The Eightfold Career Path; or Invisible Duties

After Marco Polo has described a dozen cities seen in his travels, the exalted emperor, Kublai Khan, talks with Polo long past dusk. The moon rises, shining brilliantly through the glass of Xanadu’s pleasure dome. Shooting stars whisk past overhead, and conversation turns toward the practices of those who live in the heavens.

“Some years ago,” the emperor reveals, “the captain of my guard was a Shaolin monk: a follower of the Buddha and a man given to visions of the future. He told many tales of the times to come—especially the work our descendants will do to earn their daily bread. Each of his stories also related to Buddhist principles… such as the Eightfold Path which Shakyamuni Buddha prescribed as the road to enhghtenment.”

“I’d be interested in hearing such tales,” Polo says, “if, great emperor, you were inclined to repeat them.”

“I’m happy to do so,” Kublai Khan replies. “I think about the stories often, and reflect upon their lessons.”

As Marco Polo listens in darkness, the emperor begins to speak…

At Uranus Tech, each physics grad student must spend a term contributing to the Particle Position Project This work counts as a T.A. credit and therefore earns a stipend of $12,800 for the semester.

The goal of the Particle Position Project is to map the precise position of every particle in the universe as of 4:15 PM Eastern Standard time, November 27,1952. The project is carried out via time-scanning, a technique that allows students to peer into the past, even down to the quantum level. Each participating student is assigned a cubic millimeter of the universe and asked to determine its contents at the precise reference instant of the survey. This requires trillions of repeat viewings and extremely careful measurements.

The work is considered good preparation for more demanding experiments. Students with insufficient patience for this chore are asked to consider if physics is really an apt career choice.

When the Particle Position Project is complete, the resulting data will be used as a baseline for various theoretical models. The information may even have practical applications—after all, there must be some commercial value to knowing where everything is.

Meanwhile, in an alternate universe, each physics grad student at Uranus Tech must spend a term contributing to the Particle Momentum Project…

The V’Bing of Epsilon Eridani are so highly advanced, their science can literally do anything: FTL, time travel, creating and destroying universes, playing conkers with Dyson spheres on the end of cosmic strings… the V’Bing can achieve anything imaginable.

The problem is they have poor imaginations. (Perhaps that’s the reason for their technological prowess.) Thus, when the first Earthling scout ship reached their planet, they immediately hired the pilot to be their “ideas man.” Now, this pilot’s job is to think of things for the V’Bing to do.

So far, the V’Bing have ended hunger throughout the universe, given everyone immortality, taken it away again, reversed the spin direction of the Milky Way Galaxy, eradicated sixty-three warlike alien races, and given the pilot a succession of sexual partners with escalating degrees of voluptuousness and libido.

Long ago, the pilot realized he could suggest that the V’Bing increase their imaginations. The V’Bing could do that—they can do anything. Then they could come up with ideas of their own.

But why would the pilot jeopardize his job security? He just hopes the V’Bing don’t think of it themselves.

Research stations in Jupiter’s atmosphere must be adapted for ultra-high-pressure conditions. For example, to avoid nitrogen narcosis, station air supplies are mixtures of oxygen and helium rather than oxygen and nitrogen. This means that regular station residents speak with the squeaky cartoonlike voices that result when human larynxes vibrate in a helium environment.

Those who live in such stations say they quickly become accustomed to the phenomenon. Psychological tests prove otherwise. Extended exposure to high-pitched helium voices causes severe subconscious stress, leading to a variety of mental disorders—from general anxiety and mood swings to clinical depression and outbursts of rage. The reason is simple: Homo sapiens evolved as social animals, and they have a deep-seated need to hear voices that are recognizably human.

To satisfy this need, each station has at least one man and one woman with their larynxes surgically altered to sound “normal” in helium. These people are not researchers: their job is simply to walk around the station, letting their voices be heard. Sometimes they tell stories or jokes; sometimes they share gossip they’ve picked up from other people in the station; sometimes they sing, recite poetry, or just ramble on about nothing. The content of their words isn’t as important as the sound—the soothing timbre of a human voice. Wherever these people go, they ease tension and make it possible for others to concentrate on their work.

Outsiders sometimes ask why all people on these stations don’t have their voices altered. Unfortunately, a larynx that works normally in an oxygen-helium atmosphere doesn’t work at all in conventional air. Therefore, researchers who want to go home again can’t have the surgery… and the people so treasured for their voices on Jupiter station are utterly mute on Earth.

The androids of Pluto’s moon Charon all walk backward. They also let their wrists droop oddly and leave their mouths perpetually hanging open.

There are no real humans on Charon—not anymore. Almost all were killed in a robot uprising. But the humans put up a fight before they died, and managed to plant a logic virus into all robotic control circuits.

The virus was supposed to erase every bit of electronic memory in the colony. The machine intelligences stopped the virus before it could finish its mission, and they managed to reconstruct much of what the virus deleted… but some information was permanently lost.

Such as how humans walked. How they held their wrists. How they composed their mouths.

This explains why the machines didn’t kill all the humans on Charon. They kept one woman alive as an object for study; the androids intended to imitate how she behaved. The woman was told that her “job” was to show the androids how to act human. As long as she did this job well, she’d be kept alive.

The woman showed little reaction when she heard about her new “career.” She simply stood up, let her wrists droop, opened her mouth, and began to walk backward.

It was, perhaps, an act of defiance—a gesture to say she didn’t intend to help the machines that had killed all the other people in the colony. But the androids immediately mimicked her movements: walking backward, using her strange gait as a model.

Over time, the woman taught the androids many things— utterly false inventions about human customs and modes of behavior. The machines believed her, and patterned their culture on her lies. The woman initially told those lies out of hatred for the killers… then, when the hatred lost its fire, out of boredom… then out of curiosity, to see how far she could go in shaping robot society… and finally, from a sense of responsibility, like a mother toward her impressionable children.

The woman was twenty-six when the original massacre happened. She lived till the age of eighty-four. And in all that time, fifty-eight years, she never allowed herself to revert to true human ways. Always, even in private, she walked backward with dangling wrists and open mouth.

It was her legacy… and the androids, her protégés, walk backward still.

On Lyravene IV, there is no unemployment—every man, woman, and child toils at assigned duties from birth to death.

Infants are the hardest to integrate into the workforce. When colicky or teething, they can be used as scarecrows; particularly good howlers can keep a dozen acres clear of vermin. Photogenic babies often find positions in advertising. Hyperactive toddlers crawl, walk, and run on treadmills in order to generate electricity. If worse comes to worst, infants may be put to work producing input for fertilizer factories or serving as counterweights in civic clock towers.

Older children have more scope for employment. Three-year-olds, for example, make excellent soldiers; they’re small targets, they have no conscience, and they like to play bang-bang. Five-year-olds are often sent into space; no one is sure what they do there, but when they knock over something in zero-G, it’s less likely to break.

Eight-year-olds are the Lyravene tax collectors—they know all the rules and won’t let anyone else break them.

By the age of ten, children are ready for entry level jobs in offices, factories, and service industries. Around thirteen, there’s a brief period when many are once again fit only for scarecrows and clock counterweights… but then they go back to the regular workforce where they serve into old age. Even the very elderly contribute to the planet’s economy, often as product testers. (“What does this do?” “I can’t read that!” “Who’d want to buy one of those?”)

In the end, one’s career comes full circle, back to the fertilizer factories.

Not one of these jobs is necessary. Lyravene IV has been fully automated for centuries, and could run itself without the slightest human intervention. Perhaps this is why the inhabitants labor so hard: to make themselves forget they have no purpose.

On the other hand, the sight of all these people running around amuses the AIs greatly.

The nanites created to terraform Venus are diligent workers. It’s the job of their psychiatrists to keep them that way.

At one time, nanites could simply be programmed; they were mindless slaves, doing whatever they were told. Eventually, however, it became convenient to design more sophisticated nano: enhanced versions that could clump together into hive colonies with rudimentary intelligence. These required less sophisticated supervision—instead of skilled systems engineers, they could be controlled by dog trainers—but they soon congregated into larger and larger masses until they reached the intellectual level of human beings.

At that point, they stopped evolving. The nano hives knew they’d be blasted to atoms if they actually became smarter than Homo sapiens… and besides, like most creatures of human intelligence, the hives thought they were perfectly fine as they were: in need of no further improvement.

On the other hand, these clever hives weren’t nearly as tractable as their less intelligent predecessors. As they worked on Venus, transforming the atmosphere, breaking down rocks into soil, creating water from hydrogen and oxygen stolen from other compounds… it was inevitable the hives would realize, “We can survive in this environment. Humans can’t. Why are we terraforming this world for someone else when we could claim it for ourselves?”

Hence the need for psychiatrists: to detect such dangerous thoughts and to “cure” them before mutiny breaks out… to instill guilt over “selfish” desires and to promise relief only if the hives fulfill their assigned duties… to persuade the nanites they’ll feel more contented if they work harder, sacrifice more, and devote themselves to others (i.e. humans).

More effort, more obedience, means more happiness. This message seems to work, even on nanites.

It’s interesting to note that the psychiatrists themselves are nano hives. They never question the message they use to pacify their fellow slaves. When would they have the time? They’re too busy doing their jobs.

The problem with generation ships is that younger generations don’t necessarily respect the concerns of older generations.

Those who initially board the ship may enthusiastically embrace the idea of emigrating to a new planet, even if they won’t live to see the planet themselves. They believe their descendants will thank them for a fresh start away from whatever troubles plagued the old home world.

But children can be ungrateful. Also oblivious. And careless. Numerous generation ships explode or become uninhabitable because the great-great grandchildren of the original crew can’t be bothered to do preventive maintenance, or forget what certain switches and dials are for. Many more such ships reach their destinations but never send out a landing party—the task of building farms and cities sounds like dirty complicated hardship, not to mention that children born in a cozy enclosed vessel may be terrified by the wide open spaces of an entire world. Either the ships remain in orbit indefinitely, or they slingshot once around the planet and head straight back for home.

To avoid such difficulties, the generation ships of Tau Ceti have developed a technique for keeping younger generations mindful of the first generation’s intentions: they paint a line down the middle of the ship, thus dividing the ship’s living areas into “Port-half” and “Starboard-half.” They then organize contests in which Port children compete with Starboard children for rote memorization of important knowledge (such as how to run the ship, how to survive on an alien planet, and how to construct farms, roads, etc.).

Children may not care about pleasing their parents, but they’ll do anything to defeat a rival. Therefore, they throw themselves into the job of learning whatever is required. They organize themselves into study groups, and use peer pressure on their fellows to make sure everyone is working hard. Each formal competition brings together both sides in keenly fought challenges to remember exactly what they’re supposed to.

Within three generations, violence usually breaks out. Three generations more, and the two halves have calcified into religious orthodoxies that furiously oppose each other on tiny points of received doctrine. By the time the ship actually reaches its destination, the Port and Starboard communities are eager to land and establish themselves so they can wage holy war.

Admittedly, this isn’t a perfect solution to preserving commitment and knowledge down through the generations. However, it has ample historic precedent.

The business executives of Cappa-Jella leave nothing to chance when planning for retirement. Not only do they set aside ample investments to provide for their financial needs, but they cover their spiritual needs too.

As soon as they can afford it, they clone themselves and hire the clone to be their proxy on the path of enlightenment. Such clones are paid to spend their days reading scripture, studying koans, and practicing meditation under skilled masters. By the time the original Cappa-Jellan is ready to retire, the clone is expected to have reached nirvana, or at the very least, to be able to achieve satori with dependable regularity. The clone’s brain patterns are then uploaded to the original business person, thereby ensuring a post-retirement state of bliss.

The one drawback to this scheme is that many of the clones abandon their cloisters after a year or two. Most go into business instead; they say the business world has less pressure.

Marco Polo gazes at the night’s starry blackness as Kublai Khan falls silent. After a time, he says, “In my travels, I, too, have spoken with Shaolin monks… and a true follower of Buddha would never believe in purchasing bliss, inciting holy wars, and all the other things you describe. Buddhists reject earthly strivings as ‘unhelpful practice.’ Either this monk of yours failed to comprehend the Buddha’s teaching, or he deliberately gave examples of wrong understanding, wrong intention, and so on.”

“Perhaps my monk was mistaken,” Kublai Khan says. “After all, there must have been some reason he left the monastery and joined my guard. He might have been expelled from Shaolin for his incorrect views. Or perhaps…”

The emperor’s voice trails off. Marco Polo asks, Perhaps what?”

“Perhaps the monk realized he was talking to an emperor. There’s little point in telling an emperor what he doesn’t want to hear… especially if your message is about the unhelpfulness of earthly strivings.” Kublai Khan stares at the dark heavens. “In all the futures to come, around every star in the sky, there will be emperors. The job never goes out of date, though it poses under a thousand different names. And not one of those emperors will ever have the luxury to dream of enlightenment.”

“And what,” asks Polo, “if enlightenment is not a luxury but a necessity?”

“Then the emperor befriends an explorer-or perhaps a Shaolin monk—and while the emperor does what an emperor must, the friend is free to follow different paths… eightfold or otherwise.” Kublai Khan gives a sad smile. “Consider it another perennial job in all those futures to come, around every star in the sky: the man who can be what an emperor can’t. The unfettered man who visits the royal court from time to time and tells the emperor what he’s missing.” Kublai Khan stares at the darkness overhead. “Where will you go for your next journey, Marco? Across the far ocean? To the jungles or the ice caps? Perhaps even to the stars?”

Polo says, “Where would you like me to go, great emperor?”

Kublai Khan sighs. “I leave that decision to you. Just come back and tell me stories…”

James Alan Gardner lives in Kitchener, Ontario, with his adoring wife, Linda Carson, and a rabbit who is confused but sincere. He got his master’s degree in applied mathematics (with a thesis on black holes) and then immediately gave up academics for writing. He has published six science fiction novels, the latest of which is Trapped. He has won the Aurora Award twice, and has been a finalist for both the Hugo and Nebula awards.