Quantum Times (27 page)

     “No General, that we will not do. The laws of my Earth are very pacifist. Our leaders do not like the idea of interfering with other Earths. My actions and those of my crew are scrutinized to ensure we do not actively engage unless directly provoked. Perhaps we might do something if The Freya were to attack you directly, but they will not. They are like Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello. They will stir up trouble but not take direct action. The troubled environment was here before they arrived. They had nothing to do with the exchange of nuclear weapons in Korea. The hatred in the Middle East is not their doing. The Freya is a scavenger, that is all.”

     Scarpetti wasn’t sure what he should believe, if anything. But he hoped Plato was telling the truth. “So have you done this before? Do you have a playbook for this?”

     “There are things we can do. But under the new circumstances, I’m afraid we will need to employ a more aggressive approach.”

     “That doesn’t sound good somehow,” said Scarpetti.

     To their surprise a few minutes later Scarpetti and General Greene were joined in the room by David Randall and Gabriela, by Dr. Wheeling and by Planck. Hank Scarpetti was introduced to Gabriela and Planck, whom he had not met before. Everyone sat down around the table.

     “With due respect to the others, I had thought this would be a private meeting,” Scarpetti said to Plato.

     Plato turned back to him, “The only person in this room that I don’t know that I can trust is you, Mr. Scarpetti. Your planet is at risk and there is much that has to be done to save it. And time is precious. When you and your President were first confronted with the appearance of The Bucephalus and the advent of Participatory Physics, your instinctive response was to imprison David and Dr. Wheeling. You sought to control what you didn’t understand. You and your government’s leaders fancy yourselves, to use your phrase, the ‘best and the brightest.’ In fact you are neither. Your country chooses its leaders by default, for the best and the brightest have no interest in pursuing political careers. Your country was blessed early in its history with truly exceptional leaders and except for a few rare exceptions like Lincoln and the Roosevelts, you have been squandering their political capital ever since.

     “Now Mr. Scarpetti,” Plato continued, “I am about to suggest a course of action that will profoundly change the future of this planet. It has its risks and rewards. These changes are going to occur whether you and your President…your government wants them to or not. But I assure you, these changes will not be subject to your control. Your assistance, however, could be very valuable.”

     Hank Scarpetti could not remember when anyone had dared to talk to him the way Plato just had. He wanted to attack back, every part of him wanted to threaten Plato and put him in his place. Didn’t Plato know the power he wielded as Chief of Staff to the President of the United States! And Plato had insulted the President too! He looked over at his friend and three star general to see that Greene would support him. Greene returned his glance calmly and just shook his head, no.

     Then Scarpetti remembered back to a few weeks ago sitting in his office alone and scared that the situation was becoming bigger than he was. He remembered thinking he didn’t know anyone in the government who he would trust with making decisions that would affect the future of the planet. And he had known that he wasn’t prepared for it either. His anger at Plato for telling what Scarpetti had to admit was the truth began to subside. Too much was at stake for politicians like him to be allowed ego tantrums.

     Hank Scarpetti looked back at Plato and held his hands out in surrender, “All right, I’m listening.”

     “Good,” Plato replied. Then he looked around the room at the others. “We are here together somewhat haphazardly… I went looking for Benjamin Planck because of his work on Participatory Physics. Then David you went looking for him and ultimately brought Dr. Wheeling and Gabriela with you. Each of you has important skills and connections that can be very useful in succeeding with the challenges we face.

     “This Earth now is at the beginning of what will be three separate but interrelated revolutions. The first is a scientific revolution based on the combination of Participatory Physics with its mind over matter foundation and the introduction of new advanced technologies which will be brought to this Earth from other Earths, for both good intentions and bad. The second revolution will be political based on changing bases for power through the new scientific discoveries plus the new potential Earth/other Earth alliances. For example, The Lucky Dragon will build an alliance with Japan. The third revolution will be philosophical. The people of this Earth will have to re-orient themselves to a different universe with different laws of physics and different Earths with different histories. This will cause a fundamental psychological readjustment.”

     “What a thrilling moment in time to be alive,” said Dr. Wheeling, not at all overwhelmed.

     Plato smiled at the professor, “I wish everyone could face it with the confidence that you do.”

     Hank Scarpetti did not share Wheeling’s excitement. “What you are saying Plato, is that we face decades of social and political turbulence while at the same time new and more dangerous technologies will be available to terrorists and rogue nations. That is a nightmare scenario that your coming here has brought to us.”

“Yes it is a potentially nightmare scenario but it is not one that I brought to you. Participatory Physics was already discovered before I arrived – and not just by Planck here. The Chinese had also discovered its potential. So that Pandora’s Box was already opened. But even without it, the pace of technological change here was already accelerating. Technological change drives societal change; there is no holding it back. The technology your world will have 30 years from now just based on the path you are on will overwhelm your current political structure.” He looked at the faces around him and could see that though they wanted to understand, they did not.

     “Let me give you a couple of examples,” Plato said. “What happens to your economy when the average person has a lifespan of 120 years? What happens to your societal structure when the affluent can genetically improve their children – higher IQ’s, healthier bodies, but the other half of the population cannot? Similarly terrorism is steadily increasing. And the threat of nuclear destruction was here already as well and it gets worse as more countries have nuclear arsenals. The threats to this Earth are of your own making.”

     “We thought we were handling it,” Scarpetti said.

     Plato rejected that. “You were self-satisfied in your ignorance with a false sense of security.”

     David had been listening but had not understood why he was there. What role could he play, he wondered? So he thought he would ask. “Plato, I think you have a plan. What do you want from us?’

     “Yes, David, there is a plan. One should always remember that during revolutions you must gain control of the times and you must be able to influence the people to act productively not destructively. Your American Revolution is a great example of leadership producing a positive result. On the other hand, the French Revolution just a few years later led to destruction of the social order and guillotining thousands of people in the streets of Paris.”

     “So how do we lead productively?” Scarpetti asked.

     Plato’s answer was overwhelming to them all. “We give the people the best of what these revolutions can offer and thus gain their support for the struggle that is inevitable.”

     “So what do we have to give them?” David asked.

     Plato held his arms out with his palms up. “We show them an open hand and we show them a closed fist. With the open hand we show how to reduce the cost of energy to almost zero. This will create a dramatic increase in productivity that will drive higher employment and profitability. We show how growth and productivity improvements can and must benefit the many not just the few. Economies around the world will grow stronger and poverty will be reduced. And we show those who would commit acts of terror that we will find them and kill them.”

     “Wow,” said David. “We can do that?”

     “You MUST do that – or you will not survive. And yes you can do that!” declared Plato.

Chapter Twelve

“It turns out that an eerie type of chaos can lurk just behind a façade of order – and yet, deep inside the chaos lurks an even eerier type of order.”

Douglas Hofstadter: Metemagical Themas: Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern

     Hank Scarpetti frowned and stood up. “This is ridiculous. We can’t do those things. The U.S. government can’t do any of those things. You can’t just create cheap and plentiful energy and make the world safe from terrorists. That’s just not reality. No government can do that!”

     “Yes, Mr. Scarpetti, I suspect you are right,” said Plato. “No government can do that. I am not suggesting that any government can do that. But people can do it. For you see, not only can we bring them the benefits of Participatory Physics but I can also share the scientific knowledge of my homeworld – an Earth with technology more than 200 years ahead of yours. And I assure you, the technology and knowledge does exist to solve the energy problem. All you have to do is unleash the creative powers of your people aided by the information we can give them.”

     Gabriela spoke up then, with the conversation so serious and the tension in the room so electric she needed, and she felt the others needed, to lighten the moment. “You know Plato, I’ve noticed how great all your people look. If you really want to gain the support of the people, just show women how to clear up our skin and get rid of wrinkles and men how to cure baldness and you’ll have everyone cheering for you.”

     Plato laughed, “Good point! We’ll do that too!”

     “Really?” Gabriela asked. “I thought I was joking.”

     “Your own science will soon be able to accomplish those things,” Plato replied.

     “So where do we start?” David asked.

     “Planck and Gabriela will work with the scientific community to demonstrate how with Participatory Physics and new technology mankind can have limitless low cost energy. I’m going to ask Dr. Wheeling and David to make it their mission to explain to the world how to make it all work. And Mr. Scarpetti, I’m going to charge you with eliminating the regulatory roadblocks – note I said eliminate not buildup. And I know there will be resistance from both energy companies and countries who export oil. There will be a lot of resistance – this will take a while. But there can be immediate short term benefits.”

     “This all sounds great, though I think the energy industry will be far more resistant than we can imagine,” Scarpetti said, though he didn’t make it sound like he really thought it sounded great, “But that still leaves us with The Freya helping terrorists and The Lucky Dragon stirring up trouble with the Japanese. Iran will still have nuclear weapons and will continue to hate Israel. Nothing you are saying will help us now – what you propose will take years to put in effect. It seems to me we are still in just as much danger as we were before.”

     Plato regarded Hank Scarpetti with a patient stare. “We need to start by getting people to understand that the changes coming will be good for them. That will take time but the effort must be begun immediately. If we do not fight for the long term, we will never escape the short term; and in the short term we will lose. But you are right; we still must deal with The Freya and The Lucky Dragon.”

     General Greene spoke up, “I understand Plato’s strategy. We have to win ‘hearts and minds.’ But that even includes our own people. Everyone is going to be scared. So we show them how they will benefit. But we also do not tolerate acts of terror. And if we have access to the global surveillance capability that Plato described earlier, then we really can strike back at the terrorists.”

     David interrupted, “I don’t think we should say anything about global surveillance capability. That will freak out a lot of people concerned about privacy rights.”

     “Privacy rights are essential to an enlightened society,” Plato stated. “For a society under attack they are a very expensive privilege.”

     Reverend Teddy Wentworth’s church was much bigger than Planck had imagined. He’d seen big corporations with smaller office facilities. And it didn’t look much like any church that Planck had ever been at. The grounds looked more like those of a small college campus and the main church was more like a modern auditorium although it did have a dramatic arched roofline that was vaguely modernized gothic. And this Sunday, the auditorium /church was as crowded as if there was to be an NBA play-off game. There were thousands of people there, packed to overflowing. But unlike a sporting event, the crowd was quiet, though an expectant buzz of what sounded like thousands of people whispering filled the hall.

     There were more people than could be seated, so many were standing at the back and in the aisles. Many had brought their children and there were mothers and fathers holding babies in their arms. Like the parents, the children were dressed in their Sunday church clothes and were running around less than they would have wanted.

     As the service was about to begin, Planck moved from a side room where he had been anxiously watching the filling up of the auditorium to take a seat at the front which had been saved for him. Reverend Teddy had explained how he would introduce Planck and have him talk during the time he normally would be giving his sermon. So first there would be the singing of hymns, followed by a prayer and then more hymn singing. As the service began, Planck was surprised to see a band and featured singers who obviously were professional. And he had to admit he had never heard any of the songs before, though it seemed that most of the people in the huge room did not need the words on the screens in front of them to sing along. He was surprised also to see many in the hall to be rhythmically waving their upraised arms in pace with the music.

     Sitting there, Planck’s hands were shaking and he could barely breath there was such a weight in his chest. Even with the chilly air-conditioning he felt hot in his dark blue suit. He fiddled with his tie which he knew was a pretty poor attempt at a Windsor knot. He had not imagined any of this. He was not a churchgoer and the wedding services he had attended were at the traditional protestant and catholic churches that hadn’t changed in a hundred years.

     He could not understand what he had been thinking of when he had agreed. It had just seemed important at the time. Now there were thousands of people here to listen to him and so many more at their homes watching on the cable channel that carried Reverend Teddy’s weekly Sunday service.

     He believed that somehow Plato had set him up for this. He didn’t know how, but Plato was obviously happy that Planck was doing this. And somehow Plato had talked him out of preparing a short message which he could just read. Instead Plato had told him to just have a few notes and then just talk to the crowd of people. Now Planck was very afraid that his moment would come and he would be literally speechless. As it was, as the service began and the hymns were sung, Planck just sat there with an empty mind – or should he say a dazed mind, which he realized wasn’t a good thing at that moment.

     Then he reconsidered. An empty mind was exactly what he needed. He should do what he knew Catherine Ozawa would counsel. He sought a still mind. He focused on breathing and put the crowd and the TV cameras and his fear outside of himself. He just breathed. And he let his body relax. Then he let his mind slip lightly onto his ideas of consciousness. Moments passed and he then heard Reverend Teddy introducing him. He went to the podium on the stage.

     Standing there at the podium, he didn’t know what to expect. All eyes were on him, quietly observing him, not really knowing what to expect either. For a long moment he just looked back at them. He saw they were eager to hear him, eager to learn more about how strange the universe might be, eager to discover there were miracles. He feared he could only fail them. But he found he wanted to try not to.

     “I’m here because Reverend Teddy asked me to come speak to you – and he is a hard man to say ‘no’ to…. After I had agreed and after I had recovered from the shock of what it was I had agreed to do, I thought about what I should say. The easy thing for me to tell you about would be about my work in physics and in particular Quantum Physics…. But then I realized that before I was half done everyone would be asleep or confused.” A few people laughed and that helped him go forward. “So instead I’m going to try and tell you what it actually means – and anyone who wants to pursue the physics behind what I’m going to tell you can go online and read the paper I will soon publish.” Planck paused then and just looked at all the faces staring at him from the audience. His words had come out in a rush. He needed to slow down and just talk to them. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly.

     “Now what I am going to tell you is just what I believe. And I think it is pretty miraculous. In fact I think it is the biggest miracle of all. You have already heard that I believe that consciousness is the foundation of the Universe. It is the basis for how the Universe was created. Without consciousness the universe is just an infinite potentiality – we physicists would call it a probability wave. It is formless, structure-less. It is lifeless. Consciousness is what transforms potentiality to reality. It is the basis for how everything in the Universe is created. It is in me and it is in you. It is in everything.

     “Now I am not the only scientist who believes this. Many brilliant thinkers before me have believed this too. Perhaps I have gone a step or two further – not theoretically, but more as an engineer. I have figured out how to tap into this universal consciousness to somehow put it to work. I believe it can help us feed everyone on this planet. I believe it can help us stay healthy. It can give us what we want.”

     Planck paused again and smiled at the crowd. “Just as an example – and this is by no means an important one, but when Plato came down to my island and he brought some of his crew along, they were all noticeably young and very good looking. In fact many were quite old in years. But through focused meditation that channels into consciousness, they change their bodies and keep their youthful appearance. So no wrinkles, no baldness, no imperfections – just the glow of health. Not that any of you would care about such superficial benefits.”

     The crowd laughed at that. With their laughter, Planck relaxed and turned serious.

     “One of the things that led my scientific inquiry into consciousness is something I think many of you do every day. That is prayer. When I was a child, one of the few things my parents agreed on when it came to religion was the importance of prayer. My father was Jewish, my mother Catholic and one of my Grandparents was Lutheran. So they didn’t agree about a lot of things, but they all wanted me to say my prayers. I remember kneeling by my bed at night and saying my prayers aloud.

     “As I got older, I wondered how God could hear my prayers. My future as a physicist started then. How could God hear me? What was the physical process? Then I was told about silent prayers – I didn’t even have to say my prayers out loud – I just had to say them in my mind! How could that work? Even as a young child I knew that made no sense. Think about that.” Planck paused then to let the people before him think about what he was about to say.

     “I believe in prayer. You believe in prayer – even silent prayer. And you know, as I know, that the more people that pray for you, the better. And like me, you probably have wondered how that works. Well…what I think is – what my theory explains is that our prayers are accessing the universal consciousness that I think is God – or actually God’s mind.

     “Meditation is just another way of praying. In meditation one quiets his or her mind in order to connect to something much greater. Group meditation is stronger just the way many people praying for the same thing is stronger than one person praying for that thing.”

     Planck stopped then to gather his own thoughts. He knew there was more he wanted to say.

     “When I talk to other physicists about how the Universe is the way it is, most of them struggle to explain why the Universe seems to be so perfect for us – the children of God. And they really struggle with the idea that an ‘Observer’ is necessary at the quantum level for potentiality to turn into reality. But their experiments keep showing the importance of that Observer. They hate that ‘Consciousness’ seems to be built into the fabric of the Universe. They hate that how our consciousness developed is unknown – they have no legitimate theory. But they love their own consciousness – it is what distinguishes us. It is us. It is how we are different from a rock or a tree.” Planck smiled again.

     “Now I could go into how the brain emits distinct electromagnetic waves for each thought of a person. And we could talk about how fundamental to the Universe electromagnetic waves are – but I promised no hard physics. Just know that there are ways to explain how consciousness works. The engineer in me has focused on the utilization of those electromagnetic waves – that is part of my theory.

     “So I will leave you with just a few simple thoughts. First, prayer and meditation are how we can access the great all-powerful force that is the consciousness of the Universe. That consciousness is benevolent and loving and wants us to share in its power. It wants to answer our prayers. That consciousness is fundamental to the Universe. I think it is the mind of God.