CHAPTER 10
Solnet/Omnivision Video Post
@anna.kolchinova.solnetworldview
August 15, 2110
1550 hours U.T.
SOLNET Special Report:
“Ancient Robots”
The Max Planck Institute of Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany is a pretty staid and stuffy lab for studying the beginnings of Man and the fossil and genetic evidence of our beginnings tens of thousands of years ago. Pretty staid and stuffy….that is, until today.
The Institute is housed in a complex of modern research facilities set in a wooded estate. The buildings are concrete and steel, gently curving architecture that could be a corporate campus anywhere in western Europe or North America. From the outside, there’s nothing about the Institute that would indicate what really goes on inside or what kind of bombshells occasionally erupt from this secluded, almost pastoral setting.
Today, just such a bombshell landed, right in the laps of the Board of Directors of the Institute’s Department of Human Evolution. The bomb thrower, Dr. Rudolf Volk, made a presentation at this month’s Board meeting, a presentation about new finds at the Engebbe, Kenya dig site, new finds which, if confirmed, will radically and forever overturn what we know about Man’s ancestors and our origins.
SOLNET reporter Anna Kolchinova was there and files this report:
“The essence of Dr. Volk’s presentation is that we now have incontrovertible proof, physical evidence, that Man didn’t develop and evolve on this planet alone or unaided. Recent finds of fossilized micro robotic remains among ancient Homo Erectus bones at the Engebbe dig site have swept the world of archaeology and anthropology like a hurricane. Volk is a researcher in the Institute’s Department of Human Evolution and was here in Leipzig to present the details of his findings to the Institute’s Board of Directors.
“According to Dr. Volk, the robotic remains have been conclusively dated to be synchronous in time with the bone remains. The techniques used were a relatively new, more advanced form of radiocarbon dating, a method called quantum state spectrometry. According to Dr. Volk, the tests have been performed multiple times, by multiple researchers right here at the Institute and the results are consistent across all experiments and experimenters.
“It seems, to quote Dr. Marta Siebeck, an archaeologist on the Board here, that ‘we may be descended from ancient robotic creatures.’”
(Append Video Post 227):
“How is this even possible?” asked Dr. Max Schneer (NOTE: Dr. Schneer is current Chairman of the Board of Directors…AnnaK). “I’ve seen the dating charts, I’ve seen all the spectrographs…but that’s not my question, Dr. Volk. I’m asking you to take a larger view here, understand what you are suggesting with all this data: that somehow, flesh and blood creatures like you and me, formed of tissue and bone and blood, are somehow evolved from something that was made, a machine, a robot? Surely you understand the implications of this, even if it were proven true?”
Dr. Volk shifted uneasily in his seat, focusing on the tablet screen in front of him. Lines and spectra from the dating tests filled the screen. “Dr. Schneer, the implications, as you call it, of these spectra, are for other people to decide. I’m a scientist. All I can do is perform the science and make sure my methods are repeatable and above reproach and my data is clean. The test results you see were performed seven times by five different people in three different labs, separated by thousands of kilometers and several weeks in time. No one seriously questions the data anymore. What we all make of this data, how we interpret the data…ah, now that is another question altogether.”
Dr. Uwe Holweg, a physical anthropologist, glared back at Volk like a disappointed parent at a child. “Rudy, you have to see what the data are suggesting. If any of this is true, it means the end of evolution by natural selection. It means what we are today is not the product of random mutations and selection pressures. It means you and I are programmed in some fashion. It means you and I are part robot ourselves, even if we are tissue and blood and bone. What does that do to Darwin? The old man must be spinning in his grave today.”
“I think that’s a fair statement to make,” Volk agreed. “It appears that Evolution is not so much by natural selection but by programming.”
“Yes, exactly…”Holweg went on, warming to the idea. “But what is the end state of this program? We’ve all heard of this ‘Prime Key’. Is that the guiding principle?”
“And can we understand this program, like we understand Evolution,” added Siebeck. “Can it be altered? What would it take to do that?”
Volk really didn’t want to play speculative games with the Board. He wanted to present the facts and let the philosophers deal with the fallout. But the Board was off and running.
“The only way I see to alter this program, as you call it, would be to eliminate once and for all our dependence on ANAD-style nanobotic mechanisms. Of course, that would be a great technological leap backward—“
“And not jolly likely,” said Dr. Schneer. “But if it’s not feasible to end the program, or alter it, can we re-direct it? Can we get under the hood, so to speak, and tinker with the program. That’s the question.”
Holweg chewed on that idea, then stabbed the air with a finger. “The Assimilationists! That’s the answer. Some people think the Assimilationists are collaborating with the enemy. Maybe it’s not so much collaboration but a way inside…send a few saboteurs into the mother swarm and try to change the program from that direction.”
Volk just wanted to get back to the facts. “I have more data on specific fossil pieces from the dig…if you’d like to—“
But the Board had dropped Science for the moment and preferred to spin theories.
“Just think what this means for the great Religions,” Holweg said. He rubbed his hands like a child in a candy store, trying out theories like so many chocolates. “We’ve all seen the stories…SOLNET, WorldBeat and the others. Config Zero is some kind of earthly representative of these Old Folks—“
“Old Ones,” Siebeck corrected him.
“Exactly. It’s Config Zero we have to deal with. I’d like to ask about five thousand questions if I could get an audience with the…the…whatever he or it is.”
“It’s clear,” intoned Schneer, facing the SOLNET cameras, his voice deepening into authoritative mode, “that the whole story of human origins has been upended. What Dr. Volk has given us is physical evidence that our understanding of our origins and how we came to be is a mistake. Indeed, if the Assimilationists are to be believed, Man himself is a mistake.”
“Imagine it,” said Holweg, “Evolution is nothing but a program glitch. An error. Some kind of software bug.”
“Precisely,” Schneer agreed. “And as this fellow Symborg says, the programmers are coming back to fix their mistake.”
Volk tried to interject some facts. “The fossils from Engebbe have been categorized into three main classes, as you can see…we have pieces that seem to be some kind of effector, perhaps with graspers….” He pressed buttons on his display controls and a 3-D image of the find danced in the air before the Board. “The second category we’ve called Sensor Devices—“
But Schneer wasn’t listening. “Maybe we anthropologists should be talking with the cosmologists. Surely the study of Life’s origins should include a study of these Old Folks and how they may have come to Earth and seeded the environment.”
“Of course, that’s all speculation at this point,” Siebeck noted. “Dr. Volk, when can you go back to Engebbe? We need more evidence…this really is extraordinary…fossil evidence, geological evidence, even genetic evidence…you have some chemical and materials properties results for us?”
Volk took a breath, tried to collect his wits. The whole meeting was spinning out of control and Schneer, who was supposed to be in charge, was leading the revolt. “I do, Dr. Siebeck. We’ve done recent assays on some of the pieces. We�
��re finding octahedral and dodecahedral lattices of iron, silicon, germanium and some unusual elements that don’t even appear on our periodic table…we don’t know what to make of them.”
Volk manipulated the 3-D images and atomic structures rotated in space in front of the Board.
“We’ve got to have more evidence,” Schneer decided. “The Board will authorize funds for more trips to Engebbe. Dr. Volk, you mentioned some kind of crystal—“
“Ah, yes—“ Volk changed the display to show a new set of images. The lattices flickered out and were replaced by new structures, crystalline shards magnified millions of times. “We think these crystals may have been part of the processor core…this is controversial, but there are holes and pits suggesting some kind of electron transport mechanism. We need more evidence—“
Anna Kolchinova’s face popped into a small window on the side of the broadcast. “The Board met for most of two days at the Institute. It was one of the more chaotic and tumultuous briefings this reporter has ever covered. And in hours, most of the science world was in an uproar over the news. Headlines rocketed around the world—“ Here Kolchinova appended spinning, flashing images of headlines and captions—ANCIENT ROBOTS FROM AFRICAN DIG…BOTS DISPLACE APES AS MANKIND’S FORFATHERS…PREHISTORIC BOTS MAY HAVE CREATED MAN…
Kolchinova went on, summing up the report from Leipzig. “It’s hard to tell where this story will go now. There are so many substories here…the science itself and the still unknown physical nature of the find and its relationship to Man today…the Assimilationists and how they will use the story…our increasing dependence on ANAD nanobotic technology and the speed at which this technology evolves and takes over more and more of our lives….
“The Board has determined that more evidence is needed to support and extend Dr. Volk’s findings. More expeditions to Engebbe are planned but it should be noted that the dig site is on the boundary of the east African Sanctuary and some ticklish and sensitive diplomatic negotiations with Config Zero and the swarms may be needed.”
Kolchinova’s face hardened. “There are some who view Config Zero and the swarms as an enemy. There are others who view Config Zero as an ally, even something of a Messiah, or perhaps it’s more accurate to refer to Symborg in those terms. Whatever your point of view, it can’t be denied that Man is no longer alone, here on Earth and elsewhere. Indeed, if Dr. Volk’s evidence can be corroborated, it’s clear that Man was never alone and that there is a direct connection between life on this planet and life elsewhere.
“That discovery, if it turns out to be true, can’t help but have the most profound effects on every aspect of what Man is about, even his own conception of himself and his place in the Universe. This is Anna Kolchinova, reporting for SOLNET, from the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany, saying good-bye…until next time—“
----Symborg switched off the vid and got up from the desk. He went to the windows of the fiftieth floor penthouse suite he had occupied for the last few months and stared out at the lights of night-time Nairobi. A few blocks away, Uhuru Park blazed with light…another rally for the Church of Assimilation was being held and Symborg knew he was due to address the crowd in less than two hours. Condos and office towers in Parklands soared skyward like sentinels in the night sky, nicely framing the darkened humps of the Ngongoro Hills to the south. Shafts of light speared low-hanging clouds around a new show opening at the National Museum, just a few blocks east.
The story SOLNET reported that evening was being spun in a thousand different ways by the quantum processor that was at the heart of Symborg. Probabilities were weighed, correlations run and analyses performed, playing out every imaginable scenario. Different responses were run as simulation algorithms crunched data and created alternative actions and decision points. Symborg opened a link back to Config Zero and transmitted the results of these calculations. Multiple conditions were applied and multiple action sequences were returned to Symborg from the mother swarm.
The decision had been made and the results would be executed in the address Symborg would soon make at Uhuru Park. By analyzing billions of polls, surveys, private communications, uploads and downloads across all networks on Earth and beyond, Symborg and Config Zero had determined the most advantageous strategy to implement the Prime Key.
In his address to the adoring multitudes at Uhuru Park, like some latter-day Pope, Symborg would ‘reveal’ that he himself was a direct descendant of the micro-robotic devices recently uncovered by Dr. Rudolf Volk.
And the world would have its Messiah.
Johnny Winger and the Great Rift Zone Page 33