Part Four

After lunch they talked as they walked, neither in much of a hurry. Most of their conversation was about recent developments affecting the empowered. Their voices - like their footfalls - echoed eerily in the bare corridors. Melody noted to herself that this complex was one of the most institutional facilities she had ever been in. Away from the residential building and administrative offices, the facilities - even those above ground - were bare concrete, inside and out. There weren't even rubber walkways, though all the interior concrete surfaces appeared to have been treated with some sort of sealant. The lighting for both hallways and rooms was harsh fluorescent. She recalled Blackpool mentioning that the sparseness of furnishings made cleanup easier in case of a leak of toxic chemicals.

"It's amazing how many different conspiracy theories are out there about what happened here last year," said Melody. "Not only do many of them contradict others, but the same people often support contradicting stories!"

"I am well aware of that situation," said Aaron, seeming disappointed. "Some of the same people who previously claimed we were planning to release the chemicals to make more empowered are now claiming we're destroying the chemicals to prevent the creation of more empowered."

"What..." said Melody, confused.

"They're saying those of us who are already empowered don't want the competition. After earlier saying that we were plotting to create reinforcements."

"Insane," said Melody, flatly.

"Some are saying that we're hogging all these chemicals for our own use, to increase our powers," said Aaron.

"Wait... That wouldn't work, right? Once someone is triggered, that's it. They can improve their powers, but only through training."

"Essentially true," said Aaron. "Some trigger chemicals are powerful narcotics, and some of those can induce an altered state of consciousness which allows breakthroughs in powers. That is assuming the empowered person is close to a breakthrough, and can withstand the toxic effects. So, while in a very specific way that makes sense, in practical application it's very limited and rather unsafe."

"I did not know that," said Melody, startled.

They turned a corner and approached a pair of armored doors Melody remembered passing during her first tour. There were multiple clues that the chamber beyond had been repurposed. Including places where signs had obviously been removed.

"When evaluating our effort, you need to keep something in mind," said Aaron, as they paused in their advance while he opened one of the two heavy doors. "We are not a military force. We are not a police force. We are not authorized by any government, or even formally organized as a business. We do have bylaws, though. Guidelines. We are a club, of people with something in common. That common goal being to improve the Earth and the situation of its occupants. We haven't done badly protecting our world, but as you and others have noted there is so much more we could do. We are agreed on that as we are agreed on the need to do those other things. What you are about to see is one tool we are building to help with our self-imposed tasks."

The room beyond the doors was a single, large chamber, with concrete all around and windowless, though it was aboveground. Aaron explained that it had previously housed pallets of canisters with low-level trigger chemicals inside. He assured her that the place had been thoroughly decontaminated after the canisters - under Blackpool's management - had been removed for just as thorough incineration.

It now contained equipment for manufacturing and testing what those working on the project claimed was the most advanced computing device in the world. The walls were lined with benches and heavy tables full of objects and devices, most of which Melody had never seen the like of before. Considering what they were designed to produce, that lack of familiarity was not surprising.

However, the first thing Melody noticed upon entering the room was the flickering cloud of light trails overhead, just under the high ceiling. She was so distracted by that she almost missed Aaron introducing the researchers.

"...and this is Professor Edmund Bright," he finished.

"Pleased to meet you," said Melody, quickly, extending her hand. Part of the reason she had allowed herself to be distracted was that she already knew some of these people. However, the Professor and a few others were new to her. She looked back up, at the patterns of flashing lights above. "Is that...?"

"The actual computer is in that box, there," said Professor Bright, a tall, handsome man in early middle age, smiling as he made a casual gesture towards a sturdy wood table with a breadbox-sized container on it. Said container was hooked to multiple other devices by several types of cables. "That up there, though, is the hologram we use to monitor its activity."

"It's... beautiful," said Melody, craning her head back to look in astonishment at the glowing patterns displayed above. "It's almost like a brain."

"You have excellent perception," said Professor Bright, beaming. "The device is, indeed, patterned after a simplified model of the neuronal structure of the human brain."

"It's not... alive, is it?" Melody said, a bit alarmed.

"No," said Aaron. "The organizational features which lead to sapience would actually make the device less efficient for pure computation, so we had no reason to include them and several good ones to exclude them."

Melody looked at him in surprise. She knew, of course, that he counted as a super genius on the human scale but he was so good at fitting in with normal people that she had rarely seen this side of him expressed.

"People have been trying to invent electronic computing devices since the early Twenties," said CornFed. "They had problems. Even figuring out just what those problems were was difficult, but that was part of what led to the development of quantum theory."

Melody had met her several times before, and remembered that she was a specialist in sociology and social analysis. Her academic credits and real world accomplishments were both legendary. Though she still dressed like a stereotypical sexy farm gal. Like Aaron, she also didn't seem to age.

"We had to invent an entirely new language just to describe what we needed to do," said CornFed. She looked tired but satisfied. "Aaron's knowledge of Navaho was especially useful for that."

"We also had to build the case out of inertium, to cut down on interference," said Professor Bright, who might have been trying to impress Melody.

"Our master crafter, Hubertus, is away, just now," said Aaron. "He took his empowered nickname from the patron saint of smiths. He's one of the few people who can make and work with inertium."

"That must have been expensive," said Melody, startled.

"Yes, but necessary," said Professor Bright. "With several billion qubits crammed into such a small space the device is extraordinarily sensitive to interference. Inertium even reflects those neutrinos which are most likely to interact with matter. Since it's a sealed case, when we have to make a physical change - fortunately that's rare these days - we get Malak to pull out the works."

"I thought inertium was impervious to phasing, too," said Melody, a bit - though not much - surprised.

"After the inventor used it on him and several other empowered in 1921 he learned how to get through it," said Bright, offhandedly. "He needs a bit of concentration, but it's not a major problem."

He was trying to impress her. While trying to minimize the contributions of the others involved in the project, even cutting Aaron off. Melody found this amusing, but kept her expression neutral.

"Technically, making inertium is illegal most places," said Aaron, mildly. Melody realized, with a bit of a surprise, that he was trying to pull Bright back a few notches. Was he protecting her, or simply trying to keep everyone on track? "Of course, just being empowered is illegal most places, so that synthesis is considered a relatively minor offense. Making inertium is therefore generally ignored, unless it is used for something illegal. Fortunately, quantum computing is so new they haven't gotten around to making it illegal. Yet."

Okay, definitely trying to get the conversation back on track.

"I'm still not sure I understand the difference between quantum and regular computers," said Melody.

"Quantum computers aren't just faster than electronic computers," said CornFed, also working to get them back to what she saw as the topic. "They allow a different type of computing."

"How so?" said Melody, who barely knew anything about even electronic computers. She noted - with a bit of relief - that Bright had broken off to respond to something one of the technicians has asked him.

"The primary difference in the case of our experimental unit is that it thinks like Aaron does," said CornFed, looking triumphant. Meanwhile, Aaron appeared a bit embarrassed. "It's a true neural net, emulating - though in simplified form - an actual brain, while operating much faster. With Aaron's thought processes being what we're trying to emulate. I've been around him enough to know that when he makes a big decision he considers the impact it will have on the whole world, through time. Will it help humanity overall? Or harm it? Short term is balanced against long term, as well. Harriett - finally, after years of failed, unsuccessful and not quite successful attempts - does the same thing. Several of us made sure we got that function, largely through using metalaw and advanced game theory, plus other algorithms we invented specifically for this project. It actually makes value judgements, balancing factors even Aaron can't consider. Then it chooses the right action. Or, in most cases, the least wrong one. That is what takes both so much computing power, and quantum operation."

"To determine the best application of your resources," said Melody, quietly, recalling an earlier discussion with Aaron. She also remembered that he had authored several books on philosophy and reason.

"The best we can manage," said CornFed, with sigh and a tired shrug. "I'm not claiming it's perfect. In fact, it is definitely a work in progress. We're always trying to improve things. So is Harriett; it's a learning machine. It is already a big help. It has even made useful suggestions for its own improvement."

"I'm a bit... unclear on how you can devise a... a machine with judgement."

"Because the device is very much like a brain," said CornFed, enthusiastically. "It balances immediate literality with metaphorical reasoning the same way the human brain - pretty much any properly functioning animal brain - does. By the way, Professor Bright is a very left-hemisphere sort of person. He doesn't understand why the device has to have any sort of contextual evaluation capability, when literality is all-important. According to him. So, the fact that he can't completely explain what's going on inside that box doesn't surprise me. He keeps trying to get us to remove the right-brain emulation capability, claiming it's not only superfluous but interferes with proper computation. Fortunately, he's easily distracted."

That bit about living brains piqued Melody's interest. She decided to get the good Professor's view on that dichotomy. She meandered over to where he was discussing something with one of his assistants, waited for him to finish, the broached the subject of literal vs. metaphorical. Very much not to her surprise, he did not directly answer. Instead, apparently still trying to impress her, he too-casually took the conversation in another direction.

"It is impossible, of course, to know enough about, well, anything to make completely accurate predictions," said Bright, with a shrug. "If nothing else, the physical effects outlined in Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle prevent that. However, part of the beauty of a quantum computational system like this is that it automatically compensates - to varying extents, depending on the situation - for this lack of complete knowledge."

"One of the tricks it uses for making decisions is what we call fuzzy boundary transfer logic," said CornFed, butting in.

"Another of its more useful tricks is being able to start with an effect and work backwards to the cause," said Dr. Dulle, assuming this was a general discussion and happily joining it. "That's of huge benefit in figuring out why something happened."

"Which includes who is guilty," said CornFed, with an impish smile.

"Our first practical use of the device is to plan the timing of our upcoming detention camp rescue," said Aaron, now also joining the group. "It is able to make a split-second plan which is also flexible, but still practical."

"You could also provide hints to people who are trying to solve crimes," said Melody, pointedly. "It wouldn't have to be proper evidence. Just let them know where to look."

From the way the brains in the room looked at her, they had never thought of that. Melody felt a bit smug.

"Just a thought."

* * *

Yeah, it's a Skiffy quantum computer. :-)