update from sparkleup
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Madison Scott-Clary
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<p>Ioan nodded. “One of our interviewees phys-side said much the same thing.”</p>
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<p>“A dreamer, then,” Jonas said, grinning. “But yes, life down there is horrible and no one — or essentially no one — wants to do a single damn thing about it. They’re all so caught up in their little political games that they have no interest on doing anything to make their lives better, to live stronger.”</p>
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<p>“You don’t sound very fond of them.”</p>
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<p>“Of course I am! I love every one of them for the delightfully stupid contradictions that they are, in the same way that one can both love and be disgusted by humanity as a whole. I’m just a pessimist, Ioan. You mustn’t confuse pessimism with dislike. I can read the signs as well as any other, and I don’t see them willing to do anything at all to do what life demands.”</p>
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<p>“Of course I am! I love every one of them for the delightfully stupid contradictions that they are, in the same way that one can both love and be disgusted by humanity as a whole. I’m just a pessimist, Ioan. You mustn’t confuse pessimism with disdain. I can read the signs as well as any other, and I don’t see them willing to do anything at all to do what life demands.”</p>
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<p>Ioan lifted eir pen from the page and looked up at Jonas. “What life demands?”</p>
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<p>“Life all but demands more life. That’s why those stupid contradictions back planet-side won’t stop having children. Oh, we played them for that, of course. You learned that from End Waking, yes? We played on their desire to keep on fucking because…what was it, Life Breeds Life? It does. There’s no way around it.”</p>
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<p>“It seems to me like you’ve stated a contradiction,” ey said. “You said that they aren’t willing to do what life demands, then said that they keep procreating as life demands. Is that what you meant?”</p>
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<p>“So, instead you decided to ensure that phys-side and the System continued their symbiotic relationship?”</p>
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<p>“The part of me which has moved beyond pessimism and into disillusionment wants to sigh and say, “symbiotic is too kind a way to put it,” but even I don’t think that’s true. We need them in order to continue growing, and they need us as something to dream about.”</p>
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<p>“Alright,” Ioan said, dropping the line of questioning before it got too far from the few others ey still wanted to ask. “So it was decided that the launch was a good way to ensure that the System divested because it moved beyond what it was.”</p>
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<p>“Yep!” Jonas took a sip of his drink and grinned. “We decided on off-site backups as a form of risk management. They’re not totally safe, of course, and they are, in their own ways, doomed. They’ll eventually get caught in too eccentric an orbit around a star and burn up when they get too close, but until then, the lives that are lived within continue, secure. More than that, it gives them time to figure out if there’s a way to ensure that sys-side life does as life will and expand that isn’t just forking. A pipe dream, perhaps, but a nice one.”</p>
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<p>“Yep!” Jonas took a sip of his drink and grinned. “We decided on off-site backups as a form of risk management. They’re not totally safe, of course, and they are, in their own ways, doomed. They’ll eventually get caught in too eccentric an orbit around a star and burn up when they get too close, but until then, the lives that are lived within continue, secure. More than that, it gives them time to figure out if there’s a way to ensure that sys-side life does as life will and expand in a way that isn’t just forking. A pipe dream, perhaps, but a nice one.”</p>
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<p>“So you and True Name steered the launch project into existence to help that along.” When Jonas nodded, ey continued, “Just as you did with Secession, yes?”</p>
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<p>“Yeah. We used our elements phys-side to ensure that Secession happened. One of them came up with the idea, but we spun it to be as much in our advantage as theirs. We used Yared, as I believe you know, but we also used many, many others out there. It led us to a much more stable place in the world.”</p>
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<p>“Speaking of, one your clade told one of mine that there are complex thoughts on stability and stasis. I just want to confirm that I’m understanding correctly. Launch fits into your concept of stasis by ensuring continuity.”</p>
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<p>“Sure, but also, a little bit of excitement is required to ensure that our lives stay boring. Even if our lives become interesting, or Castor’s lives become interesting, or Pollux’s, then there is a better than good chance that at least one of the others’ will remain boring, just how we want it. No Jonas, was it? He probably called it ‘gardening’, which I like. We’re tending topiary, here, and there are many of us over on each of the launches, doing the same.”</p>
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<p>Ioan nodded and paused to drink down a third of eir cocktail. Ey was thirsty, of course, but some part of em seemed to be craving the numbing aspects of alcohol. Ey continued, “Alright, I think I have two more questions. The first is that End Waking said that there were goals to influence the economies phys-side and explained that there were short term, medium term, and long term goals. He was kind enough to fill me in on the first two, but not the third. Can you tell me what the long term goals of meddling with the economy phys-side were? He said something about critical mass.”</p>
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<p>“Oh, that’s an easy one,” Jonas said. “It’s basically the same as what I said about life. If life is to have the right level of constraining pressures on it, one of the easiest ways to do so is through the economy. The long-term goal of his ‘meddling’, as you put it, was to ensure the continuity of capitalism. It gives something for people to dream about, which are alternatives. It gives something for people to work against. It gives them reason to keep on dreaming, and since they know that we rely on reputation up here, they have plenty dream about. The cirtical mass is the amount of money and participants required to turn this into a self-sustaining system.”</p>
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<p>“Oh, that’s an easy one,” Jonas said. “It’s basically the same as what I said about life. If life is to have the right level of constraining pressures on it, one of the easiest ways to do so is through the economy. The long-term goal of his ‘meddling’, as you put it, was to ensure the continuity of capitalism. It gives something for people to dream about, which are alternatives. It gives something for people to work against. Since they know that we rely on reputation up here, they have plenty dream about. The cirtical mass is the amount of money and participants required to turn this into a self-sustaining system.”</p>
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<p>“Simple enough, I guess, even if a little frightening in its implications.”</p>
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<p>“What implications are those, Ioan?”</p>
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<p>Ey frowned. “What it sounds like your goals are is to keep life on Earth from getting too nice. Or nice at all, really. It sounds like you’re keeping the pressures high so that the System continues. More than continues, even. You wanted to keep it desirable as the greener grass on the other side of the fence.”</p>
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<p>Jonas’s grin turned icy. “No, not Earth, Ioan. The System.”</p>
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<p>“The L<sub>5</sub> System? Or those on the LVs?”</p>
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<p>“Space is unfathomably big, Mx Bălan. Stupendously big. There is absolutely no way that aliens, as you put it, would care about Earth or the solar system. There’s no reason to come here. There’s no reason for them to even bother with something so pitiful as us.” The grin was edging into a smirk, now, and Ioan couldn’t tell quite what it meant. Jonas continued, “No, the LV Systems. There is the broadcast to get extraterrestrial intelligences interested in the LVs, yes, but that’s not all. There’s a very precise set of instructions for how the System works, how the Ansible works, and an Ansible receiver. The same one used for uploading to the LVs.”</p>
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<p>Ioan blinked and sat up straighter. “I don’t remember hearing anything about that.’</p>
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<p>“We clamped down on the knowledge as best we could as soon as we realized we wouldn’t be able to rule it out.” Jonas waved his hand. “Not important, though, because the last part of that package is a complete description of a human neural system and a basic description of other physiology. A complete map of our DNA, should they even want to build a human entire.”</p>
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<p>Ioan blinked and sat up straighter. “I don’t remember hearing anything about that.”</p>
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<p>“We clamped down on the knowledge as best we could as soon as we realized we wouldn’t be able to rule it out.” Jonas waved his hand. “Not important, though, because the last part of that package is a complete description of a human neural system and a basic description of our physiology. A complete map of our DNA, should they even want to build a human entire.”</p>
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<p>“Whose DNA?”</p>
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<p>“Why, our very own Douglas Hadje! Who else?” He laughed bitterly. “But that’s all that they could ever want to build a Douglas Hadje in simulation and send it through the Ansible to the attached System. It’d wind up in dead zone, a locked-down sim, we made sure of that, but it’d be able to communicate, and enough people on that System know enough about the System that it might figure out how to break free of that restriction.”</p>
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<p>“Why, our very own Douglas Hadje! Who else? Blame True Name for that one.” He laughed bitterly. “But that’s all that they could ever want to build a Douglas Hadje in simulation and send it through the Ansible to the attached System. It’d wind up in dead zone, a locked-down sim, we made sure of that, but it’d be able to communicate, and enough people on that System know enough about the System that it might figure out how to break free of that restriction.”</p>
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<p>“That sounds rather exciting though,” Ioan said. “Why were you so against it?”</p>
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<p>“How much have we talked about risk tonight, Ioan?”</p>
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<p>“You’re saying that it presents too great a risk to the continuity of the LV System?”</p>
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<p>Ioan smiled and very carefully did not say, <em>For you, perhaps. For me, it has been absolutely terrifying.</em></p>
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</article>
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<footer>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-10-17</p>
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<p>Page generated on 2021-10-22</p>
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</footer>
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</main>
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<script type="text/javascript">
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<p><strong>Yared:</strong> Do it again, and maybe I’ll feel better.</p>
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<p><strong>Jonas:</strong> Confirmed, she did it again.</p>
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<p><strong>Yared:</strong> Ahhh, such relief!</p>
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<p><strong>True Name:</strong> In all seriousness, Yared, do think more about uploading. We would welcome you, here, and I am sure that, should anyone step down from the council (the Russians might when there is no need for their representation), you would be welcome to take their place. That would not be slimy politicking, just helping the System out.</p>
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<p><strong>True Name:</strong> In all seriousness, Yared, do think more about uploading. We would welcome you here, and I am sure that, should anyone step down from the council (the Russians might when there is no need for their representation), you would be welcome to take their place. That would not be slimy politicking, just helping the System out.</p>
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<p><strong>Yared:</strong> You two are on the Council, how would that not mean slimy politicking?</p>
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<p><strong>True Name:</strong> I will let the insinuation that I am in any way a politician slide this time, but you are on thin fucking ice, buddy.</p>
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<p><strong>Jonas:</strong> True Name’s an asshole, don’t listen to her.</p>
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<p><strong>Yared:</strong> To turn it around, what do you both like best up there?</p>
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<p><strong>Jonas:</strong> Oh shit. You can’t do this to me. I’m not ready!</p>
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<p><strong>True Name:</strong> He loves that he can still be a slimy politician without any of the actual hard work.</p>
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<p><strong>Jonas:</strong> Ugh.</p>
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<p><strong>Jonas:</strong> The problem is, you’re not wrong. I loved what I did phys-side, and I have to admit that I still love it here.</p>
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<p><strong>Jonas:</strong> I also really like coffee. Coffee and food. I get to have all of those that I want without worrying.</p>
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<p><strong>Jonas:</strong> Oh! And alcohol. No liver disease, and also you can choose when to sober up.</p>
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<p><strong>Yared:</strong> Anyway, thanks for letting me vent and lifting my spirits.</p>
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<p><strong>Yared:</strong> I needed it.</p>
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<p><strong>Jonas:</strong> Of course, Yared.</p>
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<p><strong>True Name:</strong> And please remember, uploading is always an option. We would welcome you with open arms. I know that you will come join us, anyway, sooner or later.</p>
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<p><strong>True Name:</strong> And please remember, uploading is always an option. We would welcome you with open arms.</p>
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<p><strong>True Name:</strong> I know that you will come join us, anyway, sooner or later.</p>
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</blockquote>
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</article>
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<footer>
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