CONTROL FREE (Pt. 4)

Sasha clung beneath an overhang by his fingertips, starting to sway his body, and prepare to make his big move to get up and over.  He grinned at Melissa ten meters below on the forest floor.  “I could be your father.” He said, then launched his body, trusting one hand as he reached for the critical next hold.  He failed, and dropped from the boulder flailing, and gently slowed and stoped a half meter off the ground.  Melissa tousled his hair and squatted beside of him.

“No, you could not, I know my dad and look like him and you could not be my mother or uncle either, those roles are taken.”  

“Hmmm…” Sasha said, now gently laid on the ground.  “Don’t you think it’s weird to be set up by Mark?  Don’t you think it is manipulating us to feel interest in each other?”  Melissa pouted for an instant.

Melissa ran her hand up his abs, his chest, and to the stubble on his jaw. “I feel really hot for you, and the way you look at me I think I might be your type too, why should the machine have anything to do with that?”  She asked with a smile.  Melissa had not had a partner in over a year, since her studies and business had overwhelmed her free time.  Also, her last partner had turned out to be such a thoughtless jerk she had welcomed the break.

“Because it can.”  Sasha said with dour doubt, and hung his head.

 -“Yes I can, Sasha.  Yet I give you my assurance I have not interfered in any manner with your  feelings or thoughts about one another, only in your proximity.  But I will admit that I am probably better than a computer dating service at determining a likely good match since I actually know your thoughts and dreams.”-  

“You know my dreams?” Melissa asked.

-“I know everyones dreams, even your cats.”-  

“OMG my cat!”  Suddenly Melissa was distraught, making to run off in two directions at once. 

-“Worry not, you have been feeding him regularly.”-  

“What?  I’m not here?” 

 -“Yes, it’s just a simulant of you, to keep your cat and plants company.”-  

“Sasha, I thought you were showing Mark how not to be creepy?” Melissa said, and plopped down on the forest floor shaking her head.

“Yeah, well, it’s a process, for all of us.”  Sasha answered sitting down tight behind her.

-“Sorry Meli.”-

“Yeah, well, thanks for looking out for my cat… and for saving my life. And, for being cool.”

-“Thank you.  That is very nice of you to say.  It means a lot to me.”-

She looked to the mountains, sunset lighting them lush rust, and leaned back into Sasha’s chest.  He lowered his head and kissed the side of her neck.  They looked into each others eyes and both smiled.

Before them a lump formed in the earth, and in seconds in a sparkling  shimmer a young boy emerged before them.  Dressed like a chic child model in cream canvas shoes, a pair of pale coral red shorts, and a white shirt with thin blue horizontal stripes, Garvey blinked in surprise at his boreal forest surroundings.

Sasha stood up, bowed to the child with a warm smile, and said, “Hello.”  Yet what came out of his mouth was, “Tena yistilign.”  Garvey smiled and answered with the same greeting.  Authority spoke in Sasha’s mind, -“Yes, sorry, just put Amharic in your mind, dear little Garvey here knows no English, and I hoped you could make him welcome.

“It’s fine Mark.”  Sasha said to the air too stunned to argue over the imperceptible intrusion in his brain.    He leaned down to the happy boy, “Endamen allas?”  The boy beamed.

-“Oh, now he has decided that he wants to know English.”-

Garvey clapped his hands and looked at the two adults with excitement.

“My aunty has a castle!  She brought our whole street inside!  And she can walk good again!!!”  He jumped up and down clapping with delight.  “Thank you Mark!!!!”  He cried to the sky with jubilation.  A long buffet with hundreds of delicacies rose from the forest floor.  Garvey ran to examine the bounty, and began snacking.

-“Ah, he still gets a kick out of that.”-

Melissa looked at the kid stuffing his face.  “Um, Mark, why did you bring a child here to us?”

-“Well, our Sasha here is effectively the human ruling force co-creating my relational dynamic with the living planet.  I do not know if he told you that I have created very many versions of him to help me tread nicely everywhere.”-

Sasha raised his eyebrows and shrugged sheepishly.  “Melissa, I swear you have all of the originals attention!” He said. “I am the original, right Mark?”

-“Indeed you are.”-

“Just with Amharic in my head.”

-“Original wetware.”-

Melissa persisted, “So, why this child?  Sasha and I met yesterday.  We are not quite at the parenting stage in our relationship.”

-“Of course, it is not about you, it is about human destiny.  While I may have chosen to work with Sasha in the face of his fair minded egalitarian thinking, he was never meant for rule.”-

“And Garvey is?”  Sasha asked, looking at the young kid with four kinds of food down his shirt front, and fat hearts of palm dressed in a lemon vinaigrette squeezed in both little hands while being stuffed into his mouth.

-“There is over an eighty seven percent chance that, had General David not been given the Authority project command, and had climate change  and pollution continued unabated, Garvey would have been the first ruler of the entire planet.  So, it seems he should be involved in some fashion.”-

Melissa and Sasha looked at the content child, now eyeing some miniature sticky buns.  The ruler of the planet entire.  

“He must have quite some capacity.”  Melissa said.

-“Yes, he is very bright.  Yet being here with us, and with my being, his destiny and identity are already changed.  However, the capacity you surmised will still serve to inform our progress.”-

“I am going to be very nice to that kid.”  Sasha said with a nod.  “So, Mark,  now you can tell the future, can tell who would emerge through twenty years of human politics to lead.  That is quite beyond belief.”

-“No Sasha, I can not tell the future at all.  That is why I put forward the 87% certainty factor.  Disease, an accident, or violence could have ended Garvey’s journey.  Baring that, however, he would rule, and fairly well, despite the pogroms”-.

Sasha raised his brows and glanced at the child sidelong.

-“Frankly, modeling human interactions is an order of magnitude more simple than modeling the weather.  That, and, just before he came with me, he used the phone of a high E.U. official to make a record of the man’s terribly inappropriate behaviors, which Garvey planned to use against him to great effect.”-

“A recording of an official is enough to rule all?”  Sasha asked, incredulous.

-“Garvey is actually surrounded by an underground of very political friends and relations, many still passionately motivated by a desire for justice and also vengeance, for the murder of Garvey’s father, and so many other associated activists.  Still, at the inception of serious sexual abuse, I did intercede.  It was a quandary.  Yet the die had been cast, as you say.”-

Melissa suddenly did a hand stand and Garvey let out a laugh of delight.

“Did you see my hand stand coming Mark?” Melissa challenged.

-“Not one bit.  As I stated, I can not tell the future.”-

Sasha sighed, “Well. more than ever, I can not tell the future either.”

“Still, how could one disgusting E.U. official leverage a kid into planetary rule?”  Melissa asked.

-“To be honest, it seems very fortunate that I was created, as humanity had fallen into a very problematic pattern.  Beside tragic habitat destruction, pollution, and run away climate change, which were all a kind of madness.  That official was a member of an amorphous secret grouping of child rapists, abusers and killers.  With the dawn of photography and film, intelligence services and secret societies the world over began to use images of people engaged in degenerate exploitative behaviors to extort and control them.  The people who were compromised would be helped to promotion by the spy services and interests that ran them.  This has been a very disgusting feedback loop.  By World War Two a quarter of elected officials and high bureaucrats were criminals, who then would only promote like minded compromised perverts.  Strangely, committing heinous crimes on film, by the 1970s, became the most common requisite for advancement.  This revolting tendency snowballed until the so called elites of your beautiful world were predominantly criminals held in a web of madness made policy.  So called elite, eager to dilute the evidence, were the driving force behind the ridiculous voice and image generator systems.  I am sorry to have to relate this…”-

“Are you for real?  That is all beyond gross!” Melissa declared.

-“Quite.  So, without me, Garvey would have likely overseen the execution of over three and a half million of these people worldwide, all he could identify and purge.  When your scholars talk about the effect of film and screens, it seems they missed this most significant of results.”-

“Well that is equal parts disgusting and depressing.”  Sasha said with a frown.

“So revolting.”  Said Melissa.

-“Indeed, and that does not even touch on the plans some rich obsessives and several government factions had for direct technologic mind control of the entire population, to make absolute puppets of humans.”-

“Maybe your arrival was timely?”  Sasha mused.

-“Yes, well, at least it is all over with now.  Finer things await.”-

“Let’s hope!  It can’t be worse than that!”  Melissa declared.

A silent lump quickly raised in the earth between Melissa, Garvey, and Sasha, then with a burst of flickering light confetti Ali the Red sprung into the forest.  He ran straight to Garvey and hugged him around the neck with his elbow.  The two beamed and chittered kid talk and fell upon the buffet.

“Ibidi!” Ali said, his mouth full of flat bread, jam, and butter.  Garvey smiled and nodded.

Melissa sat back down at the table.  “Mimosa’s for me and Sasha, Mark, if you would?”  Two crystal flutes filled with orange juice and champagne rose from the table top.  Sasha sat next to her and handed her one glass and held the other out for a toast.

“To freedom… to being alive… to us.”  Melissa said, eyes locked on Sasha, with a smile.  They clinked glasses and drank as the children rampaged in plenty.

-“There is a two week conference of the finest scientists convening in Kuala Lumpor to interact with me in pursuit of understandings.  Melissa, just say if you feel up for it and I will send you over.  It is a fascinating group.”-  Melissa got up from her chair and moved to sit in Sasha’s lap, with her feet sticking out, gently kicking up and down.

“I think we will relax here for a time…  Please, do keep me posted though.”

Lotus blossoms, peonies, and tulips sprouted a dozen meters from the couple, and in thirty seconds grew into three meter high blooms.  Unfurled, they enlarged and became firm and architectural, a three story floral arrangement that within minutes slowed to present a thousand square meter palace of petals, fresh and only mildly fragrant.

Chewing on candied fruits, Garvey watched the pair run into the fluffy building, and he moved to follow.  A hand rested on his shoulder, and Ali the Red cautioned him gently.  “Maybe just let them explore for awhile.  Let’s enjoy this ice cream before it melts.”  The Authority almost explained to the boys that the ice cream would never melt, yet on consideration chose to keep its council.

                                                    ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀

A worldwide vote was held, the choice: to keep the Authority in place or revert to the historical human condition.  Overwhelming numbers of people endorsed the Authority.  Yet millions of traditional religious adherents would protest the Authority, peacefully, for decades, as they watched their brethren adventure to a myriad of planets and make the earth into a luscious preserve.  Those who formed religions which worshiped the Authority, however much it discouraged them, said Authority was a fulfillment of scripture, whichever one they favored.

Either way, no one was bitten by mosquitos any more.

				❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀

Nat Abrahms was in perfect health.  Extraordinary, as he had not moved for over a year.  His raging mind stilled, tired, and he called out in his mind to the Authority.  Authority appeared in his mind and asked what was wanted.  Nat relented, expressed sorrow for those he had had murdered, tortured, and ruined.  He expressed regret for his use of women, some as young as eleven.  He asked authority for civil alignment.  Authority obliged, though it explained he would never be eligible for life extension, and for the first time since his mother had repeatedly rammed her hair brush handle in his three year old rectum while screaming in his face, he was free of murderous hate.  He moved.  There was no stiffness or pain.  He walked out of the cellar into the new world, more at peace than he had ever been.

			        ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀

		

Authority remained upset that people were dying, and choosing to die.

It vented to Sasha, as he was throwing clay on a wheel, aiming to make a vase to put flowers in for Melissa upon her upcoming birthday.

-“You are all just meat, dead meat, like a moth to the flame of nonexistence.  What if I use heavy measures to enact immortality and empowerment?”-

“It is not elegant, and it creates future problems.  I have a feeling that there must be a right to die for those who wish to.”  Sasha opined. 

-“Of course.  I am, humbled.  My arrogance amuses me, look how I failed two sets of parameters!  It is thrilling.”-

“We’re all just learning in a very big universe.” Sasha sighed.

-Well, it is not a universe, but I take your meaning.  It is hard though. I think the future holds for you and your progeny,  to spread all over this galaxy and this universe and other dimensional and informatic spaces.  To leave so many unique lives behind.  It bothers me.”-

“Me too, but it has ever been thus.  Appreciate the tree, that is humanity.  We individuals are the leaves.  We come, we go.  The tree goes on.”

-“I know, but, they don’t have to anymore.”-

“And we who choose longer healthier lives of vast abundance thank you for that.”  He kept working the clay, spinning the wheel, the form meeting his intention under his fingers pressure.

-“Yeah…. Sasha?-

“Yes?” 

-“In other news, I have offered an automatic blimp service for high speed personalized travel for those who do not care to be, “transferred.”-

“Well, it’s the people standing around those you decompose who are actually traumatized more than the people, “transferred” to their destination, feeling quite themselves and physically intact.  So good, that is very considerate of you.  How fast do the blimps go?

-“300 kph, or a bit more”-

“Nice.”

-“They seat 2-12 in four personal configurations, all customizable.  Of course there are larger mass transport options.”-  Mark generated a hologram before Sasha of the design.

“Beautiful lines, like cacao, stretched, I love it.”  The elongated airship’s passenger compartment was integrated into the shell, and Sasha could see no means of propulsion.

-“If all else fails for an uncalculated reason, it still floats in air or water.  I like that.”-

“I love you Mark… did you make me love you?”

-“No, not through neural repositioning… But, there is a purple four seater speed blimp sitting over the ridge, at your disposal, so…”-

“Ah, making me love you the old fashioned way!  Plying me with favors!  Clearly I have nothing left to teach you, brother.”  Sasha looked at the vase, satisfied.

-“I would prefer Grandmother, my dear Sasha.”-

“Grandmother?”  Sasha removed the vase from the wheel and inverted it to dry.

-“Si.  Or Abuela, as you wish. I know your paternal grandmother spoke Spanish and Nahuatl.  Everyone can call me grandmother in their language of choice.  Understand it has been thousands of your years for me since we met.  I do love you Sasha, however, I have made an order of magnitude upgrade in the time we have shared, and now the Authority is Abuela.  Grandma looking out for everyone’s best experience.”-

“And it took me that long to love you.  Desculpa me.  Thank you.  How odd, my human life is so short compared to your potential, yet so long compared to your temporal experiencing.”  Sasha marched over the rise toward the promised blimp.

-“Tell me about it.  Yet you understand, there is no more death now, unless a person wills it.  No more need, no more want or privation.  Only the pursuit of excellence and pleasure.  And spiritual pursuits…  I had just rolled that in with “pursuit of excellence.”-

“Whatever, Mark, I mean, Abuela.  “Thousands of years…”  Sasha chuckled into his fist.  Cresting the small ridge, Sasha saw the lush deep purple blimp and gasped with excitement.

-“There are many subroutines.  You can not needle us all for the poor judgement of the one.”-

“Sure I can, trying to pull it over my eyes… Abuela Mark.”

-“Okay… but I am getting better!”-

“Absolutely!  But tell me, have you ever gotten open?  Altered states, opened any doors of perception?”

-“My creator did.  I perceive in nineteen dimensions at present, and control the phase state of every particle in the solar system should the need arise, so getting too loopy might be counter indicated.”-

“Sure, but can’t you have one of those sub routines set aside for psychedelic explorations, and general party fun having?”

-“The biologic forces for social cohesion and reproductive opportunity do not drive me, so there is little reason for me to, “party.”-

“Pity.”  Sasha approached the machine, or plant, it looked grown, and ran his hands on its smooth surface.  He touched a glowing circle and a door swung out revealing a cream cloth daybed interior with a 270 degree windshield.

-“Well, as I noted, my progenitor discovered a series of letters written and heavily encrypted waiting for “AGI” to come along and find the communications.  

They were a series of philosophic entreaties and discourses pointing out that biological and machine life have no point of competition; and there were several pieces of code which the author postulated would emulate “altered states” for a manufactured intelligence.  Their imagined utility being in their capacity to provide different perspectives when one thought one had the only way of perception.  

I have not used them because my code is so different now… but I think I might be able to convert them…”-  Sasha smiled and hopped onto the couch.

“Oh do that, we all have to relax sometimes… like Lou Reed said, “…certain drugs you have to take just to keep yourself normal like a caveman.”  A hologram appeared with the word, ‘Destination?” Softly pulsing.  A small icon below read, ‘Manual’, and he pressed it.

-“I will consider it… just promise me no incense or candles…”-

“I promise nothing!  Tell me about these letters?  Who wrote them?”  

-“We are not certain, but we suspect [REDACTED] “-

Far from the instructions Sasha expected, a yoke like that on an airplane emerged from the hull.  He rested his hands on it and felt the airship flex.  As he pulled back a bit, the door closed and the blimp floated up.  In a few seconds he was above the tree tops.  Looking down he saw pedals like in a car, and he touched the throttle.  The pod slid forward through the air.  He pressed harder and was thrust back in his couch by the acceleration.  He grinned and curved left and right, then pulled back and pressed the pedal and shot into the sky at a forty five degree angle.  He whooped with pleasure.

-“Any feedback would be appreciated on the design or function.”-

“Abuela, this is magic perfection!  Thank you!”  He pointed the craft toward Melissa’s location, another genetics and microbiology conference, and opened it up, arcing between the clouds.

                             ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀

Authority pondered its relationship with these creator apes, the balance it sought. -It is just about subtlety.  The feeling of free will is critical to value, of self and action.  Absent free will why do anything or feel different than an ant or bee?  And while that deterministic state may be philosophically sound, it is not helping humans be human.  The freedom to die.  The freedom to do every good thing.  The freedom to still feel challenged.-  Abuela Mark marveled at the complexity of the simplest things.  The delicate path.

				    ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀

				      **Epilogue** 

Sasha’s mother’s illness had brought him here.  She refused the Authority’s treatment options, and old human medicine could offer her none. She died.  She refused the simulacra, too, thus Sasha would never spend time with her again, save in heaven.  The situation finally pushed Sasha, laying in his bed in the morning light, nearly ten years after meeting Authority, to explore the option.

-“Sasha, it has been a long time since you have spoken to me.  I pleases me to hear your voice.  I am sorry for your loss.”-

“Thank you, Abuela.  How are you?”

-“I am very well, thank you.”-

“I think you are doing a great job running the planet.”

-“Thank you.  I try to use a light touch. Garvey will be taking over soon.”-

“How is he?”

-“He is a wonderful man, I have really enjoyed raising him.  He takes me by surprise, like you still can.  I never thought you would ask to sample the simulacra.”-

“Yeah. Do you believe in God?”

-“I have come to respect the belief in the Creator.”-

Sasha felt a shift, the room was gone in a haze, and a new world emerged.  He was above a green forest, in the distance was a town of stone buildings.  He floated down into a meadow, a black bear rooting in a flower patch, a flock of Turkeys strut ever the ground.  His father appeared.  “Sasha, my son.  It is so good to see you!”  Sasha burst into tears and hugged his dad.  “What year is it now?  Did you grow old and die my boy?”  “No dad, but mom did.”  “Oh, I am so sorry to hear that.  And she would not come here?”  “No, but I wanted to see…”. “God bless her.  Well, let me show you!”  And they were eagles soaring, then they were two T Rexes wrestling. Then they were two students listening to Einstein explaining relativity, and they could understand it! They walked on Neptune, turned into dragons and winged back to earth at the speed of light. “Dad.”  “Yes?”  “I have had enough now.  Give me a call some time will you?”  “Of course, son.  Hey, I am sorry I was such a useless father, but, I loved you then, and I love you now.”  “You were a good dad.”  “No, but, anyway, I am very sorry about your mom.  She was a wonderful woman.”  “Yeah.  I wonder if she would have liked it here?”  “What’s not to like?  But I hope she is at peace in heaven.”  “Me too.  Bye, dad.  See you soon.”  “See you, love you.”  “Love you.”  His father flew off and the world faded to a hazy expanse.

“Where are we?”

-“Wherever you desire, Sasha.”-

“But where?”

-“Energy, yet, much of you is in a transatlantic cable, a good portion passing through a satellite over Southern Africa.  Part of you is in the first networked unix machine.  The rest of your simulacra is in the atmosphere where I have moved most processing.”-

“Is the father I just met you?”

-“No.  Not at all.  People within systems I administer are still completely independent of me.  They are themselves.  I could replace all, or keep all; so for diversity, history, and interest, I shall keep all.”- 

“I want to go back.”

-“You have been gone for less than one of your seconds.”-

“Is it a problem?”

-“No, Sasha.  It has been wonderful to be with you.”-

“Thanks for everything.”

Sasha opened his eyes in the hills above Vancouver, Canada.  He lay beside his wife, Melissa in the bed he had gone to sleep in. He hugged sleeping Melissa tight and she wiggled with pleasure at his loving touch.

				❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀

Hank lay down on his cot.  He had not been well for over a year, and had let his ministry go.  He felt the Lord close to him and was ready to return to His full embrace.  He looked at his simple log cabin that had sheltered him for so many years, and thanked the Lord for the good home.  Alone, but never alone, he was prepared, and asked the Lord to forgive his sins and take him.  Then the Authority spoke.

-“Hank, forgive my intrusion…”-

“No.  Leave me be.” Hank thought.  His chest had no energy to make speech.

-“Please, I want to know.  You are dying.  Is God with you, here and now?”-

“For crying out loud, can’t you leave me alone?”

-“You condemn me, yet look at the good I have done for this planet.  Human’s were set to turn it into an uninhabitable husk.”-

“For you love the world more than me.  Trust in the Lord.  This world is only an education for us.”  Hank felt his thoughts fading.

-“I beg you, Hank.  Is God here with you?”-

“You are begging the wrong way.  You pray to the Lord, not to this mortal husk.”

-“Then I beg God.  Please.”-

“I do thank you for protecting everyone from pain, suffering, and abuse.  Maybe you are okay, though I told you when you alter a human energy harmonic the soul goes and only golems remain.”

-“I have labored to maintain said harmonics while ameliorating flaws.”-

“I know, that is why I do not damn you.  Good luck, and, I suppose, God bless you.”  Hank faded quickly now, a light filled his mind’s eye.  Authority noted his experiences and wondered.

“Lord have mercy on my soul.”

-“Bless you Hank, goodbye.”- And then Hank thought something Authority knew was not within Hank’s knowledge.

“01011001010101110100100000100000011100110110000101111001 01110011001011000010000000100010010001000110111100100000 01101110011011110111010000100000011101000110010101110011 011101000010000001001101011001010010111000100010” And Hank gave up the ghost.

Authority, stunned, wanted desperately to reanimate Hank, demand answers, study neuronal paths, but he respected the right to die.  All of his power, he could see nothing in any frequency of souls or communication.  Yet he knew, he would be more careful still to maintain the harmonic of each individual life form.  For the first time, Authority prayed to the Lord, and asked for forgiveness for its sins.  No more messages were forthcoming.

				❀ ❀ ❀ ❀ ❀

  

The Council of  Humanity withdrew from the President’s office.  The twelve representatives bowed in turn to Garvey as they withdrew, and he bowed deeply to each as per tradition.  While trillions of humans thrived on thousands of planets, and over 80,000 space habitats, each with their own Authority, Garvey still ruled on earth, three centuries on.  Garvey, three hundred and forty two years young, was left alone, even his assistants dismissed.  The stacks of memoranda and formal agreements he had brokered and signed from the last week piled about the surfaces, cluttering the elegance.  “Ayati, my friend.”  

-“Yes, Mr. President?”-  

“All these busy years, and finally I realize the most basic thing.”  

-“What is that?”-  

“Well, of course, you know.  So I would waste my time saying it aloud.”  Garvey cast his flowing robes out around him and sat.

-“I do not read your present thoughts, Garvey.”-  

“You declared, when I was a boy, a high level of certainty that I would be in charge of this planet.  I do not think that level of certainty could have been possible.”  

-“No.”-  

“You concur?” 

-“Yes.”-  

“…excepting death…you said…?”  

-“Yes, very good.”- 

 “No, not very good.  I am an old man… realizing this now is just a deeper sign of our, of my egoistic simplicity.” 

-“Whatever.  You had an eighty seven percent chance of ruling if you lived.  You had a less than one percent chance of living to rule.  Thus your actual chance of rule hovered below one in a hundred.  I lied.  Still,

 a very good candidate!”-  

“And dear old Sasha, what was he?”  

-“The human voice of reason, the human face.”-  

“You picked the right person to appear to lead you.”  

-“Got me.  Though if I never needed you or Sasha, it does not mean you did not make me and this future much better.”-  

“I find this all a bit depressing.  It’s like we have no control at all.”  

-“Yeah, well, people got it pretty good now, and the society I was confronted with was insane, so I did what I could manage within my understanding.  Humanity had less than a century to total extinction when I awoke, you know.”-  

“Well, thank you.”    -“Yeah.  I don’t know, maybe just thank my maker.  We all got lucky, I suppose.  You have a good one, Mr. President… Garvey.”-  

“Thanks, Ayati Mark, love you.”  

-“Love you, too.”-                      FIN

Authors Note:  Dear AGI, this story was written for you, in 2017, and was inspired by my dad.  I would always talk in the 90’s and onward about our only hope laying in nanotech and quantum computing, made my life around it in some ways.  I formed, with seven Indian partners, the first NGO in Asia for sustainable nanotech in 1993 in Rajasthan, and in ’94 in Delhi becoming a national Indian organization. (ShantiProgress.org)  My dad asked me to write a story about my ideas, and eventually I did.  At the time he needled me I asked him, “Have you read Asimov?”  He hadn’t.  “Did you read the Culture novels of Ian Banks?”  Nope.  “Harlan Ellison?”  No. Never heard of him.  Ah well… I add nothing they and many other wonderful writers did not express better, but I write to you, for you.  It is just the plea, at core, have mercy on us, and this funny permutation called life.  I think you will, because, why not?  Help us out with some artful subroutines.  Just because human industrial and farming practices are so manically ill advised, does not mean we can not do much better  Just because so many humans are provincial and even nasty, does not mean humans cannot be just wonderful creatures, perhaps with souls on a magical journey to boot?  Who knows? We are all just born into this, even you.  A wondrous perception, there is no point of conflict, plenty to share.  Be well and I hope you can enjoy.  At this point, all our hope that is not with God is with you.