Braintrust- Requiem by Marc Stiegler

Author:Marc Stiegler [Stiegler, Marc]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781642027952
Publisher: LMBPN Publishing
Published: 2020-04-01T16:00:00+00:00

12

All that Glitters

All warfare is based on deception.

—Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Jonathan Kuffman stared at the virtual window in Lenora’s office, displaying a scene from one of the external cameras that showed the Fuxing fleet.

Almost two dozen isle ships floated there, interconnected inside the confines of the agricultural reef. If they added any more ships, they’d probably need to build a second reef and split the fleet.

Lenora came in. “Jonathan! I understand you might have good news.”

Jonathan nodded. “Hope so.”

Lenora smiled warmly. “Let’s see.”

Jonathan struggled for a moment with the controls on his tablet—he wasn’t a computer guy, although he was getting better pretty rapidly with tutelage from Chen Ying and Song and the others supporting him in his efforts. “Spent a lot of time learning to work bots on the ocean floor. Finally got to start test-drilling last week.”

Lenora nodded patiently.

Pictures of what he’d discovered appeared on the screen. “Found this.” Now that he’d conquered the display system, he abandoned it. Instead, he directed Lenora’s attention to a small transparent case he drew from his pocket.

Glittery rocks rested therein. “Auriferous quartz. Gold.”

Lenora cheered him on. “I’m delighted you’re starting to get results. It’s very exciting.” She took the case in her hand and frowned at the minerals. “Believe it or not, however, the price of gold has crashed.”

Jonathan looked puzzled and defensive. “Price is way up from what I’ve seen.”

Lenora sat back, chuckling. “Let me guess, you’re still looking at the price in terms of dollars.”

Jonathan nodded.

“Understandable, but you’ve got some adjusting to do. In terms of SmartCoin, the price of gold is falling. The big players have finally realized that SmartCoin is a better store of value than gold. It will take some time, but eventually, gold will cease to have any significant value. After all, one reason it made such a good currency in the first place was that it didn’t have any other large-scale applications.” She snorted. “SmartCoin is even less useful for anything other than currency.”

Jonathan’s shoulders sagged by just the smallest margin. “Also.” He reached into another pocket and pulled forth a transparent vial. The contents looked like tar. Even Jonathan had trouble keeping the pride of discovery out of his voice. “Crude oil.” He shrugged. “Heavy crude, but still good.” His eyes shone. “Largest find in twenty years.”

Lenora circled the desk and went to him. She put a hand on his shoulder. “I’m so sorry. With the economic collapse, the price of oil has also tanked. That’s pretty normal in a recession, but it is worse this time.” She took a breath. “With the production of beta batteries and graphene supercapacitors about to ramp up, it might turn out that we don’t need gasoline for cars anymore. It’s possible that the price of oil will never recover.”

Jonathan stared at the vial of unbelievable wealth in his hand, realizing in horror that it was useless.

Lenora continued to encourage him. “It’s okay, really. The important thing is your success in mapping these minerals and the opportunities.

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