Dahlia --
We should talk about last class presentation. Visit my summer home? Next Saturday?
-- Anton
Anton’s summer home is on the south coast of Martha’s Vineyard. There is a drive, but it’s not nearly as rigorous as getting to Annette Bushkov’s compound. If you want to indulge in nostalgia, you can take a ferry from the Falmouth on the Massachusetts coast to Edgartown. I choose not to, and I land at the airport instead.
Many residents here love boating. They get in real boats and sail them thither and yon. About half are real sailboats, too -- the wind powers them.
The front of Anton’s house looks old and weathered. When Anton greets me at the door he explains, “This side of the house dates from two hundred years ago. It’s a beast to keep up, but I love the look.” As we walk in, we pass Anton’s “brag wall” -- there is some impressive stuff on it: awards, degrees, honorary degrees, and autographed photos.
When we get inside, things are quite contemporary. The view south is stunning. This is called a beach house, but it isn’t really on the beach. It is on a bluff over an inlet, and the ocean is a quarter mile away, crashing up on the real beach which spreads entirely across the inlet there. What surrounds the house is wind-swept dune grass, with a circle of strategically planted bushes and oak trees which act as a windbreak for the house itself.
We sit at a table in the living room that takes full advantage of the view. In spite of myself, I am starting to feel relaxed and inspired.
“Dahlia, you and the class have been on quite an odyssey, I suspect.”
I nod.
“Let me give you some more perspective before I make my proposition to you.
“As you look around now, and reflect on what you’ve seen over the past few months, does humanity look threatened to you?”
“... No?”
“It is,” Anton says grimly. “It doesn’t look like it, but it is.
“What is threatening humanity is its success. We have conquered adversity. We have conquered natural calamity. We have conquered resource depletion. We have even conquered age.
“And therein lies the problem: Mankind is an evolved creature. For thousands ... no ... millions of generations, he has evolved to conquer adversity, as all life forms on earth have.
“The problem ... the huge problem ... is ... we’ve won!
“... So ... what do we do for encore?”
“Enjoy the fruits of our success?” I offer.
“That is retiring,” Anton grins, “and mankind did not evolve to retire.”
“And there is some more urgency to this problem, as well. Mankind has already evolved his successor species -- the creations.”
“Creations? Our helpers? ... Some people have always worried that they would rebel and take over earth, but there are plenty of safeguards ... aren’t there?”
Anton smiles. “It’s not a question of nefarious plot. The threat is much more of a ... whimper ... than that.
“The creations are well-designed to live in the world as we experience it today. We now live in a known world. We understand it. Science has removed the mysteries. We can still have surprises, of course, but nothing is going to happen on earth that creations can’t understand and handle.
“Mankind, on the other hand, evolved to handle a world full of mystery. We are well-adapted to handling the unknown, while creations are well-adapted to handling the known. Earth is now a well-known place.
“So, if mankind is now living in retirement, what’s next for mankind?” He waits patiently for me to answer.
“... Death?” I say, not liking what I am saying.
He grins, “Death ... or moving on! Moving to places where the world a person lives in is still an exciting mystery and full of unknowns. There mankind will thrive again, and do what he’s best at doing.
“Mankind’s ‘fit’, mankind’s destiny, is to confront huge mysteries and solve them enough to live and thrive. That’s what mankind does best, and in that environment creations can comfortably play their role as helpful tools. In that environment mankind and creations are symbiotes. In earth’s environment today, creations are a successor species waiting for mankind to realize he has outlived his usefulness.
“That’s why this Mars colonizing program is so important: It’s a key step in mankind’s survival. Mankind must adapt to Mars, adapt to other places in the Solar System, and adapt to traveling to the stars. This must be mankind’s destiny. That or ... retiring ... and letting his successor species, the creations, eulogize his passing.”
“I ... I ... I never thought of things that way,” I say.
“Few people have. It’s not a comfortable thought, and these are comfortable times we live in.”
“What can I do?”
“Fully back the Mars program. We must get mankind self-sufficiently settled around the Solar System, and we must get him headed to the stars.”
“That doesn’t sound so hard.”
“Your time, your enthusiasm, and your DNA will all help.” he said confidently.
Anton looks happy. He’s made a convert.
But it isn’t enough! Anton has worked this hard and just converted me. Just me! This is a human race problem, and it can’t be handled as just another human hobby idea! There are billions of those, and most are a lot more comfortable to think about.
This would take some more thought, some careful thought.
“In the meantime, would you like a tour of my humble abode?”
We walk around a bit, then go down to the dock and get into a sailboat -- a real sailboat! It’s a small one. He launches us, and we sail to the beach. This ride is fully as wild as Annette’s colony road ride. Those sail boats really do lean way, way over! The good news is that as I keep climbing to the high side in stark terror, Anton says, “You’re doing it right!” and laughs heartily like an old sea captain.
At the beach it is windy and cool, but I do take some time to build a sand castle. I’ve loved doing that since I discovered the sandbox in our kindergarten playground.
We talk and think, and talk and think. I don’t say so, but I am thinking, “It still isn’t enough!”
Anton talks about how mankind is a boom species. That’s why we have the Neolithic Parks. The creations are openly enthusiastic about wanting to dismantle those because they are the source of so much human suffering, and they aren’t alone. There are periodic publicity campaigns and lawsuits. The lawsuits are to dismantle the parks and toss someone in jail for condoning the torture and child abuse that occurs in them.
“But if those are closed down, it is certain death for the human species at the next world-wide calamity,” he says grimly.
The ride back feels entirely different and a lot more relaxing. Anton says that is because the wind is at our back now.
At the end of the day I head home. It was short, but it has been a fascinating trip in so many ways.
At small talk before the next class, Jaden and Janet have a happy announcement ... somewhat happy, anyway.
Janet says, “Jaden and I were able to get an appeal launched to his conviction. We got his trial declared a mistrial, and his status is now back to that of accused, not convicted. The ACLU is taking an interest in this, so it’s not likely to be a railroading the next time it goes to court.”
I look around and spoke for all of us when I say, “Thank you, Janet. And ... Wow! What a lucky guy you are, Jaden, to have her for a friend!” We all applaud.
Janet holds up her hand, “We don’t have a happy ending, yet, folks. But we’ve got a second try, and there should be a lot fewer cheap shots this time.”
But she is just not counting chickens before they hatch. It is clearly real good news.
“What about LAU-TV channel? This would seem a perfect fit for that?” asks Ruby.
“I thought about that, Ruby, but decided against it. Yeah, we have a wronged man and a bureaucracy grinding him up and spitting him out. That would get ratings, for sure. But the bureaucracy grinding him up and spitting him out is a union. That aspect would strike terror in the hearts of most LAU-TV producers. It would add a lot of uncertainty which means delays. The people who would take the most interest in this as a polemic would be Libertarians. That market would be a pretty small sideshow.”
“I see your point,” says Ruby.
As class is about to begin I see Anton out in the hall. My heart starts to beat faster with sudden anticipation. This should be good. I hurry to introduce him.
And so the last class -- the special one -- begins. I start by introducing Anton, “Today we have a special guest speaker: Anton Noidtal, director and owner of Child Champs,” I announce.
We all greet him, and he begins.
“I’m here to talk to you about a program the Space Agency is sponsoring, and it’s one some of you may be interested in. It’s one that I certainly am.
“The Space Agency is supporting setting up a colony on Mars. Not a resort, not a science station, not a factory, but a large population colony where humans will live permanently and which they will come to call their home, and so will their grandchildren. In a few years it will become self-sustaining, and be another step in man’s settling the whole solar system, and beyond that, the stars.
“... Why should we be interested?” asks Ben.
“Because it’s a place where you can be human again. It’s a place where your human ingenuity will matter. It’s a place where you can make a difference, not be just another cog in an increasingly well-ordered world -- a world which has become better and better suited to cybers and creations. It’s a place where there will be surprises -- something human people in biological bodies are still the best-designed creatures in the universe to deal with ... well, the universe we know about anyway.”
Janet asks, “Have we come that far? What about the risks? How will we get fed the right food? How will old people like Ben and me get our medical care?”
Anton laughs a bit, “This is not a digger cult. We can do digger just fine here on Earth. The bots will come too. Much of our food is nanobot-made now, and that is just as easy to do on Mars as it is here. The same for medicine. We can make it there as easily as we can here.
“In fact, we’ve had the technology to colonize for two decades. What has held this project back is worries about risk. That very human emotion to save the children has had some surprise consequences.” He grins as he says, “One of those has been to ‘save’ Mars from colonizing humans.
“This is not to say there are not risks. There are. Accidents will happen. Surprises will happen. People will die and people will be amazed.
“But humans are designed to be mortal. Up until twenty years ago, there were no immortals. Humans are also designed to take risks.” He looks around a bit before he continues, “This is not a popular point of view these days, but I feel our current trends towards cutting off risk-taking in the name of saving the children have gone way overboard. They are badly twisting our social thinking.”
“Isn’t that just adapting our thinking to the environment we live in now?” asks Jaden.
Anton smiles, “You bring up a good point, Jaden. Our environment today is certainly not the Stone Age environment our brains and bodies are best adapted for.
“But that’s the point! What we are living in now, here on Earth, is not what humans are well-adapted for. It’s too secure. It’s too predictable. We are best adapted for a world full of mysteries and unknowns. These days we are going to find that environment on Mars and beyond. This is where humans should be now ... at least some of us.”
“There is one more point you should know about. I said biological bodies -- not human bodies -- for a reason. On the Mars colony, we will have enough technology to transfer intelligences between cyber and biological. And we will use that technology there. You can use your Earth body when you want to, but your intelligence won’t be restricted to it.”
We look around at each other. I say, “I’ve heard speculations on such. But isn’t that unethical and illegal?”
“It is here on Earth, but Mars is not Earth,” he grins again. “With time, there will be quite a few things OK there that are too scary, technically, for Earth society to accept.”
He looks around the classroom, looks each of us in the face, “You are all here because you want to take part in a great adventure: the great adventure of raising a child. What I’m asking you now is do you want to take part in an even greater adventure: that of settling a new world? Carving a new world from a new wilderness? I’m asking you as a group because a group you have become. For weeks now you’ve been sharing your triumphs and disappointments, and you’ve had both. You are becoming tight.
“I’m giving each of you the site which describes this new colonizing program and the details of what it takes to qualify and what you can expect there. Take a moment to go through that and see if you have any questions.”
Anton waits patiently while the class goes cross-eyed for a bit and absorbs this new information. Miranda touches the face of her hand-held phone every now and then.
“You’re a founding member of the Mars Colonizing Steering Committee? Wow!” says Jaina. Then with a cross between admiration and suspicion, “Are you like some kind of high mucky-muck government official then?”
Anton smiles at her, “This has been a long-time dream for me, Jaina. To make it happen, I had to engage the people and creations who had the right resources to make it happen. So, yes, I’m now some kind of high mucky-muck NGO official. I leave the government work for others.” He laughs.
Adrian speaks up, “I know the creation establishment has resisted this for a long time. Have they changed their minds?”
“They now recognize that colonies throughout the solar system can be traded off against closing the Neolithic Parks on Earth. As much as they dislike putting people into danger in space, if they can take people out of danger on Earth, they will give it their support.”
“Will they accept people with ... diverse beliefs?” asks Annette.
“Colonies have a long history of accepting people with diverse beliefs. The creations recognize that, and this one will be no exception. One of my contributions as a steering committee member is making sure the colony project is structured to be diverse. Diversity and redundancy will add to security and survivability. This will be an adventure, an experience full of surprises. We can’t know now which policies will work best, so trying many makes a lot of sense.
“And your group, Annette, with its long habit of living close to the land and being resourceful in dealing with surprises, should make it comparatively comfortable in adapting to this new environment.”
Annette smiles back at Anton.
Anton looks at Rubyzin, “Ruby, what are your thoughts?”
Ruby doesn’t hesitate, “Oh, I’m an entertainer. The world is my oyster.” She laughs. “I guess more than the world these days. I’ve been offered gigs on the moon and Mars.”
“Are you saying this is irrelevant to you?”
“Yes. I travel all the time. What difference does this make?”
“Will your child travel with you?”
Ruby looks a little surprised and thinks a moment before she says, “... Good point.”
Anton leaves her to muse on that. He turns to Jaina. “What are your thoughts, Jaina?”
“It sounds like super fun ... for a while. But I’m still an Earth girl. I’ve got lots of friends here.”
“Are they the face-to-face type?”
“Some of them are ... a few ... well, a couple. Most are on the net, now that you mention it.”
“Dahlia tells me you’re interested in raising Mars babies. Why not do that where they are native?”
She thinks about it and brightens, “I could be a lot more effective there, couldn’t I. I wouldn’t have to constantly be saying, ‘When you get to where you’ll live, things will be ... whatever.’ Yeah, that would be good. It’s not like I can’t come back to Earth for vacations.”
“So true,” assures Anton, “and year by year it’s getting faster and cheaper. The constant acceleration propulsion technology is coming of age now.”
He turns to Miranda, “You’ve traveled a long way to get here. What do you think about traveling a bit further?”
She frowns, “I have my family to think of. My mother is very old.”
Anton brightens at that, “The colony settlements will have the most up-to-date medical facilities. You and all your family should find it a lot easier to get patched up there than here. Once you’re there, there should be a lot less red tape and hoop-jumping.”
Miranda likes the sound of that.
He turns to Adrian. “I don’t want to sound like a PR hack, but you’re one of the more resourceful people here: You’ve grown a thriving business.”
He doesn’t laugh it off. He is thinking hard. “I’m glad you recognize it’s no walk in the park. ... I’m wondering if I’m too specialized? Business is what I know best. ... That and gene editing.”
“Any new colony is going to have a lot of business dealings. They won’t be the same kind or in the same environment, but they will be all about exploiting opportunities and dealing with people, creations, and Mother Nature to make them happen.”
Now Adrian smiles, “That sounds familiar.”
He comes back to Jaden again. He just looks and waits.
Jaden finally speaks, “I’m a union man. ... Or, at least I have been one. I admit that these last few weeks have been quite a test of my union spirit. Will collectivism have any meaning, any importance, in a Mars colony? Are there going to be evil bosses I can rail against. Are there going to be dark conspiracies that I and my fellow workers have to protect ourselves from?”
Anton doesn’t say a thing. He just waits.
Jaden continues, “I ... I ... I guess if those are irrelevant that’s a good thing.” He looks up, “There will still be dangers, though, won’t there? Of course! ... Which means I can keep an eye out for the safety of others.” He brightens at that thought. “Yeah, my ideals can still have meaning. We all still need to be sure we are as safe as we can be ... and still get things done, of course. Yeah, I’m in.”
And finally he looks at me.
I say, “I got into this to raise babies, not wear a coonskin cap. But you make a good point. There certainly seem to be a lot of ‘Yes, buts ...’ involved in baby-raising these days. I teach this class, but sometimes I’m real disappointed in what I have to teach. I want to raise a baby the way I think is right, not the way everybody in the neighborhood thinks is right. Do you think that’s going to be possible on Mars?”
“I think it’s not only possible, I think it will be mandatory. Mars is eight-to-twenty four minutes from Earth on the fastest communication link. How is some Earth bureaucrat or monitoring creation going to look over your shoulder real time?
“Not that some won’t try at first, but you can simply tell them ‘Get real!’ ... What are they going to do?”
“... Live with it.” I say with a grim grin.
“Just as you will have to,” he cautions. “I’m sure there will be a few times when you’ll dearly wish that big, expert help was a lot closer. But those will be rare compared to the most-of-the-times when you’re satisfied that you’re doing the right thing. And doing a real good job with the resources at hand. And you will be,” he grins. “You’ve been training for this a long time.”
He looks around at all of us, “Pardon me if I sound a little megalomaniacal but ... you’ve all been training for this. You haven’t been aware of it, but this is what you’ve been living for. You’re all human, and humans live for solving the mysterious. These days, we will find the mysterious on Mars.
“Are there any more questions?”
There are none. He’s given us a lot to think about.
“I’ll let you get back to your studies. Thank you.”
He walks out, and we all think for about a half minute before I say, “OK. Mars project or not, that pretty well wraps up this course. Let’s review, answer last questions, then it’s party time!”