Dave The Penguin (18 page)

After that though, it
seemed to develop a mind of its own. It also seemed to decide
what
you
needed to have loaded on there too, which was helpful ; it
busily downloaded all the basic software into it from somewhere -
‘bootstrapping’ it was called.

Along with a whole range
of collective junk-ware, that everyone else think you may need,
which itself evolved and changed. You had to have it though - it
all came as part of the ‘package’.

He had the ‘DAVE’ operating
system on his; Version 9.0, which was better, apparently, than DAVE
Version 8, but in his opinion not as user friendly as Version 7.0,
even though they were all just enhancements, and add-ons to the
original program set. It was just what you were used to, even
though this version seemed to make everything slower and more
complicated.

You then loaded up some of your
own cloud information automatically, from your saved profile, from
somewhere, giving it a sort of personality, some basic memories,
your browsing and user habits, all the ‘look and feel stuff’,
preferences, to fit in with everything else as easily as
possible.

Sometimes this also downloaded
some of your stored files, your memories, films, pictures, work,
that sort of thing, and you could pick up and load programs and
data from your friend’s computers, and you could buy stuff from
other penguins to put on there too if you wanted to, and it all
happened automatically, most of the time.

Information just seemed to come
from everywhere, in so many ways, and a lot of the time you didn’t
really know what was going into it, and from where. This bit was
especially relevant if you lent it to other penguins to use or
borrow, which was always a mistake.

That is why it was important to
keep it all secure, protected, ‘virus free’, firewalled, and also
not to plug the hardware into the wrong sockets. His laptop had the
latest camera, speakers, a microphone, and lots of indicator lights
on it.

Years ago these machines were
much more isolated, stand-alone. They would operate all in their
own little bubbles. Each isolated machine, although boring, just
did a job, not interfacing with anything else, and not able to
change very easily – just a device doing what was needed, basic
software, just there for making life simpler, to save you time.

It was, after all, originally
designed to help make your life easier, more efficient, make your
jobs quicker, so that you had time to do other things - like
actually having a life.

Now he spent most of his waking
time playing on them, updating them, doing things on them,
answering messages, ‘talking’ through them, and a large amount of
time fixing it.

But these devices were all
quite limited in capacity, hard drive and memory, you could only
download so much data, and only so many programs and files, and
only a tiny proportion of what was in your cloud.

This was only a microscopic
fraction of what was in the penguin Inter-Web cloud thing, and what
was distributed onto everyone else’s computers.

It was all very limiting
really, and you had to go through the whole process again, every
time you got a new one.

They also had a limited
processor on them too which meant you couldn’t download and run
everything at once.

There was a sort of bandwidth
of what could be downloaded and processed in one go, and limited
capacity of what it could deal with at any one time. Which also
obviously depended on how you looked after it, and what you loaded
it with as you went along. It was so complicated.

Then when you started using it,
it had a basic sort of personality, a profile, which you could add
to over time, and you could ‘educate it’ by adding more ‘knowledge
software’ that you could buy or get free.

It also learned things when you
browsed around the world - ‘cookies’ they were called, little
programs that did things that you weren’t aware of - in a helpful
sort of way, well most of the time.

They also gave information to
something else that could then give you helpful information on what
you may or may not need, functional, what was ‘right’ or ‘suitable’
for you.

So you had to be quite
organised, manage what you had on your device carefully, use the
bandwidth wisely. It was all a process really.

You had to delete what wasn’t
needed, keep it tidy, do automatic backups, keep running virus
protection software, that kept it ‘inoculated’ against things with
protective tidying software, and of course, most importantly, avoid
dropping it onto large rocks, or other equally hard objects.

His device had built-in ways of
communicating automatically and directly with other computers, and
to the Inter-Web, and the cloud. ‘Networking’ it was called, with
handshakes, protocols and negotiating at different levels, and
types of meme data between programs, devices and systems, whatever
that meant.

It was a full time job just
keeping it all going, and you never really stopped, stepped back,
and thought about what you were doing and why. Deciding if you
really needed all these things, or even why you were doing it.

To Dave, it seemed like some
sort of ongoing spiritual life journey for his laptop. He was
supposed to look after what was on there, what it saw, what it
knew, and its awareness to everything. Which made you very fond of
it, and quite attached to it, in a protective sort of way.

He still couldn’t work out
though, why it took all of his time, and he wasn’t altogether sure
why he was doing it, or where it was all leading.

Why did laptops need to keep
changing? Why did he need to keep adding information, adapting and
improving? They were just devices that managed information after
all. What was forcing the change, why didn’t they just stay the
same?

Some people didn’t bother
though; they just used them for basic functions, like surfing, or
playing zombie-like games on, or sending the odd message.

Some would hardly load anything
on them at all, and not even bother to save anything to the cloud.
They didn’t look after them at all, slopping junk food and cola
into the keyboard, letting the fan fill up with fluff - which made
them overheat and become slow.

It was madness really,
irresponsible, but then a lot of penguins didn’t really care.

They also just loaded anything
on them, any cheap software. It was really lazy, but then if there
was nothing making penguins do anything otherwise, why would they
bother?

It seemed such a waste; they
should be using them properly, looking after them, and getting the
most out of them.

Which is what Dave was going to
do with his.

There was also a lot of dodgy
software around too, and some very nasty viruses or harmful
programs, that bad penguins had developed. So you had to be careful
where you browsed, and what you allowed to access your system.

These ‘dark forces’ were always
getting smarter, it was a constant battle, you had to always stay
one step ahead, just like in life. But then again there was always
help around if you needed it, software and hardware engineers, kind
helpful people, to get your system repaired and back into
shape.

It was all very clever; his
laptop and the software on it, and all the system and setup.

Everything you did was
remembered, somewhere, in some sort of cloud drive thing, which was
controlled and administered by something - some big organising
thing - over time, keeping things safe for the next time you needed
it, or if the device got broken or failed, and had to be replaced.
It remembered everything for you, so you didn’t have to think or
worry about it. Which was quite cool.

It was good to know that
something, somewhere knew what was going on, controlled things, and
was in charge, and was looking after everything.

Something knew where everything
needed to go, and what should be happening, and was well organised
and knew what to do.

It gave Dave a warm feeling
that everything must be all right, directed, safe, and managed at a
‘higher’ level.

So it would all be there on his
laptop; his programs, memories photos, home movies, videos (or at
least the ones he kept that weren’t backed up on the cloud drive),
after all he didn’t have enough space to store everything.

It had all his browsing history
too, the games that he had played with other penguins on other
machines, data he had copied from their other machines, books,
music, journals, his diary, that sort of thing.

He tried to keep it as
organised, and as tidy as possible. He figured that if he kept
everything managed and working properly, then what was going on in
the cloud, Inter-Web thing would follow suit. Set a good example as
it were.

He was after all a very
trusting penguin.

The main problem was bandwidth
though, and reliability, and the cost of getting it fixed when it
broke down. Which is why it was always important to keep the
receipt.

There was also apparently a
special switch you could press that made a copy of the laptop, like
a clone, that invokes some bootstrap program.

It only worked though if you
bought two computers and connected them together. It created some
sort of hybrid of the two, but with different looks, and had its
own combined bootstrap program.

Dave had tried it with his and
his wife’s laptop, but it hadn’t worked. She thought it may have
been that he hadn’t been able to find the right switch.

All the laptops, devices, the
cloud, Internet, knowledge, and the games being played all seemed
like some collective process going on. They were all being driven
by something, and something that clearly knew what it was
doing.

In fact, Dave thought, it was a
good way of describing life, and the collective penguin mind
consciousness thing and us, using information and devices.

After all, that’s what it
all was really, information and devices, but biological ones, like
Dave. Just like in his favourite sci-fi film
The Matrix
, it was all
just information in structures, but so much more complex than you
could ever describe.

You couldn’t describe it from
what we perceived and knew as reality, even using physics with
complex quantum field theory, psychology concepts, or
philosophy.

To Dave it was much easier to
describe it all in terms of information and computer devices, it
was much more – flexible, modern and abstract.

Indeed this electronic and
information system seemed to be simulating and emulating the nature
and behaviour of the other, becoming more like it every day, even
adopting the same techniques like hypnosis to beguile its users or
customers, and adapting to its needs.

Of course, Dave didn’t realise
that what was also going on (as it wasn’t for his benefit and he
didn’t need to know), was that certain data that he came across and
things he looked at and thought about, weren’t just stored locally
on his laptop, but also gathered from his system, and held and
managed centrally, without him being aware of any of it.

The data was held in secret
parts of the laptop’s hardware, and by hidden ancient software that
had been loaded during the booting process.

All of this data would be
relayed to a higher or central part of the cloud, and relayed to
other collective devices, forming a macro informational structure
and collective consciousness identity in the form of groups,
organisations, both by the nature of the information and the
organisation of the devices.

As a result, the design of new
computers and central software could then also be modified and
adjusted by the higher part of the collective cloud system thing
depending on popularity of the devices and the software.

That was nature after all; it
was always good to be part of something bigger.

So the next time he got a new
laptop it would be ever so slightly different, not just in the bits
he used and saw, with his games, preferences and data, but also
from a collective ‘all penguin’ perspective too.

This would be the fashion, the
‘way everyone and everything was going’, and what was most
impressive to other users.

This direction all came from,
of course as Dave knew, the big ‘All-Knowing Ever-Watching Penguin
Quantum Bio- Operating Field Network’ system in the sky, or Mildred
for short.

Except of course it
wasn’t in the sky, it was everywhere, all around him, in the gaps
between everything , and he was part of it, but the other idea was
a good one, for a penguin.

The laptops evolved so quickly
these days though it was so hard to keep up to date. For example
there was now even a new one that had a fizzy drinks holder that
flipped out when you opened the lid.

How clever was that?

So this laptop of Dave’s was a
device, and what was running on it, all his data, and the data up
in the cloud, was all part of a 'process' - or something like
that.

It all seemed to be quite
personal somehow, mapped out for him, and as such, he really
thought he needed to give these things more personal names like
'mind' or 'processing' or knowledge transfer, just to clarify
things.

Even though all of the software
and hardware design had been written on and using computers, it was
all now vastly complex, so much so that you couldn’t possibly
describe it all or even define it.

It also evolved so quickly now,
unconsciously changing every day, becoming more and more
knowledgeable, larger, more sophisticated.

It almost seemed to have a
conscious mind of its own now, even if though it was an
artificially intelligent one.

When Dave did play games
on them he preferred the single player games like the space trading
game
Elite
, or god games like
Civilisation
; or
Age of Empires
they were nice and simple, and straightforward with
‘well-defined’ rules and procedures.