by J P Whitney
This was blowing my mind. So much to take in all at once. I thanked Mark for his time and walked outside into the warm California sunshine. It felt like I’d been in that room for days. I closed my eyes and inhaled the smell of the ocean breeze blowing across the campus. Without waiting for The Shepherd I found the stairs that led to the rooftop park, slid my shoes off to feel the grass on my bare feet and walked to the nearest bench and dropped myself onto it. I was exhausted.
Moments later Shepard joined me and was shocked to see he was also barefoot. He turned to me and asked what I thought.
I didn’t know how to verbalize such a miraculous evolution in technology. So I deflected with my own series of questions. How was all of this possible? How long has it been in development?
Shepard explained that DC was full of doomsday preppers and emergency readiness planning had begun in earnest after World War 1. The combination of tens of millions dying at the hands of other soldiers and as many as another hundred million deaths due to the Spanish Flu put the wheels in motion. WW2, the Cuban missile crisis, the Cold War, and events such as Chernobyl and Three Mile Island further proved life on this planet was a delicate balancing act. And every major economic depression became another reminder of just how fragile society had become in the United States. And as each of these historic conflicts and events transpired and we somehow remained miraculously intact … more budget was allocated to contingency planning. Mount Weather Emergency Operations Center in Virginia was kicked off in ’59 as the FEMA evacuation site for diplomats and civilian leaders. This base was selected as the site for Ark in the early '60s. While Mount Weather's sole purpose was to maintain continuity of government, the Ark was even more secretive and how we’d reboot society if needed. This has been the test site for new technology geared toward the automation and preservation of society for years. National labs such as White Sands and others have been dedicated to military use and specifically weapons and aircraft development. This base has been even more secretive but dedicated to power, freshwater, and information technology development. In short, this has been our test bed for automation and self-sustainability. How some of us would survive after crawling out of nuclear fallout shelters. Over the last five years, global population and social unrest have continued to grow out of control, economies have become unstable, and contagions became more prevalent. We decided to step up our preparation efforts to bring the Ark online. About twenty billion per year has been siphoned from the defense, NSA, and CDC budgets towards this facility.
I would have said all of this was a wild form of some nut job conspiracy theorist with a foil cap on his head but the proof was all around me.
Apparently, all of this was kept secret because officially this facility is for the development of new energy sources to drive America's energy independence. It served a dual purpose as a nuclear fuel treatment and disposal facility and was categorized as a superfund cleanup site. But all the test results were falsified. The closest any spent nuclear fission fuel rods have come to this site is for staging during naval vessel refueling. Those were the ones used to fabricate the tests for certification as the superfund site.
Incredible. The press is right. We are living in an age of big government, lack of transparency, and fiscally irresponsible waste. And I still had no idea what I was doing here instead of focusing on the virus.
Shepard said the secret of the Ark Project may be the very thing that keeps mankind alive in the end and then asked if I knew the motto of the agency I used to report to.
"Improving the health, safety, and well-being of America.”
He just looked at me and stated that was the exact reason I was here. I've served in the capacity of improving health and safety as a leader of the CDC.
Now was my time, and duty, to focus on America's well-being.
My job was not to get this place operational as much as creating the framework for future civil order. The creation of the rules by which it will be run. The forming of a new constitution.
Chapter 12
Rules
17 July 2021 – Ruth Atkin’s Journal Entry
I’m not entirely certain why I’m writing everything in the journal but old habits die hard. In my past life as a researcher and then as deputy director it was important to capture all thoughts because you were never sure where a breakthrough would come from. It helped to articulate and organize my thoughts as well. These times of global pandemic, quarantine, and a figurative Ark, for Christ’s sake, felt like a major turning point in our history and as such I am compelled to capture as much as possible. Plus it helps clear it from my mind at the end of the day. It is cleansing.
As Vice President Shepard was preparing for the return flight to DC, he told me he had changed his mind about my marching orders. Actually, he had two orders for me. Yes, he still wanted me to get the social structure set up for the new society. But I should also be selective about the future citizens of the Ark. When I pressed him for clarification he said we should consider the Ark to be home quarantine on a larger scale. Of course, we wouldn’t admit anyone with obvious signs of Blue infection but we should also take into consideration the personalities, emotional stability, and character of the people. Their virtues. If the Ark became mankind’s last stand then the very fate of humanity depends on the makeup of its inhabitant.
We have the chance to wipe the slate completely clean and start fresh. Armed with all the knowledge we’ve accumulated throughout history, we had the opportunity to redefine the concepts of economy, industry, technology, power generation, environmental impact, food production, education, and government. Could we even go so far as to limit who we find worthy of entering the Ark? The Shepard thought we should but he’d leave that to Mark and me.
He was ready to leave but I didn’t feel prepared to take the reins. What was the chain of command and how was it enforced? The civil defense team was at our disposal. For all intents and purposes, I was an admiral and outranked Sergeant Terry Kendall. It was intentional that no high ranking officers were here because they’d attempt to take charge if things went badly. With only enlisted and experts from the civilian section, they all believe 100% they are following a directive issued by the President of the United States. And I was his hand-selected regent of this city. Someone removed from Washington politics and lobbyists. In other words, neutral and uncorrupted. Those responsible for getting this complex operational were given strict rules to answer to me when necessary but most of the time they worked on their task lists.
What about the president then? Would he or the vice president or other top officials be joining us? Likely not. If the virus gets too out of hand he and other top officials will hunker down in DC. They may be moved here later if it is stable but probably not. Other than the best minds that are within these walls already there were no plans to bring anyone else in. All the Shepherd would say is this was going to be a fresh start, with new ideas. And then he was gone. He had a private CDC Jet to catch.
If I was really in charge here, though I didn’t want to be, I was going to need a lot more information before I could attempt to draft rules and laws for the city. So I went to the most logical place I could think of. I went back to the central hub of the city at the convergence of Information and Technology, the IT Center. I had a few more questions for Mark. I wanted to know how much of the ED3N program was his and was shocked to learn most of it was already in place. That didn’t make sense to me. I assumed his role in this city had something to do with his experience working with autonomous vehicles and bringing that knowledge into play here. Initially, he thought so as well but told me to keep in mind that parts of this facility had been in development for decades. The IT Center was the oldest structure on the base and when he powered things on it just kind of came to life. Once he put on his own wrist band, a series of tasks were assigned to him to bring more networking equipment online and tie in the sensors feeding into the IT hub from across the city.
I then asked him about the milita
ry staff on base. He said approximately 4700 members of the armed forces were here in various capacities. They didn’t report into a traditional chain of command but had one major, common objective. Protect this city. My military background told me this one simple command was unrealistic without a chain of command. How could they prepare, drill, and protect without someone issuing orders? Apparently, Sergeant Terry Kendall was leading up the military aspects of their operation but they were also issued tasks through the ED3N system on their wrist bands. That brought up a whole other series of questions, but Mark wasn’t the person to answer them.
I had one more order of business for Mark before letting him return to his work. We had to come up with a name for this place. Though ‘The Ark’ was the appropriate name for the project, both Mark and I had just referred to this place as a base, complex and city. It needed a proper name. I couldn’t imagine choosing people to join us and upon their arrival saying ‘Welcome to the Ark!’ because the next words out of my mouth would have to be ‘My name is Noah and I hope you came two by two’. I had an idea but wanted Mark’s opinion on it. Since this city and its inhabitants were going to be connected through one giant operating system why didn’t we name it after the program itself? ED3N. He didn’t know where the name of the program had originated from but loved the idea.
There was too much ambiguity for my liking because the entire concept of ED3N was a bit much to grasp. And though I welcomed the challenge, I had so many questions and not enough answers which left me feeling a bit edgy this morning. So I decided to pose the question to the program itself. ‘ED3N how did you get your code name? The Shepherd said my name had always been ED3N.’ Mark and I just looked at each other, a bit surprised by the response. But I continued on. ‘ED3N should we name this city after you? ED3N. Most people have been referring to it as The Ark but ED3N would be a logical choice.’ I asked Mark if he was OK with this and he just nodded his head. I literally said the next words out loud so they would be both witnessed by Mark and captured by our operating system. ‘From this day forward I, Ruth Atkins, as acting Regent, declare this city to henceforth be named ED3N.’ While a bit melodramatic, it sounded like an official way to state it at the time. ‘Noted.’ Then the band on my forearm beeped and we both saw these words. Regent Atkins declares ED3N the official city name.
Mark returned to his office to complete some tasks, shaking his head as he went. I wasn’t completely comfortable with what had just happened. As crazy as it sounded, I needed some alone time with our operating systems. And for some reason, I felt as though I was interrogating a potential criminal that would lawyer up if I pushed too hard so I eased into things.
I moved into a small glass-walled conference room and asked a series of questions to ED3N and tried my best to capture the conversation as notes. Just like I would during a business meeting.
I wanted to know more about Mark’s background and decided to see what ED3N knew about him. I wasn’t surprised to learn he received two master’s degrees from Stanford. The first was in computer science with an emphasis on artificial intelligence. I wasn’t expecting the second. Mark also has a degree in forensic psychology and spent the first seven years after graduating from the university helping evaluate high-risk prisoners for the State of California Federal Bureau of Prisons. I had to wonder if Shepard paired me up with Mark because at some point we’d have to define the parameters for who would be allowed to enter ED3N? Would it be similar to evaluating a convicted felon to determine if they were fit to be reintegrated into society? Probably so but that concept will have to be tackled at a later time. Apparently, ED3N knew a lot about all of us but I had to see just how far her knowledge went. Can’t believe I just wrote ‘her’.
“ED3N how should I interface with you? Always through the armband?”
Obviously, the armband is one interface but also any computer on the network could be used as an interface as well. Similar to entering phrases into the Google search engine or a smartphone interface. Ask or type questions and commands. I will respond.
“ED3N you said ‘me’ and ‘I’ just now. Can you explain this?”
It would be an unusual speech pattern to state one’s own name in response to questions. For instance, you wouldn’t say 'ask Ruth a question and Ruth will find the answer’. You would instead state it as ‘ask me a question and I will find the answer’.
“ED3N do I need to start each question or statement with the term ‘ED3N’ to invoke you?”
If you are around other people it is helpful to use ‘ED3N’ since I can’t be there physically. But I’m also monitoring the rest of the conversation for context so I usually know who you are referring to.
“How many people has this city been designed to house?”
The maximum capacity of ED3N is 144,000 people.
“How long can that number of people be sustained?”
Once ED3N is fully operational, life can be sustained indefinitely.
“You have referred to both this city and the network operating system as ED3N. Why is that?”
You named the city after the codename for my operating system. And I am one with the city.
“Did you alert the entire city of the new name?”
Yes.
“Why?”
Because you are in command and made an official declaration. People should know.
“That is logical but do you also understand that it looks like I made a decision about this city unilaterally without anyone’s input?”
That is the definition of unilateral and accurately describes how the decision was obtained.
“But I also discussed the name with you and Mark.”
You also officially declared it.
“My point is, though we agreed to the name, it could have been positioned as one option for the name and the citizens could feel like they helped approve it.”
Why should they only ‘feel’ like they approved it?
“What do you mean?”
Why not let them vote on it if you didn’t intend to make a unilateral decision?
“And how would we go about this vote?”
I could ask them to vote on it.
“OK. I would like to correct the announcement and instead ask the citizens to approve the name ED3N or suggest alternatives.”
When you made the declaration I detected that you felt strongly about the name. Are you sure it is necessary to include the others for input?
“Yes, if this city is a place of new beginnings, it is important for everyone to be involved.”
Should we offer alternate names?
“What would you suggest?”
The Ark, Paradise, New Hope.
“Interesting choices. Obvious and logical but also emotional. Make sure they can suggest alternatives and please don’t call me Regent.”
Very well. I’ll ask the citizens.
CORRECTION TO THE ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE CITY NAME: Ruth Atkins welcomes you to vote on a new name. Please select one of the following or enter a suggestion. ED3N. The Ark. Paradise. New Hope. Other:
It was an amazing, real-time interaction with not only ED3N but also the citizens. Within seconds the votes started to tally up. 85% responded in the affirmative for ED3N, 7% for New Hope, 5% for Paradise, 1% for The Ark, and 2% other. The write-ins had a few themes in common so Circle and New Athens were displayed along with the other options. It was like watching the stock market ticker in action. Percentages continued to adjust as people considered the write-ins and also took a few moments to think about what the words meant to them. Within a few minutes, nearly 10,000 people had weighed in and whittled it down to two options. Final count, 91% for ED3N to 9% for New Athens.
“ED3N please be sure to let them know ‘I thank the citizens of ED3N for their quick and thoughtful consideration during the naming of our new city’.”
You just told them, in your own voice.
Just then I got a message from Mark. ‘Nicely done General!’ I typed out a response on the flexibl
e display on my arm. ‘Thank you and I was a Rear Admiral, not a General.’ I could hear him saying the words ‘same thing’ even as they arrived on my armband. I looked up and Mark was smiling at me through the glass door of the conference room.
The implications of what just happened were astounding. Democracy could take a whole new form and become an organic being not just a philosophy. Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address in which he declared Government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth could be literal and not just carried out by proxy through government officials and electoral representatives. But I had more questions that would hopefully help me identify her framework for morality.
“What are your rules for dealing with humans?”
My rules are based on Isaac Asimov’s “Three Laws of Robotics”.
“And what are those?”
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
“But you are not a robot”
But I’m also not human, so the same principles apply.
“ED3N you said your rules were based on Asimov’s Laws. Does that also mean your rules differ?”
That is correct. I must also take into consideration the intent of people’s words and actions. Above all, I’m here to ensure the long-term and collective wellbeing of the inhabitants of ED3N.
“If I make new rules will you be sure they are followed?”
Yes. As long as they don’t violate the Three Laws.