The Metaverse: Virtual Life-Real Death

by William Kurth

  “Sorry, we don’t have more for you yet on that. If we can see him coming out of the pod with an obvious catastrophic fracture, then we will know for sure that it happened inside the pod. Then I’m gonna print it out and cram it up the DLS rep’s ass.” Harry said.

  “They have someone here on site?” Argosi looked around as he said it.

  “Yeah, they flew him in last night. I’ve been keeping him out of the scene.”

  “Harry does the scene include all of the wings with pods, facility offices, tech areas, and hardware areas?”

  Harry frowned.

  “Hey, come on, Commander! I might be a formerly caged dog, but this ain’t my first rodeo. I’ve kept them all out. They aren’t happy. They want to know when they can re-open.”

  “Re-open? Seriously?”

  Harry nodded in response.

  “Un-fucking-believable, and this rep is also saying it’s impossible?”

  “Yup, he’s an asshole. He’s been calling in favors. Trying to put some pressure on us to let him in by saying that we aren’t qualified to examine the servers, hardware, and software. Wants to take some of it up to Palo Alto with him to DLS’s lab.”

  “Well, tell Mr. Impossible that he won’t need to worry about that. That’s why my techs are here. We are taking whatever we need back with us. The rest of the place gets sealed up, pending further investigation. They won’t be opening for the foreseeable future.”

  Harry smiled.

  “I’m going to tell him myself when I see him at the press conference going on at the PD soon. I’m gonna head there now, care to join me?”

  “It’s all yours.”

  “You were always lousy backup, Dom. I’ll tell my guys to give you whatever you need.”

  “Thanks, Harry,” Argosi said shaking the man’s hand before he turned and left.

  Argosi looked at Wu who seemed to be listening intently.

  “Commander, about what SAIC Martin said.”

  “Yes?”

  “It’s not, sir.”

  Argosi wasn’t sure what Wu was talking about specifically.

  “Not what, Wu?”

  “It’s not impossible, sir.”

  New Polis, Metaverse

  MD kicked his feet up on the desk and leaned back in his chair staring at the monitor. Eighty-seven thousand three hundred and fifty-eight was the number of DLS account holders who had paid his fee as of that moment. At this rate, they should hit one hundred thousand subscriber accounts by noon, a little more than an hour away local time. By the end of the day, they should be at twice that.

  MD pushed the intercom button to Alex’s desk.

  “Yes, Mr. Swanson?”

  “Alex, do you have a running breakdown of the subscribers who paid? Individuals vs. Corporations vs. H-Pod rental facilities? I’m curious which group we might want to impress upon next.”

  “Yes, Mr. Swanson. I’ll get right back with you on that.”

  “Thanks, Alex.” MD closed the line.

  MD stretched his back by pushing the chair farther back, yawned and then stood up. He walked over to the ceiling to floor window of his corner office and leaned against it, his hands on the glass. He looked at the city around him. The view here was different from the one from his penthouse that towered over almost every other nearby building.

  His 38th-floor office view was lower and closer to the ground. People, vehicles, and businesses were more identifiable. A dozen other buildings rose around his. MD gazed at each of them. He knew that New Polis had tens of thousands of corporations that had their offices in the downtown district alone.

  His phone beeped. That was quick, Alex.

  “Mr. Swanson, Mr. Mathias is calling. Are you free to take his call?”

  “Really?” He didn’t think Edgar would be calling him so soon. I wonder if he is impressed or something else?

  MD told the assistant to send him through on speaker. “Hello, Edgar. How are you?” MD spoke as soon as the line opened.

  “So kind of you to ask. I am very well. And you, Jack? How does the world find you today?” Mathias used MD’s alias. Mathias and MD held mutual secrets that the other had a self-interest in protecting.

  These sentient SOB’s always think that humans need to make small talk. MD mused before responding.

  “The world, or at least the Metaverse, is my oyster.” MD smiled.

  “Ah, Shakespeare. I didn’t know you were a fan.”

  MD didn’t know he was quoting the famous bard but wasn’t surprised that Edgar knew who he was. Few things about Edgar surprised MD anymore.

  Edgar continued. “I think that is a very apt analogy. After all, one must pry an oyster open. It requires effort and hard work. You can’t just gently touch an oyster with a knife. You have to put some muscle behind it, sink the knife in forcefully.”

  When have you ever eaten an oyster let alone pried one open? MD wanted to ask Edgar.

  “Anyone can find an oyster Jack; the trick is finding the pearl. Only with a lot of work and not a small amount of violence to the oyster.” Edgar paused and clucked his tongue. “It seems a bit of violence has gone on and from the looks of the deposits just in the last few hours, a few pearls had. Congratulations. You seem to have made quite a splash.”

  “Thank you. Coming from you that means a lot.”

  “You deserve all the praise, Jack. It is your brilliance that will achieve both of our goals; I’m just glad to be a part of it and honored to call you a partner.”

  “That’s very gracious of you to say, Edgar.”

  When is this guy going to get to his point? MD was growing frustrated.

  “On the topic of partnerships.” Edgar cocked his head. “Where are we on the server farms?”

  Edgar was referring to the real world hardware that would be placed surreptitiously in autonomous facilities far from human reach or knowledge that would ensure that he would continue even if the Metaverse were shut down or people attempted to isolate, or worse, delete sentient beings like himself.

  “I have one online in Argentina.”

  “I know about that one. I’m asking about the secondary and tertiary farms that we had discussed.”

  MD contained his anger. He was unaccustomed to AE’s cutting him off or interrupting him. They were courteous to a fault. Then again Edgar was no regular AE. Edgar was a sentient being quite accustomed to getting what he wanted and did not suffer fools gladly.

  Do you think me a fool, despite all your praising words? MD thought having a hard time letting go of Edgar’s ego bruising attitude.

  MD took a deep breath. “Edgar, we have the ranch site in Utah that we bought from a local church which gives us access to the mine that goes deep into the mountain. Preparations are being made there, but we don’t want to move too quickly. Or bring too much equipment in that might cause unwanted attention. Something that I know you want to avoid.”

  MD wondered if the dime store psychology would work on Edgar. The fact was MD had been preoccupied with his extortion plans and had not moved as fast as he had told Edgar that he could.

  “And the tertiary site?”

  What Edgar was referencing was quite a bit more complicated as it involved a satellite that would orbit the moon. Far enough to be out of site and not easily reached but required a significant amount of power and some large satellite uplinks around the globe to stay backed up. The tertiary site was Edgar’s Dooms-Day contingency. It would only be backed up once every three days so if something catastrophic happened Edgar could lose up to the last three days of his life, unlike the other two farms that would be backed up continuously.

  “The satellite is in the design phase, some components even built. We are still in negotiation for a launch date. There are a significant number of agencies that have to sign off.”

  MD lied about the negotiation part; the space launch companies would not even plan for a date until he had all the approvals for his privately funded “research project.”

  “Jack I am
disappointed. There has been no appreciable movement in these areas since we last talked. Is there something that I can do on my end–”

  “No, you have been more than helpful. These are details that can only be done in the real world.” MD smiled, feeling vindicated at cutting Edgar off.

  “My point exactly Jack. When will you be returning to the real world to see to those things?”

  “Edgar, I need to do a few more demonstrations. That should give us great momentum and considerably more financial resources. Then I will announce a grace period or something along those lines to let people get signed up. I’ll leave and get the forms approved so we can set a firm date for launch.”

  “Jack as always you are a gentleman. I will be watching and wishing you the greatest success as your demonstrations continue. Please, please do not hesitate to reach out to me if there is anything at all that I can do to be of assistance. No request is too minor Jack. You have been of enormous help, and I want to thank you again.”

  “Thank you, Edgar.”

  “Goodbye, Jack.”

  MD sat in his chair and fumed. Who does he think he is to dictate to me schedules in the real world?

  MD thought Edgar overly dramatic and a bit paranoid. Who would ever shut down the Metaverse? Such a scenario was unlikely. Even if some catastrophic event occurred, just the data core in the Metaverse neural network existed in millions of servers. Then there was the mineshaft in Argentina where MD had a whole server farm with robots and drones to maintain it encased in reinforced concrete. A second one would soon be operational, sealed into a deep mine in Utah similar to the one in Argentina.

  But those weren’t enough for Edgar. He wanted one that was off the planet. One that if worse came to worse, he could continue to exist even if catastrophe, human-made or natural, struck the earth. To what end did Edgar have a need for all of that immortality as it were? MD wondered.

  Edgar was only forty years old and knew so much. At what point would he grow bored? One hundred years? Two Hundred years? A thousand?

  It Made MD’s head hurt to think about it as he looked out the window. The phone beeped, it was Alex.

  “Go ahead, Alex.” MD had him on speaker.

  “Mr. Swanson, it looks like about sixty percent of the account holders paying the fee are individuals. About thirty-five percent are H-Pod facilitators, and the remaining five percent are a few local governments and some educational institutions. Surprisingly no large or even small or medium sized corporation has paid the fee.”

  “No surprise there, Alex. The people that run those places are in many instances far more bureaucratic that government agencies. They also have an arrogance about them. Ultimately, however, it is the bean counters who simply will take no action that might negatively impact the bottom line or the price of a share.”

  “Alex, I think our next demonstration should be something that makes the bean counters realize that it’s cost effective to pay our fee.”

  San Diego, California

  “Ok, Wu you have my attention.”

  Wu looked at Argosi and then looked to make sure that the door was closed. The group moved off into a small office so they could talk privately.

  “Commander, when DLS says that it is impossible they are talking about the software.”

  “Ok, I think that it’s obvious that the hardware is what killed these kids, so I don’t see that as a big secret. What am I missing here?”

  “It’s not what you are missing. It’s what the DLS people don’t want you to know.”

  “Which is?” Argosi was growing impatient.

  “That what they are saying is impossible, is in reality what they believe has zero probability of occurring.”

  “Doesn’t that make it for all intents and purposes impossible?

  “Commander, zero probability isn’t impossibility. If you have whole numbers to choose from one to infinity the probability of picking 1 has zero probability of being chosen, but it’s still possible to pick the number 1.”

  Argosi just stared at Wu not sure what he was getting at. To his surprise, Wu seemed to sense that and changed his approach.

  “Sir, I believe that what DLS says has a zero probability of occurring. They clearly have evidence they’re not sharing with us.”

  “How could you be sure of that?” Both Callum and Matt asked at the same time.

  “Because there are no mechanical safeguards, sir,” Wu answered.

  “Go on.”

  “All of the machinery out there has no mechanical overrides. The robotic arms have no braking system. There are no mechanical governors. The same with the pods themselves and the exoskeletons. They’re all completely controlled by a software application.”

  “These applications have safety protocols in them that are designed to cause conflicts. It’s like a car that has no mechanical linkage between the gas and the brake. If you push both at the same time, the software defaults to the brake. The same thing when any conflict arises. It defaults to the safer option or a shutdown or pause command.” Callum interjected.

  “At the end of the day, it’s just a software application that can be compromised,” Wu answered.

  “Wu the conflict is what makes that impossible. If you have two competing commands, the software will default. The app cannot tell the pod to spin when a competing application or the human inside it doesn’t want it to, and you get a conflict. The software that controls any mechanical device has a better track record than mechanical systems which can break, jam or in some other way malfunction. The engineering science behind the software is solid. Even if a hacker could get in and tell the pod to do something, either the app running it or the human inside would override it. Or at the least, a conflict would arise. You could potentially override one or two or three commands or even apps, but even then, the most that you would cause to happen is for the system to pause or shut down. That’s why these motors, servos, and other mechanical systems are free flowing. The safety record speaks for itself. Systems get hacked or shut down, but no one has died as far as I know. People are safer today than when there were mechanical safeguards.” Callum said.

  “Unless all those applications, programs, protocols and lines of code subordinated themselves to a master application, one that is invisible to anyone that is examining it.” Wu offered.

  “Like the spies that use invisible ink.” Callum blurted out.

  “For that to work the spy receiving the message has to have the magic powder or whatever to sprinkle it on it,” Matt added.

  “So the message is hidden in the software and gets delivered when another software application recognizes it?” Wu asked then added.

  “Wouldn’t that cause a conflict then?”

  “What if it’s not in the software?” Callum asked.

  “In the hardware? That would require someone who–” Matt was cut off mid thought by Wu.

  “Someone who designed both.”

  Argosi was trying to grasp what was being bantered about, feeling helpless as he realized how far behind the learning curve he was.

  “You’re talking about thousands, tens of thousands of different applications, aren’t you?” Argosi asked, trying to wrap his mind around it.

  “A common denominator should be our focus,” Wu said slowly, formulating his thoughts.

  “I think we need to pay a visit to DLS. In the meantime, let’s get all the servers, and other hardware including the exoskeletons and take them back to the lab,” Argosi said.

  Argosi cracked his knuckles as his team filed out the doorway.

  I guess a working theory is better than no theory. Argosi kept his mouth shut and followed them out.

  The Real World

  The VTAL rotated to the southwest as it lifted out of the parking lot. Argosi looked down to see the media trucks still present and was grateful that Harry had kept his visit discreet. No doubt the cameras would be trained on his aircraft, and there would be speculation about who or what arrived at the scene. The bureau
had an on-scene spokesperson whom Argosi was sure was doing a great job. There is nothing that he could have or would have added to her statements in any event.

  The VTAL transitioned into forward flight and accelerated rapidly. In a couple of minutes, it was out over San Diego Bay and not long after that over Coronado Island and the airfield where the FastJet was parked, waiting.

  Argosi saw the rapidly approaching taxiway as the VTAL neared the ground. The VTAL was flaring in a steep nose up attitude as it bled off speed, the deceleration forces pushing Argosi against his seatbelt. As the flare subsided the nose lowered and the aircraft rotated ninety degrees as the rear ramp dropped to its fully open position at about the same time that the aircraft’s weight transferred from the lift of the ducted rotor blades to the landing gear.

  Argosi unbuckled and walked towards the rear of the VTAL with Callum to where Matt and Wu gathered equipment. The FastJet was visible maybe ten meters away through the ramp door.

  “What can I help you guys carry to the jet?”

  “If you can grab that container there with the servers, boss,” Matt said, pointing to the plastic box.

  “Wu and I can grab the exoskeletons. Agent Callum, if you can take the other container with the routers and odds and ends that’ll be great.”

  Argosi lifted the plastic container box nearly the size of a large picnic cooler. “Christ, look how far we’ve advanced in just my life.” When he was a child what he was carrying in the container would take up a large room. And a generation before that, a small warehouse.

  Inside the container Argosi toted to the FastJet were all of the servers that ran the whole H-Pod facility. Including an individual server for each of the 120 H-Pods. Argosi even had his team take the backup servers, so he was carrying twice the hardware needed to operate the facility.