1 Soul Bound
1.2 Taking Control
1.2.2 An Awakening Epiphany
1.2.2.22 Wellington's answer
Wellington: “We’re suffocating. The state is tightening its grip around our throats and we as a species have one year, maybe two at most, before it is too late to reverse that trend. It isn’t just the drones and cameras everywhere with their biometric recognition systems. It isn’t just the mass interception of electronic data and the concerted efforts to restrict online anonymity. It isn’t just the balkanisation of the net, the restrictions upon free movement in arlife and the complicit actions of businesses from banking to healthcare.”
Wellington: “No, what worries me the most is the potential for control inherent in direct brain interfaces like tiaras when combined with modern expert systems. It is the final battle for liberty, in that if we lose this one, there will be no appeal, no second chances, no escape. Not just a boot stamping on a human face forever, but altering the brain behind that face so that it welcomes the boot and demands to be stamped upon.”
Wellington: “I’m not the only one who sees what’s happening. There are many who want to resist, but they don’t have the tools. It is too easy for the enemies of liberty to catch them. If they meet in arlife, they get caught. If they meet online without encryption, they get caught. If they use encryption, that immediately makes them look suspicious. I’m working closely with this resistance movement, which is sufficient to get me killed if the state finds out. I’m helping not just with funds, but also with planning and software development.”
Wellington: “For there is a solution; a way for people to use encryption without others even realising that they are using encryption. It’s called steganography. It requires the user to have a plausible reason for their computer to be continually sending and receiving large amounts of the sort of noisy data in which extra information can be smuggled. Excuses to receive data are easy to contrive. Excuses to continually send large amounts are much harder.”
Kafana: “You want to turn everybody into a live streamer. You want millions of people using your Burrow connection protocol so the ones who’re using it to resist no longer stand out as being suspiciously abnormal.”
Wellington: “Not just millions; at least 10 million, preferably 100 million. And we need them within the next 6 months. If there are too few packets in a packet switching network, then it doesn’t matter how you try to disguise the route; an opponent can work it out just by looking at which links and nodes see a sudden traffic increase at the same time. That’s not the only important part of the Burrow, but it’s a big part of it.”
Kafana: “Why so soon? What’s changed?”
Wellington: “Soul Bound. China is the largest, wealthiest and scientifically most advanced nation on Earth. The Chinese state has its fingers deep inside XperiSense, and for the last few years they’ve been using Soul Bound as their private testing arena. They’re way ahead of everyone else on this technology; most of the companies behind the release of the brain interface specification used by the newest tiaras are Chinese. And now we’re seeing a concerted effort to persuade users outside of China to start using the new tiaras, starting with XperiSense opening Covob that’s based around European mythology.”
Stolen story; please report.
Wellington: “Unless they face serious competition, in 6 months time they’ll have the market sewn up. If that happens, they’ll be free to embrace and extend the standard and when the next version comes out it will do whatever they want it to do. Forget about ‘the eyeball economy’. They’ll be in position to dictate loyalties and preferences directly into the brains of consumers across the world.”
Kafana: “I don’t understand everything you’re saying, and it still doesn’t seem entirely real to me, but I get why this is important to you, why you’re putting so much effort into it. Do all the other Wombles all agree with you? Am I the last to know?”
Wellington: “Everybody has their own priority. Bulgaria wants to change how people solve problems. Alderney wants everybody to be self-sufficient, free from the monetary economy and the rat race, able to create what they want, when they want. Tomsk wants to protect the oppressed. Bungo wants people to own themselves, be free to experiment and upgrade themselves to become more than human. I want people to regain freedom of movement, freedom to communicate and organise. We all want people to be free to think for themselves. What do you want?”
Kafana: “I just wanted a bit of human dignity. I wanted a job that meant something, that people would respect me for doing well, even if that was just running a kafana. I wanted to spend time with my friends and help them out. I never wanted to change the world.”
Wellington: “Didn’t you? Back at UCL, when you heard about bad things going on, the sort of things that inexorably led to the world we live in today, didn’t you get angry? Didn’t you want to change things?”
Kafana: “I. I can’t remember.”
Wellington: “Back then you were our moral compass. Others might notice things, or come up with plans, but you were always the one we looked to, to check we were on the right track. The one we could trust to speak up if we got carried away. Was the only thing on your mind spending time with us?”
Kafana: “Wellington, I failed so much, life has ground me down so far, thrown so many disappointments at me; I’m smaller than I was. It hurts to think back like that, because when I do I can’t avoid realising how much I’ve lost. I feel hollow, like the roles are all that are left to me. Being the person I was is something I can put on as an act, but there’s something missing inside. I’m out of strength, out of courage, out of hope.”
She felt tears welling up, and angrily brushed her eyes.
Wellington: “And yet you keep trying. I’m not the right person to have that conversation with you. There’s more I wanted to say about arlife security. What I’ve been up to over the years, the importance of having an extraction plan and knowing in advance what you’re willing to give up and what you’ll die to protect. But that can all wait for another day. Go spend some time with Alderney, get your balance back.”
She felt him awkwardly pat her on the back. Wellington. Voluntarily making physical contact with someone. Good grief, she must be a mess.
Kafana: “Thank you Wellington. Sorry to bail on you but yes, I’ll take your advice and go get a hug from Alderney. If you have time, perhaps you could help Balthazar finish off the meditation room I have him working on? I don’t think he can post to The Burrow asking for beta testers or input.”
Kafana: {Balthazar, I hereby authorise Wellington to have full access to the meditation room project and my discussions about it with you. Work with him.}
Wellington: “Can do.”
Wellington smiled in relief. He looked a lot more at ease with being handed a task involving creating software; his expert systems might destroy the universe, but they wouldn’t cry at him.
*flip*