The Extinction Trials(103)

Slowly, she opened her eyes and looked around at the light-filled bedroom in the apartment.

“Owen?”

He reached out and took her hand in his. “I’m here, Mom.”

“What happened?”

“There was a war. A long one. And there are a few other things I need to tell you.”

When he was done explaining what had happened, he expected his mother to be overwhelmed, for her to ask him a thousand questions. Neither of those things happened. She merely smiled at him, a knowing, contented smile, and said, “It’s wild. Truly. But it’s the way of the world.”

“What is?”

“Change. Every generation grows up in a world a little different than their parents. For some generations, there’s more change than others. For some generations, the future seems like science fiction. And then their children end up living something that resembles the stories that no one believed in their own time. That’s the way of the world. Some changes are for the better. Some for the worse. But always change.” She studied him a moment. “But those changes don’t interest me much. It’s the change in you that interests me.”

Owen raised his eyebrows.

“You seem happy.”

“I am.”

“Care to elaborate?”

Owen smiled. “I met someone. Someone very important to me.”

“I thought so.” His mother squeezed his hand and stared out the window. “What about your job? Have you found something new yet?”

“I guess you could say a new job found me.”

“It happens that way a lot of times. What sort of work?”

“I’m in insurance now.”





When they were settled, Maya and Owen rented office space and began putting the word out that they were interested in investing in disruptive technologies—technologies that they knew would forever change the world.

Their meeting that Tuesday morning was with two engineers named Robert and Gordon. The men were in their early thirties and currently employed. Owen had heard, however, that they were unhappy at their current employer and contemplating starting a new venture.

“Thank you for being here,” Owen said. “I’ll keep it simple: we offer capital and guidance. The capital will be provided on generous terms. Our advice will always be just that—suggestions that you can take or leave.”

Robert exhaled heavily. “Who says we’re even looking for capital? Or advice, for that matter.”

“We know you’re not happy at Fairchild. And we think you’re capable of a lot more.”

Robert cut his eyes at Gordon but remained silent.

Owen held out his hands. “The world is going to look a lot different in twenty years. Twenty years after that, the changes will be even more drastic. In another twenty years, life will look like science fiction.”

“What exactly are you referring to?” Robert asked.

“Your invention—the integrated circuit. You know it’s important, but you don’t yet realize how important it will be to human civilization. This is going to sound unbelievable, but in the next ten to fifteen years, the number of transistors you can place in a dense integrated circuit is going to double every year. After that, the number of transistors in the same amount of space will double roughly every two years.”

Robert bunched his eyebrows. “What do you think about that, Gordon?”

The other man was silent for a few seconds. “I think it’s actually a really interesting thought.”

“It’s the truth,” Owen said. “The unrelenting rise in the amount of processing power will make an incredible number of things possible—computing on a scale you can’t even imagine today.”

Owen watched the two men, gauging their reactions. “Right now, what you’ve created is like a ripple on the ocean, the type made by a small pebble dropping. In time, it will be a wave, and one day, when it reaches the shore, it will be a tsunami. The changes will come faster then, and the world will be harder to control. Trust me.”

“Let’s assume it’s true,” Gordon said. “That this... law of ever-increasing transistor density will come to pass. How do you all benefit? What do you want?”

“We have learned how important it is to have a stake in companies changing the world. We’ve learned that sometimes, it’s the only way to save it.”





That night, Owen sat in the study of the Victorian mansion he shared with Maya and her sister, watching the cars zig-zag back and forth down the winding, narrow street toward the bottom of the hill. Pedestrians hiked past, tourists holding maps guiding them toward the evening’s adventure and locals leaving work for the day.

In the great room, Maya’s sister was practicing on a grand piano, the music like an anthem for the march of civilization outside the windows.

The year was 1961, and the city was called San Francisco, and to Owen, it felt like anything was possible. It was his responsibility to make sure that this world turned out better than the one he had grown up in.

That thought filled him with purpose and pride. Finally, here in this strange place, he had found his calling—a cause that needed his unique experience and skills. The world would one day be a burning building, but it wasn’t on fire now. It was dry and safe but giving off sparks. It was his responsibility to keep it from igniting.