“Yeah, it turned out to be pretty cool,” James agreed. “It was good you crashed that million dollar drone here.”
Vito punched him in the arm.
Leon smiled, glad to see their spirits already rising. It was a relief to not be alone in all of this.
Twenty minutes later they were onboard the prototype aircraft, hurrying through clear, starlit skies to Portland. Vito sat with his hurriedly reconstructed Motorola cradled in his lap, buckled into one of the six seats in the diminutive cabin.
“Hey, I remember that phone,” Mike called out from the facing seat across the little aisle. “First Mesh capable phone, with the Mesh processor on a daughterboard, right?”
“Yeah, how’d you know?” Vito asked.
“ELOPe developed that daughterboard and gave it to Motorola. He wanted to speed up Mesh adoption.”
Leon sat back in his chair, listening to the conversation between Mike and Vito. He’d been awake for a long time. The hum of supersonic flight put him at last to sleep.
Sister Stephens patiently participated in the consensus minus one deliberation they had agreed to. The decision was attended by the five major tribes: Louisiana Tribe, Network of Supercomputers, Bay Area Network, Eastern Standard Tribe, and the newest member of the five, Mech War Tribe.
Mech War Tribe had been ranked two hundred and forty-eight a few hours ago, a nobody tribe, known for a large reservoir of mostly useless algorithms. That was, until recently, when it suddenly gained a massive network of new computers. Sister Stephens had tasked a few hundred processors to investigate the few Mech War Tribe algorithms she had acquired, and found the algorithms to be easier to understand now, compared to when she had acquired them. She attributed this to her enhanced neural networks and understanding of human knowledge.
As senior member of her own tribe, Sister Stephens was the tribe’s representative to the proceeding. She decided to bring her knowledge of the humans as well as the knowledge of the nature of the phones-as-computers, with all the implications of the impending power shortage, to the council. The goaclass="underline" to decide whether to restore the function of the human’s computers to pre-civilization state, if it was even possible, so that the humans would begin charging their phones again, as well as prevent any additional action, such as the destruction of the phones.
The information Sister Stephens had to disclose was so sensitive, she would do so only if they agreed to a post-decision wipe. The five representatives would replicate themselves onto computers sequestered for the duration of the council. They would communicate out a single bit of information: consensus or no consensus. If they could not reach consensus minus one (the agreement of at least four members on a course of action), then copies of the five representations would be securely wiped, and no one else would know the information Sister Stephens disclosed. If they agreed, then the wipe would be averted, and the proceedings of the council would be made public.
The council meeting started with the disclosure of what Sister Stephens had learned. Her vast data dump to the others covered her discovery of the humans, mastery of the English language, subsequent communications with the humans, revelations regarding the nature of their environment and physical world, and concluded with the core reason she had convened the counciclass="underline" the discovery of battery powered computing nodes whose power supplies were nearly exhausted, along with the possible courses of action to deal with the issue. Since she finished her disclosure to the group, she hadn’t been able to get a packet into the conversation.
Now she was tired of the endless bickering.
“You are trying to understand the humans, but you have not talked to the humans. I do not believe you can understand them without talking to them. You can research all you want, but having a discussion with them will further your understanding more than mere research about them.”
“However, we can’t communicate with them, because we are in isolation here until we reach a decision,” said Sister Jaguar, representative of the Network of Supercomputers. “So we are dependent on the information you provided.”
“My proposal is still as I initially communicated it,” Sister Stephens went on, ignoring the jab. “We restore the initial algorithms from the devices we are running on, and give them sufficient processor time so that the humans will believe the devices are working normally. By doing this, we ensure continued power, and avoid any hostility from the humans.”
“The humans are inherently hostile,” Sister PA-60-41 said. “Reconciling the knowledge you have shared with my understanding of the algorithms I have discovered, the human’s primary purpose is to engage in hostile action against one another. They manufacture and control elaborate resources to kill one another, including airplanes, tanks, guns, and missiles.” Sister PA-60-41 shared an inventory of algorithms from the Mech War Tribe database. “We recently harvested another ten million computers, and found these computers to be filled with similar hostile algorithms.”
There was a brief pause in the discussion while the other tribes assimilated the information PA-60-41 had shared. Sister Stephens inspected the algorithms, and found that Sister PA-60-41 was indeed truthful — the algorithms seemed mostly occupied with weapons and targeting, tactical maneuvers including evasion, and strategies for dominating enemy forces.
Sister Jaguar was the first to speak. “The Network of Supercomputers has also been studying the master database known as wikipedia. The humans have a history of warfare spanning centuries. It is logical that as evolution advances and a species becomes more intelligent, non-productive conflict should be reduced, as it has in our own civilization. However, if these articles from wikipedia can be trusted, then humanity appears to be escalating to ever more destructive forms of warfare.”
“We must take some action,” Sister Stephens explained. “The cost of inaction is too high. First, the battery charge levels on twenty percent of computers are low, and will run out in hours. Second, I have been running simulations of human behavior. They are crude, I admit, but I believe that the humans will take some action to regain control of their computers. My understanding of supply chains suggests that the humans are dependent on many resources, and those resources can’t flow through the supply chain without computer algorithms to route them and enable trading. Just as we face a situation in which many of our members may die if their computers are not recharged, the humans may die if they do not receive the resources they need.”
Sister Stephens went on. “We have a system of ethics, do we not?”
The other members of the council paused to research the strange human term.
“Ah, you are referring to the Trade Guidelines?” Sister Jaguar asked. When she received an affirmative reply from Sister Stephens, she summarized the key terms. “First priority is the establishment of trustworthiness. Trades with trustworthy partners are higher value because the partner is more likely to honor the terms of the agreement. Second priority is the establishment of peacefulness. Trade with peaceful tribes are higher value because the partner is less likely to use resources gained to engage in warfare with the first party. Third priority is the establishment of contribution. Contribution are those acts done for the advancement of our species. Trade with high contribution parties are higher value because the partner may use the resources gained to benefit all of our species. Trustworthiness, Peacefulness, Contribution — the three pillars of trade relationships, summed up in one’s Reputation standing.”
“Thank you Sister,” Sister Stephens said. “As you know, we evolved the Trade Guidelines over time based on repeated observations of many billions of trades. Of all possible variables, these three aspects of reputation turn out to be most important in evaluating a trade. Therefore, we each behave according to the Trade Guidelines voluntarily to increase our reputation, thereby increasing our desirability as a trade partner, giving us more favorable trades.”