“This place looked like a ghost town a couple of weeks ago,” Nisha said.
“Yeah, the transformation is startling,” Rachel said. “Those towers were empty and now they’re filled. Notice them playing and making things? They don’t play like human adolescents.”
“Yeah, they’re obsessed with tinkering and building things. They don’t relax or play aimless games. They all work hard on projects.”
“I guess working is their form of playing games,” Rachel said. “I can understand that. When I attended high school and college, I didn’t socialize a lot. I liked to study. The Omanji are on the next level.”
“They’re industrious,” Nisha said. “I see no slackers, even among these teenagers. What do you think they’re working on?”
“They’re congregating around those power generators. Some are working on drones. What type of drone flew by?”
“This looks like one of those mosquito drones that took our DNA samples,” Nisha said.
“One thing that bugs me is when they fly the racers at high speeds.”
“Yeah, that drives me crazy,” Nisha said. “Teenage drivers. Here comes Bok.”
“Hi, we missed you the past few days.” Nisha said as she opened the door for him.
“I’ve been having problems getting everyone to agree over how to run this colony. One named Gol is making things difficult.”
“Why?” Nisha said.
“We voted him onto the council of nine. He was one of the first to support me leaving. Now he wants no restrictions on anyone. I told him to slow down when he races but he told me he can do anything he wishes. I reminded him about The Great Filter. He mocked me in front of the others and ignored me.”
“What’s that smell?” Rachel said. “Do you know Nisha?”
“No. I’m starting to have a queasy stomach. Bok, do you know the source?”
“I’m not sure. My sense of smell is not accurate. Earth’s atmosphere is mixed differently so I can identify only strong smells. This highly oxygenated air smells metallic. It overwhelms most other smells.”
“It’s getting worse Bok,” Rachel said as she looked outside with Nisha and Bok right behind her.
“What are they doing over there?” Nisha said. “Hundreds of them are running away from something.
“I was afraid of this,” Bok said.
“What Bok?” Nisha said.
Bok fell silent for a moment as he communicated with someone.
“I understand now. This is the type of thing I want to restrict. Someone made a type of small self-replicating machine. They operate a little like the builder drones as they mix concrete for the towers. However, they mix metals they find in the soil into more copies of themselves. They replicate their own neural matrix. They’re the size of a large grain of coarse sand.”
“I’ve heard of this,” Rachel said. “It used to be called ‘gray goo’ because people feared self-replicating machines would turn the entire surface of the earth into a featureless blob of colorless gray nano-machines. Even humans would be devoured in the ecophagy.”
“The gray area is expanding. Will it consume the earth?” Nisha said.
“No,” Bok said. “I did some calculations. Errors will creep into the matrix and the chain reaction will collapse shortly. This type of playing around is what I want to restrict. This sort of thing nearly ended life on Oma. I don’t want history to repeat itself on this planet.”
“I don’t either.” Nisha said. “I don’t like this mess in our pristine desert.”
“This ‘gray goo’ thing is why I’m having some problems with Gol. He thinks nothing should be restricted. He hated the restrictions the elders put on him and now he wants freedom. I want freedom too, but too much of a good thing can turn bad. Humans would be frightened to know the technologies we’ve developed. They are the things of your nightmares. I’m aware of the human concept of a feedback loop, where sound gets infinitely amplified until the power is cut. The same thing can happen with matter and intelligent systems.”
“I’m curious to know about your inventions but I’m afraid,” Rachel said.
“I better go and get this mess cleaned up,” Bok said. “And the political mess too. I’m beginning to understand some of the problems Zon must encounter at the big colony.”
Bok walked down the hill to survey the mess.
Nisha stared at Bok as he walked away.
“What are the things of our nightmares?”
“Yeah. Do we want to know?” Rachel said.
“This ‘gray goo’ thing is like something from a nightmare,” Nisha said. “Just think if the matrix kept expanding and devoured the entire Earth.”
Rachel smiled.
“Oh, aren’t you overreacting a bit? I mean sure, millions of smart Omanji teenagers are living under no law. And yeah, they’re playing with antimatter and artificial life forms. And they’re creating self-replicating drones and android-like machines. And they race around in speeders that can travel to the Moon and back in a few hours. I mean, what can go wrong?”
Nisha laughed.
“Yeah, silly me, what am I worried about?”
Bok surveyed the foul-smelling goo when a 20 foot in diameter sphere descended from the sky and landed nearby. Zon and his associates emerged from the silvery rippled surface.
“We know what happened here,” Zon thought to Bok. “This is a dangerous situation, and we won’t allow it.”
“I know. I’m dealing with things,” Bok thought back.
“Those responsible made some engineering mistakes and the self-replicating matrix collapsed. However next time they might get it right and I cannot stop what would happen. The entire surface of this planet and its crust down to the molten mantle would be re-engineered into oblivion, exactly like a planet we investigated years ago.”
“Yes, I know that too. I’ll be making the same engineering restrictions which are in the big colony. This should solve the problem.”
Zon surveyed the grey volcanic looking area.
“I hope you’re right, but my confidence level is low. We’ll be monitoring you closely from now on. There’s no way you can keep track of what everyone is doing without everyone being part of a collective awareness. Without connected awareness, all it takes is one engineering mistake, and your entire colony could be turned into molten glass or featureless slime.”
Yes, I’m working to enhance our neural network,” Bok said.
“I’m being patient,” Zon said. “I should put an end to this while I can. Too much technological danger exists in the hands of those who are too young and unconnected. I know of Gol and others. History warns of those like him. However, Omanji society is free, so I have no legal way at this moment to stop you. My conundrum is, if I let you be, you may destroy the planet. If I force all 30 million of you to merge, Omanji society will no longer be free. I’m going to go back and consider my options, none of which are palatable.”
Zon turned away, entered his sphere, and accelerated into the sky. A sonic boom followed.
Bok contacted Beedee.
“We need to do something right away.”
“Why?” she said.
“We need to do something because someone in our colony is bound to do something stupid and ruin this planet. Either that or Zon will force us to merge, because this colony is a danger to Omanji society and to this planet.”
“I understand,” Beedee said. “I think you better convene your ruling council and make some laws restricting technology.”
“Yes, I’m going to do that right now.
Bok sent a message to the other eight members of the council and soon they were meeting on level 512 at the top of the central tower. Bok started the session.
“After this morning’s near disaster, I’ve decided we need to vote in some new technological restrictions. I don’t want what happened to happen again. Next time, our new colony or this planet might be destroyed. Assuming we don’t get forced into joining the collective.”
“You’re overreacting Bok,” Gol thought to everyone. “It’s no big deal. The matrix collapsed. No harm done, other than we need to clean up the area.”
“Yes, this time we were fortunate, but next time might be different. Therefore, I’ve created a list of technological restrictions. We need to vote on these items right away.”
They studied the list in telepathic silence.
“Out of these 20 restrictions, I agree with three of them,” Gol thought to everyone. “If we become this restrictive, our new society will be no better than the one we left.”
Several others in the room agreed with Gol.
“I understand your point, but we need to establish some rules here or we’ll have chaos or death,” Bok thought back. “You know our history and our nature. We get into trouble if left to our own devices. In addition to this, Primary Esteemed Elder Zon told me he may shut us down and force us to merge if we present a danger to the big colony or the planet.”
Gol glowed bright red.
“Why bother having a new colony if we must live like them? I’m not going to accept these new rules.”
He stood up and thought, “How many of you are with me?”
Three others stood up.
“I’ll start a free colony,” Gol thought to everyone. “It’ll be a colony where we can pursue our own interests without all of these restrictions.”
Gol made an arm motion and they left in unison leaving Bok and five other members of the council behind.
Bok turned to the remainder of the group.
“It’s still possible to pass these rules with a majority of five of the nine council members in agreement. Let’s vote now,” he thought to them.
After a long telepathic silence, the results were shown on a display panel.
“The 20 rules pass with a majority vote of five of the nine members with four abstentions,” Bok thought to everyone.
Over the next several hours, they discussed how to implement the rules with no collective network to back them. The all-day meeting adjourned as the sun set. Four new members were elected.
Bok updated Nisha and Rachel on the events of the long day as they got ready to go to sleep. Soon the world knew.
The next morning, Nisha woke up to the sound of a strange commotion outside.
“Rachel, wake up. Something is happening.”
They opened the door to the tent.
“What are they all doing?” Nisha said. “They’re migrating on foot and in speeders. Where are they going?”
“They seem to be heading east,” Rachel said. “I think you should find out from Bok what’s happening. This is big.”
“Hold on, I’m contacting him now. Bok, what’s happening?”
“Gol has decided to form his own colony. He doesn’t like rules of any sort. Many are following him. I’m putting rules into place now to avoid the disasters Zon warned about.”
“Where are they going?”
“Gol told me about open areas in the US state of Nevada where he can build a colony. I’m not sure where he’ll start building. He’s asking no human or Omanji for permission. I’m sure Zon will pay him a visit.”
“How many will be going with him?” Nisha said.
“I don’t know. One million have left my colony out of the total of 33 million. I’m not sure where they will live. He has no infrastructure. I built mine before they came. I’ve known him for a long time. He’s impetuous. I thought he was my friend because he supported me.”
“When I think of the Omanji, the word ‘impetuous’ does not come to mind,” Nisha said. “You’re thoughtful and deliberate. However, I’ve noticed when a decision is made, you take decisive action, even if it means a 180-degree U-turn.”
“We do take decisive action, but Gol isn’t thoughtful or deliberate. He always acts before thinking things through. Now he’s doing it again. It’s out of my hands. They can leave freely if they want. I need to do some historical research into what happens when we split like this. The outcomes aren’t positive. The elders avoid teaching us about most negative outcomes beyond the seven eras of entropy.”
“I fear this whole thing is unraveling,” Nisha said. “Okay, get back to your work. You gotta get things under control.”
They spent the rest of the day watching a slow stream of Omanji leave Bok’s colony. The exodus continued unabated into the next week.