Nebula (10 page)

At this point, Yuri and Ludmila arrived. “Sorry to be late,” Yuri said, as they joined the rest of the group. “We got tied up in a discussion with a couple of the research assistants. It seems that there’s a bit of a wrestling match between the folks who are trying to debug the existing software and the ones who need to make some more changes in the heuristics dealing with multitasking coordination. But I think that Ludmila and I worked out a compromise.”

“Why don’t you explain the current problem to Harry?” Brad replied.

“OK,” Yuri continued. “You already know that we need to get the robots to be able to respond to alien commands while they’re doing our work too. Right?”

Harry nodded. He knew that much.

“So, there are a couple of big challenges. One is that we need to make sure that this dual tasking doesn’t introduce any chaotic behavior, or any big failure modes, or evidence that we’re tinkering with them. And we have to make sure that we can retain direct links and control to all the robots, even when the aliens are also interacting with them and when they’re coordinating among themselves on the tasks that they’ve been given by both the aliens and us. That’s where you and I come in. We need to develop the back-and-forth linkages and logical processes between us and the robots and between the robots themselves. We need to supervise the coordination of their internal intelligent processes to make it seem that they’re doing what the aliens told them to do but also to respond to our tasking in a very subtle way. Once we get that solved, Ludmila can make sure that the right software gets developed.”

Ludmila picked up the thread. “The second challenge is to be able to manage the stored data in the robots so that any indication of our presence is hidden from the aliens, at least until the operation is far enough along that it wouldn’t matter any longer.”

Brad added, “What Ludmila means is that once the biological agents take effect, the aliens will probably suspect something anyway, so our involvement would become pretty obvious even if they weren’t able to see the data.”

“Yes,” Ludmila agreed. “That makes the challenge a bit less, but we still need to be absolutely certain that our actions will remain completely invisible for at least a few weeks, or maybe a few months. The good thing is that during this time, the aliens will be busy preparing for the invasion, and that should keep them from doing any detailed analysis of the robots’ software or anything else that would point to us. Let’s show you what we’ve been able to accomplish so far. Brad, Nigel, how about joining me in a bit of a demonstration.”

The three of them put on headgear that Harry could tell immediately was the type of gear that he used in his own lab. It had sensors and actuator electrodes that allowed the brain to be connected directly into a processor that could manage the electromagnetic communications between the human and the machine.

Once the headgear were all in place and the seven robots were turned on, Ludmila continued with her explanation. “OK, so now Brad, Nigel, and I are able to interact directly with the seven robots. It takes a bit of practice to coordinate things, since we can all interact with all of them, either one at a time or as a group, as we choose. I think that you’ve done similar things in your own lab.”

“Yeah, but not on this scale,” Harry replied. “We usually limit ourselves to two humans and only three robots, and each of us only interacts with one at a time, but I get the picture.”

Judith then explained how they would link to the robots at the same time as the aliens did. “The trick is to be able to communicate with them in a way that minimizes the chance of being detected and to make as small a modification to the robots’ electronics as possible. So we developed an electromagnetic link that’s very similar to the one that the aliens use, but we shifted the frequency to a much higher band. It’s at a frequency that they wouldn’t be interested in, so they don’t see our communications. This is a bit risky, since our signal isn’t below the noise floor, but everything that we know about them tells us that we’re operating in a frequency band that’s totally uninteresting to them. It also allows us to use some of the conductive parts of the robot structures as our antennas, so our hardware modifications can be buried within the robots’ bodies, with nothing on the outside to give them a clue to our modifications. Our electronics should be able to remain hidden from anything less than a very thorough examination.”

The seven robots started to move, and Harry was impressed by the way that they seemed to be cooperating on several tasks. Two of them were doing some sort of hardware construction, and it was clear that they were acting like intelligent beings with a common objective and different roles. Another four were cooperating to move a large piece of equipment that was sufficiently large and complicated that it took all of them to keep it from tipping or from spilling some loose parts onto the floor. The dexterity was impressive. It was at least as good as anything that Harry had been able to develop in his most advanced robots.

“Now watch this,” Ludmila said. “Up to this point, Nigel has been directing the robots, and Brad and I have been monitoring things. Now we’ll see what happens when Brad and I give contradictory direction to three of those four robots who are trying to move that large piece of equipment.”

Nothing changed immediately, as the robots continued with their task. Then, almost spontaneously, three of the robots changed their positions, so that they could release the fourth to another task. It went off to continue assembling another piece of equipment.

“See, our supervisory processes assure continuity of activity until the robots can determine that it’s OK to let one of them respond to the new task. They responded to what Brad told them to do, and in a few seconds, they should be able to respond to my task without any bad effect on the original task.”

Sure enough, about ten seconds later, the three robots adjusted their positions to prepare for one of them to leave for another task. Two of them moved to opposite sides of the large piece of equipment and extended small shelf-like protrusions from the lower part of their frames. The equipment was then lowered onto those shelves. Once the third robot’s assistance was no longer needed, it left to do whatever it was that Ludmila told it to do, and the remaining two slowly rolled on their wheels until they reached the place where they were told to place it. The shelf-like protrusions then lowered to floor level, and the robots used their arms to slide the equipment off.

Brad smiled, clearly proud of the accomplishments of his team. “You can see that they initially had two options to move the equipment. When four of them were available, they could easily pick it up and carry it. That was the quickest, easiest, and least risky way to do the job. They could also manage with three, but that was a bit less optimal, so they didn’t choose that until they needed to. The other option was to use their bodies as carts to carry the load. It gave them less maneuverability and was a bit slower, but it would be sufficient, so the other robot was allowed to depart to respond to my task. Pretty neat, isn’t it?”

“I’ll say,” Harry replied. “Will it work with more complex conflicting objectives?”

“That’s what I work on,” Yuri said. “You know that complex, interactive, automata are my specialty. I finally get to work with machines that are sufficiently intelligent and interactive that I can put all my theoretical work to the real test. Everything works smoothly.”

Ludmila added that the software is also successful in hiding any indications or records of human interaction from the data that the aliens could see. “During this demonstration, Nigel was playing through the interface that the aliens use. It was as if he was an alien, and had visibility into everything that an alien would be able to see. He continued to monitor the original tasks, and he didn’t even have a clue that Brad and I were introducing conflicting commands, since we were playing as humans, and all records of our interactions were routed into the portions of the data bases that the aliens don’t see. He was totally in the loop with what all seven were doing, and it all looked like they coordinated among themselves to do the tasks.”

“That’s right,” Nigel agreed. “The three of us were involved with all seven robots at the same time, and I was even the one in an oversight role for the four. I could impose detailed direction at any time, and I had detailed knowledge of how they were interacting with one another and making collaborative decisions. When the two robots left the group, it looked to me that they had a backlog of tasks that they’d been diverted from when I gave them this new task. I had no idea that the so-called backlog was actually new tasking from Brad and Ludmila. It just looked to me as if they were returning to tasks that my assignment had interrupted. As far as the aliens would know, when we intrude, it would seem the same. That’s what we hope to achieve.”

“It looks like you have everything worked out already. Why do you need me?”

“Well,” Brad replied. “Some of this is a bit rigged. Our human-to-robot interface isn’t perfect yet. We cheat when we have multiple people in the loop. We have to time-share the communication link, or the robots sometimes get conflicting or garbled commands, and our own interfaces may drop the connections. We’re also faking a bit of the complexity management that Yuri spoke about. Most of the difficulty was in the way that the human-machine interface was implemented. Lars had devised a scheme that he was sure would take care of the problem, but he wasn’t able to get all the wrinkles ironed out before we lost him. That’s why he went topside, to get some consulting help from one of our researchers up above.”

“So you need me to finish his work?”

“That and also to be able to work on-site to get everything working properly with the human-robot-alien network and then to help with the control of the robots during the operation. We’ll need you and Yuri to monitor everything and alert us to departures from normal that could tip our hand. We have all the monitoring equipment that you’ll need, but we’ll have to rely on your experience with these sorts of things to detect the signs that a failure mode may be about to occur. If we have enough warning, we can back off and let the aliens have full control until the situation stabilizes.”

“Wow,” Harry said. “That’s a pretty tall order. These changes of state can happen pretty fast. We normally just do near real time supervision. You seem to be asking for real time prediction.”

Yuri replied, “It’s almost real time, but there’s still about a second or two of warning with the predictive technique that Lars and I were working on. I can show you when we get to the lab. It’ll still be pretty stressful, but more or less like one of those computer games that the kids like to play. I figure that we could take it for about an hour before collapsing, but an hour should be more than enough to do what we need to do.”

Brad removed his headgear and motioned to Ludmila and Nigel to remove theirs. Then he gave his to Harry. “Here, it’s your turn. We need to get you calibrated and trained to work with the robots. Normally, this takes a person several months, but you already have experience with this type of device, so we’re going to fast-track you. First, we need to get you registered into the system and calibrated for the type of information transfers that we do in our system. You shouldn’t have any problems adapting pretty quickly. Put the headgear on, and I’ll connect you to the interface device that converts the type of binary data in the robots’ brains and nervous systems into the type of neural signaling that our brains use. Then we’ll run through the full range of sensory signals so your brain can adapt itself.”

Harry put the headgear on, and Brad adjusted some controls on a console off to the side. Harry could then feel a slight tingle in his fingers and toes, and he began to see a display of colors sequencing from red to violet. He also sensed a bit of an odor and taste, and he knew immediately that the calibration process was underway.

“Are you getting the sensory signals?” Brad asked.

“Yeah. It’s a lot like the calibration that we do in my lab. Hey, it stopped. Am I calibrated that quickly?”

“You sure are. It’s 100% and about ten times faster than someone who starts from scratch. That’s what we expected. Your brain was already conditioned to deal with this sort of interface since it’s so similar to the one that you developed. We expected that since you did a lot of work based on some of Lars’ early experiments.”

“So am I finished or is there more?”

“There’s more. The whole thing will probably take a couple of weeks. We need to get you trained and proficient with interfaces to at least four robots simultaneously. But first, let’s see how you can handle a single interface. It will be a lot different from what you’re used to. These robots are much more advanced than the machines that you interfaced with in the lab, and you’ll have to manage multiple sensory and motor interactions. Up to now, you’ve been connected to the calibration box. Now I’m going to switch you to one of the worker bee robots over there.”

Brad was right about the multiple sensory interfaces. At first, Harry was almost blown over by the confusion of visual and audio inputs. Things were complicated even more by the fact that the robots had more than two eyes and ears. Sensory data was coming in from all directions, and he felt a bit dizzy at first.

“Are you OK?” Brad asked. “If you want to sit down for a minute, that’s OK. Most people get really dizzy this first time. Some even black out, and we were ready to catch you if you started to fall.”