A Visitor to the Future - 29 - Vat-Raising
"So you just accept that the Human language might change at any time?" I asked.
"Yes, just like anything else you have to keep your knowledge up to date. I view reading the changelog just like reading the latest biodev papers," replied Sarkona.
"It's interesting," said Chisom, "In a way Human is a lot fairer, because if you want to suggest a change all you need to do is talk with the Human Language Org and they'll consider it. In English you had to popularise something first - and then it would be accepted into dictionaries. But for linguists like me there's something so appealing about the sheer chaos of non-constructed languages! People agreeing a common basis for a language without any central oversight or authority - just organically out of a need to communicate." Chisom looked lost in her own thoughts for a moment at that.
I quickly leafed back through my notes, vaguely recalling something from my first day in the Consortium.
"Sarkona mentioned some other languages that were in use in the Consortium once. English and Mandarin I know of, Verrin and Militalk I don't - would they be worth learning too, Chisom?"
Chisom took a sip from a glass of water before responding. "Verrin was popularised in the 2300s in eastern Europe, Asia, and northern Africa, and is a traditional non-constructed language like English. It is popular as a second language both in its countries of origin and on some of the Jovian moons. Militalk is a constructed language used by the strategic Orgs, but isn't used for general speech. It is a language designed for extremely clear communication with every concept being as distinctive as possible to read or hear. It is almost impossible for a scrambled instruction to be misinterpreted. As for whether they are worth learning, that's up to you! You'll get by just fine with Human for the most part, though."
"What about the translation drones I've seen? How accurate are they?"
"Very! Though by nature translating a language can lose some of the meaning. Some people can get by absolutely fine with translation, but most prefer to express themselves directly. Anyway," said Chisom, "I think we've covered some of the basics today - if you'd like I can provide you with some early reading on Human, and we can pick up from there with our first lesson, but I think we've gone through enough there for today."
"Chisom," asked Sarkona, "I was thinking about us taking a visit to the vats - I think it would be a good thing to learn about thing to see. Do you think there might be anything else interesting to see while we're here?"
Chisom tapped her chin, "There's a Compassion and Empathy class currently in progress across the quad - take two left turns, you can't miss it. That might provide you with some more perspective. Until then, please let me know what lesson slots work for you. Nice to meet you both."
At that we parted company, and followed Chisom's instructions to go and spectate one of the classes. We crossed a large square area where various ball games were being played, and found a small, open-air classroom where a group of ten children and a CI were being in the process of being taught by an equivalent number of teachers. Though I couldn't understand the language, Sarkona was happy to translate where necessary. The basic premise was fairly simple - the teachers showed projections of various, simplistic scenarios to the children and asked the children about what each of the characters were thinking. There was a large focus on understanding what each of the various characters were thinking at any given time, and some of the more difficult scenarios involved negative emotions and how each character might react. It struck me as a combination of drama and problem-solving. Sarkona pointed out that this was a very basic introduction to the concepts of conflict resolution and arbitration.
"Quite a few people I know developed an interest in Arbitration as a result of these lessons," said Sarkona, "A small number might become expert Arbiters - they help the various Orgs and groups reconcile differences where issues occur. They're very helpful considering the political system as a whole in Sol, which you might want to speak with an Arbiter to talk you through it - they'll probably explain things a lot better than me."
The lesson wrapped up after about thirty minutes - I would later find out that most classes were taught in roughly forty-five minute blocks with a fifteen minute break between each, which apparently helped learners to stay engaged.
"What did you think?" asked Sarkona, as we began to walk towards one of the spire-like buildings we had seen earlier.
"It's really different to what I'm used to," I replied, "It seemed more like each child was having a conversation instead of a lesson."
Sarkona nodded, "I won't pretend to know the as much as the teachers, but from what I know people learn a lot better when they actually have to think about the content! Ah, here we are."
We had arrived at the base of the spire structure, which unlike the one we had met Chisom in earlier did not have a transparent ground floor. I could see the faint seam of a sliding door in front of us, but it was not yet open.
"So," said Sarkona, "I said earlier that I would explain what was meant by the term vat-raised. This is probably going to be something very different for you to see, so if at any time you feel uncomfortable, please let me know. That being said, there is no need to be alarmed - everything inside here is perfectly normal."
"That's a bit ominous, but okay," I said nervously.
"I probably make it sound worse than it is," said Sarkona, "But before we enter, I need to let you know that areas like this are some of the most well-protected areas in the Consortium. The Consortium itself is very sensitive to any attempt to cause harm in there - and though I'm not aware of any false-positive events in the last few years I would advise you to avoid sudden moves. The best analogy I can think of for you is to act like you're visiting an art gallery. Don't touch anything."
"Alright, now that is definitely ominous," I said.
"I think I'm being overcautious too - if you keep behaving like you already have been in the Consortium so far, you will be absolutely fine," continued Sarkona with a genuine smile, "Let's go inside."
The inside contained nothing but a short corridor leading to a large elevator. We stepped inside, and the sensation of descending into the ground began, continuing for quite some time.
"So, we're currently in what we call a root chamber," explained Sarkona over the faint whirring noise of the elevator, "Orchard towns get their names from the fact that there are several root chambers throughout - this particular town has two, but some of the largest will have five or six. Though it seems like we're going underground, we are in fact descending into the support structure for the town - think of what we've seen on the surface as the tip of the iceberg. This entire underground section is dampened against earthquakes, reinforced against impacts, temperature controlled, supported by fire suppression, and guarded by defence drones. But please recall what I said about the Consortium having a lot of redundancy on the Promise of Sol. We don't expect anything to happen here, but the Consortium is nonetheless prepared for it, should it happen."
The elevator doors opened shortly after, and we emerged into a large room that was visually overpowering. The chamber was triangular, with walls that gentle sloped inwards, giving the impression that we were stood inside a triangular prism. Sixteen circular midnight black pillars were equally spaced throughout the space, with a small, circular bench which completely surrounded each one. I looked up and saw a maze of very neat tubes - I initially thought of pipes, but molded organically to flow around and into each pillar where necessary. Small rectangular drones with multi-coloured lights seemed to hover about the place, inspecting the pipes and pillars closely. From where we stood they looked much like clusters of fireflies, flittering around the dimly lit area above. But like much of the Consortium, there was a warmness to this place. The three triangular walls were painted with three beautiful murals - a sunrise, an ocean, and a forest, and the floor was soft and spongy. As I stood there taking the room in, I realized that the murals were not painted on at all - one of the walls faded into another image - one of a dry and dusty plain.
"These chambers are the very heart of the Consortium," said Sarkona, "Where one of the most critical activities is carefully protected and carried out."
Sarkona walked over to one of the pillars, and as they did so, the circular bench retracted into the floor. They carefully, gently, placed a palm on the surface of the pillar. The midnight black colour began to fade into translucency, and I could begin to see a small shape come into focus, gently bobbing up and down in the center.
It was a human child - but not as I had ever seen one. It was as if I were looking straight into the womb.
An umbilical cord connected to a large vertical pipe, as the child floated there, suspended in a brownish fluid. I looked around it, and saw the shape of three tiny, perfectly circular drones which waited patiently in a vertical line next to it. The child's face was peaceful and passive - quite literally without a care in the world.
A child, in a vat.
"Sarkona", I said, my voice a bit of a whisper, "I have seen a lot of strange things in the last week or so. But this puts all of them to shame. This is just so... weird!"
"That's a completely normal reaction," Sarkona said, backing up a little. The bench raised up out of the floor and Sarkona sat on it, gazing at the infant as they spoke, "The first time they took my class down to the vats in the orchard town where I grew up - Maple - I remember feeling very grossed out."
Something in Sarkona's sentence made me put things together. "Sarkona, were you vat-raised?"
"Yes, just like ninety-nine percent of all humans in the Consortium."
"But... why? This is just unreal to me. Why would anyone choose to do... this?"
Sarkona gestured to the bench and I took a seat, at a right angle to the infant, reluctant to look straight at it. Sarkona's brow furrowed while they thought how best to express themselves, and when they eventually spoke their tone was soft and gentle. "I think this is another large cultural difference," said Sarkona, "If you were to ask most humans today, they would consider giving birth to be odd. There's a few main reasons that I think it became so popular. The first is child health. A traditional human pregnancy lasts nine months - that's not really because children should be born at nine months - it's because, biologically speaking, if they grew any larger it would be very difficult to get them out of the mother in a healthy way. So at nine months babies come out as a half-developed mess and are barely functional for the first several months of their life."
Sarkona paused, pointing forwards at the child.
"A child raised in a vat spends the first eleven months after conception inside. This one appears to be about ten months old. It really does give them the perfect conditions for the best possible start in life - they emerge safe, well, and far better adjusted from having more development time before exposure to the world at large."
"What do you mean by perfect conditions?" I looked at the child again - it did seem quite large for its age. Something in my expression must have communicated discomfort, so Sarkona reached out to the vat and touched it again, its surface growing opaque once more.
"That's sort of my second point - convenience. If someone is actually pregnant, it is a great deal of stress for them to ensure that they are looking after not only themselves, but also the child in the perfect way. They have to eat more and the right amounts of different nutrients, and ensure they're at the right temperature - and exercise, but not too much. Giving birth is also very difficult from what I've heard, and many people would rather not have to do that. In a vat, sensors read the child's nutrition levels, temperature, pulse rate - every possible metric you'd want to track - and the vat deploys an appropriate response in real time. Much easier on all counts."
A burning question came to mind, "But what if the child were tampered with? In my time there were a lot of concerns about designer babies - parents choosing all the characteristics of their children."
Sarkona actually scoffed, "Why would they want to do that?"
"I don't know - eye colour, hair colour, even intelligence?"
"Ah, got you. Well, cosmetically speaking it would be pointless to change those traits. Once the child comes of age they'll have control over all their traits anyway through bio-dev. I've told you about my hair before - that's a great example. Antonia wasn't born with blue hair either. In terms of intelligence modification, there were some experiments with that in the pre-Consortium days - to put it bluntly, it did not turn out well for anyone involved. Ever since they've been banned - it's just too unethical."
"What about genetic issues, then?"
"We can identify the risk factors for those even before conception by checking the genes of the parents - we'd then let them make an informed decision about whether to proceed. Any issues that the child has upon birth can be helped through bio-dev work. Child bio-dev is a lot more tightly controlled than the work we do for adults - we can't just change things because we think they should be a certain way, there has to be an impediment to the health, comfort, or well-being of the child. Like your own illness - we'd have cured that in early childhood."
I sat and stared at the surface of the vat in front of us, thinking of the child growing inside. "I still think that I'm not entirely comfortable with this yet."
"That's fine," said Sarkona, "You don't have to be. I'd encourage you to take your time to think about it all. Maybe ask the Consortium or even an Auditor or two if you still have doubts. I'll also mention that there's a room below this one where new CIs are constructed."
I nodded. "Can we leave?"
"Of course! I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable."
As we began to turn back to the elevator it opened to reveal a couple holding hands. They seemed to pay us no mind as they made their way over to one of the vats. Both had no hint of the future about them - they wouldn't have seemed out of place in my own time. They looked at each other and smiled, placing an arm around each other as the surface of the vat revealed their growing child. They stood there in a state of warm contentment, as the elevator doors closed and we began to return to the surface.