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Evolution: the future

Marco Santini



  EVOLUTION: THE FUTURE

  by Marco Santini

  “Know more” section: Nikola Danaylov

  Graphic project: Lilia Morales y Mori

  “Evolution: the future”

  An edition of “The Alpha Centauri Project” dedicated to the adventure-seekers.

  This novel is available in English, Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese (Brazilian)

  Rev. February 22, 2014

  Copyright Marco Santini 2007-2014

  Standard Copyright License - All right reserved

  Marco Santini

  https://www.singularityweblog.com/marco-santini-on-singularity-1-on-1/

  mailto:[email protected]

  Nikola Danaylov

  https://www.singularityweblog.com/

  Lilia Morales y Mori

  https://fractaldelaspalabras.blogspot.mx/

  https://sincroniaenlared.blogspot.mx/

  https://modulo16.wordpress.com/

  https://elespejocautivo.blogspot.mx/

  https://universofractal.blogspot.mx/

  https://nowtowardthefuture.blogspot.mx/

  https://poesiafracesptiempo.blogspot.mx/

  https://raborauniverso.blogspot.mx/

  mailto:[email protected]

  DEDICATION

  To he who explores new horizons,

  because knowledge doesn't have limits;

  to he who tries new ways,

  because dreams become reality;

  to he who pursues brotherhood,

  because peace is not a chimera.

  INDEX

  PREAMBLE

  CHARACTERS

  Around the solar system

  Emergency

  In the Net

  Temptation

  A fashionable place

  Contact

  Revelation

  Confidences

  Ideals

  First time

  Suspicions

  Hell

  Wonderful Islands

  A strange person

  Investigations

  Landing

  Parting

  Seduction

  Presentation

  Venice Carnival

  Murder

  Plot

  Funeral rites

  Alliance

  Raid

  Nightmare

  Departure

  In action

  Rebellion

  Apocalypse

  Attack

  Finally alone

  Waiting for revenge

  General Headquarters

  A leap into the past

  Computer Science Institute

  All together

  Close to the sky

  Final fight

  Shades

  For ever

  Big Bang

  KNOW MORE

  YOUR COMMENTS ARE WELCOME!

  THANKS

  PREAMBLE

  According to future studies, the world will be dominated soon by disruptive technologies, able to plunge Mankind into an era of accelerated progress. Main outcomes will be the achievement of immortality, the creation of smarter than human Artificial Intelligence and the spread of the new species through the universe.

  “Evolution: the future” is a breathtaking story set in a near future altered almost beyond recognition by disruptive technologies.

  If you wish to know more about these scenarios, you may want to read “The Alpha Centauri Project”.

  24th century. Humans live on Earth and the Moon, last strongholds of their past power. Mars and the Net are inhabited by artificial intelligences and souls, these last obtained by digitizing the brain after death. The virtual reality allows the two races to communicate. Their differences are deep.

  With digitization, humans have postponed real death to an indeterminate future, but they are not happy. Towards the virtual beings they feel admiration but also inferiority and envy.

  The digital creatures instead cannot bear being relegated in worlds too small for their unbounded ambitions. Their Martian experience has allowed them to develop the competence necessary in extra-terrestrial environments, most of all to acquire the self-confidence indispensable for the colonization of other star systems. The Alpha Centauri project is born.

  The mission obtains the humans’ support. In exchange the digital beings abandon the idea of expanding on the Earth. Just before departure, Earth Security intercepts a suspect message from the Space Agency. Terrorism? The evidence leads to the Elects, a sect that entered Net fifty years before through a collective suicide...

  Eve and Victoria, the main characters, are “souls”, digital beings whose brain was digitized after death. They move in a context of epoch making events, becoming more and more involved and finally merging their destiny with that of the digital people.

  Scenes in Net are marked by @.

  CHARACTERS

  Adam

  Artificial intelligence, an Elects’ member, son of Eve Dirac, Victoria and Martin Wing

  C573Y

  Artificial intelligence, Security officer

  Eve Dirac

  Soul, Master of the Elects, information technology scientist

  James

  Human, Victoria’s partner

  Marcus Rand

  Human, Defense general

  Martin Wing

  Soul, Councilor of the Elects, civil rights leader

  Nicole

  Human, Victoria’s companion

  Nihil

  Soul, Grand Master of the Elects

  Victoria

  Soul, James’ partner.

  AROUND THE SOLAR SYSTEM

  They wanted to mark the beginning of the new century with an out of the ordinary holiday. As in the previous years, they could choose one of the many proposals of Net, but this time they wished to measure themselves against the real world.

  Finally, they opted for the Jupiter satellites.

  Europe, the most sought-after destination of space tourism. A splendid view of the imposing planet, plowed with deep stripes and continuous storms, covering most of the sky. An interminable ice pack furrowed now and then with wide fractures from which volcanic water spurts. Underneath, ice caves dozens of kilometers long, and down in the depths, an ocean inhabited by rare luminescent creatures.

  Io, the antechamber to Hell. Lava rivers, ash plumes and sulphur boiling lakes.

  The Jupiter aerial mines. Colossal factories hanging from aerostatic balloons, which extract a helium isotope used as nuclear fuel from the atmosphere.

  Just a few weeks before their departure, a business engagement arose. They fell back on a much shorter holiday, for only three days but guaranteeing intense emotions. They were going to climb a Mars canyon. Not one of the many, but the deepest chasm in the solar system. Notwithstanding their haste, they studied the preparations in the smallest detail. As for the equipment, the choice fell on the latest android model: a two-meter-tall body made of ultralight material, strengthened with carbon nanotubes; the rock-climber's dream.

  Here they are on Mars, transported by laser beams. Inside their new bodies, lined up along a wall of a room crammed with equipment. Cold, the only noise the humming of the devices. They exchange a few jokes, then set out along a deserted corridor, following the markings on the map that appears in their visual fields. Their footsteps resound against the metal walls, every now and then distant echoes reach them.

  They step into a garage. A hovering ovoid approaches. The doors slide open. They get in. Soft gray seats. From behind, arms like hoses wrap them gently. The automatic pilot wishes them a nice stay.

  The nacelle fills up with colors. A powerful acceleration. The aircraft darts out of the garage through a round opening and heads for the desert. Behin
d, the white spot of the rapidly receding base, shows up in the middle of the red sand like a diamond dropped from the sky.

  C573Y raises his eyes towards Phobos, one of the two small Martian moons. Its long and lumpy shape has never stopped amazing him. Nearby, three new stars are twinkling: Niña, Pinta and Santa Maria, the spacecrafts of the Alpha Centauri project, one kilometer wide spheres, orbiting around the planet at twenty thousand kilometers. Smaller lights crown them: the assembly stations of the shipyard - now inactive after ten years of intense activity - and the freighters intent on transferring - from their huge tanks - the nuclear fuel extracted from the atmosphere of Jupiter and Uranus.

  The ovoid flies low over the desert, covered here and there by frayed carbon dioxide clouds. An hour later, it plunges with a sharp turn, into the Marineris Valley, a deep wound in the Mars crust. On both sides, sheer cliffs, rock spikes and inlets, on the bottom an interminable expanse of rocks and sand.

  The aircraft goes beyond a small settlement under construction – yards packed with equipment and robots busy assembling prefabricated modules – and skims over a series of high dunes on which the wind has drawn thin waves.

  It heads for a gorge and lands at about two hundred meters from a face. When the doors open, the passengers sink their boots into the soft light sand, nearly a dust. Icy and rarefied air. Not far, a whirlwind is running along the slope of a dune. The androids raise their eyes towards the wall. Its boundaries are lost on the horizon, and the rock columns crowning it look like claws gripping the sky. It is covered with friable sediments, a serious danger even for the most expert climbers. To be avoided, not to be forced into difficult detours.

  C573Y draws a piton out of his rucksack. A simple piton. It couldn’t be otherwise: the great challenges require lack of means and out of the ordinary capabilities. As the Titans did in ancient times.

  They climb as fast as spiders. Tiny figures on an ochre sheet. Mechanical movements, meter after meter, always with the same concentration. Their glance towards the sky, because it is there they will have the impression of being, once on the top.

  No problems for almost a day. Till they hear a distant rumble. Excited cries. Frenzied gestures, someone points at a recess. They rush into it.

  A dark front of sand and rocks is swooping down, carrying away the projections along the way, devouring the wall. A threat that not even the climbing androids – technological jewels of the 24th century – can withstand.

  They keep still, staring at the wall of powder bursting into the shelter and covering their shields with a thick layer.

  The night.

  Endless.

  Passed exchanging impressions and stories. Lit by the beam of a torch, that makes features of faces and bodies emerge from the darkness, reabsorbing them with each movement.

  From time to time, distant bangs. Thunder? Slides?

  All night.

  A series of whistles and whispers announces the day. A sweet and nostalgic singsong. The lament of a wife grieving over her companion who has left on a long journey…

  The androids stick their heads out of the shelter. The sunlight floods them. Jagged rocks of all dimensions stretch out clearly from the flumes, up to the horizon. The sky is spotless bright pink. A melody pervades the air.

  “Look!” cries C573Y, pointing his arm at four shadows with delicate features and their hair in the wind. He didn’t expect them.

  Then he turns in the opposite direction. “Come!”

  Again in the chasm, clinging to the ropes with their backs in the void, they jump along the wall.

  They mount a basalt slab and run along.

  “The Ladies' song!” announces C573Y. “Many years ago, at the dawning of the colonization, an expedition reported having seen some female figures just around here…”

  They peep round a boulder. In front, against the sun on the horizon, stand out rock columns surmounted by long filaments.

  “Plants which survived the drying up of the planet billions of years ago. The sound is caused by the wind passing between the rocks.”

  Evening. Here they are, at the top, sitting side by side on the edge of the precipice, intent on admiring the lights of the little colony many kilometers below. They are about to celebrate the new century.

  C573Y becomes dumb. A message has appeared in his visual field:

  EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE EMERGENCY MEETING

  ON EARTH, IN TWO HOURS

  YOUR PARTICIPATION REQUIRED.

  He turns towards his companions. “I have received a communication. I must go.”

  He casts a nostalgic glance at the darkness, towards that alien nature that for two days has charmed him with striking views, that did not hesitate to attack and hunt him even inside his shelter.

  A challenge he plunged into without any hesitation.

  A companion of his slaps C573Y on the shoulder. “See you soon, then!”

  The three reach a flat space about ten meters further on. They exchange a big hug.

  “We will arrange to give back the android,” says a companion.

  C573Y moves a few steps back. He raises his eyes to the sky, towards a vivid light in the middle of the star blanket. In his visual field, appears a menu. He activates the connection with the satellite. Then he sends a message:

  REQUEST IMMEDIATE TRANSFER

  DESTINATION: SECURITY GENERAL HEADQUARTERS - EARTH.

  He loses his senses. In a few seconds, the programs he is made of are transmitted to the satellite and from there through a laser beam begin their voyage to Earth. The body of the android remains as stiff as a statue, the eyes misted over with indifference.

  Half an hour later C573Y wakes up in a Security computer.

  His assistant welcomes him, brings him up to date accurately and efficiently, and supplies the documentation. C573Y studies it, prepares a proposal, then activates the transfer.

  Now he is in a uniformly lit room, sitting at a table next to the other participants.

  EMERGENCY

  @ Security General Headquarters, Earth – quantum computer QC1723S.

  Absorbed expressions, strained faces. The convocation of the meeting in the middle of the night, just at the eve of the New Year, doesn’t herald anything good.

  They are all turned to the head of the table, where C573Y is waiting in silence for the final arrivals.

  An officer outstanding for his charisma and innate abilities, a strong point of reference for all of them. Even the present Security organization, which has achieved an extraordinary run of successes in the battle against crime, is his work.

  “We can start,” announces C573Y. “Three hours ago a satellite of ours intercepted a message encrypted with a secret technology.” He inspects the ten members, while tension becomes tangible. “It is the system destined to replace the one currently in use. Absolutely impenetrable.”

  A quiver runs through them: from now on neither will the most powerful supercomputers be able to recognize the criminals during their displacements in Net, nor will they be able to decipher their messages. New viruses will invade the digital world, spying on its inhabitants to cheat them or launch devastating attacks; impossible to identify.

  “The theft happened in our cryptography center. Just where we thought it impossible,” goes on C573Y. “This means one only thing…”

  A sharp intake of breath. “The whole security system of the Confederation is at risk. I have informed the President. The Defense and the Secret Service are alerted.”

  “Do you have any idea about the authors?” asks an officer.

  “The message was sent from the Space Agency,” states clearly C573Y.

  The worst nightmare is taking shape. The federal organization is involved with the Alpha Centauri project. Three huge vessels – the Caravels – will transfer all the digital people to an habitable planet of the nearest star system. An historical enterprise, the subject preferred by the media, discussed in Net by billions of individuals. Stirring up strong emotions, a
ble to trigger deep disputes and exacerbate conflicts. Like nothing else.

  The officers exchange pensive looks.

  “According to the last reports, the number of extremists interested in making fail the project is raising sharply...”

  “The Caravels are sailing in a month. If we are dealing with terrorists, the countdown has already begun.”

  Like five years before, when a terrorist cell launched a virus attach against the servers hosting the city of Net Heaven and the backups of its population. Everything erased.

  “These criminals are professionals. I wonder if they are really terrorists.”

  “Did you prepare a list?”

  “It will be available soon,” answers C573Y. “We believe they rely on informers.” He turns towards his right-hand man. “Can you bring us up to date on the investigations?”

  His assistant stands up: “Our agents have reached the Space Agency and the cryptography center.” He fixes his attention on the hologram with the latest bulletins, that has materialized at the center of the table. “Our A.I. programs are making rapid progress: records and data banks seized, control of the staff started.”

  He points at the wall. Three faces appear: a man in his fifties and two young women.

  He stares at them in silence for a moment.

  “Here are the principal suspects:

  Paul Widman is the Space Agency deputy manager. A very good record of service. The natural successor to the present director who is retiring within two years. An irreproachable life till a few months ago, when he got involved in bad speculations. We believe the message was sent from his computer.

  Linnh Yung, the New Technology manager. An appointment in information security. They were all convinced she would be entrusted with the management of the Alpha Centauri project, but at the last moment the choice fell on an outsider. She confided to a colleague about being quite embittered. She is Widman’s closest collaborator, she has probably an affair with him.... During her university studies, she took part in hacking. This came to our knowledge during the interrogation of some hackers.”