The Transhumanist Wager

by Zoltan Istvan

  Jethro Knights

  ************

  Later that afternoon, Jethro Knights walked into the Transhumania News Network television studio on the forty-sixth floor of the tallest tower. Anxiously awaiting him were renowned international journalists and videographers who were allowed to be embedded into the city to cover the battle. Many were tense and disheveled, the result of the missile explosion a few hours before. Some of the nearby windows were cracked. Jethro walked up to the podium in the studio and adjusted the microphone. He was about to begin his scheduled five-minute telecast, being fed live all over the world through IMN and other major broadcasters who were present to air it. Draped behind him was a large Transhumanian flag, which bore the TEF infinity symbol on it.

  Jethro looked into the cameras and nodded firmly. He said, “People of the world, thank you for watching and listening today. My name is Jethro Knights. I am the founder and leader of Transhumania—a nation of scientists, technologists, and futurists dedicated to transhumanism and the pursuit of our own immortality. We are sworn transhumanists.”

  He inhaled a deep breath.

  “Today you have seen the world’s most powerful countries and their governments attack the nation of Transhumania with the best of their military might, despite our plea that they should not do so, and that they do so at the expense of their own safety. We openly gave your governments a chance to surrender, to peacefully accept our leadership, and to convert to our transhuman ways. Many of you have heard it yourselves in the news when I was at the United Nations in New York three days ago. Your governments chose not to accept that offer. They thought it better to arrest me, abduct me, wound me, and torture me until I would agree to share the benefits of Transhumania's amazing technology and research with them. My nation and I will not share it with them.

  “We will, however, share it with you. But only under conditions that Transhumania decrees. Today, you have seen how feeble your governments and their military forces are in the face of the armed prowess Transhumania possesses. Today we have suffered no casualties or serious damage. Your military forces, on the other hand, have suffered many deaths and the loss of much of their navies. And, in doing so, they have done nothing but further anger a giant.

  “Now carefully listen to my words, then decide who you want to support from this moment forward. Because there is a choice to be made. The choice is either to stand by your arrogant, fool leaders and their mediocre conventionality and traditionalism, or to join in the launch of a brave new world. One where Transhumania will send out its inspiring leaders and scientists amongst you. One where we will revive your economies with our research, with our technologies, with our rational economic decisions, with our medical cures, with our inventions, with our sane laws, and with our resolute guidance. We want our scientists to return to their homelands to remake the way we all live on Earth. In time, you can expect a much better life. You can expect your cultures to progress forward; your restrictive religions to be diminished; your ignorance to be turned into intellect; your apathy into determination; your pessimism into optimism; your frustration into fulfillment; your hardship into prosperity.

  “Like you, your governments were given a choice to support a quest of the transhuman mission. Unfortunately, they did not want to listen to reason or to the calling of evolution. They chose to fight us instead. They chose wrongly. They will not be invited back. Tonight, I swear to you, they will witness Transhumania's full fury. Tonight, they will see all their illustrious political edifices and sacred religious monuments destroyed. The world will wake up tomorrow and be a part of Transhumania.

  “When the choice comes to you personally, of whose side you support, think deeply and logically about making the right decision. Your future and prosperity—your children’s future and prosperity—depend on it. I have told you once during the inaugural announcement of Transhumania that you are all dispensable. I ask you tonight to prove that wrong. Tomorrow, when our destructive work is possibly finished, I will again appear on television, radio, and throughout the Internet, and formally invite you to join Transhumania; to form a world where prosperity, innovation, happiness, fulfillment, freedom, security, and transhumanism go hand in hand.

  “For the next twelve hours, we have instructed the media what world sites and institutions will be destroyed by our airships, and at exactly what time. The media will broadcast the list of sites often. You are encouraged to stay away from those areas being targeted so you do not become collateral damage. You are also encouraged to warn your families, friends, and peers to stay away.”

  Jethro looked unflinchingly into the camera and said, “Transhumania will now begin the launch of its four aircraft—and the remaking of the world’s human cultural landscape. Let the abominations of irrationality, control by religion, encouragement of fear, ineptitude by government, collectivism over individuality, and the war against transhumanism, all be wiped away.”

  Chapter 32

  At the top of the Technology Tower, a gargantuan stainless steel roof was composed of four interlocking triangles; they slowly began to withdraw from one another. The noses of four shining airships appeared, growing in length under the roof's shadow as it retracted. Each machine bore an inscribed Lojban name in small black letters on its starboard wing: Trano, Cidro, Kijno, and Tabno. The names represented the four elements that gave rise to advanced life on Planet Earth: Trano for nitrogen; Cidro for hydrogen; Kijno for oxygen; Tabno for carbon.

  Each of the drones was unmanned. All control and maneuvering of the mission was to be performed automatically by supercomputers located in the Transhumania Defense Command Center. Without any transparent cockpit windows, the aircraft appeared menacing, cold, impervious.

  Simultaneously, each of the planes' Hyper-scram jets activated, creating concentrated beams of light that shot thousand-degree heat onto the skyscraper's dense titanium floor. The city of Transhumania, basking in a violent sunset that consumed the Pacific Ocean, vibrated softly. Citizens looked up and watched the iridescent skies above them. Moments later, the aircraft began hovering a few feet off the roof. Then, in perfect synchronization, they broke away from each other and flew in different directions: Trano, west; Cidro, east; Kijno, south; and Tabno, north.

  On each of the airships' noses, a sophisticated night vision video camera and a weatherproof boom microphone were slightly visible. The drones would record every second of their entire missions. The footage would be broadcast live by the Transhumania News Network and shared with every major news platform on the globe. Across all continents, people watched tensely, gathering around television sets in bars and cafes. Or listening to radios in their homes and vehicles. Or viewing the footage from wherever they happened to be, via their phones, computers, and tablets. Jethro Knights wanted the missions of the aircraft to be the most viewed and recognized event in the history of the planet.

  Francisco Dante, the city's lead news correspondent, arrived at the Transhumania Tower’s broadcast studio and immediately sat down in the anchor's chair. He threw off his formal black jacket and rolled up his sleeves. Excitement poured through him. Dante knew he would be reporting live all night, in front of three dozen cameras with tentacles reaching to every population center on the planet.

  “Viewers, if you are just joining me tonight—welcome,” he said. “I am Francisco Dante, a citizen of Transhumania, and proud to say history will be made here in the next twelve hours upon our dear planet. Tomorrow, all of us will wake up to a new day—and a new world. My news team and I, here in the Transhumania Tower, will be giving you updates and bringing you important information as it occurs, once our four airships get underway on their missions. On our affiliate channels and with our partners, the news will be teleprompted into your regional languages.”

  ************

  After Jethro Knight’s speech and his declaration to transform the whole world into a greater Transhumania, the launching of a nuclear attack against the city was unanimously agreed upon by A10 leade
rs and its military commanders. Each country with nuclear arms began fueling their most sophisticated missiles. Some A10 countries also loaded their largest bomber aircraft with airdrop nuclear weapons designed to explode upon impact. These planes could accurately drop bombs on any target from 20,000 feet in the sky, and still fly safely without the use of any electrical instruments. A10 governments were now overtly worried that Transhumania possessed the ability to hack into every computerized navigation system in their military arsenal.

  When satellite photos taken by the Transhumania Command Defense Center revealed how the A10 governments were planning to attack the floating city, Jethro Knights quickly initiated an international conference call. He requested top dignitaries and leaders from each A10 country to carefully listen in. He warned them that if any nuclear weapons were directed at Transhumania, they would be redelivered to attack and decimate the capitals of the countries from which they came.

  “You witnessed once what happened when you attacked our nation,” Jethro said on the phone, unwaveringly. “The best of your navies are literally gone. We can, and will, annihilate you if we must. I implore you not to make the ignorant decision to underestimate us again. You are encouraged to surrender, or if you will, to give me the cooperation I sought at the United Nations in New York, a few days ago. Now that you haven’t, you won’t even have your revered political buildings, castles, and churches to make into museums.

  “You will, however, be given another chance after tonight to save many of your lives, your prosperity, and the infrastructure of your societies. I encourage you to remain reasonable and take a wait-and-see approach before committing your countries and its citizens to the void.

  “Unfortunately, since I know many of you are not reasonable, I feel compelled to make an acute display of Transhumania’s military strength in order to preempt any nuclear strikes and to avoid further loss of human life. Therefore, in the next ten minutes, I’m going to turn your worlds upside down. Why don’t we all schedule another conference call in a half hour.”

  Jethro hung up. Immediately afterward, he instructed Josh Genear and his team to reprogram various A10 nuclear missiles near Washington, D.C., Beijing, London, Paris, Delhi, Tel Aviv, and Moscow. He ordered the same for select nuclear submarines cruising the oceans. In less than five minutes, Genear and his programmers recoded the warheads’ supposedly fool-proof detonation timers. Other members of his team corrupted the rockets’ navigation systems, rendering the missiles impossible to launch or fly. Genear then initiated three-minute detonation countdowns, threatening to explode multiple nuclear warheads around the world at the same time, right inside their own launching silos, some of which were only ten miles from major urban centers.

  Chaos ensued on nuclear weapons bases and submarines. Many personnel at the land bases panicked and left their posts, jumping into their cars, and driving as fast as they could away from the warheads. Trapped crews in submarines watched in disbelief as warhead timers autonomously counted down. Senior engineers, captains, and generals made screaming telephone calls to the leaders of their nations, begging for orders and guidance. A10 presidents and prime ministers stared at the receivers of their phones, aghast and terrified. The strongest military around the world were left in utter instability and fear, their greatest weapons turned against them.

  Before the detonation countdowns reached zero, Jethro asked Genear to stop each of the explosions, leaving the timers armed and frozen with only three seconds remaining on each bomb.

  A half hour later, in a second conference call with all top A10 leaders nervously listening, Jethro sharply told the politicians, “Let that be a clear lesson to your generals and warmongering selves. You have lost the war. It's time for you to fold and offer your assistance in helping to make this transition as peaceful and expedient as possible. We have you beat in every way.”

  Despite this, in a last ditch effort to preserve the world as the A10 knew it, a reckless, hotheaded American general, on an aircraft carrier in San Diego, sent his best F-22 fighter jets to meet one of the Transhumanian drones, Trano, as it flew across California. The U.S. pilots were ordered to fly and fight using only manual controls, so that none of their planes’ electronics could be interfered with or hacked into.

  Jethro didn’t bother to destroy the American planes. Even if the pilots were lucky enough to get off a few decent shots, the probability of their missiles or bullets ever touching Trano was nearly zero. The aircraft traveled three times faster than anything that could be shot at it.

  The American general, tracking Trano on radar from San Diego, muttered, “It can’t be possible. It looks like a damn meteorite flying across the sky.”

  “It might as well be,” acknowledged a radar engineer nearby. The man’s radar screen showed Trano encountering and flying right past eight F-22 fighters near the Santa Monica Mountains. The Transhumanian plane was in and out of sight of the American jets within five seconds. There was nothing anyone could do. It was too quick a moment for the U.S. squadron leader to even yell out a reasonable command.

  ************

  Tabno was the first aircraft to reach a major structure scheduled to be destroyed: the Royal Palace in Tokyo. A single Transhumanian-designed Tetronic T-1 missile was launched from the underside of the aircraft. Japanese citizens could hardly see the drone stream across the sky before the palace was obliterated by the rocket. In an instant, a huge light—bearing devastating scatter-bomb technology—incinerated its target. Nothing was left but an enormous scar upon the land with small burning fires.

  The second aircraft, Cidro, approached India’s Parliament building. In less than ten seconds, another T-1 missile demolished an area the size of four football fields of concrete and brick, along with hundreds of historical treasures accumulated over centuries by the British and Indian governments. Jethro Knights warned nations ahead of time that he was not an archaeologist, but a futurist. And relics of the past bore little value to him.

  Trano reached America’s East Coast early in its evening and sent missiles to destroy the White House, the Capitol building, and the Supreme Court. Centuries of legacy and past triumph were annihilated by three fiery explosions, gargantuan in scope, as they engulfed Washington, D.C.’s governmental district. The nearby NFSA headquarters was also blasted into ruins. Astonished viewers from downtown hotels and offices stared through windows, observing the carnage where the nation's vital structures once stood. In the dark, the city went into a panic. People began leaving for the countryside by the hundreds of thousands, many on foot and bicycle to avoid the standstill of car traffic.

  On television and radio, Francisco Dante urged people to remain calm, return to their homes, and await further instructions. He told Americans no more bombing was scheduled in Washington, D.C. Under recommendation from Jethro Knights, he also advised police and military guards to shoot looters and agitators on sight.

  Kijno reached Europe early in the continent’s morning. Its first missile was due to eradicate the Vatican at 8:20 A.M., local time. Catholic believers by the hundreds remained in the famous Saint Peter’s Square, praying on their knees for a miracle. They were repeatedly warned by police and the media to depart the area. Along with the Pope, who was hiding below ground in the catacombs, all were incinerated by the single missile, which leveled a half kilometer square of the historical city, leaving nothing but a smoldering twenty-foot-deep crater.

  Cidro soon crossed to Mecca, where the Kabba was obliterated. It continued to Jerusalem, where the Wailing Wall and Temple Mount were demolished; then to the Djennia, West Africa, to wreck the Grand Mosque. In England, Kijno destroyed the Parliament structure and Buckingham Palace, then continued on to raze Versailles and Notre Dame in France, ending with the European Union headquarters in Brussels. In North America, Trano brought down Canada's Congressional Palace in Toronto, then the United Nations building in New York City. It continued until it reached South America, where it collapsed Brazil's thirteen-story Christ the Redeemer s
tatue in Rio de Janeiro, and later, Argentina's National Congress building in Buenos Aires. In China, Tabno demolished the Imperial Palace, then the Kremlin in Russia. Another raid in Australia reduced the Commonwealth Parliament building to rubble.

  The aircraft continued for hours, wreaking destruction upon the Earth. No populated continent was spared. No timeless religious monument left unscathed. No famous government building left standing. When many of the world's most revered institutions stood in ruins, Jethro Knights implemented the next phase of his plan to put the world in an informational darkroom. Josh Genear and his team hacked into hundreds of the most powerful land-based communication towers and Earth-orbiting satellites. Once they had control of them, they recoded all the software programming so that only Transhumania could manage the world's media and Internet traffic, nearly all of which relied on digitally induced airwaves. Over the next few hours, usually only for fifteen minutes at a time, Genear tormented A10 countries by putting them offline, then online, then offline again. He repeated the process numerous times. The A10 military and police went into total disarray.

  Next, the Transhumanian team hacked into traffic light systems, power grids, aviation control towers, and key banks of major world capitals. City traffic in London, Beijing, and Johannesburg went berserk. Bangkok, Dubai, and Mexico City became completely pitch-dark at night. Thousands of planes in flight made emergency landings in remote airports and crop fields, as their autopilots, digital gauges, and GPS guidance systems malfunctioned. Bank deposits, loan notes, and equity accounts were zeroed out; trillions of dollars vanished in seconds.

  The world watched, shocked, as if in a horror movie. Many of its most valuable symbols, possessions, and twenty-first century privileges were destroyed. Many of its most basic functions and expectations were no longer guaranteed. People ran to their kitchen sinks, grateful that water still came out of the faucets when turned on.