Stephen's Secure Blog #409
These stories about Stephen began was when he was 10 years old, and
moving to a new part of the country to attend a special school for
gifted students, in the 1950's. This was from a time before computers
would fit on a desk, and when people communicated with friends in other
countries by actual letters sent through the postal service. He wrote
225 of them to a friend. He stopped writing to his penpal, but found he
still wanted to record his life, in case he lost his memory again, and
wrote 30 entries in his first logbook. Then he wrote to an artificial
intelligence called Geenee, in the master computer in his school for
gifted students, which he started attending in 2016. Now it's after
2018, and he's continuing to save his memories in a secure blog.
All characters are fictitious, even if some of them might have names
that belong to some actual people, or act like people we know.
The stories may not be posted in chronological order.
Stephen is 21 in this story, in Fall of year 12 of his special school.
Stephen's Secure Blog #409 "CNN and Jobs"
START Page
This new school year, we had our first student from New Zealand. A
Laplander from Finland declined our invitation. They had never heard of
us, and didn't believe a thing we said. The other new student was from
Chechnya.
For the September 1st love and healing broadcast, I chose Tomba to
join me. He cried before and after. Don said, on the usual CNN show, "I
felt someone different with you this time. Will you tell us who it
was?" I said "Abbot Tomba of the Buddhist Temple in Washington, D.C.
was with me in the most recent broadcast." He said "Thank you. There
have been no suicide bombings since your last broadcast." I said "I
knew that before you did." He said "I guess you would, with the
consequences." I said "There is a little more. Twice, some who would
have done that, decided to plant a lot of land mines. They were very
disappointed when they watched in perverted eagerness for them to go
off under the feet of innocent victims, including CHILDREN. Then they
had some little excitement when they discovered those mines under
themselves, and in their beds, and in their food storage areas. They
didn't know at the time that the explosives had been removed." He said
"Wow! Some LITTLE excitement? Wow!" I said "Well, none of them actually
had a heart attack. I think a few found out that yellow liquids don't
imagine. You never cease to amaze me." I said "I hope that for them,
too." He said "Right!"
Don said "We haven't discussed this before, but your movie 'Masada
swept up practically all the Oscars. The credits were rather short." I
grinned, and said, "I noticed that. I had to. I made them." He laughed.
I said "We didn't win for best screenplay." He said "Was that because
it didn't have one?" I said "Sounds reasonable." He said "I saw it. The
cinematography was fantastic! And you did it all yourself." I said
"Thank you, and I did do all the cinematography myself, but I didn't do
the editing, which really made my work look a lot better than it was."
He said "I understand. I'll never forget the music. Are you making more
movies?" I said "I'm always making more things, including movies. I
have a lot of independent parts of my mind doing all kinds of things
all the time. Three movies are are post production now, and five more
are waiting for that to begin. There are a lot of TV shows, and
instructional shows done, which are being released soon, or later."
He said "Wow!" I said "Careful there, or you'll use up your daily
quota for wows too soon." He laughed well. He said "Your new childhood
music album is breaking all the records. I don't think any of us
expected you to release anything like that." I said "I didn't either,
until I was asked to." He said "We were told about that. It was at your
last gallery show. You wouldn't let reporters in." I said "Ticket
holders only, which makes it a private event. Sold out, which means
there wasn't any more ROOM in the building. We didn't need cameras
bashing paying customers on the nose." He said "I see. Disappointing."
I said "You wanted nose prints on the lenses?" He laughed, and said,
"No." We went to break. During that, he said, "Your humor cracks me
up." I said "Got glue?" He laughed again.
Back from break, Don said, "Unemployment is still high. How would you
change that?" I said "Are you asking for my recommendations?" He said
"Yes." I said "Hire people. That would make them employed." He said "It
might not be that easy." I said "Then we should make it that easy. Many
companies that are based in the US, use labor in other countries where
it's cheaper. If they had good reasons not to do that, we would have
more jobs here. I propose we reduce by half the current corporate tax
rate for two years, for each American company that brings a high
percentage of those jobs back home, with renewal at different levels,
if they keep them here. That is to offset the higher wages they would
have to pay. We can do the opposite for companies which send jobs
overseas. A foreign workforce tax. Lower interest government insured
small business loans, for companies which hire new people, based on the
number they hire and keep for a certain time. Corporate sponsored, with
more tax breaks, free vocational retraining for their employees and
others, in the most affected communities. Financial incentives to
school districts which graduate high school students who are fit for
local and regional employment. Partial university student loan
forgiveness, based on what is appropriate for the degreed job market."
I said "The government can and should hire people for infrastructure
repair, including repairing the National Parks. Some taxes should be
raised from the wealthy to support that, because they are likely to
benefit the most from the transportation infrastructure improvement,
which their large corporations depend on. Also, the wealthy and
corporations can sponsor some specific projects, with public notices. I
would make it a law, that corporations and individuals can't spend more
money on political actions and support than they give to these
projects. If they want political influence, they should earn it by
improving America directly! Alright, you can say it." He said "Wow! I
like some of those proposals! We'll pass them on, and watch what they
do about it, you can be sure! Let's go to break."
Off air, I said, "More self kicking?" He laughed. So did Len. Back on
air, I said, "There are more things that could be done to increase
employment. Job sharing. It would mean less for each worker, but more
employment, which would cause more improvement in the economy, which
would mean that could be phased out in a few years. What would be MOST
effective, is if all the proposals I discussed here were in place at
the same time, working synergistically to turn the country and economy
dramatically around in two years or less. Then they could be cut back
gradually and safely, one by one." Don said "Do you think what you've
outlined could happen?" I said "I don't know. It would depend on those
who have the power to make it happen, to actually do it. They could, if
they use their brains to make it so their supporters can see the
benefits of it and to themselves. But that would require real work, and
real brains, and much less unproductive activity from them, and actual,
factual, honesty. We can only hope." He said "Yes."
Don said "I have to ask. What if, after you're gone, the healing
stops?" I said "I don't know. I'll be gone then. But you know me. You
know I would do all in my power to see that it continues. What's my
failure rate?" He said "I see. Is that why you are using different
people in your love broadcasts?" I said "That's the main reason, yes. I
want to see how they get along with the Almighty in that role. I will
never stop caring for and loving all of humanity. Trust me to do my
best, and that isn't all that ineffective. I will do all I can, and
maybe things I can't yet do, to not leave you without all I can do for
you." He said, with some tears, "Thank you. Lets take a break."
Off air, I said, "Did you really have to ask?" He said "For me, no.
For the public, yes." I said "Fair enough." Back on air, Don said, "Do
your healing broadcasts increase our lifespans?" I said "Disease kills.
When you don't have it, you live longer." He said "Hospitals and
medical personal have less work and income now." I said "In what they
used to do, yes they are earning less, because they have less sick
patients. Now they can concentrate on preventative medicine, and
research on ways to improve people. Just being cured of disease doesn't
mean perfect health. There is still a lot of work for them to do, even
if it isn't the same as they've been doing before. Some manufacturers
will have to switch product lines, though. Artificial joints are not
expected to be in high demand for a while. For people. For animals, it
will probably increase." He said in surprise, "They make artificial
joints for animals?" I said "Pet care is big business. And some farm
animals are used for er, reproduction. Being able to er, do the deed in
grinned, and said, "Didn't you almost say 'I see'?" He laughed, and
said, "Yes, but I thought better of it. It's not something I actually
want to see."
Don said "What was your most unusual alien encounter?" I said "Would
be better to ask what wasn't unusual." He laughed. I said "How about
one I never met? I had just seen Zander off to his ship to go home.
This was after we had encountered Surrhaa, where one of us had a er,
furry good time." He chuckled and said, "I remember!" I said with a
grin, "I thought you would. There were a few Van in some stations in
our solar system, and in many other systems of the Galactic Council. If
we found them on Earth, we captured them, so they couldn't actually
bother us then. We had asked the ship captain not to accept them as
passengers, or carry their messages. He was happy to comply. We didn't
want the Van elsewhere to know what we were doing. You see, the Van
didn't have faster than light ships. They used paired matter
transmitters to travel between systems, after their century ships, with
the crew in suspended animation, brought them to a new star. In our
solar system, their matter transmitters were all in the station that I
had taken over and disabled. They were stranded and incommunicado.
Their home planet knew about it when their matter transmitters went
offline, and sent a relief ship, but it would take a about 60 years to
arrive. The Van here were getting desperate. We had a place here on
Earth to store captured Van ships. One day, just before we were going
to get rid of all the Van here for good, one of their ships appeared
voluntarily in one of our hangers, and called us for help, not knowing
we were the very people his kind were supposed to kill on sight. Oh,
what an interesting expression!" He laughed.
I said "I'll play back the audio recording, translated into English,
and the conversation around it. I was twelve. I was told, 'He's asking
for The Stephen.' I said 'I've been promoted? If we are seen by him,
let's use the blur effect. For now, we'll use just audio." I spoke to
the mic and said, "You asked for Stephen. I am here. How can we help
you?" He said "We are told that you help people from offplanet. We are
asking for such help." I said "What kind of help do you need?" He said
"We are unable to access our primary station in this system, which
contains our matter transmitters, and so are not able to communicate
with our home planet." I said "Can you not use other means for that,
such as sending a message with the GC ship which was in this system
recently?" He said "They refused." I said "That is unusual. We have had
friendly occurrences with them, and have found them to be good people.
Why would they not help you?" He said "We don't know." I said "We need
to know. If it is GC policy, we would be very reluctant to go against
that." He said "It is true there have been conflicts between us in the
past, but we do not know the reason for their current refusal to
provide assistance, for which we offer to pay well." I said "Why can't
you access your station?"
He said "It does not respond to our coded signals, and responds with
automatically generated violence when we approach it." I said "So that
if one of our ships approaches it, we will be attacked and destroyed?
Is that what you wish to happen?" He said "No. We hoped you could have
a way to avoid that, with technology which is different from ours." I
said "How do you know of us?" He said "From the manager of the GC
research station." I said "He has used you to try to damage us, because
we have placed restrictions on some of his actions, due to some
criminal conduct of some of his personnel." He said "We didn't know.
Then you will not help us?" I said "We will finish some projects in the
coming planet days, and then investigate your problem. We do not want a
rogue station in this system. We know where it is, just as we know
where all your other stations are. How may we reach you after we
conclude our investigation?" He said "A signal of this kind directed to
our station on the fourth planet, when in proper alignment, should
reach us." I said "You will know of the result of our efforts regarding
the issue, within a tenth of a standard GC year." He said "That is
good. Thank you. May I have your leave to depart?" I said "Yes,
please." He closed the connection."
I said "My friend said, 'He wants us to do what we were planning to
do. Ironic.' It was, and a few weeks later, we did that, and captured
all the Van stations, and put the Van in time stopped storage,
including the one who had asked for help, and none of them ever saw any
of us, even later, when we cleaned the entire galaxy of them. They are
sitting on their planet, or standing, not knowing at all what happened
to them, just that they are there, and without any way of getting off
their planet. I put an impenetrable shield around it. So, that was the
strangest encounter I ever had with an alien, and I never even saw him
then." He said "Wow!" I said "I really agree with that." He laughed. He
said "What happened to their matter transmitters?" I said "We didn't
need their technology, so we destroyed what they didn't need for basic
survival on their planet." He said "That's too bad! We could lave
learned from it."
I said "Please stop talking about things you don't know anything
about. THEY didn't even know how their stolen tech worked, and the GC
couldn't figure it out either. Earth science REALLY couldn't have.
Remember, our governments still have their ships here, and learned
nothing from them, and they are simple in comparison to the matter
transmitters." He said "Do you know how they work?" I said "Yes,
actually. Remember, I can teleport. We use the same physical laws." He
said "Can you build similar devices?" I said "We don't need them." He
mass produced, which they can't. I don't have enough people to operate
them, and who else could be trusted to do that, but the only people who
could understand them? It's actually better, and safer, for an Adept
who can port, to do it and manage it himself. We've spent a long time
and a lot of effort in thinking about this, and discussing it. Years,
actually. I really wanted to give this to the world, but it just
wouldn't work. You'll have to trust me on this. You KNOW how much I
love and care about people." He said "Can you tell us about some of the
obvious issues?" I said "Pandemics." He said "OH!" He said to the
camera, "Instant transportation of masses of people. What would have
happened if there was a deadly new virus? Humanity could be wiped out
in a few weeks." I said "That's just one issue, of many. The real basic
issue is, advancement must come as a whole to a society, in proper
orderly steps, or there will be deadly consequences, even if we
discount economic ruin. I CARE! I LOVE. I have to be careful."
Don said "Thank you, Stephen, for this, well, education." I said "It
was my honor." We went off air, at the end of the program. Len came in,
and said, "That was close. I can see a lot of problems with having
matter transmitters all over. I agree. We really shouldn't have them."
I said "I actually invented them before I ever knew about the Van, when
I was the only one I knew who could port." Len looked at me with love,
and said, "You would. You have to share what you can do." I said "Yes.
Most of my inventions have come from that motivation. I didn't, and
still don't, want what I know and I can do to be lost to humanity when
I go. All of that is stored in crystals for when there comes into
existence somebody who can understand them. Rose doesn't know that she
can understand more of it than she thinks. Ha! She's not complaining
about that at all. Hmm, I think I have a strong reason right now to
leave you." They grinned and laughed. I hugged them, and ported home,
to a lot of kisses, and Hawk's really loud laughter.
END Page
--
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Grant
|
|