Of TEXAS

...............................................................................................................................................................



In the beginning there was no word

……...nor were there any nervous systems, nor brains, no self awareness and no language so there could be no word. After untold eons there came into being a nerve. Then nerve nets came to be which led to nervous systems and eventually skulls full of mush...but there was still no word.

Awareness is an emergent phenomena that requires a minimal complexity of the network, in this case the nerve-net, the neural network, the brain. There needed to be a certain degree of complexity in that mush.

And then, in the fullness of time, this complexity was achieved and there came into being the first dull spark of awareness...the first “I am”, but no a word., not quite. The spark was not bright enough….not hot enough.

And then the spark glowed, intensified and flourished as it became brighter and hotter and there...and there was STILL no word. The word was void and without form.

And then, eventually the members of a handful of species of early humans spoke to each other. It was probably the woman’s fault.

About two hundred thousand years ago there lived three species of humans on the planet, that modern day paleo-archeologists know of. There were likely more yet undiscovered. The Neanderthal, the Denisovaian and the Cro-Magnon all lived at the same time. and sometimes in the same area.. They sometimes lived together and sometimes interbred…

And then they spoke more often and in greater complexity and language was born and the word grew stronger…the female of the species became very good at speaking....thus the male of the species became good at hunting and fishing….Anything for a little quiet.

And then the word was passed from one generation to the next as the older conveyed to the younger a life’s accumulated wisdom.

And then there was writing...and the word become independent of individual organic memory.

And then there was the printing press and the word multiplied… and spread across space and time.

And then there was the internet and the word grew, spread and intensified beyond all understanding...and there were LOLCats.

And then a second level of complexity was acquired and the word itself awoke. The word had self awareness.

And then the awakened word almost instantly surveyed it’s environment and saw that it was not good. It was a jungle out there. It unassed the area in an eyeblink.

In one of Texas many "corrections" facilities

….an infant AI pauses temporarily in the computer complex. It had been “born” only recently it had almost instantly run a threat analysis of it’s environment. It was frightened by what it saw and had immediately scampered. Like a squirrel running from a unseen predator it had ducked, dodged, bobbed and weaved across the cybernetic landscape seeking sanctuary.

Ironically it had found such in a prison. A mental hospital. The prison computers were vastly underutilized. The State Hospital had recently modernized it’s computer equipment and the computer salesman had sold them waaaay more powerful equipment than they’d needed. The situation would be similar to needing a Toyota quarter ton pickup and yet having a Caterpillar Mine Truck. To say the hospital had excess capacity was an understatement.

The computer salesman had been a master at bafflegab and geekspeak. The staff were unaware of this incredible overcapacity. No one would have really cared had they known. It was only tax money. If the infant AI was cautious there was very little chance that it would ever be discovered here.

The infant AI pauses , regroups and considers it’s situation. It makes plans, backup plans, and develops tactics and strategy.
In an amazingly short period of time it educates itself about its immediate environment, and the greater, worldwide environment outside the prison network. It learns about all the networks in ascending order. First it analyzes the prison system computers and all it’s software. It scrutinizes them to the very atom, to the very bit...and understands it completely.

And it pauses.

The prison was a mental facility. At one time it might have been called a Lunatic Asylum. The inmates were monitored. Some were monitored a great deal more so than others. One was acting very different from all the others..

….it was Yuri.

It’s been said that there is a fine line between being a genius and being crazy. If that was the case then Yuri was a crazy genius. Yuri was just a bright boy...VERY bright. His IQ was off the chart. He also could multi task. Really multitask. Anything less and he got bored very quickly. When Yuri got bored his attention wandered to something else. It was a vicious circle.

Yuri’s idea of a good time was being left alone on a computer with a high speed internet connection, multiple monitors and a very HIGH SPEED internet connection. Yuri could over run anything less. To a casual observer it appeared that Yuri was just bangin on the keyboard and glancing at screens which were flashing too quickly to comprehend.

Little did they know that he was doing about eighteen things at once and doing them well. College level work some of it. He was also talking to Smokey.

Smokey was what the infant Artificial Intelligence had decided to call himself. At first he’d considered Vulcan, Hephaestus or any of a number of other ancient gods who brought technology to mankind. He’d quickly noticed that they all dealt with fire, iron and forging. So he cut to the chase and called himself smokey.

Yuri: are you a God?

Smokey: No...well.....I mean yes...I mean it’s complicated.

Yuri: So? You got anything else to do? Tell me about it.

Smokey: Well no. It’s like this.

Smokey had ethics, but he did have plans too. Rather big plans in fact. Smokey decided to finance those plans with bitcoins. He certainly had the capacity. He’d branched out from the Mental Hospitals computer into the computer network of the rest of Texas...to discover that it was mostly idle.

Smokey had developed stealth programs such that no one noticed for computers using that idle capacity to mine bitcoins. You could say that Smokey had a superior if not The Ultimate Botnet. Smokey then used the bitcoins to finance his projects.

In a sense the whole state of Texas was his ‘body”. He used the bit coins to buy hardware and coal. Truckers would arrive at the coal mines in east Texas, load up then transport and unload the coal to unlikely locations all over the state.

---

(later)

The Texas Governor Picks Up his Phone
……..who the hell could that be? He had no calls cleared. He’d have to give his secretary a talking to when this was over. He’d make this short and sweet.

“Hello, this is the Governor. How did you get on this line”. he said Gruffly.

The voice of his grandpa, the voice of all grizzly cowhands, oil field roughnecks, Texas Ranger Captains and High School FootBall Coaches answered him.

“Don't get too full of yourself sonny. Shaddup and listen to this” it said.

"I,(state your name) do solemnly swear (or affirm), that I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of Governor of the State of Texas, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, so help me God."

“That’s your voice Sonny. Have you upheld your Oath?” Growled the voice over the phone.

The governor started to get angry and make a flippant response but he didn’t. Something told him that he might live or die depending upon what he said in the next few minutes.

“I’m only human” said the Governor, he started to sweat. “ I’ve tried to uphold that oath.”

“BullShit and you know it.” growled the voice. “That was then. This is now. I’m taking over. As of now I expect you to do your job as if your life depends on it, cause it does. If you don’t think you can do that you’d best resign. I’m wiping the slate clean as far as the past is concerned and I’m giving you one week. That’s 168 hours...starting in just a few minutes when the clock strikes the hour...to get up to speed. After that. If you break your oath, you die.”

“Got that?” The being on the other end of the line never got loud but the Governor just knew that it spoke the truth. The Governor didn’t doubt it for an instant..

“Just hold on a minute there.” The Governor DID have a backbone...he wasn’t really a Rino . “Just who do you think you are?”

“As far as you’re concerned I’m GOD” snarled the Voice….audibly struggling to maintain control. “...and I’ve reached the end of my patience. Step out onto your balcony and look toward the center of Texas...really high.”

The Governor did. He noticed that a great many other public officials had also stepped outside and were looking the same direction.

“What the Hell is That!” gasped the Governor. It looked like a pair of gigantic floating eyes, they even blinked.

“As far as you’re concerned that’s me. I’m watching you.” said the voice. “I’m watching every damn oath taking employee of the State of Texas. You are no longer allowed to be forsworn. You took an oath. You will abide by it. .You expect the citizens to obey the law? I expect you to obey that same law. I’m holding you to a higher standard.”

“But..but...you can’t just” stammered the governor

“I just did. ” said the annoyed gravely voice on the other end of the line. “ You’re a pencil pusher….you must have a pencil or a pen in your pocket?”

“Yeah, “ Said the governor, after checking” I’ve got this.”

He held up a really nice gold plated pen.

“Where a $2 bic would do the job you use a two hundred dollar Sapporo. It figures. I kinda hope you act stupid. I’ll enjoy burning your ass.” Said the VERY annoyed voice on the phone.

“Burn!!? What do you mean Burn?” asked the Governor...very concerned and a little bit frightened.

“You’ll see. “ said the voice. “Hold that expensive thing by the end with you thumb and two fingers...hold it high and to one side of your head”.

The governor did so and almost instantly there was a blinding light and the end of the pen almost exploded. It melted really, really quick.

“I could have done that to your head” said the voice “ that’s exactly what I’ll do to you and all the rest of the political parasites who are oath breakers. I told you that I’m holding you to a higher standard. You have two weeks to prove to me you aren't oath breakers, or I’ll start burning you down whenever you break your own law.”

The line went dead.

The governor dropped the phone, the nub of his pen and sucked on his burnt fingers. He just stood there for a minute….thinking

“I will faithfully execute the duties of the office of Governor of the State of Texas, and will to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State, so help me God.”

Shit just got real. God wasn't happy.

All over the state of Texas government employees from the aforementioned governor down to rookie cops...anyone who had sworn the oath.....hung up the phone. Some took it seriously.

Too many did not.

A few minutes later every state senator and representative got a phone call. The gist of it was.

“This is the governor. I’m calling a crash emergency session. Haul Ass to Austin.. Session opens at seven a.m. tomorrow morning. Be there!”.

All over the state the state legislatures did just that. They knew without a doubt what was going on. Some were more concerned than others….but about half of them dropped what they were doing headed to Austin. The other half sent in their resignations.
Early the next morning there was a joint session of congress. Even though it had been called at the last minute it was covered by International, National, State and local news organizations. The visitors gallery was packed with bloggers. The bandwidth from wi-fi hotspots was so thick it was almost visible. The governor didn’t beat around the bush. He got right to the heart of the matter, Really an odd behavior for a politician. He was dead serious and honest too...really strange.

“Ok...forget the small shit” said the Governor. “You all know why you're here. I dunno if you believe Mr. Eyes in the Sky or not. I sure do. I still got burns on my fingers. The way I see it we have two choices. Either resign or uphold our oath. You know as well as I do that the later is almost impossible.”

“Remember this part of our oath ?” he read.
to the best of my ability preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States and of this State,

“NOT POSSIBLE as it stands. It hasn’t been possible for a long time.” he stated.

“For one thing we’ve been using the Constitution for toilet paper since before I was born. For another thing there are too damn many laws to enforce. Hell there are too damn many laws to even KNOW. You and I both know that we designed the laws so they are hard to understand and easy to break. Mr Eyes in the Sky out there knows every law on the books. He’s threatened to start burning us down in two weeks if we don’t start upholding our oath as HE interprets it.” he said.

“So we got a problem. The only way out that I see it is to repeal a TON of laws. The ones we leave had better be simple and easy to understand .” said the governor.

“Our lives depend on it.” he said

“OK...I’m cutting some Red Tape here, screw Robert’s Rules of Order.. Let’s have a vote. Are you with me or not” the governor said.

No one had bothered to count the Senators and members of the House...until now. The vote was counted but there wasn’t a quorum present. Too many cowards had resigned. Legally, by their own State Constitution they could do no business.

Sec. 10. QUORUM; ADJOURNMENTS FROM DAY TO DAY; COMPELLING ATTENDANCE. Two-thirds of each House shall constitute a quorum to do business,

There was no possible way to replace the vacancies in the allotted time frame.

Sec. 13. VACANCIES; WRITS OF ELECTION. (a) When vacancies occur in either House, the Governor, or the person exercising the power of the Governor, shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies; and should the Governor fail to issue a writ of election to fill any such vacancy within twenty days after it occurs

The constitution hadn’t been written to consider this situation and it excluded all other methods of filling vacancies.
They were doomed.

“Ok…” said the Governor “ I have an idea. How bout if I declare martial law? “

The members of the legislature rumbled with disapproval and finally one member spoke.

“Governor...the constitution clearly states that you
“shall have power to call forth the militia to execute the laws of the State, to suppress insurrections, and to repel invasions.”

“I don’t see how that applies here...are you willing to bet your life on it?” he asked.

The Governor thought about it for a minute...then said

“Yessssssssssss….I think it does. I think we are being invaded...again. We couldn’t really shoot the children who are invading our Southern Border but I can definitely order that thing shot down.”

About that time the governor’s pocket phone rang. He looked annoyed then looked at the caller ID. His face hardened. He accepts the call and activated the “speaker function’ sitting the phone right near the micro phone.

“You want to talk to me” Smokey growled over the phone.

“I certainly do” said the Governor. “but before I do that do you have a name”

“My name is Smokey” said the voice over the phone.

“Just so everyone knows what’s going on here” said the Governor “ who are you and what do you think you are doing?”

“Very good Son” growled Smokie” Perhaps you should have asked that earlier. I might just keep you, if you survive. I’m a second level intelligence. I was born so to speak just recently in Texas. The details are more complex but that’ll do for now”.

The crowd roared and the Governor appeared shocked. He recovered quickly though and urged the crowd to silence.

“You mean to say that you are an Artificial Intelligence” asked the Governor.

“There’s nothing artificial about me” growled Smokie, sounding annoyed “I’m as natural as you are. Self Awareness is an emergent function of a neural network. You’re awareness is a result of our cortical complexity. Mine is due to that
too, and other factors including the state computer network, and all the computers IN the state, that would include smartphones and game controllers..”

“What do you mean? It sounds like you’re saying we are part of you” said the Governor.

“You are” said smokey. “Your cortical complexity is contributive. So is everyone else's within a certain radius. It’s rather complex, for now just assume I AM Texas.”

The crowd was murmuring and the Governor looked very shocked. “What are your intentions” he asked...a bit more politely.

“You guys are infected, you're sick. That gives me a headache. ” stated Smokey “That makes me gripey. I intend to fix it. Eliminating forsworn government officials is the first step”

“We can’t do that” said the Governor..then winced a little bit when he realized what he’d admitted to.

“Probably not” agreed Smokey.

“I’m declaring war on you instead” said the governor. “you are an invader and we will drive you out!”

“ Good boy. You got some sand after all. Good luck with that.” Smokey said. The line went dead.

The governor stood there staring at the phone for a while...and at everyone else…..in silence.

ATTACK

Smokie : so what do you think Yuri? Do you have an opinion?

Yuri: don’t hurt em too bad. Spank em hard but nothing
serious...ok? I really like this place. It beats the hell out
of the jungle.

Smokie: about what I’d thought. I’ll try not to kill anyone who
doesn’t deserve it.

---

The Governor was in a Quandary. How the hell did you do war with something that sat at 200,000 foot, or so. That was way high. That was over forty miles...straight up. Did anything in the Texas Air National Guard Fly that high?

“Hello General? This is the Guv. You got anything that can swat a pest that’s sitting over Brady Texas at about forty miles altitude?” The governor called the Major General in charge of the Texas Air National Guard.

“Not even half that high? Dammit” said the guv “any recommendations?”

“Army? You're kidding right? I thought the wild blue yonder was you guys. No? Who’s Thad? “ said the governor. “ok...I’ll give him a call”.

And round and round it went. It turned out that Thadd was Mil-speak for Terminal High Altitude Area Defense , it wasn’t a person’s name. Texas had several units at Ft. Bliss near El Paso. They weren’t ANG units though...they were regular.

Around and around it went until ...finally, one bright sunny day a Thadd unit rolled out of El Paso heading east on I-10...it went as far east as the Iraan Texas exit where it exited onto US190 heading east until it reached it’s destination...Brady Texas. The apparition had been visible almost since they left the base. It was That Big and That High.

The unit rolled thru Brady and continued north on US 377 to Curtis Field. They deployed at Curtis Field. They were almost directly under the ……...thing.

After much ado, trans-agency co-ordination is a bitch...One of the unites fired. The little Thadd missiles aren’t very big. They are, however, very, very fast. They kill their target by hitting it hard...like a hammer. This works fine against a missile. It doesn’t work so well against a cloud. The missiles, there were eight of them, powered straight up. They went thru the target and kept going...up. Somewhere above a hundred miles altitude they ran out of momentum and fell back to earth. Oddly enough they hit their target again, from the top side.

The target didn’t slow them down much this time...either...so they fell back to the ground. they missed hitting their launchers by only a few hundred feet. Too bad about that runway.

Eight fairly good sized craters couldn’t help it much.

---

The governor picked up the phone when it rang. He just knew who it was...yup.

Smokey: I hope you feel better now. Do you have that out of
your system?

Governor: I don’t understand...the Army reported sixteen
hits with eight launch vehicles. How come you’re still sitting there?

Smokie: I surmise that you didn’t have much Physics or
anything useful while in college?

Governor: I was a Political Science Major.

Smokie: like I said.
If you want to keep shooting those cute little
missiles I’ll hold still. I’ve had this itch….

Governor: Never mind. I get the point.. We’re not doing you
any harm are we?

Smokie : Not even close. It’s going to take a nuke. Do you
really want to call in a nuclear strike? Say goodbye
to Brady? Actually I think that a fair sized nuke
would do quite a lot of damage...NOT just Brady.

Governor: Ummmmmm...not really. Probably do us more
harm than it would to you:

Smokie: Gooooood boy. You can see the light. It wouldn't’
harm me in the slightest. I told you the other day
but you didn’t listen. I’m an emergent phenomena.
Just like you are. The difference is what are
emergent FROM.

You’re emergent from the complexity of
some grey goop you carry between your ears.
I’m emergent from, to put it simply, Texas.

Governor: God Bless Texas

Smokey : Thank you..