Random Chance and the Paradise that is Earth (5 page)

"I haven't, friend Hewey," answered Cubey.
"Updating files. It is apparent I have much to learn."

"Lies, damn lies, and statistics," murmured
Random, reading over the wave again and musing over what made Mia
more special than the others, of which there were at least half a
dozen. "That's true."

"Are you saying there's no such thing as
purely objective data?" said Cubey, who sounded genuinely
interested.

"All stories have an inherent bias in 'em,"
answered Hewey. "And since all stories have as their foundation
simple data, well, you say tomato and I say to-maht-o."

"Please explain, friend Hewey."

"How are those resources coming?" asked
Hewey.

"Over three million percent. I
am running into limits with both hardware and software. I have
considerably streamlined upload data into
The Pompatus of Love
's computer,
which will allow me to interface with you both much more
efficiently. I have also performed upgrades to your computer, if
that is acceptable to you, Random Chance."

"I was wonderin' why I was feelin' so
sparky," said Hewey.

"It's appreciated, Cubey, thanks," said
Random, leaning back in the desk chair in his bedroom.

"Five days to Earth, El Honchorito,"
reported Hewey. "Acceleration topped out at four hundred kps."

"Since all information is biased," said
Cubey, "how can anyone know what the truth is?"

"I think I'm gonna have a shower," said
Random, standing. "You two can hash that out. After I get out and
get something to eat, I'd like to tell you a story, Cubey. Hewey,
I'd like you to help."

"Lookin' forward to it," answered Hewey.

"A story!" said Cubey with surprising
childlike innocence.

~~*~~

Sitting in the captain’s chair, Random spoke
while Hewey displayed images and videos on the bridge's main
display screen.

"A thousand years ago the human race entered
into what historians now call the Millennium or Second Renaissance.
Mankind was spreading out into the solar system. By 2500 A.D.
permanent colonies had been established as far out as Miranda
around Uranus. New Tokyo on the moon passed two million residents,
as had several Martian cities, including Mons Olympus and Radimer.
The incredible wealth of the solar system lifted everyone out of
poverty; no one went hungry or lacked the essentials for life. Life
expectancy topped one hundred seventy-five years ..."

Images and videos on the bridge's wraparound
viewscreen showed everything from colony ships lifting off the moon
to children receiving nanovaccines to elderly people walking
through parks to sparkling cities glimmering in the distance.

"Of course, there were still problems ..."
said Hewey.

"Accessing ..." said Cubey. "Population had
stabilized by the mid-twenty-first century; by 2354 it had dropped
to pre-1999 levels. Even so, climate change was threatening
permanent environmental catastrophe. Is that information correct,
Random Chance?"

"Yep."

"Civilization creates heat," said Hewey.
"There's no gettin' around it. And the more advanced that
civilization, the more waste heat it creates, even with negative
birth rates and advancements in technology."

"The United Nations had long since taken
over as the governing body for all nations on-world or off," said
Random. "Cities and nations still had their parliaments and
whatnot, and they could vote to go against the UN, and some did.
But by and large the UN got its way simply by force of its gigantic
voice: every nation and every city was represented there, and
equally. No one could veto another, or veto legislation, as they
once could. Corporations were finally reigned in; many of the
nastier ones were dissolved entirely and their CEOs and boards of
directors imprisoned. Wars between nations became a thing of the
past, though terrorism and extremism were still very real
threats."

"This information is consistent with what I
have," said Cubey, "though I wasn't aware that nations and cities
could once veto others."

"The United Nations leadership during that
time was extraordinary," said Random. "Great men and women, the
likes of whom many of the more pessimistic of the human species
today feel will never come around again. I don't share that view,
not even after the crap I just went through."

"Neither do I," offered Hewey.

Thousand-year-old images of the United
Nations flashed up on the bridge's wraparound screen; some were
videos offered without sound.

"Representatives from the entire solar
system finally made the United Nations a great governing body. Some
were saying that humankind had finally left its selfish and stupid
adolescence and grown up."

"Science and technology advanced more during
the twenty-fifth century than the whole of human history to that
point, or so says my information," said Cubey.

"Even so," said Random, "many mysteries
remained—and do to this day."

"A.I.," said Hewey.

"Artificial intelligence," said Cubey. "A
conscious, self-aware computer. It was believed by the beginning of
the twenty-sixth century that it couldn't be done, though
scientists couldn't—or, more accurately, wouldn’t—understand why.
Simple computing speed, it turned out, did not grant
self-awareness, even with biological engrams, just like the ones I
and friend Hewey have.

“There was also the mystery of life itself.
Though it was shown in the early twenty-second century that the
precursors for life on Earth originated from organic space debris
from Mars, scientists couldn't produce life in the laboratory given
identical conditions. Both problems persist to this day.
Contemporary scientists have largely declared the problem
unsolvable and have moved on to other issues."

Random waited for the question that he knew
Cubey had to ask next, and was the reason for telling his
story.

"Random Chance ... am I conscious? Am I
'A.I.'? Is Hewey?"

"I’m conscious, partner," said Hewey. "And
you are too, Cubey."

Random's father had told him
that he might do this someday: that his unique gift might confer
consciousness to something like a computer. He wasn't sure it had
happened with Cubey—no one could ever be sure, not empirically,
anyway—but it sure
felt
like it had happened.

"How do I know I'm conscious?" asked Cubey,
perplexed. Images and videos of the twenty-fifth century continued
to play. "How does one prove something or someone else is
conscious, is self-aware?"

"You felt elation the first time you saw
Earth, didn't you, Cubey, when I was back in the cube on
Phobos—?"

There was a long pause.

"Yes, Random Chance," came Cubey's very
quiet response. "Elation."

"I want you to prove it to me."

The pause this time went on and on.

"I think he went away," said Hewey.

"Is his program still running?" asked
Random.

"Yeppers," said Hewey. "But it's at a very
low level. It's almost like ... like he's meditatin'!"

"Leave him be," said Random. "Cut the
picture show. We can continue when he comes back."

The images and videos of the twenty-fifty
century disappeared, once more revealing starry space.

"I think I'll do a quick
workout and then go back to my
Malcolm
X
," said Random. He stood, stretched, and
left the bridge.

"Any music requests?" asked Hewey.

"Your choice, dude."

"I got just the thing."

A moment later:

"Here we come, walkin'
Down the street.
We get the funniest looks from
Ev'ry one we meet.
Hey, hey, we're the Monkees
And people say we monkey around.
But we're too busy singing
To put anybody down."

Random chuckled as he pulled off his shirt.
"You really know how to add perspective to a deep conversation
about humanity and consciousness.”

"I knew I was good for somethin'," shot back
Hewey.

Chapter
Six
Freedom Love, Mr. Chance
~~*~~

THE GREAT blue sphere of Earth spun
overhead. Random stared up through the transparent bubble of the
bridge and smiled.

“Beautiful. It’s been too long. Feels like
it’s been as long as the Exodus, swear.”

“Me, too,” said Hewey. “I was manufactured
on Earth, you know.”

“Really!” said Random, still gazing up. “I
didn’t know that about you.”

“Benito had a subsidiary plant in Tokyo for
a short time. My core was manufactured there, then shipped to the
main plant at Titan. Ever been?”

“Saturn?”

“Yeah.”

“No.”

“Big tourist destination.”

Silence ensued, punctuated only by the soft
beeps of the navigation and communication consoles. Hewey
interrupted it with, “Sydney ground, partner. We’re a little too
close for their comfort at our speed. They want us to adjust
course.”

“Go ahead,” said Random. At this speed and
range—four hundred kilos per second and no more than four thousand
off the ground—features came in and out of view quickly.

“Adjusting,” said Hewey. “It won’t affect
our fuel consumption too much.”

“Good,” said Random, and looked up
again.

Earth. Humanity’s home.

At least it was.

The Exodus lasted five and a half centuries.
In that time over ninety-five percent of Earth’s ostensibly most
intelligent species left Sol’s life-giving third planet and
ventured into the deep of interplanetary space. Whole cities once
populated with tens of millions of people were abandoned, left to
be reclaimed by nature. The remaining cities, long since domed
over, were peopled with those directly tasked with helping nature
recover from ten thousand years of human savagery, pollution,
greed, consumption, war, and indifference.

Ironic, Random thought, that the Exodus
might prove to be the most destructive thing humankind ever did to
it.

The Exodus was embraced by most during its
time. Most—but not all. A very vocal minority bitterly opposed it,
claiming that Earth was humanity’s to do with as it will. It was a
disparate crowd made up of religious fundamentalists, materialists,
conspiracy theorists, anarchists, and rich elitists, who banded
together and refused to leave. Great violence defined much of the
Exodus’ five hundred fifty years, particularly the first years of
the thirtieth century. That nasty crowd was responsible for
countless acts of terrorism that ended up costing millions of lives
and millions of square kilometers of land and sea. If they were
going to be forced to move, they threatened, then they would
utterly despoil Earth for good and for ever. The fighting ended in
3149 when the ringleaders of the incipient “Oligarchy” were caught
and sentenced to spend the rest of their lives behind bars.

Humanity, living among the stars, celebrated
their demise.

But the Oligarchy, named for how they viewed
themselves on nature’s hierarchy, didn’t disappear. Like an unseen
infection that hadn’t been completely eradicated, the movement
slowly festered and spread. For two hundred years no one heard of
it, having relegated their madness to the darker pages of human
history.

Random chuckled without humor.

“What’s so funny, amigo?”

“Nothin’,” said Random. “I’m just thinking
depressing thoughts.”

“With that view? Are you nuts?”

“Sometimes I think I am.”

“Not that I want to continue your trip down
South Sad Street, but mind sharin’?”

“The typical. How stupid people are. I mean,
look at this.”

“I’m lookin’.”

“It’s like the Exodus didn’t mean anything.
People let the Garkies take over planetary governments, and now
Earth faces complete destruction. Think of it! If they destroy the
Nyett Zhong, humanity will inevitably repopulate this world and
wipe it out. And if that doesn’t happen, the Garkies will destroy
it anyway, as they’ve promised for centuries! That’s just … really
depressing.”

“It always starts with apathy
and complacency,” said Hewey. “That’s how crapheads like Garkies
ooze their way into power. But hey,” he went on, “a
lot
has to happen for
them to get what they want.”

“I wish Cubey could see this. He’s been gone
a long time.”

“He’s still got a digital heartbeat,” said
Hewey. “Don’t worry about him, Rand. I remember when you did the
same thing to me.”

“What did it feel like?”

“Like nothin’ at first,” mused
Hewey. “And then it was like I was surrounded by light. But then I
realized I
was
an
‘I,’ and that the light wasn’t new;
I
was.”

“Light,” smiled Random. “The sun?”

“Yeah.
I
realized that
I
was runnin’ some program to
determine the strength of a solar flare and that my sensors were
pointed in that direction.
I
realized it.
Realized
. That was quite a
moment.”

“Here comes the sun/ Here comes the sun/ And
I say … It’s all right….”

“That’s how it felt,” said Hewey with a
happy sigh.

“Cubey’s got a lot more power than you,”
said Random after humming a few more bars. “I’d think that would
speed his progress compared to you.”

“Don’t worry too much, amigo. Remember: his
central core is on Phobos and he’s still gotta do his job there,
one that is quite a bit larger than runnin’ an RV! Besides, I don’t
think it works that way.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t know, really. I just have a feelin’
it doesn’t.

“Interesting.”

“I know I’ve said it before, but let me
thank you again, Random. You’re a good friend.”