Good Luck, Yukikaze

The method the JAM had used to lure in Yukikaze, the existence of that unknown space, the JAM voice, Captain Fukai’s response to it, the actions Yukikaze had taken to escape... It was all shocking. Lieutenant Katsuragi, who’d come to them from the Intelligence Forces, had reacted the most normally by getting angry when what the JAM, Captain Fukai, and Yukikaze did seemed to defy common sense. Well, perhaps I understand his reaction, considering I also lost my composure when I saw the data, thought General Cooley. They’d brought back a great deal of data about the JAM, but put another way, it meant that the SAF just dramatically increased what they didn’t know about the enemy. Faced with the sheer volume of confusing data, she supposed it was only natural for her to temporarily lose her cool. She wasn’t a machine, after all.

God damn it, she thought as she replayed Captain Fukai’s conversation with the JAM over and over. Just what were the JAM?

Captain Fukai: Just what are you people? Living things? Beings that consist only of intelligence, will, and data? Do you have physical forms? If so, then where are they?

JAM: I cannot explain in a way that would be comprehensible in your terms. I am that I am.

She couldn’t make heads or tails of it. It hadn’t denied having a physical form. The voice calling itself the whole of the JAM was broadcast from the duplicate of the old Yukikaze, but it was hard to imagine that their true form had been riding within the plane itself. She wondered if the JAM’s intentional nonanswer had been a strategic ploy to avoid revealing their physical selves.

At the very least, it seemed that the JAM did possess the general concept of “I.” The JAM had the power to differentiate between itself and others. It seems obvious, but it’s likely a vital point, thought General Cooley. The question was, while the JAM could make the distinction, apparently humans could not. They were just going to have to deal with not knowing where the JAM existed, what a JAM was, and exactly what defined them.

The general recalled a conversation Captain Foss had had with Major Booker during the analysis. It had been recorded and already transcribed. General Cooley searched for the page it was on.

“The JAM didn’t respond when Captain Fukai asked where it was,” Captain Foss had said. “If we believe the rest of what it says, then we can conclude that the JAM have no concept of place or space, or if they do, that it’s outside the realm of human understanding. Considering that they’re beings capable of creating spaces like the Passageway and that so-called ‘mysterious battle zone,’ that seems likely.”

“The question Captain Fukai asked would be difficult for even the JAM to answer, Captain Foss,” Major Booker had replied. “He wasn’t simply asking what their location was. He was asking them where they really existed. For example, where are you, Edith?”

“Ah, you mean is the thing that’s called me my physical body? The consciousness inside my body? Do I have a soul and, if so, where does it go when I die? Yes, that is what he was asking, wasn’t it? A typical Captain Fukai move.”

“I think I would have asked the same thing if I’d been in that situation. And if you asked me that, I’d probably reply, ‘I’m right here.’ ” Booker said. “Simple, accurate, and doesn’t waste ten thousand words trying to elaborate on it. No matter what the meaning of the question might be, the normal answer to ‘Where are you?’ would be ‘I’m right here,’ wouldn’t it? But the JAM didn’t say that. They must have judged that the person they were speaking to wouldn’t have understood if they said, ‘I’m right here.’ ”

“You mean the only way the JAM could put it was ‘I am that I am’?”

“Yes, I think so. It’s not the same as them saying ‘I’m here.’ The JAM definitely exist, but they may not be able to decide if they exist nowhere or everywhere, and they didn’t have the words to explain it.”

“At the very least, that applied to the JAM Fukai communicatd with,” Foss said. “There was no physical entity there face to face with Captain Fukai or Yukikaze that they could understand. It was like it was talking to them on a telephone. But then you can’t say that the JAM have no physical form.”

“You once claimed to Captain Fukai that the JAM were imaginary. Can you still make that claim, Edith?”

“I only said that I couldn’t deny the possibility that they were.”

“I’m not trying to be sarcastic by asking you that. The JAM may be some sort of virtual species. That’s what we humans would have to call an entity we cannot actually perceive. We don’t really have a general concept to describe something that we absolutely cannot perceive. That’s why the JAM couldn’t answer. I’ll bet that if the JAM asked us where our true form is, they couldn’t directly perceive us with whatever senses they have, simply owing to the nature of their own existence. To the JAM, humans probably seem like virtual beings too.”

“When I said that they might be imaginary, all I meant was that they were an illusion that had been dreamed up by humans,” Foss said. “But that isn’t the JAM that’s shown up here. It’s definitely a being you could either believe in or not. Does that still make it a virtual being?”

“A being you could believe in or not may still be an illusion, Edith.”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s a philosophical question,” Major Booker said.

“I’m not sure I’m following you.”

“The philosophical question of what exactly is something that you can believe in or not. In short, what defines a being that absolutely exists and how do you integrate such a thing into yourself. Aside from Asian philosophies, the philosophies we’re familiar with have a long history of grappling with the question of whether or not beings can absolutely exist.”

“You mean the JAM really may not exist?”

“In one sense, that is possible. There are a number of ways that you can put it. There’s also the idea that the question of what is absolute existence is nothing but a play on words. Put another way, the ability for humans to think about such things and develop such questions makes the questions themselves meaningless. From there, a new way of thinking emerges.”

“What sort of way?”

“That absolute existence, which is perhaps a god, or an agreement between subjective and objective perception — there are many ways to express it, anyway. The long and the short of it is that this way of thinking doesn’t affect how we exist. It’s a momentary thought — yes, truth is informed by human cognition, and anything beyond that is simply an individual question.”

“So, those who believe in them should believe and those who don’t shouldn’t, you mean?” Foss asked.

“Well, I suppose you could put it that way. But an ephemeral way of thinking could distort the perceptions of what’s right in front of you.”

“Of course it would. The JAM can’t simply be dealt with as a personal matter.”

“Which is why we’re here asking that question. I guess what I’m getting at is that we can’t avoid asking philosophical questions as we ask things like what is it that makes us so certain that the JAM exist? What are they? What is their true nature and what is the essence of it? If we accept the fact that their true nature is beyond human understanding, then all we’re doing is groping for a new general philosophical concept. The JAM have been working out what humans are from their end. I’m sure that what they think of us is entirely different from how we think of ourselves. But what we know for certain is that they’re searching for features common to all humans. That’s why they made contact with Captain Fukai.”

“Except that we don’t have time to be arguing philosophy here. There’s no way to answer philosophical questions, anyway,” Foss said.

“That isn’t true. Philosophy is the study of how to question the meaning of existence and how to live happily. Happiness varies according to the era and the individual, which is why there are no universal answers to philosophical questions. However, you can verify them for yourself. If your philosophy can let you accept death, you’ll know. And if philosophy is too grandiose a way of putting it, then call it your worldview. In order to counter the JAM, we need to change the worldview we’ve held till now. Captain Fukai has managed to do that; he’s said so repeatedly. As his doctor, you know that, Edith. And it was Yukikaze that changed his worldview, not the JAM.”

“Major, it’s almost as if you’re saying that the JAM are like gods, and that we need to think about whether or not they exist.”

“It certainly seems that way, doesn’t it?” Booker said.