[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
decided that dealing with the unknown was preferable to a life trapped on
World, and set about a two-pronged program for security. It took an odd
locally grown cult religion and made it the centerpiece of its
Anchor policy. It attempted to sequester or destroy all documentation, all
history, advanced science, and Flux knowledge, knowing that the army monopoly
on the computers would give it a monopoly on that knowledge. The Church began
a pogrom wherever it seized control against those scientists and engineers who
knew how to build and work the machines.
The system might have been complete, but for a totally unexpected and
previously unknown phenomenon that might well have been unique to World's
experimental programming. Those who used the Flux devices, the heavy
amplifiers linked to the main computers, had themselves been placed somehow in
the chain from Flux manipulation to computer program. The master computers
seemed unable to distinguish between these people as human beings and the
Page 169
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
amplifiers themselves. Thus were the wizards born. In the void, within the
influence of the Hellgates and their Anchor-based computer complexes, those
with strong wills, some mathematical ability, and the ability to concentrate
almost to the point of excluding all else, were able to send commands to the
nearest computer in much the same way as their programs, and the computer had
responded.
Whatever genetic changes had occurred to cause this seemed due to overexposure
to amplified
Flux on World. In other experiments, people had died or been twisted or
deformed, but not here.
Matter and energy, machine and operator, were one to the computers, and they
did not have access to the scientific heart of mankind back home to solve the
problem. The military had always feared the computers even as they used them,
and had always insisted on a "human link"
between any self-aware computer and major actions. They could not "fix the
bug," as they called it, but they could render the computer useless to the
company men by fragmenting its consciousness. They placed a human link
requirement between the computer and its defensive systems, which were
considerable but still had obviously failed elsewhere; they placed another
human link between the master programs that maintained World and any attempt
to change that program.
Thus, the computers were split; the massive part they could not touch, but
they could limit access to the "wizard" structure. They elected to not cut it
entirely, not quite seeing all the implications, because the Signal Corps
insisted on maintaining the strings and its monopoly on commerce and
communication as an additional safeguard and a way to survive under these new
conditions. To permit the strings was to permit "wizards" to exist. But these
could tap specific mechanical data; the programs themselves could not be
altered, nor was there sufficient Flux allowed through the Gate to keep World
warm and habitable, as it was a huge moon of a gas giant so far from its sun
as to make that sun just another star. Once the locks were off, however,
sufficient Flux would be available. Someone would have to decide the manner
and level of its use.
In case the Gates were opened, it was necessary to keep all defensive systems
at the ready, but again those in the hands of the company or madmen could make
World a hell of its own. And, of course, there was always the chance that the
invasion would be terminated, or home would get through, or even that the
invaders could eventually be dealt with through friendly or hostile means.
Again, a human being would be required as a link in the chain, to decide if
those systems should be unleashed.
By splitting the self-maintenance program from the master computer, they
thought they had it contained. By feeding specific criteria into the defense
systems that had to be met before activation, and by giving that system remote
capability to monitor World and decide whether or not to call in its human
link, they thought they were safe.
But the master maintenance system and the remote sensors of defense somehow
developed their own self-awareness. Unable to tap into the main computer
directly, they did their jobs as they were programmed to do, but changed and
evolved as they did so. Clearly the engineers and scientists were not the only
ones altered by the balance of Flux on World; the army also hadn't reckoned
with the possibility that communication between wizards and the computer could
go both ways.
Thus the "maintenance shells" became the Guardians, and the remote sensing
programs became
Soul Riders. Originally just complex programs in Flux, they took on a logical
reality of their own as symbiotic creatures, attaching themselves to and
living within the bodies of those with strong
Flux power. As information evaluators, they fed the master program data it had
Page 170
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
no other way of acquiring. As information gatherers they were unneeded; every
single human being with Flux power beyond a certain level broadcast as well as
received from the data banks.
That was how Jeff, Suzl, and Sondra had been restored. They still had their
peculiar physical limitations, but the computers did not.
The Soul Rider's primary mission was always to provide a human link with
sufficient Flux power to interface directly between it and the master
computers. It knew it had to have such a person, and backups easily accessible
if need be, but aside from a sense that it was a defender of
World against enemies beyond the Hellgates it did not understand why, nor
could the computers with which it was linked tell it except through a human
interface, and then only when certain criteria were met. The Guardians, too,
needed a proper human interface on hand, but as their jobs limited them to
Anchor and the Hellgate machinery, they required the Soul Riders to bring them
suitable receptacles.
Nobody, but nobody, thought it would go on for two thousand six hundred and
eighty-two years. The Church was supposed to provide the interfaces. The nine
district commanders would work hand-in-glove with the Church to insure that
suitable personnel, including a powerful wizard, were always on hand. That was
why the Nine trained and selected the High Priestesses.
And nobody, but nobody, realized that the Soul Riders and Guardians would
develop personalities of their own.
Thus it was that when the previous "interface" the Anchor Luck Soul Rider had
selected met an untimely end, it followed the route back to its computer
source until it found, in Anchor, one with the proper power potential and
mind-set, even though it didn't know that that was what it was
looking for. It had selected Cassie, and then manipulated her to get her into
Flux, where her power could be trained and developed.
Cassie had not worked out in the end. Its own internal programming told it
that, if it came to the choice between surrender or the destruction of
humanity on World, she might well surrender to save it. So this time it had
taken a different tack. This time it would create its own human interface from
conception on. And so Spirit had been born, and bred, and molded for just this
job, and had been effectively removed from human affairs so that what happened [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
zanotowane.pl doc.pisz.pl pdf.pisz.pl rafalstec.xlx.pl
decided that dealing with the unknown was preferable to a life trapped on
World, and set about a two-pronged program for security. It took an odd
locally grown cult religion and made it the centerpiece of its
Anchor policy. It attempted to sequester or destroy all documentation, all
history, advanced science, and Flux knowledge, knowing that the army monopoly
on the computers would give it a monopoly on that knowledge. The Church began
a pogrom wherever it seized control against those scientists and engineers who
knew how to build and work the machines.
The system might have been complete, but for a totally unexpected and
previously unknown phenomenon that might well have been unique to World's
experimental programming. Those who used the Flux devices, the heavy
amplifiers linked to the main computers, had themselves been placed somehow in
the chain from Flux manipulation to computer program. The master computers
seemed unable to distinguish between these people as human beings and the
Page 169
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
amplifiers themselves. Thus were the wizards born. In the void, within the
influence of the Hellgates and their Anchor-based computer complexes, those
with strong wills, some mathematical ability, and the ability to concentrate
almost to the point of excluding all else, were able to send commands to the
nearest computer in much the same way as their programs, and the computer had
responded.
Whatever genetic changes had occurred to cause this seemed due to overexposure
to amplified
Flux on World. In other experiments, people had died or been twisted or
deformed, but not here.
Matter and energy, machine and operator, were one to the computers, and they
did not have access to the scientific heart of mankind back home to solve the
problem. The military had always feared the computers even as they used them,
and had always insisted on a "human link"
between any self-aware computer and major actions. They could not "fix the
bug," as they called it, but they could render the computer useless to the
company men by fragmenting its consciousness. They placed a human link
requirement between the computer and its defensive systems, which were
considerable but still had obviously failed elsewhere; they placed another
human link between the master programs that maintained World and any attempt
to change that program.
Thus, the computers were split; the massive part they could not touch, but
they could limit access to the "wizard" structure. They elected to not cut it
entirely, not quite seeing all the implications, because the Signal Corps
insisted on maintaining the strings and its monopoly on commerce and
communication as an additional safeguard and a way to survive under these new
conditions. To permit the strings was to permit "wizards" to exist. But these
could tap specific mechanical data; the programs themselves could not be
altered, nor was there sufficient Flux allowed through the Gate to keep World
warm and habitable, as it was a huge moon of a gas giant so far from its sun
as to make that sun just another star. Once the locks were off, however,
sufficient Flux would be available. Someone would have to decide the manner
and level of its use.
In case the Gates were opened, it was necessary to keep all defensive systems
at the ready, but again those in the hands of the company or madmen could make
World a hell of its own. And, of course, there was always the chance that the
invasion would be terminated, or home would get through, or even that the
invaders could eventually be dealt with through friendly or hostile means.
Again, a human being would be required as a link in the chain, to decide if
those systems should be unleashed.
By splitting the self-maintenance program from the master computer, they
thought they had it contained. By feeding specific criteria into the defense
systems that had to be met before activation, and by giving that system remote
capability to monitor World and decide whether or not to call in its human
link, they thought they were safe.
But the master maintenance system and the remote sensors of defense somehow
developed their own self-awareness. Unable to tap into the main computer
directly, they did their jobs as they were programmed to do, but changed and
evolved as they did so. Clearly the engineers and scientists were not the only
ones altered by the balance of Flux on World; the army also hadn't reckoned
with the possibility that communication between wizards and the computer could
go both ways.
Thus the "maintenance shells" became the Guardians, and the remote sensing
programs became
Soul Riders. Originally just complex programs in Flux, they took on a logical
reality of their own as symbiotic creatures, attaching themselves to and
living within the bodies of those with strong
Flux power. As information evaluators, they fed the master program data it had
Page 170
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
no other way of acquiring. As information gatherers they were unneeded; every
single human being with Flux power beyond a certain level broadcast as well as
received from the data banks.
That was how Jeff, Suzl, and Sondra had been restored. They still had their
peculiar physical limitations, but the computers did not.
The Soul Rider's primary mission was always to provide a human link with
sufficient Flux power to interface directly between it and the master
computers. It knew it had to have such a person, and backups easily accessible
if need be, but aside from a sense that it was a defender of
World against enemies beyond the Hellgates it did not understand why, nor
could the computers with which it was linked tell it except through a human
interface, and then only when certain criteria were met. The Guardians, too,
needed a proper human interface on hand, but as their jobs limited them to
Anchor and the Hellgate machinery, they required the Soul Riders to bring them
suitable receptacles.
Nobody, but nobody, thought it would go on for two thousand six hundred and
eighty-two years. The Church was supposed to provide the interfaces. The nine
district commanders would work hand-in-glove with the Church to insure that
suitable personnel, including a powerful wizard, were always on hand. That was
why the Nine trained and selected the High Priestesses.
And nobody, but nobody, realized that the Soul Riders and Guardians would
develop personalities of their own.
Thus it was that when the previous "interface" the Anchor Luck Soul Rider had
selected met an untimely end, it followed the route back to its computer
source until it found, in Anchor, one with the proper power potential and
mind-set, even though it didn't know that that was what it was
looking for. It had selected Cassie, and then manipulated her to get her into
Flux, where her power could be trained and developed.
Cassie had not worked out in the end. Its own internal programming told it
that, if it came to the choice between surrender or the destruction of
humanity on World, she might well surrender to save it. So this time it had
taken a different tack. This time it would create its own human interface from
conception on. And so Spirit had been born, and bred, and molded for just this
job, and had been effectively removed from human affairs so that what happened [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]