Scale Free

by Patrick Arnesen

  Religious people have traditionally defined the soul as something that bestows consciousness on what would otherwise be a mindless body. In my opinion, that belief stems from the inability of religious people to understand how a mind could possibly exist, purely within the natural world. But they ignore the progress made over the last two hundred years. In that time, we have identified the purpose and function of virtually every region of the human brain. We may not understand completely how they do what they do, but we have mapped them and we understand their purpose.

  Every time a new function of the brain is identified, such as memory for example, the religious will claim that the soul may rely on the brain to handle memory, but the soul is still responsible for the vital actions of cognition or emotion. Then when we sort out how the brain handles cognition, the religious back up once again and say sure, the brain handles rational thinking, but the soul is responsible for emotions and the sense of spirituality and impulses to do good or bad. But over the last two hundred years, we have identified and categorized every single brain function needed to define a human mind. Correspondingly, the role that the soul is purported to play, has been reduced to nothing whatsoever. If we can’t even name the functions that the soul is responsible for anymore, then why should we continue in the belief that the soul exists at all?

  In fact, if there were such a thing as a soul, then uploads like Mr. Roamer here, being the creation of human technology, could not possibly have one; and the lack of a soul should be evident as some sort of character flaw. But I personally know several uploads very well, and from what I can see, they exhibit the full range of human behaviors, from emotionality to spirituality, rationality, creativity and art, and most importantly, the capacity to love. In every way I can think of, they are people, just like us.

  So if you ask me whether an upload has a mind capable of mens rae, then I say the answer is certainly yes", Parker gestured toward me, ''... and to deny that is to ignore the overwhelming evidence sitting right before our own eyes. If in plain sight of this evidence of personhood, we continue to deny them their just legal status, then we're just imposing a hypocritical double standard for our own advantage, just like American slave owners did before the civil war."

  Senator Pulzer, spoke up. "Now hold on, it's not that simple. This is a slippery slope. All people born in the United States become US citizens. Do you think that an upload has the right to vote too? Should they be able to run for political office? Are the American people ready yet have a computer for president? New uploads can be created instantly. There's almost no limit to the number that could be hosted and they could be out-voting humans within a decade. I think that Americans should have the right to define through a democratic process who its citizens ought to be; it shouldn’t be dictated by the courts.”

  Pulzer leaned forward and stared pointedly at the audience avatar. “Uploads have a radically different agenda from humans, and if we give them human rights, they could soon pose a terrible threat to us."

  Parker scowled, "I'm not aware of any threat posed by uploads."

  Pulzer continued "They've only been around for 15 years. They're just getting started, and their current lack of rights is making them very careful. Think about it. They never age or die, so over time, they'll just keep getting richer and richer, and in the end we'll end up with an immortal, machine nobility in control of most of the nation's wealth. Think about this too: an upload can live on 1000 times less income than a human. All they need is a computer and some power to run it. Resources keep getting more and more scarce. Humans could easily get priced out of the market. How would we feed ourselves then?"

  Notes were flashing wildly across my huds, so I put up my hand and said. "I agree with Mr. Pulzer." That got everyone's attention. "The political and economic needs of uploads are radically different from those of humans, and I don't think it would do either group any good to be treated as equal citizens of the same nation. But not all people in a country are citizens. Consider foreign workers or visitors. They're granted temporary visas that gives them limited status, but under the law, they're still considered to be persons with human rights.

  I think that would be the proper model to follow. We uploads have no interest in national citizenship. Inside our polises we govern ourselves according to our own laws, and our interaction with the outside world is frankly quite limited. We have very little need for money and don't spend much time working for it; so we have no incentive to drive wages down. When we do work, we demand the same fees as humans do. Really all we need from humanity is recognition of our right to exist, and the right to earn enough money to keep our servers running. The proper relationship between polises and human countries should be like those between friendly nations, and when we enter your country, we won't demand the right to vote, we just want to be recognized as foreign visiting persons, and to be afforded legal rights of persons; the right to Life and Liberty and Security to start. That's reasonable, I think."

  The panel was silent for a moment, then Pulzer spoke up. "If you're proposing that we treat Polises like foreign nations, then you have to admit the eventual possibility of war. At the end of the day, what we have here are two different intelligent species, living on the same planet. The newer one is capable of growing far faster and using resources far more efficiently than the old one, and we all knows what eventually happens to the older species, don't we?

  While we have to worry about putting a roof over our heads, feeding our children and fueling our cars, you can sit there all day long and dream up new ideas and technology. What do we do when one day, 100 years from now, you decide that you need some serious resources to build some giant new supercomputers or some other high tech toys? What if we need those resources to live? With all your power, would you still care about the needs of us little humans scratching a living off surface of the Earth, or would you just sweep us aside like some annoying pests?

  Mr Roamer, no matter how you cut it, you uploads are an unacceptable threat to humanity's right to self determination, perhaps even its very existence. For that reason alone, I don’t think we should even be thinking of granting you the rights and privileges of personhood."

  Hornbrook said. "Well I believe that Mr. Roamer certainly needs an opportunity to defend himself from that accusation. Mr. Roamer, are uploads a threat to humanity?"

  I ignored my huds and started in at once. "Of course not, and to claim otherwise is nothing more than irresponsible fear mongering. My mother is a human. I used to be a flesh and blood human myself, and I think I speak for all uploads when I say we sure as hell don't consider ourselves a different species from you.

  If you're really worried about the problem of resources, don't forget that the human population is decreasing. Scientists say that there will be a reduction for a few generations, and the population should then stabilize at somewhere between 4 and 6 billion. We can help you to develop technologies that will let you support that population while maintaining the Earth's natural ecosystems. We want to do this because we consider nature to be just as beautiful and enriching as you do. In fact, most of the sims we live in are covered with trees and oceans and team with natural life.

  If we ever wanted to start using ‘serious resources’ like Mr. Pulzer said, it would be totally repulsive to us to do it in a way that would harm humanity or nature. It would also be unnecessary. There's a million times more natural resources available in the solar system than what’s accessible on the surface of the Earth. We don't need food, air, or water, and we're immune to radiation; we could live in space just as easily as on Earth. Why would we damage something as rare and beautiful as the Earth when we have a whole solar system of unimaginable wealth open to us? There is more than enough room and resources for humans and uploads to build the societies we dream of, and we can help each other to do it."

  Pulzer leaned forward on his chair. "So you plan to claim the whole solar system for yourselves do you?"

  I frowned. "I didn't say that.
The solar system is unimaginably huge. Claiming the whole of it would be like a single school of fish claiming all the Earth's oceans. Instead we'd only be tiny islands of life. We should treasure the beauty and rarity of what we are, and the companionship and support we can bring to each other.

  I sat back in my chair and took a breath. Hornbrooknow turned next to Mr. Allowi, "Perhaps we should return this conversation a bit closer to home. Mr. Allowi, as a prominent leader in Mr. Nassif’s spiritual community, you must be very aware of the impact this murder has had on his family and friends. How are they dealing with the situation, and what do they feel should be done about the legal status of uploads?

  Since his introduction, Allowi had hunched silently in his chair. He had occasionally shot hostile glances at me and the other speakers, but mostly he had just looked at the floor; lost, it seemed, in his own thoughts. He was dressed in a white robe and hat, and wore a long gray beard. Now he straightened up and scowled at me.

  "I believe that I speak for the majority of the world's 3.5 billion Muslims when I say that we cannot possibly imagine why you are taking the words of this ungodly murderer so seriously."

  I frowned, but before I could say anything he continued.

  "We all know that these uploads hide deep in their machines, thinking they are beyond the reach of Allah, and there they partake on a daily basis in the most depraved and ungodly acts imaginable; everything from men impersonating women and women impersonating men, and having sexual intercourse that way, to polygamy, sodomy, bestiality, sadism and every other perversion imaginable. They worship idols and false gods of every sort, and now they even reach back into the world of men with their machines to torture and murder a humble and good servant of the Prophet, peace be upon him, apparently for no other reason than their own sick pleasure. And yet you sit here beside this monstrous insult to the will of Allah and debate the finer points of law? How can it not be obvious to you what needs to be done?"

  Allowi leveled his finger at me. "Mr. Roamer, when you died your soul should have been taken from your body by and brought before the one true Godfor judgment. Instead you've perverted the work of science and technology to hide away inside computers. You’ve committed the terrible sin of destroying the miraculous body that Allah had given you. You murdered your own daughter and kept her soul from reaching Allah, and now you have murdered Mr. Nassif as well, who was a good father to his children. Do you truly believe that you can hide from God’s wrath forever?

  Allowi stood up and glared at the audience avatar. "But Allah is the creator of all things. His greatness cannot be denied or ignored. It's time for all believers to show this arrogant Kafir how wrong he really is. I call on all believers to rise up and destroy these uploaded monsters. We are the long arm of Allah. And his wrath is terrible indeed!"

  I blinked. Jessica Parker stood up. "This outrage is exactly what comes from denying uploads their rights." She gestured toward Allowi. "This man has just uttered hate speech in front of an international audience and directly incited people to violence against uploads. If uploads had rights, Mr. Allowi would be on his way to jail right now, but as it stands, Mr. Roamer has no recourse against him."

  I stood up as well. "Mr. Allowi, I deeply sympathize with your grief and pain in losing a cherished member of your community, but this outburst is unacceptable. I find your accusation that I murdered my daughter to be very deeply hurtful and offensive. Also, I repeat that I had nothing to do with the murder of Mr. Nassif. In fact I did everything I could to stop it."

  Allowi's shoulders were square toward me. His fists were clenched. He was about to start into another rant but Hornbrook cut him off. "I’m afraid our producers have just informed me that we need to end this program right now." He turned to me and the other panel members "Thank you very much for your participation." and to the audience avatar he said "and thank you all for listening. From everyone here at CNNBC, goodnight." And with that the sim came to an abrupt end. I found myself standing back on Speer's hilltop.

  Chapter 42

  I threw myself down on one of Speer’s chairs. “Shit".

  Speer was sitting behind his desk, upright as ever. He had replaced his striped, navy three piece suit with a non-striped two piece gray one, perhaps as an effort to dress down. If so it didn't work.

  I asked. "Why didn't we have any warning that Nassif's spiritual leader was such a firebrand?"

  He shook his head. "He isn't. We had backgrounds on all of the participants. Based on everything we knew about Allowi, his actions today were out of character. He's a conservative, but moderate. Someone must have found a way to influence him.”

  “How?” I asked.

  Speer shrugged. “It hardly matters now. I’ve heard of certain drugs that can remove a person’s inhibitions or create hormonal imbalances; or maybe they just had to convince him that uploads posed some sort of threat to Islam or to his community.”

  I shook my head. "He obviously had the beating heart a fundamentalist bottled up inside him, and someone figured out how to let it out. The first part of the debate went reasonably well, but Allowi's attack will be all anyone remembers or talks about now. What a fine bunch of 'all powerful post-humans' we've turned out to be. To be honest I wouldn't mind 'sweeping aside' one or two human organizations like pests, right now."

  Speer interlaced his fingers and rested them on the table. He sighed. "I can’t deny that the NASC has proven itself very effective in controlling the game. All I can tell you is we’re doing our best to get ahead of them."

  We held each other’s eyes for a moment, then I sat back in my chair and looked away.

  "Sir, I haven't checked in with Melanie in a while. I should go see what progress she's made."

  Speer nodded. "Hopefully if we find the information they want, the NASC will still back down."

  "What if they don't Sir, or even if they do, what if it doesn't matter anymore? You heard the Senator's position. I think he'd prefer to see us all deleted. They've probably been thinking about coming after us for years now, and this incident was just the thing to push them into action. Now that the ball's rolling, what makes you think the NASC will spend any effort on our behalf to slow it down?"

  "All the more reason to have as many cards in our hand as possible."

  I nodded, said goodbye, and jumped back to my house.

  Chapter 43

  I pinged Melanie to let her know I needed an update from her. A few seconds later her reply popped into my field of view. It was a jump link, so I punched it.

  I found myself in an unfamiliar part of Melanie's forest sim, standing beside a roughly circular pool of water. The pool was about ten meters across, and surrounded on three sides by moss covered rocks. Behind them were the tall trees of the forest. A cliff climbed up from the far end of the pool. From above it surged a little waterfall. The water splashing down the rocks spread a fine spray over the pond and moistened the stones and bushes around it. The rushing water mixed with the sounds of the birds in the trees. The noon-day sun shone in from the opening in the forest canopy above the pond. Coils of fine mist rose where the sun’s rays warmed the soil. The air was fragrant with vegetation and moist earth.

  Melanie was standing in the water on the far side of the pool. Steam was rising from her head as the sun dried her hair. She had clearly been swimming not long ago. Her breasts, just above the waterline, were covered with sun-filled droplets. A large translucent desktop covered with documents drifted in the water in front of her. She had a page in her hand and was studying it intently, not yet aware of me.

  I cleared my throat. Melanie looked up and smiled. "You've got mud on your shiny shoes." she said.

  I was still wearing my suit from the interview. My shoes were sinking into the wet earth. I laughed, and with a snap of my fingers, the suit was gone. Naked like Melanie, I slipped into the cool water and swam over to her.

  "Did you watch the interview?" I asked.

  She smiled ruefully. "Ya, it was a lot sho
rter and a lot more exciting than I thought it would be."

  "I didn't even get my full 15 minutes of fame."

  Melanie pushed the desktop aside, then reached over and wrapped her arms around my neck. "My poor little celebrity."

  We shared a lingering kiss. The desktop floated off toward the waterfall. Melanie grabbed my shoulders and pushed me down below the waterline, then jumped on top of me. The physics of her sim didn't require me to breath. The chill of the water tickled my skin, but the cold never penetrated. We made love to each other, floating and splashing in the cool water.

  Chapter 44

  The desktop had been caught by the waterfall and it was being tossed and rolled by the tumbling water. I swam over and brought it back to Melanie.

  "Did you manage to track down our mystery hackers?"

  Melanie shook her head. "I'm still working on one long shot, but so far, most of the searches have been dead ends. The council grumbled but they gave me access to the Polis’s compute time logs. When the reactor fried, there were a handful of uploads who were using significant compute resources, but they can all be accounted for except one. The first is a geneticist who was running a huge gene folding simulation to reverse engineer the behavior of some proteins. Another upload works with an environmental non-profit and was running an eco-systems simulation. One guy was even playing Caesar in a ridiculously detailed simulation of the Roman Empire."