by Judyth Baker
It was good to be here, Cook thought. As an environmental chemist, he remembered how, years earlier, he had endured some extraordinary hazards, such as crawling through collapsed underground tunnels that had been attacked by terrorists, or dragging oxygen-rich air-tubes down to asphyxiating miners. At those times, he wore air-tanks strapped to his back, not caring that he confronted by filthy with mud or dust. He never minded volunteering for such emergencies. He had even received an award for saving a Robot who possessed a human head, which had once belonged to the best and most experienced excavator – Charles Nottenham – and it was he who was the target of the terrorists.
But during a cavern’s collapse, the head of Charles Nottenham was left behind, weeping and begging as it sat perched on its helplessly flailing robot legs, while all the 100% humans had been rescued. Cook, hearing of it, went down with a miner who knew where to find Charles just before the breach was sealed off. After all, that was a human head and a human mind, Cook had argued. By the time they reached Charles, the pumping mechanisms were failing, and he died soon after the rescue, but not before expressing gratitude for the effort. It turned out that Charles was amazingly wealthy. In his dying breaths, he gave his entire fortune to Dr. Cook.
That’s how Cook was able to build his first oxygen-generating factory. It was based on the concept invented decades earlier by the Triton Oxygen Respirator system, which could extract oxygen directly from seawater.8
Cook was currently residing in a luxurious domed palace, full of Angel Air. He was a generous man who provided his workers at the factory and in their homes with air that was fully 19.88% oxygen, enhanced with occasional access to mind-expanding aerosols, and free of sleep-gas.
Only such sealed homes and workplaces held cargoes of truly alert citizens: not everyone could get that kind of good air. Cars provided the best protection for the poor, with their oxygen-generating and carbon dioxide filtration devices. Whereas cars were once for transportation, the vast majority of them now provided homes for the masses of the financially limited. These cars were stacked in safe, efficiently lined-up layers, within reach of fast food, coffee, toilets, showers and casinos. Specially engineered trees and flowers that could tolerate high CO2 levels were planted everywhere, their roots bathed in hydroponics, shading those who lived in the domes. Of course the vast majority of people still lived outside the cities, but as Thomas Hobbes had written, centuries earlier,
During the time men live without a common power to keep them all in awe, they are in that condition called war… every man, against every man. To this war of every man against every man, this also in consequence; that nothing can be unjust. The notions of right and wrong, justice and injustice have there no place. Where there is no common power, there is no law, where no law, no injustice. Force, and fraud, are in war the cardinal virtues. No arts; no letters; no society; and which is worst of all, continual fear, and danger of violent death: and the life of man, solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short.
This quote had been drummed into every citizen’s head, as part of their education. It was the lot of those outside the protected places. It was why the War against Terror was still being conducted, decade after decade. The outsiders were lawless, knowing only war and destruction. Patrols of robots were slowly eliminating the dangers, and with the deaths of the Outsiders would come better air to breathe.
Masses of people had once walked carelessly across the face of the planet, burning all manner of things, burning fossil fuels, sucking polluted air wastefully into their lungs as they smoked, as they committed murders, and waged wars.
Inside the cities and protected farms and power plants a more orderly and predictable world was thriving. There were even sightseeing trips by helicopter to view mountains and rivers and oceans, but even when they landed in such places, the visitors walked under great geodesic domes guarded by barriers to keep the air oxygenated. In the mountains, beyond the plexiglas and the polycarbonate tubes and the rigid, clear aluminum walls, they could see wild, untamed beauty, but they could not step into it without oxygen tanks.
Cook realized that his mind was wandering, and he recognized the source: they were being tranquilized. He tried to focus: he felt something unexpected was forthcoming, and he sensed it would be ominus in nature. Otherwise, the guests in this room wouldn’t be trying to find places to sit down. Cook remembered when there had been demonstrations against using tranquilizing gas on peaceful assemblies, but the defense had been that it was better than pepper spray, rubber bullets and handcuffs. And so, tranquilizers became fashionable. Cook believed they were employed all too often. He’d thought about getting his publicists to write an article linking tranquilizer sprays to the decline of shoppers and casino tourists in the recreation centers.
On the other hand, there was never any contamination, anymore, from pollen, no bug bites, no dust to make you sneeze. And the periods of enforced laziness, when tranquilizers calmed the people after an unpopular decision was reached in the City Council, or when they ran out of chocolate, were always supported by good arguments, most of them delivered to their brains while people were sleeping.
Cook stepped down as Madame Mayor’s podium began flashing an array of brilliant colors. She was about to speak. The drugs had created a sense of heat: Cook wiped the perspiration from his face just before a fresh rush of air from the vents surfaced to cool him. There was no more Angel Air now, and of all people, Cook missed it. The comfort level in the large room had declined rapidly. There had to be method in this madness, as the oppressive heat and the suffocating stagnancy became almost too much to bear. Through it all, Madame Mayor was speaking, in a mechanical way. Cook was certain he’d heard the first fifteen minutes of this speech before, but he knew that at any minute, they’d all be hearing the real news. One simply had to stay awake….
She was an intelligent, kind, worthy leader, he heard his brain telling him, recognizing, as he heard the words, that the thoughts were being implanted electromagnetically. Well, she was all those nice things, anyway, wasn’t she?
He absorbed everything he heard, knowing he was being encouraged by something in the air to absorb it accurately. He’d be able to repeat her speech word for word. He was grateful that this brilliant leader was sharing so much with him, and with everyone in this room. She cared. He admired her cool smile, her suave demeanor, her mannerisms, her calm, beautiful eyes…
In actuality, Ms. Awdrey was a tired, pessimistic, sturdy woman who, through her parents’ ambitious efforts and vast fortune, had been born a close genetic cousin of Angela Merkel, a woman who had once been an effective dictator in what was once called Germany. She very well understood the nature of all her friends and enemies. She had worked hard on the Air Quality Engineering Announcement, which she was about to release to the public. It hadn’t cost too much to get it presented properly to her adoring press. A fresh batch of drugs from M.D. Anderson Hospital laboratories had been developed and cleared just in time for the announcement. They no longer had to rely on shipments from foreign sources. Governments across the globe were all uniting now, against the Terrorists on the outside. Their minds were ready now, she knew, as she finished the first part of her speech and listened to the mechanical clapping of hands: they were mindlessly applauding. After giving Dr. Cook a beneficent smile, she raised her arms to get the room’s attention one more. Power depends on creating a state of mind, Cook realized.
Certain of her safety now, Ms. Awdry allowed the cylinder that had surrounded her to be lifted. As she did so, she could detect a slight sweetness in the air from the drug. Not enough remained to affect her, or her security guards…she gave a gracious smile as she descended from the podium – an act so rare that it elicited gasps of shock from her tranquilized guests.
“We will have a brief party after this Announcement,” she told them. “That will occur as soon as you wire in your stories and reports to your offices. The City Council has agreed to my proposals concerning air control priorities and necessi
ties, as provided to all residents of The City of Houston. At the same time, this announcement is being synchronized, so that every Mayor in the Lone Star State is informing our Texas citizens of this momentous, historical step forward.”
There was a shallow sigh of agreement from her listeners, who waited with patience for her next words. They were well primed, she saw, and she could proceed.“It is just and right,” Ms. Awdrey proclaimed, in a stentorian voice that shook them alert, “to impose a fee on garbage collections. On sewer systems and water. On food, and on housing, transportation and education. We all realize that the necessities of life come to us at a cost. In other words, we have to pay for those necessities.”
She paused again, her voice a little higher pitched, because the mind-altering drugs in the air were slightly affecting her, too.
“Therefore,” she said, smiling her best smile, “it should not come as a surprise to any of you that this conference is being held to deliver to you the rates and schedules we have agreed upon concerning the commodity we call ‘AIR.’”
She waited a moment, until the murmurs of surprise faded off…
“For some years now, AIR has been metered, filtered, cleansed, enhanced and delivered to Texas customers free of charge. And I might add,” she waved her hand toward a screen that descended from the ceiling, with a chart and some graphs on it, “I might add that the rest of the civilized world is delivering the same message to its citizens tomorrow. Though, I can proudly say, it is Texas who first took these historic steps. Steps that will guarantee the distribution and delivery of the best air possible to every qualified person in this city!”
She said it with triumph and began clapping her hands, and her audience responded with applause as well. Too quickly, the applause stopped, as the news began sinking in.
A hand went up.
That bespectacled iconoclast, who believed in ghosts, UFOs, and reincarnation! Riggs, as usual, was finding fault. He was the token Dissenter, and as was typical of him, he was trying to find a way to register a protest. With a grimace of displeasure, Madame Mayor nodded in his direction.
“Honorable Mayor,” the reporter said humbly, “May I ask a question?”
“It seems you will ask it anyway, Mr. Riggs,” she replied. “As you never seem to be satisfied with anything Houston City Council decides upon.”
Riggs flushed, but pressed on. “Isn’t air something which is a natural right?” he asked. “I mean, is it proper to sell air?”
“Selling is a harsh term, Mr. Riggs,” she replied. “And it’s hardly AIR, is it? ‘Air’ is what’s outside. Polluted. High in carbon dioxide and acid. It’s a life-destroying mass of gas, encircling the earth and dissolving the backbones of every fish still alive in the sea. They will soon be no more because of what you want to call air. What we intend to give you is a product. Enhanced. Perfect. Wholesome. Right now, Angel Air is a rare commodity which all of you have enjoyed tonight. What we are doing is to guarantee that you’ll be supplied with Angel Air at least four hours every night, and on holidays, while the everyday air you now enjoy will receive a bonus injection of .004% oxygen which, otherwise, your city and state could not afford to give you.”
“But, begging your pardon,” Riggs pursued, his face reddening as a series of boos came from the security guards. “Don’t punish me, please, but please, am I correct that you’re not giving us our air anymore, that you’re selling it?”
“Correct, Riggs,” she said, dropping any semblance of respect. She was tired. She’d spent hours haggling over the rates and the changes to the laws. It was done. The city’s revenues would double. Every car-home would be taxed, or confiscated. Any fanatics who didn’t like it could have their house supply shut off. It was a simple and efficient way to move the poor outside (yes, they would be allowed to take their car-homes with them). “Now, if there aren’t any more questions, I will avail myself of some of those beautiful shrimp that I see on the table.”
Cook watched Madame Mayor’s face swell up with an effusion of pride and power as she stepped away from the podium. The thought went into his brain, from somewhere, that a new era was dawning. Why had it taken so long for humanity to get control of its airspace? A euphoria began to engulf him as Ms. Awdrey shook his hand, and then, in a gesture of plebian humility, helped herself to some shrimp.
A vestigial twinge of fear went through Cook as she turned her face to look at him, nibbling on one of the last of the living things still in the oceans. He knew exactly what he would be saying to her in a few hours, as they finalized the contracts, but a part of him still wanted to ask her who had made this decision. Who was in control of the air? As he thought of the question, an answer came flickering into his brain, and though he knew he had been fed the words, they were the right words: It doesn’t matter, Everything is under control. Everything is perfect now.
This story was inspired by remarks made by Prof. Robert Randall, University of Houston, Department of Anthropology, 1985.
Endnotes
1. Transparent aluminum pane thechnology, once only a Star Trek IV: the Voyage Home trivia fact, exists and currently is made by Raytheon into panes big enough to use in an elevator window or in armored vehicles, where its protective utility exceeds that of bullet-proof glass. Transparent aluminum, also known as ALON, is made of aluminum oxynitride, which, melted and polished, is as hard as sapphire and transparent as glass. ALON offers more view-through clarity than conventional bulletproof glass and is far stronger, but because bulletproof glass is literally less than ten dollars cheaper per square foot, currently US troops have to function without its superior protective use as glass in armored vehicles and for protective body armor. See: http://science.howstuffworks.com/transparent-aluminum-armor4.htm Acquired Feb. 4, 2016.
2. Increased carbon dioxide levels in air restrict plants’ ability to absorb nutrients Date: June 12, 2015.
Source: University of Gothenburg Summary: The rapidly rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere affect plants’ absorption of nitrogen, which is the nutrient that restricts crop growth in most terrestrial ecosystems. Researchers have now revealed that the concentration of nitrogen in plants’ tissue is lower in air with high levels of carbon dioxide, regardless of whether or not the plants’ growth is stimulated. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/06/150612104016.htm Retrieved June 15, 2015.
3. “Too Much Carbon Dioxide May Have Caused Earth’s Worst Mass Extinction” by Emily Atkin Apr 13, 2015 1:42pm “The worst mass extinction in Earth’s history may have been caused by huge amounts of carbon dioxide that accumulated in the atmosphere and the ocean after colossal volcanic eruptions in Siberia 252 million years ago, according to a new study. In addition to coating ancient Siberia with thick lava, the famed eruptions also released massive amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which the study says may have turned the oceans sharply acidic. That acidity is thought to have driven a “global environmental calamity” that killed 90 percent of Earth’s species – also known as the “Great Dying” between the Permian and Triassic periods. The fact that an ocean acidification event driven by carbon dioxide may have caused a mass extinction provides a “cautionary lesson for today,” wrote Eric Hand in the April issue of the journal Science, where the study was published Friday.” See: http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/13/3646211/boom-youre-dead/ Retrieved July 10, 2015.
4. Note this patent: “Improved breathing apparatus. European Patent Application EP0241169; Abstract: A breathing apparatus providing security of oxygen supply …with the potential for a long duration comprises personal gas supply means (10,11,12) connected to a canister, 3, containing a substance generating oxygen on reaction with carbon dioxide and moisture in a wearer’s exhalations. A bottle of compressed oxygen, 6, doses oxygen into the breathing circuit when required by the wearer.” We can guess that the “substance” involves“potassium superoxide (KO2) “…as a source of oxygen … where the air is so deficient in oxygen that an artificial atmosphere must be reg
enerated …[breathing’s moisture] reacts with superoxide to liberate oxygen and at the same time the potassium hydroxide formed removes carbon-dioxide as it is exhaled, thereby allowing the atmosphere in mask to be continuously regenerated … the chemical reactions involved are:
4KO2 (s) + 2H2O (g) ----------> 4KOH (aq) + 3O2 (g)
KOH (aq) + CO2 (g) ---------> KHCO3 (s)
KO2 also combines directly with CO2 forming K2CO3 and with CO2 and the moisture forming KHCO3. 4KO2 + 2CO2 ------> 2K2CO3 + 3O2
4KO2 + 4CO2 + 2H2O --------> 4KHCO3 + 3O2” Ref: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/EP0241169.html and https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091219181610AAQeIlf (or go visit a chemistry manual.). Acquired Aug. 10, 2015.
5. Birds’ lungs aren’t like the lungs of mammals. Birds have a more efficient method to circulate air and obtain oxygen, even at low concentrations, which is why they can fly at high altitudes and can sustain a high metabolic rate. Such lungs genetically engineered to function in cattle would probably force the animal to pant constantly to inhale and exhale air properly.
6. Can We Turn Unwanted Carbon Dioxide Into Electricity? New power plant design to expand use of geothermal energy in the U.S. SAN FRANCISCO – “Researchers are developing a new kind of geothermal power plant that will lock away unwanted carbon dioxide (CO2) underground – and use it as a tool to boost electric power generation by at least 10 times compared to existing geothermal energy approaches.” 12/12/13 Ohio State Journal of Research and Innovation Communications. Retrieved July 9, 2015.
7. Though CO2 is supposedly only .04% of the earth’s atmosphere, in crowded cities with stagnant air,CO2 and Carbon Monoxide levels can be substantially higher. Oct. 8, 2009, Science published “Coupling of CO2 and Ice Sheet Stability Over Major Climate Transitions of the Last 20 Million Years” - UCLA scientist Aradhna Tripati measured present carbon dioxide levels and found they have not been this high since the Miocene, 15 million years ago, when temperatures worldwide were 5 - 10 degrees F higher than today, while sea levels were 75 to 120 feet higher. Ref: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091008152242.htm Retrieved July 1, 2015.
