Infoquake (35 page)

A rustle of disapproval from the audience. A hateful murmuring.

"The Autonomous Minds: eight machines committed to managing
the world economy, eight machines entrusted to safeguarding the environment, eight machines consigned to solving the problems of human
diplomacy. Eight intelligences so vastly other that our ancestors feared
to `taint' them with human morals and ideals. Imagine having more
faith in a lifeless machine than in a human being!

"Our ancestors abandoned their independence to the Autonomous
Minds. They delivered the reins of the earth into the hands of the
Minds. They trusted in the order of the Keepers to convey their will,
using the arcane machine tongues that only the Keepers could speak.

"It was to prove humanity's greatest mistake."

A monolithic structure floating in the midst of the auditorium, a
holographic representation of the world's first orbital colony, Yu. Circular platforms within platforms performing an intricate dance to the
symphony of G-force. Gardens of unparalleled lushness and beauty like
that mythical garden lost in the deeps of time. Citizens basking in the
warm spring of eternal Progress under controlled atmospheric domes.

"Yu," Margaret continued. "Humanity's greatest hope. An experiment to bring us out of earth's cradle and into the stars. A self-contained community of ten thousand, constructed in orbit above the
earth, stocked with a cross-section of humanity's best and brightest. Yu
was the culmination of thousands of years of Chinese art, science and
culture-and its controls were placed in the hands of the Autonomous
Minds and their Keepers.

"But this arrangement was not destined to last."

Shrieks, sighs, tears of anguish from the crowd at the first detonation. And the second.

Daisy-chain explosions rocking the orbital structure, domes
bursting and debris spinning off into the void of merciless space. The spinning discs suddenly still. Pandemonium. Colonists scrambling
like mad for their primitive spacecraft. Companions reaching to hold
their loved ones in a last embrace. And then the death spiral-the
shuddering descent into the earth's atmosphere-the shrieking
burning hellfire plunge through the clouds, in an unstoppable trajectory towards the lofty towers of New York City ...

Bracing for impact-

The simulation vanished. Margaret was once again alone onstage.

"We may never know what caused the Minds and their Keepers to
strike the first blow in the Autonomous Revolt," she said. "Were the
Minds acting in collusion to exterminate the human race, as some have
suggested? Or was the sabotage of Yu a power grab by the Ecumenical
Council of New Alamo? Did the cloned soldiers of the Allahu Akbar
Emirates have an agenda of their own?

"The ultimate truth lay buried beneath the rubble of eight continuous years of war, along with the empty burned-out husks of the
Autonomous Minds.

"Humanity's cult of the god had ended.

"The consequences of our ancestors' folly? Nearly two billion dead
and the great nation-states of antiquity left in ruins.

"During the Big Divide which followed, the elaborate technologies of our ancestors were gradually forgotten-forgotten, or sabotaged
by Luddite mobs intent on destroying all that the Minds had touched.
The triumphant engineering works of our ancestors gradually fell into
disrepair. New Alamo descended into murderous fundamentalism, the
Allahu Akbar Emirates disintegrated, the Chinese Territories and the
Democratic American Collective vanished into irrelevance."

A panoply of still pictures now floating about the auditorium, portraits of an age. Skeletal cities. Haggard mobs with makeshift uniforms marching through city streets. Smoke rising from pyres fueled
by the gnarled carcasses of inventors and scientists. Demagoguery,
fanaticism, starvation. The corpse of a child.

Margaret continued: "And so the surviving nations bowed down
before the whims of the mob. Strict anti-technology laws appeared
around the globe. The innovators of the age had to present their discoveries on bended knee to the moralists and functionaries and politicians who used the fears of the masses to cling to power. Works of the
ancient programmers and physicists moldered in decaying books and
unreadable discs written on dead machines.

"Science was on the cusp of extinction. Humanity had fallen into
its own death spiral.

"My ancestor Sheldon Surina changed all that."

As Margaret paused for breath, Jara surveyed the crowd. The attendance had settled at 738 million multi projections, if the auditorium
figures were to be believed, and who knew how many billions more
were watching or listening remotely. Whatever the number, Jara had
never seen such a mass of people so mesmerized before. The only sound
to be heard throughout the arena was the quiet susurration of shifting
fabric and shuffling feet.

Jara looked around and noticed that the Defense and Wellness
Council troops remained aloof. No hint of purpose crossed their placid
brows.

"Sheldon Surina," intoned Margaret. "The man whom we honor
here tonight. The man who would have been four hundred years old
today." The Father of Bio/Logics himself floated over her head, a
scrawny man with a big nose standing in mid-speech with his arm
extended. "My ancestor stood before the proctors at the Gandhi University here in Andra Pradesh-just across the courtyard, in fact-and
declared, There is no problem that we cannot solve through scientific innovation. Moments later, he turned this statement into a mission for
humanity: There is no problem that we should not solve through scientific innovation.

"Think of the courage that required! Think of telling a world decimated by technology and hobbled by superstition-a world ruled by
the draconian edicts of the Ecumenical Council and the crazed prophecies of the New Jesuses-think of telling that world that science could
solve all its problems!

"Sheldon Surina did.

"Had he stopped there, the man we have come to know as the
Father of Bio/Logics might have ended up just another martyr to the
ideals of science. But Sheldon Surina did not just say we should look
to science-he came down into the real world and showed us how. He
invented the discipline of bio/logics. He designed the first programs to
automate the care of the human body. He created the industry that conquered the virus, the industry that tamed the brain, the industry that
prolonged life and reengineered birth. All without MindSpace,
without bio/logic programming bars, without the Data Sea as we know
it today.

"Most of all, Sheldon Surina renewed our faith in the powers of
humanity. He taught us that scientific enlightenment does not descend
to us from without, but grows from within. He showed us we did not
have to forfeit our intellects to Autonomous Minds or suffer from the
ignorance of Luddism-instead, we could use technology to empower
ourselves. Sheldon Surina's words and ideals were the beginning of the
Reawakening, that great age of progress and prosperity which continues to this day.

"Of course, progress did not come without peril. The founder of
this house spent many years of his life in hiding from the Texan governments that had sworn to destroy him. He watched his friend and
colleague Henry Osterman, founder of the OCHRE Corporation,
slowly succumb to bitterness and paranoia. He spent his own latter
days combating the forces of tyranny which sought to dominate the
world with their ruthless and narrow-minded oppression. A fight that continues to this day."

Margaret's allusion to the Defense and Wellness Council did not go
over the audience's head. A low murmur snaked through the crowd.
Jara saw one of the white-robed men near her break into a wry grin.

"All things come to an end, and Sheldon Surina's life was no exception. But after Sheldon's death, the Surinas did not shirk their duty to
humanity. Through the Center for Historic Appreciation here in
Andra Pradesh, through Creed Surina and through the Surina family
investments in bio/logics, we have continued to serve humanity's quest
for progress and enlightenment.

"And Sheldon Surina was not the last visionary to emerge from
Andra Pradesh.

"Six years after his death, Prengal Surina published the Universal
Law of Physics, which unlocked the potential of every rock, tree, and
blade of grass to serve as a quantum energy source. His work freed us
from the dictates of our surroundings, the limitations of our resources,
the oppression of ancient Einsteinian physics. Without Prengal Surina
and his Universal Law, an event like this one today would not be possible. Multi projections would be a pipe dream, and subaether communication would be an arcane tool of academics.

"In recent years, my father Marcus took up the family's mantle of
service. Marcus Surina had spent many years denying his heritage. But
when he finally took his rightful place as the heir to the Surina family,
he pioneered bold new approaches to teleportation technology. Many
believe that, had he not suffered a tragic death in the orbital colonieshad he been given the opportunity to fulfill his mission-Marcus
would have brought cheap and efficient teleportation to the world, and
we would live in a better place."

Above Margaret's head, the stern visage of Prengal Surina shifted
to that of Marcus in all his Adonic beauty. Jara stared at the dead man
and felt the same tangled knot of emotions his face always stirred up.
Few had inspired so much hope. Few had left so much devastation.

"And so, what have we, the Surinas, contributed to the world?"
Margaret continued.

"I believe Sheldon Surina and his descendants have remained true
to the highest ideals of humanity. We have used scientific advancement
to improve the human condition. We have provided choices and
expanded opportunities. We have enlightened the mind instead of constricting it. And it is in that spirit that I stand before you today."

Margaret paused and took a few dramatic steps forward. "Citizens
of earth, Luna, Mars and the colonies-Islanders and Pharisees-I
stand here on the occasion of Sheldon Surina's four hundredth birthday
to announce the ultimate fulfillment of his ambitions."

All at once, several hundred million spectators took a sharp intake
of breath. Inside herself, Jara could feel a gathering hurricane of emotion, wrath and hope that threatened to sweep out of control. She could
feel the clouds gathering throughout the arena, and for a moment it
seemed as if the hopes and dreams of humanity had suddenly coalesced
around one blue-eyed woman in Andra Pradesh.

The Council officers began to shift nervously on their feet. Dozens
of dartguns and disruptors surreptitiously crept off the floor and into
the soldiers' hands.

Margaret Surina continued, her face devoid of emotion.

"The Surina Perfection Memecorp is preparing to unveil one of the
most important scientific breakthroughs since the dawn of the
Reawakening-possibly the most important advance in the history of
humanity.

"It is the ultimate freedom.

"It is the ultimate empowerment.

"It is the path to complete control over our destinies.

"The Surina Perfection Memecorp has discovered a technology to
create multiple realities, and we call this technology MultiReal."

And with that, the storm broke.

It began with a low rumbling of information, a mental thunder the
likes of which Jara had never experienced. She could actually sense,
somewhere off in the distance, a disturbance in the Data Sea's flow.
Data agents converging on some far-away point in the informational
topography.

Then there was a sudden eruption.

Jara could hear random soundbites echoing through her head,
echoes of Margaret's words spoken in a thousand different voices: Ultimate freedom. Complete control over our destinies. Fulfillment of the Sarinas'
ambitions. MultiReal. This split-second of chaos was nearly enough to
make her lose her balance. The analyst quickly fired up UnDizzify 93
and, by instinct, reached for something to steady herself against-only
to discover that the entire crowd was swaying with vertigo. Everywhere Jara looked, spectators were blinking in confusion at the sudden
blast of cerebral white noise.