Singularity

By James McLellan

Elise is one of the first generation of settlers on humankind's first interstellar colony on Gliese 832(c). Forced evolution has put her society in a place where digital and physical realities are nearly indistinct. Yet, after encountering refugees from another settlement, Elise finds herself questioning the comfort she has known. She sets out on an adventure entangling her with both one of the youngest people in the new world and an old enemy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: James Mclellan
• Release date: Jul 26, 2018
• ISBN: 9781736843956

James McLellan

James McLellan is a Senior Lecturer in English Language and Linguistics at Universiti Brunei Darussalam. His recent publications include Code Switching in Malaysia (2009, edited with M.K. David, S. Rafik-Galea and Ain Nadzimah Abdullah ).

Book preview

Home

IT WAS A QUIET SPRING night. Matthew and Elise’s daughter, Marie, had taken a job in the south with the colony’s developing space program. Marie and her husband Harry were required to travel in person sometimes to the training and launch facilities located near the southernmost settlement. While the parents worked, the two grandparents happily accepted responsibility for their granddaughter, Cara. The five-year-old was upstairs with grandma screaming happily and splashing in the tub, by the sounds of it.

It was good that there were two grandparents for the one granddaughter. Watching the energetic child was a full-time job. By tag-teaming, someone could get a moment alone.

Matthew was downstairs on the porch. Where they had chosen to settle on this alien world, there was an abundance of bioluminescent plant fungus. The fungus was a vital part of the ecosystem, but that was a lot less important right now than the simple beauty of a field dotted with multi-colored glowing lights.

Matthew sighed happily. I’m a very lucky man, he told Tucker. Tucker, the service robot, didn’t reply. Tucker had, a few moments ago, brought the master of the house his evening tea. Matthew had turned on the evening programming and was listening to a conspiracy show hosted by a former crew member Doc Andersen.

Tonight on ‘Rumors and Mysteries’, Doc introduced. Did the government secretly place a wormhole bridge leading back to Earth? Plus was the ship re-entry faked? We’ll be talking to experts to find out.

There were only a few thousand people on Marin, the new world. About two thousand humans, and about the same number of self-aware machines in the two initial settlements. And a booming four thousand people in the third. The thought of people from Earth arriving by the millions drowning out what they had built here made Matthew’s blood run cold. He asked the house automation to dial up the outside temperature a few degrees and clutched his cup a little more closely.

The sound of screaming and splashing had died off. Instead, a thunderous booming came down the stairs, immediately preceding the scream Pappy! And in moments a barely dry unclothed five-year-old was in his lap, with scarcely enough time for Matthew to place the cup of tea out of harm’s way.

Matthew looked down at his granddaughter. Put your clothes on, he said as sternly as he could while attempting to hide a smile. It’s cold outside, he explained in the most concerned voice he could muster.

Grandma said I could have some ice cream, Cara exclaimed, putting as much excited emphasis on the words ‘ice cream’ as possible.

What I heard, grandpa retorted, was you would come downstairs and do your homework, without complaint, if she let you stay upstairs and play in the tub a little longer. Cara smiled mischievously. There was no harm in her attempted deception. I think grandma has already done her part of the deal, grandpa finished. Now go put on your house dress, Matthew said to his granddaughter, and bring your homework. Cara didn’t move. Matthew coughed. Seriously, the grandfather said to his granddaughter, you’ll get sick. He faked another cough for effect. Just listen to me, he said. Go!

The youngest member of the family jumped down and ran into the house. She returned minutes later dressed. Cara climbed back into grandpa’s lap, Matthew rushing to drink his tea before putting it down again. Cara summoned a free-floating virtual page of homework. Her grandpa reviewed it, the elder explaining the directions to his granddaughter and coaching her through the assignment.

Why do I have to do homework at all? the five-year-old complained. It’s always just work, work, work.

Muscle memory, grandpa countered. You recall what you practice. Now, let’s read these instructions. Matthew read carefully. You’re supposed to draw the number representing how many times a coin tossed in the air four times will land heads?

Two! the five-year-old screamed unnecessarily. Cara drew a number in the air colored bright glowing pink.

Matthew looked at the number. You drew it backwards, grandpa corrected, indicating the glowing figure. Matthew heard another set of squeaks on the stairs. In a moment Elise was outside with them. Grandma gave grandpa a disapproving look. You’ll both get sick out here, she said.

Just a little while, Matthew begged, then coughed.

And you’ll get that looked at in the morning? his wife continued.

Yes, Matthew answered. I will. His wife could be a little overprotective, but the tiny nanometer-sized sensors floating around in Matthew’s body published their readings to a public database. Matthew had already checked the readings and confirmed that he was sick, so there was no need to argue with his wife, despite the stubborn impulse to do so.

Matthew saw his wife’s attention wander. He guessed at what she was doing. I already checked, he told her.

And? Elise asked.

Elevated white blood cell count, Matthew reported. I’m sick.

See? Elise answered, I told you so.

You did, Matthew agreed. He changed the subject, I’m hoping it’s something annoying, but harmless.

But it might not be, Elise warned. It might be something native.

The entire colony had been very fortunate that although the alien world, Marin, had its own  ecosystem compatible with humankind, nothing in it initially was capable of making people ill. That had changed, over time, as some microbiology evolved. Science didn’t have much experience with the alien virology, and the illnesses were too new for the human immune system to adapt. As a consequence new diseases were severe, so Matthew should get a full examination. He hoped it was just some common human illness the colonists had brought with them from Earth. The nanomachines patrolling Matthew’s body could detect he had an elevated immune response but didn’t have the sensitivity to provide a detailed diagnosis, which would have saved Matthew the doctor visit in the morning.

After homework, grandfather and granddaughter had a cup of warm milk. Grandma refused to allow Tucker, or any of the other house robots, to serve them outside, so they all went into the house.

When are the kids getting back? Matthew asked while sliding shut the outside door.

Before Elise could answer the question, their daughter Marie arrived out of thin air near the dinner table. Hi Mom! she yelled. Hi, Dad!. Where’s my baby? she asked.

Cara screamed and rushed into her mommy’s arms. Marie gave her daughter the biggest hug the virtual interface would allow. Harry appeared quietly next to his wife and waved meekly to the in-laws. Harry put down some bags, then also hugged his daughter.

Harry and Marie did family calls twice a week. One night a week with Harry’s family, and one night with Marie’s family. They had set up a shared space around the dining room table at the two homes connected digitally so that the whole family could eat together despite the eight hundred kilometers of separation. And the call was all five senses - sight, sound, touch, smell, and taste - transmitted directly to the mind and almost as real as actually being there.

Harry and Marie’s house robots flickered in and out of the shared space, placing bowls of lentil soup on the table. At the same time, Tucker and Ruby, two of the four house robots in the home were preparing the meal for Elise, Matthew, and Cara with vat-grown roast, bread, and vegetables.

How was work? Elise asked her daughter.

I can’t talk about it, Marie answered her mom, but I think I can say it was a good day.

Harry took his seat and took a spoonful of warm soup. I’ve heard a rumor that selection results might be announced in the next twenty-four hours, he said. Looking at Marie, he added, here’s hoping for the best.

Elise looked down at the soup her daughter and son-in-law had. Is that all you are eating? she asked.

It’s quick, Harry said. We just got home. Cara sat next to her father. Elise sat next to Cara to cut up her food and encourage her to eat it. Elise’s face did not indicate approval, but she didn’t argue.

Is Cara’s homework done? Marie asked.

Matthew took a bite of the cultured roast Ruby had prepared for Matthew, Elise, and Cara.  All done, he answered. Matthew noticed his daughter looked disappointed. I’m sorry, he said. If you want, Matthew suggested, next time I’ll wait for you to do it with her?

No, Marie answered. It’s okay, she said. I know we got in late. Thanks, Dad.

Anything interesting in the news? Harry asked.

Doc Andersen says we left a wormhole bridge to Earth floating around in space, Matthew answered, and that the ship deorbit was faked.

Wouldn’t that be nice, if we could just zip back home, Elise commented.

Harry ate his soup and commented, well, part of our training includes working as machine tenders for near orbit mining rigs and also some of the longer range probes. If there’s anything out there not made here, I haven’t seen it yet.

And as one of the people who helped bring down the ship, I can confirm that isn’t true either, Matthew answered. I guess I should listen to more intellectual programming.

Mom, how are you doing? Marie asked.

Good, she answered. Cara giggled. Elise pointed at her granddaughter, this one is a handful.

I know, Marie smiled broadly. The family continued to talk and eat. After they finished, Harry took a spot on the couch and turned on some recorded programming. Matthew joined him. The three generations of girls remained at the table.

Mom, Marie asked a little later, do you mind if I put Cara to bed?

Not at all, her mother answered.

Alright, Marie commanded her daughter, up to bed. Cara didn’t move initially. I can’t carry you, so you’ll have to walk, mom explained. Cara sluggishly rolled into motion, walking up to the stairs. Marie followed behind, ushering the youngest member of the family upward.

Will you sing to me? Cara asked as they stepped out of view.

Of course, her mother answered.

The family continued their evening together. Elise browsed at the table while Matthew and Harry got the couch. After a while, Marie returned from upstairs and joined her husband. Elise joined Matthew, nudging him aside. Maybe an hour later, Marie stretched and declared, it’s probably time for us to go. Harry stood and shook his father-in-law’s hand. Marie hugged her mom.

Thanks for visiting, Matthew said. Next week? Harry and Marie glanced at one another nervously before answering. Sure, Harry said. With that, the two vanished.

Did you see that? Matthew asked.

That look? Elise asked in return. Maybe it’s nothing. I wouldn’t enjoy visiting your parents.

You think he doesn’t like us? Matthew asked.

No, his wife answered. I’m sure they both love us. Let’s go to bed.

In the morning, Matthew felt terrible. The family descended the stairs into the family area of the house.

Have you called? Elise asked. Matthew nodded. The family sat at a table, while the house robots served the morning meal. Sunrise on the new planet lasted for nearly seven hours. The first rays of morning entered the home.

Cara watched the service robots as they delivered food to the table. Is Tucker a person? Cara curiously inquired.

No, Tucker’s not a person Elise replied. The grandmother offered some advice, let me show you how to tell the difference. Ask Tucker if he would like to do anything.

Would you like to do anything? Cara asked the robot servant.

Tucker gave no response.

You two stop, Matthew interjected. You’re tormenting the poor thing.

Elise rolled her eyes. If it ever does think, blame your grandfather. He helped program them.

Matthew told a story to the little girl, we try to keep a clear gap between machines that can think and the ones that can’t. Machines that can think like us expect to be treated by us as equals. We all need helpers, so instead of making intelligent machine slaves, we make the helpers limited in their ability. A little less smart than a fish. That way it's obvious who's a person and who isn't.

A chime sounded. That is probably Tim, Matthew said. A part of the air above the breakfast table turned into a window viewing the outside door of their home. A human-sized bipedal robot stood at the entrance. Elise commanded the door open. Matthew rose from the table to escort Tim inside. Coughing, Matthew walked to the door. The door was already open, but Tim had remained politely at the threshold until invited.

Tim!, Matthew greeted. Welcome! They shook hands. Matthew invited the machine into the house and directed him to the breakfast table.

Elise, Timothy greeted merrily on entering the home. Although Timothy appeared to unaided eyes not much different than any other robot, he had his unique appearance in the virtual world which was overlaid continuously on the real one.

At his birth, Tim had chosen a wiry, past middle age nordic man from a library of virtual personas. That is the way everyone had known Tim.

Tim smiled in greeting to the matriarch of the house. Elise smiled back. Tim had been an unofficial part of the family since he had taken this job nearly a decade ago. Tim took care of their aches and pains. He had also helped deliver their granddaughter.

Is that Cara? Tim asked, indicating Elise and Matthew’s granddaughter. Elise nodded. Cara waved. Tim added, she’s grown up so much since I last saw her. Tim paused, I think it was last year. Tim looked around the house. Where are Harry and Marie? he asked.

Business trip to the south, Elise answered with some unhappiness. They are in candidate selection for a diplomatic trip back to Earth.

I’m excited for them, Tim responded. Matthew shook his head to suggest to Tim to change the topic. The doctor tapped the kit he had brought with him. I won’t take much of your time, he said. Quick blood sample for the lab and I’ll be off. Matthew, could you sit there? Tim asked, pointing to a chair at the dinner table. Matthew nodded and took a chair. Matthew rolled up a sleeve as Tim selected a needle and two test tubes.

Tim expertly took the blood sample. I suppose you know that you do appear to be sick, Tim asked Matthew. Matthew nodded miserably. Tim put the samples in a container. I will get these tested to see if we can isolate what the infection is. I’ll try to have it done quickly Tim frowned, but until we do know, you must stay home.

But I have work today! Matthew complained.

Can you work from home? the public health official asked. Matthew thought about it a moment, then shook his head in the negative. Then you’ll have to tell them you can’t make it, he answered.

I can fill in for you, Elise offered.

Are you sure? Matthew asked.

Elise nodded. I’ll do my best. She added, how hard can it be?

Will that be alright? Elise asked Tim.

No reason to quarantine you or Cara without positive test results, unless you have symptoms, Tim answered, providing his approval to Elise’s plan.

Elise and Matthew thanked Timothy for coming. Elise escorted the machine to the door. Thank you, she said in parting. Lab results should be later today, Tim said before going.

Substitute

THE FAMILY FINISHED eating. Elise got her granddaughter dressed and ready for school. Elise told Matthew, you’d better go to bed. Her husband grudgingly climbed the stairs. Elise ticked off a mental checklist of things she needed. Afterward, she escorted herself and her granddaughter outside the front door. The four non-sentient robotic assistants: Ruby, Greta, Tucker, and Max, had everything at home covered.

The settlement was small enough that Elise and Cara could walk from their home to almost anywhere they wanted. There were underground roads and walkways to be used during the long winters, but it was spring, so they enjoyed the morning sunshine. The settlement spread out beside a large river. Vast flocks of birds gathered by the river in the spring weather. Several children played outside in the morning light.

Grandma, how old are you? Cara asked.

That’s an odd question, the grandmother answered, why do you ask?

We’re studying Earth, and how it’s sixteen billion years away. You must be really old to have come from there.

Do you mean sixteen light years? Elise asked, trying to correct her granddaughter. Cara nodded excitedly. I know it’s confusing, the grandmother explained, but light years aren’t years. And there were only sixteen, not sixteen billion, of them. Do you understand?’. Elise decided to answer the question with a question. How old do you think I am?" she quizzed her grandchild.

Cara thought about it, then answered using her fingers as props, ten- hundred!

The grandmother laughed. No, she answered. I’m one hundred and thirteen years old, she said. I travelled here when I was just a little older than your mother. We flew for fifty three years in a special kind of sleep that kept us from getting older.

Maybe I could sleep and be ten hundred years old! Cara asked.

No, Elise thought aloud. You’d miss out on so much.

Finally, they arrived at the school. Elise walked inside to a counter where she could check in her granddaughter in for the day.

A crate nearby heaved. Cara went over to look, while Elise signed her in. Cara leaned inside the box. Can I hold one? she asked her grandmother. Elise finished and walked over to investigate. Inside the box were about six tiny Dilong hatchlings. The native animals seemed comparative equals to the extinct diminutive member of Earth’s tyrannosaur family. The presence of familiar looking animals, so like their counterparts light years away, suggested that either evolution follows some rigid laws that result in very similar morphologies, or that maybe all life on both worlds somehow crossed in the distant past.

Elise found a machine teacher. Is this safe? she asked. Aren’t they carnivores?

The teacher nodded. The kids might get a bite, but they’re mostly harmless at this age.

Elise was not sure she agreed about mostly harmless, but decided not to argue the point. She kissed her granddaughter, now holding the tiny brown-feathered living relic, and said goodbye.

Elise continued to Matthew’s workplace. Matthew had undertaken a career change late in life. After joining the colony as a scientist, he took a job working with an intelligent machine as a programmer. There he had helped develop the virtual environment, non-sentient robotics and neural interface technology that they all depended on. His interests had drifted later towards genetic engineering, and after about a decade as a programmer, he joined a new team working on engineering a safer environment.

The presence of trillions of nanometer scale digital colloids in each synapse of the brain had made it possible to read and write data directly to the human brain. The most common use of this technology was the fused real and virtual environment they lived in every day. But reading and writing information didn’t have to stop at the five senses. The colonists had experimented successfully in sharing experience and insight, published nightly from one brain to another after curating by a software routine. The entire community fed observations, analysis, and perspective continuously to a pooled resource that they synchronized with every night. For the user, it was like waking up every morning with a head full of ideas. It took practice to develop easy connections to the right information - which is why their granddaughter still went to school.

As a result, Elise had all the skill in her head necessary to do Matthew’s work, even if she had never taken a single hour of instruction herself. Knowing that did nothing to diminish her nervousness. She stopped outside the office for a moment. Elise took a deep breath to steady herself, then reached for the door.

Inside, Elise recognized Matthew’s co-workers: Allison was a human and the entomologist on the team. She was young, born since their arrival on the new world. Allison waved in recognition as Elise entered. Matthew’s peers knew Elise from her occasional visit to the office. Sam was a very young machine, less than ten years old. Age didn’t matter much since artificial intelligences were made with all the experience and memories of one or more selected parents. Sam been custom made to help out with the colony’s genetics research ambitions. Sam looked a great deal like a younger male version of Matthew’s old boss, an A.I. named Holly. Elise believed the resemblance was an intentional homage, as Matthew’s former boss was one of Sam’s forebears.

Where’s Matthew? Allison asked as Elise closed the door behind her.

Sick, Elise answered, stopping short of her husband’s desk. I’m filling in, she said, if you’ll have me.

Allison nodded. I don’t mind. She turned to Sam. Sam waved at Elise and gestured with a flourish to her husband’s vacant seat.

Elise walked in. She stopped at the large clear plastic container where Allison's was working. Packed inside were an uncountable number of what looked like Old Earth mosquitoes, each about the size of Elise's hand.

I'm checking them all for working radio tags, Allison explained. The dish inside the voluntary tagging system, Allison said pointing, contains an attractant. Only one insect at a time can fit inside before the door locks. Once they are in, I use this UV light, Allison displayed the free-floating screen showing the magnified the insect, with a glowing dye band, to make sure the tag is on. Or I fix it with this, Allison indicated a control. We're using these pollinators instead of water to test a scalable  distribution that doesn't require us to put down pipes or spray from drones. Allison released the insect that floated out. Once I know it is tagged, she said, I can release it to the staging enclosure, then look at the next.

Elise looked at a small box of grass near her workplace. Some of the blades glowed, displaying the current time. Is this what we're deploying? she asked.

A version of it, answered Sam.

Elise sat down next to Sam. What are we doing today? she asked.

Field test, Sam answered. Allison, Sam pointed at the other human, has gathered and sorted the pollinators we’ll be using. Matthew had prepared a batch of pollen loaded with our delivery agent on his last shift. We need someone to test that the pollen is containing the agrobacteria we’ve modified. Otherwise, this whole demo is a bust. Can you do that? Before Elise could answer, Sam added, we have about two hours until we should be leaving.

I think I can do that, Elise answered Sam. Under a plastic hood were multiple tubes, dishes, and instruments. The hooded lab was Matthew’s workspace. Elise concentrated on each thing, trying to stimulate recollection of her husband’s memories.

Allison asked aloud, do you remember how big the field is?

Shouldn’t you know that? the machine answered. One acre, Sam said.

Elise tried to focus through the chatter of Matthew’s co-workers. She recognized from Matthew’s memories the tubes wrapped with blue tape at the top. The blue mark meant ready. That reminded Elise that the way she would need to check the bacteria by running a computerized test against a statistically significant number of random samples from the blue labeled test tube. To do that, she remembered, she would need a sample tray which is located right next to the test machine. She would need