Jacob's ladder
Third part: Convergence. Chapter 13: Conversation in the second echelon

“We are losing control of theexperiment!”

“Max! Put it in stand-by.”

“Done!”

“What’s happened? What do you think,Igor?”

“Perhaps the boundary conditions wereunstable.”

“I made the theoretical study. Theyweren’t.”

“You should revise it, Marco.”

“I tell you, it isn’t that! Actually,I know what’s happening.”

“What?”

“Sabotage.”

“Impossible!”

“There’s no other explanation.”

“Who’d want to spoil the experiment? How’dthey do it?”

“Blatsov, Nikomakos! Who are they?Where did they come from? They are not in history books, I’ve checked. Also,when Pierre fired, he didn’t miss. Blatsov seems to be invulnerable.”

“What do you make of it?”

“There are two possibilities: he is azombie, or he is a human being; but he is too alive to be a zombie, thereforehe must be human.”

“Human? Don’t be a fool. He wouldhave to be one of us.”

“Or a very clever hacker, who has gotinto our computer through the connection to the world-wide-web, skipping allour firewalls, and is trying to gain control.”

“But he cannot have got into theexperiment! One needs especial materials and a deep knowledge of the system.”

“You underestimate hackers. They arecapable of that, and much more.”

“Then what can we do? This is gettingworse every moment!”

“I think it would be best if we turnit off and correct our security before starting again.”

“Just a moment! Before taking such adrastic decision, couldn’t we try to save them?”

“Again at it, Lydia? You are sosentimental!”

“I’d like to help Luis. His cry forhelp was so touching!”

“You must remember that they are notreal, they are just simulations. This is a virtual world, a historic experimentin a computer, so we can introduce bifurcations and study alternativescenarios: what would have happened if... if Napoleon had won the battle ofWaterloo, for instance? Lydia, you are behaving as though they were persons.”

“Let’s have a discussion.”

“Do you think it’s the proper time?”

“No time could be best, if we areabout to take a life and death decision about them.”

“Don’t be so dramatic!”

“I can’t be otherwise.”

“All right, you win! Let’s discussit. A small philosophical pause will be relaxing. Lydia, you have the floor,try to convince us, but be concise, please.”

“O.K. Do you think that only humanbeings have rights?”

“Of course not! Animals have themtoo, although not so many.”

“If we found intelligentextraterrestrial life, would they have the same rights as we do?”

“Of course.”

“I declare that the characters in ourvirtual worlds make a new form of intelligent life and they should have thesame rights as we have.”

“But those characters do not existoutside the computer. We’ve built them.”

“So what? We also build our childrenand they have rights.”

“That’s different!”

“Why?”

“Because our characters don’t existoutside the computer!”

“We don’t exist outside the universe,at least before dying.”

“If we are going to discuss lifeafter death, I quit.”

“No, what I mean is that, for ourcharacters, our historical simulation is the universe.”

“But we are outside their universe.”

“However, they are inside ours.”

“What do you mean?”

“That the virtual universe simulatedinside that computer is a part of our universe.”

“You know? I think Lydia is right!”

“Our characters possess artificialintelligence, a basic knowledge about their world and the capacity to havefeelings and take free decisions. How do they differ from us?”

“Because they don’t actually exist.”

“Don’t they? We can follow them,detect their feelings, observe their actions. They exist, the same as we do.”

“Just a moment, Lydia, let meunderstand this. You are a believer, aren’t you?”

“You know that very well, Igor.”

“You believe that there is a God whocreated the universe and gives every man an immortal soul, don’t you?”

“I believe that God puts something inevery one of us, something that does not disappear with death and has somethingto do with our free will. I don’t care if you call it soul or any other name.”

“O.K., let’s call it soul for thetime being. Do you then believe that the characters in our worlds have souls?”

“Why not?”

“But we have built them!”

“So what? We also build our children.If I believe that God puts something in our children when we conceive them, whycan’t I believe that He can do the same with our characters, if we have giventhem intelligence and free will similar to ours?”

“But are they really similar toours?”

“I am not able to distinguish them,are you?”

“We are missing the question. Wheredo you want to go with all this?”

“I believe that our characters areintelligent beings with the same rights as we have. We shouldn’t destroy them flippantly.”

“So you think that we cannotdisconnect our virtual world because we’d destroy a few characters and they havea right to live. Does that mean that we have to keep the computer and thehistorical simulation program working all the time?”

“Not at all. The temporaldisconnection of the program or the computer does not mean the death of ourcharacters. At most, it would be equivalent to our sleep, although there aresome differences.”

“But we cannot cancel the experimentforever?”

“That would be killing them. Can’t weleave them get to their natural end?”

“That would take time and resources.”

“We can economize. Disconnecting themforever would be ethically unacceptable.”

“Wait, Lydia, let me speak a moment.”

“Speak up, Marco.”

“This discussion is very interesting,but hardly practical. What we must do now is decide what to do with theexperiment. Have you any proposal?”

“I have.”

“Let’s hear it.”

“Rather than disconnect them, whydon’t we do something to save them? Why don’t we try to redirect theexperiment?”

“Because things have got too far. Eventhough we were able to do that, the experiment wouldn’t serve its purpose, itis useless now; it wouldn’t answer the question: what would had happened, hadNapoleon won the battle of Waterloo?”

“Right, it would be a differentexperiment, but nevertheless it would be interesting. We’d get lots ofinformation which could be useful in future experiments.”

“You know, Lydia, what you say makessense.”

“Thank you, Max.”

“I see you’ve got a conversion, but it’snot so easy. How would we unravel that mess?”

“I’ll get down to their world andhelp them unravel themselves.”

“Are you mad? Would you go into thatwasp nest?”

“Why not? We’ve got them there; weshould help them get out.”

“But we have never gone personallyinto one of our virtual worlds. We don’t even know that it’s possible!”

“It must be, since others have doneit.”

“Assuming that Blatsov and Nikomakosare really hackers.”

“You don’t know what you could getinto!”

“I’m ready to run a risk to save ourcharacters.”

“I can’t approve it, it’s toodangerous.”

“Igor, don’t be so hasty, what Lydiasays is very interesting, that experiment would help us a lot, and maybe in thefuture it will make it possible to undo other hacker attacks.”

“Congratulations, Lydia, you’veconverted Marco too. This reminds me of that theater play, what was its name?”

“Twelve angry men. You aremistaken, Igor, I’m not trying to convert anybody, I only want to do what isfair.”

“Endangering your life?”

“You exaggerate, Igor, Lydia wouldn’tbe in such danger. Look at Blatsov, our characters can’t harm him.”

“Lydia may not be in danger with ourcharacters, but you have forgotten the essential.”

“What?”

“Blatsov will be there. Do you thinkthat he’ll let her undo his plans without reprisal? Lydia risks a direct attackby the hacker. We don’t know what may happen.”

“This is getting quite interesting!”

“Stop rubbing your hands and don’t bechildish, Marco. This is very serious; we’d be responsible if something happensto Lydia.”

“No, because I’m going freely andwilling, knowing what may happen to me.”

“Have you decided?”

“I have.”

“Then I can’t forbid you. We’ll watchand send you some information through your earphones, but remember: ifsomething unforeseen happens, we may not be able to help you.”

“I’m perfectly aware of that.”

“If things get tough, come back.”

“I’ll do that if I can in conscience.What must I do to get down?”

“Max will explain.”

“Don’t worry, Lydia, I’ll make thechanges at my console and in your helm controls. Remember: while you are down,you’ll lose the ability to control your body up here. You’ll be in a coma, butnot unconscious: you’ll be aware of everything that happens.”

“I know.”

“We can’t leave you there more thansix hours, it would be dangerous. After that time, if you haven’t solved theproblem, we’ll have to bring you back.”

“Six hours. How much time is thatdown there?”

“Four days. The scale change is oneto sixteen.”

“Will it be enough? Never mind, I’lltry.”

“Have you studied the configurationof the area where you’ll get in?”

“Perfectly, don’t worry.”

“Then we can start, but I don’t likethis. If things get wrong, we won’t be able to put the system in stand-by, itcould be fatal for you.”

“We aren’t sure of that, Igor. Thehacker is there; perhaps he knows that he runs no risks.”

“We can’t run any risk.”

“Don’t worry, it will go well.”

“Come on then. When I give the word,Max will let the program proceed from the same place where it was stopped. I’llsend Lydia down there. You, Lydia, have to do nothing, except pray.”

“You say that, Igor? I thought youwere agnostic.”

“You know very well that evenagnostics pray. But I was just putting myself in your place. You need it, andif you believe, it won’t harm you.”

“Everything is ready, Igor.”

“Silence, then. Ready! On!”