“I’m sorry, who are you?”

“I work for DARPA and the Department of Defense. I was responsible for setting up the Francis Crick Scholarship.”

“Oh! Well . . . Thank you. It’s been interesting.”

“Yes, well, it’s good to finally get the next generation together.” He purses his lips. “Actually, to be honest, we’ve had our eye on you for some time. We keep track of certain individuals who we suspect might have a chance—”

“Of cracking it?”

“Precisely.” He seems to be judging Kierk’s reaction. “And you’re not bothered by this?”

Kierk shrugs. “I can understand why the DoD would be interested. Solving consciousness would probably lead to next-gen artificial intelligences. Personality uploads. Brain-to-brain communication. Conscious tech.”

“Precisely. We are highly interested in its strategic importance. At the national level, I mean.”

“So you keep track of those . . . on the edge.”

“Of which you are one. There are others. Some in other nations. But given all that, do you mind if I ask your opinion on some things? A freelance consultation, if you will. Based on the research proposal about brain-to-brain communication in primates you were going to do with Carmen and Atif. And now possibly with Alex.”

“How do you even know about that?”

The DARPA agent just smiles.

Kierk shrugs again. “Fine, shoot, if you’d like.”

“Take some set of independent systems and then continuously couple them. At what level of integration, of coupling, do they become complex enough to give rise to consciousness?”

Kierk laughs aloud at the specificity and peculiarity of the question but the agent doesn’t laugh back so Kierk clears his throat and answers—“Actually that’s completely unknown. But we do know it’s not just how integrated a system is, not just informational bandwidth. It has to be the right kind of coupling. Less information is going across the corpus callosum, that is, the bridge of nerves between the two hemispheres, than across a higher-powered modem. But we do know that some correct form of complex coupling breeds consciousness. How exactly that works, and what degree of coupling you need in order to get a conscious agent from nonconscious parts, is unknown.”

“My second question: can you make a larger conscious system out of independent conscious systems?”