The Gift (16 page)

Sam thought about Adia’s offer for a long time, silently standing in the same position he’d held since closing the door to his house behind him. Adia said nothing else, understanding the power of silence. Eventually, Sam closed his eyes and lowered his head before responding, “Not now, Adia. Thank you, but not now.”

It was Adia’s turn to pause before replying, “As you wish.”

Sam rubbed his eyes harder than necessary, raised his head and walked the rest of the way into the living room. He sat on his recliner and started a different conversation with Adia.

“There’s a good chance Sara is going to report me. If she does, the command is going to arrest me and that will not make what we must do any easier to accomplish. So, we need to leave. That means I need to be able to communicate with Jim and Esther when we are apart. You said Esther had accepted her gift, but that she had not merged. I’m assuming you used the planetary communications network you told me about to find this out?”

“That is correct. By the way, Esther has begun the process of merging.”

“Can I use this network, this Worldnet, to talk with Jim?”

“Not in its current form. As it is, we—and other bonded pairs—know about each other by using the framework for what will become the Worldnet, as you call it. In its most basic form it essentially provides status information on the rate of gift acceptance. When there are enough bonded pairs, it will self-organize and become aware. Then, we will be able to communicate with all other bonded pairs as well as any networked device throughout the world.”

“Are you telling me that we, that any bonded pair, could theoretically control any computer on a network when the Worldnet is complete? That would be a disaster…”

“Your concern is well founded and has been considered in the design of the network. The entity controlling the Worldnet will not allow it to be used as a weapon. That is the primary reason it must be intelligent.”

“Is there anyway to bring the network up sooner?”

“None that I am aware of.”

“Tell me how it comes to be, how it works. Be as specific as you can.”

As had happened before when Sam was asking her about the details of nanotechnology and how to control nanites, she gained access to areas of her memory she had not known were disconnected. From this newly discovered part of herself, she began to explain, “As I mentioned before, the original gift ships seeded the Earth as they entered its atmosphere. Some of those nanites began creating new gifts as soon as possible. In the case of your gift, enough nanites were sent to your location to allow direct construction of a gift. I do not know if that happened elsewhere. In most cases, these nanites began constructing gifts from materials found on Earth, using only as many of the original ship nanites as necessary according to the raw materials available where they landed. The rest of the seeded nanites were dedicated to constructing the framework for the Worldnet, which is, as I just learned, a bit more capable than I previously related to you.”

“The framework’s ability to allow each bonded pair to know when others are created and how many of us there are is a byproduct of its primary intent, which is to control a small portion of each pair’s computational capacity. When there are 729 pairs within a relatively small geographic area, the framework achieves sufficient capacity and becomes aware.”

“What is a relatively small geographical area in this context?” Sam asked.

“The answer to that is extremely complicated. It is dependent on the nature of the clustering of the pairs, the nature of the geography and the level of interference. An approximate answer is tens of thousands of square miles. Would you like to know the formula?”

“No, that’s good enough. Why 729 pairs? Why not 500 or a thousand?”

“My makers had three genders and could mate in three different combinations. Perhaps because of this, their numerical base was nine. They use multiples and powers of three and nine quite frequently. For them, 729 was what you might call a round number.”

“I’m going to want to know more about your makers when we get time. Right now, I want to know how concerned I should be about your answers changing. How do I know that you aren’t going to learn something that contradicts what you’ve previously told me more than your new knowledge about the framework just did?”

“I don’t think it works that way, Sam. So far, it has not been the case that what I learn invalidates what I previously knew, but rather that the new knowledge elaborates on it. I can’t tell you it is impossible that I will learn something that contradicts what I previously told you, but I think it is unlikely.”

“That’s not a very comforting answer, Adia. Will you tell me, without my having to explicitly ask you, if you learn something that does contradict what you’ve told me before?”

“Yes, Sam.”

“I guess that’s the best we can do for now. Please continue.”

“The amount of computational overhead for a given pair is quite small and we are designed to not notice it. As the number of pairs increases, so does the total available capacity. In this way, the original 729 pairs are never taxed more than during the creation of the network.”

“And there’s no way for a gift to deny the framework the computational capacity it requests when it becomes aware?”

“It isn’t a request, Sam. The framework is essential to the process of gifts becoming aware. I didn’t know that before, and I still don’t know the details, but I know that this is so. Every gift must communicate with the framework to become aware and every pair must contribute capacity. Oddly, self-aware gifts who have not yet merged with a human do not contribute to the process of creating or sustaining the completed Worldnet. I suspect this is another control intentionally introduced into the equation by my makers, but I do not know that for a fact.”

“Do you know what percentage of a pair’s capacity is used to run the Worldnet?”

“Yes, it is approximately 0.015%.”

Sam did the math in his head. “So a single pair would require about 11% of its total capacity to provide the same amount of computational ability?”

“Mathematically, yes, but it’s not that simple. A single pair would not create an aware controlling entity optimized for that task. There would be additional overhead that, as I have never known such an entity, I am unable to calculate.”

“Adia, can we become the controlling entity for the Worldnet?”

Adia paused as numerous new areas of information again became available to her. “It is not the way it was designed to happen, but I see no reason why we could not.”

“What are the risks, aside from the unknown additional overhead?”

“Other than failure, I do not know. I have no knowledge of it having ever been tried. Each first finds his own way. This may be yours.”

“Enough of that first stuff, all right?”

“I cannot promise you that, Sam. I’m proud to be paired with the first.”

“Well, give it a rest for now, at least. This idea may turn out to be one of the worst I’ve ever had. I’d rather not be praised for what may well fail.”

Sam changed the subject before Adia could push back again. “You said before that the Worldnet is required in order to build a gift ship, right?”

“Yes, Sam. It is what allows large groups of pairs to control the requisite number of nanites. Without it, each pair can only control a small multiple of the number of nanites contained in its original gift, and only within the shorter communication range available to us now.”

“So, the sooner we have it, the sooner we can communicate with our team and get to work on the ship. Can’t see a good reason not to try to get it online now. What do we have to do?”

“To start, we’ll need at least 729 communications nodes, less the number of bonded pairs within range when we attempt to establish the Worldnet. I recommend a much larger number in order to eliminate one potential unknown risk, and it would be best if we dispersed them as much as possible within our current capabilities.”

“Can Jim and Esther help?”

“Potentially, if they were close enough for us to communicate directly, but it would complicate the process and introduce risk.”

“Then we’ll do it without them. What else?”

“We’ll need a way to disperse the nodes once they’re activated. The network will be vulnerable until there are sufficient bonded pairs to make the nodes redundant.”

“Why don’t we make them mobile? Can we make them in the form of a flying insect, like a fly or a bee?”

“That is an option. The decision is yours.”

“It’s as good a solution as any I can think of in the time we have. Let’s go with the form of a bee. Once we’ve created the nodes and established communication with the framework, how do we make the Worldnet active?”

“It would be easier to show you than to tell you. May I?”

“Go ahead.”

Sam found himself in what felt like a lucid dream, with Adia’s voice guiding him through the process they’d have to follow in order to become the controlling entity for the Worldnet. He’d never felt so powerful.

C
HAPTER
T
WENTY

“What do you mean, special?” Jack asked.

AJ looked at Angela. “I think you should tell them. It will provide another perspective.” Left unsaid, but understood by Angela was the fact that it would also demonstrate the value of her decision to join him in accepting her gift.

Angela smiled slightly at AJ before responding to Jack, “I don’t know how it was explained to AJ, but my gift told me that the first person to merge with a gift is responsible for building the gift ship, the same ship that will also be used to go to the academy I told you about yesterday. The first is to be the leader of the team that represents humanity in the effort to gain entrance to the academy.”

Chang was the first to respond, “We were too slow, too cautious.”

“I don’t believe it,” Jack said.

“True or not, that is what my gift told me as well,” AJ said.

“Why would being the first be such a big deal?” Rui asked.

“In economics, its known as Stackelberg leadership, after the German economist Heinrich Freiherr von Stackelberg. It is more commonly known as the first mover advantage. There are many games that exhibit a first mover advantage, including all of those in which there can be only one player who can commit to a course of action that constrains the other players to her rules. It does not mean she will win because of an early willingness to commit, but rather, she will be no worse off than if all players had chosen to commit simultaneously.” Chang replied.

“I’m not sure I follow you,” Rui said.

“I’m sure I don’t,” Camilla added.

Chang thought for a moment before responding, “Perhaps an example would help. Imagine a street with two butcher shops, each able to see the other’s prices and advertisements such that each can see what the other does after the fact. Both sell meat of comparable quality and both serve the same fixed-demand market. Neither of them can give their meat away and make a profit and neither can charge too much or the other will earn all of the business. Their prices must settle into a range in the middle, with consumers free to select from either. If their prices are the same, all other things being equal, their profits will be similar and they will split the demand evenly. If one chooses to act first in lowering its prices to achieve higher profits with a larger share of the demand, the other will be forced to lower its price and accept less profits as a result of having a smaller share of the demand, at least temporarily. Of course, there is a risk to the first mover that the demand will once again equalize at the lower price and both butchers will make less than before. There are other potential disadvantages to the strategy, but it is a viable one.”

“There are obvious evolutionary examples as well. The first ancient human to master fire had an advantage, as did the first tool users,” Camilla said.

“Why are you talking about ancient humans, Camilla?” Web asked as he walked into the shelter.

Jack spoke first, “It appears the gifts place a premium on being the first to merge with them, whatever the hell that means, Sir.”

“Looks like we have even more to discuss than I thought. Does anyone know how to get a secure video connection to the SCIF or do we need a technician from the CP?”

“I’ll do it,” Rui volunteered before getting up and beginning to do so. After a couple of minutes and a quick phone call to the SCIF, Dan’s face could be seen in front of the backdrop of the full bookshelves in his office.

“The whole team’s here, Dan. I wanted you to share with them what you just told me, but it sounds like we have an issue here that may be more pressing.” Directing his attention to AJ and Angela, he asked, “Which one of you learned of this premium Jack was talking about?”

“We both did, Sir.” Angela answered.

“Let’s have it,” Jack directed.

Angela repeated her description of what she’d told the team.

“Do we know anything about this first person, like which country he’s in?” Web asked.

“No, although it is possible that another merged person would be able to find out,” AJ offered.

“What is this merging you keep talking about?” Jack asked.

“Sounds like a good segue to me, Dan. Show them the videos and then we’ll discuss our options.”

The team was aware of the second video explaining where the extra mass from the arriving ships had gone, but had not seen it. This was the first they’d heard of a third. They watched both in silence. Dan was the first to speak when the most recent video stopped.

“If our roles were reversed, my first question would be about the web site shown in the third video. The answer is yes, it exists and we’ve yet to enter a topic that did not take us to a site with thorough information about that topic. The interface is awkward, however. There are no relationships between topics. Clearly, they could have linked them. The choice not to do so must have been intentional. I believe it is an impetus to us to pursue the richer interface available from merging with a gift, or more completely, to making the team of human-gift pairs shown in the video and access the information in that manner.”