"FWLS60" - читать интересную книгу автора (A Future We'd Like to See)

"Great!" the kid shouted. "I gotta get a good dose of HV to
counteract all this old stuff you've had me lugging around. No
offense, N.M., but you need to get into the present."

"I'm already there," I told the kid as his virtual form
vanished.

*

The Museum was my final triumph.

It took a few years of vacationing, searching for all the
information available on the late twentieth century. Fortunately
for me, I found about 20% of it in the form of a nice girl named
Help... files complete, my goal in life was over and done with.

What to do afterwards was the question. I tried vacationing
some more, but it just wasn't the same without the information
quest. What to do, what to do.

Impart my knowledge upon the masses, of course! A vast
virtual museum, loaded with the tokens of culture that we all
know and love from the sixties through the zeroes. A remodelled
version of Jimi Hendrix's burnt guitar. Platform shoes.
Mirrored balls. Punk outfits. Select items from the Sharper
Image. A re-created MTV video award.

And the Library... everything you've ever wanted to know,
see, or hear. Seattle recordings. Woodstock '69 AND '94
bootlegs. Energizer Bunny commercials. The complete works of
Gary Larson. Plus, archives of alt.religion.kibology and
alt.culture.internet from newgroup to rmgroup. (That was after
the Great Newgroup War between Joel Furr and his long lost evil
twin, which laid waste to a great portion of Usenet before both
of them died from exhaustion in front of their respective
terminals.)

It was a masterpiece. Everything laid out in little
dioramas, detailing pop culture as it was and is known. All made
possible by the fine folks of UberNet, where information is still
free.

That's the problem. Like Internet vs. SubNet and Mainstream
Holophone vs. Protected Links, VOSNet vs. UberNet had its little
drawbacks. I could probably get more visitors in VOSNet, but the
fees that they charge for space rental are horrendous. On
UberNet, it's free, but you have to deal with wanna-bes and the
occasional punk who wants to crack your system because he has
nothing better to do. Still, it's free, and that's a good thing.