Kogarashi /2
cmd /K C:\core\digitaldawn\kogarashi-parttwo.exe
Pax floated coolly through a densely packed Chōfu airport, his physical composure at odds with the million thoughts racing through his mind. He had admired Bostrom’s Simulation Theory since he was a boy, although he had never anticipated it having any practical implications in his lifetime. The latest research into the computational theory of mind had begun to crystallize the view that we had massively underestimated its complexity. There is no way we can simulate sentience yet, he thought, let alone an entire universe. Consciousness was best described as an emergent property of interconnected worlds of smaller processes that, in reality, we had very little idea about. Despite now being deeply embedded within the Katabatic organization’s online presence, he hadn’t quite believed that any of their plans would materialize. So what are they up to?
His attention was drawn by a sudden burst of neurons firing around the still highly sensitive skin covering his Oculon relay. He winced and instinctively reached for the wounded area, but stopped himself so as not to draw attention. If he could just make it to the SpaceX scramjet he had secured a ticket for, he would be back in London within two hours. The world around him rippled with colour as thousands upon thousands of screens and infopanels encircled him in a dazzling display of modern life. A faint memory of distant words blossomed in his frontal lobe:
Where is the Life we have lost in living?
Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?— The Rock, 1934, T. S. Eliot
Prophetic, he thought. Pax, along with many, had become deeply engaged with reflecting upon mankind’s place and purpose among the stars. In wider literature, there had been a great resurgence in Reason as the primary source of meaning in the cosmos. It had stemmed from a kind of Technological Enlightenment that began after the teething issues at the start of the 21st Century as the world came online. Rationality had seeped into the group mind as a desirable yet fragile trait, that many sought but few possessed. The terrifying enormity of the amassed body of human learning made the pursuit of understanding an increasingly unquenchable thirst. As Pascal had so eloquently put it — knowledge is like a sphere, the larger its volume, the greater its contact with the unknown.
Pax increased his pace as he passed seemingly infinite rows of queues on his way towards the newest terminal — the skyport. It was home to the latest generation of Mach 9 bulletjets. Seating just 12 passangers, they remained exorbitantly expensive — predominantly used by the bitcoin-rich. Two propulsion cylinders would carry the fuselage up to around 70,000 feet where it was then released. The boosters would return to the skyport and refuel whilst the next hourly flight was boarded. Pax was still new to the process, he stared out the window in eager anticipation as the gargantuan rockets loomed over the terminal. The nickel-titanium teardrop body of the bulletjet was suspended between the two pillars by an enormously strong nanomaterial rod, originally developed by the Israelis.
It was only as Pax melted into the unnaturally comfortable headrest that his brain slowed down enough for digestion. Holy shit, did that really just happen? He himself didn’t quite understand what he was doing, or how he was in so deep. The last three days in Japan had been a complete whirlwind. Pax, or Morph as the other Katabatics knew him, had been requested to attend the key generation ceremony for what had been referred to as the Clavis — the killswitch for the Kogarashi network. In a damp, dimly lit Tokyo basement, Pax had stood face to face with Mol3ch and a girl whose identity, both online and offline, had been deliberately witheld. In the same way, she did not know of him. From what Pax could tell after his time with the Katabatics, Mol3ch was the puppet master behind the organization. Being in his presence had been both terrifying and exhilirating. As for the girl, there was something strangely familiar about her. It was as though, in dreams, they had met before. She had only very briefly glanced at him, but he was sure that she understood more about him from that one look than he did about himself after 20 years of walking the line between digital and physical; reality and illusion. No communication other than the brief locking of eyes and exchange of digital signatures occured between the three of them before they stepped into the Faraday tent.
Pax’s recounting of the events was interrupted by the thunder of the vehicle’s thrusters kicking into action. It took just 120 seconds to hit dropping altitude, where the teardrop peeled off from the boosters, and ignited its own engine. The sound could have defeaned Thor himself as the compression systems bullied the atmosphere into submission with godly force. From up there, looking down on our murky globe, he could clearly see the curvature of the Earth and its delicate membrane that contains those ingredients most dear to life. Sure as shit, she keeps on turning he thought to himself, before slipping away into a dreamless sleep.
Part Three coming soon…
