DECAP CHRONICLES: circa 3000 AD

SOLAR COMMERCE

"Clarence Campbell to Tranquility Base. Request permission to transpond on frequency Four-Zero-Seven?" The voice of decap Clarence Campbell orbiting the moon was as clear as if he stood across the room. Frequency 4-0-7 allowed Clarence to take control of the humanoid of the same transponder frequency. On earth, the sharing of humanoids by different decaps was atypical as identical twins switching their names, or strangers sharing personal clothes. However, the practice was common on the moon due to limited resources. A protocol was developed to address the humanoid by the name of the decap that controlled it. A series of electronic codes broadcast the decap's name similar to an aircraft transponder. Others communicating with the humanoid were assured of the decap's identity.

The automated routing and control system on Tranquility Base relayed Clarence's access codes to the local communications controller. These controllers were interspersed throughout the bases on the moon. They provided cellular-like communications to the dozens of decap humanoids on the moon's surface.

"Tranquility Base to Dr. Campbell. You are cleared on four-zero-seven. Control of humanoid granted." Clarence was always surprised by the synthesized voices he heard. The computer program that controlled the synthesized voice constantly changed the voice to create an effect of working with a group of other humans. He thought he recognized the timbre of the voice. Was it Gloria Stevenson? She was a member of the Decap Research Center (DRC) where he was the first decap that was transformed almost a millennium earlier. Found memories engulfed him. Then, he found himself in the body of 4-0-7, on the surface of the moon, seated on a chair that doubled as a recharging dock. Clarence and 4-0-7 were now one and the same. He opened his eyes, only to view the expansive moonscape through the windows of the executive suite.

Clarence was the chief project manager for the Lunar Habitat. The mission's goal was to prepare a habitat for humans that allowed reproduction, the transformation of infants into decaps, and the indefinite sustenance of the human species. Lunar Habitat was seen as an alternative to life on earth, should a catastrophic event as a collision by a meteor or nuclear war occur. Tranquility Base was the headquarters for the other support moon bases. The headquarters housed the only facilities with life support systems for humans. Specialized reproduction apparatus and fetus incubators provided for the needs of a fertilized embryo. The nursery section supported life from birth to infancy, until the child was transformed into a decap. Alternative procedures existed for supporting child development through puberty, for the purpose of supplementing the store of embryos or sperm. However, these measures were exception conditions, as the existing reproductive supply was deemed adequate for centuries. Should all human life form cease to exist elsewhere, the Lunar Habitat was capable of concurrently supporting 100 humans in human form and five thousand humans in decap form.

"Welcome back Dr. Campbell. Hope your siesta was invigorating." Clarence's transponder indicated that the humanoid was 2-30. No decap name was broadcasted, standard protocol for humanoid that were controlled by one of the Mind Machine thinking computers. The Mind Machine thinking computers were invented when Clarence became the first decaps to be transformed. Unlike other decaps who needed a humanoid to interact with their environment, Clarence's brain was directly connected to the first Mind Machine called Consciousness. This allowed Clarence to directly interact with the computer Consciousness through his thoughts.

Clarence dispensed with the formalities of human greetings. He accessed Consciousness and directly updated the Mind Machine of 2-30 with the details of his work. A half of an hour briefing was condensed into seconds of download time. Humanoid 2-30 responded in kind. Clarence accessed the Lunar Habitat premises through 2-30 Mind Machine interface, viewing the incubator, nursery and decaps domicile. He completed the inspection within minutes and was satisfied.

"Dr. Campbell, your conferencegram with Global Inter-Planetary Alliance (GIPA) is on standby," humanoid 2-30 said as it initiated the virtual reality conference message. Inter-planetary transmission delays interrupted the flow of normal conversations. The conferencegram provided a more natural flow of thought. It was a complete recording of a meeting on earth with a computerized replica of Clarence standing-in. The conferencegram allowed Clarence to experience the meeting and his ability to modify his replica's interactions, if he disagreed with them. The replica's interactions by the Mind Machine Consciousness were better than 99% accurate. Clarence normally provided 0-3 corrections for each conferencegram.

Clarence was now immersed in the surroundings of a GIPA earth-based videoconference room. He recognized two of the seven attendees, from the perspective of his replica. Looking down, he observed his confetti tie clashing with his plaid socks and gray gabardines. Consciousness, you must stop making those fashion statements at my expense. Solid ties and socks only!

"Duly noted," was the synthesized voice response of Consciousness.

"Welcome fellow directors and project managers. Today's meeting is called to update Dr. Clarence Campbell, project Lunar Habitat, and Dr. Julia Fortin, project Mars Homestead who are replicated today. Dr. Fortin and Dr. Campbell, we will be awaiting your conferencegram responses." A director from Beijing facilitated the meeting. He did not recognize the other four directors from Tokyo, Mumbai, Moscow and Berlin. Dr. Julia Fortin and the director from Houston were familiar. The conferencegram translated each of the 5 languages into the respective tongue of the listener.

"We have recently completed simulation runs of project Lunar Habitat and project Mars Homestead. The focus was to simulate the inter-dependent operation of the two projects without interactions with earth, indefinitely. Various scenarios resulted in several ending timelines from 10,000 to 15,000 years. Although we believe that the breakdown of links to earth by a catastrophic event would be re-established within that time period, our ultimate goal is to extend such projections indefinitely without ties to earth."

" … Or at least until the sun becomes a red giant in another four billion years!" Clarence's replica's interjection was as crass as its choice of ties. Clarence ignored the comment. The replica's words were an extension of Clarence's though processes, and as if on cue, Clarence's thinking went into high gear. There is an upper bound to those projections. The 'immediate' goal will be to reach that four billion-year upper bound before extending to 'indefinite.' The implications for "indefinite" will be to leave...

"Dr. Campbell, we will not be here to witness a red star until we solve these problems." The response by Dr. Fortin's replica jolted Clarence from his introspection. True to form, the conferencegram was maintaining a real time flow of thought across the earth, the moon and Mars.

"The scenario comes to a projected end due to a variety of factors," the facilitator continued. "First, the interdependence of Lunar and Mars missions begins between 4000 and 4500 years hence. A Lunar depletion of water reserves begins at the start of this period and the recycling system would only be able to re-supply through 4500 years hence. When we re-assign Lunar resources to link with Mars at 3800 years hence, the 4000-year scenario is averted. However, a series of other interdependent problems related to the Lunar-Mars commerce strains the resources of both planets. If the Mars mission abandons Lunar Habitat by 7200-7400 years hence, the Mars Homestead would be able to survive to 15,000 years. If not, human life on both planets will cease by 10,000 years hence."

"You must have a solution to all of this. Where do we fit in?" Dr. Julia Fortin's replica's voice sounded urgent, in need of an answer to the problem.

"We are still working on the scenarios," the director from Berlin replied. "Every scenario ends before 15,000 years out. Our only hope is to start anew, with fundamental implications to the operation of Lunar Habitat and Mars Homestead today."

"The future is full of so many probable outcomes, we should take a statistical approach to the problem," the director from Mumbai added. "There should be some efforts with probable outcomes, a set of trials that collectively combine to produce the desired result."

"Those probable outcomes should include inter-planetary commerce," the director from Tokyo added. "Earth will remain the most resource-laden of the 3 planets, despite a probable catastrophe.

Re-establishing contact with earth should be in the equation."

"That puts us back to the 7200-7400 timeframe," the director from Houston finally joined in. "Inter-planetary commerce is an enabling technology for solving our problem. It is the answer to the question Clarence posed about our red star. We need to include a space program for the Mars Homestead project that can be self-sustaining. Three-way commerce from Mars to the moon to the earth should extend our scenario beyond 7400 years."

"The priority is for an independent space agency to be developed on Mars, with the moon as a way station between Mars and earth." Dr. Julia Fortin observed. "If we do not commit to those goals now, we may never achieve them in the future."

"Dr. Campbell, these are implications for the future of the Lunar Habitat," the words of the Houston director were somber. "We may need to minimize its utility as a human site and stress its use for decap activities. I propose its primary use as a long-term store of the human genome, and secondly, as a store of other genomes to maintain bio-diversity, should Mars or earth face a catastrophe."

"The role of decaps will become secondary to cryogenic storage," Dr. Campbell's replica surmised.

"Which brings us to our second issue: implications for extending our projections of human life span beyond 15,000 years," the director from Beijing returned to the central topic. "Cryogenics may allow us to maintain the human genome to the timeframe of a red star, but we cannot promise that the resources needed for normal human life would be present."

"There is an intermediate solution to the problem of diminishing resources; the creation of two worlds." The words from the Tokyo director were greeted by silence. He continued, "An alternate reality for decaps, created by the computer synthesis of a virtual world. This synthetic world would only require computing resources to maintain. With the minimum requirements for decaps combined with the requirements for the virtual world, there will be no need for humanoids or other types of interaction with the real world. When combined with cryogenics, we can extend the projections from thousands to millions of years."

"The virtual world would require interaction between decaps, somewhat like this conferencegram with the humans and humanoid replicas replaced by synthesized images directly connected to the decaps sensory system," Dr. Campbell's replica said. "Clarence's brain's direct connection to Consciousness is at that level now, but we will need to either develop direct connections to the brains of all decaps - a daunting prospect - or create synthetic sensations for the five sensory interfaces, a much more doable approach with the current decap technology."

The rising sun in Tokyo was the same setting sun in Houston, the evening sky in Berlin and Mumbai. As the moon stood across the Beijing's midnight sky, Clarence looked through the Lunar Habitat's window to see the crescent earth over the moonscape. Mars was a blurred distant orb in the Beijing sky, but of a clear planetary form from the lunar surface. Julia is probably reviewing the same conferencegram one hundred and twenty million miles away. I probably should update the conferencegram with my briefing.

"Greetings to everyone, this is Dr. Clarence Campbell, chief project manager, mission Lunar Habitat. Having reviewed conferencegram of 9-23-3000, I must add two points. First, my replica's concern for the sun becoming a red star is the outer bounds of human life existing in the solar system. To sustain life indefinitely beyond this point requires leaving the solar system, the support of intergalactic explorations. Secondly, before we can 'reach for the stars' we need to perfect the interplanetary commerce that was mentioned. Intergalactic exploration will be a natural evolution of interplanetary exploration."

"The vastness of space, the uncountability of stars and planets, reduce our best efforts to statistics, the theory of large numbers. Each exploration of an intergalactic abode therefore requires the deployment of a seeding process; the implantation of rudimentary genetic stock that supports a natural evolution to humans. The actual transportation of humans or even decaps is highly improbable over such vast distances, and after reaching a planet, there is only a small probability that the planet will be suitable for our needs. I propose the development of a genetic seeding process - an extension of the proposed Lunar Habitat cryogenic gene storage - that can be deployed on future intergalactic probes. The concept is essentially a 'Evolution Genesis Project'."

"We have caught up with the dinosaurs' life spans. Now, what about that red star?"

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