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"No, you do. "
Hari said, "Fair enough as a hypothesis. But why should such a Mind care a
whit for us, mere motes?"
"He cared enough to make you come out of the matrix of matter, did He not?"
"Ah, origins, " Voltaire said, catching an updraft. He looked relieved to be
on surer intellectual ground. Plainly her point had rattled him. "Insoluble,
of course. I prefer to deal with our moralities. "
loan said primly, "Morality is not dependent upon us. "
Voltaire shot back, "Nonsense! We evolved with morals shaped by the
universe by a Creator, if you wish. "
Hari asked, "You mean by evolution? The pans "
Joan cried, "Indeed! Holiness shapes the world, the world shapes us. "
Hari looked doubtful, Joan pleased. Voltaire said wryly, "My mathist, would
you rather believe that moral constraints emerge as 'a spontaneous order from
rational utility-maximizing behavior'? Truly?"
Hari blinked. "Well, no... "
"I quoted one of your own papers. What you've forgotten, sir, is that our
endless models of the world shape how we look at human experience. "
"Of course, but "
"And the models are all that we know. "
Hari suddenly smiled. "I like that. Don't get married to a model. " He allowed
himself to morph slightly, growing taller, more muscular. "I don't know why,
but I feel better. "
"Your soul has come to terms with your actions, " Joan said.
Voltaire said, "I would prefer 'selves' to 'soul, ' but let us not quibble. "
Suddenly Hari felt categories shift in his mind. He had arranged for the
revival of these sims, guided by pure intuition.
Now came the payoff: they had inadvertently discovered the step he wanted.
"The mind... is a self-organizing structure, and so is the Empire. I can work
back and forth between those models! Import your knowledge of subselves, use
it to analyze how the Empire learns!"
Voltaire blinked. "What a marvelous idea. "
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Hari said, "Wait'11 I show you! The Empire is self-learning, with subunits "
"I wonder if the alien fog knows this?" Joan asked.
Hari frowned. "I do not want to involve them. My equations cannot deal with
elements of unknown "
"They are already involved, " Joan said. "They are here, all around us. "
Hari sighed. "I hope we can keep them here in the "
"Zoo, " Joan said dryly.
Thunderheads roiled over the horizons, closing fast.
"You killed robots!" Hari shouted into the gale. "That was not in our bargain.
"
[WE DID NOT SAY WE WOULD REFRAIN]
"You took more than we agreed! Lives of "
[TERMS OMITTED CANNOT BE PRESUMED UPON]
"The robots are a separate kind. Of high intelligence "
[YOUR MERE TIKTOKS COULD KILL THEM THOUGH]
[YOU, SELDON, DID NOT OWN THESE MACHINES]
[AND THUS HAVE NO DISPUTE WITH US]
Hari ground his teeth and fumed.
[MORE IMPORTANT MATTERS BECKON]
"Your rewards?" Hari asked bitterly. "You've come for them?"
[WE SHALL NOT STAY HERE]
[FOR THIS PLACE IS DOOMED]
Hari staggered under a hailstorm of biting cold. "Trantor?"
[AND MUCH ELSE]
"What do you want?"
[OUR DESIRED DESTINY IS TO FLOAT AMONG THE SPIRAL ARMS]
[AND LINGER LONG AMONG THE PLUMES OF GALACTIC CENTER]
Hari remembered the structures there, the complex weave of luminosities. "You
can do that?"
[WE HAVE A SPORE STATE]
[SOME OF US LIVED THIS WAY BEFORE]
[TO SUCH A STATE WE WISH TO RETURN]
[ELSE WE SHALL EXTINGUISH ALL YOUR "ROBOTS"]
"That wasn't part of our deal!" Hari shouted. Hard cold rain hammered him, but
he turned his face to confront the towering, angry clouds and their skirts of
wrathful lightning.
[HOW CAN YOU STOP US?]
[THOUGH IT WOULD DEPLETE OUR CAPACITIES]
[WE COULD BRING TRANTOR TO STARVATION]
Hari grimaced. He was learning a lot about power, quite quickly. "All right.
I'll see that research gets done on how to transfer you to physical form.
There are those I know who can do it. Marq and Sybyl know how to keep quiet,
too. "
Voltaire asked, "Why do you wish to exit stage left with such unseemly haste?"
[A NEW BRUSH FIRE IS COMING]
[TO HUMANS ACROSS THE SPIRAL]
[WE SHALL WATCH THIS FALL]
[AS SPORES FROM GALACTIC CENTER]
[THERE NONE CAN HURT US, NONE CAN WE HURT]
A glittering crystal with sharp spikes materialized beneath the purpling sky.
In a data-dollop, Hari learned of the alien technology which had once made
these stable, rugged compartments for digital intelligences.
[TRANTOR WAS ONCE THE IDEAL PLACE FOR US]
[RICH IN RESOURCES]
[NO MORE IS THIS SO]
[DANGER LURKS IN THE COMING INSTABILITY]
"Ummm, " Voltaire said. "Joan and I might desire such an exit as well. "
"Wait, you two, " Hari said, talking fast. "If you want to go with these,
these things, to live in a seed between the stars then you have to earn it. "
Joan scowled. "How?"
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"For now, I can make it safe for you to live widely in the Mesh. In return "
he gazed anxiously at the Voltaire eagle, flapping in brassy splendor " I want
you to help me. "
"If it is a holy cause, surely, " Joan called.
"It is. Help me lead! I've always felt there's good in everybody. The job of a
leader is to bring it out. "
Voltaire said, "If you think there is good in everybody, you haven't met
everybody. "
"But I'm not a man of the world. So I need you. "
"To rule?" Joan asked.
"Exactly. I'm not suited for it. " [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]