up or down, and a throat mike. "Matilda, go to remote. Level 5 security." On remote, Roger talked to Matilda through the mike and not through the imbedded transmitter under the skin in his jaw.
“Okay."
He entered a lift directly in front of his floater. "Roger Gorman, office 1007."
After a short pause, a new voice said, "Identity confirmed," and the lift took off quickly. Within 15 seconds, the doors opened, and Roger exited into the hall outside his office. He went straight into the office. "Lights to 50 percent and temperature to 74 degrees. Office display on, and show the summary on new science developments." He sat down in a chair behind a desk that had almost nothing on it. The room was bare except for the desk and two chairs in addition to the one Roger was sitting in. As Roger spoke, the wall opposite the desk lit up and showed a series of news briefs. "Matilda, this is too general. Can't you reduce it to just significant developments?"
Over the headset he heard, "All you have to do is ask."
The number of news briefs was reduced to only 15. "That's better. You know how I hate to read."
"I love an intellectual."
"Funny. Office display off, headset display on." He flipped down the small 2 by 2 cm display in front of his left eye and continued reviewing the briefs as he got up from his chair and left the office. Just outside he ran into Dr. Sandra P.I. McKenzie, a slender blue-eyed blonde, almost as tall as Roger, and neatly dressed in a unisex business suit, very similar to what Roger was wearing.
Sandra said, "Headed for the meeting?"
"You know I am. Is this a chance meeting or do you have some ulterior motive?"
"Funny you should ask. I wanted to talk to you before the meeting."
"Cutting it a little tight weren't you? We have to be there in two minutes."
"This won't take long. I just wanted to ask you to support the direct brain communications link."
"Sandra, don't do this to me. You know I don't support it. Go pick on Dr. Hinnerman. He's a sucker for a pretty face."
"Seems to me there was a time you were too."
"Yea, but then I graduated from high school and learned better."
"That's not what you said a few months ago."
"A moment of weakness." They arrived at the door of the conference room and entered. There was a large glass table with 15 chairs around it. There were nine individuals already seated. Roger took the seat nearest the end. Sandra sat down near the middle.
A handsome man in his early 100's entered the room. He promptly sat down at the end of the table and said, "Good morning everyone."
There was a jumbled response from the group of "Good morning, Chairman Gradstien."
Gradstien continued, "Let's get started. I call to order this meeting of the Federal Allocations Committee and welcome all those members able to attend today's meeting. The opening presentation has been compiled over the last few weeks by our staff. Roger S.M. Gorman will be making the presentation. Roger, it’s all yours."
Roger stood up and nodded to Mr. Gradstien. "Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Matilda, all conference room displays on, lights to 20 percent, and start presentation 255A." All three of the display walls lit up and began showing a number of archival pictures.
A recorded version of Roger’s voice began, "I would like to welcome all the members of the oversight committee here today and to thank you for coming. The presentation you are about to see has been prepared for eventual distribution to all the governments in the Solar System."
He continued, "As you are all aware, the place of science in our society has changed radically over the last 50 years."
The scenes on the displays changed to match the narrative.
"For example, in medicine, there are no diseases in today's S-system.” Graphs and tables appeared on the displays showing statistics on aging, causes of death, etc. “All genetic defects are corrected in the womb. People are born and remain healthy their entire lives which have been extended to about 140 years.” Centegenarians were shown playing tennis and hiking on the screens. “Teams are working to extend that number even further; even though, most scientists believe 140 years is about the maximum without complete conversion to an artificial body—which, as we all know, is illegal due the unfortunate incidents that lead to the Cyber Wars of the 2070’s.”
“Also in medicine, spare organs can now be manufactured as quickly as needed.” Doctors were shown replacing bones and organs in patients laid out on operating tables. “Even broken bones, serious cuts, and contusions can be treated at home. And, mental illness can now be cured by a simple adjustment to one's neurological system. Doctors have nearly become a profession of the past. Most doctors can be found working in the outer edges of the S-system where accidents continue to occur."
"Speaking of our S-system, Mars’ population has grown to over one billion since it was terraformed almost 50 years ago. " In the center of the room, a holographic image of a slowly rotating Mars appeared. The viewpoint then zoomed in on the Martian city of Bradbury. "Venus is due to complete its terraforming in five years.” The picture of Mars was slowly replaced by an image of Venus. Large terraforming factories generating oxygen and water vapor are shown on the planet’s surface. “When completed, Venus will become home to even more colonists. Elsewhere in the Solar System, Mercury and Pluto have fully manned stations, as do all the large moons of the gas giant planets. The large gas planets have virtual-reality and robotic colonies that are continually taking pictures and samples of their surfaces. There are mining operations on many of the asteroids, and there are stations in orbit around every major planet. There are even a few in the Ort cloud. There are over 12 billion people in space. Aside from a few random events like comets, solar flares and mass ejections, we have tamed our S-system."
"In the area of Earth sciences, we now have bases on all the ocean floors." Holographic images of massive, domed enclosures were shown resting on the floor of the ocean. “We have learned to live within our environment. No species of plant or animal has gone extinct for over a hundred years. We have even managed to bring back a number of species that were extinct, like the mammoth and the cheetah. Though we found out that trying to control the weather was not feasible, there are no longer killer tornadoes, hurricanes, and the like. We have ample warning before an earthquake occurs or a volcano erupts, and we have safety measures to deal with these natural occurrences. Starvation is a thing of the past, as is crime, war, racism, over-population, and poverty. We have a government that is truly representative and somewhat superfluous. We have conquered all the social problems and physical dangers that have plagued our species since it dropped from the trees over 3 millions years ago."
“Just two hundred years ago, the majority of people on this planet were trying to find their next meal, to find a place to live, to find a mate and reproduce, to protect their families, or to just stay alive. That is no longer the case. We now have 20 billion people devoting their time and energy to the pursuit of happiness and the betterment of humankind.”
"As a result, technology permeates our society in all its aspects. We can have any information we need instantaneously. We can communicate with anyone in the S-system any time of the day or night. We can travel from one side of the Earth to the other in less than an half hour, or to the outer planets in just a few weeks. We have harnessed the energy of the sun, and power is essentially unlimited and free."
"Mankind should give itself a big pat on the back for what it has accomplished these last two centuries. The questions now are: where does science stand today and where do we go from here?" Roger’s narration paused for emphasis.
"Well, let me attempt to answer these questions. The first one is easy. Science today is stagnating. There are some interesting projects in the works, including direct communications between the human brain and electronic systems." Roger looked at Sandra. "Although we all remember the psychotic consequences from the last time that
was tried. Other projects that appear promising are noted here." The displays showed the list of 15 items that Roger had managed to update just prior to the presentation. "But let’s be honest, these projects are just marginally improving on concepts that are already mature technologies. There are areas of science that have ceased to exist due to a lack of an influx of new ideas and development.”
“A 15-year-old university graduate wants to work on original or unique concepts. He doesn't want to take the place of some elderly scientist ready for retirement in a mind-numbing job. But that is what is essentially happening. There is no longer any open ranges on our frontiers of science."
"There is one exception—one major area of science that still attracts the brightest minds in the S-system: faster than light travel (FTLT). All the major scientific institutions in the S-system have made a stab at developing FTLT over the last 150 years. Today, we have ships that are capable of traveling 65.4367 percent of light speed. Not bad, but still not good enough if we plan to visit other stars. At that speed, a round trip to our closest stellar neighbor would take 12 years. Not very practical. As the problem of FTLT began to appear more and more irresolvable, the scientific community poured more of its resources into solving the more mundane problems of society and nature,