Tales of the Vuduri: Year Three

by Michael Brachman

  “Does that include the mandasurte?” Rome asked.

  ”All right, for the Vuduri then. Life has never been better for them.”

  “What about the mandasurte?” Rome asked. “Do you think their lives have been improved because of the Overmind?”

  “No. But we thought we did not need them. We thought them superfluous.”

  “Review the events that transpired on Skyler Base once again. Review the performance of the Overmind and the Vuduri crew versus that of a single mandasurte, despite the fact that he was an Essessoni. Which made the better decisions?” said Rome.

  Rome could feel the tendrils of the Overmind digging deeper in her mind. In this case, she permitted it. She watched passively as the Overmind reviewed each choice made, step-by-step, comparing that which the Overmind made versus those of Rei and later Rome.

  At last the Overmind spoke again, “On Tabit, the Overmind there was only made up of 80 people. Therefore, it is possible that it did not have enough participants to be fully cognizant of all alternatives.”

  Rome “spoke” up immediately. “Your point is silly. The Overmind on Tabit, its samanda was Earth. Its thought processes were a mirror of how it is on Earth. And the fact is, it never considered any alternatives. That was its problem. As Rei said to me, if you ask yourself the same questions, you will always get the same answers.”

  “You and I are considering alternatives,” said the Overmind. “Does not that indicate I am something different?”

  “Now, yes. And why is that?” Rome challenged.

  The Overmind did not answer right away. Finally, it said, “Because of you. Because I have someone to talk to. I have never had this before.”

  Ah! It finally clicked. If you are sitting in your own little world and have no one to talk to, how would you ever work out any issues? Tomorrow, Rome presses on.

  Entry 3-047: February 11, 2015

 

  Feelings - part 2

  Yesterday, we saw that Rome continue to break down the Overmind's belief system. In the middle of Rome's Revolution, she had showed it that the simple act of having a dialog would allow it to broaden its view. Here is part 2 of that discussion:

  Finally, it said, “Because of you. Because I have someone to talk to. I have never had this before.”

  “Exactly. Do not each of the mandasurte represent someone to talk to? Look what we accomplished on Skyler Base with just one of them.”

  “Perhaps Rei is something special. Perhaps he is extraordinary. Perhaps the most extraordinary that has ever lived.”

  “I do not know about that, but…” thought Rome. “Even if he is, where would he be right now if you did things your way when we first arrived on this world?”

  “He would be dead,” said the Overmind.

  “Exactly. Look what he did for me. Look what I have become.”

  “Perhaps you are something extraordinary as well.”

  “Why, thank you,” Rome said in her mind. “That is very kind of you. You flatter me.”

  “I did not mean it as a compliment. It was simply an observation.”

  “Then taking it at face value, what are the chances of this most extraordinary man meeting such an extraordinary woman, people who were born 1400 years apart and running into each other 26 light years from Earth?”

  “Rather small, I would assume,” replied the Overmind.

  “So it is more likely that it was nothing extraordinary. Perhaps this is simply what happens when you allow nature to take its course. I propose to you that Rei and I, we are ordinary. What is extraordinary is when you allow the intermix of the Vuduri with the mandasurte. My parents produced me and here we are talking. Rei and I are the same.”

  “You are a woman, he is a man. That has to count for something. That has to be the difference. Not because of Vuduri and mandasurte.”

  Rome patted her stomach. “Regardless. Now you are back to celebrating dichotomy. You, the monolithic one.”

  “We do not need dichotomy. This is why we have dispensed with emotion. This is why we have dispensed with art. We have clarified, purified the thinking process of humans.”

  “To its detriment,” Rome thought. “This much I know. When I was part of the Overmind before, I believed what you believe. What choice did I have? Your thoughts were my thoughts from before I was born. I accepted it as a given. As soon as I was Cesdiud, I discovered a whole new world. I would never give that up. I would rather go Cesdiud again than give up music and laughing and,” Rome’s heart caught, “and Rei.”

  Here we see that Rome really does miss Rei. She knew what she was doing sending him away and it is taking its toll on her. Tomorrow, the conclusion of her lecture.

  Entry 3-048: February 12, 2015

 

  Feelings - part 3

  Yesterday, we saw Rome continue to break down the Overmind's belief system. In the middle of Rome's Revolution, she proved to it that feelings drive all behavior and it was completely necessary to give life any meaning. The Overmind tries a last ditch effort to prove her wrong but you know Rome. Here is the final part of that discussion:

  “But surely logic is superior to emotion. Emotion taints logic. The mandasurte embody emotion. We cannot have them taint us.”

  “Then why be human at all? Why not just let the computers win? They are pure logic.”

  “No!” protested the Overmind. “We cannot do that. The computers, they make decisions based upon expediency and efficiency. They only care about the end result, not the means by which it is achieved.”

  “So how are you different? How does your decision making differ from theirs? You who only wants to preserve himself?”

  “I am the Overmind,” it replied imperiously. “I am the collective consciousness of all the Vuduri on this world and I trace my pedigree back to Earth. Surely I cannot be wrong in all of these things.”

  Rome laughed. “Who are you to change a million years of evolution in so short of a time? Man was created with a left-brain and a right. Man is not just an analytical creature. Man is also made up of feelings, of creativity. You are taking that away. You are reducing civilization to a society of half-men, people who only use half their brains. This much I have learned. You need more than science. You need art. There is a time for planning but there is also a time for impulse. You need balance. Hear me: you need the mandasurte.”

  “There must be another way,” said the Overmind. “We cannot be dependent upon the mandasurte.”

  “What about space?” Rome said. “The Stareaters can jump through PPT tunnels. They can appear anywhere at any time. It is only the mandasurte that can guarantee safe passage.”

  “Then we will not go into space. We will use MINIMCOMs to man our spaceships.”

  “You will ground all the Vuduri just to hold back the mandasurte? You are going to entrust the future of all mankind to a computer? I think the road you are trying to take us down will ultimately be the end of mankind.”

  “How?”

  “We are back to my original premise. You need the mandasurte. They are the only way to keep the world safe. Left unchecked, you would have created a society that is unprepared for Asdrale Cimatir. You are the one who should be condemned for a crime that you have not yet committed. You have come so close. There is still time to change this. Free the mandasurte. Let them protect us.”

  “And who will protect me?” asked the Overmind timidly.

  “We all will. Humanity will be all the richer. Art, science, logic, feelings…all have a place. Let mankind flourish, not wither and die like some assortment of ants. This is the lesson taught us by the Stareater. It is not just death. It is showing us the road back to life and that means mandasurte and Vuduri together.”

  “I need to think about this. Once again, you have given me much to consider,” thought the Overmind.

  Entry 3-049: February 13, 2015

 

  Artificial Intelligence

  In the last few months, Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla M
otors and SpaceX and Stephen Hawking, world renowned physicist, have come out and proclaimed that artificial intelligence is the single greatest danger that mankind will ever face.

  In a speech given to MIT students, Musk said, "We should be very careful about artificial intelligence," warning it may be "our biggest existential threat." In an interview with the BBC, Stephen Hawking said, "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."

  Just two weeks ago, in an AMA on Reddit, Bill Gates echoed this as well. “I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence,” Gates wrote. “First, the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that, though, the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern.”

  So why is it that all these brilliant and successful men are warning us against building such machines? It's very simple. Once we allow computers or artificial intelligence to design their successors, we will very quickly lose the ability to even know what they are doing. The speed of evolution within machine-built machines will be millions of times faster than natural evolution. In Bill Gates' words, as a species, we would be superseded.

  In Rome's Revolution, such a fear underlies the entire Vuduri society. Once they allowed a computer named MASAL to do things, like create the 24th chromosome and declare it safe. Really not a good idea. You will see that in the upcoming novel entitled The Milk Run, Planet OMCOM does things that are in his own best interest but not necessarily that of mankind or the people that he is manipulating.

  So if we take all of these warnings together, we should just make it a rule that computers, or artificial intelligence, cannot build their own successors or offer modifications to humans. Those two simple rules should prevent Skynet and the rise of the machines.

  I hope.

  Entry 3-050: February 14, 2015

 

  Offloading Intelligence

  Yesterday, I presented some dire warnings from some of the smartest people on the planet on the dangers of artificial intelligence. Most of these dangers center around machines propagating themselves thus rendering us irrelevant.

  However, even today, the process of handing the reins over to the machines appears to have already begun. Google has self-driving cars. Everybody has smartphones, GPS, iPads, personal computers and so on.

  I am as guilty of this as anybody. Let me give you a simple, personal example. I do not know my son's phone number. I speak to him all the time but I have never bothered to memorize his number because my car knows it, my cellphone knows it and my iPad knows it.

  Remember phone books? Nobody uses phone books any more. You either Google someone's name or place of business or you call 411. And Yellow Pages? Google again.

  In my novel Rome's Revolution, I have tried to warn against this disturbing trend. The 24-chromosome Vuduri, living in the 35th century, have literally learned to not think for themselves. They have completely off-loaded that task to OMCOM, the Overmind, MINIMCOM, whatever will do the job. It takes somebody from our century, Rei Bierak, to show them the value in thinking for yourself and not just letting a machine do it.

  I'm not a Luddite and I am not anti-technology. I just think it should be used as a complement to normal, rational thinking and not a replacement.

  Think about that the next time you ask Siri to type a text message for you and send it to somebody whose phone number you don't even know. Beware Skynet!

  Entry 3-051: February 15, 2015

 

  The New Robot War

  As I have mentioned numerous times before, I wrote the first draft of what has become Rome's Revolution as a short story in 1973 entitled VIRUS 5. It only took me 40 years to finish it but it wasn't that difficult for me. I had been living with the characters and basic plot elements for so long that when I finally forced myself to type in the novel, it flowed fairly naturally.

  The next few books were due to what I call The Ark Lords Effect which is you just put your mind into the world you have created and watch, like a movie, and the next book just plays itself out.

  VIRUS 5 became Book 1. Book 2 was the natural outcome of wondering what happened when Rome and Rei got to Deucado. Book 3 was the natural conclusion of the elements set up in Book 2. The Ark Lords just fell out of me wondering what cause The Great Dying and why were the Darwin people so war-like? Rome's Evolution just came about because I wondered what happened to the few stragglers from Darwin and knowing that the Onsiras didn't simply disappear.

  My new novel, The Milk Run, should be coming out fairly soon. This book was tougher to write because I did not know the characters as well and I actually had to make up some of the elements to get a good, action-filled, story. My next novel after that, tenatively called Vuduri Knight, is just not coming to me. Other than one scene, I cannot think of why the characters got where they are and how they get out of the jam they are in. Until it comes to me, I can't write it. I'm not going to just wade in and hope that I figure it out along the way.

  But... something has occurred to me. I have been thinking about the Robot War. I know who the players are (MASAL!), what the conflict is about and the final resolution. And what could be more action-filled that a war against the robots?

  I may just have to say bag it and write that book first.

  Entry 3-052: February 16, 2015

 

  Why do I write? Part 1

  I consider myself a writer of hard science fiction. I am very proud of my Rome's Revolution trilogy. How did I get this way? Why do I write at all?

  The answer starts when I was young. Ever since I was a little boy, I loved dinosaurs. Once I learned how to read, all I ever wanted to do was read about dinosaurs. My next phase was Greek mythology. I read every book I could get my hands on about the gods and those times. Then I read A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle. This was the first science fiction book I ever read and that was the end of mythology. It was science fiction and science fiction alone for the next 50 years or so.

  When I was in High School, I took some writing classes and discovered I had a talent for writing. Good thing, too. I had no musical or artistic inclinations but I could string sentences together. In fact, on my SATs, I got a higher score in the verbal test than the math. Go figure.

  I took my first crack at writing science fiction my senior year in High School. Well, to call it science fiction is a bit of a stretch. It was more of a fantasy story that led up to a punchline. But that was the moment I knew I wanted to be a science fiction writer. It never, ever, occurred to me that I would be able to make a living doing that so I became a chemistry major at the University of Michigan. That didn't stop me from writing, though. In my sophomore year at Michigan, I wrote my first full-length sci-fi novel entitled VIRUS 5. Well, full-length novel is kind of an exaggeration as well. It was 20,000 words which would make it a long novelette or a short novella.

  In any case, it was too long for me. Why? This was way before we had word processors and I had to type the stupid thing by hand on my IBM Selectric Typewriter. It was just too much typing for creating multiple drafts. So I broke the story up into its constituent parts and came up with a 9,000 word story entitled Rome's Revolution but that didn't go anywhere. I actually wrote a half decent short story entitled Mars, Get Ready which was a cautionary tale about a civilization that developed weapons they could no longer control. I actually got a hand-written letter of rejection from the editor of the magazine I was submitting to. That was the pinnacle of my writing career. A personal, hand-written rejection note saying good, try again, we're interested.

  Then life got in the way. Wife, kids, mortgage, you know. Tomorrow, how it came back.

  Entry 3-053: February 17, 2015

 

  Why do I write? Part 2

  Yesterday, I gave you a little background of how I came to write science fiction. We left off when I acquired a mortgage. That was in 1980. For the next 17 years, I had to work really hard to su
pport a growing family and didn't have time to write. Finally, by 1997, my children were old enough and I had a good enough job that it was time to pick up the old hobby again.

  Please understand, I always had dreams of going back to writing but the gap was nearly 30 years before I wrote my next original story. It was called The Piranha Rats written in 1997. It was about a proposed species on Earth that was never fossilized that was responsible for the end of the dinosaurs. (Dinosaurs again!). It wasn't so much a story as much as it was a story idea. I packed it away along with its successors but the idea never left me. In fact, I resurrected them when I was writing my future history for the Rome's Revolution trilogy. I made the Piranha Rats responsible for the demise of the colony on Alpha Centauri established by the passengers aboard Ark I.

  That little snippet had just popped into my head. I only wrote down just enough to remember what it was about. The next idea that popped into my head was called Life Force Theory. It was supposed to be the integrated theory of all things scary. I wrote that in 1998. Just like The Piranha Rats, this idea got resurrected and will be integrated into the third act of my upcoming novel The Milk Run.

  Also in 1998, other ideas popped into my head. One was called Brain Slice Theory which worked its way into Rome's Evolution. Another was called QBH which became the underlying principle behind the Grey Drive which powered Rei's Ark to the stars. I wrote a story called Goddiving in 2001 which will also be integrated into The Milk Run. All of these stories were written 10 years before I even considered writing Rome's Revolution as a full-length novel.