Truth & Code: The Future is Black and White

A New Reality

Block, 7,928,098

“Mr. Tan? Mr. Tan? Min asks as she walks into Han’s office from the stairs.

Han is sitting in his office chair with his back towards the entrance. He raises his hand so Min can see him. However, he doesn’t turn around.

Min approaches him, but he remains motionless, looking out the window. She then walks around the desk to see him.

“Oh, Mr. Tan! I’m so sorry!” Han has a blank stare on his face. He’s barefoot, and his shirt is untucked and wrinkled. He has a five o’clock shadow.

“Mr. Tan, is there anything I can get you?” Min asks.

He shakes his head.

“Min, do you think life is better over there?”

Min looks out the window toward the direction Han is looking. “Where? Over there?” She points.

“No, no. At the place, this data device is from.”

“Oh, Mr. Tan, we don’t even know what this data is. Let alone where it’s from. So please, let’s get you cleaned up. So please...”

“What did you find out yesterday at the crash site?”

“Mr. Tan. Let’s get you cleaned up first.”

He looks at Min, “Min, I need to know what happened. Where is my family?”

Min begins to weep, “Mr. Tan, there was a catastrophic failure of the AAPD. It came apart in flight, and your family was gone instantly. They felt no pain and likely didn’t know what had happened up to the moment of the failure. That’s all I know. Unfortunately, there was no more information available.”

“No! No! No!” Han yells and turns to hit the desk.

He stands up with clenched fists and bangs the desk again and again. Min startles when he does this. She has never seen any extreme anger from him, ever. The only intense emotion she has ever seen from him is his love and affection for his family. She reaches out to hug him. At first, he backs away but finally relents, almost putting his total weight on her. They both cry.

“C’mon, let’s sit you down on the couch.”

Han nods, and they slowly make their way to the couch.

“I’ll get some clean clothes for you, ok?”

Han nods.

“Ok, let me get some things to clean you up.” Min walks into Han’s bathroom and grabs a washcloth, towel, soap and water, a small bucket, and a razor.

She walks back toward Han, starts cleaning, and then begins shaving him.

Han grabs her wrist and looks at her.

“Thank you, Min. Thank you for being so loyal.”

“Yes, of course, Mr. Tan. Please use your family’s memory to create a legacy. You will always love them, and they will always love you.”

Han nods in agreement. He has a decidedly somber affect.

“I’m going to get some food up here for you, and then we can slowly get back to work. Will that be ok?”

Han nods again. An assistant walks up the stairs and places the change of clothes on the conference room table for Han.

“Ok, Mr. Tan, I’m going to put the clothes in the bathroom so you can change. Is that ok?”

Han nods again. Min walks over to get his clothes, and she places them in the bathroom. She then goes to the couch and helps Han up. They walk to the bathroom together, and she leads him inside.

“Ok, are you going to be ok to change?”

Han nods again.

“I will leave the door cracked in case you need me. Then, I will wait on the couch until you are ready.”

Han nods again. She closes the door but leaves it cracked and sat back on the couch. After a few moments, Han comes shuffling back in flip-flops. His pant legs are rolled up, and he only wears a tank top t-shirt.

“Great, Mr. Tan. Let’s sit down at the table.”

He would always sit at the head but, without thinking, shuffles toward the closest chair.

“Mr. Tan, don’t you want to sit there?” Min points at the head of the table.

Han shakes his head.

“Ok, I will sit next to you while you eat.”

Moments later, another assistant brings Han some food. It’s steamed rice, fish, and black tea.

Han feebly grabs his chopsticks and begins to eat. He manages to finish a little over half of the meal. His appetite is constrained.

“Mr. Tan, do you want more time, or are you ready to start looking at data?”

“It’s ok; we can start looking at the data.”

“Ok, well, the synchronization process was completed yesterday. The data shows that, whatever it is, it dates back to January 3, 2009, and except for the first data set, a new data set shows up on average about every ten minutes. We analyzed hundreds of thousands of these data sets, and it averaged to that. The bizarre thing is that it continues even to this day.”

Han looked at Min.

“Mr. Tan. The EMC director is on the line for you.” AI announces.

“You mean the SO-Land EMC director!” Han says through gritted teeth.

“Yes, sir.”

Min interrupts, “Mr. Tan, do you want me to take that call?”

“No, Min, I’ll take the call. Connect!”

“Hello? To whom am I speaking?” Arman asks.

“You are speaking with the CEO of Han Tech, Han Tan.”

“Ahhh, the one who abruptly ended our call yesterday.”

“Yes, that’s right. What can I do for you?”

“Well, I spoke with your assistant yesterday...”

“She’s not my assistant. She’s the lead engineer of Han Tech and answers only to me.”

“Well, I spoke with her yesterday about your little experiment. I want to know exactly how long this is going to take. I’m in charge of maintaining and conserving all energy within SO-Lands.”

“Yes, I know what your job is. What seems to be the problem?”

“Well, this new feature is drawing more energy and is not sustainable, and there seems to be some weird energy drawn from the Ben Jianao node. Can you explain that?”

“Not right now. We are seeing the same thing and addressing it. It’s part of our overall plan to implement the new feature. So it’s going to take some time.”

“Isn’t that the node you were at yesterday? I’ve checked with SO-Land AI and confirmed your location yesterday.”

“Yes, I was there.”

“But you can’t tell me what’s going on? How about Han Tech AI?”

“How about you tell me what happened to my family yesterday!” Han angrily screams. “Why don’t you check with SO-Land AI and figure that out for me? Can you do that?”

“Hold on, Mr. Tan. Are you suggesting SO-Land or I had anything to do with what happened to your family? Do you know what that might mean for you?”

“I’m not suggesting either of you had anything to do with it, but I want answers. So why can’t SO-Land AI give me answers?

“I understand your frustration...”

“Damn you! You don’t understand my frustration. I’m not frustrated; I’m enraged. We will keep you posted on the energy consumption of our new feature. Goodbye. Disconnect!”

“Mr. Tan, are you sure you should have taken that call?”

“I don’t give a damn! Let’s get our work done.”

“Ok, Mr. Tan. Returning to the data that we are looking at, the data continues to this day. About every ten minutes, a new data set appears. We have started analyzing the data from the very beginning. There appear to be strange data sets within various data blocks like the one in the first block. But it’s in a non-native language.”

“All right, we have this information that doesn’t appear to be from SO-Land, and it continues to this day. So I would say let’s look at the newest data and see if there is anything that can tell us what’s going on today. It may just be something was started and is running continuously, randomly.”

“Mr. Tan, I’m not so sure about it being random. The intervals between each block may be random, but it follows an overall ordered progression. And if it was just random computer code running somewhere, why wouldn’t it be non-random? The randomness of this makes me think there is a non-random process going on, but its content depends on some other random process that secures it. Plus, there must be a means and energy source to keep this going. Why would anyone waste energy to maintain random code? We just heard from EMC how important energy is. And we know this, too, because of the work we do. So I assess that this is important data being randomly added, but the process behind it is not random. And the amount of energy to secure this for this time has got to be staggering.”

“AI, off!” Han commands.

“Min, do you realize what this means? Something exists beyond our borders that we don’t know about. Something beyond our closed system of thinking is out there. We see an elegant and intelligent design in this. It points to something else. But why don’t we know about it? And if we consider its energy usage over one hundred and fifty years, where is all that energy coming from? Why is this not something known to us? If something within SO-Land used that much energy, it would be a massive project that touched every aspect of our lives, like AI. But it must match the importance of AI to be consuming that much energy.”

“Yes, I see what you are saying.”

“Min, I must find hope for living beyond what I have right now. I can’t bear to be without my family, but if there is hope beyond what we know here in SO-Land, I want to find it. But, unfortunately, SO-Land can’t give me the answers I need about what happened to my family. It pains me because I have devoted more of my life to protecting SO-Land than I have to my own family. I feel I have been betrayed. And the emptiness I feel now is what I had before Huifen, Haoyu, Lixin, and Lilly. And I didn’t know” Han begins to cry. Min reaches over to hug him. “But when they came, my emptiness was filled, and now I see emptiness again. I can’t live for SO-Land alone anymore.”

Min begins to cry. “Yes, Mr. Tan. Yes, I know. I will do what I can to help you.”