Lemuria by Burt Clinchandhill (most popular novels of all time .txt) 📗

themselves. They will plow our lands, and in the meantime, they will learn from their experience how to do it better, and self-correct.”

“One question,” a reporter in the front row said, interrupting Mulder. “Sorry to interrupt you,” he quickly added when Mulder focused his attention on the man.

“No problem,” Mulder answered. “In my enthusiasm, I could and would probably talk on for hours.”

“Thank you,” the reporter replied. “Without a doubt, a technological masterpiece.”

Mulder nodded and smiled.

“I can’t help wondering. What about the dangers of what you call Quantum AI? What about the risk that comes with autonomous weapons, invasion of privacy and social grading, social manipulation and the possible differences between our goals and the machines? If I’m correct, a few years ago, you yourself warned about the possible dangers of AI.”

Mulder expected the question, and when he asked himself before, he wasn’t sure of the answer himself. Of course, he knew about the risks of AI. In the past years, there had been a lot of debate about the pros and cons, but nowhere in the world did the debate lead to definitive answers or legislation. Besides that, without Quantum AI, he wouldn’t reach his goals. He took a deep breath. “Of course, you’re right. As our capabilities in AI will grow without any doubt, we will also see it being misused for dangerous and criminal purposes. I’m afraid every new technology suffered the same fate in the past. From today, AI technology will advance more rapidly than anyone had anticipated. That is why I started a new initiative where, together with great minds from all over the world, we’ll start the debate about how to develop AI progressively, while minimizing its destructive potential.”

The buzz in the room grew louder again. Mulder looked at Amie, who nodded back in response and waved at a man behind the glass. “I thank you for your attention,” Mulder shouted out above the loud crowd. “When you leave here, you’ll get an information folder that will give you all the details you could possibly need.” The door to the conference room opened, and a man dressed in white coveralls entered the room. Mulder introduced the man as the lead scientist on the project who would answer all their technical questions. He quickly switched places with the man and disappeared from the room, followed by Amie.

“What do you think?” Mulder asked Amie as they crossed the hallway.

“You did well. But I doubt they are reassured that the development won’t be a problem. And to be honest, Eldin, neither am I.”

Chapter 4 - Stammbaum der Primaten

Otter Creek, VT, The Present

Bishop looked at the trash can to his left. He took shallow breaths through his mouth to avoid the stench, but it was in vain. He tasted two weeks of rotten fish.

Ignatowski grinned. In his youth, his father had been a butcher and meat residues would sometimes rot for over a week in the dumpster beneath his bedroom. “You know the NRO?” he asked.

Bishop and Monroe shrugged. “Only by name,” Bishop answered.

“Then you probably don’t know that at the NRO, we don’t only do intelligence work, but we also monitor humanitarian aspects in the world.”

“What kind of humanitarian aspects?” Bishop asked.

“All kinds. For instance, we enforce most of the worldwide environmental treaties and assess the effects of manmade and natural disasters.” Ignatowski paused for a moment. He’d always felt that most people who had heard of the NRO had a tendentious attitude toward them. They were often seen as one of the more inferior agencies that only made satellite images and delivered them to other agencies that did the real work.

“But, in this case,” Ignatowski continued, “we monitor the status of the last surviving isolated tribes in the world.”

Bishop and Monroe looked at each other, both squinting their eyes and frowning.

Ignatowski smiled back. “The world rapidly became a lot smaller in the past five decades or so. There are still an amazing one hundred tribes living in complete isolation in the world. A part of them never had contact with anyone from outside their tribe. Some time ago, modern countries would have done anything to bring such tribes ‘modern civilization.’ Nowadays, most countries do their utmost best to let such tribes be and even have legislation protecting such tribes. Enforcing such laws is, as you can imagine, often challenging.”

“Africa?” Monroe asked.

“You would think so. But no. As far as we know, there are no more isolated tribes left in Africa.”

“No places to hide,” Bishop interrupted.

Ignatowski nodded. “That’s one theory. And that’s also why more than three-quarters of the one hundred tribes live in South America. It’s estimated that twenty-five years ago, the number of these tribes was over two hundred. Unfortunately, on the one hand, threats like land exploitation, oil prospecting, poaching and mining decimated that number rapidly. Not to mention the clandestine Mennonite and U.S. evangelical missionaries that are still everywhere over the world, looking to convert new souls. On the other hand, since they’re isolated, they lack immunity to common infectious diseases. Upon first contact with the outside world, we bring our infectious diseases to them, and one simple respiratory virus can easily decimate a tribe in half in a few weeks.”

Monroe cocked his head. “It’s the first time I’ve heard of one of our intelligence services doing something good for humanity.”

“All right, all right,” Bishop intervened. “Can we please get to the part that concerns me, so we can go back to what we came here to do?”

Lindsey took over. “Sure, sorry, but you need some background first. Over the past few months, the NRO observed strange behavior from some of these isolated tribes.”

“What kind of behavior?” Bishop asked, rubbing his chin.

“Well,” Ignatowski replied. “For example, in Paraguay, the Ayoreo tribe disappeared completely. One day, the entire tribe of about one hundred people was there, and by the next sunrise, gone. Completely vanished. Bolivia, same thing. Peru—”

“The same thing,” Monroe said.

“Same thing, but with a twist this time.” Lindsey lifted her hands. “You