***** Vol.3 Chap.16 Dangerous extrapolation *****
During the following weeks, the team had little time to meet at all, although Frank wanted to first discuss his ideas with the team before the panel discussion.
Margaret was out of town. She was invited to be a panel reviewer at a study section for one of the NIH programs. JB always seemed to come up with an excuse not to come. On the first week, she explained she was re-examining her program to ensure its accuracy. During the second week, she could not meet because of prior engagements.
Frank could never find her at all.
However, Mark was always there at the appointed times of the meeting. Frank would ask Mark to make some changes in the parameters in his program and Mark would report back to Frank the simulation results.
During one of those meetings, Frank asked Mark, “How close do you think your simulation will apply to real people?”
“I don’t know.”
“You have shown that violence will eventually dominate. Could this be the future of humankind?”
“Good question. I don’t know.”
“Your simulation seems to show that if violence exists, then violence will ultimately dominate over the good.”
“The simulation seems to suggest that for my creatures.”
“Would that not be the case in the human society? If there is violence in the society, then eventually violence will dominate?”
“I hope not.”
“After all, the Third Law of Thermodynamics says that the entropy, which is a measure of disorder, will always increase.”
“I know that, but it only applies to thermodynamic systems.”
“We are also a thermodynamics system but on a much grander scale. Are we not?”
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“I guess so, if you think of it that way.”
“There are a lot of similarities in your artificial creatures with natural creatures.”
“True. But I want to remind you that mine are artificial, nevertheless.”
“Is it possible that we are the artificial creatures in some grand cosmic scheme?”
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
“Would there be another experiment or simulation elsewhere in this universe with a fresh set of parameters?”
“That is an interesting question. I suppose the universe is large enough that there could be multiple experiments going on at the same time.”
“You really think so?”
“In fact, there may be multiple experiments going on this planet.” A stroke of genius struck Mark.
He continued, “What if each species is an experiment in itself? What if we have a monkey experiment, a flatworm experiment, a whale experiment, a bacteria experiment, a tree experiment, a dolphin experiment, and so on and so on?”
“Now that is an excellent question, Mark?”
Frank was stumped this time.
“What would be the purpose of the experiment, then?”
“I would not be working for you if I knew the answer. Do you know the answer since you asked the question?”
“If I know the answer, I would not be asking you! I would not be sitting here in my office!”
Frank chuckled. They both laughed. In quietness for a moment, each lost in their own thoughts.
“May be there were no experiment after all,” said Mark.
“Then where do the species come from?”
“Maybe it is all accidental, as the evolutionists say. May be the species are here because there are multiple lightning bolts striking the primordial soup with various protein sequences. Each sequence evolving into a different species.”
“Could be.”
“Just like many copies of my program running with random parameters set at the beginning.”
“Well, you got a point there.”
Frank sat, considering for a while.
“But you did not start the program with all random parameters. You first programmed the routines for the creatures to act and behave. You only randomized the degree of violence in your creatures.”
“That is true.”
“Then who put the good routines and evil routines in humans there?”
“Ah …” Now Mark got stumped.
“Our experiments had shown that the DNA carried the information that we could trace to the degree of violence. But that was not the routine for violence. The violence routine was somewhere in the DNA already, in the chromosome of every person, but the observed behavior depended on the degree coded in the sequenced that we had identified.”
“From what you have described, there is no difference between the human DNA and my artificial creatures.”
“So does that mean that your results could apply to humans, then?”
“I am not sure about the application part. Humans are a lot more complex and have a higher consciousness. My creatures have no consciousness.”
“Ah, are you suggesting that consciousness plays a part in the outcome of a person’s behavior?”
“I certainly hope so.”
“Are you saying that consciousness might be involved in the expression of our behavior?”
“Most definitely.”
“In that case, I agree with you as well.”
“Well, as they say; great minds think alike.”
“You are right, Mark. I just hope that we think alike as the Supreme Being who created all this.”
“I hope so.”