On Priya’s 25th birthday, the oldest of the more than 50 million new species children were now five years old. They looked younger than their age and acted older than their age. Some were prodigies. All were curious. None could speak silently because they had no implants like Priya and her friends, but they were all expected to live to be well over 200 years old and be resistant to many widespread diseases. They exhibited interest in science, music, mathematics, and other subjects. Priya and her friends decided to meet some of them and their parents at a local school for new species five-year-olds, designed specifically for them.
“Hi, my name is Priya, and these are my friends Sophie, Warren, Raven, and Pablo.”
“Good morning!” the children said.
“What was it like to be abducted?” a girl in the front of the class said.
“You don’t waste any time, do you?” Priya said. “What’s your name?”
“My name is also Priya, after you,” the girl said.
“And my name is Sophie, after you,” a girl in the back of the class said.
“And I’m Raven,” another girl in front said.
“Me too,” another Raven said.
“Can you believe this?” Priya thought silently to the others.
“Um, are there any Warrens in the class?” Warren said.
Silence.
Priya smiled at Warren.
“Of course not, why would there be?”
The kids giggled.
“To answer your question,” Priya said, “It was the scariest thing that ever happened to me, but it was also the best thing. Though I didn’t know that for many months. They tried to make us be their pets, but we could only be who we are. They let us go when they got bored of us. I’m happy to be how I am today. Sometimes I wish I fit in better in society. That’s the biggest problem.”
“Me too,” the little Priya said.
“Why do you say that?” Priya said.
“Some kids are abusive to me. They hit me and try to trip me. They call me a mutant. That’s why I’m in this school.”
“How many of you have had similar experiences?” Priya said.
Every child raised their hand. Priya glanced over to the parents. They nodded their heads in agreement.
“I’m sorry to hear about this,” Priya said. “Same here.”
“It will be like this for most of your lives,” Sophie said. “We had problems like that in school also. We learned to adjust. They’re abusive because they’re afraid of us. Well, that’s one reason.”
“Yes,” Priya said. “I suggest we take back the word ‘mutant’ and make it our own. This takes the power out of the hands of the abusers and puts it back in your hands. Every unique person is a mutant. Hair color, skin color, and eye color are all the results of mutations. Mutations are what makes us unique. I’m proud to be a mutant!”
The kids smiled. They began talking loudly. It was hard to calm them down. Just as you would expect from a class of abnormally precocious five-year-olds.
“What is Bok like?” little Sophie said.
“He’s very smart. In some ways he’s like a human. He grew up not being accepted in his society. He has things he wants to accomplish, but he’s also alien to us. He was born in space to parents that are connected to 81 billion others. He has trouble breathing our atmosphere. His life cycle is not like ours. Someday you can meet him.”
“I want a career in genetic engineering,” the first little Raven said. “What should I do?”
“I wasn’t expecting that question from a group of five-year-olds who look like three-year-olds,” Priya said. “But I should get used to it. You’re the future. This advice sounds generic, but it works. Do whatever interests you. Work hard at it and you can achieve your goals.”
“That’s what everybody tells me,” The first little Raven said.
“That’s because it’s true,” Raven said. “I like doing what I do so much that it doesn’t feel like a job.”
“But your V almost ended the world,” The second little Raven said.
“Energetic petty things, aren’t they?” Raven thought silently to the others.
“To put it mildly,” Sophie thought.
“V did cause trouble,” Raven said. “I learned an important lesson. We must be careful applying our knowledge. The more powerful the knowledge, the greater its risks and rewards.”
“Can we get implants like you?” the little Sophie said.
“I don’t think so,” Priya said. “The Omanji possess sophisticated technology that allowed them to create those implants for us. Someday, something like that will be developed by us. By the time you’re grown up.”
“I want to make implants when I grow up,” the little Sophie said. “I can tell you’re talking to each other in secret.”
“I want one,” The little Priya said.
“Me too,” Both little Ravens said.
The kids talked among themselves. It became noisy in the classroom.
“Whoa,” Priya thought to the others. “These kids are ahead of us already.”
Priya and her friends answered many more questions. The kids grew loud and excited.
“It sounds like you need a break,” the teacher said. “Go outside for a 30-minute recess.”
The kids ran out into the playground and played the usual games of third graders. On the outside, one would never guess that they were different than normal human children other than looking young for their age.
“They’re like us,” Priya thought to the others.
“But they’re not,” Sophie thought.
“Yeah, these kids are growing up modified. We grew up as regular human kids,” Pablo thought.
“I wonder how this will affect the economy?” Warren thought. “These kids want to make discoveries and they want to start their own companies. They’ll make great scientists.”
Little Priya’s parents walked up to them.
“We don’t know what to do with her,” little Priya’s mom said. “We can’t keep up.”
“The best thing to do is encourage her to follow her interests,” Priya said. “Child prodigies have been around for a long time and many books have been written about them. All you can do is teach her how to be a good person and guide her in the direction she wants to go. I think this goes for all children, modified or not. I have great parents. They can’t teach me genetic engineering, but they taught me how to be a good person. And they love me. Don’t forget that she may be a genius, but in most ways she’s a normal girl.”
“But she’s starting to ask me questions I can’t answer.”
“That’s OK. I didn’t expect my parents to be able to answer all my questions. The important thing is you learn how to be their guide. Join prodigy support groups. There are still lots of questions you can answer and guidance you can give. She’ll face a lot of prejudice. You can help her get through that.”
After recess, they enjoyed an impressive violin solo by one of the Ravens. They spent the rest of the morning talking with the kids and parents. They left the school around noon on a bright sunny day.
“What do you think?” Sophie said.
“We saw the future,” Priya said. “The world will change because of these kids. There will be social upheaval, but I think over time they’ll make the world a better place.”
“I want to hire those kids to work for my company,” Raven said.
“You’ll get your chance,” Warren said. “There are millions of them. I think it’s around 50 million now.”
“Maybe I won’t,” Raven said. “Look behind you.”
A dozen officers blocked their exit from the school grounds.
“Are you Raven Corbeau?” the first officer said.
“Yes.”
“You’ve been served. Unusual double name.”
“Oh, you’re French?” Raven said.
The officers walked away with no comment.
Raven opened the envelope and read it.
“What does it say?” Pablo said.
“It’s a class-action lawsuit against me.”
“Who is suing you.”
“The government of the United States.”
“For how much?”
“$450 billion because of the damage caused by V. That has to be a typo.”
They all took a closer look at the paper.
“… in the sum of $450,000,000,000 payable to the treasury of United States.”
“This is a joke, right?” Raven said.
“It looks legit,” Pablo said.
“How can that be?” Raven said.
Warren took the paper and read it completely.
“I see how they got that number. When you add up all the time spent reformatting computers, deleting files, and changing the way the Internet works, government losses might add up to that amount. Over those few months, billions of people were affected around the world. Over 400 million were affected in the United States. That means you have to pay each person in this country over $1000. That’s not much.”
“But I’m not the one who caused V to escape,” Raven said.
“That’s why we have the court system, to sort all this out,” Pablo said, and smiled. “I’ll represent you. Unless of course you want to settle for that amount now.”
“No!”
“OK then, I’ll represent you.”
“Great,” Warren said. “Maybe Pablo can knock $50 billion off that.”
Raven sat on the grass and cupped her hands over her head.
“Thanks a lot Warren.”
“I’m just kidding, I’ll support you too. My companies are making too much money already since they took the lien off of my bank accounts and the stock market has recovered.”
Raven got up and gave Warren a long hug.
“OK, that’s long enough,” Priya said.
They smiled as they walked up the street to have some coffee drinks at Raven’s JavaNation.
They spent much of the next three months preparing for the case. During the trial, the government presented evidence indicating the US gross domestic product for the fiscal year had dropped by over $4 trillion as a direct result of V. This includes the loss of all goods and services and employee time. That amount represented 30% of total worldwide losses. The $450 billion indicated in the lawsuit was an effort for the government to recoup its losses.
The government argued that Raven had produced a weapon of mass destruction by creating V. Then she did not secure it carefully enough. That put the world at risk.
Pablo argued that Raven had not acted out of malice and did not intentionally do harm. She did not violate any laws in existence at the time.
Although Raven was not found guilty, she was ordered to pay $20 billion in restitution to people who we were in the process of receiving medical treatment such as operations when V infiltrated the computer systems. She sold a 20% stake in her company, JavaNation, to pay the damages. This settlement eliminated the need for numerous people to sue Raven individually for damages.
Governments around the world created laws limiting artificially intelligent algorithms to specific and clearly defined purposes.
Priya’s rats caused a series of economically and ecologically expensive problems around the world. In response, another set of laws was created to limit genetic manipulation with the intention of creating new organisms without specific and clearly determined purposes for those organisms. The similarity of both laws was not an accident. Both artificially intelligent organisms and enhanced or new biologic organisms both have the capability to cause widespread damage unless they’re confined to specific purposes.