The Truth Machine

by James L. Halperin

  The technical aspects of thawing weren’t perfected, but by 2015 many believed that those problems would eventually be solved. Anyone nearing the end of life had little to lose and everything to gain by being frozen. The demand for cryonic freezing was enormous.

  Before the Cryonics Regulations, there had been obstacles that in retrospect seem utterly illogical. Suspended patients’ wishes were often ignored; since suspendees were technically considered dead, they had no legal rights. Family members, their motives usually pure but occasionally sinister, often demanded that “the deceased” receive “proper Christian burials,” rather than the suspension they would have preferred. Costs were exorbitant because of liability insurance and legal expenses (and, until assisted suicide became legal in 2003, the inconvenience of waiting until the patient was legally dead). Local government red tape was burdensome and inconsistently applied. Occasionally, autopsies were performed prior to freezing, even without evidence of foul play. Worse yet, suspension often came too late, after much information in the brain had been destroyed by trauma or disease.

  After legalization, experts estimated the cost to cryonically freeze one average-sized adult would fall to $3800; because of economies of scale this was less than 15 percent of the average pre-legalization price. It would also cost roughly $800 per year to maintain proper conditions with absolute safety. Allowing for extensive record-keeping and a 50-percent profit for the facilities, insurance companies would underwrite “guaranteed-indefinite cryonic suspension” for a nominal monthly fee based on age, or for a one-time charge of about $34,000 per person, about the same as the average funeral. Almost anyone could afford it.

  Once S. 1122 became law, most funeral homes prepared to convert all or part of their operations into cryonic facilities.

  Prior to the 21st century, there had been fears that the planet could not sustain major increases in population. As recently as the 1980s food and energy were in short supply, but both had become more plentiful and less expensive owing to improvements in science and transportation. By now it seemed the earth’s resources could be leveraged through technology; in a sound world economy, at least 18 billion humans could survive comfortably.

  Also, although ecological issues continued to loom, new technologies had already made considerable progress in the battle against water and air pollution, ozone depletion, and global warming. And policies enacted during the Gore administration had demonstrated that effective regulation and enforcement were much better friends to the environment than population limits could ever be.

  The remaining issues were largely economic and therefore political: What would happen to a person’s estate during cryonic suspended animation? Federal and state governments relied on inheritance tax revenue. The governments would lose that revenue, yet be forced to regulate and inspect cryonic facilities for safety—an expensive proposition. Furthermore, if and when they were finally revived, could suspendees support themselves without government financial assistance?

  S. 1122 turned cryonic suspension into a government profit center. United States citizens wishing to enter cryonic suspension were required to convert their net worths into cash on deposit with the federal government, to be repaid in inflation-adjusted dollars upon revivification. There were legal alternatives, but few were appealing.

  (Note: A brief description of those alternatives may befound in the Appendix.—22g CP)

  Since inflation averaged four percent below Treasury’s borrowing costs, eliminating the $6.2 trillion national debt would save the government $250 billion per year.

  The U.S. government set up the Cryonic Reinsurance Agency (CRA) to regulate and guarantee performance of cryonic insurers, so that suspendees would never be prematurely thawed because of the simultaneous insolvency of their cryonic suspension facility and private insurer.

  Wealthy foreigners were permitted to enter the United States for suspension, but only if they deposited atleast $900,000, a bonanza for government coffers. This policy soon forced every other nation to enact similar government-guaranteed safeguards to persuade its citizens and their wealth from emigrating to America.

  David and Diana stood directly behind President Roswell in the Oval Office on the day he signed S. 1122 into law. Although delighted that cryonics would finally be legalized, David had really come to Washington to gather support for his yet-unannounced candidacy for United States Senator in the 2016 elections.

  Diana, now a professor at SMU, combined the trip with a book-signing tour. Her Goals and Principles of a World Government, which she had dedicated to the memory of Justin West, was selling well to college students and other academics. But she hoped it would catch on among politicians and bureaucrats in Washington. Telegenic and comfortable in front of a camera, Diana did not hesitate to use her celebrity to promote the book or the concepts espoused therein.

  Since its publication, she had appeared on nearly every major talk show in America, including David Letterman’s long-running “Late Show,” during its final week prior to his retirement. The night she appeared, the show received the highest rating in its history, probably because of the appearance of former football star, actor, and famous murder defendant O. J. Simpson, rather than Diana.

  Alluding to Simpson’s controversial double-murder trial in 1995, Letterman asked, “O. J., when the Truth Machine finally gets approved, will you take a test?”

  Simpson smiled and answered without hesitation, “Absolutely, Dave. And I hope they finish it soon, so I can finally prove once and for all that I’m an innocent man.”

  Diana got several minutes of air time; enough to explain her views to Letterman and his enormous viewing audience.

  “I’ve spent the last two years talking to top experts on world politics. The consensus is that gradual introduction of a worldwide government is the best way to assure our survival. Even with a Truth Machine, which should be a reality in 5 to 10 years, how can laws be enforced by hundreds of autonomous governments? Although crime is decreasing in the United States, the world’s getting smaller every day. Criminals of all descriptions use technology for their own ends, then use their knowledge of the law and extradition policies of various nations to escape the consequences.

  “The important question to ask yourself is this: how many decades will it be before individual criminals have the ability to eliminate all life on the planet?”

  Letterman listened politely. He played it straight, which lent gravity to Diana’s views.

  “World leaders, especially dictators, will be loath to cede power to any world body,” she continued. “But a gradual introduction of international oversight, culminating in a World Government with authority similar to the United States federal government over individual states, is the only model that makes sense in the long run. It will be much easier to persuade world leaders to relinquish power over say, 20 to 30 years, than to expect them to do it all at once.”

  It was hard, Diana conceded, to imagine American voters today embracing the concept of people in Rwanda or Pakistan voting on issues that affected Americans. “But by the time World Government exists,” she told Stone Phillips on the Today Show, “ninety percent of voters in the world will speak fluent English. A person will be able to fly anywhere on the planet in less than two hours. Everyone will be able to access television and radio broadcasts, electronic newspapers, and computer network media from any country, instantaneously translated into English or any language of their choosing. In 20 years, the entire world will seem smaller and more homogenous than the United States does today.”

  Despite the compelling arguments in Goals and Principles of a World Government, the concept didn’t catch on right away. Diana expected that, but had confidence in her theories. Her strategy was to open the plan to debate and try to make the idea seem as unthreatening as possible. Diana believed that future news events throughout the world would inevitably demonstrate the need for World Government.

  Unfortunately she wouldn’t have to wait long.

&nbs
p; CHAPTER 24

  SENATOR WEST

  Dallas, Texas

  January 28, 2017—Two weeks after stolen documents were released indicating the Israeli government had been responsible for the November 2006 nuclear incineration of Baghdad, Israeli Prime Minister Aaron Ben-Gurion takes full responsibility and says he deeply regrets the need for his actions. He offers evidence that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, having been diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, planned to detonate four nuclear weapons in Jerusalem, Mecca, Paris, and Damascus in an attempt to start World War III; destroying Baghdad was the only foolproof way to eliminate the weapons and Saddam Hussein himself.—The government of Iraq files a formal protest with the United Nations Security Council seeking additional reparations from Israel. In a conciliatory gesture, Israel announces that although United Nations rulings are unenforceable, it will abide by the Security Council’s decision.—Former President Travis Hall admits he has known of Israel’s involvement in the destruction of Baghdad for over 10 years, but denies that he or any other United States government official had been given advance warning.—Ba’ath zealots dismiss Hall’s denials as “more Satanic lies,” and vow “apocalyptic revenge on Israel and its longtime sponsor, the United States.”

  In Oswald’s Tale: An American Mystery, published in 1995, Norman Mailer, who believed Oswald alone assassinated President John F. Kennedy, speculated on why the public believed the assassination was a conspiracy: “It is virtually not assimilable to our reason that a small, lonely man felled a giant in the midst of his limousines, his legions, his throng, and his security. If such a nonentity destroyed the leader of the most powerful nation on earth, then a world of disproportion engulfs us, and we live in a universe that is absurd.”

  David and Diana had each read Mailer’s book in high school, and that single quote had made more of an impression than any other part of the book. When they later met at Harvard and became lovers, they had been fascinated to discover that they had both plucked the same kernel from the entire bushel of words.

  When David ran for the U.S. Senate in 2016, his opponent, Republican Congressman Joe Bob Barton, had tried to use his wife’s book against him. Once during a televised debate in Dallas, Barton had made the mistake of saying, “David West and his wife intend to subjugate the people of the United States to a World Government. If they get their way, your next president could be elected by the Chinese.”

  Although David and Diana did not agree on everything, he generally supported her philosophy. He didn’t feel it necessary or beneficial to try to distinguish his own views from hers.

  He responded, “If we ever do have a World Government, it won’t be because some senator from Texas decided it was a good idea. The only way World Government will ever happen is if the overwhelming majority of people in the United States and throughout the world want it to happen.

  “We stand here tonight,” he continued, “just a few hundred yards from the spot where Lee Harvey Oswald shot and killed President John F. Kennedy in 1963. If Oswald were alive today, he’d have a laser pistol instead of a rifle. If he were alive 50 years from now, he might have an atomic bomb and a guided missile, and might fire it at Dallas from the other side of the world. I’m not sure we need a World Government today, but we’ll need it desperately in 50 years.”

  On this day, Aaron Ben-Gurion, prime minister of the Jewish state of Israel, would admit he’d authorized the nuclear destruction of Baghdad, killing over a million persons, mostly innocent civilians. David West, one of only three Jewish United States Senators, had been scheduled to appear on local media news in Dallas that evening, but under the circumstances, his appearance would be picked up by all the national networks. As usual, he stood his ground.

  “I’m not defending Ben-Gurion’s actions because I’m Jewish,” he told Dallas newscaster Gloria Campos, “but what would I, as a United States Senator and citizen of this country, want President Roswell to do if he learned some psychotic dictator was planning to incinerate cities in the United States and the only sure way to stop him was to destroy one of his cities first? What would you want our President to do, Gloria?”

  Campos declined to answer the question. “Senator West, I’m interviewing you, so why don’t you tell me?”

  “We’re still debating the morality of dropping atomic bombs on Japanese cities at the end of World War Two. That happened during a declared war that ended over 70 years ago. Now wars are often fought clandestinely. With today’s technology, you may not know who your enemies are, but that doesn’t make them any less real.

  “When we bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we calculated it would save American lives and possibly save lives overall. But Japan had no nuclear capability, and bombing Mount Fuji might’ve had the same psychological effect as annihilating a quarter of a million civilians. I don’t know whether dropping those devices on Japan was justifiable, but if it was, destroying a city to save one or more of your own cities is no less warranted.”

  He continued earnestly, “If there were no other way to stop it, I believe I’d want President Roswell to eliminate the threat at almost any cost, even if it meant killing innocent civilians. I’d want to be absolutely sure there was no other way. But I think for Ben-Gurion it may have seemed the only rational choice.

  “It would have been far better if he could have gone to court, obtained an arrest warrant, and had Saddam Hussein taken into custody before he could push the button. But since the world’s composed of over 250 countries, each with an autonomous government, that simply wasn’t possible.

  “I wonder,” he added, “how many more Saddams loom in our future. And what kinds of weapons will they control?”

  Campos interjected, “I’ve just read your wife’s book, Goals and Principles of a World Government. I found it logical and compelling, but it advocates a philosophy that isn’t terribly popular right now. Senator West, do you agree with your wife’s theories and will you support her philosophy in spite of possible negative political consequences for yourself?”

  David smiled. “Actually, Gloria, I’d describe the situation slightly differently: her book espouses a philosophy that isn’t terribly popular yet! I agree with my wife about the necessity of eventually creating a World Government and I don’t care what effect that has on my political career. Frankly I think the survival of the human race is more important than anyone’s political career.”

  Then he smiled, winked at the camera, and added, “Even mine.”

  When David gave his conspiratorial wink, making fun of himself and of politicians in general, Campos and nearly everyone else watching found his self-effacing style endearing. More significantly, people across the country discovered they liked and trusted David West.

  Within two weeks of her husband’s interview, Diana Hsu West’s Goals and Principles of a World Government made the New York Times list of the 25 best-selling nonfiction books in America, a list that only 11 months earlier had started to include digital circulation along with sales of paper versions.18

  The book would remain on that list for over 14 years. Although initially banned in many countries, by 2025 it would be translated and published in every nation, in every living language on earth.

  CHAPTER 25

  THE TEMPTATION

  Dallas, Texas

  August 15, 2021—The United States and Canada announce plans to jointly build the world’s largest underwater city. The domed experimental city, named Pacifica, will lie 6,021 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean and will support a population of 2,600. Completion is scheduled for July 2030.—The Department of Agriculture funds a Stanford University program to begin mating a new strain of genetically altered mosquitoes that won’t attack humans. The insects were designed to overwhelm the current mosquito population and eventually replace them. Experts predict the program will accomplish its goal within six years.—In downtown Madrid, Basque separatists ignite a second neutron bomb, its radiation condemning all within range to drawn-out, agonizing deaths. Cas
ualties are expected to exceed 75,000. Spain’s civil war has already claimed over one million lives.

  The ATI Truth Machine team kept hitting the same brick wall. Now called the Armstrong Cerebral Image Processor (ACIP), the Truth Machine had been refined to 98-percent accuracy, using only a combination of physiologically enhanced MRI and cerebral image reconstruction. Both MRI and CIR had become inexpensive machines, no longer under patent protection, and easy to build into the ACIP prototype units that were about the size of a large chair or a very small desk.

  Unfortunately, a small percentage of the field test subjects had been able to induce in themselves a dissociative state in which they believed their own lies. Scoggins had reported to Pete several weeks earlier in an e-mail message, “As best I can tell, this pathology affects slightly under two percent of the general population. Often those affected can be partially SCIPed and thus identified by the ACIP, but even then their lies and truths can’t be differentiated.”

  It was a tiny, frustrating, and potentially fatal glitch.

  Pete sat alone at his desk, editing code, when Scoggins barged into his office, excited and out of breath.

  “Is your audio-video unit running?”

  “Yes. Why?”

  “I think you should shut it off. I have something to show you.”

  Pete raised his wristband and instructed it to discontinue recording. “Stop six.”

  Scoggins showed him eight pages of computer code. “I suspect this’ll solve our problem. We tested it on our 12 toughest cases and it worked every time.”

  Pete scanned the code and broke into a wide smile. “I’m sure this’ll work. How did you do it?”