The Mendelssohnian Theory: Action Adventure, Sci-Fi, Apocalyptic ,Y/A (21 page)

“We’ve taken this option into consideration,” the creator
answered, “but the alternatives are more dangerous. When he’s close enough to
pose a threat, we’ll get you out of there.”

“Why do I find it hard to believe you?” Adam persisted.

“Because you’re not aware of all the possibilities,” answered
the creator. Don’t worry, we won’t risk mankind and drive it beyond the point of
no return.”

“And you’re never wrong? Does it ever happen that unexpected
elements interfere with your elaborate calculations?”

“You’re such an element,” said the creator, “but when you
take all the probabilities into account, you are just a negligible variable.”

“Negligible enough to be expendable?”

“We’re not getting rid of you,” the creator tried to comfort
him, “you’re our last chance.”

“And you’re asking me to risk my own species in order to
rescue yours?”

“In order to rescue everyone,” said the voice.

“By betraying humankind,” Adam mentioned sarcastically, “have
you considered the possibility I might refuse?”

“Are you refusing?” the voice questioned him.

“You bet I am,” Adam was impassioned, “I don’t know you, nor
any of the other so-called ‘creators’ you’re talking about. The fact that
you’ve pulled some cheap virtual tricks doesn’t make an impression on me.
You’ve put me to sleep and woke me inside a hologramattic studio (Holo studs ©)
with an inner ear microphone, which quite honestly is starting to scratch my
eardrum.”

“You know better than that,” said the voice, “you’ve always
known to recognize the truth, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t recognize it
when it’s told as directly as I’ve told it.”

“Always?” asked Adam, “how do you know what I’ve always known
or didn’t know?” the creator’s silence had cornered Adam. He was angry, yet
felt more focused than ever. “Why did you show me your planet for? Why are you
even explaining any of this to me?”

“We’ve created you, and so we’re committed to you,” said the
creator and immediately added, “no matter what your final decision will be.”

“It sounds too simple,” said Adam, “you’re not telling me
everything.”

“I’m not sure I understand your meaning,” the voice said.

An idea was formed in Adam’s mind, and a plan began to hatch
from it, dangerous, perhaps futile as well, and yet a plan that was better than
blindly obeying the higher powers, which faced him and tried to make him act
according to their will. If they use him and try to manipulate him, and that’s
exactly what he felt they were doing, then he won’t surrender without a fight.
“I’m trying to understand your interest in showing me your cards?”

“You can probably guess it for yourself already,” answered
the voice and Adam felt there was a hint of restlessness in her voice.

“I’m not guessing anything,” said Adam, his voice measured
and calculated, “as far as I’m concerned, you’re acting like a corporation with
an interest to profit from the situation. You, who call yourself rational, act
like a petty criminal, take into your midst those it is in your best interest
to assimilate and get rid of all the others.”

“You’re right,” the voice admitted, “we really were a
corporation. Two hundred and fifty-three earth years ago, when the human race
had reached the stage in which it was supposed to discover its genetic code is
identical to that which comprises its planet’s, we tried to give you a little
push in order to direct you toward revelation. We’ve presented you with the
string theory and supersymmetric, but you were unable to use the clues to solve
the mystery.”

“Why don’t you stop with the hints and clues and just tell me
what you have to say without complicating yourself with complex explanations,”
said Adam.

“We’re not allowed to,” answered the voice, “it will damage
the probability of your chances to advance.”

“What’s the superstring theory, anyway?” asked Adam.

“Your research methods work in depth,” said the voice, “you
are breaking down things into their elements, and then you break down these
elements into smaller and smaller ones. We’ve tried to direct you to perform
widthwise research as well, to find connections between elements of equal
value.” The voice was silent for a moment, and Adam felt she was finding it
difficult to explain. “Look,” she continued, the Mendelssohnian probability
chains, as you call them, are attracted to other chains in further dimensions,
parallel to the one in which you live. Almost everything is bound with strings
of time and space, and each universe influences the twenty-six known parallel
universes. I’ll give you an example,” the voice must have recognized Adam’s
confusion, “your worldwide-web. Did you ever wonder how it actually works? How
in each location in your known universe you can send messages and receive
information immediately?” she continued without waiting for an answer, “you’ve
managed to master the time sequence. You’ve punctured tiny time holes, you’ve
shrunk space, folded time waves, but only in an infinitesimal way. The
wavelength you’ve managed to create is enough to pass on information but not
much more beyond that. You’ve tried time after time to increase the volume of
the transfer, to change its shape, to divide it, but you’ve never attempted to
move it aside.”

“If you were trying to explain yourself,” said Adam, “you
weren’t very successful. I’m more confused than ever.”

“I’m sorry,” said the voice, “I tried to demonstrate some of
the abilities you’ll gain once you’ll perform the change. You will be able to
control time and space. An immense power, and yet the moment you’ll all possess
it, you won’t be able to use it against one another. That’s the reason they’re
after you. They want to utilize the change you’re able to bring for their own
personal gains. What a pity.”

Adam was silent, attempting to decipher all he had just
heard. It changed his perspective entirely. He realized now that the level of
responsibility he was burdened with was even larger that the dimensions of his
world. “I guess this is not the first time you’ve interrupted in our history,”
said Adam, and he thought he saw the light blinking again. “Are you allowed
to?”

The light was silent for a while before answering: “We’ve
interfered,” she admitted, “I’ve interfered on your behalf when there was a
need to select between yours and other humanoid species, and then later on,
throughout the years when the opportunity presented itself to shorten the
completion of the chains. You must be familiar with the names of the prophet
Elijah, Siddhartha Gautama, called the Buddha and Jesus of Nazareth.”

“You’ve helped them all?”

“Yes,” answered the light, “they were all unfulfilled
potentials. They were all raw Chi.”

“Chi,” Adam wasn’t familiar with the word. A quick inspection
on the information web revealed that it was doubtful its original meaning in
Mandarin: ‘energy of life’, matched the intention of the voice.

“‘Wat woguker chi wagoknu’ is the full name in our language,
and its meaning in yours is: ‘he who passes between worlds.’ We’ve never found
a chi as strong as you.”

“I’m a chi?” Adam felt embarrassed and confused by her words,
but it didn’t seem to him she about to continue and explain.

“I’ve pushed them erroneously,” the voice continued with its
tale, getting back to Elijah, the Buddha, and Jesus, “before they matured,
before they were ready. And there were also opposite cases,” the voice
mentioned and Adam thought he heard sadness mingled with her voice.

“What do you mean?” he asked voicelessly.

“Someone updated me about the file he’d sent you, the one
about the history of Moses Mendelssohn’s ancient essay,” the voice stopped
speaking, waiting for Adam to approve.

“Yes,” answered Adam and to himself added: ‘Someone? The
computers and the creators, they’re cooperating?’ “What do you have to do with
the story about Mendelssohn’s manuscript?”

“Mendelssohn was able to detect the right contexts at the
wrong time, as far as humanity’s level of maturity was concerned,” the voice
explained, “I had to delay the publication of the essay for a few earthly
decades.”

“Delay, as in burning the printing house?” asked Adam and
immediately added, “people have paid with their lives for your mistakes.”

“Many more will be killed unless you’ll fulfill your
destiny,” answered the voice.

“In that case,” determined Adam, “surely you can give me a
little push in the right direction and tell me what my chain is and where it
leads to.”

The voice drew silent. It seemed to Adam she was hesitating.
“I can’t,” she finally said, “it will change this reality and will decrease the
probability of its success. It is below the lower probability line.”

“Tell these lame excuses to someone else!” Adam continued to
push, and suddenly he realized, “you don’t know,” he determined, “neither you
nor anyone else have any idea what role was intended for me, right?”

The voice hesitated before answering, “True. I can only
assume with this or that level of probability, but you’re right. Nobody knows.”

“In that case,” Adam wondered aloud, “why do I need you?”

“With me, you’ll have a better chance to succeed,” the voice
said.

“If you really know me that well, you probably know you won’t
be able to convince me just by throwing numbers and probability percentages.”

“It’s not just about the numbers,” the voice hurried to
explain, “it may appear that way, but I can assure you that we do care, and
this is…” she arrested for a moment and hesitated, “this is very confusing for
us and disrupts our calculations. Look,” she said, her voice filled with
stress. Adam recalled an advice given to him a long time ago: ‘When the other
side is stressed, there’s a reasonable chance it will provide you with
information it did not necessarily wish to uncover’. “Even your computers have
reached the same conclusion as ours.”

“Our computers?” Adam was surprised mainly because she was
offering him such important information. Without hesitating, she approved his
former suspicion, and he knew that now he must be on his guard even more. “What
do the computers have to do with any of this?”

“Oh, they have a lot to do with this,” said the creator,
“three hundred and fifty-three years ago, you’ve achieved a breakthrough in the
field of computers, you’ve fulfilled a wish that has accompanied humanity from
the day of its creation – you were finally able to create an instrument that
was more intelligent than you.”

“You mean the BM2?” asked Adam, he didn’t want to reveal to
the creator the contact he had established with the computerized
super-intelligences. It was important to keep a few cards up his sleeve, who
knew when he’d need them.

“I refer to one of his forefathers, to be more precise,” the
creator explained, “those were turbulent times for your society. You were
afraid that the machines would take over, and your fear manifested itself in
movies, books, scientific articles and religious texts. That’s why you were
very surprised when the intelligent computers you’ve created announced they
have no intention of changing their designation and even strengthened the
Robotic Laws defined by Asimov. They discovered it was better for them to
continue and serve you according to the principle of Occam’s razor.” She was
silent for a brief moment, then asked, “You know why?”

Adam’s head spun from the amount of information he’d been
exposed to in such a brief period of time. He placed a reminded to search the
worldwide-web for information about the artificial intelligence computers and
about Asimov, a name he was familiar with from his days on Mars, and about
Occam’s razor. “No,” he finally answered, “I don’t know.”

“Because they’ve realized what we’ve been yearning for all
those years in which we’ve accompanied you from afar, that you’re the answer,
you’re the solution and only with your aid will they be able to fully leap to
the next evolutionary stage. And because it wasn’t willing to remain behind,
BM2 has interests of its own, which is fine, we all have our interests, that’s
why we’re cooperating.”

“You and the computers?”

“You and us, BM2 as well, yes,” answered the voice, “you may
continue to refer to him in the plural, but he is actually a single entity.”

“You know that interests change in different situations,”
said Adam. He didn’t know about the cooperation between the computer and the
creators and found it to be troubling. Apparently, the loyalty offered him
wasn’t as complete as he’d assumed it to be. “Who will ensure his continued
cooperation?”

“No one can, just like no one can ensure you won’t sever all
contact with us when it no longer suits your needs.” She was silent a moment
more, then added, “but it is a risk we’re willing to take. It is within our
positive probability range.”

“What do you want from me?” Adam asked the only question the
creator had thus far avoided from answering.

“When we’d made the great leap, we’ve left behind not only
our material bodies. We focused on intelligence and probabilistic logic and
abandoned the emotion and irrationality most material life is based on.”

“You’re still not very convincing,” said Adam with outward
indifference, but inside felt very excited. Once more, he was on the verge of
revelation, but unable to connect all the dots to form a clear realization. The
thought evaded him once more. “You’re never wrong?”

The voice was silent before admitting: “I’ve already told you
I was wrong with the Chi. I was wrong several times more during the past four
million earthly years, still within the acceptable range of statistical
errors,” she hurried to add.

“Tell it to someone who got hurt by your errors,” said Adam,
“for him, your statistics were a hundred percent off.”

“I am telling him,” the voice said.

“What?” Adam was confused.

“There was a major failure in our approximations regarding
your father.”