“I’m not sure. I was scheduled to do some sparring with Njoko, but if the bout is going to be cancelled… And if I’m away for some time, I think I might as well head to the beach, do a spot of body surfing - find some sexual release. I’m a little wound up. You?”
“Similar, relax and maybe go out dancing, dope up and saturate my system with feel good.”
She smiled. “Sounds like a plan.”
She skipped the sparring with Njoko and headed for South Beach. She borrowed a board and surfed for a few hours. Then she collapsed onto the sand and allowed herself to sink into an erotic fantasy. She masturbated slowly as the sun warmed her skin. She could feel the release of dopamine as she shuddered with one orgasm and continued into another. When she was done she opened her eyes to lazily watch the surfers, beach volleyball players and people walking the beach. She decided on a quick plunge to remove the drowsiness before riding to her one-person apartment tucked into a glade of large sampa trees.
After a quick shower she realised she was still horny and buzzed her new flame, a young aesthete and talented dancer Zoe Koh. It went nowhere. Zoe’s guardian politely informed her that she was attending a concert with her fellow dancers and couldn’t be disturbed. She briefly thought of going to the Den, a nightclub in the southern hub where a night of wild dancing and sex was guaranteed, but whilst sex with multiple randoms could be fun, she wasn’t in the mood. Over the last year she had been thinking more and more about settling into a more permanent circle, activating some of her eggs and making a parenting commitment. At age sixteen she was late to parenting, not that it was compulsory, but the Common had set an informal target of at least three sibling cohorts per person to boost the population. And given that most children were now reaching full citizenship at the average age of twelve, some were parenting four to five cohorts in their lifetime. It wasn’t that she disliked children. Far from it. It was just that she was committed to her training, to her chosen sports. She had even thought that when she had exhausted her ambition she might finally enter puberty, carry twins or triplets naturally and even breastfeed. Although the current lack of oestrogen in her system made that idea seem oddly unnatural.
She sighed, asked her guardian to play Setiawati’s Symphonic Variations on the Devagandhari Raga and open the book she had been reading on her screen. She had recently become fascinated with Earth’s martial history and had read some of the classics: Sun Tzu, Japanese Bushido, Machiavelli, von Clausewitz. Originally she had thought it might give her an edge in her mixed martial arts bouts, but it had become an end in itself. Perhaps it was because her planet had never had an enemy and it inspired a perverse fascination. Perhaps it was just testosterone whispering in her ear, encouraging her aggression, making her wonder what it would be like to face a mortal enemy. The universe was generally known to be hostile and the Common had never let itself slip into complacency. Every athlete knew that their skills were maintained because they could be used to defend the Common.
She made some tea and placed some of the sweet biscuits she had bought the day before on a plate and settled in to read up on game theory and war strategy.
8
Akash
After his first doctorate he was restless. His mind would not slow down and he cycled through bouts of mania and depression. He knew that the only thing that settled his mind was a profound challenge and at the time the only game in town was GUFT, the Grand Unified Field Theory - a theory that finally resolved the great quandaries of physics: the nature of gravity, the paradoxes of quantum mechanics, the exact nature of quanta. He no longer considered quanta to be particles (so he thought naming them as distinct entities - leptons, bosons, quarks - was redundant). They were spanda – vibrations of the void. The cosmos was a grand symphony and when he wrote out his equations he saw music. When energy changed its vibration like the change of notes in a scale, electrons jumped from one orbit to another orbit; when one particle changed its vibration it became another particle; when vibrations resonated with specific harmonies they formed fundamental forces.
He had been young when the first successful experiments in quantum teleportation had demonstrated that information could be transmitted outside the normal parameters of spacetime. It was then he decided to study qubits and quantum computing. He successfully applied to enter a program for the intellectually gifted at Caltech in the US where he would receive full support. It meant he would be separated from his family and live in a special dorm on campus with other gifted students. His parents encouraged him, knowing that this was necessary to his future – and his sanity. The transition was not too difficult, although he found American culture baffling, especially in California. For the most part he ignored it by burying his head in his studies and mixing with other cultural misfits. This was when he met Chan Jing, a specialist in nanotechnology and computer architecture, and Tatiana Irina Zhestakova, a politics and economics prodigy doing a doctorate on statistics and complex financial modelling.
Over the next year their friendship evolved over long nights of caffeine fuelled rants about the state of the world. Tatiana introduced them to hashish and hallucinogens and took both his and Jing’s virginity, declaring casually that she thought she was bisexual. He didn’t mind. She wasn’t exactly his girlfriend. Besides, it seemed that casual sex was expected in American colleges, even amongst the gifted students, most especially at Caltech. The student culture had been greatly influenced by the geek culture of Silicon Valley, with its embrace of radical social experimentation, especially in regard to sexuality (the latest trend being polyamory - he knew of one MMF triad and an open MMFFF pentad). He didn’t mind sex, even liked it, and was apparently quite good at it, in a distracted sort of way. He had been told he was handsome and exotic with a highly desirable genome. He had been approached several times to be a sperm donor, either to single women or lesbian couples. His only concern was that sex might distract him from his studies. He certainly had no moral objection.
That was also the time that he realised that he had been politically naïve: exceptionally so. Although the university protected them to some degree, it was understood that certain military, intelligence and corporate groups were very interested in what was happening at Caltech. Several past students had landed well-paid jobs in prestigious private and government research units. Tatiana was the most politically astute (and cynical) because she was the daughter of a Russian scientist who had been employed in the oil industry after the collapse of the old Soviet Union. She seemed to have connections to a vast network of politically active scientists and hacker groups. She warned him that the military were very interested in quantum computing, especially in relation to cryptology, and to have nothing to do with them. When he published his first paper on qubit decoherence, the military offered him serious funding. He was tempted but the problem was that any further research he did would be classified and he feared that he would be under so much surveillance that his creativity would be severely constrained – they would effectively own him.
The real shock happened when his university computer suffered several sophisticated hacking attempts. He was never sure who was behind it but Tatiana thought it might be either the Chinese, Israelis, Iranians, or an unidentified Russian hacker group, mostly likely linked to the mafia (who she assured him, were linked to oligarchs). When Jing reported that his family was being put under increased surveillance in his home city of Beijing to remind Jing that he was being watched, his concern turned to paranoia.
When he thought the time was right he suggested a camping trip to the San Gabriel Mountains. Sitting around the campfire overlooking the Big Tujunga creek, well away from any surveillance, he announced that he had actually solved the qubit decoherence problem and had also developed an algorithm that would form the basis of an entirely new programming language. Jing understood the implications immediately and added that he was around six months away from testing a commercially viable nanotechnology optical gate using grapheme chip sets. It took Tatiana a l
ittle longer to realise what had just happened but she soon caught on. That was the night Shunyata Quantum Computing Systems was established.
He turned to Tatiana because she had been the first to suggest the best way ahead was to establish a startup and seek private venture capital. “So, any suggestions who to approach?”
She nodded. He knew she would already have considered the options. “I have contacts in New York. I’ve met some interesting people at various conferences.” She paused and considered him carefully. “But first we have to get the legals right.”
“Doesn’t the money come first?” asked Jing.
Akash shook his head. He understood what Tatiana was saying. “No, Tati’s right, that will be our final concern. The money isn’t the issue. This is the next evolution of computing; the money will come. No, we have to make sure it isn’t compromised in any way.”
Tatiana nodded. “If the concept is sound, the money will be the easy part. It will be the contracts and the business structure that will be the hardest part. I’ve already asked around. I have a friend who is being fast tracked in a top corporate law firm that specialises in tax.”
Jing turned up his nose. “Tax? Isn’t that a bit mundane?”
Tatiana laughed at his naivety. “No, she is precisely who we want. She will know how to structure a global corporation to avoid national patent laws and taxes. She also has contacts with the corporate intelligence community.”
“Spooks?” asked Jing nervously.
“Of course,” said Akash calmly. “The big firms hire their own investigators and analysts.”
“It’s more than that,” said Tatiana. “If you are right Akash, we have extremely valuable intellectual property that has serious military implications. It will need a high level of secrecy and protection.”
Her warning silenced them. For the first time he felt self-doubt and fear. Could he dare to create a global IT corporation?
A few months later Aviva Rose left her position as a promising corporate tax lawyer in a prestigious New York firm to start work for a new startup. Shortly after that Shunyata set up an office in Silicon Valley and hired corporate headhunters to find the best and brightest. A year later the Jayarama-Chang quantum supercomputer was released, making all previous digital supercomputers obsolete. Six months after that Shunyata was worth an estimated five billion.
Two years later they entered the personal and professional computing market with the Shunyata PI (Personal Intelligence), a small cube that could be linked to multiple remote devices and peripherals, finally realising the dream of digital integration and becoming an effective digital personal assistant, with an ever-expanding choice of personalities and avatars (and creating a small side industry in avatar generation). It greatly simplified personal computing with domestic to professional AI that could interpret the owner’s instructions, thereby reducing the laborious process of point and click start-up, downloading, upgrading and troubleshooting. In a short time it became almost indispensable, and when he commissioned the world’s top designers to design a range of screens and peripherals, it reached cult, must-have status (the top selling ranges were based on classical Japanese urushi and European Art Deco, ending the era of mass produced blandness).
Three years after that Akash had become the poster child of the electronics industry and Shunyata became the first global corporation to achieve a market value of one thousand billion dollars.
The digital computing market was declared dead.
But he had yet to tell his friends everything he knew and everything he had planned.
9
Prax
He was in his room, a simple stone cell carved into the mountain with a stunning view out across the Maha Peninsula and the Luminous Sea. All he required was a bed and a table, functional but still beautifully crafted and aesthetically pleasing. Meals were served in the dining hall and ablutions were performed in the communal baths. It was a simple life commensurate with his vows.
Usually he spent his evenings in quiet contemplation or study, but this night he was speaking to his contacts in the capital, arranging accommodation and a catch up with old friends.
“So, you haven’t heard any mumblings?” He was speaking to a female philosopher in the capital, a friend from his days as an apprentice and a member of his old circle, Sara. The only light in the room the glimmer from his screen.
She smiled and shook her head. “No, nothing from Congress, nothing in the news about any disasters or major works. In fact it’s been oddly silent, if one takes stock of such things”.
A juvenile male walked behind her and stopped briefly. “Who’s that mum?”
“Prax.”
The figure leant forward so he could see his face. It was Aris, his genetic son, or rather, his part son, as he had really only contributed some of his genome. “Hi Prax, you coming to the capital. You still owe me that game of chess.”
“Yes, I’m in for a day or two.”
“Okay, bye.”
Sara returned to the screen. “Will you stay here?”
“If that’s okay. It would be good to catch up with some of the old circle and its progeny. How’s Ana doing with her studies?”
“Brilliantly, takes after you. Your aptitude for symbolic logic has been most useful. She’s decided to specialise in physics. She’ll be pleased to see you.”
“And the other monkeys?”
Sara smiled. “Thriving. You sure you can handle the commotion after all that solitude?”
“It will be a welcome break.”
The cry of a young child ended the conversation. He wasn’t sure if it was one of the children his genes had helped conceive. At last count he had six partial descendants being raised by his old circle, three by women raising their second cohort, two by girls raising their first and one by an elder raising her fourth. His first had been born when he had just turned thirteen, from sperm collected when he had turned twelve and his motility was at its peak.
When Sara’s image disappeared he called up vision of various Congress sessions using key words to find conversations relevant to an extraordinary section two request. There was nothing.
He was scanning the news when he heard footsteps.
“Mentor.”
He turned to see Cynthia standing in the doorway wearing the simple white sarong of the order, her hair wet from bathing and her skin glistening with jamoon balm.
“You’re being somewhat formal. This sounds serious. Come in.”
She entered slowly and seemed unusually agitated. “It is. I’m making a formal request.”
He stood, adjusted his saffron sarong, folded his arms and tried to meet her gaze - which darted from his feet to his eyes to a point somewhere on the wall behind him, indicating that she was embarrassed.
“Yes?” he asked gently.
“I’ve started entering puberty.”
“Ah,” he sighed. “I’m sorry. I should have noticed.”
He looked at her body and for the first time noticed the beginnings of breasts and a slight widening of her hips.
“You’ve been busy with the construction,” she offered as an excuse for his lack of attention.
“Have any ova descended?”
She shook her head. “Not yet. My oestrogen count suggests in six months or so.”
“And erotic thoughts?”
“Intensified, which is why I am making this request. I’m ready for training.”
“Yes, of course, have you decided your orientation and who you would like to train with?”
She frowned with annoyance, as if he should have known the answer. “Primarily hetero, and you, as you are my mentor.”
And as her mentor it was not a request he could refuse. It was an essential part of her training. Her mind was being altered by the hormones of puberty and it was critical that she begin to learn how to control and reshape it through mindfulness. It was something all pre-adolescents went through, as had he when the first rushes of testosterone had started to
change his mind and body. Back on Earth adults had ignored this important period of change and simply allowed their adolescents to flounder. Under the old morality, or rather immorality, adolescents were expected to suppress their sexuality. This only served to create stress and the release of the dangerous mix of cortisol and norepinephrine, which could then cause the stress related disorder of clinical depression along with the attendant emotional confusion. On Earth this confusion was seen as a natural part of adolescence, but it wasn’t. It was the result of ignorance and negligence. But then, the people of Earth had been driven crazy by millennia of post-traumatic stress and been influenced by irrational religious beliefs regarding sexuality. The original settlers had been determined to leave such superstition behind, but even they were subject to the old ideas of sexual morality. It was the second generation of the native born that had finally challenged the old taboos. They demanded clear evidence of any alleged harm and if none could be found they openly flouted the taboo. As a result sex itself was no longer considered a moral problem. They had left the old venereal diseases behind and had mastered conception. Sex had been freed to become a pleasure equal to the other pleasures. There was no longer any shame or embarrassment. It was agreed that the real ethical issue was how you treated people. The new taboos, the new manners, were based on consent and respect. It didn’t matter when, how or where you had sex, or with whom, but it did matter if you used manipulation or any form of coercion. It was this that had become the new obscenity.
And because the people of old Earth had become so twisted about sexuality they had wilfully ignored the most obvious thing about puberty, that the body and mind were being prepared for reproduction and everything was telling the body and mind to have sex, and lots of it. It was the second generation of the native born that had introduced a formalised system of sexual training and as a result adolescents were freed from many of the torments of puberty.
Paradise Reclaimed Page 4