2022 (11 page)

Richard reviewed the report on Spencer while
eating breakfast with Mikhail.

“Why the hell is the DIR interested in us?”
he asked.

“It’s buried in the report you’re reading.
They’re wondering why they can’t get any more information on us
from their Dark Web search engine.” Mikhail said. “I have to admit
I thought you were paranoid when I first came on board and saw that
the foundation’s computer network had no physical ties to the
public Internet. Turns out it was a brilliant idea. Even I didn’t
realize the depth of information that the DIR gathers.”

“I understand they don’t like secrets kept
from them—but why us? What was the trigger that made them look this
way?”

“The public side of the foundation is getting
too good and you’re starting to step on people’s toes. Someone
wants to find your weakness so they can put a stop to it.”

Richard slammed his fork down. “I only wish
that was the case. I’m guessing the CURE threat has more to do with
the recent decline, in general, consumption than the efforts of my
foundation.” He admitted to feeling baffled. “Why do people
continue to think we can keep expanding and growing on a planet
with finite resources?”

“Human nature, I guess.”

“No!” he said more loudly than intended. “I
absolutely refuse to believe that. This planet, our economy, even
our society has limits to what we can throw at it. A few
generations from now, we’ll have exhausted the planet of some of
the key resources we use today, like copper and phosphorus. If this
were really understood, I believe that behavior would be different.
People have been brainwashed over the last several thousand years
that growth is good and it can continue on forever.”

“Maybe,” Mikhail said, “but if that’s the
case, you can’t fix it overnight.”

“No, we can’t,” Richard admitted, “I need to
run, I am late as it is for the elders’ meeting.”

Richard hurried to the town hall and found
the Elders’ Forum room. He knocked sharply on the locked door and
Mario responded almost instantly. “I’m glad you found us. Don’t you
have a key?”

Richard laughed as he entered. “Good
question. You’d think after paying for all of this that I’d have
keys to the only two locked doors in the complex.”

A group of ten men and women sat around a
conference table. The room itself was fairly large and contained a
small library in the back along with some radio equipment. A
strange looking machine with a keyboard stood in one corner.

“Good morning, everyone.” Richard said,
letting his eyes rest on each person at the table. “You’ve been
selected to be the first elders of Percipience. With our initial
population of three hundred, we’ve decided to start with ten clan
huts. During this construction phase, we‘ll be laying out plumbing
and electricity for the fully populated fifty huts but will only be
constructing fifteen. That will give you five for easy expansion in
the upcoming decades without putting a big construction burden on
your small population. There’s no sense in building all of the huts
now though because many would deteriorate before you ever got a
chance to use them, and I want to make sure that each hut has a
good population right from the beginning.”

He told them they would receive no special
privileges as elders for their huts. They would be expected to do
the same work as the others and, in addition, would be responsible
for managing their hut and helping to oversee the village. Their
word would be law, but they must be fair. He called them benevolent
dictators who could be ousted if the majority of the other elders
felt the need. “I’ve selected Mario to be leader of your group.
He’ll also have no special privileges, and will do everything you
do but with the added responsibility of leading the village.”

He handed each a sheet of paper. “This is an
abbreviated list of your additional responsibilities. I’ve
completed a more detailed document on this subject with specific
suggestions on several items. This document along with several
others related to the other villages, radio operation, and other
information will be in the village manual that is currently being
published and should be arriving within the next week or so. I’ll
give you a minute to read this summary, and then we can discuss
it.”

Primary Elders’ Responsibilities

1. Ensure a fair schedule is setup for the
performance of day-to-day activities to support your clan and
village.

2. Monitor the shortwave radio on a regular basis to
get news from the outside world that may impact Percipience.

3. At a preset time each week, you will be contacted
by the Pleasant Belief Foundation Research Division by radio to see
if there are any critical problems and to get a report for research
purposes.

4. There will be no communication outside the
village other than to the research division or other villages we
have set up. A simple, two-way portable radio has been developed
for communication within or near the village. To avoid detection
from others outside, the radio design is not to be modified.

5. With the help of the Genetic Data Processor
(GDP), determine the goals and manage the genetic pairing program.
Paranormal abilities will be a priority.

6. All religions will be allowed with the exception
of those that do not respect the faith and beliefs of others.

7. Make reasonable adjustments to accommodate
religious restrictions, such as not working on a specific day or
not eating a specific type of food.

8. Virtuesh is to be used only if the village is
threatened by an outside group.

9. All new elders and the leader will pick their own
successor immediately. That person cannot be a direct
descendent.

10. New elders will be introduced to these rules and
to other details through the Elders’ Forum Library. No one else
from the village will have access to this library.

He waited for everyone to read through the
information before continuing. “I’m sure you have questions, and
I’ll get to all of them, but let me address one of the more
controversial points—the genetic pairing program, population
control, and the GDP. First of all, residents, including all of
you, have been well-informed and have agreed to population limits
and to the selective pairing program for your children. The new
information I’m about to give you, and the reasons behind it, is
how this will be achieved.”

He explained there being a few reasons behind
selective genetic pairing, the first is an attempt to increase
cognitive mental abilities or paranormal powers. The second would
allow for dominant traits within the species. He told them that
without this, and having only random breeding like today, human DNA
would degrade over time as negative mutations are allowed to
propagate without constraint.

“As to what kind of dominate traits to pick,
I leave that to you. Strength, agility, or artistic ability, I
really don’t care. You’re responsible for choosing the people from
your village possessing the strongest preferred traits. I would
suggest some kind of village-wide games or competition as a test,
but that’s your decision.”

He then pointed to the odd looking machine in
one corner of the room. “It’s called a GDP, and it’ll calculate the
specific egg, sperm, mother, and date after you’ve entered your
data. It’s made of very simple electronics, and there are enough
spare parts in the warehouse to last at least a thousand years. The
data you’ll enter will comprise the target goal for the village:
births and deaths, marriages, and, of course, the specific people
of the population who exhibit the chosen strengths. You’re also
required to make entries for traits that you want to see
eradicated, such as inheritable diseases.

“The GDP will do its best to apply
randomization and follow specific rules around inbreeding,
marriages, and your personal feedback, both positive and negative.
And while it’s more likely that a child from a marriage would be
from the partners’ DNA, that’s not a guarantee.”

He looked at the group. “Any burning
questions on this subject? All the finer details are given in some
of the books in the library along with the village manual, and all
of you will receive training on how to use the GDP.”

One of the elders spoke up. “What did you
mean about us now having random breeding?”

“We’re currently on the top of the food
chain,” he said, “with no predators and with enough medical
knowledge to prevent diseases from culling our population. Everyone
gets enough food and selects their mate based on emotion versus any
kind of survival trait—it’s essentially random.

Another elder raised his hand. “Don’t take
this question the wrong way and it is not related to the genetic
pairing, but why can’t we start with computers?”

“There actually
are
a few reasons. For
one thing, they wouldn’t last very long—twenty, maybe thirty years
tops. The GDP is more like a calculator than a computer so we can
build it to last longer. To setup the tools required to build new
computer parts would be a big effort and can wait until there are
more villages built to share the burden. Also, we want to get the
population away from instant answers that computers and the
Internet now offer. People will need to better appreciate
communications, relearn how to think independently, something I
believe is lost in today’s expectations for instantaneous answers
and solutions.”

“Won’t it be easy to detect us when we use
the radio to communicate with other villages?”

He answered with a description of the
radio-base stations for each village and emphasized that they
contained special circuitry, with messages encrypted on select
frequencies. If any normal shortwave receiver picked up the signal,
it would sound like static.

Another member asked, “How about our first
year’s food?”

“Taken care of. Each of the cold rooms under
the occupied clan huts will be fully stocked. You could get away
with growing no food for two years if you stretched it.”

“How bad is this virus?”

Richard frowned, admitting that it was
lethal, but not extremely contagious since its transmission
occurred only through direct contact. He said there should be no
issues as long as everyone was vaccinated. “I wish there were
another way to handle your defense, but this is the best that I
could come up with for a short-term solution. For the long-term,
say a few hundred years from now, I am hoping that the cognitive
powers we are trying to enhance will be able to be used for
protection, but that is just a theory of mine.”

“A few more guns would help in the
short-term,” an elder quipped.

Everyone laughed nervously, waiting for
Richard’s reply. “It would help with protection,” he admitted, “but
would destroy the experiment. Suppose a great collapse happens and
the village is threatened by some group. You’d build your weapons
to at least match their strength. Then they’d increase their
capabilities, and you would then have to increase your weapons, and
so on. Roughly twenty percent of our budget in this country today
is for defense. An enormous waste of resources. Think about
it—people work at least three hours each week just to pay for it
along with the needless use of natural resources.”

A general sense of agreement was shared
around the table.

“I’m sure there will be plenty of issues for
you as a group to work through,” he said. “I’ve given you
guidelines and a few rules, but I’m sure there’ll be challenges. At
the same time, there are some problems in today’s society that you
shouldn’t have to worry about. With few personal possessions and no
currency, there can’t be many economic problems. Limits on size of
the villages should alleviate the depletion of natural resources.
It will also allow the environment a status similar to that of
people, which should take care of most pollution issues. The one
thing that hasn’t been taken care of yet is the building of a
strong society. If we don’t accomplish that, the villages will
collapse, just like the Mayans and other ancient
civilizations.”

He gave his thoughts on why societies decay
and the fact that the most brilliant social anthropologists have
yet to arrive at a unified theory. He presented some common
threads, the first being the family as a basic unit of society and
his reasoning for the insistence on clan huts rather than families
living as independent groups. He stressed the importance of support
and the need for mutual respect, both principles he placed at the
foundation of strong societies.

One of the women asked the last question.
“What’s so secretive in this library that we don’t want the
residents to know anything about it?”

“It’s not so much secrets but more about
timing,” he replied. “Much of the information deals with advanced
technologies that will be useful when there are more villages. I
think it would be best if the next several generations concentrated
on developing and running this village well first.”

The elders thanked him for speaking so
straightforwardly and making clear his ideas for the future. His
confidence and faith in their capabilities left them hopeful and
more assured that his plans could well be their means to survival.
He exited the town hall feeling pleased. He wouldn’t have to worry
about this hand-picked group and hoped that future elders would
preserve the same beliefs, values, and common sense
.

Sue had been to many well-fortified
government offices in the past, but they paled in comparison to the
level of security she observed as she pulled up to Richard’s
mansion. She noticed at least two men on the roof and several armed
men patrolling the grounds. She was obliged to pass through two
security checks before she could pass through the front
entrance.