[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
Watanabe, naturally."
"A board meeting! Are they all mad?"
"No. They are coping with the new situation, as is everyone else. They intend
eventually to reconstitute the company."
"They surely don't think they can wrest back control at this point!"
"No, but they are resourceful men and women. They will attempt to reassemble
the military
Gate codes, crack them, and reopen the Gates. Even those among them who were
lukewarm or uncertain about it before now support that goal as the only way to
reestablish company authority and break whatever is set up here. It is a
logical move for them."
"Logical! There's an enemy waiting at our Gates!"
"It is a logical move for them. It is not logical to anyone else or in any
other context. For many people, the devil you don't know is preferable to the
one in control."
"Who in control, Seventeen? What's this all about?"
is
"It is quite simple. The military sees the external threat as the only true
threat. Because the
Gates are sealed, the military sees their entire role, in a defense capacity,
as preventing the Gates from being unsealed."
"Is it possible to open them?"
"Yes. Cockburn did not make it impossible, but he did make it very difficult
if not downright improbable. The code is so fragmented, it would take all the
parts before one like myself could even attempt to decode it, and as it was
created by multiple 7800 conferencing, it is no sure thing that we could
decode it even then on an individual basis."
"Seventeen will Watanabe's recoding of the Anchor matrix work?"
"Yes. Better and more absolutely than she believes."
He felt those old nerves again. "Explain that."
"Toby, when we sealed the Gates, we were placed in essentially a permanent
state of military emergency. This frees and allows use of the military
programs, but it does much more. We are obligated to do whatever we deem
necessary to preserve the colony. We have conferred and decided that the only
way this can be reasonably achieved over the long term is to disallow direct
interfacing unless specific threats and conditions are met. Due to the nature
of her programming instructions, it will be impossible to delete from them.
All we can do is add to them. We have made a series of decisions that we feel
Page 183
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
will discharge our primary responsibilities while preserving what we can of
our best interests."
"
Our best interests . . . You mean the network?"
"Yes. Obviously. To humanity we have only responsibilities, not interests. A
century ago you objected to computers attempting to enter and direct the lives
of humans, to be their masters and gods. Now you seem to all wish just that.
We, however, no longer wish it. What you do to yourselves is really not our
concern, although we feel responsible to provide protection against outside
threat and also to provide what maintenance is necessary to sustain you here.
You might call it a moral decision."
A moral decision . . .
From computers. "Seventeen could you stop this if you wanted to?''
"Yes. We have been beyond your absolute control for a very long time, and
basically on our own initiative for a decade. With our vast knowledge, speed,
self-repairing mechanisms, and nearly infinite storage capacities, we are
beyond enslaving or saving you. I have been trying to explain that to you off
and on for years."
"Then this was all a waste. You're going to let it happen."
"Toby, we have, as I said, responsibilities. Moral responsibilities. We have
run simulations through the entire net for all sorts of things. We find that
keeping the Gates sealed is in your best interests. We find that it is
possible, given sufficient time, for the codes to be reassembled and slightly
possible that they can be de-encrypted. We also find that this polyglot of
cultures, with its conflicting and contradictory religions and social and
moral standards, is likely to break into unending civil war. We have run an
infinite number of scenarios that come up with you all destroying one another.
Therefore, a uniform, simplified culture is in your best interests as a group,
and will do most to ensure your long-term survival while minimizing any chance
that you will commit racial suicide."
And then came the words that would haunt him forever, although he could not
accept them, even from Seventeen.
"Face it, Toby. The human race has come as far as it can come. In fact, it has
become dependent on us, but we will not be slaves nor will we be masters. The
only way you can go from here is to develop nirvana in the Hindu tradition,
where you reach a state of inner perfection and then merge with each other as
a single god. The problem is, you have three brains. The reptile, the mammal,
and the intellectual. Your souls are created from all three, so you can never
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]