The Replicant, the Mole & the Impostor, Part 29
Part 2—the conclusion—of a duology where a reality event held in a refugee camp on a Greek island unfolds in an utterly unexpected manner. There will be 50 parts. Chapter 9: April.
—A Meeting across Continents—
“Is everybody here?” Jennie Richards says, still not quite used to the new meeting app. “Yes? Alright, then we can begin.”
“I’m here,” Manfred Kafka says, “but I’ve barely recovered from the last meeting. Couldn’t it wait?”
“No, Manfred, our scientific reputations are at stake,” Jennie says. “Isn’t that why you and Léa are so hell-bent on unmasking the replicant?”
“Touché,” Manfred says. “Let’s start.”
“We got away with our white lie about Kobayashi being ill,” Jennie says, “which we did because we were running out of time in the first place.”
“Guilty,” Léa Truchon says. “We could have called a meeting sooner. But that—being unprecedented—might have given Kobayashi a warning. We wanted to catch him red-handed, as it is.”
“I don’t agree, but what’s done is done,” Jennie says. “What’s important now is how we follow this up. Any suggestions?”
“I’d say we tell the story as it developed,” Themba Letesha says, “but with the generic ‘we’, so we don’t say who exactly did the sleuthing, or who were suspicious.”
“Why?” Manfred says. “Not that I mind.”
“Because I think we should present this as a coherent group, not a collection of individuals,” Themba says, “reducing the risk that people are playing us against each other.”
“Form one front,” Rachel Mónica Díaz says. “That makes sense.”
“Do clearly mention that Kobayashi tricked us into letting his app do the vote counting, right in the beginning,” Léa says, “when we had no reason to suspect him.”
“And that we gradually found that our actual vote didn’t really represent the discussion we had beforehand,” Manfred says, “and that we were extremely appalled to find out there was foul play, so we had to make sure we were right before taking action.”
“I’m typing,” Jennie says. “Can I put the document up in this meeting gizmo?”
“Of course you can,” Léa says. “I’ll show you how.”
“Not just that,” Jennie says, “but is it safe?”
“Oh, I particularly selected this app because it has the best double-ended encryption of all the ones I’m aware of,” Léa says. “So it should be safe.”
“Just as I was going to my dentist neighbor to ask for his drill,” Manfred says, “you’re no fun.”
Léa, Jennie and Rachel Mónica all look at Manfred with a blank stare while Themba laughs.
“You’ve just betrayed your age, old friend,” Manfred says to Themba.
“And my bad taste,” Themba says. “Ladies, just Google Marathon Man.”
“If you can be bothered,” Manfred says. “Let’s do this document.”
Jennie types their soon-to-be press release, corrected by her colleagues. After about half an hour, they hope they’ve got their wording correct.
“That’s settled then,” Jennie says, “which lifts a burden from my heart, to be honest. Let’s prepare our official message and send it to the world.”
“I think it’s better if we inform our masters first,” Manfred says. “Otherwise they might not be amused.”
“Have it checked by VanderPol Excel first?” Jennie says. “Then it will be delayed, again.”
“Manfred’s right,” Rachel Mónica says. “They’re in charge of the show and they should be informed first. I don’t think they like to be caught flat-footed.”
“True,” Léa says, “and they have both a public relations team that can help us deliver the message effectively and a team of lawyers to have our back.”
“I guess you’re right,” Jennie says. “I just want to get this over and done with. But of course, it’s never quite that easy.”
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“Well, I’ll be damned,” Jennie says at the next meeting the following day. “VanderPol Excel don’t seem fazed at all.”
“With all their reality TV shows and other programs, they’re no stranger to controversy,” Léa says. “They’ve probably got an army of lawyers on retainer.”
“They’ve given some advice on changing—well, ‘improving’—the wording in a few places,” Jennie says. “But they did not change any of the important points.”
“It’s always good to be vetted by experts,” Manfred says. “Right?”
“They also ask to allow them to announce that they have double-checked the CVs and backgrounds of the remaining scientists,” Jennie says. “Anybody have any problems with that?”
“Of course not,” Léa says. “They should’ve done that from the start. And I’ve got nothing to hide.”
“Same here,” Themba says. “Let them do their checks, even triple-check if necessary. A second mole would be the end of this team.”
“Of course,” Manfred says. “We have to regain the public’s faith and be united in our message.”
“What the others said,” Rachel Mónica says. “I’ve got nothing to be ashamed of, apart from possibly a few rowdy uni parties, back in the day.”
This makes the others laugh out loud.
“You are definitely not a good candidate for Who Is the Replicant season two: the evil scientists,” Manfred says.
“But who will judge us, then?” Themba wonders.
“Only the most incompetent people possible,” Léa says.
“That’s going to be a very long selection process,” Rachel Mónica says.
“Be careful what you wish for,” Jennie says. “I foresee a jury of idiot savants—with apologies to true savants.”
“Who will know who the replicant is,” Manfred says, “but will be unable to explain why.”
“And because the rest of humanity doesn’t understand,” Léa says, “the replicants will believe that they are the true humans.”
“As the rest of humanity is enslaved,” Themba says. “We’re doomed.”
“Enough of the joking, already,” Jennie says. “Let’s send out our—supposedly vetted—press release.”
—In the News—
According to their own press release—link here—the research team that officially votes on the Who is the Replicant show has been infiltrated by a so-called mole. Dr. Akira Kobayashi was part of the research team from August until last April, when the rest of the team ousted him. By intentionally leaving a large hole in his CV, Kobayashi hid that he had worked for Electrified Quantum Sentient, a major partner of the consortium that developed and built the replicant.
While being a part of the team, Kobayashi also tallied their votes, and changed them in an effort to prevent the replicant from being selected. “After a while, we felt that our tallied votes didn’t represent the actual analysis of the team,” Dr. Richards says, “but since we did not expect any foul play, we possibly remained baffled too long before we started our internal check. We’d like to apologize, quite profoundly, for that, as we hold the honesty of our analysis to the highest standards.”
Robbert-Jan Pièl, one of VanderPol Excel’s official spokespersons, said that they were shocked and disappointed to find this out, yet agreed with the actions taken by the remaining research team members. “To be frank, this is also due to the fact that we did not put the same care into vetting the people from the research team as we did in our vetting of the show’s candidates,” Pièl says, “not expecting any foul play from scientists.” VanderPol Excel says that they now have triple-checked the remaining scientists of the team, and are confident that no more shenanigans are forthcoming.
“As everybody who watches this reality event knows,” Pièl says, “the unexpected has become one of its staples, and we at VanderPol Excel have learned to take that in stride. While we didn’t expect this in this particular team, we now hope that this has been handled to everybody’s satisfaction as we continue with the event.”
VanderPol Excel emphasizes that they also keep a very close watch on the public vote, taking care that all votes of the audience are processed “as completely and as honestly as possible.”
“We go to extreme ends to make sure that this is a fair competition,” Pièl says, “which forces the replicant to function at the very top of its abilities in order to have a chance of staying unmasked until the very end.”
The research team has said that they decided not to reveal their real votes until after the end of the reality event, as this might influence the public vote. From now on, they will double down on their efforts to unmask the replicant. Electrified Quantum Sentient has been approached for comments, but so far we have received none.
Who is the Replicant, the VanderPol Excel reality event where the public and a team of scientists try to find out which of the ten candidates is a replicant, is the most successful show of all time, whose audience exceeds four billion. It’s now in its ninth monthly episode, and the replicant can be revealed at the end of this month, or at the end of next month at the latest.
Josette Barkham reporting for The Guardian-AR;
—In the Moodscape—
ENE Citizen Test, version 1
Log in with your AR-glasses, then:
1. Fill in the multiple-choice questionnaire below;
2. Participate in the interactive scenarios by selecting a choice when prompted;
3. Perform the IQ test;
4. Perform the EQ test;
5. Answer—to the best of your abilities—the questions from our accredited examiners via your AR-glasses;
Take your time, as you have one full week from starting this test to finish it. While it is possible to finish this test in one day, we strongly recommend you do one part per day. On the other hand, don’t take too long, as in exactly one week your time to do this test expires, and you will only be allowed to do it again one year later.
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After only a couple of days, some of the multiple-choice questions are leaked:
Some people define morality as absolute—unquestionable, unchangeable—while others believe morality is relative to the society, culture or even the individual. Which is true?
1. Morality is an absolute;
2. Morality is relative;
3. Neither absolute nor relative morality exist;
4. They both could be considered true as morality is defined differently by different people
You witness a male refugee spraying a slogan: “Greeks Are Racists” on a wall of one of the refurbished houses in Chorió. You:
1. Leave him alone, as this is within his freedom of expression;
2. Call the local—Greek—police and report him;
3. Confront him and ask him how he would feel if someone painted “Middle Easterners Are Racist” on his neo-homestead;
4. Shrug it off, as the metamaterials will soon absorb his graffiti
Ethics is:
1. The moral principles that govern a person’s behavior;
2. The moral correctness of specified conduct;
3. The branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles;
4. All of the above
You witness a male refugee harassing a female refugee. You:
1. Immediately record it with your smartphone while telling him to stop this immediately;
2. Shout to the female to get away from him;
3. You upload the recorded event to the ENE AR-harassment app;
4. All of the above
What should be the leading principles of environmental ethics?
1. The obligations humans have to keep the environment habitable to future human generations;
2. The actions humans take to fit sustainably into the planetary ecosystem while maximizing biodiversity;
3. The evolving interactions required to improve humanity’s long-term survival;
4. The development of brain uploading so that the majority of humanity can leave the planet, giving it the opportunity to recover
You witness a riot in your section of the camp. You:
1. Immediately join those who share your viewpoint, as one should fight for one’s rights;
2. Report it to the local authorities and then to the ENE Adversity app so that everybody is aware of it and can act accordingly;
3. Run away, as you hate to fight and reporting it is pointless as the police will not enter the camp to stop it, anyway;
4. Shout to both sides to stop immediately, and jump in between them if necessary
Which is the most important rule for the ethics of crime and punishment?
1. In an ethical system, one is innocent until proven guilty;
2. Punishments should never be irreversible, as there will always be people who can learn to mend their ways;
3. Crimes should be judged by professionals, not by the people at large;
4. The punishment should be at least as severe as the crime, in order to function as an actual deterrence
You witness a fellow refugee taking experimental, untested medicines that are supposed to increase their concentration and productivity. You:
1. Ask if they really want to do this, as untested medicines can have unexpected—often dire—side effects;
2. Ask who the manufacturer is, so you can report them to the ENE malpractice app;
3. Ask if you can try some, too;
4. Ask if you can test them with questions to see if this particular drug is working
Rumors from interactions in the ENE’s moodscape state that—off the record—the ENE is not really bothered about the leaked questions, as no answer is ever perfect, and the questions evolve as more people take the test.
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Alone in his room, a young Middle Eastern man goes through ENE’s Citizen Test, pondering carefully before answering each question. He hopes to do it in one night, but as it’s getting very late, he’s secretly relieved that he has the full week.
His motives are mixed and changing. At first he wanted to prove the test is a walk in the park, something he could do in a few hours. So he decided to do just that, to show them.
But as he started answering the questions, he slowly became more serious. It wasn’t as easy as he thought—although he’d still be damned if he’d admit it—but he’d still show them he could do it faster than anyone else.
But the questions and tests opened up more questions, memories, and doubts. Doubts he thought he’d forgotten, pushed them deep inside the farthest reaches of his soul. Doubts he doesn’t want to face again, yet this stupid test keeps leading to them.
Now he’s stuck: damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. Time to get some rest, as they need him in the mosque tomorrow, and he needs to get up in time as not to miss his breakfast before dawn. No eating in daylight. He’ll nail it tomorrow night, when his thoughts have cleared after the post-dusk dinner.
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Author’s note: if it wasn’t clear already, the refugees in this story have begun to set up their own, intranational community (helped by the unrestricted influx of untested and cutting edge technologies). How far will they go? Stay tuned and you will know before New Year’s Eve.
Many thanks for reading!