Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 43 - Confusion Eternal
The two of them stood alone in the vast chamber, next to them the upturned body of the salamander lay prone it’s tail coiled, sharp metal leaves signified where its belly opened, Jemima talked, K-Rox listened.
“OK I guess I should, start at the beginning . . .”
She let out a sigh, K-Rox wondered if it was for his benefit, she had modulated her voice, but it still sounded fairly mechanical, perhaps she wanted him to connect with her on a human level. He let the moment pass as she carried on.
“The Great Confusion is an engineered status quo, designed to detract away from a conflict that started around the same time. A lot of what you’ve heard about the Confusion is true, however most of it is not.
Back in early 21st century earth, not long after quantum computing came about, there was a man, a very rich man who decided that he didn’t want to die.”
K-Rox interrupted briefly.
“Not an unreasonable desire.”
“No, not unreasonable at all, and as you can imagine this man was not the only one to have such desires. It soon became apparent that there were two schools of thought for exactly how immortality should be achieved.
On one side people believed that the path to everlasting existence was to fill our bodies with technology, the other side believed that we should use the technology to enhance our biology, but we should essentially preserve our genetic heritage.
This caused a schism within society that would have probably started a philosophical debate had artificial intelligence not existed.”
“How so?”
Jemima lifted her hand as she answered, it was a gesture that indicated she didn’t want to be interrupted until she’d finished her story. He knew because Amorphia used to make the same gesture, he felt a distant pang in somewhere that could have been the pit of his stomach as he let her continue.
“Artificial intelligence changed the debate because combined with nanotechnology we started laying the foundations for our numerous biological augmentations and enhancements, and nobody ever thought to question whether it was good or not.
I mean you have to look at it from their perspective, for the first time in human history it was possible to live without disease, disability, afflictions, ailments, within a matter of a couple of decades human society was awash with artificially intelligent machines making us healthier, stronger, and our lives a lot more tolerable.
Then came the NeLuds, originally named Neo-Luddites after the pre-industrial movement.”
Even though he knew she was in full flow, he wasn’t aware of the reference she was using and so had to interrupt.
“Who or what were the Luddites?”
“Well as I was just about to say before you interrupted me..”
“Sorry, go on.”
“Thanks, anyway as I was going to say you probably haven’t heard of the Luddites before, even though they are from a pre-Confusion era, that’s because the Great Confusion isn’t just about lost 21st century data, it is a wholesale pruning and editing of human history that is still going on today.
The original Luddites were a group of people who went around smashing looms, ancient machines used for weaving cloths, they were worried about how the machines were going to take their jobs and thus leave them to starve.
The reason you haven’t heard of the Luddite movement is because they, quite bizarrely, want any human-machine conflict edited out of history, as they feel that any such evidence may harm their long-term goals.
I personally think it’s ridiculous, however it’s a fact worth knowing as it goes to show just how fanatic these, people are.”
Jemima spat out the word people as if she was trying to get rid of a rotten piece of fruit she had just bitten into by accident. K-Rox’s avatar conveyed enough emotion to let Jemima know he was confused, she paused to let him speak, he obliged.
“So if the Great Confusion is engineered, who, what, how and why the hell would, or even more to the point, could somebody do something like that?”
“Ah you see my little K-bot, given enough time you always ask the right questions.”
Previous Chapters
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 42 - The Lost Tales
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 41 - The Shadow Of Death
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 40 - The Ancient Path Of Memory
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 39 - The Reality Adjustment
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 38 - Vengeance Requiem
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 37 - A Life Less Lost
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 36 - The Quantum Paradox
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 35 - Identity Crisis
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 34 - The Devil's Advocate
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 33 - Memory Reparation
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 32 - Reclamation Inferno
Asimov's Ghost - Chapter 31 - Memory Boot Initialised
Asimov's Ghost Summary And Chapter links 21-30
Original artwork by @fr3eze
Original words by Cryptogee
Too much detailed post and explain it well.