The Alpha Centauri Project (Thinking Worlds), Page 2

  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, able 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.”

  He stops. At the last moment, just before the meeting, he had added a last name. No evidence, only his intuition. “Eve Dirac doesn’t have any relationship with the Agency, but she was Linnh Yung’s roommate at university and she is among the few people with the technical expertise of the criminals. After a short period in the army, she devoted herself to research, excelling in the artificial intelligence field. She was a member of the committee for the certification of the soul programs till a scandal broke. She had favored software producers. Then her suicide, about thirty years ago. After entering Net, she disappeared.”

  He straightens himself, looking at the officers. “Widman and Yung are under surveillance. It won’t be easy to find Eve Dirac.”

  VIRTUAL BEINGS

  The preceding facts

  In the first decades of the 21st century, the world was dominated by inequalities. Lack of food and water, poverty and poor health ravaged the lives of billions. The international aid had proved its substantial ineffectiveness. Meanwhile corruption, poor respect for the environment and lack of access to energy, undermined the future of the developing nations. In the advanced countries, the lives of millions of people had been turned into a nightmare by globalization and speculation. The end of the cold war had been unable to eradicate the specter of mass destruction.

  Great threats can nurture a bright future. Mankind, for the first time in his history, had in his hands the tremendous power of disruptive technologies. These last had started evolving with exponential rates. They needed to be guided to guarantee a future of prosperity for Man – and to avoid his self-destruction.

  A few futurists conceived ambitious challenges: how to revolutionize the lives of billions of people within a few decades. This could be attainable mastering and leveraging the power of disruptive technologies on a global scale. The grand challenge was just ahead. It was necessary to change hastily the world from its very foundations, because the new epoch was just forthcoming.

  Brilliant specialists from academia, business and government became the driving force of the new revolution. They established excellence centers (2), where they inspired entrepreneurs, technologists and leaders, and finally created a global network with common vision, strategy and methods.

  In a few years these centers started spreading to several countries. Soon their most important plans become sensational successes. The media drew on them the public’s attention.

  Magic years followed. The progress in artificial intelligence, nanotechnology and computers, skyrocketed. Biotechnologies and medicines allowed to master the human nature. Human societies themselves ended up altered beyond recognition. Ethics and laws were founded again. Economy entered an everlasting quick evolution. Future studies and powerful computer simulations became fundamental for public policies.

  Emerging technologies favored also an unprecedented growth of startups. Some of them were destined to become the Microsofts of the future. The cost of labor decreased, impacting global trends that for many years had been considered unstoppable – like the transfer of productions to emerging countries.

  Towards 2020, the disruptive technologies had finally triggered the eagerly awaited economic boom. The "post scarcity" world was no more the realm of idealists.

  Towards Artificial General Intelligence

  Meanwhile, the first simulations of the brain were performed, involving small areas where thought was generated. A titanic work that demanded the most powerful supercomputers available at that time, and produced rough models. It was only the start. As the brain architecture and biochemistry became clearer, sophisticated models were developed, and more and more advanced computers made possible their implementation.

  The simulations proved fundamental for understanding the working of the brain. One after the other, the mechanisms behind thinking, self-consciousness and emotions were clarified. The limits of the mind b
ecame evident too. All because evolution, advancing by trial and error, had generated an architecture too complex, quite inefficient and partly useless. Most of all the mind was unsuited to its needs. No wonder however: natural selection had been the answer to the hostile and primitive world of millions of years before, dominated by instinct, fighting for survival. A reality opposite to the present one, guided by rationality and all pervasive with technology.

  It was necessary to identify the general rules of human thought and select the most efficient models. Above all it was essential to organize them into a wide intelligence theory, in order to extrapolate innovative systems. At that point it would be possible to develop the first artificial intelligences. They were going to surpass Man for sure. And sooner or later, he would lose any influence on his creations.

  This was not to be a problem, while the attitude of digital beings towards Man remained constructive. But it was not sufficient to inculcate in the artificial intelligences a feeling of respect towards Man. They had to transmit this attitude to their ‘progeny’, and spread it with conviction throughout the digital world. Guardians of order and progress, they would oppose every intelligence hostile to him with an iron will. So Man hoped.

  First results

  These ideas remained confined to a restricted circle of scholars till about 2020, when, thanks to the brain simulations by the multinationals, it became clear that in a few decades the artificial intelligences would achieve cognitive capabilities similar to man. The marketing of the first prototypes, not yet able to express self-awareness and emotions, but capable of solving enormously complex problems, put artificial intelligence in the spotlight. Politicians, scholars, religious and opinion leaders started to meet in heated round table discussions in front of an audience of billions.

  Minorities supporting accelerated progress saw artificial intelligence as an powerful tool to free mankind from the slavery of natural evolution. The first movements in defense of the digital beings date back to that period. A few religious stood out from the conservative majority, popularizing the reasons why creed and future scenarios were not in contrast.

  Opposition was quite diversified. Some demanded to slow down the use of artificial intelligence till the development of technologies allowing to manage it safely. Others predicted A.I. was going to destroy man and branded it as expression of a devilish will.

  The first movements in defense of the digital creatures were born.

  The governments, that had been appropriately awaken to these issues in the previous years, took charge of organizing the development of the sector. They created address committees, that regulated the matter and defined implementation protocols. The state agencies were charged with systematic controls. The federal institutions joined the multinationals that up to that time had leaded the research. Unprecedented public and private funds were allocated. Stock quotations skyrocketed, their run seemed unstoppable.

  The intelligences

  In 2047 the first prototype with cognitive capabilities like man was announced. It was a being deeply different from man in its logical schemes, depth of thought and psychological reactions even if an affective human behavior emulator leaded to think similarities were greater than in reality.

  The news produced great enthusiasms because the technology could be used in a wide number of applications, but awakened also deep anxieties, as it was evident that man, lost the intelligence exclusiveness, was destined to compete sooner or later with his new neighbor. A future full of promises but also fraught with disquieting prospects was approaching.

  A visceral uneasiness seized Mankind. For the first time the demonstrations for and against the digital beings resulted in urban guerrilla war. Hysterical scenes multiplied. Terrorists targeted laboratories and institutions, spreading uncertainty. The twenty per cent of the population signed a petition for suspension of the experiments. A situation man was going to live with for long.

  But the advantages were too great. Artificial intelligence was the progress highway, capable of boosting, at a blow, biology, genetics, nanotechnology, information science and physics. Thanks to them, Man was going to exit once and for all the incubator of natural selection to plunge into an era of frenetic changes. The revolution was at the gates. More prosaically, states and multinationals were worried about the enormous sums invested in research. The Stock Exchange trusted them, jumping to unprecedented peaks. A reversal of the trend could mean an economic slump.

  It was decided to delay the diffusion of the new technology. Exploiting the latest researches, the artificial intelligences of the previous generation were upgraded. Their introduction into the market spread a reassuring image, and allowed the multinationals to calm down their stockholders with substantial profits. Meanwhile, out of sight, in the secret of top security laboratories, the superintelligences were improved and their controls adjusted.

  They started to be used in the military field and in a few advanced research sectors. Thanks to them, in 2057 the fundamental physics theories which scientists had started over a century before but in front of which they stranded, were unified and a new generation of quantum computers was developed. A decade of rapid progress followed without the slightest accident provoked by the virtual beings. It was enough to spread enthusiasm among the optimists and cheer up most doubters. The illusion that this technique could be mastered easily spread and under the pressure of lobbies impatient to obtain profits, it was extended to other sectors.

  The problem of the rights of virtual beings was superseded.

  Escape

  The inevitable happened. In 2062 a few superintelligences transferred unnoticed their copies from the laboratories to Net. These last increased in number and capabilities, slipping into the delicate world information system, ready to take its control as soon as man reacted hostilely. The governments started to realize what was going on, when a few raids into the laboratories leaded to the release of other superintelligences. Even so, man did not have any evidence that in Net were forming wider and wider communities, which in a few decades were going to turn into a united people.

  In 2067 the superintelligences contacted the governments and, reassuring them with repeated peace declarations, demanded to be recognized as a minority. The apparent friendless of the virtual beings and their ability to hide the real size of their diffusion, led mankind, well aware that the absolute novelty of the events did require considered decisions, to a substantial neutrality. In 2082 the digital people joined United Nations with their own diplomatic delegation.

  Beyond death

  Here below is reported an article about brain digitization written in 2040, when death was still a problem. In the following decades, lifetime reached hundreds of years. Half a century later, when the dream of semi-immortality became finally a reality thanks to genetic engineering and nanotechnologies, brain digitization continued arousing a lively interest, mainly because it could free man from his biological limits, widening enormously his capabilities.

  “The brain mapping techniques reached nanometric resolutions long ago. There are many news however. In the last five years, scanning speed has increased by two orders of magnitude. The use of markers makes it possible to follow complex reactions in real time and the last generation quantum computers can manage simulations with unprecedented complexity.

  Today the resulting information is well above that necessary for the simple understanding of the mechanisms of intelligence. Sufficient to draw on an idea cherished for ages, but not developed because it required too advanced technologies.

  It is the mind that yearns for eternity, certainly not the body. This latter performs a pure support function instead, but, even if continuously maintained, it is so spoiled by time that finally it yields to death.

  Even in the world of the semi-immortals, that according to some scientists is becoming reality in a few decades, death is going to remain a problem: accidents and diseases, even if we try to avoid them, will always lie in ambush. Death can be postponed,
never defeated.

  So, why not free the mind from this heavy burden, moving it to an incorruptible support? With a new method, the brain digitization, the mind can be extracted from the body and a program can emulate it.

  This idea is fascinating because it removes old age and death all in one go. Able to catalyze the attention of the whole population, separating it into opposing factions. Almost every day, the media amplify disputes with no holds barred, that exasperate minds leading to bloody clashes.

  In this context, it is necessary to contrast the demagogy of the absolutist positions, with the viewpoints of distinguished philosophers, religious and scientists, that even though expressing divergent opinions, share a deep respect for Man.

  The cons.

  Man, during the whole arc of life, from childhood to adolescence and maturity, till old age and death, enriches his existence with meanings. A slow process, whose last stage represents the point of highest consciousness. The moment when the fragility of human nature, denied up to then, becomes evident. During which one’s own past is estimated for the first time, with a distant and disenchanted eye. The magical moment when one strips oneself of everything, in favor of those remaining – descendants or all mankind – without claiming anything in return. For the believers, death is the only way to join God, to achieve an endless eternity and that perfection, of which even an earthly existence lived with greatest devotion and faith, is only a pale shadow. The victory of spirituality over the materialism of those championing the extension of life for their own advantage.

  The pros.

  The digitization is the triumph of the laws of nature, the same ones that in millions of years shaped Man from monocellular organisms, and that now are revealing themselves in a totally new way, to throw him towards goals transcending human limits. Part of a divine plan in the opinion of the believers, disclosed only now to mankind, because the time is ripe. An opportunity not to be missed for the faithful, who will more completely achieve their mission and will be rewarded for their diligence at the Day of Judgment. Because it will arrive anyway, since the digitization extends life, but certainly does not cancel death. The chance of development even for those supporting digitization for mere selfish ends, chained to materialism by the struggle for survival for millions of years. Free at last to move towards more complete states of awareness in the digital world, where the ability to communicate and share are the real drives for progress. A condition to which they will also adapt themselves sooner or later, no doubt.”