S.T. Rogers's Blog, page 6

“We have moles,” John said. “Plus we’ve been fighting them for so long, you start to understand...

“We have moles,” John said. “Plus we’ve been fighting them for so long, you start to understand their patterns.”

“So long? It’s only been a few months.”

John paused now and looked at her curiously. “Rachel,” he said. “You’ve been locked up for seven years.” 

Readers, don’t believe everything you read in the comments section. For whatever reason, people hate...

Readers, don’t believe everything you read in the comments section. For whatever reason, people hate it when you change your mind. They try and make it seem like you’re lying, you’re crazy, someone has kidnapped you and stolen your brain. Whatever! 

She was not allowed a bath for what seemed like a long time when she first came here. She cleaned...

She was not allowed a bath for what seemed like a long time when she first came here. She cleaned herself so carefully because she was not sure when this privilege would be taken away again. Also, she had begun to lose her mind, to see things that weren’t there, think about impossible things, dream of death. She had felt better since the baths and she thought that perhaps cleanliness was saving her sanity. 

Rachel knew she could free herself in seconds if she could have access to the Internet, but the...

Rachel knew she could free herself in seconds if she could have access to the Internet, but the yearning was more than that. She was raised with machinery, raised with unlimited information at her fingertips, and to not have that freedom was almost worse than her physical captivity.

Rachel started realizing things about her psyche in the absence of the Internet. Her thought patters relied on the information that should be available to her. When she thought about a movie or an old television show, she never wondered about a plot line or an actor’s name or a funny line she couldn’t remember. She just looked it up. When she thought of something that needed to be communicated to a work partner or a friend or a relative, she did it seamlessly, as if they were standing right in front of her, though they might be in Alaska, Moscow, Bangalore. Even her own memories were not as clear without the Internet. Her parents had started a blog when Rachel was a baby so that her grandparents who lived three hours away could see pictures and videos when they couldn’t visit. Rachel had started using this blog as her own personal journal when she was six years old. Her entire life was on this webpage and she realized in the darkness of her cell that it had replaced her memory. She couldn’t access these thoughts through her mind, she was dependent on the pictures and words she and her parents had spent her entire life uploading. 

He was old. Rachel hadn’t dared look at him so directly before and so did not realize how advanced...

He was old. Rachel hadn’t dared look at him so directly before and so did not realize how advanced his age was. Rachel didn’t meet many people that were old and it reminded her of her childhood, when the Singularity was new and grandparents were gray-headed. 

“We have noticed that you read the Bible we left for you.”“Yes,” Rachel said. “I’ve read it...

“We have noticed that you read the Bible we left for you.”

“Yes,” Rachel said. “I’ve read it through more times than I can count.”

“That’s good,” The Breather said. “What have you learned from it?”

“I’m not sure,” Rachel said. She tried to quickly think of some lesson she had garnered from the holy book but could come up with nothing. “I suppose what sticks out the most is the Sermon on the Mount. To love others as you love yourself.” 

“We like what you are becoming, Rachel Bragney,” The Breather said. “You have been here a long time....

“We like what you are becoming, Rachel Bragney,” The Breather said. “You have been here a long time. Longer than you know, perhaps. We like the changes we see in you. You have turned your face towards God. Make sure that you do not become of two faces, one looking towards your lord and savior and the other always glancing back at the sins of Hell. If we find that this is the case, if we find evidence that you are in contact with John Blackstone or with this robot, we will take the skin from one side of your face. Everyone will then see the distinction, part holy and part sinner, and they will know you for what you are.” 

I know you will say that this theory is because of my religious bias, but remember, she was held...

I know you will say that this theory is because of my religious bias, but remember, she was held for more than half a decade by religious radicals. Their evil in the name of good knows no bounds.

And to continue our discussion from before, no, I do not believe it is possible. People will say some nasty things to get elected to public office and if they can play in to people’s base emotions, particularly fear, they will. But I can now say definitively that you are not the Anti-Christ, as your political opponent has accused. Here is why.

To call you the Anti-Christ means that the actual Christ, Jesus, let’s say, was supernatural, the son of God, and you are his nemesis. My belief that God does not exist, of course, would rule all of this out, but I understand my theory needs to consider more possibilities to be valid. So try this on for size: Let’s say that the God that the Christians pray to is real. He actually exists. But this God is the same as the one that the Jews pray to and the same as the one that the Muslims pray to and whatever other religions are praying to a God, he is the one. One God with many faces. Most of these religions contain the myth of the Anti-Christ, a being who will come one day and lead the world astray, lead the world to a place of sin and evil. Who could this Anti-Christ be? Could it be a conscious robot with a penchant for politics?

This doesn’t seem likely to me. But consider the God with many faces. How many wars have been fought in His name? How many people have been beaten, jailed, and maimed to prove His points? Think of the Inquisition, the Holocaust, Salem, and the Sudan. All of these tragedies carried out in His name. Why is it accepted that He is a force for good? If we were to look for the Anti-Christ just by his accomplishments, wouldn’t we clearly suspect the being who is the cause of so much woe?

So my argument is, if the God that all the religions of the world worship truly exists, then he is no God at all. He is the creation of the Devil and has conned us. He has tricked us, just as we knew the Anti-Christ would try to trick us, into believing that he had our best interests at heart. 

Every nook and cranny of the lab was stuffed with inventions that had the potential to sell for...

Every nook and cranny of the lab was stuffed with inventions that had the potential to sell for millions of dollars. Everywhere he looked there was technology that could change the world. What a waste, what a waste. 

It was a normal thing for one of Fisher’s rebels to numb his eyes for ten hours writing code to...

It was a normal thing for one of Fisher’s rebels to numb his eyes for ten hours writing code to create a worm capable of bringing down Human 1.0’s infrastructure and then bathe naked in the river and eat a hunk of deer meat for dinner.