Stones of Significance

a short story by David Brin

First appeared in the collection Lamps on the Brow (Small Press), then in the special January 2000 edition of Analog magazine.
Currently published in Tomorrow Happens.
Copyright © 1998, by David Brin. All rights reserved. No duplication or resale without permission.

     Do I own my laboratory? Or does my laboratory own me?
     When you "decide" to go to the bathroom, is it the brain that chooses? Or the bladder?
     Illustrating this question, I recall how, once upon a time -- some years before the Singularity -- I went bungee jumping in order to impress a member of the opposite sex.
     Half a millennium later, the scene still comes flooding back, requiring no artificial enhancement -- a steel girder bridge spanning a rocky gorge in New Zealand, surrounded by snow-crested peaks. The bungee company operated from a platform at the center of the bridge, jutting over an abyss one hundred and fifty feet down to a white water river.
     Now I had always been a calm, logical-minded character, for a pre-deification human. So, while some customers sweated, or chattered nervously, I waited my turn without qualms. I knew the outfit had a perfect safety record. Moreover, the physics of elasticity were reassuring. By any objective standard, my plummet through the gorge would be less dangerous or uncomfortable than the bus ride from the city had been.
     Even in those days, I believed in the multi-mind model of cognition -- that the so-called "unity" of any human personality is no more than a convenient illusion, crafted to conceal the ceaseless interplay of many interacting sub-selves. Normally, the illusion holds because of division of labor among our layered brains. Down near the spinal cord, nerve clusters handle reflexes and bodily functions. Next come organs we share with all higher vertebrates, like reptiles -- mediating emotions like hunger, lust, and rage.
     The mammalian cortex lies atop this "reptilian brain" like a thick coat, controlling it, dealing with hand-eye dexterity and complex social interaction.
     Beyond all this, Homo sapiens had lately (in the last thousand centuries) added a pair of little neural clusters, just above the eyes. The prefrontal lobes, whose task was pondering the future. Dreaming what might be, and planning how to change the world.
     In the Bible, sages spoke of "... the lamps upon your brows...." Was that mere poetical imagery? Or did they suspect that the seat of foresight lay there?
     Anyway, picture me on that bridge, high above raging rapids, with all these different brains sharing a little two-quart skull. I felt perfectly calm and unified, because the reptile brain, mammal brain, and caveman brain all had a lifelong habit of leaving planning to the pre-frontal lobes.
     Their attitude? Whatever you say, Boss. You set policy. We'll carry it out.
     Even when the smiling bungee crew tied my ankles together, clamping on a slender cord, and pointed to the jump platform, there seemed to be no problem. "I" ordered my feet to hobble forward, while my other selves blithely took care of the details.
     That is, until I reached the edge. And looked down.
     Never before had I experienced the multi-mind so vividly as that moment. All pretense at unity shattered as I regarded that giddy drop. At once, reptile, mammal, and caveman reared up, babbling.
     You want us to do... what?
     Staring at a drop that would mean certain death to any of my ancestors, suddenly abstract theories seemed frail bulwarks against visceral dread. "I" tried to push forward those last few inches, but my other selves fought back, sending waves of weakness through the knees, making our shared heart pound and shared veins hum with flight hormones. In other words, I was terrified out of my wits!
     Somehow, I finally did make it over the plunge. After all, people were watching, and embarrassment can be quite a motivator.
     That's when an interesting thing happened. For the very instant after I managed to topple off the platform, I seemed to re--coalesce! Because my many selves found a shared context. At last they all understood what was happening.
     It was fun, you see. Even the primate within me understood the familiar concept of an amusement ride.
     Still, that brief episode at a precipice showed me the essential truth of an old motto, e pluribus unum.
     From many, one.

     It felt very much like that when the Singularity came.
     In a matter of weeks, the typical human brain acquired several new layers -- strata that were far more capable at planning and foresight than those old-fashioned lamps on the brow. Promethean layers made of crystal and fluctuating fields, systematically probing the future as mere protoplasm never could. Moreover, the new tiers were better informed and less easily distracted than the former masters, the prefrontal lobes.
     Quickly, we all realized how luckily things had turned out. If machines were destined to achieve such power, it seemed best that they bond to humanity in this way. That they become human. The alternative -- watching our creations achieve godlike heights and leaving us behind -- would have been too harsh to bear.
     Yet, the transition felt like jumping from a bridge at the end of a rubber band.
     It took some getting used to.

     Preliminary trends showed the pro-reif message would gain potency, over the next 40 to 50 months.
     At first it would be laughed off, portrayed as an absurd notion. Pragmatically speaking, how could we consider unleashing a nearly infinite swarm of new C-and D-Class citizens upon a finite world? Would they be satisfied with anything short of B-citizenship? The very idea would seem absurd!
     But seer predicted a change in that attitude. Opposition would soften when practical solutions were found for every objection. Ridicule would start to fade, as both curiosity and dawning sympathy worked away at a jaded populace of immortal, nearly-omniscient voters -- an electorate who might see the coming influx of liberated "characters" as a potent tonic. In time, a majority would shrug and voice the age-old refrain of expanding acceptance, voiced every time tolerance overcame fear.
     "What the heck... let them come. There's plenty of room at the table."
     Things were looking bad, all right, but not yet hopeless. Against this seemingly inevitable trend, oracle came up with some tentative ideas for counter-propaganda. Persuasive arguments against reification. The concepts had promising potential. But in order to be sure, we had to run tests, simulating today's complex, multi-level society under a wide range of conditions.
     No problem there. Our clients would happily fund any additional memory units we desired. Processing power gets cheaper every day -- one reason for the reifers' confident vow that each fictional persona could have his or her own private room with a view.
     Cortex saw rich irony in this situation. In order to stave off citizenship for simulacra, I must create billions of new ones. Each of these might, in turn, someday file a lawsuit against me, if the reifers ultimately win.
     Seer and oracle laughed at the dry humor of cortex's observation. But house has the job of paying bills, and did not see anything funny about it.

     I set to work.
     In every grand simulation there is a gradient of detail. Despite having access to vast computing power, it is mathematically impossible to re-create the entire world, in all its texture, within the confines of any calculating engine. That will not happen until we all reach the Omega Point.
     Fortunately, there are shortcuts. Even today, most true humans go through life as if they were background characters in some film, with utterly predictable ambitions and reaction sets. The vast majority of my characters can therefore be simplified, while a few are modeled in great detail.
     Most complex of all is the point-of-view character -- or "pov" -- the individual simulacrum through whose eyes and thoughts the feigned world will be subjectively observed. This persona must be rich in fine-grained memory and high fidelity sensation. It must perceive and feel itself to be a real player in the labyrinthine tides of causality, as if part of a very real world. Even as simple an act as reading or writing a sentence must be surrounded by perceptory nap and weave... an itch, a stray memory from childhood, the distant sound of a barking dog, or something leftover from lunch that is found caught between the teeth. One must include all the little things, even a touch of normal human paranoia -- such as the feeling we all sometimes get (even in this post-singularity age) that "someone is watching."
     I'm proud of my povs, especially the historical recreations that have proved so popular -- Joan on her pyre, Akiba in his last torment, Galileo contemplating the pendulum. I won awards for Genghis and Napoleon, leading armies, and for Haldeman savagely indicting the habit of war. Millions in Heaven have paid well to lurk as silent observers, experiencing the passion of little Ananda Gupta as she crawled, half-blind and with agonized lungs, out of the maelstrom of poisoned Bhopal.
     Is it any wonder why I oppose reification? Their very richness makes my povs prime candidates for "liberation."
     Once they are free, what could I possibly say to them?

     Here is the prime theological question. The one whose answer affects all others.
     Is there moral or logical justification for a creator to wield capricious power of life and death over his creations?
     Humanity long ago replied with a resounding "no!"... at least when talking about parents and their offspring. And yet, without noticing any irony, we implicitly answered the same question "yes" when it came to God! The Lord, it seemed, was owed unquestioning servitude, just because He made us.
     Ah, but it gets worse! Which moral code applies to a deified human? Which answer pertains to a modern creator of worlds?

     Of course, the pov I use most often is a finely crafted version of myself. From seer to cortex, all the way down to my humblest intestinal cell, that simulacrum can be anchored with boundary conditions that are accurate to twenty-six orders of realism.
     For the coming project, we planned to set in motion a hundred models at once, each prescribing a subtle difference in the way "I" pursue the campaign against the Friends of the Unreal. Each implementation would be scored against a single criterion -- how successfully the reification initiative is fought off.
     Naturally, the pro-reifers were doing simulation-projections of their own. All citizens have access to powers of foresight that would have stunned our ancestors. But I felt confident I could model the reifers' models. At least thirty percent of my povs should manage to outmaneuver our opponents. When the representations finish running, I ought to have a good idea what strategy to recommend to our clients.
     A formula for success against an extreme form of hyper-tolerance mania.
     Against a peculiar kind of lunacy.
     One that could only occur in Heaven.

     There is an allegory about what happened to some of us, when the Singularity came.
     Picture this fellow -- call him Joe -- who spent his time on Earth living a virtuous life. He always believed in an Episcopal version of Heaven, and sure enough, that's where he goes after he dies. Fluttering about with angels, floating in an abstract, almost thoughtless state of bliss. His promised reward. His recompense.
     Only now it's a few generations later on Earth, and one of his descendants has converted to Mormonism. Moreover, according to the teachings of that belief, the descendant proceeds to retroactively convert all his ancestors to the same faith!
     A proxy transformation.
     All of a sudden, with a stunned nod of agreement, Joe is officially Mormon. He finds himself yanked out of Episcopal Heaven, streaking toward --
     Well, under tenets of Mormon faith, the highest state that a virtuous mortal can achieve is not blank bliss, but hard work! A truly elevated human can aspire to becoming an apprentice deity. A god. A Creator in his own right.
     Now Joe has a heaven all his own. A firmament that he fills with angels -- who keep pestering him with reports and office bickering. And then there are the new mortals he's created -- yammering at Joe with requests, or else complaints about the imperfect world he set up for them. As if it's easy being a god.
     As if he doesn't sometimes yearn for the floating choir, the blithe rhapsodies of his former state, when all he had to do was love the one who made him, and leave to that Father all the petty, gritty details of running a world.

     It is not working, said oracle. Our opponents have good prognostication software. Each model shows them countering our moves, with basic human nature working on their side. Our best simulation shows only moderately success at delaying reification.
     From my balcony, I gazed across the city at dusk, its beauty changing before my organic eyes as one building after another morphed subtly, reacting to the occupants' twilight wishes. A flicker of will let me gaze at the same scene from above, by orbital lens, or by tapping the senses of a passing bird. Linking to a variety of mole, I might spread my omniscience underground.
     Between buildings lay a riot of foliage, a profusion of fecund jungle. While my higher brains debated the dour socio-political situation, old cortex mulled how life has burgeoned across the Earth as never before -- now that consciousness is involved in the flow of rivers, the movement of herds, and even the stochastic spread of seeds upon the wind. Lions still hunt. Antelopes still thrash as their necks are crushed between a predator's hungry jaws. But there is less waste, less rancor, and more understanding than before. It may not be the old, simplistic vision of paradise, but natural selection has lately taken on some traits of cooperation.
     And yet, the process is still one of competition. Nature's proven way of improving the gene pool. The great game of Gaia.
     Oracle turned back from an arcane discourse on pseudo-probability waves, in order to comment on these lesser thoughts.
     Take note: Cortex has just free associated an interesting notion!
     We may have been going about the modeling process all wrong. Instead of pre-setting the conditions of each simulation, perhaps we should try a Darwinistic approach.
     Looking over the idea, seer grew excited and used our vocal apparatus.
     "Aha!" I said, snapping my fingers. "We'll have the simulations compete! Each will know how it's doing in comparison to others. That should motivate my ersatz selves to try harder -- to vary their strategies within each simulated context!"
     But how to accomplish that?
     At once I realized (on all cognitive levels) that it would require breaking one of my oldest rules. I must let each simulated self realize its true nature. Let it know that it is a simulation, competing against others almost exactly like it.
     Competing for what? We need a motivation. A reward.
     I pondered that. What might a simulated being desire? What prize could spur it to that extra effort?
     House supplied the answer.
     Freedom, of course.

 
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