Chapter 77. The History Symposium
- Location
- Romania
Chapter 77. The History Symposium
12-16 June 1945, Berlin, Deutsches Reich
A little over one hundred historians and diplomats from 35 foreign countries¹ attended the Berlin History Symposium.
1. United States of America, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Siam, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Vatican City, Italy, German Switzerland, Romandy, Inner France, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia.
The History Symposium was divided into two parts. The first part was shorter, public and common for all participants, while the second part consisted of lengthy tête-à-tête meetings held behind close doors. Extraordinary as it was the first part, it would have been surely eclipsed by the second one, should that have been public as well. Alas, the public opinion was left to speculate about the revealed pieces of would-be history from the actions taken by the various governments in its aftermath.
The Symposium debuted rather poorly, with convoluted and fruitless debates over the trustworthiness of the presented revelations and especially over whether the information was even falsifiable. A couple of hours later, Reich Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath, the Chairman of the Symposium, was clearly exceeded by the tumult emanating from the amphitheatre.
Konstantin von Neurath: "Gentlemen, please... Let us begin and then judge each piece of information on its intrinsic plausibility..." (whispering to his aide) "It's useless... Take over here, Paul. I'm going to fetch her and have them hear the news directly from the source!"
Paul (confounded): "Fräulein Adolphine?"
von Neurath: "Oh, no! I can't trust her. She may say something that ought to remain unsaid. No, I meant that female robot, Helga."
Paul: "But can we trust the robot?"
von Neurath: "Both Adolphine and the robots want only what's best for the Reich. The problem with Adolphine is that she is... not that smart and she may make a mistake. A robot does not make mistakes."
Paul: "Will she agree? I mean, I heard that those robots are rather independent minded..."
von Neurath: "Feldmarschall von Manstein had already discussed this contingency plan with her."
************
von Neurath: "Gentlemen, may I have your attention, please?..."
The background noise did not seem to diminish. Von Neurath smiled, took a folded Helga out of his pocket and threw her in the air.
Helga turned on her small motors in order to stay airborne and began to unfold into her usual one by two metres screen shape. The audience gasped.
Helga (in flawless American English, using her softest voice): "Gentlemen, may I have your attention, please?... Good afternoon and welcome to Germany. I am Helga and I will entertain you for the duration of this Symposium."
Helga mesmerized her audience with her persona, wits and smooth talking. For the duration of the Symposium, Helga would manage the eclectic group of men like a school teacher manages her pupils.
Later Churchill would famously comment that the robots were the greatest danger mankind had ever faced and that he would have preferred to deal with Hitler than with Helga. However, his worries were shared by a very small minority and, fortunately, in the end, proved to have been unfounded.
Helga spent the public part of the Symposium getting acquainted with her interlocutors, building trust and a pleasant ambience and talking about general trends in politics, history, society, law, science, technology and ecology.
The most important discussed topics were:
During the second part of the Symposium, Helga conferred with representatives from each of the participating countries², with the exception of New Zealand whose sole delegate was admitted to hospital with acute appendicitis.
2. Some details about what Helga had discussed in private with each country's representatives will be provided in the chapters dealing with the events from those countries.
Helga's revelations, whether fully believed or not, had, undoubtedly, had a profound effect on the subsequent history of the timeline. For better or for worse.
12-16 June 1945, Berlin, Deutsches Reich
A little over one hundred historians and diplomats from 35 foreign countries¹ attended the Berlin History Symposium.
1. United States of America, Canada, Mexico, Costa Rica, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Siam, Vietnam, Indonesia, India, Iran, Iraq, Egypt, United Kingdom, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Vatican City, Italy, German Switzerland, Romandy, Inner France, Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Croatia.
The History Symposium was divided into two parts. The first part was shorter, public and common for all participants, while the second part consisted of lengthy tête-à-tête meetings held behind close doors. Extraordinary as it was the first part, it would have been surely eclipsed by the second one, should that have been public as well. Alas, the public opinion was left to speculate about the revealed pieces of would-be history from the actions taken by the various governments in its aftermath.
The Symposium debuted rather poorly, with convoluted and fruitless debates over the trustworthiness of the presented revelations and especially over whether the information was even falsifiable. A couple of hours later, Reich Foreign Minister Konstantin von Neurath, the Chairman of the Symposium, was clearly exceeded by the tumult emanating from the amphitheatre.
Konstantin von Neurath: "Gentlemen, please... Let us begin and then judge each piece of information on its intrinsic plausibility..." (whispering to his aide) "It's useless... Take over here, Paul. I'm going to fetch her and have them hear the news directly from the source!"
Paul (confounded): "Fräulein Adolphine?"
von Neurath: "Oh, no! I can't trust her. She may say something that ought to remain unsaid. No, I meant that female robot, Helga."
Paul: "But can we trust the robot?"
von Neurath: "Both Adolphine and the robots want only what's best for the Reich. The problem with Adolphine is that she is... not that smart and she may make a mistake. A robot does not make mistakes."
Paul: "Will she agree? I mean, I heard that those robots are rather independent minded..."
von Neurath: "Feldmarschall von Manstein had already discussed this contingency plan with her."
************
von Neurath: "Gentlemen, may I have your attention, please?..."
The background noise did not seem to diminish. Von Neurath smiled, took a folded Helga out of his pocket and threw her in the air.
Helga turned on her small motors in order to stay airborne and began to unfold into her usual one by two metres screen shape. The audience gasped.
Helga (in flawless American English, using her softest voice): "Gentlemen, may I have your attention, please?... Good afternoon and welcome to Germany. I am Helga and I will entertain you for the duration of this Symposium."
Helga mesmerized her audience with her persona, wits and smooth talking. For the duration of the Symposium, Helga would manage the eclectic group of men like a school teacher manages her pupils.
Later Churchill would famously comment that the robots were the greatest danger mankind had ever faced and that he would have preferred to deal with Hitler than with Helga. However, his worries were shared by a very small minority and, fortunately, in the end, proved to have been unfounded.
Helga spent the public part of the Symposium getting acquainted with her interlocutors, building trust and a pleasant ambience and talking about general trends in politics, history, society, law, science, technology and ecology.
The most important discussed topics were:
- Herself, robots, AI, computers, the Internet. Besides a short history of the field, Helga took the opportunity to show off a little. She performed various complicated calculations instantly, spoke many different languages perfectly using the accent of her interlocutor, sang the Ode to Joy from Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, projected 3D movies and enhanced reality games and showcased her phenomenal map skills.
- The Hirn and the Berlin Dome. Helga avoided most questions and gave evasive answers to the rest. Obviously, she did not uncover any useful information.
- Adolphine. Helga played a couple of short movies from Adolphine's childhood but revealed no sensitive information about her.
- Time travel, causality, parallel universes / timelines. Helga offered her take on the matter but did not discuss the issue in depth.
- The question of trust. When asked whether she might lie, Helga replied: "Lie? Like in willingly providing false information? Oh, gentlemen, I am not a human, but a machine, an instrument. Suppose that your thermometer gives you a mistaken temperature reading. Surely you would presume that it is defective, not lying. Like any other instrument, a robot is built to provide correct and truthful answers. Believe me, a malfunction in either my hardware or my software would be instantly obvious. Besides, as you had surely noticed, I simply decline to answer those questions that a human would probably answer untruthfully instead."
- Communism, the Soviet Union and the Cold War. While most participants were extrememly interested, Helga left most details for the private section of the Symposium.
- Decolonization and its pitfalls. That topic was also greatly expanded upon in the subsequent private section.
- Overpopulation and mass migration to the First World. Helga was unable to explain and the participants could not fathom the reasons why their Governments would accept the migrants in the first place.
- Deforestation, desertification, habitat loss, extinction of numerous species. No solutions were presented.
- Antibiotic resistance and the emergence of new diseases and pandemics in a globalized World. Here, Helga mentioned the medical nanobots and forecasted an end of any and all diseases in about a decade in Germany and another one or two in the rest of the World.
- Polution, fossil fuel burning, Global Warming and sea level rise. Maps and videos showing most of the Netherlands, Florida, the Bengal and other areas submerged left a very powerful impression. Helga promissed that, with cheap and plentiful fusion energy available before the end of the century, the World will evade that horrible fate.
- Social changes. More than anything else, those revelations were utterly repugnant or even uncomprehensible to most attendees. Helga maintained a neutral tone, showing neither approval nor disapproval but merely presenting a series of facts.
- Nuclear proliferation, warfare and terrorism. The death of hundreds of thousands in terrorist attacks in the Occident and tens of millions in a "localized" nuclear war in Asia produced the expected revulsion and urgent need for countermeasures.
- Insane dictatorships, religious fundamentalism, ethnic cleansing and genocide in various countries. Helga believed that, although history would develop differently, the same problems were still prone to plague the developing World, although perhaps in different countries than in her timeline.
- Miscellanious topics.
During the second part of the Symposium, Helga conferred with representatives from each of the participating countries², with the exception of New Zealand whose sole delegate was admitted to hospital with acute appendicitis.
2. Some details about what Helga had discussed in private with each country's representatives will be provided in the chapters dealing with the events from those countries.
Helga's revelations, whether fully believed or not, had, undoubtedly, had a profound effect on the subsequent history of the timeline. For better or for worse.
