Bounded Rationality the Encounter

Kenneth Moore

Description

The saga continues, as human irrationality unfolds after discovering the presence of an unidentified starship orbiting Earth, with man's fate descending into uncharted and dangerous territory.
The alien Gorgass civilization monitors mankind closely, providing demands submitted to Earth via the return of select human hostages, but struggles to communicate efficiently –with Earth's response to any overtures, being aggressively negative.
The remaining hostages, trapped within their extraneous cells, are at their wits' end. An attempt to reason with the indifferent extraterrestrials is made – not only on sparing their own lives– but in sparing mankind altogether.
As the prisoners attempt to devise a way of relaying their requests, does the incompatibility of mindsets between life forms become clear? Hence the battle between the Rational v Irrational, Methodical v Spontaneous, and Emotionless v Expressiveness begin, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance.
Does the threat truly come from extraterrestrial activity, or instead inadvertently from within humans' own inability to listen rationally?
The author maintains the realistic technical aspects and dynamics woven throughout the fabric of this book, superbly constructing a plausible yet compelling science fiction story.

Sujets

• Kenneth Moore
• Fiction

Informations

• Publié par: Xlibris NZ
• Date de parution: 01 août 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781664107977
• Langue: English

Extrait

Bounded Rationality The Encounter
Humanity’s Death Wish Comes Close to Fulfilment
KENNETH MOORE

Copyright © 2022 by Kenneth Moore.
Library of Congress Control Number:
2022913433
ISBN:
Hardcover
978-1-6641-0799-1

Softcover
978-1-6641-0798-4

eBook
978-1-6641-0797-7
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
 
 
Rev. date: 07/18/2022
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Xlibris
NZ TFN: 0800 008 756 (Toll Free inside the NZ)
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CONTENTS
Chapter 18The Encounters
Chapter 19The Negotiation
Chapter 20The Human Consignment
Chapter 21The Virus Strike
Chapter 22The Holographic Meeting
Chapter 23The Missiles
Chapter 24Human Consignment. Second Time.
Chapter 25The Final Reckoning
The Epilogue

This book is sequential to the first book:
Bounded Rationality – The Encryption .

For my family, immediate and distant.
Specifically my dear Trisha.
CHAPTER 18
The Encounters
The four people in the room were waiting. No new movement had happened; 20 minutes had already passed. Rahman Hussain was seething and irritable as he had been put on edge following his disputes with Emma Wilson and, to a lesser extent, with Andy Nelson. He could not appreciate the importance of patience in a situation over which he had absolutely no control whatsoever. In his opinion, 20 minutes was too long—far too long.
‘What’s taking it so long?’ he growled in Arabic, and the wall duly translated much to his surprise.
* ANALYSE SITUATION *
* PROBLEM POTENTIAL *
* DATA INSUFFICIENT TO FORMALISE *
‘Ah, they’re putting it off! That shows they’re not prepared to show themselves!’ Hussain was feeling smug. ‘I always knew it was the interfering Americans behind this show!’
Andy ignored him and said to the wall, ‘Is there any more data we can supply?’
* PROBLEM NEGATIVE IF HANDLED CORRECTLY *
‘Do you want more clarification with us?’
* CLARIFICATION REQUIRED *
‘Okay, how can we help you? What’s the issue?’
* ISSUE WITH GRAVITY *
‘The issue is something to do with gravity?’
* CORRECT *
‘Are you saying your gravity differs from ours?’
* CORRECT *
‘How much difference?’
* MULTIPLY 2.8 *
‘You mean the gravity on the planet where you came from is 2.8 times stronger than my planet Earth?’ Andy enquired. ‘Your planet must be much bigger than our Earth?’
* CORRECT *
‘Wow. Are you asking us if we can withstand that level of gravity?’
* CAN YOU SURVIVE THAT IS THE QUESTION *
‘I believe so. But can you survive on our Earth’s gravity?’
* EARTH GRAVITY NOT FEASIBLE AND FATAL *
‘How fatal is it?’
* STROKE IN 3 EARTH MINUTES *
‘Oh gee, your anatomy is not designed for weak gravity, and with a much higher volume of blood pumped into your brain and organs which will result in rupturing them? Therefore you’ll succumb to stroke and die from it within a few minutes of being exposed to Earth’s weak gravity?’
* YOUR POSTULATION CORRECT *
‘In your assumption, it’s probably better for us to adjust to your gravity rather than you with ours?’
* YOUR POSTULATION CORRECT *
‘I think it would be helpful if we are wearing G-suits!’
* DEFINE G SUITS QUESTION *
‘It’s another word for tight-fitting clothes. If we have them on us, it will help prevent our blood from building up in the lower areas of our body. It will stop us from experiencing blackouts. Understand?’
* GORGASS UNDERSTAND YOUR POSTULATION *
‘Maybe it will help us stop from fainting at the sight of you!’ He laughed.
* GORGASS NOT UNDERSTAND YOUR POSTULATION *
‘Forget it, it takes humans to understand my humour!’
* DEFINE HUMOUR *
‘Please forget it. It’s meaningless to you. I’m sorry I’m wasting your time with it’.
* HUMOUR NOT ENERGY-EFFICIENT *
‘You seem to have a major interest in energy efficiency. But the point is, will you be able to provide us with something like close-fitting clothes to counter the effect of increasing gravity?’
* REQUEST TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION *
* STANDBY *
Another 30 minutes had elapsed. Nothing had happened. Hussain was starting to get restless again. He was about to speak his mind were it not for the sudden new movement detected on the ceiling. There were four new slits. Each slit materialised above each person where they were standing. The slits opened until they were approximately 12 inches x 2 inches wide. The four people were looking up and trying to peer into the void of blackness beyond the apertures.
Suddenly, several items dropped through the openings to the floor next to the feet of each person. Emma was the first to pick hers up and recognised it as clothing of some kind. The material had a very strange feeling to the humans’ touch, soft and rubbery but extremely malleable, with a reddish metallic sheen. But the colour was different for each of the humans. Greenish for Andy, greyish for Hussain, and bluish for Gillian.
Emma looked up at the wall. ‘Are we expected to wear these?’
* OBLIGATE *
Without hesitation, she sat down quickly and pushed her slim legs into the leggings of the clothing. The material was clearly elasticated, but it was a very loose fit, slipping over her clothing quite easily. Her action had prompted Andy to follow with his own clothing. She stood up and slid her arms into the long sleeves. She could see an opening in front of her but could not see any method of closing the strange material.
‘How do I close it?’ she said clearly, looking at the wall.
Suddenly, the front opening had started to apparently meld together very firmly on its own volition. She realised the clothing was infused with nanotechnology of some kind and able to mould itself to the shape of the humans. Then she could feel her whole suit, including the leggings and sleeves, starting to squeeze more until she felt she was wearing a very tight wetsuit. But she felt comfortable as it was a very porous but lightweight material, which also seemed to reduce her level of perspiration.
‘Cool!’ she exclaimed.
Andy was following her lead and in various stages of getting the strange suiting on. Hussain and Gillian were not making any attempt to dress in the amazing clothing.
It was still in piles on the floor by their feet.
‘I’m not going to wear it!’ said Hussain.
‘Why not?’ asked Andy.
‘Lakum jamieaan ghabi wasadhij!’
The caption flashed, ‘You all are fools and gullible!’
Andy sighed and muttered under his breath to himself, ‘What an awkward bastard you are.’ Then aloud, he said to Hussain, ‘Please yourself, hope you can manage to withstand the dangers of the high level of gravity!’
Then he looked at Gillian. ‘What’s the problem? Why can’t you wear it?’
‘Don’t feel comfortable to undress in front of you all. I need to keep my clothing as part of my spiritual requirement’.
‘Fair enough, Gillian, but my advice is if you start to feel lightheaded, you better drop down and lie on the floor! You should be okay’.
Gillian nodded. ‘Thanks, but I think I’d rather sit down’.
Hussain did nothing and said nothing.
‘But will it kill us?’ Gillian asked, showing considerable concern in her eyes.
‘The gravity at the strength of 2.8 is like carrying nearly three people of your own weight on your shoulders. It would be rather uncomfortable, but it won’t kill you!’ Andy assured her.
Emma caught a glimpse as a new caption flashed.
* UNIT GREY NON-COOPERATIVE UNPRODUCTIVE *
‘Does that bother you?’ enquired Andy. He realised quickly they were referring to people’s identity by the colour.
* TWO OPPOSITE ANSWERS NOT ENERGY-EFFICIENT *
‘Forget him, no worry, he’ll survive’.
* UNITS GREY AND BLUE DECISION IRRELEVANT *
Emma gestured with her arms open to the wall and said, ‘Now what? How can we meet you?’
* STANDBY *
* YOU RESIDE INNER CYLINDER *
‘Hang on, are we on the inside cylinder nearest to the axis of this spaceship?’ Emma asked. ‘How many internal cylinders are there in this spaceship?’
* CORRECT AND FIVE CYLINDERS *
‘Gee, that many! Why so many?’
* AID MAINTENANCE AND LONGEVITY ON TRAVEL *
* INNER CYLINDER BUILD UP MORE SPEED TO GAIN EXTRA GRAVITY *
‘Hold there!’ shouted Andy, putting his hand up. ‘Can you please assure me you’ll remain behind the glass wall when we see you? We don’t want to be exposed to being contaminated by any of your viruses!’
* YOUR CONCERN IRRELEVANT *
‘Are you telling me you’ve already inoculated us all?’
* CONDUCT NOT CARRIED OUT *
‘Why not?’
* NOT ENERGY-EFFICIENT *
‘Did it require too much effort to go into creating vaccinations? Then it’s easier to maintain the wall between us? More practical that way?’
His