Umoja Interactive Ballot

Juneteenth, 2036 CE

Kiswahili | English | Francais | Deutsch | Other

Thank you for participating in today's election. If at any point you wish to clarify your answer or make additional comments, please touch [I].

1. How satisfied are you with your current electrical service? [I]
___Very satisfied
___Satisfied
___Dissatisfied
___Very dissatisfied

2. Do you feel that the price of a loaf of bread is...? [I]
___High
___Just right
___Low

3. In Algeria's civil war, both sides have appealed to Umoja for support. Should Umoja: [I]
___Support the Islamic Brotherhood
___Support the Democratic National Front
___Attempt to broker a peace agreement
___Push for peaceful annexation
___Ignore the problem

4. Which candidate do you prefer for Mayor of Kampala? [I]
___Nzitunga Buseruka
___Makula Ndadaye
___John Rukidi
___None of these


5. Reducing travel time to Cape Town, Kinshasa, and Tunis will result in an increase in accidental injuries and deaths. How many additional annual deaths are tolerable for each one-hour decrease in travel time? [I]
___1-2
___3-4
___5-9
___10-20
___21-30
___31-50
___50-100
___100+

6. Please comment on the quality of papayas you have received in the last six months. [I]
___Excellent
___Acceptable
___Overripe
___Underripe
___Flavorless
___I have no opinion

7. Ritual tattooing for religious purposes is...? [I]
___Acceptable
___Acceptable if hidden
___Unacceptable
___I have no opinion

8. Please rate your satisfaction with medical care received by you or your family in the last year. [I]
___Excellent
___Good
___Fair
___Poor
___Miserable
___I have no opinion

9. How many times have you received painful sunburn in the last 12 months? [I]
___Not at all
___1-3 occasions
___4-7
___8-10
___11-12
___12+

10. How concerned are you about the following social issues? (Please rate 1-5, with 1 being "very concerned" and 5 being "not at all concerned") [I]
___Tribal relations [I]
___Medical care [I]
___Violent crime [I]
___Poverty [I]
___1- and 2-parent families [I]
___Australian financial crisis [I]
___Gender relations [I]
___Unlicensed births [I]
___Education [I]
___Housing [I]
___Civil liberties [I]
___Quality of life [I]
___Earthspace industrialization [I]
___International affairs [I]
___Gambling [I]
___Genetic ethics [I]

11. What do you most strive for in your life? [I]
___Accomplishment
___Love
___Excitement
___Security
___Power
___Knowledge
___Fame
___Moral values
___Respect
___Other

12. What other comments would you like to make? [I]

Thank you for participating in today's election. Your responses, combined with those of other client-citizens, will be used to produce recommendations that reflect the will of Umoja's people.

The questions that you responded to may differ from those of your family, friends, or associates. This is usual; questions are selected according to sophisticated statistical algorithms, so as to provide the most accurate statistical portrait with the least inconvenience to client-citizens. It is natural that client-citizens will discuss their voting experiences with one another. Should you find that you wish to give your own opinion on a question that was selected for someone else, simply contact election.umj and choose "election questions."

Once again, thank you for making Umoja better!
THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

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Find out more in Dance for the Ivory Madonna by Don Sakers

A Kreen Song

Away beyond the starry dance
Away beyond the sky
There lies a land we've never seen
But which in dreams is nigh.

Before blue Kree was set in space
Before the sun was lit
There was a golden unknown star
With a blue world circling it.

Ere Kil the sparkling river ran
Ere Miethara ruled
The Avethellen starfolk fared
From cities grandly jeweled.

Canoes of theirs the starlanes crossed
Brought life to all of Kree
Bent worlds and stars unto their will
Of such descent are we.

Where glows the light of murdered suns?
Where burns last winter's flame?
Where vanished sacred Avethell?
What of her folk became?

Ask rather of this season's rose
Where his lost parents passed;
Ask rather of the buzzing fly
Why goes her life so fast?

Into the wild and starlit deep
Retreats this world so grand
Away into forgotten past
Defies our groping hand.

And never has Kreen touched that world
And never have we known
Aught of her but mere shadowed hints
In seeds that she had sown.

We love the world on which we grew
We worship Kree and well
Yet always will our spirits yearn
For long-lost Avethell.

----------
Find out more in the Hemmin Daaveren Ketahensel

Emperor Tsung-Dao Wu

b. 16 September TE 167 Odonia
d. 19 March TE 235 New York, Terra

Tsung Dao Wu, son of Tsung Kun Wu and Mowra Cinq-Mars, was born nearly three months after his father's death. His father was Planetary Governor of Odonia, and his mother was a former delegate to the Imperial Council and regional supervisor for Rockwell Interstellar. When the boy was six, his mother was promoted to Operations Co-ordinator for Sol Province, and the family moved to Terra. In New York, London, and Peiping, Tsung Dao was raised in an atmosphere of corporate and Idara intrigue. By the time he passed his adulthood tests at 16, the young man was quite at home with the Terran political scene.

In TE 185, at age 18, he was appointed to the Imperial Council as respresentative of Rockwell. In the Council, Tsung Dao was one of a group of young populists known in the press as the Knights of the Round Table.

In TE 189, at age 22, Tsung Dao was apprehended on Kybos and tried for fomenting rebellion against Imperial rule. He was deported to the Tarantula Nebula. While in Tarantula, he founded several enclaves for mutual co-operation. He ruled for a time (TE 194-196) over a "state" of about 10^5 cubic kilometers, until he was thrown out in a dispute over breeding policies.

About TE 201 Tsung Dao was contacted by Brin Lutken & Catherine Leonov, and he began running tachyon vesicle pickups to an uninhabited system near Deletia. He was put in charge of logistics for Tarantula Fleet construction in TE 208, and appointed Internal Security Minister of the Tarantula Rebel State in TE 212.

About this time, Tsung Dao began to have a change of heart about Brin & Catherine and tried to establish ways to get around them. He developed schemes to remove them if and when when the Empress was overthrown.

In TE 219, he was closely involved in the Tarantula Incident in which Maj Thovold defeated Brin & Catherine. Tsung Dao was rather surprised to find himself named as Thovold's chosen successor.

In TE 219, when Tsung-Dao Wu was fighting to consolidate his Imperial power, he gained support among Idara Lütken and Idara Kasmanski by gifting Lütken with the Duchies of Credix and Geled, and Kasmanski with Borshall. Of course, he also angered Chen, Cepeda and Carcopino -- but this move was calculated to cut down the influence of Chen, which had grown very powerful in charge of Credix.

In 225, Tsung Dao became aware of Amy Kuchta, a 16-year-old scion of Idara Kuchta who was starting a quick rise through the Imperial bureaucracy. He took an immediate liking to the girl, seeing in her a reflection of his own early self. Soon, Amy Kuchta became the daughter Tsung Dao had never had, and in 231 he formally adopted her, naming her as his chosen successor.

Tsung Dao Wu died on Terra in TE 235, at the age of 67, and was succeeded by Amy Kuchta.

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Find out more in Weaving the Web of Days: A tale of the Scattered Worlds by Don Sakers

Turing's Test

Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2042 14:18:24 (KMT)
To: Sugarplum_fairy@nexus.nex
From: MamaPajama@mail.uharare.umj [MamaPajama]
Subject: Re: Turing’s test
Cc: ai.taskforce.list@uluebo.edu
Message-id: <20420829141824_211221.92637_ppj13-54@nexus.nex>
Content-Type: text
Status: O
----------------------------------------
Once upon a time, mathematical ability was a sign of intelligence. And people said, “No machine will ever be able to do sums like humans.”

Then came calculators, and they said, “Fine, but no machine will ever be able to play chess as well as humans.”

Then came Deep Blue, and they said, “Fine, but no machine will ever be able to recognize and process conversational speech.”

Then came software agents, and they said, “Fine, but no machine will ever be able to compose a symphony.”

Then came Digital Mozart, and they said, “Fine, but no machine will ever be able to come up with an original, creative idea.”

Now that Thë Måniƒeståtiøn øƒ Çhångë iñ thë Møuntåins has won the Nobel Prize in Physics, what are they now going to claim “no machine will ever do?”

----------------------------------------

Date: Fri, 29 Aug 2042 14:27:32 (KMT)
To: MamaPajama@mail.uharare.umj
From: gomo@umd.edu [GoCart.Mozart]
Subject: Re: Turing’s test
Cc: ai.taskforce.list@uluebo.edu
Message-id: <20420829142732_210129.033107_cke20-45@nexus.nex>
Content-Type: text
Status: O
----------------------------------------
I can tell you, categorically and without the slightest fear of contradiction, that no machine will ever, ever be able to think.

This is because human beings will continue changing the definition of “think” so as to exclude machines.
----------------------------------------

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Find out more in Dance for the Ivory Madonna by Don Sakers

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Find out more in Dance for the Ivory Madonna by Don Sakers

ALLIES STILL NEEDED FOR GUADALCANAL LANDING

Newsweek Online Edition, 1 August 2042 C.E.

The invasion of Guadalcanal is in deep trouble. The World War II Centennial Commission still needs over ten thousand volunteers to play the part of Allied soldiers for a scheduled re-enactment of the Allied landing on August 8, 1942.

Over fifty thousand people from around the world have volunteered to play Japanese troops in the re-enactment (historically, there were approximately 33,000 Japanese troops on the island in 1942). Few of these volunteers have interest in playing Allied roles. One volunteer, Derek Tshwete of Pretoria, said, “The Allies won. Where’s the drama in that?”

Dr. Kiyono Mauyama, a speaker for the Centennial Commission, said that the re-enactment will go ahead as scheduled on April 8. “We’re committed to making this the most accurate re-enactment of the entire Centennial program. If necessary, we’ll use cold-light holograms to fill in for the missing Allies.”

The star player at the week-long festival on Guadalcanal is Thomas V. Nicodemus, a 118-year-old survivor of the Guadalcanal campaign.

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Find out more in Dance for the Ivory Madonna by Don Sakers

He Talks to Trees

And the amazing thing is, one of them talks back!

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Even as a child, Quen Rubashov was fascinated by trees. On his homeworld, Neordan, he spent many happy hours camping in the Planetary forest Birnam Wood. Once, when he was 12, park rangers had to use antigrav harnesses to rescue young Quen from thirty meters up in a soaring spruce.

Now the tree-climbing daredevil is soaring to new intellectual heights as Director of the Imperial Botanical Preserve. The Preserve, located just a few hundred kilometers from the city of São Paulo on Terra, is the Empire's leading scientific institution for the study and conservation of plant life.

Rubashov, 38, is a dapper man with a serious face and a wardrobe that is as much at home in the halls of the Imperial Palace as in the laboratories of the Botanical Preserve. And he's a frequent visitor to the Palace—as the newest member of the Imperial Science Advisory Board, he is responsible for guiding the Empress Herself in forming and implementing the Empire's science and technology policy.

Rubashov studied at the University of Neordan and Credix University School of Biology, and received his doctorate from Johns Hopkins. His specialty is exobotany, and he is responsible for identifying and naming over 300 alien species of plants.

Another scientist with such a distinguished record would be content to rest on his laurels. Quen Rubashov, however, is anything but content. His current problem, which takes up most of his time outside his administrative duties, is a specimen called Arbofucatus amny—for us laymen, a tree-like species, common to many worlds, which was discovered way back in 2097 CE.

A specimen of A. amny—like the one housed in the main exobotany dome of the Preserve—looks like a particularly tall oak or maple in full bloom. It's not until one watches for a while, that one comes to realize that the tree's leaves and bark are forever changing color, in complex patterns that defy easy analysis. It's like watching time-lapse of a forest changing color in the autumn.

Quen Rubashov thinks that he has cracked the code of these color-changes. And hold onto your hat—he thinks that the tree is talking.

"I'm certain that there is intelligence behind these systematic color patterns," Rubashov says. "I'm convinced that we're witnessing some kind of language. This specimen has sat here for 270 years, and all the time it's been trying to communicate with us."

Talking trees? In a Galaxy as crammed-full of wonders as ours, it's entirely possible, says leading exobiologist Brookdalyn Cheseth of Borshall University. "I've read Dr. Rubashov's papers and reviewed his data, and I think he may be on to something. It wouldn't be the first time we've missed an intelligent species. Look at the case of the Kaanese, just a dozen years ago. At first we thought they were nonsapient animals—it wasn't until we did a thorough analysis of their biochemistry that we were able to appreciate their intelligence."

If Dr. Rubashov is right, then there may be economic and political reprecussions. Specimens of Arbofucatus amny are found on just about every Imperial planet; as a nonsapient species, they have been exempt from the Act of Nonexploitation. If they were to fall under the protection of the Act, no one is sure what the impact may be.

For now, the Imperial Council has declined to grant Dr. Ruibashov's trees recognition under the Nonexploitation Act. A quick survey of major Imperial worlds shows that specimens of A. amny are usually well-regarded and fairly well protected anyway. Their beauty and their majesty, it seems, may protect them where the law cannot.

For now, Quen Rubashov continues his research, hoping to find just the right data to convince the Council. And meanwhile, he and his fianceé, linguist Magretti Folonzwa, are making plans to tie the knot sometime early next year. The ceremony—to which the Empress will almost certainly be invited—will reportedly be held on the grounds of the Imperial Botanical Preserve, perhaps under the soaring limbs of Quen Rubashov's favorite alien tree.

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14/9/215

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Find out more in The Leaves of October: a novel of the Scattered Worlds by Don Sakers