5. Natural Selection

"Hi, Ransom!"
"Uh... Hi."
"I have been so busy lately writing my dissertation lately, I haven't had time to hang out in my forum as much as I'd like. So I leave my bot in charge. Do you like her?"
"Huh... the bot? Yeah, I guess. I mean, it's very lifelike."
"Thank you. I manage her neural net personally. I strengthen the subroutines that create a response that I think I would give. And I weaken the subroutines that don't. She's becoming more like me every week."
"Okay... What are you writing, Jesse?"
"Research paper comparing the benefits of running a simulated intelligence on machines that use traditional electronic and optronic processors versus running it on machines that utilize traditional processors with the addition of auxiliary peripheral qubit processors."
"Qubit?"
"Quantum bit."
"Uh..."
"Quantum computers."
"Oh... wow. That's really interesting. I think I read an article about that once."
"Come on, Ransom. I spoke with my bot. She tells me that you know almost nothing about AI research."
"Well, yes. But I'm willing to learn."
"Okay. But you don't have to act like you're interested in something you're not. I don't act like I'm interested in evolutionary biology."
Ransom was taken aback. He knew evolution pretty well for a layman. He knew more about said subject than most people he met. He'd read all the great evolutionary philosophers, Dennett, Dawkins, Gould, Bloom. Evolutionary Biology was his subject. But for Jesse's bot clone to realize it was his favorite subject, he would have to give simulated intelligences more credit than he has ever allowed.
Jesse asked, "So what do you think of my forum?"
"It's the coolest!"
"You mock me."
"No, I love it, Jesse. All the interesting stuff that gets linked here. That Data guy is a genius."
"Yeah, Data is a big part of this forum."
"He seems a little weird, tho."
"How do you mean?"
"Well, he appears to have mood swings. Sometimes he acts really different."
"Ha! Not many people notice that, Ransom."
"Notice what?"
"I'll tell you a little secret. Data is like a dozen different people who all share the same avatar. A group of superhumanists who meet privately and exchange ideas and links. I asked him, but they want there identities to remain private. All he would tell me is they are all professional businessmen who scour the Net as a hobby."
"So he's kinda like a gestalt, or a hive mind. Either way, he's still pretty smart."
"You're smart too. You're so quiet most of the time. But when you do talk, it's usually something worth hearing."
"Oh, I'm not that smart." said Ransom. "I just know when to shut up."
"And you're humble too."
"Well, blessed are the meek. That's what my youth pastor always said."
"Ha! What are you, a born again?"
"Well, I don't really make it to church as often as I should."
Jesse frowned. "Wait, you're a Christian?"
"Yeah... I mean, yeah."
"I'm surprised your still here. The mission of this forum doesn't seem to fit well with the Christian agenda."
"Christian agenda?"
"I'm sure you've noticed, I'm a pretty hardcore atheist."
"How can you be a hardcore atheist?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well either you believe in God, or you don't. I don't see how you can be hardcore about it."
Jesse brought one finger up to her elegant lips. She tapped her bottom lip three times, and then completely changed gears. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-five."
"Where do you live in realspace?"
"Baseball City, CenFlo."
"Oh, that's where they built Comic Book World!"
"Yeah. I work for General Telepresence Resort Security. Sometimes they post me in Comic Book World."
"I have so been wanting to visit that place."
"Well, if you're ever down here, I could prolly get you in. For free."
"That would be so cool. So do you go to school?"
"No, I just work."
"So you have your degree?"
Ransom winced, "No. But I want to go back to college and get one."
"Oh, so you only have a high school degree."
He winced again, "Equivalency degree."
Ransom was sure he had lost her interest. Damn, she thinks I'm a loser. He despaired. But after some more lip tapping, Jesse floated around the room. She floated. Her feet never touched the ground, as long as Ransom had known her. She floated in a circle, around the room, and then directly in front of him. She hovered enough inches off the ground so that she could look him straight in the eye.
"I was hoping you could help me." she said. "I wanted to run my ideas by you before I write my official rejection of eugenics. I want my statement to have lots of ten dollar words, like heterochrony."
Ransom smirked, "Okay. Are you going to go with the heredity versus environment issue?"
"Not exactly. My point is not that eugenics doesn't work. Hell, I suppose it possibly could work. Neither will the morality of it be discussed. My thesis will be that eugenics couldn't possibly work well enough, or fast enough to birth superhumanity."
"Is superhumanity in a hurry?"
"Ransom, have you read the essay by Vernor Vinge?"
"No."
"Ransom! How could you have missed that? It's the meme that started Superhumanism. It's like our... scripture, for lack of a better metaphor."
Ransom shrugged, "I'm sorry?"
"Within thirty years, we will have the technological means to create superhuman intelligence. Shortly after, the human era will be ended."
"Thirty years?"
"That was written in 1993. Ransom, we're already years behind."
"And you're not willing to wait for generation after generation of smarter humans to be born."
"Obviously. But even if we had the time, it wouldn't work. There is an inherent limit to human biology."
"How so?"
"Well you said yourself that there is an incredible lack of genetic diversity in the human race. If the human genome is so homogenous, then how are we evolving?"
"Biologically speaking? We aren't."
"Biological evolution as we know it has stopped. It reached it's zenith with the human race. It can go no further into design space."
"Well that's one way of looking at it, Jesse. But even so, the human genome can still be changed through biotech."
"Biohacking? You want to biohack a human being? Now that's immoral. Imagine the horrors that would be created when the hacks inevitably go awry. No. It would be safer, and much much faster to establish superhumanity in a non-biological substrate. Consider that neurological circuits are seven million times slower than electronic circuits. When The Singularity comes, it will come through cybertech and nanotech, rather than biotech."
"So basically, I was just wasting my time when I took Intro to Microbiology down at the Community College."
"No Ransom. The study of biology is still important. We must learn all the mechanisms of life, so that we may understand them, and then surpass their design."
"Surpass their design. Wow, that's kinda scary."
"Life came about by chance. Superhumanity will come about by intelligent design. Why does that frighten you, Ransom?"
"I dunno. It just does."
Jesse crossed her arms and looked right at him. "It's because your mortified by the idea that God's creation can be improved upon." She turned and floated away from him. "Well don't worry, Ransom. If things get too scary, you can leave the forum. I'll respect your decision, I promise. At least you've showed a hell of a lot more tolerance than that New Gene Nation eugenics jerk. He was real annoying."
"Yeah... he was fat too."
"Oh, I know. I hate fat people. If he wants to go with his little group and selectively breed, then more power to him."
"Not that selective breeding is a bad thing." said Ransom. "Especially if it's with, like, hot redheads."
Jesse just stared at him blankly. He immediately wanted to take back what he just said said. Her face was unreadable. What the Hell just happened? It was just a little flirting.
But then the perfect mask of her face cracked, and she smiled just the way he had hoped. "Selective breeding? Calling it that makes it sound like hard work."
"Yeah, it shouldn't be hard."
"No." said Jesse. "Actually it should be hard. And big too."
"Huh... Oh no you didn't!"
She laughed. It was the most beautiful laugh Ransom had ever heard. "So do you like my fortress of solitude?"
"It's not very solitary if I'm here."
"Well, I sometimes give access to this room to, um, special forum members."
"Yeah?"
"Ransom, what I said before, about you leaving the forum. Well, I hope you decide to stay."
"Thanks, Jesse. I think I will."