Lunch with Harman
Michael
So basically I wanted there to be a little bit of in-character planning before we get over there. Just which direction we're going to lead Harman in, what kind of intel gathering we want to do. You all agreed to meet him at a third location for lunch, so that's fine.
Leonard
Having felt a little grungier than usual lately, Jocasta will get herself fully put together before she settles down to a morning of research. She'll just be hanging around, finding out anything she can about Harman, until Archie comes to get her.
(Also, have Harman and Mitchell founded IONS yet? All the materials say 1973 but I can't find anything specific. It would be of interest to Jocasta just because it's studying a lot of her pet psi & humanism interests and because it's in her home town...)
Michael
Oh yeah the Institute of Noetic Sciences is currently operational.
Leonard
She'll toss that on her pile of research topics, maybe seeing if any familiar names show up in the staff list or if there's anything they're doing there that is more than usually interesting.
Michael
Cool, a further Research roll sounds really good. Research-14, give you a little bonus for prior knowledge and Jocasta's natural interests.
Leonard
>>> SUCCESS
(Made it by 3.)
Michael
If Jocasta were being charitable and optimistic, she'd look at Harman, Mitchell, and the other Old White Men doing this work and research in New Age and socio-spiritual approaches to the problems rife in society in this year of our lord 1973 as prophets, men who've seen the warning signs on the wall after 25 years of postwar consumer society and seeing a bad future if they continue. Just like David Wolf, honestly. But if she were being pessimistic and cynical, she'd see these interests as just another way to keep the younger generation hooked into the system. It would give people the illusion of discovering their higher selves, of elevating their awarenesses, of rejecting the cold grey-flannel-suit realities of the '50s and '60s for something new and fulfilling. But in the end it would be used for the same purposes that postwar consumerism did, to keep people under control. Harman's research, whatever his acceptance of psychic powers and the promise of psychedelics, has a technocrat's heart beating away inside it. He wants to keep the world on an even keel; cybernetics in the original Greek sense of the word. And, after all, these men are hired by think tanks and research institutes here, in the heart of the military-industrial-computing complex in the Free World. Harman may want to avoid disaster, but it's still a mass movement orchestrated from above, ultimately. There's a lot of lip service to communalism and community but at the center of it all is the sovereign individual. Again, Jo may find this sort of argument compelling! But it's double-edged upon further review. It doesn't feel History B-ish, really, but it does keep power focused at the top. Make of that what you (and Jo) will.
Rob
Archie pops out of his office when he hears Jo in the common room. "Good morning, Jocasta! Ready for our lunch date?" He gestures to the file Jo is presumably perusing. "This Harman's an interesting character, isn't he. Any thoughts on how we ought to play this? All I really told him on the phone was that we're interested in his research, and we're putting together a symposium for the fall."
Leonard
"Ready and able, chief," Jocasta responds, handing over a short precís of her research. "I'm not exactly sure, to be honest; I've had some trouble getting my head around him. He's doing some really important and interesting work, but it's hard to tell the direction it's headed. His whole thing is a very human-potential, universalist approach to both technology and the mind, and he seems sincere; he does a lot of talking about how just changing one's perspective can have a tangible effect on the world, which I don't think is controversial. But it's all so focused on business and industry, so it's a very...structured, channeled idea of change. There's a lot of the old hegemony behind the new language." She thinks for a few minutes, then shrugs. "He has his feet in both worlds, the new age and the old, and my general sense is that he's not super likely to be a pawn of the enemy. But with his combination of technical knowledge and paranormal belief, as well as his reputed ability to make big leaps and predictions that others have missed, he might be working towards a goal that would help the enemy without knowing it. Beyond that I just can't say."
Rob
"Yes. That's all very astute, thanks. He seems to be just about as 'out there' as you can get and still make pleasant conversation with the other fellows in business class. But conversations in business class have gotten a lot more 'out there' over the years."
"I suppose we just get him talking and see where it goes. He calls what he does at SRI 'educational policy research.' Nice and vague, just like 'Corporation for Healthy Media.' Hard to say whether he'll have much connection to computers or the psychic stuff. Anyway, don't be shy about piping up at lunch. You know the jargon better than I do, and he'll be flattered by your interest."
Leonard
"Will do," she agrees, fishing around in her purse for her Jill Kelley ID. "Are we taking your car?"
Rob
(Pictures Jocasta's car for a second.) "Why don't we do that?" (Reminded by the car question:) "And say, thanks again for, ah, getting me home on Friday night." (Anything else we need to go over? Did we decide where we were going to lunch?)
Michael
(Leonard, did you have a restaurant in mind? I seem to vaguely remember one being mentioned.)
Leonard
"Of course, Archie. If you ever want to talk more about your trip, I'm here. And if you don't, well, I'm still here."
(I didn't have a place in mind, but I think I offhandedly mentioned that if this is a sitdown of relative industry bigwigs, it would be someplace like Alfred's Steak House, a spot for SF high rollers for a century -- or at least it was until COVID killed it)
Michael
"Mr. Ransom! Ms. Kelley!" The ebullient Willis Harman gets up from the table at Alfred's to very publicly and vociferously greet Archie and Jo. "So pleased to meet you, come, sit down. Can I order you anything to drink?" He has a drink half-finished in front of him that is either a very peppery tomato juice with celery or a very peppery Bloody Mary.
He's wearing a fairly conservative summer-grey suit, light weight, maybe in more of an out of fashion cut (narrower lapels and tie), and has a battered soft leather briefcase by his chair.
Rob
"Doctor Harman! The pleasure is all mine. All ours. And please, call me Archie." Handshakes, introductions, small talk. Archie asks for a 7-Up, but when the time comes he'll order a big steak, while telling Jo/Jill to save room for the Bananas Foster. "So I told you a little about the CHM on the phone," he says whenever small talk lulls. "We're not a household name but we're well resourced. I like to think we do good work behind the scenes. Just asking folks to think a little differently about the 'vast wasteland', ha ha. But it's your work we want to hear about! Everything I hear about SRI is astounding. They tell me you're building the future there."
Michael
"Well, that's why I was so intrigued by the idea of a symposium in the next few months. There have been all kinds of intra-campus meets over the past five or six years on this set of topics, 'building the future' as you say." Harman picks at his Waldorf salad and has a sip of his tomato juice (turns out he isn't drinking for this lunchtime meeting). "But Archie—if I may call you Archie—saying 'building' the future is a bit of a misnomer. I'm lamenting if we'll ever get anyone in power to make policy to actually listen to what we're saying about the next few decades. Used to be in this country people thought on a multi-generational scale, but you know the tale of the past few years. Everyone in power is putting fires out: the protests over the draft, the fears of economic ruin over inflation and then dropping the gold standard, the whole population bomb/limits to growth conversation." He looks at both Archie and "Jill" levelly when he says this and the next bit. "There's no easy way to tell people who are dealing frantically with a fire in the galley that the ship itself is very slowly sinking."
"But we—me and the other academics at SRI... and elsewhere!—have tried multiple approaches. The shift now is from education to general social policy influence. Our preliminary reports and recommendations on education have been 'taken onboard' by people at HEW in Washington, distributed to private institutions, PBS, what have you: but as you can understand the Nixon administration has, hah, their own galley fires to deal with right now." Harman reaches down to his case and removes a large binder-clipped typewritten manuscript; looks like a stack of Xerox pages. "This is what I've been working on to summarize our views. Five years of work with SRI, with other institutions. Our projections, our recommendations, in education and elsewhere. I've taken to calling it 'an incomplete guide to the future.' The 'completion' comes, of course, when we take the warning signs seriously."
Leonard
"If I may, Dr. Harman," Jocasta pipes up, "Are you referring to resource depletion, whether from overpopulation or environmental factors? Or do you mean something more...internal?"
Michael
"The factors that are rising and threatening societal stability will include both global and local factors. On a certain level, many factors are out of any kind of direct control: resource depletion, population growth, as you say. Even the explosion of global mass media and what that has done to the human psyche," Harman says as he nods to Archie. "The genies are out of their bottles. The big global changes that have already taken off down the runway can't be reversed, but they can be managed. Mitigated. Channeled for the greater good. And that management will help stave off the worst of our own internal societal upheaval that could happen in the wake of these multiple revolutions."
"It's happened many times before of course. The Black Plague led to the slow decline of serfdom. The Reformation ultimately fueled a Thirty Years' War. The Industrial Revolution changed folkways and ways of living drastically. All these events caused societal misery, chaos, excess death, because quite simply people exploited and selfishly took advantage of events. But the postwar period we're living in right now is different. Threats are now global and existential instead of local. Events and their telling spread near-instantaneously across the globe. The mass movements of the 20th century, fascism, state communism, and yes, even Western consumerism, have failed to address these rapid steps of global evolution of consciousness. Which means we need an awareness of and a commitment to living and working differently, and that has to begin on the individual level. The level of belief."
Rob
Archie can't help thinking of David Wolf, and also his conversation with Enki. The ill road has been laid, he thinks, in Sumerian. But he says: "I'm glad to hear you see some hope for managing all the tumult, for channeling change towards greater good. And I absolutely agree that it always comes down to individuals in the end. What's in our hearts, what's in our minds."
"But this future you're forecasting sounds pretty bleak! Don't you think that tools like mass media - television, radio, whatever they'll think of next - that they can be used for good as well as ill?"
Michael
"I do! Absolutely I do! Mass media is exactly the venue, or one of the venues, through which we want to try to change the global mindset to a transindustrial state of mind. But at the moment, as you well know, radio and television are primarily used to, well, sell things. God forbid we allow the satellite era of human telecommunications to go that way as well."
"Imagine a world, the two of you, where every human being could pursue their interests—art, philosophy, gardening, music, storytelling, meditation—on an interactive basis with people all over the world! The cultural barriers this would break down, the encouragement of understanding and cooperation it could unleash! And on the grander scale, think of mass media's ability to inform the public, to keep it apprised of the social and economic issues of the day, to help the individual survive and thrive amidst change. We're not using these tools in anything close to their potential right now: the broad established channels of mass media are being used solely to propagandize and the cutting-edge ones—computers, satellites, and more... esoteric methods of mass communication—aren't ready or aren't being used to their potential."
Leonard
"Doctor," Jocasta asks, "Would you mind if I ask how this fits into what you're hoping to accomplish at IONS? Forgive my presumption, but I was reading about it prior to this meeting -- due diligence and all that -- and I was wondering if you see its role as complementary or entirely separate."
Michael
Harman smiles at this young lady who's done her research. "Oh, Edgar, what an inspiration he is. A moment of perfect togetherness, seeing the Earth from space. And then he comes back to Earth and says, damn the doubters, I'm going to fund research into human psychic potential. Imagine if everyone could have that experience of samadhi! Everyone could find themselves enlightened, with a common consciousness of their humanity."
"Yes. The future includes every human being reaching their fullest potential. And as our minds are cleared and brought into union with our Earth and our surroundings, we expect to see more evidence—clear, scientific evidence—of supranormal abilities in human beings. Clairvoyance, telepathy, superhuman empathy... here," he flips through the manuscript, "Let me read you a bit from the Guide."
"This research has been going on for nearly a century. William James, J.B. Rhine, Carl Jung... respected names in psychology and philosophy. As our world grows more connected, as our minds evolve, as our self-knowledge grows more sophisticated, we will find ourselves with control over our bodies and minds at a level that only the ancient sages dreamed of having. Humanity, in union, advanced in our mental and physical health and control. The pinnacle of human potential. We intend at IONS... and at SRI... to be at the forefront of that research."
Oh, I do want to share one graph that catches either Archie's or Jo's eye if they take the proffered manuscript, from the second chapter:
Rob
"Golly!" Archie munches thoughtfully. "I hope you don't mind me asking this, Bill, but: where do you find funding for this work? I know a little something about courting corporate donors. Computers, medicine, materials - there's always funding for that sort of stuff. Anywhere folks can imagine spin-off applications. But who pays for research on telepathy, or clairvoyance? It can't all be coming out of Edgar Mitchell's pocket."
Michael
Yeah, I think if Archie wanted to give a Fast-Talk-17 roll here and Jocasta an Occultism-17 we might be able to get a synthesis of both your lines of questioning. Also Leonard, if you want to make that Meditation roll, I'm gonna call it Meditation-12 given the circumstances (busy distracting lunchtime at Alfred's).
Rob
>>>> SUCCESS
got 13 on the Fast Talk roll
Leonard
As Archie and Harman chat about financing, Jocasta fixes the doctor in her vision; not quite locking him in, in fact almost a little dreamy, but clearly focused. She lets his words swirl in the air and looks...deeper.
>>>> SUCCESS
Made the Meditation roll by 1, whew.
Michael
"Well, the Institute of Noetic Sciences got its initial seed money from a whole lot of unexpected quarters—mostly private investors who've been through the traditional corridors of corporate philanthropy over the past few years and found their answers to the problems plaguing America wanting. Former Exxon exec Paul Temple is on the board and the masthead of all of IONS's first publications, he's been a big backer. But also people you might not expect. Everyone from San Francisco Old Money to fried chicken restaurant chain owners!"
"And of course the work at SRI is funded mostly by government backers, some corporate."
Rob
Archie looks skeptical. "The U.S. government is funding psychic research?"
Michael
Harman looks very seriously at Archie. "Oh yes. Mr. Ransom. We're not just saying these things about perfecting the human mind to say them. This is not a metaphor. Science has only sporadically taken the idea of mind-over-matter as a subject of serious research over the past century or so, but the time is right, now, as the public takes the paranormal more seriously than ever, to find out if there's anything to it all. The U.S. government, the Defense Department, and the intelligence community have evidence that the Soviets are already working on training up psychic potential in promising subjects. The hunt is now on here as well." As Jocasta looks deeper at Harman and tries to allow his presence to mix with hers—not Psychometry, not her usual hallucinogen-aided awareness, but just being in a meditative state in his presence—Jocasta senses a great, deep turbulence in Harman's soul. His life is full of secrets, he has to manage multiple ways of thinking to manage in the various circles he moves in. He's a dude who has to keep his stories straight. Maybe that's one of the reasons why he's being so open and honest with his interests here.
Leonard
"With respect to the fact that this is obviously work of great scientific value and foundation," Jocasta says, laying on the charm, "and with the assumption that you can't realize human potential if you go at it with an ideological agenda, what are your thoughts on how we develop these abilities and perspectives without steering them in a direction based on...well, the old systems of thought? What, in other words, are you doing to keep this from becoming a tool whose results depend on who's wielding it?" (Jo is basically trying to draw Harman out on either what his own ideological leanings are or on who he thinks should be at the controls. Not trying for an easy "Oh, my masters the Anunnaki overlords" gotcha, just seeing what insight we might be able to get from his answer. That's about all she'll want out of this -- some sense of his overall loyalties -- and after he answers I'm happy to button the scene, and she'll spend the rest of the meeting making pleasant New Age chitchat.)
Michael
Jocasta hasn't used Empathy yet on Harman, has she?
Because if not, I would absolutely use Empathy for this kind of a scene button roll. I'll roll it secretly if you're keen, Leonard; we'd use your IQ of 12 and I'd add 1 for the Meditation roll and 1 for the Occultism roll.
Leonard
yeah, let's go for it
Michael
Harman answers, "I understand my actual prescriptions for how exactly we're going to engineer a complete cultural and social transformation might seem a little bit vague at this juncture, but that is precisely why I'm so interested in events like the colloquium you're planning! See, for the longest time we've asserted that the only way to change people is to educate the younger generation, to prepare them for a world that will be irrevocably changed, and let future generations learn from them. It's still a strategy I think we can deploy with a lot of success. But there has to be a change of heart on the part of individuals—all individuals, from the board room to the factory floor, from the newborn to the man or woman on their deathbed—before that transformation can happen. In my ideal transindustrial future, every single individual will be sovereign. This won't be a world ruled by any elite or charismatic ruler at all, but a world ruled by every single one of us: sacrosanct, enlightened individuals able to contribute to important decisions with wisdom and care for our fellow man and for future generations. It's certainly going to take some trial and error, but the world right now—full of excited, driven young people trying out new social, cultural, and material technologies—is our laboratory!" He flips to near the end of his manuscript and shows you the six strategies for a nondisruptive transition. "The danger of the world's and nation's leadership possibly remaining old and hidebound, clinging to power while society changes around them would lead to profound dissonance, of course. But the plan is to relieve leaders of their control burdens and diffuse that power to everyone on Earth. Like... like the snow melting in the spring and re-filling all the reservoirs and rivers again." Harman's devotion to radical de-centralization and individualization—while keeping corporations and non-governmental associations around to help with production and distribution logistics—doesn't really hold water internally, Jocasta realizes. And in the final analysis his society depends upon all kinds of remnants of "the old world." He's authentic about his beliefs, but can't fundamentally imagine a world that much different than the current one with the exception of all the self-actualization stuff. He thinks it'll be a magic wand.
Michael
(If it does sound to Jocasta and/or Archie that this all seems a little bit less than "well-thought-out," I would not disavow either of you of that impression.)
(Anyway, as someone on another channel said, there's always the ol' Psychometry handshake to end the meeting.)
Leonard
(Sigh, yeah, I was hoping to avoid it but it doesn't seem like we're getting much else out of him but brochures. I'll go for it if Archie is okay with it.)
Michael
(I suppose Harman can get up to use the restroom at some point and y'all can sign to each other or mutter in Danbe.)
Rob
(Archie is fine with it — psychometry — but won't tell Jo to do it if she doesn't want to. Harman seems sincere, well-meaning and basically harmless? I mean, Archie doesn't think he's going to save the world, but who is? Besides maybe Mitch or Charley.)
Michael
As the dessert cart is brought around, Harman picks a particularly rich-looking piece of chocolate cake and orders a coffee. "Let's see what kind of people we can bring together in the fall, what do you think? I'll use my contacts at Stanford, at Esalen, at Xerox PARC, RAND... there are so many people out there who want to help, who want to try to figure this transformation out! The thought and planning and action we take now, the more future-conscious people of goodwill we can gather to this cause, will ensure us a better world, for our children, our grandchildren." Harman's voice cracks at this last bit, showing real emotion.
Leonard
(Basically, Jocasta's argument for doing it is that we've kind of been chasing down all kinds of leads that haven't led us to any position of action yet. We're reasonably sure that there's some kind of momentum that is carrying us towards a reasonably dystopian future, but unless and until we can suss out some Red King influence to it, and isolate where it's coming from, it's (a) arguably just history happening and (b) not really our problem, institutionally. There has to be someone doing something either willingly or not at the behest of the overlords; if there isn't, we're chasing our own tails. Jocasta doesn't know if a quick psychometric read will tell us that Harman is our man, but if it does, that's good, and if it's not, we can more or less write him off as exactly what he seems to be. [And in a meta-game sense, that should, I think, be our approach moving forward. Otherwise we'll spend the next year just meeting every harmless futurist crank in California.])
Rob
Yeah, handshakes, thanks, promises to keep in touch. Archie sounds sincerely enthusiastic about the symposium that is never going to happen, because he can get behind this whole line of thinking.
Michael
Okay. I've made the Psychometry roll so unless you guys have any conversational buttons to end on, we can move to the goodbyes and the handshakes.
(Also, I'm gonna post the results here but under a spoiler tag so if you don't want to read what Jocasta sees you don't have to. )
Without a specific time or object or location to focus on, Jocasta just gets the most important emotional moment of Willis Harman's life so far, or at least the one set of emotions that was strong enough and recent enough for Jo's Psychometry to pick up on. And indeed, what Jo senses is a moment... a year and a half or a couple of years ago? Something along those lines temporally. This was a moment where Harman's "transindustrial" future theory had been fully formed, he'd been working at Stanford and SRI and trying very earnestly to get educational foundations onboard with this, and one day he'd been asked to present it before... some very important people, at a day-long presentation, with Harman solo in front of this... council.
(No matter how hard Jocasta concentrates, she can't get a lock on what these people look like, which is weird because this moment looms so large in Harman's life story. Of course maybe in Harman's own mind and memory the people aren't important and only their reaction to his theories was.)
Anyway, the people interviewing Harman thought his work demonstrated a brilliant understanding of where American society was headed, and of how to fundamentally transform American society for the better. But they said Harman would need to get broad buy-in from a majority of the American people, many of whom are suspicious of ideas like "enlightenment" and "ecology." Exactly how would he accomplish this? Harman had an answer for that: if everyone in America believes they are acting in their own self-interest, they'll never feel like they're being manipulated by the people in power to fundamentally change society or themselves. The interviewers are pleased and say that this fits in with their own projections about the future. So Harman's job over the next few years is to get this idea of enlightened self-interest into people's heads. Into the right people's heads. Of course the interviewers will do whatever they can to spread the idea as well. Harman left this meeting feeling full of purpose and promise, like he'd finally been listened to after years of screaming into the wilderness. All this would now finally happen now that They'd said yes. He knew just where to start at SRI too.
Leonard
This seems like News We Can Use, and in the car on the way back, Jocasta suggests that finding out who this council of people was who gave Harman's fairly sloppy theories such a warm reception and a chance to apply them to the levers of power. "It might be some pretty routine batch of corporate types or the Outfit," she says, "but it might not. I couldn't get a clear image of them, which is a little odd, but he'll know, and we should get that out of him."