The Soul of the Matter (8 page)

Chapter 19

T
he man, esteemed within influential circles throughout the world and known within The Commission as Sarastro, entered his private study. The room was modest in size for a man of his means and it was paneled with ornate walnut woodwork. Heavy green curtains parted just enough to let slivers of light enter the room. Marble squares formed a black and white checkerboard pattern on the floor.

The Commission itself was composed of a select group of like-minded people from top leadership positions in important institutions throughout the world, whether government, academia, business—even religious organizations. They thought of themselves as enlightened, powerful, and entitled, though compassionate and magnanimous. Their mission was to direct humanity for the good of all, provide for those who could contribute, and in time gently weed out those whose existence was a burden even to themselves, all the while ensuring humanity's future, and The Commission's members' positions within it, as humanity was transformed from a flawed, mortal existence to immortality and prosperity. No more would humans be limited by mere biology.

Walking over to a small rolltop desk by a closed door, Sarastro opened the top left drawer, placed his right hand on a small touch screen, and said, “Identity: Sarastro. Command: Access communications room.”

A magnetic lock released, and a hidden door in the nearby wall opened a few inches, revealing a six- by nine-foot room with bare white walls and a large flat-screen monitor mounted opposite the door. Sarastro entered the room and the door closed firmly behind
him. A single desk with a keyboard, touch pad, and microphone faced the monitor.

Sarastro sat in the chair, placed his hand on the touchpad, and issued a series of commands. Six squares appeared on the monitor, each displaying the face of another member of The Commission's nucleus. Together, the people in the nucleus directed The Commission's activities without the rest of The Commission being aware of how they, like the rest of humanity, were being directed.

Although the seven members were supposed to be equals, in actuality, Sarastro worked quietly behind the scenes as the effective, but unrecognized, leader. When the time was right, he would assert his authority and assume his rightful role as the supreme among the elite.

The nucleus was assembled to discuss the serious matter of Dr. Stephen Bishop. Unbeknownst to Stephen, The Commission had manipulated its connections to people within HBC, and its relationships with other scientific researchers, to ensure his placement at the company. When Stephen's daughter had been diagnosed with leukemia, a highly fortuitous event from The Commission's point of view, Stephen had sought help in developing experimental treatment and getting around FDA authorization.

A Commission intermediary, from outside HBC, contacted Stephen. In exchange for help researching and developing experimental medicine, Stephen had agreed to share all of his research—only now, it was clear that Stephen had not kept his side of the bargain. Something had to be done about that, not just for The Commission's benefit, but for Sarastro's. Unbeknownst to The Commission, he had been recently diagnosed with a progressive neuromuscular disease. His mind would remain intact as his body became useless, an unfit vessel for him. The disease might progress slowly and it might not. He couldn't afford to take the chance.

Speaking first, Sarastro said in low voice, “As you all know from the report that was sent to each of you beforehand, by all indications, Dr. Bishop has achieved incredible breakthroughs in decoding DNA and its relationship to human development. None of the information he's uncovered about it, however, is stored at HBC.” Sarastro stopped
speaking to let others take the discussion in the direction he wanted it to go anyway.

A well-known health and spiritual figure spoke. “ How can that be?”

A top US government official said, “You have the report. He's done it, and we don't know how or where. This is a big risk. And now that he's resumed contact with Dan Lawson, a cybersecurity expert, it appears that Bishop has no intention of providing us with anything of value. We might not be able to get it from him.”

Then a Chinese leader, the only person who inspired any trepidation in Sarastro, quietly added, “This cannot be allowed to continue. Effective action must be taken immediately. We cannot have any more mistakes.” The last statement was a rebuke at the failed attempt to compromise Alex Robertson and subsequent efforts to monitor Stephen.

“Steps are already underway,” Sarastro assured him. “A series of events will make the cost of noncooperation and the extent of our power increasingly clear to Stephen Bishop. We will make plain to him the benefit of being a member in good standing of The Commission—an invitation we will extend and ensure he accepts. At the right time, I will reveal myself to him and confirm his compliance.”

The one woman among the seven said, “Are you sure it is wise to reveal yourself? I think that is a matter for us to discuss and decide. Preserving our anonymity is critical.”

“The shock of my identity will destroy his defenses and convince him of the futility of trying anything else. I will ensure he is beholden to us,” Sarastro said.

After a few minutes of discussion, the Chinese official said, “We will give this plan one week to succeed. If it does not, I am prepared to provide an environment more hospitable for Dr. Bishop's research and cooperation.”

Everyone nodded their consent, though moving Stephen Bishop to China would be the last thing Sarastro would allow.

Stephen's research would help Sarastro realize his ultimate ambitions, including being one of the first to achieve immortality through the merging of man and machine. Nothing would stand in the way of that.

Chapter 20

I
hope I'm not in danger,” Stephen said, in response to Dan's question. “But I have pretty good reasons to take these precautions.” He gestured around the home theater. “Before I get into that, though, I need to bring you up to speed on my work on the human genome. As you probably know, the genome was completely sequenced thirteen years ago.”

Dan nodded. Most people who followed science were familiar with that.

“That was the easy part,” Stephen continued. “The hard part is figuring out how it all works—what's the actual language of the genetic code, how it interacts with the rest of the cell, and, most important, how it makes a person a person.”

“When we started sequencing DNA, geneticists had expected to find over one hundred thousand genes. As the sequencing progressed, geneticists lowered their estimates to thirty thousand, then actually found only twenty thousand, an unexpectedly low number for an organism as complex as a human being.”

“Does that mean individual genes do more than originally thought?” Dan asked.

“Some very much so, but that has big implications that I'll get to shortly.”

“In the end, will it matter much if there are one hundred thousand genes or ten thousand genes with ten times the expected information?” Dan asked. “The total DNA in genes is the same.”

“Actually, there is a lot less useful DNA than expected. Of the three billion DNA base pairs in the genome, a significant portion of
them had been assumed to be junk left over from evolution, though now far less than we had once thought. Regardless, a large part of the known, useful genome controls how chromosones are utilized, such as indicating where genes stop and start, turning them on and off, correcting for informational errors and many other genome regulatory functions. There really isn't much left over after all of this.”

Stephen paused, then added, “So while people talk about the incredible amount of information in the genome, it's a lot more complicated to direct human development than we had once thought. When you start with three billion base pairs, you would think that would be plenty for all the information you need. After all, most of the hundreds of different cell types have the same proteins and structures in common.”

“Yes, I've read a decent bit about it,” said Dan.

“Well, it turns out that it's not that simple. What gets tricky is that many of these cells, such as those that pertain to the brain organization and the shape of the human body, have information that is specific only to them. For us to see and think, many of the individual neurons have to be ‘pre-wired' to each other in a precise way and that requires instructions on how to do it. Likewise, if observable behavior is as strongly influenced by genetics as many assert, then there also has to be a lot of hardwiring, and that, too, requires an enormous amount of genetic information.”

“Even though it's the same cell types that get used over and over?”

Stephen nodded. “Absolutely. For the body, and the organs within it, to grow into the shape that it has, there has to be exact, cell-­specific information on how cells divide and communicate. That means that the information for this also has to be in the genome. All of a sudden, we're not sure how this is done. There are way more things that need individual instructions than there are base pairs of DNA, even if every one of them is useful for human development, which they are not. Three billion isn't that big a number when you're dealing with thirty-seven trillion cells in the human body, one hundred billion neurons in the brain, each with up to a thousand synapses with other neurons, and one hundred million photoreceptors in each eye.”

“In other words, there is a huge gap between how much useful DNA exists and how much appears to be needed.”

“Exactly. Even if just ten percent of human cells require targeted instructions, that is over one thousand times more instructions than we have of base pairs of DNA. And when you factor in that it probably takes multiple base pairs for a single instruction, and factor out the non-instructional DNA, it's clear there aren't remotely enough base pairs for human development to be based on direct linear translation from genome to organism function.”

“Can you say that in regular language to make sure I understand?”

“Sure. I'll give you an analogy,” Stephen said. “In a recipe, each instruction results in one or two things happening, such as mixing one set of ingredients. If that was the case with the genome, then we are missing an enormous amount of information as the number of possible instructions is far less than the number of specific outcomes, e.g., a cell divides a certain way at a certain point in time, needed to get us. For our ‘recipe,' the ratio of instructions needed versus the amount of useful, informational, DNA is at least several thousand to one.”

Incredulous, Dan asked, “Are you saying that there is some sort of non-DNA genome information that hasn't yet been found?”

“No. The solution to what otherwise seems like too little DNA came with the idea that the translation is not always direct, that there are algorithms—”

“Mathematical?” Dan asked, immediately thinking of the connotations.

“Sort of like equations or minicomputer programs. They turn a small amount of DNA into a much larger number of instructions,” Stephen said. “This really shouldn't be surprising, as body symmetry—how the left and right sides of creatures are mirror ­images—can only come about if they are developed off the same set of instructions.” Stephen sounded just like the college professor he once was.

Dan paused, thought a bit, then asked: “What type of algorithms could account for these things?”

“Right on. Watch this.” With the remote in his hand, Stephen proceeded to show a series of amazingly complex images. They were all based on the image Dan had seen on the screensaver upstairs.

“Dan, each of the images you just saw was produced by iterations of the exact same, simple equation, otherwise known as the Mandelbrot fractal set. You've heard of it?” He scribbled a formula down and showed it to Dan:

Z
n+1
= Z
n
2
+C

“Yes.”

“Then you know that though there are only three parts in the equation, they can produce an infinite amount of detailed instructions.”

“You don't mean to say that something like this equation is encoded in our DNA?” Dan asked, questioning how something that implied programmed-in-processing, and therefore a programmer, could be incorporated into the cell of every living organism.

“Well, some type of algorithmic processing is definitely needed. The Mandelbrot equation is an example of just one possible type. Does this make sense to you?”

“It's logical based on the numbers you've stated, but it's astounding.”

“It gets even better. There are things called epi-markers, also known as epigenetics, which act like external switches that activate and deactivate different genes to produce different results from the same set of DNA. These also influence what gets passed from one generation to the next. Some appear to be impacted by what an organism experiences, thinks, and feels. So there must be some mechanism that controls the link between the mind and how specific epigenetic switches are set. The specificity of the mechanisms must be incredible.”

“That's just natural selection, isn't it?” Dan asked. He was trying to nail down where this was headed, worried that in fact that wasn't what Stephen meant.

“Sure, if the mind is strictly biology based. But we don't know that. In fact, physics can't even propose how the mind can do what it does. At least not yet. Perhaps the soul isn't dead. Who knows? Even
you
may have one!”

“Very funny. But seriously, you haven't become one of those antiscience, antievolution fanatics who thinks everything is designed into us, have you?”

“Relax. I'm only a scientist searching for knowledge.”

“Good. Because I don't want our first real discussion in over a year to wander into the territory of religious fundamentalism and creationism in the guise of science.”

“Religion doesn't drive my science. I simply go where evidence and reason leads me.”

“Why haven't I read anything about genetic algorithms or missing DNA? Based on what you said, it seems like the type of thing lots of geneticists would know and write about.”

“That's a discussion for another night. The short answer is, they should be, but they either aren't asking the obvious questions or choose not to state what they know.”

“It still sounds like you're questioning evolution.”

“I'm not saying that evolution didn't happen. I
am
saying that there may have been different mechanisms for it other than the strict Darwinist view of evolution via an accumulation of random mutations and natural selection. There are gaps that need to be filled with processes and causes. Anyway, what makes you so confident, and
so obviously happy,
in thinking physical matter is all there is?” Stephen asked. “Surely you know that means no free will, no objective morality, no meaning or purpose to life, no value to loving or being loved?”

Yes, he did know that all too well. But he was not prepared to engage in the subject that had already been causing him so much trouble. Instead, Dan asked, “What about the spiritually oriented books I saw upstairs? Is your work causing you to become religious again?” He left out any mention of the role Ava's illness could have played.

“I was headed down that path anyway. You might want to rethink it yourself.”

“I know you're too smart to have asked me here to discuss science and religion. Let's cut to the chase. What do you need my help with?”

“Be patient. I'm almost there. While researching algorithm translation mechanisms, we quickly found unexpected things. Once I realized where it could lead, but before I had any major breakthroughs, I took the research offline, to be worked on in secret only by a small, trusted team, while I went through the motions at work.” Stephen paused.

Straightening up, Dan asked, “Why did you do that?”

“I was afraid of the power of what we would find. And I was right. We discovered multiple segments of unusually encoded DNA, each with a different algorithm and, for lack of a better description, translation codes. Six months ago, I broke two sets of algorithms and translation codes and thought I might be on the verge of a third. What the two revealed was beyond anything I could have imagined, with implications well beyond biology.”

“You mean you've decoded the genome and now know everything about human development?” Dan said, trying to figure out what Stephen meant.

“Yes and no. I did break the code, but it will take a long time to figure it all out. What I do know is that there are amazing pos
sibilities, including some that scare the hell out of me. In the wrong hands, they could do terrible things. Beyond that I'm not able to say right now, though convince me your head is on straight, that I can still count on you like I used to, and I'll tell you everything very soon.”

“Well, you're going to have to do that if I'm going to help you. Though you still haven't told me what you need from me. And my head is fine, whatever you may think of it,” Dan said, standing up to stretch and then sitting back down, as he tried to process what he was hearing. “But okay, for now, the biggest questions I have are why are you hiding things from HBC? Why did you think you had to build this room in your own home?”

“Imagine having all the knowledge of human biology at your fingertips, knowing how to engineer life and knowing what makes a person a person. That also means having the knowledge to alter virtually anything about people. I need to find some way to protect its use before allowing anyone else to get anywhere near it. Scientists in several countries are already experimenting with altering the genome. While I have no concerns about HBC in general, once they're involved, I'd lose control of the research, so I'd no longer be able to direct how it would be used. I have too much responsibility to do that. In a scary development, right after my breakthrough five months ago, one of my close collaborators, Alex Robertson—you've met him a few times—died under questionable circumstances.”

After a pause, Dan said, “I'm sorry. That must be very hard on his family and on you.”

“It was and is.”

“So where do I come in, and why was a physicist involved?”

“Glad you're still as sharp as ever. Alex was helping me with the encryption to protect our work—one of his areas of expertise. I need someone I can trust absolutely, to replace him. That's you. I need your help in setting up a secure, confidential computer network for me. I also need you to help me with something else Alex and I were working on. As I said a moment ago, we broke, or more accurately, decoded, two complete sets of information. The night of the biggest breakthroughs, after Alex had gone home, the security keys he was using to protect our work timed out and the processing stopped
before I could find out if there was actually a third set of coded information. I don't have the technical ability to set up the computer environment and resume processing and haven't found anyone I trust enough to help me do it. With your knowledge of computers, mathematics, and code breaking, I'm hoping you can help me continue the processing and see if there is something there. If it's anything like I think, it has great potential to change the world.”