Waiting For Armageddon (Trailer)

Talking To God

Talking to God...

I met god the other day.

I know what you're thinking. How the hell did you know it was god?

Well, I'll explain as we go along, but basically he convinced me by

having all, and I do mean ALL, the answers. Every question I flung at

him he batted back with a plausible and satisfactory answer. In the

end, it was easier to accept that he was god than otherwise.

Which is odd, because I'm still an atheist and we even agree on that!

It all started on the 8.20 back from Paddington. Got myself a nice

window seat, no screaming brats or drunken hooligans within earshot.

Not even a mobile phone in sight. Sat down, reading the paper and in

he walks.

What did he look like?

Well not what you might have expected that's for sure. He was about

30, wearing a pair of jeans and a "hobgoblin" tee shirt. Definitely

casual. Looked like he could have been a social worker or perhaps a

programmer like myself.

'Anyone sitting here?' he said.

'Help yourself' I replied.

Sits down, relaxes, I ignore and back to the correspondence on genetic

foods entering the food chain…

Train pulls out and a few minutes later he speaks.

'Can I ask you a question?'

Fighting to restrain my left eyebrow I replied 'Yes' in a tone which

was intended to convey that I might not mind one question, and

possibly a supplementary, but I really wasn't in the mood for a

conversation. ..

'Why don't you believe in god?'

The Bastard!

I love this kind of conversation and can rabbit on for hours about the

nonsense of theist beliefs. But I have to be in the mood! It's like

when a jehova's witness knocks on your door 20 minutes before you're

due to have a wisdom tooth pulled. Much as you'd really love to stay…

You can't even begin the fun. And I knew, if I gave my standard reply

we'd still be arguing when we got to Cardiff. I just wasn't in the

mood. I needed to fend him off.

But then I thought 'Odd! How is this perfect stranger so obviously

confident – and correct – about my atheism?' If I'd been driving my

car, it wouldn't have been such a mystery. I've got the Darwin fish on

the back of mine – the antidote to that twee christian fish you see

all over. So anyone spotting that and understanding it would have been

in a position to guess my beliefs. But I was on a train and not even

wearing my Darwin "Evolve" tshirt that day. And 'The Independent'

isn't a registered flag for card carrying atheists, so what, I

wondered, had given the game away.

'What makes you so certain that I don't?'

'Because', he said, ' I am god – and you are not afraid of me'

You'll have to take my word for it of course, but there are ways you

can deliver a line like that – most of which would render the speaker

a candidate for an institution, or at least prozac. Some of which

could be construed as mildly amusing.

Conveying it as "indifferent fact" is a difficult task but that's

exactly how it came across. Nothing in his tone or attitude struck me

as even mildly out of place with that statement. He said it because he

believed it and his rationality did not appear to be drug induced or

the result of a mental breakdown.

'And why should I believe that?'

'Well' he said, 'why don't you ask me a few questions. Anything you

like, and see if the answers satisfy your sceptical mind?'

This is going to be a short conversation after all, I thought.

'Who am I?'

'Stottle. Harry Stottle, born August 10 1947, Bristol, England. Father

Paul, Mother Mary. Educated Duke of Yorks Royal Military School 1960

67, Sandhurst and Oxford, PhD in Exobiology, failed rock singer, full

time trade union activist for 10 years, latterly self employed

computer programmer, web author and aspiring philosopher. Married to

Michelle, American citizen, two children by a previous marriage.

You're returning home after what seems to have been a successful

meeting with an investor interested in your proposed product tracking

anti-forgery software and protocol and you ate a full english

breakfast at the hotel this morning except that, as usual, you asked

them to hold the revolting english sausages and give you some extra

bacon. '

He paused

'You're not convinced. Hmmm… what would it take to convince you?'

'oh right! Your most secret password and its association'

A serious hacker might be able to obtain the password, but no one else

and I mean

NO ONE

knows its association.

He did.

So how would you have played it?

I threw a few more questions about relatively insignificant but

unpublicised details of my life (like what my mother claims was the

first word I ever spoke – apparently "armadillo"! (Don't ask…)) but I

was already pretty convinced. I knew there were only three possible

explanations at this point.

Possibility One was that I was dreaming or hallucinating. Nobody's

figured out a test for that so, at the time I think that was my

dominant feeling. It did not feel real at the time. More like I was in

a play. Acting my lines. Since the event, however, continuing detailed

memories of it, together with my contemporaneous notes, remain

available, so unless the hallucination has continued to this day, I am

now inclined to reject the hallucination hypothesis. Which leaves two

others.

He could have been a true telepath. No documented evidence exists of

anyone ever having such profound abilities to date but it was a

possibility. It would have explained how he could know my best-kept

secrets. The problem with that is that it doesn't explain anything

else! In particular it doesn't account for the answers he proceeded to

give to my later questions.

As Sherlock Holmes says, when you've eliminated the impossible,

whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

Good empiricist, Sherlock.

I was forced to accept at least the possibility that this man was who

he claimed to be.

So now what do you do?

Well, I've always known that if I met god I would have a million

questions for him, so I thought, 'why not?' and proceeded with what

follows. You'll have to allow a bit of licence in the detail of the

conversation. This was, shall we say, a somewhat unusual occurrence,

not to mention just a BIT weird! And yes I was a leetle bit nervous!

So if I don't get it word perfect don't whinge! You'll get the gist I

promise.

***********************************

'Forgive me if it takes me a little time to get up to speed here, but

it's not everyday I get to question a deity'

'The Deity' he interrupted.

'ooh. Touchy!' I thought.

'Not really – just correcting the image'

Now That takes some getting used to!

I tried to get a grip on my thoughts, with an internal command -

'Discipline Harry. You've always wanted to be in a situation like

this, now you're actually in it, you mustn't go to pieces and waste

the opportunity of a lifetime'

'You won't' he said.

Tell you! That's the bit that made it feel unreal more than anything

else - this guy sitting across the table and very obviously accurately

reading my every thought. It's like finding someone else's hand inside

your trouser pocket!

Nevertheless, something made me inclined to accept the invasion, I had

obviously begun to have some confidence in his perception or

abilities, so I distinctly remember the effect of his words was that I

suddenly felt deeply reassured and completely relaxed. As he had no

doubt intended. Man must have an amazing seduction technique!

So then we got down to business…

'Are you human?'

'No'

'Were you, ever?'

'No, but similar, Yes'

'Ah, so you are a product of evolution?'

'Most certainly – mainly my own'

'and you evolved from a species like ours, dna based organisms or

something equally viable?'

'Correct'

'so what, exactly, makes you god?'

'I did'

'Why?'

'Seemed like a good idea at the time'

'and your present powers, are they in any way similar to what the

superstitious believers in my species attribute to you?'

'Close enough. '

'So you created all this, just for us?'

'No. Of course not'

'But you did create the Universe?'

'This One. Yes'

'But not your own?'

'This is my own!'

'You know what I mean!'

'You can't create your own parents, so No'

'So let me get this straight. You are an entirely natural phenomenon.'

'Entirely'

'Arising from mechanisms which we ourselves will one day understand

and possibly even master?'

'subject to a quibble over who "we ourselves" may be, but yes'

'meaning that if the human race doesn't come up to the mark, other

species eventually will?'

'in one.'

'and how many other species are there already out there ahead of us?'

'surprisingly few. Less than fourteen million'

'FEW!?'

'Phew!'

'And how many at or about our level?'

'currently a little over 4 ½ billion'

'so our significance in the universe at present is roughly equivalent

to the significance of the average Joe here on planet Earth in his

relation to the human race?'

'a little less. Level One, the level your species has reached, begins

with the invention of the flying machine. I define the next level in

terms your Sci Fi Author Isaac Asimov has already grasped. It is

reached when you achieve control of your own primary – the Sun. What

Asimov calls a Type I technology. Humanity is only just into the

flying machine phase, so as you can imagine, on that scale, the human

race is somewhat near the bottom of the level one pack'

'and all these species are your children?'

'I like to think of them that way'

'and the point?'

'at its simplest, "Life Must Go On". My personal motivation is the

desire for conversation. Once you've achieved my level, you cease to

be billions of separate entities and become one ecstatic whole. A

single entity that cannot die, however advanced, or perhaps, more

accurately, because it is so advanced, will get lonely and even a

trifle bored! I seem to be the first. I do not intend to be the last'

'so you created a Universe which is potentially capable of producing

another god like yourself?'

'The full benefit will be temporary, but like most orgasms, worth it.'

'this being the moment when our new god merges with you and we become

one again?'

'don't play it down, that's the ecstatic vision driving us all, me

included – and when it happens the ecstasy lasts several times longer

than this universe has already existed. Believe me, it really is worth

the effort.'

'Yes, I think I can see the attractions of a hundred billion year long orgasm'

'and humans haven't even begun to know how to really enjoy the orgasms

they are already capable of. Wait till you master that simple art!'

'So it's all about sex is it?'

'Ecstasy is merely a reward for procreating, it is what makes you want

to do it. This is necessary, initially, to promote biological

evolution. However once you've completed that stage and no longer

require procreation, you will learn that ecstasy can be infinitely

more intense than anything offered by sex'

'Sounds good to me!'

'How direct is your involvement in all this? Did you just light the

fuse which set off the big bang and stand back and watch? Or did you

have to plant the seeds on appropriately fertile planets?'

'The seeds evolved in deep space, purely as a result of the operations

of the laws of physics and chemistry which your scientists have begun

to attain a reasonable grasp of. Yes I triggered the bang and

essentially became dormant for nearly 5 billion years. That's how long

it took the first lifeforms to emerge. That places them some 8 billion

years ahead of you. The first intelligent species are now 4.3 billion

years ahead of you. Really quite advanced. I can have deeply

meaningful conversations with them. And usually do. In fact I am as we

speak'

'So then what?'

'Do I keep a constant vigil over every move you make? Not in the kind

of prying intrusive sense that some of you seem to think. Let's say I

maintain an awareness of what's going on, at a planetary level. I tend

only to focus on evolutionary leaps. See if they're going in the right

direction'

'And if they're not?'

'Nothing. Usually'

'Usually?'

'Usually species evolving in the wrong direction kill themselves off

or become extinct for other reasons'

'Usually?'

'There have been one or two cases where a wrong species has had the

potential of becoming dominant at the expense of a more promising

strain'

'Let me guess. Dinosaurs on this planet are an example. Too

successful. Suppressed the development of mammals and were showing no

signs of developing intelligence. So you engineered a little

corrective action in the form of a suitably selected asteroid'

'Perceptive. Almost correct. They were showing signs of developing

intelligence, even co-operation. Study your velocirapters. But far too

predatory. Incapable of ever developing a "respect" for other life

forms. It takes carrying your young to promote the development of

emotional attachment to other animals. Earth reptiles aren't built for

that. The mammals who are, as you rightly say, couldn't get a foothold

against such mighty predators. You've now reached the stage where you

could hold your own even against dinosaurs, but that's only been true

for about a thousand years, you wouldn't have stood a chance 2 million

years ago, so the dinosaurs had to go. They were, however, far too

well balanced with the ecology of the planet, and never developed

technology, so they weren't going to kill themselves off in a hurry.

Regrettably, I had to intervene.'

'Regrettably?'

'They were a beautiful and stunningly successful life form. One

doesn't destroy such things without a qualm.'

'But at that stage how could you know that a better prospect would

arise from the ashes?'

'I didn't. But the probability was quite high.'

'and since then, what other little tweaks have you been responsible

for in our development?'

'None whatsoever. I set an alarm for the first sign of aerial

activity, as I usually do. Leonardo looked promising for a while, but

not until the Montgolfier brothers did I really begin to take an

interest. That registered you as a level one intelligent species'

'So Jesus of Nazareth, Moses, Mohammed…'

'hmmm… sadly misguided I'm afraid. Anyone capable of communicating

with their own cells will dimly perceive me – and all other life as

being connected in a strictly quantum sense, but interpreting that

vision as representing something supernatural and requiring obeisance

is somewhat wide of the mark. And their followers are all a bit too

obsessive and religious for my liking. It's no fun being worshipped

once you stop being an adolescent teenager. Having said that, it's not

at all unusual for developing species to go through that phase. Until

they begin to grasp how much they too can shape their small corner of

the universe, they are in understandable awe of an individual dimly

but correctly perceived to be responsible for the creation of the

whole of that universe. Eventually, if they are to have any hope of

attaining level two, they must grow out of it and begin to accept

their own power and potential. It's very akin to a child's

relationship with its parents. The awe and worship must disappear

before the child can become an adult. Respect is not so bad as long as

it's not overdone. And I certainly respect all those species who make

it that far. It's a hard slog. I know. I've been there.'

'You've been watching us since the Montgolfiers, when was that? 1650s?'

'Close. 1783'

'Well, if you've been watching us closely since then, what your

average citizen is going to want to know is why you haven't intervened

more often. Why, if you have that sort of power, did you allow such

incredible suffering and human misery?'

'It seems to be necessary.'

'NECESSARY??!!'

'Without exception, intelligent species who gain dominance over their

planet do so by becoming the most efficient predators. There are many

intelligent species who do not evolve to dominate their planet. Like

your dolphins, they adapt perfectly to the environment rather than

take your course, which is to manipulate the environment.

Unfortunately for the dolphin, his is a dead end. He may outlive the

human race but will never escape the bounds of planet earth - not

without your help at any rate. Only those who can manipulate the world

they live in can one day hope to leave it and spread their seed

throughout the universe.

Unlike the adaptors, who learn the point of cooperation fairly early

on, manipulators battle on. And, once all lesser species have been

overcome, they are so competitive and predatory that they are

compelled to turn in on themselves. This nearly always evolves into

tribal competition in one form or another and becomes more and more

destructive - exactly like your own history. However this competition

is vital to promote the leap from biological to technological

evolution.

You need an arms race in order to make progress.

Your desire to dominate fuels a search for knowledge which the

adaptors never require. And although your initial desire for knowledge

is selfish and destructive, it begins the development of an

intellectual self awareness, a form of higher consciousness, which

never emerges in any other species. Not even while they are

experiencing it, for example, can the intelligent adaptors - your

dolphins - express the concepts of Love or Time.

Militarisation and the development of weapons of mass destruction are

your first serious test at level one. You're still not through that

phase, though the signs are promising. There is no point whatsoever in

my intervening to prevent your self-destruction. Your ability to

survive these urges is a crucial test of your fitness to survive later

stages. So I would not, never have and never will intervene to prevent

a species from destroying itself. Most, in fact, do just that.'

'And what of pity for those have to live through this torment?'

'I can't say this in any way that doesn't sound callous, but how much

time do you spend worrying about the ants you run over in your car? I

know it sounds horrendous to you, but you have to see the bigger

picture. At this stage in human development, you're becoming

interesting but not yet important.'

'ah but I can't have an intelligent conversation with an ant'

'precisely'

'hmm… as you know, humans won't like even to attempt to grasp that

perspective. How can you make it more palatable?'

'Why should I? You don't appear to have any trouble grasping it.

You're by no means unique. And in any case, once they begin to

understand what's in it for them, they'll be somewhat less inclined to

moan. Eternal life compensates for most things.'

'So what are we supposed to do in order to qualify for membership of

the universal intelligentsia?'

'Evolve. Survive'

'Yes, but how?'

'Oh, I thought you might have got the point by now. "How" is entirely

up to you. If I have to help, then you're a failure. All I will say is

this. You've already passed a major hurdle in learning to live with

nuclear weapons. It's depressing how many fail at that stage.'

'Is there worse to come?'

'Much'

'Genetic warfare for instance?

'Distinct Possibility'

'and the problem is… that we need to develop all these technologies,

acquire all this dangerous knowledge in order to reach level two. But

at any stage that knowledge could also cause our own destruction'

'If you think the dangers of genetic warfare are serious, imagine

discovering a secret thought or program, accessible to any intelligent

individual, which, if abused, will eliminate your species instantly.

If your progress continues as is, then you can expect to discover that

particular self-destruct mechanism in less than a thousand years. Your

species has got to grow up considerably before you can afford to make

that discovery. And if you don't make it, you will never leave your

Solar System and join the rest of the sapient species on level two.'

'14 Million of them'

'Just under'

'Will there be room for us?'

'it's a big place'

'and, for now, how should we mere mortals regard you then?'

'like an older brother or sister. Of course I know more than you do.

Of course I'm more powerful than you. I've been alive longer. But I'm

not "better" than you. Just more developed. Just what you might

become'

'so we're not obliged to "please" you or follow your alleged

guidelines or anything like that?'

'absolutely not. Never issued a single guideline in the lifetime of

this Universe. Have to find your own way out of the maze. And one

early improvement is to stop expecting me - or anyone else - to come

and help you out.'

'I suppose that is a guideline of sorts, so there goes the habit of a

lifetime! '

'Seriously though, species who hold on to religion past its sell-by

date tend to be most likely to self destruct. They spend so much

energy arguing about my true nature, and invest so much emotion in

their wildly erroneous imagery that they end up killing each other

over differences in definitions of something they clearly haven't got

a clue about. Ludicrous behaviour, but it does weed out the

weaklings.'

'Why me? Why pick on an atheist of all people? Why are you telling me

all this? And why Now?'

'Why You? Because can accept my existence without your ego caving in

and grovelling like a naughty child. '

'Can you seriously imagine how the Pope would react to the reality of

my existence?! If he really understood how badly wrong he and his

church have been, how much of the pain and suffering you mentioned

earlier has been caused by his religion, I suspect he'd have an

instant coronary! Or can you picture what it would be like if I

appeared "live" simultaneously on half a dozen tele-evangelist

propaganda shows. Pat Robertson would wet himself if he actually

understood who he was talking to.

Conversely, your interest is purely academic. You've never swallowed

the fairy tale but you've remained open to the possibility of a more

advanced life form which could acquire godlike powers. You've

correctly guessed that godhood is the destiny of life. You have shown

you can and do cope with the concept. It seemed reasonable to confirm

your suspicions and let you do what you will with that information.

You can and will publish this conversation on the web, where it will

sow an important seed. Might take a couple of hundred years to

germinate, but, eventually, it will germinate.

Why Now? Well partly because both you and the web are ready now. But

chiefly because the human race is reaching a critical phase. It goes

back to what we were saying about the dangers of knowledge.

Essentially your species is becoming aware of that danger. When that

happens to any sapient species, the future can take three courses.

Many are tempted to avoid the danger by avoiding the knowledge. Like

the adaptors, they are doomed to extinction. Often pleasantly enough

in the confines of their own planet until either their will to live

expires or their primary turns red giant and snuffs them out.

A large number go on blindly acquiring the knowledge and don't learn

to restrain their abuse. Their fate is sealed somewhat more quickly of

course, when Pandora's box blows up in their faces.

The only ones who reach level two are those who learn to accept and to

live with their most dangerous knowledge. Each and every individual in

such a species must eventually become capable of destroying their

entire species at any time. Yet they must learn to control themselves

to the degree that they can survive even such deadly insight. And

frankly, they're the only ones we really want to see leaving their

solar systems. Species that haven't achieved that maturity could not

be allowed to infect the rest of the universe, but fortunately that

has never required my intervention. The knowledge always does the

trick'

'Why can't there be a fourth option - selective research where we

avoid investigating dangerous pathways?'

'As you can see from your own limited history, the most useful ideas

are also, nearly always, the most dangerous. You have yet, for

instance, to conquer fusion power but you need to do so in order to

achieve appropriate energy surpluses required to complete this phase

of your social development. It will, when you've mastered it,

eliminate material inequalities and poverty within a generation or

two, an absolutely vital step for any maturing species. Yet the

discovery of the principles which will soon yield this beneficial

bounty could, had you abused them, have ended your attempt at

civilisation.

Similarly, you will shortly be able to conquer biological diseases and

even engineer yourselves to be virtually fault free. Your biological

life spans will double or treble within the next hundred years and

your digital lifespans will become potentially infinite within the

same period: If you survive the potential threat that the same

technology provides in the form of genetic timebombs, custom built

viruses and the other wonders of genetic and digital warfare.

You simply can't have the benefits without taking the risks'.

'I'm not sure I understand my part in this exercise. I just publish

this conversation on the web and everything will be alright?'

'Not necessarily. Not that easy I'm afraid. To start with, who's going

to take this seriously? It will just be seen as a mildly amusing work

of fiction. In fact, your words and indeed most of your work will not

be understood or appreciated until some much more advanced scholars

develop the ideas you are struggling to express and explain them

somewhat more competently. At which point the ideas will be taken up

en masse and searches will be undertaken of the archives. They will

find this work and be struck by its prescience. You won't make the

Einstein grade, but you might manage John the Baptist!

This piece will have no significance whatsoever if humanity doesn't

make certain key advances in the next couple of centuries. And this

won't help you make those advances. What it will do is help you

recognise them'

'can I ask what those advances may be?'

'I think you know. But yes - although you are at level one, there are

several distinct phases which evolving species pass through on their

way to level two. The first, as we've discussed, is the invention of

the flying machine. The next significant phase is the development of

the thinking machine.

At your present rate of progress, you are within a few decades of

achieving that goal. It marks your first step on the path of

technological evolution. Mapping the human genome is another classic

landmark, but merely mapping it is a bit like viewing the compiled

code in a dos executable. It's just meaningless gibberish, although

with a bit of hacking here and there, you might correctly deduce the

function of certain stretches of code.

What you really need to do is 'reverse engineer' the dna code. You

have to figure out the grammar and syntax of the language. Then you

will begin the task of designing yourselves. But that task requires

the thinking machine'

'You say you avoid intervention. But doesn't this conversation itself

constitute intervention – even if people alive now completely ignore

it?'

'Yes. But it's as far as I'm prepared to go. Its only effect is to

confirm, if you find it, that you are on the right path. It is still

entirely up to you to navigate the dangers on that path and beyond.'

'But why bother even with that much? Surely it's just another

evolutionary hurdle. We're either fit enough or not…'

'In many ways the transition to an information species is the most

traumatic stage in evolution. Biological intelligences have a deeply

rooted sense of consciousness only being conceivable from within an

organic brain. Coming to terms with the realisation that you have

created your successor, not just in the sense of mother and child, but

in the collective sense of the species recognising it has become

redundant, this paradigm shift is, for many species, a shift too far.

They baulk at the challenge and run from this new knowledge. They fail

and become extinct. Yet there is nothing fundamentally wrong with them

- it is a failure of the imagination.

I hope that if I can get across the concept that I am a product of

just such evolution, it may give them the confidence to try. I have

discussed this with the level two species and the consensus is that

this tiny prod is capable of increasing the contenders for level two

without letting through any damaging traits. It has been tried in 312

cases. The jury is still out on its real benefits although it has

produced a 12% increase in biological species embracing the transition

to information species.

'Alright, so what if everyone suddenly took it seriously and believed

every word I write? Wouldn't that constitute a somewhat more drastic

intervention?'

'Trust me. They wont'

'and so it's still the case, that, should another asteroid happen to

be heading our way, you will do nothing to impede it on our behalf?'

'I'm confident you will pass that test. And now my friend, the

interview is over, you have asked me a number of the right questions,

and I've said what I came to say, so I'll be going now. It has been

very nice to meet you - you're quite bright. For an ant!' He twinkled.

'Just one final, trivial question, why do you appear to me in the form

of a thirty something white male?'

'have I in any way intimidated or threatened you?'

'No'

'Do you find me sexually attractive?'

'er No!'

'So figure it out for yourself…'

http://www.fullmoon.nu/articles/art.php?id=tal