
“Bullshit! There are masses of public information on the colonies and what we’re trying to do with them. I’m guessing what you mean is that there’s very little about my foundation on the Internet since it has its own computer network, and none of the systems are tied to the worldwide Net. Makes it a little harder for your search bots to go where they shouldn’t be in the first place, doesn’t it?”
“To be frank, you’re absolutely right. We know very little about your foundation and there are suspicions that there may be activities going on that aren’t in our country’s best interests.”
“Everything is legal,” he said. “I have a fleet of accountants and lawyers to make sure of that.”
“Then why all the secrecy surrounding it, and what about the security? This place looks like it’s better protected than the White House!”
“Most of it was implemented during the last couple of years for my own protection.”
“From whom?”
He checked off his answer with his fingers. “Governments, corporations, unions, you name it. There’s a long line of groups that would be very pleased to see me killed.” He said that the foundation was attempting to do what no other organization had done before—bring sustainability to daily living, meaning that people should consume less, much less. Telling people to delay purchases, buy secondhand items, and to buy small.
“Basically the same agenda as CURE, right?” Sue asked.
Richard laughed, “Nice try. Neither myself or the Foundation has anything to do with them. Though I do wish them the best. The foundation tries to get the same message out through advertising.”
“Yes, I’ve seen some of the ads,” she said. “The one with the little kid saying ‘save some for me’ while an adult waters the lawn is touching.”
“You’re right—the ads are effective when I can get them aired. Very few radio and television networks will run them because their other advertisers say they’ll pull out if they run mine.”
“But I’ve seen and heard them.”
“Only after I bought out a controlling portion of the shares of several networks around the world.” Then he asked, “What government department are you from?” not wanting her to know how much he already knew about her.
“Department of Information Retrieval.”
“I suspected as much.” He made a quick call and spoke in a low voice so that she couldn’t hear his conversation. When he was finished, he said, “Your boy is fine. I can let you speak to him in a while via videoconference. But you do realize that if you want to know something about the foundation, all you need to do is ask.”
“And you’ll tell the truth?”
He smiled. “Of course—at least we’ll be more honest than many organizations. Everyone has secrets, but you have my word that there’s nothing here to worry about.”
“What about the wildlife parks you’re setting up around the world and the deals made with local governments to restrict access?”
“All the foundation is doing in those places is setting up some long-term experiments—small villages to find out better ways for us to live. Think about it like the mission that’s sending people to Mars soon, except we’re not sending anyone to a different planet.”
“Why all the secrecy around it?”
“I want these villages to be autonomous, surviving on their own for the long term. We’re talking about a multi-generation experiment here because I think that’s what it’ll take for people to have a true paradigm shift. If knowledge of this got out into the general public, I’d have to spend another massive amount of money keeping the group isolated. I’ll tell you what—this Spencer fellow is pretty close to where we’re setting up one of the villages. Why don’t we send him there for a few days? He can look around, talk to people, and then tell you firsthand what’s going on. You’ll see there’s nothing sinister.”
“I like the idea,” she said, “but I want to speak to him first.”
********************
“Ah, room service!” Spencer said as the door to his cell opened. He squinted at the light coming through the doorway and could make out two guards. He had lost his sense of time but didn’t think it was meal time yet.
“Get up,” one of the guards said gruffly.
“So you can interrogate and torture me some more?”
The guard didn’t respond but walked over to Spencer and forcibly brought him to his feet. He was led out of his cell and led down the hallway. They opened a door to a different room than he had been in last time and shoved him in.
“We’ll be back in one hour. Be ready.”
Spencer looked around his new surroundings, which were a considerable improvement over his cell. There was a good deal more light than the cell he had been staying in, a real washroom with a shower, and a plate filled with cold-cut sandwiches and fruit set out on a small table. New clothes had been laid out on the cot. He guessed his detention had lasted close to a week, and he knew he needed a shower more than food.
Indulging in simple luxuries for an hour, he was clean, dressed, and finishing the last of the sandwiches when the door opened again. “Follow us,” directed the guard.
He was led to another room that was furnished only with a chair and a desk with a computer on it. Sue’s image showed on the monitor, and he suddenly felt relieved.
“There you are!” she said. “You do realize that you’re supposed to fill out a series of forms before you decide to go on vacation, don’t you?”
“Vacation! I’m a prisoner here. They’ve interrogated and tortured me.”
“Not bad for your fist few weeks on the job,” she said unsympathetically. “Vacation time is now over. I’ve spoken to Richard, the head of this foundation, and he’s arranged for you to have an escor
ted tour of one of their long-term experiments.”
“What kind of experiment? Am I allowed to leave now?”
“I’m told that you’ll be leaving shortly. There’ll be a helicopter flight to the experiment site, and after a few days there, you can come back to the DIR office, report in, and do some real work. I’m sorry to be so brief—see you in a few days.”
The monitor went black. She’s a real gem. He had been held against his will and interrogated, and it all seemed like another regular day to her. And now he was expected to keep going. He wondered if she sounded offhand because she suspected that she was being monitored.
As if on cue, the door to the room opened and the same two guards came in. One handed him a pair of sunglasses then escorted him outside to a helicopter that was warming up on the helipad. He was guided to the noisy machine increasingly unable to hear what they were saying to him. When he had buckled his seatbelt one of the guards gave him his backpack before shutting the door.
He looked inside and quickly found his phablet and was surprised that the battery was not completely exhausted. He guessed that his captors had gone through it and probably had charged it up. He saw a few text messages had been received, mostly from Sue. He quickly typed in a message, pressed Encrypt and then Send. With a full stomach of food and the hot shower, accompanied by the steady drone of the engines, he soon fell asleep and did not awake until the helicopter touched down in a clearing that appeared to be in the middle of a forest.
He exited the helicopter and ran out from under the moving rotors. An attractive woman stood at the edge of the clearing. “Welcome to Percipience,” she said. “My name is Hope, and I’m your tour guide. Please follow me.”
He did his best to keep up with her brisk pace while she told him the purpose of the village. As they passed by the trailer camp and towards the town center, he eyed the number of trailers. “How many people are here?”
“Currently about eight hundred. But most of them are temporary workers like me. I think the population will ultimately be around three hundred. When the temporary people leave, these trailers will be removed and this area will be used for crops.”