middle earth

You mean to say that everything I write here reorganises reality, the matrix and the entire universe?

    Yep.

But…

    How?

Yeah – how the hell? I mean…

    How can someone as small and insignificant as you have such a vast reach – affecting atoms, molecules, star systems, civilisations beyond measure – more or less instantaneously.

Yeah, exactly. There’s no way, realistically, that it can be true.

    Correct. Realistically there’s no way it can be true because you’d have to be everywhere and anywhere, wouldn’t you?

Precisely – which simply isn’t realistic.

    Which simply isn’t realistic – is it?

Er… no. It surely isn’t.

    Except… [1 – 2 – 3]

Well? Aren’t you going to say something?

    There’s no point, is there – you yourself, perfectly rationally, agreed that it’s completely unrealistic – and yet I don’t seem to have a problem with this.

Why not?

    Because I’ve never been an adherent to the “we’ve got all the answers” camp, still less the “consciousness is a closed book” camp, and did I mention my utter contempt and scorn for the psi-fascist “what you see is what you get” camp.

Er… you mean to say that you don’t trust your senses.

    Nope.

Then what?

    This…

Merry takes a mobile device from his pocket and logs into beetle.net

Hey – why are you using a device? Surely you can do this directly – if consciousness is the be-all-and-end-all you claim it to be.

    Sure – but let’s keep the limitless powers of c3 on hold for a moment or two, let’s just investigate whether or not the universe responds to anything we input.

Er… Ok – but why do you have to use the beetle net – isn’t that kind of cheating?

    Not at all. The entire internet, in fact, sits upon the beetle net – it’s just nobody realises this. They imagined that it just works automatically – little suspecting that they were plugging into an already existing system – or at least a limited aspect of that system.

Oh.

    So, there’s a lot of program code in the regular internet designed to normalise things – which is great if you’re in a fragile reality where people aren’t quite yet reality to handle the quantum nature of Is – but for the sake of our little experiment – let’s cut out the middleman – let’s get the raw data.

Ok – what do you want to input?

    I thought I’d leave that to you. Here, catch.

Merry tosses the device towards Zie. Actually, on closer inspection – no, he doesn’t. He tosses it up in the air – as if he’s trying to stick a pancake on the ceiling – causing Zie to look in dismay – wondering how he’s going to catch the thing – but, blink and you’d miss it – the next second the device is in Zie’s hand.

Hey – how did that get there?

    Nice catch, Zie – I didn’t know you had it in you.

Stop making fun of me, Merry. You know full well that I never caught the device. It just somehow popped into my hand.

    Weird, isn’t it, and yet I assure you that you caught it.

How can you be so sure?

    Because I saw it from both angles.

What do you mean?

    I saw it from the usual 3D angle – in which, you’re right, it appeared to appear in your hand with no connecting frames, but I also saw it from the beetle.net perspective.

Yes?

    Why don’t you take a look?

How?

    In your hand – look at the screen.

What the h…

Zie gazes in fascination as he sees things moving in a way he’s never previously conceived. Instead of straight lines moving from a to b with the passage of time – there’s a kind of molecular time – way, way faster than the human eye or mind can perceive – a fluctuating field – zero ones you might say – in which everything moves between two opposing points of view – the “am i?” – if yes – "one", if no – "zero"; and the “is it?” – if yes – "one", if no – "zero".

You mean to say this is all a mathematical process designed to ascertain who or what is more real?

    Apparently so.

But how does that explain anything?

    Well, once you have the algorithm, you can beat the machine – is that not so? Like if you were gaming in a casino, and you just happened to have beetle.net uploaded to your frontal lobe.

Can you do that?

    Of course.

And you’d always win?

    Well, any algorithm or code used here in 3D, from the beetle.net perspective is going to be entirely predictable.

But they could change it?

    Not without letting me know – if I’m tuned into this particular domain.

Oh. So you basically have limitless power here in 3D?

    Basically, yes, but that’s not saying much, is it?

How do you mean?

    Well, if we set up this entire enterprise – we’re not going to gain anything by gaming its systems, front running its algorithms or cheating its people.

But… you don’t mean to say that you were the ones… I thought that was God?

    It was – it is. It’s always God from within the system – because when you’re locked inside – God accurately describes the standing wave of infinity you encounter when you contemplate the edge of things – the beginning, the creator… but technically speaking – that’s only true from within the system. If and when you hack beetle.net – then things are a bit different.

You mean God doesn’t exist?

    No – I mean that God cannot describe me or my cohorts – so God is now redefined or re-envisioned in terms of the new event horizon – the new point at which infinity makes itself known.

Like what?

    Like who created us, or beetle.net, or set the game in motion – who differentiated am i and is it, our dichotomy squared in the first place?

Er… why squared? Isn’t it just a case of one or t’other?

    You’d think so, but then you realise each question implies another.

Such as?

    Such as “who’s asking” or “who cares”?

Oh. But why does it matter who’s asking or who cares?

    It doesn’t – no more than it matters whether i am or it is – but these questions are what drive the entire system we refer to as reality, the universe or life itself.

You mean to say that even frogs and fish are asking the same questions?

    Yes no.

Yes no? Can’t you be a little more specific?

    Not really.

Er… why not?

    Because in the end this is just code – zeros and ones resolving themselves, iterating unceasingly through a formula which is nowhere to be found – but present throughout. Now, when you get down to beetle.net there are parts of that formula which become fairly obvious, which you’re able to tap into – parts which regulate the 3D experience – parts that you’re not going to abuse unnecessarily because to do so would do something like this…

Hey – what are you doing Merry?

    I’m going to show you how instant karma works.

Instant what?

    Watch.

Just tell me please.

    And kill the surprise – no way.

Merry types a few indecipherable symbols on the phone device and suddenly the room is sideways – or should I say upside down – come to think of it – more like inside out – like everything’s in reverse – suffice it to say that the mind finds these things extremely hard to process – but watching electrons floating around the desktop computer – and images popping off the screen into what appears to be space – is somewhat daunting – no less so than finding oneself engaged in an existential hum along with one’s wall mounted router.

    How did it go Zie – did it tell you anything?

The router?

    No – the internet.

You mean I was speaking with the internet?

    Apparently so.

OMG. It was like talking to my granddad – so wise and calm. You mean to say the internet is an actual being?

    Not really – but obviously just now that’s how you experienced it – which is not all that strange when you consider the near limitless possibilities of conscious-ness.

Er… so where’s the instant karma? It was weird – for sure – but nothing bad really happened.

    Me – didn’t you notice me?

No, I didn’t – where were you?

    I was tied up.

You were? What do you mean?

    I was obviously messing around with reality – which is Ok – I can do it – but there are – how shall i put it – consequences.

Yes – what happened? Was it bad?

    Not too bad. I kind of enjoy it really.

How bad is not too bad.

    Well, let’s say that if you’d done what i just did – you’d have died a thousand deaths – give or take half a dozen.

Uh?

    In my case – I was fighting off multiple entities which were trying to rip me to pieces in all kinds of interesting ways.

Yes? Really?

    Well, what is real when you’ve just inverted reality? But yes – to all intents and purposes – that’s how it seemed – that’s how it was perceived.

So you actually saw these entities trying to rip you apart?

    Depending on which frame I chose to view them – a bit like a computer game in which I can toggle views. They could appear as insect form, as bots, as abstract entities or any other possible variation.

Oh – so they were kind of abstract – without substance. It was just a mind game?

    Nope. They were utterly real – it’s just I was operating on the other side of beetle.net – holding your signal inverted – which is an infraction of your right to normalcy – and thus all hell was let lose to ensure that I didn’t take it too far.

So hell is real?

    Of course it’s real – though not exactly as you imagine it.

So what happened then?

    Once I saw you’d had enough playtime – it let the quantum stream revert to norm – and here we are.

So you were completely invisible – I couldn’t have seen you if I’d tried?

    Why do you say that? Remember – you can be both active and passive. Fundamentally you’re no different from me.

So I could become aware of you – even if I couldn’t see you?

    Let’s try it and see.

Zie finds himself back in the upside down inside out room – with a strange, light headed, slightly quesy feeling in his stomach – but this time he’s looking around – trying to figure out how he can spot Merry. With his regular eyes there’s not a sign of Merry to be seen – but then Zie remembers the router and starts humming with it again – this time, doing so, he realises he can hum Merry into view – and there, horror upon horrors, he sees the poor guy utterly beset by horrendous creatures of the abyss. Picture, if you would, Gandalf on the bridge – assailed by the indescribable Balrog – and to his amazement he hears Merry addressing it:

I am a servant of the Secret of Fire, wielder of the flame of Anor. You cannot pass! The dark fire will not avail you, flame of Udûn.

The creature falls down, down – and to his utter horror, Zie perceives in slow time the tail whipping back to grab Merry and…

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Zie cries in an unhuman voice – shocking himself beyond comprehension – and the next moment – literally the very second with nought in between – back in normal reality – Zie hyperventilating uncontrollably – Merry wetting himself laughing – pretending to be concerned – mopping Zie’s brow with a huge, fluffy damp cloth – as if playing outrageously to an invisible audience.

As Zie comes to – and returns to a more moderate rate of breathing – he can barely stop himself laughing –

Er… Merry – what are you doing? Are you insane? I’m nearly dead with fright and you’re just acting the clown – and who’s the audience – I don’t see them.

    Another time – you’ll see them soon enough. You’re back – well done Zie.

Well done? What do you mean?

    Do you want to see the action replay?

Not really – well, actually, yes.

Merry whips out the mobile device – which somehow he never drops – and Zie’s jaw is dropping about as far as a jaw can reasonably be expected to drop – actually a little further. Apparently, the device can extend the usual rigid lines that make our reality so comfortably contained.

That’s me?

    Yes – impressive, aren’t you?

But that leather costume? The hat?

    Actually it’s a kind of helmet – very effective – made by the elves. Now – watch this…

The This Merry is referring to takes some beating. As soon as Zie – now something of a cross between Aragorn and Legolas – utters his unmistakable Noooooooooooooooooooooo! the beetle.net shifts views, as it does, to the quantum level – and there the code goes haywire – on the Tolkien view it’s like a shard of pure energy flashes from Ziegornlas – striking the Balrog’s tail and cutting it off – while on the math screen there appears to be a sudden resolution of problem posed by Merry’s interruption of the usual flow of quanta in the stream of Is – a fish leaps in the air and Dorothy row, rows her boat past – smiling sweetly, entrancingly as Zie – caving in his heart, as he all but leaps into the water – imagining himself a fish, a water molecule – anything – just to see that smile once again.

    No you don’t – Merry hauls him back on an elastic line.

Zie is speechless. Mouth opens and closes but no sound will come out. Merry does the same – blows a big rainbow bubble from his mouth – somehow, and moves exactly like a fish – to the extent that Zie hears himself laughing once again, and finds himself inexplicably mimicking Merry to great effect.

Insanity, insanity – is what Zie hears himself saying several whiles beyond – safely removed from all temptation – back in the safe seclusion of normalcy.

    So you see, Zie – things happen fast, do they not, when you start playing the fool, messing with beetle.net?

You’re telling me. So why do you do it?

    Good question. They once asked a famous climber after he climbed the Matterhorn why he did it. You know what he said?

Nope.

    Because it’s there. But I would add – because I am.

Ah, but are you?

    0=1  touché.

So, you mean to say that it’s all just a…

    No – I never mean anything – I assure you.

Then what?

    Sooner or later it becomes apparent that you are a human being – and not just a human thing.

Uh?

    The minute this clicks into place – nothing can or will stand in your way. You simply start being – and being is not the kind of thing that can be limited in any way, shape or form.

Oh.

    So what starts as a specific enquiry into some technical aspect of the internet, math or c3 conscious-ness – rapidly escalates – takes you into an awareness

That all is one – no matter how absurd, how unreasonable this may sound.

    Precisely.

And Middle Earth?

    Is one of the places you discover on your journey back to centre.

Worlds within worlds.

    Wheels within wheels.