CHAPTER 6
Science or Bust
The New York Collage of Technology was located along the western edge of Brooklyn just across the ancient Brooklyn Bridge from Manhattan. Together with the neighboring New York University campus that sprawled just to the north of it, this was a major City center of learning and Omega node. Several other nearby institutions also participated with them in Omega research, including St. Francis and St. Joseph's Colleges, Long Island University, and the Pratt Institute.
"Welcome! Welcome! Welcome!" said the be-speckled little woman that greeted the party with handshakes and hugs when they exited the Humvee. "I'm your host this evening Professor Amanda Lee, Dean of the College! Call me Amanda. You are of course Chief Ed, Detective Driscal, and our very frequent and very welcome guest and colleague Mary! Your images, biographies, and news of your quest to find the kidnappers precede you, not to mention various news stories over the years!"
She escorted them into a big new building, with Driscal pushing Mary's wheelchair. It was unclear who benefited most from that arrangement; underpowered Mary or the awkward zombie. Inside dozens of students and faculty were scurrying about, but they each and every one of them paused to exchange warm greetings with the affable Professor Amanda, including several Stone-Coats and zombies. "We have about twenty minutes before the main lecture hall is ready for the presentation you requested. Can I interest you folks in some food? My office is right here where I can welcome guests to the College. And there are rest rooms here also, right across the hall."
Ed and Driscal took a quick trip to the restrooms, while Mary settled into a cold station in the Professor's office that was designed to keep visiting Stone-Coats nicely chilled. When the men returned to the office they found Mary already providing an overview of their situation to the Professor, while the Professor sat listening behind her big desk munching on a thick sandwich. There was a big plate of sandwiches in front of her which she shoved invitingly across her desk towards Ed and Driscal as they sat down in the two chairs next to Mary. She also reached into a small refrigerator behind her and retrieved several small glass bottles of apple-juice that she passed around to her guests.
"Are you carrying any jants with you that need food?" the Professor asked Driscal.
"No," said Driscal. "My entire colony is in the Humvee. They could use a re-stalking of perishable provisions however, if you have some to spare."
"She has them," said Mary. "Scientifically determined by a Space Program sponsored project to provide for all jant nutritional needs. Very similar to Cat food, actually. Purina is starting to market it as a dual-use cat or jant food."
"And it has been jant tested and approved by the Eastern Consortium itself," added Amanda. "I'll have one of my assistants make up a twenty pound bag of healthy jant goodies for you before you leave us. Meanwhile those sandwiches should serve to energize the human components of this unusual group."
"Thank you ever so much!" agreed Ed, as he bit into a tasty tuna-on-rye sandwich. He hadn't realized how hungry he had become until he did. He was astonished to find himself eating real tuna, instead of tuna flavored beans made to resemble tuna. Amanda must have connections with the fish-market folks, he concluded. Driscal was very hungry also, apparently, as he was soon also rapidly consuming a sandwich. The human half of zombies needed human food, of course, though they didn't seem to get quite as much enjoyment from it as live humans did.
"It looks like Mary's text to me requesting food was a good idea," said Amanda.
"You need to take care of yourself Ed, even during this crisis," said Mary. "You won't find Tracy and Mouse by starving yourself. And you'll need rest too. I've ordered nearby hotel rooms in Manhattan for us. I'll continue to work through the night of course, but you and Detective Driscal will need sleep at some point tonight."
Ed had hoped to go home to be with Ann and the children for the night, but he raised no objections.
"To that practical end I suppose that we should get this show started," said Amanda, as she and her guests finished their sandwiches and drinks. She led them down the adjoining hallway towards the nearby lecture hall. They passed several obvious Stone-Coat cooling stations, built to chill bulky Stone-Coats to temperatures that supported their efficient locomotion.
"What's this?" asked Ed, pointing to the doorway of a side-room that they were passing. "I sense jants inside, many millions of them comprising at least a dozen colonies!"
"It's a sort of jant daycare center for the convenience of the zombie students and faculty that must carry their jant colonies about with them wherever they go," explained Amanda. "As I am sure you are well aware, zombies and their associated jant colonies must essentially remain within a few miles of each other, at least the zombies of rogue colonies do. Consortium jants can in theory of course pass zombie-care between colonies, but that's not a preferred practice."
"For sure," said Driscal. "The zombie usually survives physically but it messes up both zombies and the jant colonies that are involved psychologically. The Consortium only supports such transference in emergencies."
"AT SOME POINT WE NEED TO COMMUNICATE MORE WITH THE EASTERN CONSORTIUM," Ed said silently to his zombie NYPD companion. "WE COULD DO THAT HERE. THERE ARE AT LEAST TWO CONSORTIUM ZOMBIES HERE, I CAN SENSE THEIR CHATTER."
"I HAVE A DIFFERENT PLAN TO DO THAT LATER TONIGHT," replied Driscal. "FOR NOW LET'S GET THIS STUPID LECTURE BUSINESS OVER WITH."
In the lecture hall a couple of hundred students and faculty were gathered. Some were busy talking with each other, but most were self-absorbed and taking advantage of the high capacity computing and communications resources provided by each audience seating-assembly. Most however dutifully shifted their full attention to Amanda and the visiting guests when they entered the room and made their way to the podium.
"Tonight we will provide an overview of the concerns for and about science and technology that we face during these difficult times," Amanda began, after introducing the guests and seating them in the front row. "Human science efforts have suffered greatly since the onset of human induced climate change, and despite the reprieve provided over the last several decades by increased Space Project funding, science as a whole remains poorly funded and supported.
"Human attention and resources are understandably focused primarily on national and international crisis situations that arise one after the other as the ecological webs of life and human institutions of civilization established over past centuries and eons are stressed to their breaking points and beyond.
"Science enabled technology may indeed help save us but it brings with it problems as well as solutions, as some of our presentations here will suggest."
The first speakers re-hashed much of the same depressing material that the visitors had heard earlier that day: druids vs. engineers, religion-driven science rejection, poor education, anti-intellectualism, Internet drivel, and other impediments to science and its support by society were briefly described. The visitors stayed awake by looking for the kidnappers among the crowd using their individual talents. As at previous stops their efforts led nowhere. If the kidnappers were in the audience they weren't easily detectable.
"Science should be used more in establishing morality and public policy." argued a speaker. "Science now understands much about human nature that isn't adequately taken into account by society, including a better understanding of such things as reciprocal altruism, moralistic punishment, within-group amity and between-group enmity, and how trade and other societal contacts help establish trust between peoples. What can or can't be supported by science should be treated as major factors in defining a science-based morality that drives social change and relationships. For example it has been established by science that democratic countries and international trade reduce the probability of international conflict."
A systems analyst then discussed the inadequacy of current global and national social systems and institutions to deal with crisis, and how in many instances a crisis in one re
gion spread to another region with the unintended help of technology due to dependent coupling between different parts of the system. "Globalization is a good thing except when it isn't, and the associated technology that supports globalization is a many-sided sword." He also pointed out the unavoidable vulnerability of the computer systems that were closely linked together across the world due to fundamental requirements to communicate and integrate information.
"Despite safeguards even unintended problems have a tendency to cascade through the Internet linked systems." he pointed out. "Hackers cause problems, surely, but particularly since the establishment of strong international anti-hacker and anti-identity theft laws and law enforcement, most information disruptions are due to quirky design weaknesses instead of deliberate attacks. As the system becomes more complex, issues are becoming far more difficult to diagnose and prevent, even with less hacks and identity thefts in the mix."
Another speaker provided a quick overview of robotics technology, which was continuing to advance dramatically despite climate change induced crisis situations. Across much of the world most routine physical chores were now automated, but that also meant that most jobs for humans were gone. Most routine maintenance of robotics was also now carried out by autonomous robots, as was most design, assembly, and maintenance of the robots themselves. Some robots were even declaring themselves to be sentient and were demanding to have equal rights that would be protected by laws.
The most advanced robot abilities were typically needed and developed by the Space Program, since space probes need to function and maintain themselves independently far from Earth for many years. The long dreaded point of 'artificial intelligence singularity' at which computers achieved consciousness was reached decades ago but the consequences were still slowly emerging. Now that some robots were both sentient and self-replicating, serious consequences both good and bad were increasingly likely to materialize.
"Interesting," commented Ed. At the remote Mohawk reservation where he had lived most of his life there were few robots, none of them sentient. "What do the more advanced robots think of themselves and what is the Stone-Coat perception of them?"
"Robots thus far lack the integrated society and similarities of viewpoints shared by Stone-Coats," said the researcher, who happened to be a Stone-Coat. "Robots embody enormous computing power but lack the computational nuances that have evolved into Stone-Coat thought and culture over many millions of years of evolution. We indeed regard some advanced robots to be actual primitive life-forms, though many details of their physiology remain crude by our standards."
"There are rogue jant colonies," noted Driscal, "are there also rogue robots?"
The Stone-Coat shrugged human-like. "Unknown by this researcher. But that is not a logical impossibility. Rather, I think that it is inevitable."
Ed and Driscal exchanged jaw-dropped glances. "SHIT," Driscal said silently.
"What about robot physical and mental capabilities?" Driscal asked. "Strength and speed and computer skills such as hacking, for example."
"All beings are of course limited by the immutable characteristics of physical laws," the lecturer replied, "but truly advanced robot capabilities could be great compared to human and perhaps even Stone-Coat life-forms. What has been actually achieved in terms of robot capabilities by secret Government programs is unknown to us, but there are disturbing rumors."
"Swell," said Ed. He'd have to talk to Jerry about this. The Space Program was Jerry's pet project.
The next speaker argued for a while that there were not enough robots to satisfy human needs, but then noted that most human jobs were being eliminated by automation including robots, with very troublesome societal consequences, despite obvious advantages. Human work-hours were at an all-time low, with full retirement typically after thirty years of work.
A Stone-Coat speaker presented the possibility of the Internet-interfaced computers of the world collectively acquiring sentience and essentially controlling the world. "That seems obvious and inevitable to us. Self-programming abilities already abound, and the interlinked computational resources are incredibly high. It may have already happened and we wouldn't necessarily even know about it. The Internet and associated cloud of computers have for decades housed most information and have been used by people to control other people. Intentional disinformation obtained from humans has been a huge problem since the Internet was started. Imagine an Internet that itself subtly changes information to suit its own purposes. Resources could be shifted. Wars could be started. The possibilities are almost limitless."
"Why should we fear a computing entity that has no physical abilities?" asked a skeptical faculty member.
"And couldn't we simply pull out the plug?" asked another. "That would surely destroy any ghosts in the computer system."
"The physical capabilities to be concerned with are provided by the Internet users themselves: humans, Stone-Coats, and even jants," said the lecturer, "whom may all be subtly influenced and controlled due to the knowledge control of the Internet computing system. And of course as earlier discussed, linkage with and between physically capable robot entities could also be expected to be exploited by such cloud entities.
"As to 'pulling the plug' on hundreds of millions of computers, that would be far too devastating in itself; human civilization is far too dependent on computers and the Internet. Besides, how would such an event be organized and simultaneously carried out if communications are controlled by the entity itself? The controlling consciousness could be redundantly spread throughout millions of computers as a cloud computing entity. Normal back-up mechanisms would actually preserve and protect it. In sum it would simply resume operation when it was plugged back in again. Destroying it would be almost a physical and practical impossibility.
"Consider also that the Internet could support multiple such entities and their evolution, all hidden from us. The Internet-linked world computing system is a new life-supporting ecosystem; an environment in which a new form of life may emerge and thrive and possibly threaten other forms of earthly life."
"I can't comprehend how such an entity would come to learn self-preservation," an audience member objected.
"Well," replied the lecturer, "even the tiniest, simplest biological life forms 'learned' self and species preservation billions of years ago. Certainly we Stone-Coats also acquired that trait through some accident of nature hundreds of millions of years ago and retained it through evolution as a favored trait. Why should it be so difficult for sophisticated computing systems to stumble across it? The same logic applies, regardless of the medium involved. Besides, for a century humans have attempted to program human-like life and intelligence into machines; perhaps someone succeeded. So unlike with other life-forms, such a trait could have been consciously provided by human creators, along with other traits that favor survival and proliferation."
"Swell," remarked Ed under his breath.
"There are researchers that are even now attempting to detect the presence of such entities," concluded the lecturer, "but detection could be difficult or even impossible, since such entities could in principle subtly foil detection attempts carried out in their own environment. Humans have been detecting and deleting extraneous code and data for a century using so-called anti-virus techniques. It would be natural for any life-forms evolving in the cloud to evolve highly effective defenses against such programs."
Speakers then discussed the status of human science efforts. Status was mixed. Compared to before the onset of the climate change crisis science as a whole was less diverse, less funded, and less valued by society. The focus of government and privately funded research was understandably on crisis related practical applications and not on basic research to advance knowledge. The two exceptions were areas related to the still well-funded Space Program and areas that were thought to possibly lead to commercial profit. Anti-intellectualism, political, religious, social media, commercial, and other distorting and negative societal
influences on science were also again mentioned.
It was also argued that in some science areas intellectual and physical limits had been reached that could stifle further advance. Mathematics and physics frontiers had become so difficult to understand that further progress was seriously impeded. The understanding of complex systems and areas such as chaos theory, which had been a primary focus of basic science in the last few decades, also seemed to be encountering limits, even when human science was augmented by Stone-Coat and jant colony participation.
There were practical and physical limitations that seemed to defy further advances in some basic sciences. Bigger particle accelerators and more powerful telescopes were cost-prohibited. Closer observation of biological systems significantly distorted the biology being observed. Some theorists called such limitations part of a new 'uncertainty principle' that set insurmountable limits to the obtainability of deeper knowledge and spelled the end of science. Others maintained that such a notion was itself a self-organizing collective delusion. As resources found in space were discovered, some Earthly resource limitations to science were being overcome, though new ones then took their place.
Stone-Coat and jant participation in once human-only scientific endeavors was hailed as a huge positive factor, with Stone-Coat contributions largely in the physical and geological sciences, and jant contributions largely in biology.
Despite obstacles biological science had advanced enormously in the last century, leading to thousands of significant new applications. Improved food crop species grew in areas of the Earth undergoing climate change. New plant materials including fibers were used to fashion new physical products. Medical responses to plague outbreaks were quicker and more effective. Dozens of species that would have already gone extinct had been saved, and many more had been genetically analyzed and preserved for possible future rejuvenation. Together with tiny robotic nanites, genetically engineered biota had already begun to terraform Mars and Titan for eventual widespread habitation many centuries in the future by normal Earth life-forms.
Recent advances in biological science, supported greatly by jants and Stone-Coats, were also identified to constitute a double-sided sword to be worried about. Yes, biological understanding was greatly aiding the survival of human and other life-forms, but it also led to the potential for the creation of ever more deadly chemical and biological weapons. In the last few decades human bio-terrorists had initiated several deadly plagues that killed millions of people. Hundreds of millions more could have died, if not for the quick UN-led responses supported by clear-headed Stone-Coats and med-ticks/jants.
It seemed that for each wondrous application of biological science there were new opportunities for misuse. Rogue nations developed new biological weapons 'on-the-cheap'. Synthetic biology had matured such that new or greatly modified species could be created in laboratories all over the world. Deadly disease strains of microbes and new plant and animal species were being developed in garage laboratories and released to the unsuspecting world - jants being the most famous instance of a new and successful human-created species.
How jant creation would turn out in the end was still to be determined, claimed the speaker, though the contributions of jants towards biological science and medical practice were undeniably hugely positive. But what if a new sort of deadly creature large or small proved to also be as biologically successful as the jants? For instance, might some altered form of human strive to eliminate their human competition?
Ed was somewhat relieved when it was mentioned that Lamarckian evolution, though an emerging concern decades earlier, had mostly disappeared as a concern. Ed long suspected that Jerry Green had been responsible for both its emergence and its subsequent demise, using bio-products made in his garage-based laboratories. Nevertheless evolutionary change was operating at an accelerated pace due to climate change and other preasures. Even without Lamarckism, from the huge laboratory that was the Earth biosphere under stress from climate change, pollution, human changes to habitats, and other factors, altered species emerged daily, as they had done for billions of years.
The possibility of human/machine cyborgs was discussed. Many humans were already getting brain implants to aid in communications, memory and cognition, and other implants to reverse the effects of natural abnormalities such as blindness and paralysis that so far defied even the healing abilities of jant med-ticks.
The final speaker was a Professor Egborg, introduced by Amanda to be a visiting scholar from one of the other campuses whom at the last minute was added to the end of the program. Ed noticed right away that the little old man was a zombie, but as the Professor made his way from where he had been sitting inconspicuously in the audience to the speaker's podium Ed was surprised to find that he couldn't decipher his internal jant chatter!
"SOME ROGUE JANTS HAVE EVOLVED THEIR OWN COMPLEX LANGUAGE VARIATIONS," Driscal's jants told Ed silently. "UNFORTUNATELY THAT PREVENTS INSIGHTS INTO THEIR THOUGHTS BY OUTSIDERS SUCH AS US."
"I DON'T MUCH LIKE THAT!" interjected Mary. "I DON'T UNDERSTAND EVEN STANDARD JANT CHATTER MYSELF AND I DEPEND ON YOU TWO TO CHECK OUT THE JANTS! ON THE OTHER HAND THOUGH, EGBORG CHECKS OUT OK WITH RESPECT TO HIS UNIVERSITY RECORDS."
"I'LL HAVE MY NYPD PEOPLE CHECK HIM OUT DEEPER," promised Driscal.
The visitors weren't the only ones already exhibiting apprehension about Egborg. The several audience zombies were as perplexed as Ed by their inability to form telepathic connections with him, and humans and Stone-Coats alike were surprised to not recognize the man. Up to now speakers and their subject matter had been familiar to them.
"My fellow Omega members, I salute you for your diligence in studying the many dangers now faced on this obscure little planet," Egborg began. "But you can't see the forest for the trees, can you? You have mentioned the positive influence of Stone-Coats and jants on the human scientific enterprise, but downplayed the many negatives! What about the fact that med-tick application has decimated the human healthcare industry and associated research? The drug industry has been decimated! Human doctors have been in large measure been replaced by insects! The impact has been enormous! For example a thriving human organ replacement industry that relied on growing replacement organs for humans in laboratories and pigs has gone bankrupt! The health insurance industry has largely disappeared! Medical people are largely unemployed. World-wide millions of health professionals have lost their jobs."
"All for the good!" shouted someone from the audience. "Symbiosis between humans, jants, and Stone-Coats is saving the planet!"
"For the good of a growing human detachment from productive enterprise and a growing human stupidity," countered Egborg. "Symbiosis is the dirtiest word in the human language! What about negative impacts due to Stone-Coats? Doesn't it bother humans to find that Stone-Coat thinkers squirreled away and thinking in their ancient mountains millions of years ago developed far superior mathematics than humans ever managed? Doesn't it bother humans that hundreds of millions of their construction jobs have been taken over by soulless stone golems?"
"But I have perhaps allowed your farcical presentations to cloud my own," said Egborg, as he turned his gaze towards the visitors. "Chief Ed, Mary 11,123, and Detective Driscal, I salute your desperate but ultimately hopeless search for truth."
The words shocked Ed. How did he know all this? What 'truth' did he mean? Truth with regard to what had happened that morning? Was Egborg in with the kidnappers?
"I will meet again with you three searchers before your hopeless quest is terminated," continued Egborg. "At this point I merely suggest your hopeless naiveté with regard to the dangers that Omega discusses here and elsewhere at the CUNY campuses." He stared out into the audience with his penetrating gaze as he spoke, seeming to look into the minds of each of his listeners in turn, until his wondering gaze at last again locked onto Ed.
"Despite hints of dangers provided to you here tonight, the challenges faced by you are far greater than you imagine. Humans have
fouled their Earthly habitat and themselves, and fouled also the behavior of Stone-Coats and jants with emotion laden human thoughts and self-destructive habits.
"Science has always been your only hope; it's science or bust for you all. But you know not what you have already done with your scientific blunderings! Omega and similar projects that try to identify the dangers have failed you, and in summary you are already too late to stop what you have carelessly started." He again focused his eyes on Ed. "Continue your hopeless quest, Chief Ed, but in the end you will find only well-deserved failure and death!"
At that point there were grumblings from the audience as Egborg stepped away from the podium and Amanda rose from her nearby chair, clearly flustered by what had just been said, but exhibiting a forced smile and a determination to make the best of things. "Well that was, I think, just a bit too pessimistic a view for our final speaker," she said. "Professor Egborg, I do believe that Omega will press on and succeed despite such a gloomy outlook from you!" Amanda's statement drew positive exclamations and scattered applause from the audience.
Meanwhile Egborg didn't return to his seat, but instead walked with surprising swiftness towards an exit. Driscal sprang to his feet to apprehend him, but Amanda was already saying thank you and goodnight to the audience, who in response mostly stood in-mass and started for the exits, filling the isles and slowing the detective, who quickly lost sight of Egborg.
Minutes later they all gathered in Amanda's office. "He got away clean," announced Driscal. "A student outside said that she witnessed him being driven away in a big black sedan without license plates. I've put out an alert to NYPD to apprehend and detain him on suspicion of kidnapping."
"He was deliberately taunting and mocking us," said Ed. "I don't suppose there are laws against being a snooty asshole but if so he should be pursued on those grounds also."
"In the meantime I've just spoken to my counterpart at the CUNY school Egborg claimed to be from, and they've never heard of the man," said Amanda. "He's a fake, but his on-line records check out; that's why he was added to our program without question."
"The CUNY computer records were obviously hacked," said Mary. "Not your fault, Amanda."
"He'll be gang-tackled and detained if he ever sets foot in a CUNY school again, I'll see to that," Amanda said angrily. "Academic integrity needs to be maintained!" She walked the visitors out to their Humvee and gave Driscal a big sack of jant food for his jant colony before wishing them luck and saying goodbye.