Филип Керр - The Second Angel

Doubtless the reader will be familiar with one of the central panels from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican as painted by Michelangelo, entitled The Creation of Adam. [112] Painted 1508–1512. God and Adam, members of the same race of superbeings, confront each other against a primordial, half-formed landscape. Life seems to leap to Adam like an electric spark from the hand of God — a communication from one successful replicator to another. [113] Indeed, as depicted by Michelangelo, God and Adam seem almost to be equal, for their bodies are quite complementary. Frankly, this particular detail has about it something more of the pagan than the truly Christian. Both are reaching out to change the world around them.

Is it possible that, one day, the relationship between man and computer could be depicted in a similar way? Might there come a time when, somehow, the two most successful sequences of digital information on the planet — DNA and binary code — will reach out and change each other in some profound way? Because I think that’s what were all reaching for — that Sistine Chapel, Michelangelo moment.

In the one-sixth gravity of the Moon, there was little necessity that a chair should require cushioning or upholstery. As a result, the design requirements of the two matching chairs on which Gates and Dallas sat adjacent to each other, while Prevezer readied his Simworld equipment, had been purely visual. To Rameses Gates, each of the sculpted white nanomarble chairs had a windswept equipoise that recalled the wing of an angel — wasn’t there a category of angel ranked below a cherubim, called a throne? [114] There are three hierarchies of angels, each of three orders in descending ranks. These are (1) seraphim, (2) cherubim, (3) thrones, (4) dominions, (5) virtues, (6) powers, (7) principalities, (8) archangels, and (9) angels. He was not a religious man, although he was nonetheless familiar with the concept of angels. In these new millenarian times it was hard not to be, with several dozen religious cults [115] For example, the Church of Sammael, the Sandalphonists, and the New Witnesses of Raguel. offering a spiritual introduction to your very own guardian angel as a guarantee of a personal resurrection after death. Now that the robbery was growing nearer, Gates realized he might have welcomed the reassurance of a guardian angel, or two.

To Dallas’s more scientific eye the chairs looked like two lumps of melted candle wax — something much more prosaic. Which could not be said of the spherical, transparent, and self-supporting structure of electro-tetrahedrons that Prevezer now placed on each man’s head.

‘I thought you didn’t go in for immersive head-mounted displays,’ remarked Simou, who, like Cavor, Ronica, and Lenina, was in Prevezer’s suite to watch him conduct the simulation.

‘I don’t,’ he said. ‘These aren’t headsets — they’re geodesic MRIs. That’s magnetic resonance imagers, to you. It takes an image of the cerebral cortex and then turns it into a kind of digital diagram — like a topographical map of Earth. The geodesic dome then subdivides the scan into tiny digital boxes called voxels, so that an algorithm can select those particular voxels on the cerebral cortex that process sensory information and working memory.’

Prevezer adjusted the geodesic dome on Dallas’s shoulders. ‘How does that feel? Comfortable?’

‘Like it was hardly there,’ admitted Dallas.

‘That’s the whole idea,’ Prevezer said proudly as he retired behind the computer lectern to initiate the simulation countdown sequence. ‘You won’t get nausea or headaches with a geodesic. Not like those crappy head-mounted displays you still see around. Antique porno-projection mounts, ’n’ shit like that.’

Prevezer ran through some final diagnostic program checks. ‘The fellow who invented this design was a guy called Buckminster Fuller. He wanted to create a low-cost building and used a design he’d originally visualized as an analogical aid for a system of thought. Curiously enough, the geodesic mimics the way we now create a simulation model. The way Fuller imagined the thinking process, only the surface of the sphere consisted of relevant experiences or thoughts. Experiences too small to be relevant remained inside the sphere, and those that were too large stayed outside.’

‘Some of us know what that’s like,’ grumbled Lenina. ‘It seems to me this simulation would have made a lot more sense if we could all have experienced it. It’s not much of a run-through for a plan if not everyone is allowed to run through it.’

‘You know, you’re absolutely right,’ said Prevezer, his voice sharp with sarcasm. He didn’t even look at Lenina; he was too busy connecting his computer to a small display, which was worn over his left eye so that he could keep a constant visual check on their vital signs while Gates and Dallas progressed through the Simworld he had modeled. ‘The trouble is, there isn’t a computer that’s been built that can handle more than two POVs in the same Simworld.’

‘Prev’s right, Lenina,’ said Dallas. ‘This is as good as it gets. I’m sorry we can’t all rehearse the plan in simulation, but it’s not a perfect world.’

‘Which world are you talking about?’ she asked, walking away toward the window. ‘Yours, or mine?’

‘Lenina,’ Gates said. ‘That’s enough.’

Prevezer switched on the two geodesic MRIs remotely, lighting up each of the two domes like a small planetarium.

‘Okay, try and keep your heads as still as possible,’ he told them, as on the screen in front of his eye the complex pattern of ridges and troughs that was Dallas’s brain unfolded like a fingerprint. ‘You’re looking good, Dallas.’ And then: ‘You, too, Gates. Both of you will be pleased to hear there’s no sign of any significant abnormalities. Just healthy-looking brains with good axon interconnections for the electro-neuroneedles. Now keep especially still. You might feel a very slight localized prickling sensation on your scalp, followed by a tingling sensation.’

From inside the geodesic MRI that crowned each man’s head, a series of tiny flexible needles telescoped their way toward his scalp.

‘I hate needles,’ said Gates, grimacing with discomfort, his eyes closed.

‘Don’t talk. It makes your head vibrate and interferes with the neuroneedle collimator. Hold it steady. Hold it.’ The needles were in place. ‘Okay. You can relax now. You’re both hooked.’

‘That’s it?’ Gates blinked several times.

‘Didn’t feel a thing,’ confessed Dallas.

‘Just don’t sneeze,’ advised Simou.

‘In about one minute that won’t be possible,’ murmured Prevezer. ‘At least not in this world. Okay, now close your eyes again. Both of you. When I send you into the synthetic world, it’ll seem less of a shock that way. Normally, I’m introducing people to a world of pleasure and leisure. However, this particular model’s hardly the stuff that dreams are made of.

‘The program is organized so that the chips and all the relevant sensory neurons have exactly the same parallel function, and are interfaced to be effectively interchangeable. Each chip on the computer is programmed to do exactly what its natural analogue does. The result is a silicon cerebral cortex that has been provided with a different conscious experience from the natural one.’

Prevezer pointed at the computer on the lectern in front of him.

‘Just by touching that button,’ he explained, ‘it’s possible to switch from the natural cortical mode to the artificial one, and vice versa. There’s no behavioral change when the button is pressed, because for each of them there’s no change in the organization of the brain that’s in use — be it synthetic or natural.