Hot Wavelength

Chapter 37 (Resonant Wave 1): Lottery
6500 million years ago, in the Neo-Tethys Ocean, on the island of Tasmania.
In response to the crisis of Jupiter moving closer to the sun and Venus's rotation slowing down significantly, Nikola Tesla devised the Mars Explosion Plan.

Before Mars explodes, the consciousness of all Venusian humans will be uploaded to the cloud and stored in a supercomputer on Saturn's moon Iapetus. The genes and tissues of Venusian humans will also be extracted.

After safely escaping the Martian explosion and the atmospheric subsidence that created conditions suitable for human survival, Maria's team used cloning technology to resurrect the Venusians one by one on Earth.

This entire inconceivable and insane plan was forced upon us by the impending destruction of the habitable zone of the solar system and the humans on Venus; it was, in other words, a desperate measure.

Fortunately, the feasibility of the plan has been preliminarily confirmed by the government and has been submitted to the Alliance Parliament for review.

The results of the deliberations were in, and the Venus Union's Chief of Staff, Deston, and Speaker Kent announced the parliament's decision online to Tesla and others.

Abbott, Tesla, and Maria held their breath, listening intently. Speaker Kent spoke in a loud voice:

"After heated debate, Parliament voted to approve your overall proposal."

The Union Government decided that Dean Abbott would lead the Mars Explosion Project, Tesla would be the chief scientist, and Maria would be the head of bioengineering. Director Deston announced the Union Government's decision in accordance with the bill passed by the Parliament.

Dean Abbott glanced at Tesla and Maria, sensing that they, like himself, did not share the joy of the approved plan; instead, their expressions were even more solemn. This truly was a "huge responsibility."

The three spoke in turn, unanimously promising to do their utmost to overcome difficulties and complete this arduous task.

The video conference did not end as the three had expected. Speaker Kent's tense face relaxed, and he said earnestly:

“I know the challenges you face are formidable, and so are we, the lawmakers who make the rules and laws.”

Maria's heartstrings seemed to be plucked again. Decades of experience had made her deeply realize that the ethical, moral, and legal issues were even greater than the challenges of bioengineering technology.

Speaker Kent echoed Maria's sentiments, and the members of parliament debated heatedly about how to uphold the principles of fairness and safeguard the fundamental rights of citizens as guaranteed by the Constitution, even if the technology of uploading consciousness and cloning could be successfully implemented.

Some lawmakers suggested that the opinions of the plan's designers and scientists should be solicited, and the thoughts of ordinary people should also be heard to a certain extent.

Speaker Kent said the next agenda item of the video conference was to hear the opinions of the scientific team and public representatives on several key issues that were highly controversial, which could be understood as a small-scale opinion poll.

Maria was no match for the representatives of the common people; she invited Brahma and Vinu to participate. The questions from the survey form were displayed one by one on the screen.

Question 1: Do you agree that citizens under the jurisdiction of the Venusian Alliance have the right to upload their consciousness and clone their bodies once, on a voluntary basis?

Such a simple question prompted Abbott and Tesla to nod in agreement, and Maria was confirmed to be informed that the term "citizen" included minors with legal status.

Brahma and Vinu were already nervous attending such a high-level meeting for the first time. Upon hearing the explanation of the word "citizen," Vinu asked anxiously:

“My daughter Cynthia and her companions are Dr. Maria’s clones. They don’t have citizenship, but they also have lives. Can’t we give them an equal opportunity?”

Speaker Kent was currently preoccupied with a multitude of tasks and hadn't really considered the possibility of exiling clones to Earth. He quickly jotted down the issue in his notebook and promised Vinu that he would submit it to Parliament for discussion as soon as possible.

Question 2: Due to the shortage of cloning doctors and equipment, as well as the limitations of Earth's resources, the cloning program will be divided into many batches. Obviously, the fair way to determine the order of the batches is by lottery. Should the lottery numbers be one code per person or one code per family?
Everyone had their own choice, and they began to discuss it enthusiastically, with no standard answer.

The probability of a family winning a lottery increases significantly when the lottery is drawn by individuals, but it seems that allocating lottery numbers by family makes it easier to avoid the ethical crisis of a son being born before his father.

Question 3: Earth's resources will be limited for a long time. If the people who are "resurrected" first have children, it will take up resources and reduce the number of lottery slots for the next batch. Should the people who are "resurrected" first be prohibited from getting pregnant and having children before the last batch of Venusians are "resurrected"?
Tesla thought to himself, "Natural scientists and humanists think about such different things. Whether or not it is possible to conceive and give birth is indeed a difficult question."

If abortion is prohibited, will unplanned pregnancies be subject to forced abortion? If abortion is not an option, will people rush to get "unplanned" pregnancies?

Maria intuitively felt that the legislators would eventually choose to ban pregnancy and childbirth. What puzzled her was that while procreation was not the only purpose of life for Venusian humans, it was clearly a fundamental human right that no law should deprive them of.

Good heavens, an ominous premonition flashed through Maria's mind. Could it be that some self-righteous so-called expert suggested prioritizing men or women for "resurrection"? Question 4: The "resurrection" quota for each batch depends on the construction efficiency of Earth's carrying capacity. Should those with stronger professional skills and higher work efficiency required for Earth's construction be prioritized for "resurrection"?

Speaker Kent explained that, on this issue, members of parliament reached a rare consensus, authorizing Dean Abbott to draft a whitelist, so that scientists and key engineers involved in the Mars Burst project would automatically be among the first to be "resurrected" without having to wait in line or draw lots.

Efficiency and fairness—what's the point of right or wrong? There's only choice, Dean Abbott thought to himself.

He is open to whatever decision the legislators ultimately make, unless someone proposes a so-called genetic selection theory, which would cross his bottom line.

One problem after another followed, and Maria noticed that Brama and Vinu seemed preoccupied. No matter how the questions changed, the couple's focus remained on little Cynthia.

The lengthy and somewhat oppressive survey was finally completed, and the video conference ended.

Vinu walked over, took Maria's hand, and tears streamed down her face. She choked up and couldn't speak, but Maria knew what she wanted to say.

Nikola Tesla sat in his chair, absorbed in the series of questions he had just heard. Suddenly, he thought that he should connect to the external brain through the lightning ball and see what kind of answers it would give.

He stood up and walked towards the specially made chair, an idea flashing through his mind.

Tesla's external brain undergoes long-term, personalized training and is the best match for Tesla.

Out of curiosity, Maria and even Vinu sat in the chair and connected to the external brain through the lightning ball. The result was that it did not significantly improve their "thinking ability", but no incompatibility anomalies were found.

Whether the clone Cynthia and her companions will be allowed to be cloned again depends first and foremost on whether their consciousness can be successfully extracted and uploaded.

Are the brainwaves of clones the same as those of Venusian humans? This was the question that Tesla suddenly conceived.

With the Brahms's consent, little Cynthia sat down in the chair. Tesla controlled the lightning ball while simultaneously activating the EEG recorder.

Little Cynthia was wearing a special helmet, and Vinu told her to raise her right hand if she felt uncomfortable.

As the connection was established, the power of the lightning ball continuously increased, and the EEG recorder displayed peaks and troughs, with a smooth, meandering curve moving regularly to the right side of the screen.

Vinu hid half her body behind Brahma, one hand tightly gripping her husband's collar, her eyes fixed on little Cynthia's outstretched right hand.

For safety reasons, Tesla set the output power of the Lightning Ball to about half of what he usually used. After the voltage reached the set value and remained stable, the external computer's display did not receive any connection signal.

Huh? What's going on? Maria and Vinu both successfully connected to the external brain under the same power of the lightning ball, but why isn't Cynthia responding?

Suddenly, multiple chaotic noise waves appeared on the EEG recorder, darting up and down, with wavelengths and frequencies clearly different from the main wave, creating strong interference.

"A resonant wave!" Tesla exclaimed.

At the same time, little Cynthia struggled to raise her right hand, and Tesla quickly shut off the power.

Maria asked Tesla what the appearance of a resonant wave meant.
“Due to differences in brain structure, it’s very likely that Cynthia and her companions’ consciousness cannot be extracted and uploaded,” Tesla said, shaking his head helplessly.

"So, even if it's approved, Cynthia and the previous batch of clones won't be able to upload their consciousness?" Vinu slumped to the ground.

&
The poem composed of collected verses at the end of the chapter:
The path through the clear water is difficult to fathom, as described by the Song Dynasty monk Shaotan.

The origins and development of positive and negative changes are numerous. (Qing Dynasty, Tian Wen)

All things originate from one source; Song Dynasty, a Buddhist monk.
Clearly, it should be viewed as a chaotic mess. (Song Dynasty, Wen Tianxiang)
(End of this chapter)