by John Akers
“Well before the disastrous effects of leaded gas could be confirmed, Midgley moved over to GM’s Frigidaire division and began working on developing a safer alternative to ammonia-based refrigerator coolants. By the early 1930s, his team had created chlorofluorocarbon (CFC), commercially known as Freon. For the next 50 years, CFCs ate away the Earth’s ozone layer, eventually depleting it by as much as five percent in some areas.
“It turns out the ozone layer — created some 3.5 billion years earlier as a result of the oxygen produced by the plants growing all over the world — blocks 98 to 99 percent of the ultraviolet radiation of the sun. Even a small increase could quickly lead to skin cancer and reproductive problems for all animals on the planet, and a larger increase would easily destroy all life on Earth.”
“Fortunately, scientists detected the problem in the 1980s, and CFCs were subsequently made illegal. Just as fortunately, the nature of the problem was such that it could self-correct—the ozone layer naturally rebuilt itself. Nonetheless, it will still be a decade or more before the damage caused by CFCs is fully repaired.”
Alethia flicked her hand again, and Midgley’s face returned to the wall as a fast, continuous stream of images passed in front of Pax and Alethia.
Sarin gas, cellophane, air conditioning, polyethylene, polystyrene, antibiotics, electrocardiogram, felt tipped pen, masking tape, neoprene, blender, paper towels, electron microscope, FM radio, magnetic tape recorder, radar, jet engine, photocopier, Teflon, traffic lights, garbage disposal, power steering, artificial respirator, synthetic rubber, pacemaker, neutron, clothes dryer, magnetic tape, steam turbine, vacuum triode, electric power station, electric steam iron, automatic washing machine, solid state amplifier, mass spectrometer, structure of atom, superconductivity, electroencephalogram, quantum mechanics, tuberculosis vaccine, tetanus vaccine, penicillin, neutrino, electron microscope, nylon, helicopter, photocopier, xerography, carbon dating, programmable electronic computer, atomic fission, semiconductor, automatic transmission, duct tape, microwave radar, modem, ceramic magnet, superalloys, synthetic oil, nuclear chain reaction, nuclear fusion bomb
Suddenly everything went dark. Then, a flash of light appeared in front of them, so bright that Pax had to turn his head for a moment. Then as he looked back, a billowing, orange and black fireball mushroomed upward while the muted sound of the blast rumbled in the background.
“Almost 100 years ago,” said Alethia, “the first two practical applications of Einstein’s theory of mass-energy equivalence came to pass. One was the invention of the atomic clock. The other was the atomic bomb.
“Initially, the U.S. government developed the bomb as a deterrent to Nazi Germany’s attempts to develop such a weapon. But a few years later, a change in leadership from Roosevelt to Truman led to a change in mindset. Three years after the start of the Manhattan Project, the U.S. government decided to use the bomb as an active weapon of war, instantly incinerating 250,000 Japanese civilians living in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
“A few years earlier, some Hungarian scientists had visited Einstein in the U.S. to share their concern that the knowledge he had uncovered might be used by men like Himmler, Eichmann, and Hitler to gain possession of an atomic bomb. Einstein’s reply was, ‘I had not thought of that.’”
The walls lightened again, the image of smoke and fire disappeared, and new images began to cascade past.
AK47 rifle, antibiotics, stored program computer, mechanical cotton picker, radar storm detection, velcro, Big Bang theory, instant photography, hologram, disk brake, kidney dialysis, Tupperware, air traffic control, cortisone, breaking the sound barrier, transistor, corneal contact lens, self-propelled field irrigators, jet plane, silicone, X-ray crystallography, structure of DNA, fluoroscopy, night vision, artificial hip, rock tunnel borer, long-distance phone calling, computer compiler, traffic walk signal, automatic coffeemaker, artificial heart valve, nuclear power plant, Dacron, open-heart bypass surgery, maser, atomic clock, transistor, synthetic diamonds, polypropylene, color television, transistor radio, kidney transplant, nuclear powered submarine, cryopreservation, radioimmunoassay, polio vaccine, random access memory, silicone dioxide, transatlantic telephone cable, Earth-orbiting satellite, integrated circuit, oral contraceptive, gamma ray tumor imaging, permanent satellite, Kevlar, geothermal electric plant, programming languages, operating system, laser, ultrasound, pacemaker, optical lithography, laser-based tumor removal, space based imaging, man in space, positron emission tomography, compact cassettes, digital transmission system, man orbit Earth, transatlantic telecast, smoke alarm, self-cleaning oven, communication satellite, touch tone telephone, carbon fiber, acrylic paint, equalizer, electronic fuel injection, packet switching, handheld calculator, computer mouse, random access memory, man on the moon, digital photography, CD ROM, digital seismology, airbags, mud pulse telemetry, arthroscope, genetically modified organisms, microprocessor, space station, automatic drip coffeemaker, video games, carbon nanotubes, email, computer axial tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, cell phone, graphical user interface, Ethernet, fiber optic cable, personal computer, TCP/IP, liquid crystal display, light-emitting diode, in vitro fertilization, electronic sewing machine, PC modem, cochlear implant, laptop computer, electronic spreadsheet, remote operated vehicles, controlled drug delivery, rare earth metals, space shuttle, scanning tunneling microscope, artificial heart, internet, robotic surgery, solar electric generating stations, defibrillator implant, networked automatic teller machine, antilock braking, deep brain electrical stimulation, fullerenes, echo planar imaging, Lasik surgery, digital camera, gene therapy, Java operating system, nanotechnology, World Wide Web, genome sequencing, optical amplifiers, global positioning system, personal digital assistant, radio-frequency identification, computer aided design, animal cloning, Mars robot, digital video disk, smartphone, fracking, massive multiplayer gaming, metamaterials, motion sensing input, vacuum robot, robotic limbs, International Space Station, speech recognition, hovercraft, fuel air explosives, human embryo cloning, unmanned drone, self-driving cars, DNA reprogramming, rail cannon, coil gun, virtual currency, near-field communication, massive open online education, H5N1 virus, Higgs boson, 3D printing, autonomous robotic assistant, synthetic biological organs, biofuels, ectogenesis, reprogenetics, microdrone, medical device implants, neuroprosthetics, synthetic nanosensors, supramolecular chemistry, oncolytic virus, machine vision, nanomaterials, nanomedicine, EyeTap, internet of things, ampakines, reusable rocket, directed energy weapons, conductive polymers, regenerative medicine, tissue engineering, virotherapy, intereferometric modular displays, concentrated solar power, electric double layer capacitor, quantum dots, nanowire battery, volumetric displays, virtual reality, augmented reality, plasma weapon, hyperloop, brain computer interface, self-configuring modular robots, exoskeletons, organic light-emitting diodes, metal foam, radiolysis, artificial photosynthesis, exascale computing, scramjet, Univiz, ocean thermal energy conversion, vortex ring gun, bionic contact, solar roadway, electronic nose, e-textiles, super sensing, molecular electronics, 3D optical data storage, quantum computing, genetic alphabetizing, airborne wind turbine, spintronics
Suddenly, no more new images moved off the wall in front of them. The last of the images they’d just seen slid silently back to the wall, which Pax now saw was so far away he could barely see them. The darkly shaded but translucent ceiling was now less than 30 feet overhead, and he could see the sun was high in the sky above. A wisp of cloud hurtled by, and he realized the winds outside must be tremendous at this height, yet still he felt nothing. He looked back at Alethia.
“Congratulations,” she said. “You made it to the top.”
Chapter 52
“That wasn’t at all what I expected,” said Pax. He couldn’t believe he was now almost two miles off the ground. He still hadn’t detected any sensation of movement, or heard any noise suggesting it. He noticed the large disk had reappeared, along
with their water glasses. He leaned over and picked his glass up again and drank.
“I’m sure,” said Alethia. “But hopefully now you see the problem we’re concerned with.”
“You think we’re going to destroy ourselves with the technology we’re creating.”
She nodded. “And now that you’ve seen what we had to show you, what do you think?”
Pax thought for a moment. “I guess I’ll assume all the information you showed me is accurate.”
“Actually, there is one major inaccuracy.”
“Oh?”
“Yes—the timelines. At the beginning, we were covering time extremely rapidly—more than two million years a second. But ever since then we’ve been slowing things down continuously to show you certain details, particularly the history of human civilization. By the end, we were progressing at a rate of one year per second. But doing this naturally distorted the perception of the timelines involved.
“We placed the picture of LUCA in your office as an attempt to correct for that, to give you an accurate sense of the timelines involved.”
“How so?” Pax asked.
“If you were to condense the entire history of life on Earth into the time from when you found that picture until now, the entire 10,000-year history of human civilization would have happened in the amount of time it takes to say your name.”
“Oh. Well then.” He pondered this. “I guess that helps, but it seems like an awful lot of trouble to go to.”
“Not at all—it’s important,” said Alethia. “The essential point we wanted to impress upon you here today is how slow a process evolutionary change is. It’s critical to have a gut-level feel for this, so one can understand how much faster our knowledge-gathering is happening in comparison. Because our recent history has shown what a great challenge it has already been for us to avoid mass self-destruction, either with our weapons of war, or through catastrophic collateral damage to the environment.”
Pax thought about what he’d seen that day. Reluctantly, he found himself unable to deny the truth of what Alethia was saying. The amount of knowledge humans had gained in the past few hundred years was astonishing, and certainly seemed to be accelerating faster than our ability to control it. But the idea that humanity could literally wipe itself out in the near-future seemed so far-fetched! Certainly, some tech was falling here and there into the hands of people not morally qualified to possess it. But could it really wipe everyone out? And was it reasonable to think it could happen anytime soon?
Feeling a need to say something, he said, “I think you’ve made a compelling case. The volume and complexity of the tech we’ve been creating has certainly been accelerating, particularly over the past 200 years. We’ve created weapons of mass destruction, and we’ve used technology in ways that were dangerous and in some cases very destructive.”
Alethia nodded, a hopeful look on her face.
“However, I think your analysis is biased.”
To his surprise, Alethia’s expression didn’t change. “How so?”
“You’ve focused primarily on the bad stuff. What about all the good things? Cures for diseases? Decreasing poverty levels around the world?”
“All that’s true. We freely acknowledge the many positive things human technology has enabled. The problem is, none of it will matter in the long run.”
“That doesn’t make any sense,” Pax scoffed. “Of course it matters.”
“No, it won’t. In particular, there are two issues that make the positive contributions of technology irrelevant. First, the technology we possess today, let alone what will be coming say, 100 years from now, is so powerful it can already enable a small group, even a single person, to unleash a technological Armageddon on the world. There are already many other ways a creative person can set the world on fire using technology far less complicated and costly than nuclear weapons.”
“Second, going through even a cursory analysis of our evolutionary history, as we’ve done today, should make it obvious that humans lack the inborn moral and intellectual capacity to responsibly manage such powerful technology. While it’s possible for us to develop such moral capabilities through education and experience, it’s not embedded as part of our DNA to do so. We do not innately weigh our interests proportionately against those of the broader society. We do so—or not—based on individual choice.
“Almost six months ago, the Infinet conducted the most complex parametric regression modeling of the future state of humanity ever undertaken. The modeling was based on the twin trajectories of our biological evolution and our technology. It looked at more than 100,000 variables detailing every aspect of human existence, from each country’s history of gross domestic product to the average amount of individual domestic violence in every region and subculture around the globe. It was the most massive statistical analysis ever performed. It took the Infinet several months to capture all the data, then another month to perform the analysis.”
“As you might intuit, given what you’ve seen here today, the Infinet found that in no scenario does the human species manage to survive more than 150 years from the present.”
Pax had no way to verify the truth of such a statement, but he decided to pretend he did to keep her talking. He wanted to learn how far down the rabbit hole this thing went with her and this society of hers. So he said simply, “Are you kidding?” hoping it would entice her to elaborate.
“No,” she continued, “and even the 150-year estimate is an outlier. The average was less than 50 years. Some scenarios even predicted the possibility of it ending immediately.”
Pax nodded as if he accepted what she’d said as true. “So what does the Infinet see as the solution?” he asked.
Alethia suddenly stood up. “I’ll tell you, but let’s take a walk while we do. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling a bit stiff from sitting for so long.”
Pax shrugged and stood up. “Sure.”
She began walking away from the disks, in what seemed to Pax to be no particular direction. For a moment she didn’t say anything but simply held her hands behind her back as she walked. Her eyes got a faraway look in them, as if she was suddenly concentrating on something very deeply. Finally, she spoke.
“The Infinet was originally created with two purposes. The first was to answer the question, ‘How much longer do we have?’ The second was to help humanity forge a sustainable future based on the range of possible timelines. One that ensured we wouldn’t annihilate ourselves.
“A week after completing the predictive analysis about what time we had left, the Infinet came back with one and only one solution. Operant conditioning, albeit on a hitherto unimagined scale. But by perpetually observing and guiding people’s behavior, and by controlling the presentation of stimuli, we can shape the behavior of every person on Earth in a way that will maximize both our individual and collective potential.”
Before he could stop himself, Pax blurted out, “That’s absurd.”
Again, Alethia didn’t react, at least not outwardly. “I know it may seem that way. But the Infinet is more powerful than all other computers previously built by humanity, combined. One of the things we’ve been trying to do during your journey here was to give you a sense of the power of the Infinet. Using nanoscopic fractions of its capacity, it designed the means of bringing you here: how to take you out of your home, how to get you here as quickly as possible without being followed, and to build this tower to explain what it is humanity is up against.”
“All very impressive, I agree,” Pax said. “But I don’t see how any of that correlates even remotely with what you’re talking about. If I understand you correctly, you’re talking about this Infinet of yours acting as some sort of governess for all human society. The scale of that compared to what you’ve shown me is multiple orders of magnitude more complex. And how could it possibly control the presentation of stimuli the way you’re…“ Suddenly, he froze.
Alethia looked at him knowingly. “I think
you see now why we brought you here, Mr. Pax. To prevent humanity from destroying itself, the Infinet needs your help. It needs the Univiz.”
Chapter 53
Through the fog of incredulity and the sound of blood pounding in his ears, Pax saw they had almost reached the wall. He noticed there was a three-foot tall window strip that wrapped all the way around the entire perimeter of the tower. Dimly, he heard Alethia continuing to talk, and he tried to attend to what she was saying.
“I know the idea of simultaneously monitoring 9 billion people in real-time probably seems ludicrous,” she said, “but it isn’t. The transmission of quantum phenomena is instantaneous, so the only lag in the system would be the existing bandwidth limitations of the internet and the Univiz. Which, by the way, the Infinet can help Omnitech improve greatly, along with a great many other things. And it has essentially limitless data storage capacity. Unlike standard binary computer systems, where a given data register can only be on or off, quantum data registers can hold multiple values. Currently, the Infinet supports a dozen values per register, but that amount can be increased if necessary.
“Just think of it, Mr. Pax,” Alethia continued, stopping a few steps short of the window and turning to face him, her face aglow with excitement. “Imagine every person on the planet having access to the smartest, wisest mentor possible! One that will know us intimately, completely: our aspirations, our fears, our capabilities, and our limitations. It will also monitor people’s body chemistries in real time, to learn what combinations of foods, medicines, and other environmental stimuli result in positive well-being. It will use all this knowledge to guide us in ways that are so subtle as to be unnoticeable, but help us to become the best possible version of ourselves. And most important, it will manage our collective behavior, ensuring that each person has appropriate access to information and the appropriate amount of influence on the rest of society.”