The computer is incredibly fast, accurate, and stupid. Man is unbelievably slow, inaccurate, and brilliant. The marriage of the two is a force beyond calculation.

- Leo Cherne

Today our journey in the time machine took us from one cabin to another. The only difference I noticed at first was that, wherever we had landed, it was a lot colder there. Fortunately, Mr Tuniak had informed me in advance that that would be the case and so I had prepared and put on warmer clothes.

As we left the cabin, I saw that it was located right at the edge of a forest, pretty much on top of a mountain. Below us was a long valley. A river was running right through it and dividing it into two parts. In the middle of the valley was a city, one of the most unusual cities I have ever seen. It was as if someone had cut out the centre of a big metropolis and relocated it exactly as it was right in the middle of the wilderness. I couldn't really put my finger on it, but it seemed immediately clear to me that this city hadn't grown naturally, but had been planned. There were no suburbs, where the houses would stand farther and farther apart from each other and slowly disappear completely. It looked like the city planners had drawn an imaginary line in the valley and declared that this was exactly the point where the city would stop.

“Where are we?”, I asked.

“Alaska, your present”, Mr Tuniak said. “Our car is parked over there.”

Right next to the cabin was a small parking area and a road that led down to the city. A car was standing on one of the parking spots, not much bigger than a Smart, but from no company I recognized. There was a little sticker on the passenger side door, which informed me that the vehicle belonged to Raben Consulting. We got into the car and I expected Mr Tuniak to drive us. But there was no steering wheel. Instead a computer screen was right in front of what in other cars would be the driver's seat. On the screen Mr Tuniak entered our destination, “Center”. And then the car started and drove on its own.

It was extremely uncomfortable sitting in a car, knowing that even in an emergency there was no way to interfere with the steering (later, I was informed that this was not true; a joystick – which I had mistaken for gear shifting lever – could be used as a manual override). As long as we hadn't actually entered the city, it was bearable, but once inside... A countless number of other cars was travelling along the streets and all of them were apparently driven by an on-board computer. And in addition to that there were of course also pedestrians and bikers, people on roller-skates and Wheelies and every other means of transportation imaginable. I even saw a rickshaw being pulled by a robot. And not one single accident!

Once I had gotten slightly used to all of this, I was able to concentrate a bit more on my surroundings and the buildings we passed. Although we were somewhere in Alaska very few of the streets signs were actually written in English. Even on the big posters which could be seen on some walls or the signs in the front windows of shops used hardly any English. Instead Russian was used (the vast majority of signs), but also some kind of Arabian and Chinese. And the people who lived here seemed to come from every corner of the world.

In the centre of the city there was a big fountain. There was a metal plaque at its side, describing and explaining in Russian the figures visible on it.

“There should be glasses in the glove compartment in front of you”, Mr Tuniak said. “Take them with you.”

I took the dark blue spectacle case and we left the car. Mr Tuniak went to the metal plaque and pointed at it. “Put on the glasses”, he said.

I took the glasses from the case. They were heavier than I had expected, with dark and thick temples and frame. After I put them on, I noticed that my sight hadn't noticeably improved or worsened, so I guessed that they glasses were just that: made of simple glass.

“On the right temple you'll find a small indentation”, Mr Tuniak explained. “If you press with a finger on it, you will activate the glasses.”

I did as I was told. And the glasses really came alive! When I looked at the plaque now, a new text was seemingly floating in front of it: a green font, the translation of the Russian text. I turned around and looked at a poster with Chinese writing on it. And again the glasses super-imposed the translation.

“That's fantastic”, I said. “What is this city?”

“Fifty years ago, when it was founded, it didn't have a name”, Mr Tuniak said. We were walking towards one of the taller buildings with a glass front. “It was built and maintained by the secret services of several western nations during the hight of the Cold War. The plan was to recreate a Russian city here, so that spies could get used to living in one.”

“Spies who would then be sent to the Soviet Union?”, I asked.

“Yes”, Mr Tuniak answered. “The Soviet Union by the way had similar cities hidden somewhere in Russia. Of course, those were built to look like American cities. But at the beginning of the 80ies the project was ended and for over a decade the city wasn't used for anything. Until Feodor told Alice and me about it.”

“This city is one of the... companies you founded to research old knowledge and put it to new uses?”

“We came here in the early 90ies. That's when the city got its name, Lagua's Dwelling”, Mr Tuniak told me. “It was taken over by several of our companies, who had fused together and are now controlled by Raben Consulting. They were looking for a quiet place to... well, you could say to go into hiding.”

We stopped in front of the main entrance. “One more thing before we enter.” Mr Tuniak turned to me and started to whisper. “The people here know me as Alexander Mueller, member of the board of executives of Raben Consulting. Only a few know my true history and who I really am, so if you talk to someone it's best to suppose he doesn't.”

I said that I understood and that I would be careful and then we entered.

“This is basically the centre of the whole city”, Mr Tuniak explained, now again talking in his normal voice.

“You still haven't told me what it is people here actually do”, I said.

“Everything you can imagine”, a woman with blond hair and a cap answered. She was sitting in an electric wheelchair and driving by she must have heard my question. “We develop, invent and test everything we can think of.” She pointed to the glasses I was still wearing. “Why do you think you can find signs in every language outside?”

“Just to test the glasses?”, I asked.

“Not only the glasses, but yes”, she said. Her mobile phone was ringing and she excused herself. I watched her drive off and it took me a few moments before I realised that the wheelchair had started moving on its own. She had pressed no button and given no other visible or audible kind of command, but it still seemed to know where she wanted to go. When I asked Mr Tuniak about it, he answered: “The cap she is wearing is measuring her brain activities and is connected with the computer of the wheelchair. She is basically controlling it with her thoughts.“

The receptionist, who gave us our visitor passes for the building, was an android. The liftboy, who took us to the fifth floor, was a hologram. The people we passed were wearing t-shirts which changed colour. On some you could even watch whole films.

“Is that how cities in the future will look like?”, I asked.

Mr Tuniak was thinking for a bit, before he answered: “I don't think I'm telling you too much, when I say that the future will be quite different from what you can see here. Everything here will be used in one form or another, but not really in the same way the people here use it.” He smiled. “From my point of view, Lagua's Dwelling is a city where children have been given the technology of the future to play with. Take a look at this for instance.” We were passing an open door and Mr Tuniak gestured to me that I should take a look inside, without attracting attention. I saw several women and men sitting in front of computer screens and apparently playing some kind of game. They seemed to be controlling some robots through dark corridors or caves.

“Do you see the biscuits on the table?”, Mr Tuniak asked quietly. “In some of them, they have hidden nano-bots, miniature robots that are smaller than a human cell. They ate a few biscuits and are now trying to figure out, which of them ate the biscuit with the nano-bots.”

“Isn't that dangerous?”, I asked alarmed.

“No, not at all”, Mr Tuniak replied. “But that's what I meant when I said that they are like children playing with toys they don't understand. They developed nano-bots which in the future will be a very important medical tool. Operations won't be necessary any more, because instead of cutting people up, they will just be injected with those nano-bots who can repair practically any damage from the inside. But right now they are... used for these stupid games.”

At the end of the corridor we entered a small office. A blind secretary was sitting in front of a computer and greeted us. The screen of his computer was part of the surface of his desk and the man had laid both his hands on top of it. It was explained to me, that the screen consisted of a material that could be shaped with great precision. Parts of it would raise and lower themselves and thus create something very similar to Braille. The secretary could “see” the images on the screen with his hands. But, he admitted, the system wasn't perfect yet and there were still a few bugs to take care of.

“Is Doctor Cumshewa here?”, Mr Tuniak asked.

“She is down at the AI laboratories”, the secretary said. “They had some problem there this morning. I'm afraid she won't have time for you.”

We thanked him for the information and returned to the lift. Mr Tuniak decided we would try our luck and so we went down to the third floor where the laboratories for artificial intelligence were located. As we got there, we found chaos. People were running up and down, shouting things to each other, gesticulating and in general creating the feeling that the end of the world was near. Mr Tuniak talked to an elderly woman – I guess it was Doctor Cumshewa – but she seemed to completely ignore him. There were several computer terminals in front of us, a technician or software engineer working at each of them and the woman was going from one to the other, issuing orders or giving advice. She returned to Mr Tuniak once more and quickly said: “Sorry, Alexander, but I'm quite busy, a you can see. An artificial intelligence has escaped into the internet this morning.” Mr Tuniak nodded only in response, but I think I heard him mumble: “And so it begins.” But maybe that was only my imagination at work.

We left the AI laboratory, because we were only standing in the way.

“I guess, we won't get a guided tour through the city today”, Mr Tuniak apologised, as we left the building. “But I think you have got quite a good idea now of what hidden ancient knowledge is capable of creating.”

Oh yes, I did have an idea now. But looking back, I don't think I even understood half of what I have seen today. I can't possibly imagine how the future will look like...

NEXT WEEK

Die Menschen sind nicht immer, was sie scheinen, aber selten etwas besseres.