More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
He could also get as far away as possible from certain individuals who were prone to visiting in the middle of the night—along with a few friends. They were the sort that had no problem explaining Scott’s fiscal obligations through the subtle employment of a few well-placed kicks to the head.
“Yessss.” Scott punched the air—figuratively speaking, since he was actually in a vacuum.
Solomon, the QI that guarded the secrets which Europa had acquired, vast reservoirs of knowledge into which Aria could tap. It was also very old. It had gone quantum nearly five decades previously and could trace its roots back a further four. It was unquestionably the most knowledgeable and wisest of all the minds that existed in the system.
Scott shook his head. “If I thought there was a reasonable possibility of achieving that, I could be persuaded. But this is crazy.”
“I’m with Scott on this. We’ve too much to lose with little chance of success,” said Steph. “Come on, don’t you see? This is still ours—all we have to do is get it back.
It was said that anything you wanted you could get in Neo City—for a price. They only had one law: everything is negotiable.
The Hermes, being a survey vessel, was equipped with some very specialized scanners used to probe bodies deep within the Belt.
Too much temptation on that rock. I would just head for the nearest bar and wouldn’t leave ‘till I either passed out, or I died,” said the old miner. Scott laughed. “It’s best I wait ‘till we get to Ceres. At least there I can get better medical support.”
It was like some great technological disease had afflicted the asteroid and was now bursting out from inside.
“I spent three years on Excelsior transports,” said Cyrus. “There’s nothing I don’t know about them.”
But it was getting ahead of itself, falling into the trap of hoping too much. It wasn’t seemly for a QI to be dealing in speculation—it still had a lot of work to do.
What Aria had just revealed to them was what many people had feared for a long time—that advanced AIs would start to think for themselves.
The infamous superluminal communicator. A thing of myth and legend.” She gave an expansive gesture with her arms. “And here you all are. Like Jason and his Argonauts marching in to Lacos with the Golden Fleece.”
created a message within the multi-dimensional matrix. It was a simple construct, but at the same time it summed up Solomon’s trepidation in overexposing itself to the potential power of this device. It said Hello World, and waited.
“War was coming long before this,” said Goodchild. “If it had not started here, then it would start some place else.”
