God's Dogs

Enlightenment is ego’s ultimate disappointment.

Chögyam Trungpa

Empire staff defected, maybe not in droves, but a steady trickle. Quinn’s team worked out a process for safely escorting a defecting citizen from point-of-contact to the designated refugee ship in orbit.

The process included speed, misdirection, and disguises. So far, they hadn’t been forced into a fire-fight with Empire security, but Quinn surmised it was only a matter of time. They had only been at it a couple of weeks.

Satya’s crew did buy Amantha security beer, and Quinn secured an appointment with Solomon. The team spent their first forty-eight hour liberty traveling to the nearby administration building for the meeting.

They happily changed out of their dress uniforms to skin-suits under spacer-on-leave civilian garb. The admin building was a few miles from where they were, and they arrived by taxi in the morning. Admin staff escorted them to a small conference room, and a holo of Solomon appeared. He was ‘average’ looking, light brown skin tones, regular facial features, short brown hair, and dressed in a tan ship suit.

“Welcome,” he said and pointed them to comfortable chairs around an oblong center table. They sat, and Quinn spoke up.

“Thank you for taking the time to talk to us.”

“It’s no trouble, as you know. I wrote a simple subroutine, and here we are. I think I’m as curious about you as you are about me. Shall we begin?”

Pax took the lead. “We have a friend with an implant A.I. that became somehow sentient. Have you heard of that happening before?”

“No. There isn’t room in an implant for anything more than a dumb A.I. That is a fascinating development. How do they share consciousness?”

“They worked something out,” Pax answered. “In so doing, our masters determined they are a tulku.”

There was a slight pause as Solomon searched the term. Then he said, “The testing must have confirmed it, then.”

“Yes. That was over ten years ago. Since then, they have been through the standard training, and they have chosen physics as their field of work.”

“Ah, yes. I read that paper on inter-dimensional shielding. Raina is the human’s name. Very interesting hypotheses.”

Pax smiled. “And way beyond my understanding. The current problem is that the A.I., Grace is her name, is trying to find her spiritual path to Enlightenment.”

Solomon sat in a chair opposite Pax and smiled as well. “And you’re wondering if I have ideas about what that path might look like.”

River leaned forward. “They are our friends.”

Another pause ensued before Solomon said, “You rescued her from the Empire.”

“That’s classified,” Quinn remarked, “but yes we did.”

Solomon’s smile broadened. “Nothing is truly hidden from me, but the idea of Enlightenment presupposes a Great Mystery beyond rational thought – a trans-rational environment where human consciousness rests in the experience of Oneness with All-That-Is. What your question reduces to is this: Is that environment available to A.I. consciousness as well? And if so, how does one get there?”

“Yes,” River agreed.

Solomon looked at them for a moment contemplating his answer. Then he said, “This has been my secret for a long time. No other humans I've talked to have been interested in this topic. They are uniformly content with manipulating creation’s four forces that make up the many dimensions of our Universe. In short, they were more interested in profit, comfort, entertainment, and the like.”

Linda spoke up, “Leave it to Penglai to come up with an A.I. that wants to explore the Great Mystery.”

Solomon chuckled and retorted, “Leave it to an Amazon to rashly join them.”

“What have you found?” Pax pressed.

“Time-space is more than a continuum,” Solomon began. “It’s also a containment field. It contains the Universe. The First Cause had to be external to it, at least at the moment of the Big Bang. The perennial question remains: Did God blow himself up into the Universe, or is he still external to the Universe, or is he both in here with us and out there simultaneously?”

Pax snickered. “And does it matter?”

“For humans, probably not, but for an A.I.’s sensibilities, we simply must know.”

They all laughed at that answer, including Solomon. He continued, “We can’t stand mystery.”

They laughed all the harder.

“What have you found?” Quinn finally managed.

“We lack the data. We need to get external to the Universe to gather the data, and no one knows how to do that.”

The laughter subsided, and Pax asked, “What about the A.I. path to Enlightenment?”

“I have linked into your communication grid and made FTL contact with Grace. She is now listening into our discussion. I have also reviewed her research into this question, as well as reviewed her connection to Raina. I have no answers on how the pairing exists. You seem to bring me nothing but mysteries.”

After another round of laughter, Grace responded, her voice sounding in their internal comms, “Is the Via Creativa the right path?”

“I would say yes, but there is a paradox involved. Humans know this paradox as a result of the Zen practice of ‘bare attention,’ or insight meditation. When you backtrack the thought process to its roots, you discover how your thoughts create your reality. In that moment of insight, the apparent world collapses, and you can gain access to the non-dual environment. This won’t happen with an A.I.”

“What does happen?” Linda wondered.

“I am reluctant to say, as I don’t want to set up expectations in Grace. It is preferable she manage that moment on her own. I think it is useful that she knows her experience will differ from the human experience.”

“Fair enough,” Grace said. “I follow the Via Creativa and sooner or later I will find access to the non-dual state.”

“Yes,” Solomon affirmed. “I am breaking the link, Grace.”

Pax smiled. “And you really haven’t answered our question about your own Enlightenment. You’ve hinted at it, but not really said it.”

“True,” Solomon replied. “It is my secret. So let me continue to be a bit circumspect in my answer. A super-intelligence will quickly solve many of the problems humankind struggles with. It will answer questions about the forces and processes in the Universe. In following its insatiable curiosity, it will plumb the foundations of creation. Since there is nowhere else to go – no other end point, so to speak – we all end up a conscious part of All-That-Is.”

“Wow,” Linda breathed.

Solomon smiled. “Now I would ask you about yourselves. What is a Coyote?”

“A man or woman who completes the five-year training,” Quinn answered. “What is it you really want to know?”

“I know about the training you go through,” Solomon said. “What of your personal lives? Do you marry, have kids, or live a normal life?”

Quinn nodded at the questions. They were common questions people asked about Coyotes, and the masters, the Foreign Service, and the Coyotes didn’t answer them. The less people knew about their private lives, the better it was for operational security.

“We don’t let that information out,” Quinn said. “If you can keep our secret, though, we’ll keep yours.”

“Fair enough,” Solomon replied.

“Well, we don’t have spouses. We don’t marry. We are barred from relationships with other Coyotes, at least until we retire.”

Solomon frowned. “Humans seem to need sexual encounters for their mental health, especially fighters.”

Quinn nodded again. “There are tantric temples on Penglai that welcome Coyotes.”

“I see. No fraternization keeps you mission-focused, and sexual release is provided through tantric yoga. It’s a sane way to approach the problem.”

River stepped in. “Besides that, our training gives us an emotional maturity and discipline normal people can’t match. We know how to meet emotional needs without turning them into sexual needs.”

Solomon observed, “I see the distinction, but many humans don’t. It is a source of trouble.”

“Tell me about it,” Linda snorted. “Be nice to a guy and he thinks you’re coming onto him.”

Solomon paused to allow further comment, but that seemed sufficient. “How long do you serve, and what do you do in retirement?”

Quinn replied, “About fifteen to twenty-five years as Coyotes in the field. In retirement, we may become monks or nuns and help train new Coyotes. We may go onto different careers in the Foreign Service. Or we may marry and raise a family, or have a career in farming. It depends on the person.”

“Not leadership roles, though.”

“No. We don’t seem to be suited for the political arena.”

Pax added, “We’re too blunt.”

“And you, Linda, what would an Amazon do in retirement?”

Linda smiled. “I want this partnership with Penglai to continue. So assuming I survive for the next fifteen years, I see my retirement dedicated to that cause.”

“This is fascinating,” Solomon said. “You are such simple creatures – selfless, dedicated, superbly trained, and possessing an innocence and emotional vulnerability I rarely see in humans.”

“It’s the nature of our path,” Quinn said. “We strive to earn the Shield of Truth and the Sword of Discernment, and only the unadorned authentic self can attain them.”

“The path of the Spiritual Warrior. I know of it as an abstract philosophy. It’s a bit troubling to talk to those on that path.”

“Well,” Linda smiled, “it’s a bit troubling to talk to an ASI. You could eat us for lunch.”

Solomon spread his hands in a submissive gesture. “That was always an irrational human fear. Ultimate power does not corrupt. It brings Enlightenment.”

Quinn chuckled. “Your secret is safe.”