Chaos Cipher (32 page)

‘
I was the
first to commercialise quantum entanglement, by the way. The same
superluminal communicators that were used on your atomic clocks on
the Erebus were also used here for hyper-marketing. I had
Einstein’s spooky particle in the palm of my hand and got the
impossible random particles
talking
. My devices revolutionised
Wall Street,’ Vance went on boastfully, ‘where market decisions
were made instantly, reducible to quantum moments, nano-seconds,
real-time global communication on multiple levels. Now we know, we
can see the human mind, understand thoughts in real-time as they
happen thanks to neuro-commerce. Wall Street was renewed after
people began brain-to-computer interfaces. In patterns we must
account for the fallibilities of the controller, for even they are
indecisive materially. Navigating the rhizome of macro-social
behaviours has never fully been achieved…yet.’ And he stared at
Malik stolidly, allowing a long pause before he went on.

‘
I say yet
because whether you know it or not, you could prove to change all
that, Malik. We want to map that rhizome accurately to make
predictions about sentient improbabilities, thus making the
Atominii omniscient. You can map it because, although many argue
this rhizome of improbable behaviours is without form and
unpredictable…

‘
I don’t
believe in shapeless shapes,’ Malik challenged.

‘
Precisely!’
Vance delivered with a galvanized smile. ‘I have no care for human
beings, neither should you. The dutiful scientists must emancipate
themselves from the social in order to get to the objective truth.
So with that in mind, I completely revolutionised health care. Oh
yes, it was well on its way to the grave, my brother. To save the
dollar I made federal spending in health a thing of the past. Every
time we introduced a new product on the market, we could monopolize
add-on’s and updates, feed it as long as we needed if it’s a
lasting product. Health is a lasting product which today requires
Micro-Immune-Updates or MIU’s. This was our gradual hijacking of
the social and economic revolution taking place in the world. We
formed a think tank, some of the best ways to purge a precariat,
those unwanted and out-dated generators of material consumerism.
Bastard pests! First introduce the nanoctors, teach their immune
systems that they are no longer required, then, when the
individual’s immunity is neutralised…simply shut off the defensive
nanoctors. Organ failure within forty two hours of viral exposures
ensures death.’

Malik saw the
nefarious glory in his brother’s old eyes, the burning intensity as
Vance clicked his fingers. ‘A simple cold will do the
rest.’

Vance hitched
the piano’s fall board to reveal an immaculate set of untarnished
ivory keys and he stared at them endearingly.

‘
So…you’re
probably wondering
why
the cyber cities chose to enslave its population when, as you
plainly know, you’re no fool Malik, technology can appease all
ailments today and we could live in an equal and decentralised
world? My answer is simply thus. Natural order. Structure.
Aesthetics. Necessity. Choose your excuse, each can be argued.
Personally I like to denounce evolving utopian fancies, that so
called heaven professed by religious types. We made people believe
that Government no longer existed, that their revolution was a
success, that the people were really free from this institution.
You see, when people believe they have won something they no longer
need to ally with say Olympian mutants, for instance. With no
government, there was no way the revolutionaries could seize
democratic control. Unfortunately, they started to organise and
centralise, the revolution began to forge a new autocracy, easily
hijacked once they installed neuro-ligatures into their heads.
Admittedly not easy to market, we reasoned that invasive neurophase
would make the brain a more superior organ. Thus we had a perfect
solution…the Nexus. And I doubt that victory can ever be reversed.
Private military industries earmarked their funds into fusion
reactors, an investment protected by intellectual property to
ensure nobody could copy the design without serious reprimands,
ergo monopolising the high-energy reactors for the Atominii. The
reactors run the server farms for the Nexus and the cyber city and
its eternal managers live on. It’s a dependency in a perfect,
cyclical, high-energy system. My utopia is not susceptible to
changes, it will last forever. We’ve come so far as a species…and
now we have the answers to all our questions. Think of how many
died to get us here…’

Vance toured
his fingers skilfully across the scales of the keys to perform some
haunting composition that Malik sensed he’d written
himself.

‘
Oh yes,’
Vance said dreamily, his one hand playing now as he tasted his wine
with the other. The intelligent musical program lit up the keys
where his occupied fingers should have been to remotely fill in the
parts of the music he was unable to perform while drinking. Vance
set the glass down and recommitted his other hand to the
composition. ‘And many more lives followed. That is the price for
power. You trade in lives and human souls to win the game. Power is
for power’s sake, to want it is to exercise it. But I did not
invest for power today; I did so for the power I will inherit
tomorrow. So you see…not everybody deserves to be empowered, some
wield it far better than others and it is they who ought to be the
deserving masters of the universe. I consider myself just such a
person, Malik. I’ve earned it.’

‘
You were
always very competitive, little brother,’ Malik said flatly,
looking about. ‘Where’s the damn wine?’

Malik snagged
the large glass bottle from the table and guzzled back the wine,
much to Vance’s contempt. It irked him into twitching and Vance
forced himself to control his compulsions because there was yet
something useful about this deprived and damaged
man-tique.

‘
Thank god
you still have wine!’ Malik laughed, throwing the bottle across the
room shattering into a far off corner.

‘
So,’ Malik
said, ‘you curtail a revolution by installing the idea of a society
without government, but instead the Faustian bargain is that
humanity surrenders its freedom to think for itself or dare to
desire change.’

‘
Why should
they change, the Nexus meets all their desires. They can imagine
any world they wish…’ was Vance’s customary answer, but Malik cut
him off in his on-going monologue.

‘
-Then you
turn everyone into puppets on the Atominii stage yadda yadda yadda.
How did you get people to conform to this crazy idea? I mean…there
were people who didn’t like it, right? People in the non-digital
channels I presume? That hardlands, as you say?’

And once
again Vance is pushed to prove himself further, was it not enough
to entertain him with his already over-merited stories, this vulgar
and impudent merde!

‘
Know what we
did first?’ Vance began coolly with a sneaking grin. ‘Well...first
we marketed the neurophase, which prompted the industry of neuro
commerce. We made people believe that nanomes were evil to begin
with, you know, just to plant the idea. Oh it was a big song and
dance. There’s no such thing as bad press as we say. We have The
Randian News conglomerate to thank for their social media outputs.
Once the idea was seeded we created a disaster, for example health
care. Essentially we influenced governments to stop funding the
hospitals, as I mentioned, and let the people buy their own health
care upgrades. It was an age old argument that the markets could
solve our health problems. Easily done. Then we introduced my
investment solution; Serat nanoctors, here to save the day. We
offered a package deal; people could purchase nanomes and upgrade
their neuro-ligature from non-invasive to viral neurophase Titan
ready. My nanomes were the first to fuse machine and man together.
Ergo you can imagine cybernetic industries were quick to get
involved in our think tank operation.’

Vance’s proud
smile faded, as though he’d just trodden in something he hadn’t
wished to return home with.

‘
But the
Olympians were different,’ he resumed inaffectionately. ‘The Titan
virus wouldn’t affect them for long and their immunity broke down
the nanoctors quickly and returned their anatomical functions to a
resilient nature.’

‘
I knew it!’
Malik simpered, ‘I knew those fucking Olympians wouldn’t fit into
this nice and neatly.’

‘
Yes, they
were impossible to fully integrate. Their immunity would even break
down neurophase implants. Tragically a number of them actually
wanted to be part of the Nexus and the Atominii, but their
physicality wouldn’t allow it and fusing Olympians with the
Atominii became a big research task.’

‘
Mutants,’
Malik said shaking his head with an off-handed chuckle.

‘
The
Olympians had their own nanomes,’ said Vance. ‘They evolved an
organ called a bionome gland whereby their cells make use of
nanoctors via fusion. Part of the original Homo-Evolutis movement.
Cybernetic viruses that defend them from malicious nanomes. We
started to learn that they could transmit thoughts and emotions to
one another, a phenomenon we called transqualia. A full transqualia
give you the mind of another person, their thoughts, feelings,
memories. In the Atominii we only ever permit semi-quale. A
person’s personal thoughts ought to be sacred.’

‘
I’d say
that’s for the philosophers to discuss,’ said Malik, folding his
arms. ‘Surely there’s a stronger argument for mirror neurons to be
permissible. Otherwise you’d have to stop people from smiling and
sharing that particular emotion of happiness.’

‘
Well,’ said
Vance, ‘I’m glad to say our neuro-commerce enterprises developed
their optogenetic programs to allow only semi-quale. We’re
controlling certain thoughts for the safety and stability of the
Atominii. Full transqualia is illegal, punishable by a
neuro-ligature burn-out!’

‘
That’s when
they fry your implants,’ Filipe’s voice suddenly echoed. Malik
turned around. He’d almost forgotten he was still sat on the
couch.

‘
So…this is
how our great city functions.’ Vance went on. ‘We set up
incentives, missions to test people, keep them occupied, and make
them compete. Our financial institutions proposed that we unify
people’s profiles, passports, bank accounts into one solid state
function, with means for establishing a person’s wealth, identity,
social network, criminal history all into one personified meta-ID.
We then provide them with data-space so they can compute algorithms
to earn Atomons. In order to earn more data-space they must
shamelessly self-promote their activities on their profiles. In the
Atominii, the best survivors are the celebrities for the most
unusual activities, mainly because neuro-commerce is commerce
without the moral complications, like trade with a human face.
Those who are not magnificent have their data-space sequestered
until they inevitably fall off the map. Data-space is subscription
based. The more people subscribing to your information, the better
one becomes, until it becomes wealth without the work. Prime
generation Titans are the commodities and perfectly primed as new
wave consumers, consumers that is, of information, both in the
quasiland and the hardlands. Everything gamified.’

And Vance
stopped playing his composition and saddled over the bench to face
his brother, face convulsing with subtle twitches.

‘
This is our
fate, Malik. This is our prescribed utopia. Ideology of this kind
must addict its users, you see. And people like me are the servants
of this system. We give the people all that they desire, make their
lives as best as possible. We work hard to keep them interfaced.
Drop-outs are a great disappointment. They’re the ungrateful ones.
Precariat bigots!’

‘
What about
the mind of mankind?’ asked Malik, walking around the piano,
sliding his hand across the untarnished black surface and admiring
the finish of the ebony polish. ‘What is the use in thinking if the
mind is not free? Is there not a little madness in
creativity?’

‘
They are
free to think,’ said Vance, ‘they have to be in order to be
innovative and competitive, so long as they think within terms of
the game, that is. Otherwise we have to make sacrifices, Malik. The
herd must remain occupied and bewildered. They must be afraid;
their primal fears must be stimulated, with flashing lights and
entertainment and misinformation…they must be kept occupied and
want nothing less than the Atominii, all to prevent
anarchy…’

‘
So what is
the Atominii?’ Malik asked, ‘Freedom? It’s a clandestine government
as you said. The invisible will of the people, invisible because it
isn’t real. And I can’t help but note that when you say anarchy
you’re really talking about chaos. Anarchy is a structural idea of
that without hierarchy…but allow me a few short moments Vance and I
will tell you all about chaos.’

Indignantly
Vance tightened his jaw and took a moment to reposition his
imperious authority, stuffing his hands deep into his
pockets.

‘
We use it to
protect them from making difficult moral decisions.’ Vance
explained.