“So if this was mostly just about fine-tuning your mental voodoo,” I said, “how have you influenced me since?”
Nari paused to gather his thoughts. “Well, we nudged you to visit Schoenfeld-Allen Protection Services,” he began. “In addition, we hoped you might help us with PR, as I mentioned. Help us think through the timing and content of possible disclosures. So the more expert you could become regarding the theories and history of UFO and alien interactions with humanity, real or made up, the better the job you could do.”
I thought about this. “So what are you saying? That you pushed me in my sleep to become obsessed with aliens and UFOs?”
“You were already obsessed. One of the reasons you were chosen in the first place. But we did nudge you to become even more so. That’s how it works. A bit like hypnotism. Contrary to fiction, you can’t hypnotize someone to commit armed robbery, or jump off a building, against their will. A person can only be hypnotized to do something they would already be willing to do otherwise. Same with this. We can strengthen a tendency, put a thought into your sleeping head, but it can’t contradict how you feel consciously.”
I was fascinated and horrified both. “So I was already obsessed,” I said, “but not so obsessed that I’d be willing to quit writing to pursue the truth. That I’d dedicate my entire life to it.”
“There’s no way to be sure,” said Nari, “but I suspect this is the case.”
He paused. “And here is the most interesting part. The more time that passed, the more our AI concluded that you were vital to our success. And the more the AI concluded that you were vital to our success, the more attention we focused on you. And the more attention we focused on you, the more our AI concluded that you were even more vital. Until your predicted criticality reached astonishing levels, for reasons we still don’t understand.”
“So Jason was just a minor player in the beginning,” said Brad. “So minor you didn’t even tell me he was on your radar.”
“That’s right. He was just meant to be the first of many highly imaginative people we hoped might join us. Again, assuming they would choose to of their own free will. We never expected his importance to escalate the way it did.”
“Anything else we should know?” I asked.
“Yes. You’ve been a test case for our recruitment program. But you aren’t the first of your kind whose subconscious we’ve tried to impact. It turns out that creative types are the easiest to influence. The most imaginative among you, the most open to wild ideas, are also the most susceptible to our technique.
“So we’ve been gently guiding a number of your key scientists for hundreds of years, accelerating your already torrid pace of scientific development. By just the slightest amount. Still, with the Swarm heading our way, every year counts.”
“Why use subtle techniques to influence scientific minds?” I asked. “Why not just give scientists the answers? If you want to catapult us to your level in a single decade, you could make that happen.”
“We’ve already discussed that. You know better than I do the dangers of putting tech in the hands of a species that isn’t ready for it. You already advance too fast for your own good. We took a big risk accelerating you even a little. In fact, there are those of us who argued we should slow you down, so your maturity could catch up to your capabilities.”
I nodded. A possibility that hadn’t occurred to me, but one that could spark a fascinating philosophical debate.
“So we arrived at a compromise,” continued the alien. “We’d withhold all of our science and tech. But we would help key scientists on the trail of pivotal breakthroughs, as long as they were close enough to the finish line to be pushed over it with a few simple ideas. Which required scientists brilliant enough, and receptive enough, for our limited influence to spark a eureka moment.”
“Can you give us an example?” said Brad.
“Of course. The most famous example is Albert Einstein and his theory of General Relativity. Not as definitive a theory as you currently believe, by the way, but still a vital stepping stone to further advances. In any event, as close as Einstein was to a breakthrough, we provided a key insight—the key insight—that we believe got him to the finish line ten years faster than he would have otherwise.”
My eyes widened. “Are you suggesting you were responsible for what Einstein called the happiest thought of his life?” I said in dismay. “That you put it into his head?”
Nari nodded. “We did.”
“What thought are we talking about?” asked the colonel.
“The simple thought that cracked General Relativity,” I said. “The eureka moment when Einstein realized one couldn’t tell the difference between the effects of gravity and the effects of acceleration. With this insight, the rest of the theory began to fall into place.”
Nari turned to the colonel and sighed. “I’m so sorry we didn’t tell you about this program, Brad. But it was something else we couldn’t disclose while we were still building a relationship. If you learned at the start that we could put certain thoughts into human heads, you’d distrust us forever. You’d never believe that we can only give you feeble nudges, and only push you where you already want to go. Even now, after we’ve built up significant trust, this disclosure will damage our relationship in ways that are impossible to calculate.”
“That’s for sure,” I said. “From now own, I’ll always wonder if my ideas and interests are my own, or just manipulations. And if I’ve been manipulated a lot more than you’ve let on.”
“You haven’t been,” said Nari. “But I do understand your suspicions. Given how much we’ve kept secret, who could blame you? It would have been much better for your peace of mind if you had never learned any of this. But after the unpredicted, and unprecedented, actions of the faction represented by Michelle, it was time to put our cards on the table.”