"Robert A. Metzger - The Stars My Incarnation" - читать интересную книгу автора (Metzger Robert)

futures

The stars my incarnation
You read it here first, folks.
spare parts. The next 50 years saw the devel-
this time would be any different. “It was the
Robert A. Metzger
opment of self-awareness in silicon-based
year 2000, nearly 700 years ago, and Nature
hardware, which then gave way to self-aware-
was celebrating the beginning of the new
ness in plasma systems, the density of ions

“W
elcome back, Creator Metzger.” millennium with essays about what the next
twirling about in a magnetic field far in excess
I attempted a groan, but the 1,000 years might bring. I wrote one of those
of anything silicon was capable of producing.
noise sounded like a cat hacking pieces, about a future in which most of the
“In 2083, one totally certifiable loon
up a fur ball. Before me stood several dozen Solar System had been transported four light
named Rufus Mapelton, a plasma hacker
black-robed priests, the nearest one drop- years away to the Centauri star system.”
who spent every conscious and unconscious
ping to his knees and shuffling toward my “And Your Will was done!” screamed the
moment interfaced to the plasma network,
optical receiver. head priest.
stumbled across my long-forgotten Nature
“On this 200th anniversary of our arrival “Yes, my will was done. In that fictional
piece. Mapelton had a little ‘eureka’ moment,
at the Centauri system, we wish to tell you of piece, I proposed that if the Sun’s magnetic
realizing that if he could transfer a self-aware
our progress, of our further implementation fields could be controlled, then they could be
plasma-based entity into the photosphere
of Your Vision.” used to expel a relativistic jet of protons, basi-
of the Sun, it could then take control of the
I angled my optical interface upward, cally turning the Sun into a rocket engine.
Sun’s magnetic fields and implement my
peering up through the transparent ceiling of Under an extremely small but steady acceler-
fictional vision.”
the Cathedral. Night, and Alpha Centauri A ation, just one ten-thousandth of a standard
“He was Your Instrument.”
burned bright, less than one light day away. gee, after 200 years the Sun would be moving
“I suppose so. Mapelton synthesized his
“Get over here,” I said to the priest. at nearly 2% the speed of light and would
plasma virus, uplinked it to one of the Sol-
He knee-walked to the optical interface. have travelled two light years. At that point,
Corona satellites, and then had the satellite
“I’m not your Creator,” I said. “I was a the direction of the acceleration would be
spiral into the Sun. Six weeks later the Sun