Chapter 3
“Highly
advanced technology may seem to be magic.”
~
Clarke’s 3rd
Law — Arthur C. Clarke, science writer
The
Realities of Virtual Reality
2023 - 17 years prior
Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency – DARPA.mil
Washington DC
The Virtual Reality display showed where the defensive energy weapons would be if the security system were activated. Each engineer and technician held a special key, without which the lasers and microwave beams could not be energized.
Engineers and technicians worked among the props that simulated an office building. Urban warfare had been a growing concern during the 21st century.
While inspecting and measuring each color-coded pattern, Alice jotted notes onto a clipboard. Later she would compare her notes against Ben's measurements of the actual energy beams.
As engineers for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, Alice and Ben were responsible for the development of, well, advanced research projects. Specifically, projects that could be used for either military or peaceful purposes.
Active automated security systems for buildings had been deemed pertinent.
The two year long project was nearly complete. Two years of hard work, putting in as many as eighty hours on some weeks. Odd how a project could take over a person's life to such an extent.
Alice waited as Ben initiated the test sequence.
Active Defense Systems Test Sequence
Part 1: Startup Validation
☑ Initialize Computers
☑ Initialize Control App
☑ Verify Motion Detectors
☑ Verify Holographic Projectors
☑ Activate Positioning Images
⦸ DO NOT ACTIVATE DEFENSIVE SYSTEMS
When the checklist was completed, Ben set the system to work in slow motion, so that the humans could see exactly how it would be working. Normally, the computers ran the systems so fast that a long chain of events seemed instantaneous to the people watching.
Alice watched as red lines crisscrossed a simulated hallway. “Targeting lasers on.”, she reported, as she noted the order in which the lines appeared. Using high tech optical measurement tools, along with an ordinary tape measure, Alice verified the positioning of each and every line. “Okay, Ben. Ready for the next sequence.”
Ben touched keys on the computer. The red lines disappeared, while green lines showed up in a different arrangement. “Steel-Cutting lasers on.” She made more measurements.
The process continued through blue cones for microwave radiation, orange dots for projectiles, and yellow clouds for toxic gas.
Purple ants began to crawl across the floor, in lieu of real nanobots. Thousands of ant-like machines moved in patterns that were actually quite beautiful to behold. When the whole system is complete, the ants would find whatever they were told to find, and do things to it. Not necessarily bad things, depending on your perspective.
When that phase of the testing was complete, Ben flipped to the next checklist on his clipboard.
Active Defense Systems Test Sequence
Part 2: Detection Systems Validation
☑ Initialize Detection App
☑ Trigger Motion Detectors
☑ Verify Proper Responses
⦸ DO NOT ACTIVATE DEFENSIVE SYSTEMS
Alice felt for the safety key that prevented the defensive systems from activating. It hung with her ID card on a lanyard necklace. The lock to that key prevented power from being routed to the actual defensive systems. In addition, a tag was hung from the main switch to tell people to leave the power off. 'Lock-Out, Tag-Out', is what the safety officer called it.
Stepping into the red lined corridor, Alice purposely touched the first line. Ben called out from the controller's workstation, “Sensor 1 triggered. No response for this one. Try the next one, Alice.”
The third red line caused a response. All the red lines began to move around. Several focused on Alice. A green line appeared, drew a line across Alice's tummy, and then shut off. “First response is working. How did it look on your end, Ben?”
Ben tapped keys. “Let's do that one over, Alice. We had a data glitch on this end.”
Returning to the corridor's entryway, Alice again felt for the safety key. Software glitches in defensive systems made her nervous. “What was the glitch?”
“The computer said that the defensive systems were active.”, Ben chided. “Just kidding. It had sensors number four and five swapped is all. Fixed it.”
Steadying herself, Alice breathed. Ben was a marvelous man to work with, but his sense of humor was very hard to find funny. She went to the power panel to see for herself that the switch was still shut off and locked. The thought of an accident in this thing was terrifying.
Eventually purple ants appeared to crawl up her legs. Thankfully Ben cut that part of the test short.
Hours later the test was complete. Alice was still alive, but in desperate need of some relaxation time. “Ben, how about if we go see how Shannon is doing on her part of the project?” Heading for the lab's door, the engineers hung their safety keys on a peg board that was set up for the purpose, leaving both locks in place on the power switch.
“Hey you guys, you're just in time! About to do a full systems test.” Shannon looked proud. “Here, put these laser safety glasses on please.”
An area of the room had been marked off with yellow safety ribbon. Several green lines appeared in a crisscross pattern behind the barricade. Shannon fetched a long wooden pole, and touched one of the green lines with the end of it. The wood began to blacken and smoke. Shannon withdrew the pole.
Tapping on the computer keyboard, Shannon said, “Now watch this.”
Several small drones lifted themselves from a table, and flew directly toward the green lines. The drones were hard to see, as they were made of highly reflective material. They looked more like visual distortions than like solid objects. One by one, the drones blocked the green lines, until a clear space was opened on the inside. Shannon sent a small droid into the open space between the drones. The droid did, and was unharmed. Terminating the test, Shannon shut the industrial lasers off, sent the drones back to their table, and shut the droid off.
Shannon Fields stood before her friends and grinned her pride. “The drones are all built with stealth technology that was adjusted for the frequencies of laser light. They reflect the laser light such that it spreads out and loses it's effective energy. Still need to hook the whole thing up to the neural network interface though. It's all running on silicon computers so far. What do you think?”
Memoir: A Tractor and the Fields
2001 - 39 years prior
Shenandoah
'Shannon' Fields
Pipa Aha Macav Nation – Mojave Indian
Reservation
Hot sunshine poured from the afternoon sky. Harvesters – machine and human – sat idle during the lunch break. Children played. One youngster was curious about the farm equipment.
A 14 year old girl approached a green John Deere tractor, examining every mechanical detail. First the engine, with it's intricate twisty shapes. Then, climbing up to the big driver seat, her attention riveted on the several control levers. The child's hands were too small to grip them. Good thing, or she might have tried to drive the tractor herself!
Concerned, an old man called up to her, “Shenandoah! Why do you have to figure out how every moving thing works? Is it not enough that it works just fine all by itself?”
The girl replied seriously. “If I understand how it works, Grandfather, then I can fix it if it breaks, or make a new one! Besides, it's real interesting!”
Sid Fields was proud of
his granddaughter. She was excelling at the technical school, where
she could work with her hands. Not like the white kids' school, where
they don't teach anything practical.
This grandfather's greatest
hope was that this bright young lady would find a path through the
white man's world that would be safe for her, and afford her the many
opportunities that she tends to create for herself.
The sun shone on the old man's brown face, emphasizing the deep wrinkles it had dug there during the man's lifetime of agricultural work.
In his imagination Sid Fields pictured his granddaughter Shenandoah as a great leader, with many people in her tribe, working her science gadgets for the betterment of people around the world.
But for this child to make that happen would take a lot more than a dream. It would require many years of disciplined forward motion on Shenandoah's part. Perhaps a few nightmares. Much like the great Colorado River; there would be rocks and rapids, floods and droughts.
Sid watched his
granddaughter as she taught herself about the tractor.
In his
imagination, she grew older, wiser.
Eventually the desert sun
would cut hard lines into her innocent round cheeks.
Deep in his heart, Sid Fields knew that Shenandoah would someday be a great chief among great chiefs. “A real chief, a great leader of many kinds of people.”, he hoped.
© Copyright: Jan Zenith, 2023
