TIME PUMP

100

Exploding stars and particle accelerators create exotic forms of matter, but the rest of the universe is made up of neutrons, protons, and electrons. You, me, this book, everything you see, every physical thing that exists. If we aren't destroyed or sent back to the Stone Age by some religious nut or greedy biotech or nanotech company, we will eventually develop the technology to transmute matter to instantly transform a handful of dirt into a loaf of bread, or a vial of medicine, or a few ounces of plutonium - whoops! Someday our descendents will walk through a machine that uses something like quantum-entangled heavy neutrinos to scan every atom in our body, then tweak the quarks as necessary to repair all the DNA damage our body failed to repair for itself, eliminate problematic introns and other genetic mistakes, remove all toxins and extraneous glucose bonds, and otherwise optimize every cell for perfect health. No hunger, no disease, no competition for physical resources. Nature becomes optional. Intellectual enhancement available at no extra charge. What will it be like to be human then? What will they think of us?

101

"She has chosen Full Disclosure." Gemsen could hear the pain in his wife's voice. He had been dreading this day. "That is very distressing. But not surprising", he said. "We've always known she would lean that way. And it's possible she will change her mind during the process. They're very careful to leave options open at every step." "How well I know", said Helen. "I wish now I hadn't opted out in the later levels. I won't be able to help her deal with it as well as I might have." Gemsen was silent for a moment, pulling himself back from the brink of despair that the memory aroused. The room darkened as a cloud passed, reflecting his thoughts. "I think once she has some feeling for what it was like, she will know that enough is enough." Helen looked up, tearful. "I'll be aching until I know she has stopped."

102

Sarah felt the cool shadow of the passing cloud, and marveled at the play of the shifting light over the gardens. "Now where is that patch of crocus they were talking about?" she said to herself. "Ahh!" Just beyond the row of cherry trees, among a broad band of flowers, the grayish blight stood out like a beacon amid the riot of color. She crossed over to the patch, pulled a pair of snippers from her kit bag, and cut off a foot-long twig. "Now, what do you need?"

Sarah would spend the rest of the day studying the plant's DNA and chemical makeup, trying to identify what was missing from its environment. On a world where viruses and bacteria were not allowed, alternatives to these chemical factories had to be created artificially. She was accustomed to taking daily supplements of chemicals necessary for digestion and other functions once provided by natural symbiotic bacteria in the body.

Sarah's passion was optimizing the supplements used in the garden. Keeping organics alive on Heaven was becoming a lost art. Sarah's interest in natural evolution had been fostered by her parents, who were considered modern hippies, part of a tiny minority of humans with any great interest in studying, let alone preserving, the products of untamed nature. How did we get to this state? That is a long story. A very long story.

And here it is:

Sarah's request to receive "Full Disclosure" required her to attend preparatory sessions providing background information, including the following summary I wrote years ago for such students:

A little over 72 billion years ago (on a Wednesday, as a matter of fact, or so say the computers), the Change occurred. Up to that point, Reality was absolutely featureless. Actually, nothing changed, except that the instant before the Change, Reality had no potential for change, and the instant after, it did.

(An alternate theory regarding the nature of Reality prior to the Change is that it was the opposite of featureless, in fact, chaos, where everything that could happen did happen, simultaneously, without any relation between cause and effect. Under this theory, Reality also had no potential for change until the first Change. Both theories go on to hypothesize that the instant second change was the establishment of the relationship between cause and effect. I prefer the featureless Reality approach myself, since that, to me, is mind-boggling enough as it is.)

The third Change was the creation of something out of nothing, rather, the splitting of nothing into a something and an anti-something. Twentieth Century cosmologists claimed to have proven that the sum total of all the gravitational energy in the universe, added to the energy-equivalent of matter and all other forms of energy, totaled zero. (If you don't find that particularly boggling, you might have a future in cosmology; otherwise, consider cosmetology.)

(Note to Editor: I've included these parenthetical asides so you would have something to edit, as I am certain you will find every other word herein frustratingly perfect.)

The fourth (important) Change was the random occurrence of a constellation of stable somethings and anti-somethings, configured so that the anti-somethings coalesced in a shell around the somethings, creating a potential universe. The anti-something shell became self-focusing (details available under separate cover), and the interface between the anti-something shell and the something core exploded (of course), compressing the core to nearly point size. The rebound of the core, as you have already guessed, was the Big Bang, and the expansion of the anti-something shell into an ever-increasing displacement of normal Reality is perceived at our end as the "expansion of the universe" propelled by "dark energy". Variations in this expansion followed as a result of the initial state, thickness, and internal mechanics of the shell during and following the interface explosion, and the same aspects of the core following the initial compression.

The original configuration did not consist of purely separated elements - not only does the something (normal matter) core include a residual amount of anti-something (anti-matter), it also includes some volumes of normal Reality ("dark matter"), which initially retarded the Big Bang until it had been sufficiently dispersed, allowing the universal expansion to briefly balloon, leading to the universe we see today.

(Actually, the details are not available under separate cover; instead, they are left as an exercise for the Reader to work out.)

Skipping ahead (present era):

It has been less than 70 years since mankind developed the technology to transmute matter, but already the first three million years of human history are largely thought of as an unpleasant footnote, something to be left behind and forgotten as soon and as completely as possible. With no limit to lifespan and no competition for physical resources, human life and human relations have become a search for each individual's most enlightened concept of paradise.

The asteroid belt was quickly transformed into a ringworld around the sun (named Niven, of course), with more land area than millions of Earths. After a brief explosion, the population leveled off at around 20 billion - people found that it was a lot harder to figure out how to raise children properly when their choices were unlimited.

A few maintained dwellings on Earth (Squatters), seeking to continue natural evolution while minimizing the inherent cruelty of nature. Since nature's "plan" is for virtually every living thing to be either eaten alive or die of starvation, thirst, injury, or disease, this has been a tough row to hoe. How far down the food chain do you interfere with natural hunting and its corollary population control? How do you decide which creatures would have been eliminated from the gene pool, in order to humanely sterilize them? How do you correct for the artificially increased population, and its effect on food resources, both for the population and its predators? I expect an eventual consensus will emerge to the effect that we and all living things are experiments of nature, and that all experiments that are inherently cruel when left to run wild should be terminated.

A segment of the population decided to construct a separate artificial habitat named Heaven, free of all viruses, bacteria, toxins, and other pollution. It consists of three widely-spaced parallel cylinders connected to each other, placed in solar orbit so that the center line of the central cylinder is at zero gee, those of the outer cylinders are at 1 g (in opposite directions, of course).

A separate facility was built inside the orbit of Mercury, designed as a fail-safe experimental laboratory. It was initially named SunLab, but human nature being what it is, it was of course informally, then later formally, referred to as Hell. All biotech and nanotech research is performed in Hell by remote operation, to avoid risking entire populations and planets with runaway experiments. The lab orbits at a speed just below that necessary to attain zero gee, and is maintained in orbit by engines that gather solar particles and use fusion reactions to accelerate them back into the Sun at a higher speed than that at which they had arrived. Any containment failure would automatically shut off the engines, and the entire lab would fall into the Sun.

After becoming accustomed to perfect health and material comfort, and after experimenting with myriad new possibilities (different bodies, genders, species, etc. - being an eagle for a day became extremely popular for a time), most people rarely bother to download from their electronic nests into an organic body anymore, preferring a consciousness and lifestyle immersed in nearly infinite choices of virtual realities, unfettered by demands for oxygen, nutrition, and a narrow range of environmental conditions.

For the first time in history, people have begun to realize how little they know about how their own mind works. Surprisingly quickly, the veils of superstition and wishful thinking are lifting, and a few fundamental truths have became apparent. As you know, these truths are listed in the Consensus.

The Primary Question is: What caused the Change? At long last, the general population publicly acknowledges what they had privately suspected all along: no one knows, and anyone who tells you that they know is a liar or a fool. The best anyone has been able to do is to give the force behind the Change a label ("God"), which explains nothing, but which has been used as an "explanation" for every inexplicable event, and as a source of "authority" for otherwise unsupportable ideas, since the dawn of humanity. Our triumph in rising above such primitive philosophy is embodied in the Consensus.

The information provided here is intended for those who have chosen to learn more about human nature, up to and including Full Disclosure. While it is generally known that humanity has a dark history of how we have treated each other and other living things, most of the population born post-transmutation have been spared the trauma of being informed of specific instances and details. Whether such knowledge helps or hinders the search for enlightenment is a matter of much debate. Some feel it is essential to know the capabilities of the human mind, for both good and ill, particularly before choosing to shed elements of one's consciousness for the purpose of attaining a higher state of evolution and achieving enlightenment not attainable with a human brain and its inherent biases and limitations for refinement. Others are concerned that such knowledge might forever affect the search for enlightenment in a negative way. In either case, refinement of one's consciousness may require use of a model that differs from that of the human brain to the extent that return of the consciousness to a human brain becomes impossible. At this time, these decisions are left up to each individual.

We will begin with a review of the Consensus, then proceed to First Level Disclosure.

Consensus of the Citizens of Heaven

The purpose of life is to fill the universe with life.

The purpose of conscious life is to seek enlightenment and thereby enhance the experience of life for all life.

Human consciousness evolved residing in an organic brain, and therefore is naturally focused on survival of its gene pool, instinctively rejecting any truth that conflicts with this focus. Enlightenment depends on rising above this bias.

As a self-contained consciousness the human mind is incapable of distinguishing between epiphany and delusion. It is possible that one's most deeply-held beliefs might be in error, therefore it would be unethical to attempt to impose one's beliefs on another. One must perpetually question all beliefs.

We choose to believe that our thoughts, perceptions, and reactions are not solely the inevitable result of the instant electrochemical state of our brain; that we have Free Will and ultimate responsibility for our beliefs and behavior.

First Level Disclosure

We recognize that supersitions

We recognize that it is natural for very young children to perceive his or her parents as all-knowing and all-powerful. This illusion provides a sense of security that becomes every person's first neurotic addiction. The inevitable disillusionment leaves the child susceptible to infection with replacement delusions such as religion and other superstitions. Such traditions...

TO BE CONTINUED