Freedom Club (30 page)

“Tell me, Sumeet,” Gupta said, leading them down the corridor. “How familiar are you with Sentient Beings? With their creation and biology?”

“I work with some Sentients at Chindo Securities, so we get a basic course on interpersonal relations. But many fundamental questions about their biology are never answered. In fact, we are strictly forbidden from prying too much. Such matters are deemed technical IP.”

“Yes, but you already understand they don’t have a corporal body as we humans do,” Gupta confirmed.

“My understanding is that they are genetically augmented brain tissue. Something like human but with cognitive abilities far beyond what is considered normal. Other than that, I know very little.”

Gupta nodded as he walked with both hands clasped behind his back. “Yes, information on their biology, birth, and formative years has become quite a secret, bordering on national security.” Gupta stopped before a door that flashed with several arrow-shaped goal indicators. “Ah, here we are.”

It took several seconds for the security checks to finish before two heavily shielded doors separated just enough for them to pass. Inside was a large rectangular hall that contained nothing but white walls and nondescript brown carpeting. However, what the hall lacked in decoration it made up for in size. It was roughly one hundred meters deep by a kilometer wide. Slightly curved, it was hard to tell its exact shape.

Initially, Sumeet imagined it was a banquet hall, or maybe unused office space. Gupta said nothing, and walked across to the far side where he placed his hand upon the wall. The section around his fingers immediately came to life and revealed the white opaqueness of flexi. Keeping his wrinkly hand in place a few moments, a keypad appeared. He chortled while making some final key commands, and then stood back to enjoy his guest’s reaction.

“I think you’ll appreciate this Shinzou,” he said smiling. “You always complained about how cramped things were.”

In silence the entire kilometer long wall slowly desaturated, revealing its true purpose as a transparent flexi observation window. In fact, the entire hall was an overview platform, one designed to observe what took place on the other side.

And what took place was nothing more than phenomenal.

“Oh, my God,” Shinzou breathed.

Sumeet was speechless.

There before them in leviathan proportions was the largest manmade cavern either had ever laid eyes upon, so large in scope that making out its true shape was impossible. Perhaps a sphere, or a square, it was impossible to tell.

The floor below was a far drop. Several hundred feet. And without the flexi barrier, one could easily fall to his death. The ceiling was dark and vast, but contrasted with an incandescence glow from below that stemmed from spherical containers sprawling out in every direction. Furrows in a vast metallic field, they transparently brimmed with liquid and light. Each container was about two meters in height, and supported below by a crawler-based system with numerous devices laced between spider-like joints. Capping each was a bristling nest of wires, pipes and tubes that ran down the sphere’s side. It was a strange sight.

“Behold our nursery, gentlemen,” Gupta said with pride.

“It’s beyond anything I’ve ever could imagine,” Shinzou said, still breathless.

Gupta happily rocked on his heels. “Oh, yes, the Institute began work on this several years after you left. Came online within the last twelve months. Quite a sight for someone like you who saw this place so long ago.”

Sumeet walked up to the flexi window and tried to make out small details below. Squinting, he shook his head, unable to make out very much.

“Those are Sentient Beings...inside each sphere?”

Gupta stepped forward and touched the flexi in front of Sumeet. A screen and submenu appeared that semitransparently augmented the front-facing reality. Like virtual binoculars, it was able to zoom in on anything. Using a few deft finger commands, Gupta displayed a magnified view of a single sphere, then gestured for Sumeet to take control and browse the floor in greater detail.

“They’re similar to us in many respects,” Gupta explained. “But we’ve manipulated their genetics to abstract the very essence of human consciousness – our sentience, so to speak. When all is said and done, they’re really just synthetic brain tissue, as you stated earlier. We’ve taken away sensory apparatuses like eyes, ears, nose, mouth, skin, and other related terminal organs. That whole package was replaced by virtual inputs, and there you have it.”

Sumeet used the magnifier to pan around and closely examine one sphere. Its contents now clearly displayed what looked like a mesh of veins and web-like tissues which surrounded the Sentient brain. Convoluted and milky white, it filled the entire translucent shell, lit aglow by micro lights and sensors that circumvented the outside. Sumeet then panned over to the top casing, where a complex set of equipment conglomerated. A rat’s nest of various colored wires and tubes provided what he assumed was its biological support. However, with no background, the nature of what he inspected did nothing other than fascinate.

“They use oxygenated blood, don’t they?” Sumeet questioned, while panning around a few Sentients here and there.

“The same as us,” Gupta said. “There’s just about a one-to-one relation between our bodies and the housing. But if you ask me honestly, it’s not all that interesting. More fascinating is their brain physiology, and the internal structures which separate them from humans.”

Sumeet turned, still shaking his head in awe. “They seem much larger than us, from the volume I see here.”

“Oh, yes, they have greater brain capacity,” Gupta said, using another section of wall flexi to bring up a brain schematic. “With greater mass, they have more of everything. Logic, memory, neurological input and output. Greater redundancy too, I might add.”

Sumeet and Shinzou walked over to Gupta’s area of the wall, peering with great interest at what he was about to explain.

“If you look here, here, and here,” Gupta said, pointing his scrawny finger over a three-dimensional map of a Sentient Brain. “You’ll see areas of their cortex which differ significantly. This is the key. We’ve modified basic instinctual drives.”

“Like the removal of their sex drive,” Shinzou said, grinning.

Gupta laughed while tapping Shinzou on the shoulder. “Yes, you already know about that. But other instincts too. The human mind was honed over millions of years, and thus collected a great deal of unnecessary baggage, primarily sex and aggression. By taking these out, we’ve been able to gift Sentients with a psychological foundation perfectly in tune with their needs.”

“Their needs?” Shinzou asked.

Sumeet looked slightly embarrassed. “Uhm, not that I am overly keen on this, but what exactly did you replace their sexual instincts with?”

Gupta grinned with furtive gratification. “It’s typical human nature to ask that question. Everyone does for some reason.”

All three laughed momentarily.

“To give you an honest answer,” Gupta continued, “it’s been replaced with a deep curiosity to learn.”

“Curiosity?” Sumeet said cocking his head.

“Yes, for all intensive purposes, Sentient Beings find the act of learning equivalent to having sex. That’s why they comprehend far more than any human ever will.”

Sumeet shook his head in disbelief. “Incredible!”

“We’re doomed!” Shinzou joked cynically.

Gupta looked around and then jabbed at the flexi wall. “Let’s get something to sit on, shall we?”

With a few key commands, warning beeps rang out as paisley foam chairs and a sofa soon emerged from hidden pockets under the floor. Sumeet stepped back and looked on with surprise. Since the large hall was otherwise empty, he speculated about what else could emerge at the touch of a button. The Institute was magical, like candyland for the technologically inclined.

As they took their seats, drink-flatheads entered the hall and began serving the trio. Gupta again happily took tea and biscuits. Clearly, he lived on a high-octane diet of sugar.

“If I must now explain at length,” he began, “allow me to use Freudian terminology and precepts. His ideas have long since been replaced by modern-day science, but are still quite useful. We for instance know exactly what every neuron in the mind does.

There are no big questions anymore, but one could say we quibble over details.”

“That wasn’t true twenty years ago,” Shinzou said, taking a warm mug of coffee from the crawler.

“Ancient history, Shinzou,” Gupta said, waving his hand dismissively. “But Freud, you see, based simply on empirical evidence of human behavior, invented wonderful concepts that explain the structure and functioning of the mind. He envisioned the existence of the unconscious, the home of repressed behavior. It’s one of Freud’s greatest ideas. Nowadays we understand the complex neurological process that creates the unconscious, but Freud’s premise was basically correct. And that is why we so carefully craft a Sentient Being’s instincts and upbringing to ensure a small yet healthy unconscious that precludes all the turmoil seen in the human species.”

Sumeet nodded. “This is quite fascinating, Dr. Gupta. My understanding of the unconscious is from a layman’s perspective. It seems a big factor affecting our behavior. But did I understand you correctly? You say they have no unconscious drives?”

“For the most part,” Gupta said, nibbling at a biscuit, “a human unconscious is primarily the result of our infancy, where the mind’s structure is fixed and laid down for subsequent development. Repression of our instincts create an unconscious mind that is later kept in check by logic and morality of the superego. But this is absolutely natural for humans, leading to a well-balanced psychological state.”

“Barring infants subject to trauma such as abuse and violence,” Shinzou said quietly from the side.

“That can never happen in Sentient society,” Gupta replied

Sumeet turned to stare outside, his eyes reflecting the glow of Sentient housings. “Seeing all this makes me think they live perfect lives.”

Gupta slapped his foam chair’s arm. “Yes! Since their primary instinct to learn is fully met at every stage of development, they know only contentment. A paper thin unconscious is created, one tightly controlled by rock solid logic engines of the ego and superego. They have as sound a mind as science can create. That’s why we have such strict regulations. It ensures a secular education completely void of libido and aggression, paramount to their development.”

“Interesting,” Shinzou said, looking at his cup as though it were part of the conversation. “This secular environment guarantees Sentients have no contact with troublesome topics like...religion?”

Gupta looked at Shinzou, then Sumeet. “Well yes. Religion is forbidden.”

Sumeet sat up a bit straighter. “Is that true? I talked with our SB assistant, Ivan, at Chindo Securities all the time about religion. He never objected.”

Gupta put his cup down and faced Sumeet. “No, you misunderstand. What I meant was that religion is forbidden as part of a Sentient’s early upbringing. Once they reach the equivalent of young adulthood, Sentients are free to study the topic as an intellectual pursuit, but there is no chance they will become religious.”

“No chance?” Shinzou said smiling.

Sumeet sat back again. “I always thought Sentients simply preferred secular life, but could become religious if they desired.”

Gupta huffed, moving back to allow the crawler access to his spent dishes. “Oh, it’s more than just a preference, young man, and it’s quite complex to explain here in detail. But suffice to say without strong sexual instincts, it’s quite impossible for them. Faith-based religions are an emergent behavior created over the eons by men who, if you believe Freud, mentally projected their fathers as the face of God. Mere speculation over one-and-a-half centuries ago. But we have sufficient evidence and foundations in neurophysiology to prove it more or less correct.”

“Hmmm, you proved God doesn’t exist?” Shinzou gibed.

“Be careful with that,” Gupta lovingly admonished. “We are talking about the thinking process, not God. If someone has the intellectual background, I can prove down to the neuron how sentience comes about, and all its related behavior. All of that won’t disprove God’s existence.”

Sumeet could see that Gupta was quite agitated by the remark. Even though it was obvious he and Shinzou were good friends, the two argued like family members, holding back nothing but always forgiving in the end. Still, Sumeet wasn’t yet part of this family, and wondered if he could divert the conversation away from turbulent waters.

“Excuse me, Dr. Gupta,” he said politely. “May I ask you about their history?”

Turning his head away slowly from Shinzou with an accusing eye, Dr. Gupta looked at Sumeet. “Yes of course.”

“You mentioned how carefully you control SB education and upbringing. But was that always true? There must have been a time before Sentient technology was fully understood.”

Gupta frowned. “Well, yes, that was a long time ago. Early experimentation did lead to some horrific results. One must pay great respect to those early researchers who created the first artificial minds. However, understand that much early work was done on a smaller scale, like the size of a mouse. Not much harm was done. The scientific community was well prepared when the very first Sentient Beings were created.”