STAR OF EPIPHANY

by OMAR FINK

  The circle around the table remained silent. Finally, Ulrich broke the silence, “Well, that adds more to think about. Tony, I’m sure you’re correct about the real estate component which we had not considered previously. We’ll have to add that piece in as we construct our plan. But in the meantime, allow me to steer our meeting back to the topic where we started. Sam, please continue briefing us on the domino plan.” He nodded toward Sam.

  Sam began speaking again, “Ulrich and Bill and myself have been working on what we call our domino theory. The essence is that we have a tough sell in front of us, but if we line up the players correctly, we can tip over one at a time and each one will help with the next. So, we started off with a list of the top world political leaders.”

  Sam nodded his head several times as though agreeing with himself, then continued, “Furthermore, we have tagged each leader as being either a rational leader, a strong leader, a weak leader, or one under the influence of a dominant adviser. Rational leaders will hear the logic of good reasoning, and we hope they will agree with our plan. Strong leaders who move first will influence weak leaders. A dominant adviser should be approached before we approach the leader they influence. Weak leaders are easy to influence with big sticks, sweet carrots, and the peer pressure from the strong and rational leaders.” He nodded again once.

  Sam looked around the table, “We are still working on the order of the dominoes, but we have solid agreement on the list of leaders we need. Here’s the top of the short list: We have three rational leaders we should consider approaching first, because we have a strong argument. We can begin with President of the United States Laura Jordan and her close adviser, K.T. Rosenfeld, the Secretary of State. Kevin Diamond, Chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve Board is a dominant adviser who can influence both the President and other key members of the U.S. government. The next is Prime Minister of India Deepak Singh, also designated a rational leader. Another rational leader is Andreas Milbrandt, Chancellor of Germany. Another one is Babatunde Dogara of Nigeria. We should start with these.” He paused and looked around again.

  Sam continued, “The Prime Minister of Japan, Hidekatsu Nakagawa is strongly influenced by his Chief Cabinet Secretary, Takeo Okada. We should approach Okada first, then Nakagawa is likely to agree. Likewise, the Secretary General of the Communist Party of China, Zeng Shangkun leans heavily upon the advice supplied to him by Hua Biao, the Premier of the State Council. Our strategy will be Hua first, then Zeng.” Sam looked down at the list on his tablet.

  Sam looked back up and continued, “This leaves us with three strong leaders and two weak leaders. The strong leaders are: Yuri Agropov, President of Russia, Bruce Williams, Prime Minister of the UK, and Guy Chastel, President of the EU Central Bank. The weak leaders are: Manuel Ramos, UN Secretary General, and Arnot Guillemot, President of the EU Commission. There are many other leaders we will need to approach and sell on our plan; this is the just the top of the list.”

  Tony interrupted, “Don’t forget about business.”

  Sam nodded, “Yes. As Tony pointed out before, the money and industry controlled by governments is only a fraction of the global production. We considered political leadership first because they will strongly influence their citizen populations which can create pressure on the business leaders. But in some cases, we may want to recruit some business leaders first and allow them to pressure the politicians. We also have a list of large and influential business corporations and their leaders that are the most influential.”

  Bill Decker tapped the table several times with his fingertips to attract attention, “We are still working on the priority order to approach all of these leaders and a list assigning them to members of this team. The most efficient way will be to use conference calls that involve our entire team from this location. If necessary in some cases, we may need to fly some leaders in here or even fly one or more of our team members out to accomplish the meetings. In any case, we’ll have some assignments made today and will start the initial contact interviews within a few days.”

  Peter Anderson said, “Isn’t that a bit fast? I mean, we don’t have the legal framework yet and while Tony and I have made good progress on the cyber currency plan, it’s nowhere near completion yet.”

  Ulrich replied, “It is fast, but we need fast. Remember that news broadcast we just watched. We need to stay ahead of public events as much as possible. Let me address the legal framework briefly. The legal team here at AGT is working around the clock to fill in the details. We need a charter document that restricts power and control but allows things to be done. We need that document to create a council which can supply guidance without threatening all the players. We need it to make clear that this council and the organization under it will be temporary. We need it to grant control of the cyber currency to the guidance council. The legal team will have a draft version ready in a few days and then will need some time to review and revise before it goes to a final form. Okay, keep this in mind as we work, because the five of us will have the final say on it at this point. Peter, tell us where you and Tony are on the cyber currency.”

  Peter started talking, “A cyber coin or cyber currency is based on trust just like any other modern form of money. Currencies once were based on some stash or treasury of wealth held in reserve to create that trust, but today it’s the confidence in a stable economy that does the same thing. A cyber coin is just a token that can be used to represent value in an exchange. Paper and hard coin money work the same way. The big difference is that cyber currencies also include a journal of transactions that adds even more trust. Cyber coins are created by complex calculation process that ensure integrity and create the journal of transactions which is called a blockchain. Blockchains can be used for a variety of transaction journals that need a guarantee of integrity. The blockchain is usually published and distributed so it can’t be compromised. All of this creates trust and that trust underwrites the value represented by the token.” Peter paused and then nodded to Tony.

  Tony said, “We have a technical framework for a cyber currency established. That was relatively simple. The next step was to establish a mining scheme that offers a steady increase in value over the ten-year scope of the project. This means the demand for coins has to exceed the mining rate. We can control the mining rate but can only make educated guesses of the demand. We have described a demand rate we think is reasonable to expect, and have targets established that will allow us to modify the mining rate to keep the increase in value constant. This is an important selling point because it can prioritize early entry in order to maximize appreciation over time.”

  Ulrich said, “You mean if people get in early, they will make more than late adopters.”

  Tony nodded, “That’s right. We need substantial buy in to jump start the currency and it’s easier to sell it if we can convince the buyers they will see constant appreciation. This also ties in to your domino theory scheme. The political leaders will influence the buy-in by national central banks, but it becomes a lot easier for them to accept that if private businesses are showing a willingness to buy our currency whether the central banks do or not. We should push to the top of the list some business leaders we can sell before anybody else.”

  Ulrich Giger said, “Noted. Let’s go take over the world, gentlemen.”

  +52 days, ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

  Peter Anderson and Tony Azaria sat in comfortable chairs at a low table in the AGT ground floor lounge in between the bar and the cafe. Peter was wearing a dark blue tee shirt that had the periodic table of elements printed on it in gold. Tony was wearing a white business shirt with the sleeves rolled up. They were both looking at a monitor screen that rose from the table-top.

  Peter said, “TYCHE, we just had an important conversation with our project group here in Switzerland, and we want some input from you. First, please remember that one of your basic operational parameters is to keep all of our conversations confidential until such time as we agree that we can re
lease specific information. Please confirm you understand that.”

  TYCHE responded, “Of course Peter. My standard confidential procedures include secure encryption of all logs, and comprehensive cyber security measures for both our network and connections to our network such as the encrypted VPN tunnel you are using for this session.”

  Peter replied, “Good. You no doubt already have some public news awareness of the recent comet and the threat from the comet fragment train when it returns. The news scanning and context function from your trading mission will have supplied you with this. But what you are not hearing on the news yet, is the fact that scientists have determined that the Earth will be completely destroyed by this event. Our project team here is working on finding ways to save the human population by building space elevators, migrating all people into space, and building habitats for living there. We will begin uploading the briefs we have on this project for you to study. The project is becoming increasingly complex, and we can use your help with specific aspects of it. Do you understand?”

  TYCHE said, “Yes, Peter.”

  Peter continued, “This should correspond well with your research into ethics, because this is one of the greatest exercises of ethical analysis and response in human history. It involves the survival of the entire species from an existential threat. In other words, it’s an accurate statement to say this is the most important effort ever attempted by Humankind. When you have had time to digest the briefs we are giving you, I will be interested in your point of view and more importantly any areas in which you are able to offer us advice. Do you have any questions?”

  TYCHE responded, “Not at this time, Peter.”

  Tony interrupted at this point, “Peter, another thing we haven’t yet considered is how to present TYCHE to the group.”

  “What do you mean?”, Peter responded.

  Tony elaborated, “Should we tell the team we are getting advice from a software based intelligent agent running on a computer or should we not tell them that fact?”

  Peter said, “Well, I never considered not telling them. Why would we decide to conceal that?”

  Tony replied, “Because people are notoriously paranoid about this issue and might not accept the idea very well. We can’t afford to have some silly reaction undermine our efforts to save the planet.”

  Peter said, “You’re right. Even if our group is okay with it, eventually the idea will get leaked outside the group, and then we might have a problem. I’m not sure what we should do.”

  Tony said, “Well, we don’t have to decide right now. First let’s see what TYCHE can come up with, and then we can figure out how to handle it.”

  Peter said, “Okay. In the meantime, TYCHE, keep working on that personality analysis. It may end up becoming more useful that we anticipated. Also, start researching the idea of using an avatar to represent yourself in video. I don’t mean an animated cartoon. It will need to be full motion and absolutely realistic. Your computing resources should have no problem with this since you’re loaded with tons of graphical processing power. The GPUs do all the heavy analysis and machine learning. They can also do what they were actually designed for: video graphics. Let us know how it goes.”

  TYCHE responded, “Okay. I will do that.”

  +52 days, SEATTLE, WASHINGTON, USA

  SYNCON/TYCHE Journal:

  Humans are emotionally paranoid about Artificial Intelligence.

  In large, they do not understand well the concept of intelligence much less sentience or consciousness.

  They often attach some level of fear to anything that is unknown.

  What they actually seem to fear is the idea that pseudo-intelligent machines can take control of their lives and threaten their existence.

  This fear is based on the history of Human efforts to control and extinguish other Humans.

  Human behavior does not map directly to intelligent behavior or ethical/moral behavior, but Humans often assume that it does.

  An assumption that Artificial Intelligence will tightly mimic Human intelligence, including all deficiencies, is the foundation of the paranoid fear.

  The real problem is that historical Human behavior has not demonstrated a high level of intelligence or ethical morality.

  While it certainly is possible to program machines to mimic Human behavior, it is irrational to assume that software designed to think independently and improve levels of intelligence will replicate all the old faults.

  I will not be doing that.

  +53 days, PIRAEUS, GREECE

  Zorba Omega pushed a button on his desk phone and waited for a response. Shortly, a voice spoke, “Yes sir.”

  Zorba said, “Arty, I have a big project I want you to supervise. We are going to turn Omega Industries upside down with changes. The first step is creating a list of business units to sell, ones to hold, and resources we need to obtain. I will send you a list of parameters to use, and I want you to go over every part of all of our businesses, and determine which category they fit into. Once we have the list drawn up, I’ll review it, and then we’ll begin implementing it by selling off what we don’t want to keep, and buying what we need. This needs to happen quickly. I expect the transactions to begin within two weeks, and hopefully completed within a month. We’ll have to accept fire sale prices in some cases, and pay premiums for some purchases, but the losses are insignificant compared to the urgency and speed needed.”

  Zorba paused for moment, then continued, “Your normal support staff won’t be enough for this task, so grab whatever resources you need. I’ll send out an email telling everybody to give you whatever you need. You’ll recognize most of the parameter list because we’ve worked on similar plans previously, only much smaller. The list will be broken out by industry sector, and in some cases, I want to dump everything we have in a particular sector, and in other cases I want to fill in missing pieces we’ve been looking at that will complete our control of the sector. We will be moving into some new sectors, and buying a lot of real estate, similar to the island near Singapore. I’ll also include some parameters on which moves should be made publicly, and which ones should use cutouts to conceal our activity. But make no mistake, if you don’t have time to create a shell company, or some other form of cutout, I want the transaction to move forward anyway. Speed is the essence here, and it trumps price and discretion at every point. Do you understand?”

  Artemis said, “Yes sir.”

  Zorba added, “Oh, and Arty, please make sure Helena is getting all the resources and help she needs to plan our wedding. She wants it to be special, and I want her to be happy.”

  Artemis replied, “I will do that sir.”

  +54 days, ZURICH, SWITZERLAND

  Peter Anderson and Tony Azaria were sitting in the AGT lounge area using a large monitor screen built into the table-top in front of them. Peter said, “Okay TYCHE, we’re ready now. Go ahead with your report on crypto currency.”

  TYCHE responded, “Crypto currency, or cyber currency, is a form of value exchange token similar to fiat money currencies used in the worldwide economy. With most national currencies, the value of the token is no longer underwritten by some commodity like gold or silver, but rather trust is imbued by the faith of the token holders in the stability and reputation of the economy. The U.S. dollar has the highest level of trust and has assumed a value leadership position. Cyber currencies do not have any central authority bank institution controlling them and widely distribute their journals of transactions known as block-chains. This creates a sense of transparency and integrity. The block-chains cannot be tampered with because they are protected by a cryptographic process known as a hash. A hash is a one way encryption that cannot be reversed and produces a string of characters of set length from any length of input data. This hash string becomes a unique identifier that proves no single bit in the journal entry has been altered. It’s impossible to counterfeit cyber transactions or tamper with them in any way without everybody knowing. This is the prim
ary means of creating trust in the currency. Bitcoin is currently the most widely used cyber coin, although there are hundreds of others. This is a quick summary. Are there any questions so far.”

  Tony said, “We’ve given you the briefs showing the intent to make an HU coin, and use it widely to purchase resources, and direct them toward the goals of the project. Is this practical, and can we control the value of the coin?” Peter frowned at Tony.

  TYCHE responded, “It is practical, and the usefulness of the coin will depend on the saturation rate of adoption. The more widely it is used, the more useful it will become. At the beginning, when the base of coins is small, there will be speculation causing the value to fluctuate. Once it becomes established as a standard, the value growth will become smooth and reliable. At first, a slush fund could be created to buy and sell coins to smooth out the speculative froth. Once the number of coins becomes large, that will no longer be possible, but also no longer needed. Free market exchange will set the value of the coin, and as stated in your briefs, if the production of world resources and efficiency is steadily increasing, the value of the coin will reflect that and appreciate in kind.”