Numerology

Introduction

From “Tomorrow's Technology” magazine…..

Soft Cybernetics – The New Alchemy?
By our science correspondent

Are we about to see first human robots? Can scientists create zombies?

“Soft Cybernetics” is a controversial new approach to the problem of creating intelligent systems, provides new ways to solve the problems of micro-behaviour management.

To date cybernetics has focused on the use of feed-back and control mechanisms to produce self-regulating systems using electromechanical devices. More recently, research work suggests that many of the problems associated with programming these devices can be solved by the use of biological organisms as an alternative to mechanisms. The combination of cloning technologies with soft-cybernetics offers the possibility of pre-programmed, designer life forms, able to carry out specific tasks or roles. Early experimentation in this field has attracted considerable ethical debate.

As one of the chief proponents of the concept, Dr Stuart Waring, of the University of Central England , is exploring the implications of soft-cybernetics through the use of a series of “thought-experiments” which examine the consequences of cybernetic intervention to adjust the behaviours of biological organisms. These thought-experiments alone have given rise to serious objections from a wide range of groups concerned about both animal and human rights.

Most recently the proposition by Waring and his collaborator, Dr Anna Fedorova of the Leningrad Centre for Neuroscience, that using by-products of effects of specific forms of synesthesia (where information perceived by one sense gives rise to a sensation in another - for example where numbers are seen as colours) has created alarm that behavioural engineering may become as controversial as its genetic cousin.

**ENDS**

Chapter 1: The Colour of Numbers

I see numbers in my head. And I know what they mean. Some people can hear colours. I see numbers. Suddenly. A seven. Or a four. And I know what they mean.

There aren't many numbers. Only zero to nine. But I see them. Bright; sudden; there in my mind; blotting out everything else.

I haven't always been able to do this. It is new for me. Since I came here, to the house. Before I came I couldn't see the numbers but now I can. I don't remember anything else before I came but I do know I couldn't see the numbers.

I can see a one. It's green. It's very bright. I know I have to find him. He is somewhere in the house and I have to find him. Where ever he is I have to go there. That's what it means when I see the one.

I find him in the library. He is with a woman. He smiles as I arrive and turns to her. “There, you see,” he says. “Now do you believe me?”

“That doesn't prove anything,” she replies. “There could be a bell, or a light. Remotely controlled. You might have agreed what she was to do.”

I just stand there, listening, watching, waiting. There isn't anything for me to do. I have done what I had to do. I have found him.

“You try,” he says. He passes a box to the woman. The box has buttons on it.

“OK, but not from here. She might watch me. I'll leave the room. Then we'll see.” She gets up and goes out. The man is smiling at me. He doesn't say anything.

I see a five. It's purple. I have to undress. I take off my dress; my underwear; my shoes; my stockings. I'm naked. I have done what I had to do.

The woman comes back in. “OK,” she says. “What else. Could be a lucky guess – there's only ten buttons. You could be colluding.”

“Why do you think she would? Believe me this works.”

The woman turns her back to me. “Yeah, maybe,” she says. I see a six. It's white. I start to dress again. Six means I must put on the clothes I see.

The woman sits down. She hands the box back to the man. “Could be interesting,” she says, “if it's for real.”

“Oh, it's real,” he replies. He juggles the box in his hand. “Would I lie to you?”

I have finished dressing. Suddenly I see a two. It's yellow, a wonderful, bright, clean, yellow. I know now that I have to go back to my room. That's what a two means. I wonder if the box has anything to do with the numbers?

Chapter 2: Friends

The woman is called Dr Anna. The man is called Dr Stuart. I sometimes think I knew them before I came here to the house, but I am not sure. Dr Anna and Dr Stuart have explained they are my friends. They say they are my friends but I am not sure. I feel there is some reason why I should not trust them but I cannot say what it is.

They say that they are here to help me with my numbers. If that is so they must be my friends. They know that I see the numbers and that I have to do what they tell me. They explain that this is good; that I will feel happy when I do what the numbers tell me to do.

I know this to be true. Perhaps they are my friends after all.

The numbers only tell me to do simple things at the moment. Dr Stuart tells me this is quite normal. He says I need to get used to the simple tasks first. I don't know why I must get used to it. I don't know why I do what the numbers tell me. But I do. And it makes me happy. I don't know why I do nothing apart from what the numbers tell me. But that is true as well.

Dr Anna is interested in how I feel about the numbers. I tell her that they are bright; that I like the light and the colours. She asks me how I feel about the tasks. I tell her that I am happy when I am asked to do them. When I finish them I know I have done what the numbers wanted. I believe that should make me happy too.

She asks me if I ever feel that I should not do a task but I explain that the tasks are easy to do and so there is no reason why I would not do what the numbers ask of me. Besides it makes me happy when I see the numbers, makes me happy when I do the tasks. Dr Anna is worried in case I am sad when I cannot see the numbers. I tell her that isn't so. I am happy when I see the numbers but I am not sad when they are not there. It's just that when there are no numbers, there is nothing. No happiness, no sadness, nothing to do, nothing. Except to wait for the numbers.

Dr Anna writes all my answers down. I wonder if she has numbers to tell her what to do?

Dr Stuart shows me the box. It is small and dark with many buttons on it. It has a small display. It looks a little like the telephones I sometimes see Dr Stuart and Dr Anna using, but it is larger. He tells me that this is where the numbers come from. He says he will take great care of the box so that I can feel safe. Only Dr Stuart or Dr Anna understands the box. Only they know how to make the numbers come. I feel safe as long as I can see the numbers. Safe and happy. I am only scared that the numbers will not come any more. Then what would I do?

If Dr Stuart and Dr Anna can make sure the numbers come then they must be my friends.

Chapter 3: Number 8

I am lying on my bed. I see the number 8. It's blue, a very peaceful blue. It tells me to sleep. I am doing my best. Dr Stuart and Dr Anna come into the room. They are concerned about me. I hear them talking.

“She seems to be settled now.”

“Yes, I am pleased with how well she has recovered from the surgery. The connector seems to be healing well.”

“The bruises on her wrists and ankles are going down.”

“Yes. They will be gone in a few days. It was a shame that I had to restrain her but I wasn't sure how she would react. It wasn't a problem as it turned out but I'm not sure I could have predicted it.”

Dr Stuart lifts the sheet that covers me and looks down at my naked body. There is no need for me to move. “I am particularly pleased at how well the synesthesia appears to have been taken up,” he says. “It seems to work in both ways as predicted – the linkage between stimuli and response is fully effective and the absence of stimulus results in complete quiescence.“ He drops the sheet.

“So, what next?”

“The difficulty is in the tasks, I think. They seem to be of two kinds. The very simple that require constant intervention or the very complex that have too many variables. There needs to be a simpler way of structuring the tasks. There is something we can try, though. I have an idea.”

It is good that Dr Stuart and Dr Anna show such concern. I am pleased that they are helping with the tasks. I haven't found it hard to do the tasks so far but what would happen if the numbers told me to do something I could not do? I find that scares me. I whimper.

“Hush, Natalie,” Dr Anna, tries to reassure me. “Hush. It's all right. Sleep now.”

I try to sleep. The numbers told me to sleep. I've been having nightmares. Dreams about before; before I came to the house; before I could see the numbers.

In the nightmares, Dr Stuart and Dr Anna are not my friends. They come to my room while I am sitting at a desk. I am swallowed up in a cloth. They pull the cloth over me. I cannot see them. I cannot move. I cannot speak. Dr Stuart and Dr Anna are talking but I cannot speak. I struggle but I cannot move. I cry out but there is no sound. Why do my friends do this to me? I fall asleep. And then I wake up.

I am in a white room. The light is bright. As bright as the numbers in my head but the light is above me. There are wizards in white. I cannot see their faces. They say, “It's all right Natalie.” They tell me not to be afraid but somehow I am.

I am still afraid as I fall asleep again. It is frightening to fall asleep when in a dream. How can I know that I am awake now? Or that I am dreaming now? Or that I was dreaming then?

At least I am sure the numbers are real. They are so bright and so clear and so colourful. The numbers are too real to be dreams. The tasks are too real to be dreams.