by Paul Anlee
Sporadic scattered applause threatened to break out but was abruptly squelched under the withering glare of those who thought the Reverend had spoken beyond his position. LaMontagne may have led a Church, but he did not lead a country, and certainly not their country.
No one, however, could deny that his words and fervor were a compelling force.
Greg and Kathy glanced at each other, sharing their surprise at the change in attitude around the table. All they needed were a few words to move the conversation toward quick agreement to their plan.
Sensing a pivotal moment, President Chu stepped in. “Your passionate words have moved us, Reverend. Nevertheless, we must live in the practical world, especially those of us who govern countries which do not find the ‘Word of God’ quite so compelling.”
LaMontagne’s face grew red.
Chu picked up the thick printed package in front of him and addressed Ms. Hudson, “Madam Prime Minister, your scientists have provided most compelling evidence of the threat we face with this Eater anomaly. Their plan to save humanity is bold and faces many technological challenges. With their guidance, our best scientists and engineers will be able to overcome these challenges. I am convinced of that.” He surveyed the room, seeing signs of agreement around the table.
“Yet, these challenges pale in comparison to the economic and political obstacles in our way. Humanity is tired. We have struggled for decades with turmoil, with practically zero economic growth, with insurmountable sovereign debts, and with political maneuvering designed to keep wealth and power in the hands of those who have abused it for centuries.”
He glanced at the European and North American delegates. He placed his hands on the edge of the table, looked down, and sighed gloomily while the other leaders contemplated his words.
He shifted his gaze squarely to LaMontagne. “Perhaps humanity’s time on Earth is over. Perhaps this is our final challenge, a test to determine whether or not our species is worthy of the stars. I do not know that. I do know this test could not have come at a worse time.”
He turned his gaze to PM Hudson. “Perhaps, Madam Prime Minister, your geniuses could tell us how to maintain our economies, and how we provide for our people while we construct the rocket ships to transport these construction robots.
“If the whole world is working on this project, who do we borrow from to finance all of this? How do we avoid destroying our industries, even our currencies, while we adjust so quickly away from our current concentration on consumptive stimulation and toward a completely new basis for economic expansion? How do we tell the billions to sacrifice themselves, their labor, their futures so that we can save a few precious millions?”
Too late, Greg realized their error. He and Kathy had been focused on the technological challenges inherent in building and colonizing a safe haven for humanity among the asteroids. They’d been thinking that as soon as everyone saw it was necessary and possible to save even a part of humanity, they’d eagerly support their endeavors.
Here, they were speaking to political animals, leaders who not only felt the burden of responsibility for their people but the severe challenge of trying to herd those people in a single united direction.
Since the start of the twenty-first century, people had been evenly split on almost any social or economic issue one cared to name. In the absence of an ability to prove one point of view or plan was better than another, politicians had been blown here and there by the weekly opinion polls.
People yelled, people cajoled, people ranted all over the internet. No one listened to anyone else. Sane, rational conversation died out, while freedom of speech and democratization of opinion blossomed.
Perhaps Kierkegaard had forecast this end many years ago when he’d complained that, “People demand Freedom of Speech as compensation for the Freedom of Thought, which they seldom use.”
Without any filter of professional journalism to distinguish between lies and truth, between expertise and bluster, between opinion and evidence, politicians found it easier to “say any damned thing” to move the wind of public opinion in their favor during elections. They could worry about policy and leadership later.
It was no surprise that winning became more important than leading when everyone viewed politics as a team sport.
Greg could see this meeting was not going to go well from this point on. He made one last desperate attempt to salvage something.
“We apologize, President Chu, for not devoting adequate planning on these issues. As scientists and engineers, our natural inclination was to focus on the technological over the sociopolitical or economic.”
Chu bowed in his chair at Greg’s gracious recognition of their gaff.
Greg continued, “However, if you and the other leaders will permit us, we will devote every effort to devising a complete plan by tomorrow morning. If your schedules permit, could we ask for one more day of your time to present the second part of our proposal?”
A murmur rose around the room. Greg could only pick out a few words: “Impossible… Ridiculous… Waste of time… Foolishness,” and the like.
President Chu stood and the room hushed. “You have impressed us with your technical capabilities. We hope your abilities in the economic and political arenas will prove equally impressive. What you have outlined, so far, is sufficient to convince us of the importance of this issue in addition to its technological feasibility. Yes, China will allow one more day for you to present us with a more thorough plan.
“In the meantime, you have already given us much to contemplate with the assistance of our advisors. I believe we have accomplished all we can in this meeting.” He bowed and made his way to the exit, his entourage scrambling to follow his hasty departure.
PM Hudson quickly stepped in to close the meeting in a controlled fashion.
“I hope you will join us here tomorrow morning at 10:00 for a discussion of the second part of the proposal from Drs. Mahajani and Liang. For now, I urge you to refer to the material before you, in consultation with your scientific advisers, for the answers to any of your technical questions. This meeting is adjourned until tomorrow morning.”
She flashed Greg and Kathy a single glare, pivoted on her heels, and strode from the room.
Crap!—Kathy sent to Greg. That didn’t go as planned.
15
“You two look like hell.”
Greg peered up from his second bite of pain au chocolat to see the grinning face of Reverend LaMontagne. “Thanks. I feel even worse,” he replied. It was the morning of the second day of the international G26 meeting.
“We’ve been up all night working on the economic and political plan,” Kathy explained.
“Mm.” The Reverend nodded in sympathy. “Convincing the world’s leaders your Vesta Project is feasible in the human sense, as well as in a technological sense, is not going to be easy.”
To anyone watching them last night, Greg and Kathy would have appeared to have been sleeping peacefully. The reality was quite the opposite. While their biological systems rested, their lattice brains worked feverishly.
“That’s why we spent the night accessing the internet for books on political, psychological, economic, and sociological theory,” Greg replied. “We were trying to find some basis on which to build a good predictive model.”
“Yeah, but the social sciences aren’t like the physical sciences,” said Kathy. “They’re not even like engineering. There are too many poorly understood variables and complex relationships, even for us.”
“Well, I don’t pretend to understand these things.” LaMontagne smiled and held his empty hands open before them. “After all, I’m just a simple man of God.”
Greg pinged her—Don’t be too friendly. Let’s not forget his unexplained lattice. Much as we could use support inside the meeting, I don’t think we should mention our other problem.
Darian’s memories—Kathy replied and her lips tightened. Last night wouldn’t have been so exhausting if it weren’t
for those little conceptual bits of our mentor lying in wait all over the internet.
His interests in the humanities preceded their own. Wherever they searched, they activated associations and segments of his conceptual network that rushed at them in an attempt to rebuild or reintegrate his shattered personality within their lattices. Everything they referenced needed to be scoured for residues of Darian and filtered to protect their own personas from being overwhelmed.
Their mentor had built an enormous number of cross-references in the world’s greatest social sciences libraries. Flashes of topics related to the Great Schism, the revolution that resulted in the modern configuration of nations in North America and Europe, kept leaping to the forefront.
The references were enormously distracting. They threatened to pull Greg and Kathy down unintended side avenues of thought, where they’d get lost for many minutes at a time.
After a few such episodes, they set internal timers to check in on each other every ten minutes. Despite their precautions, around two in the morning both of them had simultaneously been drawn into a lengthy diversion on the roles of religious beliefs in creating new nations. It took them a precious hour to fight their way back onto the essential topics of the night.
All in all, something that should have required no more than an hour took them nine. At last, they arrived at a proposal they were confident could work. Equally important, they felt the proposal was defensible and had huge lists of references to back up their arguments.
By the time their alarm woke them the next morning, they were exhausted and starving. The energy required to fuel their lattice calculations throughout the long night had taken its toll on their bodies. They showered, dressed, and went down to eat before the meeting. Only an hour after breakfast, they were already hungry again.
LaMontagne noted Kathy’s grimace and misinterpreted the source. “Ah, yes, that. You are no doubt wondering why I am also in possession of the same kind of dendy lattice that is responsible for your greatly enhanced intelligence.”
“And why you didn’t offer to help us,” Kathy added.
The Reverend chuckled. “Well, I thought you would appreciate working on this project on your own. In any case, I did lend some small assistance yesterday, no?”
Both scientists were chastised. Greg said, “Yes. Thank you for your intervention yesterday, Reverend. It wasn’t an approach we would have employed, but it helped.”
“You’re welcome. If you align with Dr. Leigh’s thinking, I don’t imagine you have much room for the Creator in your philosophies. I was happy to help as much as I could in this regard. Unlike many here, I think I can say that I do understand much of the science, and I agree that humanity requires an escape plan.”
“Yes, about that,” said Kathy.
“You’re curious as to how I came to be in possession of the advanced lattice virus.”
“That, and why you would incorporate it. It doesn’t seem consistent with your belief system.”
“As to how, well, I met your colleague Dr. Rusalov at the conference when Dr. Leigh was so tragically wounded.”
“We remember your line of questioning.”
“Yes, I’m sure you do, and probably not with any great affection.”
Greg and Kathy held their tongues, though they exchanged a glance.
LaMontagne laughed aloud, causing a few startled faces in the crowded foyer outside the conference room to look their way.
The Reverend continued, “Dr. Rusalov was troubled by what I had to say and by Dr. Leigh’s cavalier responses. Some days later, an envelope appeared at my office in Austin.” LaMontagne’s face showed no signs that he was lying. “It contained a rather small capsule and a letter.”
“Wait,” Greg interrupted. “Have you given the letter to the police? Are you saying you know where Larry is?”
“I have spoken to the police but, sadly, no,” replied the Reverend. “I never heard from him again. The letter he sent me explained that the pill contained a dendy virus designed by Darian Leigh to build a lattice like his own, like your own. It described how such a lattice would give the recipient’s brain direct access to the entire internet, perfect memory, and enhanced intelligence.
“Dr. Rusalov thought that such cheating, I believe he called it, was contrary to the wishes of our Lord. As a man of God, he pleaded with me to pray to our Heavenly Father and seek His guidance.”
His voice grew more serious. “At first, my only thought was to destroy the damned thing, but I didn’t want to presume to know God’s Will. I spent many days praying on this, seeking His Divine Guidance on the matter.
“The Church of Yeshua’s True Guard is not so blind to science and technology as many of our Evangelical relatives. After all, did not the Lord tell us to have dominion over the Earth? Don’t get me wrong, we do believe the Bible is God’s Living Word. The Scripture is perfect in every way; it is our interpretation of God’s Word that is at fault.
“So I prayed for new understanding in the light of this thing before me. Why would God lead man, or allow him to be led, to develop such a capability? Could this be Satan’s work, the ultimate enhancement to make ourselves more like God?
“Genesis tells us, ‘So God created man in His own image, in the image of God created He him.’ How, then, could anything that altered that image be other than a sin against the Lord?
“Then I found my answer, right there in 1 Corinthians 3:16, where it asks, ‘Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?’
“I realized I’d been looking at it all wrong. Our Original Sin, when Satan tricked Eve into eating of the fruit, separated us from God. We were made in the image of God and the Spirit of God dwells within us. We no longer hear that Spirit because Satan has tricked us into ignoring that which we carry inside.
“This came as a Divine revelation. I swear I heard the Lord himself say to me, ‘My son, take this gift I have brought to you, and let My light be revealed within you.’
“As you can imagine, I was terrified to hear His almighty voice and fearful of what effects an IQ-enhancing lattice might have on my soul. But my Faith demanded that I obey, so I took the pill and washed it down my throat.
“You understand the process one’s brain goes through as the lattice grows within you better than anyone, aside from the missing Dr. Leigh, of course. Those first few months were incredible. New talents and capabilities awoke within me every day. Clearly, the Lord saw fit to wrest this gift out of the hands of Humanist scientists and into the hands of one of His own.” He almost spat “Humanist scientists.” “My Faith and the Church is so much stronger for His gift. I am humbled before Him.”
“How much of the science do you understand?” asked Greg.
“I’m sure my lack of background hampers me somewhat. I’ve made every effort to catch up as best I can. I’ve read Dr. Leigh’s papers and the required background math and physics, and I can understand their basic correctness. I don’t claim to follow all of the nuances. Without a functioning RAF generator like the one you demonstrated yesterday, there are a number of unanswered questions. Still, I think I get it well enough for the purposes of this discussion.” He waved his hands, indicating the waiting conference room.
“I am drawn more to the practical human applications, as you may have surmised from my calling. It is in this area, I believe I can be of most help to your Project Vesta.
“I was serious in saying that our Lord Yeshua has a plan for humanity and it does not end with the destruction of our planet. Sometimes we humans become too comfortable, too complacent in our sinful lives, and Yeshua needs to shake us up a bit. Cull the herd, so to speak.
“Our Lord has cleansed His people before. Clearly, He sees we are in need of another cleansing. This time, we will not be permitted to remain near the Paradise He gave us on Earth. We are to move onward, to seek His Word in outer space, and to move closer to Him in His Heaven.”
Wow. How is it possible to have this
level of intelligence and still believe that kind of gibberish?—Kathy sent in a quick spurt to Greg.
Apparently, strong enough Faith is not easily altered by evidence or reason—Greg replied. Knowing all the data and understanding the science isn’t enough. As scientists, we follow what nature is telling us, no matter if we like it or not. Faith requires you to rationalize why the evidence must be wrong when it contradicts what you already believe. In the True Believer, having a higher intelligence simply facilitates that rationalization.
“Reverend,” Greg said aloud, “even though we might not agree with your interpretation of events, we agree that doing nothing means the end of humanity. We will be grateful for any help you can provide.”
A bell chimed, calling the leaders and advisors back into the conference room. “I believe, that’s your cue,” said the Reverend.
Greg straightened up and took a deep breath.
“Ready as we’ll ever be,” Kathy said, and braced herself for what was sure to be a challenging meeting.
Greg shook the Reverend’s hand. “Pray for us to succeed,” he requested, as much to his own surprise as Kathy’s.
The Reverend smiled benignly. “I will. I think Yeshua is smiling upon you today. His light will guarantee your success. Our success. Shall we?” He extended his hand in invitation for them to lead the way inside.
16
PM Hudson called the next session of the G26 meeting to order and turned the floor over to Greg and Kathy.
“Thank you, Prime Minister Hudson,” Kathy acknowledged with a gracious nod.
“Ladies and gentlemen, if everyone could please turn to the proposal before you, I’ll begin walking you through.
“As you can see, we have developed a relatively accurate predictive model of the economic and sociopolitical ramifications of the Vesta Project, given the short timeline and the rather poor state of relevant socioeconomic theory.” This elicited a few chuckles around the room.
“You will, no doubt, wish to submit the details of this proposal to your own experts for analysis. Let me boil it down to what’s important to you. I’m sure you’re all wondering, ‘How can we possibly maintain twenty years of extreme effort in the face of our opposition parties and uncontrollable political opinion? How do we get re-elected?’ Perhaps your economic advisors in attendance today are asking themselves, as President Chu did yesterday, ‘How can the global economy manage such an effort?’