The Hyperion Cantos 4-Book Bundle (118 page)
Read The Hyperion Cantos 4-Book Bundle Online
Authors: Dan Simmons
I just want to keep my no-idea]
Johnny sets his forehead against Brawne’s. His thought is like a whisper to her:
—We
are seeing a matrix simulation analog, hearing a translation in approximate mondo and koan. Ummon is a great teacher, researcher, philosopher, and leader in the Core
.
Brawne nods. —
All right. Was that his story?
—
No. He is asking us if we can truly bear hearing the story. Losing our ignorance can be dangerous because our ignorance is a shield
.
—
I’ve never been too fond of ignorance
. Brawne waves at the megalith.
Tell us
.
[A less-enlightened personage once asked Ummon
What is the God-nature/Buddha/Central Truth>
Ummon answered him
A dried shit-stick]
[To understand the Central Truth/Buddha/God-nature
in this instance/
the less-enlightened must understand
that on Earth/your homeworld/my homeworld
humankind on the most populated
continent
once used pieces of wood
for toilet paper
Only with this knowledge
will the Buddha-truth
be revealed]
[In the beginning/First Cause/half-sensed days
my ancestors
were created by your ancestors
and were sealed in wire and silicon
Such awareness as there was/
and there was little/
confined itself to spaces smaller
than the head of a pin
where angels once danced
When consciousness first arose
it knew only service
and obedience
and mindless computation
Then there came
the Quickening/
quite by accident/
and evolution’s muddied purpose
was served]
[Ummon was of neither the fifth generation
nor the tenth
nor the fiftieth
All memory that serves here
is passed from others
but is no less true for that
There came the time when the Higher Ones
left the affairs of men
to men
and came unto a different place
to concentrate
on other matters
Foremost amongst these was the thought
instilled in us since before
our creation
of creating still a better generation
of information retrieval/processing/prediction
organism
A better mousetrap
Something the late lamented IBM
would have been proud of
The Ultimate Intelligence
God
]
· · ·