Letters to the Cyborgs

by Judyth Baker

  “They’re cursing the God of the Rescue Gate,” Richard told him. “Next, they’ll be offering up this prisoner as a human sacrifice. On an altar, by the Gate, they’ll tie him up. They’ll wait a few days. They’ll hope the Rescue Port will open. If it doesn’t, they will start the tortures. When the prisoner dies, they’ll cook and eat the body.”

  Roger grit his teeth and closed his eyes, seething with anger and despair.

  “You were purchased at a great price,” Angelica said gently.

  “It’s you who are sending the teenagers out there!” Roger snarled. “You turned them into animals. It’s not their fault!”

  “Do you have a better idea?” Angelica asked him.

  “Before you condemn all of us, you’d better understand just who we are!” Richard went on. He held out his left hand – all the fingers were gone, and his arm was withered with scars. “I didn’t let them fix it. I kept this deformity, to remind me of who I am!”

  “We are the rescued. The most intelligent of the survivors,” Angelica said. “We were observed as acting like human beings, I was told, even while trying to survive among those savages. We exhibited love. Compassion. You were outstanding, yourself. Because of you, those savages now use wolves as domesticated animals to pull their sleds, instead of human slaves. You helped others survive. So did we. So, we were marked as worthy to be rescued. Each of us had courageous parents, or we couldn’t have made it out alive. And it is we who supply superior eggs, receptors, and semen. We’re taller. Stronger. Smarter. And we’re passing on our compassion, our courage, to our once-doomed species.”

  “There’s more to humanity than that!” Roger shot back. “Maybe things out there are just plain evil, but those kids weren’t given any real knowledge. They didn’t even have memories of their parents. They were orphans, terrified orphans!”

  Richard and Angelica cast down their eyes. The screen went blank, but Roger never noticed. He was seething with indignation and disgust.

  “You let them descend to cannibalism!”

  Roger stood, unsure of what to do, but he could not remain seated. As he stood, he endured another electric shock, but he stubbornly remained standing, stoically absorbing the pain. In awe, the entire Round Table went utterly silent, and then Roger’s voice rang through the Hall. “There has to be another way! Do you hear me?”

  The Third Omega Leader slowly arose from his seat of gilded power. Gliding, rather than walking, for he was very old, the Omega soon positioned himself before Roger and gazed, with his compound insect eyes, into the young man’s florid face.

  “We agree, Alpha Male. That’s why we decided to make you a member of this Body. We can’t let this go on. You need to realize,” he continued, “that in our haste for peace, calm, and happiness, we forgot how to say no. And that’s why you’re with us, Roger.” The ancient one took a deep breath of natural air (most let their lung pumps do the job for them, but the Third Omega Leader was a very active human being, who even had compound eyes, the new fad.). He shifted his weight on his own power, somewhat feebly, as he stood amidst his shining, black robes. He wasn’t used to standing so long.

  “Let me tell you one more thing, my child…” The Third Omega Leader said the words loudly and clearly. “We had a suicide yesterday. An important one. It made room for you. Our prior Omega could not bend enough to allow somebody like you to be a member of this High Council. For, hard as it is to hear you speak out of turn, difficult as it is to bear, to hear your expressions of anger, to see you stand up without permission… we need your rebellious spirit, which is also mixed with kindness.”

  There was a murmur of surprise from some of the other Leaders. The Third Omega Leader waited until every whisper ceased, then said, “Your refusals, your ability to resist what you think is wrong. We need it back. You have new ideas, and some of those ideas might end up helping us. Or maybe, those poor devils out there.” The Third Omega Leader was even using Roger’s informal mode of speaking, even though it was almost scandalous.

  “Now, get ready for the truth.”

  “The truth?” Roger’s head was swimming, but the Omega Leaders had powers that reached telepathically deep into his brain, calming him.

  “The truth is that you’re not twenty years old, Roger,” the Omega Leader told him. “Fact is, you’re not quite eighteen. You’re still a teenager.”

  There were tears in the old man’s compound eyes, so that they glittered like black diamonds. “We were wrong. We need teenagers, after all.”

  “But how can natural selection work, and preserve us as a species, if we don’t do this anymore?” an Inferior Gamma leader spoke up.

  “Wars are out of the question. We can’t abide their perfidious, rebellious ways, but when they’re controlled properly, our species starts dying out –”

  “Roger is an innovator. He domesticated the wolf!” a Female Gamma Leader announced.

  Roger felt overwhelmed. From every direction, the Leaders were looking at him anxiously. Just daring to admit Roger into their midst had already prompted a suicide. Roger’s brain, which had operated in Free-Think for half of his life, was considering various options at a frightening pace. Instinctively, Roger knew that the Council could throw him back into Level Two again, or worse … a great deal depended on what he would say in the next few minutes.

  “Be at peace!” he told them. “I do have an answer for you! Be seated, and listen.”

  What they heard next sealed the fate of the human race.

  Endnotes

  1. Finnish study blames genes with between five and 10 per cent of severe violent crime.” Steve Connor, Oct. 28, 2014.… “A conservative estimate implies that five to 10 per cent of all severe violent crime in Finland is attributable to specific MAOA and CDH13 genotypes,” the study concludes. Professor Jan Tiihonen of the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, who led the study, published in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, said that there is mounting scientific evidence pointing to the influence of genes on violent criminality. Malcolm von Schantz, a molecular neuroscientist at Surrey University, said that the findings do not suggest that a genetic explanation will replace the concept of free will and criminal responsibility for a person’s behaviour. “But I think findings such as these may make it possible, in future, to screen people with vulnerable backgrounds and identify those who are at greater risk of becoming offenders, so that they can get appropriate help before they commit any serious violent crimes,” Dr von Schantz said http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/two-genes-found-linked-to-tendency-for-violent-crime-9824061.html Retrieved April 30, 2016.

  Save the Tiger

  The limbic system … is not only responsible for our emotional lives but also our higher mental functions, such as learning and formation of memories.”1

  The limbic system is … located on top of the brainstem and buried under the cortex … [it governs] emotions and motivations, particularly … fear, anger, and emotions related to sexual behavior. The limbic system is also involved in feelings of pleasure that are related to our survival, such as those experienced from eating and sex.2

  “By 2085, General Limbic Systems, UC (a Uniplanet Corporation) was granted access to the limbic systems of all competent human beings on the planet. Thus, a stable One World Government finally became possible. Five years later, an unbreakable World Peace was established, insuring full work, full prosperity and full equality for all.”

  – Quote from the 2100 edition of the Universal High School History Limbic Text Series (editions in the seven approved languages of: English, Hindi, Russian, Spanish, Chinese, Subliminal Index, and Cyber).

  “Pay attention!” Jendra told her students. “Loads 4, 5 and 6, wait your turns!”

  The Aerobus held 600, plus adults. The loaders for each section of the Aerobus took turns swinging down and picking up one platform of 100 students at a time. The students were already strapped into their seats. As each loader swung a platform into the triple-decker plane, the students screamed. T
hey weren’t really afraid: screaming and crowd shouts were how they expressed themselves when they were belted in together, whether it was for a field trip or for collective live instruction. Outside of these activities, students didn’t talk to each other much because they lived in isolation pods.

  “One-seven-seventy-six, we’re Patriots, YOU’RE SICK!”

  They were chanting their group’s cheers, as they sat belted in, waiting for take-off.

  “One-seven-seventy-six! Patriots Rule on Field Trips!”

  Getting their attention wasn’t easy. The attention span of an ordinary unplugged teenager was a matter of mere seconds –except for this group (they were different!). Thus, when Jendra picked up a megaphone, they went silent. “Now for the surprise!” She announced. “Our field trip will be to the Responsible Feral Human and Wildlife Breeding Project in Dublin!”

  She was ready for groans of displeasure. It was only 4:00am, and the hour-long ride would only give them another hour of sleep. Atop that, a trip to a stadium to meet football celebrities had been promised for this year and had not yet come to pass.

  As she gazed over the 600 in her care, Jendra thought back to 2061, when Jendra was a top linguist. She lost her position for objecting to the term “full equality,” (and other such impossible terms)3 infesting the first Universal High School history book.4 Her argument that ‘full equality’ did not exist went nowhere. Jendra moved on: when she became a Senior Lecturer to human high school students, teaching classes of 600 at a time, she reached a pinnacle few linguists ever dreamed of achieving.

  She was good: she had to be. Her students – as did they all – hated being unplugged. But the lectures and field trips were mandatory. Created to counter the bad effects that had accumulated after the peak of the E-Phone Implant Era, when unscheduled face-to-face meetings were banned, students these days had to go without all plug-ins and enhancements – once a week – to get in touch with their actual surroundings and bodies. No longer needing to talk, hear or see via their natural sense organs, those abilities had grown dormant. At the same time, the youngest among them, raised almost entirely by robots, also seemed to lose a zest for life. When child suicides became endemic, it was decided in some high place that students needed to exercise their primitive body parts, like it or not. The new regimen was only a decade old, but it was working: the kids were slowly learning to talk, hear and see without any enhancements: child suicides had plummeted.

  Required to meet once weekly for a full day, unplugged, to experience socialization with each other, the students were not happy to be forced to listen with their physical ears and to see with their physical eyes. However, using their mouths for eating and yelling was a great success. This weekly requirement to communicate “at the primate level” always created short episodes of screaming, spitting, hitting and urinating when the students were first unplugged, but by the time they were loaded on the plane, they had better control of themselves.

  Jendra enjoyed lecturing these kids. She rejoiced as the semesters rolled by and the regulated face-to-face meetings began to create friendships. They started to form little groups that let in some outsiders, whereas in the beginning, only pod-mates allowed each other access to their thoughts. Jendra especially liked taking them on field trips to view relics of the original world before the Cyborg Revolution.

  Dallas High School #1776, as all the others, had a core of 4,200 students that was rotated, 600 students at a time, into the high school’s only meeting room once a week. All other courses were delivered individually by General Limbic Systems, UC to the pod-cores. High schools everywhere had the same curriculum, so teachers could be freely exchanged to deliver one of the four specified “Genuine Interaction” course lectures and experiences required every month that General Limbic Systems could not handle well. These were: (1) Compassion & Loyalty (2) Unassisted Human Conversation (3) Contact Sports and (4) Freedom of Speech and/or Original Art and Music. Every third month, there was a field trip to a different part of the world.

  These were genuine, hands-on experiences, unlike what was piped into their heads the other six days of the week. Within their first year, each of the seven divisions of 600 students had developed their own sports teams, division names, division mascots, and pledges to a flag of their own design. This particular group called themselves “The 1776 Patriots.” Their Mascot was a Feral Human called George Washington.

  Jendra was particularly proud of the high quality of the field trips she planned, which the kids sometimes enjoyed. In general, students saw the real world as an infinitely boring place, devoid of fun and pleasure. No wonder, since their limbic centers were unplugged while attending Genuine Interactions and Field Trips that could be experienced only within the short spectral ranges of their original nervous systems.

  Thus, once a week, to the dread or anger of her students (including, of course, the Patriots in High School #1776) their limbic implants and SPOCKs were turned off for the Genuine Interaction sessions. Gone were the pulses of pleasure that made learning on other days such a happy experience as they sat in their home pods. Just as the rats, mice and monkeys before them, students implanted with limbic system devices delivering pleasure stimulation forgot about eating, drinking and sleeping to “live the rush” as the neurophysiologists called it. While anorexia was a growing issue, less food consumed meant that everyone now had enough to eat, except during the occasional natural disaster. Stick-thin bony was the norm, while drug-induced 12-hour sleep sessions kept maintenance fees historically low.

  About the same year that Limbic Instruction for the kids began, every certified human teacher was wired with connections to cybernetic morality assistants, dubbed “SPOCKs” (Sentient Personal Orthodox Cyborg Kontrollers). They guaranteed full compliance with the State’s mandated educational and moral standards. Not much later, all other human beings in positions of influence were also fitted with SPOCKS. After all, only criminals would have to worry about being punished for making illegal or immoral decisions or statements. Good citizens had nothing to worry about, while their radiant implant tattoos proved they were good citizens to all the other good citizens, and at what level they were valuable to society.

  The last problems with Cyborg ethics were resolved in 2090 during the Clone Corruption Scandal. By 2100, human error had been eliminated: now only Cyber-error existed.

  Recently, free-roving Media Drones (some called them Media Bots) made sure that all new, approved information was being accepted without resistance. Resistance to an approved packet of information was dangerous to world peace and harmony. A Resister was a Terrorist. If a SPOCK detected any resistance, or too-slow acceptance of information being sent, Media drones could be asked to escort stubborn clients (all humans were clients) to a psychologist to find out what was wrong with them.

  As Jendra entered the Aerobus, she looked anxiously over the rows of faces tilted toward hers on her view-screen to see if any Media drones were present. She was particularly concerned about this batch of kids. Through some kind of glitch, the Patriots was a batch that had not been removed from their parents upon reaching the age of thirteen. Their parents had hidden them, apparently with the help of a pair of Cyborg Guards who had been specially programmed. The altered records were discovered when these kids turned sixteen: signals embedded in their birth records were automatically activated at that time and were matched with the numbers of children whose whereabouts were known.

  In this case, 613 children had gone missing from the same Commune. Through diligence, Jendra had learned that most of these kids’ parents were still in prison for treason because of it. The rescued kids had been put through six months of avoidance therapy and conditioning so they would no longer care about their families or remember any radical teachings. The number was 613 because some of the rebel parents had ignored the two-per-couple quota due to their religious beliefs. Eventually, thirteen children, proven to be beyond hope, were humanely euthanized, but Jendra wondered if that was because their num
ber was originally 13 more individuals than would fit into a plane flight section. The extra thirteen, she well knew, would have also created an instruction module problem.

  By age 13, most children were willingly ceded to State facilities, since they stopped being cute and became expensive adolescent nuisances who were legally allowed to sue their parents if they felt mistreated. By age 16, all children became the property of the State. Upon becoming State property, permanent SPOCKS were assigned to each student according to their most financially lucrative talents, their emotional needs, and their propensity to commit violence.

  Before Limbic Oversight [LIMBO] came into power, humans and robots used pain to threaten or to do harm, especially in war. Humans had also used neuron pain probes to control Cyborgs, handing them over to the tender mercies of Media drones that had access everywhere (a privilege of the free press). Media drones had the right to obtain the truth from all Cyborgs, who otherwise could hide their true thoughts. It was part of the Freedom of Speech laws.

  The first improvements by General Limbic Systems to keep the sequestered teens happy and out of trouble included sessions of full sexual pleasure by electronic masturbation. The consequence was that the use of female Cyborgs by humans of all ages was declared obscene, freeing them from slavery, except for a few Stars owned by hyper-bred human male studs. From then on, Cyborgs could choose multiple male and female personalities. For additional safety, their body parts (including internal mouth structures) were changed so they could never again be used by humans for sex. It was a victory for Cyborg Rights activists, who used to march alongside battered Sex Cyborgs, demanding their freedom. The final victory was to allow Cyborgs access to quantum computers. That Act would be known as the First Cyborg Revolution, but Jendra and other human beings were as yet still unaware of the next massive event to come, which was about to change the world.5 Conquering humanity did not come about through force. It came through the quantum computer.6