not surprised,
Trish thought
.
Even the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California described the field in arcane and abstruse language, defining it as the study of mankind’s “direct and immediate access toknowledge beyond what is available to our normal senses and the power of reason.”
The word
noetic,
Trish had learned, derived from the ancient Greek
nous
—translating roughly to “inner knowledge” or “intuitive consciousness.”
“I’m interested in your metasystems work,” Katherine said, “and how it might relate to a project I’m working on. Any chance you’d be willing to meet? I’d love to pick your brain.”
Katherine Solomon wants to pick
my
brain?
It felt like Maria Sharapova had called for tennis tips.
The next day a white Volvo pulled into Trish’s driveway and an attractive, willowy woman in blue jeans got out. Trish immediately felt two feet tall.
Great,
she groaned.
Smart, rich, and thin—and I’m supposed to believe God is good?
But Katherine’s unassuming air set Trish instantly at ease.
The two of them settled in on Trish’s huge back porch overlooking an impressive piece of property.
“Your house is amazing,” Katherine said.
“Thanks. I got lucky in college and licensed some software I’d written.”
“Metasystems stuff?”
“A precursor to metasystems. Following 9/11, the government was intercepting and crunching enormous data fields—civilian e-mail, cell phone, fax, text, Web sites—sniffing for keywords associated with terrorist communications. So I wrote a piece of software that let them process their data field in a second way . . . pulling from it an additional intelligence product.” She smiled. “Essentially, my software let them take America’s temperature.”
“I’m sorry?”
Trish laughed. “Yeah, sounds crazy, I know. What I mean is that it quantified the nation’s
emotional
state. It offered a kind of cosmic consciousness barometer, if you will.” Trish explained how, using a data field of the nation’s communications, one could assess the nation’s
mood
based on the “occurrence density” of certain keywords and emotional indicators in the data field. Happier times had happier language, and stressful times vice versa. In the event, for example, of a terrorist attack, the government could use data fields to measure the shift in America’s psyche and better advise the president on the emotional impact of the event.
“Fascinating,” Katherine said, stroking her chin. “So essentially you’re examining a population of individuals . . . as if it were a
single
organism.”
“Exactly. A
metasystem
. A single entity defined by the sum of its parts. The human body, for example, consists of millions of individual cells, eachwith different attributes and different purposes, but it functions as a single entity.”
Katherine nodded enthusiastically. “Like a flock of birds or a school of fish moving as one. We call it convergence or entanglement.”
Trish sensed her famous guest was starting to see the potential of metasystem programming in her own field of Noetics. “My software,” Trish explained, “was designed to help government agencies better evaluate and respond appropriately to wide-scale crises—pandemic diseases, national tragedies, terrorism, that sort of thing.” She paused. “Of course, there’s always the potential that it could be used in other directions . . . perhaps to take a snapshot of the national mind-set and predict the outcome of a national election or the direction the stock market will move at the opening bell.”
“Sounds powerful.”
Trish motioned to her big house. “The
government
thought so.”
Katherine’s gray eyes focused in on her now. “Trish, might I ask about the
ethical
dilemma posed by your work?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you created a piece of software that can easily be abused. Those who possess it have access to powerful information not available to everyone. You didn’t
Trish thought
.
Even the Institute of Noetic Sciences in California described the field in arcane and abstruse language, defining it as the study of mankind’s “direct and immediate access toknowledge beyond what is available to our normal senses and the power of reason.”
The word
noetic,
Trish had learned, derived from the ancient Greek
nous
—translating roughly to “inner knowledge” or “intuitive consciousness.”
“I’m interested in your metasystems work,” Katherine said, “and how it might relate to a project I’m working on. Any chance you’d be willing to meet? I’d love to pick your brain.”
Katherine Solomon wants to pick
my
brain?
It felt like Maria Sharapova had called for tennis tips.
The next day a white Volvo pulled into Trish’s driveway and an attractive, willowy woman in blue jeans got out. Trish immediately felt two feet tall.
Great,
she groaned.
Smart, rich, and thin—and I’m supposed to believe God is good?
But Katherine’s unassuming air set Trish instantly at ease.
The two of them settled in on Trish’s huge back porch overlooking an impressive piece of property.
“Your house is amazing,” Katherine said.
“Thanks. I got lucky in college and licensed some software I’d written.”
“Metasystems stuff?”
“A precursor to metasystems. Following 9/11, the government was intercepting and crunching enormous data fields—civilian e-mail, cell phone, fax, text, Web sites—sniffing for keywords associated with terrorist communications. So I wrote a piece of software that let them process their data field in a second way . . . pulling from it an additional intelligence product.” She smiled. “Essentially, my software let them take America’s temperature.”
“I’m sorry?”
Trish laughed. “Yeah, sounds crazy, I know. What I mean is that it quantified the nation’s
emotional
state. It offered a kind of cosmic consciousness barometer, if you will.” Trish explained how, using a data field of the nation’s communications, one could assess the nation’s
mood
based on the “occurrence density” of certain keywords and emotional indicators in the data field. Happier times had happier language, and stressful times vice versa. In the event, for example, of a terrorist attack, the government could use data fields to measure the shift in America’s psyche and better advise the president on the emotional impact of the event.
“Fascinating,” Katherine said, stroking her chin. “So essentially you’re examining a population of individuals . . . as if it were a
single
organism.”
“Exactly. A
metasystem
. A single entity defined by the sum of its parts. The human body, for example, consists of millions of individual cells, eachwith different attributes and different purposes, but it functions as a single entity.”
Katherine nodded enthusiastically. “Like a flock of birds or a school of fish moving as one. We call it convergence or entanglement.”
Trish sensed her famous guest was starting to see the potential of metasystem programming in her own field of Noetics. “My software,” Trish explained, “was designed to help government agencies better evaluate and respond appropriately to wide-scale crises—pandemic diseases, national tragedies, terrorism, that sort of thing.” She paused. “Of course, there’s always the potential that it could be used in other directions . . . perhaps to take a snapshot of the national mind-set and predict the outcome of a national election or the direction the stock market will move at the opening bell.”
“Sounds powerful.”
Trish motioned to her big house. “The
government
thought so.”
Katherine’s gray eyes focused in on her now. “Trish, might I ask about the
ethical
dilemma posed by your work?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean you created a piece of software that can easily be abused. Those who possess it have access to powerful information not available to everyone. You didn’t
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