The Deplosion Saga

by Paul Anlee

  5) The Vesta colonies represent the first post-scarcity society. There is food and lodging for all. There are ample natural resources, and adequate manufacturing facilities to meet all essentials for the human population of the asteroid habitats. All of this comes courtesy of the hard-working Cybrids. With everyone’s needs met, Alum’s challenge is to provide a structure that won’t allow human society to fall into depravity or purposelessness. What did you think of his policies for ownership of homes and businesses? His policies for work (assigned, community, and optional)? If you were in his position, what would you do differently to encourage a long-term, stable society?

  6) Automation is expected to remove millions of human jobs on Earth over the next decade. Some of these will be in manufacturing, some in transportation (autonomous vehicles), and some will affect traditional white-collar jobs. Do you think humans can accept a “post-scarcity” economy, or will the lack of jobs and our human psychology overwhelm our ability to adapt to life without a forced need to labor? What kind of changes would society need to adapt?

  7) Alum states that money is not the root of all evil, debt is. Humanity’s insatiable desire to materially improve our lives causes us to go into debt now rather than waiting until we have saved enough funds to pay in full for what we want. As of mid-year 2017, total Global Debt reached a new record of $217 Trillion, over 325% of total Global GDP (economic activity). Families put themselves into debt to purchase houses, cars, clothing, groceries, and other goods. Even governments use debt to finance their daily operations. Do you think there’s any chance all the debt in the world (remember, these are all loans of some sort or the other) will ever be repaid? Should they be repaid? Or should we only worry about paying the interest and nothing more? Should we just “print” some money to pay all the debt? At what point is widespread global debt no longer sustainable?

  8) Here’s a good explanation of how money is “created” in our modern societies: https://goldsilver.com/hidden-secrets/episode-4/. In essence, money is debt; it is created by governments when they borrow and private banks when they lend. The amount of money created is not necessarily tied to the general growth of the economy. Does this sound like a good way to run a national or global financial system? Alum puts a limit on the amount of new money that will be created in his system. Given that a government can arbitrarily heat up the economy by creating and disbursing more new money, do you think Alum’s system would limit economic growth too much? Is our current system of creating new money too reckless?

  9) For AI enthusiasts: The Concepta and Persona structure I use to describe the mind of the Cybrids is an extension of graph-based knowledge representation, semantic networks, and neural networks. It is based on studies in cognitive psychology, natural language processing, and artificial intelligence. Recent articles discuss mental activity and consciousness as something either intrinsic to nature (qualia: the elements of conscious experience), or as something requiring the quantum properties of biomolecules in order to exist. Do you think it’s possible to embed intelligence and consciousness in a computational substrate that has the ability to process concepts? That is, can we make association networks as described by the idea of the Concepta? Why or why not?

  Reality Thief - FF

  Deplosion Chronologic: Book 4

  Paul Anlee

  Darian Publishing House

  Chatham, Ontario, Canada

  Nature is everywhere and always the arbiter of truth

  ―Paul Anlee

  1

  In the beginning was Yov, the Eternal and Infinite. Yov was everything and everything was Yov. In the fullness of time and in His infinite wisdom, Yov created the universe, pulling the planets, moons, stars, comets, and galaxies from within Himself. On chosen planets, Yov created living entities to thrive in harmony, among them, the microbes, grasses, flowers, trees, insects, fishes, reptiles, birds, and mammals.

  Yov created Origin, and He created the People to have dominion over all life found there. The People were clever, and they wished to know more and more about the universe that Yov had made. They developed methods and schemes to help them understand Yov’s wisdom. They built servants and thinking machines to help them learn faster. Yov was pleased with how clever he had made the People.

  Among the People lived two particularly gifted individuals, Da’ar and Alum. Da’ar was very clever and, with the aid of his thinking machines, he strove to understand Yov’s Universe better than anyone before him. But he became arrogant, and soon desired to replace Yov’s divine wisdom with simple human knowledge.

  While Da’ar grew more powerful and smug in his science, Alum grew more humble, pious, and closer to Yov.

  One day, in his conceit and ambition, Da’ar rebelled against the rule of Yov. But Alum joined with Yov and together they banished Da’ar and his thinking machines from the world of the People.

  Then Yov said to Alum, “Da’ar’s hubris has offended me greatly, but you have served me well. I command you to take My People forth from this world and populate all the worlds with my best creations. To aid you in this undertaking, I will make a gift to you of My Powers so the People will know you lead in My Name. You are My Chosen One. Until you have completed this task, I will withdraw from the Universe and rest within my Eternity.”

  And Alum pledged, “I will lead Your People forth, my Lord, and they will take dominion over the Universe in Your Name. They will revere and worship You as I do, and will await Your Return.”

  With that, Alum took the People from Origin to Home World saying, “By seeking to unveil the deepest mysteries of Yov’s Creation and not being content simply to love Him, we have sinned against our Lord. And even though we have erred and caused offense, Yov has not abandoned us. Instead, He has commanded us to leave our Origin and to seed His Word throughout the Universe. We will rule all of Creation in His Name.”

  And the People saw what Alum said was true, and they praised Him and vowed to be true to The Task.

  From the Book of Alum

  The stranger walked into town from the mountains in the west. Although this might have appeared to be an unremarkable action, there were many things about it that were exceptional.

  First, because Alumston was the founding colony on the fifth planet of Gargus 718 in galaxy NGC4567 in the Virgo cluster, there was nothing in the west from which to walk.

  No roads led into the mountains. All the farms had been planted south of Alumston. Herds had been released to graze in young forests established to the north and east. Outside of the terraformed regions extending tens of kilometers beyond the town borders, the rest of Gargus 718.5 could be described, at best, as being “not actively hostile” to terra-standard life. The mountains were not a region from which someone would normally walk.

  The second odd thing was that the stranger walked into town. Nobody arrived in Alumston except through the starstep, the transportation portal that was one of Alum’s great blessings, and nobody ever—ever—arrived unannounced. Upcoming Founder arrivals were posted on an InterLat list every Fourday. The work of founding a new planet for burgeoning humanity held enough surprises without the problem of uncontrolled immigration.

  The third odd thing, perhaps oddest of all, was that the man was a stranger. Every planet among the Worlds of The People had an Alumston, and there were no unknown persons in any of them. An Alumston never grew much beyond its intended hundred-thousand Founding souls, all linked through the InterLat. Forfeiting your lattice privacy and anonymity was a small price to pay in return for the blessing of being chosen to open a New World to the glory of Alum.

  Unlike workers on more developed planets, the Founders were required to work together closely, coordinating their knowledge and experience. Privacy was a conceit they could not afford if they wished to survive, let alone successfully complete their mission. Besides, being joined to one another in the InterLat brought you that much closer to the Mind of the Living God.

  So, for a completely unremarkable stranger to walk una
nnounced into an Alumston at the edge of the Realm, in the midst of another busy day on the new world, was actually quite remarkable.

  The stranger maintained a leisurely pace along Radial 270 deep into town, unheralded and unchallenged due to the early hour. He approached the first person he saw.

  Helen Bronding, as she did every morning, was strolling along the ten segs from her apartment near the outer ring to her Language Arts teaching job at the Children’s First School, which was conveniently situated next to the Alumita, Church of Alum.

  The stranger walked right up to her and said in perfectly fine Standard, “Good morning. Is there someplace I might procure a meal to break my fast? It has been a long time since I’ve eaten.” He smiled broadly, as though they were old friends.

  Helen sent a casual ID query but the middle-aged man standing before her was a blank on the InterLat. Invalid identity—her lattice replied. What? Despite the surprising response, she managed to extend basic civility, stammering a Standard greeting, “Alum’s peace…to you…good sir,” and in reply to his question, sent directions to the nearest restaurant.

  “Rose’s is one of the town’s finest restaurants, and it’s right there on…. Oh.” She stopped mid-sentence. Silly me. The man doesn’t have an InterLat connection; how is he going to receive directions? “I’m sorry. You go three radials ahead, turn anticircle at John’s Flyer Repair, and continue two rings…”

  “No need to apologize,” the stranger interrupted. “I have received your sending. Good day to you, Miss Bronding, and thank you.” He gave a polite bow and walked on, leaving her in a perplexed daze.

  The streets of Alumston, that is, the streets of any Alumston, were organized in tidy, concentric rings joined by evenly spaced radial spokes.

  Radial Zero extended from a carefully measured two hundred meter diameter Center Park and pointed precisely to planetary north. Centric was along the radials toward the center. Anticentric was away from the center. Clockwise from a radial was called procircle; the other direction, anticircle. Toward the outermost rings where the distance between radials grew inconvenient, additional sets of radials were inserted.

  Befuddled, Helen nodded and resumed her route. She was too stunned to raise a general query or alarm. He said he received my sending. And he knew my name! Without an InterLat connection, neither should have been possible.

  Helen continued walking along the radial that led to her school, trying to make sense of the brief encounter.

  “Good morning! Alum’s peace to you, Helen!” Brother Ontro nem Stralasi’s cheerful greeting from the main steps leading into the Alumita pulled Helen from her befuddled state.

  “Oh, yes. Good morning, Brother Stralasi,” she replied and continued along her route, her mind still playing over the exchange with the stranger.

  Helen and the Good Brother had been exchanging pleasantries every morning for the past three years. They never once parted ways in under five minutes, and not without sharing some tip or recipe for getting the best taste out of the town’s limited fare or, at least, some heartwarming schoolyard stories from the previous day.

  Brother Stralasi loved all of his People, but because children were especially precious to Alum, they were similarly precious to Brother Stralasi. He was always eager to hear charming anecdotes about them.

  “A moment, please, Helen,” he called after her, simultaneously sending an attention-getting InterLat signal. The teacher jerked to a halt, surprised by her own bad manners, and turned to face him.

  “I’m so sorry, Brother Stralasi,” she sputtered, “I was a little distracted.”

  “More than a little, I’d say.”

  Helen’s face grew warm. “I just had the strangest thing happen.”

  “I thought you looked a little preoccupied. Not what I’d expect on such a fine day. Please, do share,” he invited, though so-called invitations coming from any member of the Alumit were only a ritual of social convention.

  Relieved to unburden herself of the encounter with the stranger, Helen sent her recording of the conversation to the monk. “I don’t understand,” she added, verbally. “He looked perfectly normal but he had no InterLat presence. And yet he was somehow able to receive my sending. Where could he have come from?”

  Brother Stralasi’s brow puckered. Her lattice recording raised a number of questions. “I’ll take charge from here. Have a lovely day, my dear. Alum’s peace be upon you.” He turned abruptly, all business, and set out for Rose’s.

  Helen had never known the Good Brother to react that way over matters concerning the People. He’d always approached delicate issues and disputes with unfailing humor, reassurance, and wisdom, no doubt the result of decades of leading Founders on half a dozen new worlds. This cold determination of a Principal Local Authority looking out from the Brother’s normally jovial blue eyes was a new and disturbing development.

  The Alumit monk found the stranger inside Rose’s bright and cheery restaurant, eagerly diving into a stack of pancakes. Brother Stralasi took a seat facing him.

  The visitor sampled the fruit chunks that came with his pancakes, apparently oblivious to the waiting monk.

  “Alum’s peace to you,” Stralasi said politely.

  The stranger looked up at the Good Brother as if just first noticing him, and scanned the rest of the room. A few tables were occupied but most of Rose’s breakfast customers had vacated an hour earlier.

  “And to you,” the man acknowledged and returned to his pancakes.

  Brother Stralasi, presenting his best deferential but unsatisfied demeanor, tried again. “My deepest apologies. Someone should have told me to expect an Emissary; I would have prepared for your arrival."

  The stranger looked up from his meal and cocked one eyebrow, but said nothing.

  “Pardon my intrusion. You are an Emissary, are you not? You arrived without announcement, without using the public starstep, and you have an InterLat connection that receives transmissions but is invisible to ours. That you are an Emissary seems a logical conclusion,” reasoned Brother Stralasi. “By what name shall we address you while you are here?”

  The man set down his cutlery and regarded the Brother. “I believe the last time I used a name, it was Darak Legsu,” he said. “That should suffice for now.”

  Stralasi overlooked the question the stranger chose not to answer. “I presume you will want us to call you Mr. Legsu rather than Emissary Legsu?”

  “Interesting presumption,” was all the stranger offered.

  The Brother blinked a half dozen times in rapid succession. “Might I know the nature of your visit?” he probed.

  “I am resting after a long journey.”

  “But we are at the Edge, where our Holy Alumination is pushing back the Da’arkness. Where could you be returning from,” Brother Stralasi quizzed. “My humble apologies. I meant to say, this is an unusual choice as we are far from any important trade or spiritual routes. Is there any aspect of your visit that I might assist you with?”

  Darak entertained the offer for a moment. “No, I only wish to mix with the people of this outpost so that I may better understand the way things are done now.”

  What a strange thing to say! “But you must have visited hundreds of Foundation planets. Surely there is nothing unique about this place.”

  “No, nothing particularly unique,” agreed Darak. “It is simply among the first I have encountered upon my return to human space.”

  Upon return to “human space”? Not “the Realm”? Is this man claiming to have travelled into the Da’arkness and returned? That’s preposterous! A highly improbable claim, at the very least, even for an Emissary.

  He had to admit, though, the traveler had piqued his curiosity. Proper or not, the curious boy within him was compelled to ask, “From where have you come, then? Was it a long journey?”

  A grimace flashed across Darak’s face. “It was a very long journey.” He looked around the dining room, allowing the painful memories to subside. “The la
st time I was in a place like this was over…well, let’s just say, it was many years ago. I’ve crossed countless light years to return.”

  Countless light years? That would be physically impossible. What could he mean? But there was an even more puzzling question to address first. “You said ‘return’? Do you mean to say,” he leaned in and lowered his voice, “that you are coming back from the Da’arkness?”

  “I would have to say, yes.”

  “But that’s impossible! No one can go there!" The Brother exclaimed before he could catch himself. He softened his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “We both know that only...” He looked around, mindful of the public space in which they sat, “…only automated explorers can travel beyond the Edge of the Realm.”

  “Is that so?” Darak asked, his eyes giving away his amusement. He listened to the gentle tink, tink, tink of his spoon against his coffee cup, and watched the small vortex forming in the middle of the steaming liquid. When he sought the Good Brother’s gaze again, he was serious.

  “I have been to the expanding edge of the universe, beyond the Da’arkness of which you speak, to the Chaos that lies beyond. It took me a long time to return, that is, if ‘time’ can be said to have any meaning there.”

  The white noise of café activities filled the space around them. A few seconds passed while the men pursued their own thoughts.

  “And if, indeed, the concept ‘there’ has any meaning…there,” the traveler added, taking an appreciative sip of his coffee.

  Brother Stralasi couldn’t stop himself, though it was heresy to ask, “Why would Alum, praise be His Name, send you beyond the universe?”

  Darak waved the question away and leaned back, “I have said too much already. At any rate, I am not here to inspect your operations, as you seem to fear. I am merely passing through on my travels.”

  Thank Goodness! The monk released the tightness in his shoulders that he hadn’t realized he’d been building. Still, the man’s story was incredible.