65 million years ago, New Tethys Ocean on Earth, Tower Island
To counter the crisis of Jupiter drawing closer to the Sun and Venus's rotation slowing significantly, Nikola Tesla devised the Mars explosion plan.
Before the Mars explosion, the consciousness of all Venusians would be uploaded to the cloud and stored in the supercomputer on Titan. Their genes and tissues would also be extracted.
After they safely avoided the Mars explosion and Earth's atmosphere had settled enough to support human life, Maria's team would use cloning technology to revive the Venusians one by one on Earth.
This entire, utterly insane plan had been forced upon them by the impending destruction of the Solar System's habitable zone and the Venusians. It was, in other words, a last resort.
Fortunately, so far the government departments had preliminarily confirmed the plan's feasibility, and it had been submitted to the Alliance Council for review.
The review's result had arrived. Director Diston of the Venus Alliance Office and Speaker Kent announced the Council's decision to Tesla and the others online.
Abbott, Tesla, and Maria held their breath, listening gravely as Speaker Kent spoke in a booming voice:
"After heated debate, the Council has voted to approve your overall plan."
The Alliance government had decided that Dean Abbott would lead the Mars explosion plan, Tesla would serve as chief scientist, and Maria would be responsible for bioengineering. Director Diston announced the government's decision in accordance with the Council's resolution.
Dean Abbott looked from Tesla to Maria. He could tell that, like him, they felt no joy at the approval. If anything, their expressions had grown graver. This truly was what people meant by "a tremendous responsibility."
The three took turns speaking, each assuring the others that they would do everything in their power to overcome the challenges and complete this arduous mission.
The video conference did not end as the three had expected. Speaker Kent's tense expression relaxed, and he said earnestly:
"I know the challenges you face are immense. But what of us lawmakers, tasked with making rules and laws? Don't we face challenges just as great?"
Maria felt her heartstrings plucked once more. Decades of experience had taught her that the ethical, moral, and legal questions were an even greater challenge than bioengineering.
Speaker Kent confirmed what Maria had suspected. Even if consciousness uploads and cloning could be achieved, how to uphold fairness throughout the process and protect citizens' fundamental constitutional rights had sparked fierce arguments among the councilors.
Some councilors suggested seeking input from the plan's designers and scientists, while also listening to ordinary citizens within a limited scope.
Speaker Kent explained that the next item on the video conference agenda was to hear from the scientific team and citizen representatives on several contentious issues. It could be considered a small-scale public opinion survey.
Maria had no trouble finding ordinary citizens to represent the public. She invited Brahma and Vinu, and the questions on the survey appeared one by one on the screen.
Question 1: Do you agree that citizens under the jurisdiction of the Venus Alliance should have the right, if they choose, to upload their consciousness and clone a body exactly once?
The question seemed simple enough. Abbott and Tesla nodded in agreement. After checking, Maria was told that "citizens" here included minors with legal status.
Brahma and Vinu were attending a meeting of this caliber for the first time, and they were already nervous. After hearing the explanation of the word "citizen," Vinu asked uneasily:
"My daughter Cynthia and her companions were cloned by Doctor Maria. They don't have citizenship, but they're still alive. Could they be given the same opportunity, just once?"
Speaker Kent had his hands full with countless urgent matters and had not considered the clones exiled to Earth. He quickly wrote down the question in his notebook and promised Vinu he would bring it before the Council as soon as possible.
Question 2: Because of the shortage of cloning doctors and equipment, as well as Earth's limited resources, the cloning plan will be divided into many batches. Clearly, a fair way to decide the order is to draw lots. Should each person get a number, or should each family get one?
Everyone had their own preference, and they launched into a spirited discussion. There was, of course, no right answer.
If people drew lots individually, the odds of each family having someone selected would rise significantly. But assigning numbers by family seemed more likely to prevent the ethical dilemma of a son being born before his father.
Question 3: Earth's resources will remain limited for a long time. If people who are "revived" first have children, they will use up resources and reduce the number of places available in the next batch. Should those revived earlier be forbidden from getting pregnant and having children until the final batch of Venusians has been "revived"?
Tesla thought, Natural scientists and scholars in the humanities really do think about completely different things. Whether people should be allowed to have children is a tough question.
If they were forbidden, should accidental pregnancies be forcibly terminated? If abortion were not compulsory, would people start deliberately getting "accidentally" pregnant?
Maria instinctively believed the councilors would ultimately decide to ban pregnancy and childbirth. What troubled her was that, although procreation was not the only purpose of life for Venusians, it was clearly one of the most fundamental human rights that no law should deprive them of.
Good heavens. An ominous thought flashed through Maria's mind. Surely no self-proclaimed expert would suggest that only men or only women should be "revived" first?
Question 4: The number of people "revived" in each batch will depend on how efficiently Earth's capacity is developed. Should those with more relevant expertise and greater work efficiency be given priority?
Speaker Kent made a point of explaining that, on this issue, the councilors had reached a rare consensus. They had authorized Dean Abbott to draw up a whitelist: scientists and key technical personnel involved in the Mars explosion plan would not have to wait in the lottery queue and would automatically be entitled to be in the first batch of people "revived."
Efficiency or fairness—which was right or wrong? There was no answer, only a choice, Dean Abbott thought.
He could accept whatever the councilors ultimately decided—unless someone proposed so-called genetic selection. That would cross the limit of what he could tolerate.
One question followed another. Maria noticed how troubled Brahma and Vinu seemed. No matter how the questions changed, the couple's thoughts always returned to Little Cynthia.
At last, the lengthy, oppressive survey was complete, and the video conference ended.
Vinu came over and took Maria's hand. Tears spilled from her eyes, and she choked up, unable to speak. But Maria knew what she wanted to say.
Nikola Tesla sat in his chair, lost in the string of questions they had just discussed. Suddenly, he thought of connecting to his external brain through the Lightning Ball to see what answers it might give.
He stood and walked toward the specially made chair. A thought flashed through his mind.
Tesla's external brain had undergone extensive personalized training and was best matched to him.
Out of curiosity, even Maria and Vinu had sat in the chair and connected to the external brain through the Lightning Ball. The results had not noticeably improved their "thinking ability," but neither had there been any signs of incompatibility.
Whether the clone Little Cynthia and her companions would be allowed another chance at cloning depended first on whether their consciousness could be successfully extracted and uploaded.
Did clones have the same brain waves as Venusians? That was the question that had suddenly occurred to Tesla.
With Brahma and Vinu's consent, Little Cynthia sat in the chair. Tesla operated the Lightning Ball and switched on the brainwave recorder.
Little Cynthia wore a specially made helmet. Vinu told her to raise her right hand if she felt uncomfortable.
The connection began. The Lightning Ball's power steadily increased. Peaks and troughs appeared on the brainwave recorder, and a smooth, winding line moved regularly toward the right side of the screen.
Vinu stood half-hidden behind Brahma, one hand gripping her husband's clothes tightly. Her eyes were fixed on Little Cynthia's right hand, resting at her side.
To be safe, Tesla set the Lightning Ball's output to about half the level he normally used. Once the voltage reached its set point and stabilized, the external brain computer's display showed no connection signal.
Huh? What was going on? At the same power level, Maria and Vinu had both connected successfully to the external brain. Why was there no response from Little Cynthia?
Suddenly, several erratic waves appeared on the brainwave recorder, jumping up and down. Their wavelengths and frequencies were clearly different from the main wave, creating severe interference.
"Resonance Wave!" Tesla cried.
At the same time, Little Cynthia struggled to raise her right hand. Tesla quickly shut off the power.
Maria asked Tesla what the Resonance Wave meant.
"The brain structures are different. Little Cynthia and her companions may not be able to have their consciousness extracted and uploaded." Tesla shook his head and replied helplessly.
"So even if they're approved, Little Cynthia and the other clones from this batch still won't be able to upload their consciousness?" Vinu sank weakly to the floor.
—
Poem excerpt at the end of the chapter:
The path through clear waves seems hard to find — Song, Shi Shaotan
The flow of orthodox and variant traditions has several branches — Qing, Tian Wen
All things have always been one in their origin — Song, Shi Liaoyi
Plainly, one may regard them as chaos — Song, Wen Tianxiang
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