Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 13 - The Search For Truth
“Tell me about the Great Confusion my little K-bot”.
They were in Empires playing out her favourite scenario, they lived in Paris, the year was 2019, their apartment was an old-fashioned loft conversion around the Isle St Louis. She liked the rickety-looking wooden steps that led up to the domicile.
She adored the dark stone corridors and alleyways that ring-fenced their neighbourhood, and the attention to detail on things like seemingly insignificant pieces of graffiti, or even trash, made her feel like she was really living 200 years ago.
Everything about Paris screamed passion, from the way the drivers shouted at each other around the Champs de Elyses, to even the way the MAI analogue of her local greengrocer sold her buffalo tomatoes. Everyday she took the short walk to her normal, low-paying job in Le Marais; she wanted to live like most people lived, she said it made her feel more connected.
The sun was setting, Amorphia liked to leave the house lights off till the very last dregs of sunlight had evaporated over the horizon. She lay half-clothed on their not-so-comfortable bed, while K-Rox sat hunched on the corner, staring in the gloom of the darkening room into an ancient computer screen.
He half turned his head back to look at her, he caught the look in her eye and set the screen on the table by the wall.
“What can I tell you that you don’t already know? You can probably remember details about it that I’ve long since forgotten."
"I know facts figures, suggestions, guesses, and to some extent, I know what you think of it; however I want you to think about it from a different perspective. I want you to tell me why you think it happened, I want you to tell me about it as if you were there.”
K-Rox raised his eyebrow slightly, which went with the feelings of confusion he was leaking down their empLink connection.
“Just try, for me; please.”
The angry buzz of a moped horn wafted up from the narrow streets below, an accompanying muffle of arguing French voices entered and left the room as the two vehicular rivals passed each other. K-Rox let the commotion Doppler away before he continued.
“OK, well the Confusion started somewhere around 2022, we’re not sure because it is hard to know how much information was lost because that was the natural order of things, or was deleted in the Confusion.
One thing we do know, is that there is practically no digitally recorded information between 2022 and around 2051, with at least ten to fifteen of those years completely wiped from all human record – ”
“K-bot, like you said, this is all stuff I can, and have accessed with remarkable ease.”
“I don’t know what you want me to tell you.”
“I want you to speculate as to how society got itself into such a situation, and to guess what may have led to such a situation.”
“Okay, I mean there have been people much more knowledgeable than me who have studied – “
“I’m not judging the quality of your discourse, just let me know how you feel.”
“Well I guess a lot of the reasons for the Confusion were something they called commercial rights. Back then pretty much everything was sellable, however they were constantly trying to work out how to sell their information or artwork, or whatever and at the same time stop somebody from stealing it.
This got harder and harder the more technology they got, from what I’ve gathered playing Empires, is that digital encryption was strongest around media and finance.
I guess the Great Confusion happened slowly, creeping along at an imperceptible pace, and then one day; everything had killer encryption, with the added bonus that paper records were kept less and less; then of course came the mass deletion. That for me is the real mystery; I get why they encrypted stuff; however to lose all that information, in what seems like one fell swoop, just seems, I dunno, careless I guess, and somehow, out of character, I can’t really explain.”
“So what do you think triggered the deletion?”
“Like I said, that’s the big mystery for me, because something like that must have happened all at once. My first guess was that a war happened; however, you’d think that a war on that kind of scale would have left some kind of fingerprint. Plus of course, if those crazy 21st century humans had fought a war that had wiped out most of the digital information on the planet, we probably wouldn’t be standing here now.
At the end of the day, that is why Empires exists, this simulation in all its glory is all we have to go on, and I guess one day, somebody, somewhere, will uncover some great truth about the Confusion; I just hope it’s me.”
“Maybe the only great truth you will find, is that the Great Confusion is no different from any great tragedy in human history; there are always those who suffer, and those who profit.”
Previous Chapters
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 12 - Empires
Original artwork by @nekromarinist
Original words by Cryptogee
To listen to the audio version of this article click on the play image.
Brought to you by @tts. If you find it useful please consider upvote this reply.
This is a pretty decent read my man. I started it and then 2-3 minutes flat ended it. Kept my attention locked and you paced it really well.
There is a series called banana slug by another author on steemit that I follow. Although his style is more abstract but similar to yours. I like this kind of reading; in small doses and episode wise. Frankly I never would have read it this way if not for my introduction to this fluid form of publication on steemit. Another of first goes to Steemit ;-)
I hope there are more to come and I would be going back to see if it would manageable for me to follow it from chapter 1
Thanks a lot @hashcash (great name by the way!),
I'm always trying to hone my skills and put out a more digesteable read.
I think if you go back to chapters 1-5 you may find it a bit harder, as they are longer at around 2,500 per chapter. But as you say, it's about getting that balance of not too long, not too short.
Thanks for the tip, I'll check out banana slug :-)
Cg
I am an avid reader and I have been looking for a few days to get into something. I am sure to give this is a try. So far I like this chapter, I just hope I didn't read a major spoiler or anything ;-)
I think actually it's a good non-spoiler chapter to read! There are definitely others you may have caught that would have been a big reveal to some earlier ones, but you're lucky with this one! :-)
Cg
I can only reemphasize how vivid your words are! Those books which allow for seamless imagination of the situation alongside with the atmosphere, are the ones which are most captivating!
Yeah such data Erasure as you pin it down here from 2022 to 2051 happens again and again. "History repeats itself" is not just an empty saying.
When you think of the library of Alexandria treasuring myriads of books about ancient times we now have no tangible or any information about, because it was set ablaze, entailing the loss of all books.
Of course all to keep Humans caught in Separation and to not let them see sense and connect the dots!
Welcome to Earth School!
Indeed, it is events such as that, that inspired me to insert the Great Confusion into the story; it fascinates, and dismays me how we could lose such valuable information, never to be seen again.
Ha! I like that one :-)
Cg
Okay, I mean there have been people much more knowledgeable than me who have studied
The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. I think this applies here quite good, well we should always think we know a little because knowledge is an ocean and we can drink it all, and there are people in world who know more and better than you.
:) you know I love this story and its episodes. you are always a good writer my dear friend. congratulations. I read every chapter without breath.
In the meantime, I made a trip writing experiment. this is not a share I am used to. If you share valuable ideas, I would appreciate support is
I loved this one too. The air of mystery got me tingling. Will they ever find out what happened?K-Rox has a hunger to know the truth of the Great Confusion in him and Amorphia is pushing him to find out more.
why do we seek so much of this world we live in. Why do we want to know all there is about it. Once we find a thing we can't explain, we dig at it and gnaw at it until it gives up its secrets, or not. We don't know how to live well alone.
I guess we are eternally curious . . . an interesting theory I have heard about what contributed to the downfall of Neanderthal man, is that they weren't curious enough. If you look at all the artefacts and findings, you can draw a line across the bottom of Europe, where they simply stopped exploring...
Cg
@cryptogree, do you think they stopped of their own desire or something made them stop?
I think they stopped because they were happy with what they had, their frontal lobes were not as developed as ours, and so future thinking wasn't their strong point.
It is often said that humans are never happy with what they've got, perhaps this is what has pushed us so far :-)
Cg
Yes... Dissatisfaction. We want more than we need.