He hadn't slept much since then. He couldn't tell very many people what he'd found, and those few he'd trusted had not been supportive, smiling their denials before getting back to work. They seemed to refuse to see. His days were now a hollow routine, as he came to work, had some coffee, and tried to attend to such mundane, and now meaningless, chores such as the evaluation of student theses.
Enter, the Degroots
He checked his watch. He was late for a guest lecture, some new ideas about Skinnerian conditioning and utopian social protocols, by a pair of visiting grad students, Gerald DeGroot and Karen Hanso. They appeared to be well-funded, and had actually begun some field work in experimental communities. He figured he could kill a few hours. He'd try not to ask many questions...and to restrain the urge to argue. What would be the point?An Aside
Dialing down the literary pretension factor just a bit, to inject an aside:As you can see, for this update, I've elaborated a story for Valenzetti, and how he met Gerald and Karen. I've also added a new wrinkle, by having Gerald marry Alvar's daughter Karen...which helps to cement how a pair of academic social-sciences types could erect such a prestigious partnership with The Hanso Foundation.
The Foundation's multi-disciplinary science research was backed--and fronted--by the respected Alvar Hanso, who had refocused his life's work. He had parleyed has origins, as a purveyor of advanced arms to the winning allies of WWII, into his new role as the steward of mankind's technical progress. Due to the highly-placed connections he had developed with world leaders over the course of his career, his egalitarian good intentions, and his intelligent, persuasive, and charismatic eloquence, Alvar had become universally regarded as, "Humanity's ambassador to the future."
By the time his daughter approached him with Enzo's depressing predictions, she and her intended husband had already attacked the problems with their activist social philosophies. They had a promising program for improving human society, and "hardening" it against future destructive pressures, but more was needed. Hanso had the hard science that could address some of the potential pressures head on, by vanguarding technological innovations to improve our fighting chances against disease, natural disasters, genetic drift...and hopefully, the threats from outer space.
Alvar believed. The mission was clear, and the Dharma Initiative to save civilization was born. Peace, justice, equality, and mankind's progress towards true enlightenment would not be permitted to perish from the earth.
As a practical and ethical matter, Alvar knew the world would have to help save itself. His existing, expensive lines of research into genetics, nanotechnology, and control of the fundamental force of electromagnetism...these would have to be stepped up to a whole new level, and quickly. The Hanso PR team assembled a presentation and made some phone calls, arranging a closed-session visit to the United Nations security council, where Alvar presented the plan for combatting the apocalypse.
But agreement could not be reached. The nations of the world could not unite and cooperate for this purpose. Many didn't believe The End was nigh, and some of the more controversial aspects of research related to genetics, social controls and parapsychological studies seemed to bar any progress toward consensus. The arguments waxed and waned as the years slipped by, while Alvar fruitlessly attempted to keep the dialogue lofty and the perspective global. He had been funding the research, but in order to proceed with clinical and field trials, an enormous investment would be needed, and opposing interference would have to be mitigated. The long project timelines for dealing with the most crucial probabilities were already stressed, and there really was no more time to waste in fruitless debate.
