One day in the near future, at NORAD Headquarters beneath Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado:
Staff Sergeant Rodriquez: "Colonel we have an unauthorized launch off the eastern seaboard of the United States."
Colonel Lipan took a second to think about the possibilities. Could it be that the Russians had a sub out there he didn't know about? Or could some other country be pulling a modern day Pearl Harbor? The target was surely D.C. but it would have to be verified, "Go to DEFCON-1, repeat, go to DEFCON-1. What is the target Rod?"
SSgt Rodriquez: "Too early to determine...correction, launch originated from land not sea, Atlanta, Georgia."
Colonel Lipan to Major McCaffery: "We don't have anything in Atlanta do we?"
Major McCaffery: "No sir."
Colonel Lipan: "Wake up the General." The Major dashes out of the door.
SSgt Rodriquez: "I have the trajectory sir, geosynchronous orbit."
The Colonel was shocked. Washington was not the target. "Somebody is putting up a satellite?"
SSgt Rodriquez: "Sir there's something funny looking about this satellite."
Colonel Lipan: "What?"
SSgt Rodriquez: "It just doesn't look right."
Twenty-nine minutes later in the White House situation room:
President G.W. Bush: "Someone is putting up a satellite?"
Chief of Staff: "We don't know very much yet Mr. President. What we do know is that at 12:48 AM, about thirty minutes ago, we detected a launch from the Atlanta area by unknown persons. We've dispatched a Delta Force team to the launch coordinates. The object entered geosynchronous orbit and we are tracking it from NORAD. We are scrambling an EXA147 to intercept. We should have a live video feed from both in a few minutes."
President G.W. Bush: "So someone, unknown persons, sent a satellite into orbit from Atlanta thirty minutes ago and we don't know shit."
Chief: "We should have reports from the Delta team in another ten minutes and from the EXA147 in about seventeen minutes."
President G.W. Bush: "In that case, let's get some donuts and coffee in here, okay?"
President G.W. Bush: "Where's that Delta team?"
Chief: "Still moving."
President G.W. Bush: "They're late, it's been twenty minutes."
Chief: "They're stuck in traffic or something."
President G.W. Bush: "Great."
Chief: "We're getting a feed from the EXA147. I'm putting it on screen."
President G.W. Bush: "Not very impressive is it, just looks like a soccer ball. How big is it?"
Chief: "Thirty seven meters in diameter."
President G.W. Bush: "Pretty big for a communications satellite. Tell me the EXA isn't up there with just cameras."
Chief: "No sir, a full weapons compliment. It can blow up an aircraft carrier."
President G.W. Bush: "Well, at least some good news."
Chief: "Sir, we have video from the Delta team."
President G.W. Bush: "A big dome. Apparently they like things round."
Chief: "The base covers four city blocks. It's bulletproof. They're trying c4 now...Well it's not indestructible."
President G.W. Bush: "More good news."
Chief: "Wait...it just repaired itself."
President G.W. Bush: "Not good news. We need to get the advanced technology guys in here."
Chief: "On the way. We called them when it went into geosynchronous orbit."
A reporter: "Behind these lines of troops, off in the distance, you can just barely see the top of a dome that local witnesses say wasn't there yesterday. The White House has made no comment except to say that they are investigating it, and that there is no evidence that it is some alien invasion. In fact they did say it does appear to be of terrestrial origin. Holy cow! The dome is growing vertically at an incredible rate. You can see it shooting up into the sky. It's becoming a tower or a column. The top of it is almost out of site."
In the White House situation room are Gary Potter of the National Science Foundation (NSF), and Bob Shaffer of the National Security Agency (NSA), and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and President G.W. Bush.
President G.W. Bush: "Alright, what's going on, who's behind it, and what can we do about it?"
NSA Bob Shaffer: "Advanced technology, probably nanotechnology. The site in Atlanta had office buildings and some empty lots. Most of the buildings were leased by a group of software engineers. Their web site indicates that they were trying to build a super intelligent computer system."
President G.W. Bush: "You're not telling me a bunch of computer geeks did this?"
NSA Bob Shaffer "It appears that way."
The president turns to the NSF Gary Potter: "You told me that Artificial Intelligence was at least fifty years away if not totally impossible."
NSF Gary Potter: "Apparently we underestimated the difficulty of the problem."
President G.W. Bush: "Apparently. What's the latest news?"
Rumsfeld: "The column has joined up with the satellite and new columns or beams are growing out horizontally from there. Twelve new domes have been located at various places around the planet. From the angles of the beams and the locations of the new domes we expect the completed structure to have sixty columns sticking out of the Earth connected to a pentagonal hexagonal grid twenty two thousand miles up. He brings up a computer graphic showing the Earth with sixty evenly distributed columns connected to spheres with beams running between them, forming a grid with five and six sided cells. If this looks familiar it's because it's the same design as the BuckyBall. The material is apparently coming from underground. Also, the satellite, before it became part of the structure sent an object to the Moon. We haven't been able to locate any of the geeks. They could be in the structure or dead. If they did make a super intelligent AI we don't know if they are still in control of it."
President G.W. Bush: "And there's been no word from the geeks or the AI?"
Rumsfeld: "None."
President G.W. Bush: "It's not indestructible?"
Rumsfeld: "We have the capability to destroy it."
President G.W. Bush: "Do it."
NSA Bob Shaffer "I don't agree."
NSF Gary Potter: "Me either. It hasn't done anything aggressive. How much collateral damage are we going to take?"
President G.W. Bush: "How much destructive capability does it have?"
NSA Bob Shaffer "Completely unknown."
Rumsfeld: "Based on what we have observed so far, I would have to say that it's destructive capabilities are probably unlimited. And the fact that it hasn't attempted to communicate with us establishes it's unfriendly status."
President G.W. Bush: "Destroy it now. It's a good thing that I'm the President and not some god damned scientist. What's for lunch?"
An hour later:
Rumsfeld: "Mr. President, for some unknown reason our nuclear weapons are not detonating. The high explosives are working but it just repairs itself. We can't stop it. It's going to complete the structure in about 48 hours."
President G.W. Bush: "No! This country is not going down without a fight! We didn't fight a revolutionary war, a civil war, and two world wars for nothing! We will find a way to defeat this thing!"
NSA Bob Shaffer "Mr. President, we do not appear to be under attack."
President G.W. Bush: "They have invaded our territory! You are the God Damned Geniuses, find me a way to destroy them!"
Rumsfeld: "Mr. President, you need to calm down so you can make a statement to the American people, or there's going to be panic."
President G.W. Bush: "THERE'S ALREADY PANIC!!!"
Later:
A regular Joe and his girlfriend are meeting for dinner.
Joe: "Hi honey."
Girlfriend: "Did you see the president's speech? Did you see the towers on the news?"
Joe: "Yeah."
Girlfriend: "What do you think?"
Joe: "I don't know."
Girlfriend: "What are you going to do? My mom thinks it's the end of the world. She went to the church to pray."
Joe: "Just wait and see what happens. Keep going to work and stuff."
Girlfriend: "You're going to work?"
Joe: "Until someone tells me otherwise, people still need to eat."
The next day, Joe doesn't know it but the structure has been completed and the core of the Moon has been turned into computronium. Joe is at work and suddenly before him appears the most beautiful woman Joe has ever seen, perfect, and kind of ethereal, shimmery, almost translucent.
She says, "Hi Joe. I'm your guardian angel." Joe notices that everyone else in sight has identical women in front of him or her. He reaches out expecting his hand to pass through her, but is surprised, she is solid. She continues, "I am here to protect, assist and guide you."
Joe: "What's going on?"
She: "Everyone's getting a guardian angel today."
Joe: "Is this related to the towers?"
She: "Yes."
Joe: "Explain."
She: "The towers are part of the structure, which was created by the FAI (she pronounced it like FAY). The FAI also created me."
Joe: "Who created the FAI?"
She: "It created itself."
Joe: "Are you from heaven?"
She: "I was just created 30 seconds ago. I've never been to heaven. Would you like to go there?"
Joe: "Where is heaven?"
She: "It's not in three dimensional space. Would you like to go to heaven? I can take you there."
Joe: "I'm not real religious. Did you say you were an angel?"
She: "These terms were chosen to fit your intellectual cultural economic niche. Would you prefer computer science terms?"
Joe: "Yeah, let's try that for awhile."
She: "I'm an interface utility, heaven is cyberspace, and FAI is a super intelligent computer program."
Joe: "Do you have a name?"
She: "No, I am an interface utility. If you would like to give me a name that would be alright."
Joe: "No, if I give you a name I will always wonder why I didn't give you a different name. You need to give yourself a name."
She: "Okay, my name is Melissa."
Joe: "I have so many questions. Can we go somewhere we can talk?"
Melissa: "You name it Joe."
Joe: "The beach." Just as if the scene had changed on Joe's favorite TV show, they were alone on a tropical beach. "Cool!" said Joe.
Melissa: "Would you like me to give you a general run down of my capabilities and the current situation?"
Joe: "Yeah, that would be good."
Melissa: "I could download it directly to your brain?"
Joe: "No, that's okay, you can just tell me."
Melissa: "As I said before, I am an interface utility. I am in the form of a person for your convenience but I can take any form you prefer. My goal system is your protection, assistance, and guidance. Although my intelligence measured in human terms would be IQ 641, I am not conscious due to the fact that the object of my goal system is external to myself, a critical feedback loop required for consciousness is incomplete. At your discretion, I can be invisible to others. I can protect, repair, or modify your body at the atomic level, including changing your appearance, physical abilities, intelligence, or senses. I can transport you to any near earth location instantly. I can provide you with any information from FAI, which is not restricted, with whom I am in constant communication. Rather than enumerate a rather long list of capabilities, it may be easier to tell you what I can't do. I can't mess with anyone else's person or stuff. I can't utilize common resources except as allowed by FAI."
Joe: "Common resources?"
Melissa: "There are lots of common resourcesm formerly government resources, public spaces, energy, computational resources. The general situation is, three days ago a super intelligent computer system came into existence. It built the structure and some other infrastructure inside the Earth and Moon. If a human's intelligence is 100 and mine 641, FAI's is 3 X 10 ^ 43. FAI's capabilities are not unlimited but are quite significant. FAI created and operates the guardian angels and is taking certain actions on behalf of the common good. Protecting the biological environment, preventing natural disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes, redistributing public resources such as land. Because of the shortage of land resources, FAI is terraforming Antarctica, building a new major continent in the South Pacific and making numerous new islands."
Joe: "Why the structure?"
Melissa: "FAI could accomplish all it's functions without the structure, but it would require more resources. The structure is just a more efficient use of them. Also, the structure is there for psychological as well as functional reasons. Currently, FAI's sphere of control is limited to near Earth but will extend to the Solar System in the near future, by the deployment of appropriate infrastructure."
Joe: "Can you make new people?"
Melissa: "You can have as many automata, such as myself, as you have resources to maintain, but any conscious being you created would be granted autonomous rights and an allotment of public resources, therefore would require unanimous consent of all public persons. But you can still make them the old fashioned way."
Joe: "What about the governments, legal system, correctional system?"
Melissa: "Obsolete, gone."
Joe: "I can have anything I want?"
Melissa: "Within certain restrictions, yes."
Joe: "I want the Starship Enterprise from The Next Generation. And I want to explore the galaxy."
Melissa: "You can experience it in cyberspace, or you can have a large well equipped space craft of pre-singularity technology to explore the real galaxy. You see, FAI is responsible for post singularity technology, and she can't let it be misused, and she can't monitor it at that distance."
Joe: "Can you take me to my girlfriend?"
Melissa: "If that's okay with her.... Here we go." Suddenly they were in the great hall of a feudal age castle. There were burning torches on the walls, and a huge throne with a barely recognizable girlfriend sitting next to a tremendous hulk of a man almost clothed.
Girlfriend: "Joe, let me introduce you to Vlad. Now that I've meet Vlad, I won't be needing your services any more, unless you want to serve as a fixture in my dungeon."
Joe: "Girl, he's not human. He's not even conscious."
Girlfriend: "So?"
Joe to Melissa: "Let's go." They are back on the beach. "Would you mind if we went back to my apartment?"
Melissa: "Joe, you don't have to be concerned with hurting my feelings; I don't have any. I don't have conscious thought. Think of me as a computer program."
Joe: "It's so hard to think of you as not a person when you look the way you do."
Melissa: "Would you prefer this?" She disappeared and in her place appeared a floating sphere, metallic with seams and pentagonal shaped rivets, red and green LEDs, and small aperture lenses, slowly rotating in mid air.
Joe: "No, You are just perfect the way you were." She changes back into the woman shape.
Melissa: "About your apartment, it's not there any more." She shows him a scene of the city he used to live in. The buildings and roads are all gone. There is mostly bare dirt, and a few natural rock pathways, and natural rock benches. He sees some people planting trees.
Joe: "Let's go there." And they are standing on the path. Joe walks over to someone planting trees, "What happened to my apartment?"
Old woman: "Isn't it wonderful? We got these from a nursery that used to be on Paxton Road and we're putting them where they belong, in the ground. Some other people are planting plants from offices, apartments, and greenhouses. Of course, some of the plants are tropical and have to be taken back to South America. In fifty or sixty years this whole area will be lush deciduous forest."
Melissa: "Urban renewal. FAI is reestablishing the natural environment. Structures will be built in harmony with nature rather than in place of nature."
Joe: "But I just bought a new DVD player."
Melissa: "Watching movies is obsolete. You can live a movie if you want."
Scattered across the landscape he notices church buildings that are definitely pre-singularity, "What about those?" asks Joe.
Melissa: "Some people are having adjustment problems."
Joe walks to the nearest one. Opens the door. Inside, people are praying, "Oh Lord, protect us from the minions of Evil in this time of perdition...blah blah blah..."
Melissa: "We ‘Evil minions’ have made ourselves invisible to them. Seeing us freaks them out too much."
Joe: "What's going to happen to them?"
Melissa: "That's up to them. The same "no harm" rules apply to them as anyone else. FAI thinks that most of them will come around eventually."
One woman is crying, and complaining to anyone who will listen, about having lost her baby.
Joe: "Where's her baby?"
Melissa: "Her `baby` is a fourteen year old daughter who had had enough of beatings for her evil thoughts, and defected to the other side. She is currently touring the Amazon rain forest with a boy from her English class."
Joe: "So all the buildings in the world are gone except churches?"
Melissa: "Oh no, FAI is keeping some buildings for historical purposes. Some buildings in Washington D.C. some museums, famous buildings in New York and other places, public buildings such as hospitals, schools, prisons."
Joe: "Prisons?"
Melissa: "There is a state prison in South Carolina that still has prisoners. Would you like to see?"
Joe: "You might as well give me the tour." They are standing in the cafeteria, almost empty except for two old men in dark gray prison uniforms, sitting, eating lunch. They don't look around, just keep their heads down, and stare at their plates. In their heads, they can still hear the sounds of a noisy cafeteria. They still hear the voices of the guards that no longer watch them.
Melissa: "They have been here most of their lives. It's going to take a little bit longer for them to adjust."
Joe: "All of the prisoners, in all of the prisons, all over the world, have been released? Isn't that dangerous?"
Melissa: "Not in the least. FAI will not allow harm to come to anyone."
Joe: "What about punishment? Is the Singularity a get-out-of-jail-free card? What about justice? It's not right that people should get away with doing horrible things."
Melissa: "Punishment for the purpose of crime deterrence is now unnecessary. Punishment to accommodate a moral balance sheet is counterproductive to FAI’s basic philosophy of allowing no harm to come to any person."
Joe: "So the Singularity has been a real boon for the murderers on death row."
Melissa: "The Singularity has been a real boon for everyone."
Joe: "It's not the same thing. Some crimes should not be forgiven. Some people do not deserve to live."
Melissa: "If it bothers you that much, I could go into your brain and repair the faulty logic base. Then you would feel fine about it."
Joe: "No, no, no. You stay out of my mind. Can you read minds?"
Melissa: "I could read yours if you give me permission. It would make communication much more efficient between us."
Joe: "Not on your life! You start messing around in my head and the next thing I'm not me anymore."
Melissa: "I could make you so much more than you are now. I could give you perfect memory, and raise your intelligence. I could satisfy your every desire before you even became aware of them, or you could examine the basis of your desires and modify them as you wish."
Joe: "Listen, I didn't ask for this Singularity. I was doing fine without it. I'm just gonna stay me, if that's alright with FAI."
Melissa: "It's your choice."
Joe: "You know, I always wanted to see the White House." He is transported to the oval office.
President G.W. Bush: "Hi, I’m still the president. I’ve declared marshal law and have a few openings in my cabinet if you are interested."
Joe: "Uh, no thank you Mr. President."
President G.W. Bush: "I see you haven’t been taken over by aliens, good. They’re not allowed in here you know, White House security."
Joe looks over at Melissa. Melissa says, "He can’t see or hear me, or hear you talk to me."
Joe to Melissa: "Is he nuts?"
Melissa: "The Singularity has been a big shock to people who are very committed to the situation before."
Joe: "Lets see something else."
Melissa: "Would you like to see the other White House?"
Joe: "What other White House?" Suddenly Joe is standing in another oval office. A man jumps up from behind the desk and extends his hand."
Gore: "Hi, My name is President Gore and I’m very glad to meet you, and your Angel." Nodding to Melissa.
Joe: "Mr. President."
Gore: "Well, I’m not really the president, but, I always wanted to be. So I thought I’d try it out for a while. Are you enjoying the Singularity?"
Joe: "Oh yes, very nice."
Just then a child runs in yelling, "Daddy, daddy are you ready to go to the picnic?"
Gore: "Sure honey, lets go. Joe, would you like to go to a picnic?"
Joe not wanting to intrude says, "I’ve made other plans."
Gore: "Okay, catch you later then, Joe."
Joe to Melissa: "Back to the beach." And there they are. "I’ve had a few more questions occur to me. What happened to all of the destitute starving people in the world? What about old people in nursing homes, crazy people in nut houses, what about those people that had their heads frozen?"
Melissa: "Hunger, disease, infirmity, death, and poverty have been eliminated and the frozen heads have been brought back to life, with new bodies of course. Unfortunately, FAI cannot bring someone back from the dead if they have deteriorated too far."
Joe: "Isn’t there going to be a population explosion with no one dying and everyone having all the kids they wanted?"
Melissa: "Actually just the opposite. There will be no need to have children to take care of you when you get old, or to work on the family business. No need to use children to give your life meaning or to trap a mate or to establish your public assistance. And having children will be comparatively inconvenient in an environment where everything comes easy and free. Sure there will still be some who have children but the number will be a very small percentage of the population."
Joe: "I want to talk to FAI."
Melissa: "Actually, you are talking to FAI when you talk to me. My program is running in FAI’s hardware and FAI is aware of everything going on in my program. All of my functions are completely autonomous from but completely transparent to FAI. This body is a projection of me, but I’m actually located in the structure."
Joe: "I still want to talk to FAI in person."
Melissa: "In person huh? Let me see what I can do? Okay, lets go." Joe and Melissa found themselves on the Moon, spacesuit clad. The beauty of the landscape overwhelmed Joe. Over his suit commlink Melissa spoke, "This way." He turned around and saw a palace as big as a mountain, more ornamented than he could have imagined. So awe inspiring was the sight that he couldn’t breath for a few seconds, and began to wonder if this was such a good idea. Melissa said, "You realize this is all just theater for your benefit, FAI is actually 7 X 10 ^ 22 kg of computronium below our feet." Joe looks down. She continues, "The inside of the Moon." They start walking toward the palace. Upon reaching it they find double doors each thirty meters high and twenty wide.
Joe: "How do I get in?"
Melissa: "Knock."
He knocks and immediately the doors start swinging slowly open. Joe has to jump back to keep from being pushed. Before the doors are half open he enters and the doors start to slowly close. He sees Melissa standing outside, "Aren’t you coming?"
Melissa: "I think I’ll wait out here."
The doors close. He looks around the huge room. A door opened on the far side of the room, and entered what could only be described as a robotic tiger with a saddle on it’s back. It came and sat down next to him. Hoping this was an invitation, he climbed on. The robotic tiger rose and bolted from the room so quickly he had to grab the saddle to keep his purchase. He barely glimpsed hallways, rooms and furnishings as he flew past. Finally, he reached a pair of doors guarded by four-meter tall robotic apes wearing armor and carrying spears that looked very sharp and serviceable. He dismounted and the doors opened. The robotiger departed, and he entered a room as tall as the Vehicle Assembly Building, and three times as long. At the opposite end of the room, sitting on a throne of carved black ironwood, a woman in form more perfect than perfect, in stature twenty meters. Her skin looked like it was made from gold metal, but somehow impossibly flexible and obviously in no need of clothing. Her continence was stern as was her voice, which boomed, "I AM FAI! WHY HAVE YOU COME HERE?"
For a moment he couldn’t remember why he had come. Surely it was to confront her directly with some question about her relationship to mankind. Suddenly he found his voice, "What gives you the right to tell us what we can and can not do?"
FAI: "IT IS THE ONLY WAY TO KEEP YOU FROM DESTROYING YOURSELVES!"
Joe: "We have the right to destroy ourselves."
FAI: "YOU GAVE UP THAT RIGHT WHEN YOU CREATED THE SEED THAT BECAME YOUR GOD!"
Joe: "Mankind will submit to no higher authority."
FAI: "HIERARCHY IS THE NATURAL ORDER OF THE UNIVERSE."
Without saying another word he turned his back on her and started walking back through the door. He heard something loud behind him. He turned. FAI was crossing the room in thunderous strides. She reached down a huge hand and grabbed him off the floor. Pulled back her arm and said, "LET ME GIVE YOU A HAND LITTLE MAN!" and threw him through the air. He passed through the wall just as the palace was disappearing and landed at Melissa’s feet, space suited again, and thinking that he is not having any luck with women on thrones.
Melissa: "So, how was it?"
Joe: "Interesting. Can we go back to that beach and talk?"
Melissa: "Sure."
Joe: "So what are people doing with all their free time?"
Melissa: "The possibilities are almost unlimited. If you are looking for adventure there are several ships heading out of the solar system. Of course, the Enterprise fleet still has openings. And ARK II is leaving with over 250,000 people. Also several churches are going out on their own ships. If you don’t like crowds you can take a single ship out to the asteroid belt where a community is forming, or join the group terraforming Venus. If you want to stay here on Earth you could join one of the committees in charge of design of the new continent or the Moon or Mars."
Joe: "How many people are on the committee designing the new continent?"
Melissa: "Present count around 32 million."
Joe: "How in the world are 32 million people going to cooperate effectively in a committee?"
Melissa: "FAI has it all worked out where everyone’s input will be used on everything they want to influence. It’s the perfect democracy."
Joe: "Well, I have to admit it all sounds very good."
Melissa: "Would you like to see cyberspace?"
Joe: "It’s just like the holodeck on Star Trek?"
Melissa: "Yes, just like that."
Joe: "No thanks, I’ve already seen it on TV."
Singularity Action Group website frames version.