ALOHA THE GNOS By Chaumont Devin October 21, 1993 Professor Andrew Stranton allowed his gaze to follow the smart clicking of high heels as he turned the key to lock his office door. He knew it would only cause him pain, but he had to look anyhow. As she passed under the light, his eyes were rewarded by yet another dose of that typical Honolulu incarnation of beauty he had come to love and hate so well. He was careful to remind himself that the semi-translucent brown skin of her shoulders was only a particularly clever arrangement of atoms and electrical charges that would quickly decompose and fade away. No one on earth could have known this fact better than he did, so he watched with a sense of inevitable detachment as he felt himself being deceived yet again. She exuded confidence from her knowing eyes all the way down the flow of her glistening black hair to her undulating hips, and this confidence seemed to focus in the clicking of those heels across the floor. "Electrical," he thought, as she turned to bestow on him a seemingly inviting smile. "Japanese, with some Chinese, Portuguese, and Philippino." He had seen many variations on the same theme before. "Probably a biology major. Maybe 23 or 24." Her steady footsteps carried her onward into the gentle Manoa night, and his nostrils were filled with the heady scent of fine perfume. He pulled the key from the lock with almost brutal force, despite the trembling of his weary hands, and reflected upon that unique refinement of human intelligence, the male imagination, which enabled one to suffer not only during, but years before and after any actual event. How often HE had longed to be drawn into a pair of arms like those, and how often he had been smashed. He had a mind that could model complex arrangements of atoms and molecules in three dimensional space with a precision that had brought him the acclaim of the best scientific minds of his time. But he realized that no local girl had ever been able to see in him anything more than just another Haole Dick who would almost certainly do almost anything to get into her pants. He paused a moment longer by his door listening to the rustle of the leaves and yielded wearily as that selfsame mind raged out of control again to conjure forth from the shadows with deadly accuracy the complex atoms and molecules of Sharla Miyashiro. As if to mock the nocturnal ambiance, she stood smiling in the sunshine just as she had been when he had known her in 1987. For just an instant he could see in her eyes the flash of female fire as she turned away. Her hair swung round her face and hid the smooth skin of her cheek beneath its glistening black strands. He relived the agony of her rejection, and her marriage to that local brother who had gotten her pregnant, and to whom she had stuck even when he beat her and drank. What was it a girl could have seen in a man like that that was so much better than him? He forced his mind back to the present, and to the last important thing that he would ever do, and his footsteps took him across the garden to the west. The tradewind rustled through the leaves around him, and the fragrance of pikake blossoms graced the evening air. His eyes rose inadvertently to the tropical sky, and his subconscious thoughts guided the fingertips of his right hand to the only thing he had taken from his office as he left, an old and crumbling letter in his shirt pocket. Then he realized what he was doing, and his mind quickly modeled around him a similar night sky, but now the familiar campus landscape was replaced by the Buru forest, and the thundering cataract of a mountain stream, and above the rock where he was kneeling a full moon. Beside him he could hear the solemn prayers of a man who had been blind for years, but whose convictions had driven him to that spot across rugged terrain to preserve an ancient culture before it was forever gone. A man who loved his creator with a passion that seemed to gnaw at his very bones. It was Joe Nevil, and the year was 1988. His heart recoiled smartly from another stab of pain. It sprang directly from the change that had finally gripped the heart and mind of this friend. After a long period of disillusionment beginning in 1991, there had been a discussion one evening in Andrew's car. They had been parked on River Street, where Joe was about to disembark. The world had not been very sympathetic to this unconventional blind man, and he was living on welfare in public housing at the time. Andrew had noticed that his remarks seemed to spring from a different perspective than before, and that they were not easy to explain, so he had urged him to write them down. The result had been this letter that had started it all, as far as he knew the last letter Joe Nevil ever wrote. Honolulu October 7, 1993 Dear Andy, I would like to propose to you the concept of the "gnos." I have chosen this name because of its similarity to a Greek word meaning "to know," and its similarity to our English word, "gnostic." As you may recall, the Gnostics were an ancient sect who believed they had access to special intuitive knowledge. The gnos concept arises directly from the ancient observation that we hold within us an intelligence far greater than that of which we are consciously aware, or that we are able to consciously express or control. For example, the knowledge and control of the PH level of our blood. At this stage it is possible to conceive of several interesting explanations for our existence that don't seem to break any scientific laws. There is one in particular that springs to mind as a convenient device for explaining the idea of the gnos. It goes roughly like this: Sometime in the precambrian, an unknown entity deposited on this planet the first seed of life. I say "seed," singular, because our scientific discoveries seem always to point to a unique origin. Precambrian Earth was a place that would be unthinkable as an environment for life as we know it today, but locked up in this first seed of life was an intelligence capable of terraforming Earth and generating life in all its various forms. This ancient and flexible intelligence, copied and adapted through the eons of time, was/is the gnos, and programmed within this gnos is the ultimate destiny of mankind. Admittedly, this concept assumes that it is possible to package such a sophisticated intelligence within the walls of a single cell. Such an idea does not seem to break the laws of modern science. Modern biologists believe that the human genome contains all the information needed to build a human being. Yet information wise, they also believe that the human genome contains no more than 1.5 gigabytes of data, a large proportion of which is junk. All this says nothing about the INTELLIGENCE that uses this data, which must also be locked up between the walls of each cell. It only says that the human genome contains all the required DATA. Even after the human genome project is complete, therefore, no accounting will have been made of the INTELLIGENCE that USES this data. And yet, if the human genome resides in the first cell of life, then the intelligence needed to use that information must be there as well. The power of the gnos idea lies in the realization that the order of intelligence required to generate one human being could not be less than that required to terraform Earth and work toward some ultimate destiny as well. In other words, anything smart enough to build an entire human being from scratch should certainly be capable of coming up with lesser designs and having some idea of where it is headed as well. Is it possible to pack such a massive and flexible intelligence into a space so small? It is obvious that my gnos idea and the human genome idea suffer equally from the absence of an answer in the form of some proof. In the meantime, we are left with enough room for some fascinating speculation. This is what I was talking about when I brought up the subject of religion. An intelligence as smart as my gnos should be able to take action in concert with other copies of itself whenever necessary to make course corrections toward some ultimate goal. Look at our past. Consider the documented violence of the Roman Republic. It is true that we still suffer from incredible acts of violence perpetrated by aberrant individuals, but as a whole, mankind has progressed slowly and steadily toward a more peaceable way of life. Notice also the simultaneous rise of great religions. Take, for example, Christianity, which might be thought of as a sophisticated psychological device for the modification of human behavior. As a matter of fact, I believe that Christianity employs psychological principles that modern science is as yet simply unable to apprehend. In this case, the word "apprehend" means very much the same thing as "externalize." Psychological principles are there, within us, but we are unable to understand them and bring them to the surface. But the gnos, if indeed there is a gnos, would almost certainly know these psychological principles if it is capable of using raw materials to construct living men. To test my hypothesis of the application of superior psychological principles, I suggest you simply look at the results. Have you ever talked to a recently born-again Christian who was an alcoholic or drug addict or worse just months before? Can modern psychology produce anything like such results? No. We must be observing the application of a sophisticated psychological mechanism for the alteration of human behavior. The Christian believes that he has found the final truth, and that the psychological framework within which he or she lives has been set in place by God. If the gnos does exist, then the Christian believer may be right in a way not hitherto understood. My meaning is that the ancient gnos, however it got here, has been guiding the evolution of life toward some ultimate goal. Perhaps the human body more or less meets the physical specifications for this goal, whatever it is, but the human mind does not. Perhaps more flexibility is desired for the human mind, so that while capable of performing all the ordinary animal behaviors, it is ultimately destined to rise to some higher level of intellectual awareness. Perhaps, then, religion is a psychological mechanism developed by the concerted efforts of many copies of the gnos in various forms that serves as a catalyst to bring the human mind to a certain state of consciousness and awareness. On the darker side, however intelligent the gnos may be, it must ultimately suffer from various limitations imposed by constraints of size, so that its workings are not exempt from error. Has it successfully negotiated the hazards of developing an organism as complex as man, or have things gone wrong? Indeed, it might be argued that man was never intended at all. As a matter of fact, the greatest current threat to life is man himself. Take away mankind, and the environment would slowly and systematically heal. Was conscious human intelligence, self awareness, etc. ever really part of the plan? We share an unconscious intelligence with all the rest of life. It is far greater than our conscious awareness, but it somehow never creates massive environmental pollution or atomic bombs. Could our conscious intelligence be an accident that has escaped the control of the gnos with unpredictable consequences? Could it be that it now rises in unfriendly competition against the gnos? Have we been here too long? What was the original purpose of the first seed of life, after all? Was it to terraform Earth and provide some sort of Garden of Eden forbeings to come? Or were they on their way here, but failed to arrive? Or was Earth terraformed with the idea of just keeping it there like a beautiful garden in case anyone ever happened to come along? The concept of a first seed of life is suspiciously ideal for the purpose of colonizing planets over interstellar space. Perhaps this tiniest form of life, the individual cell, is the ultimate shape and size for the colonization of space. Perhaps this is the smallest unit into which can be crammed all the data, intelligence, and support equipment needed by the gnos. I would point out to you how the intelligence locked up in living cells can survive perfectly over time. Witness the ancient seeds sprouted from Egyptian tombs. These ideas may seem surprising, and yet, as you well know,I have long held that life and intelligence are inextricably bound together as one. Think them out carefully, and you will see how easily they spring from this same old thought. "In Him was life, and the life was the light of men." --John 1:4. Yours truly, Joe Nevil. This was the letter his fingers now touched. "Of course," he thought as he continued on his way through the Hawaiian evening, "It would take a blind man like Joe Nevil to see the obvious in a way that no one else could." At first he had not been sure whether to take this letter seriously or to consider it the ravings of someone who had lost his mind, and he had shied away from any discussion of the matter with Joe. But shortly afterward, Joe Nevil had returned alone to the Buru forests to continue his research, and nothing had ever been heard from him again. A letter had arrived written in Indonesian, from which Andrew ultimately learned that Joe Nevil had lost his life to Malaria somewhere on the upper reaches of the Wamala. The news had not been terribly disturbing, because Andrew knew how Joe had dreamed of escaping from Chinatown, to which Joe would have had to return when his Indonesian visa ran out. This would have been the end of the matter but for the unique properties of Andrew Stranton's mind. He kept seeing Joe's letter before him and speed-reading his ideas again and again. At last he had had to concede the validity of Joe's words. There was no getting around it, the gnos hypothesis was an obvious corollary to the theory of DNA. Why hadn't Andrew seen it in the first place? Why hadn't anyone else? It was as plain as day! Then Andrew remembered other of Joe's words about the inate stupidity of mankind, and he wondered how he would now be received. He knocked at the door of Dr. Noel Johnson, a young man he believed might have the intellectual flexibility to understand. It was just 9:00 p.m. "Come in," said a voice from inside. He opened the door and went inside. Before him sat a youngish man at a large desk covered mostly with stacks of papers and books. "I have come to drop off my keys," he said, pulling the university key set from his pocket and placing them on one of the only clear spaces on the desk. "Is this it then, Dr. Stranton?" "I'm afraid so. The therapy has bought me some time, but I won't be coming back. I need time to write some last letters and do a little strolling in Chinatown." "Chinatown?" Noel asked in disbelief. "Yes. I used to have a friend who lived down there, and we used to walk together sometimes by the river." "Oh, yes, allright. Is there anything you should tell me about your work before you leave?" "Yes. That is why I asked for some of your time instead of just stopping over here on my way out." "Well, then, by all means sit down." Andrew stepped to a large armchair in front of the desk, and did so. "Besides the various well-publicized projects that brought me the recognition of other scientists and the Nobel prize for genetics," he began, "I have quietly persued a lifetime project of my own. It is nearing success, but I see that I will not have the time needed to carry it through. I decided to come to you because I believe that of all my colleagues, you are the person who might carry my project to its conclusion." "It all started with a friend of mine who died in Indonesia back in 1993. I believe that he had the most brilliant and observant mind I have ever known. But his life was blighted by a most devastating handicap, one that kept him always from the knowledge he was driven to research. He was totally blind. But if any man ever dealt with a handicap, it was he. He hated euphemisms, and insisted that his true friends (which were few indeed) say he was blind; not visually handicapped, sightless, or visually impaired. In fact truth and honesty were the virtues he clung to most tenaciously, and which he insisted on applying through and through. I have often wondered what made him what he was, and I suspect that a major part of it was this. His idea of truth made him 'see' through the cobwebs of human logic to discover what may turn out to be a sort of universal field theory for biology." "Why didn't I ever tell anyone what I am about to tell you? I suppose I must have kept it secret as a sort of monument to my friend. I mean, his hypothesis was a natural corollary to DNA theory, and yet no one else that I know of has ever discovered it to this day. I couldn't even see it for a long time myself, although he pointed it out to me in the most crystal-clear terms. I suppose it was my ego, education, or something like that." "After all, this friend of mine was an absolute social nothing and nobody. He had no titles or degrees. In fact, he hadn't been on the inside of a schoolhouse for much more than three years before age 30, when he went blind. He told me he had been reared by missionary parents at the edge of the original Malaysian forests. He had Returned to California from the Solomon Islands with bronchial pneumonia at age 34, and entered junior college there a few months later. His high marks quickly brought him recognition from the dean, and he eventually got stuck in our American machine, ending up in what he called his solitary confinement in a small, government subsidized apartment in Chinatown. It was hard to watch him sinking in the sand. From time to time he would manage to scrape together enough money for another trip to his beloved Buru, but the Indonesian authorities, little bigots that they are, would never let him live there very long. It was a sensitive area. The Javanese, in the name of Indonesian nationalism, were demolishing the primeval forests and moving their people in by the thousands. It was their clear and published policy to assimilate all other peoples in that vast and wonderful archipelago that has filled so many naturalists with awe. They wanted everyone to be Javanese, and world assistance, not to mention American military equipment and training, was giving them amazing success. The Buru people had been reduced quickly to becoming a minority in their own land. These things only served to rub salt into the wounds of my friend." Dr. Noel Johnson began to wonder if he had become captive audience to the senile ramblings of a sick old man. Why should he care about Indonesia, Buru, or Javanese? "I went to Buru with him twice when I was a young man. It was a world unto itself. My friend spoke fluent Indonesian, Ambon Malay, and the language of the Buru hinterlands. In fact it was his work on a dictionary of this latter language that kept bringing him back." At last Andrew stopped looking at the images that projected themselves one after another in his mind long enough to notice the boredom and impatience on the countenance of Noel Johnson. What had he been thinking? Of course this talk of Buru could mean nothing to such a man. "Anyway, my friend coined the term, gnos, to stand for his idea because of its similarity to a Greek word meaning to know. From this same Greek root we also have English words such as "gnosis" and "gnostic. He had an acquaintance with Greek because of his intimate knowledge of the Bible." The Gnostics, as you may recall, were an ancient sect who believed they had access to special intuitive ken." At this point a change of expression passed over the face of Noel Johnson that even Andrew Stranton could immediately apprehend. "No, the concept of the gnos has nothing to do with any esoteric philosophy of the Greeks.It arises rather from the ancient observation that we hold within us an intelligence far greater than that of which we are consciously aware, or that we are able to consciously express or control. For example, the knowledge and control of the PH level of our blood." Andrew Stranton now stood up and paced the floor. "Let me begin with the simple observation that intelligence is inextricably bound up with life. As a matter of fact, in all my life I have never been able to find a single instance of intelligence that is independent of life. And believe me, I have tried. Machine intelligence? Sorry, no computer ever had in it anything that wasn't put there by some human. Computer intelligence therefore is strictly human, and humans are alive." "But the complex chemical processes that occur in even the simplest of living cells must obviously be controlled by some kind of cybernetic device. And since such mechanisms are capable of creating and controlling complex structures, it would hardly seem reasonable to deny that they are in some sense intelligent. So, as far as we now know, intelligence and life are interdependent. That is, neither can exist without the other." Andrew stepped to a blackboard Noel kept on his office wall, picked up a piece of chalk, and wrote. Theorem #1: Life and intelligence are inseperable. "This theorem will probably hold no matter what strange life forms we encounter in future times, so I will call it the cardinal theorem of life." "Now let us consider what we know of biology so far," he said, as he resumed writing on the board. Theorem #2: All life forms consist of one or more living cells. Theorem #3: Every normal living cell contains strands of DNA containing instructions for the generation of the particular life form which is that cell or of which that cell is a part. Theorem #4: A fertilized egg cell does not necessarily require the presence of a parent to develop into a new organism. "Now if all life is inextricably bound to intelligence as in theorem #1, and a fertilized egg cell does not require the presence of a parent to develop into a new organism as in theorem #4, then it follows logically that the intelligence necessary for an egg cell to develop into a new adult organism must either already be present in the egg cell itself or else that this intelligence will somehow become available during the development of the new organism as required. This conclusion leads to the second most important theorem of life," he said, as he turned to the blackboard and started writing again. Theorem #5: There exists an intelligence independent of the biological brain capable of generating living organisms from the environment using DNA. Definition #1: The gnos is the intelligence that generates living forms from the environment using DNA. Then old Andrew put down the chalk, wiped his glasses, and stood aside to face his increasingly attentive listener. "Let us first consider the idea of an external gnos, an intelligence outside the fertilized egg cell capable of generating new organisms using DNA. How could such a gnos communicate with the developing organism? It might be a distant entity transmitting massive amounts of information through space by means of electromagnetic waves. It might be a spiritual entity that can communicate with the organism using supernatural means. One might call such an entity "Nature," or "God." Elusive to the tools of science, such external gnos theories have been with us since human awareness began. They may raise the question, "Then why DNA? Why shouldn't the gnos, along with other information, be able to provide the < 2 gigabytes found in DNA?" At the same time they remove the difficulty of explaining how an intelligence as powerful as the gnos could possibly be packed into every smallest living cell." "But now let us turn to the hypothesis of an internal gnos. From such a thought the human mind might wish to slink away. How could an intelligence capable of producing every species of life on earth be locked within each living cell? Such a notion would seem to imply that greater genius than any man has ever achieved might be shrunken to the size of a single neuron. And yet our evidence would tell us this is so." "For purposes of analogy let us consider the computer, the simplest kind of intelligence we presently know. The ideal computer has data, instructions, and processor combined into one. Once people bought computers that stored data on external 'mass storage' devices. Then people wanted their laptops to come equiped with built-in hard drives. Today our computers and their memories come in integrated solid state blocks that we talk to like friends. And what about that other form of intelligence we know, the biological brain? Should brains remember only, and not reason as well? In both cases we see intuitively that data and processor should ideally be one. Why then should we expect otherwise from the gnos? If DNA is information, and DNA is found in every cell, then shouldn't the gnos be there as well? The question would seem rhetorical." "But speculation aside, there is a much more technical reason why we should search for an internal rather than an external gnos. It is true that the cell has yielded its secrets very slowly to our probes, and yet we have succeeded in mapping human DNA. At last we stand ready to confirm or disprove the existence of the gnos there as well. I say 'we," but to my own satisfaction I have already proven the existence of the internal gnos. You will find all the information in my office computer. I have accounted for the means by which logic networks can function on atomic and molecular levels, and you will find perhaps one hundred such networks that I have already mapped. Of course there are many thousands more. My ultimate goal was to find the input/output mechanism used by the original designer before announcing my work to the world." Andrew turned away from his listener, who now looked dumbfounded, and began writing again on the board. Theorem #6: A version of the gnos exists in every living cell. He turned back to face Noel. "From now on I will abandone any further mention of an external gnos. In every living cell exists a copy of the gnos." "Some fundamental questions remain unanswered about intelligence and life. One of the most important is, "Can intelligence spring spontaneously from non-intelligence, and thus life out of non-life?" Many of us are convinced that it can. If indeed such a thing were possible, then life might conceivably have somehow sprung spontaneously into being during the Precambrian here on Earth. Do I believe it? No more than I believe Precambrian rocks could sprout wings and fly. I know this may come as a shock, but as you can now see, the whole Darwinian idea was ass-backwards to the world. Yet the often religeous adoption of Darwinism put us onto the idea that all expressions of life seem to have sprung from the same original cell. The fossil record has served to confirm this hypothesis, as you well know." "I postulate just such a first single cell, but not one that sprang magically into existence during some Precambrian thunder storm. Where it came from, or how it got here, I don't know, but our evidence tells us that between its cell walls lived an intelligence of most awesome proportions." "I have used the word, 'lived,' somewhat losely. Actually, to live is somewhat more. Our cardinal theorem tells us that intelligence and life are inseparable, and theorem #6 tells us that a copy of the gnos exists in every living cell. These observations lead to our final theorem, which defines life itself." Andrew picked up the chalk for one last time, and wrote. Theorem #7: Life is fully defined by a copy of the gnos plus the physical structure it directly controls. "By this definition it may be clearly seen that such entities as viruses, etc., do not qualify as life because they possess neither a copy of the gnos nor a mechanism such a copy of the gnos could control. We must see life as made up of cells, each of which consists of a stand-alone supercomputer on which is running a copy of the master program of life we call the gnos. However difficult it may be fore us to conceive, we must see the submicroscopic computer mechanism of the cell as much more powerful than any supercomputer we have ever designed. We must learn to think of the gnos as a vast set of instructions and data residing logically within this microscopic device. We must see that this device is able to meet all its own energy needs from its natural environment and to constantly adapt itself to its environment under the direction of its copy of the gnos. We must see at last that the very things we presumed to think of as 'primitive cells' are actually examples of the most sophisticated machinery we have ever known. These are the infinitesimal and vast engines of life. Nothing less can qualify." Andrew Stranton returned wearily to his chair and sat down. "But lest I bore you with evidences and theorems, allow me to escape momentarily into fantasy with a scenario of my own. Sometime before or during the Precambrian, an unknown intelligence or intelligences hurled a probe into the depths of space. On board was their state-of-the-art AI. This deep space probe was our first cell, and that state-of-the-art artificial intelligence was our gnos. The designer/designers of our gnos was/were far more intelligent than anything we can even conceive, so this deep space probe was very close to ideal. It was so light that it could be accelerated to great velocities with a minimum of energy. It was very small to minimize the probability of collision with other matter in space. And its onboard intelligence could remain dormant for millenia without any loss of integrity (witness the seeds found in Egyptian tombs). Not only did it know how to rearrange the atoms and molecules of its environment to its own best advantage, but given the right conditions it could even build exact copies of itself. Beyond all this, it held within its atoms and molecules all the knowledge and intelligence necessary to terraform a planet and fill it with countless living forms. It knew, for example, how to design and build eyes--many kinds of eyes in many different ways." "The entry into earth's atmosphere was not difficult, because it was small. It was also ideally suited to high-G acceleration, just as living cells are today. Because of its great surface to volume ratio, it needed no breaking parachutes as it fell. There was no land around at the time, so it fell directly into the primordial sea. Once in the water, it may have drifted for millenia without doing anything at all. But from time to time, conditions would be right, and it would make a copy of itself. These copies, in turn, would make copies of themselves." "Its first task was to increase its population exponentially until there were enough of it living in the seas to raise the oxygen level of the planet to a level at which it might do some serious work. This anaerobic phase took approximately 3 billion years. Then it--life--seemed to explode into a myriad of forms. You will recognize this as the Cambrian explosion. It experimented until it had established a handful of viable phyla, and from one of these, cordata, it eventually came up with man." "What would such an intelligence be like? If we ever learn to communicate with it, I believe it will probably seem more like computer intelligence or artificial intelligence of some kind than like the ordinary animal intelligence we know. Is it interested in self preservation? Yes, but it must be remembered that each living cell contains only a single copy of the gnos, so that that single copy will have no interest whatsoever in preserving itself as an individual. Nor will it be much interested in the organism of which its particular cell is a part. But unlike the human brain, each such copy of the gnos will possess within itself a virtually limitless knowledge of physics, chemistry, and math. As far as goal orientation, it will probably be much clearer than that of a man. Each copy of the gnos will probably have little or no sense of position relative to the macro environment, yet it will understand its orientation relative to similar copies of the gnos. The gnos probably has no capability of experiencing suffering or emotion." "Perhaps the most interesting aspect of gnos intelligence may be an utter absence of interest in self preservation except where it might affect its overal mission. In other words, as humans we are very concerned about what happens to us as individuals, whereas the gnos may see each individual only as an experiment. If the experiment succeeds, a few copies of the gnos that have the memories that created that individual will be passed on. If the experiment fails, all will die. Neither success nor failure nor the survival or peace of mind of any individual organism it has created will make any difference to the gnos. Despite the powerful intelligence in each copy of the gnos, each copy is just another machine that has no sense of self awareness although it holds some incomprehensible master plan." "But the gnos must surely have a mission. This is why we observe that phenomenon we call progress. There is a plan for planet earth. Is man the chosen species for this plan? Are we caught in the process of transformation from brute to some higher intelligence we still can't understand? Or are we an error caused by a glitch in some ancient copy of the gnos?" "Even a most cursory examination of human history should indicate the deep flaws that plague the human mind. The gnos is obviously many times more intelligent than all mankind combined, and yet it has never to our knowledge created a device that would be harmful to life overall, such as, for example, an atom bomb. The things we create are dangerous to ourselves and to all life. To our knowledge, no other creature has ever exhibited this kind of intelligence before. And yet, that same cursory examination of history will tell us that mankind, as a whole, has become slowly less violent and more sane." "Is the gnos our enemy within? Was the original plan to terraform earth and fill it with non-sapient life for the benefit of some space farers still to come? Have we accidently developed this dangerous kind of intelligence we have which now brings us to the brink of figuring out the gnos itself? If so, then we may indeed succeed in destroying not only ourselves but nearly everything else as well. And yet the ultimate plan would almost certainly succeed if in some hole or beneath some rock even a single living cell survived." "But what if we succeed in getting through this difficult stage and become masters of our destiny? Will it only be to be annihiliated for the accidents we really are by superior space farers to come?" "On the other hand if we are on track, and man is the species of choice, then it may yet be our destiny to emulate the intelligence of he/those who sent the gnos in the first place. Perhaps it is necessary for us to go through this difficult phase in the development of human intelligence, and the gnos knows, but it is putting us through it because there are certain results it is aiming to achieve. Judging by the intelligence of the gnos, we may have several millions of years of evolutionary experimentation before we finally reach our/the gnos's/he or they who sent the gnos's goals. Meantime, if the gnos is endowed with a sense of humor, it may amuse the gnos to see how seriously we take ourselves as individuals, when the gnos sees us only as modifications and experiments toward that final goal." "Many things will change when the gnos is proven to exist. A myriad of questions will be answered, and a myriad of old theories overturned. For example, why the Cambrian explosion? Simple. Life was not evolving blindly in the dark: it was waiting for the opportunities that would come when Earth's oxygen levels were right. As I have said, the gnos knows how to make eyes. This is how the big eyes could suddenly appear on the metazoans. Why the total dinosaur extinction? Also simple. The dynosaurs were not part of the ultimate plan. Why do different kinds of animals often end up performing the same functions and even looking the same? Simple again. The gnos has specific goals, and uses whatever materials it finds to achieve them. How do children learn language so easily? The gnos has a memory extending back over millions of years, and knows all about language, and knows how to link individual copies of itself together to create the right neural paths for the language of concern. How do cells take up their positions as a fetus forms? The gnos can communicate with and identify other copies of itself. It knows how many copies of itself should fit between point A and point B, etc., and how each cell must be modified to fit the body plan. Why did Liebnitz and Newton independently discover calculus at just about the same time? The gnos sensed the correct moment had arrived, and managed to externalize the knowledge of calculus in two places at once. Etc. etc." "Why has no one made an independent discovery of the gnos since 1993? Perhaps the gnos wishes to remain hidden. Perhaps the very confusion and misery of my friend's life gave him unique insights he was never meant to have. It is not without a certain apprehension, therefore, that I deliver this insight to you. As you can imagine, we could gain frightening powers by communicating with the gnos and tapping its intelligence for our own macroscopic use. Perhaps this is why instead of publishing my results I am discussing them with you. The gnos may hold the secrets of our origins. Each copy of the gnos probably has memories extending back over millions of years. It is almost certainly able to provide us with answers to the very mysteries of the universe itself. We will probably find that we are not alone after all, but that there are untold millions of planets and intelligences like our own. I am not sure we are ready. Do you have any questions about what I have said?" "Only one," responded an incredulous Noel Johnson. "Who was your friend?" "His name was Joe Nevil. He had a sad face and a long white cane, and yet he was always ready with a smile. Because he was blind, people tended to take him for some kind of harmless idiot. They were forever telling him things like, 'Walk straight,' 'You're on the sidewalk,' 'You're doing fine,' etc. When you were a child, you may have seen him walking in Manoa." Andrew Stranton got up. It was ten o'clock. It had taken him less than an hour to outline one of the greatest discoveries known to man. "And now," he said, "I really must go." Noel Johnson waited a few moments, listening to the other's footsteps disappear. Then he slid stealthily from his chair, caught hold of the keys, went to Andrew's office, picked up his computer, and escorted it to the laboratory incinerator. For a few nights the Honolulu prostitutes noticed a tired old man walking slowly by the river. Then they saw him no more. The End.