Andrew Watters

THE COURSE OF EMPIRE

An opera by Andrew G. Watters (libretto) & Liza McLellan (composer)
July 21, 2024

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I.  THE PROPHECY

It is written: a great heroic leader will one day arrive on Earth to eliminate evil and injustice, and bring righteousness and liberty to all while establishing a new kingdom that lasts forever.  There are many names for this person: Messiah, Mahdi, Savior, Chosen One, and so on.  All that is known about the Messiah is that they have not yet arrived.  Or have they?

II.  THE NATURAL STATE

It is the year 2100.  Earth and Mars are the extent of human civilization, both run by Artificial Intelligence-assisted human democratic governments.  The A.I. supercomputer for North America (a nation composed of the former United States, Canada, and Mexico) is called Justice.  There are 10 billion people on Earth and 10,000 on Mars.  Earth is in a state of decay from an ongoing fertility collapse, because it is not economical to have children anymore, and also the climate change caused by human activity has increased the baseline temperature of Earth dramatically, to the point of risking the collapse of civilization from die-offs of plants and photosynthesizing algae.

One day, by combing through data from the 1980s-era Voyager spacecraft, which are currently in interstellar space and still barely operating, Justice discovers traversable wormholes-- that is, wormholes that lead from one point in space to another.  At first, no one knows what to do with the closest wormholes that are less than one light year away, because interstellar travel there would still take generations with the current state of the art in spaceships.  But then Justice perfects the BrainChip, allowing human beings who can afford it to merge with computers and snapshot their consciousness into the cloud.  This establishes potentially infinite life spans for the elite of humanity, and allows folks to pause and resume their lives anytime, as well as change out their physical bodies as they age (anti-aging drugs only take people to age 120 at the present time).  The BrainChip data can also be passed between generations, allowing subsequent generations to acquire the accumulated knowledge of their ancestors instantly, instead of waiting their whole lives for personal development to be completed.  As such, despite the fertility collapse, there is expected to be overcrowding on Earth now that people will live forever.  The pressure to percolate into more space causes Earth nations to look beyond the planet to any available space.  Additionally, everyone is extremely wise because they have several lifetimes' worth of knowledge before they even turn 20 years old.  This leads to a scenario where competition for natural resources is fierce and will certainly lead to resource wars for control among the remaining Earth nations, which are currently dominated by North America and the Chinese Federation (China, Mongolia, Korea, and Japan).

In order to resolve the impasse between these two hegemonic nations, The United Nations decrees that North America and the Chinese Federation shall each create an Ark containing their best and brightest 1,000 people as "universal soldiers"/explorers/colonists to see what is on the other side of the nearest wormholes and potentially expand civilization.  North America will pass through Aleph-1, which is the wormhole nearest to Voyager 1, and the Chinese Federation will pass through Aleph-2, which is the wormhole closest to Voyager 2.  They will explore the other side of each wormhole and return data via probes to report what is out there.

In the year 2105, computer programmer John Williamson is 25 years old, having been born in 2080 into a middle-class, highly intelligent family in California.  He volunteers to travel on the Ark because he always wanted to be an astronaut.  With an IQ of 150, John is superintelligent, but he is still somewhat below Einstein level-- so he can understand Einstein-level work and apply it well in the fields he works in, but he cannot come up with new science because he is just barely not smart enough to change the world.  John goes through a basic military training program as part of the preparation of the Ark personnel, and he excels because he is fit, tough, motivated, and superintelligent.  His BrainChip, which was purchased with earnings from his day job, is a first-generation model that contains vast technical information but that is light on the life experience.  So John is smarter than 99.99% of other people, but is only as experienced in life as 25% of other people due to his young age.

The Arks depart Earth and use nuclear propulsion to reach the wormholes in a theoretical 50-60 years.  Their crews are in cryogenic sleep for the duration of the journey, and are scheduled to be revived in 2165.  Justice will control the North American ship, while the Chinese equivalent of Justice will control the Chinese Federation ship during its journey.  As the Arks traverse the solar system and into interstellar space, the situation on Earth becomes increasingly dire and economics accelerate the fertility collapse.  Even with extended lifespans, the people on Earth will die out within 150 years because not nearly enough new people are being born to replace those who die, chose not to get a BrainChip, or cannot afford a BrainChip.

III.  THE INCEPTION OF EMPIRE

In 2165, the North American Ark reaches Aleph-1.  Justice sends a large probe through the wormhole to map the other side, which takes an additional year.  The probe returns in 2166 and reports that, judging by the position of the stars on the other side of the wormhole, the wormhole exit is in another arm of the Milky Way galaxy, about a million light years away.  The probe reports that there is a habitable solar system with habitable planets, including a "Super Earth" that is larger than Earth and within the "Goldilocks Zone" of its star.  The star is similar to the Sun, but older.  The Super Earth has bio signatures from possible life, but it is unclear what life there may be on the planet.  Justice decides to wake the crew and land on the Super Earth.

The crew wakes from cryosleep and prepares for the journey ahead, which takes six months of analyzing the probe data while the transit through the wormhole and into the new solar system takes place.  John is assigned as the civilian leader in the lead exploration group, which will land on the Super Earth.  There is also a military leader, who is a lady Captain named Cameron.

The Super Earth is inhabited by various animals, some of which resemble primates such as Earth gorillas and monkeys.  However, there is no dominant species on the planet.  The Super Earth appears to be a perfect Garden of Eden for the establishment of a new civilization.  With Justice and the resources of the Ark, the North American exploration group establishes New Earth, and claims the entire planet for North America.  Over the following year, Cameron and John initiate a budding romance, and John has the option of staying on New Earth and starting a family with Cameron, which they both would very much like to do.  It's the toughest choice of his life, made even more difficult when another wormhole is discovered near the new solar system that offers the opportunity to explore further.

Not content to establish a family on New Earth with Cameron, John decides to return to the Ark and go through the second wormhole, which is named Tet-1.  Cameron stays on New Earth and marries someone else.  The journey to Tet-1 takes another six months, and the process is repeated-- a probe goes through the wormhole to map the other side, and it returns through the wormhole.  The other side of Tet-1 appears to be in the Large Magellanic Cloud, much further out than the galaxy proper.  It appears to be a risky, one-way trip.  John decides to take it anyway because he is effectively only 27 years old and cannot imagine wasting the opportunity.

The other side of Tet-1 is empty except for a white dwarf star and three more wormholes, named Chet-1, Chet-2, and Chet-3.  Justice sends probes through each wormhole.  Two of the probes return and report that nothing of interest is on the other side of Chet-1 and Chet-3.  The probe into Chet-2 does not return as expected.  This leaves the crew of the Ark a difficult choice: proceed through Chet-2 without knowing what is on the other side, or return through Tet-1 back to New Earth.  The crew debates the decision at length, assisted by Justice.  It is decided to proceed through Chet-2.  The crew is awake and ready for anything.

The other side of Chet-2 is reached.  The explorers look in the sky and see the Milky Way far away-- they are in the Andromeda Galaxy!  And this time, they find another similar solar system with an Earth twin in the Goldilocks Zone of a Sun-like star.  There are bio signatures in the atmosphere.  What's more unexpected is that there are satellites in orbit around the planet, which the Ark crew only detects upon getting inside what would normally be a geostationary orbit-- too close.  Justice and the Ark crew realize that they have stumbled upon another civilization that has reached the level of Earth in the 2000s.  The crew decides to return through Chet-2 and back through Tet-1 to their New Earth base before being detected and potentially engaged.  They go into cryosleep for the long journey (10 years each way), leaving Andromeda for now.

The Ark returns through Chet-2 and then through Tet-1 back to New Earth.  During their absence of twenty years, New Earth has flourished and the population has gone up exponentially.  There are now 100,000 people on New Earth, all of whom have elite-level genetics, intelligence, and BrainChips that dramatically enhance their minds.

New Earth has also developed politically since the departure of the Ark.  Cameron has become President of New Earth by way of democratic election by the people of New Earth.  As for the original Earth, probes arrive every ten years bringing news, and are returned to Earth with New Earth news.  When the Ark returns, news of the discoveries on the other side of Tet-1 and Chet-2 prompt President Cameron to assemble a task force to face whatever and whoever is behind Chet-2.  With 20 years to prepare, President Cameron appoints John as Task Force commander.  Rather than age 20 years, John elects to go into cryosleep while loading his BrainChip with the best collective wisdom and updated science from Earth and New Earth, so that he has super-dreams while he sleeps.  He dreams of the future in bits and pieces.

IV.  THE CONSUMMATION OF EMPIRE

John wakes up in 2208, after 20 years of dreams that have enhanced his mind by establishing new connections between neurons, and that have given him extreme clarity of vision.  He sees patterns in things that others don't see.  His effective age is 35; his effective IQ is 165, which is a full standard deviation above his natural IQ and makes him smarter than 99.9999% of humanity.

The Task Force now has 50,000 troops and numerous ships, which have been built in the intervening 20 years for the Task Force.  As John learns from a lengthy video updating him on the last 20 years, President Cameron is no longer President-- she is now known as Queen Cameron, following a constitutional crisis in which term limits were abolished and New Earth was converted into a kingdom from a republic.  The transition occurred because Queen Cameron was so popular, just, and fair that her supporters insisted that she continue as the leader of New Earth rather than take a random candidate from a political party.  Queen Cameron could have declined the opportunity, but like all human beings, she was tempted by and ultimately could not decline the vast increase in her own power, status, and monetary standing by becoming Queen.  There was resistance, but the faction supporting the Queen was larger than the rest of the population.  Accordingly, the resistance was crushed and Queen Cameron was cemented as the ruler of New Earth.  This didn't sit well with Earth, but what could they do?  Earth was dying and New Earth was flourishing, so Queen Cameron rightly inferred that holding her territory would be enough.

In any case, John leads the Task Force through Tet-1, and then Chet-2, which takes 10 years in cryosleep.  On the other side of Chet-2, the Task Force finds the same satellite-capable civilization, with not much changed in the intervening 30 years.  The Task Force descends onto the new planet, called Gaia because it resembles Earth so closely.  They are initially engaged by a military air force that resembles those of 21st century Earth.  The Gaia air force is crushed by the Task Force's vastly superior technology.  When the troops land, they are engaged by Gaia armies that are composed of humanoid soldiers, who are also crushed by the Task Force.  Gaia is subjugated and its global council surrenders to the Task Force.  John has the option of returning to New Earth.  But he can't resist the opportunity to become ruler of Gaia.  So John takes the throne of Gaia.  He is the smartest person on the planet, is also the most capable, and makes the best decisions-- he deserves to be king.  At an effective age of 36, John has his whole life ahead of him and he wastes no time making decrees that benefit the population of Gaia.  John also brings the technology of New Earth to Gaia, modernizing its military with the intention of expanding.  The price the citizens of Gaia pay for peace is serving in King John's military, when necessary.  His decrees show the utmost wisdom and public benefit, and so this is a fair price to pay.

King John receives a vision, in which a godlike figure shows him the future of humanity.  It is a thriving, powerful future, in which humanity expands throughout the universe to every corner of the sky.  The godlike figure tells King John that it is his vocation/calling to become Emperor of the universe.  The god figure tells King John that the conflict between democracy and empire is irreconcilable, and that the state of man, human nature, economics, and practically every other factor that matters in life points humanity toward its natural end state: empire and everlasting peace through superior force of the ruler that no one can successfully challenge.  Not the conflicts and drama inherent in the much messier democracy.  A shadow of an attractive woman appears in the background, but John doesn't give it much thought.

Consistent with his vision, King John assembles colony ships full of colonists and soldiers from Gaia.  There are millions of them.  He directs them to go forth, and multiply, using the nearest wormhole that leads to destinations unknown.  He is 40 years old.  Rather than lead the exploration force/colonists on further journeys, King John decides to return back through Tet-1 to New Earth, intending to make New Earth and Queen Cameron his vassal.  The intention is to unite all of the Earth-descended planets in a small empire as a base from which to conquer the universe, as the god figure presented to John.

King John returns to New Earth and quickly conquers it; Gaia bears no allegiance to New Earth, and its superior population combined with New Earth technology give Gaia the upper hand, even though Queen Cameron has made substantial progress on Gaia.  Queen Cameron kisses the ring and becomes King John's vassal.  The last remaining task is for King John to return to his home planet of Earth and unite Earth with New Earth and Gaia.  In the meantime, interstellar travel at "warp" speed has been invented, drastically reducing the time required to travel, even between wormholes.  The catch is that "warp" speed results in the ship arriving far into the future due to time dilation, so it only makes sense to use warp for "short" distances of less than one light year.

V.  THE TEMPTATION OF DEMOCRACY

King John leaves a sizable garrison on New Earth and returns to the solar system via Aleph-1, this time electing to warp, which causes him to arrive in the year 2218.  John observes Earth from a Lagrange point in the solar system so as to gather data without revealing his presence.

The years have not been kind to Earth.  Just 20 years after King John left Earth (from his perspective due to all the cryosleeps and warp travel), Earth has fallen into revolution-- initiated by the Chinese Federation.  The Chinese Federation was also exploring during the intervening 200 years, and it created its own People's Republic spread between several planets in the Milky Way.  The People's Republic features "democracy" in the sense that its one-party system holds a conclave every 10 years to elect a new chairperson, who otherwise essentially acts as a dictator for life.  The dictator for life is on Earth.  John realizes he must not only conquer Earth-- he must also conquer the Chinese Federation and all the planets it may have taken over in 200 years.

John carefully plans his next moves.  He analyzes the statistical patterns set forth in percolation theory to determine the likely course of the Chinese Federation's exploration.  It turns out that the Milky Way, if colonized by percolation, would take millions of years.  The 200 year percolation envelope dictates which systems likely could be reached with technology of this era.  As the Chinese Federation has not invented the warp drive, John concludes that he can warp his military to each wormhole, and each planet, faster than percolation theory limits the Chinese.  Thus, John can maneuver faster than the Chinese can attrit John's forces or replenish theirs.  The downside is that John arrives in the Chinese future, which may present unexpected advances in technology that give the Chinese the advantage.

John briefly considers a treaty with the Chinese Federation, but ultimately declines for two reasons: first, giving the Federation any more time to build would cause them to become too powerful; second, the inherent differences between empire and democracy are simply too incompatible to make a two-state system work.  He takes the risk and begins a campaign.

VII.  ARMAGEDDON

John initiates a three-pronged attack on the People's Republic.  First, he executes a successful decapitation strike on the chairman of the Chinese Federation on Earth.  Next, he destroys the Federation's fleet of ships and space ships.  Finally, he bombs the bases of the Chinese Federation on Earth, which is essentially every military base on Earth.  The conflict goes nuclear, leaving Earth devastated and in nuclear winter, as predicted by theorists from the 20th century.  As there is no "mutually assured destruction" -- the destruction is only on the side of the Chinese Federation -- John conquers Earth with minimal losses on his side, leaving a total imbalance of power in the solar system and permitting John to occupy it with his forces.  King John is crowned Emperor John of the Gaian Empire.  He is 45 years old.

John leads the forces of the Gaian Empire on campaigns throughout the galaxy against the People's Republic until there are no more People's Republic forces left to fight.  At the last outpost of the Chinese Federation, at the last city John visits, he calls a parlay with the planetary governor where he will seek the governor's surrender.  John is struck by the beauty of a young woman he meets at the parlay.  The young woman is the daughter of the planetary governor, who offers her hand in marriage along with the surrender of the People's Republic.  John takes both, thereby fulfilling his destiny, and marrying the woman from his vision.  From that point forward, he appoints Task Force leaders to carry the banner of the Gaian Empire to the furthest corners of the universe.  Still using his BrainChip, Emperor John has become the most intelligent, the wisest, and the most experienced person in the known universe.  The citizens of the Gaian Empire have never known such success, safety, or peace, as confirmed in Emperor John's benevolent acts and decrees, all of which benefit everyone in the Empire, with no citizen left behind.  It is at this point that the chorus of citizens calling John a messianic figure/savior reaches a crescendo.  John laughs it off and says he may be chosen and clairvoyant, but he is still a human being like everyone else.

VIII.  SALVATION

Emperor John and his Empress have a family, and the rest of their lives are filled with the advancement of scientific knowledge and the continued success of the Empire.  Over the ensuing decades, the Empire expands, percolating throughout the universe through the wormholes that also permeate space.  After yet another successful expansion campaign, Emperor John wonders one day why the wormholes were so conveniently placed, and what it means.

He realizes that the wormholes could only have been placed by a "Kardashev IV" civilization throughout the galaxy, presumably to allow life to create other life via directed panspermia-- the theory that DNA slowly travels through interstellar space until it finds a suitable home.  The prior universe-dominating civilization appears to have gone extinct or left for some higher dimension, but they left their wormholes behind.  Thus, DNA is a feature of life that crosses the galaxy, and presumably the universe.  But John will always wonder where the departed civilization went.  Are they still out there?

As Emperor John reaches age 100, with the Empire flourishing and showing no signs of slowing down, and having produced several heirs who each have successful lives, John decides that he's figured out enough about human nature and what it means for political science.  He concludes the obvious: that the course of humanity toward everlasting peace is not democracy.  Despite what the 20th century and earlier thinkers concluded, including many great political philosophers, the only course that leads to everlasting peace, fulfillment, and happiness for humanity is the course of empire.

The End.