Aye I Longwhite: An American-Chinese teenager’s adventure in the Middle Kingdom and beyond (16 page)

At 5 minutes until dooms-second, the newscaster finally relayed what their genius team figured out.  He essentially repeated what Dad said.  Dad seemed relieved that they had worked out the puzzle, but he was anxious about the Earth fleet’s response.  “So, what’s the decision?” he asked the newscaster hologram.
Earth fleet kept us waiting literally up to the last second.  They broadcast a message directly to our newsfeed, skipping the newscaster.  We assumed the message went to the robots as well.

“We are sending down a delegation.  Delegate Li will be leading the discussions.  He is vested with the full authority of the Chinese government. 
The rest of the fleet is ready to fire at any moment, even with the delegation on the planet.  We will not tolerate any attempt to infect us with AI.”

We all breathed a collective sigh of relief. 

“It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out.” 
― 
Carl Sagan

Obviously having received the message, the robots returned to their base and patched up the hole they broken through.  They returned to their Zen state, waiting tolerantly.  One would almost say confidently.

The Marnese council frantically prepared for the first official delegation from Earth, from China.  Rituals and customs must be observed.  Mars could not be seen as a backwards hick
town.  The leaders put on their formal gowns; the Mars-red carpet was rolled out; the council chamber was hurriedly cleaned up from the debris of the emergency session.

As the delegation
’s shuttle landed, the welcoming committee of Marnese leaders shuffled into line, jockeying for position.  Even though they were all technically equal, they knew that where they stood meant a lot to the Chinese delegates.  The Speaker, the nominal leader of the Marnese, “first among equals,” had the pole position, but the rest of the council members didn’t have an assigned position.

The robots were not invited, for fear of even their presence would risk “infection,” even though I’m sure the Chinese
delegates wouldn’t have any computing device on them.  Chang Lin and I were allowed to stand at the end of the line, as the Ambassadors to the robots.  Dad was busy debriefing with them even now.  I hoped he would hurry back. I had no idea what we were supposed to do or say.  Chang Lin was looking curiously at the airlock, where the delegates would enter in from, through the flexible tube that was now being stretched out to the shuttle.

As the airlock’s door swung open, the Marnese band started playing their “national” anthem.  It was a sign of the importance of the event that it was an all-human band.  They were pretty good considering that they weren’t pre-programmed like most automated bands.

I should’ve guessed it, but I was still surprised when I recognized the lead Chinese delegate, Mr. Li.  Chang Lin wondered aloud, “What is the Minister of Education doing here?”

If he was a shock, the next person literally knocked me out.  One moment I was standing in the receiving line.  The next moment I was in someone’s arms. 
Warm, soft arms that I seemed to remember.  The voice, though anxious, calmed me.  “Austin, sweetheart, are you ok?”  I opened my eyes and looked into the most beautiful eyes in the world.  My mom’s. 

My collapse had stolen the show and ruined the formal, choreographed ritual for receiving foreign diplomats.  The Marnese Speaker was flustered.  Mr. Li was downright upset. 
“You!  We’ve been searching for you all over the world!  What a little troublemaker you are.”  He looked like he would’ve slapped me, if mom weren’t cradling me, protecting me.

“Austin, I was so worried.  Why did you disappear like that?  What are you doing here?”  Before I could answer, she realized that Chang Lin was there as well.  “And you sweetheart, you ran away with Austin?  Your parents are so worried!”

I was piecing together the puzzle.  I said to Mom, but looked at Mr. Li, “So, he didn’t tell you what I had done?  Why I’m here?  Why I had to run away?”

Mom looked confused. 
“No, why?  I had no idea you were here.  I was told to come because they said my studies in the Cho-Qing quotient would be relevant, though I’m not sure why.”

Mr. Li jumped in, intending to cut me off befo
re I revealed anything more to Mom.  Maybe what we had done, creating Willstin, was still a state secret.  “Arrest that young man!  And take the girl too,” he ordered the security men behind him.

As the hardened me
n stepped forward, Chang Lin stood upright and pronounced in a surprisingly loud and commanding voice, “You will do no such thing. Austin Longwhite and I, Chang Lin, are Ambassadors of the Robot Nation.  We are protected by diplomatic immunity while on Mars.  We are not subject to the laws of China.  Touching us is a violation of international law...of solar system law.”

The men hesitated and looked back at Mr. Li for direction.
  He was saying, “Nonsense,” when my mom stiffened.  She said coldly, “Ryan Longwhite.  What the hell are you doing here?” I’ve never heard my mom swear before, and her voice could’ve iced over Venus.

My d
ad’s eyebrow raised, seeing my mom, his wife.  He started to defend himself, “It’s not what you think…” but remembered he was on a different mission.  As important as it was to clear his name with Mom, he was the real Ambassador to the robots, and all of our lives still hung on the balance of what he negotiated. 

“We’ll talk later about it.”  He turned his attention to Mr. Li, who was almost foaming at the mouth, but had pulled himself together when Dad showed up.  He must’ve been briefed that Dad was the Ambassador of the robots. 
“Delegate Li, welcome to Mars.  Please, let us go into the Council’s private chambers and start our discussions. I think you will find them
very
interesting.”

Mr. Li, the ultimate bureaucrat, pulled a mask of serenity down over his face, smoothed out his immaculate dragon-embossed gown, and stepped forward.  “Yes, let us please proceed with the true purpose of this mission.”  He slightly emphasized true as he swept by
Mom and me.

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Chang Lin’s announcement not only stopped the security detail from arresting us, it also gained us entrance into the private council chambers.  The Marnese guards, who recognized us as the kids who hung out with the robots, hesitated when we walked up behind the delegation.  Mom didn’t even look at them, and we followed suit, marching in as if we had every right to be there.  One of the guards uttered a weak “Hey…” but we were through the doors already, which started shutting behind us.

Mr. Li and
his delegation, which included Mom, sat on one side of the oval table and the Marnese leaders including Dad, sat on the other side.  The rest of us hanger-ons were like furniture, set aside behind the real delegates.  That was fine by me.  I didn’t want to say anything or even be seen, but I wanted to hear what they said.

There were the formal introductions, with Mr. Li’s official title, read by the deputy on his right hand side, taking up 30 seconds alone.  Quite noticeably, a human instead of a robot poured out the expensive tea.  He was less efficient,
fumbling the porcelain cover of Mr. Li’s teacup with nervous fingers and lightly splashing a few drops out of the cup with the first pour.

With the formalities
done, Mr. Li opened the session, speaking in Chinese, assuming everyone would understand.  There were no translation bots, so those who didn’t just had to sit smiling, nodding when others nodded.  Mr. Li essentially repeated the message of the Earth fleet announcement.  The Marnese Speaker said a few platitudes in poor Chinese, to which Mr. Li frowned slightly.  The Marnese leader, relieved he didn’t have to continue embarrassing himself with broken Chinese, handed the floor to my dad.

My dad stood.  His 6’2 frame looked good in the white formal suit, made of the same comfy material
in the clothes the robots had given us.  But for this suit, the robots made it look really sharp.  My dad looked the part of the Ambassador; he dominated the room like a General; he spoke like Confucius.

Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparat
ion there is sure to be failure. 

Dad said in fluent Chinese.  Mr. Li’s poker face slipped, registering surprise.  Mom outright gasped.  For all the time they had been married, Dad’s Chinese had been conversational at best.

“Gentlemen, we must prepare.  The robots have found in 6 months time what humanity has searched for at least a century. 
Intelligent life.  Not just a planet that could support intelligent life.  Proof of intelligent life.”  Though we had all seen the message written in the Mars dirt, we were all still mesmerized.

“Since I wasn’t allowed to bring in any electronic equipment, I can only show y
ou the printouts on paper.”  Without drama, Dad placed a scroll in front of himself on the table, the kind of scroll that has 2 ends rolled up in the middle.  He unfurled the scroll to the two ends of the table with an opening of both arms, like a bird taking flight. 

“As you can see, these waves here are clearly anomalies to the
background noise of the universe.  We have removed any and all possible natural explanations, and we still see these signals.  It’s clear as day that this is signs of an intelligent species, broadcasting their existence much like we have been for the last 2 centuries with our radio, television and radar signals.”

Mr. Li put up a nice show,
hmm’ing and ahh’ing, as if he knew what the hell was in front of him.  He pointed at a particularly high spike and all the Chinese delegates nodded and murmured unintelligible sounds of assent.  A few of the more obsequious fellows muttered, “Oh right I see it now. How brilliant of Mr. Li to notice it.”  It was sickening.
 

Dad knew not to overplay his hand.  He sat down and looked at Mr. Li, passing the floor back to him.

Mr. Li cleared his throat.  “Yes, very interesting indeed.  Of course, we must get this data validated by our scientists.”

“Yes, of course,” Dad said agreeably, drawing him out.

Mr. Li composed himself.  He knew he was losing control of the discussion and needed to get back on top.  Mr. Li switched to English to demonstrate his fluency in another language.  “Well, Ambassador Longwhite, this is quite a discovery.  If one were a bit more suspicious of the robots, one might even suggest that the timing of this discovery to be rather…opportune, don’t you think?”

Dad was unflappable.  “One might.”

“Let’s say this data turned out to be false…”

“Then the robots have agreed to let you destroy them, to not even attempt to leave.”

Mr. Li chuckled, “Hmm, I think the robots would find it difficult to leave without our consent.  Nevertheless, I find it refreshing that the robots are willing to put their lives on the line to demonstrate their integrity.” 

I looked at Chang Lin to see if she had caught Mr. Li’s tactical error of admitting robots had “lives.”  Her smile indicated that she had.

“The robots are nothing if not reasonable,” Dad concurred, but not adding anything else, making Mr. Li do all the work.

“So what is to prevent us from destroying the robots anyway, now that they have shown us where to look for intelligent life?”

“Nothing.”

Mr. Li waited, but Dad remained silent.
  After a minute of awkward silence, the Marnese Speaker broke the standoff, “Well, I don’t think we need to do anything so drastic…”  He didn’t go so far as to bring in the legal argument, that the robots were technically under Mars’ protection, so attacking the robots without cause was declaring war on Mars. 

Dad finally explained his initial quotation.  “Delegate Li, we, the robots, understand that humans are terrified of AI, for fear of losing control to us.  However, why we have shown you proof of another living, sentient life form is to open your eyes to the fact that humans are not alone in this universe.  If we have found one intelligent life form in only 6 months of search, it seems likely that there are more.”

“So?” asked Mr. Li, not quite following.

“So, maybe these other life forms
are more advanced than us.  Maybe they’ve spotted our leaked signals for the last 2 centuries.  Maybe they have spaceships on route to us even as we speak.  We don’t know if they’re friends or foe.  But we should prepare.  Expect the best, prepare for the worst.

“For that preparation, I would humbly offer the services of the robot race.  Their AI is capable of solving extremely complex problems that computers today cannot handle.  It’s not for lack of computing power, but for the lack of creativity.  We still rely on the human brain, which essentially retains the same physical structure as our ancient cavemen ancestors, to come up with the creativity to ask the right questions for the
computers to process.  Our technical and scientific advancement is bottlenecked by our primitive brains.  AI is the answer to unstopping that cork, to increase our breakthroughs by orders of magnitude.

“Because we need to get started.
  We don’t know what’s out there. An enemy known is infinitely more preferable than an enemy unknown.  Let’s work together to prepare for that day.  Even if that day never comes, we have the opportunity to improve the lives of billions of humans.  Let our prodigal sons help us.”

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In the end, selling FUD – Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt – usually works.  The wonders that AI could deliver were nice, but China was comfortable with the status quo.  However, the FUD of aliens upended the status quo, and the uppity ups of China agreed to forestall the destruction of the newly formed Robot Nation.  They wanted to see what the robots could offer.

They set up all sorts of restrictions around the robots, making the
Marnese’s security protocols look like child play.  But the robots didn’t complain.

“We’re truly happy we can help,” said Yoda.