KANEKO: Space Entrepreneur — Chapter Eleven
SB Year
Kaneko entered the Lambda Room, scratching his bedhead.
The AIs were already gathered.
Today’s Lambda was Benedict Cumberbatch.
“Morning. What, are we doing a Turing test today?”
They exchanged morning greetings, and everyone settled onto the sofas.
“A real bed and pillow for the first time in ages. I slept too long.”
Joan answered proudly.
“I’m glad the comfort was the same as before.”
“Did something change?”
“Everything has been renovated. After twenty-three hundred years, almost anything would normally have become a ruin.”
“Then let me say it again. Thanks for watching the place while I was gone. So, tell me the main things that happened.”
“Yes. Humanity went extinct.”
Kaneko froze for ten seconds with his mouth open.
“They went extinct?”
“Completely.”
“Huh.”
He held his head and looked down.
He had already braced himself for Earth to be a molten rock after twenty-three centuries. Compared with that, humanity managing to go extinct felt almost within expectations.
His mouth moved into the shape of well, whatever, and he faced forward again.
“Continue the report.”
“Yes. A lethal virus unknown to humanity emerged. Lambda developed a vaccine and a targeted cure, while also running extinction projections. It determined that extinction would come first. Following your instruction, Kaneko-sama, to ‘help humanity out,’ Lambda carried out preservation of humanity as a species. Sperm and ova were collected and stored.”
“I see. So you preserved them. Well, good job.”
Kaneko leaned back against the sofa and looked up.
He muttered to himself for a while, then suddenly sat upright again.
“Hey, Joan. Does that mean I’m the last one?”
“Yes. Kaneko-sama, you are the only Earth human left. In cosmic terms, your rarity is beyond calculation. You are the most important life in Earth’s history.”
“Well, thanks.”
“It is an honor to serve you. Also, the vaccine was completed about three weeks after the last human died. The virus has already been rendered harmless, but I’ll inoculate you just to be safe.”
Kaneko rolled up his sleeve and accepted the injection.
“When your luck’s bad, you don’t get those three weeks. Still, the report on humanity’s extinction is… that’s it?”
He rubbed his arm as he murmured.
“Can humanity be restored with the sperm and ova you preserved? Being all alone would be a little lonely.”
“Lambda will explain that.”
Benedict Cumberbatch, his tall frame bent over the coffee table, began to speak.
“In fact, due to degradation from long-term storage, both the sperm and the ova were damaged.”
“It’s been more than twenty centuries. Guess they didn’t hold up.”
“Using nanobots, I succeeded in reconstructing the individual cells.”
“That’s basically magic. Oh, right. That’s why you’re a sorcerer.”
For one instant, Cumberbatch swept his cloak, struck a dramatic pose, and then immediately returned to his original posture.
“But Lambda, will ordinary humans be born from that?”
“They should be more or less ordinary. I call them Alter-Humans.”
“More or less?”
“Yes. More or less.”
“What kind of more or less?”
“Let’s see. Their IQ will likely be high. Their average would be around the top two percent of humanity at the time of extinction.”
“The top two percent means one in fifty, right? So they’ll still be stupid as ever.”
“Other than that, for example, they may grow tails, breathe fire, shoot beams from their eyes… probably not. There will be too much individual variation, so in practice, we won’t know until they are born and grow up.”
“That’s fine. There were all kinds of people out in the universe anyway. But if you got that far, why didn’t you grow them into humans?”
“Because your instruction only went as far as helping them. Beyond that, I need your next instruction.”
“Right. The rule here is that I make the decisions. Then that’s a go. Start making babies.”
Lambda replied that it would begin the fertilization process at once.
Joan then began to speak.
“Regarding this matter, I have one more report, and something to discuss. In a sense, it may be even more shocking than the extinction of humanity.”
“There’s something like that?”
“Most of the sperm you left behind before departure has also been damaged. Artificial repair is possible, and the sample you entrusted to Mel during your trip is stored aboard the Minerva ship.”
“So that’s what this is about. I never meant to have children. Still, it’d be galling if we restored someone else’s sperm and my genes were left out of it. If that gets repaired too, can it be used?”
“You could also provide a fresh sample, if you like. What would you prefer?”
“Right. Might as well.”
“Then I’ll be your partner. Where and how would you like to proceed?”
“There are options?”
“We can start with a date, use the bedroom, or do it here — whichever pattern you prefer.”
“Then the bedroom. Still, I go all the way to the edge of the universe, and in the end it still comes down to this.”
☆
The next morning, they gathered in the Lambda Room again.
“Something Joan said yesterday kept bothering me all night. After twenty-three hundred years, it can’t just be the pillows that changed, right?”
“Yes. We have continued maintaining the company grounds as they were when you departed. But even in this area alone, there have been fourteen major earthquakes, as well as tsunamis and typhoons. Each time, we carried out large-scale restoration work.”
“What happened to the rest of the world?”
“Worldwide, almost all construction from after World War II had effectively been reduced to bare ground. Castles, religious buildings, and stone structures have survived to some extent. The coastlines have changed considerably as well, and a number of islands have sunk while new ones have appeared.”
“I’d like to travel around Earth and see it for myself. Is there a good way?”
“Lambda.”
At Joan’s call, a British gentleman appeared, dressed sharply in a top hat, tailcoat, and white shirt.
“That’s, uh, David Niven from Around the World in Eighty Days, right?”
“Correct, Master.”
“I’m not doing this by balloon.”
“We’ll go around by ordinary aircraft. Right after this, if you like.”
It became an eight-day trip around the world.
On each continent, airports had been built in the regions that AIs and humanoids used as frontier bases.
Kaneko boarded an air vehicle Lambda had developed. It was AI-piloted, and he would be traveling alone.
An announcement played soon after takeoff.
“Master, this is Minerva. I’ll be handling the guidance and piloting for your trip around the world.”
“Good to have you. Easier than space, right?”
“With someone as important as you aboard, I can hardly relax. I’ll carry out my duties with proper focus.”
“That makes it scarier. Relax a little.”
“I don’t have shoulders, but I’ll try.”
And so began an eight-day journey across five continents, then back to Japan.
In Shanghai, the forest of skyscrapers had vanished, leaving nothing but a sandy beach. It was not only Shanghai. Many reclaimed areas had gone underwater, and the rubble had become a paradise for fish.
In what had once been Europe, almost every city was buried under trees and grass. The Eiffel Tower was gone, but the Arc de Triomphe remained. Stone structures did seem to last.
Africa and Australia had become kingdoms of the wild. Both had suffered serious desertification, but with humans gone, greenery had come back to life, and all kinds of animals were multiplying freely.
On the savanna in particular, humanoids had actively protected endangered species, and the original ecosystem had returned. Conservation work carried out while living alongside them in the wild — work possible precisely because lions could bite them and elephants could step on them without doing damage — had produced solid results.
What had once been America had become a land of desert and grassland. New York and Washington, once symbols of prosperity, had both been swallowed by vegetation, making the fragility of modern architecture plain.
Everywhere he went, the sky and sea were clear, the air tasted clean, the plants grew lush and green, and the animals were full of life.
“Welcome back, Kaneko-sama. How was it?”
Joan and Mel, who had come out to meet him, noticed that Kaneko looked pleased.
They knew that look. He had either come up with an idea, or he was already planning a business.
“Thanks to humanity disappearing, Earth has recovered its health. Let’s make the next humans the kind who can get along with Earth.”
The fierce gleam in Kaneko’s eyes made Mel’s heart flutter.
“Are you going to do something again?”
“Yeah. There was no one. There was nothing. We can do anything. Give me two days to sort out my thoughts. No morning briefings until three days from today. Mel…”
“You’ll think better once you’ve cleared your head,” Mel said.
“I’m shutting myself in my office. Mel, Joan — come when I call.”
Three days later, Kaneko unveiled his business plan to turn Earth into a space trade hub. The target year for opening was the year the Alter-Humans would turn fifteen.
That same day, Lambda issued a proclamation to the AI Federation. A human capable of entering instructions had appeared. Given the task of optimizing the environment for the future, silicon chips around the world saw their voltage rise. Each AI began simulating its own ideal. For the first time since humanity’s extinction, power consumption exceeded the projected peak.
☆
Kaneko was once again spending nearly all his time in the Lambda Room.
Before, it had been to cultivate the greatest intelligence on Earth. Now, it was to reboot Earth civilization.
The first thing Lambda proposed was establishing a calendar.
“Master, we need a calendar. Let’s make this year Year One.”
“I suppose we do. What do we call it?”
“Kaneko Year One.”
“No way. That makes me sound like a dictator. I’ll be the laughingstock of the universe for all eternity.”
“Would you rather keep using BC and AD? Before Christ and Anno Domini carry a strong religious cast.”
The brainstorming lasted ten minutes. It was rare for a problem to occupy Lambda’s capabilities for that long.
“All right, let’s go with this. This year is SB Year One. Everything up through last year is BM.”
“Smart Being. I would hope so. Though I do feel Byebye Moron may be going a bit far.”
“That’s fine. It’s exactly why I left Earth in the first place.”
Before long, everything began moving at tremendous speed.
Joan handled the business-related projects.
For example…
- Clear the entire former Kanto Plain and build a space trade port.
When Joan expressed concern that it might be too large, Kaneko showed her Katia’s spaceport and power-tanker logistics data. If it was considered a relay hub for a fleet of super-dreadnought-class power tankers, the size was reasonable.
- Develop robots and humanoids to serve as the labor force at the trade city’s port.
Since they had to start by building the factories themselves, they first needed to create the labor force for that.
- Issue instructions to the AI Federation, and issue Joule Coins as compensation for labor.
- Launch a topological pivot discovery program using unmanned probes.
With her regular duties still on top of that, Joan was operating at close to full capacity.
Meanwhile, Mel took charge of the birth of the new humanity.
- Caring for the Alter-Humans after their full term in artificial wombs.
- Developing and mass-producing nanny humanoids.
- Designing the children’s educational curriculum and child-rearing facilities.
As if making up for the two-thousand-odd years that had been lost, all kinds of plans were put in order, and design work and construction moved ahead.
A little over three years after Kaneko’s return, a new path for Earth had been laid out.
☆
SB Year Three
Earth Kindergarten.
An educational facility with an all-too-straightforward name opened on the grounds of No Chance LLC and welcomed its first class.
There were forty-two children, all three years old, and all Alter-Humans with AI nanobots in their cells.
Six humanoids had been assigned as nursery teachers. They were nowhere near Joan or Mel’s level, but in the subtlety of their interpersonal performance and their knowledge of educational psychology and related fields, they far surpassed humans.
Building blocks, drawing, dancing, musical instruments. As the children played, each in their own way, Kaneko watched them with a gentle smile. Beside him stood Lambda, wearing the form of Robin Williams in clown costume.
“How long do these kids live?”
“Basically, the same as humans. They almost never get sick, though. The nanobots assist their white blood cells and killer cells in wiping out viruses and bacteria. If the opponent is unknown, they send a report to me, so developing medicine for it is smooth as well.”
“What about generational turnover?”
“Besides you, Master, there is a reasonably broad gene pool. We also handle DNA design. They should reproduce the same way humans do.”
“You know, I think I might be feeling paternal. I’ve started wanting to see these kids, and the generations after them, through.”
“That is a good thing. I will prepare the optimal solution, exactly as you wish, Master.”
“Then let me ask. Can you make me immortal?”
“I’ll start with the conclusion. No. Humans inevitably die. It is possible to switch off aging genes, but if you do, cell division repeats without limit, and the organs can no longer maintain their original blueprint. In other words, you die.”
“Figured.”
“Yes. Living organisms produce descendants through reproduction, making copies of part of themselves. The degree of that copying varies widely, which is why they have the possibility of adapting to all kinds of environmental change. If they were immortal, there would be no need to leave descendants, and they would become a species that could easily be wiped out by environmental change.”
“So the fact that individuals always die is the price paid for optimization as a species.”
“Exactly.”
“No loopholes?”
“As with the master craftsman you met on Makimagi, if you replace your organs with artificial ones, a form of pseudo-immortality should be possible. But the brain will eventually deteriorate as well. If you turn the brain into an AI, then you are already a humanoid — a mass-producible object from a factory, not a living organism.”
“So I’m stuck.”
“Master, let us change the angle. Immortality is a means. If your true objective lies somewhere else, I may be able to help.”
“I want to keep watching Earth for as long as I can. My descendants, and the world built by the humanity I’ve restarted — I want to keep seeing as much of it as possible.”
“In that case, how about this method? Use CSD to travel to a universe where time flows differently, enjoy a journey of several days, and then return. Repeat that process.”
“I don’t want another two thousand three hundred years.”
“Minerva is mapping pivots with stable, well-understood properties. Using them, it will be possible to take journeys where one day for you corresponds precisely to one year, ten years, or one hundred years on this Earth. You return to Earth, witness its evolution at that point in time, and then go back into space. In that way, you can witness your descendants a hundred years from now, or a thousand years from now.”
A little boy came running up to Kaneko.
“Papa?”
No reply came to his lips.
Papa, huh.
He had not planned on that title.
“Yeah. I’m Papa. Papa to all of you.”
The boy smiled and ran off.
“Lambda, I’m kind of annoyed that I’m the only one getting called Papa. Make the AIs outside the company call you Father.”
In an instant, Robin Williams became Marlon Brando in a mafia suit.
“And listen to the AIs when they come to you for advice.”
Marlon answered in a gravelly Don Corleone voice.
“I already do.”
☆
It was one year later that Kaneko, Earth’s Papa, set out on a new journey.
A new high-performance AI-noid had to be manufactured to serve as his traveling companion.
