Random Chance and the Paradise that is Earth Read Online Free PDF Page B

Second Renaissance.
Mankind was spreading out into the solar system. By 2500 A.D.
permanent colonies had been established as far out as Miranda
around Uranus. New Tokyo on the moon passed two million residents,
as had several Martian cities, including Mons Olympus and Radimer.
The incredible wealth of the solar system lifted everyone out of
poverty; no one went hungry or lacked the essentials for life. Life
expectancy topped one hundred seventy-five years ..."
    Images and videos on the bridge's wraparound
viewscreen showed everything from colony ships lifting off the moon
to children receiving nanovaccines to elderly people walking
through parks to sparkling cities glimmering in the distance.
    "Of course, there were still problems ..."
said Hewey.
    "Accessing ..." said Cubey. "Population had
stabilized by the mid-twenty-first century; by 2354 it had dropped
to pre-1999 levels. Even so, climate change was threatening
permanent environmental catastrophe. Is that information correct,
Random Chance?"
    "Yep."
    "Civilization creates heat," said Hewey.
"There's no gettin' around it. And the more advanced that
civilization, the more waste heat it creates, even with negative
birth rates and advancements in technology."
    "The United Nations had long since taken
over as the governing body for all nations on-world or off," said
Random. "Cities and nations still had their parliaments and
whatnot, and they could vote to go against the UN, and some did.
But by and large the UN got its way simply by force of its gigantic
voice: every nation and every city was represented there, and
equally. No one could veto another, or veto legislation, as they
once could. Corporations were finally reigned in; many of the
nastier ones were dissolved entirely and their CEOs and boards of
directors imprisoned. Wars between nations became a thing of the
past, though terrorism and extremism were still very real
threats."
    "This information is consistent with what I
have," said Cubey, "though I wasn't aware that nations and cities
could once veto others."
    "The United Nations leadership during that
time was extraordinary," said Random. "Great men and women, the
likes of whom many of the more pessimistic of the human species
today feel will never come around again. I don't share that view,
not even after the crap I just went through."
    "Neither do I," offered Hewey.
    Thousand-year-old images of the United
Nations flashed up on the bridge's wraparound screen; some were
videos offered without sound.
    "Representatives from the entire solar
system finally made the United Nations a great governing body. Some
were saying that humankind had finally left its selfish and stupid
adolescence and grown up."
    "Science and technology advanced more during
the twenty-fifth century than the whole of human history to that
point, or so says my information," said Cubey.
    "Even so," said Random, "many mysteries
remained—and do to this day."
    "A.I.," said Hewey.
    "Artificial intelligence," said Cubey. "A
conscious, self-aware computer. It was believed by the beginning of
the twenty-sixth century that it couldn't be done, though
scientists couldn't—or, more accurately, wouldn’t—understand why.
Simple computing speed, it turned out, did not grant
self-awareness, even with biological engrams, just like the ones I
and friend Hewey have.
    “There was also the mystery of life itself.
Though it was shown in the early twenty-second century that the
precursors for life on Earth originated from organic space debris
from Mars, scientists couldn't produce life in the laboratory given
identical conditions. Both problems persist to this day.
Contemporary scientists have largely declared the problem
unsolvable and have moved on to other issues."
    Random waited for the question that he knew
Cubey had to ask next, and was the reason for telling his
story.
    "Random Chance ... am I conscious? Am I
'A.I.'? Is Hewey?"
    "I’m conscious, partner," said Hewey. "And
you are too, Cubey."
    Random's