Here Comes Earth: Emergence (11 page)

Julie
was personally pleased to discover that from a lotus position in the left chair
of Mark’s sunken living area she could perfectly connect her foot with his
buttocks as he stood there proselytizing.

What
was even more impressive was that in the few milliseconds it took for him to
look around, she was already back in that same lotus position, doing a great
job of stifling a grin and looking innocent.

“Ah,
then again, it may have been just right,” he finished.

It
was the end to a long and incredibly strange day. Julie wasn’t sure what
tomorrow held but for now she was sure that she was where she belonged and in a
very weird sort of way felt like she was home.

She
left Mark’s shipboard apartment immediately after Anzio, strolled through a
deserted Squad Hub, and found her apartment and bed while smiling with the
knowledge that it was Mark’s voice from the crowd that had called for her to
speak.

Dr. Mark Spencer

By
the next morning people’s routines were, for the most part, back to normal (if
anything could be said to be normal about being aboard an alien spacecraft
heading God-knows where).

I
caught Major Reagan early and we shared breakfast in his quarters; which gave
me a chance to discuss my time with Ambassador Rutledge from the night before
as well as my upcoming session with Jaki.

“The
Ambassador is frustrated not to be a part of the discussion; he wants me to
make a case for him,” I said between bites.

I
was learning a comfort level around the Major. He didn’t seem to have any
hidden agendas or an out of control ego. He was a good listener and tended to
give thoughtful advice. He was much closer to my version of a leader than
Memphis would ever be.

“Well,
I think that’s understandable,” Major Reagan replied.

“It’s
not that I don’t want him to be involved,” I continued the thought. “It’s just
that I don’t really want to be cut out of it. I think, for whatever reason, I
have some insight into the way that Jaki thinks.”

Major
Reagan thought for a few moments and then said, “Dr. Spencer, I don’t have any
authority to decide these things and I suspect very little influence, but it
seems to me that your instincts have proven true so far. If I were you I think
I’d just go for it. Even if you get Rutledge’s group involved in the process I
don’t think that excludes your participation. I think Jaki will talk to who she
wants to talk to when she wants to talk to them and so far you’re the only one
that seems to have any influence over that.”

It
wasn’t that I needed the reassurance but it did feel good to hear those words
from someone I respected. I mean it’s not like the future of mankind was riding
on our actions or anything.

“I’ll
make Rutledge’s pitch for him and he gave me 63 other questions that he desperately
needs answers to, but I think I’m going to have to go where the conversation
takes me. Come to think of it do you have any requests?”

“Actually
Dr. Spencer, I do. Our communications gear doesn’t work inside this ship; I’d
like the Noridians to manufacture some earpieces we could use so I don’t have
to keep sending a runner every time I need to talk to someone.”

“I
can’t imagine that would be a problem for them; I’ll bring it up.” After a
couple of seconds I added, “Of course with their system there may be no
security…”

The
Major looked straight at me and said, “Mark, do you really think anything we
say or do on this ship is secure?”

∆∆∆

“That’s
the group Kansas,” I said as I took a seat in Jaki’s quarters. “
Dust in the
Wind
is one of my favorites.”

“I
was hoping to make you feel comfortable. I thought a little background music
might be appropriate,” she replied.

“I
appreciate the consideration but if you really want to enjoy rock ‘n’ roll you
don’t play it at background level; you jam to it.”

I
could swear she was hiding a grin when she said to me, “You’ll have to show me
how to ‘jam’ sometime.”

“Who’d
have thought,” I said out loud. “A retro alien! You know, they say rock ’n’
roll was the downfall of the Soviet Union.”

“The
Soviet… ah, introducing liberal ideas into a totalitarian culture. Forgive me
for saying so but sometimes the quaintness of your culture still surprises me,”
Jaki responded.

“By
quaintness you mean primitiveness?” I said while giving her my best smile.

I
had decided to keep this session as friendly as possible and hopefully make
everyone proud of me.

Ambassador
Rutledge and I had also agreed that it would be interesting to subtly explore
her depth of knowledge on us. From her hesitation, however, it sure seemed as
if she’d just learned of the Soviet Union from some hidden database.
Interesting.

Jaki
returned the smile and said, “Mark, I know it’s important to you so please be
aware that the recording of this session is starting. So we now have an
audience!” she said brightly.

She
continued, “I think we have a lot to talk about today but before we get back to
our previous topic, are there any other shorter questions I could answer for
you?”

Good.
My master strategy was working. It seems that Jaki had decided to play nice
today too…

“Actually,
yes. Would it be possible for you to make some sort of communication earpieces
for each of our team? Ours don’t seem to work in your ship.”

“Consider
it done. Anything else?”

“Jaki,
what is your title? I’m assuming you’re the head of the Noridian mission so how
does the hierarchy work? Are you part of a military service? A diplomatic
corps? At this point I know that Noridia may or may not have what we would call
a government but there has to be some organization?”

We
were sitting in a slightly different version of the sunken living area each of
us had in our quarters and at this point Jaki leaned back in her sofa and gave what
I was starting to regard as her signature move; crossing those distractingly long
legs of hers. Did I mention she was wearing another form fitting short dress?

“I
don’t have a title Mark. In our society titles don’t designate rank; they’re
honorary and given from respect,” she responded.

“This
is probably a good segue,” she continued, “to pick up where we left off.

“We’ve
talked about how on your world government’s practical purpose has been to
control resource distribution for the ultimate benefit of the redistributors.
There are undoubtedly many who might argue this but according to our research
and quite frankly our experience with many other worlds that developed similar
to yours, it is true. Even the founding fathers of your own United States wrote
a constitution that for the first time in your world’s history didn’t empower
government but restricted it. They feared government and wanted to keep it as
small, localized, and weak as possible.”

As
a history professor Jaki was stating truths that I knew well. Although there
was certainly debate, the Founding Fathers of the United States were generally
among the opinion that government was inherently evil and that men couldn’t be
free unless they were protected from it. In other words, they felt that
government, by the nature of man, would always be a growing, power-hungry monstrosity
that would constantly need pruning. These same Founding Fathers wouldn’t
recognize our modern world; where we teach our school children that government
is our friend. I didn’t know if she was saying these things for my benefit or
those that would be listening in but I nodded for her to continue.

“We
need to remember that the only reason for any group to want to control
resources is because they have value and value comes from scarcity.

“For
example, gold is a mineral that is found rarely on earth because it is only naturally
formed in the heart of stars and expelled across the galaxy when they go nova.
Gold is not native to earth, therefore rare, and therefore carries a high value,
but what if everyone had the ability in their own bathtub to chemically turn
dirt into gold? No catches and no real expertise or rare chemical needed; just
the desire to do so?

“For
a while,” she continued, “everyone would go crazy making gold. It wouldn’t just
be jewelry; people would plate their furniture and cars in gold. Until one day
it would stop being special.

“No
one would admire your gold and they certainly would not pay you anything for
your gold; they could just make their own. So from an economic standpoint
something only has intrinsic value to someone if it is relatively hard for them
to attain.”

“Jaki,”
I interjected. “I’m a historian not an economist but even if it was abundant I
would think gold would still be valuable. We use it in all kinds of industrial
processes.”

“Mark,
you’re confusing importance with value. Just because something doesn’t have any
intrinsic value doesn’t mean it’s not important. Gold will always be important
because of its conductive and manufacturing qualities. To have intrinsic value
however it must be important
and
scarce.

“Now
let us take this a step further, what if all matter could be manipulated on the
subatomic level? What if it was relatively easy to make not only gold but just
about any element or molecule? The raw materials for just about anything you
use or need from car parts, highway cement, clothing fibers, electronic
equipment, food, or medicine would be abundant and available to everyone.

“The
same would apply to energy. It would be possible to make energy fuel sources
such as petroleum, coal, or uranium-235 but why bother when you can extract an
abundance of energy from nothing; it can actually be ‘extracted’ from the space
or vacuum between the molecules of the world around us? If everyone had access
to Zero Point Energy why would anyone need to buy it?”

I
had no idea how to respond to that. She was describing a world so far ahead of
us that I’d never even contemplated it. What would we use money for?

“What
would we use money for?” I asked.

She
paused and then continued as if on a new subject.

“The
energy and raw materials to make the things we need and want would be important
but have no intrinsic value. What might hold more value would be the knowledge
of how to use those raw materials to make the things you want...

“For
example, you can have a 3D printer capable of making anything and let’s say that
printer was easy to operate and program but if you don’t know the
specifications of what you’re trying to make…”

“So
in your society,” I said, “money is used to purchase knowledge?”

“Yes,
but you need to remember the difference between money and currency. Money is
the value of something; typically your time or knowledge. But money can’t be
held or touched;
currency
is the physical placeholder we use to
represent money.”

Shaking
her head she said, “When raw materials are scarce currency is a good medium of
exchange. This is because the value of a raw material changes relatively
slowly. The value of a certain piece of knowledge however can change
dramatically and very quickly depending upon who has access to it. Compared to
that currency is very inflexible; so currency is a poor medium of exchange for
knowledge.

“Think
about this: New knowledge is a one-time consumable product. Most often the true
worth of a piece of knowledge is not known until long after it has been made
available and we see what people have been able to do with it. So how do you
set a price on the initial sharing of that knowledge? While only you have that
newly discovered or otherwise rare knowledge it is very scarce and we can only
guess at how important it might become to others. However, once that rare
knowledge is shared it becomes available to all and therefore isn’t scarce and
has little value even if it might be the greatest breakthrough known to man.

“Several
of us have enjoyed studying your music industry and for years now it has been
encountering the same issues. Music is simply a specific type of information or
knowledge. With the advent of digital music all access restrictions to a
performer’s creation were effectively removed. Artists are struggling to be
reimbursed for their creativity because most people can access their music for
free. Even the most famous of artists make their wealth from their live
performances or promotions, not the creation with the real value – the music
itself.

“The
price you pay for knowledge, which includes information such as music, should
be dynamic; in other words, if the knowledge benefits many people, even over
time, the price should grow and if it benefits few it should shrink. Also, if
it turns out to be incorrect or harmful it should subtract or have a negative
value.”