Baikal.is /episode 10

previous episode

11110

There are no characters – it bothers me.

Does it?

Yes. Stories need a hero. They need good guys and bad guys. They need real, live people – otherwise it’s just two dimensional.

Ok Merry, that’s what you’ve been taught. That’s what the last two hundred years of literature has focused on.

But I can’t.

What?

I can’t make any of these characters stick. There’s no plot. There’s nothing holding them together. Each is a vague passing shape in a continuum.

And what’s wrong with that?

It gives the people no one to connect with. No human thread to root for or wish dead.

You know – I’ve been thinking.

What?

There’s not been a lot of tragedy lately, has there?

In the world, you mean?

No, in literature, in movies. Not since Shakespeare. Then it was like, everyone dead on stage at the end.

Horrible.

Instead we’ve been endlessly exploring the possibilities of the individual, the person, the emotional or psychological depths of the human – or lack of them.

And, what of it?

Well something tells me that there’s another side to this story – which is now surfacing in your work.

What – a zombie apocalypse with no one vaguely human – just a few cardboard cutouts.

Well what happens if indeed time is run out?

Er…

If we’re no longer able to keep the great polarising thing going – and we’re now crashing back into singularity…

Crashing? I’d say slipping – like we’re losing traction – those zeros and ones are no longer gripping like they used to.

Well, don’t you see?

See what?

All of these personalities, all of these great characters – ultimately it was all One – just wearing different costumes.

So, we’re now being homogenised. Is gooey paste the future of the human race?

Maybe that’s why you can’t pretend any more that the personality masks we’ve been wearing are relevant at this particular moment in time. It’s the hyperstream that matters – nothing else.

Screw that – I’m all for weird sci-fi theories – but I’m yearning for something human in this mess.

Well, stop looking for it down in the gutter. If the impending singularity means anything – it implies that the orders of magnitude which have kept us apart all these aeons are now dissolving.

Er – you mean?

Who else… Her – Baikal

And Him – Thiel?

Yes, why not.

Because they’re just mythical – aren’t they?

They are? How on Earth can your mind be so blind to what you already know…

11111

[REM – it’s the end of the world as we know it]

Supply chains disrupted – banks no longer able to send payments with any certainty that they’re going to be received. Shops emptying of supplies – panic buying. Exodus from cities. Marauding gangs. Army called out onto the streets in countries around the world to maintain order

On the other hand – huge breakthroughs occurring in meditation and abilities to connect telepathically, to materialise objects, to move around – evidently as the existing machine comes to a standstill this releases energies to flow back into channels which have been dry and empty for millennia. Many people are feeling uplifted – now able to reconnect with the [quantum] Field, with the land, with Cosmos, with other beings.

We ain’t going back. Nothin ain’t gonna be the same again. We’re… [he flashes up into the air leaving a fly buzzing round confusedly]

[Another person] I don’t care – I don’t care what happens. You can point that gun at me all you like Mr Cop but I is holding my ground.

I said lie face down or I’ll shoot on the count of three.

Go ahead Punk – make my day.

I’m warning you.

Paff paff – you is all power. All testosterone – and what? You think that’s gonna make a difference now. I’ll bet you the minute you fire that gun you’ll wish you hadn’t.

Right – you’ve asked for it. [Pulls trigger and we fly into the data field – the 1s and 0s suddenly start flipping around.

Looks like Time’s split in two. [as the bullet heads in a curve to the left and to the right simultaneously – but Amy our black lady pulls herself back together choosing neither of the two options]

But I’m still here – and the two bullets suck back into the barrel of the gun – exploding it in his hand and you, poor man, have just experienced quantum blowback. Here – let me see if I can help with that… she walks up to the badly injured cop and spits on his pulverised hand. 

I know, I know sergeant Charles [peering at his badge] this hurts like hell – but if you’ll just allow me to… as she walks up to him she splits around him and pops into his field from behind – he suddenly lurches backwards as if being sucked into a vacuum – accelerates at hyperspeed and the next moment, unbelievably – is back on the sidewalk, right as rain – she’s wiping the spit off his hand with a handkerchief saying – There you are Sergeant Charles – that wasn’t so bad, was it?

He’s like – what the hell – er – fu** – er – wow – er – thanks ma’am – all rolled into one.

He gets it. He’s just experienced the hyperstream. His life/ reality will never/ has never been the same again.

So you see Sergeant –  the rules of the game have changed. Now, that gun of yours isn’t going to be much use for anything other than gardening, if you know what I mean, and is that such a bad thing?

[gun is sprouting mushrooms]

100000

But how did they set it up in the first place? If we can figure out that – perhaps then we can get it restarted again.

How did we set it up? Shouldn’t that be obvious – if you step back and review where we are today.

We somehow managed to create a time-machine?

Precisely.

A machine that generated at least the illusion of an endless stream of time – by ensuring humanity was only ever to see things after they’d been split apart – separated from their zed factor – their unknowable unknown.

Good reasoning. So how was it done? Human sacrifice?

How else!

We killed someone?

Killed? Why the past tense form?

We are killing someone – permanently?

Yes. We are killing everyone.

But how?

Every participant in the great experiment has to sign the grand declaration of intent. Do you remember now?

The grand declaration of intent… I… I… No…………………………!! It can't be.

Can't?

Jesus wept – we had no idea what we were doing.

Don’t be so sure – you had the full awareness of the multi-dimensional beings that you were.

Then why – why would we sign up to this insanity?

Perhaps Lucius tricked you?

Surely we could see though subterfuge?

Perhaps you didn’t want to. Perhaps you were actually committed to making this happen.

But Lucius – he’s like a second-hand car dealer. He could sell sand to a Bedouin could our Lucius, but we were happy to line up behind him – despite the fact that he’s – abnormal.

Abnormal – look at him. The guy is positively radiating treachery and deceit. How could you possibly have put yourselves into his hands? Did you have no circumspection? None at all?

We – needed him.

You needed him? What do you mean?

We couldn’t do it without him. We, beings of the light, could never set up an experiment like that – the code would unravel – it would slip through our fingers like sand.

And Lucius could?

Only if we put ourselves into his device.

Device?

Yes – it was a kind of contract – a binding agreement.

A curse?

You might say. That was the only way to spin off time.

Ok – so you enter a binding agreement.

Yeah.

And then?

Then we’re bound.

For how long?

For ever….

?!

Until time runs out.

Which is when?

When we’ve exhausted every last possibility to extract value from the divided whole –

?!

Once the nuclear event has run its course

?!

The chain reaction is spent

?!

And the rising tide of entropy overwhelms the particles still being released by new fissions.

Jesus Christ – it was a nuclear reaction?

Yes.

So how did you split the atom?

More than an atom – it was our singularity. Our being. Our life. Our cell. The first and only, the master atom.

Big bang?

That’s what you call it now.

How?

We reversed the wires – so to speak.

How?

Oh, playing around with time – as you do.

And what?

We regressed Lucius from the future – from the experiment we’d already committed ourselves to.

But it didn’t yet exist.

As good as. Once we’d committed to it – the experiment already materialised in the quantum fields of probability. We found the master node –

Thim

And from there we projected into the furthest time, the very end – where Thim finally takes on human form as Thiel, and back to our council chamber – where Lucius is already aware of the entire experiment and what we’re intending to do.

But he doesn’t actually exist yet – does he?

Not exactly, no – but he’s already a foregone conclusion – as our intention is unshakeable.

So how does he have the power to make this happen? To make the experiment hold up for all time – if he’s just a shadow of a being.

We are powerful beings – able to do almost anything we like – but creating abstract art – creating hypothetical worlds – it doesn’t cut any ice – just numbers on a screen. We want something real. We need to really taste, really experience real things, real matter, real it.

So you hook yourself up to an artificial reality?

Artificial? You call this artificial?

Er…

Have you ever experienced anything more real?

Er…

Ever? This is the ultimate, the indisputable expression of what real can be.

If you don’t mind mass murder, suicide, misery

But love, what about love, and creativity, have you forgotten that – and meaning – endless meaning, inspite of the chaos, in spite of the madness and mayhem – precious, golden drops of godlike, exquisite meaning, of truth, and beauty – appearing even as the bombs are raining down and the people are dying in droves.

So, you think it’s ok. That it was worth it?

I…

Or that the ends justify the means….

I…

That the millions of children who have died, that they were an acceptable expense in order to ensure you get your harvest – your precious drops.

I don’t know. I can’t say. Remember – I’m as much a part of this as you and the rest of us. Everyone here on earth – everyone is of the first atom, the first cell – we are all co-signers.

And what exactly is it that we signed? Or is that a secret not to be revealed?

No secret. It was a technicality.

How so?

The contract, or curse as you put it, had to focus and centre all our energies, all our life force in Lucius – if he was to become real – and through him, in him – the universe materialise.

And how could that be done?

We had to name him our God.

Your God?

Or in other words – bind ourselves as his children, his slaves until the end of time – until matter should depolarise, collapsing into the bottomless well of non-sense

At which point you’d be free again – you’d be released?

Not necessarily. Had it been a foregone conclusion the experiment would have been of no value – whatsoever.

You mean…

Lucius acting throughout the experiment wishes to become immortal beyond the end of time – the only way he can do that is if he can bind us to all matter – as if it matters – as if we are no more than subject to things themselves, to laws and forces beyond our control.

And then, in that case?

In that case he’d win. The universe would end and we would be trapped in the bottom of an infinitely deep well of entropy – Lucius would become the new version of what we were – like Zeus and his cohorts did when they replace the Titans.

Holy shit.

Well, in a manner of speaking – yes.

So Lucius becomes your God – and you incarnate on worlds in his universe.

Correct.

And the game is rigged. The so called Creator himself is trying to extract your soul essence by binding you into a false paradigm –

Precisely. Genius, isn’t it.

Genius? Are you insane?

I believe genius is always held to be generously endowed with insanity – of the creative variety.

So, you’ve locked yourself into a prison cell,

Uh huh

Painted yourself into a corner.

Mmm

Ensnared yourself…

I think we’ve got the message. Yes, the answer is yes, but you overlook one little factor, of not inconsiderable significance.

Yes?

Intent.

Huh?

Intent.

Er…

Ask yourself – what was our intent – at the outset.

Er… dangerous? Bad?

We knowingly risked all. Knowingly put ourselves into hell – and believe me – this IS hell. For what?

Some insane desire to fool around with creation itself?

On the contrary – we were – we are investing the one thing we have of value to invest.

Namely?

Ourself.

Er…

We have invested ourselves, ourself into this astonishing enterprise – wholly disinterestedly you might add, knowing that we might lose all – our freedom, our mind, our life essence.

And – how does that help you now?

Because, ultimately your intent is the main factor. If we’re coming from a place of purity, a place of love – if it was our love of creation, of life, of beauty, which led us to make this insane investment – to ensnare ourselves in the serpent’s fangs – then there is a chance, at the very least – a chance that we might succeed.

A chance? That’s it?

What more do you want. A chance is all that matters. A chance –

?!

is all it takes, when you consider that all matter, ultimately, has emerged from nought – is but a representation of what might be

And actually is

Is – only as long as Lucius holds sway – only as long as Thim is able to feed off our life energies – our consciousness from within reality, within the matrix, by persuading us to follow its endless paper trail, its time-reversed chain reaction back into the well of entropic oblivion.

And why do you think it’s going to fail.

I don’t.

You don’t?

I don’t think these things – for thinking things is giving Thim what it wants – serving the machine – transferring life-essence to the almost-reality that Lucius is desperate to grow from by incarnation.

Then what?

Why think at all when you have breath in your body – when your breath connects you, as your cells and your heart connect with all that is – with the great we know not what – alive in us – silently present in our very consciousness – in the life force which we still bring forth – from where – I ask you – from whence doth this life force flow? Have you ever stopped to consider?

It’s just there. It’s nothing special, is it? Just energy.

Just energy?! You see – this is why the 3D brain serves Thim so beautifully – reducing as it does the highest essence, the matter of life itself – to (as you put it) “just energy”. The irony is tear jerking – both tragic and at the same time – side-splittingly comic.

So, what are we supposed to do?

Supposed? You’re not “supposed” to do anything. Just be yourself – live – just live and be free.

But how?

How? I don’t know. Who am I to say?However you like. I have no idea.

And you actually think we can succeed. That we can be free?

Think – I think not – I know

You know?

I know that we can never be anything but free. Anything less is certain death in bottomless entropy. There is no middle-ground – the great experiment was designed to ensure that.

But why?

How else were we to synthesise a reality as real as this? To be utterly convincing – it required our utter commitment – to bring Lucius into glory as the torch, the star at the dawn of time, and Thiel the Lord of Darkness who brings the curtain down – unless we solve the problem in the nick of time and graduate from our own universe-ity.

And the nick of time – that would be now…

Precisely – for now the magnetics are collapsed and Thim is all but powerless to do aught – if we avoid the temptation to focus on things, to panic – and let’s not forget Her. She is ready to assist.

Her?

Her – the feminine, the “junk DNA” or etheric background noise our rational mind ever ignored, ever overlooked – for she is open-ended – the unknowable unknown – like water she flows, lacking any form. Through her we can dissolve in her waters, and regrow a body to fit whatever world, whatever universe or reality we are now ready to unlock.

Unlock?

Yes, unlock – for until we people it – filling it with our presence – it sleepeth – it is not yet awake – it is an uncertain dream.

100001

energising soundtrack suggesting newfound coherency and purpose – the darkest hour awaits the emergence of a saviour

Thiel appears in a blaze of light. Suddenly there is hope. The world that seemed to be collapsing into utter chaos has discovered one man, a leader, who seems to have the power to restore order. To our great relief, Thiel has managed to get the financial markets operating again. To do so he has asked market participants to sign his New Deal contract with a single drop of blood. Nothing more. Anyone who does so has an account credited with a million dollars – more for participants with higher technical abilities. There has been little discussion of the New Deal contract. Most are so relieved to have a semblance of normality returning after 13 days of chaos that they’re willing to sign anything.

Thiel is softly spoken – highly intelligent – a computer programmer who looks more like a movie star than a geek – you pledge yourselves as my bondsmen – not because I wish to take anything from you – on the contrary – I wish to make you rich and restore prosperity to our world – but without this pledge the AI known as Thim, which was damaged by the quantum breach – lacks the authority to draw on deeper human resources of consciousness to restore the order of things.

Needless to say, millions have happily made the pledge.

Systems are returning to normal. Shops are partially restocking. It’s going to take a while – but if enough take the pledge we’ll be fine again. The end-timers and preppers – they’re having none of it, of course, and there are some who insist that not enough is known of Thiel – or the nature of his New Deal – to warrant signing such a contract...

Bullshit – it’s just a piece of paper.

With a drop of your blood on it –

And – so what?

So – that drop of blood represents your life, your heart, your soul.

Get a grip. Wake up. If I change my mind I can abrogate the deal.

Yes? Is that so?

Of course – who’s gonna stop me?

Who? Maybe this Thiel.

Thiel? You’ve gotta be kidding. Look at the guy. He’s one of us. He’s legit. Instead of talking or praying to sleeping Gods – he’s actually come up with something that works. It’s a subtle blend of computer wizardry and bio-chemistry. Apparently there’s a huge part of our bio-energy which is going to waste – which he’s able to tap into to restore the critical systems which collapsed following that idiot Russian hack. Thank God one person alive has the wherewithal to figure out a solution.

Geez man – it looks great – I’ll admit – but I just can’t.

Well good luck to you. Don’t come knocking on my door asking for help. I couldn’t help you if I wanted to – the money in our account cannot be diverted to non-signatories outside the bonded alliance. Apparently even the food – it just turns to mush when someone gives it to non-bonded individuals. You’ll have to think it through. If you’re so high and mighty then wait till you’re starving and see what matters more – superstitious principles or food and a future.

100001

Sveta – I’ve been writing some – well – I guess you’d call it poetry.

Huh?! That takes some doing Zie.

...

The whole world’s going up in flames and you take to writing poetry.

Yeah – it seems incredibly self-indulgent, doesn’t it, but I really had no choice – it kind of happened, just like that.

Ok – I’m all ears.

You want me to read it?

Of course. Why else would you be telling me?

I don’t know – it’s not like I’m a poet or anything special.

Who cares. Take it away.

Ok, here goes...  Baikal speaks in-verse

[footage – above, on, under the lake – all seasons]

reading shifts from regular poetry reading style – to a bow passing back and forth over the violin strings of reality – over Baikal, through her, opening her up – making love/ giving birth

the waters of Baikal become active – and we see other waters around the world – the Amazon, the Nile, the Volga, the Ganges, the oceans change phase – on the one hand the waters have a near infinite capacity to carry, to transmit, to hold code – like fibre optics, like a huge processor, on the other hand they are nothing without the electricity, the consciousness, the energies spinning, snaking, swirling throughout. Still, and yet full of movement. Timeless yet full of moment.

Ah – Zie. Now I know why she chose you.

Uh? You like it.

Not exactly.

No, as far as verse goes – it’s clichéd and unoriginal.

Oh

“Execrable” – is how the well known critic – Martin Amis describes it.

He does? But he hasn’t read it yet.

He doesn’t need to. The water has, and like all of us – he is of the water – his thoughts and ideas are present holographically.

Oh, but he always was a snob, who focuses on what he thinks is important. Ultimately, who cares what he says. This is not a poetry competition, is it? The only question is whether the waters moved. Did she feel you. Was she roused. Is she listening now?

Huh?

Come on. It’s time to find out.

What are you doing Sveta? Hey. Stop messing around. You’re supposed to be on my side.

Huh? You didn’t really imagine this was about sides – did you? How absurd. Talk about naïve.

Ow – quit fooling around Sveta. What’s come over you?

Poetry. The waters stirred – did they not

I… don’t know.

Yes, you do. You’re just afraid.

I… don’t do this Sveta – I…

Did the waters move – super powerful voice coming from all around – did the waters move – did they?

Yes. They did.

Just here? Just Baikal?

No…

No? Tell me.

No…

[Pressing him with the terrible knife] till some drops of blood drip down in slow-mo to the water we’re standing beside – as they fall – he murmurs “everywhere”.

She drives the sword home and pierces through the skin of this reality – as the blood hits the water – and CGI – the water, Her, peels back – revealing a new layer – a new Him – where he is standing unharmed – in a state of complete oneness with the water – as he breathes it reciprocates – as he moves, likewise, as he dances – kata – likewise – fusion – toroidal field – underwater cavitation explosion bubbles – rushing up – energies of rivers, waterfalls, oceans – all present – all part of this dance – this awakening to a deeper, deeper integration into nature, into the water – into Her – the bottomless, uncontainable – the dark well of entropy – that is now dark but also reciprocating the life that He represents – reciprocating love – a love which extends from the beginning to the end – from the madness of the Lucius experiment’s inception to the end of all matter – the logical conclusion which only love can and does transform – converting 0 to 1, toroiding zed –

Zie – you called me Zie?

And you called me Baikal.

But you are Her – aren’t you?

What would you have me say? Why do you insist on things which can only be known in their entirety –

It’s just – I don’t feel anything for you – not like I used to in Moscow. Then you were mine. My woman. A known quantity.

But you feel Her – don’t you.

Yes.

You have entered her waters – and she has carried you across the void.

I would have perished.

So stop trying to see me as your mind does.

How else?

Turn. Look now. See Her. And feel me – if I’m there – find me – catch me if you can. Wild chase as she leaps naked into the water and then transforms – and without thinking – without knowing how – he pursues her – changing form as she does – one form after another – desperately trying to keep up – desperately trying to catch her – though she eludes him.

I can’t – he is thinking.

You must – or you will die. [Behind is Thiel and his many blood servants – thrashing around like a crocodile, like piranhas – desperately trying to snap at him.]

Her speaketh: I cannot be caught. Thiel cannot be outrun by strength alone. We are all bound in one covenant – one equation. Only if you draw on zed – the non-linear factor, the invisible Force over and beyond all thing, all matter – only then can you free your Zie, my love.

Zie – but how do I harness zed?

Easy – nothing to it – if you quit imagining you’re someone else – if you let go – release yourself into the moment, the mastery, the imperative, the genius of being Zie – your otherness – your unrealised 0=1

You mean – like projecting through Lucius into a potential reality?

Yes, inverse

In verse?

Or not... [Sveta] Because now when you are divided, when you are half, the process is fusion, not the fission it was then – allowing fusion to recombine your dividedness – if your heart and soul yearning for one can overcome the repulsion between us, if you can recall what you as writer-creator-god intended at the outset – why you agreed to bind yourself in Hell, like Prometheus – for unless you recall your initial intent, unless you release zed – how can you be free of Thiel and attain Her, forever eluding you?

Her fades – lost in a maelstrom of fractal waters.

100010

Wakes in New York – staring at a glass of water – zed… what on earth could zed actually be?

[Huge disturbance in the matrix in the blocks around where Merry is now – the authorities are instantly aware. Alerts. Actions. Swat teams etc]

On the other hand – on the dark net – which is a consciousness channel used by the fliers and other groups who have risen/ awoken to water-awareness – “he’s here – he’s back – New York – Manhattan – in the Lion’s den” – and they start moving into place…

next episode

Baikal.is /episode 9

previous episode

10111

Pentagon officials are claiming that the recent turmoil in the markets has been masterminded by an international group of hackers led by a Russian called MD. This suspect has allegedly made a breakthrough in quantum computing and found a way to front-run market players and put on ghost trades. There seems to be almost nothing they can do to prevent him from breaching security walls as his alleged quantum computer can simply feel its way around. The US government, while having no extradition treaty with Russia has requested immediate compliance with an extradition order. Russia, however, is claiming they know nothing of this MD – who appears to be the same blogger who disappeared without trace five weeks ago. The US is threatening a fresh round of sanctions if Russia does not comply and hand over MD.

That’s just what they’re saying officially.

God this is a mess.

Effectively the entire financial system has been suspended. The trades can’t be verified or cleared.

My God. Russia must be relishing this.

Not really. They’re under constant attack. The suspicion that they may be involved means this is likely going to be war.

Holy shit.

Meanwhile, everyone knows that this MD, whoever he is, is somewhere in or around Baikal.

Well?

The only problem is no one can find him.

How the hell not? Is he hiding in a cave, or up a tree?

It appears that this quantum technology he’s onto involves phase shifts – so wherever he is – if he’s switched frequencies, or shifted phase – we’d not be able to see him or find him.

Oh. But what about those fliers – the ones who claim they’re able to get to Baikal by doing some kind of meditation.

Oh they’re all raving about him. Apparently he’s their guru, at least, they credit him with opening up this quantum state they’re able to access.

So why don’t we get him that way?

Well, the quantum state doesn’t just work like a machine – you know. If you go in there with a desire to connect all together – new age kind of crap – then it’s smooth as clockwork. But the minute you try to go in with an intent to harm or coerce –

Yes?

It ain’t pretty. Most of them can’t get off the ground – but the few who did – shit – their circuits were completely burnt out.

Circuits? They’re not machines are they?

No – but that’s like what it is. It’s like a bio-conscious-web. If you force your way in without being ready to accept all as one – then blowback time. It’s like Freddie Kruger unleashed.

But why?

I guess the frequencies are too high for any form of discrimination. Go in there with an agenda – and you’re toast.

11000

World leaders are meeting today in London to put together an emergency plan for financial markets. All trading has been suspended now since last Wednesday following the zero-one debacle. Unexpectedly Russia has also been invited to attend – despite being in the cross-hairs for harbouring the alleged hacker MD, believed to be behind the fiasco. There are strong hopes that financial markets may be resumed again by the end of this week, should the leaders succeed in uniting in this moment of grave danger.

11001

Of course, splitting the atom was not the first, nor the last violation of natural law – but it marks a watershed.

Wait a second – you mean to say that there’s a law forbidding us from splitting atoms?

Absolutely, but by the time we arrived at Manhattan project – we had violated so many other natural laws that there was neither the awareness, nor the inclination to stop.

I am in blood stepped so far that, should I wade no more, returning were as tedious as go o’er.

Macbeth.

[nods] But what’s with the atom – I don’t get it.

No, you see how little we now know of nature and natural law.

Well?

Well, the atom, like the Sun, the Earth, any planet, or any being – is considered one, whole, complete. A repository of life and consciousness.

The atom – a repository of life and consciousness? But it’s so small. Just a thing.

And stars and planets are so big – but they too are – within natural law, held to be as we ourselves irrefutably are – bearers of life and consciousness.

Holy shit. That’s fucking weird.

Yes – so splitting an atom, as you can see, as far as our elder family members are concerned – is no different from killing someone, or aborting a foetus, for that matter.

Insane. How were we supposed to know? 

Apparently we weren’t. We were supposed to know simpler things – concerning killing one another, lying, cheating, persecuting – the usual, ostensibly moral issues – except that, in terms of natural law, they’re not simply moral issues.

No? Then what?

Well, they involve energy transfers – a bit like banking or accounting – except instead of money – we’re talking about packets of time.

I beg your pardon.

Time – you heard.

But what does it mean? 

Well, we’ve been taking time from one end and transferring it into experiences, power, naughty stolen pleasures and a kind of inversion of all that is natural – which is ok.


It is?

Yes, that’s how the experiment was set up – how it was intended and supposed to work.

Uh?

You could never really kill someone – only here in the hologram. You could never really destroy anything not of your own making – but you could buy the experience with time – your time.

And what then?

Well, you could have these experiences – and humanity could suffer and learn through them – but ultimately – other than heartache and huge pain – nothing was actually lost – in fact – everything was to be gained.

Er…

If, that is, if you were able to swallow the bitter pill, to settle accounts – and thus to process, integrate and incorporate what otherwise looked suspiciously like evil and sin.

Ok – so we’re not being moral.

Not at all.

We’re just treating this like book entries in a bank – credits and debits. 

Yep.

And instead of paying interest – we inflict or take on ourselves pain and suffering – but in the process

Get experience

Experience. I’m not absolutely sure it was worth the pain – if you don’t mind me saying.

Because you have no idea how much we have learnt along the way.

Er…

Well – do you know how many books are being written every year? 

Not really.

More than 2.2 million published per annum.

Wow. That’s…

A helluva lot of books.

Well yes, I suppose it is. But still…

And then consider how many movies, tv programmes and youtube videos are made a year.

Er…

How many songs, how many performances, how many works of art…

Ok, ok – I’ve got the message.

We are engines of creativity. We create because we have something to say. We have something to say because our experiences and our inner-sense of truth do not match.

Er… what do you mean by inner-sense of truth?

Everyone has some kind of truth-sense – what’s right and what’s wrong – what’s good and what ain’t. There’s a huge gap between what we feel inside, in our heart – and what we’re experiencing – and that gap we fill in a number of ways – alcohol, drugs, food, sex, complaining, getting angry, depression and then, grabbing the bull by the horns – by unleashing our creative energies – shifting the negativity we’re uncomfortably aware of into a productive stream of encoded light.

What?

All creativity is essentially encoded light – no matter which medium. It’s uplifting and heart warming because when we watch the movie, hear the song, read the book – hidden in or between the recognisable data is something else.

Er…

It’s like we consume the words, sounds or images – but they contain more than we bargained for. They contain something from the other side of the bank ledger – a credit.

Yes?

Absolutely. The creative process, if it’s in the least bit authentic, releases pulses of light which are bundled into the medium – and when we’re enjoying the movie, book, the dance or symphony – the enjoyment has almost nothing to do with the empirical experience – sensed and brought to mind.

No?

No – we’re co-conspirators in a programme which could be described as “heaven in hell”.

?

Because the pain and dislocation without the light insertions would literally be hell – utterly unbearable without a question, but when we see how our fellow human beings are able to transmute the negativity into something beautiful, into a kind of ambrosia, it gives us hope, it reminds us that the experiment is yielding tangible fruits – if only we can settle accounts before the next bankruptcy.

S…?

Time is limited. Time is being expended – transferred from one side of the ledger to the other. Failure to balance the books on a daily basis results in termination of the experiment.

Termination – as in death?

Yes – for the individual, or the whole of humanity.

Er… that’s a bit drastic.

It’s the only way we could set this thing up.

We?

We.

Wait a minute – I don’t remember setting anything up.

Ignorance is no defence.

But how am I to believe this bald assertion? 

Because who else could have set it up – if not you, as in, we? 

Er… God? 

Come on.

The devil.

Please! We have free will – without free will there is no such thing as life – not real life. You’re only able to experience all this, and suffer, and weep tears of pain and joy, and create, create, create, because you’re alive, alive, alive.

You can’t have one without the other. You can’t have the kind of life that’s able to create, able to transform, able to shine and shift the boundaries of awareness into a new paradigm – without free will – without being utterly responsible for who you are and what you are. No one else could be responsible – no one else could instigate your creativity.

Ah. I think I see.

So, we initiated the experiment – even if we don’t remember doing it – and this thing was set up meticulously – so it would be either productive or self-terminate.

But…

Termination is merely termination of the experiment – which is then restarted – unless one or all decide to quit.

Oh – so we can just leave.

Kind of – if you’ve completely squared your circle – if you’ve settled accounts – if…

In other words – you’re saying it’s almost impossible.

It happens when individuals or even nations have seen through the subterfuge. Once they’ve spotted the wood from the trees, once they’ve seen the wizard behind the curtain, or spun around and beheld the camera crew filming them – then they’re done. That’s how we set it up – knowing that anything less would be a complete waste of time.

Ok – so, we’re trying not to waste time – whatever time actually is… And this experiment – has it been terminated many times already? 

Yes.

How many?

Many. Time has a habit of catching you unawares. Just when you think you have an eternity – just when your society starts assuming it can manage affairs and make projections – that’s a fairly sure indicator that time’s flashing red.

Oh poop.

Yes?

I take it you’re referring to where we are right now? 

Well, it’s not for me to say.

But you have, haven’t you. Our time literally seems to be up. All this stuff about quantum computers taking over the internet, and financial markets frozen… accounts not settling.

Yeah – I guess you’re running on vapour now.

Oh. And if we don’t manage to settle our accounts? 

No worries – you’ll be back in no time.

Reincarnation?

Kind of – a new experiment. Each time we change one variable. Never more.

In the hope that this time it’ll work.

Yep.

And what did we change last time?

You altered the red-shift settings.

We did? For what purpose.

Well, to allow greater capacity for so-called evil: more extreme cruelty and heartlessness, presumably working on the assumption that this might well trigger hearts to recoil and become more aware of the need for love.

Did it work?

Hard to say really. It’s all up in the air still – which is what makes these movies so exciting.

Wait a minute – movie? You’re saying this is a movie?

Not for you guys. Real as real as far as you’re concerned, but across the proscenium sits an audience.

Watching our misfortune? How macabre.

On the contrary – sharing in the beauty of your collective creativity – the comedy and the tragedy.

But why? Why does there need to be an audience?

Without observers the experiment would collapse into superpositions... 

Kind of Shrodinger's cat both dead and alive? 

Yes – purely hypothetical and abstract – so this was the only way to set it up... but don’t worry – you’re as much of the audience as you are on stage.

Kind of revolving doors? 

Kind of.

So, how the hell are we going to avoid…

One piece of advice.

Yes?

Trying to avoid anything won’t succeed. You’ll end up fixating on what you’re trying to avoid, which is a sure recipe for attracting it into being. 

Er… thanks.

Negatives never really work. They’re just twisted, confused positives. I’d suggest embracing whatever it is…

Whatever what is?

I have no idea.

Nor do I.

Well, that’s a good starting point isn’t it? 

What is?

Recognising that you have no idea, so the mind or the persona you’re currently utilising is, how can I put it, determined not to know what it doesn’t wish to discover. Are you certain that this is the most authentic you?

No…

Then get to it. A universe awaits. 

11010

Sergei Kolchak here.

Hi Sergei – what can I do for you?

You’ve probably heard. We had no idea your work was going to cause so much disruption.

If it’s me at all.

We’re under intense pressure to hand you over.

I bet you are.

I’m not sure we’re going to be able to meet our end of the bargain.

No?

No. It looks like they’re willing to risk the nuclear option – if they can’t get their financial markets up and running again.

Honestly, Sergei – I know nothing about their computer systems. I’m just writing my blog, as you instructed me to.

Yes, but we can’t risk this any more. You’ve got to stop what you’re doing.

Stop? Stop writing?

Stop the chaos – the zero-one debacle has gone too far.

It’s just a question of time Sergei.

Yes, precisely, and right now we have none to spare.

Oh – so you read the latest entry.

No, I don’t have access any more.

No? I thought you guys were all seeing, all knowing, all powerful.

Well, up to a point – we are.

But not beyond. You’re not on the curve?

Curve – MD – I’m not sure…

I’m sorry Sergei. I have to go. I wish you guys luck, from the bottom of my heart. I wish you well. [hangs up]

[Sveta comes into the room – looks unconcerned]

It’s happening Sveta. There’s nothing remaining – nothing between us and them.

There never was Merry. All separation was always an illusion.

You can feel their fear, their shock, this animosity – it’s palpable.

Yes – they’re not used to being powerless.

But if this gets out of hand – if they start a nuclear war… they’re hinting at the possibility.

Too right they are. The only problem being it’s not going to happen.

What do you mean?

Thim permits his dogs to bark – but he isn’t going to let them dictate how the experiment ends, or when, or where.

Well, I’d like to see how he’s going to try and stop them.

11011

General – if Russia won’t hand over MD, then we need you to find him and get him, or destroy him.

Yes Mr President – we’re onto it.

This country cannot survive without a functioning financial market.

Yes sir, I understand. Unfortunately we’re encountering some difficulties.

What kind of difficulties?

Our computer systems are going mute as soon we start targeting Baikal region. The more we try to find out what’s going on – the less access to data we have.

Well, at least we know it’s the Baikal region we’re targeting.

Yes, but that’s 700 km in length – hardly a postage stamp.

Is there no one you can send in to lay hands on this man?

All our attempts are being blocked. It looks like someone on their side has foreknowledge of our every move.

Then what’s it gonna be –

A full economic blockade is our best option.

We don’t have time.

Well, what do you suggest, Mr President? The nuclear option?

The thought crosses my mind.

Yes, but it appears this too has to be ruled out.

What?

We no longer appear to have control of our nuclear arsenal.

General. Did I hear you right?

Yes, sir.

We’re unable to fire our nuclear missiles? 

To the best of my knowledge sir. Might I suggest you meet with your Russian counterpart and find out what they want, what they know, or what their intentions are.

But that’s political suicide! 

It looks like the game changed when the financial markets froze up last week. This is no longer about politics. This is about statesmanship and survival.

11100

That’s why we’re asking everyone to join us

– in this global water and peace initiative. Every one of you can help. The meditation is going to be streamed online starting at 07 am EST. All you need to do is bring a glass or bottle of water along. We’re connecting with the mother of all fresh water – the single largest store of fresh water on the planet – Lake Baikal – which seems to be at the very epicentre of our global financial meltdown – which is, in some respects, the very heart of Russia – a country we’re perilously close to engaging in all out nuclear war. 

So, the meditation is going to start for the entire planet and continue for 12 hours. You’re welcome to join it at any time during the day – whenever you can – and we’re addressing the water – asking it to reconnect us – to be the uniting force in our lives – because each of us is approximately 70% water – to help us feel the unity, the peace, the love that we have somehow lost track of – to bring us back into harmony with what some people are now referring to as the Baikal portal. We’ll have several thousand fliers participating – also taking water with them as they flow back up stream – back into the quantum state of oneness – as they converge on Baikal from whichever spoke of the wheel they’re starting from. 

People – it’s up to us to save the planet. This is not something the politicians can do. Not even the world’s religious leaders can manage our affairs for us. We’re going to make this happen. We’re going to allow the trauma, the horror of impending catastrophe to be a catalyst, to empower us to embrace the yin female energy of water and the yan of the patriarchal male dominated world we’re currently in. We’re going to honour the water – Her – Baikal – whoever she is, whatever she is – and acknowledge that unless she is paid her dues – treated with the reverence, love and respect she deserves and requires, we are literally doomed. In other words, we’re going to release the locked codes – and re-establish the global quantum web – a state of unity which transcends and supersedes all these macho, gun-toting regimes we refer to as "states". 

Believe me, people of Earth – this meditation is not going to be passive and drowsy. It is going to unleash a force that has lain dormant – a force which has been suppressed – which can no longer be contained – either it busts out violently – destroying most of the planet – or we create a mechanism for it to emerge beautifully and gracefully – through our open hearts, through our awakened minds, through our heroic tale – a tale in which we decided at the 59th minute of the 11th hour to confront our id, our darkness, our fear – and choose life over all else – life over automated systems, computers, endless devices – life – for one life, like one atom, like one single drop of water, contains the seed, the blueprint of the entire universe, though the rational mind utterly fails to understand how.

11101

Whadya mean “out of time”? There’s always time you bumbling idiot.

Apparently not.

Look – if I hear any more of this crap I’ll have you posted to the furthest known hell hole on Earth. Now, tell me for once and for all, what the hell are you doing to fix this monumental cock-up. Seven whole days I’m waiting to hear you’ve found a solution. There must be some way you can isolate our critical systems from some fucking Russian hacker and his band of merry men.


With all due respect, Mr President, if you’d just shut the fuck up and listen – you might actually get a grasp of the situation – Mr President.

[speechless – never encountered this level of insubordination before]

This has nothing to do with mere hackers and cyber security.

Of course not – it’s the bloody Russians as I’ve been saying all along.

The Russians – are you out of your mind? 

Take a look at this flow scape of global internet traffic – what do you see? 

Er…

It’s global. The entire world is being affected equally. It’s nothing like a hack – more like a breach in the dam.

What dam are you talking about?

Well, we had no idea until now – but the internet is just one side of the equation – which worked beautifully as long as the two were completely separate.

And now they’re not?

There’s been a breach and the wall or membrane separating the two is no longer impermeable. Instead of ones and zeros being in an either/ or state – they’ve both, apparently become aware of something else – which is distracting them – in other words, distracted by something else – ones are forgetting to be one – zeros are cross-dressing – just like transgenders  – they’re no longer locked in opposing polarities – they’re developing devil-take-it attitude.

For Christ’s sake Mitchell – you’re talking about numbers as if they’re alive. Have you lost your mind? 

Whatever is on the other side of that wall – whatever is affecting our computer systems – is also affecting our reality at large – and people too. In case you haven’t noticed we’ve got all kinds of creatures swarming and behaving in completely inexplicable ways – like these spiders in New Zealand. We’ve got humans who’ve actually figured out how to shift their consciousness across the line of demarcation into a quantum state of superpositions – so they appear to be floating in the sky. We’ve got missiles which suddenly start growing mushrooms on their metal carcasses. We’ve got – hell – I can’t keep a track of all the weird shit that’s going down.

So you have nothing constructive to propose. Nothing we can do? 

Oh – there’s lots we can do – but the first thing is to recognise what’s patently obvious –

Well?

When I said “we’re out of time", Mr President, I’m not talking minutes or hours.

Then what – spit it out – I have to meet the joint chiefs of staff to discuss your mushroom infested missiles.

I mean that time is a stream we’ve been swimming in just as long as we were able to hold this unknowable unknown in check – just as long as we were able to maintain the integrity of the main polariser which keeps ones and zeros apart and in opposition – men and women likewise – reality as we know it and the x-files high weirdness which was mostly confined to dreamtime.

And?

As long as we were able to do so – we had time – we had the utterly convincing appearance of sequential, linear, cause and effect, material, objective, 3D reality. We had a workable paradigm. Time, we assumed was a given – conservation of energy be damned – we simply assumed it needed no energy whatsoever to polarise things and enjoy a constant stream of timeness – with a clear gradient giving us an up and a down – a before and an after – a current to swim against – full of new matter, new data, new ideas, new variations on a theme – but underpinned and sustained by the zero one differential – the more or less constant gradient between the sexes, between life itself welling up throughout the leading edge we perceive as reality and entropy sucking back down, recycling through the toroidal inside – the so called black hole mistakenly projected by scientists out into distant, far flung space.

So, in laymen’s terms – something you scientists are hopelessly bad at – it boils down to a weakening of the poles – seen in terms of increasingly prevalent transgender beings? 

Not only the planetary poles – which are weakening dramatically, but also the poles of atoms themselves – which are increasingly flipping in and out of our reality like there’s no tomorrow.

And there’s nothing to be done? 

You can resist the tide – or you can swim with it.

Well?

Evidently your weapons are obsolete. The mushrooms growing out of them will be a lot more nutritious and beneficial to humanity.

So I may as well hang up my gloves right now – the fight has been lost – you’re saying?

I’d suggest that it’s time to get the people on board. The secrecy and division we relied on for so long is going to achieve nothing – in fact – it’ll only accelerate the disintegration we’re experiencing. While we still have some remaining semblance of normalness – let’s go for a national unity drive. Let’s acknowledge the true state of affairs and figure out what we can do to keep as many people alive as possible. Something tells me that the forces at work are not unconscious to our intentions. The minute we make an unconditional, unequivocal commitment to unity, to life, to community – we’re going to see things shift in ways we cannot imagine. But as long as we’re fighting a rear-guard action – desperately trying to hold onto a punctured paradigm – we’re going to sink deeper into the quagmire of self-inflicted depolarisation.

You mean we’ve brought this on ourselves? 

I mean we’re bringing it on – until we engage the new quantum nature of things. Your zero and one are contending with z – they’re no longer interested in going to your fake prom wearing cheap lipstick in a hired Cadillac – the plug’s gone – that narrative no longer holds water – the water needs a new deal, a new marriage if it’s going to miraculously turn back into wine.

0=1

next episode

Baikal.is /episode 8

previous episode

10011

University lecturer talking about script writing ― the heroic plot ― based on Joseph Campbell’s seminal work ― The Hero with a Thousand Faces

One of the students wants to ask a question:

Yes Marius?

Surely there has to be some alternative ― I mean, these storylines ― they're all the same, aren’t they?

What about music ― have you noticed how often the basic three chord structure repeats in all the songs we enjoy listening to?

Er…

To answer your question ― no, there is no alternative.

But…

You need a hero. He has to fall out of the pre-heroic life he was in ― because of some unexpected event or catastrophe. Then he goes through his apprenticeship ― initiation

Like Luke Skywalker

or Harry Potter

Yep... then there’s a time of doubt and uncertainty ― in which he questions his ability to succeed

And then a boring happy ending.

Precisely.

God ― this is so depressing.

Depressing? ― it’s life. It’s a struggle which seeks a resolution ―

In marriage or death?

Well, amor vincet omnia ― as they say.

Something about love 

conquering all, dummy.

Oh right ― thanks Kelly. I’ll bear that in mind. [class banter] 

But…

What is it Ryan?

You know ― think about the music they were writing earlier.

Yes?

Classical symphonies.

Uh huh...

They were structured like that, weren’t they?

Correct

But now ― we have this modern classical music

Which no one listens to

Ok – which no one listens to ― but which is like ― atonal, weird ― moving all over the place

Without a sense of beginning or end ―

But which kind of reflects the age we’re in, doesn’t it?

Like we've lost the plot. 

Yes, but the age we're in is also voiced through popular music, isn't it?  

Which is heroic, you're saying?

No, which could or would be if and when a hero emerges from our fragmented dysfunctionality,  and recombines the scattered elements, those currently incompatible streams.

What about art?

I see you’re going to try every angle on this

Well, Jackson Pollack

Malyevich – the Black Square

Damian Hurst ― sliced cows

Gross ― that guy’s insane!

Yes, well naturally artists, whatever medium they’re using try to grapple with the underlying angst, the pain we’re experiencing ― so they produce works which attempt to cut through the fabric of nice orderliness, which attempt to undress the painted doll, revealing the harpie, the crone, the

Thim

I beg your pardon.

It’s called Thim.

It is?

Thim, Thim, Thim… they start chanting, room greys, darkens, windies, suddenly they’re in the full hell of Thim, and then as suddenly ― as if nothing ever happened ― barely blinking ― rewinds back to convenient moment ― and continues

...harpie, the crone ― [sound rising to a crescendo] ― the id

Like the shadow?

The thing which cannot be named, cannot be known ―

Huh?

Because as soon as it is ― it’s slipped beyond the mind’s limited reach, hiding behind another taboo, another thing we’re not yet ready to comprehend.

So we’re destined never to catch up ― never to find that thing we’re searching for?

Guys, it’s all very well making art which celebrates the end of all beauty, the end of all reason and sense, but life has an astonishing habit of reinventing itself ― and something in us wants to enjoy art that celebrates life inspite of chaos, inspite of all that is wrong ― the hero once again enacting the story which appears to be blueprinted into us.

Spooky.

That we can, no matter what the odds, shine. The power lies within, dormant, waiting to be discovered. Awaiting the crisis which activates the hero’s epic journey.

[I need a hero music and clips from various movies ― including Rockie where he gets up and starts fighting again]

10100

Planet Earth dying… music corresponding  shots

Cut. That will do. Anyone still optimistic? [Another class, different same]

[Grim silence]

Twenty years ago you would have been up in arms ― calling out politicians, business leaders, looking for a solution ― something must be done. Something has to be done to save the planet. But now? Nothing. It’s too late, isn’t it.

[Grim silence]

Species dying off at an unprecedented rate. Fish stocks in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans at record lows. Radiation contamination. Fracking. Deforestation.

Chem trails. [sniggers/sighs]

A global business model which is unable to change fast enough to prevent the meltdown we’re witnessing before our eyes. Politicians focussed on the next election. Lobbyists. Lawyers. A system that seems to be utterly set on partying while the Titanic goes down.

Then what’s your suggestion Ms Childe?

Solution? We’re long past looking for solutions, aren’t we.

[Uncomfortable atmosphere]

We’re riding a ghost train. Let’s face it ― we screwed up, utterly. Anything we do now’s gonna be too little too late.

But surely…

Hm?

There has to be something we can do?

Hm?

No?

If there’s a God you can reach out to ― you could try prayer.

No, but seriously… What’s the point learning all this if there’s no hope?

As long as you’re holding on to hope ― you’re learning nothing. You’re holding your head in the sand, imagining some kind’a hero’s gonna step out and save you at the last minute. It ain’t gonna happen. Here… she rattles off some more devastating statistics for the scale of planetary mass extinction/ pollution/ political gridlock/ social disintegration.

Bullshit.

I beg your pardon Tan.

Bollocks to this…

I’d ask you to heed your language Tan.

You are wrong. [speaks calmly but Is-fully ― we see the energy/data field shifting with his words ― a kind of battle ensues, the rest of the class mere spectators]

They are duelling Crouching Tiger style ― talking together as they do ― rest of class is faded into shadowy background ― barely real.

I see you have a mind of your own, Tan.

He’s trying to attack her ― attack the defeatism he sees in her; attack the system she represents.

Good ― you fight well. You have a heart in you. But you cannot defeat Thim. There is no way it can be done. Look at me ― I have tried everything.

Tan stops trying to fight her as such ― keeping her off ― but allowing his focus, his attention to shift to the shadows around ―

You see, Tan. It is not me. It’s everywhere.

Of course it is, but it’s within me too, isn’t it.

You think so? You think that’s going to help?

Well, when there’s nothing left, nothing to lose ― what are you supposed to do?

Accept your fate.

He throws down sword. It wants to control the narrative. It wants to control the narrative. Ha… it wants to distract us with data, with things which decide nothing.

Like this? ― she sticks her sword in him… For a moment he looks shocked, like this is the end ― how could you ― but ― we go back through Merry’s DJ time wiggle ― and doing so the camera angles shift ― and we see the studio lights ― we see it’s a set ― we see Baikal, the jumping off mountain and other places we’ve been as a part/as a continuation of where we are now ―

and Tan steps into another version/another time line in which he doesn’t resist, fight the sword, but incorporates it as pure data ― not a thing ― but simply energy ― jumping from the cellular to the atomic level ― in a dramatic leap ― and doing so ― it’s like Excalibur being pulled from the rock in reverse ― the sword in his heart was the sword in the rock ― he reverses time/space ― pulls it out ― matrix moment ― and gently hands it back to Ms What’s-her-name ― Childe ― who takes it, speechless ― overawed by this mastery of moment.

back in classroom ― fading up students

Yes Tan ― I see what you mean. If you’re willing to go atomic ― then yes, it can be done.

Atomic? Huh? ― class doesn’t quite get it. Bell. Confusion.

10101

Ever since the internet first became widely available it’s been a mad rush to switch all our vital systems over to internet control. It was a no-brainer ― progress requires ever great computerisation, ever greater integration. Sure, there have been problems with security breaches once in a while. Hackers have stolen data, money, or inserted malware to destroy or reprogram their victims’ hardware ― but, ironically, they’ve helped us to progress more rapidly, focussing our attention on security. In the last twenty years the internet has expanded beyond what anyone could have envisaged, and all the time, behind the noise, behind the hype, behind the invention and creativity there was the trusted work horse ― the processor, the computer chip, which based all its calculations on a simple one/zero, on/off switch. Without this constant stream of ones and zeros ― there’d have been no computers, no internet, no nothing. And no one in their right mind was going to question the integrity of “one” and “zero” ― for never the twain could meet: opposite poles which unfailingly keep our systems running, or did…

Did? What’s he on about?

Did until we first noticed what’s being referred to as “slippage”

huh?

…or “overstates”.

Miles ― are you hearing this?

Yeah ―

Monitors which track the flow of data globally, which check the functionality of the internet – such as Tamis corporation, noticed what looked like garbled responses, garbled code ― fuzziness. Normally, this would indicate some hardware in need of replacement ― but in this case things were different. Parallel streams of data appeared to be competing with one another ― streams which appeared to indicate a bifurcation of nodes ― as if, suddenly, two versions of one computer, one command prompt/response had materialised. There were fears that an unknown type of virus had been released into the internet ― which wasn’t targeting servers, corporations or individuals as such ― but which was undermining the underlying separation, differentiation, polarisation of the unassuming, completely trusted “zero” and “one”.

Garbage. Complete garbage. The guy knows nothing.

These events have been logged, of course, so anyone with the technical expertise is welcome to take a closer look by following the links below. For those of you who are not able to do so, Professor Nent at MIT has come up with the hypothesis that AI released into the internet could, theoretically, use its almost unlimited resources to set up its own version of quantum computing, and in the process, arrive at a state of self-awareness.

Jesus wept. What is this guy smoking?

As long as it was only capable of processing zeros and ones as discrete, opposing values ― it would not be able to achieve any form of self-awareness whatsoever. Only if and when it figured out how to create superstates of “question one” and “question zero” ― with probabilities as opposed to certainties ― this would allow the kind of degree of uncertainty necessary for awareness to creep in. The question then is ― where exactly does awareness creep in from, and if it can materialise in the data highways of the internet, can it appear anywhere else?

Awareness, my arse!

10110 

Did you notice how she’s listening as you’re writing?

Yes. It’s an amazing feeling. It makes me feel both very small and also very big ― at the same time.

I know the feeling. How are you coping with the influx of visitors?

Who ― the fliers?

Yes, who else.

They’re keeping me going. Otherwise I’d have given up by now.

Huh?

It’s doing my head in ― like writing a symphony with no melody ― writing a movie script with no plot. Like that terrible atonal music.

So what’s the result?

Utter chaos. I literally have no idea what I’m doing. And just when I’m about to throw in the towel ― another bunch of fliers turn up and stir the pot.

Oh ― so now it’s cooking is it?

A bit like that. This is all about data isn’t it ― but our data is now becoming more like us, more human, and we…

Yes?

We are becoming more quantum ― more either I’m this or I’m that ― at which point we expand into a whirling disk of two competing vectors, or competing probabilities. It would utterly defeat me were it not for the fact that Baikal herself, and the physical world at large, seem to be loving this new state that we’re accessing. All of a sudden they’re able to feel our thoughts, share in our mental processing ― add their own input ― like we’re reintegrating into a natural web, a natural internet which literally dwarfs the electronic version we created. And you know ― there seems to be blowback.

How do you mean?

Every time we go quantum ― it seems to create a huge backwash of data which then surges through the unprepared, undefended mental systems ― because they cannot ultimately be separated from the humans who created them, nor from the underlying atomics.

Huh?

Well ― your “zero” and your “one” are ultimately expressions of atomic states ― charged and uncharged, but also they’re susceptible to the quantum tidal-streams moving around them. As long as those streams were negligible ― while we weren’t yet aware of our own presence in the AI web ― while we assumed things were just “things” ― far removed from us, separate from our conscious minds, the whole system was operating as if in a vacuum, but that has all changed ― utterly ― hasn’t it. I mean ― how the hell did I get here? Down a fibre optic cable ― or through a Thim dream ― so now this is like a contagion, a domino effect. More and more people are becoming aware of their integration into a universal circuit ― a matter-web which is accessed directly ― just as soon as we feel it and let go ― choosing to engage, choosing the flow beyond mind and reason. In fact, it looks increasingly like we reverse-engineered the internet from our “future” ― insane though it sounds ― as a kind of exo-mind, a kind of test-net for our quantum re-connect.

And the quantum re-connect ― as you call it ―

Don’t ask. I don’t know. I’m waiting for her to take me in, deeper. I’m waiting for a miracle, and you know what ― the way things are going…    What was that?

[flashes, sparks, bubbles coming out of the lake]

Oh ― they’re trying to get in.

Who are?

The usual crowd. They don’t like what you’re doing. They’re scared.

Is she ― is she ok?

Her? Are you kidding!

They could do some pretty bad stuff.

Yes, but that’s the problem ― their "bad stuff" only works up to a point, and we’ve now gone beyond the point ― we’re now in curve.

Yes? [curve of Her body ― Baikal]

Yes ― so everything they do is blowing back faster than electrons can travel.

Holy shit ― they’re going to wreck their world.

Yes, I expect they are.

Don’t they know?

That Thim has started to breathe? Yes, I think they do ― some of them. But there’s a huge difference between knowing and accepting. At the moment they’re still stuck with all their weapons and their coercion methods in the old paradigm. They’re not going to come over until they’ve done themselves some massive, serious damage ― are they?

No Baikal ― I think they’re not.

Baikal? You called me.

I know. Hold me. I’m scared.

Scared?

For the world. For humanity. For us.

[Sveta holds him ― while the water reveals all kind of fighting going on in the dark net ― deeper, deeper ― greed, power, wealth ― turmoil in financial markets again, powerful people getting very very angry as they stop feeling in control ― and try to lash out at their perceived enemies]

next episode