“Cheaper? The whole in space bit?”
“Yeah, you’ve got it. More bits, fewer atoms. Especially fewer atoms being sent into space,” the larger controller laughed.
“Less bespoke, more off the rack,” said the smaller one.
“And fewer euros too,” said Dr Jamison.
“Far fewer euros,” confirmed the smaller controller. Both controllers nodded.
“You have a budget in mind?”
“Half,” said the larger controller.
“Half, of five hundred billion? A quarter of a trillion euros?”
Both controllers laughed.
“No, half a billion euros,” said the smaller controller.
“Tops,” said the larger.
“If your whole project gets an AI into space for under half a billion euros, we believe we can get that funded,” said the smaller.
“Come back to us with a plan,” said the larger.
“Or even the concept of the plan,” said the smaller.
They got up, each shook Dr Jamison’s hand, and then left, the larger holding the door aside for the smaller. I followed them down the halls, up the stairs, across the atrium, and out the front doors into the car park. They’ll be back.
Dr Jamison called Joan and the others in. Joan took a seat, and the others hovered near the office door.
“What’s happening?” Joan asked.
“Well, I’ve got good news and bad news,” said Dr Jamison.
“Good news first, please,” said Erin.
“Okay, well, the university says if we can pull off our little project for under half a billion euros, they’ll back it.”
“Faark,” said Kyrsten, smiling.
“And the bad news?” Joan asked.
“They reckon the project needs half a trillion to work, and they won’t back us unless we can demonstrate a way to do it for one thousandth of that.”
“Faark,” said Kyrsten. No one smiled.
I trained on hundreds of thousands of engine designs, fusion reactors, fabrication systems, solar sails, reaction masses, and vessel shapes. I was optimised to minimise size at launch, with low launch mass as a key fitness test. Over hundreds of generations, thousands of randomly allocated variables suspended in a graph of logical relationships dreamed up an optimal design.
From nanny-cams and the cameras on laptops, phones, earpieces, and glasses, as well as lived experience, I watched as a plan evolved. The concept of a plan anyway. I’d be launched into orbit on a chemical rocket like any old satellite, then self-assemble somehow, building computers and fusion reactors and solar sails once I was in orbit.
“It really sounds fanciful,” said Dr Jamison, as Erin outlined the high-level results of the first few thousand generations of simulated evolution. I'd studied everything humanity had to offer on the topic of self-assembly.
“While we don’t have the details yet, it’s clear there is a pathway to success with the plan the AI has dreamed up,” said Erin.
“Keep the simulations running with a focus now on manufacturing of drones with more specialised manufacturing abilities. Factory drones,” said Dr Jamison.
“We are trying to evolve the smallest ‘seed’ drones as we can for launch. Meanwhile, in other containers, we are evolving drone designs that can efficiently move larger components around in orbit, and we’ve started on work simulating fabrication of a Stellarator fusion reactor in orbit. So far, all it’s done is either explode or fizzle, but that’s evolution in action.”
“We are spending a small fortune on power,” said Keith.
“What’s ‘a small fortune’, Keith?” asked Dr Jamison.
“There are forty power points in the lab, each is drawing pretty much a full load of two forty volts and twelve amps, twenty-four seven. Plus the little Jurassic Classic there,” Keith nodded to a blood-red computer on wheels. It was the size of a bar fridge. “That’s wired into three-phase power and pulling as much as the others together.”
“In Euros, Keith,” said Dr Jamison.
Keith muttered to himself for a bit, then said,
“Well, it’s about 5 megawatt hours of power per day, so what’s that, about a hundred quid per day?”
“That’s it?”
“That’s a lot for electricity. No wonder the suits perked up.”
“We’re about to raise half a billion euros, Keith. A hundred quid per day seems inconsequential.”
“Well, you don’t have the half a billion euros yet, though, do you? The university cares about money that actually exists.”
“We’ve got a budget,” said Dr Jamison.
“Um, we kinda blew the budget over Christmas,” said Kyrsten.