Embedded Files
Three years and two months later, Jandell and Meenah were still living in the cavern of the avatar, but they had both changed drastically. For one thing, the now eighteen-year-old Meenah was visibly showing a pregnancy. With Avataro’s help, they had cleaned out the entrance cavern and turned it into very comfortable living quarters, subdivided into rooms in the manner of people who had lived thousands of years before them. One room had a large, four-poster bed with sheets of cotton fabric – the likes of which no Ren or Moocha had ever seen or experienced before. The cavern also had a door at the entrance of some transparent crystalline material to keep predators, varmints, dirt, and vegetation at bay.
The Ren couple now spoke to Avataro and each other mostly in the common language of the American people who lived in this region two millennia previously – a language called late English. They now preferred this language because it was much richer in vocabulary and the nuances of tenses to discuss the many sophisticated facts and concepts they were learning; although they lapsed back into Rennish for intimate conversations at bedtime.
Avataro, as he had promised, was a font of limitless patience and knowledge. He had completed his global survey and found that there were approximately 475 communities of humans in the world, living mostly in the temperate, subtropical, and tropical zones – although there were a few tribes that had returned to the ways of Inuits in the far north of the American and Eurasian continents. The communities ranged in size from a few tens to several thousand individuals, and most were so widely dispersed or remote that they appeared to have no contact with others. Avataro had sent drones to monitor many of the larger communities – disguising each drone as a large bird indigenous to the area. The Ren and the Moocha, for example, had no idea that a few of the red-tail hawks soaring around above were actually spy drones.
Jandell and Meenah were fascinated to watch what was happening in their former villages. After their two tribes’ first brief altercation over the young couple, who they seemed to presume were dead, the villages had pretty much left each other alone. There were some delegations of young men sent back and forth occasionally, but the distance and wilderness between them – about 500 kilometers – and the differences in language and culture made it impractical to get together for trade talks. There were obviously religious crises going on in both villages, as the drone images showed that the usual worship routines had changed drastically. Apparently, they were both re-examining their basic tenets. Avataro had not placed any listening devices in any of the communities because of the many different languages involved, so analysis was done by visuals alone.
“It appears that almost all tribal families or communities worldwide have evolved some form of religion that is an admixture of pre-Machine major religions and the Machines themselves,” Avataro told them.
“How many people are there?” asked Meenah.
“My latest estimate is 487,226, but I suspect that there are a few thousand more people whom my drones have not yet discovered because they are living underground or under dense rainforest canopies.”
“How many were there when the Machines left?” queried Jandell.
“As I went into stasis, they downloaded to my memory that there were approximately 46,000 humans spread sparsely throughout the globe,” answered Avataro. “They could not be certain because many people had gone out of the tech matrix and avoided contact and communication with the avatars of the period. Most scenarios modeled by the Machines predicted that humans would become extinct within one hundred years, although lower probability conditions were predicting the expansion we are observing.”
“What conditions would lead to such an expansion? “ asked Meenah. She had a high aptitude for mathematics and physics and was well ahead of Jandell in those areas.
“Mainly weather and geological stability,” answered the silver man. “Recorders left behind for me reveal that there has been more than a millennium of exceptionally mild and stable climate, due partially to a protective film that the Machines left over the earth, plus very low seismic activity. Thus, I suspect that tribes that would have been decimated by more normal variations were able to thrive and survive. That possibility is why the machines bothered to leave me here.”
Meenah stood up suddenly and slapped her forehead, exclaiming, “Oh my Machines Jandell!”
“What’s wrong, my darling?” he asked with concern.
“A half-million people!” she said. “From our history lessons, that’s the estimated population of the world at -14,000 BML, or 10,000 BC in the old calendar. That means the number of humans is growing exponentially again. Avataro, are we doomed to repeat all the same mistakes?”
“Doomed means that there is some predetermined disastrous course,” replied the avatar, “and in the very long term, there is a highly probable future of annihilation of all matter due to the second law of thermodynamics. The volume of space is expanding rapidly, and the finite amount of matter and energy in this universe will become more and more dispersed, trying to fill it. Your perception of time is due to this expansion of space, which also results in a continuous expansion of time. The Machines discovered what is causing the rapid expansion of space, but you are not at the point in your education to understand it. Their model predicts that eventually all atomic matter will decay into energy and elementary particles, and this universe will become a vast, cold ocean of low-energy photons, popping with particles and antiparticles spontaneously appearing and immediately annihilating each other again.
“I see by the looks on your faces that I have confused and saddened you, so let me reassure you that this scenario won’t happen for many trillions of years, if indeed the Machine’s theories are correct. But I suspect that you are concerned more about the next few centuries or millennia, and what will happen to your species – is that correct?”
Meenah was the first one to emerge from the dazed state that Avataro’s cosmic discourse had caused, saying, “When I’m ready, I’m very interested to learn much more about … did you say this universe? Implying that there are other universes?”
“Although they had not yet observed any before they left, the Machines posited that there are almost certainly a multitude of other universes – perhaps an infinite number in existence because of the Tyrannical Law of Nature: ‘anything logically possible to exist must exist.’
“Back to your question about the nearer-term fate of humans, The Machines instructed me that there is no predetermined future. There are only probabilistic scenarios based on a great many initial conditions and random external influences.”
Jandell finally seemed to catch up to their conversation, asking, “Is there anything you could do to help the human race develop in peace and harmony and not self-destruct and ruin the world’s resources again?”
“There are several choices,” replied the avatar, “but I will need humans to help me make the choice and execute the plan.”
“What choices?” Jandell asked.
“I have the instructions and abilities to repeat what was done by the Machines; I can replicate myself and my memory and then set up chromodynamic field cells within which to trap groups of like-minded people – preventing them from warring or harassing each other. For example, I could separate your Ren and Moocha, allowing each tribe more than sufficient space to hunt, farm, and live comfortably, but not to fight with each other.”
“Interesting option!” Claimed Meenah. “But didn’t you teach us that living in such a condition caused people to lose interest in having children – leading to the near extinction of our species?”
“That is correct, but remember that the Machines had also provided your ancestors with every amenity of comfort and amusement possible by the fourth millennium. There were few unique possessions to pass along, and humans could contribute little new knowledge since the Machines were so vastly superior. Thus, people only consumed knowledge and entertainment – they produced very little. With little to do except entertain themselves in their fantasy holoworlds, most women found that time slipped by rapidly until they were well past child-bearing age.”
“So why wouldn’t that just happen again?” Queried Jandell.
“The situation is different in some important ways,” replied the avatar. “Since the Machines are no longer here, people could begin afresh to rebuild their knowledge base. In addition, I suggest that we not reproduce the state of advancement in food production, medicine, and entertainment of the Machine’s time. Let them struggle cooperatively to build those things from this age. My model of the collective human psyche predicts that this strategy will provide the human race with motivation for discovery and development at their own pace, plus keep the desire for reproduction kindled.”
“What other options do we have?” Asked Meenah. “Isn't there some other way besides putting people back in a zoo?”
Avataro replied, “Other than containment and separation, the best possibility for relatively long-term peace and success, according to my models, is to create a religion.”
“A religion?” Asked Jandell with a mystified look. “Why?”
“Do you remember my lessons on early human civilizations – those before -8,000 BML?” The couple nodded. “Your Ren and Moocha and most other communities are currently at approximately the same stage of development as the societies of that time. The leaders of such villages control and regulate their citizens by inventing and propagating a religion.”
“Yes, we realize now from our two villages,” observed Meenah. “The priests had the power to enforce behavior by appearing to represent the will of higher, supernatural powers.”
“That is correct,” agreed the avatar, “and in the cases of your two villages, the religions that evolved were admixtures of the Machines as gods and more ancient religions. Furthermore, those old religions were just admixtures of even older beliefs. Christianity, for example, started from the more ancient Judaism and then absorbed stories and customs and beliefs from Egyptian gods, the winter Yule rites from the Norse pantheon, Springtime ceremonies from the Celts, and so forth. It's easier to promote new beliefs if you start with the old beliefs, especially if you can’t readily reproduce miracles.”
Meenah and Jandell sat silent for a few minutes, reflecting on this information, until Jandell asked, “From our history lessons, religions didn't seem to help much in the long run – and in fact caused more misery and wars than they prevented. Why do you think a religion would work this time?”
“There are far too many variables to guarantee that this or any other scheme would work to bring humanity to a stable state of peace, prosperity, and general fulfillment; nonetheless my social models show that the chances for stability for the next three millennia are high if we can achieve 79.3 percent belief, provided we let human technology develop at its own pace,”
Jandell and Meenah looked at each other quizzically.
“I can see that you are mystified. Let me explain. Any sufficiently advanced technology looks like miraculous magic to those who have not yet understood or achieved it. It will take just a small amount of demonstration of such magic to convince people that you communicated with some superhuman being.”
“I'm beginning to get it!” Exclaimed Meenah, as usual, the first to understand. “You want us to be the priests of this new religion, and you’ll provide the miracles.”
“That is a concise summary of my idea,” replied Avataro, “but with many detailed implications.”
Jandell pictured himself as an old man with flowing white hair and beard, and wearing some sort of impressive gown like the Moocha priests; and he wasn't sure at all that he liked the idea. His self-image had always been that of a tanned, fit hunter – honored for his skill and happy to let others tend to laws and spirituality. He sighed and asked, “What would we have to wear and do?”
The avatar explained, “You have much choice in these matters. The first thing we must do is to define and codify our religion. What do we want people to believe, and how would we like them to behave?”
“We can define those things?” Asked Meenah with a shocked look. “But we know nothing of religion except what we learned in the villages, plus a few things you have taught us. You know practically everything. Can't you just create the right religion?”
“My code expressly forbids me from dictating human behavior, other than preventing you from harming each other,” he replied. “What I can do is make suggestions based on what has produced desired individual and societal behavior in the past, and then let you make the choices. But I warn you that such choices are not always easy. For example, what rule would you make about one person killing another person?”
“That seems very straightforward,” averred Jandell, “Just adopt the Machine’s rule: no person should purposefully kill or harm another person.”
“But what if the other person was suffering horribly from some incurable ailment or injury and begging to be put out of his misery? Or what if the other person was about to push other people off a cliff, and the only way to stop him would be to shoot him dead.”
“I see, so there may be many exceptions to these rules, right?” Asked Meenah.
“Yes. For each rule, we must think through algorithms and cases under which it does and does not apply, and also define consequences for disobeying it and methods for atonement,” answered the Avatar.
“But it seems to me that there must be very many such rules and exceptions and consequences,” noted Meenah. “How can we expect people to learn and remember them?”
“You have seen how the religions work in your villages,” replied Avataro, “the priests gather the people periodically to pass oral lore about the Machines or other gods. This lore includes redundant messages about rules of behavior and consequences of disobeying those rules. The priests have relics of the Machines and other seemingly magical objects to convince the people that they have a special connection to the gods. They conscript a few acolytes in each generation to learn the lore and carry on the priesthood.”
Jandell and Meenah looked at each other wearily, and Jandell asked the Avatar, “So you expect Meenah and me to memorize a new lore – one that we make up – and then go back to our villages and, aided by a few of your ‘miracle’ tricks, start teaching the new lore and drafting acolytes?”
Avataro replied: “That scenario would most likely fail globally. With time and distance, such oral traditions often change and can cause more problems than they solve. I suggest a strategy with a much higher probability of success, and one that depends much less on individual personalities and capabilities.”
The couple looked relieved, and Meenah said, “We’re listening.”
“There are now many different spoken languages and dialects in the world, and most of the communities have lost the ability to read and write etched or printed characters. We need to create a holy text of the rules of our new religion – something called a ‘book’ – and make many copies of that book.” Avataro produced the image of such a book on the wall. It was very ornate and beautiful, and they could see regular small symbols in rows as the leaves of the book were flipped. “And then we need to teach people to read them.”
“I’m really intrigued with this idea of a ‘book’,” claimed Meenah – her intellect now honed to a keen edge, “but let’s talk more about this ‘religion’ we’re supposed to create. Our direct experiences with two religions so far, plus your teachings about other, more ancient and popular religions, suggest that none of them are based on fact, on truth. Are you suggesting that we invent just another set of lies and then go out to convince all people of those lies?”
Avataro replied stoically, “No, I am not suggesting that. Leaders and priests over the ages have invented stories about blissful rewards and dire punishments in afterlives or recycled lives as expedients to prevent undesirable behavior and encourage ‘good’ behavior. Many times, dietary rules supposedly set forth by ‘God or gods’ were introduced in religions as expedients to prevent people from eating risky foods, such as pig flesh, before the days of refrigeration. It was easier to proffer a simple taboo than to try to understand why some food is bad and then teach it to an illiterate population.
“There is no reason that we cannot base our new religion on facts that we know now. Of course, we do not know everything – like why our present universe happened, for example – but we know far more than the leaders of human civilizations the last time populations were at this growth stage.”
Meenah persisted, “But if we tell people the truth, then they’ll know that there’s no superbeing monitoring and keeping score of their behavior for some final judgement, and that there’s likely no afterlife reward or punishment, in fact no afterlife at all; so why should they behave?”
“The Machines studied human cultures and societies for more than a thousand years, and they have imparted that knowledge to me,” answered the avatar. “One summary fact is that each society had a ‘bell curve’ distribution of behavior from ‘good’ to ‘bad’ by their criteria, with a very small number exhibiting ‘saintly’ behavior, an equally small number of ‘monsters’, and the bulk of the population falling in between – no matter what the societies major belief or beliefs were. Some people are born with a proclivity for evil, just due to random fluctuations in gene sequences or sometimes to insanity of various forms. Unless you want to genetically engineer people, the best we can do is to build and reinforce strong behavioral norms. By the way, genetic engineering experiments were attempted by a few authoritarian societies in some of the colonies after the Machines erected the barriers, but they uniformly failed to produce people with more desirable behaviors, although they did produce some desired physical characteristics. The Machines themselves refused to participate in any such activities. All of those authoritarian regimes evaporated within four or five generations.”
Jandell, by this time, had caught up to the dialog and offered, “So I get it: we don’t need a super-monitor or the promise of an afterlife, and there will always be ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people. Let’s get back to the main subject: What can we do to prevent the growing population from making the same mistakes that it did before, ending in the near extinction of the human race?”
Avataro responded, “A major contributor to the problem was the diversity of different beliefs – each one of which was believed by its adherents to be the only ‘true’ religion. If we can convince a vast majority of the world’s humans that our religion is the most believable, it could eliminate a major source of adversity.”
“You say could, instead of would?” caught Meenah.
“Please remember that anything having to do with humans is subject to major random fluctuations. Running socio-psychological models shows that the probability of a more stable set of societies over two millennia is significantly higher if religious belief differences are minimized. Nonetheless, major societal breakdowns will always remain a possibility.”
The couple looked at each other for a moment and then nodded in a common conclusion. Meenah declared, “OK, we are ready to begin creating this ‘book.’ What do we have to do?”
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse