The Labyrinth Index (Laundry Files, #9)

by Charles Stross

Supposedly wholesome bitcoin mining apps are actually running demon-summoning algorithms in disguise.

“By the way, what is that you’re working on?” “Software-configurable RAID grid.” She pauses, a cable in each hand. “Go on, your ride will be waiting.” “RAID grid being…?” “Redundant Array of Interconnected Demons.” She bares her teeth at him. “Demons!”

The Singularity • Moore’s Law: computing ⇔ thinking • Exponential up-slope, no end in sight • Big Data: “The Cloud” is Hell (literally)

By the sacred cabling of AT&T and Comcast we bind the routers and ties of a continent together and broadcast the sacred timing codes that underpin the great working, the geas of forgetting.

“This is America: electric kettles are a Communist plot, and tea is a Chinese conspiracy. Would you like some coffee instead? They haven’t figured out it comes from Arabia yet.”

American cops are so heavily militarized these days that the only way I can tell the difference between them and the army is the color of their body armor—that, and the army is less trigger-happy.

Every bitcoin proof-of-work mined is an incremental addition to a vast distributed summoning ritual powering the demon-soul at the heart of the maze, the computational equivalent of a Buddhist prayer wheel spinning in a Himalayan breeze.